Race into TWO

Christopher's Cars Party Pictures and Videos(everyone clap!)

And yes, I made the cake myself.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

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TWO TWO TWO!!

Christopher is TWO today!!! Happy Birthday Big BOY! I'm making his very favorite spaghetti for dinner and a couple cupcakes from the batter that was leftover from his cakes.

Its so crazy to know my boy is two! It seems like yesterday I was pregnant, feeling his little kicks inside my belly.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books



Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

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so tired!!

I've been cleaning all day long trying to get this house into shape for the party on Sunday. I smell like I've taken a bath in simply green!

To make matters worse, my son grabbed the bottle of baby powder and turned my nice chocolate sofa WHITE as well as himself! It took me a good 20 minutes to vacuum all that up, vacuum him and take a damp cloth to the sofa. I am so looking forward to bedtime!

Tomorrow will be another day of getting ready for this party. Saturday, I will be baking the cake and making dips! After all this work, I can't wait until its PARTY TIME

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Countdown to the big T-W-O!

Christopher turns two on Friday. We are having his very super awesome cool Cars themed party on Sunday.

I have almost everything ready for the party. A few last minute things we still need to pick up but other then that, we are game on!

I am, however, NOT ready for Christopher to turn two. I don't know why but I am having a much harder time with two then one! I think it is because he is no longer a baby anymore. He runs and climbs and plays. He goes up on the slide by himself, climbs up and down stairs and even talks like a person! He isn't a baby anymore. *sigh* I wish they wouldn't grow up so fast. They are making me old quickly!

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Are we not doing the talent portion?

The ONLY way to be involved in politics!

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Awww

This was recorded almost 2 years ago... My then 2.5 yr old daughter singing to my newborn son....

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So Proud!

Elizabeth's school had an assembly yesterday. She was called up in front to receive an award for being the Star of the Week in her class! She also got a new pencil! When she got off the bus, she yelled to me "MOM MOM I AM A STAR STUDENT!"

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Date Night

Chris and I went out on Saturday , dinner and bowling. Diner SUCKED. Well the food was good but the service was horrid!! We went out bowling after and despite the fact we both totally suck, we had a great time. I hope we can do it again soon.

We had to laugh at ourselves though. We started our big date at 4pm and were home by 9:30. I think we are getting old!

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For the love of Rice!

I love rice. White rice, brown rice and especially really long grain sticky rice like jasmine!


There is so many things you can do with rice! One of my favorites is my mom's fried rice.

We use cooked rice in this dish so its perfect if you have leftovers you don't know what to do with!

We start with one can of mushrooms, half onion-chopped and 3 cloves of garlic- chopped

Into a fairly deep fry pan or wok if you have one with 1/4 cup of veg oil. Toss those around on med high until the mushrooms start to brown a little. Add in 1/4 cup of soy sauce and 1 tbsp of sugar.

Now add your rice, you want at least 3 cups of cooked rice. Toss that all around, adding a good swirl (lol really I never measure) of soy sauce and a couple grinds(shakes) of pepper.


Now here is the fun part.. you can add whatever your little heart desires to this!

Shredded carrot, peas, snow peas, maybe some chopped baked zucchini or squash? How about some leftover chicken breast, ham or even scramble an egg in it! Cashews or pine nuts would be great too! Ohh or some hot peppers!

Use your imagination and whatever is in your fridge that catches your fancy!

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Death of a turtle

While we were waiting for Elizabeth's bus yesterday, a turtle came crawling up the sidewalk. Now, this wasn't a normal "wild" turtle, you know the big snapping kind they have around here but rather looked like someone's pet turtle. It was very clean and didn't smell at all.

I picked him up, thinking it was probably belonged to the neighbors son, and put him in the grass in front of their house so it wouldn't get into the street. The yard is surrounded by bushes so I figured it would be safe there.

At 3, when it was time to pick her up at the bus stop, I remembered Mr. Turtle. I crossed the street to see if he was still in the yard when I almost stepped in him... or what was him. He did wander into the street and was crunched badly.


Now I was very upset about this poor turtle. Not really because it was just some turtle but I am sure it was someONE's turtle! I'm guessing he was probably put in the yard thinking he would be OK and eat grass. I regret not putting the turtle in our own fenced back yard :(

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New words a la Christopher

No
Whaddyadoing? (What are you doing?)
donno (I don't know)
Ahbeth (Elizabeth)
Bob it! (Stop it!.. Usually said Bobit Ahbeth!!)
Barrymalk push (Strawberry Milk, Please!)
Dunnit (Doughnut)
Hungee (Hungry)
Bafist (Breakfast)
Tit (Teeth)
Bush (Bus)c
Dink (Drink)
Sool (School)
Coom (Vacuum)
Beevee (TV)
Boovie (Movie)
Sary (Sorry)

LOL He is coming along and I am learning his language quickly!

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Cider Doughnuts make the world go round....

We went to the Orchard today to get some apples, cider and cider doughnuts. We also got some fudge; huckleberry, blueberry, blackberry and strawberry preserves. Oh this amazing southwest dip and buckwheat honey. What was suppose to be a nice day to visit a couple orchards didn't turn out exactly as planned but was fun none the less!
We did try to go to Bowman Orchard but the line for parking was down the street in both directions! Since we didn't get any cider originally at Altamont, we stopped at the diviest of dives for lunch then went back for a 1/2 gallon of cider. Chris LOVES cider and he declared theirs to be the best he's ever had! We are thinking about another trip out there next weekend and possibly try and get into Bowman's during the week! An afterthought about the buckwheat honey. We bought it because it is suppose to be good for coughs and I have one heck of a cough right now. This stuff is nasty. Chris likes it but it is very very strong tasting. I tried some in my tea and instead of adding a nice sweetness to it, all I could taste was the buckwheat. It may be great for sickness but not a pleasant sweetener!

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Random post

I thought I would stick some random words in here just to break up the two photo posts that I mistakenly did wrong. The photos were all messed up down the side. I hope this helps and if not, well we could all use a little random Bran in our day!

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Just freaking great!

Chris parked on the street last night because our landlord had his truck in the drive. This morning he went to go to work and saw that. No one around. Thought it was a hit and run.

He came up and got the camera, took pics just as car pulled up and a little old lady, her husband and this young guy got out. They were the ones that hit our car.


Apparently, there was a dump truck in the way, the little old lady tried to go around without seeing if the path was clear or not. The young guy was in his truck in the open lane. She hit him forcing him into our car. When we had come down, they were gone because she was nice enough to take this guy and his kid to drop the kid off at school then came back.

So the Police came, the old lady was found at fault for failing to pass safely or something.


We are waiting for a tow truck to take our car in and a rental. The guy hit our car and bent the steering mount. Bleh

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8 hours...

98 levels... Between the two of us, and I'll admit right now it was mostly Chris, we completed Super Mario World on the Wii yesterday! Super Mario World came out in 1992 and neither of us had played it in YEARS and YEARS!
It was fun to play and remember all the old secrets! Chris knew way more then I did of course! He is like the Rainman of video games!

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Panic! at the bus stop

Yesterday, Elizabeth was put on the wrong bus. She didn't get off at our stop and I started to panic. I called the school, the Principal tracked her down and the bus she was on came back to our stop and dropped her off. It was 15 minutes of hell for me!


Today, I called the Principal to ask why she was put on the wrong bus and she said that they take the kids to the cafe to wait for the buses and she got mixed in with the wrong kids, and put on their bus. From now on, the preschool kids(at least) will stay in their room until the buses come and will be taken by the aid from there so they aren't mixed in with 120 other kids.

She apologized again and said that NEVER should of happened and it will never happen again!

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What a day!

We had such a busy day yesterday!

We got Elizabeth on the bus at 11am, hopped in the car and headed to walmart. We needed to return the bassinet we got for Christopher because of a recall. Not bad since I was trying to sell it for 45 bucks and the return got us 80!
After that we headed over to BJ's and got the very last Wii in the whole freaking area! I had called all around the day before and BJ's was the only place to have it! When I called, they had two left. When we got there yesterday only one and boy we were lucky because a woman came in line behind us...looking for the same thing!!

Wii in hand(or trunk rather) we headed over to Burlington Coat Factory to get some more uniforms for Elizabeth! We were happy because they just restocked so I got her a pair of navy pants, two more button down white shirts and two more of the blue tennis dress she loves! We also got Christopher two pairs of 24 month jammies. I hope he gets a growth spurt soon because they are about 4-5 inches too long LOL

We headed home and got to the bus stop about 15 mins before she got off. We sat with the other moms, one who handed out lollipops which made Christopher feel like a bad ass because he never had one before. After Elizabeth got off, we headed over to walmart to pick up my prescription, hair ties for Elizabeth, and a wireless router system.

At home, Chris hooked us all up to the wireless. His computer, mine and also the PS3 and Wii!

At 6:30 we had Elizabeth's Pre-K orientation. It was nice but these two women beside Chris would NOT SHUT UP! And one was a real loud mouth! Elizabeth's teach Ms. Fura has a small voice to begin with and with these two ladies talking and about 5 kids that were running around, we could barely hear her! I was proud of Chris though, because he looked ready to go off on the women. Of course when question time came Loud Mouth had to ask questions that Ms. Fura JUST talked about!

We were only out for an hour, came home, gave the kids a hotdog and put them off to bed. It was Wii time for Chris and I!

Along with the Wii Sports, we got three other games when we bought the Wii but you can also download games in the Wii! Chris being totally retro had to get old school Mario 1, 2 and 3! Memories! It has been at least 10 since either of us had played the original Super Mario Brothers but we still remembered all the hidden secrets..in the first two levels LOL. I need to Thank my parents for such a fun amazing toy! Now I'm off to play the boxing game. That is a workout in itself and I love it! Very fun!

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Uniforms

Since Elizabeth goes to a Magnet school, they have a strict dress code. This means uniforms.

Yesterday started off as the shopping day from hell but ultimately didn't end too bad!
Everyone told me to go to Target for uniforms, but they were out. Old Navy next, nada! Chris suggested Burlington Coat Factory as a long shot and since our hour long trip was turning into an all day excursion, why they hell not try BCF too!

Well, we hit the jackpot. Not only did they have uniforms but they had a section dedicated to uniforms! They didn't have everything that we needed because she is a size very small and most of the stuff was for bigger kids but we came out with a pink button down, a white polo, tan pants, tan jumper, navy jumper and navy tennis dress. We also got her some black mary janes and tights.

Now here is the awesome part. Since we were in BCF, we looked at the winter coats. Elizabeth walked out with an adorable warm pink one and Christopher with a blue, grey and green.

We are going back on Wednesday to see if we can find anything else there. If not, I will order the rest online!

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First bus ride to school

Elizabeth took the bus for the first time today. After it pulled away... the tears came for me. Ahhh it's not fair they grow up so fast!!

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First Day of School

Ok so yes I did cry but I waited until we were walking back to the car, then I couldn't help it anymore. I cried for 5 mins. chris took me out to lunch to make me feel better.

She had a great day. When we got back, they were playing outside. We went inside and waited in the foyer for them to come in. There was still a few minutes before school was out so they all went inside, two by two holding hands. She didn't even notice us! lol

They let the kids out one by one to their parents at 2:45 and the rest wait until 3:10 to be put on the bus by the teacher. The buses even have harnesses for all the kids under 7 because of state law.

We were going to buy her some new school clothes today but decided to wait until the weekend which was a good thing because she goes to a magnet school (Arts) and they have a dress code. Only solid colours, no tshirts collared only. No jean or denim.

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She showed me!

My 4.5 yr old daughter insisted she could fit into Christopher's 12 month jeans. So I said fine, lets see... and SHE DOES! They look like really cute capri's on her! Zipped up just fine, not tight at all in fact there is some room there(because they are built for a diaper butt I guess lol

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

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Fun with Dad

Christopher and Chris practiced the old traditional game of tossing the baby onto the couch.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books



Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

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Kids behaving badly

Kids doing stuff they know they aren't suppose to do... and catching themselves on camera.


In the first video we see Christopher playing with the trackball mouse. Well it doesn't stop there. Elizabeth, who was the camera person, is NOT suppose to be playing with my camera!

In the second video, she is stalking the boy next door!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

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Slacking on the blogging.. but for a purpose!

I've been cleaning up my house the last few days. Reorganizing, deep cleaning the hidden areas that don't rarely get cleaned.

It all started with our TV flaking out on us. We have a nice big 52 in RCA in the living room and the picture tube went on it. Luckily we had a service plan through Walmart and it is being taken care of. The bad part is, the electronics guy had to come pick it up and bring it back to his place to be fixed. They are quite busy and it may take up to two weeks to be fixed. This is the same place that Chris uses for work so he asked them if they could rush on our tv...you know since he gives them thousands of dollars in repairs a week!

So with the TV gone, that left a big hole in my living room. I vacuumed it all up, moved the rocking chair and from there I couldn't stop! I cleaned our room, moved the DVR and DVD recorder in there and hooked them up to the LCD TV. I vacuumed the dining room, living room, Elizabeth's room, our bedroom. I thought I was done. I sat down on my bed too watch my daytime weakness, Young and the Restless, and it was nagging at me. The playroom was still a disaster. I actually paused the show(thank you DVR) and tackled the playroom. I put away all of Elizabeth's dress up clothes, which are such a pain in the ass because she has them all over the place. I made the room Christopher friendly so he can go in there now and watch TV.

The house looks great. I still need to work on the kitchen floor and bathroom but I just did a major clean up in there recently so it is just a little touch up. My next big project will be getting bags of clothes ready for goodwill!

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My first photo gig!

One of Chris's coworkers is getting married in Oct. She has asked us to photograph her wedding! Chris and her worked out the deal yesterday. $500 dollars, mostly shooting candids of the reception, some of the wedding and some of the bridal party.
They will do their own prints (probably through walmart or shutterfly) and I'm going to throw in a dvd video.

For our first shoot, it's pretty good pay! I will buy a speedlite 430 flash before hand, which runs about 250 dollars on amazon. We will still have a nice little profit for our pockets and hey free dinner and dancing!

She had asked me to do her wedding cake as well but since I don't have any supplies here I told her to check with walmart bakery. It would cost 150 dollars just for me to get supplies. The best price I could give her was 200. Walmart said 100(although no fondant like I would do, buttercream only). Since they are doing the wedding themselves and don't have a lot of money, Walmart is really the way to go.

I am excited!

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Too Early!!

Since July, I've grown accustom to sleeping in. Christopher usually likes to sleep until 8:30 or 9 so in turn I get to sleep until 8:30 or 9. Right now my friend Shelly is probably reading this, swearing at me for getting to be so lazy. It's ok Shelly, I still love you!

Well this morning, Christopher thought it best to wake up at 6. It is a little after 7 at the moment and I am dragging ass. Shelly, stop laughing. I don't often nap, I have to be sick or REALLY tired but I think today may require one.

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Rain rain go away

It seems the prefall rainy season has started. Yesterday we had to unplug everything because of a thunderstorm that camped out over my house for an hour. The rumbling and grumbling continued on for another 3 hours all around us. Today isn't looking any better.

My whole week is going to be messed up because Chris has to work today and has Saturday off instead. How weird is that? He was not happy about working today but you gotta do what you gotta do right?

Saturday night, we put the kids to bed and watched the new Harold and Kumar movie on PPV. It was hilarious! Rude and Crude, just the way I like it! Last night we watched Scary Movie 4, which was better then the rest but still sucked! We made brownies and had a big glass of milk then went to bed. I'm not sure on the game plan for today is, because of the aforementioned rain but tomorrow I will be participating in a "day in the life of" game for one of my mommy boards. The basis of it is you take pictures of EVERYTHING all day long to give the other ladies a glimpse into a day in the life of you. Everything from waking up and brushing your teeth to meal preperation! It's fun to see other people's lives through photos.

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Linguine in tomato cream sauce

So I had this urge to try something new, well more like try and recreate this amazing meal we had at Mangina's back in March.

I had tortellini in a tomato cream sauce that was just amazing. I tried to make it before but I was missing one very important ingredient. Sun.Dried.Tomatoes. They made all the difference. Our grocery stopped selling the fresh pasta so I went with a thin linguine instead.

So here we go.

1 pkg pasta- cooked el dente, something hearty like linguine or penne. This sauce is heavy so you want something that can hold it well.
2 chicken breasts- slice in half into thin cutlets
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
2 tbsp olive oil
1 can tomato sauce
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
2 cups mushrooms(canned or fresh, your choice)
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes


Take your chicken breast and lightly coat it in the crumbs. Fry lightly in olive oil until cooked through, remove to the side. Add your mushrooms to the same pan and give them a good sweat. Taste a couple, you know, just to make sure they are fit for the dish :) Add in your tomato sauce, bring to a simmer, slowly adding in 1 cup of cream. Toss in your sun dried tomatoes and the cooked chicken. Let this reduce down a little for about 10-15 mins, then add in the last bit of cream.

Toss your sauce and pasta together, making sure every last piece of pasta is coated in this creamy tomato goodness!

Add a touch of fresh parm cheese as a garnish! A nice crisp Caesar or some crusty bread would be a great partner for this dish!

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Yesterdays photoshoot

I finally broke down and started a Photoblog. Something to display my photos with all the edits and fun stuff I add to them. I might even include my digital scrapbooking and eventually I would like to start cake decorating again, starting with Christopher's birthday. So for now, I would like to announce the opening of Bran Does Photography

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Bad Blogger

I just realized it has been a few days since my last post. Really it isn't because I forgot about my blog but rather I just really have nothing of interest to say this week!

It has been a dreary raining week, staying inside listening to my children whine about how bored they are. Today is no different.

Chris went to Connecticut this morning for a BBQ with a group of guys from his Elantra message board. He isn't sure if he will stay the night there or not, as there will be a full Keg and he won't drive home after a few drinks. It is also 2.5 hours away so it depends on if things settle down early or not. He is welcomed to the futon at the hosts house. He has just done some work to his car so it is a great time to show off.

The kids and I have declared today Jammie movie day! We are going to have a little daytime slumber party, watch Anne of Green Gables all day and eat leftover KFC.

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