Baby Baby Lemon

Swing, Swing, Swing

Amy — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:25:31 +0000

One of these days I am going to make a Spencer in a swing flip book to see how much he’s grown. He isn’t going to fit in a bucket swing much longer, that’s for sure.

Here is a list of resources to help the tornado victims in Oklahoma.

Link up your wordless wednesday posts below.

Baby Baby Lemon! I would appreciate your comments and feedback on the entry you just read, Swing, Swing, Swing.

BLT Salad with Toaster Croutons

Amy — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:39:20 +0000

My husband likes BLT sandwiches and I do not, but I am not about to cook bacon and not eat any of it, so what is a girl to do? A BLT salad, that’s what. It’s actually super easy since a bacon-lettuce-tomato salad has all of the same ingredients as a bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich (SHOCKING, I know) and just a few more. I posted a recipe for a BLT salad on another site, but this one has an upgrade: 5 minute toaster oven croutons.

BLT Salad

Serves 1 (just double stuff to make more)
1 1/2 cups mixed greens
1/2 tomato, chopped
1 (or 2) slices of bacon, cut in to bite size pieces
black pepper
splash balsamic vinegar
feta or blue cheese crumbles
1 slice of bread, I used dill rye

Assemble the salad: put greens in a bowl, top with tomatoes, bacon, grind some drizzle a little vinegar, grind some black pepper on the top and throw on some cheese. Easy peasy! (I find with the bacon you don’t even need oil with the vinegar, but maybe that is just me. I like a tart salad.)
Make the croutons I found that cutting the bread before toasting gave a clean, crisper edge, but then you do need a toaster oven. Cut bread in to circles, put on oven pan or foil, toast for 2 min, flip and toast again. Put one salad.
If you only have a toaster, I bet you could toast and cut, but it might make a mess and/or the cut edges won’t be toasted.
Eat. Enjoy! Marvel at my laziness.

BLT Salad with Toaster Croutons

Baby Baby Lemon! I would appreciate your comments and feedback on the entry you just read, BLT Salad with Toaster Croutons.

Patio Makeover

Amy — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:09:10 +0000

You know how sometimes when you buy a new couch or chair, you put it in the room and maybe rearrange the furniture and everything else looks shabby? So then you decide that you maybe need a new lamp over there and wouldn’t some curtains be nice and all of a sudden you’ve painted the room and have all new furniture? Yeah. That. But outside.

It started simply enough, with a new patio that we’ve been meaning to put in since we bought the house in 2007.

This wasn’t a DIY project by any means. Is HIY a thing? Because we totally hire it ourselves. We know our limits and our talents and patios aren’t on the list. We found a great guy who did the patio and planters. Then we asked him to do a small paved section on the other side of the house, build a large planter box and who knows what else. I am trying to get a matching U-shaped planter on the other side of the house. SO exciting. We’ve been trying to get this stuff done forever. More pictures soon.

Spencer is super-excited because we nearly doubled his driving/riding area. Plus, it makes an excellent outdoor dance floor.

We got the pavers off the shelf at Lowe’s so nothing that fancy. For the curious, it’s the allen + roth luxora collection. They are on base and sand and then set with polymetric sand, not cement. From out my window, it seems super easy!

Baby Baby Lemon! I would appreciate your comments and feedback on the entry you just read, Patio Makeover.

American Cancer Society – Sponsored Video

Amy — Thu, 16 May 2013 05:30:25 +0000

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of the American Cancer Society. All opinions contained are my own.

Quick – what color is the support ribbon for lung cancer? Any clue? Well, it is white/clear/pearl. You know why you didn’t know? Because people don’t always support the fight against lung cancer because smokers get it and “did it to themselves.” There is even the thought that only non-smokers should be supported with the white/clear/pearl ribbon. Nice.

You know after my mom died of cancer in 2007, people invariable asked me what she died of and after I answered cancer they would follow up by asking what kind. I would answer lung and without missing a beat nearly every single person would then ask “did she smoke?”

And yes, she did.

I got this far in writing this post tonight and then I read Angelina Jolie’s op ed in the New York Times tonight and I felt a bit of a record scratch moment. I think it is amazing that Angelina Jolie had an elective double mastectomy for personal cancer prevention to promote her own health and try to ensure that she will be around for her children for a long time. And chose to share her story. That’s like the exact opposite of smoking two packs a day. And while not all smokers get lung cancer, smoking is the number one cause of preventable death in the United States.

So. Let’s not smoke, ok? It isn’t worth it. But this isn’t supposed to be an anti-smoking psa, it is supposed to be about how cancer touched my life and for me the two are irrevocably intertwined. Luckily, smoking rates are on the decline and with them lung cancer rates as well. The American Cancer Society has been instrumental in the 50% drop in smoking rates since the 1960s (just look at Mad Men! So. Much. Smoking.) But, Amy, you say, you smoked! I did. For many years, but I quit before I got pregnant and haven’t smoked a single cigarette since having Spencer. Nope. Not a one.

While I have always been aware of the American Cancer Society, I had no idea that the organization was turning 100 this year. What an amazing feat! It was started by a core group of physicians and it has grown so, so much. My parents volunteered at the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life for many years and I think it is a great fundraising program. I try and get a luminaria for my mom most years, but since I stopped working at the hospital I have missed some years, but I think I still have time to have one lit for this years event.

Please take a moment to watch this video.

We had some options for which video to embed and I picked the Josh Groban one. My mom pink-puffy-heart loooooved him, going all the way back to his Ally McBeal days.

This post is sponsored by the American Cancer Society.

Baby Baby Lemon! I would appreciate your comments and feedback on the entry you just read, American Cancer Society – Sponsored Video.

Pick Up Sticks

Amy — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:11:52 +0000

I love how much Spencer helps us in the yard now. Well, except things like turning on the hose when we expressly told him not to sort of things, but overall he’s turned in to quite the little helper. He even earned his first chore dollar. “Just like on Team UmiZoomi!.” he said.

Link up your wordless wednesday posts below! (And yes, it is early on Tuesday but I like to get the linky up and Tuesday afternoon/evenings are super busy and if it didn’t go up early it wouldn’t get up at all.)

Baby Baby Lemon! I would appreciate your comments and feedback on the entry you just read, Pick Up Sticks.

A Mother’s Day just like any other day

Amy — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:55:11 +0000

Is there some sort of blogging rule that if I didn’t have a pithy happy mother’s day post wishing a happy mother’s day to everyone but seahorses that I need a recap? Mine was just like a regular Sunday (husband at work! we went to the grocery store! riveting ) but with more cleaning because my in-laws came over for dinner. But they made it. So, double the work for them and twice the clean-up for me? Genisus we are not.

I am crankier than shit (see above) and I also might be having a midlife crisis because I really want to do this to my hair. Maybe without bangs? Who knows. Spencer is adamantly against it. “Mommy, your hair is brown. All brown. Like me.” He might be on TeamBangs because then we would be even more twin-like.

Crappy photo, happy boy

Spencer and I did make a tart yesterday, crust and all. Pie crust is my culinary Achilles’ heel, but I think it turned out ok. I failed to get any blog-worthy glamour shots, but Spencer was very, very proud of our efforts. I am off to eat some of those efforts for breakfast.

Baby Baby Lemon! I would appreciate your comments and feedback on the entry you just read, A Mother’s Day just like any other day.

Writing Prompts

Amy — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:30:21 +0000

Sometimes I see lists of writing prompts for blog posts and think, “hey, I could do that.” So, I did.

Things got weird.

1. If Queen Victoria had ruled over a nation of zombies and/or tangerines, would she still be the virgin queen?

2. Wine is to rabbits as carrots are to ________. Show your work.

3. Orson Welles once stated, “I started at the top and worked my way down.” Discuss this quote in relation to the Kardashian of your choice.

4. Is it possible to have your cake and eat it too if you, in fact, are a fork?

5. A priest, a rabbi and a potato walk in to a bar. Finish the joke. Bonus points for pun-like use of the word tater in the punchline.

Baby Baby Lemon! I would appreciate your comments and feedback on the entry you just read, Writing Prompts.

Rotten to the Core

Amy — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:45:24 +0000

Stupid bugs, always eating my trees.

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Baby Baby Lemon! I would appreciate your comments and feedback on the entry you just read, Rotten to the Core.

Epic Playdate was #Epic, of course

Amy — Fri, 03 May 2013 06:01:10 +0000

***

I don’t know… Do you think he had a good time?

That was at the balloon booth. Spencer loooooved the balloon booth. I think because not only were there endless balloons available, the guys taught the kids how to actually make their own swords, dogs and flowers regardless of age. Spencer made his own flower! And listened! And followed directions! Amazing. But let me back up.

The Epic Playdate event was sponsored by Hyundai and put on by Federated Media. The basic structure was an even for kids aged 3-9 (with their parent(s) and the theme was fun, fun, fun. Because Federated Media ran the event, most of the event stations were run by bloggers who are part of their ad network. The FM bloggers also participated in all of the stations with their kids.

Spencer said his favorite things were the paper rockets, sprinkles on ice cream, balloons and our adventure walk (we went off agenda for a walk). The other stations included sand art (which he loved, even if he didn’t list it in his favorites), hula hooping, “epic volleyball” (there was lots of epicness), foil costume making, paint fight and a photo walk. I’m sure I am missing something; there was so much to do.

The attendees were a mix of invited guests, contest winners, and paid bloggers (like me). I have absolutely no idea who was who. It was nice being at a blog-adjacent event that had no networking agenda. Everyone was friendly, no one queued up for photo opps with the bigger names. The major focus was on the kids having a great time and I think all of them did.

The location was pretty, I just adore the section of the central coast. The access road to the ocean was closed, which was a bummer, but we were able to wander the ground of Dos Pueblo Ranch (in Goleta for the curious, just north of Santa Barbara) a bit. Spencer saw a duck and a railroad trestle and was completely satisfied with his adventure walk.

He also made a lizard friend.

Good times were had by all. Thanks, Hyundai and Federated Media. It was epic.*

***

*Hey Look! I got through the whole post without mentioning the bee keeping boxes in the parking lot. With bees. Swarms of them. No wonder they had valet, which of course we opted out of, but then again we didn’t know about the bees. There were no #epicbeestings.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Baby Baby Lemon! I would appreciate your comments and feedback on the entry you just read, Epic Playdate was #Epic, of course.

Super Spencer Activate!

Amy — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:03:55 +0000

Who knew you could have so much fun with foil?

Link up your wordless wednesday post below!

Baby Baby Lemon! I would appreciate your comments and feedback on the entry you just read, Super Spencer Activate!.