Top 14 of 2014

I really like lists so today I bestow upon you my 14 favorite things that I have discovered in 2014.  And by favorite things I mean material items, cause I don't want to be all sentimental, and people like stuff.  Also these are in no particular order.  Just the way things pop into my mind. 

14)  Black Milk Clothing - Seriously people nylon leggings and dresses that cover my large bust.  I will take one of each please. ( I only have one piece cause these bad boys aren't cheep) 

13) Honeysuckle sea scrub -  I bought this for a ridiculous price thinking it might help Emma's ezema, but as it turns out, the dry air up here has pretty much cleared her skin.  I am 99% sure that the ingredients in this are essential oil, coconut oil, epsom salts, and paraffin wax.  This has kept me from being itchy and having to don the dreaded lotion. 

12) Crinkle cut turkey pepperoni-  Its like eating a slim jim, but slightly healthier. 

11) Fleece Cuddle duds - I love these so much I thought about sending them to all my friends for Christmas, before I realized that they don't really need them.  I wear them for every reason always (and this explains why my pants are always full of pants) 

10) Beats by Dre - So this is my newest love, I always 'wanted' a pair of these.  Like in that way that you want things that are way too expensive and you know you will never get so you tell yourself they can't be worth all that money. I mean a $20 set of headphones and a $200 set of headphones can't possibly be that different.  But they are, and thanks to a black Friday deal and RJ's goal of finding them for me as a Christmas gift, I can now noise cancel out my children and jam out. (seriously people I can't hear the kids talking when I wear these, so unfortunately I wear them one eared most of the time, but sometimes you just need a minute.) 

9)  Little Muffins Snickerdoodle flavor-  What I think clouds in heaven taste like. 

8) Maple everything -  melted wax scents, donuts, syrup, soda, fudge, rum.  MAPLE!!!! 

7) Cuisinart cookware - This was a promotion by our grocery store for free cookware, and unlike my lifetime warranty ones we got for our wedding, these can be washed in a dishwasher (not that I have one) AND you can use metal utensils on them and not scrape off the non stick. 

6) Popcorn in a pop- up bowl.  (See #3 on not having a dishwasher)

5) Green Mountain Coffee Vermont Country Blend - oh yes. So so so yummy. 

4) The Rinnai in my living room.  It heats this place up fast and hot and also has a humidifier in it. 

3) Hoodie Allen -  His songs have a great beat and the lyrics are pretty funny. Bonus, you can totally youtube his songs so you don't have to buy anything.  His songs are NOT kid friendly so this is one of those times when the beats are necessary. 

2) Disney Infinity -  This is more for the kids but they love it, I love it, fun times for all. 

1) Jerusalem by Simon Sebag Montefiore -  While I have read a lot of books this year, this was probably my favorite of the 'grown up' variety.  It is a comprehensive history of Jerusalem.  Somehow it was easy to read, informative, and entertaining.  Its hard to find a good non-fiction book with those qualities. 


So there we are, Happy New Year everyone. 

December Update

There is a lot of work going on at our house these days.  We have been reorganizing the apartment, putting up a tiny tree, buying and making gifts, and sampling lots of Vermont goodies so that we can make sure that they are good to send to people as gifts.  Wink wink.  I have made over a hundred Harry Potter Christmas ornaments and Gwiny and I are in the process of creating tons of soaps to donate to the school craft fair.  Even though there are lots of things happening not too many of these have stories to go along (Just the one where I told the girls not to eat other peoples Christmas presents, and then I ate them.) So I think our updates will be told with pictures today.

We had professional pictures taken by my friend John at 802 photography.  He is awesome and this was his first experience photographing children.  He had a ton of great ideas and he wasn't even mad when he had to chase Izzy down to try to get her picture.  

We all know Gwiny likes the arts, But I was seriously impressed with this little sketch. 

I went to lunch at the girls school at the end of November and got yelled at by a lunch lady for throwing my food in the trash instead of the compost.  Seriously, who does this?! 

It snowed, we got a sled. RJ pulled the kids up and down the road until it got dark. The next day we found a parent approved hill by the house (i.e. one that didn't end in the street). Problem solved. 

I just love the cuteness of these girls in their snow pants.

Snow Storm #1 gave us 6ish inches of snow. 

We tried our hand at perfume making, it was our original idea of a gift for everyone.  We had a successful first batch.  Batch 2 was a huge failure, and then we (the adults) drank the rest of the vodka that I needed to make a third round.  Maybe we will try again with ever clear, we probably won't drink that. 

Snow Angels! 

Playin' in the snow. 

Oh and this is the prettiest hamburger I ever made. Cause you know, it's the little things. 

Black Friday Shopping

At 2pm on Thursday we packed up all of our kiddos and drove 2 hours away to hit up the sales in our nearest big city.  We got there for the Old Navy sale at 4, but they were one of the few that decided not to open at the advertised time. We went over to Michaels, also supposed to open at 4, but they didn't have any power.  And at 5 we started doing some crazy crazy shopping.  A snow storm took out the power in some of the areas in the mall.  Some stores were running on generators, some were cash only, and some just took f.o.r.e.v.e.r to get a transaction done (seriously people, we waited in line at Old Navy for an hour and a half because somehow the girls all found coats and winter clothes that they liked there a.k.a. Thanksgiving Miracle)  While we really needed warmer clothes, the real point of this trip was to get winter tires on sale at Sears.  BUT.... Sears never opened.  Of all the stores that could not run on a generator, the store that sells generators.  And the one we needed to be open!  So no winter tires for us.  But we drove and shopped, and shopped and drove, and at 3 a.m. we got home.  We had our children out in one of the craziest shopping days of the year and we had a total of ZERO meltdowns.  
Well the children didn't have any meltdowns.  I got mad at the lady selling pretzels for being stupid and that doesn't usually go over well.   Here's the backstory on that.  I went to JCPenny and RJ took the girls to get pretzels, after filling his order they told him that it was cash only.  He didn't have any they got me, and I went to pay cash for what they had ordered. 
Tiff:  You know if you are cash only, you should probably put up a sign. 
Lady:  I don't need a sign, I have told everyone. 
Tiff:  Well obviously you didn't or we wouldn't have ordered this. I am just saying it will be easier on you if you put up a sign saying you are cash only. 
Lady:  We don't need a sign.  All of the other stores in here are cash only.
Tiff:  Well thats not true.  I have been to 5 stores and they all took credit cards.  Seriously, I'm just trying to help you.
Some dude in the back of the Pretzel store:  EVERYONE KNOWS WE ARE CASH ONLY! 
So I thanked them for my stuff and left.

The real point of telling you this is because Gwiny witnessed the whole thing and when I asked her if I was mean to that lady and she said " You were nicer than I would have been." 

She is ten. OMG she is ten.

     I have so many ideas of things that I want to share with everyone.  Like my trip to Vegas where we watched an Ed Sheeran concert from the 10th row, went to Gordon Ramsey's BURGER, ate free hotdogs at our awesome hotel located in center strip, went on a giant ferris wheel of drinking, posed with some wax figures, stayed in a luxury suite on the top floor of the Luxor, won enough money to cover all of our gambling, meals, and parking at the airport, drank a lot (but not to excess), spent $65 on socks, and spent our layovers on the way home in the exclusive Admirals Club.  I want to share these experiences because for 4 glorious days we were free to do grown up things in the the city known for being a playground for Grownups.  But that is not my life.  That was my magical vacation.

    So just a quick side note before I get to the point. I now have a ten year old.  TEN years old.  And she has an attitude.  A nasty one.  But I'm not entirely sure if that comes from the age, the grade (5th grade, what!), or the fact that she pretty much runs our neighborhood gang of kids with an iron fist (or a sweet little Gwiny face that convince the kids to do her bidding). But happy birthday to my sweet little face (9 days late) and remember if you won't be a good girl, "I will destroy you."   

  Okay, I started this blog with my sweet sweet vacation and I would like to give a contrast that describes a day in the life of my family. 

6:00 alarm goes off and I reset it for an hour later.
7:00 alarm goes off and I reset it for 10 minutes later. 
7:10 alarm goes off and I drag myself reluctantly out of bed, finding that surprisingly my husband and I are the only ones in there.  Weird. 
7:15 all the girls are out of bed, but no one can find clothes. 
7:25 my husband needs some tylenol so I try to find that in addition to the clothes but can only find tylenol PM.
7:35 I have helped the girls all find clothes but they don't like them, and I find one lone advil. I yell at all of them and go make lunches.
7:45 The girls are all dressed, but Gwiny can only find one size 2 shoe and one size 4 shoe and Izzy is missing with the other two shoes.  We have to leave for the bus in 5 minutes. 
By 7:52 I have found Izzy, the girls have traded 1 shoe so they are all in shoes, they have on coats and gloves and I realize that I haven't given them breakfast so I pour some crackers in their hands and make them eat them on the way to the bus stop.  
While the rest of the day wasn't nearly as exciting as the morning, I followed quickly by making myself coffee (this could be why I snapped earlier, I hadn't had any coffee), theraflu for the husband, and milk for the Emma.  I made grilled cheese for lunch, mailed some of my etsy store orders, picked up the pre-ordered Disney Infinity 2.0, folded clothes, watched Captain America with Emma (she decided the movie was interactive and we had to use our finger guns to shoot the bad guys every time they came on the screen), got the girls from the bus stop, took Isabel for a checkup at the doctor,  made bacon for dinner, folded more clothes, forced my children to bathe, made the kids lunches and set out their clothes for tomorrow so I don't make that mistake again, and now I am writing this blog.  After I put the girls to bed, I will attempt to do some dishes and read the bible.  Yes I am reading the bible.  For the first time ever, from cover to cover.  And taking notes.  I'm only on Exodus and I started it last week, so I am going at a rate that would make my grad professors cringe.  But I thought that was noteworthy. 

Anyway, my vacation was wonderful and magical and child free.  My life with my family is also wonderful and magical and full of children. Parenting is hard and I am almost always sure that whatever I am doing is probably the wrong thing.  I beat myself up daily for not having a tidier home, or making my daughters eat healthier, or letting them watch to much/the wrong kinds of things on TV.  But I think that that is the curse of a mother or maybe its just Genesis getting to me. 

The Farmers Market and Other Saturday Things

     We had a rather weird day today. It all started when RJ and I woke up at 6:45.  Yeah, 6:45 on a Saturday morning, while the kids were still sleeping, and continued to sleep for another hour and a half.  With our early to rise bit we decided to get everyone ready, after the appropriate amount of coffee of course, and head down to the farmers market.

    It was glorious, glorious I tell you.  I know I have a bit of hippy hiding inside, I mean I'm no birthing a baby at a birth cottage or anything like my best friend but it's there.  And my hippy was so happy when I saw fresh fruits and veggies, freshly baked artisan breads, home made soaps from goats milk and meat in coolers marked as special grass fed beef from such and such farms.  We sampled Maple flavored orange sodas, maple rum, and elderberry rum.  We purchased blueberries and tamales. We saw a special street performing act where the performers juggled things on fire, rode a unicycle, and wore unitards.

   Then we decided to walk around town.  We found two small book shops one of them had a book on display called " You Just Don't Duct Tape A Baby."  We met a turtle named Nemus and walked over a wrought iron bridge. When it was over, I ate my tamale and life was good.

   Later in the day the girls went out to play with some friends.  They came back to ask for a ziplock bag to catch some tadpoles. I thought that was weird but gave it to them anyway and we continued on our merry way.  Isabel came back to wash her hands and I asked how the tadpole hunt went.  She replied, " We didn't catch any. I picked them up, but they were leeches."  Commence the parental flipping out. " Let us see your hands! Did they bite you?"   " No, they didn't bite me, I got them off really fast.  But they were leeches. Also there was a lobster. And we killed it. But it had a red body and pinchy claws."   We did the only thing we could do after the hand inspection. "Show us the leeches."  Guess what!  They weren't leeches.  Guess what! It wasn't a lobster, it was a crawdad. Guess what!  Our kids stoned it to death. Thats right.  They admitted it.

" Well we were watching it go down this ditch, and then we got board of watching it so we threw rocks at it."

 And then we taught the girls a lesson I would never have thought I would ever have to teach someone.

"JUST BECAUSE YOU GET TIRED OF LOOKING AT SOMETHING DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN KILL IT!"

  And that sums up our Saturday.  A day of fire juggling, rum sampling, turtle meeting, tamale eating, life lessons.  Today was good.

The Creepy House

   I apologize yet again for a lack of pictures.  I really wish I would have taken one for this blog entry, yet I did not.  So you will just have to get in the right mood and summon your recollections of your favorite creepy house from any given horror movie. Me, I picture the house in Woman in Black or that one where Johnny Depp is writing a novel in an old white house. 

Backstory:

   So we are having issues with our apartment. One issue after another. We have moved from one apartment within the complex to another because it was so unclean RJ was having allergy attacks, and there were bugs.  We couldn't get the dog hair out, because it was stuck in the cracks in the linoleum. And it smelled like sewer. Seriously. 
   Now we are in the new apartment.  First sad story, our bed wouldn't fit up the stairs.  So we have a cool downstairs loft like thing going on where our bed is the first thing you see when you open the door, oh, it's actually not that cool.  But hey, I can adapt. 
   Our full bath is upstairs and our shower isn't hot. I mean, Florida people, turn on your cold water, and that is how hot my shower gets.  Unless you flush the toilet and then it gets warm, and sometimes a flush will make it so hot it scalds you.  Like I have said before, it is like playing shower Russian Roulette. And also someone has to be in the bathroom with you flushing the toilet.  I guess thats why I had three daughters with no regard for personal space.  I have complained, and no one has done anything about it.  

But then.... dun dun duuuuunnnnn.  

   It started leaking from the ceiling directly under the bathtub.  So in my weird living room that houses my bed it is raining, drywall tape is coming down, spackle is coming down and water is driving it all. A plumber came out, cut the ceiling open, and tried to fix it.  Then he came out and tried to fix it again. And last night, I filled up the tub with 2 pots of boiled water that I trudged up the stairs and then RJ yelled up to me that it was raining down from the ceiling again.  So thats fun. 
   Oh and there is mold.  Lets not forget about the mold.  Anywho, we don't want to live here anymore. So we are looking at houses.  Rj found one that he liked.  It was cheap enough to do some renovations on so last night we drove out to see it.  We didn't meet a realtor, we just went to go look at it.  We get there and it is creepy.

Okay, get that horror story house in your mind. 

   It is white, about a hundred years old, it has peeling paint, and old white window treatments on the inside so that you can't really see in unless you go up to the window.  We are sitting in the car, Izzy and Emma are asleep, and the house is obviously vacant.  I contemplate going to look in the windows, but I am afraid that I am going to look in there and there will be an old rotten lady body sitting in a rocking chair.  And then she will open her eyes and say a curse and I will freak out and have nightmares every night for the rest of my life, that is if I don't die of a heart attack from the creepiness of it all.  But I guess I wasn't that worried because I got out of the car, opened the creaky patio door and looked in!  And there it was. A house with beautiful wood floors, really ugly floral wallpaper and a piano.  I let Gwin come look, we looked around, and then got back in the car.  I told Rj it was his turn to go look while I sat with the kids. 

 He asked "Should I?" 

 I said "There is no one in there, just go peek." 

Gwin added "Unless you count the dead person in the closet." 

So I guess it wasn't just me that thought this house was super creepy.  I thought about waving to the house ghost as we left but, humm. Better not.