Don't Sweat The Small Stuff

So I had planned to post the blog about painting over my large canvas today but I have been delayed from that by a big adventure that started with a little bug.

Beware of typos - I'm blogging with a wrist brace on

Two weeks ago I went for a run around the lake in my neighborhood. I am training for a half marathon my hubby and I will be running in Las Vegas in November (he's running the full marathon) and I had been doing pretty well with my training until this stupid little bug entered my life. Well, actually it was two bugs.

I had already run about a mile and a half around the lake and was on my second lap when I ran through a cloud of gnats and one of the little suckers actually flew into my eye! It stung like a mother but I didn't want to stop running so I was kind of half-running, half cursing and involuntarily crying and trying to get this damn insect out of my eye. It finally came out and I kept running kind of proud of myself for not letting something like a little gnat stop me. I AM IRON WOMAN! So I keep running even though my eye is stinging, and about another mile further on I'm feeling pretty good and thinking to myself I will try to run three miles. It was right then that ANOTHER damn gnat decided to commit suicide IN THE SAME EYE! So this time I stopped and it hurt so bad I wondered if it was a wasp gnat, if such things even exist. So I'm doubled up in pain on the trail, cursing like I'm channeling the spirit of Howard Stern and one of my neighbors runs past and stops.

These bugs can't even handle me right now

"Are you okay?" she asks, still kind of jogging a bit, probably hoping I'll say oh yes I just have Tourettes, no biggie, but instead I kind of wailed at her, "NOOOO! IS THERE A BUG IN MY EYE? AAAAAHHHH IT HUUUURTS!!!!" She's understandably backing away from the crazed, sweaty lady who she is unwittingly now obliged to help and squeaks out, "Yes, I see a bug," I immediately scream "GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GET IT OUT!!!" and she says, "I don't think my hands are clean," "I DON'T CARE JUST GET IT OUT!" so she gingerly picks this bug out of my eyeball and I'm crying tears of pain and thankfullness and stumbling after her saying "Thank you, thank you oh thank you!" and she kind of hesitates for a second and yells out "Are you okay now?" and, seeing my nod, runs off before I can ask her to help me get some spinach out of my teeth or something else equally gross.

I hate bugs.

So I curse my luck and drag myself home before another insect can assault my only remaining good eye. The next day I had undeniable goop eye (Liz to English translation = conjunctivitis). I was worried I had a cut in my eye because it had hurt so bad so I did some Googling and found this little gem - read the last entry. So at this point I'm just about ready to dunk my head in bleach and resolve to wear safety goggles on all my future runs even if it makes me look like a mad scientist running from a bad experiment that will imminently explode. I had some antibiotic eye drops left over from my last bout of goop eye so I just started using them and within a week my eye (and my life) was back to normal.

Then, last week, I woke up feeling like my right hand was broken (I am right-handed). I hadn't done anything particularly strenuous in my sleep, I do sleep with my hand under my pillow and I'm thinking ugh seriously if anyone could break a bone in her sleep it would be me. But I figured I had just slept on it wrong and it would stop hurting soon so I go about my business. Then, on Wednesday night I was cooking dinner, and I picked up our cast-iron skillet with my hurt hand and it felt like something stabbed me. I had to drop it back down on the burner and go sit down. For the rest of that evening the pain was excruciating and radiating up my arm to my shoulder so I decided it was time to go see the doctor. I guess most people would have done that sooner, but I don't like spending $30 to be told something I can usually surmise by myself, and if there's ever anything really wrong I always have to go somewhere else and get some expensive test or other.

I come out diagnosed with a case of De Quervain's syndrome, which is essentially tendonitis. My instructions are to wear a wrist brace, rest, and take Advil. I come home and I'm discussing this with one of my best and oldest friends who tells me that she got tendonitis from taking an antibiotic. I was like say whaaat? So I ask her what kind and she says it was Ciprofloxacin. It sounds familiar so I went to my bathroom and mother @#$%^&* son of a !)*$% its the same antibiotic in my antibiotic eye drops.

THAT. DAMN. BUG. BROKE. MY. FREAKING. HAND. So essentially my life has been a bit derailed. Rest assured I have learned my lessons 1.) Run with goggles/glasses on and 2.) Never ever take Ciprofloxacin again.

Rainbow Cupcakes to Celebrate the Death of DOMA

I actually made these cupcakes for my daughter's third birthday last July, but I feel like in light of today's Supreme Court decision, it makes an appropriate post! This is actually a combination of two different cupcake recipes I found on Pinterest, and I can't resist a fun looking cupcake challenge! I'll post more of those later! The original recipes are posted here and here, and you can find them below with my changes! The original recipes are much more involved, I am all about shortcuts when making something like this that is mostly ornamental, so I just used cake mix and canned frosting.


You will need:
1 box white cake mix (and whatever extra ingredients are listed on the box you bought, typically eggs and oil)

Wilton Gel Food Coloring

1 can white frosting

1 tube Wilton white icing (You will need the star tip if you don't have one)

1 package rainbow sour ribbons

6 extra bowls (or one per color you will use + 1 for the frosting)

cupcake pan

paper cupcake cups

Instructions:

• Make the cake mix according to instructions on the box
• Divide batter according to how many colors you are using.
• Use food coloring to color batter to desired intensity. Wilton brand gel colors have the brightest colors and wont thin your batter. They can be found at Walmart or Michaels (I got mine at H-E-B).
• Put a spoonful of each color in the cupcake one at a time. 
• The cupcakes won't be identical unless you are meticulous with your measuring of batter (and I'm not) so I had wildly varied cupcakes, but I thought it was fun that way, each person's cupcake was different!
• Bake them according to the package directions, until a toothpick comes out dry. Makes around 15 cupcakes.

Frosting:

• While the cupcakes are baking, empty the frosting canister into a bowl and add blue gel food coloring, mix it until it is fully incorporated.
• After you're done mixing the frosting, set it aside and get out the rainbow sour ribbons, I used Airhead brand (like these) and one package was plenty for what I made. Take out the ribbons and cut them into thirds horizontally. You might want to put them into the fridge until ready to use so they will be a bit stiffer.
• Once the cupcakes are out of the oven and cooled, you can add the blue frosting, the white icing stars and the rainbow ribbons!

Photo Wall for $10.00

We've lived in our house for over three years now, we moved in when Bella was only six months old. At the time we didn't have much money or time to devote to decorating it, and now that I have the time I still don't have the money so it is coming along slowly. This weekend we enhanced our decor by adding a photo wall!

I have seen these on Pinterest and I had a bunch of black framed photos already from when we had lived in an apartment that had a staircase in it, but when we moved to the house, they went up on the shelves in our library (it's really a home office but I'm a book worm so I christened it "the library" - it's not like I live in a mansion or anything) One of the things I have been wanting to do but never had time is repurpose some of our current decor so that it looks new but doesn't really cost much to change around. Please note - if you don't hoard black photo frames like I do, and you want a uniform look for your photo wall, you could get a can of spray paint and paint the frames you do have, or you could do a wall that has a bunch of different frames like this, or this.

Originally we had a large painting in the entry way. We had bought it at an art fair a year or two before we were married and I never really liked it much. The perspective was all off and I thought I could probably have painted it just as well myself, but it was relatively cheap and we were young and poor so we bought it. I took that down and decided to paint over the canvas and move it to the library - I will post about that in a different blog - and we put up this photo wall in its place.

In the future I would like to get a custom vinyl lettering of our family name done to put up in the space between the photos, but as it's around $50 at my local sign shop, it will be a while before that happens, so I got the vinyl lettering we used from Hobby Lobby on sale for $10, and the frames we already had. I replaced some of the pictures and filled some empty frames and we just kind of eyeballed the arrangement  I had already been looking at several examples on Pinterest, but as none of them matched the exact quantity and dimensions of my frames, I just threw the rule book out the window. I think it looks pretty good!

Visiting My Grandma

A couple weeks ago we drove out to visit my grandma who lives just about 50 miles south of the Oklahoma border in a little town called Seymour, Texas. It's about a six hour drive from Austin and it was the first time she got to meet Vivienne! Vivienne was born in October, and my sister Katheryn was married in December. I was Matron of Honor so I was very involved in throwing her Bachelorette party and her Wedding Shower and, in addition to that, Eric ran a half-marathon in San Antonio in early November, so we were traveling literally every weekend that month except Thanksgiving, and two more weekends into December.

Bella, Vivienne and Great Grandma!

We typically go out to Seymour for Thanksgiving, but this year we just couldn't stand the idea of traveling for six weeks in a row so we stayed home and missed that opportunity. Unfortunately, in December my Grandma broke her hip and then got a compensatory injury in her opposite shoulder, so she was laid up and couldn't really have visitors until about April. Unfortunately, that was the month I quit my job, and things were pretty busy around here, and then Eric had to work pretty much every weekend in May. So we FINALLY made it out to see her this month!

It was kind of neat because Vivi crawled for the first time in my Grandma's living room! We were sitting around talking about how she would get up on all fours, and rock back and forth but just hadn't actually crawled yet, and as we were talking about it, she did it! So it was neat that my Grandma got to see that, and that it happened in the same house where my own mother was raised.

Vivi lets Lexi hold her!

Generally Vivi is a very easy baby and a very easy-going baby. Maybe it was because the drive was so long, or maybe it was because she was off her nap schedule, but she wouldn't let anyone hold her until about Sunday night (after we had been there for over 24 hours). My cousin Lauren sure did give it the old college try though, I'm pretty sure Vivi thought she was being kidnapped by the way she screamed! Poor Lauren, she really is good with babies, but Vivienne just did not want anyone else holding her. Maybe she thought we were going to leave her there, poor baby, she has traveled more in her short life than some people do until they're in their teens.

On Sunday night my Uncle Tommy and Aunt Jeannie threw a barbecue at their house and we all went out there to dine and socialize. Bella had a great time running around with my cousins' kids, Lauren's son Josiah, and Glenn's kids Lexi, Tyler and Leah. Lexi is 13 now (I can't believe it!) and she is the first one Vivienne allowed to hold her! Glenn had to leave early to take his Mom to an appointment, but Jan and the kids were able to stay so it was still fun! It was really good to see my family, they live so far it is rare for us to get together.

I particularly love this picture where no one is looking at the camera except Vivi...

... and this picture, where everyone is looking at the camera except Vivi!
This is Lexi, Jeannie, Lauren, Grandma and Jan, and Tommy, Vivi and Leah

Summer Sangria!

Me in 2010 at Dry Comal Creek Vineyards and Winery

For my 27th birthday my husband took me for a weekend in the hill country and one of our stops brought us to the Dry Comal Creek Vineyards and Winery. I loved this place! Live music, wine tasting, and they invite guests to engage in the ancient art of "foot pressing"! While there we indulged in their house sangria and fell in love. We bought a bottle of their red table wine and only just made this mouthwatering sangria this summer!


The recipe can be found here, but really it's very simple:

6 oz. can frozen orange juice concentrate plus 1 can of water
6 oz. can frozen limeade concentrate plus 1 can of water
1 liter Hill Country Fair grapefruit soda (chilled) (found at HEB)
1 bottle Dry Comal Creek Foot Pressed Table Wine <-- Seriously it's delicious


DIRECTIONS

Blend frozen limeade and orange juice with water. Add Foot Pressed Table Wine. Add chilled Hill Country Fair grapefruit soda and freeze until slushy, then serve. Garnish with orange slices.

I didn't have orange slices so I garnished with green grapes, which are also a great snack in the Summer. Voilà! Enjoy your delicious summer sangria!

Martha Stewart + Christina Applegate = Liz

I hope I haven’t fooled any readers of this blog into thinking I am some kind of sweet-natured, millennial Martha Stewart. No offense to Martha, but I am more like…. Hmmm… Maybe Christina Applegate minus the smokin’ hot bod. I curse WAY too often. (I am seriously trying to stop but sometimes I just really love the comedic emphasis given to a statement by the implementation of a properly timed F-bomb.) I like to drink (though I rarely get to now that I’m breast-feeding) and I wish (sometimes) that I could still go out and party like a 22 year old. I actually did that recently with my best friend Michelle. We got all dolled-up and went out for a night on the town with our hubbies. I was sort of amazed that the club-scene hasn’t changed much except for the fact that I could have been the babysitter of most of the kids out there that night. I kept wanting to come up to them and sing Mamma Mia style, Does Your Mother Know That You’re Out? Most of the music is the same that was being played 7 years ago when I was frequenting the same locations (now under new management), except it became painfully obvious how old we were when “Teach Me How To Dougie” came on and not a damn one of us knew what to do.

I do have Martha tendencies though. I love to bake. I mean like seriously, I read cookbooks and spend hours on Pinterest drooling rainbows over recipes. (Okay, fine, not hours. As if I have more than one uninterrupted hour to spend on Pinterest, or anything else not related to starfall.com or Disney Junior.) A couple years ago I taught myself how to make home-made yeast cinnamon rolls and DAMN, seriously, they are delicious.

An example of my Applegate tendencies, when Bella was in daycare, before I was even pregnant with Vivienne, Bella was full on in her terrible twos and I was wondering how she behaved at the daycare so I asked one of the girls there if she does what she’s told or if she throws temper tantrums, and she told me that in large part she behaved and did as she was told, except that sometimes she’s not nice to the other kids. I inquired as to how and she said (in a quiet and clearly mildly scandalized tone) “She’s been telling the other children to ‘shut up’,” she looked on at me with wide eyes as I replied, “Oh, she must have learned that from one of the other children here, we don’t say that at home. Now, if she drops an F-bomb, that she picked up from me.” 

I guess I’m a good mix of Martha and Christina. Sometimes I wax philosophical, and other times I sound like a drunken sailor set loose on an unsuspecting public. I hope this blog will be an even mix of both. Thanks for stopping by!

Cartoon Sources:

1.) Some E Cards

2.) Everyday People Cartoons

Reflecting in the Mirror of My Children

I'm up early to write and it's raining outside, I was going to have coffee but I think, when it rains, tea is more appropriate. I went to visit my Grandmother recently (I'll write a separate post about that visit) and  Vivienne crawled for the first time at her house! It was really neat that my Grandmother got to witness that, and that it happened in the same house where my own mother was raised.

Vivienne on the day she was born! She didn't cry much!

Whenever I see Vivi do something new it reminds me of something that Bella used to do as a baby. When Vivienne started clapping recently I remembered that Bella used to clap when she was upset, and it always made me giggle. I know that clapping is a developmental milestone and I just think it's funny that, as infants, we assign our own meaning to it. To Bella, it was a way to express irritation and malcontent, not happiness or praise. I could have made up a new song for her, "If You're Grumpy, and You Know it, Clap Your Hands".

Bella at about 8 months - this baby is mislabeled!

Bella was always more highly-strung than Vivienne. As a tiny baby, she hated to have her diaper changed, but hated more to sit in her mess. She would cry the instant her diaper was wet but wanted to hold your hands while you changed her, so a peaceful diaper change for that child required four hands. I guess it must be scary to be laid on your back (unswaddled) as a tiny baby because both of my children would throw their arms out when laid on the changing table as if trying to regain their balance, and Bella would always try to grab a hold of her self, if she had a onesie on she would get a good handfull of it and shriek for dear life, but if she didn't she would grip her own skin! I remember seeing her with a good handfull of the flesh on her chest, trying to pry free her tiny fingers and thinking, Stop it, kid! I bet that hurts!

Sweet baby Bella on her first day of life!

It's really neat getting to see all the ways my children are the same, and the myriad of ways they are different. I knew the first day she was born that Vivienne was going to be very different from Isabella. Vivienne had no latching issues like Bella had. When Bella was born I had already been up for 24 hours straight by the time she was born and when she couldn't latch I stayed up a further 12. I have never, ever been so exhausted, yet so unable to sleep, worrying about my child. So when Vivi was born and latched right on and went right to sleep I didn't know what to do. I recall waking up at 6 AM in a complete panic the day after she was born because she hadn't woken me up since midnight. Bella fed every two hours, Vivi slept for 4-6 hours at a time since the day she was born.