We've gone paint crazy!

Over the weekend, Jared and I decided to take on a few paint projects. There are so many things we want to do to the house with unfortunately limited funds. Painting is an affordable way to spruce up the house and make it our own. So that's what we are doing.

The master bedroom got painted a light blue on 3 walls and a dark navy on the wall that was dark green. Jared painted all the trim with a fresh coat of white and it really makes the room so much nicer!

We are currently painting the guest room. We are doing "Jalapeno Red" 3/4 up on the walls and then a "Dark Ash" (aka gray) on the top. We wanted to be a little creative with this room, so we'll see how it turns out. We are also going to do the guest bathroom the same gray that is in the bedroom.

After those two locations are painted, we are moving on to the dining room. We had almost a gallon of brown leftover from our old place, so we are going to use that. Then it's the kitchen. Currently, our countertops are dark green so we are kind of limited with colors in there. I'm thinking of going with a very light, light dark green. Last, and certainly not least, we will tackle Dakota's room. What color you ask? DUH - PINK!

I'll post pictures of our progress.

work. work. work.

I've been busy today continuing work on my website as well as getting my online portfolio set up and freelance letter written. It's a long process. Having too much past work that I'm proud enough to post is a good thing, I suppose. Sites coming soon....

Advertising: my passion.

Today, Jared got off early which allowed me to get out of the house and work on my marketing business. It felt really good to really get down to business and try to get myself back into my career. Don't get me wrong - I love my job as a full-time mom/bird wrangler, but I also love advertising. I am excited to get back out there and start doing some of my own work. So, I'm also going to start using my blog to post some hot marketing that's out there. Commercials. Ads. Radio. Even BAD marketing. Here is one to get the creative juices flowing. I love this commercial. Totally non-related and random, but great nonetheless. Enjoy!

The Birds

Never seen the movie, but I've heard enough to know my life is living it. Last night, while Amy and Scott were babysitting, Amy told me she thought Layla killed a bird. I brushed it off, thinking I'm sure she just went after one. This morning (conveniently after Jared left, of course) Layla HAD to go outside. I let her out while I took care of Dakota. She scratched at the door wanting in, I walked over, and there she was, looking at me with a DEAD BIRD IN HER MOUTH WANTING TO BRING IT IN AND SHOW IF OFF. I screamed, told her to drop it and she ran inside, all muddy. Pushing away the mental picture of a dead bird on my porch in my head, I quickly gave Layla a bath, trying to wash the rabid bird germs off her body. There was no way I was going to allow her to give me a kiss anytime soon!

I called Jared on his way into work. He told me to get his gloves, put it in a bag and throw it in the trash can. Then he decided he didn't want the trash stinking, so instead, to toss it over the fence. I got off the phone with him and had to pump myself up for a good 3 hours before I went out to complete the task. Well, long story short, the bird is now resting peacefully over the fence. And I need a new bottle of soap since I used the entire thing aftewards.

Now I have the nest in the front to deal with. The baby birds have decided to take up flying for the first time and keep knocking their bodies into the glass window above the door. OY. Maybe if I get lucky, they will just kill themselves so I don't have to bury them in the back.

Dakota saying hi to Da Da

Hairspray!

Last night, Jared and I had a date night! It was very exciting. Aunt Amy and Uncle Scott came over to babysit and we went to dinner with Jared's old roommate, Kris who is touring with the Hairspray tour playing bass. We had a nice time with him, catching up and talking. He got us great seats, too! We were at Dallas Music Hall in Row F! That is the sixth row, for those of you who are wondering, and the show was really good. I had seen the movie, but the musical was of course better. It has a great story line and uplifting and happy feel to it. Highly recommended if it comes to your city!

My Flickr Mosiac

This is really cool. I created a mosaic from flickr. You should do it too. It's kind of like an personality photography montage.

Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search. Using only the first page, pick an image. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:
What is your first name?
What is your favorite food?
What high school did you go to?
Who is your celebrity crush?
What is your favorite color?
Favorite drink?
Dream vacation?
Favorite dessert?
What you want to be when you grow up?
What do you love most in life?
One Word to describe you.
Your flickr name

My answers (whatever came to my head the fastest):

What is your first name? Erin

What is your favorite food? cookies

What high school did you go to? Seaman High

Who is your celebrity crush? James Dean

What is your favorite color? Pink

Favorite drink? Dr. Pepper

Dream vacation? Bahamas

Favorite dessert? pie
What you want to be when you grow up? writer
What do you love most in life? laughter

One Word to describe you? creative

Your flickr name? jalee

A few more pictures.

You will never believe this...

You guessed it. Jared got home early today and as we were sitting playing with Dakota, Layla was obsessively barking at the front door. Like to the point where she was shaking and freaking out. So...I went over to investigate. NON-STOP CHIRPING. There are birds that live up high on our awning, but this bird was much, MUCH closer. So I went out through the garage to find I KID YOU NOT the SAME exact baby bird that Layla had attacked earlier that day. I couldn't believe it. I stormed inside, telling Jared all about it. His response? Good material for your blog. So, here it is. Jared scooped it up with gloves and set it in the yard. Who knows what will come of this bird tomorrow....

Key Lime Pie Ice Cream Sandwiches

I borrowed this recipe from a friend from Jared's med school class. She always posts some yummy recipes on her blog. I tried these when the kids were here and Miranda helped me make them. They were quite tasty! Perfect, light, cool treat for summer. Kids love them, too!



Key Lime Pie Ice Cream Sandwiches

3/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (2/3 cup if using Key Lime juice)
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup skim milk
Pinch of salt
1 can (14 oz) fat-free sweetened condensed milk
Zest of 2 limes
10 graham crackers, broken into halves

Whisk first 5 ingredients together in a bowl. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to your machine's directions. Stir in zest at end of freezing cycle. Spoon into a freezer safe bowl and freeze for 45 minutes. Place 10 graham cracker halves onto individual pieces of plastic wrap. Scoop 1/2 to 2/3 cup of ice cream onto each graham cracker and cover with another graham cracker half. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and return to freezer. Freeze for several hours. Enjoy!

Palm Tree Goodness

Here is a picture of our new palm tree. It looks so cool! I need to add some type of bush or something behind it where the landscaping trim is. We couldn't put the tree there because of the gas line.

New items on the left...

If you will see, I have posted some of my favorite links/blogs on the left. More to come.

The Antisdel Abstract is my BFF since the age of 5, Kim.
The Tangled and True blog...wow. I thought I was crafty and creative. This girl juggles a full-time job, mom of 2 and manages to bake and craft her way into craziness. Pretty cool.
The last one is my delicious links...a bookmark organizer site that keeps track of all my favorite spots online.

Bird attack!

After breakfast, I decided to try and get some work done. I am making a list of local ad agencies and sending my resume to try and get some freelance copywriting work. I brought my laptop out to the patio. Grabbed a cold soda. Put Dakota in her swing. Let the dogs get some air and run around a little bit.

I was ready to work. But Mother Nature had other plans.

As soon as I put Dakota in her swing, Layla found a bird perched on our fence. Great. She started barking at it, and I thought it would easily fly away and I could get to work in peace and quiet. But alas, no. Not in our backyard. The bird fell off the fence and onto the ground. At that point, I knew it was toast. Clearly unable to fly (it looked pretty small, probably a baby) it ran to the corner of our yard where there are some leftover fence boards. Unfortuantely for the bird, Layla can still get through. No longer able to see Layla, I hear mad chirping sounds and Layla rustling back there. As I scream at Layla to "LEAVE IT!" Dakota starts crying. I can no longer help the bird.

The bird runs out of the fence boards and then gets tag-teamed by Layla and Addie as Layla starts biting at it and attacking it. I continue to scream at Layla as the bird runs to the other corner of our fence and tries to escape, but doesn't make it. I run over and stop Layla, and the bird becomes lifeless and flips over on its back, blinking its sad little eyes. Blink, blink. Blink, blink. Since Jared is busy with orientation, I call my dad. He knows I am an animal lover and tries to make me feel better by telling me it's mother nature. So, I let the dogs back in the house and let the bird rest there until Jared gets home to deal with it.

I just went back out there to see what was going on, and the bird is gone. Maybe it was really playing dead?!?!

The victim:

The attacker:

this face

I decided to snap a few pictures of Dakota after her breakfast of oatmeal and pears. She was a ham for a good 10 minutes...

Then she got a little tired of it, but still a good sport....

Then she let me know in this picture she was over it....

Cover girl?

While working late last night, I came across an email I received a while back about entering my baby in Parents Cover Model Search. So, I thought...why not? It's probably a long shot, but it's fun to enter anyway. They choose 5 kids to fly to NYC and do a photoshoot in August. Then, they pick the winner and they get to be on the cover of Parents magazine in October. Comments and votes can be made for her here:

http://www.parents.com/app/sharemy/photoDetails.jsp?photoId=216301008

The votes people cast have no reflection on who is chosen, but it would be cool to have a lot of comments on her!

The flood of Cedar Rapids

One of my good friends from college and past roommate lives in Cedar Rapids. The floods luckily have not reached her house, but she is currently working from home right now since her employer is downtown. She sent some great pictures. It's weird to see a place you have visited surrounded completely by water. Pretty scary, yet also really interesting.

http://www.andrealynnphoto.com/CRflood2008/

Jared's new job!

Jared starts his orientation tomorrow at Parkland. I think he excited to get started (and also get out of the house!) The good news is, he also starts getting paid which a great thing! His first month is in the Emergency room, which is also really great. Hopefully, the first week goes well!

This week also starts life back to normal for Dakota and Erin. Regular naps, learning activities and I'm on the hunt for freelance opportunities to make a little extra moolah for the family.

Mint and peppers...and a palm tree!

This weekend, I made the jump and actually bought a few plants that will hopefully provide some delicious cooking opportunities. A green jalapeno pepper and a mint plant. The palm tree was a throw-in. I was very excited to get the palm tree, and Jared planted it in the front yard like a good husband. Hopefully it will grow big and tall and be the talk of the neighborhood. I planted the mint and pepper plants tonight, after I got attacked by a frog. Okay, not really, it just jumped across my hand, but I sure jumped out of my skin.

More family vacay

This past weekend, Jared's parents came down to visit with Jared's cousins Miranda and Jason. We did lots of fun things, including going down to the lake, Bass Pro Shop, Dallas Aquarium, fence work fun, shopping, golfing, xbox games and eating out. The kids were great - very considerate and helpful! Jason actually got to take two new pets home, two Texas Geckos yet to be named. Here are a few pictures from the fun weekend.

Family Vacay

These past few weekends was jam-packed with family visiting and fun. Last weekend, mom and dad were in town to see Amy before she leaves for London for 5 weeks for her grad-program. We did the normal family functions, including shopping, eating and hanging out. It was a good time. Here is a picture of the entire gang. This picture took a lot of effort, but I suppose it was worth it. Good times! Layla was actually the best attitude about the whole picture taking thing. She was very well-behaved!

Frogs! And yellow leaves :(

As I was cleaning up the house tonight, I decided to go out and water my rose. As I opened the door, Layla lept out as usual, but stopped dead in her tracks before I could even get out the door. A FROG ON OUR PATIO! I screamed, and without thinking, slammed the door, leaving Layla to brave the frog all by her lonesome. I turned on the light and became a cheerleader for my tough dog. She walks up to it, it jumps, she jumps higher. As she backs off, she barks and looks at me like LET ME IN YOU CRAZY LADY! The frog takes a jump closer to her, closer to the door. Not sure what to do, I just stare at Layla and start yelling. I get her attention, swing open the door and she high tails it in. I barely see her long tail get in the door before I'm slamming in shut. I guess the rose will have to wait for a drink until tomorrow....

Speaking of watering the greens, I apparently have a bad green thumb. The leaves of my flowers out back are turning yellow. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm thinking it's over-watering but not sure? The one I have inside is doing it as well. Maybe I have a poor drainage system? We won't even get started on my poor African Violet....

Teething just plain bites. But motherhood doesn't.

Teething is no fun for little babies. Dakota got her first tooth rather effortlessly last week. All of a sudden, a little white stump appeared on the bottom and we thought it was pretty darn precious. But the past few days, the unexplained crying and overall fussy little girl syndrome has been solved: teething. Lately, she has been forgoing her naps (unfortunately) and is having a tough time going down for the night. She has to be rocked, which is very rare for her. At times, I get a little frustrated, but I take a deep breath...

As I sit in the dark rocking her, I realize there won't be many more opportunities where she just needs her mommy, safe in my arms as she drifts off to sleep and I just have to smile and cherish those moments. She is really something special and I don't want her to ever grow up! Sleep tight, little munchkin. I hope tomorrow will be a fun day for you, I know it will be for me to spend another day with my baby. You are my special little girl and I love being your mommy.

Hosting a party

Jared and I decided to be brave and play host and hostess to the intern class at UT Southwestern. Boy, did we learn our lesson. While it was nice to meet 10 new Dallas residents, it was a lot to handle with 4 kids under 4. WOW. Let's just say the Schreiner house is not ready for a walking, grabbing child. After everyone left at about 9:45 and as Koty was falling asleep in daddy's arms, we felt as though a tornado hit our house. There were toys EVERYWHERE, brownie pieces all over our new rug, a deck of cards strewn across the living room, beans on the fireplace, sauce on our kitchen rug and the table looked as though a an ugly food monster had ransacked the place.

However, there are some really nice people in Jared's program. We are excited to get to know them more (outside of our house) and hang out with them more.

Swingin!

Dakota enjoyed the awesome housewarming present Aunt Amy and Uncle Scott purchased for her today...a swing!! As we suspected, she loved every second of it, even though she first got in it a little sleepy. She really loved it. She loves the wind blowing in her hair. And don't worry, for those who are wondering, yes, she has a hole in her sleeper, and yes, we bought her two new ones today! That Minnie Mouse sleeper is an oldie, but goodie!

A Fun Day with Family

Today, mom, dad, Amy and Scott headed over to enjoy some delicious Schreiner bbq! We enjoyed Jared's yummy ribs that were pretty darn tasty! I also slaved in the kitchen into the wee hours of the night preparing this delight:

Carrot Cake! It was my first attempt, and I was pretty satisfied with the results. As you can see with how much is remaining, I think it's safe to say everyone else enjoyed it as well! It was nice to get into the kitchen and back to what I really enjoy doing...baking.

Tomorrow, for Father's Day, we will be heading up to Allen to celebrate the dads in the family with Genghis Grill and perhaps some swimming. Fun!

new grill patio

Jared spent a day last week building a small patio extension out of brick squares for his smoker and bbq grills. He spent the majority of the day sweating and working hard, and all of his hard work paid off. I am very proud of his mad building skills and he looks so cute doing it! :)

hmmm...

which colors? I'm helping mommy pick paint colors...I think this green!

broken cables and a new business.

Sorry for the absence, friends. The Schreiner household had a small hiccup this past week. We decided to finally say hasta to Time Warner Cable due to their unsatisfactory customer service and poor HD line-up, so we made the switch to Verizon. They are supposed to come out and install next Tuesday. Yesterday morning, as I peered out my window while Jared was getting our Texas license plates, I see a Verizon truck and two guys working on running cable. As soon as they leave, my television stops working and my internet is just blinking on me. As I mumble a few cuss words, I get on the phone with Jared and tell him I think the Verizon people messed something up. He returns home to find they had literally cut RIGHT THROUGH the existing Time Warner cables. THAT WERE CLEARLY MARKED ALL IN OUR YARD IN NEON ORANGE PAINT AND FLAGS. Genius. So we had to call Time Warner with our tails between our legs and have them come out and fix it. TBD on if we are going to make the switch....we'll see how good of a deal they can come up with for that idiotic attempt.

It's not easy bein green.

Well. We painted the office last night. And it's very....green. REALLY green. But i think it will be a cool creative space for my crafting/scrapbooking/freelance writing. I am excited to get it all set up, but tonight we must apply a second coat after Dakota goes to bed. Our plan for painting includes our bedroom, the guest room, kitchen and Dakota's room. I really enjoy painting, but it's a lot of work.

Tonight, Jared and I are going to venture out and dine at Poncho and Lefty's. It's about a mile West of our house and it's always packed. Here is a link:

http://www.panchoandleftystexmexcafe.com/rowlett/index.htm

I'll keep you posted on my review of the place tomorrow!

First Swim

This past Saturday, we took a break from our usual moving in festivities and drove up to Uncle Scott's house to go swimming. This was Dakota's first swim -so it was rather monumental. I ran to Target before we left and stocked up on about 40 tubes of baby sunblock, (hey, you can never be too careful), a hat and a baby swim toy for her to sit in. We went to the new splash park which was perfect for her since it was about 1 foot deep. She loved it!!! Naturally. The girl is born for adventure. Dad got in with her and she loved to swim around in her toy. She thought she needed a bottle (it probably had to do with the 50 gallons of sunblock I applied all over her body) in the pool and after about 30 minutes, got a little tired. All in all, a huge success and we will be visiting the pool again shortly when Aunt Amy is home next weekend!

A hot Monday

As normal people headed back to work today, Jared and I continued work at home. Jared just about finished up the garage to where we can almost get the cars in. YAY! It's going to be a tight fit with 2 cars, but we will be able to make it. I went to Hobby Lobby in the morning and managed to spend a *few* dollars in the scrapbook section. Hey, everything is 50% off - can't beat that deal! Plus, I had to have some supplies to stock my craft area when it got finished. This craft room has inspired me to do some scrapbooking as a side business...so if anyone needs a cool memory book, let me know, I would be glad to make one for you instead of your pictures just sitting in a photo box getting ruined.

The remainder of the day, we went and bought paint for the craft room/office and a few flowers. I spent the hottest part of the day outside planting flowers. I will get a picture up here soon when I get it the way I want it. I also mowed the backyard, so finally, our backyard is becoming more of an oasis than a forest. Still got the birds, though. And a new frog in my rose bed. That thing scared the crap out of me when I went to lay down mulch. Apparently, Mr. Frog does not like mulch being thrown on his back and jumped up 5 feet right at my legs. Great.

Tonight, we are painting the office. Maybe. We'll keep you posted on that one...