Tag your it: 6 Random Things

Jen over at New Green Mamma tagged me for a 6 Random Things about Me.  Now you all get the pleasure of learning new stuff about Me, hold onto your hats!

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you. 

2. Post the rules on your blog. 

3. Write six random things about yourself. 

4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. 

5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog

6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Back to the show...

1. I am a Parrot Head and it all because of my older brother.  I even get the Coconut Telegraph.

2. I am a Foodie and like to read Cookbooks like others read novels.  I like to try new recipes and seem to always have the Food Network on.

3. I am currently on my 3rd Career and still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.  

4. I am an ESFJ (Extrovert, Sensing,Feeling, Judging) according to the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator. I took the test for a workshop and now know why I am nuts.  I would never of guessed me to be an "extrovert" hehehehehehehe!

5. I love coffee and uses to drink it with cream and sugar.  I switched to just sugar and then to straight black for a while.  Now I like it with just cream.  No matter what way I take it I have to have my coffee.

6. I consider myself extremely blessed every time I look at my boys.  I don't know what I did right but I am so glad they are mine.  That goes for my husband too.

Now for the fun part, I tag in no particular order:

Bernadette over at Baked By Beanie

Carrie over at Barely Controlled Chaos

Golightly over at A Little White Space

MGF over at Weapons Grade Moose drool

Sara over at Blah Blah Blog

Shelly over at Aperture of My Eye (I am tagging Shelly cause she need a little fire lit under her and I thought this could get her started)

There were other that I would love to tag but I was trying to follow the rules (that's part of my ESFJ personality).

Best Shot Monday

I originally was attempting to focus on my nephew but then the fence keep getting in focus.  I took the shot thinking it may come out pretty neat.  I am glad I did, I think this was the best shot of the weekend.

For more best shots, head on over to Mother May I and see what every one else has to share!

P.S.   GO PHILLIES!!!!!!!

SOOC Saturday

I don't usually post on the weekends but I wanted to post this picture and SOOC Saturday seem so appropriate.  I was over at Baked by Beanie's this morning taking some pictures of a very yummy cake.  I can never resist the temptation to take pictures of the kids either.  I was sitting on the floor and Francesco went over to the door and I captured this.  It is SOOC.  I had it on Aperture priority, no flash, ISO 200, f/1.8, shutter speed 1/125 sec with my 50 mm prime lens.  Now I need to remember these setting.

I get so excited about having nice pictures that I didn't have to use the auto setting for.

Head over to Slurping Life for more SOOC's.

Theme Thursday: Storyteller

Francesco is completely enthralled with his trains. He talks not stop to Nicolò all the while telling him some kind of story. The one thing I can make out is that on occasion he cups his hand at his mouth and yells, "All a board!". He then tells Nicolò, "you say choo, choo!" Nicolò must do something right cause he then get a nice wet kiss on the check. Just too cute for words!

Head over to the The Land of K. A for more Theme Thursday

Wordless Wednesday

Head over to Wordless Wednesday to see what other have to share!

Best Shot Monday

For more best shots, head on over to Mother May I and see what every one else has to share!

I just love his cheeks!

What an A'Fare!

In the mists of my super busy, hectics life there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I spent 1 hour and 18 mins preparing 12 meals for my family today!  I went to a place called The Dinner A'Fare today and had a great time.  Thanks to my friend over at Baked by Beanie, who told me about his place.  

I had a really nice time. I met 4 new friends and prepare all the meals for "weeknight" dinners for at least two weeks.  Why I did not think of this before is beyond me.

Tonight we had the Pretzel Crusted Pork Tenderloin, I paired that with a white and wild rice medley and steamed peas.  Sound absolutely delicious, doesn't it?

Well, I thought so.  The meat was so fresh and tender.  It was easy to get in the oven (all the prep was complete).  When I asked G what he thought I got... " I am still trying to figure out what the pretzel are for."

Lamb of God! (that's another story)

Do any of you have a husband that is a cutlet junkie?  I swear if it is not a breaded cutlet and any meat fried in oil my husband isn't "sure" if he likes it.  He is just a larger version of a toddler who will only eat chicken nuggets.  I mean come on it was a nice pork tenderloin the was cooked (in my opinion) to perfection and all I got was... "It's fine."

I swear I hate the saying "It's fine".  You would think this would be sufficient for me but it is not.  I think it has undertones of  "I HATE IT", I could be wrong.  Would it kill him to just throw me a bone and say..."this is great, you did a good job sweetheart" ?

I am not saying that if something is disgusting and inedible he should say that, but if he would eat it again than yes, throw me the rawhide baby!

It may just be that we are only going on our 3rd year of marriage and the "training" is yet to be complete.

My goal for the coming year will be to get my dear, sweet, loving, husband to know when to embellish the truth just enough for his overworked, under payed, tired wife feels like she did good!

BTW- I really liked it and have already signed up for another session.  Looks like hubby will have to go through cutlet withdrawal.  *grin*

Theme Thursday: Fall

Head over to the The Land of K. A for more Theme Thursday: Fall

Wordless Wednesday

Just in on the fun over at Wordless Wednesday

That's just great!

When we purchased this house we made a decision not to go with the builders appliances. We chose to purchase all our appliances and get extended warranties on all. Since this was going to be a large purchase, my husband did extensive research before deciding on what to get.

So after all the research we have some nice appliances, not top of the line, but not bottom of the line. Since the purchase we have had a few issues. 

I somehow blew a fuse in the microwave that lend to the lights not working. In the end we got a whole new microwave. This is all due to that extended warranty.

Lately it has been the dishwasher. First, it leaked near the door and that got fixed.  Then my husband realized that the selector was not working.  This is were you select normal, pot&pan, antibacterial, etc.  First off only one of the selector buttons didn't work, you could push the other and cycle through all the selections.  Second, I never used it, I left it on Pot&Pans.  

G decides to call the GE repair guy because that is why we got the extended warranty.  The guy comes out and decides he needs to order a part and return.  While here the first time he tells G the dish detergent we are using is not the proper kind for this machine.  Of course it's not, the stuff you can buy in Bulk at SAM's Club is never the proper stuff.  So now we have to buy more expensive soap and in smaller quantities.

On his subsequent visit the repair guy tells G that we really should rinse the dishes more before putting them into the machine and run the hot water to "prime" the dishwasher.

Are you kidding me?

What a minute! That why I bought a decent dishwasher, so I wouldn't have to do the dishes. Now I don't just toss them in there, I scrape and rinse really large chunks.  I don't rinse the spot clean.  That's the dishwashers job, and it's been doing a good job so far.

Just wait till I get a hold of that repair "MAN".

Now we are rinsing everything clean before putting it in to the dishwasher that requires fancy soap to run.  

That bring us to yesterday.  I ended up being home with a sick baby  (hand, foot and (in) mouth disease) and decided to try and do some housework.  I was emptying the dishwasher when I was at least halfway done and realized that the dishwasher had not been run yet.  This was because I found a few things that weren't rinse soooo clean.  Probably my fault since G is so good at housework. 

Before I would have known right away the dishes were dirty cause they would have looked dirty. I then had to figure out what I put away and put it all and them some (cause I wasn't sure) back in the dishwasher with the expensive soap and run it!

That's just great!

Muffins

I saw a post last week with a great picture of Pumpkin Muffins, I was inspired.  For the life of me I can not recall who posted it and I could not find it looking back through most of the blogs on my reader.  I really wanted to give a shout out to the person that inspired me to bake up not one but two batches of pumpkin muffins.

If it was you, Thanks!

Then I was inspired to take a picture of them by my friend over at Baked By Beanie.  She had asked me to take some pictures of her beautiful creations, which I haven't had the chance to do yet.  Then I thought I have never really taken pictures of food and I should give it a try.  

 

I know this isn't the greatest, it my first try.  I think it definitely lacks something somewhere in the composition or the angle.  I am not quite sure.  This was the best shot I took and it really isn't doing it for me.  I think I am going to go look up some web sites about photographing food. 

As you can also see there were not that many muffins on the plate, that is due to their popularity around here.  I used the pumpkin as filler. When I went to get the muffins out this morning that was all that was there.  As soon as I said I was finished taking the picture, this happened.

Funny thing is I like this picture better than any of the others.  

Now, just because I can't get enough of him, here a picture of one of my favorite muffins. Isn't he scrumdidilyumptious!

Anyone have any good tips of food photography or were I can go to find out?  Any advise would be awesome!

Help, Help I am being repressed!

So we had yet another morning with a lot of wine whine.  Francesco tried to refuse getting dressed.  He started yelling at G, "No, No, No!" and kicking his feet.  G tolerated this for about 2 seconds.  He sent him off to "Thinking Time".

Thinking Time is spent on the bottom step.  This came about because when we tried to use a chair he would scoot it around the room.  He figured as long as he was still sitting in the chair he was abiding by the rules.

So off to the step he goes with a lot of protest.  He sits there doing his fake cry and whining.  G say, "What is he saying?"

As I walk past Francesco to go up the steps I say, "He's saying...My life is so hard, my parent make me eat a good breakfast and put on clean clothes.  I am being repressed!"

A second latter I hear my words regurgitated back at me from the bottom of the steps, "I'M BEING REPRESSED!" Francesco yells out.

I almost fall down the steps in laughter, and when I come back down there is G just laughing.  He tells me we have human tap recorder.  It was so funny and eye opening to say the least.  Like my sister said I really need to watch what I say.

jump forward a few minute...

We are heading out the door for daycare/work and Francesco insists on putting the bike helmet on.  So I oblige because I really need to go and take him by the hand out the door.  G was already outside getting Nicolo in the car.  He see Francesco with the helmet and say, "He's scared of you driving too I see."

Why am I the only female in this family, why?

Sit! I said sit!

While the mayhem of the morning routine occurred this morning Francesco insisted on playing with his trains.   Even though he has never watched Thomas the Train he has an obsession with them.  It all started after a visit to my parents.  They bought a train set for all the kids to play with at their house, well he was hooked.

I digress.

So there he was "peacefully" playing with the trains as G and I did the morning dance...

"Do you want me to dress Nicolo in the outfit you laid out on the changing table?"  

"No , let me run back upstairs to get a completely different outfit than the one that I brought down 10 Min's ago and laid out on the changing table for him."  (There is only the slightest bit of sarcasms in this statement)

Next thing I hear is Francesco saying, "Sit, I said sit!"

I turn to look and there is my precious 2 year old waging his finger at his Yellow Sodor Fuel train car that is now sitting on the bottom step.  He repeats this statement 2 more times with the same finger wag.

I look at G and say..."Do I sound like that?"

His response is.."I don't know if I should laugh or be worried?"

After a couple on minutes I ask Francesco if the "train" can come out of thinking time.  His response was..."one more minute"

Now I don't know if I should:

A) Laugh

B) Worry

C) Be pissed that he is acting like me

If he was going to emulate G he would just go around yelling "Eat!"

I proceeded to call my resident expert (my lovely, sweet, understanding sister) who told me that it was completely normal.  She did warn to to now watch my language.  

Wordless Wednesday

This is how I know fall is coming, the geese are flying south!

Just in on the fun over at Wordless Wednesday

Why I need a Wife...

I need a wife to:

• Get up at 5 am, heat up the baby bottle while making coffee and changing over the loads of laundry
• Feed the baby and then iron my clothes for the day (ideally she would iron my clothes for the week and that would give her more time in the morning to make a hot breakfast for me, beggars can’t be choosers now).
• Feed the kid breakfast so I can blow-dry my hair and actually put on makeup before going to work. This would occur without yelling “Eat” a million time at a 2 year old.
• Get the kids dressed and realize that the clothes that I laid out are the ones that I intended for them to wear.  Why would I go through the trouble of bringing the outfits downstairs if I had not intended for them to wear them????  Ideal she would even pick out the outfits, but I have better taste.
• Take the kids to daycare so that I could have a quite leisurely drive and listen to the morning news.  She would love Go-Diego-Go and enjoy hearing the same thing over and over again.  She would also have extra long arms to reach all the things that the 2 year old “drops” on the floor and repeatedly (100 times) say “Help, Help” while pointing at  the floor.
• Pick up said kids from daycare for a repeat scenario on the way home.  She is lucky that it is only a 20-30 min drive max.  That way I could run errand, kid free.
• Most importantly make dinner, every night.
• Clean up the dishes, and not just the ones on the table.  She would even wipe off the counters, sweep the floor and start the dishwasher.
• Prepare all the formula and lunches for the next day so I wouldn’t have to think about that either.
• Make sure the house is picked up after the kids go to bed so that I don’t trip and fall over any of the gazillion train tracks the 2 year must have.
• Get up in the middle of the night to search aimlessly for a Binky in the dark, while the two year old screams and the 6 month old starts to be awakened.

 

Now I wouldn’t expect her to do all this everyday of the week, I might help out on Saturday or Sunday.

 

You may notice that the bath time is not listed.  I would still keep the husband because he is good at that and playing with the kids outside.  I would also still need him to fix things, like my iPod, Smart Phone, TiVo, Computer, Blue Tooth Headset, etc.

 

Anybody know where I can get a wife???

 

Best Shot Monday

First off I have to give credit to my husband for this picture.  We saw this praying mantis in the yard and thought it would be a great shot.  He used my camera set on the Auto Macro setting. The camera was still set on RAW, so I did the processing with Photoshop.  I think it came out great.

For more best shots, head on over to Mother May I and see what every one else has to share!

Can't decide...

which one I like best.  

I am continuing to learns tons of tips and trick for my photoshop program.  I captured  this picture of Francesco admiring his reflection in our neighbors van.  I really like how you can see his face in the reflection.  

I found some great actions over at CoffeeShop Photography.

Actions are great, with just a click you can get some really neat effects, I also enjoy the tutorials that teach you how the action works.

I just adjusted the levels on this one and put a light vignette around the edges.

This one I used an Action on it to get to be B&W.

This one I found and action called Creamy Toffee Latte...sounds yummy, I did take some of the effect off of him and the reflection of his face.

Like I said I am undecided on which one I like.  What do you think?

The Power of Caffeine

Months ago my niece and I made Terrariums.  Here's a little reminder picture with my cute niece.

She decided to take the larger Terrarium home with her and left me with this little guy.  I put him in my window above my sink.  I watered it approximately every other day with coffee.  I would just  dump any left over coffee in it in the morning and now look at it.

If only I looked that good from drinking coffee.

** I poured coffee in it because my MIL told me she use to dump left over coffee in some of her plants and they really like it.  One morning as I was pouring the left over coffee down the drain and  I remembered what she said.  I decided to pour  a little into the plant.  It started to grow and I just keep pouring coffee in it.  It really seems to like it.  I have some of the original plant outside that gets just water and the same sun as this and it is no were near the same size.

Theme Thursday: Multiples

How many spoons do you really need to eat oatmeal? Apparently it's 5!

Head over to the The Land of K. A for more Theme Thursday: Multiples

Wordless Wednesday

Kisses!

Just in on the fun over at Wordless Wednesday