2 Years, Coming Right Up!

Jack-man is fast approaching two years old.  I honestly don't believe it, but the increasingly frequent temper tantrums are proving me wrong.  Every day I am amazed at the amount of things this kid knows.  It's like he's studying ways to shock us in his sleep.  His use of words and signs gets better everyday and he actually tells us his opinion on things he wants for snack, lunch and drinks.  Potty training is also on the close horizon.  I'm going to try the 3-day potty training method.  It's gotten great reviews and just worked for a friend.  We are in the getting ready period since she recommends starting at 22 months, which is just a few short weeks away...

And now that Jack's birthday is only about 3 months away, I need to get started on thinking about his birthday party!  I love to plan a good party and my only little boys 2nd birthday has got to be great!  I had so much fun planning for his 1st birthday, I can't wait to pick a theme for number 2!  But I can't decide what to do.  Jack has a lot of favs.  Thomas, trucks, cars, dinosaurs, Elmo (and the rest of Sesame Street), so I'm not sure which way to go.  I've been browsing one of my favorite party sites, Kara's Party Ideas, to find the one.  I love all the ideas, I just need to go with one!

Jack will probably also have more than one party.  Lucky kid huh?  Since we don't live near any family, we will probably have one when we go home for Christmas.  So maybe, two parties, two themes?  We will see.  I still have a little time...

Fall is in the Air

Well at least the smell of my Cider Webs Yankee Candle burning.  Considering it's still around 95 degrees here, didn't we leave Savannah?, I had to make believe.  But soon enough, that crisp cool air will be upon us.  Bobby and I cannot wait! 

This weekend we are celebrating our new found falldom with a trip to the County Line Orchard.  We will be picking these...

Well, the Macs won't really be ready until mid sept, but they have Gala and Honeycrisp... But Macs are my fav...

And hopefully I will be then making a yummy one of these...

Oh and I'm sure we will be eating plenty of these...

Well they make them fresh, Bobby could never turn one down...

So it will be a fun fall family outing.  Of which there will be many more.  I just can't wait to pick pumpkins in something other than a tank top and shorts, sweating my butt off on the scratchy hay ride in the backwoods of GA.  I'll even take snow over that...



Do You Miss Me?

Well I'm on vacation.  In NY.  With my Jack-man.  And Bobby comes in on Thursday.  Woo-hoo.  So see ya later alligators!

Grocery Carting

I've really been struggling here with a good grocery store.  Well actually any good produce and meat really.  I never thought I'd actually say that I missed a Kroger!  Coming from a Wegman's, Kroger seemed second rate, but compared to what I've got here, Kroger is wonderful!  I guess I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.

Bobby found a yummy looking recipe for a Vietnamese style pork chop in his Men's health magazine.  I scanned over the ingredients and saw it was relatively easy.  I just needed to pick up some fish sauce.  One of the many things I've learned to hate about a move, is losing your fridge/pantry items that the movers won't take.  Like my fish sauce.  So I ran to the grocery store.  I mean in this day and age, everyone carries fish sauce right?  It's not that crazy of an ingredient.  Almost every Thai and Vietnamese dish has fish sauce in it.  Well not Strack and Van Til.  What kind of a grocery store name is that anyway? The cashier even called the other Strack's, that's what you call 'em here, to see if the had it.  Nope.  Don't even ask how many times I actually had to say "fish sauce" for them to know what I was talking about.  Come on people, this is a common ingredient.   As I'm complaining explaining that they should carry fish sauce, the cashier says I might try Pay Low since they carry a lot of gluten free products.  I hadn't tried out this store yet, cause well, I was a little grocery store prejudice.  How could a store called Pay Low Discount Foods even be worth the time? 

So I ran home, of course I forgot to bring my phone, and called Pay Low.  A few short minutes later I find out yes they carry fish sauce.  So yippee, I'm off.  After walking through half the store to find the Asian aisle, I see it's not that bad.  Not Wegman's quality, but I've come to learn not much is.  But whoa baby, their International aisle, it might actually come close to my Weg's.  They had not one, but three different kinds of fish sauce.  Thai, vietnamese and some other knock off brand.  A million kinds of soys, gluten and wheat free soy, flavored soy, tamari soy, soygu soy.  Curry sauces, peanut sauces, every asian noodle out there, it was pretty much a little heaven for me.  I love all asian food...

So I grab a botle of fish sauce and head to the cashier, but I'm pulled to a halt by the MASSIVE multiple aisle with cold cases ORGANIC section.  Wait, a minute, am I in Indiana still?  I didn't have time to browse, cause Bobby would never get any dinner, but today I went back.  And I'm not quite sure why I saved it for last because then  Jack was in his I am so done sitting in this cart, let me out to run or I will scream mood, but I still loved it.  There was so much.  So, even though I am still missing my one true grocery  love Wegman's, I at least found a little piece of organic heaven here in northwest middle of no where Indiana.   I guess we can stay...

I'm open!

For business!  I've decided to start an Etsy store!  Keeping up with this kid's eating habits is turning out to be quite an investment, so I thought I'd try to peddle my wares to stay afloat.  Ha, it's not that bad, but I've been getting some "How much would you sell that for?" questions so I thought there might be people out there willing to buy what I got.  We'll see how that goes.  I am still in the process of building my shop up.  There are lots of things to drag out of storeage to take pictures of, so it'll be a work in progress for a while.  But I thought I'd share my lil shop so you can take a peek!  Thanks for your support!

Getting ready...

For my BFF's baby sprinkle!  My BFF, KM, is working on baby #2 and this time she's having a boy, so I am throwing a sprinkle for her (and him).  You know, sprinkle = little baby shower.  She's got the big stuff, but diapers are always needed.  Even though I've tried to get her on the cloth wagon, but whatever makes the Mama's life easier right?  Anyway, she doesn't really have a theme going on for him, so I decided on just a burlap/blue gingham/vintagy backyard party theme.  That sounds boy right?  Yeah, basically I get to just make fun things that I love. 

So KM doesn't like cake, I know, I know, it's absurd, so I decided to have an ice cream sundae bar!  Cute huh?  All the toppings will be in mason/jelly jars, in keeping the vintagy feel.  I can't wait!

Here are a couple of the decorations I've made...

Burlap wreath with blue gingham 'Welcome Jacob' bunting

This is a chalkboard sign I made.  We will write the baby's name at the top and everyone will guess the date and weight.  Then KM can hang it up until he's born.  And then Mr. KM will know where to go for all his chores after!

I haven't snapped the pics of the banner yet, but it's (also) burlap and blue gingham.  I am so excited to put it all together!  I love little party details.  Stay tuned for the party update!

 

I do craft, I'll prove it...

  Crafting sure has taken a backseat since Jack man entered the world.  My only free time is naptime and up until recently I've wanted to nap right along with him.  But his naps are turning into 3-4 hr long adventures, so I've got plenty of time to knock out some projects!

I've wanted one of these gorgeous Home is Where the Army Sends You signs since I first saw them...

Cute huh?  If you would like one of these, check out my friend Robyn over at Peanut Stitches.

Anywho, since the Army never sent us anywhere, our sign would be pretty bare.  We were at Ft. Stewart for 5 years.  Pretty boring.  So I found these cute latitude and longitude signs out in bloggyworld, (if I saw these on your blog, please let me know and I will give you credit, I forgot where I originally saw them!) and decided I could recreate those!

I love them!  I've got one more in the works for our current town.  Bobby and I met in Rochester, NY.  And with his current job, there are bound to be more cities in the future to add!  I can't wait to put them up on my wall next to the old window I found and beautified up with some vinyl!  I'll post pictures soon!