Olivia will be 6 months on Monday. Wow, time is flying! Olivia showcased her new talent this week. She can sit up all by herself! It is so amazing to me since Jillian couldn’t do this until 7 or 8 months. She is doing really well at trying to crawl. She’s up on all fours, scooting around, and rolling around. She isn’t officially crawling but she gets where she wants to be.
Threw this in because I love my little reader
For today’s Muffin Tin Monday I attempted to be a little creative. I made a mouse using a strawberry, blueberry, and Fruit Loops. I also cut her cheese into little pac-men 🙂
I was inspired by a blog that I follow (Making it Lovely the cute little tag is hers) I’ve decided to create my own list. We’ll see how I do since I have 3 years to complete everything.
1. Visit the Getty MuseumDone!
2. See Redwood treesDone!
3. Get my Master’s Degree Done!{I am now a Master of Educational Technology ;)}
4. Have a stable teaching job (haha) Okay maybe just have a teaching job 2nd grade teacher!
5. Save money for a down payment on a house
6. Start an Elf on the Shelf tradition this Christmas Done!
7. Frost a cupcake with a piping bag Done!
8. Get a King size mattress {Thank you tax return! 3/15/11}
9. Fix my class website {I’ve realized that this is an ongoing project, which changes every year.}
10. potty train Jillian {We are super close 2/11, poop in the potty 3/23 Almost there! 8/20 We can officially say she is potty trained – just underwear at night now too}
11. Potty train Olivia I’m considering this done, we’ve had a few setbacks but she’s pretty much got it
12. Find a perfect preschool for Jillian {accepted 3/17/11}
13. scrapbook Olivia’s first yearDone!
14. Make a Pinterest craftDone! There have been quite a few and I’m sure more to come.
15. Teach Jillian to ride a bike with training wheels {Santa brought Jillian a bike and she is doing great!}
16. Finish the wall art for the girls’ room Done!
17. Stop going to work on the weekends! {As much as I want this to stop, it just doesn’t. I have cut it down to every other weekend}
18. Have at least one night when both girls sleep all the way through {several nights starting 1/5/11}
19. Camp at the beachDone!
20. Make Olivia an awesome 1st birthday cake Done!
21. Baptize Olivia Done!
22. Find the perfect lipstick Done!
23. Go wine tastingDone!
24. Go apple or cherry picking with Adrian and the girls
25. make homemade crepesDone!
26. learn to make sushi Done!
27. Baby #3 Done!
28. Learn to create a dvd of video footage from my video camera Done!
29. Beautifully wrap a giftDone!
30. Learn how to make a French Braid Done!
So this is my second week of Muffin Tin Mondays. I’ve been busy these past two Mondays that it’s not turning out how I envisioned. The women on the Muffin Tin Monday website get super creative. Maybe after these 3 week of work I’ll do a better job. Today Jillian had chicken, broccoli, grapes, and rice. It was funny because she only ate the tops of the broccoli, but at least she’s eating it 🙂
So I recently registered for my classes. I forgot how expensive text books are! A few of my books were offered in e-book form. This gave me a reason to splurge on an e-book reader. Unfortunately when I took a closer look I found that only one book was on the Kindle, none of them were on the Nook, and these e-book readers are not cross platform compatible. Ugh! So then I looked through the school at the e-books maybe that form will be compatible with the Nook (I’m usually Barnes and Noble loyal). It turns out that e-books through the school are only available during that semester and then they disappear, forever. Ummm NO THANK YOU. Sometimes I like to hang on to my books or better yet sell them back! Then I started to search for cheaper used copies of the books online. No such Luck!
1st book New $149 used $102 ebook $80 Kindle edition $26
2nd book New $44 used $34 Amazon $55
3rd book New$53 used $40 Amazon $57
I’ll be going through the CSUF bookstore for the 2nd and 3rd book, hopefully I’ll find it used.
The first book however was stumping me. I really did not want to pay so much money when the Kindle version was so cheap! We even looked into the Ipad, but is $500 worth it? It does support both Nook and Kindle, hmm. Then I found out that the Ipad is worthless in the sun. When I was in school before (and living at home) I would take my books to Salt Creek Beach and sit on the grass hill to study. Beach= Sun, uh oh! It was still an option, and just a fun thing to own. My birthday is in 2 weeks after all. But $500 is a lot of money to spend!
Adrian found a Kindle app for my phone and a lightbulb went off! Kindle and Nook both have e-readers for PC’s and I have a tablet PC. Since the IPad’s screen is just like my PC it’s a perfect solution. Granted my laptop is a bit heavier than an Ipad, but it saves me $5o0. Now I get to buy my text book for $26. YAY super saver!!!
I have to admit the Kindle e-reader is pretty cool. I can change my font size, brightness, and background color (a select 3). My favorite feature is the highlighter and highlighter plus notes. I have yet to play with the Nook app but I can get some free e-books to play with soon.
Kindle apps
Our little Olivia is developing right along. She’s been rolling around for a while now and today she displayed her new trick. She is getting so close to crawling. It is scaring me to watch it come so quickly. I know you can’t compare children but it took Jillian a while to crawl. I had some breathing time haha. If Olivia starts crawling early my daily life is going to get a little trickier. Especially with my Master’s program starting in the Fall. I would love any tips to help Jillian understand sharing because I know right where Olivia will crawl to 🙂
Here are some pictures of Olivia pushing up.
The other day I came accross this woman’s blog.
She started talking about Muffin Tin Mondays. It is a fun way to present breakfast, lunch, or dinner to your child. I thought it was such a fun idea that I decided I want to do it too!
So here is our first Muffin Tin Monday Meal 🙂
Jillian got chicken, fried zucchini, cheese, watermellon, grapes, and broccoli.
My aunt received an edible arrangement the other day. She was on her way over to our house when the doorbell rang. She was shocked because in her hand was a magazine page showing how to make your own edible arrangements. Crazy how the world works.
So she hired me to make 4 edible arrangements for my cousin’s birthday party. My mom and I worked all morning on these beautiful creations! We had some issues with one of the arrangements. It kept falling over, my mom came ups with a great solution. We decorated the platter with support fruit and greenery.
Overall they were a big success! They turned out fantastic but I don’t think I’ll ever do it for one of my own parties. If you want to pay me I’ll do it for yours. It was just way too much work to be done for free. Now I understand why the edible arrangement company charges so much for their baskets!!
Happy 4th of July everyone!! We had a nice relaxing day today. We went to Capo Beach to watch the fireworks. Jillian was excited about the fireworks that people were setting off on their own. Unfortuantly once the real show began she was not happy. I think the loud noises were just too much for her. Olivia slept through of course haha. We ended up leaving early since Jillian was not happy. It worked out okay because we were able to see the fireworks from the car with muted sounds. We also beat the crowds returning home, YAY!
We hope you had a fun and safe Independence Day!!
Dear Friends,
I’ve been having issues with my blog these past couple of days. Necessary updates caused me a major headache. Things were lost, changed and just completely mixed up. I’m going to have to redesign everything. Luckily Adrian is getting really good at WordPress themes YAY! Hopefully it will look much better soon 🙂
Lots of Love,
Sarah
