A Day in the Life...

Hello, again!

2011-07-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I noticed that I pretty much stopped blogging as soon as I started Cosmetology school last September. I don't think I had any idea how busy I really would become. I'm attending the Aveda Institute Des Moines. I'm in school 30 hours a week and then another 20 hours a week I spend working for Hospice of Central Iowa. I love doing both things but I am looking forward to just having 1 job! I should graduate sometime in February of 2012. While I can't promise that I will be a regular blogger again I will try to be back before another 10 months go by!

Recap of the VMA's

2010-09-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

Watching the Video Music Awards is an annual tradition at our house and we always spend it with our good friends the Kaisers. We have entirely too much food and a lot of fun. This year was no different!
You can always count on the VMA's to have great performances, drama and crazy outfits. Here are my thoughts on this years awards.
The VMA's kicked off with a performance by Eminem and Rihanna. Loved it! Give me anything Eminem and I'll love it.
I loved Chelsea Handler as the host. The woman is so funny although at times she almost seemed nervous while hosting, but I can't blame her for that.
Over all I was pleased with the results of the awards given out. I think everyone that won was deserving.

As for the outfits... Lady Gaga as always had the craziest outfits. I thought her first 2 were pretty tame. You could see her face and see how pretty she really is.

Now the last outfit. The meat outfit. Totally gross in my opinion and I honestly did not get the statement she was trying to make with it. This is what she stated in her interview with Ellen yesterday:
"Well, it is certainly no disrespect to anyone that is vegan or vegetarian," Gaga said. "As you know, I am the most judgment-free human being on the Earth. However, it has many interpretations, but for me this evening if we don't stand up for what we believe in and if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our bones. And, I am not a piece of meat."

Moving along... Kanye and Taylor. How could we not address THIS after last years "incident". Incase you missed it last year, Kanye stormed the stage while Talyor Swift was accepting her award for Best Music Video. He took the mic away from her stating that Beyonce's video should have won.
Fast forward a year later and Taylor sang a new song with lyrics stating "who you are is not what you did" among other words of forgiveness. Then Kanye performs a song with lyrics about "you've been putting up with my Sh*t for too long" and toasting "d-bags and a-holes" so I guess this is an apology?!? not really sure. I'm team Taylor and personally don't think that MTV should have allowed Kayne to perform. I don't think that an apology on this level needs to be made in public it should be between the two of them. I suppose MTV achieved what the wanted because everyone is talking about it. Including me :) I will be ready to tune in again next year!

Growing up

2010-08-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

As some of you know we have been trying to sell our house for the past year. We have recently decided to pull our house off the market and stay put for at least another year. With this decision it's time to get Carter a "big boy" room. His room is currently still decorated in it's baby theme as I didn't want to change it with the anticipation of moving. This is what his room currently looks like.

It's kind of hard to see but it's a Laura Ashley Whales and Sailboats theme. I loved it for my baby boy, but now it's time to move on.

Let me tell you a little bit about my decorating preferences when it comes to things for Carter. I cannot STAND decorating with cartoon stuff! Now I know this may sound a little extreme. Kids love their cartoons! I have given up some of my controlling habits when it comes to some cartoon things. After all, Grandma's love to by things for their grand kids and if he likes a cartoon then cartoon stuff he gets!

Ok back to the topic at hand. I'm breaking my own rule! I want to decorate Carter's room in this theme.

DR. SEUSS!

It's cartoon, but it's pretty timeless and classic. I think I dislike many other cartoons because they are always changing and then you buy all this stuff and 3 months later your child is in love with a different cartoon.

Carter actually does like Dr. Seuss also. He has several books, puzzles and movies and he knows all the songs on the movies by heart.

I don't think I will go crazy with the colors or a custom bed but I think I can have a lot of fun with this. Across from his room is another room that looks exactly like his that is set up as a media room. I think I'm going to continue with the Dr. Seuss theme and turn it into a play room. I'm so excited to see this vision come to life! I will be sure to post pictures when I'm done. So far I have the "Big Boy" bed ordered!

Carter Quote of the Week

2010-08-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

Carter has been saying some pretty funny stuff lately so I need to get it written down so I will remember! I really don't know where he learns this stuff. He speaks so well for his age, I'm not sure where he gets it from, but the kid is just FUNNY!

A couple weeks ago we were at Taste of Hope (a carnival of sorts at church) and Carter was running around playing with empty water bottles. He was having a friend of ours take the labels off so he could swing them around. One of the labels was particularly sticky and he runs over to me with it hanging from his hand and said "Mom, this is a sticky situation!"

This is the same night, he wanted daddy to throw the empty bottles at his head :)

Mini-Vacation

2010-08-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago the 3 of us took a little mini trip to Omaha for the night. We had planned on going to the zoo but the heat index was over 100 so we found something else to do. We ended up going to The Children's Museum. Carter had a blast! They had a Clifford exhibit, so we spent a lot of time in that area.

This was a dog bowl conveyer belt that Carter loved playing with.

Carter in the dog house

We spent the night in a hotel which was Carter's first time. We went swimming in the pool and went out to dinner. We all stayed up as late as we wanted, and as we were sitting watching cartoons Carter said, "Mom this is really a lot of fun!" It was a nice little get away from the craziness of life and spend time together as a family!

Carter Quote of the Week

2010-06-29T06:09:00.000-07:00

**Disclaimer** If you don't want to read a conversation about poop don't read below. I have boys in my house so poop is a frequent topic of conversation :)

Hubby was overseeing potty time for Carter before bed. I overheard the following conversation...

Carter: Dad, I have to poop!
Chris: Ok bud, just go
Carter does his business and has to check it out in the toilet
Carter: Dad! It's floating
Chris: Uh...yeah I guess it is...
Carter: Well, boats float...
Chris: Yeah, they do...
Carter: So....it's like a poop boat!

I can just picture him processing this information and putting all the pieces together. Haha :)

Confession

2010-06-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

I have to get something off my chest that has been bothering me for about 3 years.... I DON'T KEEP ALL OF MY CHILDS ART PROJECTS ::Gasp:: I know! I'm a horrible Mom! Lock me up now!

So, before you judge me, and I know some will, but that's ok- let me explain. Carter goes to daycare. Everday. From 8-5. That's a LOT of time for crafty little projects. If I kept ALL of his pieces of paper with a little scribble on them I would be swimming in papers and my husband just might file for divorce...maybe...ok probably not but you get the point right?
I do keep some of them. Usually the ones that has some sort of body part imprint on them like hands or feet. I like to see how he grows over the years. Sometimes we will hang something on the fridge that he's made for a week or 2 and then in the garbage it goes. Does anyone have an alternative though besides the garbage or keeping everything? How do you decide what stays and what goes? I've heard of some people that take pictures of the project and then make an album or scrapbook of the pictures. I could try that route.
My Mom kept a lot of my projects but I don't know if she kept ALL of them (Mom you can weigh in on this because I know you're probably reading it!) I just found a bunch of stuff in storage that my Mom kept for me and it was a lot of fun to look through, but now what? Do I get it out every few years and say "Oh I remember that?" I'm pretty sure Carter won't care to look at a picture that his Mom drew when she was 12. That's the thing with boys too, Is he really going to care if I keep this stuff for him when he is 26? I'm thinking not.
So Mom's out there weigh in on this for me. Do you keep everything your child/ren make and what do you do with it? Non-Moms, do you have stuff that your parents kept for you? Do you care that they kept it and do you think you will keep your kids stuff if you plan to have children?

Okay, commence the judging...I'm ready for it. I think. :)

More Journal Entries

2010-06-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a little behind on my journal entries so here are days 5 and 6. Some are more interesting than others, so I apologize if I bore you a little!

This one is about some of my favorite blogs. If you can't read any off the web addresses and want to check them out just let me know and I'll post the link. Some of them are listed on my blog in my favorites!

I'll admit, I was not so into this journal post so I went with the literal translation. I made a clock pointing to the time it was when I was working on the page and just some other things that were on my mind.

Carter Quote of the Week

2010-06-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

My son Carter is 3 years old and LOVES to talk. He talks very well for his age and says the funniest things. I thought I would start a weekly post of something that he has said that I want to remember. I am also planning on making a journal of these little things as well.

The other night the 3 of us were out at a restaurant. Carter always likes to get a quarter or 2 after dinner to use in the little candy/trinket machines that you find in the waiting area. So he had his 2 quarters ready to go and was growing impatient that the waitress hadn't brought our check. As we were waiting he told us "I will pay". Chris and I looked at each other and said "Great!" At that moment the waitress brought our check and right on cue Carter looked at the waitress, the check, his 2 quarters and then his Dad and said "Uh, Dad you can pay and I will keep my quarters." We all busted up laughing. It just amazes me at how much his 3 year old brain processes!

Journal prompts day 3 and 4

2010-06-18T05:58:00.000-07:00

Here are my journal pages for days 3 and 4 of the 30 day journal challenge.

Day 3 was write a letter or draw a picture about the person you love or admire. I, of course chose my husband.

Day 4 was show your heart. So I drew this colorful design and added word that describe what is in my heart!

Remember it's not to late to join in!

photo contest

2010-06-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

I just entered this photo into a contest over at Skinned Knees blog.

I think Carter was about 15 months here. The topic was "silly" and I think this fits that to a T!

Click here to play along!

30 Day Journal Challenge

2010-06-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

Since I've had some free time on my hands I have started to follow a lot of blogs. Let me tell you, there are some talented and inspirational ladies out there! I came across a blogger who is challenging her readers to a 30 day journal challenge. You can click the link to the right to check her out. She posts a topic each day and that's what you journal or draw or do whatever comes to you. I'm not much of an artist so you will probably see a lot of words and pictures in my journal. I LOVE this idea. I was a big into journaling when I was in high school and then some how it always gets away from me. I've tried to pick it up a few times since then and the notebook always ends up hiding in a random drawer some where. So I've accepted the challenge and I will post my pages on my blog. I was a couple days late on starting, so here are day's 1 and 2.

Day 1 was to create a full page design to introduce yourself. I chose words to describe myself, things I like to do and people and dates that are important to me.

Day 2 was What is the best part of your day.

I will be working on today's journal topic a little later today. I will try to post it sometime today. I'm working on a cookie order for some fathers day cookies and I need to get them finished up by tomorrow. I will post pics of the final product!

Customer Service

2010-06-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

I have worked in customer service since I was in high school. Unfortunately good customer service seems hard to find these days. I am often surprised when I go into a retail store and feel like I am inconveniencing the staff by shopping in their store. Heaven forbid I want to give them some of my money.

Anyways, I'm not here to talk about my poor customer service experience. I recently had a very GOOD experience in the most unexpected place... while getting my oil changed.

I don't normally handle the oil changes in our family but since I'm not working I had the time to take the car and we were getting ready to head out of town and it needed to be done. I've gotten my oil changed before, many years ago and I always felt awkward about it. Would they try and rip me off with all these pricey "add-ons"? or talk to me like I'm stupid because I'm a woman? Both of these have happened to me before.

As soon as I pulled in one of the guys came and opened my door for me and lead me to the waiting area. While I was waiting, the manager came in to tell me what they were doing and to see what kind of oil I wanted. Every time he addressed me it was "Mrs. Timmons" and he explained thoroughly what would be best for my type of vehicle. He thanked me several times during my visit for doing business with them. He enrolled me in a discount program that would save me money on future visits. When the car was done another man escorted me out to my car, thanked me again and shut my door for me.

Overall it was a very positive experience and unfortunately one I do not see enough of these days. Anyone who works in customer service or owns their own business SHOULD be thanking their customers and going above and beyond to make the experience memorable...even if it is just getting an oil change. After all it's our customers money that is putting the roof over our heads, and feeding our children.

Snail Mail

2010-06-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

Remember the days before e-mail and facebook? Pretty soon the younger generations won't have any memory of snail mail, with everything being available online. Now days you can pay your bills on-line, shop on-line and heck you can even order a pizza with out ever having to speak to anyone!

Well I stumbled across a blogger today who's taking us back to the days of snail mail! I signed up so I'll let you know if/when I get anything in the mail.

I LOVE this idea. I used to have pen pals when I was younger. I think we had to for a class but then my cousin and I were pen pals over the years. I think it's so great to stay connected to people this way. It's much more personal than e-mail, and I think it makes us take time to stop and think about what you really want to say to that person.

So I'm going to give this a try as well. If you would like some snail mail from ME, just a little something to brighten your day, shoot me an email at jltimmons@gmail.com with your mailing address and "Snail Mail" as the subject, and then check your mailbox the following week. I won't give your personal information to anyone and since I think only family and friends read this you know I'm not a crazy person who will stalk you :)

I'm Back

2010-05-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

I realize that I have been MIA for a few months. I am attempting to get back on the blogging bandwagon. Seeing as how I don't have a job I should have all sorts of time to blog right? right....

There has been a lot of things going on in our lives over the past few months some good and more bad. I will try to recap what's been going on over the past few months in my up coming posts. In the meantime I realize I left you hanging with my last post of the wonderful fabric that I would be turning into a quilt. I completed it and here it the picture to prove it!

Teaser alert!

2010-02-28T18:23:00.000-08:00

Here are a few teasers for my upcoming weekend. This weekend the women in my family are getting together for our annual "Bunny Weekend" in honor of my Great-Grandma Bunny Clapper.

The cookies are just for fun to share with all the girls. I really just needed an excuse to practice my decorating skills!

As I have mentioned before I am trying my hand at quilting this year and these are the cute fabrics I picked out. I just hope it all turns out as good as it looks in my mind :)

I will share more next week with the finished product!

Happy 3rd Birthday Carter!

2010-02-11T17:44:00.000-08:00

This precious little boy has been bringing joy to our lives for 3 years. The time really does go by so fast. He had a shaky start in the world when he got RSV and was hospitalized for 14 days. Now he's a rough and tumble little man who makes us laugh and smile every day. I'm so excited to see what God has in store for our little guy. Happy birthday buddy! We love you!

What's For Dinner?

2010-02-01T17:36:00.000-08:00

In an effort to try to eat healthier I've been on the look out for new recipes to try. There have been a few road bumps along the way... we are picky eaters, I wouldn't call myself a very good cook and I hate to buy a bunch of groceries for 1 meal that you can't use to cook anything else. I found a recipe that looked good so I tried it out and we had it for dinner tonight. I found it in the February issue of Oxygen Magazine. Here it is!

Chicken Tenders with Balsamic Vinegar Glaze

The Cast of Characters:

Olive Oil to coat the pan

12 oz Chicken Tenders

Ground black pepper to taste

1 tsp minced Garlic

3 tbsp Balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp honey

1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth

Fresh Parsley (optional) I opt'd out :)

Step 1:

Heat oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken tenders and season with pepper. Cook, turning pieces halfway through, until cooked. Approx 7 minutes. remove chicken from the pan and set aside.

Step 2:

Reduce the heat to low-medium, add garlic and saute. Then add vinegar, honey and chicken broth. Simmer, scraping the bottom of the pan for 1 minute.

Step 3:

Return chicken to pan. Mix all ingredients together and heat through. Garnish and serve.

This makes 4 servings and it's 250 calories per serving. Not bad at all!

Our side dish was another recipe I found in the same magazine issue

Green Beans with Lemon and Garlic

Ingredients

1lb frozen fresh cut green beans

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic minced

Juice of half a lemon

Sea salt to taste

Step 1: Steam beans until tender- set aside

Step 2: Heat oil in pan and saute garlic for 5 minutes. remove from heat

Step 3: Add lemon juice to pan and stir. pour garlic-lemon sauce over green beans and serve

This makes 6 servings and is 40 calories per serving!

Here's the final product. It doesn't look quite like the magazine picture and it would probably look nicer if it wasn't on a tupperware plate. Oh well, just keepin' it real. It was all very easy and didn't take me longer than 30 minutes. That's my kind of meal! Let me know if you try it out and what you think!

Push: A Book Review

2010-01-25T19:30:00.000-08:00

This weekend I got together with the girls from book club. The book we read was "Push" by Sapphire. The general consensus was that we all enjoyed this book, as much as you could enjoy a book with this kind of content. This book follows a young girl named Precious who is abused by her mother, and raped by her father. She is illiterate, going to school and trying to raise her son at the age of 16. It talks about her struggles and how she perseveres. This was one of the more intense book club choices but we tend to go back and forth between something serious and something light hearted.

We usually only discuss the book for about 30 minutes and spend the other hour and a half catching up on life and drinking wine. Always a good time!

Happy Birthday to ME!

2010-01-14T17:45:00.000-08:00

This is what my hubby got me for my birthday yesterday! Yes I actually requested this for my present. Let me give you a little bit of a background as to why...

Every year the women on my Mom's side of the family get together for a weekend we call "Bunny Weekend". It's women only, lots of food, wine, conversation and the "real" reason we are there, sewing. We get together in memory of my Great Grandma who we affectionately called Grandma Bunny. My Grandma and her sisters are fantastic quilters, my Mom's generation at least has the sewing genes, but my cousins and I have been more of the scrap booking or knitting types. My cousin Sheri made a quilt last year and it turned out great. So, I figured I better take advantage of all the great knowledge these women have while I still I have the chance. Now I have my sewing machine, I have some really cute fabric and my quilt pattern. Stay tuned for a post in March to show off my quilt!

Reality Check

2010-01-11T17:39:00.000-08:00

I love reality T.V! The crazier the show the more I love it. I'm not sure what draws me to them, I guess I like different ones for different reasons. The Biggest Loser is very inspirational. I love seeing how much everyone transforms by the end, and of course the drama. American Idol is another one of my favs. I've watched this show since it started, I remember watching the first season finale where Kelly Clarkson won my freshman year of college. I used to watch The Bachelor in college also, all of the girls would gather every week to watch. A few of the other shows I have gotten addicted to are Dancing With The Stars, and a newer show The Sing-off. My favorite reality show with in the last few years is Rock of Love with Bret Michaels. I know what you're thinking... The show is completely dysfunctional which is why I think I like it. I just can't turn away from it. A friend of mine and I became a little obsessed with the show and now we have seen Bret in concert twice and even got to meet him and got autographs. So, my love of reality TV is not bound to die down anytime soon, but for now maybe Bret really has found true love since there seem to be no previews for another season. ::Sigh::

Out with the Old, In with the New

2010-01-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

With a new year brings New Years Resolutions. I'm not really a fan of the whole resolution thing... Maybe it's because I never seem to meet whatever resolution I have set for myself for the year. So this year I think I am going to work on completing projects and staying organized. I have a really bad habit of finding different activities that I want to try out, I buy all the "stuff" needed to go along with said project and a month later I'm over it. In 2009 I have tried Cake decorating, Knitting, Cookie decorating, Scrapbooking, Sewing... the list goes on and on. So I have lots of stuff, and supplies around my house with no place to put it.

I really like having all the different things to do but the house is getting a little out of control with all my stuff! I started off the year by going through all of our clothes. I still have some clothes from high school which is waaaaay to long to be hanging on to stuff. So with 2 trash bags full off my clothes and 1 bag of hubby's clothes we will be donating to Goodwill this weekend. I know there are plenty of people who will benefit from our clothes that have just been taking up space in our house. So I encourage you all to start the year off by doing some good for yourself AND for others. I feel great having cleared out some space in my house, and giving to others. Happy New Year!

Christmas Festivities

2009-12-27T15:12:00.000-08:00

After re-arranging some plans due to crazy weather, we have made it through 4 family Christmases. Christmas Eve was spent with my side of the family. Carter made out really well (of course) and scored his first bike complete with a helmet and elbow pads from Grandma and Papa Daby.
Christmas Day was just the 3 of us. Carter got his santa gifts and we just bummed around the house ALL day. It was wonderful! The weekend was filled with much more family. We traveled 2 hours to see my Mom's side of the family, We have LOTS of family on that side of the family and always WAY too much food. It made for a great day! Today we spent all day with Chris' Mom and Grandma. Carter got spoiled yet again and I think his favorite toy of day is his Mack truck from the movie "Cars".

I got an awesome gift that was totally un-expected... A Kitchen Aid Mixer! I will be able to make cookies and cakes much easier and quicker with this!

*edited to add pictures.

This is Carter's hand made pj's courtesy of my grandma Sheri. There are little cowboys on his shirt if you were wondering :)

Carter and his awesome new bike. We can't wait for nice weather so we can play outside!

I am NOT baker

2009-12-21T18:39:00.000-08:00

One of the blogs I started following is called I am baker and you can find her here. http://iammommy.typepad.com/i_am_baker/ (can someone tell me how to actually make a link with out putting in the whole address? I'm computer illiterate!)

She makes what look to be amazing treats, specifically her sugar cookies. They look amazing and I'm sure they taste just as good as they look. So I decided to make them...really how hard could it be to make sugar cookies from scratch? HA! Famous last words! As my dough is doing something in the fridge for the next hour (I dunno, that's what the recipe said to do)let me tell you what I DID learn... apparently it DOES matter what order you mix the ingredients-who knew! My first batch was not sticking together like it should so in the trash it went... I also learned that I really need to wait until my almost 3 year old is in bed before starting ANY sort of project. Lastly, I learned that I am NOT a baker... at least not yet. I still need to actually bake my cookies so I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow night.

*edited to add pictures- Finally!

The tree above was one of the first ones I did. I guess I went a little crazy with the "flooding" technique:) I got the hang of it by the end... See below:)

Here I Go...

2009-12-20T18:43:00.000-08:00

I am jumping on the blogging bandwagon. Or at least I am attempting to. I am a self proclaimed "blog stalker". I follow a handful of blogs and can't get enough of it! Some of them are friends of mine and others are one's that I have stumbled upon with a specific focus like cooking, or couponing. I never thought I could be a blogger. I feel so un-interesting but I guess that's what I love about everyone else's blogs. They talk about their lives and what is important to them so maybe my "normal" life of being a working Mom and wife will be entertaining to others as well. At the least this blog will be a good way to share things that I want to remember. My son Carter will be 3 in February. He is at the stage of saying all sorts of funny things. I'm sure I will have many funny stories to share in the future. So to my friends, family and strangers who may stumble upon this blog, enjoy, and please leave any comments you like!