rachel's continued ramblings

5. the flylady . yes, this is another one of my attempts to get organized and stay on top of things around the house. i'm tired of being a disorganized flake. if you sign up on their website, they send you little reminders of what you should do that day as well as encouragement! we'll see if it works! http://www.flylady.net/ 4. zatarains . this is another one of those 'where have i been?' type of things. i discovered these boxed rice dishes a few weeks ago and YUM, YUM, YUM! why have i never had these before? we're having some for dinner tonight! 3. lou piniella . i have a soft spot for this former mariner's manager. i love a manager who gets all fired up and i have yet to see anyone do it better than lou. have you seen his aquafina commercial? http://uncutvideo.aol.com/videos/04b99149cb2db2f85992607ff6dcc168 2. almonds . i always thought i hated almonds, which is unfortunate since they're among the healthier nuts, but it was because my mom (who loves to sna...

layla is up now too....

certain boys have caused me to be awake and out of bed at this ridiculous hour on a saturday morning... i've actually been awake since 4:30 when boy #2 decided to wake up and not go back to sleep. it was around that time that i heard boy #1 in the other room talking. when i asked why he was talking, he said he couldn't sleep and he'd been up ALL NIGHT. i assured him that was an exaggeration and told him to go back to sleep. he didn't, and an hour later, ended up in my bed. turns out he's 'too excited about going fishing'. today is apparently the opening day of lake fishing and he and wyatt get to go out in the boat with ron this morning and do some fishing. i finally got up at like 5:45 when micah got noisy. poor dave still is planning to go to work this morning... at least it won't be hard to get out of bed. well... at least layla isn't up!

so i just discovered something unpleasant. my favorite bagged salad (not very green, i know) is packaged in the bad #7 plastic! this is the one that canada just anounced they will be banning for use in food and beverage containers because it leaches BPA into the food it contains. i'm so ticked. i am a major fan of packaged salads because i love salad, but i HATE to wash lettuce. no really, i despise it. i'm not sure exactly why, but it's a very unpleasant task for me and i avoid it at all cost. so i'm majorly bummed. i realize that i can still get salads in the little plastic boxes, which is probably better since they are usually organic, but they don't have the ones with all the nifty extra veggies in them that i like and they usually have lots of extra greens in them which dave (aka, mr. iceberg) won't eat. LAME!!!

i'll play along, brenda. this is another 'tag' and if you so desire, consider yourself tagged and reciprocate. 1.WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? i think my mom once had a student named rachel and anna is a family name on her side. 2.WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? i'm really not entirely sure. life must be pretty good right now. 3.DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? sometimes 4.WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? good salami 5.DO YOU HAVE KIDS? quite a few, actually 6.IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? i hope so. i think i'm pretty nice. 7.DO YOU USE SARCASM ALOT? oh no. never!!! haha. 8.DO YOU HAVE YOUR TONSILS? yes, and all four wisdom teeth 9.WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? no. i hate big drops. 10.DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? no. too lazy. 11.DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? sure. 12.WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? it varies. for awhile i was on a mint chocolate chip kick. but at baskin-robbins i go for either chocolate peanut butter o...

5. charcoal chimneys. this is a great little contraption. it makes it so easy to get your coals hot fast. just stuff some newspaper in the bottom, fill it with charcoal and light the paper. no lighter fluid needed! 4. o organics oolong tea with peach from safeway . this stuff is so yummy. 3. vinegar. do you have any idea how useful this stuff is? i currently use it as a weed killer, fabric softener, drain cleaner, and mop solution. there's like hundreds of uses and it's cheap! 2. juno. we got this on saturday and it was really good. it definitely lived up to the hype and i totally recommend it. 1. the bravado body silk seamless nursing bra. i got this bra on saturday. i have such a hard time finding a bra that really fits my narrow rib cage, especially nursing bras. this one is great. so super comfortable and doesn't wiggle around. YAY! i'll be wearing it everyday, mostly because i could only afford one.

so i'm not usually one to blab about how 'green' i am, but in honor of earth day tomorrow, i've decided to take a personal inventory of the choices i make daily that affect the future of our planet and the quality of our lives. i'm not usually an earth day celebrator since i try to treat every day as though it were earth day, and not just once a year. but i figured this was a good excuse. i've always walked a bit on the green side, but i really took a turn about a year and a half ago when i was influenced by raffi - yes, the children's musician - after reading his autobiography, life of a children's troubadour . this is, by the way, a fantastic book and i highly recommend it to anyone who has ever enjoyed his music, or even remotely cares about children's or environmental advocacy. i don't want anyone to see this as any sort of snobbish, 'i am greener than you' kind of thing, but rather as a challenge to myself to see what else i can do, ...

last night dave was watching 'who wants to be a millionaire' on tv. layla walked in and saw the tv and asked, 'what's that?' dave: it's a game show called 'who wants to be a millionaire'. layla: oh. dave: do you want to be a millionaire? layla: no. dave: oh, i know. you want to be a billionaire . layla (yelling): NO!!!! I WANT TO BE A LADY BUG!

i stole this idea from a friend and i think it's great! i guess the idea is to list 5 things that have recently impressed you... made you say 'wow'... or just something you're really into at the moment. so, without further ado (what is ado , by the way?), here are my top 5: 5. the seattle mariners. i love baseball. i love baseball season. i love ballparks, overpriced hotdogs and nachos, cheesy organ music, grass that's mowed in a pattern and peanut vendors that can toss their warm, foil-wrapped bundles with the accuracy of an nfl quarterback. go m's! 4. broiling meat. why did i never know about this before? it's so stinkin' fast! 3. strawberries. yum. dave accused me recently of liking strawberries more than sex... i responded that it would have to depend on the condition of the strawberries! btw, strawberries are the second most contaminated food... so buy organic! 2. thunderclouds, apple trees, flowering cherries and all the super gorgeous trees that a...

last night at dinner, the subject of birthday presents came up. dave asked shane what he wanted for his birthday. he answered, 'an ATV.' we suggested that it be something he might actually get and he then said, 'a sit-down lawnmower.' yeah, right. his final answer was a flat-screen tv that he can put on the ceiling so he can watch tv while lying in bed. then dave asked layla what she wanted for her birthday. she thought for a minute and then said, "um... a banana!"

she seriously has the best imagination! just now i'm in the living room and she comes running over and says she's scared (or actually, 'scary' as she calls it) of the lion. i say, 'what lion?' and she says, 'the lion by the door.' so i'm like, 'wow, there's a lion by the door!' and she says that we should not let it in. well, duh! so then she proceeds to start talking about a goat, which by the way, is also by the door and i'm thinking, well if there's a goat and a lion by the door, wouldn't the lion pretty much take care of the goat? but anyway after i express my surprise about the goat being by the door, she says there's elephants there too. wow. and i say that we shouldn't let them in and she wants to know why. well, they would make a mess, right? they'd knock stuff over, and besides, they probably wouldn't fit through the door. and letting the lion in would be a really bad idea. 'why?' ...