Shiny Happy Little Guy

Drew wanted to have a little photo session the other night before bedtime. This picture just makes me smile. It shows one happy laughing little guy.

Dipping my toes in the water

After almost a month of consideration, I have decided to become a Tastefully Simple consultant. Since leaving my position with Stewart last September, I have been struggling with not being able to financially contribute to the family. I know taking care of our two children is one of the most important jobs that someone can have, but I pride myself on being able to pay for things myself and not have to rely on Aaron solely to do that. This kind of came to me out of nowhere. I had wanted to host a party for sometime--thinking it would be a nice way to have some of my old and new friends come over to our house. My friend, Cathy mentioned that one of our neighbors was a Tastefully Simple consultant. Seeing that everyone enjoys food and I wanted an opportunity to get to know my neighbor, Sarah better (she and her husband have three children, one of whom is the same age as Drew), I held a party last week and it turned out wonderfully. In the midst of planning this party, I discussed becoming a consultant with Sarah. Now, I would admit I am probably one of the last people to ever do this, but the idea of selling food products that are tasty, extremely recognizable and simple to prepare (especially for someone as cooking challenged as myself!) was very appealing to me. Plus, I like the idea of challenging myself to meet new people and breaking out that mold of being shy that I sometimes put myself into. My goal is to have parties without feeling like I am being pushy or overly ambitious. I want to be geniune about it and grateful as well.
So here I go. And if it doesn't work out that is okay. At least I know I gave it a try and did something that no one would expect.

Drew's shiny new bike and other assorted thoughts

I didn't realize that it has been almost three weeks since my last entry--time is flying by. We are doing well-we are all ready for Spring to finally arrive. Being couped up in the house has not been much fun. We did have a few days of unusually warm weather--which prompted us to take our first trip to the zoo this year and for Drew to test out his new bike that he got from Santa at Christmas. He is still a little shaky on how to use the pedals, but he enjoyed his new wheels. Attached are pictures of his big ride on the bike.

I also had my first "product" party last night. One of my neighbors, Sarah is a Tastefully Simple consultant and I thought it would be a nice way to get to know her better, as well as have some fun with my friends. Who can resist eating some tasty food samples and enjoying a nice beverage! I had eleven guests--which I was quite pleased about. There was a mixture of people there--a couple women in the neighborhood moms group, a few neighbors, a few new friends from Xenos Fellowship, and my old pals, Amy, Carol and Cathy. We go back to my college days. Heck, I am even contemplating becoming a Tastefully Simple consultant myself!

Aaron is getting pumped up for the NCAA College Basketball tournament. He gets very excited for this time of year. He will be living in his "man-cave" in the basement for the next couple of weeks--he has his fancy television down there. He evens takes off a couple days from work, so he can devote himself to watching the games.

We are back into the swing of the next round of American Idol. Our early favorite is Danny Gokey. I also kind of like Adam--the extremely theatrical goth looking dude. But, everything I see him perform all I can think of is how perfect he would be in Jesus Christ Superstar. While I have never seen the actual musical, I am sort of familiar with the music. Aaron is not a big fan of his. We mutually think that Jamar, Danny's friend and Ju'Not, got the unfairly cut from the contest. They have more talent than a number of the people in the top 11 (formerly 13). Oh well.

One of our favorite vacation spots--Niagara Falls, Ontario

Having never been to Niagara Falls, I always thought that it was one of those tourist trap destinations with tacky souvenier shops. But, since it was a relatively short drive (six hours from Columbus) and I had never seen the Falls (Aaron went when he was a kid), we thought we would give it a try as an extended weekend visit to celebrate of sixth wedding anniversary (Drew stayed home with Grandma Randolph--and this was a year before Claire arrived). After doing my research for the trip (which I love to do in preparation for any trip we go on) I discovered the Canadian side was filled with different wineries and a cute little town down just north of the Falls called Niagara on the Lake. Needless to say, it was one of the best mini-vacations that we have ever gone on. The wonderful thing about it is that you feel like you really traveled far to get there--which made it even more fun. Canada knows how to show its American tourists a good time! We kept quite busy in the short weekend visit that we had. We arrived on Friday afternoon and left on Sunday morning. The Falls are amazing to view and it was a blast going on the famed Maid of the Mist steamboat. We got soaked as the boat got relatively close the actual Falls--normally, I would hate getting wet, but it was completely worth it. We visited three wineries--Chateau des Charmes, Peller Estates and Jackson-Triggs--which is a very small fraction of the wineries in the area. We were pleasantly surprised by how expansive and elegant the wineries were that we visited. They were comparable to the wineries and vineyards in Napa Valley (not that we are any wine connisseurs or anything--but we had a couple brief visits there on our visits to see my brother and his family). Finally, we spent a few hours in the cute little town, Niagara on the Lake (I just like the sound of it). It is filled with cute shops, pubs and little inns, etc. Unfortunately, we did not get to see the lake, despite its obvious location. The road between Niagara on the Lake and Niagara Falls is beautiful too--probably one of the prettiest drives that we have ever been on. Needless to say, that I cannot say enough about this place. In fact, we are going to visit the area again in May. Plans are already underway for this visit. This time around, we plan on staying Thursday through Sunday--so we will have one more day to enjoy. Niagara here we come! :)

COSI - a visit with the frogs

Aaron had President's Day off, so we decided to take a trip to COSI - the Central Ohio Science and Industry center. They recently opened an exhibit about frogs and we thought Drew and Claire would enjoy it. I was a little skeptical since the Columbus Zoo has a fine display of various frogs in their Reptile exhibit. The exhibit was interesting, as many of the live frogs that they had on display were completely different from the ones at the zoo. The attached picture of the wax frog (I forgot it's complete name) looks like how I feel in the mornings (especially after a long night with Claire! :) Drew enjoyed saying hello to the frogs. After our visit to see the frogs, we visited the Ocean and WOSU-TV exhibits and then I took Drew to see the 3D movie, "Fly Me to the Moon" on COSI's extreme screen and Aaron took Claire to the Kidspace play area to run around. It was a nice afternoon and the kids were able to get a little one on one time with their mom and dad respectively.

Well, so much for growing out Claire's bangs!

I tried very hard to let Claire's bangs grow out--but it was getting to be too much of a struggle to keep her hair pulled back. So, last Sunday, I took her to Cookie Cutters to get her second official trim. The stylist only took off a little around the edges (to give her some sort of bob do) and trimmed up her bangs. Claire did amazingly well this time around. No tears were shed--she didn't want to get out of the chair! I admit I am disappointed that we could not grow them out--but we will give it another try. But, for now, at least we can see her pretty blue eyes and she can see things clearly without the long line of bangs preventing her from seeing all the wonderful things around her.

Holy Cow! Miss Claire has eyes!

For the past several months, we have been attempting (well, me) to grow out Claire's bangs. I had weak moments when she was a still quite little to cut them and of course, she had her first official haircut in October. But, I am trying to stand firm on my decision to let them grow out. It has not been easy and I have had many moments where I just want to get the scissors out and cut them. The primary reason why it is has been so difficult is that little Miss Claire is not a fan of barettes in her hair. She pulls them out almost the second I put them in. But, lately, she has reluctantly (at least for longer periods of time) allowed me to keep mini pony tail holders in her hair. She looks a little something out of the eighties with a ponytail on top of her head--but at least I can see her blue eyes. And heck, she might even enjoy seeing things as opposed to her hair. Attached is a before and after shot of our hair transformation!