Congratulations!

Congratulations to Tracey who won the Old El Paso gift pack! I'll be contacting you for your mailing info and that will be coming to you soon :-)

Old El Paso Giveaway

Hooray! It's time for a giveaway! According to a recent survey, 61 percent of Americans are planning to watch the big game. In celebration of this year's game, I'm planning a Football giveaway!

Thanks to Old El Paso and MyBlogSpark, I received this football themed gift pack and now I can give one away to my readers.

This is what is included in the gift pack:

Two free cans of Old El Paso Green Chiles, a football-shaped ceramic serving platter, two sets of football-themed plates, cocktail napkins and a football themed table runner.

I love Old El Paso Green Chiles. They come in 4.5 and 7 oz cans and are a great way to spice up your recipes. I use them in many of my own recipes, and I was excited to try out one of the recipes spotlighted on the Old El Paso site.

Delicious Green Chile Cornbread - it's moist and savory - perfect for mopping up the last bits of chili in the bowl, or warm out of the oven and topped with a bit of butter. Mmmmm!

Click HERE for a .55 cent off coupon on a can of Old El Paso Green Chiles

Would you like to win an Old El Paso "Tackle the Taste" Gift Pack?

Receive one entry for each of the following:

1 - Follow my blog - leave a comment letting me know you're following.

2 - Visit the Old El Paso website and tell me what recipe you'd make with your free green chiles.

3 - Tell me about your favorite football team.

4 - Blog about this giveaway. Leave a link to your post in your comment

The deadline to leave a comment is Saturday, 2/5/10 at 11:59 pm EST. I will announce a winner on Sunday morning (2/7). The winner will be chosen by random drawing, and the prize can only be mailed to US residents. Please leave your email address with your comment if you don't have a blog, so I can contact you for your mailing information.

Thanks to Old El Paso and MyBlogSpark for providing me with a gift pack and one to give to one of my readers!

I received a prize pack for myself and one to give away from Old El Paso through MyBlogSpark. No other compensation was received. This post is based on my own personal opinions and experiences.

Raisins and toddlers...

Today I did the grossest thing I have ever done as a parent.

Tommy looked at us suddenly while eating his afternoon snack and said in a very shocked voice "My raisin". We both looked at him to find him poking in his nose and looking stunned. When asked, he said "in my nose" and we both knew we were in for it. Not wanting to incur another humongous doctor bill, I asked John to run for the tweezers while I tried to get Tommy to blow his nose. He proceeded to suck air in. Not good. When John got back with the tweezers, I tried to look into Tommy's nose, but he had pushed / sucked the raisin in too far to reach. As John readied him for a trip to the E.R. (why do these things always happen on a weekend or after business hours?) I took a last ditch run through my friendly search engine. You wouldn't believe how many raisin up nose stories there are out there, and I was lucky enough to find the solution in the second one I looked at. I read the story, yelled for john to bring the boy upstairs, and gave it a shot. Basically, you plug the opposite nostril and give a sharp breath in through the mouth. More of a quick puff - you don't want to hurt their ears. Took me two tries since he was screaming and trying to push me away, but the raisin (and everything else in his nose - ick) shot out and stuck to - you guessed it - my cheek. I'm thoroughly washed now but I did think John was going to be ill. Tommy looked at me as if nothing had happened and for letting us take care of it here he got a new Hot Wheel Ferrari. Lucky kid - not so lucky mama. I'm filing this away for the next time.

Life in the handbasket...

I have most definitely been absent for far too long. It seems like the past several weeks have flown by and I'm not sure where the time went! We were so busy over the holidays, and I am finally catching up - next year I hope to be a bit more organized so I can keep up, but I had thought I was this year and it all got away from me... again.

My best friends Linda and Doug came to visit the weekend before Christmas, and we had a wonderful, if too brief, time just relaxing and catching up. Tommy was delighted to see 'Auntie Linda' and 'Uncle Doug' and you'd have never known he hadn't seen them since he was 16 months old. He adores them both. They gave him a 'Music Maker' which is like a small wooden zither - he LOVES it! It's wonderful because even at his age, he can play music. Duets with Daddy on guitar are soon to follow!

I've been working as much as I can at the Attic. I really enjoy my time there and even though I feel like I don't have nearly enough knowledge to help people as much as I'd like, I learn more everyday. It's fun, even when we're busy, and I love seeing all of the beautiful needlework that comes in.

I recently took a punch needle embroidery class, and I'm enjoying this new skill. I think it's great for taking a break from cross-stitch, as it goes quickly and doesn't require counting. :-) All you have to do is fill in the area with a color - easy and somewhat mindless, which is a nice change. ( I can do mindless, just watch me :-) )

Our biggest news is that Tommy started at Montessori school two weeks ago. We had really liked our daycare, and the people there, but felt like he wasn't getting the independence he needed. Also, he had started to tell us regularly that he 'didn't want to go to school'. Now that he's in the new school, he's actually excited to go, and seems to enjoy what he's doing there. I think it helps that he's only there for the mornings, whereas he was at daycare all day for three days. The shorter days plus attending all week seems to have made a big difference for him. He loves his new independence, and he's made some big strides even in the short time he's been there. Many more pleasant afternoons that we ever had before, and his cooperation is better too. The main battles we have now are when he wants to do it himself but we don't have time for him to poke along. Oh, and food. Always food...

I have taken on some on-the-side editing work for an old friend (he's not old... we've just known each other since college...) who has taken up writing. I love his stories, but he needed a bit of help polishing the language, so I volunteered my time. I'm so proud of him for having the courage to take this step and I really want to see him succeed. I'll be passing on links to his site soon.

I do hope to be here much more regularly now that I seem to have gotten it back together. I have a review to do soon, and a giveaway to set up, so I'll be posting the details in the near future - stay tuned!

Happy Holidays!

Wow! This year has really gotten away from me the past month! We all went to the Phoenix zoo the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and Tommy and my nephew had such a great time seeing the animals. Tommy still talks about seeing the orange tiger at the zoo and how it was LOUD. That kid really enjoys animals, but I'm glad to see he has a healthy respect and isn't tempted to try to get close. He's really a look but don't touch kid when it comes to new experiences. Right now it's nice, because he's a bit afraid of dogs, and I don't have to worry about him approaching strange ones, but I'm hoping he'll start to grow out of this fear and be more comfortable around our relative's pets. Someday we'd like a dog in addition to our kitties! (He loves the kitties btw - he hugs Pica and tells her he loves her, and also tells me she's "his kitty")

We're gearing up for the end of December and Christmas. I've been sewing and painting when I get a bit of time, but I'm still not quite ready with presents. Mentally I'm not quite in gear yet either. The one thing about living in the Valley of the Sun is that it's hard to convince yourself that yes, it is indeed winter, and the holidays are approaching fast. It's been colder and rainy here the past few days, and that has helped, but I really do prefer the sunny, non-gloomy days. We've been watching the snowstorms in other areas of the country and hope that all of our friends there are keeping warm and staying safe.

My best friends will be visiting soon from Wisconsin, and I'm trying to plan a few things to do while they're here while still having time to relax and spend time together. We had talked about visiting the Desert Botanical Gardens to see the luminarias, but it seems a bit expensive - we may wait for next year to see it. There are so many things going on here for the season that it's hard to choose! I'm sure it will be a fun visit regardless of what we do.

How are you preparing for the holidays? I'd love to hear about your traditions, and how you celebrate. We're trying to instill some old traditions and make some new ones just for our family. How do you make the season special for your loved ones?

Have a blessed season and enjoy the times with friends and family!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow! What a whirlwind the past few weeks have been! I'm actually looking forward to the next month because it is shaping up to be a slowdown from November. :-)

We thoroughly enjoyed the Beatallica shows, we even were able to take Tommy along on Sunday because it was early enough in the day. He looked so cute in his ear-protection headphones, and the band had a blast seeing him again after several months. Wishing them the best in December as they travel in Europe.

The weekend following Beatallica's visit, my mom and I attended the Attic Needlework Sampler Symposium. I haven't had much time to stitch lately, and it was a pleasure to have some time to do just that. I had the pleasure of meeting many wonderful people and starting a few exciting new projects. We got to hand dye our own linen fabric on Friday, and worked on a Christmas themed project that covers a wooden book-shaped box, small projects to go inside the bow (such as a tree-shaped holder for a little mother-of-pearl ruler and a scissor case) on Saturday. On Sunday were invited to view a collection of samplers including several Mexican samplers. We then had a class on specialty stitches. Wonderful people, wonderful time. I already can't wait until next year!

I've been working a few days a week at Attic Needlework, it's felt great to be out and feeling productive again. I'm still working on building up some web-design skills, and am currently building a site for a friend who has recently started designing. I am really excited about all of the possibilities in my life right now, but have some decisions to make about pursuing further training. I'm trying to find a balance between time I can dedicate to Tommy, private time, work time, and maybe school time. It's a tough decision. I enjoy working at the Attic though, and the people there are great. It's fun to see all of the new patterns and I love seeing all of the projects that people bring in (if I can't find time to stitch, at least I can see what everyone else is working on!)

Last weekend was the Attic's annual silent auction to benefit the Breast Cancer Research Fund. This year was a great success, as of early this week, the total was at $15,300, with some donations still coming in, and one item still up for silent bids. We can't wait to see what the grand total will be!

My sister and her family are here visiting for the weekend. Two little boys in the same house are challenging, but proving to be a lot of fun! Last night they even both fell asleep in their own beds in the same room, without a lot of complaining and crying (or playing). Tommy's up and doing his daily whining now, but hopefully he'll get caught up in the day and we'll all have a good time.

To everyone - have a safe and blessed holiday -

Beatallica!

Several years ago, a couple of our friends in Milwaukee recorded a CD of Beatles songs sung as they thought Metallica would perform them. What started out as a 'Spoof Fest' joke grew into something much larger when another friend created a website promoting the band he named 'Beatallica'. A full band was put together to create a second CD, and over time began touring the world.

We are excited that Beatallica will be playing both days of the Southwest Brew Fest - we can finally see them here in Arizona! They will be playing at 5pm on both nights of the festival which takes place on November 7th and 8th. We hope that if you're in the Phoenix area that you'll come out and support them!