Inside Job documentary film

JDub and I recently watched the documentary Inside Job. While I actually enjoy documentaries... some of you might be thinking WHAT?! But it is something all of you should watch... it is INSANE! It's a film exposing the dirty truth behind the economic crisis of 2008.

I hope I haven't lost all of you. Believe me... when I think of economics I'm thinking it is WAY over my head... but this film really made it easy for me to understand! Grant it... I probably wouldn't be able to relay all the information verbatim... but still. It was very enlightening... and unsettling as well. I mean yea I know there's corruption in politics... who doesn't think that?! But it is truly insane how the men who were pretty much responsible for the economic meltdown are still in some form or another advisers (or in charge) to the people who are in charge of the decisions for our economy still. It is so interconnected... not to mention the professors who are out there teaching everyone about economics are paid so much money to be advisers who knows if they're being paid to say something even if it isn't true. Makes me wonder if there are any honest people out there anymore.......

JDub and I are honest people... In fact JDub found someones wallet a while back. He found a few business cards inside... called the lady and she was so thankful for him being so honest and trying to locate the owner. She happened to be out of town, so he mailed it to her and received a sort of "reward" from her and a thank you note.... just resounding how thankful she was for having someone so honest find it. I mean isn't that what you do if you find a wallet? It's the right thing to do. It isn't yours after all.....

Anyway... I don't want to relay all the details... but you should really watch this film. I was surprised how aesthetically pleasing the overall film was and the music is pretty good too. Added bonus..... Matt Damon is the narrator :)

Coffee filter Sunflowers

While I was making my coffee the other morning... little Ceej decided he had to get into the drawer and help! He pulled out a few coffee filters... I'm not even sure why we had these type of filters, b/c our coffee pot takes the cone-shaped ones.......But anywho I thought hey the kids could make some crafts :)

I found this fun site and thought we could give it a try :) Coffee filter craft



Here are the supplies you will need.....



3 coffee filters, yellow and brown crayons or markers, glue stick, and scissors!



You can use several coffee filters if you want more layers... but I ended up using 3... First you color two of the coffee filters yellow, not worrying about the inside circle b/c it will be covered up later. I used the crayons! Then you take the 2 colored filters and place them on top of each other. Fold them in half, and then in half again so they look like this.......



Excuse the harsh lines it was hard to see the actual lines in the picture so I had to use paint and draw over them! And then you cut!

Then you can use the glue stick to glue the middle of the flowers together and use the scraps to make the flower have more depth like this!

Take your other filter and color in the center with brown. I did 2 different shades of brown marker. You have to do it very lightly when you use marker or it till start to deteriorate the filter... I did a sort of criss-cross action! Then cut it out, put glue around the edges and put over the top!

Bubba's turned out a little different........ his may not resemble a sunflower but that's ok! I let him help with the gluing... but NOT the cutting so much. He's just too accident prone and I was having to pay attention to Ceej as well.

Overall I'd say it was a pretty fun craft! Its amazing what you can find on the internet these days! :)

Banana chocolate and butterscotch chip muffins

I've been broadening my cooking horizons lately... or at least attempting too. My boys use to go bananas for bananas... but lately they've been turning brown before we can get them eaten. That's when I thought of trying to make some banana bread! I figured muffins might be a better route... that way I can just grab one and let the boys go to town. I got a little ambitious and started kinda late last night... This was the clock by the time I put the second batch of muffins in...

I ended up freezing the bananas whole, in the peel and everything, once I decided to try banana bread. I just put them in a Ziploc baggie and added another banana here and there until I was ready! After I decided it was banana bread time I let them sit out on the counter, in the baggie and thaw out. It probably took about an hr or so... then I just used my kitchen sheers, hacked off and end and squeezed out the mushy goodness.

I researched online for a while to try and find the right recipe. I find that if I come up with something on my own its not always good... but I try to find recipes that have good ratings... and I came upon this one. The Steamy Kitchen recipe

I, like most of those other people that leave reviews, tweaked it a little bit... but not by much. Here it is..

Banana Chocolate and Butterscotch chip Muffins
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 stick butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 4 bananas)
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
1. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in one bowl
2. In a different bowl add softened butter, brown sugar, eggs, and mashed bananas, and stir!

Add bowl #2 to bowl #1 and stir in butterscotch and chocolate chips. Make sure to coat your muffin tin with non-stick spray. Or use liners if you prefer.
I used my handy dandy large scoop from the Pampered Chef to fill my muffin tins. It was the perfect size and so much faster than dipping them by hand with a spatula or spoon. I used a large muffin tin, not a mini-tin.

I baked my muffins for roughly 25-30 minutes until I inserted a toothpick and only a little bit of chocolate from the chips came off! Let the muffins cool in the tin for a few minutes and then move to a bakers rack for the rest. This recipe yielded 20 muffins! And I stored them in a plastic container with the lid slightly vented.

They are so moist and the kids LOVED them :). You can still taste the banana too! Not too shabby for my first try :) I know these photos don't do them justice... if I have a nice camera or knew how to light the area right they'd look a lot better.

NO SPECIAL FEATURES?!

Ok... get ready for a rant!

One of my favorite things about renting a movies happens to be watching the Special Features after I've watched the movie itself! Sometimes they have great blooper reels.. or just fun behind the scenes stuff! Sometimes I mildly enjoyed the film, but after watching the special features it makes me appreciate all that I've seen a little, or even more because of all the work or the story behind it all!

And then there's this....

"This disc is intended for Rental Purposes and only includes the feature film"
"Own it on Blu-ray or DVD to view these bonus features and enhance your movie watching experience"

What a load of crap... I mean seriously. You don't make enough money making people pay $18 a pop at the movie theater or renting the DVD alone? No fair... I am totally bummed now. What happened to the good old days when I could rent a movie and keep it for as long a I want and then return it when I felt like it. I was hoping it was just a fluke but now it seems there will be no more Special Features for me to watch :(

What's even more annoying is the fact that they have a menu for their Special Features right there. So you know exactly what's missing.....

I mean what's next? Is it going to be like Hulu where they let you watch 10 minutes of a show and then you have to pay to see the rest? They let you watch the first half of the movie and then say... "Purchase this film on Blu-Ray or DVD to see the end of the movie?"

What some crap....

And furthermore... this crap about only having the special features on the DVD you purchase is NOT going to make me go out and buy the movie.. it makes me want to buy the movie even less....

Flips flopped...

Well I missed the Old Navy $1 flip flop sale..... kinda made me sad. So I took my old flip flops from the sale last year and gussied them up a bit!

BEFORE                                                                                                                 AFTER

I had to buy the jewels.... I didn't have any on hand. They're from Michael's. About $3 for a variety pack. They're all different forms of flowers. Some you can glue on and others have holes where you can sew them on. I figured I might be able to use some for future sewing projects too!

I just got my hot glue gun out and went to town! My sister stopped by and I tried to do hers as well... once I got them done my lil neice spit up all down her leg and onto the shoes... once I started rubbing the spit-up off the jewels came with it?! Mine are still going strong... but I haven't been picking at them either. Her's were from Old Navy too... but blue. Not sure what the deal was with that... but her jewels just peeled right off.

I added some pics of hers too... even though they didnt stay... at least it didn't melt the sandals or something...

Thanks have to go to my friend "M" from church who gave me the idea! She just got back from a nice tropical vaca with family. Her daughters were going to make their own jeweled flip flops for their trip but ran out of time. Hope you can make some time to do them now that you're back! Summer hasn't even officially started yet :)

I heart The Pampered Chef

A couple years ago I decided to host my first party... you know... one of those kinds of parties.... the candle/jewelry/tupperware/home decor parties?! I use to dread them sometimes. Not that they aren't fun! I mean they are. Total "girl time". They have good food, good gossip, and good products too. But then there's the obligation to buy something, which most of the time I never have money for...

But I got to thinking... The Pampered Chef has some really awesome stuff... and I wanted ALOT of it... so why not host a party? I mean at least its stuff you'll use in the kitchen cooking right?! Well it was well worth it... here's some of the haul I got!

I have to admit I already had the FOOD CHOPPER on the far right. My mother-in-law gave it to me as a present! And I use it ALOT too. Its great for really chopping things up well. Whenever I make my Knorr Spinach dip I alwas use it to chop up the water chestnuts and green onions that go in it! It helps to keep down on all the crying when I'm chopping white onions too!

Then there's my RICE COOKER PLUS on the top left! Oh how I love it!!! I use to cook rice on the stove top and burn the bottom of it b/c I was too busy not paying attention to it. But this rice cooker is AMAZING. Bubba really loves those lipton rice packets, and all I have to do is put all the ingredients inside that cooker and push start on my microwave. Most rice has microwave directions and I just follow those and it cooks rice to perfection every time. And it never boils over and makes a mess inside the microwave either!

I really like my SCOOPS too. When I make cookies its great for making them equal size. No worrying about varying cookies or some cooking faster than others b/c they're all the same.

In the middle you can see my DIGITAL POCKET THERMOMETER. That was a life saver! Our knock-off george foreman (it was a hamilton beach) just died recently... but we used it constantly. But it was so hard to tell if some of the meat on there was actually cooked... so I would just whip out my trusty thermometer and check the temp to know for sure. No having to slice into the meat and guess.

Whenever I cook beef I always use the MIX-N-CHOP. Its on the bottom left, the black utensil. It works really well to break up all the meat so you have even chunks!

Here's my APPLE WEDGER. Bubba is OBSESSED with apples and pears. And I use this bad boy on both of those. Bubba does NOT like it when the pears are crunchy though... so I've gotten use to eating them when they're too crunchy for him. I use to have to chop them up by hand with a knife. And well... that's not that great for me since I am accident-prone and am known to cut myself/ burn myself frequently! This wedger is so much simpler to use and really saves me some time (and blood-shed).

Well I just thought I'd let you know some of my favorite Pampered Chef products! I am in need of a good garlic press and I hear there's is the best! If anyone's having a party let me know and I'll be glad to buy one of those :)

Bday present or not?!

I had this dress from my days at UNI Singers! Of course we all had to wear identical dresses for concerts and what not. Very attractive right?!

I have been working on making it a new type of LBD (Little Black Dress) but am having some issues... so for now I'll tell you what I worked on instead...

I know... you're thinking what in the world is she going to make out of a sleeve and a victoria's secret bag?! haha!!!

Well my momma's bday is coming up... and I thought ooo I can make her a little clutch thing?! But after I finished the project I got to worrying she might hate it... and be all "what am I going to do with this thing?!" So now I dunno about it being a present... maybe I'll keep it... Or give it to someone else who likes what they see :) I do have another sleeve to work with!

I kept the bottom of the sleeve intact... I had some extra black material leftover from a quilting project a while back. I managed to sew one portion of a little pocket I added on the inside with the machine. It was a tight fit! That sleeve's opening did not fit around it very well. I was also able to use the machine to stitch the hard edges that were made after taking the sleeves off the dress.

I had to hand sew the side portions of the inside pocket, and hand sew some black material on the bottom of the purse.

Here she is all loaded up! I fit my cell phone (in my nifty pocket), ID, mini bottle of lotion, lip gloss and keys!

I added a button and elastic for the closure. I also had some flowers from a lei my boys had broken, and decided to spruce up the purse a lil! You might recognize the elastic that I used on my last project as well :)

Here's what she looks like when she's closed.......

And here's what she looks like from the other side!



It probably would have been good to add a stiffer fabric on the bottom... or perhaps some type of cardboard in between so the clutch took on a firmer shape. Maybe next time!? What do you think...should I still give it to my mom for her bday?! or not..... And I know she reads this blog.... but she LOVES spoilers anyway! LOL

High waters? Make them short...er!

So I've had these pair of pants since college. I think I might have shrunk them in the wash at some point... but they are super comfy! And they have sentimental value b/c my roomies from college gave them to me at my bachelorette party! I usually only wear them around the house anyway... but with the warm weather here (well coming and going anyway... its not always here to stay!) I thought I'd make them short for more use. This way I wont look like such a dork in my high waters!

Here I am back in the good ol days of college! Gotta love bachelorette parties :)

Here's a pic of what they looked like before...

They had this nice light pink fringe going on the bottom, and at first I thought I'd just seam-rip it off and re-attach it once I shortened the pants. But there was soooo much thread on there I decided to just cut them off and make a new hem.

Once that was figured out I took them to the sewing machine. I didn't have any pink thread, so I just went with white.

I keep seeing girls wearing sweat pant capri's where they have elastic on the bottom so I wanted to mimic that. I made sure to leave an opening to insert some elastic. I've been trying to clean out some old clothes and found some old undies with elastic tie closures on the sides. The elastic was still decent so I just cut them off and used that! Talk about recycling?!

I took a safety pin on one end of the elastic and pushed it through til both ends were showing. Then I hand sewed the ends of the elastic together; took the pants to the sewing machine again and finished closing the openings!

And here they are!!

I think they turned out pretty good myself :) It's a little chilly to wear them today. Hopefully we'll get another sunny day here soon and I'll get to show them off.

Teach Me Time clock

I saw the brother of this clock... the OK To Wake Clock! On a website one time and thought it was genious!!! The clock turns green when it is "OK to wake" for your child. They seen the green light and they know its ok to get up! Bubba is an early riser... pretty much he sees the sun shining and thinks sweet! Its morning time I'm going to go wake Mommy up. Only problem with that is once day-light savings happens it can be bright at like 6:00 am! I am not a morning person.... so I really don't want to get out of bed any earlier than I see fit! So I got this American Innovative Teach Me Time! Talking Alarm Clock and Nightlight. I read reviews and most people said while the OK to Wake Clock was great.... this clock was a step up and did more than just turn green.

As you might be able to see from the picture above This clock shows digital and analog time simultaneously, or separately, whichever you prefer. You can push the button on the right and it will tell you what time it is! Bubba really enjoys this feature :) I have to turn the volume off at night otherwise I'm sure I'd hear it talking all night long! It glows yellow all the time, which some reviews really ripped on....... but I don't really see the problem. Bubba usually has a night-light on most of the time anyway. Or at least he did, brother Ceej has now inherited the monkey lamp for his night-light since this clock kind of doubles as one.

Here's the boys enjoying the new clock! Both Bubba and Ceej took turns pushing the button to see/hear what time it was.

NIGHT ONE with the clock didn't work out as well as I had hoped... it seemed like Bubba had forgotten about it and just strolled on out of his bedroom... found his water cup and started chugging it in the hallway... I rolled over and saw it was before the 7:00 am green light! It went a little like this....

Me: Bubba.... its too early. Is your clock green?

Bubba: Huh?

Me: Honey... remember your new clock? Is it green right now?

Bubba: No.....

Me: Ok its too early... now go back to your bed and wait for it to turn green please.

Which he did... so at least it kind of worked.... he didn't even put up a fight! Due to programming error I rolled back over a little while later and saw that it was after 7:00 am and he hadn't come back out. I went in and the clock wasnt' green! At first I thought great... it didn't work! But it was just me... I didn't have it on the right setting. I should have had JDub do it! But I got it to turn green anyway and then we were up!

NIGHT TWO was perfect! After figuring out how I needed to have it set it was all good! It worked perfect. Bubba came out of his room right at 7:00 am! I'm almost thinking I might have to change it to 8:00 am on the weekends... but I suppose that is asking a bit much.

I highly recommend this clock! It even has a teach me time game on it... I haven't messed around with it yet, but I'm sure Bubba will love that part too.

Brothers

I know I've heard it a million times.... how can two boys, brothers, who come from the same parents... be so different?! I guess it is different though.... Bubba had his first year all by himself... just him and me during the day.... while Ceej is rarely alone with me... its usually us 3 trekking along. Bubba and I still have our alone time when Ceej decides to take his morning nap.... but then there are days where he doesn't (like yesterday when he fell asleep while eating his lunch!) And we all have to play along... together.

I always preferred to play Luigi myself :)

Bubba:
His obsessions have changed over the passing months... he still enjoys water towers... and we even went on the other side of the street while on a walk last night with Daddy and he was able to touch it!!! But now he's more interested in bugs. There was a wasp that was trying to get into the house the other day. My parents happened to be over and my dad killed it. He tried to sneak it in a crack in our cement out back... but I knew that wouldn't work.. Bubba just went right over to it and started to dig his little fingers around in there trying to get it out. I of course had to dig it out with a stick and literally throw it in the trash just to keep him from examining it. We told him you can't touch his stinger... but you know how kids are... curiosity gets the best of them sometimes. We have an abundance of bugs in our yard it seems... from flies and bumblebees, to wasps and box elder bugs! Even while we were enjoying our Easter egg hunt for Ceej's birthday Bubba had to stop and look at the random bugs he would see along the way. I guess it could be worse... he could be scared of all bugs... but there are certain bugs you need to be scared of if you ask me!

He is sooo smart. I know I've said it before! :) I still get comments on how clearly he speaks, and how well he understands things. This is good and bad of course. That's usually how strengths are right? While at first I enjoyed his inquisitions... I find them draining my energy and getting on my nerves very easily these days.... Why did my balloon fly away Mommy? Where did it go?....... Do you remember when my balloon flew away? Why do balloons float?... I suppose I should be happy he at least got away from his fear of balloons! The poor kid use to go into fits if one came too close.

His eating habits have gotten a little bit better... sometimes I wonder how he has so much energy when he barely ate anything! And he is more willing to try new things! (Thanks to Sam I am.... Green Eggs and Ham :) ) Candy is always a good motivator too... if you promise a piece as long as he finishes his plate that seems to work 9/10 times.

Ceej:
He seems to be steering away from morning naps more and more often :( Although as I mentioned earlier he literally fell asleep in the middle of eating lunch yesterday! Which was not cool b/c then he wouldn't take an afternoon nap so Mommy didn't get a break!!! He is still getting up at least twice a night... I try the lay him down, no talking to him, stick that paci in, and start up his musical sea-horse.... it lasts for oh about 20 minutes and then he's wailing again. I'm still breastfeeding... just mostly at night and in the middle of the night. It seems to be the only thing that will get him to go back to sleep! I know I shouldn't give in b/c he knows oh she'll try laying me back down first, but then she'll give in!! I just am so tired. He goes down anywhere from 7:30-8:30 at night but I swear he KNOWS the second I'm about to fall asleep and he cries and I have to nurse him again...... around like 10:30 or 11:00ish whenever it happens to be... SO ANNOYING!! This momma just needs some good sleep. Its been too long since I've had uninterrupted sleep... but then again maybe as a mom you NEVER get good sleep anymore....... who knows...

Ceej is a walking fool. He is all over and into everything. He is my destructor baby. He is constantly ripping things up and making me re-examine how child-proof our home really is.... Funny how I could tell Bubba "No!" and he would actually listen... at least for a few minutes... unlike Ceej who just looks at me and basically laughs... haha mommy... you think telling me NO is going to work? I don't think so!!


I know with brother's they're going to steal each other's toys... knock each other down... and "rough-house" But mommy doesn't play that... I leave the wrestling for JDub or any other relatives that want to go down that road.... I know it almost always ends in someone getting hurt!!

OTHER NEWS:

I am playing softball for my church league. We've won both our games so far!! I've even scored and made it on base a few times too :).

I have several unfinished projects going on right now... a pillow.... a dress.... and an attempt to make a little purse-like object with some left-over sleeves. It just seems I never have the time to finish.... or the will-power! Maybe if my boys would take naps (Bubba would not go down for me today......) I could finish them up!

I managed to finish listening to the 7th audio book for Pretty Little Liars and have now started the 8th (and final book!). The girl reading is less annoying :)

I'm contemplating chopping all of my hair off.... it just seems to be so blah these days... and that's about it!!! Hopefully I'll have some more fun posts to come. Thanks for reading :)

Sister-to-Sister series

I really get into book series... Well good book series anyway... If I get hooked by the first one then I have to keep reading the others! I came across this ebook called Stuck in the Middle. It's about a middle sister (of three) and her life being stuck in between 2 sisters who seem to be on the right track when it comes to their lives. This book is about Joan, who's older sister is married with a babe on the way... and her younger sister is very driven by her successful career in marketing. Joan's still living at home with her mother (her father left when they were younger) and grandmother who is a widower. Initially I opted for this book because it was FREE at the time... I didn't even know it was a christian-fiction author!

First of all I can relate to this book... b/c I'm a sister of 3 girls! Grant it I'm not the middle child... but I can still relate. I like the character of Joan, and the rest of the family as well. I really don't like spoiling anything... so I don't want to give too much away. But she meets a guy who is religious... and she starts re-thinking her life, and where its going... or rather where it isn't going! Sure she's grown up in a family that goes to church regularly... but she's never really been on fire for God! Or had that great of a relationship with Him. Which I can relate to myself. I've had my moments of being on fire... and then my moments of being weak as well. God says he'd rather us be on fire or cold... NOT lukewarm.

¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
-Revelation 3:15-16

This book really helped me to remember what's important in life... not the everyday stuff going on.. but actually living your life to fulfill what God wants for you! Grant it we can all get bogged down by the little things surrounding us... but try to remember the "big picture"... and don't forget to maintain a healthy relationship with family AND your Heavenly Father as well! It was a refreshing read... and I of course had to buy the rest of the "sister-to-sister series" to see how God influenced the rest of the Sanderson sisters too :) I highly recommend it if you are looking for an up-lifting, fun read!