Wrapping Up Spring Break

Today is the last day of spring break :( We've had a great week and I'm sad to see it end, but I know that summer is fast approaching and soon we'll be back to sleeping late and playing hard. After entertaining my girls this whole past week, I was able to get out yesterday morning and shop some garage sales with my parents.I left the house with just $40.00 cash and that was the exact cost of all the items I found - down to the last dollar! Here are some of my finds... A large antique mirror, some old frames, and some sconces. (The reflection is Ben and my mom debating how to hang the mirror)I am going to paint the sconces and frames, but the mirror is now hanging on my dinning room wall.I also bought this Vive le Fete 2 piece smocked cowgirl outfit for Anabelle, along with a sweet pair of pink gingham shorts, and 2 pairs of Lamore shoes. Love!Last, I was super excited to find this baby doll carrier from Middleton's Newborn Nursery. We plan to let Anabelle "adopt a baby" for her birthday this year and I can fill this carrier with some fun accessories as part of her gift. It looks brand new and I bought it for $1.00 (originally retailed for $21.00) Awesome!In other weekend news, my mom finished the pillows for the girl's bed. So lovely!Anabelle approves ;) Thanks Mom!I've recently decided to decorate my previously unfinished dinning room - starting with a chair redo. I LOVE these chairs (a garage sale find from a while back) but the paint is old and very chippy (and I assume lead based) so I am stripping them to repaint. Big job.I am also working on a fund raiser for Tom's One Day Without Shoes on Tuesday April 5th. My friend Kimberly is helping organize the St. Augustine event through Goldfinch Boutique and the Flagler College art department. She asked if I might like to participate in decorating the shoes with the art students - sounded like fun to me. I'm working on an idea with felt flowers. Take a look at some of the cool designs on Goldfinch's Facebook page. In case you aren't familiar with Tom's shoes, for every pair they sell they give one pair away to a child in need. One for one.One more thing I wanted to share is this yummy shrimp quiche I made last night. This is what it looks like before it is baked (no after picture because the hubby could not wait to start eating it). It's really easy to make...

Ingredients

1 can of crescent rolls (for crust)

1 block of pepper jack cheese cut into cubes

1+ cup of shrimp

1 bunch of green onions chopped

2 eggs

Press crescent roll dough into pie plate. Add cheese, onions, and shrimp. Pour 2 scrabbled eggs over top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 min.

I'm doing laundry and trying to finish watching The War tonight. If you have never seen this series let me just tell you that you should. It is perhaps the best WWII documentary that I have ever seen. It has such an original, touching, personal perspective. It features testimony from a few familiar faces (that some of you other history enthusiasts may already know) along with many others that you will feel you know by the end of the series. I often find myself thinking about how much I would love to sit with some of these fine people - for hours and hours - just listening. I especially day dream about how nice it would be to visit on a front porch with Katharine Phillips from Mobile (sister of Sid Phillips who was portrayed in HBO's The Pacific) I so enjoy her outlook, her sophisticated southern drawl, and the way she turns one syllable words into two (the way she says words like "war" and "boys"). I think she and I would get along just grand. She too is the older sister of two brothers (who served in the military) and has 2 daughters - just like me. I feel like there is so much that we could gleen today from absorbing insight from "the greatest generation" (as they are often refered to). We are in fact living during war and troubled economic times just as they did, but instead of learning to do without like the home front Americans before us, we just keep swiping those credits cards and neglect to contribute to the greater good of our country. We have an opportunity to learn from them! If by chance any of you know Katharine or know someone who does I would LOVE to meet her - I seriously can't think of anything I would like more. I do know that her family owns an antique store where she and Sidney sell antique linens in Alabama - I think I smell a road trip!

Sort of a Funny Day

I am at the start of a busy week for me - lots on my list for the next 6 days!

Today was sort of a funny day.

I went to a long overdue appointment with the ENT doctor, where he confirmed what I already suspected - that I have significant permanent hearing loss in my left ear. I apparently have Otosclerosis and my choices are a) Do nothing about it and it will eventually progress until I am deaf in that ear b)Wear a hearing aid c) Have surgery to install a prosthesis. My doctor and I agreed that doing nothing about it would be sort of lame, especially considering that I am young and would have a lot of life left to just pretend that I can hear people, and since I don't really want to wear a hearing aid it looks like I will choose to have surgery at some point. None of the diagnosis surprised me, I knew I couldn't hear , so when I tested really poorly I was not that upset. I'm really ok about the whole thing. I did, however, just read on a website that this condition is most common in "white middle-aged women" and I will say that makes me feel slightly un-cool since I am not yet middle-aged. Oh well, for a girl who had gout at the ripe ol' age of 21 I should have been prepared for more premature aging - am I right? Sheeeeesh... tomorrow it will be "Off to the nursing home!" for me ;)

After my appointment I went to the post office to mail a LARGE package of clothes to my brother Reed - who by the way returned to Germany from deployment in the middle east last week - welcome back to the western world!!! While Reed was away, he gave me the very fun task of selecting some new clothes for him and today I finally sent off that heck of a big box! While I waited in line at the post office I experienced a sort of sentimental event. The line was long and I had the giant box at my feet, nudging it forward here and there as the line moved forward. As I waited I studied the pictures that Evie drew all over the outside of the box and just missed my little bother - a lot. After about 10 minutes in line I realized that I recognized the man being served at the counter - my high school technology teacher. I was in his class on the morning of 9/11/2001. I sat in a desk in his class room on the morning of 9/11/2001 and watched live as the second plane hit the South Tower. Everyone remembers where they were that morning, who they were with, exactly what they were doing, everything about those moments when life changed forever. Nearly 10 years later, those moments are still so vivid - yes? They are for me - clear as glass. And this afternoon I found myself face to face with the adult who guided me and my class mates through those first hard realizations... this is not an accident and life will never be the same. We didn't speak to each other in the post office today, but we did smile. I'm not sure I could have spoken to him if I'd tried because I really needed to cry. 10 years later here I stood with a package for my baby brother who just came back from the war... the war that started while I was in computer class that day... that day when my baby brother was just in seventh grade.
And... because of that day when the war started I had to cut open my giant box in the middle of the post office in front of a million people and remove the shoe polish that I bought for Reed's new boots because it was "in violation" of one of a thousand new rules put in place since that day when the war started while I was in computer class and my baby brother was just in the seventh grade.
Phweeew! Can't a girl send a soldier boy some shoe polish (spoken with some serious attitude) Ummm Hmmm?!!!! Anyway, it was all so surreal. I wonder... if we had talked... what my teacher might have told me about his past 10 years...

I'm not really sure how to wrap up this post or how to tie it all together. I could say something cheesy like "Lord I'll gladly be deaf for the rest of my life if you'll only grant us world peace and send my brothers back home to live close by again!" But that was not really the direction I was trying to go here ;) So I will instead end with a favorite verse - a promise...

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that HE who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
Philipians 1:3-6

P.S. The picture in this post is from my brother Neal's wedding. It is the only photo I have of my whole side of the family together - Anabelle is in my tummy :) I am so not trying to be a Debbie Downer by sharing it this way. It's just precious to me.

The Pacific

So, it's time for me to come clean about something. I've dropped hints here and there on my blog, but to be honest, there is a huge part of who I am and what I'm interested in that I have nearly omitted from my writings here. So here goes... I am a WWII history enthusiast, I love all history actually, but this particular time period intrigues me more than any other. People are often surprised to learn this about me, especially when a friend drops by to find me pasted to the Military History Chanel. More than once, one of my friends has said something to me along the lines of "You're such a girly girl, and here you are watching all these guns and planes?!!!" Yes, almost everyday, but it's not the guns, the planes, the blood, or the gore that fascinates me so much - it's the people. To me there are no better stories than those of ordinary people caught in extraordinary situations, and during the Second World War, there was no shortage of extraordinary situations - world wide. You learn so much about man kind through the people who have literally been through hell on earth. What makes a coward, or a hero? What slight differences in people determine the depth of their wickedness or humanity? After a long day with my little girls, it's refreshing to use my brain, to listen, and to analyze.

Tonight on HBO, a new 10 week miniseries premiered, The Pacific, it's done by the producers of Band of Brothers (one of my all time favorites). I thought that part one was really well done, it was intense, and heart wrenching already. I'm actually watching it for the second time as I type this post. Like Band of Brothers, I think this series is going to be filled with just an unreal amount of information to take in, and will therefore require a lot of re-watching for me to really understand. I mean just tonight's show has provoked so many thoughts - even thoughts on topics that are seemingly unrelated, such as parenting. Seriously, never underestimate what all you can learn through learning about history. Being that these shows tend to consume me and become a part of my life, I'll probably be referencing the show frequently over the next 10 weeks. My blog has never really had one particular focus, it's always just been a little bit of everything that I am - mommy, home keeper, decorator, crafter, etc. Just add "history buff" to the list (now that I'm coming clean anyway) and keep following along!

Happy President's Day!

Who wants to play a little Presidential trivia and win a $20.00 gift certificate to my shop? I'm a history nerd, so this sounds like fun to me - and since I'm not looking over your shoulder, you can use Google to help you find the answers. E-mail your answers to me at snigletsbaby@gmail.com and I will do a random drawing to determine the winner. For every 2 correct answers you will earn 1 entry. You can do it! This is a great opportunity to earn Sniglets dollars towards something for your little one or a baby gift! Here we go...

1) Who was the first President of the United States? (an easy one so that everyone who plays has their first 1/2 chance to win!)

2) ________________ was a member of the "Rough Riders", the first US volunteer cavalry.

3) List the four Presidents depicted on Mount Rushmore

4) Which president got stuck in a White House bathtub, and later had it replaced with a large tub that could accommodate 4 average size adults?

5) What is the first name of First Lady Madison (married to President James Madison)?

6) Which president was wounded in a dual and carried a bullet in his chest for the rest of his life?

7) Which president was a Union General during the Civil War?

8) Who was the first Catholic president?

9) Who was the first president who's own mother was eligible to vote for him?

10) At 73, who was the oldest man ever elected president (it was his second term)?

So, some of these are hard, but never under estimate the power of Google! Answer as many as you can, good luck!

Winner will be announced on the blog next week on Monday!

Update: Several of you responded right away with 100% correct answers - could not have made my "nerd heart" happier! I hope all of you will play, people I know, other Etsy sellers/crafters, and blog stalkers too! Don't be shy ;)