Dollhouse

Here's a little more progress on Hailee's dollhouse.  If you recall, it started like this:

Here it is after I pulled out all the wallpaper and painted it (like a little replica of our real house):

I still plan to add window treatments, a little more detail in each room, some vinyl wall art and use some goof-off in a few spots, but we presented it to Hailee like this.

I love that within an hour of receiving it, she put her imagination to work and filled it up with "furniture".  
 

It will be a fun project to continue working on with Hailee.  I'll post pics again when it's all done.

"Swim"

I completed a sprint triathlon in September.  I absolutely LOVED it, it was so much fun!  This particular one (Triathamom) was really well organized.  While I competed, they had a fair for the kids with bounce houses, face painting, cotton candy, sign-making stations and all kinds of activities.

I trained for a long time.  The distances were a 300-yard swim, 12-mile bike and a 5K run.  I know, pretty easy, but for me, it was really an accomplishment.  I had three goals:

1) Finish in under 2 hours.
2) No getting off my bike.
3) No walking during the "run".

I know, I'm setting the bar really high:)  I was happy that I met all of my goals.  I'll certainly do more of these and hopefully I'll get better each time.  Here are my times for each area:

Swim  9:11
Transition 1  2:53
Bike  1:03:13 (Rate-10.4)
Transition 2  1:39
Run  35:09 (Pace 11:21)
Total Time  1:52:02


My family came to cheer me on!

The bike leg was really tough for part of it.  The first four miles were all uphill so there were parts of it that I was only going 3-4 mph.  Some people were getting off their bikes and walking around me and others were flying past me.  I just had my gears on the lowest possible setting and kept pedaling.  It was brutal.  4 miles in, it switched to downhill and I got to finish most of the rest of it at a 30 mph pace.  That made up for the first four!  Here I am finishing the bike leg.

Transitioning from bike to run.

During the run, I got all emotional (ha ha, big surprise).  A song came on my Ipod from my favorite band, but I'd never really paid attention to the words before.  They were so motivating at that moment.  I was really proud of myself.  I set that song on repeat and listened to it over and over through the entire run.  The lyrics are at the bottom of this post.

 Fueling up afterward.


I talked a few of the girls I work with into doing it with me.  I'm glad they did, we had a great time!

My kids wanted to join me on the podium.

What a neat experience.  I can't wait to do one again!


"Swim"
Jack's Mannequin

You've gotta swim
Swim for your life
Swim for the music
That saves you
When you're not so sure you'll survive
You gotta swim
And swim when it hurts
The whole world is watching
You haven't come this far
To fall off the earth
The currents will pull you
Away from your love
Just keep your head above

You gotta swim
Through nights that won't end
Swim for your families
Your lovers your sisters
And brothers and friends
Yeah you've gotta swim
Through wars without cause
Swim for the lost politicians
Who don't see their greed as a flaw

The currents will pull us
Away from our love
Just keep your head above

You gotta swim
Swim in the dark
There's no shame in drifting
Feel the tide shifting and wait for the spark
Yeah you've gotta swim
Don't let yourself sink
Just find the horizon
I promise you it's not as far as you think
The currents will drag us away from our love
Just keep your head above
Just keep your head above
Swim
Just keep your head above
Swim, swim
Just keep your head above
Swim

Chile con Limon

Once (August 2010) I posted this on my cooking blog...

Ok, No this isn't a recipe, nor does it have anything to do with cooking (besides putting the bag in the microwave), but I just had to share this little beauty with everyone. In 2004, Ty and I went to
Puerto Vallarta. In their local WalMart, I found this wonderful bag of goodness.

I bought a box to try it out and became immediately addicted. When we were leaving to come back home, we made a special trip back to the WalMart so I could get another box. If I had only known how difficult it would be to get my hands on it again, I would've bought out the whole store. Back at home, I googled it, I searched for it, but it was nowhere to be found. I even went so far as to contact the "ACT II" company begging them to ship it to my house or my state or at least my country! Their response? "Sorry, it is only available in Mexico". I would've paid any shipping price, so I didn't
understand that at all, but I'd come to an impasse and had to move on with life. I thought about it, I told others about it, but ultimately, I came to accept the fact that I would have to wait until we made it down to Mexico again someday. Imagine my surprise when I opened my birthday present from my little brother and his wife this year (6 years later) and found this inside! They had found this popcorn
available on a website (that probably didn't exist when I was looking for it) at My Mexican Pantry. I have been enjoying this delicious popcorn again and loving every bite. Every bite brings me sadness
though, knowing that I'm coming closer to the end of my precious box. Yes, it's available on this website, but at $2/bag, I do have to go easy on it. Just wanted to share this joy with all of you. Please do let me know if you taste it!

Here's the link to that post: http://cookinbrooke.blogspot.com/2010/08/chile-con-limon.html

So, now even a year and a half after THAT, Ty's sister sent up this seasoning for me to try.

How awesome is that?  Well, I immediately made popcorn upon receiving this gift and was very happy to find this is the closest substitution I've ever come across, and believe me, I have looked.  No, not exactly the same, but pretty darn close.  It's not quite as spicy, not quite as strongly flavored and this one has salt added where the other one didn't, but I have to admit this one probably fits the average American taste bud better than the Mexican version so it will likely sell better here.  Anyway, I just thought it is cool that I have all these family members keeping an eye out for me and being so thoughtful and I also wanted to share this post again in case you missed it the first time around since it was on my other blog.  My official unpaid advertisement: Go buy some of this! :-)

Special Present

I'm so excited about this new project I'm working on. My dad built this dollhouse when I was little and my mom decorated it. I played with and loved this thing for years! We gave it to Ty's sister for her kids to use quite a few years ago, as I had no use for it at that time. Well, now that I have a little girl at the perfect age for this and our nieces are teens, I'm working on a remodel for Hailee for Christmas! It was a little outdated! :)


My mom and I tore out all the old wallpaper and curtains and Ty sanded the whole thing down. I started on the paint and will just be working on it throughout the month. I have all the paint remnants leftover from painting the rooms in my house, so I'm planning on doing this dollhouse exactly the same as our real house. That way, even if we move, Hailee will always have a mini replica of her first home. The outside of it was stark white and I started replacing it with this dark tan color. I'll post pictures of my progress!