facebook statuses

Seems like a silly post but one of the things I love about blogging is having a record of things I will have for my kids one day to look back on. Recently I was thinking about how sometimes I post things on my facebook status that I should be blogging about. Facebook statuses will disappear but hopefully my blogs won't especially since I'm going to be making them into books for the kids. (You can do that on www.blurb.com, in case you wanted to know.)

So below are some of my recent facebook status posts that I want to add to my bank of memories here on our blog.

July 27 - I shouldn't have commented on Charlotte's slow teething process. The doctor said she has 6 teeth coming in at the same time. Four of them are her 1 yr molars. :(

July 26 - is it sad that I'm starting to ask my 4 year old fashion advice? Which shoe looks better...this one or this one?

It gets really difficult when she says "I like the one on the left." because she's really excited that she knows her right and left now. But the problem is she knows HER right and left, she can't turn it around. So I usually just know that she means her left when she says "I like the one on the left." :)

July 20 - bike ride tonight on the rail trail would have been great until I wrecked in the tunnel because there were NO LIGHTS!

July 19 - I just heard Andy singing a song to the girls to the tune of Gloria Estefan's "Rhythm is Gonna Get You". He, he, he!

July 13 - I used to think I was special because Charlotte says "momma" all the time. Not special anymore after noticing she calls Andy "momma", too.

July 12 - Stacey Niessner has been working in the garden for two straight hours. I feel like I have bugs crawling all over me.

July 7 - Yes, I set up the yogurts and drinks in my fridge like I'm on MTV Cribs. It makes me happy.

July 6 - Stacey Niessner was so glad to get home early enough last night to do laundry and unpack suitcases! I rested peacefully knowing it was all finished. I know, I'm such a dweeb.

July 2 - Charlotte stepped on a bee last night and he gladly gave her her first bee sting. ouch! it was such a sad little cry.

June 29 - I have to say that many days I have to just trust that God knows what he's doing and be satisfied.

June 23 - Charlotte gets two teeth every five months. Seriously, 2 at 5 months, 2 at 10 months and now she's getting her next 2 at 15 months. This could be a long process.

That's as far back as I'm going. I always love doing random lists. So I guess this is mine today.

Ice Cream in a Bag

One of the things that I like to do every summer at my summer job is to make ice cream in a bag. It usually turns out, but for some reason this year it was really good. Not Dairy Creme Corner good, but good all the same. Anyway, we decided to make it with the girls. Here are some pictures from the event.

Drea with her strawberry ice cream


Charlotte with chocolate

I made vanilla and Stacey made strawberry, too. We all shared each favor and had a lot of fun making the ice cream here is the recipe to try it on your own. The key is ice and salt, make sure you use enough. You need:

1 gallon ziploc bag

1 quart ziploc bag

4 cups of ice

1/4 cup of salt

1 cup of whole milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 tablespoons of sugar

Procedure:

1. Pour the milk, vanilla extract, and sugar into the small ziploc bag. Squeeze as much air out as possible and seal the bag carefully.

2. Place the small ziploc bag down into the large bag. Cover with the ice and salt. Seal the large bag tightly.

3. Shake, toss, and flip the ice cream machine for 5- 10 minutes. Don't open the large bag to check ice cream because it may not seal properly afterwards. Don't worry if the bag leaks, it will.

4. Take small bag out of larger bag and enjoy!

**To make chocolate or strawberry omit the vanilla and DECREASE the sugar to 1 Tbsp. Add strawberry or chocolate syrup.

Jared's Wedding

My cousin Jared recently got married in NJ and we went up for the ceremony. It was a beautiful outside wedding and reception. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing and spending time with family that we have not seen in sometime. Here are a few pics from the event. For you facebook people sorry you may have already seen these, for you others, enjoy!

The bride and groom

My girls

Drea and Charlotte must of walked though this 1,000 times

Drea played in this fountain more then she walked through the vines

Charlotte hitting the bottle

Drea flashing gang signs......4 yrs old, homey!

Drea hanging with Aunt Karen

This is a cute video of the girls dancing, sort of

These last two pictures were after the wedding at my Moms house, Drea loved the big sprinkler, however, she like the mist, but didn't want to get hit with the water. I don't blame her either.

More summer fun

These pictures below are from a day when I took the girls to the park at a local school. I thought these were cute.

The girls fighting over the bottle of sunscreen.

Drea trying to put sunscreen on Charlotte.

Charlotte running away from Drea.

Here they finally sat down to both share the sunscreen. By the way, I know sunscreen is expensive and I don't usually let them play in it but we were having a no worries kind of day.

And now a smile from Charlotte.

On this day we went to Hovatter's Zoo with Aunt Jody and Barrett.
The kids really enjoyed it. They liked playing on the playground outside of the zoo. This always makes me wonder why we take them to do fun things sometimes when they would be happy just playing on the playground. Memories, I guess. Really Drea will remember it and remind us about the things she saw often.

Drea standing with the Capybara. Have you ever seen one of these in person? It really looks like a giant rat or hamster. It's crazy!

Charlotte liked the ducks.

This is wear we lost control. Jody and I couldn't get Drea and Barrett away from feeding the monkeys.

The prairie dogs were being shy and wouldn't come out but this cute little guy gave us a couple minutes of his time...by looking at us. :)

Seven/Seven

Drea turned 4 1/2 on Wednesday. I told her that she was 4 1/2 and she was completely thrilled! She said she couldn't wait to go to school and tell her new friend Merin (sp?). Then she asked if she was going to be five tomorrow. I went on to explain that four and a half means she's half way to five. All that means to her is she's half way to Christmas.

The next day when we were on our way to daycare she asked me if she was still four and a half because she still wanted to tell her friend.

Wednesday was also Kareen and Ben's 3rd anniversary! Congratulations Kareen and Ben - I'm sure they have been three wonderful years. Although I'm sure now that law school and grad school are complete the next three will be even better. Congratulations on buying your first home together, too. We love you guys!

*Will post some current summer pictures soon.

The difference between men and women

There are always fun debates about the differences between men and women. I have a new topic in this category: The differences between working with men or working with women.

At my old job, there were 130-some employees, probably only 10 of which were men. Well, ok...maybe only 10 when I first started...when I left they were probably up past the 20s. So I mainly worked around a bunch of women. Now at my new job, I work with 30-some men and only about 3 women. Wow, what a difference! Not necessarily bad either way, but I now notice the things I like about each.

Good things about working with women:

1. They care about what I'm wearing.
2. They care about what jewerly I'm wearing.
3. Not only do they care about these things but they get excited about them and want to know if it's new or where it is from and what brand it is.
4. You celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, babies, and anything and everything you can find to throw to throw a party and give presents.
5. Along the same lines, we were always eating. Whether it was for one of the above events or just because we wanted to have a luncheon and eat ALL DAY.
6. They say "God bless you" when you sneeze.

Differences about working with men:

1. They don't care what fashionable, trendy, iconic item I have on. One guy in my office said to me the other day, "That is big necklace you are wearing." I wanted to say, "What? You mean you don't know what kind of jewelry this is? It's Viva Beads, goof ball! And if you were any of the girls I used to work with you would know that Tabetha gave it to me last christmas for our secret santa gift exchange. And they would remember that everytime they saw me wearing it." He didn't even notice that I had matching earrings in. :)
2. I can win them over with food. I baked brownies at the end of my first week and wrote a note beside them that said "Help yourself to a brownie. Thanks for making my first week at CSC so great." I was the hit of the office. They talked about it all day. And I got bonus points for the beautiful handwritten note that I put on some lovely paper.
3. No celebrating here. I'm pretty sure I'll never partake in an office luncheon. This may help me continue to eat healthy although there are some pretty awesome wives who bake goodies and send them in with their husbands.
4. They tell it like it is. If you are not doing your job right or if you are doing a great job, they will let you know. I love that! It is so much easier if someone just lets you know they aren't happy with your performance. I know, people always say that everyone says that, but no one really wants to know they aren't doing a good job. I do. I promise. I want a chance to correct and make up for what I'm doing wrong. I can't get that chance if I don't know I'm not doing a good job.
5. Some of them, and I do mean "some" not "all", are know-it-all, hotheads who really enjoy sounding like pompous jerks. :)
6. No gossiping. Men don't really gossip, they just work. Again, some do, but not the majority.
7. And a restroom all to yourself. There's rarely ever anyone in the restroom at the same time as me. It feels like my own suite with six stalls and 4 sinks - I could take a nap in there and no one would bother me. (I know, too much information.)

Have you ever noticed major differences about working with either? Share with a comment on our blog. (I'm sure Andy will have some good ones to share since he works with a majority female populous.)