When Sewing is NOT fun

Sewing is usually a nice outlet for me. I get to do something that does not involve children (although it usually benefits one of them) and I enjoy the creative process of making something from start to finish in a relatively short span of time. (hence the reason I will NEVER enjoy scrap booking-never ending project)
However there are certain times when I just want to beat my head against the wall, throw the dumb thing away, and never touch my machine again. This almost finished dress for Julia's 2nd birthday is one such project. I altered the pattern and then realized halfway through the dress t that I had altered it to be too small so I had to re-alter it. I have never made something like it before and while it isn't necessarily hard, it has just been sooooo time consuming for some reason. And the worst part is that even though I want to throw it away and just make her a different dress I can't justify wasting all those hours. grrrrrrrrr!!!!! And now I must return to my sewing room dungeon to finish this dumb thing before her birthday.
Wish me luck.

Help us eat more beef

While most people are trying to not eat as much red meat, I am trying to add it in our diet. I have never been a big beef eater. I hate steak and pretty much avoid all red meat. I'm just not a meat and potatoes kind of girl. I figure that it isn't really healthy anyway, and the sight of a big slab of raw bloody beef has always made me feel sick. We eat tons of chicken, pork, fish and shrimp but I probably only serve red meat for dinner once every month or two. In the summer Mike will buy steaks and grill them so at least he gets steak once in awhile.

But being that this is a new year, one of my new years resolutions is to overcome my beef aversion. I know that my poor husband would like to eat more red meat and so I really want to serve it more. My problem is that I don't really know what to do with it. I'm overwhelmed by the amount of "beef" choices at the grocery store. Is ribeye better than round etc etc. So this is why I am blogging about it. Do any of you out there have some good beef recipes they could send me. Pretty much the only beef I know how to make is barbecued beef brisket in the oven and chili made with stew meat. I feel kind of lame admitting that I have no clue how to cook beef, but alas it is true. Please help me fulfill my new years resolution of serving beef once a week.

incompetent or a cheater

Congratulations America we are about to get a Secretary of the Treasury that is either
A) Completely Incompetent- gee he just didn't know that he owed $34,000 more in taxes
OR
B) A cheater- gee that makes me feel good that he cheated Uncle Sam out of $34,000 and now he is about to sign all our money and basically be part of Uncle Sam

Which is worse- stupid or dishonest...how about neither. There's gotta be a better choice than that.

MLK Day Parade

Everyone loves a parade. Unfortunately, Mike had to work on MLK Day, but I really wanted to take our kids to see the annual Martin Luther King Parade in Los Angeles. I had been once before several years ago and it was a rather fascinating cultural experience. I knew that spirits would be high on this day, being the day before the inauguration of America's first African-American president, and I wanted to partake of the joy of this momentous occasion. So I enlisted my good friend and former roommate Tiffany to come with me and the kids and off we went. I think every African American who lives in LA was there. It was awesome!!!! You could just feel the excitement in the air. Tiffany even bought some good soul food from some street vendors and shared it with us- sweet potato pie and peach cobbler.

Blake was really fascinated by all the police motorcycles doing fancy tricks, and Julia was mesmerized enough by the whole affair to ACTUALLY stay put in her stroller on the sidelines for almost 40 minutes.

I had no idea that CHP officers had bow ties for special occasions. Cool huh!!!

Not such a good picture but it was kind of neat to see LAPD Chief Bratton and Sheriff Bacca in real life. (and not just on the 5 o'clock news)

Julia just sat there wiggling her feet to the marching band music.

For Grandma

Per Grandma's request this is what I look like at 25 weeks of gestation. uggghhh I really don't remember being this big already with the other 2.

We love hand me downs

We must have a big sign on our house that says, "we love free stuff". In the past few months we have been the recipients of lots and lots of good hand me downs. From doll houses, to toy kitchens, to children's clothes to this cute bike, we love it all. Thanks everyone for taking such good care of us.

Now, if only someone could teach Julia how to actually make the pedals function.

8 pounds

8 pounds is how much weight you gain in one month when you are:
a) Pregnant
b) On a one week trip to Mexico where they feed you breakfast, lunch and dinner
c) Eating Christmas treats for breakfast dessert, lunch dessert and dinner dessert
d) Making Christmas treats to give away and then eating half of them.
e) All of the above

Happy Grazing MOOOOOOOO
The joys of monthly doctor visits.
(Apparently I took the advice from the doctor last month a little too seriously)

Facebook????

It seems like everyone is on facebook these days but I am hesitant to "join" because I worry about something else sucking away my time. I l already spend too much time on the blog circuit, but the thought of being able to see what old high school peeps are up to is kind of appealing. However, I would just prefer to be a voyeur and not actually have to update stuff about me(since I already do that on my blog) And I think the whole "friending" thing is really hokey. SO, I want to know your thoughts. Do you facebook? Is it a time waster? Please share.....

Oh MEXICO!!!!!

We got back late last night from a fabulous week long vacation with my family near Cancun, Mexico. We stayed at this wonderful place where we had the whole resort to ourselves. It was a very unique place. They had tons and tons of things to do, from a zip line to mini golf, to an underground waterslide, to a pool, to ping pong. The kids loved it and so did the adults. The food was great and the service fantastic. I highly recommend it for a family reunion.

We also left the resort several times to venture out to the beaches for swimming, snorkeling and parasaling. (unfortunately I could not participate in the parasailing.)

But the best part was simply being with my family for the whole week. It was fun to catch up with my siblings who live far away. We were sad not to have Carol and her family with us.

Being that we were in the middle of the jungle, we saw lots of "natural" animal life. Like the tiny boa snake that decided to stretch out in Jean's cottage one night, lots of giant spiders, bats, and other jungle specimen. IT's a good thing that I wasn't the one who found that snake.

And I even found out that one of my siblings also voted for the "other" candidate. It was nice not to be the only dissenter in the family. :)