Month: February 2008

Categories
Ryan/Married Life

Meme time: Ryan.

My sister tagged me, and today is a great day to talk about my “DH.” (See #3 for the reason why.)

1. What is his name?
Ryan.

2. How long have you been married?
Going on four years.

3. How long did you date?
Well, let’s see. . . . from the day we met to the day we married was 325 days. Our first date was 256 days before our wedding. We were engaged (with ring) for 94 days.

And today is the first anniversary of our first kiss! It’s true. Our first kiss was 144 days before our wedding.

4. How old his he?
29. Seriously.

5. Who eats more?
Usually Ryan. Sometimes Hayden, if it’s macaroni and tuna, especially 😉 .

6. Who said I love you first?
I did. Grumble. I contend, however, that he felt it first but was afraid to say it. We had only been dating for a few days, so he has an excuse.

7. Who is smarter?
I’m smart enough not to answer that question. He would say me, but I think we have the same college GPA. Good enough?

8. Who does the laundry?
In fits and starts. Lately it’s been me, but at times it’s been mostly him.

9. Who does the dishes?
Ryan washes the dishes, I unload the dishwasher. But we’ve just arrived at this arrangement. Here’s hoping it lasts.

10. Who sleeps on the right side of bed?
We both do. The “right” side of the bed? Sitting at the head of the bed, facing the foot of the bed, I’m on the right. Standing at the foot of the bed, facing the bed, he’s on the right.

11. Who pays the bills?
Autopay, mostly.

12. Who cooks dinner?
Usually me unless I’m feeling lazy or not so good.

13. Who is more stubborn?
Dunno. Maybe me?

14. Who proposed?
Ryan, of course.

16. Who has more siblings?
Ryan—he’s fourth of five, I’m first of four.

17. Who drives when you are together?
Usually Ryan, though I’ll do it if I feel like it, if he’s too tired, or if I know the way and don’t feel like navigating.

18. Who has more friends?
Real people: I would say he does. “Imaginary” Internet people (no, not you, you’re real): probably me.

19. Who wears the pants?
Most days, we both wear pants. But neither of us wore pants for our wedding:

Categories
Kids/Parenting Ryan/Married Life

Not my biggest fan

I hate to have to tell you this, but I’m funny. You should probably already know that, of course. But my day to day life is pretty funny. Not movie-funny, but regular-life-funny. Sometimes it’s looking-back-on-it-now-that-I’m-not-sobbing-yeah,-I-guess-that-was-funny.

The other day, I sang a little song for Hayden. I told Ryan about it that night, and Ryan got the goofy look on his face that he gets whenever I sing (which is usually accompanied by a “You should sing more often”). Here is the song. You may recognize it. It was first popular in 1918. Not that you’re that old; it still gets sung a lot.

H-H-H-Haydie, beautiful Haydie,
You’re the only b-b-b-boy that I adore
When the m-moon shines, H-H-H-Haydie,
I’ll be knock-knock-knock-knock-knockin’ at your door.

After I finished repeating the song for Ryan, Ryan has a sentimental look on his face. “Did he like it?” he asks, thinking that he knows the answer.

“Actually, no. He hated it. And he really wanted me to put him down.”

And I didn’t even tell Hayden that the song’s originally about a girl. Sigh. At least my husband still likes my singing.

Categories
MetaBlogging

Going it alone: blog design

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Blog design

If you have the technical and design know how to create and implement your own blog design, then this may be the route for you when you redesign your blog. Here are some tips and things to remember when creating your new custom blog design.

When creating your new design, keep in mind the subject matter, goals and theme of your blog. Try to match your color scheme, graphics and layout to those. If you aren’t sure how to do this, talk to someone (like your readers or a professional blog designer). Outside input can be hugely important in creating a blog design that works for you and your blog.

As I mentioned last week, a key feature to your blog design is user-friendliness. This bears repeating: “light text on dark backgrounds are very hard on your readers’ eyes. Having music, flashing text or graphics and/or scrolling text or graphics is also tough on readers’ (and their browsers).”

When working on your blog design, it’s a good idea to set up a test blog. If you’re modifying your current design, you can import that into your test blog to start. If you’re creating a new design from scratch, create it there first. Not only will this make sure that all your changes work with your blog software and layout, but you won’t risk “breaking” your main blog.

When creating your new design, go slow. By that I mean change just one thing at a time on your test blog. This isn’t just for aesthetic reasons: if you “break” something, you’ll know what caused the error. If you change six things in one edit and suddenly your test blog doesn’t work, you won’t know which of the things caused the problem.

However, be sure to try different things. I recently did a blog design with a color palette the client had chosen from ColourLovers.com. The palette was beautiful—but the way I used the colors on the page wasn’t. I could have redone the entire color scheme (which wouldn’t take that long), or changed the way I used the colors on the page, but instead I went hunting for more colors (back on ColourLovers) that worked with the “good” colors.

Other than new colors, here are some other small tweaks that can really change your blog’s feel (and the appropriate caveats):

  • Font face: make sure it’s easy to read and works across many different computers (not everyone has the same fonts preinstalled on their computer as you do!)
  • New header: I recommend not making the header so large that visitors can’t see at least your first post when the page loads. Also, be careful how wide you make it: not everyone has a widescreen laptop.
  • Layout: If at all possible, use your blog software’s options to change the number or layout of columns

Now I think I’ll take my own advice: Readers, what do you think of this blog’s layout, colors and graphics? Are they easy to read and understand? Do they match what you perceive as the purpose, goals and theme of MamaBlogga? I’m ready for your feedback (*braces self*)!

Categories
Kids/Parenting

The argument I’ll be having for the rest of my life

I realized last week that I’ve been having the same argument for the last twenty years. I have three younger sisters, and you’d think we were all here, reliving our Barbie-and-clean-up-time-induced blow outs. Seems like every other sentence out of my mouth could be a direct quote from our childhood.

Stop that.

Don’t touch that.

Stop, you’ll break it.

Don’t touch it.

Stop.

Stop.

Stop.

Please don’t do that.

Ouch—you’re hurting me.

Stop—you’re stepping on me.

Please don’t mess with that.

Leave it alone.

Leave me alone!

I imagine that by the time Hayden’s old enough to not need these constant injunctions, he’ll be giving them (and receiving them) from his siblings.

Categories
Random

Not-so-Amish Friendship Bread Instructions

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My sister-in-law brought by an Amish friendship bread starter the other day. Reading over the instructions, I decided to tweak the instructions just a little. Enjoy!

Amish Friendship Bread

Don’t use metal spoons or bowls for mixing. Don’t refrigerate the starter unless you’re lazy or forgetful. Then you can refrigerate it. Just mush it when you remember it. It’s supposed to bubble and ferment, but be sure to let the air out of the bag; it might pop.

Day 1: Accept the starter. Say thank you. Put it on the counter. Glance at the instructions, pretending to be interested. Begin plotting who you’ll foist this on next week.

Day 2: Mush the bag.

Day 3: Squish the bag. Think about who would actually accept this.

Day 4: Let your toddler mush the bag.

Day 5: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Oh and guess what? Mush the bag.

Day 6: If you forgot to add that stuff yesterday, do it today. And mush the bag.

Day 7: Squeeze the bag repeatedly.

Day 8: Remember that you only have two days to figure out who to give the starters to. Panic. Beat the bag to vent your aggressions.

Day 9: Mash the bag. Make a list of all your friends within driving distance. Call two of them to ask if they’d like friendship bread. Sense their hesitation. Decide not to call anyone else and just drop in bearing ‘gifts.’ Go get gallon zipper bags if you’re running low and photocopy the instructions.

Day 10: Mix and divide the starter. Pour the contents of the bag into a bowl (remember non metal) adding 1.5 c flour, 1.5 c sugar and 1.5 c milk. Mix (though, if you’re on a roll, you could certainly try pouring all these into the bag and . . . you know, mushing it). Measure out 4 separate batters of 1 cup each into 4 gallon zipper bags. Write the date on the bags. Look at your list of friends again. Pick the three or four you can afford to lose if necessary. Give them the bags later. Heck, you could even ease their ‘burden’ by giving them the bags on day four. Or five. Or nine. Don’t forget to include the instructions.

With the remaining batter in the bowl, make bread. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Add
3 eggs
1 c oil (or 0.5 c oil and 0.5 c applesauce)
0.5 c milk
1 c sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
0.5 tsp vanilla
1.5 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp baking soda
1.75 to 2 c flour
1 large box instant pudding mix (any flavor. Very Amish, yes?)

Grease 2 large loaf pans and divide mixture. Bake 55-60 minutes. Sprinkle cinnamon/sugar over the top before or after baking.

If you keep a starter bag for yourself, you must be a glutton for punishment. Or you need the stress relief of four seconds of squishing a somewhat viscous liquid. Maybe you should get a bag of honey instead. But, hey, you could have fresh Amish bread every 10 days. And continue forcing the starters on your friends. Until you run out of friends.

Only the Amish know how to create a starter bag, but apparently they got on Allrecipes. If you give away all your starters, you’ll have to wait until someone gives you one back. But I’m sure your friends would be eager to return the favor if you’d like one.

Experiment with bananas, raisins, nuts and other mix-ins (I saw a comment on Allrecipes that said they added crushed pineapple and coconut) and other flavors of pudding mix.

After the stress of baking and probably losing your daily four seconds of stress relief, it’s probably time to sit down with your loaves of Amish bread and eat them both in a single sitting.

It can’t be fattening if it’s Amish, right?

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Categories
Kids/Parenting

The big transition: a big boy bed

Haydiebug is growing up! Sometime in the next few months, we’re really thinking of getting him into a “big boy bed.”

I’m worried, though, about helping him understand that he would have to stay in the bed. In his crib, he’s quite contained. But he’s not always asleep. Today, for example, it took him more than an hour before he fell asleep for his nap (during which time I usually have to repeat a mantra about not being emotionally invested in whether or not he sleeps 😉 ). I’m not terribly fond of the idea of him spending that time (and more) out of his bed, playing with any- and everything in his room.

Is there any way to teach him to stay in a big boy bed? What worked for you with this transition? What didn’t?