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Knack For Knitting

Posted on October 16, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Knitting has been something that I have been doing on and off since I was in elementary school. Back as a child, I would sit on the front porch during the summer and fall months and knit with my best friend. In high school, it was something to do that would ease my stress. Fast forward to life as an adult, wife, and mother of two. I like to knit at the end of the day to help with stress levels.

Going out to the store to pick up some yarn for stress knitting is fun, especially when I can do it on my own. Selecting colors that will eventually become something is rewarding.

There is just something soothing about hearing the clickity-clacking of the knitting needles as the yarn flies through them to create stitches. Taking the yarn from hanks of nothing but color to making them into something concrete is rewarding itself.

Seeing the fun colors all knit up just brings a smile to my face. Somehow the stresses just go right into the knitting needles and come out into something bright and cheerful.

Now I just need to find the perfect new yarn for a new project. A very special someone in my family is expecting a baby in February and I want to make the new little girl in our life something. So far my quest for good baby blanket making yarn has not been successful. If you have any suggestions, I would love to know.

Pssst . . .other knitting posts of mine can be found here.

Categories:
arts and crafts family knitting looking back me moments photos shopping

A Sweet Cupcake Surprise

Posted on October 15, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL,

When I picked you up from school yesterday, I mentioned that we really had to go to the grocery store. You were not too thrilled about it. Then, I told you that we were going to head to the bigger Price Chopper and you agreed to help me out. When we got there, you asked if we could get a special snack. As we passed by the bakery, I had an idea.

Lately, I have heard a lot of people talking about the new Price Chopper Decadent Desserts collection of cupcakes. I also knew their new flavor and your love for pumpkin and cheesecake. So I showed you the in store sign. You immediately said we had to get these to taste test and share together. We stood there and picked out four cupcakes to split and try together.

First, we both selected one of the Pumpkin Spice & Everything nice.

Then, you thought JSL would like the Peanut Butter Twist Brownie, so we put one of those into our cart.

From here, you noticed the one with marshmallows on top, so a Gimme Smore joined our collection.

Last, but certainly not least, we thought the little guy and Daddy would adore the Cookie Cupcake.

When we got home, Daddy and JSL were so surprised and excited to test out the goodies. We will write another post about that later, but we did learn a valuable lesson. When we pick up more of the Decadent Dessert cupcakes from Price Chopper, we will split two of them because that will be more than enough. This was the first time I have ever seen you walk away and not finish – and it was not because you didn’t like them

Thank you NHL for going with me to get the things we needed and picking up something to help us all smile after a rough week.

Love,

Mommy

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If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.

Categories:
Dear Kid Saturday decisions food glorious food Local Business nhl photos shopping yummy

Sukkah Decorating Time

Posted on October 14, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Yesterday, I mentioned that my family will be celebrating Sukkot on Thursday and Friday this week. Before the holiday, a lot of families work together to build a sukkah for their own homes. We do not have a sukkah, but there are plenty around for us to visit.

Check out the little sukkah that JSL’s classmates made in their own room the other day. The weird smile is courtesy of a cold just in time for the holidays.

Then, JSL showed me the craft that they had made. The kids each made a teeny tiny sukkah with Play-Doh decorations to bring home. This was SO cute and something I had never seen before.

On the way out, we were told to head out to the big sukkah outside. In there, JSL would be able to show me the decoration that he made for the community sukkah. So we walked outside into the sun and explored the sukkah.

We wandered around looking at what each of the classes made. Then we found the group from his room. Here is JSL’s creation for the Sukkah.

So my question for this week is inspired by the holiday of Sukkot:

Have you ever been to a Sukkah before and how was it decorated? If you have not, how would you help with the decorating fun if you went to one?

Real Steel prize pack

Star Wars Cereal and $25 gift card pack

Girl Who Never Made Mistakes

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #173

Categories:
Aloha Friday fun holidays jsl photos school

Tuesday Tales – Kindle Enters Our World

Posted on October 11, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Tuesday Tales

Back in July, I wrote about eReader envy. I mentioned that I really was curious about owning an eReader, but there were just too many other items that were higher on the need to take care of priority list (owning a house is the pits). At the time, I introduced you to Pod.

Hey Pod I inherited Pod from my mother and father. Pod had a good life with me and taught me the joys of reading on eReader-like format via the Kindle App. As the summer moved on, Pod and I started to drift apart. You see, Pod was not keeping a charge very well. The boys would take her with a full charge and soon after she would be flashing red. Now, I have to head over to the Apple Store to see what my options are.

That could have been the end of things, but my eReading life forever changed the other day. Just before Rosh Hashana started, I caught a Tweet that was sent to TechyDad. It was congratulating him on winning a Kindle. I ran screaming into the other room to tell TechyDad about it and let him know that he had a short amount of time to claim it or another winner would be selected. Last Friday night, just before Yom Kippur was about to begin, the doorbell sound let us know there was a package outside.

This was inside the small box waiting outside:

I am in love! TechyDad won the Kindle Keyboard, Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display and it is amazing. Now, I wonder why I never asked for one for my birthday, Chanukah, or any other time. The light weight nature compared to a book, the no glare easy to read screen (compared to Pod), and ability to take multiple books with me at all times. Yes, I still like my paper books, but oh my this is fantastic for on the go and will rock when traveling. I even tried the Wifi the other night to use Twitter and see my blog. A bit of a pain without the touch screen option on this model, but it is there in a pinch.

Over the weekend, I was able to borrow a book from our library system for the Kindle to start reading. I decided to start with The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School by Alexandria Robbins. More on this coming soon since I think it is an extremely powerful read that ALL educators and others should check out. I also tried a picture book for the kids to check out. No, it is not in color, but the boys still adored Dream Big, Little Pig! by Kristi Yamaguchi. Here is a preview of what they saw:

I am looking forward to reading more thanks to the Kindle and hope to figure out more of a book list soon. Another item to toss out there, Kindle’s technical support has been amazing. A few glitches have cropped up and getting a human to solved the problem has been quick and easy. A huge thank you to Amazon for this important piece of the puzzle.

Do you have an eReader or Kindle App? I would love to know what you think and could use any book suggestions that you have loved in this format.

What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.

Disclosure: We won the Amazon Kindle from a blog giveaway. Three product links are to our Amazon Affiliate where we will receive a percentage of money for the sale of the books should you opt to buy the Kindle or books mentioned.

Categories:
books me moments photos TechyDad Tuesday Tales

Video Cameras 1980’s Style to Now

Posted on October 10, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

I am a child of the 80’s, although I was born in the 70’s. I remember the birth of cassette tapes – although I still recall using the 8 track player that my father had to listen to the Muppets Show soundtrack.

My aunt and uncle had a VCR before we did. I would go over there and spend hours watching a tape they made especially for me of Barry Manillow in concert. You see, I would blush because he was singing just for me. We eventually got our own VCR (it was huge and heavy) and life definitely changed in our house. Thank goodness I grew out of my Barry Manillow video thing, and matured into his cassettes and ditched him for Billy Joel, Elton John, Paul Simon, and even the voiced behind Milli-Vanilli when CDs came onto the scene.

We eventually got our first family video camera. This bad boy was huge and I remember my father lugging it to school for my elementary school lip sync show. Not sure if my mother ever used it or not. I do not think so since it had to be balanced on the shoulder and weighed so much. Oh, did I mention there was also a separate bag that held the machine that was recording the video? This dinosaur should have been in a museum. This is a photo of my father with that camera (I think). You can see the cords running from the camera to the bag on his other shoulder.

Fast forward to March 2011 when TechyDad and I decided to buy our own video camera. We had been given a hand-me-down from my aunt and uncle, but digital cameras were not the norm. We were going to Disney World and wanted to be able to have something to capture those memories that we had missed over the years, or were on the video option on our point and shoot cameras. Oh and I was already looking at vlogging and video review options for my blog. We asked around and decided against the Flip and went with the Kodak.

I am in love with this little camera. She has gone with us to Disney Social Media Moms Celebration where I captured one of my first videos of Susan Egan and Georgia Stitt performing. We also caught the boys running up to Tigger and Pooh, meeting with the Princesses, opening their first Vinylmations, and more magical moments.

My handy dandy camera has also been tossed into my purse for blogging adventures, conferences, and school functions. Since she is so easy to use, I also have learned to love using her for recording fun messages on my blog and of course to review items. Another perk, she is small and light enough for the kids to use – should we want to let them take a try at making a video down the road.

Thanks to my recent experience at SheStreams, I plan on using her a lot more. Hmmm…. perhaps I should name her. So I am asking all of you for some assistance. What should I call my amazing little camera? She has many more adventures ahead and we have so many things to accomplish now that my goals have been reset and revamped. So please let me know your thoughts and please keep it rated PG. I refuse to talk like a hockey player about a cute little camera.

P.S. Don’t forget to enter my three current giveaways (1) Real Steel prize pack, (2) Star Wars Cereal and $25 gift card pack, and (3) Three copies of the book The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes.