February 28, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

Keepin’ It Real February 2014

Good bye February! You were a blah sort of month. Being neither long enough to make any decent memories or short enough to skip through. March is a busy month for me. I cannot decide if I am excited about that or if I will indeed miss the carefree easiness of February. February is in no rush. It is the baby sibling of all of the other months. No responsibilities go to it. It is just a wee little thing.

Edited to add: . My husband (the sweet eternal optimist) was horrified at my less than stellar review of his birthday month.

Sorry Sweetie! I will add some happy memories to February.

The highlights:

My husband’s birthday

Discovering three wonderful new restaurants

Happy Belated Birthday Auntie M!

My sweet mom surprising me with chicken pot pie

My amazing friend Jessica painted my bathroom (sharing soon!)

A night out with girlfriends around a firepit

True Detective

My husband surprising me by coming home again after all ready having left for work to give me one last good bye kiss for the day

The Lego Movie

Many snuggling mornings

My nephew had his birthday and sweet birthday party

A three hour phone call with a good friend

I got to hold a beautiful baby girl

And she liked me more than my sister*

Wow! I guess February was a pretty good month, afterall!

Okay, enough of that. Let’s get real!:

Look! The carpet at the Pantages Theater is Humboldt’s twin! Poor Humboldt. I can’t. I just can’t stop embarrasing it.

Outfit outtakes.

Tonight for dinner I made homemade biscuits with homemade macaroni and cheese with fruit salad.

But last night, the kids and I had Trader Joes frozen breaded chicken tenders, oven fries with the most amazing new sauce that I have recently whipped up after seeing it numerous times online. Oh, the guilt! But it was so good! If you cannot wait for me to ever get to that post (cause, I mean, my picture of it is so good. How could you wait for such a delicacy? I should totally be getting a call from Bon Appetite any day). And really, who knows when that will be? Here is the easiest dipping recipe.

My daughter and son have both been working on giant paintings of our dogs in their art class. I will update when they are both finished, because I simply cannot wait. Of course, I probably will not get them framed until next November when the framing deals happen again.

I’ve started a post that is going to take me a long time to complete. I will be reviewing and rating around twelve different mascaras. It might have to be broken down into two posts. We will see. Here is the first mascara I have started.

Why am I doing this? Well, I purchased a huge mascara sampler from Sephora and just now opened it. And I have always wanted to be a scientist. So. Mascara. Check. Experiment. Check. Scientist Jenni. ????

Remember when I bought my husband that ice cream maker that I he ~~always~~ never wanted for Christmas? Well, I finally got around to ordering containers to start making my ice cream this week. For friends and family this is great news, because I cannot possibly eat all of the ice cream I will be experimenting with. I hope to perfect them now so I can share the recipes in the summer!

And on Wednesday night I made two small batches of homemade ice cream. One vanilla and one cinnamon. Each one has a certain twist. Brynne, you can guess what that is! The only way I will make homemade ice cream…

Unfortunately (or fortunately for my diet), ice cream and my tummy do not mix. So I just get a small taste of the stuff before passing it along. Sigh.

I also remember promising certain posts in January’s Keepin’ It Real that never made it up in February! I wrote my children a different letter instead and Stick In The Mud will go up in March. Also, My Husband’s Secret is being posted on Monday!

I really did this update so I could do a screen shot of a screen shot of my blog. I find this hilarious. I might have a problem.

I liked doing two outfit posts a week this month instead of one. What did you think? Less or more outfit posts?

You know that feeling you get the night before Christmas? That is the feeling I am having about my year blog giveaway! It starts March 10th and I am so excited!

Did you have a good February? Are you excited about March? Any fun memories to share?

*This is unfortunately not true and was added just to razz my little sis. Which is the perfect way to end the little sibling month of February! ; ). I do love you, Mandi!

January 31, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

Keepin’ It Real January 2014

January is just about over. How can this possibly be? This is my monthly post where I share outfit outtakes, random musings, and stuff I could probably share if I ever got myself an Instagram account.

Instead we get this:

My massive amount of laundry I had to fold in the background. There is nothing I hate more than putting laundry away. How about you? Thankfully, I am all caught up now, but…ugh!

Picture of an outfit I have worn twice (once with the vest and once without) and have yet to get a “real” picture of.

One night I was making sandwiches for the kids’ lunches for the next day. I realized I only had three slices of bread. So, the kids each had 3/4 of a sandwich one day. They probably never even noticed.

Outfit Outtakes:

I do not want to know what is going on here. Perhaps I am trying to become one with the ostrich.

My son was sick. I had to call the school to let them know. This makes me nervous. I always mess up. Usually, I make my husband do it. But Monday I was feeling brave.

This is how the message I left went (with obvious name changes):

“This is your child’s school. At the beep, please leave the name of your child, your name, your relationship to the child, the date, and the reason they are calling in sick.

Thank you and have a wonderful day.

BEEP!”

“Um, hi, this is Mrs. Gnomelover. I am calling my son, Little Gnome in sick today.”

I couldn’t remember the date, so I said, “Today is Monday.”

Then I decided to add in a little extra help. You know in case they couldn’t find his name. Even though at this point, I am sure they have my name memorized from the caller i.d. after all of the crazy things I have called about over the years.

So, I added, “he is in Mrs. Pepper’s class.”

I hung up the phone. Breathed a sigh of relief. It had gone better than expected.

I looked to my left. My husband was laughing at me. “What?”

“He’s not in Mrs. Pepper’s class!”

That is when I kind of woke up. Oh, yea! Mrs. Pepper was his teacher from two years ago.

I called back. Listened to the message.

“BEEP!”

“Hi. It’s me.” I wasn’t going to go through the nonsense of pretending they did not know who it was. Or that this call would not be added to my tally for “Kookiest Mother of the Year.” I know I’m winning. It isn’t even close.

And then I started laughing so hard I was crying.

So I half sobbed and half shrieked into the phone, “He doesn’t have Mrs. Pepper! He has Mrs. Lemon! Bwahahahaha! Thank you. Brawahabyehaha!”

I hung up.

Then I realized I forgot to add what he was sick with. I didn’t call back. I figured I didn’t need to. I am sure they figured he might have caught my illness. It is quite ~~catching~~ ~~hereditary~~ made up.

One of the good things about living in Southern California is barbecuing in January. Yum!

I don’t foresee many changes occurring in February with this blog. I am going to see how two outfit posts a week go over in February. And more stories.

Here are some posts that will be coming up in February:

My Husband’s Secret
Dear Children: Being a Stick-In-The-Mud
Chocolate Cake
Reading: Eleanor and Park
Next week there are two outfit posts: Classy Lady and From My Closet

And many more stories I have written lately!
I can’t wait!

What is a “real” moment you have had lately?

Here are December’s and November’s Keepin’ It Real posts in case you missed them or just like looking at bad pictures of me.

December 30, 2013 by gn0mel0ver

Keepin’ It Real December

December is almost over! It was a whirlwind of activity, procrastination and happiness. I am sad to see it end.

Today is my mom’s birthday. Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!

On to the realness:

A piece of lint on my kitchen floor. I think the signs are pointing towards wanting me to go somewhere. Hmmm. But where?

Pajama Party excerpt:

One of my sweet friends insisted on doing some of my dishes by hand. She handed me the wet dish to dry. I have a confession. I hardly ever (and I mean hardly ever) hand wash my dishes. I actually love to do dishes. Load them into the dishwasher. Put them away. I do it at least once a day. But every item goes into the dishwasher. I couldn’t live without it.

So, I dried them with a paper towel. I almost peed my pants laughing when she told me I was supposed to use a dish towel.

She thought I must not have any dish towels. Then I had to show her I had a collection.

She asked me what I use them for. And I said, “to dry my hands.” What a concept: dish towels be used for dishes. I will have to remember that next year when I hand wash a dish again.

It reminded me of the time I was newly married and my mother-in-law came to my house and was shocked to see me cleaning absolutely everything with just Windex.

Housekeeping has never been my strong suit.

Good thing I chose to be a housewife.

I made chocolate bowls for ice cream one night. How do you think I did?

Outfit outtakes.

My dresser in December. Now my whole bedroom looks like this. It was a casualty of Christmas. I hope it can be revived.

Look at what my mom and stepdad gifted me for Christmas on Saturday (we celebrated late with them). It is a necklace I have been wanting for over a year. It is from Knit Knit on Etsy. It is a hand embroidered fox wearing a bow tie!

Thank you guys! I love it!

How was your December? Are you ready for 2014? Or do you feel like I do above (and, yes, that is a giant pimple.)?

November 29, 2013 by gn0mel0ver

Keepin’ It Real: November 2013

Unflattering pics
Recipe mishaps and slips
It’s just me, Jenni

November, where did you go? Please come back. I am not ready for December. No. No. No. I need more time to plan. To prepare. To enjoy. These holidays are going by too quickly.

Things I learned this month: I love all of my blog friends. You guys just give me warm fuzzies inside. You seriously make my life bigger. Thank you!

My favorite moment of the month was definitely Batkid. It had me sobbing and cheering at the same time. So neat that the city did such an amazing thing through Make-A-Wish Foundation.

I had such a nice Thanksgiving. I will admit to a few tears, but for the most part, it was a peaceful sweet holiday. I got to hold my cousin’s baby girl. My stepmom made a great turkey that rivaled my dad’s smoked one. And my dad was so tickled when some cousins stopped by to visit. It was so nice to see him so happy. I loved seeing my aunts and uncle. And my mom! My daughter was so sweet when she said she was thankful for all I do for her. And my nephew cracked me up for being grateful for dinosaurs. I hope you had smiles and laughter yesterday, too.

Afghanistan food! I tried it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Oh! The flavors! My favorite is Sambosa. A fried pastry stuffed with ground meat and potatoes. And cilantro sauce. So good!

It was the fifteen year anniversary of my husband and my first date this month. It is one of the two dates we usually celebrate. We got engaged two weeks later, and married in March. We move fast. Well, I forgot it. And when I reminded my husband the next day, he said, “Oh, yeah.” Then he high-fived me. That is how romantic we are fifteen years later. I get a high-five. I am still deciding how I feel about this.

Some lovely pictures for you.

I tried to make that chicken dish again. Nope. Still not the one. This dish is going to be the one that haunts me. I must puzzle it out.

I spied this coat?/sweater?/wrap? in a woman’s stroller at Disneyland. She said she got it at Anthropologie two years ago. I slyly took a picture of it. It appeared to have wooden toggle buttons. The fabric is gorgeous. ~~Any ideas about what this was or was called?~~

Update: Thank you Deboo for identifying the sweater as the Echoing Argyles Cardigan! I will keep my eyes peeled! : )

Today is “Black Friday.” I used to love this day, but I hate how early the stores open now. It makes me sad that consumerism has cut into a holiday centered around family. I feel sorry for the workers and for the customers who had to cut their Thanksgiving short. And honestly, nothing really stood out to me this year (except for that Nikon deal at Target. Wow!). I am bummed to miss it, but, oh, sleeping in never felt so good!

How was your day yesterday? I hope everyone had wonderful holidays that they celebrated. Are you shopping today, sleeping in or working? Did November pass by way too quickly for you, too?

Gnome Lover

Stumbling through life while still having fun

real

Keepin’ It Real February 2014

Keepin’ It Real January 2014

Keepin’ It Real December

Keepin’ It Real: November 2013