What's in my Purse?

So, maybe some of you have seen this thing floating around on blogs here and there... you take photos of your purse and then the contents of your purse and then list/describe them in a blog post. I desperately need to clean out my purse... I haven't done that in months! I figured I'd do the "What's in your purse" thing while I'm at it! ;) The fun of it is getting to see a random glimpse of somebody's life that you wouldn't normally see (unless you are an 11 year old girl - at least, I remember it being common at that age for girls to ask each other, "Can I go through your purse?" Was that normal for other girls at age 11, or was my school just full of nosey people? ;).

Now, some of these that I have seen have this nice organized photo of the contents of the purse all lined up in rows. You're just getting to see a pile from me, though:

So, what is in this pile? First, the stuff that is getting thrown away or relocated to a new home:

Garbage:

1. Receipts from Kroger, Family Dollar, Chick-fil-A, Firehouse Subs, and Micheal's (the ones from Michael's have coupons on them, all of which have expired). Also a couple library receipts which list the books I checked out and their due date.

2. Lifetime Warranty from an umbrella. I think I'll just spend $8 on a new one rather than spending $5 in shipping to get a replacement one day...

3. Coupons for Horizon milk, which I don't buy. They were attached to some other purposeful coupons. Also some expired Kroger coupons.

4. Last week's grocery list.

5. Empty snack-size ziplock bag.

6. Empty packages of Sun Crystals sweetener (uh, empty because the little bits of the stuff are all over my phone and the floor now... I think they were opened packages from the beach and/or Nashville trips) and a straw wrapper, looking to be from Starbucks.

7. Savings keyring card from a junky local grocery store.

Relocated:

8. Four Energizer AA batteries... they were getting a little low, so I swapped them out of my camera before going to the concert in Nashville last week.

9. Recipe card from the local health food store for a hummus sandwich.

10. Flier for a local consignment sale.

11. Empty plastic container that had sunflower seeds in it.

12. The checkbook - I used it at the consignment sale.

13. Six little girl hair bands.

14. Nashville street map... just in case I got lost, I guess!

15. Pouch of feminine products... it goes in and out of the purse when needed.

16. A little metal crucifix... it belongs on a necklace, but I am not sure where it came from or where it belongs!

17. Bottle caps: 2 Miller Lite, 2 Guinness, 1 Blue Moon, and 1 from a water bottle. I think these are from when we went to the beach; I save them for crafts.

18. A pen. I don't need to have three of them in my purse.

19. Bottle of teething tablets. Nobody is teething at the moment...

To put back in purse:

20. My phone.

21. Useful coupons from Kroger and for Stonyfield yogurt, Annie's and Cascadian Farms cereal, and Sorrento string cheese.

22. My wallet.

23. Small broken comb - good for doing the girls' hair on the go.

24. Tiny bottle of hand sanitizer.

25. Two tubes of lip gloss (a third is being thrown away because it is empty).

26. Wet Ones antibacterial hand wipes.

27. "Owie Cream" - an ointment for cuts and rashes that I use on the girls.

28. Band-aids. Along the same lines as number 27.

29. Calms Forte for Kids, or "travel tablets." Used on crabby children during long car trips.

30. Two pens - one black, one blue.

31. A Larabar - coconut cream pie flavor.

32. Snack container with O cereal, bunny crackers, and raisins in it.

33. One diaper and a tiny tube of diaper rash ointment - just in case.

34. Empty Wal-Mart bag - also just in case. The spare 2 year old undies are kept in the van. :)

35. A plastic rosary - occasionally Cecilia has held it during Mass. I think we got it at church one day.

36. Retractable tape measure - used to measure pants when shopping for clothes for my tall 5 year old!

37. A coin from Kuwait. My brother is there now (well, Afghanistan at this moment, but supposed to be in Kuwait!), and I think he brought this coin with him when he came back at Christmas time. It can just stay in the bottom of my purse until he's back for good!

38. Two Tonic CDs... the self-titled newest album and their greatest hits album. These go back and forth between my car and my stereo in my house. Also found inside one of the CD cases: my ticket from the Nashville Public Square underground parking deck.

39. My little planner book.

40. Business cards: one for our La Leche League group telling the meeting times and Leader phone numbers, and two for my friend's home business (the one who made my purse, so I can hand one to anyone who says, "Hey, I like your purse!").

41. A bib for Cecilia, in case we eat at a restaurant.

Ahh, this is much better!

If anyone else wants to do this on your own blog, come back here and leave a link to it in the comments!

Well, that's a relief...

Translation of Caroline's pet store sign:

Pets

Pet Cages

We do not sell raccoons.

Good thing, since they can be rabid...

Feast of the Triumph of the Cross

We celebrated this feast day last week, on September 14th. This day celebrates the finding of the cross by St. Helena. I found a fun idea from Catholic Cuisine for this day in which you make cross-shaped cookies and hide them around the house. One is frosted red, marking it as the "true cross," while the others are left plain. Well, we didn't make cookies... I made craft stick crosses instead and painted one of them red. Caroline was so excited when she found the "true cross," hidden on a bookshelf next to the children's Bible!

She carried the cross around the rest of the day. As you can see, she used it along with our play-doh!

We baked focaccia and then shaped it into a cross shape. We covered it with basil pesto, because legend has it that the hill on which the cross was found was covered in basil plants. The girls helped to spread the dough into the cross shape and to put some sun dried tomatoes on to represent the wounds of Christ.

This recipe came from my King Arthur whole grains cookbook and it was soooo yummy! We ate it along with spaghetti and pesto.

Random Bits

Okay, this post has been sitting around here for several weeks... so I guess it is time to publish it!

While playing an imaginative game, Cecilia referred to something as "yogurt," and Caroline said, "Actually, it's cobbler." Cecilia exclaimed, "Just like corn on the cobbler!"

Chris put on a tie to wear to work a couple weeks ago, which he doesn't normally do. Cecilia asked him, "Why are you wearing a neckentie?"

So, there is a sticker on my bananas that says "Go Bananas After Dark." I have been noticing these stickers for awhile (I think they are Dole bananas that have them)... what does that mean? If I walk into my kitchen after dark, will I find my bananas having a rowdy party?

I had the weirdest dream the other night... so, so strange. It was really long, the longest dream I have had in ages. I won't bore everyone with the whole story line as it unfolded, but it involved the following: me owning a flock of Canada Geese that escaped into the neighbor's yard; taking Caroline and Cecilia to a "fun house" in which there was an inflatable floor and detailed scenes painted on the walls although it was pitch black inside so you couldn't see the scenes; a freezer full of frozen energy drinks and my brother trying to get a stranger to give him some of them; Emerson Hart recording a music video in my backyard and making frosting (very badly, I might add) with my children on a pizza baking sheet in my kitchen - just frosting, not a cake or anything like that; and my mom trying to convince me to go to a $5 dress sale. So weird, so vivid. There was lots of driving involved too, although I can't be sure where I was going!

Today, Caroline was reading a Winnie-the-Pooh book to Cecilia and pausing to try to get her to "fill in the blanks" in the story. Caroline read, "Pooh's head was stuffed with..." Cecilia's eyes got really big and she exclaimed, "He has a cold just like us!!!"

Okay, so here's something that happened a long time ago, and I keep forgetting to write it down... I think it happened way back on July 4th, ha ha. Chris took Caroline out and while they were in the van, a Bryan Adams song came on the radio - Summer of '69, I think Chris said it was. Caroline insisted that it was "a gruff wolf" singing!

Cecilia has some bear friends who live under our bed - used to live under our bed, that is. Keep in mind that Cecilia sleeps right next to our bed, on a mattress on the floor. She started talking about these bears several months ago, that they were under the bed and wore red hats, and sometimes when her feet came untucked from her blanket, she would ask to have them covered back up "so the bears don't eat my feet." She seemed slightly disturbed by the bears, but she also said they were nice and friendly. She also told me that they went back to the woods now... they have been back in the woods for a long time, but yesterday she said, "Daddy chased them away to the woods." She has also mentioned that they wear blue shirts.

Today, Chris had to drop something off at our parish, and he took Caroline with him. They stopped in the church for a few minutes to say a prayer. Caroline was reading the Hail, Holy Queen prayer on the back of the missal, which is one we say each evening as part of the Rosary. She suddenly got excited and said, "Look, Daddy, it's two words!" and pointed to the two words 'toward us,' saying, "It says toward us, not tortoise!"

I got Cecilia three pairs of shoes at a consignment sale yesterday for $12 total... and they all look basically brand-new except for the treads. I love this sale - it is so well-organized and they don't accept junk at their sale like the other one which shall remain nameless. They also don't cram everything on the racks so that you can't even browse, and they even put all the pants of the same size together on the rack, all the shirts together... and they have separate racks for Christmas clothes, pajamas, Halloween costumes... Anyway, Cecilia was quite pleased with her new tennis shoes - Caroline wore a size 8 when she was this age, but Cecilia really needs a 7.5, so Caroline's hand-me-down shoes won't fit her yet. Today I wore a pair of pants that I haven't fit in comfortably in awhile, and Cecilia asked me, "Did you buy those pants at a comminement sale?"

Speaking of, I have lost about 19 pounds now. My goal was 20 pounds, but I think I'll go a few more to get myself down to a nice round number (meaning one that ends with a zero). So far, even a few sweet treats like apple pie and cookies haven't impacted me too much - well, I haven't really lost more since eating those, but I haven't gained back, either.

So my brother's dog - the dog who is living with my parents while he's out of the country, the dog who I am amazed is still alive after five whole years of stupidity and natural selection working against him - cost them $300 the other day. My mom had an unopened box of brownie mix on the counter, and the dog got it and tore it open, ate the cellophane packaging, and ate a bunch of the brownie mix. My mom said she came in to find chocolate powder all over the sunroom carpet. So the dog had to go get shots to make him puke, then more shots to make him stop puking... she said it was the most expensive box of brownies ever, and she didn't even get to eat them! The funny thing is that this was a Trader Joe's Dutch Chocolate brownie mix... and the dog's name is Dutch. He must have seen his name on it and assumed it was for him. Of course, that doesn't explain why he ate a spatula with the word "Pyrex" on it...

Tonic Concert - Again!

Yes, I went to another Tonic concert... the one in Atlanta just wasn't enough, not when I could go to another free concert in Nashville! As with the last concert post, this is just a long string of photos, so feel free to skip it if Tonic doesn't interest you. ;) The girls didn't go with me to this show - nor did Chris; I went alone, isn't that lame? - so this post is only concert photos, not even any fun ones of the kids. So, you have been warned!

The show was in downtown Nashville on the town green (or the public square; it seems to go by both names) as part of a free Thursday night concert series called "Live on the Green." I put the girls to bed at Gran and Grandad's house (well, Gran and Grandad mostly put them to bed at the girls' request!) and then, a few hours later, I left for the show. Yes, a few HOURS later. Tonic wasn't scheduled to go on until 9:30 - and that is Central time, not Eastern, so it was like 10:30 to me. I stopped at Rite-Aid to get some new batteries for my camera and then headed into downtown Nashville, armed with my trusty Googlemaps directions, my GPS, and the description from Chris's dad of the location, which I then looked at on Google's satellite maps. And what a cool parking deck they have!! It is UNDER the green. You drive down into the ground to park. Very efficient idea.

It started sprinkling as I drove into Nashville. Oh well, I thought. At the parking deck, I waited to pay for several minutes as each car seemed to stay at the pay booth for a long time. When I finally pulled up and handed the guy three dollars (because the website said that it would cost $3 to park), he said, "Somebody with cash, finally! And I don't even have to make change!" Apparently everybody else was paying with their credit cards...

So, up the elevator to the top, and I wandered in to find a spot. I was approaching the stage area at nearly 9:00, but it was already somewhat crowded. I did end up with a view along the front, although I was not right smack in front, where I would have liked to be! So, these photos were all quite dim because my flash isn't quite powerful enough, and I had to enhance them with fill light and such so they would be somewhat clear. You can see a better view of any of them by clicking on each photo.

Here is Jeff, the lead guitarist, who apparently has some issue with his guitar that needed attending to. He laid it down on the stage and squatted down to fiddle with it. He had several guitars on stage in a rack - the roadie guy, who is in the background, always turns them all on as the show is starting before the band takes the stage, which makes a delightfully loud and obnoxious sound. Jeff was the one furthest away from me, so this is one of the dimmest photos.

Group shot: Jeff, Emerson (lead vocals/rhythm guitar), Dan (bass guitar). Looks like Emerson's guitar needed some adjustment as well.

The setlist for the night (I wrote it down - I know, lame again):

Open Up Your Eyes

Take Me as I Am

Bigger Than Both

Future Says Run

Top Falls Down

You Wanted More

Sugar

I Want it to Be

Daffodil

Mountain

Release Me

Wicked Soldier

Come Rest Your Head

Precious Little Bird

If You Could Only See

Casual Affair

Irish

No encore... before starting Casual Affair, Emerson said something like, "Thanks for having us tonight, it's been great," and then after that song, he said, "We're just gonna do this last one now so you can all get home," and they played Irish. I must say, it is much more fun when there is an encore like they did in Atlanta, but it certainly was getting late. They started the show at 9:15 Central and it ended just a bit after 10:30 (a bit after 11:30 to me!). I was a bit surprised that they didn't play Soldier's Daughter - they did that one in Atlanta. But hey, they played seventeen songs in an hour and twenty minutes - that's a lot! My favorite songs for them to play live are Mountain, Casual Affair, and Come Rest Your Head - they do such a great job playing those!!

Shot of the whole stage... Kevin Murphy drummed for them, but he remains hidden behind all the equipment in most shots.

I liked the composition of this one with Dan, the bassist, appearing in the little gap there.

Emerson wore a tie tonight, as you can see... I think he's singing Take Me as I Am here.

Singing only here, no hands on the guitar

Dan does his thing on the bass

Here's a glimpse of Kevin playing the drums... funny little tidbit from the show: at one point there was a long guitar riff thing going on between Jeff and Dan, and just as I looked around and thought, "Hmm, where is Emerson? He's gone!" he reappeared back on stage, cigarette in one hand, beer in the other. Kevin apparently indicated that he was thirsty, so Emerson stepped up on the platform where the drums were set up, leaned over, and poured some of the beer into Kevin's mouth - and he didn't miss a beat (literally!). It was a talented little display of teamwork, ha ha.

I like that in this group shot, you can see that the roadie is giving somebody on the board a big thumbs down sign... either he thinks what they are doing stinks, or he's asking them to turn something down!

Happy Emerson

(you can see that the camera liked giving him redeye in several shots...)

Lots of Emerson singing...

group shot

So maybe Emerson said something funny to Jeff here...

Captured lots of different expressions from Jeff...

I love watching the two of them playing right next to each other... very interesting to watch. Emerson always has his eyes on Jeff at the beginning of this song (Mountain), I assume to make sure they are playing the detailed guitar intro in synch with each other.

Emerson takes a turn with Dan now

All three together

"Mountain!" Dan does the backup vocals for this song. They do an incredible job with this song live - just beautiful. If you want to hear for yourself, go listen to this live clip of them performing the song earlier this year.

Happy Emerson again :)

Mad-looking Emerson... yeah, I hate that cigarette too, buddy. :(

Okay, so he's not really making that face at his cigarette, most likely. Chris's mom and I had a discussion about smoking the next day on the way to the apple orchard (prompted by my telling about the lady who was right next to me at the concert and lit up right there where she was inches away from strangers and blew smoke everywhere rather than stepping away from the crowd). Chris's mom was talking about a relative who has tried everything to quit smoking and cannot break the habit... the drug can seriously have a hold on one's body, and that is so sad to me that people prone to addictive-type things like smoking are basically killing themselves and can't physically make themselves stop, even the ones who really want to stop. And Emerson's got a great voice - I hate to see him do something that might mess it up, on top of how bad it is for his body... Sorry, rambling here about a depressing subject, so I'll move on now.

Another peekaboo shot from behind the speakers... or amps, whatever those big black box things are. ;)

I love the different expressions on each face here... another interesting look from Jeff, and Emerson looking all serious. Except he had undone his tie at this point, or it undid itself, so not business-like serious. ;)

Singing his heart out

I love the look on his face here for some reason!

Jeff and Em jamming again

Silly and serious again... as I said, just really fun to watch the two of them playing side by side!

My favorite group shot - the last one I took of all three of them

And there goes the tie... it's not gonna stay around his shoulders any longer!

So, at the end of the show, it was announced that Tonic was going to be at the "after party" at the Hard Rock Cafe a couple blocks away... they were going to play another set, I think, in something referred to as "the reverb room." Wow, that sounded cool... but I didn't go. Logic won out. It was already nearly midnight for me, I had driven four hours earlier in the day and would be driving four hours back home the next day, and I knew I'd be up at 7:00 with the girls, getting them ready to go to the apple orchard (another trip of 40 minutes there and 40 minutes back). I would love to hear about it from somebody who went so I can live vicariously through them. ;) I really considered going... but really, wouldn't it be even lamer to go to the Hard Rock Cafe than it already was to go to a concert alone? If Chris was there with me, I would have dragged him there to make a date out of it! Maybe one day... ah, yes, one day, if I am at a place in my life where I can do something like this again, that is. I know right now I am at a good stage to do this kind of thing since I don't have a baby currently, and I'm not quite too old yet, ha ha, even though Chris teased me about "returning to teenage life" for a night.

So, after the show, it had begun to drizzle a bit. I hung around and checked my email on my phone, waiting to see if the band might come down for autographs or anything. There wasn't a group of people hanging on the police fence waiting for them (like in ATL), except one girl who was begging the security guy to ask Jeff to come down for a photo... and what a nice guy, he obliged, even though this girl was practically all over him for the picture which her boyfriend (I assume) was taking - ick. Jeff had his arm around her shoulder but his hand held out away in a fist, kind of stiff, like he was trying not to get too close, hee hee. So, I didn't want to look that desperately obsessed, and I didn't go hang on the fence or anything. ;) The rain was starting to pick up, so they were all staying up under cover anyway, and likely needing to get to the Hard Rock soon.

So I made my way to the elevators, and I just want to say now how safe I felt here in a big city downtown area - what a nice area! The concert itself was well set up, with security in prominent locations across the green. And people are friendly... a man who was working at the hot dog stand was closing up and got on the elevator at the same time as I did, and he started commenting about the nice evening (even though it was raining - it was cool and fallish-feeling, which was great!), and he asked me if I'd had a hot dog. I told him, no, I'd eaten before coming to the show, and he responded, "Well, we'll get you next week, then!" I said I would love to have a hot dog next week, but I lived out of town, and he asked where... just a nice, friendly conversation. The elevator had buttons on it for P, P1, P2, and P3 (and maybe P4 too?), and I assumed I was parked on P1 - but the button wouldn't stay lit, and the elevator passed that floor. I figured out that I was on P2, don't know why P1 didn't work... but wouldn't you know it, the nice hot dog man drove past me as I was getting in my car and he rolled down the window and said, "Oh, glad to see you found it! have a nice night!" So friendly - that's the South, even in a larger city! :)

So, I crawled into bed at about 1:15 Eastern... and drank lots of coffee the next day for the drive back home! Starbucks "Anniversary" blend is really good, by the way!

Thanks to Tonic for another fabulous performance... maybe Chattanooga's next? Birmingham? Huntsville? Or back to the ATL?

And I leave you with a sideways, soundless video of Emerson singing part of Come Rest Your Head. What is the point, you may ask? Hmm... I guess because I wasn't supposed to take video at this concert and was secretly retaliating and using the lame video option on my digital camera because I had not brought the camcorder so I could follow the Live on the Green rules. And because he does a great job performing this song, along with Casual Affair (no video of that ne, sorry - didn't want to run out of space on my memory card!). If you have a laptop, it helps to turn it sideways... ;)

A is for Apple Pie

We made an apple pie to finish up A week, using apples that we got at the orchard! We used the pie recipe in the back of the book How to make an Apple Pie and See the World. We didn't go to Sri Lanka or France or anything like in the book, though. ;) We used our favorite crust recipe to make the crust and not the one in the book... I say "our favorite" loosely, as Caroline dislikes pie crust (crazy kid! How can one not like eating butter and flour?).

Chris is the crust man lately... he does an awesome job getting the proportions just right and leaving the food processor on the right amount of time to make the crust ball up like it is supposed to do. I was feeling somewhat run down from my cold, so he helped out a lot this day so that we could make the pie, make pizza for dinner, vacuum... and I even got to take a nap! Thanks, Honey!

Cecilia and Caroline used the A cookie cutter to cut the shape into the top layer of the rolled-out crust dough. The idea here is to transfer them to the top of the pie, making layered letter A's all over the pie as the top crust.

Let's just say that this crust was not cooperative and perhaps a store-bought crust would be in order here in the future... we ended up actually making some A's by hand (Caroline rolled out "snakes" of dough and then shaped them into A's on the pie), as the cookie-cutter ones did not want to come up from the wax paper nicely and most of them tore up or looked pitifully not like the letter A. To get an idea of what the pie was really supposed to look like, click on some of these.

The girls had some fun rolling, shaping, and spatula-ing the scraps of crust dough.

Here's the finished pie... ha! Betcha can't make out many A's, huh? ;)

Cecilia gave it one fork up.