The Proclaimers

For those of you who do not think they know who The Proclaimers are, you are wrong.
Everyone has heard the, "And I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more ..." song.
Right? It is their most popular.
Anyway, I went to The Proclaimers' concert last week with my parents and friends, the Holdens (as apparent from my picture, above, with "the boys" (front men Charlie and Craig) as my mother so casually refers to them. She thinks that the three of them are BFF.)
Anyway, I had always enjoyed their music before;
I was excited to go to a concert;
My parents are fun, music-loving, enthusiasts;
"this will be good," I thought.
It was GrEaT!
They were really energetic (both my parents and the band).
They were fun to watch.
And they were yell-singers. I love yell-singers.
Anyone that can sing at the top of their lungs (thus they are "yelling") and be in perfect pitch and crystal clear is A-OK in my book.
It was SO much fun.
All their songs were upbeat, their fans were hilarious (a few interpretive dancers always liven things up along with the effing pottymouths and their Scottish swearing:) ) and their banter was, well, difficult to impossible to understand (in my head I knew they were speaking English), I LoVeD it.
Thanks Mum and Dad!
I had a blast.
And I would go again to see them in a jiffy.
{And yes, Mom, I am sure that they remembered you.}

Britney's Monkey Tail Bread

I am really not much of a baker.
My sister definitely holds the title on that one.
She is always creating new delectable treats
and without fail every time I go to her house there are lots of yummy goodies to try.
And I really must try them all.
Several times.
Anyway, Britney is not only a culinary genius, but she is a generous one at that.
She has the best food blog you ever will see and shares all of her recipes with the world.
I have made most of the dishes on the blog as well as lots of other ones she has given me over the years.
I must say though, a new fav among all members of my family is the Monkey Tail Bread.
Scott loves it, the kids love it and what's not to love?
Chocolate chips, peanut butter and banana all in one loaf!
Brilliant.
So for all of you who haven't checked out her blog ... shame on you. J/K
Here it is: (all credit for this scrumptious delight is Britney's and Britney's alone.)
You must all make this, immediately.

Monkey Tail Bread

1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup sugar
3 egg whites
1 cup mashed banana (3 medium)
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup creamy or crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350. Grease a loaf pan.
2. Beat applesauce and sugar in bowl until combined. Beat in egg whites until light and fluffy. Beat in bananas and peanut butter until smooth. Beat in flour, baking soda and powder, salt until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into pan.
3. Bake 60-70 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely about 1 hour.

* Tightly wrap in plastic wrap to keep fresh.

Ezzy loves it too. He just polished off a whole piece of Monkey Tail Bread and I am pretty sure ate another one. Hopefully, you don't mind me advertising your blog Brit, but I think everyone should check it out: http://www.eatitupfood.blogspot.com/

Whaaaat?

Ryan has really gotten into dress-up.
It is the influence of her cute friends across the street.
Every time we go outside to play they are out their wearing an incredible assortment of creative outfits (today it was tights, cropped sweater and heels ... only!)
Love it.
So Ryan has picked up on their inspirational creativity.
I am so happy and should really supply her with a few dress-up clothes.
Instead she has to resort to other people's clothes.
Unfortunately all the other people in our house do not wear clothes her size.
So we see outfits like these.
{The panties and top are hers though.}

And in other news, Scott hurt himself.
This actually looks considerably better than it did the day he did it.
He stepped on a drain lid (that was supposed to be secured),
and fell in, scraping his shin all the way and soaking his new school pants.
He had to get six stitches and has a bruise that covers his entire calf and ankle.
Groddy.
He hasn't heard a word from the school, even though they were responsible for the mishap
thank you very much.
I am disappointed Pacific.
My poor honeybuns.
Good thing you are so tough.

Welcome to our tiny home ...

This may be my longest blog yet, so hold onto your hats (or skip over the rambling and look at the pics, that is what I do.)
So I finally am making good on my promise to post a few pics of my fab house.
It took me so long because I had to "style" it first (which basically means I needed to finish up a few projects).
But seeing as this is kinda a passion of mine, although I am certainly no expert, I wanted everything to look just right.
Then as time dragged on I thought, "Shoot, this place will always be a work-in-progress so I'll just take the darn pictures!" (Maybe I didn't think it, I probably said it out loud ... to myself ... and then Ryan asks who I am talking to .... and I tell her, "I am talking to myself" and then she says, "Again?" .... and I say, "Yes," .... and now I have gotten severely off topic).
So here is what the apartment looks like now, although much to Scott's chagrin it will most likely be slightly different tomorrow.
I can't help myself.
I just get new ideas, or get bored with something, or decide that whatever I thought was awesome a few days ago now sucks.
Oh well.
So on with the tour.
First we start with the kitchen.
Not ever really sure why I took a picture of this seeing as it is kinda boring.
But there it is.
It doesn't really have a theme, although none of my rooms really do.
I like the eclectic/retro look.
Scott like the matchy-matchy, stuffy, modern look.
I am trying to find a way to marry the two.
They can compliment each other, I think.
Kinda like Scott and I.
We are together and it works even though we have nothing in common :)
Moving on.

Next is the living room.
This is the one I am most proud of.
I think it's a good look, pulled together, a little funky.
I loooooove the color of our entertainment center, although I am not sure I like the arrangement on top.
And lately I am liking the gilded frame look.
I love my apartment, even though it is the size of a shoebox.

My favorite arrangement (above). Especially with the flowers.

I just finished the runner found on the entertainment center and it is cuu-ute.
The fabric is kinda retro (salmon, brown, turquoise, cream) and yet understated enough that I don't think Scott has even noticed. Score!

This is the view from my "dining room" or dining corner.
The big-ass mirror is new and I love it.
It makes the room feel bigger.
And I love our coffee table.
An old farmhouse dining table chopped down.

Scott is very crafty and MADE me the bookshelf.
I wanted something substantial and something with doors on it so I could stash the kid's toys somewhere ... and viola!
He also picked out the fishing pole-esque lamp.
We get comments on it all the time.
I thought it was a little much but now I like it more.

The kids' room.
This room has an entirely different feel. But it is one of my favorites too. (Of course when you only have, like, four rooms to your whole house they are all sorta your favorites.)
Anyhoo, I wanted all the colors to go well together, yet be gender specific too.
Does that make sense?
Ryan's bed is a bright pink and red and Ezra's future bed is blue and lime green.
His crib is all lime, even the leaf (another of Scott's contributions).
I think all the colors look good because they are the same "brightness."
I think they compliment each other.
Scott made the bunk beds too, with his bare hands.
I have one talented hubby.


Ryan sleeps on the bottom and the top is used for guests (or me if Scott is snoring unbearably loud).

And finally our room.
This one has proved to be the most work recently.
I repainted the dresser on the right from shabby-chic white to smooooth black.
That was a pain because I had to do it on the apartment complex lawn, which is downstairs and across the parking lot.
But whatever, it worked out.
I also salvaged the lamp from a Goodwill for $5 and spray painted the old ladyness right out of it.
Whew. So that is it (aside from the bathroom, but who hasn't seen one of those?)
I hope you enjoyed my little tour.
Feel free to comment, particularly if you have an idea about what I can do about the entertainment center arrangement.
I am just not feeling it.

Stay tuned ...

It is Scott's first week back.
He is gone and our school year is off to a productive start.
I have been feeling crafty and ambitious.
Scott and I rearranged ALL of the art in our apartment.
This was a good idea in theory.
The actual application was, needless to say, a headache.
But now it looks great.
Plus I sewed, yes sewed, a few pillows and did some painting.
My mom was proud.
I am what some call an "angry seamstress."
But I am on a roll.
Anyway, I will be posting some pics of the new look (upon request) ...
soon.
yippee.

One last hurrah ...

Our summer is over.
School is now in session.
But before the festivities began, we had one last outing as a fam.
Not to say that we will never go on another excursion together,
it just won't have that happy-go-lucky, stress-free taste to it.
So anyhoo, Scott was the mastermind behind our adventure.
We drove into the city and parked on a unfamiliar street.
Very mysterious.
And then we ate outside on the street at a yummy Mexican grill called Qdoba (some kind of chain, yet new to me ... yah, yah, ya'll probably heard of it).
And then Scott led us into a creepy, neon, nondescript entryway housing nothing but a pirate skeleton and an elevator.
Yes, a pirate skeleton. What kinda place is this?
The miniature golfing kind.
It was pirate/glow in the dark/with white lights/putt-putt.
Fantastic. We loved it.
Give Ryan a golf club her size and allow her to whack a ball as hard as she wants and we have a happy camper.
The only downside?
A very convincing rattly door (I am assuming some sort of skeleton was doing the rattling) on Hole 16 that scared the bajeebbers out of the kids.
So we rushed through the last few holes and bolted with our hysterical, screaming kids for the door. Thank you.
Good idea, honey.
p.s. Scott won, although I had him on the first 9.

Burritos. Yummo.

Ryan really did kinda get the hang of it. She understood to hit it toward the hole (or throw it) and expected applause every time she made it in.

Ezra stayed in the stroller about half the time, then insisted on walking around and ended up tripping over everything in the dark.

It really was fun and we had such a good time. We didn't even get a ticket when we showed up at our parking meter 20 minutes late.


Random:
I came home from the gym yesterday morning and found Scott getting ready for school and the kids sleeping on each other ... in our bed.
I just love these two.