CONGRATULATIONS! to "Life As I Know It"

Congratulations to Jessica for winning a free painting! She gets to choose from any of these:

In case anyone is wondering what sort of scientific method I used to pick a winner, I just had Allie write all the numbers down and Emmie picked one with her eyes closed. :) The girls were both so sad that they didn't win, but felt better when I told them I could paint something for them anytime. Silly girls!

BLOG CONTEST!

As I mentioned before, in honor of my 100th post I will be holding a contest. The winner will receive an original painting. I saw a fun idea on a blog not too long ago to have a "secrets" contest, so here are the rules:

1) post a secret -- you can leave your name or be anonymous, just remember to leave your name on some comments for a better chance to win

2) no limit to how many secrets you post

3) I will randomly draw a winner in one week, in the evening on Tuesday June 10th!

Have fun!

Digital Scrapbooking Rocks!

I just made my first layout using photoshop 7! This is so much fun. And the best part is, I didn't even make a mess. :)

Animals & Ballet & Costco, Oh My!

Last week we:

* got to play with baby goats at the house of a friend

* visited a dairy

* Ryan had quite the conversation with one of the calves. He got right up into its face and put both hands on its head.

Watched Allie perform in "Peter Pan". She was a lost girl. :) Here she is getting a congratulatory hug from Emmie and Uncle Jared.

I don't have a picture for this, but last time the kids and I went to Costco we snacked on the samples. They had some delicious samples of halibut. Ryan liked it so much he ate the paper cup too! (Wish I had seen it in time to prevent it). :)

Win a Painting!

I have never done a blog contest so I think it's about time. This is my 97th post as a blogger. On my 100th post I will be drawing a name and the winner will receive an original painting. :) So stay tuned . . . .

My Mother's Day

Oh, kids make life worth living. My little darlings made my dinner especially fun tonight. We decided to go to the Mongolian BBQ to celebrate Mother's Day.

First, Allie burned her mouth on the hot noodles. She probably would have been ok any other time, but today she didn't have a nap and I think she was more emotional. She wanted to sit on my lap (which crammed us together in the booth) and cry into my shoulder. Then I tried to feed Ryan some of his meal and he was so eager he bit on the wrong end of the fork -- right into my finger. (He clamps down on his bites too.) While I was cringing from the pain of the bite, I looked over and saw that Emmie had both of her middle fingers stuck up her nose and was trying to catch the attention of another group of diners! Ethan said, "Well, Happy Mother's Day!" and I just about lost it. I could not stop laughing.

I hope you all have memorable Mother's Days too!

Duct (Tape) Tales

Does anyone remember that cartoon called "Duck Tales"? I have the tune stuck in my head right now, Duck Tales, woo - ooh . . . everyday that I've been (something), Duck Tales, woo - ooh.

Ok. I'm stopping.

Anyway, what inspired this title and post -- Allie recently went to the dermatologist to see about having a couple of warts on her fingers removed. We were in there for no more than 15 minutes and it was $108. And that was just for the dr. to prescribe this really expensive medicine to put on. So we went to Costco to pick up the medicine. The dr. said we could ask for 5 packets or something like that and it should do the trick. SO . . . . we asked for three packets to start with and it was going to be almost $90 for those, but then the pharmacist came back and said they actually couldn't split the box up, you had to buy it with TWELVE packets. This cost almost $300. So Ethan and I thought, no thanks. We decided to call the dermatologist back to see what other options there are.

I happened to read an article in a mom magazine the same night that talked about how duct tape removes warts. So I went to Walmart and bought the "pinkest" tape I've ever seen.

Both Allie and Emmie are in love with it now. Of course. They love band-aids, why would this be any different? So I just put them to bed, and Emmie was so excited to get some duct tape too. I let her have a piece. So far I think it's been on her foot, knee, and finger.

I hope this works . . . in the meantime, I'm wondering if the dermatologist will give me a refund?

Oh, here's a quick shot of Emmie's playdoh creation from today.

When she said, "Mommy, I made an elephant!" I just had to get a picture. I really have no idea how it's an elephant, but she says the two little parts sticking out on the sides are the arms. :)