Security Blankets

As spring is gloriously upon us, I've been inspired to do some unusual cleaning.  Today, I cleaned the plastic silverware tray!  Jay saw that I had cleaned it and said "Finally!"...before you jump to a feminist conclusion, he meant that he had been wanting to clean it for some time, too.  I had just beaten him to the Magic Eraser.

My next target of cleanliness is a bit more vulnerable for me to share.  And, you'll probably think it's a funny thing to be worried about....it's....my....make up box!

It's a silly thing to feel vulnerable about, dontcha think?  But, still...I don't like for people to watch me put on my make up, or to dig through my stuff, touching the brushes, testing the colors...whatever.  To me, it's a private thing.  But!  My word for the year is progress, right?  So there you have it...my box of make up.  And, occasionally, it needs to be cleaned.

I wash the brushes with a special brush shampoo, wipe off all the pots, and wash out the box itself.

Ahhhhh, so much better, right?

Whenever I clean my make up and put the box back in it's drawer (safe from prying eyes), I remember that starting in junior high, I would carry in my purse every make up item I owned.  Leaving the house without it just simply never happened.  What if I had a make up emergency?  What if I needed to reapply?  What if I wasn't going to make it home by morning and would need it for the next day?  The latter actually happened quite a bit, but I never thought to carry a toothbrush with me...or clean clothes...or a sense of responsibility.  What are the chances that I would find myself in a situation that would wash every speck of make up off my face while in a public place?  Zero!  I don't recall a single situation that required a reapplication of all my make up.  

It has only been a few years since I got over carrying that security blanket with me.  Now, I'm strictly a lipstick and mirror girl!

However, I've realized that I have another security blanket lurking in my purse, right now.  I always, always, always check to make sure I have an extra hair band with me.  If I think I don't have an extra band, I immediately check my hair to see if my current band is coming loose or if pins have shifted.  What hair catastrophe is around the next corner?  What could I use as an alternative hair accessory?  Do I have a pen I could use to pin up my unruly hair?

Why do I torment myself with these seemingly unnecessary burdens?  What's the worst that could happen?  Logically, I know the answer is nothing, but still I cling to a small ring of elastic to provide comfort....oh, and chap stick and sunglasses, too!  Woosh!!!  More progress to be made, my friends!

Care to share any security blankets you're carrying around?

Finally! He is Risen!

So, my Easter post is a week late...can't be worse than last Easter , right?  This year, every single one of us was healthy enough to enjoy the celebration of our risen Lord...and chocolate bunnies. 

In the past, I have lamented my lack of creativity surrounding holidays.  It's as if I'm always caught unaware...like I didn't know the holiday was coming up.  It would seem we were heading down the same path for this Easter...UNTIL, my super creative-only needs a few hours of sleep-can do anything-sister-in-law, Cathy, saved my oblivious-over whelmed by laundry-distracted by Facebook-beeehind.  She mailed the kids coloring pages and a recipe for Easter cookies.  But not just any Easter cookies.  As you follow the recipe, there is Scripture to go with each step and the final results aren't revealed until Easter morning!  How cool is that?  Saturday night was filled with coloring eggs and cookie baking....

Here's what Stinky Lee MaGee decided to occupy himself with....

Trey kindly threw all the Tupperware from the drawer into the sink before standing in it...

Joe did a great job reading from his Bible while we followed the recipe for these special cookies.

Good thing Bella wanted to help hold the mixer...the recipe said to beat the mixture for 12 to 15 minutes!!

When the cookies were on the sheet, we put them in the pre-heated oven, turn the oven off (what?), waited till morning...when viola! The cookies are hollow!  Empty!  Just like Jesus' tomb!

As I was reading the corresponding Scripture, Bella interrupted me by yelling "I GOT A CHOCOLATE BUNNY!" and running out of the kitchen....her lack of attention may explain why she woke us up that morning by whispering (very loudly) "God is prison!"..."What, Bella??!!"..."God is prison!"..."Oh, you mean 'Jesus is risen!'"...."He is risen indeed!"..."Right, go back to bed, Bella."

We played our cards right by waiting until before dinner to try to get a nice picture instead of before church when we're rushing and cranky.  Pretty cute, I'd say.

And no day in the Mitlo house would be complete without some kind of "incident"...

I thanked him for his patience while I ran to get the camera.

Happy Easter!

Who Wants To Buy A Ticket On This Train?

How does one write a post about themselves without it sounding like bragging?  I am aiming for motivational, and simply using myself as the subject.  Fair enough?  We finally got around to updating our measurements and baseline test at CrossFit for the Zoleo Challenge.

Bust (aka boobies) -2"
Under Bust -1 1/2"
Naval -3 1/2"
Widest point (aka hips...for me, at least) -2 1/2"
Thigh -3/4"
Calf -1/2"
Bicep -1/4"

That's 11 inches off!!!!!!!!  Yipee!  Plus, about 15 pounds...Plus, I shaved about 2 minutes off my baseline test!

Who wants on this train???

Birthday Bash!

This past Saturday, we celebrated Joe, Bella, Jay and Uncle Doug's birthdays in a Mitlo family kinda way.  The first step of the family soiree is picking the menu...usually the host will pick the main course and all the others will bring the appetizers, sides, dessert, pop, etc.  I always, always, always leave the menu picking and assignment distribution up to Jay simply because I don't care.  Spaghetti pie?  Great!  Burgers and dogs?  Great!  Ham and potatoes?  Great!  See?  I'm no help at all. 

Well, Jay decided he wanted to do "Pizza Olympics".   What?  You've never heard of "Pizza Olympics"?  Allow me to explain....several people call different pizza places and order the same thing from each place at the same time.  As the pizzas arrive, prizes are given to first, second and third place.  Everyone at the party guesses which place they think will get there first and cheers for the confused delivery person upon arrival.

We called Papa John's, Vocelli's, Carol of Casey's, Fox's and Vincent's.  And yes, we are well aware that Vincent's doesn't deliver...we sent our brother-in-law, who invited Jay's dad along for the ride, to go get the pizza.  They were gone for about an hour and smelled a bit like hops when they returned.  They did not win.

Papa John's came in first place!  We were blaring the Olympic music so loudly it sent children running.  Joe tried to present Dude with an actual (fake) gold medal and baggie of goodies.  Dude did not care.  At all.  I think he may have had a baggie of his own goodies on the brain.

Vocelli's came in second and this guy was such a good sport!  Though as he drove away, he quickly stopped and backed down our street to confirm that we played fairly!  What did we order from Papa John's?  Did we order at the same time?  We assured him it was all on the up and up and he was free to carry on.

Casey's came in third!  This guy was just confused...though, I imagine it has to be a bit nerve wracking to pull up to a house with a bunch of people screaming, music blaring and taking your picture!  This white pizza, by the way, was my personal fav!

Fox's came in fourth and got nothing!  I felt bad about that and wanted to at least make a goodie bag for the guy.  What does a fourth place Olympian receive, Jay asked me????  Ummmm nothing?  That's right, nothing!  He's still got his tip, so I guess I didn't lose any sleep over it.

As I said before, Bob and Poppi took their sweet time returning from Vincent's to come in fifth.  Now, a Vinny pie experience is taken VERY seriously by the Mitlo clan.  We may have even had a moment of silence for Vincent who recently went to the pizza place in the sky.  Even after jokes were made that there were a few extra ashes on the grease soaked pizza board, no one was deterred from finishing the whole thing...even the scraps on the board.  I, myself, do not partake in a Vinny pie  Or really any food that I have to pour grease off of first.

This was my brother's first time eating a Vinny pizza.  He likey!

It was also Baby Trey's first Vinny pie...we eventually had to stop giving it to him.  I thought I heard his tiny arteries hardening.

Moving on to our craft portion of the evening....

Everyone had a good time decorating an eggshell, then planting mung beans inside.  When the beans sprout it will look like the egghead has hair...and it can be eaten, too!

Baby Trey had had enough shenanigans and was sick of people telling him to stop falling off chairs, so off to bed he went.  While he talked to himself in his crib, everyone opened their gifts in a flurry of bows, tissue paper and screams of excitement.  Then, onto cake and ice cream.  This shouldn't be a big deal, right?  Well, clearly you've never sang "Happy Birthday" with this rowdy crowd.  Everyone must be sung to individually in the slower traditional version...then we sing the Chi-Chi's style version as loud as possible about 12 times.  Seriously.

Baby Trey loves this part of any party...so we had to get him out of bed to sing with us.  I think I've read that in a bunch of parenting books...ya know, how it's a good idea to get your kid outta bed, get him all riled up, then put him back in his crib?

Anywho, the party was great (minus an unfortunate silly string incident that ruined my hair and almost burned down Poppi)....though, strangely no one stayed to help clean up....

The Ramblings of a Busy Mind

I apologize for being out of the blogging loop recently...busy, busy, busy!  What I consider to be March Madness may just possibly be different than your basketball saturated March Madness.  We finished up Odyssey of the Mind, which nearly devoured my sanity, so I do not have the energy to make a whole post about it.  It ended well...let's move on.  This past week we celebrated Joe's 7th, Jay's 39th, and Bella's 5th birthday!  The BIG family party is tomorrow, so I have a post in the hopper about that.  Ideas for posts have been popping into my head and I actually wrote them down.  However, the dust accumulating on non living surfaces is calling my name, therefore I don't have time to give just one topic my undivided attention.  Here's a run down of my list, though...

*I'm excited to do this egghead craft at our Spring/Birthday Party tomorrow.  While I was getting the eggshells ready (2 dozen), almost half of them had 2 yolks!  What's that even mean?  Is is good thing like spotting a rainbow or dreaming about unicorns?  Or a horrifying side effect of forcing chickens to shoot out eggs machine gun style next to their 2000 closest friends?

*When singing along to the radio, (which I do unabashedly)am I obligated to use the same pronunciation as the artist?  I was jammin' to Black Eyed Peas (don't judge) and the guy say "somethin', somethin', last forever...somethin', somethin' be togever".  It just feels wrong.

*As much as I love reading, which is a lot, I do not want an electronic book reader...especially one called Kindle.  Every time I hear it, I feel like burning something.  I need to feel a real live book in my hand, smell the ink, judge the artwork on the cover.  I want to feel the spine crease and (gasp!) fold the page to save my place.

*Jeff Probst needs to create a "Survivor Uniform".  My neck hurts from constantly diverting my eyes to avoid flying boobs, bum cracks, happy trails, and blurred circles!  Family T.V.?  My blurred circle it is!

*Marie Claire is a dirty, dirty magazine.  Worst use of frequent flier miles. Ever.

*I recently read 2 wildly popular books, Redeeming Love and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  I thoroughly enjoyed both, would recommend them to others and may even read them again.  BUT!  I found a HUGE flaw in both books!  It's probably just me...but still, it bothered me.  Wait for the post...wait for it...

*The main theme throughout Proverbs is that it's not good to be a fool.  I pray I am not and fear that I am.

How to Turn Plastic into Cotton

Before

After

Yipee for new jeans!!!  I haven't bought new jeans in a couple of kids, so this was a real treat!  So, armed with a Christmas gift Old Navy gift card...I ventured out.  Mission accomplished!  Plus, maybe I found a few other things too.  

And because I'm easily distracted by shiny things, especially near the register...I totally forgot to give the cashier my prized gift card!  As I was walking out the door, I exclaimed "Oh nuts!!!" and caught the attention of several people.  I told the cashier the problem and got back in line to wait my second turn.  She then had to return all my stuff and ring it in again...BUT!  This time SHE messed up the transaction and got flustered, as well.  I told her that she and I should definitely NOT perform surgery together any time soon.

All's well that ends well...

Wordless Wednesday...

Somehow, I don't think the kid clothes that Jay's mom has kept for 30 years are gonna make it into our closet rotation...