Riley's Weekend Life

Saturday Morning! Oh boy! What can I possibly get into today?!

Since I'm already dressed, I might as well try on Daddy's pants too!

Time to take care of my Bitty Baby! I love my Bitty.

I have so many jobs to do at my house! Time to feed the puppy!

Sometimes I get a little cranky when I get tired after such a busy morning.

It's been a VERY full day today, and I'm ready for my bath! I love to blow kisses at my Mommy when I'm in the tub!

See all my cool bath toys?

My baby took a bath with me tonight, she needs some love.

Time to really wash up! Let's make sure those feet are clean! SHOOOO-WEEEE-as I like to say!

After my bath, Mommy lets me play in her cabinets for a little while until it is time for bed.

Saturday was so much fun at home with Mommy and Daddy! I'm ready for Sunday! Time for church!!

Church was great today, and I had a lot of fun eating my raisins and singing. I'm super excited now, because Aunt Paige and Mommy are going to take me to play at the park! I love to swing!

Swinging is a lot of fun, but I really like to go down the big girl slides! Here's a picture of me with Aunt Paige, making funny faces!

Mommy said I could go down a big girl slide all by myself! I was SO excited!

I decided to go back to the twirly slides though, they are REALLY fun.

I want to try a new swing!

I could do this for hours, really.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

What's more fun than being in a swing? Being in a swing with my MOMMY!!!


Swinging might be my favorite, but I still have a few more slides to test out!

All this playing wears me out! Mommy decided to take me to go see the duckies!

I like being a big girl and walking down the sidewalk all by myself.

Mommy let me sit up on the railing so that I could get a good look at the duckies in the water!

I love watching the duckies swim, but glad my Mommy is holding on tight!

Aunt Paige wanted to see the duckies too, so Mommy let her come over and hold on to me for a while.

The wind was blowing, and I like to feel my pigtails wave back and forth!

Aunt Paige showed me how to throw some small sticks into the water to watch them splash! It was lots of fun, but we had to stop because I tried throwing one that was a little too big.
Park time is fun, but I'm glad to be back home so I can catch up on my T.V. shows! What's with all these grown-ups swinging me around upside down anyway? They are so silly, they make me laugh a lot. I even decided to let my Uncle J hold me for a little while, which never happens. I'm usually way to busy to give him any love! Mommy, are you still taking pictures? Allow me to pose for you.
Phew! What a busy weekend for me! Night night!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday, created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog and see what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.


This week, I did not ask Jason on the way home from my parents house if we could stop at Kroger for some cookies that I decided that I was craving. Especially since we had Fenway with us in the car. As we pulled into the parking lot, I did not remember that Fenway fit into my fabulous new bag that I posted about here. So I did not that I just had to try this out again and go inside Kroger with my hubby and Fenway. My puppy is a non-shedding dog, so there is definitely no harm right?! I did not look like a shoplifter the entire time we were in Kroger for trying to keep my sweet puppy's face out of sight from any store clerk, just in case there was a problem. I mean, who wouldn't mind a puppy in a grocery store?

We went to the self-checkout, and I certainly still did not still look like a thief while talking to my purse saying things like "Stay down in there!" "Just a few more minutes sweetie." "You can't be showing yourself in here!" Nope! Not me! (Note: No one ever said a word to us about our adorable Furbaby hiding in my bag.)




On Saturday morning, Jason headed off to his Saturday morning job that he loves. I normally spend Saturday mornings cleaning house while he is away and so I can contribute to the workload on the weekends, since he is great enough to keep that Saturday job. However, on this Saturday morning, I did not lay around until 10:30 with the pure joy of taking up the whole bed for once. Of course I wouldn't take a lazy Saturday morning while my hubby worked!

Once I finally rolled out of bed, I did not go straight to the shower, turn on the water, and head to the linen closet to get a towel. I did not turn around to see a HUGE centipede hanging out on my closet door! I am a grown woman, and not terrified of bugs. I did not call my husband after a frantic Raid search.  We were out. I did not ask him to please come home for just a minute to dispose of this multi-legged creature that was too close to my shower door for me to enter. The shower water was not running the entire time. That would be very wasteful of me! Jason definitely did not tell me that WD-40 would work just like Raid and to just try that. I did not take his word for it and spray a massive amount of WD-40 on this bug. Um, thanks for the try honey, but maybe you misunderstood me.  I want this bug dead, not slippery.  WD-40 does NOT (a for real NOT this time) kill bugs.  I did not call my sister immediately after, in hopes that her home a block and a half away had Raid! *Side note: I do not take shoes to kill bugs. That would require me to get entirely too close to these awful things.*

My sister was sadly not at home, but suggested to suck it up with the vacuum hose. I did not plug in the vacuum, attempt to suck up that evil bug. I decided that the vacuum hose also put me way too close to that sucker, and gave that up. Shower was not still running. My sister tells me to get a broom. I put the phone down. I do not scream bloody murder when the broom sent the centipede flying off the door and began to crawl towards me! Whack! Whack! After three tries, that evil centipede is finally dead. I picked up the phone again and my sister was certainly not laughing at me and telling me that her husband could hear me scream with the phone on my counter, and him standing 4 feet away from her. I definitely did not then cover that monster bug with a towel and leave it there until Jason came home to pick it up and flush him. Sigh. What a dramatic morning.

Everything Pumpkin!

I'm just so proud of myself today!  Jason and I went to Kroger for our bi-monthly grocery shop after church today, and I saw some HUGE pumpkins that I decided that I just had to get today.  I've been CRAVING some pumpkin seeds!  

Today, I decided not to do anything fancy with them.  Just remove them from the "gunk" of the pumpkin, wash off, dry off, and butter (I use spray butter so they don't get soggy-the butter is just to make your seasoning of choice stick)! I cover the pan with foil, spray the foil with butter, salt the foil (so that you won't have to worry about flipping as much.  Spread a thin layer of pumpkin seeds on the foil, and butter and salt again!

You can use lots of different seasonings for your seeds: cinnamon, garlic salt, table salt, etc.  The possibilities are really endless!  Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, just until crunchy.  YUM!! My favorite part of the pumpkin!

After starting to mess with my favorite fall snack, I saw this huge, empty pumpkin that would surely rot as a Jack-O-Lantern weeks before Halloween.  I couldn't imagine putting it to waste.  So I decided to try my hands at making pumpkin pie!!  

Cut up your pumpkin into semi-small pieces and throw them into a deep pot of water and salt (1/2 tsp of salt for every cup of water-we used a bit less just in case that made it too salty).
Once the water is boiling, cover and allow your pumpkin to boil for about 25-30 minutes.  Drain.  Once it is cool to the touch, the skin will peel off very easily.  I made the attempt with a fork and butter knife, and the pieces fell apart effortlessly.  Put the now peeled pumpkin into a mixing bowl, or back into your pot.  Mash with a potato masher.  Once mashed, you are ready for the EASY part!

You will need:

2 cups of your newly mashed pumpkin

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ginger

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1 2/3 cup evaporated milk

Beat your 2 eggs with a whisk until well blended.  Add in other ingredients one by one.  I started with the pumpkin, then the sugar, then the spices, and finished off with the evaporated milk.  Whisk away until well blended!  Pour into your pie crust (we used a pre-made Pillsbury crust) and get ready to bake!  Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then lower your heat to 350 degrees, and continue baking for about 45 more minutes.  Let cool, and serve with Cool Whip on top!

This recipe stated that it called for 1 pie.  Since we had SO much pumpkin, we doubled it.  Doubling this recipe made 3 pies for us.  

I'm not kidding when I say we had a LOT of pumpkin.  After our first batch, and seeing how much we had left, we made 3 more.  Half of our enormous pumpkin made 6 pies for our neighbors and family!  The other half is already mashed, ready to be frozen for more pies at Thanksgiving!  I only ended up with a picture of 3 of our pies since we cut into the first one (to make sure we weren't going to poison everyone) and then started deliveries before I thought about photographing the finished product! Enjoy!

Happy Fall everyone!

One Letter At a Time Fun!

I stole this from Heather over at Live. Love. Laugh. I thought it looked like something fun to do for Little Friday!! :)

One Letter at a Time...

A - Age: I'll be 23 next Friday!

B - Bed Size: Queen. I can't wait to get a King bed one of these days. I may be tiny, but I take up a WHOLE lotta room! :)

C - Chore you hate: Folding laundry

D - Dog's Name: Fenway

E - Essential start your day item: Sweet Tea

F - Favorite Color: I love all kinds of bright colors-but I guess I'll go with pink as my favorite

G - Gold or Silver or Platinum: White gold
H - Height: 5'7"

I - Instruments you play: Does the recorder in elementary school count? No? Well, then none.

J - Job Title: Property and Casualty Representative

K - Kid(s): Someday-maybe when my niece starts kindergarten

L - Living Arrangements: Jason and I own our 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home and LOVE it

M - Mom's Name: Lisa

N - Nickname(s): Paigey Poo (that's from my Mom and her seester)

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: None

P - Pet Peeve: People that don't try to figure things out for themselves before asking a stupid quetion, people who always take and never give

Q - Quote from a movie: "Why you gots ta be wastin' my flava?!"-Can't Hardly Wait

R - Right or Left Handed: Right

S - Siblings: My beautiful seester!

T - Time you wake up: 7:30-or later if I think I can get away with it.

U - Underwear: Victoria Secret Pink

V - Vegetable you dislike: I LOVE vegetables, so I think the only one I dislike is zucchini

W - Ways you run late: Traffic, Fenway hiding under the bed because he doesn't want to go to his bed (he can't be trusted to run free around the house yet)

X - X-rays you've had: I think it was my left arm in the 8th grade-nothing was broken

Y - Yummy food you make: Mini Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

Z - Zoo Favorite: Elephants and Penguins!

Sadness

Please keep this family in your prayers tonight. I came across this blog through another blog friend of mine, and was very sad to read the story of Sara and her husband. She has been battling breast cancer while pregnant with their first child, a girl named Chloe.

Chloe was born a few weeks ago, but Sara began to have massive headaches that led to seizures. After a few days in the hospital, Sara passed away today.

If you have the time, take a minute to read their precious story and say a prayer for them. My heart is so sad for this family, especially a sweet little baby that will never know her mother.

I hope everyone had a beautiful fall day today, rain or shine. Remember to keep your chin up, and that if "faith doesn't move the mountain, it will give you strength to endure tomorrow. If it is not gone by tomorrow, still believe that God is able, and trust in him until he acts." Rereading that last sentence, I'm not sure if I wrote that to remind you all, or to remind myself. Either way, love to you all.

September 22

Happy September 22 Everyone! :)

Rolled out of bed, put on some clothes

Brushed my teeth and hit the road, on the coaster again

Another day has just begun

And she’s already beating like a drum

It’s crazy again

But I cannot escape the pounding in my chest

It tells me there’s something that I must address

If blood’s flowing through my veins

And there’s air to breath, life to live

Then I’ve got a song to sing

On this normal day, September 22nd

I see the writing on the wall

And realize that after all life’s not so bad

I walk around, start to smile

Watch the joy go dancing down the aisle

It travels like a fad

Cause you cannot escape the pounding in your chest

It’ll tell you there’s something that you must confess

If blood’s flowing through my veins

And there’s air to breath, life to live

Then I’ve got a song to sing

On this normal day, September 22nd

September 22nd

Just a normal day but I’ve got air to breath

I’ve got blood flowing through my veins, life to live yeah

Cause I cannot escape the pounding in my chest

It tells me there’s something that I must confess

If blood’s flowing through my veins

And there’s air to breath, life to live

Then I’ve got a song to sing

On this normal day, September 22nd

If blood’s flowing through my veins

And there’s air to breath, air to breath, life to live

Then I’ve got a song to sing

On this normal day, September 22nd

I’ve got air to breath, life to live

~Lyrics by Nathan Angelo

A Whole Lot of Thank Yous

Lyryn and Angie:

Thanks to Lyryn's kind heart, I was blessed to participate in a fundraiser/giveaway for a bloggy friend of hers, Angie. Angie and her husband are on a mission to adopt a precious little girl from China and need some bloggy love/help with their financial endeavors on this journey.  I participated in this giveaway, and won a beautiful hobo bag from Angie's Etsy shop, FosterKade!  Check it out:

It's HUGE, and I love it! We decided to stick Fenway in it, just to see.  He fit with plenty of room, but he didn't like the idea of being a purse dog.  I guess I'll just have to sport my really awesome bag without my fur baby.  

Thank you so much Angie for this beautiful bag, and thank you Lyryn for giving me the blessing to give to this great family! 

Tatiana:

Tatiana gave me this really sweet Kreativ Blogger award tonight! Tatiana has been such a sweetheart to me ever since she found my blog a few weeks ago, and has always left me such encouraging comments when I made a less than positive post.  I recommend you check out her blog! She always posts beautiful Bible verses, and such great fashion taste! She has quite a bit of everything on her blog, it is such a great read! Thank you!!

So the rules for this award are:

1-Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2-Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3-Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4-Name 7 things about yourself that people may not know.
5-Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
6-Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7-Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they've been nominated.

Seven Things You May Not Know About Me:

1. I wish every day to be back in Mexico, on my honeymoon with my husband.  But I DO NOT wish to relive wedding planning.

2.  I used to be an incredibly confrontational individual and am now the complete opposite if it can possibly be helped. (See Number 3) 

3. I am extremely protective of my friends and family.  Confrontations cannot be helped if those individuals are involved.

4.  I am seriously, 100%, petrified of the dark.  I cannot go into a dark room without first turning on the lights.

5. I have no idea what my natural hair color is anymore.

6.  Although I know my husband loves me dearly, nothing in the world makes me feel more loved than the surprised gasp and smile Riley gives me when I come visit her.  Her hugs and kisses are a close second place.

7. I find that the Quote of the Day on my iPod is 99% accurate with what is going on in my life at that moment.

The seven blogs I am giving this award to are: Christine, Shannon, Amy, Angie, Emily, Katie, and Katie! (Yes, I know there are two Katies, and yes, they are two different bloggy friends of mine!)

To all of my bloggy readers:

All of you have left such encouraging words in my comments over the past few days, and I appreciate them all so much.  I apologize to you all for having such a negative attitude lately, but you all have been so sweet to me! Thank you for being so sweet and understanding! I love you all!

Have a beautiful night, everyone! I promise to resume with much happier posts now! :)

Negative Nancies

Dear Negative Nancies of the world (I think we will call you N.Ns for short):

What is your purpose of never having anything nice to say? Do you get pure joy out of making others miserable with your rude and hateful remarks? Do you find them funny? Well N.Ns, in case you haven't noticed, only you find yourself funny. No one is laughing. Everyone is rolling their eyes. I'm not quite sure at what pleasure you would get out of making everyone around you miserable, but that is what you do. Do you simply have such a cold heart that you have zero consideration for anyone else's thoughts or feelings? I guess not. I pity your soul.

What do you accomplish by your bullying attitude? You certainly don't gain my respect. Do you value those that respect you? If you do, I'd advise you to change your ways, because you certainly aren't gaining it. Maybe it just makes you feel better about yourself to make others feel as low as you do. I pity you for feeling so bad about your life that you must attempt to make others feel bad about theirs.

Must everything always be your way in every aspect of your world? Have you ever considered that there is more than one intelligent human being in the world? Sometimes, people just might have better views, better ideas, and maybe even a bit more knowledge than you. Shocker, I know, but it does happen to everyone once in a while.

Please explain to me who or what gave you the fabulous idea that you have a right to be consistently negative. I apologize in advance, N.Ns, but it never will be openly accepted. I am willing to admit a weakness and say that I can be a spiteful individual, so I can't help but hope you get a swift kick in the rear just like the swift kicks you have given others. It's about time some Postitive Patties team up against you Negative Nancies.

Is your life so terrible? I can't imagine a world where the sky is falling before I even open my eyes in the morning. I don't know how I could face the world, but I don't expect to face it in a manner that you do. Your misery may love company, but no one wishes to be your company. I wouldn't dare attempt to put that burden on another individual. Do you really know God, or do you just claim to? I can't imagine you having zero ability to find one blessing in your life if you truly know him. I will pray that you find him soon so that maybe you can find some peace. Maybe then you will allow others to have some peace.

N.Ns, I apologize for speaking so bluntly and rudely. In fact, I'm ashamed that I've had to stoop to your levels in order to release my frustrations. It is difficult to live in a world of N.Ns. I would think that it would be difficult to live in this world AS a N.N. It can't be an easy job.

Make your life easier, and the lives of those that surround you by trying to become more of a Positive Patty. I can assure you that you will sleep better at night, and that Grinch heart of yours might even grow a few sizes. What a blessed world we Positive Patties live in, come join us!

Sincerely,
All the Positive Patties of the World

The Law of the Garbage Truck

Allow me to apologize it advance. This post just might make your retinas bleed. I am forgoing my Thankful Thursdays post, simply because there is much else on my mind that I just HAVE to get out somewhere. I'm struggling. If you make it through this entire post, you have extreme patience and are a TRUE bloggy reader. I love you all.

I am copying and pasting something that might benefit you all to get through those tough days, as well as reminding myself on how I SHOULD be. I have taken out some small pieces of this article, simply for length purposes. If you want the entire article, go here.

The Law of the Garbage Truck™Copyright 2004 - 2009 David J. Pollay
How often do you let other people’s nonsense change your mood? Do you let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss, or an insensitive employee ruin your day?

I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, the car skidded, the tires squealed, and at the very last moment our car stopped just one inch from the other car’s back-end. I couldn’t believe it. But then I couldn’t believe what happened next. The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. How do I know? Ask any New Yorker, some words in New York come with a special face. And he even threw in a one finger salute! I couldn’t believe it! But then here’s what really blew me away. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was friendly. So, I said, “Why did you just do that!? This guy could have killed us!” And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, “The Law of the Garbage Truck™.” He said:

"Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they look for a place to dump it. And if you let them, they’ll dump it on you.

So when someone wants to dump on you, don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Believe me. You’ll be happier."

So I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the street? It was then that I said, “I don’t want their garbage and I’m not going to spread it anymore.”

You store the bad memories more easily, and you recall them more frequently. So the odds are against you when a Garbage Truck comes your way. But when you follow The Law of the Garbage Truck™, you take back control of your life. You make room for the good by letting go of the bad. The best leaders know that they have to be ready for their next meeting. The best sales people know that they have to be ready for their next client. And the best parents know that they have to be ready to greet their children with hugs and kisses, no matter how many garbage trucks they might have faced that day. All of us know that we have to be fully present, and at our best for the people we care about. The bottom line is that successful people do not let Garbage Trucks take over their lives. What about you? What would happen in your life, starting today, if you let more garbage trucks pass you by? Here’s my bet: You’ll be happier.You have a choice. Make it today. Have a Garbage Free Day!™

I have a huge Garbage Truck dumping on me lately, and it is increasingly consistent. Why is it so hard for me to not allow this to happen? It's crazy, some days I feel like NOTHING can stand in my way, and that awful garbage truck isn't going to get to me. It seems like on those specific days, my garbage truck dumps on me and bothers me the most. I feel like I'm having a very negative attitude right now, and my frustrations are piling on top of me. Why do I let myself get so overwhelmed and angry? I wish I could distance myself from it. I wish I could push it aside, throw out a few hateful comments and wash my hands with it. I wish it were that easy.

One of my favorite bloggy friends, Brit, posted this quote on her blog quite a while ago. Thank goodness she did, because sometimes it is the only thing that keeps me from letting those garbage trucks get to me.

"Here's how I see it. It took all I've been through to make me who I am today and to teach me what I know. I choose to be better, not bitter. I trust the faithfulness of God more than ever. If faith doesn't move the mountain, it will give me the strength to endure tomorrow. And if it's not gone by tomorrow, I'll still believe that God is able, and trust him until he acts."

Stupid garbage days.

Wordless Wednesday

My boys...

Recipes!

All right, my faithful followers! I have a task for you!

One of my besties is in her first year of law school and experiencing her first year in her very own apartment outside of a dorm! I have begun a recipe book for her so she doesn't have to decide on McDonald's for dinner or starve! :) Let's see those recipes!

Here's the trick. My bestie does NOT like vegetables, and do not take this as an understatement. She loathes them. She will eat potatoes, but that is about as close as you are going to get! So I need some vegetable-free recipes! I have several for her, but veggie free recipes are HARD to find!! If your recipes have veggies in them, make sure they wouldn't be missed if she eliminated them!

Let's see what you chef's have up your sleeves! Thanks you all! You are the greatest!

Angel Baby

Got an angel

She doesn't wear any wings...

She wears a heart that can melt my own

She wears a smile that can make me wanna sing...

She gives me presents

With her presence alone...

She gives me everything I could wish for

She gives me kisses on the lips just for coming home...

But you're so busy changing the world...

Just one smile could change all of mine...

Balloons

On Saturday afternoon, Jason came running out of our office saying he heard a really weird noise outside our house. He went out back and insisted that I come look. This is what we saw:


I had forgotten that it was the weekend for our annual balloon classic, and certainly had no idea that our neighborhood was one of the targets. The balloons play a game (well the people IN the balloons, you get the idea) of landing on specific targets in the area to get points, and somewhere near our neighborhood was one of the targets!

The picture below is directly across the street from our house. They landed in the field just behind that grey house. TOO COOL!!

What a fun surprise for a Saturday afternoon!