Friday, December 28, 2012

Things I've learned from Murder, She Wrote (Seasons 5 to 12)

Well, I've finished all twelve seasons of Murder, She Wrote.  I'm a little sad that it's over. 
 
Dear Netflix, do you think you could get Matlock?  Thanks. 

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  1. Good TV doesn't have to be gory.  Or use horrible language for that matter.
  2. Jessica Fletcher has GREAT taste in bathrobes.
  3. Not something I learnt, but I do have a question:  Who takes care of her bird while she's away from Cabot Cove?
  4. Jessica and Frank were childless, but her nephew Grady came to live with them when his parents passed away.  That's why they're so close.
  5. "Some unpleasant threats were made."  "Redundant.  All threats are unpleasant."  "Point taken."
  6. I wonder, there is a character named Harcourt Fenton.  Coincidence?
  7. I'm kind of disappointed...but Angela Lansbury used cue cards.  How do I know this?  Season 8 Episode 13:  Incident in Lot #7 around the 41:53 mark...you can see the cue card guy on the left side of the screen.  So sad.
  8. This isn't really Murder, She Wrote related...but Annika was watching Mr. Popper's Penguins on Netflix the other day, when we are introduced to Mrs. Van Gundy.  I was sitting in the other room, when Annika screamed out "Mom, come quick!  That lady looks like the lady you watch on TV!"
  9. Did you know that they did a Christmas episode?  Nobody died in it, it was just attempted murder!
  10. Jessica's middle name is Beatrice.
  11. Jessica wrote a children's book.  They adapted it into a puppet show.
I was slightly disappointed in the series finale.  It was just like any other episode.  There was no closure.  It wasn't even set in Cabot Cove.  I would have liked to have seen all of my favourite characters all meeting up one last time for a reunion of sorts. 

It was nice to relive my younger years and watch an old friend again.  Now I'm on the search for the next TV series to strike my fancy.

Monday, December 24, 2012

A Crafty Christmas ~ The Final Presents

There's nothing like cutting it close for finishing up Christmas presents.  We've had sick kids in the house the past week, so the choice has been between cuddling them and sewing.  Guess what I chose?  Tonight, nobody seemed to be able to settle.  Both of the girls were up at least twice, Tyler was up once, Clark didn't come home at all....tis the season! 

On to pictures!

We are planning on taking our girls to Disneyland the beginning of the year.  They have this thing called the Bibbiti Bobbiti Boutique.  You take your little princess and they can get their hair and nails done.  It's really cute.  For A LOT of money, you can also buy them a princess costume.  Since I didn't really want to spend a lot of money on a dress that they will grow out of, I came up with the idea to sew them princess-like dresses.  I'm not going to tell you what princess they are supposed to be.  See if you can guess. 

Annika's dress:


Abigail's dress:


I also made them TV and juice money.  The idea came from here.  Abigail hates water.  Annika would sit in front of the TV all day if I let her.  So, I made them their own dollars.

Abigail will get daily juice dollars.  I haven't decided yet how many.  I made her five.  I think she'll get at least three.


Annika will have weekly TV dollars.  Each dollar will be worth 30 minutes of TV/computer time.  She will get 10 a week and what she does with them is up to her.

 
I'm so glad to be done.  All I have to do tomorrow is pack the van and we're off to Clark's brother's house for the holidays.  Merry Christmas everybody!
 
 



Sunday, December 23, 2012

What's in a name?

Out of the many reasons that I married Clark, the one that I say is #1 is I went from  a 12 letter last name to a 4 letter one.  If someone with 4 letters in their last name asked you to marry them, you'd probably jump at the chance too!  It's a great last name too.  It's wonderful at Christmastime when it comes to decorating.  Clark rolls his eyes at me though, since he thinks I tend to go overboard.

My friend Alison posted a picture on facebook of her Christmas tree.  I have a little bit of tree skirt envy.


But, I thought if I tried to bring home a skirt like that, Clark and I might need to go for some marriage counseling.  So I decided to go on a little bit of a scavenger hunt around my house to see how much of it has Noel in it.  You can let me know if you think it's too much!


This is the view when you walk up to my house.  Personally, I would like to keep the candles up year round, but Clark thinks it's a little much.  I think it's fitting.

This is what's hanging on my front door.


Then, when you go up the stairs, you've got a couple of things looking at you.  There's this on the wall,


This is on the piano,


And this on the computer desk.


Then, this is on the wall with our family pictures year round.


Once you head to our bathroom, you'll see this hanging on the wall.  This is up during winter.


This one is up during the rest of the year.


And then after you've washed your hands, you'll need to dry them on something.



What do you think?  Overkill?




1 Day of Christmas

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve!  My girls are excited to see their grandparents and go swimming in the hotel pool.  They have faith that Santa will know where to find them.  What more could you ask for when you're young right?

And, this is the reason for our season!

DAY 1:  Born to Die  Sung by Bebo Norman



Saturday, December 22, 2012

2 Days of Christmas

DAY 2:  White Christmas Sung by Bing Crosby

This is another iconic song that I'm sure everybody listens to at least once during the Christmas season.  If you don't, why ever not?

Friday, December 21, 2012

3 Days of Christmas

 
DAY 3: Carol of the Bells performed by Manheim Steamroller
 
 

Thursday, December 20, 2012

4 Days of Christmas

DAY 4:  Snow  Sung by Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and some chick who is not the actress playing Judy.
 
This is the first song that gets played at the beginning of all of the other Christmas songs.  I start listening to Christmas music as soon as the first snowflake falls, so once that happens, this is the song that goes on first.
 
 

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

5 Days of Christmas

DAY 5:  Perhaps Love  Sung by John Denver and Placido Domingo

I'm not sure why this is a Christmas song, but it's on John's Christmas album.  We were actually going to have it sung at our wedding, but didn't for some reason.  Too bad, because it's one of my favourite songs.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

6 Days of Christmas

DAY 6:  True Blue Miracle Sung by the Sesame Street cast
 
Growing up, we had Christmas Eve on Sesame Street  on record (am I dating myself?) and we would listen to it every Christmas season. I still own it actually.... A couple of years ago, I was browsing through the bargain bin at Wal-Mart and stumbled across it in DVD form.  Guess how excited I was?  It's now a favourite with my kids.
 
 

Monday, December 17, 2012

7 Days of Christmas

DAY 7:  Deck the Halls sung by SheDaisy
 
A part of me wishes my sister and I had another sister and we had started a girl group.  I also wanted to be a world famous curler, but that's never going to happen either.
 
 

Sunday, December 16, 2012

8 Days of Christmas

This isn't actually my MOST favourite Michael W. Smith Christmas song, but it's a close second, and for some reason, I can't find my first choice on YouTube anywhere, so you're stuck with this one instead!

This following thought might be rambling, but whenever I hear this song, I think that it is exactly how I felt after giving birth to my children.  You go through all that pain, then a WHOLE LOT OF PAIN, but then they pop out and all is well.  I don't think that the song is from the perspective of Mary, but I think it should be.

DAY 8:  All is Well sung by Michael W. Smith



Saturday, December 15, 2012

9 Days of Christmas

I think everyone has this next song on their list of "must sings" during the holidays.

Day 9:  Mary's Boy Child sung by Boney M

Friday, December 14, 2012

10 Days of Christmas

What's a Christmas list without one of the men from my back-up husband list?  Oh Bing.

DAY 10:  Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth Sung by Bing Crosby and David Bowie



Thursday, December 13, 2012

11 Days of Christmas

We watch a lot of this TV show that the following song is from.  Last year I was rather hormonal, so I blame that for the tears that fell every time I watched the Christmas special.  This year, it isn't so bad.  It just makes me smile.  Hopefully Phineas and Ferb will come out with another great Christmas special to top last years.


DAY 11:  I really don't hate Christmas  sung by Dr. Doofenschmirtz

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

12 Days of Christmas

I can't believe that it's almost Christmas.  I haven't finished my wrapping yet!  Come to think of it, I should probably get on that pretty soon.  Because it's a cherished time of year in my household, I thought I would regale you with my favorite Christmas carols that we have to listen to over...and over...and over....but don't worry.  I'll only make you listen to one a day.

Please note that I don't really have an extreme favourite, so they aren't in any particular order, just the order to which they occurred to me.

DAY 12:  Come and Worship  sung by Bebo Norman

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

My Back-up husband list

 
You know how most women probably have a secret or maybe not so secret list of men that are not their husbands that they have secret or not so secret crushes on.  That list?  Yeah.  Clark is lucky.  2/3 of the men on my list are dead.  Today,  I thought I would show you who was on my list.

1.  BING CROSBY

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Really, why wouldn't you want to be married to someone that could break out into song and serenade you at the drop of the hat?  I know that should have been on my list of prerequisites, but alas, Clark is not so accommodating.

2.  FRED ASTAIRE

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If I can't have someone sing to me, then I wouldn't mind being danced around my kitchen.  Sadly, something else my husband doesn't do with me.  Maybe I should look into ballroom dancing lessons for us.

Finally, the last guy on my list.  This man Clark might have to be a little bit worried about, except for the fact that he's married himself....and he's old enough to be my father.  I guess I'll just stick with the man I married then.

3.  COLM WILKINSON

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My mother and I went and saw Colm in concert yesterday.  The one thing missing was my sister.  She should have been there.  There was even an empty seat next to me.

 
 
Here we are waiting for the concert to start.  It was amazing.  He is funny.  He is talented.  He is personable.  He connected to the audience.  He sang such different genres of music, it was quite interesting.  My two favourite songs of course were probably his most famous ones.  He sang The Music of the Night from The Phantom of the Opera, and just when we were about to despair, he came out for his second encore dressed as Jean Valjean and the crowd went wild and he sang this song:
 
 
He is the reason I fell in love with musical theatre, and listening to him sing Bring Him Home live will probably go on my Top 10 list of best moments of all time.  If you ask my Mom, she'll probably tell you that it's the #6 best moment in her life that has to do with me.  (#1 being the day I was born of course.)
 
Anyway, that's my list.  I don't think Clark has anything to worry about. 
 

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

A crafty Christmas....clothing!

This year I knew for the kids clothing I wanted two things.

1.  I wanted the girls to match the boy.  MATCH, not coordinate.  Yes, there is a difference.
2.  I wanted to make their outfits.

Enter the Internet.  I tip my hat to the crafty ladies out in the world that take the time to make things and then blog about them and share the knowledge with the rest of us.  I didn't have to purchase any of the patterns I used this year.  That's quite nice since we're on a budget. 

When we were in Great Falls in August, I went to Joann's fabrics and found the MOST beautiful blue fabric that had snowflakes on it and knew that it was going to be my kids Christmas outfits.  For the past five years (ever since Annika has been around) she has had at least one red dress and one green dress, so this year I wanted to go outside of the box a little bit. 

I made Annika and Abigail the same dress.  The girls dress tutorial can be found here.



Then I thought to myself, they need something pretty for their hair!



The girls hair flower tutorial can be found here.

Tyler's vest came out SO well, I think I'm most proud of it.



Tyler's vest tutorial can be found here.

Tyler's bowtie tutorial can be found here.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Like my Mom

This is my Mom.  She's going to be mad at me that I posted this picture.  Oh well.

 
Nothing says home more to me than when I cook something and can say that it tastes exactly like how my Mom makes it.  That's saying something, because she's a really good cook.  She might beg to differ, but I know better.
 
I have mastered my Mom's spaghetti sauce and summa borscht.  Tonight, I tackled my Mom's Swedish Beef Stew.  I've only made this recipe once before, and Clark looked at it and asked me who in their right mind made stew without potatoes.  It tasted ok, but not exactly like Moms. 
 
Tonight, it turned out!  Clark said that he's now a believer of potatoless stew.  And, I cook like my Mom!
 
 
 

Monday, November 12, 2012

A crafty Christmas...and a tutorial of sorts

I've been trying to come up with ways to save money this holiday season while still making sure that my kids have a special time.  One of the things I'm trying to do is make some of their presents. 

When Annika was born, Clark's aunt gave us a kids apron that her granddaughter had grown out of.  It's very cute.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I had one just like it when I was growing up.


I found this tutorial on Pinterest the other day, and thought that it would be a great idea to make the girls Christmas aprons.  Since we only have the one little apron, there is a lot of fighting that goes on any time little helpers are in the kitchen. 
 
Wal-Mart has Christmas potholders and tea towels on sale every year for $0.97 each.  You can't get much cheaper than that!  One tea towel makes two aprons, so you just have to buy two potholders.  I also bought grosgrain ribbon from my local fabric store.  It was $1.00/metre with 50% off.  You could also buy the ribbon by the spool at Wal-Mart.


Step 1:  Cut the tea towel in half.

 
Step 2:  With right sides together, put your potholder in the middle of the tea towel.  I cut the loop thingy off, since I didn't want it to be seen.  Sew the potholder to the tea towel.
 
 

You'll see once you flip the potholder over, the towel has a nice finished edge to the top.  This will help prevent fraying. 

Step 3:  I measured my ribbon and sewed the length of the tea towel on the BACK of the apron.  This is to make sure that the cut edge of the towel is encased in the ribbon and won't fray.
 

You can see here that I sewed all around the ribbon: top, bottom and sides.  I wanted to make sure that nothing would come apart.


 You can tell here that my seams aren't very straight.  No worries, since we're putting ribbon over top of the sewing.

Step 4:  To keep my ribbon from fraying on the back and for the other parts that require ribbon, I used my lighter to melt the ends. 


Step 5:  Pin your ribbon that will be the belt on the top of the apron.  I added 16 inches on either side to make the ties.  Where did I get this measurement you ask?  I measured the apron we already had.  It still fits Annika, so I knew that there would be plenty of room.  Once pinned, I sewed on the top and bottom.


Step 6:  I cut 12 inches of ribbon for the neck ties.  I attached them on both corners just by running my stitches forward and backward several times.


And there you have it, the finished product!  I can't show pictures of a little girl wearing it until after Christmas, but I think it turned out really cute!


 
 

Friday, November 09, 2012

If you haven't skated for 15 years....

...it is NOT like riding a bike.  At least, that is how I felt.  I'm not the most athletically coordinated girl anyway, but I did think that I could just skate onto the ice and pick up where I left off.  I felt I needed one of those push things that Annika got to use.
 
Annika's school went skating on Friday.  She normally doesn't go to school on Fridays, however, the skating is part of the gym curriculum, so she had to be there.  Also, I remember going skating when I was in school and I always enjoyed it, so I knew she would too.  Guess who was a bit of a natural?  Not me.  I hadn't skated in 15 years, and it is NOT like riding a bike.  (I know, I sound like a broken record)
 
 
Isn't she cute?
 
 
After skating with me for a little while, Annika turned to me and said "Mom, could you go sit down and watch me from there so I can skate with my friends?"  I felt the love.  Actually, my feet were KILLING me, so I was more than happy to let her go by herself.  She came up to me after a while and would skate with the push thing then push it away and skate by herself for a little bit before falling on her butt.  I love how adventurous she got. 



And, at the end of the day, she might not have wanted to skate with me, but when she fell on her head, I was the first person she wanted, which secretly made my day. I'm sorry she got hurt, but it's still nice to be needed!

Thursday, November 08, 2012

No, I'm not pregnant

Just in case you were wondering after you see what I am about to post.  Clark was working late one night, so I decided to make breakfast for supper.  I made scrambled eggs with ham, cheese, and corn.  It was SO yummy.  A little odd maybe, but yummy just the same!
 

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

She's a collector

Annika loves to collect things. 



She has a rock collection...but she isn't picky about the kinds of rocks, any will do.  Quantity over quality is her motto. 

We went to see the doctor last week and Annika started a new collection.  Pamphlets.  If you have any questions, call us and ask to speak to Annika.  Chances are, she has information.


I was picking up clothes off the floor the other day when I came across this sock.


It had this sock inside it....

 
and this sock inside it.....

 
Guess where this sock was found?  Yep, inside the sock.....


and inside the very last sock....a broken lasagna noodle. 



Why does she collect these things?  No one knows, not even her.