Lena's in the Kitchen!

Finally I have been able to sit and post some new pics. Lena had been wanting to bake cookies so we ran to Wal-Mart and bought the necessary items. I DO NOT like having chocolate chips cookies in the house...because we eat them all! And that's really bad when there are four dozen cookies here ... that's a dozen a person! TERRIBLE! Hence, we don't do it very often.

But first... I went in to check on Lena the other evening. We did a late night Sonic run. She went to her room and was just too quiet. This is what I found.
My baby with her Purple Luck and Mimi knocked out on the floor. Too precious!
So Thursday after work Lena begged me to make cookies. We are practicing her writing in cursive, so to just add a little sugar on top, she wrote on her homework, in cursive, bake cookies. How could I say no to that?

My baby LOVES to cook and bake. She loves being in the kitchen and helping! I love that she loves it!

My baby loves to pose as well!

Just look at those chubby hands! Just like her Nanny Kia and her daddy! My mom said she fell in love with those chubby fingers! I love to kiss them when she sleeps!

She can crack the eggs perfectly!

With no shells!

One more pose...

It's a fight to keep everyone out of the ready dough...

My Lena-pooh... (wearing her cute shirt from Nanny Kia and Papa Vitaly from their visit to Jerusalem)

The finished product!

They are good!

The last batch came out around 10:30 p.m. Not fun when I have to wake up at 5:30 for work...but she was so excited and that makes it soooo worth it!

Next week we are supposed to go to Lisa's house for a small Christmas dinner. I think we will make shuba. Lena loves to make shuba. It's quite a process but we love to make and it we really love to eat it. Shuba is a traditional Russian cold salad. It's made with smoked herring, shredded potatoes and carrots, eggs, onions, shredded beets and topped with mayonaise. It sounds not too good I know, and it looks like a beautiful cake when it's done. But just the thought of a purple fish salad sounds scary, but lord it's not!

Thursday night we found a red bump under her right breast. Another spider bite! By night time it grew bigger. I put benadryl on it to see if it would get better. Friday morning it looked the same pretty much, just a bit bigger. I put more benadryl on it. When I came home from work at 1 it was HUGE! HOT! and RED! I went to the doctor immediately! The P.A. said it's her first time seeing a real spider bite. She drew a line around it and said if it goes outside the line to go to the ER or back to the doctor's office. They gave her an antibiotic. I filled it, she took her first one around 7 last night. By this time she was out of the line, but she hadn't had any benadryl or antibiotics so I wanted to get that in her and see if it impoved. Now, I'm not being lax about this. I KNOW it's serious. But I also know that it is NOT a brown recluse. Because.. when she was bitten by a brown recluse a few years ago, the bite area started turning purple and black from the necrosis, the death of the tissues. I see no necrosis, so I feel better about that. HOWEVER... she just woke.. the bite area is huge! At the doctor it was measuring 3.5 x2.5. Now it's measuring 3.75 long and 3.5 wide. It's not as red but it's hard and protrudes and it just scares me. She took her second antibiotic. I'm going to give her another benadryl and if I don't see a marked improvement she's going to the ER.

Ahhhh... this is the start of my weekend. I was planning a nice weekend with the girls, but with Lena's tummy and now Emil.. the stores keep calling him for rush sizings.... the love of being a jeweler's wife during Christmas... his phone NEVER stops... it just rang again now. Rush, rush, rush jobs...! I don't like him to go to the stores alone during this time of the year. So, I drop him off in front of the store, wait for him to come out and pick him up in front, go to the shop, size the ring, shorten the bracelet or necklace, engrave whatever.... rush back to the store, pick up whatever new they sold.. ok.. here we go. They just called... we have to go now and have it back asap! Uh! Christmas is just stress for jewelers!

I'm Still Here...

I know I haven't posted in over a week. I've just been so busy here. And not much has happened. I will try to run down some things real quick.

-If you live in the Stone Oak area and are wanting to eat out.. IF you've seen the new Mission Cafe being built and now opened up near Mays YMCA.... that pretty white stucco mission-style-looking restaurant... IF you're driving by and you're hungry and are thinking about stopping....
LOOK AWAY FAST!
This place is disgusting! The food is a joke. Seriously. I thought Tink-A-Taco was bad, or as my girls like to call it..Stink-A-Taco. Mission Cafe take the cake.. it is just terrible. The food had NO taste, no flavor. Lena's nachos were litteraly stale tortilla chips with the canned nacho cheese poured ontop. It wasn't even that warm. The rice tasted and looked like something from an instant bag of generic Mexican rice. The beans were STRAIGHT out of a can... the tamales were sooooo dry. You're sides .. you go to a station and put your condiments in a plastic cuppy thing.. think Taco Cabana. In fact, TC has better food at a better price. IF you're driving by Mission Cafe and want Mexican food, turn around and go to the TC on Stone Oak or keeping driving to Timberwood and eat at Aguascalientes... MUCH better food at MUCH better prices!

-I pulled out our wreaths two weeks ago. Tonight they are still on the ottoman waiting to be hung.

-I also took out my pointsettia arrangement that I love so much two weeks ago. I dug and dug and found it in the garage. It's in front of the fireplace, however I still haven't dusted all the webs off!

-It's been cold and rainy here for days already. I would like it to be cold and dry. This little constant mist makes it just nasty.

-I stated teaching Lena fractions. She is doing pretty well. I think next week she will do fractions all week to get a good base for her. I will also continue giving her multiplication and division.

-CC is doing really good in all areas. She was getting a bit upset with her Spelling Word Sudoku. We sat down together and now, come to think of it... it disappeared. I need to ask her where that is.

-Last night it was 42 and rainy. And ... like any other normal family, we went to Sonic.. for what else? Ice cream! I had a coke float, Sierra had the Hazelnutt Java Chiller and Lena tried the Peppermint Blast. And Luigi had a large cup of water, no ice.

Not much has been going on here. We had our Christmas party today at Chili's for the bank. I ordered the Bacon Ranch Chicken Quesadilla... let's just say I'm glad I wasn't paying for it! Emil liked what I brought home.. which is good because it was him or Luigi going to get it!

I did put up our winter tree.. and a few decorations but haven't posted any pics. I'm not sure if anyone wants to see it. I was thinking about joining the Nesters Tour of Homes, but I'm a couple of days late and many, many decorations short!

I'm ready for the weekend. Originally we were supposed to go to Dallas to Emil's parents to see the Nutcracker with my mom and the girls. I'm not sure now if we are going. I was thinking about going to Boerne and maybe do a little walking around there.. and then Santa's Ranch after. Who knows? I don't even know yet! I guess by Monday we will all know!

Next week our good long-time family friend will be coming to visit. He's done much research with AIDS and cancer. He's been published many, many times. Abdelkrim Alileche. You can go here to see the publication of the work that I had the privilege of helping him research in New York using lethal factor and non-lethal factor (with an inhibitor) Anthrax to kill cells, including cancer cells. That was truly an amazing experience. I fed cancer cells with Fetal Calf Serum. We watched them grow everyday and then depending which control they were given we would record the rate of necrosis, cell death.

Ok, ok.... I know I'm probably boring all of you with this.. so goodnight! I am looking forward to this weekend.. just to have this week over and relax. I know there are probably a ka-jillion spelling errors in here and I'm sorry! I'll spell check tomorrow! What are your plans for this weekend? Do you have family and friends coming or are you the lucky ones to be going?

I am in looooove! and a giveaway!

My new Keurig coffee maker arrived! I am so in love! It is AMAZING! It's fast, quick, quiet, easy, fun, delicious!.... I could go on and on and on but let me just show you the pictures....

You can make hot tea, iced coffee, regular coffee, hot cocoa... you can buy their K-pods or use your own coffee with the removeable filter.

Here I am making hot cocoa with one of the Green Mountain brand cocoa. This was probably the BEST cup of cocoa I have ever had!

1.) Put the pod in the filter

2.) Select the size cup you want it brewed in.

3.) Press the brew button and watch it fill up!

3.) Enjoy! I love the froth it left on it!

And now the giveaway....

I wish it was me giving this away but it's not. Five fabulous bloggers are giving away HP TouchSmart 600 PC. Anyone can enter... visit each blogger to enter their giveaway. Good luck!

The giveaway is being hosted by Stephanie, Jen, NieNie, BooMama and Kelly.

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You can also win a year of handmade vegan soap delivered straight to your door! These soaps are beautiful and come with names like Gardenia Chamomile, Rose Vegan Handmade Soap, Limoncello Handmade Soap with Coconut Milk, Lemon and Lime... and many, many more. Visit DeShawn's blog to enter until December 15!

Show and Tell Friday - Eddie Ross Pillow

Today Cindy is hosting Show and Tell Friday. This is always a favorite of mine. I haven't been able to participate the past few weeks, too much going on at home, but I couldn't pass up posting today! I am showing the beautiful pillow I won from Eddie Ross' give-away. Imagine my suprise when I clicked on Cindy's blog and saw his picture there!
I entered the give-away on a whim..never expecting to win. When I checked my email and saw the title "Congratulations" from the sender "Eddie Ross" I nearly died! I did start crying! This pillow is truly the most beautiful things I have ever seen....and definately one of the most beautiful items I own.

The pillow was handmade from a vintage dress Eddie found at a NYC flea market. It was for a story in Country Home about turning vintage dresses into throw pillows. The pillow also appears in the online magazine Lonny on Eddie's guest bed!

The beading and detail is just amazing!

The pillow is such a soft, almost dusty lavender. This is EXACTLY the color I want to use in my comforter. I have been looking and looking but still haven't found it. I was an almost cream color comforter, plush and soft, with this color accented flowers in tucks. Haven't found it yet.. I am thinking about hitting some fabric stores or something to try to find it.

I LOVE this pillow! NO ONE is allowed to touch it!

Eventually, this pillow will live on my bed. But.. I need that comforter. Ok, I want that comforter. So, for now it lives on my chest of drawers. I think this shade of lavender compliments my bedroom wall color nicely.

This is my first time uploading a video to blogger, so I don't know if it will work. If it does, it's just a better look at my beautiful pillow. That's my youngest in the background talking away.

I hope you enjoyed my pillow pictures. Don't forget to stop by Cindy's beautiful blog for more wonderful show and tell postings. I love coming home on Friday's, making a cup of coffee and looking at each and every show and tell link!

SA Snow....

The weather man is predicting snow tomorrow! They do this EVERY YEAR but nothing! As usual!! But this time they say 50%!!! We will see!!!!
What do you think?

Will it snow?
or
Will it not?

Rednesday- Barbie dress

Today is Rednesday over at Sue's wonderful blog. She is also hosting a wonderful give-away so be sure to stop by and enter once you look at everyone's entries.
I am showing a Barbie dress from I think the Mexican Barbie Dolls of the World series. My uncle bought this for me when I was about 7 or 8 right when I was going into the hospital for surgery. This dress was and still is extra special to me because my uncle was sick at the time with Lou Gehrigs disease. I knew eventually he would not be with us and I always wanted to have something to remember him by. The original doll is loooong gone but I still have the dress.

I keep the dress usually in the drawer with my scarves because I know that is the one drawer no little hands will roam around in.

The sash and black detail on the skirt is velvet and stitched with gold thread.
The bodice and poof sleeves are pleated.

I think it is so beautiful. It means so much to me.

I have never let my daughters play with this dress. I was a HUGE Barbie fanatic. I even subscribed to the Barbie Magazine.

Neither one of my girls took a big intrest in Barbie. My youngest one did find a Carnival Barbie from I think the Brazilian collection. They were produced in limited quantities so it was hard to find. Finally on eBay I found it. It was pricey but I bought it for her. I thought it would spark her love of Barbie. No. It didn't. That collector edition Barbie is in the bottom of her toy box, papers lost, stand thrown away and her beautiful soft hair is all matted and tangled. She does love her Bratz.

Thank you so much for visiting. I hope you enjoyed my dress. I can't wait to see what everyone else is showing today! Don't forget to stop by Sue's blog and enter her beautiful giveaway!

OMG! OMG! OMG! IT'S HERE!!!!

Well, this weekend has been hard and busy but today made up for it all... well almost! On Thanksgiving my uncle had a heart attack and lost 4 pints of blood. He had to be air-lifed to Austin because the little town he lives in (Yoakum) does not have the necessary equipment to handle his type of cases. Yesterday Mom and I drove up to Austin to see him. We stopped by Ryan's and had lunch together. We visited him for about an hour. It turns out that they also found he has colon cancer but they can't operate until his heart strengthens. I am soooo sad and worried for him. I can't wait to go back and see him. I just keep praying he will get strong enough to have his surgery and that he will get better soon. Driving home Mom and I stopped at the Outlet mall. Too many people and it was raining. We decided to go back on the way to Dallas. So, with moms bad news and now my uncles I had been quite sad.

I hadn't received the pillow from my Eddie Ross give-away so everyday I ran to the mailbox and nothing. I checked my email to ensure I gave him the correct address. I feared it was left on my steps and my neighbor helped himself to it.

So I came home from everything today (work, Lena's dental appt, girls to my mom, finding the right ink cartridge) and...there...was...a...box... on... my... porch!!!YAY!!!! I looked at the return address... EDDIE ROSS!!!! OMG!OMG!OMG! Yes, I was screaming and dancing on the porch! It is sooooo worth it!

But first...you have to look at a couple of pics of my beautiful, perfect, handsome son.... um, cat.

The box.....

Oh..he's teasing me!

OMG! OMG! OMG! It is so beautiful!

Look at that detail. Each diamond has a larger rhinestone in it. It is absolutely the MOST beautiful thing I have ever seen. It is such a soft lavender color and the beading is outstanding! It is so heavy and ornate! It's just lovely!

I need to find the perfect place to put this beautiful pillow!