Oh no! I was playing around with the layout of my blog and totally lost my pretty pink CraftyLilDevil template! And the awful thing is I had TWO backups of the template! But when I tried to copy and paste into blogger, it says there is an error. Actually here is what the error says: "Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure all XML elements are closed properly. XML error message: Scanner State 24 not Recognized."
CRAP! What the heck does that mean?! I don't have time (or even know how really) to wade through all those lines of code to figure it out and probably wouldn't even know it if I saw it. AARRGGHH!! I am so frustrated! I'll play with it some more until I get it back (hopefully) but for now here's a plain old boring one. :(

Pictures...because I have 3 loads of laundry I do not want to fold. Shame on me! But lucky you...you get even MORE bloggy-goodness from the Crafty house.

Some of our vegetable plants. Sure, they're green and pretty now but check back with me in a month and we'll see if my brown thumb can be turned green.



Sweetie boy enjoying the warm breeze and a shady spot to sit.



Having fun kicking those chubby little feet.



This bird is what started my bird-watching book check-out spree. I haven't had time to look him up in one of the 3 books I got yesterday. I'll probably find he's just some common old everyday bird but I still wanted to find out. I'll let ya know.
I do know that we have some noisy old grackles that like to eat up all my birdseed before the pretty birds get it. I'll have to check out what to do about that. Maybe find some food that grackles don't like but other birds do. Hmmm...birdwatching seems like such a stuffy, little-old-lady hobby. :) Oh well! It's kinda fun.




Look, mama! I really CAN do it by myself! Are you watching?



My sunny, funny boy holding on to his crib for dear life. Sound asleep with a white-knuckle grip on the side of his bed.

Blogging, blogging, blogging when I should be working.

I've been really disappointed in some of my recent library books.
For example:

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey - Yes, I heard all the controversy about how he made a lot of this stuff up but I wanted to read the book and see what all the fuss was about. And I HATED IT! Yuck, yuck, yuck! If he didn't actually go through all that stuff then he has a messed up imagination to come up with all those gory details. GROSS!

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - I thought I would love this book. It sounded so interesting! I did like part one about her travels to Italy. But the language of the book is just so flowery and dramatic that I couldn't make myself read any more.

Two books that I read only partway through and quit. I almost never quit reading a book before I've read it cover to cover but these books, even though they were much-talked-about bestsellers just didn't do it for me. Sorry if you liked them or even loved them. They just weren't my cup of tea.

Here's a list of the books I currently have checked out from the library:
1. Cash : the autobiography / Johnny Cash with Patrick Carr
2. Johnny Cash : the life of an American icon / Stephen Miller
(I kind of got on a JC kick here and am loving reading about him. I can hear his deep, rich voice reading the words to me as I learn more about one of my favorite singers.)
3. Beautiful lies : a novel / Lisa Unger.
4. Sliver of truth : a novel / Lisa Unger.
5. The garden of Ruth / Eva Etzioni-Halevy.
6. The song of Hannah : a novel / Eva Etzioni-Halevy.
7. Attracting birds, butterflies & other winged wonders to your backyard / Kris Wetherbee ; photography, Rick Wetherbee.
8. Baby proof / Emily Giffin.
9. Burpee-- the complete vegetable & herb gardener : a guide to growing your garden organically / by Karan Davis Cutler ; photography by David Cavagnaro.
10. Creative tabletop fountains : 30 projects to renew your spirit / Marthe Le Van.
11. How to grow more vegetables : and fruits, nuts, berries, grains, and other crops than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine / by John Jeavons
12. Kitchen garden planner / written by Darrell Trout.
13. Loving Frank / by Nancy Horan.
14. National Audubon Society North American birdfeeder handbook / by Robert Burton; introduction by Steven W. Kress.
15. Vegetable gardening : from planting to picking : the complete guide to creating a bountiful garden / Jane Courtier and Fern Marshall Bradley.
16. Virginia bird watching : a year-round guide / Bill Thompson III and the staff of Bird watcher's digest.
17. The budget gardener / Maureen Gilmer.

So now you can see what I'm reading about lately. Vegetable gardens, how to attract birds to my backyard and make a tabletop fountain, the Man in Black and a few chick-lit books and mystery/suspense novels thrown in for good measure. Gee, I'm a dork. :)

I tell you what...we work hard on 2-day weekends but we work REALLY HARD on 3-day weekends! Saturday we did our monthly big shop. (Walmart, Costco, Martin's) It makes for a long day. Plus we also went to Lowe's for gardening supplies. We made an 8'x 8' vegetable garden. I probably went way overboard but here's what we got:
4 Better Boy Tomato plants
1 Cherry tomato plant
2 Green bell pepper plants
1 regular jalapeno plant
1 Mammoth jalapeno plant
1 Acorn squash plant
1 Crookneck squash plant
1 Burpless cucumber plant
1 Pickling cucumber plant
2 Zucchini squash plants
1 Patio tomato plant
2 Pumpkin plants
2 Watermelon plants
Flat-leaf Italian parsley, Mint, and Sweet Basil plants for an herb garden on the deck.

So far we've only got the tomatoes, herbs, peppers and 2 kinds of squash planted. We're going to have to make our garden patch a LOT bigger to contain all those vine-y plants like the squash and pumpkins!

I'd still like to find chives, cilantro, oregano, lavender and strawberries. We didn't have too much luck with our tomatoes and jalapenos or herbs last time we tried but I think we planted too late and didn't water enough. Now that I'm home I can water regularly and weed. (I HATE weeding!) Hopefully we will be up to our eyebrows in fresh produce. With the price of things increasing so much it's nice to be able to grow your own. At least I HOPE we can anyway! Wish us luck! Especially with the watermelon which I really, really wanted to try but Jason says will never work and will take over our garden. We'll see about that. To borrow a quote from Jenni "Tell me I can't---I'll show you I CAN!" Love the attitude, Jen!

I just came across a website where you can turn your blog into a book. COOL! I may have to think about doing that. I'd love to collect all my Letters to Easton and turn them into a book just for him. I'd love to make him a photo alphabet book. (Example: A is for apple and take a picture of one of the local apple orchards)You can also make recipe books with pictures. Oooh! That would be FUN! I could take pictures of all my favorite recipes and that would give me an excuse to MAKE all my favorite recipes (cookies included but they'd have to go to work w/Jason and absolutely NOT stay home w/me!). Wow oh wow! I could spend hours and hours making a book. I love doing stuff like that. Just think of the possibilities!

Here's the link:

Blurb

Easton,
Today you are 7 months old. You are really starting to show your personality these days and I love it! You are such a little comedian! You like to scrunch up your nose and make funny faces just because you know we think it's funny. You are now eating some big people food (mashed potatoes, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheerios) and you love it. You took a drink from a sippy cup all by yourself on Memorial Day but you'd much rather mom or dad hold it for you. It's easier that way and much less work.

We've been outside more and more since the weather is warming up and you like it but hate when we put sunscreen on you. I love to see you barefoot in your stroller just kicking your legs for the sheer fun of it. You've become pretty mobile these days. Not crawling yet though but scooting and rolling everywhere. There's no telling what crazy position we'll find you in when we go in to check on you at night. You wake yourself up with red marks on your head because you scoot yourself up against the bars of the crib. I put the bumper pad back on your crib thinking that would help a little but you just stick your head under the bumper pad and scoot up against the bars again. Silly boy! I love when I go in to pick you up from your crib and you smile at me and kick your feet. You kind of do this cute little wiggle that seems to say "Hi, mama! Good morning! I'm so glad to see you!"

I love your open-mouth, sloppy, wet kisses and your happy baby screeches. But hey, can you knock it off with the screaming in the library? And also at the grocery store when I'm deep in thought. If I'm not expecting it, that little shriek can really scare me! You love to hear the sound of your own voice and are always talking or screeching. It's pretty cute most of the time. Except at the library. I don't think the librarians appreciate it like mama does.

Father's Day is coming up and I can't wait to see Daddy's reaction to your gift for him. I love to see you with your Daddy. He is always so gentle and patient with you and I love listening to him as he explains things to you. When Daddy takes you out on the deck I hear him telling you all about airplanes that fly over our houseand pointing out birds and bugs and describing the noises you hear outside. You are my two favorite men and I am so blessed to be a part of this little family. You truly are a miracle and I love you very much, my little monkey!

The Berkeley County Sherrif's Department just left my house. Well, OK not the whole department. Just one officer. And no, this does not have anything to do with my previous post...more on that later.

Last night we must have left our car door unlocked and some creep (or kid out of school looking to get into trouble) decided to help themselves to all my cds in my car. I almost just chalked this one up to "well, that will teach you to leave the car unlocked" but then we noticed there was a checking deposit slip with our bank account number on it. Hopefully the jerk didn't think to take one of those and use the account number to do some shopping online. I can practically hear one of those Citibank commercials now.



Anyway, the officer came and took my statement. He seemed a little put out about having to come here just about some cds. Whatever dude. That's your job. Take my statement, don't give me a hard time about it. And have a nice day.

Sometimes the only CDs I have in my car are kid's music. Wouldn't it be kinda funny if the jerks stole the CD case full of The Wheels on the Bus, Raffi, 5 Little Monkeys and Reggae for Kids cds. That'd serve 'em right! And hopefully it would make them feel real awful to steal kid's music though if they're stealing it might not make them feel bad at all.

Update on the meds situaton: I started taking my meds again 2 nights ago. Poor Jason had to deal w/my crazy mood swings, instant tears about nothing AND my PMS at the same time. The man is a saint. Well, don't tell him I said that. It'll go straight to his head. :)

Never, ever, EVER run out of anti-depressants and try to deal with it until payday. The dumb thing is it's not like we didn't have the money for me to get it refilled but sometimes things are tight at the end of the month and I wish I could just refill my meds right after payday. Also, I relized I was out right at bedtime and forgot to tell J I needed the car the next day. So when I ran out accidentally and also decided to switch pharmacies at the same time...bad scene around the Crafty house. Yes, I know you're not supposed to just quit taking that kind of meds all of a sudden and yes, I promise never, EVER to let it happen again. One seemingly innocent comment from J and our nice evening was ruined. No, I won't go into detail but trust me when I say I will NEVER let that happen again! Didn't know I was on anti-depressants? Yes, yet another lovely pregnancy side effect. Along with monstrously huge strech marks and an extra 10 lbs. I love my little man more than life itself and chances are good that he will NOT be an only child but lordy I am a little nervous about having baby number two some day!

I got over my slacker tendencies and cleaned both bathrooms, did the laundry, changed the sheets on our bed, did the dishes (will the dishes EVER be done at my house? Even for a day?). Now I'm about to finally watch a movie. Becoming Jane from Netflix. I hope it's a good one.

Random stuff. Cause I sure know how to put off doing what I should be doing.

Best snack ever:



Although something tells me it defeats the purpose of buying reduced fat vanilla wafers if you use them to see just how much peanut butter you can fit on one little cookie and still fit it into your mouth. :) Also, I love Nilla wafers so much that when I go to the grocery store and see those new Nilla wafer cakesters they seem to call out to me in the store "Buy me, buy me, buy me!". So far I have managed to avoid them because they look like they'd mean certain death to all my jeans I currently barely fit into. Anyone tried these things? They look delicious! I can't let myself buy them though so someone try one for me and tell me they are disgusting so I can quit ogling them in the store every time I go grocery shopping.

Weirdest milk jug ever:



Ever seen one of these? I got this at Costco and it was awful! The spout (?) is in such a weird place that you end up spilling milk all over the counter (and sometimes all over the floor too) every time you try to pour it. AWFUL! Hopefully this isn't a new trend in milk jugs that every company is switching over to. YUCK!

And proof that parents do silly things to their helpless babies just because they can:



Another one of those "he's gonna hate me for this one later" pictures.

View from my rear-view mirror. What a cutie!



And no, I did not take this while driving down the road. Just FYI.

Easton sitting up in the horse collar

Why is it that some days I get TONS of stuff done and other days I can't get motivated to do ANYTHING?! Here's what I did the past two days:
Monday - In less than two hours, I did the dishes, wiped down the kitchen counters, swept and mopped 3 rooms, cleaned the fish tank, filled the bird feeder, organized the recycling and took it to the recycling center, and cleaned out my car. Then Easton and I rode along with our friend and her mom to a doctor's appointment in Maryland. What a long, busy day!
Tuesday - not much housework other than dishes but I did TWO loads of dishes in the dishwasher and one sink full of hand washing stuff, made homemade BBQ sauce, ribs, chicken, broccoli, mashed potatoes, a loaf of white bread and almost 6 dozen oatmeal rasin cookies. Thankfully the majority of the cookies went w/Jason to work and the rest are hidden away in the cabinet. Hopefully in this case out of sight means out of mind.
Today, I haven't done a thing so far. I should clean the bathrooms and mop the kitchen floor again, I am the world's messiest cook! I should also probably do some laundry but I just can't seem to get motivated. Even after 3 very big cups of coffee. Think I'll throw some laundry in the washer and watch a movie from Netflix. I may or may not get the bathrooms done today. We'll see if I can muster up some drive from somewhere.

We're having a good day here. I started out this morning with a one mile walk while Easton was sleeping. Then when he woke up, we went for a walk in the neighborhood. I'd guess we walked another mile or mile and a half. It was a nice day. A little chilly but Easton was cozy and bundled up w/his favorite warm blankie in his stroller and his OU hat on. Didn't take the camera with me this time but here's a funny one I took the other day on one of our walks. Can't remember if I posted it already or not and I'm too lazy to check. :)



He's laughing at me and I just love this picture. Who knows what crazy thing I was doing to make him laugh...that boy turns me into an idiot on a regular basis because I'll do anything just to hear his sweet little baby laugh.

Gotta go! He's up from his nap and wants a bottle. Boy, he can EAT!

Our party was SO FUN! Best of all, everything was ready on time, looked pretty and tasted good too! We had some people from Jason's work AND 3 couples we know so it was a good mix of people. I made a pitcher of my famous blue margaritas, chicken and toppings for quesadillas, taquitos, homemade salsa, guacamole, pepper jack/ranch dip, margarita fruit salad and chocolate chip cookies. We had a fun night and I was so busy talking to everybody that I didn't think to grab my camera. Luckily my friend took this cute picture of my little sweetie boy dressed to impress. Ole`!


The house is still looking pretty good after the party so I think this is the first time in a long time that we won't have to spend all weekend cleaning house. Nice but what in the world do people do on weekends if they don't clean house? Doesn't everyone spend all weekend cleaning? Somehow I think not. :)

And we have so many leftovers! I surely won't have to cook until at least Monday or so. Well, maybe we won't eat Mexican food for breakfast, but we've got lunch and dinner for the next few days. Anybody want to come help us eat all this food?

We've been busy spring cleaning at our house! It looks beautiful and will be nice and clean for our belated Cinco de Mayo party on Thursday. Guess that would make it an Ocho de Mayo party? :)

Easton had his 6 month check-up yesterday. He weighs 17lbs 15 ounces and is 26 1/2 inches long. The dr said he looks like he's a healthy and happy boy. He got 4 shots yesterday and this was the first time he didn't run a fever after getting shots. Yay!

Gotta get busy testing out a recipe for our party on Thursday. Will probably post Friday and let ya know how it turned out. :)