Forever Friends

A couple of weeks ago my BFFs got together in celebration of the upcoming arrival of twins! These gals are AWESOME! We've been together since preschool, or maybe even before, and we've seen each other through everything, crushes, heartache, graduation, weddings, babies, loss of loved ones, and lots more through the years. Sometimes we don't talk much, but we can always pick up where we left off. Our personalities are all so drastically different that sometimes there is friction but we love each other no matter what.

Here we are - left to right - me, Dee, Amy, Jenny, Sara, and Angela. Does Ang. look like she's carrying twins?

Pretty Girls! Amy is the level-headed gal with an emotional heart that is good to the core. Dee is the work-a-holic of the group and although she is small, you better believe she is mighty!


Sara, my fellow teacher, is the laid back one of our group. And Little Brandon joined us, isn't he sweet!

Jen, testing out the backscratcher at the hostess' house, she is the funny one of us all, and by the way, she's full of useless info from years of reading Cosmo magazine.

Ang and hubby, Tyler, are expecting a boy and a girl. I am thrilled for them. Ang is the typical blonde, a little ditsy, but kind and nurturing.

Love ya sisters! Can't wait to meet the new additions to the group!!

It's Beginning To Look...

...Alot Like Christmas! We decorated the house before we left for Thanksgiving break but I made a few changes this year. I put all the obnoxious decorations in Madelyn's room. They are appreciated more there. You know, the ones that sing and dance so loud and so long you tell yourself that next year they won't make it out of the box. But she's in heaven, her own little crowd of Christmas toys to enjoy!

How long is Forever?

This was the discussion after we got our flu shots yesterday and sported matching metallic silver band aids.

Madelyn: "I'm gonna leave this band aid on foreber, and foreber, and foreber. (she pronounces the v with a b). How long will you leave your's on Mommy?"

Me: "For a little bit longer."

Madelyn: "Well, I'll leave it on foreber. I'll take it off before bedtime."

Me: "Me too!"

So how long is forever? Aparrently to a toddler, forever only lasts til bedtime.

"Awesomeness"

I know "AWESOMENESS" isn't a word, but it describes perfectly how I feel today. Today was like playing Santa for my kiddos at school and it was so incredibly fun. My co-worker and I attended several conferences last year about the positive effects of providing movement in classrooms. Duh, you might be saying! Well we already are trained in Cooperative Learning which gets kids moving and we already have planned and spontaneaous brain breaks. Why do we do all this? Well you try spending from 8:15-3:40 in one room with no windows or doors and see how much you are bouncing off the walls at the end.

So, we were wanting to make a change, a BIG change. That left us with these wonderful little jewels:

We spent quite a bit of our free time writing this grant to replace our regular, hard chairs with fitness balls. We got input from our occupational therapist, principal, and a person on the grant selection committee. All of this for devestation, we didn't receive it. But I wasn't going to stop there. I began researching cheaper options and was prepared to go begging. So I gathered all my info and went to my principal to see which companies he thought I should begin begging at first. And what he told me was, "the price I found was right, and if I let him comb through our school budget for a few weeks, he might find a few extra dollars to purchase these for us." PAUSE - my principal is wonderfully amazing not just because of this but because of things he does for our students and staff each and every day. YEAH!! So, we spent last night airing up our fit balls for our kids and getting rid of most of our old chairs. The when I told them what they were getting, they were over the moon excited. I love that they are excited to have some fun in our classrooms and I hope that they help us get the active learning that we need!!

Fancy Macaroni

This is a to die for macaroni and cheese recipe. Just for the record, I really don't like macaroni and cheese at all but this recipe is amazing. But this isn't a light and fluffy dish for those who are trying to loose weight. It is a recipe by Pioneer Woman and most of her recipes are loaded with cream and butter. Yummy! For the record I have made this substituting some healthier ingredients and it still turned out wonderful. So, click on the link below, run out to the grocery store for all the ingredients, follow the procedure to make it, and sink your teeth in to cheesy heaven!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/12/fancy-macaroni/

Goodbye Fall

This week seems to signify the end of all things "Fall" for us. Warm weather has left and chilly air has swept in! So in honor pumpkins, family, and Thanksgiving here is one last post about fall. We did our annual visit to the pumpkin patch on a very warm fall day. I think we were all slightly sweating by the end of our venture but oh well, it was fun. I also played around a bit with photoshop to create some different effects with the photos, some are a little more harsh than I would like but I was getting tired.

Kirby farm isn't too far from our house and has lots to do!

The sign over the animals clearly read to not touch them but apparently neither Daddy or Madelyn can read. By the way, right after this photo the pony tried to eat her shoe!

We did the corn maze three or four times this year, it was a hit!

Giddy Up

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope the little break allows everyone to relax, find warmth in family and friends, and refreshes your spirit!

Canning Queen

I've been busy canning lots of goodies for the winter. So far, I've done appleasauce, apple butter, georgia peach honey, and blueberry jam. All of them are scumptious. Now I'm ready to find some yummy recipes for salsa and marinara. Can't wait!

Stress, Relief, and Heartache

This post has been formulating for many months and I will apologize for the sad undertone because I usually choose to ignore sad things in my life. Matt calls it "living in Tiffany Land". If there is something I don't like or makes me sad, I choose to completely disregard it. The best example I have of this is when a couple of our good friends had to serve our country in Iraq. I couldn't deal with the weight of the worry and so unless we talked with them or their spouses I chose to believe they were home, warm and snuggly with their loved ones. "Tiffany Land" helps me cope, it is what it is. Okay on with it -


Several things have been rough at the Eaves' household lately. And I want to make sure you understand that I know how blessed I am and don't want to sound ungreatful with this post.


1. Matt's Job: I'm sorry, I'm biting my tongue a bit on this topic because some of my readers are involved in the Y. The short version- they got a new CEO last spring and have been going through a restructuring process since then. They made everyone reapply and interview for their jobs. This process took much too long and was handled very poorly. The last month has been a whole ball of unpleasantness at our household dealing with all of this. Yesterday was the decision day and time has never passed more slowly through the day. Nothing, NOTHING, could have prepared me for what happened or how it happened. Even my worst case scenario was better than what actually happened. Bottom line - very few of the Center Directors kept their jobs, and several were terminated. Matt, has a job. How?, we have no idea. All of those terminated were doing their jobs well. All of them have done everything asked of them in their careers with the Y, some have dedicated decades of their life to the Y, which is more than an eternity in the Y. They have given up too much precious time with their families to be at their centers for events, answer phone calls on holidays, and sit with upset members/staff at all hours of the day and night. And they don't deserve this. We sat last night, crying, with some of our favorite people, brainstorming how to pick up the pieces, as they all look for new jobs. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.


2. Fertility - this will be short winded because it is too hard to think about and type (remember "Tiffany Land")

It seems like as soon as your married everyone asks, "When are you having kids?" and then as soon as you give birth people ask, "When is number 2"" Well, I think it was no secret that it took us quite a while to have Madelyn. And when Matt looked at me and said he was ready for another one whenever I was, I still shocked because I wasn't ready. So we waited. Fastforward- we've been trying for well over a year and obviously no results. I went to my doctor several months ago and after blood work found that I have thyroid disease. Fabulous. It runs in my family so I already knew a little about it. Turns out, your thryroid effects everything! Take a magic pill and everything will be fine, right? Well, doc said if I'm not preggo in three months, give her a call. Guess, I'll be giving her a call.


3. Jealousy

Why is it that when you are trying to get pregnant, everyone, I mean, everyone around is pregnant. For the most part I can totally be happy for them and for those ladies I work with and great friends I adore that are preggo, I am over the moon thrilled for them. But, I had this tiny little problem early this year. I had a student teacher in my classroom earlier this year, she got married this August, and found out she was pregnant about 4 weeks later. Great. I can put on a good face and act happy about it . After all, she didn't know me or my situation. But it was hard, I never expected to be sitting EVERYDAY within a few feet of someone that was a constant reminder of what I wanted. To me "type A" personality - you do things in a certain order, education, married and career simultaneous, and then babies. So it frustrated me that she wasn't finished with schooling, just got married, and wound up preggo when I know so many people that agonized through inferitility treatments. And to make it worse, she didn't have medical insurance, had a suspended drivers license, had no income because her hubby didn't have a job,and wasn't getting medical attention when she needed it. Then there was the whole issue of her teaching, she wasn't making any progress because of severe morning sickness. How does this end? She eventually quit around Halloween because she couldn't keep up with her coursework or the increasing responsibilities she was suppose to be taking on in my classroom. I've made peace with the whole situation now, but it has been a rocky road.

Now I'm done ranting, I feel better. Like a weight lifted. I'm looking forward to the holidays with great family and friends. And hopefully less heartache.

5K

About a month ago, I know I'm a little behind, I ran my first 5K!! Although, I'm disappointed that I didn't run the half marathon I had committed to, I'm proud of myself that my first race was a success. I ran in with the student running club at my school and during the race I walked a little with a couple of students to encourage them so my time wasn't great but oh well. I also don't have pictures because the only ones I have have students in them also.

I can honestly say at the end I felt a small sense of accomplishment! Especially since I have NEVER been a runner!! I hated running in highschool. I was that girl who walked the entire mile on P.E. fitness testing days, that's how much I despised it. I think my relationship now with running is definately love-hate. Some days are great, I can totally push myself, and other days I am forcing my legs to go each and every step. And I usually know what kind of day its going to be while putting my running clothes on and sometimes really have to exercise some good self talk. For now I am a treadmill runner, I know many people hate the treadmill, but not me. Yes, it's boring at times but I crank up the music and I'm obsessed with looking at my pace and distance. For now I am working on a faster time and adding distance each week. I look forward to more races and am already looking at a few coming up!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to Everyone! What a busy weekend it was for us. We went to a couple of Halloween parties, Boo Bash at the YMCA, had lunch in Lawrence with my sister and brother-in-law, got haircuts, went trick-or-treating, and watched The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown movie. Hopefully this week we can relax a little.

We started discussing Halloween costumes at our house probably 6 months ago. I don't have any idea why but Madelyn had her heart set on being a pink squirrel. I wasn't so excited about the idea because squirrels aren't my thing and I didn't have any clue where I would find this costume. Luckily, within the past couple of weeks I was able to persuade her with pictures of other costumes. So she ended up being an adorable Minnie Mouse.

We got to play lots of little games at the Y to get candy. Madelyn's favorite this year and last year was fishing for spiders.

Say Cheese!


She won a sugary cupcake at the cake walk.


Today we carved our big pumpkin. We were careful to keep the pumpkin seeds to plant next fall. Hopefully that will work better for us next spring.

Just being silly!

Minnie Mouse getting ready to go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.

I fixed us a Halloween themed meal. We had Goblin Stew (beef stew) and Witches brew.

Next up - the holiday season begins!

Fall Favorites

October weekends have been full and fun! We've done some of my favorite things: pumpkin patches, apple orchards, and homeade goodies.

First up, homeade granola. I love this yummy treat! It's delicious and gets my mornings started off on the right foot.

My Apple Master has made life easier the past few weekends. We've made lots of apple butter and cinnamon sugar applesauce.

Step Two: let the crockpot do all the work and make the house smell amazing!

One thing I really wanted to do this fall was visit an apple orchard to pick our own apples. My sister and I have fond memories of this as kids with our grandparents and I thought that Madelyn would really enjoy it also. Well, it didn't all go as planned but boy did we have fun! The first orchard we visited wasn't a pick-your-own orchard but we did manage to spend $50 in their wonderful country store. We walked out of there with a large apple cider slush, a bag of rich buttery popcorn, a strawberry rhubarb pie, and a couple of jars of pickeled veggies, but NO apples. On to the next orchard. I had emailed this orchard to ensure that they were a pick-your-own orchard but upon arrival found that there were, oh, maybe, five apple trees. That's right - only five. So we went to Plan B. Do a little shopping at the mall and then hit Walmart for our apples. Oh, well, next year we'll find an orchard.

Here's Bart, he's great in the kitchen.

Courtney, canning our applesauce.

And the applebutter, on it's way


Madelyn watched Shrek and played with babydolls.

This is definately my favorite time of year!!

Fall Artwork

This is our fall family of pumpkins and gourds. Last spring we planted pumpkins at our house. Unfortunately, none of the survived which was a major disappointment to my little girl. Thankfully, my mom planted pumpkins and gourds and they took off! She had her very own pumpkin patch. While we were in Larned a few weeks ago we picked out several to decorate with. My mom helped us paint some of them for fun!

This one is my mom's, she is supper skilled.

Here is one of Madelyn's masterpieces.

And mine, with a little help from Madelyn.

We've had fun treating them like babies and dressing them up!

Happy Friday!

Sock Headed Dodger

So, you may get sick of all of the pictures involving our pets but I never do. Here's what happened on this evening:

Picture this:
We're enjoying a nice evening meal at the kitchen table, good food, good conversation, and now it's time for the dishes. Madelyn, being the polite child she can sometimes be, askes to be excused. Over the water in the sink running we hear giggling, lots of giggling coming from her room. Then she darts back to the kitchen insisting that she put a sock on Dodgers head and we had to come look. Matt and I look at each other, both thinking the same thing, Dodger is stupid and lazy, but not lazy enough to actually let Madelyn put a sock on her head, right? RIGHT? So Matt goes in to check out the scene. And then I hear, "Tiff, you gotta see this, bring the camera." And this is what we found:



Just for the record, after the picture was taken we did have Madelyn remove the sock and we visited with her about how we should treat our animals so don't go calling the ASPCA on us.

Pretty Girl

My girl loves, LOVES make-up. And sometimes, I just need her to be doing something quietly so I can finish getting ready so I let her borrow my make-up. Don't worry she is only allowed the powder, blush, and lip gloss items. But she totally gets into it. Sometimes she even wakes up and tells me first thing that she needs to put "her" make-up on!

So proud of herself!