Etsy club

Well...I am now officially a mom. I think that to be part of the mom club, you must have an etsy shop and now I do. Even if nothing in my shop is made my me (so far). For those of you who know my dad, know his wonderful woodworking hobby. I take full advantage. Most of the furniture in my house was created by him. I finally talked him into letting me sell a few of the pens he makes. Take a look. They are beautiful.

I am working on a few quilts and things of my own to put in the shop so stay tuned.

www.olivemylove.etsy.com

Put it to the people

I have been thinking about cutting my hair for a while. About every other day I say I am going to cut it. Since my wonderful husband is so supportive and tells me he thinks I am beautiful both ways...I thought I would ask everyone else. Please, please everyone...let me know what you think.
I am thinking a chin/shoulder length shaggy bob. I am open to suggestions.

P.S. While I was trying to get a picture, Olive decided she wanted to be in it. I told her she could but she had to smile. I laughed my head off when I saw her expressions.

Halloween, Election Day and SNOW!

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. My mom was dancing in an elementary production of Thriller, so Jacob left work early and met me at the school to watch. We then got lunch and went to the park. I semi-dressed up. I pulled together a pirate costume last minute. Jacob asked if I was dressed up and when I said yes, he felt he should also put on his costume. It was a little more eccentric than mine. Later that night he won several costume contests with his fiance who wore the matching girl version.

Olive really did not like her costume. She didn't mind the body suit, but she wanted nothing to do with the ears. We did manage to get them on and distract her for two seconds while we took a picture. The costume came with little bootie things that she liked, but she wanted to wear them on her hands, not her feet. It was pretty entertaining to watch her try to pick up candy with the booties on her hands.

She spent most of the night treat or treating at grandmas house. She didn't really understand that because she was dressed up, she got candy. She liked taking turns getting candy and then giving the candy back. She is very good at sharing. We did take her to a few houses and she was so surprised when people put candy in her bucket. She would sign thank you to them over and over. Then she would walk a few feet, turn around, sign thank you and wave goodbye. It took us about 10 minutes to leave a house because she had to stop every few steps to thank them and say goodbye. It was very fun.

Here is the pumpkin carving. Look closely, James attempted a Canadian flag.

On Saturday we went on a short 4-wheeling trip. Josh borrowed an "Olive"-sized dirt bike. She was still a little small, but she loves motorcycles. Josh gave her a small plastic bike about a year ago, and she loves to push it around the house vrrrmmming.

Here are my best attempts to get pictures of Olive and me with our "I voted" stickers. Her first election was historic. I wanted to document it.

Lastly...the snow. We were so happy to see it, and miss it very much. It did smell like snow tonight as we went on a diaper run. What a fun time of year.

If you like to eat...

I am not a big recipe poster... but here goes.
Cut the spaghetti squash in half vertically (this is not as easy as it sounds.)
Drizzle with evoo
Put in a 400 degree oven for 45 min- an hour, until inside is soft
Take it out and let sit for a few minutes.
Then take a fork to the inside and just start scraping the sides.
I just served it right in the rind (is that what you call the outside of squash?)

The sauce I put on it was simplified from our favorite family recipe, Chickpea pasta.
1 red bell pepper chopped into 1/2 pieces
5-8 cloves grated garlic
Pinch crushed red pepper flakes (I use more than a pinch...but we like it spicy)
Rosemary (fresh or dried..I use what I have)
Handful of fresh parsley, chopped
Saute these all together for like 5 min
Add a can of diced tomatoes
Let simmer for like 10 minutes

Then I just mixed the sauce into the squash with some Parmesan cheese and it was delicious.
For those of you who want to try the original chickpea pasta....cook up about 2 cups of dentalini or macaroni. After the sauce simmers add 1 can of chickpeas, when they are warm add the cooked pasta and Parmesan cheese and some more parsley.

Tis the season

I must start off by telling you about the most wonderful vegetable in the world. Spaghetti squash. If you have not tried it yet...you must. If you have...how come no one told me about it? You cut it in half and put it in the oven for about 45 min. Then you just run a fork around it...and TA DA spaghetti. I made it the other night with our favorite red bell pepper tomato sauce and it was amazing.
It has been a very happy week. I have been feeling so good. Olive and I have been having a blast every day. I was dreading voting because of the tales of the awful lines. Olive is not a calm, patient person by nature. I packed a bag full of "quite" toys (they don't work at church...I don't know why I thought they would work here) and headed out in the rain. I thought about waiting until the rain let up, but I strategically planned the day and the line waiting according to Olive's nap so we trekked out despite and hoped that the rain would stop others and therefore create shorter lines. We walked into a nearly empty retirement community, I signed my name, and headed for the booth. No line, not even one person ahead of me. It was a wonderful experience. Hallelujah. The walk to and from was so much fun. Olive is to big to regularly ride in a sling anymore, but it was so much fun to have her so close. I miss the sling days. She really thought the umbrella was a spectacular toy. The rest of the day she kept pointing to it and pretending she was walking with it over her head.
SNOW! I know others are not so happy to see snow...the cashier at Sunflower FM sure was not, but I am. Olive was scared of the snow when we first left the house the morning. She wanted to sit on the porch and watch, but nothing more. After a little persuasion she followed me to the car. After a few minutes she was in love. She couldn't get enough. She held both her hands out to catch it. She would look up and laugh and laugh as the snow fell on her face. This afternoon we bundled up and spent an hour playing outside. It was a lot of fun.
I love this time of year. I love the weather, the music, the festive decorations at the mall and even at the grocery stores. I love the smells, and the food and the anticipation. I have broken out a few Christmas Cd's, but in an attempt to be fair to those who have low tolerance for early Christmas music (James) I only listen to them at home with Olive. That girl could dance around the house to jingle bells all day long.
Pictures of Halloween, voting and playing in the snow to come. Stay tuned.

Ridin' along in my automobile...done done

We started talking about buying a second car when we got engaged, and every time we really started looking at it we got way to scared. They are big scary monsters with lots of parts that neither of us understand. Needless to say...four years later and we still were only talking about it. Our good old Hyundai started having little problems, that thanks to Josh were fairly simple and inexpensive to fix. (I say simple because it was inexpensive. Josh might not tell you it was simple.) We finally decided it was a necessity not a luxury. We were very glad that Josh was there to answer all our questions, and to give the car a thorough inspection before we purchased it.

It is nothing too fancy...but it is new and exciting for us. Call us if you want a test ride...ha ha!

As I was finishing this post James looked over my shoulder and asked "are you only going to post pictures of the car?" I guess I can see his point...Olive is pretty cute these days, so here are a few pictures of the best thing in our lives.

At a family conference party my cute cousin Hazel, who is only a few weeks older than Olive, was rockin' a pretty cute hairdo. I got instructions from my Aunt Jen...and tried it out on Olive. This is our first attempt at anything besides a beret (no idea how to spell that) or a headband. Olive doesn't have as much hair as Hazel...so it was kind of a bust, but you have to impressed with the attempt.

For those of you who still check...

I would love to say that I have been way to busy to post. In the summer months that was definitely true, but mostly I am just being lazy and don't want to play catch up. This summer was a lot of fun. We accomplished two things we have been talking about since we got married. We bought a new sofa and love seat and we bought a car. I felt more grown up buying a car than I did having a kid (pictures to come). We spent a lot of time with family and friends and spent a lot of time outside. We are kind of sad the warm months are over...but it is fun to get out the sweaters and we are definitely looking forward to the holidays. Canadian Thanksgiving is on Monday! Here are just a few pictures of our summer adventures.

Family Ties

Why I love my family....
I love James because when we (he) gets a $50 Amazon credit and tells me I can have 1/2 and then I spend $48 of it on books...he thinks that's fair. Then he watches Olive so I can take a nap since I have stayed up all night reading.

I love Josh because when he picks me up to throw me in the lake and then slips in the mud and drops me...he stops for a minute to make sure I am okay before he proceeds to pull me in the mud to the lake and dunk me. I also love him because he makes sure I know how much better I am at wake boarding than him.

I love Melanie because she would flunk seminary to hang out with me at a family reunion. Plus she is really funny (as long as she is not making fun of me.) Also...sometimes it is fun to pretend you are 17 again.

I love my mom and dad because of how much they love my baby. They would go out of their way any day just to see her.

Just stopped to count my blessings...thought I would share.

P.S.
Josh...I will try to teach you my wake boarding secrets at Lake Powell.

North Country

We always enjoy our extra Canadian holidays. We have always celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving in October, and have always done a little something on Canada Day, but this year we were actually in Canada for the festivities. It was a lot of fun. We ventured north for Will and Corina's wedding and to see cute baby Luke. The wedding and baby were both beautiful. It was so great to spend time with family that we miss all year. James has always told me about how much fun Canada day is at Cobourg beach. We had a great time.

We loved playing at the beach.

Olive loved the frozen yogurt at the cute ice cream shop on the boardwalk close to the beach.
She has hated baths lately, but ice cold Lake Ontario water didn't bother her at all. James and I were both freezing, but she loved it.

We really enjoyed Grandma and Bapa's pool.
All the cousins at the reception. Luke is so cute and tiny.

This is at the actual wedding. I don't know if they were supposed to be sitting on these chairs, but what can you do?
This is at the beach before the fireworks.
Getting used to the pool.
Toronto zoo.
Olive was sure impressed by her big cousins Josh and Kyle. She wanted to be just like them.

Luke is so cute. I wish we were able to see him more often. We miss everyone so much.