rachel's continued ramblings

...found two cereal containers (tupperware knock-off type) and their lids which have been floating around the garage for a year now. i brought them in and they are currently in the dishwasher so we can actually use them for our endless supply of life and cheerios. 2 more things out of the garage... (or 4 if you want to count the lids!) woo hoo!

yesterday, on our way to a shopping trip from hell, i had a good idea. i have no idea what it was now, but shane was obviously impressed. this is how the conversation went: me: blah, blah, blah, blah, good ideas, blah, blah, blah, blah. shane: MOM! YOU'RE A GENIUS!!! me: wow. thanks shane, that's like the nicest thing you've said to me in a while. layla: MOM! YOU'RE A GREEN DINOSAUR!!! me and shane: ha ha ha ha...

... in the most minimal sense of the word. yesterday evening i surveyed the garage to see what i might be able to do. i am proud to report that i found a blanket that belonged inside so i folded it up and put it in the linen closet. i also brought layla's rocking horse back into the house. yup. that's it. 2 less things! we have to start somewhere right? my actual real organizational accomplishment was creating a "car washing container". this is the preschool teacher in me. i feel the need to have bins of related objects on shelves. so i took a milk crate, emptied it out (don't get too excited, i just emptied it into another box), and put the wash mitt, the mr. clean car washer thing that dave bought, the refill for that thing, and some armorall wipes into the crate and stuck it up on a shelf. now i just have to do that with everything else.

okay, so this has nothing at all to do with the garage... directly... but i just have to brag (mostly to myself - you can totally ignore this. i just want to look back and read this at a later date). this morning, by the time my children got up (8:09), i had accomplished a lot! i had showered, dressed, made (and drank) coffee, put the laundry in the dryer, unloaded the dishwasher, cleaned out my sock and underwear drawer (and subsequently filled up a grocery bag of stuff to 'fling'), and watered the garden. this is not a normal occurance , but i really need it to be. and now for the garage...

here it is:

i'm coming up a bit dry this week, so i thought i'd take a little bit different approach. 5. cheesecake! doesn't that just make your mouth water? oh i love cheesecake. it has to be the right kind of cheesecake though. a really good crust is just as important as what's on top of it. and don't go trying to give me any of that lemon or key lime stuff either. mmmm.... cheesecake with berries or cheesecake with chocolate. oh yeah. 4. soda. especially dr. pepper. about 2 years ago i made a sort of decree that we would no longer keep soda in the house, so i don't buy it and it's a very rare occasion that there's soda in my fridge. i will have it when we're eating out or whatever, but i really wish this stuff were the equivalent of drinking water. it's great. darn that stupid high fructose corn syrup! darn it all to heck! 3. weed killer. as i'm pulling out weeds and, at the same time, watching my garden shrivel up, i'm starting to think that my ...

last night was the end of the year party for the MOMS club and it was a total blast. i didn't leave until after 11:30! that's pretty shocking for me, and i don't think i was yawning the whole time either. among other things, the festivities included awards for silly things like 'best dressed', 'best housekeeper', 'most organized' (obviously not me!), 'handiest', 'best cook', etc that are decided among the members by nomination. well, i won 'funniest'. it was a tie between kate and i and we each were awarded with a super cool headband with glow in the dark, bobbly hearts and metallic tassles on it, a pretend microphone, and a rubber chicken that we apparently had to share... neither of us went home with it. i didn't know i was that funny! go figure.

1. markers. i loved markers as a kid and i still do. now layla is appreciating the entertainment value of markers. paper and markers can keep her entertained for hours. seriously. very little else can keep her occupied that long, but the child loves to draw, color, scribble, "write letters" and whatever else she can come up with to do with her markers. i think we should buy stock in crayola since i'm pretty sure we'll be going through a lot of these! 2. in-n-out burger. this place rocks. dave has totally converted me. i get so excited when we go to california so we can eat at in-n-out. double-double... yum. 3. roomba! yes, i love my vacuum, so i had to put it in my top 5. holy cow, my floors are clean! right now it's just so fun to use that i use it all the time. did i mention in the last blog about it that my kids named it 'john'? yeah, i know. i don't get it either. they decided it needed a name so shane goes, 'let's call it john!' ok...

okay, well, not exactly. but i'm really frustrated right now. browsing a cookbook seems to be the fastest way to depress me lately. it's not that i hate to cook. i actually enjoy it for the most part, as long as i'm prepared. ie, i have to have planned what i'm going to cook and i have to have all the ingredients for it. but when i feel like i've exhausted my somewhat limited list of recipes and want to find something new, i can never seem to find anything that would actually work for us. either it sounds good to me, but i know it's spicy or something that will make the kids not want to eat it. or it's full of weirdo ingredients that i don't have on hand or usually buy which would leave me with a bunch of stuff i bought for one recipe and will never use again. or it's really complicated to make and tells me to do stuff that i don't know how to do because i haven't been to culinary school. it's like there's no such thing as a...

i am so excited!!! i am now the proud owner of the coolest vacuum cleaner ever!!!! seriously, i can't believe i actually own this thing! it's the iRobot Roomba 550 vacuum cleaning robot. you put it in the room you want to vacuum, turn it on and it vacuums the room for you. it gets corners and under furniture and everything. you don't have to do anything! it has these little lighthouses that come with it that act as virtual walls so you can block off a doorway or whatever if you don't want it to go in an area. it will do carpets and hard floors and will go back and forth between the two and adjust automatically. it's so stinkin' cool! it will shut itself off when it's done in a room, or if it's cleaning in the room where it's charger is, it will just go to it and dock on the charger when it's done cleaning. you can set it to vacuum on a certain schedule, up to 7 times a week.... so it could potentially clean all your floors for you every day while...

i'm back! and so is the top 5. having spent the first week of our trip back in napoleon, i am dedicating this to some of my favorite things about my favorite midwestern farm town! 1. yes, walmart . i cannot tell you how much i have missed this place! now before all you west-coasters start turning up your noses and saying eeewww, yuck... as if!, let me just tell you that walmart out here is not the same as walmart out there. the napoloen walmart is actually a very nice place - not remotely gross or scary. and stuff is stinkin' cheap!!! 2. bermuda shorts. okay, well these aren't exactly related in any way to napoleon, except for the fact that i purchased a pair of these while there at, you guessed it, walmart! i love them. they're not the same as the ones in the picture - different color scheme. let me tell you why bermuda shorts are so incredibly wonderful: YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE SUPER-SKINNY, FREAK OF NATURE, NO CELLULITE, NICE KNEES, SUPERMODEL LEGS TO LO...