Tag Archives: baby blogs

Odds and Ends

Just a few odds and ends that I want to catch you all up on.

Happy Saturday, all! I have a few odds and ends that I wanted to make sure I shared out on the blog, none of them are really long enough for their own post, so I’m just going to combine it into one big update.

  1. I’ve been live with the new blog design for about 2 weeks now and I am finally getting the hang of all the different pages, and widgets I now have. With the new blog design I’ve been able to set up a sponsorship program through Passionfruit Ads. What this means, is that if you like my blog and would like to have your ad placed on my sidebar, you can do so by clicking on the Sponsor Me! at the top of my blog (or click here). All of my monthly stats are listed there, so you know what you’re paying for, but if you have any additional questions, please feel free to email or comment.
  2. I also now have a blog button. Yay! You can find it on my right hand panel. If you love my blog and want to grab my button, please feel free to do so. This is MUCH appreciated!button250
  3. I was recently contacted by Mark of Kairos Life, they’ve created this fantastic website where you can save digital memories and heirlooms, and have them set to release on a specific date, essentially a digital time capsule. I’m really excited to share with you, that Kairos Life is currently in “Beta” testing and is offering my readers the ability to have a free membership, simply by signing-up to assist with some of the testing. Stop on over today and sign-up, who doesn’t love free stuff?
  4. A friend of mine recently opened Unforgettable Underdogs Dog Rescue, they are a volunteer run, foster-based, no-kill dog rescue serving the Wisconsin area. Since they are just newly opened, they are working hard to raise money for any medical costs or supplies that may come up. If you are able to, why not stop over and donate and help save a dog’s life. Also, be sure to visit their Facebook page and like Unforgettable Underdogs Dog Rescue.

Alright! That’s about it, I think I’m all caught up now – I hope you’re all enjoying your weekends.

Your turn!

Have you come across any new websites giving out free trials, or any new places to donate?

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What I Ate Wednesday – # 5

It’s that time of the week again, that time for What I Ate Wednesday.

It wasn’t an exciting day for eats but still yummy nonetheless. Let’s get started right off with breakfast, I had two slices of Wegmans 100% Whole Wheat bread, with eggs that were supposed to be overhard but both yolks burst as I was flipping them (boo!). On the bread was some Trader Joe’s Goat Cheese, avocado and some absolutely delicious locally grown, never been refridgerated, tomato. Yes, I’m being very descriptive because I love tomatoes, but more specifically those that are grown and picked in WNY that have never once seen the inside of a fridge.

Let’s take a step back for a second, when I was a little girl my grandma did canning, she’d make homemade BBQ sauce, tomato sauce and tomato juice. I loved being a part of it, we’d do all of the work in her basement and crank the tomatoes through the grinder by hand. She was always so cautious, worried that one of us might lose a finger in the grinder so we (mostly my sister and I) did the cranking and she’d push the tomatoes in. We’d also then help her scrape the screen where the skins and seeds got caught, some of that would be saved and used in some of her recipes. As I retell this story, I am putting myself right back in her basement, smelling the already ground tomatoes boiling down on the stove for one of the three recipes. But my favorite thing of all would be when she’d let us grab one of the tomatoes straight from the bushel and eat it like an apple, no washing or slicing. The taste was out of this world, I can still feel it hitting my taste buds today.

When I went to the Farmer’s market this past weekend and realized that it was fresh tomato season, I did a little cheer to myself. I bought a bunch of the larger ones for salads and just for eating (like an apple) but then also bought some cherry tomatoes. When I first threw one of those in my mouth, it took me right back to my grandma’s basement. Mmmmm

Alright time for some pics, here’s my breakfast.

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As you can see I also had two yellow plums and that one has a bite out of it. Well, the external flash on our camera needs new batteries and we don’t currently have any in the house so when I need to use the flash, it takes forever to warm up and I was very hungry this morning. I couldn’t wait! 😀

I completely forgot to get a photo of my lunch. I had a luncheon at work, I had 2 slices of vegetable pizza, a bowl of salad and one too many brownies.

Dinner was one of my favorites! Pulled pork with a slice of American cheese with horseradish on a Marco Polo roll, so delicious. We do it pretty easily in the crock-pot, just throw half a pork shoulder in with some salt, pepper and BBQ seasoning for about 8 hours. Then, about a half hour before you want to eat, pour a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce in and let it cook on high for about 30 minutes. Finally… enjoy!

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We also had some roasted broccoli, where, yes, I put a slice of American cheese on it. I couldn’t resist, I haven’t done it in ages and thought, what the hell!?

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I also had some Polar Triple Berry Seltzer Water. I’ve been really into the setlzer lately, but my favorite flavor has to be the vanilla. It tastes almost like an Italian soda. Yummy!

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And finally, I work from home on Wednesdays. I’m pretty fortunate in that Emmett does a great job of entertaining himself and leaving me to get work done. However, today, he wanted to be as near as possible while I was working.

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He laid like that for quite some time, while I was just typing away. Such a sweetie!

Your turn!

What did you enjoy on this What I Ate Wednesday?

 As always, a huge thank you to Peas and Crayons for hosting!

Happy First Birthday, Emmett!

I think if I were a one year old, I would have been really happy with how Emmett spent his first birthday.

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When my niece celebrated her first birthday back in May, my sister had commented how she wished she had taken the day off just to spend it with her. I made a mental note of this comment. I know me and I know how much it means to me to be with the ones I love on their special days, so I took off July 23rd, as did Seamus. We made no real concrete plans, we didn’t want to, we wanted to go with the flow of the day and in the end it was simply perfect.

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Emmett woke up at his normal weekend time, around 6 am and we spent a little time cuddling in bed (our normal weekend routine, described here). After awhile, Seamus was still tired and I wanted to go get breakfast, so Emmett and I headed out to get bagels at Bagel Jay’s an awesome local bagel restaurant, while Seamus tried to nap longer. Emmett and I ate there, I wanted to just be alone with my baby boy before our day really got going. He was wonderful, just smiley and loving, I was so happy.

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We got home and while daddy ate his breakfast, I got Emmett dressed in his birthday shirt. It had his name, a train and a 1 on it. It was a hand-me-down but it was perfect for his special day. Don’t worry, we’ll be getting him his own for his birthday party in August.

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Not that a one year old can make their own decisions, but I wanted Emmett to dictate how the day went to the best of his abilities, meaning that he’d nap when he wanted to and we’d go out for lunch when he woke up, we’d play with the toys he chose, read if he decided he wanted to be curled up in our laps, I didn’t care. I wanted the day to be about him (and our memories of his birth).

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We played and he practiced walking all morning long. By the time nap time had rolled around he’d been so active that he was pooped, he nursed and fell fast a sleep for a nice long nap. He woke up with a squeal (of delight) on the monitor. I went in to find him sitting up in the corner of his crib, playing with his pacifier and blanket, just smiling away. I know that he’s only one and likely had no idea that it was his birthday, but he sure acted like it was a special day, maybe it was just being home with Seamus and I.

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Before we headed out for lunch, Seamus gave Emmett his first present from us (he’ll get more at his party in August), a set of Duplo Legos. Oh my goodness, this child is in love with them! We spent so much time just opening the package and examining every block. We’d then stack them up and Emmett would knock them down, it was a blast.

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At lunch, we had a happy, silly boy. I got a ton of great pictures, as you can see below. He always seems to really enjoy himself when we go out, I think it’s because he has new scenery to look at. We don’t give Emmett a lot of sweets, typically the sweetest thing he eats is fruit but we let him splurge, since it was his birthday. He had his very first Cone Head sundae at Friendly’s and he loved it SO much!

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Seamus and I decided that for as long as Emmett will tolerate it, we will take him to Friendly’s for his birthday. I think it might be the first tradition we’ll be making as a family, you have NO idea how excited this makes me. Along with my love of reminiscing, comes my love of traditions, I’m sure you can understand why.

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The rest of the evening was spent playing with his new Legos and going outside for a bit.

See! Doesn’t it sound like THE perfect first birthday?

Question of the day:

How did you spend your children’s first birthdays?

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