the mind of a dog

do you have a pet?  do you ever wonder what is going on in their minds?  my kids are always talking to her and treating her like she is another human being who can understand everything they tell her.  i am always telling them, "she can't understand you, all she hears is blah, blah, blah."  like the teacher in the charlie brown shows. 

but, sometimes i wonder if she really can understand us, and maybe the blank stares are fake.

i wonder what she is thinking when she looks far away...

or when she gets talked to like she's a person who is supposed to respond...

then i realize that i was right all along, when she gives me just the right face that says it all...

"what, are you talking to me?"

"what are you saying?"

"EH?"

yeah.  that's what i thought.

shopping for braces

here we go.  i guess we knew out of the 6 kids we have, one or a few would need braces.   but $3200!!!  sheesh!!  here's the culprit kid we're getting them for. 

when the dr. told her she would have to wear a head gear appliance, she immediately thought of this

 

 from charlie and the chocolate factory.  we all had a good laugh from it

but she didn't think it was one bit funny...

fortunately, for her, times and technology have changed quite a bit and her head gear will look more like this instead

see?  that's better, and she only has to wear it at night.  she'll have to wear the braces for 2 years, although i say three, you know, to get our moneys worth.

diy subway sign

i have always liked the look of subway signs in the home, and i started wishing and hoping for one of my own.  i looked around and found that they are quite expensive (for my budget anyway).

this one from restoration hardware is $850.   um....yeah.  so i kept looking, and wishing, and hoping.

source

source

i started realizing that people were making their own...

source

so that got me thinking, why not?  i had the perfect spot on the brick wall at the top of my hallway...
wanna see what i came up with?  well first let me preface by saying that while most subway art has street names, there were no street names that i wanted to remember, and i guess i could have used the names of streets in my city but i wanted my sign to be significant to me and my family.
so here it is... oh, pay no mind to the unfinshed photo wall.

do you love my pink carpet?  ugh.

i was happy with it, until my husband asked me why i made an eye chart...







i still like it, i only wish it were bigger.  i knew i could get it done as a 12x36 (2 12x18's printed at costco), and i already had the frame (michaels) so i opened up photoshop and made the layout.  
i gotta admit, $20 compared to $850 makes me happy too.

shhhhh!

Source: None via Chantae on Pinterest

i know, i know...i couldn't resist.

are you pinning?

had enough of me talking about pinterest? i hope not!!
thanks to beth from the stories of A to Z, here is a video tutorial on how to use pinterest!


enjoy!

did you know?

pinterest to go!

pinterest for the iphone 
now you know!

success

so back to pinterest i went- and saw this photo of penne pasta with roasted asparagus and balsamic butter (doesn't that just sound so yummy?)

Source: foodandwine.com via Lisa on Pinterest

and realized i had all of the ingredients, i went to work. everyone liked it! i put a little twist on it by adding ground beef because i had some in the fridge that needed to be cooked or i would have to throw it out in a day. i also did not roast the asparagus because i did not have fresh asparagus on hand, only frozen. i'm sure it would have tasted even better with fresh, roasted asparagus, but hey, it wasn't bad at all.
here is my version

i got a little happy with the parmesan.  the sauce was really good.  my girls were in the kitchen while i was making the sauce and they thought it smelled way to vinegar-y.  but with the butter and brown sugar, they couldn't taste it at all to their surprise.
i would make this again, just not sure how soon...it would mainly be to get the kids to eat more asparagus since no one here really eats it on the side, but they liked it as part of the main dish.  and that's a huge success just right there!

trying new things

i have been wanting to try new things in the kitchen lately. it seems we always have the same few dishes over and over again; tortellini, chicken alfredo, sausage with peppers and rice, spaghetti, tacos, and taquitos. it's rare that we have something that's not one of these dishes so last week when i saw this

Source: canyoustayfordinner.com via Lisa on Pinterest

i thought i just had to try it- how could i not? it looks soooo good! so i went for it. it was easy enough to put together, i thought that if these were a hit, i may have just hit the jackpot. i figured the little boys wouldn't like it so i also made an oriental salad. 2 new things!
well, the rolls were not a hit. no one liked the blue cheese inside and it was kind of dry. i could have added more sauce but i didn't want to make it too spicy, even though i think that was the point, hence the name buffalo rolls.
well, there you have it. i tried something new and my husband was appreciative for it, even though he didn't care for it. so it's back to pinterest to find more goodies, like the chicken in my last post...

love and pinterest

love=pinterest.  they're the same thing, no?  i thought they were. 
here's some pinterest goodness:

Source: technicolorkitcheninenglish.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: lh6.ggpht.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: polyvore.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: marleyandlockyer.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

that teriyaki chicken looks mouth watering good!

i must try those strawberries for cam's birthday this year- she was born on the 4th of july and those are perfect!

i saw the movie thor and now i am an official fan of thor, um, chris helmsworth. the movie was ok too.

i am going to go out and copy that outfit for sure!

love love love that kitchen! the farmhouse look is totally what i want!

are you a part of the pinterest community? if not, get on board, lets see what you love!

where did april go?

we are well into may and my head is still in april.  i didn't realize it until i downloaded some photos i took at drew's track meet last week into april's folder.  after i closed the folder i thought- wait a minute!  it's may!  we had so many soccer games and track meets and other events inside of april, you'd think i couldn't wait for it to be may- i am soooo looking forward to school being over next month, i am definitely ready for june!
here's an april recap:

love my dog

i took the kids to the santa barbara mission

carter running down a corridor at the mission

whale bones at the museum of natural history in santa barbara

carter flying a glider at the museum

deadon doing some scientific investigating

devyn examining bird nests

beautiful santa barbara greenery

uh oh- someone turned 16...can i handle it?!!!

16 year olds know everything now, right?

and someone became an inductee into the national jr. honor society...

i'm so proud!!

my new favorite easter candy

rio vs. cam drew wins the jv 400m

rio vs. channel islands drew wins the jv 400m

he also ran in the county and ran and won his best race to date in the 400m.  his time was a 50.98.

preliminaries as varsity!  second place!

in california, every 4th grader has to learn about missions.  here, keith is explaining how missions were built.

  keith's school made up their own mission and gave us a tour.

eater egg hunting at uncle joel's house

brennan

christine and grandma

devyn posed for me- i really like the yellow house across the street from my brother-in-laws's house.

there you have it- most of our april wrapped up.  we had several soccer games, but i never took any photos.  sorry devyn!

rooms i love and the thing about paint

i cannot function in a dark room.  my husband likes his rooms dark, especially in the mornings but i love having the sun wake me up.  a dark room to me, is for sleeping.  who wants to sleep all day?  i think this is why i am attracted to white rooms and white furniture.  like these

photo by eric roth

via coco+kelley

via Roxxn

now, here's the thing about paint.  when we moved into our dark house i thought i would remedy the situation by painting the dark wood paneling in the living room white.  i was soon hit with a stark revelation.  if you don't already have that bright natural light in a room already, painting the room white won't do it for you.  i was not happy about it, but i can say that when it's white paint vs. dark wood paneling white paint wins hands down.  i plan to leave it white although in parts of the room where it is darkest, the paint might as well be gray it's so dingy. 
speaking of gray, i'm thinking of changing the dining room wall to gray.  the living room and dining room are connected and the dining room wall looks like an accent wall.  i painted it a different color because i wanted a way to separate the rooms and i went darker.  it's a color called mission hills by behr.

it looks a tad more green on my wall, but you get the general idea- the color i chose is too dark.  i wanted a contrasting color against the white walls but i need to go lighter.  i'm thinking gray.

via splendid willow

via decorpad

via kreyv

all beautiful rooms, right?  i want it a tad lighter though but i'm telling you this- i won't be able to get a peaceful nights sleep until i get some gray on that wall!!