Countdown to Disneyland!

I was 18 when I went to Disneyland for the first time and even at that age it was magical. As I walked through the park, the attention to detail really captured my imagination. I kept thinking "when I have kids we are definitely going to vacation at Disneyland." I wanted to give my kids the Disney experience while they were young enough to still believe in fairytales and everything Disney has to offer young imaginations.

When Natalie was about 3, she got wind of this place called Disneyland and asked if we could go. I'm sure she was thinking we could just get in our car and drive there in a few hours. I told her that when she turned 6 we would make a special trip to Disneyland. Well, she just turned 6 and I am excited to say we have booked our flight for spring break.

So to all you out there who have traveled to Disneyland with your children, could you PLEASE, please, please post your advice and suggestions on how to best make this a successful and memorable trip for our family. We are also planning to go to Seaworld. Thank you so much!

Picture of the Day 02-27

Zander Y's Penguins

Right across the hall from Natalie's class is a big life-size chart showing the sizes of different penguins. Zander was so excited to stand as tall as the Emperor penguin.

and the winner is...

Okay, am I the only one left on the planet who doesn't know who won? As much as I love to watch movies and be entertained by Hollywood celebrities, it just drives me crazy...this whole notion of "let's celebrate how great we are, give ourselves little trophies and spend one week before talking about what we are wearing and one week after critiquing what everyone wore, said, or didn't say."
I mean come on people! Now, I am a celebrity junkie and admit I am intrigued by the lifestyles of the "rich and famous," but do we really need all the hoopla that surrounds all these "award" shows? It seems a bit much to me. Every year it seems to get worse. Even the mainstream media is focused more and more covering the all important who's wearing who in high end couture clothing, jewelry, shoes etc.

Can you imagine if I were interviewed about what I am wearing? It would go something like this:
Good evening Alyssa, I see you are dressed in a timeless black warm-up suit.
"Yes, I chose this ensemble because I wanted a clean look. By clean I mean, not loaded with kid goo. Also, they say black is slimming and plus it was on sale at Target...about 2 years ago. My jewelry? I am wearing a one-of-a-kind necklace hand made by the talented Zander with foam beads from the Orient (Oriental Trading that is!)" Sad but true, right?...all you moms out there, can you relate?

Another thing that is driving me crazy is all the play-by-play of the Anna Nicole Smith debacle. For heaven's sake, the poor woman is dead. And don't get me started on Britney...how many times do I have to turn on the news to hear about her shaving her head bald and going back to rehab for the third time in a week? Anyway, I'll get off my soap box. I need to get to bed anyway.

Oh, by the way, my husband just informed me that The Departed won...there now I can sleep!

Time for some spring cleaning

This weekend I have been in the mood to organize all those areas of my life that just seem to get cluttered. Last night I reorganized my pantry. After a recent trip to the grocery store, I realized there was too much clutter in the pantry to put away all the food. I feel so much better now that it's all organized again...thanks to my friend Shannon who hooked me up with all those Tupperware containers years ago.

Then today I finished organizing all the files in my computer so they are all sorted by category. Normally I don't have the patience to sit and sort through all my files, but after awhile it just gets too disorganized. Anyway, I felt like doing some mindless work and now it feels good to know where everything is. I think it has been a few years since I have really gone through and "put things away." Even though it's only a computer, it feels like a weight has been lifted... almost like cleaning a room in the house. As you see on the screen capture, I have all my files in order...hooray!

Tomorrow I think I will tackle organizing all the kids clothes. This is a big chore as I have to sort everything and weed out all the clothes the kids have out grown. I have several large bins of hand-me-downs that Hayden should fit into by now that I need to sort through...then I need to make up some boxes of out-grown clothes for consignment. I've also got a couple bins of clothes that used to fit me that I 'm hoping to be wearing again soon. Maybe I should sort those out too as I'm sure some of the styles are better off at Goodwill...Wish me luck.

Fabulous Food Friday

Grandma Swanson's Cottage Cheese Pancakes
I remember my grandma making these for us when we would visit them in Tacoma, WA. We would wake up to the smell of bacon, come down stairs and she would be making these "hotcakes" as she called them. One summer when my brother and I were staying with them I asked her for a few of my favorite recipes. I'm so glad I did...They are so yummy, I hope you like them too.

In a blender mix the following:

1 cup cottage cheese
6 large eggs
a pinch of salt
2/3 cup flour
1 tablespoon oil

Pour batter on a hot, greased grill or pan. Turn after you notice the pancakes start to look less wet on top. Serve with warm maple syrup.

Bethany House Newsletter

I am a little bit behind on my blogging because I have been busy doing a newsletter revision for Bethany House. For about 6 or 7 years now, I have been working with Bethany House, designing their newsletter. Finally after many, many revisions over the years, I think I have come up with a design that will be around for a while. For so long I just sort of threw it together using clip art and such, but this time I created everything from scratch in Illustrator so it would have a much more cohesive feel to it. I re-designed their very outdated logo too. Here it
is...the colored version anyway. The actual newsletter is printed 2 color. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.

Dan created their website (although, now it too needs to be updated with the new look) you can see it as well as a selection of past newsletters at: www.bethanyhousenet.org

In case you are not familiar with Bethany House, they are a non-profit organization that provides a home and care for single young pregnant women in the Gresham area.

Happy Birthday Sedona!

Natalie was invited to a skating party today for her friend/neighbor Sedona's birthday. I decided to leave the boys with my friend Anne as I knew it would take all my attention to help Natalie learn to skate. It was her first time rollerskating and she did great. I was so proud of her.

As I was putting on her rollerskates she was taking deep "cleansing" breaths and saying to herself "you can do this, you can do this," over and over. It was so cute. (I've never heard her say this before). She was a little nervous, but I was so proud of her for being so willing to give it a try. She was pretty excited and little by little she made progress. It was also nice to have her good friend Sarah there to hang on to the wall and learn right along with her. At first she hung on to the wall pretty good, but as her confidence grew she let go and by the end of the party she was asking me to skate with her in the middle. It was fun for me to skate too as it has been lightyears ago since I had been to Skateworld...our 6th grade graduation party was there and that is the last time, I think. The place looks just the same...same scarry 70's decor! Same ugly red carpet everywhere. It was a lot of fun.

Happy Birthday Isaac!

Monkey Business
Zander Natalie and Hayden were invited to Isaac's 2nd birthday. It was a Curious George party. All the kids colored George masks and then went on a banana hunt. Later the "Man in the Yellow Hat" (our friend Angel) read all the kids a story.

The three photos next to Curious George were added today (Monday) when the kids were over playing with Isaac.

I made a little Curious George pillow and framed the cutest photo of Isaac playing on our John Deere tractor trike with Hayden riding in the back.

Picture of the Day 2-17

Me Wuv Chocolate Birthday Cake...
While the adults were in the other room talking, Hayden discovered the cake left at the kid's table.

Happy Birthday Chucky!

Today to celebrate my brother-in-law Chucky's 27th birthday, we all went bowling. Our kids had never gone before and so they had fun learning to bowl. The older kids all got to wear bowling shoes. They even had their own lane with the bumpers out, blocking the gutters. Natalie even got a strike! In fact, she beat me on the first game. Must admit I don't bowl much. I think the last time was with our Newlywed group at church...at least 9 or 10 years ago.
Hayden had fun running all over the place. We had to grab him from running down the lane a couple times. Can you imagine what could happen if he went all the way down...just like a cartoon, he would come shooting up the ball return!


Afterwards everyone came over and we made turkey burgers and had cake. My parents stayed home because my dad has been feeling ill due to 3 weeks of radiation. He is more than half way done though! Please continue praying for him.

My very pregnant sister, Andrea and her husband John joined us after they got back from church tonight.

Fabulous Food Friday

Pizza Casserole
This is basically like making pizza without the crust.

Brown 1 pound ground beef (I used ground chicken)
Add oregano and garlic salt to taste. Stir in about a half jar of spaghetti sauce (I used Classico sausage and onion/green pepper) This makes it really taste like pizza!
This meaty saucy layer is then spread onto the bottom of the dish. Next layer shredded mozzarella cheese, cheddar and pepperoni however you like it on the top. Sprinkle oregano on top.
Broil casserole in a 400 degree oven for about 5-10 minutes until cheese on top is melted.


Miracle Fluff
I don't like to use artificial sweetener very much, but I really wanted to make a dessert I could enjoy on Valentine's day and this hit the spot.

1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water
1 sm. box sugar free strawberry Jell-O (or whatever flavor you like)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, WHIPPED and chilled
1 (8 oz) pkg. cream cheese....softened
2 teaspoons vanilla

Whip the cream, and chill. Dissolve Jell-O in the boiling water. Add the 1/2 cup cold water and stir until the Jell-O is dissolved. Beat the cream cheese and vanilla together in a bowl.
Add the Jell-O mixture, and beat for a couple of minutes. Add the chilled WHIPPED cream, and gently mix together until fluffy and well mixed. Pour into individual serving dishes, or an 8" square pan. Chill until set.

Picture of the Day 2-16-07

Last weekend I posted a photo of "dirt" with leaves coming up and now, just a week later, look how things have progressed. Hooray for spring!

Computer Bug

So are you grossed out yet? My skin is still crawling. Okay, here's the deal. I'm sure most of you have already read the previous post where I blogged about our ant problem. When I mentioned I have seen them crawling across my desk I had NO IDEA they were building a nest inside my airport base station (wireless internet hub). Neither did our computer guru, Adam...


Originally Adam came over to fix a booboo I did the other day while "cleaning" up my computer desktop. I moved some things into a new folder I created called "technical stuff," (all the stuff that runs the computer, like the applications etc.) Long story short, I confused the computer so it could no longer find anything and thus nothing worked. We called Adam to reverse the damage caused by yours truly and when he picked up the airport he got a shocker. We both jumped out of our skin as ants went crawling everywhere. You see him in the photo checking to see if the ants got into his bag. They did. They got everywhere. Hundreds of them...all over my desk. See Dan. See Dan vacuum up ants. (FYI Adam, It's now 8:50 pm and I am still on ant patrol with the vacuum on standby while I blog).

Valentine's Goodies

Treats for the kids:


Natalie helped me make the heart sandwiches with raspberry cream cheese and raspberry jelly. They also had cottage cheese sundaes with a gummy heart on top. The last photo is a marshmallow "lollypop" Zander got from his teacher. It was so cute I had to share. You may not be able to tell, but she dipped them in white chololate then in Valentine sprinkles, added a stick and presto, easy!

Treats for Grown-Ups:

We couldn't get a sitter, so I made dinner. I also surprised Dan by cleaning all my scrapbooking stuff off the dining room table so we could enjoy eating in the dining room. After the kids were in bed, Dan and I had a nice salad with currants, Hungarian mushroom soup, and ham and cheese stuffed chicken...and some white Zinfandel to celebrate our dinner for 2.

Valentine Parties at School

I was lucky enough to spend time with Natalie at her Valentines party today. She had so much fun opening up all her valentines.





Natalie smothers her friends with hugs and kisses.


After Natalie got out of school, we rushed over Zander's party. Here he is...my funny Valentine. What a little goof ball puckering up for a valentine kiss.

...you may have a problem with ants!

We have been dealing with these little creatures ever since we moved here in May. I thought they would die off in the winter, but so far they are going strong. This post is a long time coming, so today I am going to blog my plight with the ants... Jeff Foxworthy style:

If you have to kill 20-30 ants before preparing any given meal, regardless of how clean your kitchen counters are...you may have a problem with ants.

If you find ants crawling up your refrigerator to the lollypop stash...you may have a problem with ants.

If you find ants inside the cellophane wrapper of aforementioned lollypops...you may have a problem with ants.

If you find ants crawling up the door seal in your freezer...you may have a problem with ants.

If you have ants crawling across your desk while you are trying to blog...you may have a problem with ants.

If you are doing your daughter's hair and see an ant crawl across her headband...you may have a problem with ants.

If you are taking a shower and there are ants running around your shower head...you may have a problem with ants.

If you are watching a movie on your couch and an ant crawls across your arm...you may have a problem with ants.

If you go to pour your son a bowl of Cheerios, but when the cereal hits the bowl, ants crawl up onto the bowl...you may have a problem with ants.

If your baby is teething and you go to give him some liquid Tylenol, but there are ants hanging out along the inside rim of the dropper lid...you may have a problem with ants.

If you wash your hands in the bathroom sink and notice ants coming up from the hole in the sink...you may have a problem with ants.

If you are sick and want to make some honey lemon tea, but there are ants swimming in your jar of honey...you may have a problem with ants.

If you are sleeping and are woken by an ant crawling on your forehead...you may have a problem with ants.

If you go to fill the cat dish with kitty food and notice there are ants in her dish...you may have a problem with ants.

So, do you think we have a problem here?

Picture of the Day 02-10

Fresh from his bath, our young superhero is a lean, clean fighting machine. Baby Jack-Jack is preparing for sleep and soon will be dreaming about his next mission.

I have a sickness...

They say that the first step in recovery is recognizing you have a problem. Well, my friends, it's time I come clean... I am obsessive compulsive for sure. I am addicted to buying cute party supplies (napkins in particular) and will make up a reason to have a party just so I can get all the fun "stuff." It's a terrible sickness, but I don't know if I really want to be cured.

As I was cleaning up in the garage, it became very apparent to me that my obsession/compulsion to buy party stuff was a bit of a problem. You see, not only do I like to buy this stuff, but I also like to hoard it. I have enough super cute napkins to hold a party every month for the next three years. Lucky for me, I am good at organizing all this stuff, so I know where to find it when I need it, but heaven forbid I should actually use up an entire package of anything!

Here is what I have been working on. I can't wait to see the look on my father-in-law's face when he sees what I have done to his former manly garage!

All my bows and paper shreds for wrapping gifts. I like to recycle our packaging, so chances are, if you've given us a pretty bow or fancy tissue paper, I have it and will reuse it again.
I like to blame the amount of fancy tissue in this drawer on my job at Menlo Park Pharmacy (with a Hallmark) where I worked for 6 years, but most of it is from birthday gifts we've received.
This photo doesn't do a good job of showing just how much disposable party ware I have collected, but let me assure you, these are deep shelves.

This is what the rest of the garage looks like. Ugggggh! Hard to believe in the past 2 days I have emptied out about 12 boxes from here and there is still so much more to do. Yuck! Maybe I should have a garage cleaning party...Just kidding!