just one word-- ritalin?

so in love with this kid-three year old jonathan (although, he's probably 4 by now!) conducting a beethoven symphony. how awesome is he!?! wish i had just one iota of his energy!!
turn up the sound and go full screen- *enjoy*



grateful:
1. for my sewing machine
2. for my microwave heated rice bag (neck pain anyone?)
3. for blogs that keep me laughing

my pal val is a talented gal

i have been hanging out at "paper and cookies", the awesome blog of val for awhile now. she is a paper crafter, like me. but, unlike me, she makes stuff all the time, every week! check out her blog- her cards and scrapbook layouts are beautiful! i like to click on each of her images and enlarge them to really see  how amazing her work is.

also, unlike me, val has had her work published in popular crafts magazines and is on the design teams of several online sites and blogs. check out her resume here.she is HUGELY talented, because, not only is she a great paper artist, but she is also a wonderful cookie artist! yes, she decorates cookies beautifully too.

i have gotten to know val a bit through her blog, my blog and facebook. she is a fellow "jersey gal" (yes, i'm in tennessee now) and lives not far from where i grew up. she's friendly and funny and a real busy mom of two. go check out her blog and tell her aurorafedora sent ya!!

grateful today for :
1. my new craft room
2. chocolate
3. internet friends

feelin' the LOVE??

so, okay...back in november, after our big thanksgiving dinner, someone mentioned that it would be great to have thanksgiving EVERY month. now, we at the hellhole do like eating so there was agreement all around about what a great idea this was. of course, there was a big holiday meal (or two) in december, but we somehow missed january.

with it being february, valentine's day seemed to be the next logical time to have our monthly "thanksgiving" dinner. but, alas, some family members had to work last weekend, so we had our "valentine'sgiving dinner" last night. usually big meals are served at my mom and dad's house. but we felt these milder holiday meals should take place at the hellhole.

there were eight of us, five jensens and three "adopted" family members.kaye and elle and i decorated the table. i had also made cupcake flag picks for the lemon cupcakes (a family favorite). the menu was ham, pineapple casserole (another family favorite passed down from my grandmother), green beans, and the broccoli casserole and dinner rolls that misty brought.

the three kids running around made for some chaos while i was finishing up the cooking. kaye and misty were working on something on the computer in my new craft room (blog post coming up). bilbo had just purchased a flat- screen tv and was focusing on that while the mayhem reigned. nothing comes between a man and his tv, apparently!! needless to say, i was a tad bit harried!!!

but the food was good, the company was good and eventually, the kids were good! just another wild night at the hellhole.
*********************************************************************************
pineapple casserole recipe:

1/2 c softened margarine or butter
1/2 c sugar
4 eggs
1 lb. 4oz. can crushed pineapple
5 slices bread, cubed
cinnamon
* lightly cream the margarine and the sugar. add the eggs and beat well. pour in the pineapple and it's juice, blend well. fold in the cubed bread.sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. bake at 350 F. in a greased casserole dish until golden. YUM!!
*********************************************************************************
lemon cupcake recipe

take a box of white cake mix. prepare as directed on box. bake as cupcakes- makes 24. let cool completely.
prepare a box of lemon pudding and chill. meanwhile, cut a small indentation (hole) out of each cupcake, reserving all the hole tops. spoon in a small amount of pudding and gently place each top back on, don't press down. dust with powdered sugar and serve to grateful guests.

grateful:
1. for  good food
2. for the full moon on a clear night
3. for family who loves me

the bees knees

i know, i know- i haven't been around here lately. i have been sick with a cold and busy moving and rearranging my life- both in my home and in my head!

rooms are changing their purposes and we have been seriously purging and clearing out a LOT of junk from the hellhole. it's all good!

 

one fun thing we have done this week is to make these paper mache bumblebee valentine boxes. our friend misty and her two children, kaye, t.willie and i worked on these over the weekend. misty's son made his to enter in a class contest and won "most creative". i am very proud since they were my ingenious idea! haha, modest, i know...

grateful today for:
1. misty in our lives
2. the clearing of the junk---WAY overdo
3. the awesomely beautiful sunset this evening

wordless wednesday

i'm a failure!!!

okay, i admit it, i have failed you all! my last post announced a countdown to my blogiversary, then no countdown happened, and now it's THE DAY of my blogiversary and i have NO plan!!! i have been wracking my brain as to what i could offer as a drawing prize but i have come up empty-headed!!! hahaha get it?

anyway, this is to say, i am still working on it. the bleak winter months seem to make me gloomy and addlepated.
please just keep hangin' with me...i'll come up with some great idea, i just KNOW i will!

grateful:
1. for you, you awesome blog readers!
2. for orange circus peanuts that cheer me up
3. for magazines in my mailbox

count down to my blogiversary- 6 days to go!

 i can't believe it! on february 8th, i will have been blogging about the hellhole for one whole year!! who'da thunk i could keep at it that long- not me, that's for sure!! in the beginning, i tried to post EVERY day! silly me. i pooped out after a short while and realized, that is just too often. my life is not that exciting to write about every day!  so i started posting more irregularly, whenever i felt the inspiration hit me. that's what seems to work. like the outback steakhouse slogan- no rules, just right!!
so here it is,a year later and time for a celebration. i have been wanting to do a blogiversary give-away, but i don't know what to give! hmmm, will have to think about it and get back to ya....
stay tuned....joanne

he's such a BOY!

t.willie attended a little friend's 6th birthday party on sunday. the party was at a small community center with a small playground. luckily, the weather was pretty mild because all he wanted to do was play outside.

there were many kids there, of varying ages and sizes. t.w. didn't care much whether anyone paid any attention to him or not. he was content to dig with sticks, pick up handfuls of mulch, stomp in the mud and collect acorns.

he did enjoy the few pieces of playground equipment that were available. and soon, found a little girl about his age to play with. morgan was 4 and much less wild than the older boys who were chasing each other around.

here is the conversation as they were climbing onto a tree stump::

he- can you climb all the way up little girl?
me- t.w., her name is morgan.
she- that's ok, he can call me little girl because i am a little girl actually.

hahaha too funny! i remember when t.w. went through his "actually" phase. every sentence he said was peppered with "actually". apparently, this was where morgan was at, she must have said it ten times!

i was proud to see t.w. playing so well with another kid. he can sometimes be the bully. although, at one point, he was running after morgan with a stick-turned-gun and saying "pow pow pow"! but she was laughing so i guess that's okay!

grateful today :
1. still and again for my massage therapist, jennifer
2. for my hubby-STILL!
3. for the bread i pulled out of the freezer, which came from new jersey this past summer and was delicious with our hot, homemade soup