I love me some shoes!

…Baby shoes that is! Gosh I can’t get enough of ‘em. There is  just something about adult looking shoes (and clothes for that matter) in miniature size that make my day .

So naturally when I saw a free toddler slipper pattern on Pinterest, I had to pin it and add it to my to-do list. Since my baby-cakes spends the majority of his time barefoot and my hard wood floors could be cleaner the cooler weather of fall is right around the corner, I finally thought it a good time to make them. Gotta protect those little toesies.

Behold Eli’s new house slippers:

Ta da! Fancy schmancy.

I put the little rubber gripper stuff on the bottoms.

“Mom, seriously? Enough with the pics. You can do “monkey face” all day long, I’m not giving you a smile until you get these clown shoes off of me.” True story.

I made a pair previously to this set but found the heel did not come up high enough in the back to keep the slippers on so I modified the pattern and added a heightened curved area in the back like a typical shoe has. Muuuuuch better. Now they actually stay on. The only problem is he finds taking them off repeatedly a super fun mommy irritating game.

For my sewer buddies, you should give it a try, it’s a super simple and quick project—my favorite kind . Here’s the link.

Happy sewing!

-Linds

Guess what I did?

Me, this girl, I completed a Warrior Dash! What’s that you ask? It’s a 5k (a little over 3.3 miles for people like me who had no clue ) race with 12 obstacles scattered throughout that involve lots and LOTS of slippery,evil mud!

Yes the guy on the right IS wearing a dress. Costumes were encouraged

Let me first clarify that this was not my idea. My hubby informed me a few months back that he took the liberty of signing us both up, along with 6 of his co-workers. Um, thanks Love. That’s so thoughtful.

I requested to know as little about what was in store for me as possible as I had no intentions of “training” for this thing. (I secretly hoped that he was just kidding and that I’d be going for moral support and not actually participating.) I figured the less I new, the better. Fast forward to the day before and he hands me a consent to sign that involves such warnings as “I understand that the Warrior Dash (“event”) is an inherently dangerous activity that presents extreme obstacles, including but not limited to fire, mud pits, barbed wire, cargo nets, junk cars, heights, climbing, jumping into water, water crossings, swimming, steep hills, and/or uneven terrain” and “I understand that participating in the Event involves the risk of severe physical injury and/or death that cannot be completely eliminated” Say what?!?! Oh but my personal favorite is “I understand, agree and accept that some of the obstacles may go through water that has not been tested for chemicals, disease or contamination.” Lovely. Yay, where do I sign?!

I had 3 goals in mind with this race:

1. Actually complete the race,

2. Do ALL the obstacles, and

3. Not leave event via ambulance.

Goals accomplished! Thank you, thank you. I’m quite proud of myself as well. I DO have some pretty sorry looking knees, shins, and elbows though. My entire left knee is purple and my right elbow has a nice little road rash that goes down my forearm. I may or may not have totally biffed it coming down a steep hill.

Post race with Emily, another fellow wife also roped into this by her hubby. (picture stolen from Kelley via facebook, thanks Kelley!)

It took me an hour and 11 minutes to complete it via walking 3/4 of the course. Hey, you know I am NOT a runner! Ick, ack! phooey! I wished I loved running but I don’t. I LOOOOVE walking and so walking is what I did. My ankles thanked me. (See comment above regarding uneven terrain.)

I wish I would have taken more pictures, wait strike that--taken A picture! I didn’t bring a camera and my phone is on the fritz so I have nothing to remember my dirtiest day ever except the photos I stole from people who DID have cool phones that actually worked. Oh well, maybe next time. Yep, I said it. I’d do it again. It was actually very fun and memorable.

My little warrior sporting the head gear they gave out, oh and a toilet paper holder “sword” .

Good times.

Toodles!

-Linds

My new bra that made me belly laugh…

So me and the hubs and kiddo were out and about doing a little shopping today when I felt the need to explain to my hubby that the new bra my sister talked me into getting made me feel like I had a bullet proof vest on… here, let me get you up to speed:

My sister was recently raving about American Eagle’s new sports bra that is “so comfy” and “doesn’t make me look flat as a board” and recommended I get one too. (NOT for working out though, for every day use.) Ok, I’ll try it. I’ve gotten into the habit of wearing a bandeau-with-straps style bra (which is not your typical style bra but definitely not a sports bra which is designed to be super supportive) since I’ve been nursing and not able to wear underwire. The one I currently live in wear 24/7 a lot is getting loose from all the pulling up to nurse so I was due for a new bra. Well, when you get used to one particular bra because you live in it wear it a lot, adjusting to a new one is, well, an adjustment, hence the comment made above. But that’s not what made me belly laugh. What made me laugh was the part where I was explaining to him how it even had a hidden pocket to hold an iPAD. I realized my mistake immediately as it came out of my mouth and went to correct myself but the visual of that statement had me in a fit of hysterics before I could even mutter something coherent. I of course meant iPOD---biiiiig difference as you well know. But even before I could get myself under control and make the correction he says to me, “No honey, I’m pretty sure you’d need at least a ‘C’ cup for that.”  Ba-dum-DUM! (Thanks a lot honey).

That was my funny story .

**cricket….cricket**

Not so funny to you?? I guess you had to be there.

Ok night night,

-Linds

I could do better….

You would think after 13 months of doing this, I would have it mastered.

Not my best work.

Lets zoom in shall we:

Yep that side is clearly up his crack…

Given the difficulty rating of changing a super mobile toddler who hates getting his diaper changed, I’d give this a bronze medal for execution. I feel I definitely deserve to be on the podium for the simple fact that it is ON.

That’s all.

Love,

-Medal winner

My cool new trick…

Hey look what I can do:

And for my finale…

Anybody else as cool as me??

Later gator,

-Eli

My kid moon walks!

Oh my word you have GOT to see this! Seriously he does this all.the.time now. What kid walks backwards at 1 year old??? This really has got to be the cutest thing ever. Check out my little moon walker :

What a goofball

Anybody else have a stupid grin plastered on their face right now?! He also does side steps like he’s learning to line dance, it’s hysterical. It all started when he’d go backwards off balance (reminded me of learning to drive stick. You know how you tend to roll backwards until you get the hang of using the clutch and then lurch forward?? Like that) Gosh I love this kid.

On that happy note, night ya’ll

-Linds

A cookie or a cracker or granola bar or….?

Well as you may know if you are a regular reader of my blog, ever since having Eli, I’m on a health food kick. Wait, no not health food, whole food—that’s a more accurate statement. I’m not worried about fat content, in fact despite all these “low fat” food options, we are still losing the battle of obesity in this country  since we tend to feel we can eat more of it because it’s after all “low fat!” (but that is a whole different discussion for a different blog and NOT the point of my post so lets move on!)

So guess what? I, me, this girl has been cooking!! Can you believe it? Who’da thunk it? I always hated the idea of taking so much time to prepare something only to have it consumed in a fraction of the time it took to prepare it (you’ve already heard me complain about this part). But I LOVE the feeling I have knowing there are no controversial additives in my food and especially not in the food I feed my completely-dependent-on-me-to-make-wise-decisions-for-his-benefit son. I’m seriously about to go batty as I learn about new safety reports on foods and products geared toward babies/kids! For example:

- The recent report of johnson &johnson’s baby shampoos containing cancer causing ingredients.

-The fact that MOST kids sunscreens contain “oxybenzone” which us fair folk thought was helping prevent melanoma but is actually more likely increasing our risk.

-High levels of arsenic found in ORGANIC baby foods and formulas! Are you freakin’ kidding me?!?! Here you go the super expensive organic route thinking you’re doing the best thing for your precious baby and you still end up getting screwed .

Needless to say, I’m not a huge fan of the FDA. I seriously could go on and on but I’m bumming myself out and I’m sure if you’re human you’re feeling pretty discouraged too. Sorry about that. Misery loves company, thanks for joining me. Ignorance truly IS bliss. If you didn’t know about the stuff I mentioned above its like that awkward moment of deciding to tell an acquaintance (can’t be close friend because that’s too easy) they have a boogie hanging. Do you do it and risk their obvious brief embarrassment (or resentment in this case) or NOT do it and they continue walking around with a big ol’ goober flapping in the breeze and nobody bothered to tell them and then they are even MORE embarrassed (angry) later? Which is worse?? I don’t know.

Ok enough of that….

Now for something to smile about! A cookie! --or a cracker or granola bar or whatever we decide it is. I stumbled upon a “healthy” oatmeal raisin cookie that I just made, like right now. I have cookie crumbs all over my computer to prove it. This is a recipe I wouldn’t mind giving Eli as a meal it’s that “healthy”. I think it’ll be my go-to crunchy slightly sweet snack. This is mainly for you Jeri (who just had a beautiful baby girl by the way! Congrats momma!) I thought of you when I made these. I changed it up a bit from this recipe since I didn’t have some of the ingredients on hand. I used organic coconut oil instead of canola, whole wheat flour instead of the whole wheat pastry flour, 1/4 C whole milk instead of powdered milk, and I only had 1/2 C of honey so I used 1/2 C of organic agave nectar as well. Yummers! After you try it you’ll realize why it’s a stretch to call it a cookie because it’s not all that sweet like a cookie typically is. So just call it a healthy snack and you wont be disappointed.

Another SUPER yummy, SUPPER simple recipe to make are these puppies:

Recognize these? You find them in the energy, or protein bar section of the grocery store but they have no preservatives and only like 3-5 ingredients making it the best choice among them for a snack on-the-go from a whole foods perspective. But they are itty bitty with a hefty price tag of $1.25-ish each. Yikes! I found a recipe for these on one of my favorite food blogs “100 days of real food” and gave it a try earlier this week and was uh-mazed! If you google “larabar recipes” you’ll find a bunch of websites out there that offer the different kinds of larabars. I made the cashew cookie one and a key lime pie one from a different website. I loved them both (and so did the ever pessimistic food critic hubby. Eli of course couldn’t shovel it in fast enough!) The best part? No cooking involved! Just measure a few ingredients, throw them in your food processor and turn it on for a few minutes. Voila! I put the blob onto a piece of wax paper and then used another piece of wax paper on the top (because its sticky) to press it flat into a square, cut them into “bars”, wrapped each one individually in their own piece of wax paper and put them all in a zip lock baggy in the fridge for snacks throughout the week. Yay me!

Let me know if you try either of these recipes.

Ok, back to the olympics

-Linds