Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

The other night R and I went to a Tom Petty concert.  These are the Tom Petty songs I know:

• Last Dance for Mary Jane.
• American Girl
• Free Falling
• Janie's Got a Gun

Oh wait, that last one is an Aerosmith Song.  I know lots of Aerosmith songs. 

Anyway, we went to a Tom Petty concert in Tulsa.  We met some of R's highschool friends, Erin and her husby Josiah.  I pretty much heart Erin.  I met her in March-ish at another concert and it was like I'd known her since highschool.  I'm not going to lie, I was more excited to get to see Erin than Tom Petty.

Erin took these photos.

She's a photographer.

We were the cutest girls there.  Seriously.

The concert was great.  Even though I didn't know all the songs, I knew enough.  Tom Petty sounds great live.  Just like he does on his albums.  It's pretty impressive considering Tom Petty is not a young lad.  But he's still got it!

He can play the guitar too. I don't just mean play...like lazily play....he can PLAY.  And his band ain't that bad either!

It was a fun time.  If you have the oppotunity to catch Tom (we are BFF's) in concert, do it! Even if you only know 3 songs and credit an Aerosmith song to Tom, you won't be disappointed.

It helps if you have great company too!

More adventures to come.

Ice Capades

In the olden days, we called Disney on Ice the Ice Capades.  At least that's what I remember calling it as a kid.  Needless to say, it's fair time in Oklahoma.  Fair time equals Disney on Ice.  Disney on Ice means we are taking a trip to the fair with Avery. It also means extortion.  Seriously.

This year Disney on Ice is a Celebration of Seasons.  All we knew is that there would be Mickey, Minnie and some Princesses.  Since I am convinced Avery loves Mickey Mouse more than her parents, we knew we had to take her.  Is is wrong we made Avery use her own money to buy the tickets? 
She had birthday money.
Tickets are expensive!
The girl needs to learn these things don't come free!

Anyway, Avery was very excited to see Mickey and Princesses.

For a 2 year old, you can't really explain Disney on Ice.  All she knew is that we were seeing Mickey.  We had to wear the I <3 Mickey shirt.  We couldn't leave Mickey with any doubts about her love.

We had to park 8 miles from the entrance. 



We had decided that we would give Avery a certain amount of money to use to buy "stuff" at Disney on Ice.  Okay fine, it was her money. Still left over from her birthday. Listen, money doesn't grow on trees people!

This is where the extortion starts.  First, you have to buy a ticket for a child above age 2 that is going to sit in her mommy's lap the whole entire show.  Secondly, mom and dad both have to buy tickets.  Do you see the extortion?  Thirdly, you get into the place and everywhere you turn they are selling stuff. Toys, snow cones, pictures... That's cool but see that twirly thing? $22! But hey, it's Avery's money and it's what she wanted.

We let Avery have some cotton candy.  It was her first time! Don't you just love cotton candy? The cotton candy even came with the ears!
"Hi mom, this cotton candy is as big as me!"

I even got in on the ear action!

That's how Avery watched most of the show.  Occasionally she reached out for Mickey and Minnie.  She wanted to skate with them. And hug them.  And go live in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. 

All in all it was a great show.  The look on Avery's face as Mickey and Minnie came out was priceless.  She loved the show.  The next day R & I were talking about the show with Avery and she said "I want to give Mickey & Minnie hug and kiss".  So sweet!

It was fun to get to share a fun time with Avery. 

I don't even mind the extortion all that much. That face could get me to do anything!

More Tom Petty adventures to come!

Confession

I have a confession.

I'm a closet tree-hugger.  Gasp! Maybe tree-hugger isn't the correct term.  Perhaps conservationist is a better description.  Don't worry, I'm not going to start believing in Global Warming, excuse me, Global Climate Change or anything like that.  You won't see me voting for the the other side anytime soon.

But as a mother, I can't help but be aware of the waste that me and my family create.  So I try to do my best to be more of the solution and not part of the problem.

Things We Do/Done:

• Recycle- R and I have always been big recyclers. I always try to recycle things that R has to tell me don't belong in the recycle bin.  It's disappointing to me to see so few recycle bins out on trash day.
• Eliminate Paper Towels-I know this seems drastic but we rarely use paper towels anymore.  We do still have them in the house but we've replaced paper towels with a hand towel to dry hands at the kitchen sink and cloth napkins at the dinner table. 
• Meal Planning- How does the help?  I'm terrible about remember what we have in the fridge.  With a written meal plan, I can plan our meals, grocery shop accordingly, and use all the produce I've bought for the week.  This isn't perfect but it seems to have helped with wasting food.
• Reduce Ziploc bags-I've tried to use less Ziploc bags and more storage containers.  Not everything needs to be stored in a ziploc later only to be thrown away.
• No more canned soda- This was really more about saving money than waste but its falls into this category nicely.  We were buying so much canned soda it was ridiculous.  We've replaced canned sode with 2 liters.  Although the cans were being recycled, it was still a lot of waste. 

Things I'm still working on or would like to do:

• Reusable bags-Although I've bought plenty of reusable bags, I always forget to grab them when I go to the store.  I do better when they are in the car but it's something I need to work on.  Plus, at Target you get $0.05 off for every bag you use. 
• Convenient foods- I'd like to eliminate more convenient foods such as frozen meals, pre-package cookies, pre-prepared foods.  etc.  Right now though, I just don't have the time to not buy premade pancakes on occasion, or yogurt cups, etc.  One thing I have done is not buy pre-portioned chips for R's lunch.  I'll buy a big bag and portion it myself. 
• Composte- I'd like to have a coposte out back but I can't get R on board.  We have a good size yard but maybe not quite big enough. 

The list isn't all encompassing. There are many more things I'd like to do but is just more difficult with out current lifestyle.  Excuses, excuses. 

Don't worry, I'm not going to start going all organic, or reusing dryer lint and envelopes.  I'm just trying to do my part so that Avery can live in the same or better world than me. 

What about you?  Do you worry about these things?  What are you doing to do your part?  What tips and ideas do you have for me?  I'd love to hear them!

By the way, the post is picture free due to the fact that I'm on a new computer with 0 pictures downloaded to it.

More Disney on Ice adventures to come!

Lunch Box

My girl started going to a Mother's Day out program about a month ago.  She loves her Big Girl School! She gets to have a back pack and a lunch box and everything. I love that she brings home fun pictures and gets a little structure.  Not to mention she gets to play with other kids, one of her favorite things!

Avery goes to "school" 2 days a week.  We have to send lunch for her. At first I was a little nervous about packing her lunch.  I mean, what do you pack for a 2 year old?  Sometimes she eats everything, most of the time she eats a little bit of a lot of things.  My girlfriend Bobbi, mother of one of the cutest 4 year olds I know turned me on to one of the cutest blogs.  It's called Another Lunch.  Melissa, the blogger, is a stay at home mom to 4 little ones.  She packs bento-style lunches for her kids. Have you heard of bento? Bento is a japenese word for ready-to-eat lunch in a box. The style promotes less waste (no little baggies or packages to throw away).  I was intrigued and thought, "Eh, I'll think about that when Avery starts going to school."  I checked in with Another Lunch pretty regularly though because her lunches were just so dang cute!
And then it hit me! What a minute genius!  Avery IS in school.  And what does she have to take?  A lunch.  So I tried my hand at packing her a bento lunch with the supplies I had on hand.

This is my second attempt.

I didn't take a picture of my first attempt.  This container came with Avery's lunch box so it fits in her lunch box perfectly.
From left to rightt:
Grapes, Cheese Its, Turkey & Cheese heart shaped sandwich, Go-gurt yogurt in a plastic container I had, semi-sweet chocolate chips in a muffin liner.

I am really enjoying packing Avery's lunch.  I have been trying to be more creative (yay! another creative outlet) and have put a few supplies on her Christmas list.  I mean, she wants lunch supplies for Christmas right? Right?!   

I don't know if Avery eats a thing of what I pack for her but at least it's all packed in a cute little container!

More adventures to come!

The Ice Cream Truck

We have an ice cream truck that comes around our neighborhood about every other night.  Sadly, when Avery hears the music, she knows it's the ice cream man.  We've only let her get a treat from the ice cream truck twice, well, three time.  I promise!

Surprisingly the ice cream man isn't creepy.  He's actually quite nice.  R usually tips him.  That's just how he rolls.

During our most recent visit to the truck Avery picked the classic Tweety Bird treat.

R got the classic Bomb Pop.

Then the dual occured.

I don't know who would be crowned the ice cream truck winner but there wasn't much of anything left!

More delicious adventures to come.

Labor of Love

I love that girl.  She's funny, silly, and goofy.  She loves princesses, Mickey Mouse, her cousin Kelwi (Kelli) and her besties Chloe and Hannah.

Another thing she is.

Stubborn.

So when I circled September 3rd on the calendar to begin Potty Training.  I knew it wouldn't be easy.

Don't stop reading!  I pinky swear promise this will be my 1 and only post about potty training.  I promise I won't mention anything about pooping or peeing on the potty.  Except for that sentence.  I promise that's it.

I had Lora Jensen's ebook 3 Day Potty Training and we were ready to go. Have you read this ebook?  If not, check it out. It's worth it.

Supplies:

Plastic Drop cloths.
R and I recently got new furniture.  We sold our beloved leather furniture (which we often miss and reminisce about the good ol' days-are you reading this Bro. Floyd?!) and traded it for a great chenille furniture. The drop cloths were to protect the furniture.

 Towels. 
These were to go over the drop cloths.  Sitting on plastic drop cloths to watch TV just isn't practical.

M & M's.
These were supposed to be prizes for Avery.  I may or may not have opened the peanut butter M & M's at work.  And then began to eat them at home.  And finished them off by Sunday.  Don't judge me!  Potty training is tough!

 Awesome Potty Training chart.
This is high tech people. You won't find this on Etsy, Ebay or Craig's List.  If you want to know where you can get your hands on one of these highly sought after potty charts, email me. I will give you the super secret template!