Down the Rabbit hole :)

Random thoughts (and I mean- REALLY RANDOM) by...me:

-Henry's eczema is getting better. YEA! :) But we still have an appt. with the derm. coming up. I am praying that we won't have to up the potency of his steroid cream. It burns MY fingers when I apply it, so I can't imagine what it must feel like for us to rub it in his open, flaky, blisters.

-Maeve won't potty train. Not even for skittles. Or M&M's. Or sweet tarts. Or all the candy in the world. She just won't.

-ONE WORD: Tabbouleh. I can't get enough of it. I crave it all day. In fact, my mouth is watering right now just thinking of it. (AND NO I AM NOT PREGNANT!) What is TABBOULEH you ask? Well... officially it's THIS. But I tried that and actually really despised the seasonings in it. So I tweaked it...Here's MY version: It is a delicious blend of avocados, tomatoes, feta, Italian dressing, green olives, black olives, cukes and onion- ALL mixed and minced together and then stuffed in a pita. OMG. SO GOOD. Make it. I promise- you won't be disappointed! It's a little painstaking to make for lunch- lots and lots of chopping- but I make one big batch and eat it for 2 or 3 days. There are tons of different recipes out there for Tabbouleh- and I'm not sure what even makes mine "Tabbouleh" and not just an avocado, tomato, cucumber, feta, olive, salad.... but whatever, "Tabbouleh" sounds cooler.

-I saw THIS on Oprah today and I still have chills. I am so disturbed. And of course while I was searching for the "chimp attack" I came across (GASP) MORE CHIMP ATTACKS. What happened to keeping freaking CHIMPANZEES in the wild??? Get a dang dog people. Warning- don't watch/listen to the video or read the articles if you have bad anxiety... its got me all worked up... BLAHHHHHH.

-lets move onto a lighter subject, shall we? I want to put curtains up in my bedroom... but we have the biggest window in Jackson county apparently because I can't find a stupid curtain that I like (in the size I need). I will either need to get 3 or make them myself. I think I will opt for the first since my sewing skills are so... um...not there.

-while LOOKING for these curtains in Target tonight, I came across a great "FIND" in the "dollar spot" (aka- my fave part of the store). I have lots of favorite dollar spot things that I get with each new season. The magnetic "to-do" lists are always in my cart and those little tin buckets. Maeve loves using them to put her chalk, nuks, blocks, etc. in. Tonight I think I came across my new fave dollar item: It's called the "Planet Earth" coloring book. It's from that Planet Earth series (that I desperately want to get on DVD) and the coloring book itself isn't that spectacular- Maeve did like looking through all the pages at the different animals- but the thing that has me sold, is that each page is made of that seeded paper. HOW COOL IS THAT??? Maeve colors a pic and we plant it in the yard for some beautiful flowers! All for a buck :)

-I am a glutton for Miley Cyrus. And Demi Lovato. And Selena Gomez. And... gulp... the Jonas Brothers. BAHAHAH! REALLY- It's like a real life Disney love story! All those tweens & their tween love... I really, REALLY enjoy reading about it in my gossip mags. Ryan thinks its pretty lame. And now that I read back on what I just wrote, I have to agree! haha :)

-Speaking of DISNEY...we're getting close(er)!

-I want to buy the new Taylor Swift CD. Every time "Fearless" comes on the radio I have to crank it up. If you didn't know... I am pretty sure Taylor Swift wrote the soundtrack to Ryan and I's life ;) Or maybe it's just because Ryan and I met in 10th grade and Taylor Swift is what, like 16??, and writes about high school love and all that good stuff. Whatever it is, almost every song takes me back to the days of Ryan & I's puppy dog love.

- I have the best girlfriends. ALL of them. They're fab :)

-Photography has been on my mind lately. I've been finding some great photo blogs and websites... and some not-so-great ones. It's kind of amazing (and scary?) to me that basically anyone can call themselves a photographer, make a website and start charging big bucks.

-stupid crocheting. stupid crocheting. stupid crocheting. Every thing I attempt to make turns up crooked and misshapen. I'm kind of sick of wasting yarn. And time. If I want a dang crocheted hat I'll go pay the 12 bucks for one on ETSY.

-Parasites. (You're probably thinking at this point that you've fallen too far down the rabbit hole and its time to climb out. Feel free to... or read on... your choice :) Thanks to this fabbbbbulous show, "Monsters Inside Me" I am now completely freaked out by any kind of poo or goo. WHY IN HOLY HECK would someone create a show like this??? I mean, I just watched an episode called "Maggots in my head." It's wrong. Just wrong! Ryan curses the creators of this show every night because it's now taken my hand washing and OCD rituals to a whole new level. But good God... SICK.

-Eating cleaner. Meaning... I really, REALLY need to start avoiding processed foods and buying more organic. At one point I was a tad over the top with eating organic but then it got super expensive and I backed off. Now, I'm starting to think its worth the expense. At least the fruits and veggies & meats- ya know, the "main" ingredients. My reasoning? This week I've also been thinking a lot of little Maggie Bixler and her fight with cancer. What does that have to do with pesticides? Maybe nothing. Probably nothing... who knows. But I was thinking about it and I know WAY TOO many kids who have been diagnosed with cancer. Just this past year I attended a funeral for a 5 year old boy who passed from stage four cancer. I don't want to start any kind of arguments or debates over organic/pesticides in foods/cancer, etc. I'm just saying... it makes me nervous. With that said...

-I told Ryan I want to move to a farm. I want hens to lay brown eggs, chickens to eat and a huge garden. ALL FREE FROM steroids, antibiotics and pesticides. Ryan laughed and said when I start to take care of the bird we can talk about it. Haha.

-SWAGBUCKING. Are you swagging????? I hope so! If not... sign up at SWAGBUCKS.COM and start earning your bucks! It doesn't cost anything- you just use it as your search engine. So lets say... you want to search for, um "Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas dating"- you'd type it in the search box, just like on yahoo or google, hit "submit" and if you're lucky, earn some swag! In a month I've earned enough dollars to purchase 2 Amazon gift cards. And I'm 63 away (at the moment) from earning another one! Not too bad considering ALL you do is use it as your search engine!

-if you haven't ever heard "Sway" by the Perishers, you should download it. It's good.

-"The Princess & The Frog" came out on DVD this week. BIG event here in the McHouse. I snapped it up on Tuesday using this $5.00 coupon on the 15.99 DVD(versus using the 10.00 coupon for the blue ray/DVD combo which costs 30 bucks). Have you seen it?? What's your take on it? I love it- I think its a CLASSIC Disney movie. My problem with it is that there is a LOT of voodoo/magic-y stuff in it that I hate. Maeve is terrified of all those parts anyway so its not a big deal and we just fast-forward. But what's your opinion on this subject? Do you fast forward Disney movies when they start to get into the "witchy" stuff (which most of them have- even "Snow White"- I don't like Maeve watching things about spells and all that junk). Anyways... just a thought.

-JACK JOHNSON IS TOURING THIS SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He'll be in Michigan on July 20th. We went to his concert 2 years ago and it was brilliant. I am toooooo excited to go again!

-while cooking some garlic on Sunday evening, oil splattered up on my face. I now have a giant "hole" looking thing on my chin. And it oozes... gross- yes, but ya know when you get a burn how it gets pink and wettish? It's like that- but RIGHT SMACK DAB on my face. My luck I guess.

Well...I think that about sums up everything in my brain... you (hopefully) made it out of the rabbit hole. I sincerely pray that the chimp video and talk of parasites and poo didn't disturb you too much...