How To

Make your own compost bin! I came across this idea a while ago and wanted to share it. This link isn't the exact same one that I originally saw, but it is pretty close. These instructions use a metal garbage can, but a plastic one was used in the first video I saw. Just poke holes in the bin using a screwdriver and hammer, fill it with the right balance of materials (see article) and then roll it around the yard every so often to mix everything up inside, and there you go! Pretty easy! I'll keep you posted when I actually get this idea going, and if I decide to put worms inside.

Bitaminins

The boys LOVE their gummi vitamins and I occasionally take the time to take a leftover prenatal vitamin. I have noticed that my teeth and fingernails take a beating during pregnancy and even now post-partum. So, as a result of coupon/get-a-good-deal love, I've entered a contest at this website, Simple, to try to win some new vitamins by Beeyoutiful. (I don't know how to add the logo for this company, but I'll try to figure it out). I'm curious to see the difference between a good vitamin and a generic. Normally I'm pretty skeptical about vitamins and herbs and such, but I did recently try some herbs to help with my varicose veins, so we'll see about this new one. I'll keep you posted!

BACK!

I was having some internet problems, but now I'm back! Here are some photos of the kids over the last few weeks:

Gianna in her Easter outfit, which she only wore 1/2 way through church because she had a blow out and needed to be changed.

After church on Easter, I slammed Ezra's finger in the car door and this is what it looked like a few hours later.
This was Gianna with a cold a few weeks ago, caught her just after a sneeze.

She is so good to let me put this thing on her head!

Not that quirky, but take a peek at my life!

I was having fun reading about the quirkiness of my friends and I started to worry that nobody would tag me! Not that I'm that quirky, but I wanted to play to! Thanks Meris! I'm running out of people to tag, but here they are: Jen, the Brooks', Julia.

First the business:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2.Post the rules.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag at least 3 people.
5.Make sure the people you tagged know you tagged them by commenting to them.

I sway- It started when I was a nanny and has continued since I've had my own kids. I sway in the grocery store line, I sway at church even when there is no music, I sway when I am talking to people, everywhere I stand!

I use coupons- I pretty much hate to buy things at regular price. If I don't have a coupon, I try to buy things on sale. I love a good bargain. And I say "Q-pon."

I use rubber gloves to do dishes- All the time, even to wash one dish.

I have piles- I like to think my house is pretty clean, usually, but there are a few piles of "stuff" around the house, in the kitchen, next to the computer, and on my dresser. The things these piles contain are: coupons, newsletters, grocery ads, post-it notes of grocery lists, photos, bills to file away, miscellaneous papers that are just too important to toss in the recycyling. I try to go through them about 1x a week. Sometimes they merge, but there are rarely moments when the house is pile-free.

I always put shopping carts back- Even with 3 kids now, I'll purposely park next to a cart return area, or even walk back to the store with the kids after putting the groceries in the car as I hate to leave shopping carts alone, next to a car, in the planter, etc. And I hate when I see people putting their carts in these places, I want to say to them, "I hope you don't go whining to the store when a cart slams into your car and dents and scratches it."

I like getting recipes from the backs of packages- From the backs of pasta boxes, soup cans labels, magazines, etc. My favorite lasagna recipe is from the back of the Barilla no-boil lasagna noodles. Just today I was looking at a bunch of different pasta boxes to see if any recipes looked good. None did, so I just got the lasagna. It's nice being able to see the recipe and buy the ingredients that I need all in one trip!

Infant Development

Today we went up to UCSC to participate in an infant development study. It was interesting, I almost laughed out loud because I just didn't understand what they were doing. They were studying how infants between 2 and 18 months learn about height, or something like that. All I know is that if they started doing something weird, Matt instructed me to get out of there fast (being the Psychology major he was, he knew how these experiments could be, haha). I was holding Gianna on my lap and we were in front of a little stage. The curtain was raised and there was a litle box and a blue tube with about 5 little red cotton balls at the base of the tube. There was a little ding (like when you're trying to click on an icon that isn't opening for you) then a hand with a yellow rubber glove picks up the box, shows us that inside there are a couple of little stars, then it is placed on top of the tube, which is then pushed up and down. Then the box is placed back next to the tube and the curtain goes down. This happened about 10 times with different a couple of different sized boxes and a red tube instead of the blue one, I was somewhat distracted as I was trying to keep Ezra and Justus quiet at my side. Gianna was happily sucking on her hands the whole time and only once looked away. When they squeaked a little toy, her attention was brought back to the stage (at least we know she's not deaf!). We were videotaped and it must be a pretty funny thing to watch as Ezra asked a couple of times, "what are they doing? why are they doing that?" Then, towards the end, he said he had to go pee. Anyway, not exactly sure what we contributed to the study, but I'm glad we were able to help out. Go slugs!