Well it's official - we're cursed.

Ok, not really. But in this particular area of life, we are cursed. You know what....no. ERICK is cursed because this was all happening to him before we even met. Did you know every time he falls in love with a restaurant, it gets shut down? This happened with several restaurants before we met and since then, so many of our favorites places to eat have gone out of business. Our first "favorite sandwich" place - Dillingers. Closed. Best pastrami ever. Gone. And then there was the place that made that chicken pesto sandwich. Closed! We recently started loving this place nearby called Bagel Bistro. They have the yummiest salt bagel/cream cheese/lox/onion/capers sandwich. And now they're getting pushed out by the landlords who want to put a Starbucks in! Our city already has ELEVEN Starbucks! C'mon people! Give us a good sandwich place that isn't Subway. Sheesh!

On the plus side....that means I'm gonna have a Starbucks just 2 blocks away. Right now the closest Starbucks is an excruciating SEVEN blocks away. I mean...really.....how have I even survived???


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KID BITS

Kyla's new words: Puppy, Socks, Shoes, Peter (as in Pan).

If I ask Kyla "Are you gonna be nice?" She'll tell me in her sweet little voice "No." She doesn't say it meanly. Just matter-of-fact. Like "Thanks for asking but I think not today."

The girls were playing in the backyard this morning and Kyla wandered in, soaking wet from head to toe. Obviously she had some water poured on top of her head. I called McKenna in and asked how Kyla got wet. She was carrying a watering can so she already held the smoking gun. She said "Well, I was just making the heavens grow."

To help encourage McKenna when she cleans up her own messes and to discourage her from losing her temper with her sister, we've started the marble jar method. We bought her a cute little acrylic monkey cup from Target and bought 2 small jars of marbles. Pretty basic - exceptionally good behavior gets marbles put in, exceptionally naughty gets marbles taken out. When all the marbles are in the cup, she gets a prize. (Right now she is aiming for a toy saxophone). She is really into the idea. She was super proud of herself for getting marbles for cleaning her own room and for being calm when her sister took her drink from her. She was devastated when she lost marbles for breaking her new hair clip on purpose. I knew she'd take to this idea easily.

* Since our dill is doing so well and the girls both like to help me take care of it, I was thinking we'd get a couple of window boxes and I'd let them try growing some of their own things. I'm hoping I can find some plain flower boxes like that so we can paint them and make them all pretty ourselves. We picked up some daisy seeds and also some chives and basil seeds. McKenna gets so excited when she sees how much the dill has grown so I think she'll get a kick out of growing her own flowers. The herbs are really just me hoping I'll have some more fun stuff to cook with. ;)

I thought I had some cute pictures of the girls to share but they've been playing in the backyard every day so they've been too filthy to photograph. LOL! I've gotta get them cleaned up and respectable again so I can snap some new pics!

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This is a new section of my blog that I am going to call....um....let's call it "Mommy's Corner". This is where I get to not feel guilty for blogging about things that are un-kid related. I started the blog to talk about the funny/cute things my kids do but you know, some days the kids don't do anything particularly different that makes for a good story. I always love the time I spend with them but if I told y'all yesterday about Kyla saying "puppy" for the first time, do you want to hear that story again today just because it still amuses me? LOL! And you know, sometimes I like to talk about shopping, books, digi-scrapping, etc. So this is how I can compartmentalize it and not feel guilt. He he.

So here's what's new in Mommy's corner....

* Guess how long I slept yesterday....TWELVE HOURS!!! OMG I must've been tired. After I put the girls to bed, I took a bath and then I fell asleep before 9pm. And since it was my day to sleep in, I slept until 9am! Holy heck! I must've needed the rest I guess. I've been staying up way too late the past few weeks. Maybe I need to set a more strict bed time for myself. Yeah, like that's gonna happen.

* I finished The Great Gatsby. Wow. That book was ENTIRELY different then I remembered it from high school. It started out a little slow and it's no wonder that high school students get bored with their English Lit. classes. Those books always start out slow! But really, if you press past the setting and opening dialogue, it really does pick up. And it's much darker and more sordid then I remembered. Rather convicting in some parts (focusing more on the pursuit of the American Dream then on living the life you've already been given) and I found "Nick's" insight into the East Coast to be kind of interesting. I've never been there so I can't say I agree with it one way or the other. But his admission to being fascinated with New York yet feeling an emptiness there (because it wasn't his home or who he was) was just interesting to me.

* So next up on my reading list is The Midwives. It was on my wish list for awhile and my Dad and Cheryl got it for me for Christmas. Trying for another baby is in the near future for Erick and I (not telling you when because that is no one's business = P )and I don't think this is a book I want to read while pregnant. LOL! So let's tackle it now shall we? Anyway, it looks like it might be intense and I'm excited to start it!

* I've got two movies from Netflix on their way that I can...NOT....WAIT...for! Babel and The Pursuit of Happyness. Yeah, heavy much? Sheesh! But I've been really anxious to see Babel because I think it looks powerful. And every time I see the preview for Pursuit of Happyness, I cry. It just looks so sweet and heart-warming and inspiring. That scene where he's locked in that room (bathroom?) with his little boy so that his son can sleep. OMG it tears my heart right out. I'm gonna be a mess watching it, I just know it.

* I have to show you these cute little shoes I got at Target:


Aren't they adorable? They're just so cute and surprisingly comfortable. I thought those would look cute with some jeans and my white peasant blouse. Or my new white Hollister pants and maybe a yellow top.

* In digi-scrap news, I am now both a Scrap Gypsy and a Digi-Darer! Ok, the Digi-Darer news is a few weeks old but still, it's really cool. Let me explain the two teams:

- Scrap Gypsies are a "roving troupe of scrap-artisans". We aren't a creative team for any one designer. But designers from all over can be featured and the team will scrap with their products. It's a great way for designers to have their product shown off to a wide audience and scrapped by artists with a variety of styles. And it's great for us scrappers because we get to play with fun products from all sorts of artists!

- The Digi Darers are a team of scrappers who issue a different dare each week. It's to encourage and inspire scrappers to scrap more about themselves, difficult subjects, unique subjects, etc. Most of us scrappers do this to preserve our family memories for our kids. So this encourages us to step-outside the box and scrap things other than our kids once a week. The dares are always challenging but really fun. This last week we had to scrap about a part of our physical self that we LIKE. That is HARD to do without sounding conceited, let me tell you. LOL! So I decided to do my journaling in a way that it would send a positive message to my daughters. Here is the page I did:

Journaling and credits found here.

And last thing, there is this new scent I saw at Beauty Habit that I wanted to try before I bought it. So I emailed them and asked if they had samples. They said they have a sample package. For just $11 (shipping included) they will send you samples of 6 products of your choice. FUN! So basically I got to shop for frivolous stuff and barely spend any money. You have to pick 6 items and 6 alternative items in case they don't have your first choice. Here is what I chose:

Comptoir Sud Pacifique - Caramel Sunset
Burn Liquid - Tiare Coconut Body Cream
Perfumeria Gal - Colorete Gal Rouge - Rose
DuWop Realipstick - Sophia
Dianne Brill Lash Lingerie - Lash Lace Mascara - Black Lace
Perfumeria Gal - Vivace Lip Gloss - Coconut

And these are my alternatives:
Comptoir Sud Pacifique - Vanille Coco
Perfumeria Gal - Colorete Gal Rouge - Indiana
DuWop Realipstick - Marlene
ModelCo Tan Remover
Rodial Instant Glow Self-Tan Gel
Pangea Organics - Egyptian Fennel w/Rosemary & Mint Facial Cream

Isn't that fun? All of the products at that site are too expensive for me to buy on a whim. The only thing I've ever bought from there was something I had used before that was recommended by my Esthetician (Biologique Rechercher P50.V Lotion). The perfume sounded sooo nice but I had to smell it first before I'd pay $50 for it. So I love that they do this and I get to try some other fun stuff too! And the package is already shipped! Sweet! I love when I know a package is on it's way! Yippee!!

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Ok, that is all for today. I need to workout, do a little housework and then tonight I need to catch up on some DST emails.