Will's "book bag"

Will was given a membership to the Christ Our Shepherd library in Matthews from his "Mimi" for his birthday. We recently got to visit- it was a very cool place! We also frequent story time at our local library. It's great to check out lots of board books to bring home with us- it helps me to figure out which ones continue to fascinate him, and the ones I definitely shouldn't buy on our own.

I decided to get Will his own bag to carry books- because what toddler doesn't love carrying around all of their stuff in a bag?! I was planning on buying him an L.L. Bean tote bag for his birthday, but with a price tag of $30, I just couldn't pull the trigger. 

Hobby lobby has these awesome canvas tote bags- I got his for about $2.00, a couple containers of fabric paint and a robot stencil. $5.00 total and about ten minutes of "crafting" later...

Will loves his new "book bag!"

I'm baaaaaack!

After a crazy week without a computer (can you believe it?!), I am back. A couple of Benjamins on a new logic board (on a 5 year old computer!) later, I am relieved... because J threatened to make the Windows switch if it were any more expensive, and that is not something I'm ready for! I am known to kill Windows machines within a year. No bueno.

Anyway, there is a ton to catch up on and I don't even know where to start! We've had a couple of very fun and productive weeks. Right as my computer crashed, J and I had just gotten back from a mini-vacation to Banner Elk, NC. It was much needed and such a great trip. The first day was dreary and rainy, but we had already planned to go to the movies while we were there (something that we have done maybe twice since Will was born!) so it worked out.

We also went to an AMAZING restaurant while we were there- it is the 1861 Farmhouse and Winery.  As serious foodies, it is often hard to find great places to eat in small towns. Whenever we plan a vacation, it is around FOOD. We were seriously impressed- except, I wasn't too thrilled about the drive that it took to get there. It is in Valle Crucis and we were driving from Banner Elk- if you've ever been, you know it is about 10 miles of ridiculously curvy roads, and it was DARK and foggy. I never felt so close to dying- I would go again, but only in the daylight! It is in a great location if you are ever in the area, right across from the (original) Mast General Store.

The Winery/Bed and Breakfast that we stayed was Banner Elk Winery- last time we went was with J's mom and dad on his 21st birthday. It was lovely as usual! The place is amazing, the rooms are beautiful, the food is top notch. 

A picture of the Inn from the Winery- stolen from my MILs pics from our last trip! 

On our way out of town on the last day of our trip, we planned a small hiking trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway- it is around mile marker 272. It was to see Cascade Falls, and some super old cabins in the area. It was a really cool hike, and beautiful waterfall. 

Whoops

So, I was planning on updating this thing a few days ago. Justin and I went out of town for a few days to Banner Elk, NC and had a great time. I have lots of cool waterfall pictures and things we've been doing, but our Mac Mini is DEAD. So, we went to my parent's house today to try their power supply for their mini and now theirs is dead too. No earthly idea what happened to either, but now we have two computers to fix (which may not be possible :( or re-buy.

Anyway, thankfully Justin bought an external harddrive last year for all of my photos so we still have those on backup.  Hopefully I will be back soon. Facebook has been wooing me back after it realized I hadn't been on lately. It's telling me about popular posts hat friends have made and new pictures, life events, etc. but I don't even have my own password anymore so the temptation doesn't matter.

Having absolutely no real computer to work on is a real bummer!

Day #7: Time to streamline

It is day 7, which means I am about 25% through my goal of staying off of Facebook for a month! It hasn't been nearly as difficult as I thought, but I am still looking forward to logging back on in February and seeing what everyone has been up to. 

Yesterday, I slept a total of about 16 hours- the tail end of this cold has really kicked my rear (and poor Will's, too). Justin can now officially attest to the efficacy of Zicam. I always laughed at him taking it before, but as everyone in the Troester fam (my mom, dad and brother) and our family (Will and me) have each been ill for 1-2 weeks, and Justin got a very mild 3 day illness. I won't make fun of his hypochondria anymore.

Yesterday, my big accomplishment was getting out of bed. We also went to breakfast with my family to celebrate J's birthday. My mom gave him the traditional birthday gift... Beers of the World! It is definitely his favorite thing to come home to after work... after me, of course. I think he will cry if she doesn't give him another one next year...

Today has been a major cleaning, laundry and dishes day. Such is the life as a stay at home mom! 

I also decided to purge my closet of pretty much everything and throw most of it in the garbage. 

J just got rid of his gun cabinet, so now I have a couple extra feet for clothes!

 before

during- Will is excited about all of the extra space! 

After!

 I love the clean, streamlined feel. Notice my little toolbox up there! I love it. Every woman should own one. It has the tools that I use most often... a few different kind of screwdrivers, a molding pry bar, my favorite paint brushes, spackle, a tape measure, etc. It helps to know where everything is while working on a project, and it is nice not to have to dig through all of J's things. 

Day #5: My bulletin board

Nothing too exciting today, but I pulled out all of J's tools once he left for work. The drill, bits and hammer and set out to "install" a bulletin board that I've had for a couple months. I drilled pilot holes that ended up being too small, so had to re-do them and it worked. It has anchors and everything! 

It actually only took about 10 minutes from beginning to end, and I'm embarrassed that I waited this long. I am trying to figure out how to do more of the simple house maintenance things like this, and so far it has gone pretty well! 

To liven things up a bit, I will (try to) include a video of Will from tonight (if I can figure it out...).

Day #4: Busy day!

It's been a busy day. It is J's birthday, though we've only seen him for an hour today! We had an exciting intro to his birthday, because at midnight we got a very important email. 

Justin has been accepted into UNCC's grad school! He applied at the last minute in December- we actually weren't even sure if they would have another "decision making process" for the graduate applications before the Spring semester started, but took the chance.

 Well, they DID and he starts Wednesday. Talk about whirlwind! We have a lot to organize, prepare and pay for, and Justin is going to have a busy semester. 

Will and I made a trip to the campus today to get him a very special shirt. He picked it out himself, primarily because it has a ball on it (and the other boring baby shirts did not). UNCC has changed a ton since I've last been on campus, and it is beautiful! 

Will is ready for the 49er's first football season!

We also had a great time at McAlister's together (just the two of us!) for dinner, and got to see his Auntie Sabrina's basketball game afterwards. We celebrated their win with some Chick-fil-a icecream before returning home. 

Once I got my little rugrat into bed, I sewed up a little pillow for his IKEA POÄNG chair that his Grammie gave him for his birthday! 

I found a cute fabric at Hobby Lobby last week, and wanted to try piping. I used this tutorial for a little how-to lesson. It was pretty good, but my sewing skills still have a long way to go! Luckily, Will won't notice. :)

Day #3: A birthday "cake"

Tomorrow is J's 25th birthday! He is really getting "old." 

One of my goals was to make his birthday cake. He didn't really have any opinions when I asked him what he wanted, but he jumped at the thought of having molten chocolate lava cakes. 

I checked out a bunch of recipes, and found one that The Pioneer Woman tried (and if she gives it a thumbs up, it must be amazing). His birthday is actually tomorrow, but he will be working ALL day, so this was our only day to celebrate. His parents graciously hosted his birthday dinner (which ended up being the best thing since we've been fighting illness in this house... the last few days have consisted of a very, very bossy boy and several long naps for both him and myself). We had steak fajitas, and they were delicious! 

I pre-made the batter and baked it after dinner... there were a couple of funny moments, like when I tried to flip one over to make sure it was done and it exploded chocolate "lava" (like a real volcano!) everywhere. It wasn't the pretty tiny cake from the pictures! 

^^My sad lava explosion cake- I ended up eating this one and though it wasn't pretty, it still tasted great!

Once I let it sit for a slightly longer resting time than the recipe called for, it was ready and ended up being very tasty! 

 The final product- when cut into, the center was gooey, warm and chocolatey! It was served with vanilla bean ice cream, and homemade chocolate whipped cream with strawberries. 

We were lucky to have "Uncle Drums" still in town, visiting from college to take a few family pictures! 

Will begging for "mah, mah, mah" in a very demanding voice! He loved it too.

Day #3 off of Facebook hasn't been hard at all, and honestly I haven't missed it... 

Wishing my amazing, sweet husband a HAPPY, happy birthday. I am so blessed and thankful that he came into my life almost ten(?!?!) years ago. Time really flies...

Day #2: Organizing Toys

I have a little boy who is very, very spoiled. He is the first grandchild on both sides, and has the "curse" of everyone getting him cute clothes and fun toys. He is a very lucky boy!

I have struggled since the beginning with storage for his toys... with a bin or toy box, the things at the bottom were never played with.  Another common scenario is that my entire living room floor would be covered in toys within 5 minutes of him waking up. 

We made a trip to IKEA... enter TROFAST.  I built it a few days ago, and then sorted all of his toys into the bins tonight. 

                I really like the look and it was pretty inexpensive for the whole system- about $60
              including the bins (which you can mix and match from several color and size options).

Day two without Facebook has been fine- other than automatically clicking the app icon on my iPod and iPad and realizing that I was locked out of my account. Whoops! We enjoyed a "dinner" out (at 4 pm- who does that?), and it was nice because there was (literally) no one else in the place. With a "spirited" toddler, that is a must. We also got TCBY while we were out- YUM! 

Day #1

Happy New Year!

My first day away from Facebook has been pretty uneventful- I have a semi-sick baby, so he kept me busy. I did get a ton done around the house before noon though, so that was a plus!

One of the first items on my list was to learn to bake bread. We usually eat whole wheat bread from the store, but I have heard mixed reviews about baking it from scratch. It can be difficult to get the rise and consistency just right, so I decided to start off with white bread.

This is the recipe I used- I really wanted to try it using my KitchenAid mixer, and this recipe is designed for that.

The process of "kneading." So glad I didn't have to do all of that work by hand! 

                                                                            After!
I actually made two loaves. They aren't the prettiest, but they are delicious! We've already eaten an entire loaf between midnight snacking and breakfast- I will definitely use this recipe again. Now that I know that it can be done, I have a few purchases that I need to make- a cutting template (for cutting the bread thin and uniform to make sandwiches and stuff), a good bread knife and a few nice loaf pans. Baking a couple loaves weekly is really no trouble and will be so much healthier than what we usually use.