this and that

It's early.  I didn't have a scheduled post for this morning.  So umm, ramblings...

::  The other day I was getting out snack for Ryann, and the following came out of my mouth:  "Why is there a penguin in the pantry?"  And then I laughed at the ridiculousness of that statement, and remembered a post that Melissa had written a little while back.  Funny stuff in there, you should read it.

::  Something miraculous happened.  Ryann woke up a little early on Sunday (5:45am thanks to daylight saving time).  And then?  Then she slept until 6:45am yesterday.  And today?  It is 6:30 and she is still asleep.  AMAZING.  I have no idea how this happened, but oh my word I am so happy.

::  Want to know something crazy?  I'm pretty sure the last five or six dinners I've made have been in the crockpot.  I can't remember the last time I cooked something (besides rice or scrambled eggs) on the stove.  And the only use my oven has seen is for baking.  It is amazing, and makes evenings go so much smoother in our house.  Unfortunately that reminds me I forgot to decide what I'm making for dinner tonight...

::  So I definitely don't start celebrating Christmas until after Thanksgiving.  No Christmas music or decorations for me until The Friday after.  But that doesn't mean I don't start thinking about it!  I've got a pinterest board up and running (although it should probably just be titled winter...), gathering fun little ideas.  I'm getting really excited :o).

::  Speaking of Christmas, this year I really want to put together an advent calendar.  It would be a fun little tradition to start for our family.  My plan is to do something with little activity cards for each day, with things such as bake cookies, visit Santa Claus, make a gingerbread house, etc.  I figured not only is an advent calendar fun, but having this little list of activities will be like scheduling in holiday fun everyday.  But I'm still short on ideas, have any suggestions?  I also need to decide how I want to set it up...

::  We are having family pictures taken on Monday.  I have ZERO idea what we are all going to wear.  It is of course stressing me out a bit.  Oy.

::  Gotta go, the little one is awake.  Hope your day turns out to be a great one!

pinterest challenge {a fall mantel}

Well I'm a little late to the pinterest party (as if anyone is surprised).  And I didn't exactly put this together for this whole pinterest challenge.  But I figured it was about time that I proved to my mother that pinterest isn't absolutely useless (ok really she just doesn't get it, but mom?  pinterest is awesome.  it is not a waste of time.  for real!).

This...

was inspired by this...

via

And obviously, the original is much nicer than mine.  Because um, well, I'm pretty sure their pumpkins are real.  Not some cheap ol' fakes like mine.  And I'm not loving the spray paint colors I picked out.  The lighter color is a wee bit pastel for me, and the dark color looks blah.  Not to mention the dark color brand (krylon I believe?) did NOT cover.  Maybe I should have primed (probably) but I didn't.  And the light green went on no problem (rustoleum).  So when the dark started streaming off the pumpkins I just said screw it and kept going.  Pretend you don't see the orange peeking through (and that the pictures aren't crappy quality.  bad lighting bad lighting bad lighting meant I didn't use a good aperture for these and had my iso cranked...), ok?  Thanks.

I'll probably expand on the idea next year.  Maybe try and find a few more sizes of pumpkins for some variety.  Change the spray paint colors.  Or heck, maybe try and find real pumpkins to use (but these don't rot!).  Also I want to find some different stick/flower things and probably a different vase.  I got that green one at Pier One super cheap over three years ago.  About time for a change isn't it?

You can check out more fall pinterest challenge fun here, here, here and here.

this and that

::  Ryann is coming down with something.  So far she is doing alright, just a runny nose and such, and maybe the slightest fever yesterday.  Obviously you never want your kiddo to be sick, but I haven't seen her this calm or cuddly in a long time.  She isn't grumpy or overly clingy, but she happy sat in my lap and snuggled and is just kind of hanging out.  Like she doesn't have the energy to throw a fit about the things she usually would.  I kind of love it.  But I hope she feels better soon...

icky feeling baby toddler...

...cheered up by Mickey Mouse.  stupid mouse.  why does she love you so?

::  I attempted the sock bun curls.  First time = giant fail.  I tried putting the bun in three different times.  It is tough with thick layered hair!  And when I woke up in morning, big giant fro.  It was kind of a disaster.  I could see how it could work, but it definitely didn't work for me.  And I don't know how much trying I really want to do.  I think if I did it at the end of the day, when my hair isn't so poofy, maybe that what help.  This time I had attempted it after taking an evening shower.

yep, i have a massive bum.  oh wait, bun... curl fail.

::  While attempting to take a picture of the back of my head (which I was unsuccessful at 99% of the time, that is hard, how do people do it?) I turned around to find this:

I always let her play with my make-up bag (obviously the reason why most of my make-up is broken) but she has never actually gotten the different things open.  Until now of course.  She was so cute and SO proud of herself, sitting there putting on make-up like mommy.  I tried to take a picture of her bright pink cheek (she did the same one over and over again), but she wasn't having it.

::  I have got to figure out how I can look decent throughout the day.  Usually we are rushing somewhere after the gym so the best I can do is put on normal clothes.  My hair is generally still a disaster and I often don't have on any make-up.  And when those things aren't done it seems useless to put too much thought into my outfit.  But I hate that.  I DO care about my appearance.  I don't want to sit around in sweats all day looking frumpy.  I've pinned too many cute outfits for that!  :o).  Just need to figure out how to quickly get my hair from gym hair to day hair.  What do you do?



::  The fall pinterest challenge was issued over at Young House Love.  I've been needing to get my craft on lately.  Really, needing it.  So this would be the perfect kick in the butt right?  Except we're at my parents house until midday Monday, so I'd have to figure out what I want to do and make it happen pretty quick.  I mean I'm sure it wouldn't be the end of the world if I didn't get it done by Wednesday, but I try and follow the 'rules' most of the time.  :o).  Two things I'd like to try?  Ruffled kitchen towels and a blinged out camera strap.  I could have my mom help me with the kitchen towel (I need to learn how to sew!)... Hi mom!  The only problem with the camera strap, is that I love my current one so much.

1.  pinterest via here; 2.  pinterest via here; 3.  pinterest via here

::  I'm loving the 'search this blog' feature over there.  Why I never added it before I'm not sure.  There is probably some easy way to search your archives, but I was always doing a little guess and check poking around when I wanted to link back to old posts.  Now I can just search what I want in that little box.  Much better.

::  Ryann is 19 months old today.  Craziness.  Hopefully I'll have her 19 month post up tonight or tomorrow, but well, don't count on it.  I haven't even started it.  And I don't know where to start!!

Have a GREAT Saturday.

more random thoughts and info

Really, this post could be called "It's 10:06PM on a Monday Night and Ashley Doesn't Know What to Blog About."  But that is a bit excessive, is it not?  So I thought I'd just throw a hodge podge of stuff at you again, and call it good.  I suppose I could have just posted nothing, but what's the fun in that?  You'd rather hear me ramble, I know.

Since I got called out on my lack of comment response after Friday's post (no worries, no offense taken), I thought I'd do my best to make nice/explain myself in regards to how I approach comments.  To begin with, I greatly appreciate all of the positive feedback I receive from you all, really it means the world to me and gives me the courage to keep putting myself out there.  And all of your helpful tips, advice and suggestions are awesome, I am so thankful for your responses.  But I don't plan on responding individually to every single comment of that nature.  Just know, again, that I do read every single comment (they come to my inbox!) and truly do appreciate them.

When questions are left in the comment section, I usually do one of four things:  1.  Respond to the comment directly in the comments section.  But I need to figure out how to better set up the comment section on my end so my response can be located directly next to the question.  2.  I answer the question in a following blog post.  This is honestly what I try to do most often, because a lot of the questions I get are something I think other people might wonder too.  3.  I plan to answer the question in a following blog post, and either forget, or spend forever trying to come up with the best way to word my response and never actually go through with the post.  4.  I open the e-mail on my phone and straight up forget there was a question I needed to answer.  That, well, happens way too frequently.  And not just with blog comments.  I am TERRIBLE about opening an e-mail on my phone, not being able to respond immediately, and then flat out forgetting I had an e-mail to respond to.  I need to mark them as unread (or not open important e-mails on my phone) but it doesn't usually happen.

I decided to go back through the last 30 days of comments, and try and catch any questions that I know I haven't responded to.  There were more than just these that I didn't respond to in the comment section, but I know I e-mailed the question asker (very official term of course) personally so I'm just going to skip over them.

In response to my gym rant, Jess said "Are you training for a half?  I love running outside."
I would most definitely prefer to run outside, but for me it works best to get my runs done in the morning, and in order to have someone watch Ryann I have to hit the gym.  The treadmill is lame, but it is better than nothing!  And yes, I am going to say I am training for the KC Half on October 15th!!

My bestie wanted to know what I thought of the Trader Joe's Sunflower Seed Butter.
At first it was kind of weird, because I was expecting it to taste like peanut butter.  Which it does in a sense, but really it tastes like, well, sunflower seeds.  I have no idea why :).  It took a couple times, but eventually I got over the fact that it weirded me out a bit.  And I discovered I really like carrots dipped in it.

CoreysGal wanted to know "Is it awkward to be around other children Ryann's age with how much she is talking and how much she already knows?"
Well, yes and no.  I have said it OVER and OVER, no kid is the same and none of you out there should be comparing your child to mine.  Yes, Ryann's vocabulary is insane.  I have no idea why.  I didn't do anything magic nor do I have special tricks up my sleeve.  I present her opportunities to learn letters and numbers and things of that nature because she seems to enjoy it.  It is something we can do together.  When we are with other kids, or just around people who know kids Ryann's age, I do hear a lot of "Wow she is so smart!  My kid can't say that."  Or you know, my kid doesn't know that, my child only says this or that.  The only reason it is ever awkward is because, well, I'm awkward.  :o)  Seriously, it's true, I don't know how to react to positive reinforcement or praise in person.  I try and downplay the situation and just keep talking myself into more awkwardness.  But ultimately we move on, they're just kids.  And usually the child we are playing with can kick Ryann's butt in running/throwing/climbing/jumping, you know, the gross motor skills.  She has a lot of fine motor skills and a pretty good attention span, but she still doesn't move her little body around as well as a lot of other kids.  It all evens out.

Jamie asked, "What type/brand of frozen yogurt do you eat?"
I usually buy the Kemp's Fat Free Chocolate Frozen Yogurt.  I've gotten the low fat chocolate, as well as the fat free cookies and cream, and the are great too.  Recently we did our grocery shopping at WalMart and they didn't have Kemps, so I ended up with Blue Bunny's Strawberry Banana.  It was REALLY good, and I wouldn't mind getting another carton of that when my chocolate runs out.  I have mentioned that I eat my ice cream (frozen yogurt) every night, no matter what, right?  :o)

I think that about covers it.  If you have any questions you really wanted me to answer, feel free to ask again here or on my facebook page.  I swear I'm not trying to ignore you, I'm just really forgetful and scatterbrained a lot :o).  Hence the posts where I tell you 9 million things that don't relate and often don't matter...  which leads me into my randomness.

::  Ryann has been waking up earlier and earlier again.  Like between 5:30 and 6.  I'm crossing my fingers it is because more teeth are coming in.  But it is driving me crazy.  Especially with daylight saving time on the horizon.  4:45 most certainly is not morning, so she better get that figured out!

::  This outfit makes me smile.  I really want to try and pull off something like it.

from pinterest via sunday crossbow

::  Who out there has made pumpkin pancakes?  I'm in the mood to give that a go, but looking for the perfect semi healthy recipe.  Any suggestions?

::  Is it excessive to make chili once a week (and then eat it for the next three days)?  Chris and I more or less fought over the leftovers (he asked if he could finish them off for lunch one day, and I gritted my teeth while saying yes, they were so good).  That doesn't happen in our house.  Usually I will eat leftovers once or twice, Chris maybe once if I'm lucky, and then it ends up in the trash.  We aren't big leftovers fans.  But the chili?  It was amazing.  I'll share a recipe when I make it again.

::  Ryann has pretty much mastered her sad face.  And she will do it while saying "Ryann saaaad."  With the eyes and everything.  We are so in for it.

Eh.  That is all I've got right now.  Must sleep.