imagination

Yesterday while I was pilfering my craft room for pink clutter, I came across this old ceramic tea set. Chipped and missing pieces, it shows definite signs of my childhood devotion...I'm not sure why I loved it so much, it most likely came from the dollar store where I bought it with my little allowance (aww) but love it I did! this humble, little tea set had the power to spark hours of imagination and play.

I was curious, I figured Isabella was still too young, but I thought it was worth a shot, so I let her play with it, expecting it to last a few minutes before it became old news and she was back to climbing the kitchen table, but instead it was like a little light-bulb went off in her 19 month old toddler brain. She drug one of my cardboard boxes into the living room and used it as her table then proceeded to have tea with herself...she would slurp her tea and then say "Mmm...dee-lish-us" that's her new favorite word, delicious. She even says it when she takes her vitamin. I love it.

Is it normal to be intimidated by you kid? because I'm skeered ya'll.

too much?

Ok, so when I said I was in a January rut...it was true. You tell me, how in the world you decorate for the winter non-holiday season....when you live on a tropical Island...how? I would rather decorate my walls with caveman drawings than fall into the tropical mod-ish decorating style, so usually I go by my old home state of Tennessee and decorate according to their seasons...

After clearing my "clutter shelf" of all of it's Christmas decor, I let it sit empty and blank for a couple of weeks to pique inspiration. Didn't work. I'm typically cluttery girl by nature...but I'm not so sure I'm feeling this shelf....anybody got any ideas?

brownie/curtain therapy...a little cheese with my whine

This has been one of those weeks where I felt like the punches just kept on coming, and the cherry on top was the fact that Hubby had to leave :( I must say, I had been handling really well, rolling like a pro...until yesterday. Without going into too many boring details....lets just say one unsuspecting person just pushed me a wee bit too hard in my delicate position. After a day full of mishaps and a grumpy and very constipated toddler, I went over the edge. WAY over the edge. Hey, I'm only human. (Hubby is at this very moment saying a fervent prayer of thanks at being gone this week)

After my self indulgent little outburst (I think "inept baffoon" and "ignorant monkeys" were the words of choice?...oh dear) I called up my dear friend and confessed my sins...which resulted in a hearty bout of guffawing at my expense. Later that night she showed up at my house with a giant cookie sandwich (aww!) with bright red frosting in the middle...Yummers! I shared it with Isabella thinking "eh, what the heck? a little frosting cookie won't hurt this one time" she gobbled it up like nobody's business which later resulted in the world's largest load of red poopie which then caused me to go into hysteria thinking she was having "bloody stool" .....................yeah.

So since The Bella stole most of my frosting cookie...and because I'm greedy, I made myself a pan of therapy brownies after she went to bed....as happy as she could be I might add and probably having a good laugh inside at her ding-dong of a mom ....(her poopie was completely normal today, I'm sure everyone wanted to know that but I felt compelled to share and now I know NEVER let her have that again...although it did work as a fabulous laxative) I decided to calm myself down with a little sewing, chocolate brownie and some mindless televison. I ended up sewing these MUCH needed curtains for my upstairs bathroom.





The first picture is alright...but in the second one I had to use the flash and you can tell. Notice my classy stainless steel towel rack placed ever so nicely OVER the toilet? Compliments of the Navy. The first thing I do when I move into a military house is de-military it as much as possible. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful to be provided with such nice housing but the stark white atmosphere is an irresistible blank canvas for me , SO...I remove the ugly, wood veneer kitchen cabinet doors and pile my them with attractive dishes and antiques...I remove the horrid nightmare we call Venetian blinds (whoever invented those and thought they were attractive must have been on something strong...seriously) and I paint the walls...all of this, I of course have to store in the garage and put back before we move out, but it's worth it to me. Unfortunately though the ugly and oddly placed steel towel racks (and they will put four or five in one bathroom, no joke) I just have to deal with because they are firmly bolted to a steel stud in the wall. They must have seen me coming.

Home made Marinara sauce

Tonight we had company for dinner and I made my old faithful standby, Lasagna. I always make my own sauce and I use a recipe for Marinara sauce that I got from the Food Network channel a couple of years back, I don't remember who's show this recipe is from but it is absolutely wonderful in that it is insanely easy but tastes like it took you all day! This sauce has had a home in my recipe box ever since. I even like to make it and keep it in jars just to have on hand. I wanted to share this recipe with you because I just love it so much, it's perfect for Manicotti , Lasagna, Spaghetti and is especially delicious to serve as a dipping sauce with a cheesy garlic bread, very easy to whip up as a quick appetizer when you have a few people over and is always a huge hit for me.

Tonight I also made a Sally Lunn bread with a buttery basil and garlic spread...baking this bread brought back so many memories from my childhood. I can still remember my mom baking up a batch of this to take to an ailing mother, a church potluck, for company or a ladies luncheon...the smell of this delicious stuff would just fill the house and make all of us kids come clamoring into the kitchen for a bite of this fluffy and sweet bread. Today however, the smell had my hubby hovering the kitchen like a UFO...Isabella even roused out of her nap when the wafting began :)

Ok, enough jabbering from me, here's the Marinara recipe!

1/3 C. good olive oil
1 C. minced onions
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 lbs. of ripe tomatoes, cored and peeled into 1-inch pieces or 2 (28-ounce) cans of plum tomatoes, drained
Pinch of sugar
Salt and pepper

Heat the oil, add onion an cook for about 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes more. Add tomatoes, pinch of sugar and salt and pepper and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Puree the mixture through the fine disk of a food mill (or food processor or blender) and then return to the saucepan. Reduce for 15 minutes. See how easy that is?! Love it!

Now, the recipe doesn't call for this, but I always add fresh basil to mine whenever it comes time to puree, I just love the taste of fresh basil! enjoy :)

this post is not about our feet

Because that would just be...weird. No, this post is about doing what I don't do best...sitting back and taking a "chill pill"

I know that lately my posts have been sporradic at best, and the qaulity of my pictures definitely leaves something to be desired...sorry 'bout that. but with the stress of Tyler's rapidly approaching departure weighing on me, I have felt an immense amount of pressure to "do this" and "do that" and "get it all done" All of this at the expense of our precious bit of real family time we have left together. I handle stress very poorly. During times of pressure I tend to become a very unflattering version of myself. I develop tunnel vision and I become so wound up in a task that I stress myself out and all anybody really wants to do is hide from me, which typically results in a general boo-hooing on my end...NOT pretty.

So when I recently submitted my prayer request at my ladies bible study to somehow get it all done... a well seasoned Navy wife, whom I greatly admire, approached me and very gently reminded me "Quality, Mary-Catherine, not quantity." This stopped me dead in my tracks, God is funny like that. I prayed for peace and viola! I began to realize that if certain things didn't get done, it would be O.K. So the dishes sat in the sink for a while, who cares? and the laundry situation in our house is slightly out of control...big deal And don't even get me started on the garage and back yard and homework load...I realized that now more than ever it is imperative for me to measure my priorities and take time to enjoy my family.

It's like a great weight was lifted off of my shoulders...We're not doing anything different, but the day-to-day has become an opportunity for me to just shake off all of the excess clutter on my brain, wipe my mental check list clean, and just enjoy the view of my husband and daughter playing "horsey" on our living room floor that...honestly? needs a good vaccuuming...another day, another day.

Isabella's first haircut!

It was time...I held onto those darling red locks as long as possible...but this morning Hubby suggested that our little girl's hair was looking slightly...mullet like. I experimented with various sizes of hairbows but unfortunately he was kind of right this time :( The mere suggestion of scissors touching her sweet head made my heart hurt...but after being prompted to research mullet hairdos online...I conceded.

We took her to a local salon that specializes in children's hair, they were wonderful! they saved her little curls for me and even took her picture and put it in a little frame that says "My First Haircut" She did great for her hairstylist...the fact that she got to sit in an airplane, watch Disney movies and eat candy probably helped a lot! She got to choose a special prize out of the treasure chest when she was finished and by the teim we left she had made friends with everyone in there.

Neither one of us can stop ruffling her bob... You should see her jaunty little walk she has now, you can tell she knows she's cute!

Reflections and new beginnings

New Years in Hawaii is serious business. It seems that the party starts around 2:00 in the afternoon here...we were eating lunch when we heard that first unmistakable pop of a firework. By around 10:00 this evening so many fireworks had been fired that the entire neighborhood was hazy with thick smoke. Even now at 12:30 am I can hear pops and bangs one after the other...and it will most likely go on until the wee hours of the morning. It seems everyone is excited to celebrate a new beginning.

Our New Years was just as I wanted it to be, quiet and calm. We spent the day at home, lolling about outside watching Isabella draw with sidewalk chalk, only running out for a quick grocery store stop, on the way home however we decided to go on a little impromptu drive...the entire skyline was lit up with fireworks and Isabella was enjoying the show so much we cruised a bit with the windows down, she clapped and cheered in the backseat, not entirely sure what all of the commotion was about, just happy to be a witness to it. The air was full of good smells, bar-b-q grills, salty ocean and of course, firework smoke. Breathing it all in just made me happy. We watched Dick Clark countdown until the the ball dropped, we toastesd with a bottle of bubbly and then raced eachother upstairs to see who could be the first to kiss Isabella into the New Years...he won :( She was fast asleep and only opened her eyes long enough to look at us like were were a couple of loonies, then she rolled over and went back to sleep. After that we stood in the driveway and admired the numorous displays going on throughout the neighborhood...there was cheering and yelling, running about, sparks, fire and much nonsense. We joined in with our little sparklers and now we are in bed.

2008 is a year I will never forget. Not only did I learn how to adapt to a totally different lifestyle on an island far, far away from home, but I carved a niche for myself, I found wonderful friends and I surprised even myself when I realized I enjoyed it. I experienced my first deployment, then I experienced a homecoming. Because God was looking out for me, I won the drawing for First Kiss and received the coveted honor of having red carpet rolled out for me so that my husband was the first sailor off of the boat. Isabella learned to walk while he was gone and everyone watched as she trotted up that red carpet right into her daddy's arms... just as if he never left...all the while tears rolling down his cheeks I did'nt mind that Isabella actually received the first kiss. That is a memory I will always hold dear.

This has certainly been a year of ups and downs for us...I can think of three words to describe this year, uproarious, overwhelming, and tumultuous. Having been to the bottom, Tyler and I both know that the only direction for us now, is up. Having gone through more this year, than ever before, we can honestly say, we are happier than we have ever been. 2009 is looking wonderful for us, even though we will be apart for more than half of it while he is gone on another deployment. I look at my beautiful little family and whether we are apart or together, I am surrounded by more blessings than I can count, I cannot think of a better way to start a new year.