Andi – Page 48 – ANDI HAYS

The Strange Things My Baby Does

Posted on February 7, 2012February 5, 2012 by Andi

These things Maddie does may not be strange at all for a baby. But I think it’s funny behavior.

She collects things. And I mean ALL the time. It doesn’t matter what it is. She just needs a group of things.

Veggie Straws on a speaker.

Veggie Straws on her chair. (Which she is in the process of climbing on the chair and then sitting and crushing the straws.)

Toys in the baby stroller.

Toys in her chair.

And then has to sit on them and give me an evil baby look! “My Preeeecious!”

More toys in the chair.

And more sitting on them. Possibly waiting for them to hatch like she’s a chicken. And again with a slightly scary face. She may have been snorting.

Also, her attempt at doing a puzzle….kind of like collecting since she added an egg shaker to the puzzle.

At least she is consistent! Smile

Hide & Seek…Sort of

Posted on February 6, 2012February 6, 2012 by Andi

As you know, Maddie has an obsession with blankets. I have posted a few videos of Maddie playing with blankets. But the pictures are funny, too.

Now you see her….

Now you don’t….

Now you see a walking blanket….

She was bouncing up and down with a blanket on her head….ummm???

Now as a hat….

Now a crawling blanket monster….

Where’s Maddie?

Then she was playing with a the diaper box in the pictures.

Now you see her….

Now you don’t. Smile

She’s a goofy one! She thinks she’s quite funny, too. She will laugh the whole time she is playing hide and see with herself under a blanket. All you have to do is ask “where’s Maddie?” and she squeals and giggles. Smile She’s so much fun!

Maddie Photo Overload

Posted on February 5, 2012February 5, 2012 by Andi

I haven’t posted pictures of Maddie in a while. So here you go!

Maddie likes to help me eat bananas! She moves way too fast for me to get any good pictures of her, though! Smile

Reading with Dad.

Bag Lady!

At our friends’ daughter’s birthday party.

Trying to climb into my lap. This happens about a hundred times a day. Smile

She loves her remote!

Note the Star Trek shirt she has on in this one! Smile

Funny face!

MMMMMM…..Breakfast!

Hanging out in the ball pit.

I have a few more, but I will save those for tomorrow!

Kindle

Posted on February 3, 2012January 31, 2012 by Andi

Some fabulous hubby of mine brought home a Kindle Touch for me! I am so excited! I have been trying to read more (and I have been doing a pretty good job, actually) and this is going to be so fun! I have always thought these were awesome. I just didn’t think I would get one since I have an iPad. But this was a great surprise!

I have a Kindle account already and have the Kindle app on my phone and iPad. So my Kindle was already filled with free books that I had downloaded. So I have been frantically reading Mockingjay so I could start reading a book on my Kindle.

I also decided to start a book club with some of my neighbors. I only have a couple people that wanted to join me, but I am hoping I can get more to join eventually. The Kindle (and other e-readers) have the ability to download books from the library. So I checked out a book to try for book club. We’ll see how it goes!

I also whipped up a little case for my kindle because I didn’t want it getting cold (or scratched if I throw it in my purse).

Does anyone out there have a Kindle or other e-reader? Are you totally opposed to them and NEED to have a physical book? Do you think books will be obsolete someday and e-readers are the thing of the future?

Mockingjay

Posted on February 2, 2012February 3, 2012 by Andi

I finished the trilogy…(The Hunger Games and Catching Fire were the first two books). I couldn’t put them down. Part of the reason I needed to read this one quickly was because Chuck bought me a Kindle. I will tell you more about that tomorrow.

This book was a little slower than the first two. Thankfully, it tied up the loose ends and, of course, had a happy(ish) ending. I don’t think young adults could handle books without happy(ish) endings. The book was gruesome at times, just like the other two books. The author did a great job tying all three books together and making them cohesive.

I enjoyed reading all three books and I liked the ending and the way everything wrapped up. I would definitely recommend these books to anyone. They were an entertaining read. I have talked to many people (younger than me – my 14 year old brother, and older than me – my aunt) and they have all loved the books. I think it is quite a skill to make books that are enjoyable to all ages.

Happy reading!

Randomness

Posted on February 1, 2012January 31, 2012 by Andi

I was thinking I haven’t done a weird random post in a while. So as I was thinking of things to blog about, I thought I would do a brain dump of things.

I have been in a furious declutter/cleaning mode lately. To the point where I am worried about my sanity and why I am doing things that I have never done before. Or obsessively cleaning things that never seemed to bother me before. Or being OCD about picking up toys. Just weird things. I have been throwing things away left and right that I don’t need. As I am trying to fall asleep, all I can think about is what I am going to clean or organize the next day. It’s a sickness, I think. Smile

I have been pretty good about sticking to my resolutions. The only thing I have been bad about are making phone apps. I think once I sit down and do it, I’m going to be addicted. But I have a hard time getting started. I think I am scared. I am a wuss when it comes to new things. So I need to get on that. But I have lost a couple pounds, been eating better, reading more, walking on the treadmill a lot, cooking more (and doing a good job of planning meals and working on eating our smorgasbord of food in the freezer), making sure we all eat together when we can and trying to make more plans with friends.

I have also been thinking about what I might want to be/do when I grow up. I love staying home, but some day, when kids are in school, I would like to go back to work. Ideally, I would love to have my summers free when kids are home, but I would be happy to be able to work from home when kids are in school. (And no…I am not pregnant, but we do hope for at least one more kid in the future…hence making “kids”.) Some things I have been thinking about are working in special ed. I have a neighbor that does it and find it very fascinating, challenging and rewarding. I think it would be fun to specialize in something like sign language. I would also LOVE to be an editor. I would love to edit books, magazines, websites…anything that would be printed/read. If anyone knows of any opportunities or information in these areas, PLEASE let me know! I would be very thankful!

So that’s a couple things that have been on my mind, but don’t really warrant their own posts. Smile

And here’s a little picture of Maddie since I haven’t shared one in a while…I’ll have to do a photo dump soon. No one likes a blog post without pictures! Smile

Egg Bake

Posted on January 31, 2012January 31, 2012 by Andi

My friend Trisha was looking for an egg bake recipe to make in a muffin pan for her daughter. I thought this was a brilliant idea. I gave her an egg bake recipe I had from my aunt. Then decided to try to whip up a batch for Maddie.

First, you preheat the oven and grease the muffin pan.

Then I added some bread.

Then you add some meat, cheese, and green peppers (or whatever you feel like adding into the egg bake).

Then I mixed up some eggs, milk, salt, pepper and a little mustard and poured it into the muffin pan.

Then I baked them….admittedly a little too long.

Here is where everything went bad. I had to literally scrape these puppies out of the muffin pan. It was horrible. The just fell apart when I tried to take them out.

Chuck said they still tasted good even though I thought they looked terrible. (I also don’t like eggs very much, so I wasn’t very interested in them from the beginning.)

I tried making another batch a week or so after I made these. They turned out a little better. I used more cooking spray when I greased the pan, I cooked them slightly less, used more eggs and tried to let them cool a little more before trying to remove them. They were a little better, but I still wasn’t that pleased with them. I decided I would at least freeze them for Maddie to eat. She doesn’t seem to care what they look like, but I still hope I will get them to turn out some day.

I have never been very good at cooking eggs or egg bakes. Maybe I subconsciously screw them up because I don’t like eggs. Who knows. Oh well. Two food posts in a row that didn’t turn out. I guess I’ll have to post something more delicious next! Smile

Catching Fire

Posted on January 30, 2012January 31, 2012 by Andi

Well, I finished the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Right after I was done with the first book, I dove right in and read the second book. It’s going to be kind of hard to give you a run-down of this book without giving too much away…like how the previous book ends. But I will say it was another action-filled book. It was creative and there were some fun twists. Overall, I liked this book, too. I can see why teens/young adults enjoy these books. They are quite entertaining.

On to book #3!

Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups

Posted on January 29, 2012January 23, 2012 by Andi

I tried another new recipe. And I was so excited about it. Sadly, it was not a hit around here. After making Spicy Chicken Lasagna Roll Ups, I thought these would be really yummy.

You mix the spinach and cheeses together.

You cook the lasagna noodles and lay them out so you can fill them.

Then spread the mixture onto the noodles and roll them up, seams down, and put them into a pan with some sauce on the bottom.

Then top them with the remaining sauce and cheese.

Then you bake it up and eat it.

Well, I thought this was going to be delicious. But there was way too much spinach in there. Maybe it would have been good with half the amount of spinach, but the flavor was so overpowering, neither of us liked it very much. Maybe it’s because the spinach was frozen. If you LOVE spinach, you might like this. But I would rather stick to the chicken roll ups and maybe add in just a touch of spinach to that one.

Oh well, live and learn. I won’t like everything I cook.

Colored Rice

Posted on January 28, 2012January 23, 2012 by Andi

I had seen people making colored rice on Pinterest and knew I had to give it a try. Maddie is still too little to play with it without trying to eat it, but I cleaned out the pantry and had lots of leftover rice, so I thought I should use it up.

First you put 2 cups of rice into a gallon sack. Do this for as many colors of rice you want to make.

Then you add 2 teaspoons of rubbing alcohol to each of the sacks along with 7-10 drops of food coloring. I used red, blue, green and yellow.

Then you seal them up and shake them like crazy! This would be fun to do with your kids. They would get a kick out of this part. Instead, I shook it myself while Maddie played with her toys.

Then I lined some baking sheets with tin foil and dumped the bags of colored rice on them to dry.

After the rice dried (I don’t remember how long I let mine sit, but it was at least 30 minutes….you could let it dry outside, too), I dumped it all back into a gallon sack.