For Your Sunday Listening Pleasure

I got this CD a while back, and I wanted to write about it. Only through blogland did I learn about it, since the pianist is the husband of my cousin's friend Tori (did you catch all of that?) I started reading Tori's blog early on in my blogging career, and was really entertained by it.

Anyway, one day she wrote about all the crazy talents her husband has, and mentioned that he recorded a CD of piano hymns. I was looking for some nice Sunday music, and I'm a big fan of piano CDs, so I got it and its great.

Most of the songs are medleys, and Tori said that he plays by ear and arranged all of the songs himself (the clip I posted is just part of one of the medleys).

Thanks Tori! (They're still for sale. Contact Tori at swampbrat@gmail.com if you're interested)

Look How Cute Summer is Going to Be.

Sophie sporting her new tank top (yes, Stephanie, I got it for a dollar) & shorts.

Her hair is up in a side-half pony, because the hair on that side of her head always sweeps into her face, and this week, gets stuck to her boogers.

(you're welcome)

Spring Break Vacations

For Spring Break this year, we did exactly what we did last year. Spent the first half with Jake's family, and the 2nd half in Mexico with my family.

On Sunday, Sophie learned how to give hugs and how to fold her arms during a prayer. Here she is showing some love to the puppies at Grandma's house. The puppies are terrified.

One of our favorite parts about visiting the family is stopping by the fruit market. Sophie snatched a cucumber and took a bite of it before I had a change to grab it. Good thing it only cost 33 cents. (I seriously love that place) All the other shoppers (a good 60 years older than me) got a kick out of Sophie munching her cucumber at the check-out.

I was also able to hit some garage sales while in town. Sophie's favorite find: this doll stroller. She loooooooves it.

After a couple of days, we headed home, and then it was off to Mexico. Sophie had an awesome time. When we first arrived, I took Sophie down to the water to distract her while Jake set up our tent. Sophie marched straight into the ocean and didn't stop until a wave knocked her over. I normally don't actually make it into the water while in Mexico, because it's quite cold, but this time I was in it quite a bit with Sophie.

Sophie loved the water, the sand, the cousins, the other kids at the beach, the puppies (there were TONS of dogs there this year), the endless snacks, and the grandparent attention.

However, she had a really hard time sleeping, especially during the day, so our vacation was quite short.

Happy Easter

A Clean Bathtub

I just thought I'd share a cleaning tip with everyone this morning. Have a good day!


The 3 bathtubs I've lived with since marriage have all been awful to me. They all have the built-in non-slip bottom, which really just mean built-in dirt collector. For most of my tub, I use Magic Erasers to do the job (and swear by the results), but they just can't get the bottom of the tub clean. I've tried everything to clean it - windex, clorox, a bottle of pink stuff, soaking it in bleach for hours - and nothing has worked.

I was lamenting to my parents about it, and my dad suggested pouring cheap shampoo into the tub. I hadn't heard of it, so I tried it. When my tub was completely dry, I took a bottle of 97 cent white Suave shampoo, and poured 2/3 of it onto the end of my tub, and let it run down to the drain. After a few hours, I went in with the remaining shampoo and poured it onto the parts that didn't get covered.

A little while later, I came in with my tub scrubber and started scrubbing and guess what. All that white shampoo started turning a grayish-brown. And after I rinsed it all away, I was left with a sparkling white tub. It looked brand new.

March 6th

Years of life: 27


Years of matrimony: 4



Happy Birthiversary, Jake

It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse reigns supreme in our house. As in, it's the only TV show Sophie even considers watching, and she'll watch 10 episodes straight if we let her.

I'd now like to bear my testimony on Comcast cable. Comcast has this heaven-sent thing called "On Demand", which is similar to TiVo, but doesn't require any work. It automatically saves most of the top-watched shows and movies from most cable channels, and keeps them stored for us to view at any time. And the shows stored automatically rotate as new episodes become available.

So right now we have 3 different MMC (that's what I'll call it from now on) episodes at our disposal. And in a week or 2, we'll get a new one. Not that Sophie cares which episode she watches. The rotation is mostly for parent sanity.


Last week, Jake taught Sophie to put her hands on her head (like Mickey ears) to ask for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. So here we see Sophie in her dog bed, er, baby chair, watching her heros.



I really don't mind MMC, except that in the opening song, it rhymes "inside" with "inside" ("It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Come inside, it's fun inside"). AND in one of the episodes that graces our television daily, they sing

"We need to find the harp,
we never must give up,
we all need to play,
to wake Minnie up".

That's right. rhyming "up" with "up". Quite creative.

Little Man Neck Ties

One of my favorite decorating blogs, KidsHaus, held a contest last week and lucky me, I WON! It was for a Little Man Neck Tie from the etsy shop Dainty Couture. I'm still debating on giving it away as a gift, or holding on to it for future posterity (This is not a hint. There is no Sophie-Sibling in the works. Stop the rumors. Just stop them.).

Anyway, the good news for you is that another one of my favorite blogs, Tangled and True, is holding ANOTHER Little Man Neck Tie contest RIGHT NOW!

I chose the green paisley design (pictured), but there are 22 different designs to choose from. Thanks Dainty Couture!



And seriously, no babies here.