WWtKW: Cell Phone Edition

Happy Wednesday, Kitschies!!  I hope you're sailing through your week relatively unscathed.  I didn't play along with last week's WWtKW and I missed linking up, so you bet I'm going to get in on the linky action today!!



This weeks' questions come from the ever awesome Mamarazzi and all have to do with her latest addiction: her cell phone.

{1}Do you prefer to text or call?

{2}What is the last text message in your phone and who is it from?

{3}What are your favorite phone apps?

{4}At what age do you think kids are ready for a cell phone?

{5}Share a current pic or video taken with your phone.

1.  Do you prefer to text or call.

It all depends on who I'm "talking" to and what the conversation is about.  I text a lot because it's an easy way to keep in contact or to check in throughout the day.  But, if it's a more in depth conversation, I'll call.  If it's the bestie, we *rarely* actually talk on the phone but we text a lot.  But if it's my parents and my weekly check-in, I always call (even though my mom and I text on and off through the week).

2.  What is the last text message in your phone and who is it from?

I'm typing this up on Tuesday afternoon, so I know I've gotten more texts than this, but the last one (at this point) is from my bestie:  "I asked him if he swiped those yest. I knew it!! He said he got them from home.  LOL  (he said yes).  FYI: My kid's a klepto.

3.  What are your favorite phone apps?

I don't have a cool phone like all the other kids (mine is circa 2009 *gasp*).  I like to say I'm blissfully unaware of all the awesome things a phone can do.  The hubs keeps saying that we're going to get iPhones for Christmas.  I kinda hope he's kidding.  With that said, my favorite phone app is Text Twist 2.

source

4.  At what age do you think kids are ready for cell phones?

That's a hard one.  My kids are still really young (5 and 2) and they're in no way even close to being ready for a cell phone.  I'm thinking teens, like 14 or 15, but it really depends on the kid and the situation.

5.  Share a current pic or video taken with your phone.

My boys: Nate, the hubs, and Mason, waiting impatiently in front of El Pinto to meet my Aunt and Uncle for lunch a few weekends ago.

So join me, won't you and link up with Mamarazzi for another great week of We Want to Know Wednesday!

Two Good Eats for Tuesday

Good morning, Kitschies!  It's only Tuesday and it's been a crazy week, partly because it seems like the weekend took forever to get through and then it's bled on over to this week.  I'll spare you the deets, but it was not a good weekend.  And come to think of it, that *not good* started on Friday.  *sigh*  Anyway...I'm not going to let this be a Debbie Downer post, so let's get on with it, shall we?

I went to a derby practice on Saturday and then again last night.  Saturday's practice was brutal - my legs were sore after that practice and then add in a couple falls last night (thanks stoopid berries from the damned trees and sand on the track) and I'm one sore mama today!  I am so thankful to work with some great physicians - chiropractic/osteopathic manipulations are saving my derby-lovin' life!  I may be sore and I may be bruised, but I'm lovin' every second of it.

I haven't share a good recipe with you lately, so I dug a good one out of my pending folder for today.  These recipes came from my go-to recipe site: allrecipes.com.

BBQ Chicken
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 Tbsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp poultry seasoning
2 pounds cut up chicken pieces

Heat grill to medium heat. 

In a small skillet combine the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and put over low heat. Add the poultry seasoning while stirring constantly; when sauce mixes well and starts to bubble, it is done. 

Place chicken on hot grill and brush with sauce. Grill for 45 to 60 minutes, turning every 5 to 10 minutes, and brush chicken with sauce after each turning. Grill until chicken is done and juices run clear. (Note: Be sure to keep an eye on the chicken as it cooks, as it tends to have flair ups due to the oil and chicken drippings!) 

NOTES:  I used skinless, boneless chicken breasts, not pieces.  And instead of brushing the chicken while it was grilling, I marinated it for a few hours.  I think the flavor is better that way.  

And a bonus, side dish recipe:


Roasted Garlic Cauliflower
2 Tbsp minced garlic
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 large head cauliflower, separated in to florets
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease a large casserole dish. 

Place the olive oil and garlic in a large resealable bag. Add cauliflower, and shake to mix. Pour into the prepared casserole dish, and season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Bake for 25 minutes, stirring halfway through. Top with Parmesan cheese and parsley, and broil for 3 to 5 minutes, until golden brown. 

NOTE:  I did not use parsley - I didn't think it would add anything and it doesn't matter to me if my side dish lacks color.

I think the cider vinegar in the marinade really made the chicken moist.  I really liked this recipe, and so did the others (boys big and small alike).

I liked the cauliflower but I don't remember if the boys did or not.  I have a feeling they probably turned their noses up at it until they finally gave in and took a taste.  And wouldn't you know it...they ended up liking it.

Mmm...and now I'm hungry.  Great.  Good thing I'll be going to lunch soon!


I'll be back tomorrow with a WWtKW (I haven't played for a few weeks) and hopefully an On Wednesday We Wear Pink post, too!  Thanks for bearing with my slower than usual posting.  It's been a crazy couple of weeks!

Favorite Color Swap

Good morning, Kitschies!!  It's almost the end of the work week - woot!!  The week is going by at a reasonable pace, thankfully, and I'm looking forward to Saturday.  The hubs and I are supposed to go see the final Harry Potter movie (late much?) but the showings are limited, so we might nix that, try to catch it at the dollar theater, and go see Captain America instead.  Either way, I'm going to see a movie this weekend - thanks, in part, to the bestie offering to watch the boys.  And then Saturday night is another derby practice.  I'm ready for the week to be over!

Anyway...the real reason for this post is the announcement of the next blog-famous Mamarazzi swap!  The people have spoken and the results are in:

Participants will be putting together an amazing package filled with items of THEIR PARTNER'S Favorite Color! Can you imagine getting a package in the mail filled with your favorite color? So FUN!

Sounds fun, right?  If you've never participated in Mamarazzi's swaps, let me tell you...they. are. awesome!  There are some rules (a necessary evil), so be sure to check out *Dandelion Wishes* for the deets.

I've signed up...you should, too! 

Slimey Limey

Good morning, Kitschies!  I hope you're enjoying your day.  It's my birfday!  How am I celebrating?  Hopefully, by taking the afternoon off, getting some retail therapy in (thanks to my bestie), picking up my boys a little early then heading over to my MIL's for dinner.  Other than that, I'm fighting a wonderful head cold, so it'll be low-key celebration for me tonight. 

In other news...my son, Nate, brought home a SOAR award from school yesterday for "A+ attitude, Respect and Responsibility".  How awesome is that?!  I'm so proud of my little man!!

I have a pretty cool mani to share with you today.  I can't remember when I wore this one.  June?  July?  I dunno...it was a while ago.  I'm behind in posting...we already went over that yesterday.  I was inspired by THIS POST on Simply Rins a while back and I thought I'd give it a go.

Rins used Gosh holographic - I tried to use ChG OMG, but it wasn't coming out the way I wanted it, so I grabbed ChG Laser Lime from the Tronica collection.  You've probably all seen it, but it's a lime green non-linear holo.  It's pretty, but not awesome like ChG L8rG8r.  I started with at least 2, but probably 3, coats of Laser Lime.

Then using dotting tools and black acrylic paint, I dotted on flowers and little dots around the tip of my nails.  For the center of the flowers, I used Laser Lime.

Laser Lime really is more holo IRL.  I couldn't get an accurate full-sun picture.

This is the best full-sun pic I got and if you click on the pic to make it bigger, you can really see the pretty holo in this polish.

And in the shade, Laser Lime is still pretty, but it's not sparkly holo...just kinda sparkly.

Flash picture FTW!  LOL  You can't see the holo, but it does look kinda sparkly.  Of course Simply Rins' nail art was better, but I like how this turned out.  I am thinking about doing this with another color combo again soon.

Enjoy your Tuesday!  Take some time to relax (yeah, right).  See you soon!

I've Been a Bad Blogger

Morning, lovelies!  It was another busy weekend at the Harmeyer house.  Friday night's derby practice was cancelled *bummer* but since I was already at the track when I found out, I decided to stick around and skate a bit.  I'm getting a little more sure of myself on my skates, but I have a LONG way to go!  Saturday morning was spent cleaning the house (it really needed it anyway) and then that afternoon, the bestie came over with her gang and we hung out outside and watched the kidlets play in the pool.  We had indoor S'mores for the kids and then once we got them all to bed, we chillaxed out on the patio, had dinner and enjoyed the cool summer evening.  Once we had had enough of the outdoors, we went inside to rag on Fab Bagans from Ghost Adventures and I did Wendi's nails...they turned out awesome!  Sunday was spent getting caught up on laundry and such.  Good times. 

I feel like I've been a bad blogger.  I haven't been blog hopping like I usually do.  And I haven't been updating my blog like I should.  I really don't have any good excuse like being abducted by aliens or being on some swanky vacay.  I've just been busier at work than usual (which is a good thing) and I've been busier away from work (which is a good thing, too) AND my computer at home is stoopid slow.  Like, it takes over a minute to open an unedited picture in Photoshop.  So, yeah.  Sitting, staring at a computer monitor for an hour to prep maybe 12 pix is so not the highlight of my day.  LOL

I promise to get around to *your* blog soon.  Promise.  And if I don't follow you, this is your chance to plug your blog.  Leave me a link to your blog in the comments on this post only and I'll go check it out!  I recently went through my reading list and got rid of a bunch of blogs, so I need to replace them with other (new to me) blogs!!

And, since this *is* a nail blog, partly, I'll leave you today with a pretty.

This is a random bright red creme from Naughty Nails (don't remember then name of the color, but really, I don't know that you'd want to know anyway) with OPI black Shatter on top.  This mani reminds me of lava that's cooling.

So...plug your blog.  Don't think I don't love you because I haven't been to your blog in a while.  I have so many pics to prep...it's not even funny!

WWtKW: Childhood edition

Happy Wednesdays, boys and girls!  It's been another busy day and this post is getting up quite a bit later than I had hoped.  Best laid plans, right?

I'm linking up with Mamarazzi and Alicia aka Queso for this week's We Want to Know Wednesday.  The lovely and talented Mamarazzi gave us some great questions.  Let's take a look!




1. Did you live in the same town or move around a lot as a child?
2. What were your parents like?
3. Do you have any siblings?  What were they like growing up?
4. Share a short story from your childhood.
5. What did you look like?  (share a childhood pic to win a prize)

1.  Did you live in the same town or move around a lot as a child?

I was born and raised in Bakersfield, CA (same with my parents).  And we didn't move around a lot within the city, either.  I can only remember moving twice, though I know we moved once more than that.

image source

2.  What were your parents like?

My parents were really supportive and encouraged me to do new things.  I was a busy kid: 4-H (rabbits, sheep, sewing), band, ROTC.  And they were by my side every step of the way!

3.  Do you have any siblings?  What were they like growing up?

I have a younger sister, Chicken (that's what my boys call her).  She is 19 months younger and since we were so close in age, there were more than a few times where we didn't get along very well.  She always walked the straight line and I was always the trouble maker.  She probably learned from my mistakes - at least I hope she did.

Me & Chicken at my wedding (June 5, 2004)

4.  Share a short story from your childhood.

For a while, my family lived in the "little house" next to my grandparents (my dad's parents).  Every once in a while, my grandpa would come over to our house and ask if we could come over and watch cartoons or make a cake.  I love those memories!  I'm so glad we lived so close to my grandparents.

Me & Chicken in my grandparents' kitchen (June 5, 1983)

5.  What did you look like? (share a pic)

I think I look pretty similar now to what I looked like then.

February 1980 (3 1/2 years)

September 1981

The hubs says he likes the younger picture of me because he can see a lot of our younger son, Mason, in me.  And crazy coincidence...the pics of me and my sister were taken *exactly* 19 years apart.  How awesome is that?!

So...better late than never, right?  Happy Wednesday!

Big Days

Good morning, Kitschies!  Good evening, Kitschies!  I started this post this morning and got as far as the opening.  *sigh*  It was a long day...and we didn't even have patients!  We spent the day in training for diagnostic ultrasound.  While interesting, I can only see "normal" joints for so long before I lose interest. 

It was a big day yesterday!  Nate had his first day of Kindergarten.  *sob* 

He had so much fun (even though he rolled his eyes at going outside a lot) and he didn't want to leave when I went to pick him up.  And he was even excited to go again today!  I know *that* won't last forever, but I'm glad he had a good first two days.  When it was time to line up for his class on Monday, he told me: "It's OK, Mom.  You can go now."  OK...does that mean I can go to my car and cry for a little while?  I was good - I didn't cry...much.  My mom sent me a text about being and good parent and that made me tear up.  I had it coming from both side on Monday!  LOL

Then, Monday night, I went to my first roller derby practice.  And...OMG...it was SO much fun!  Seriously.  I was a lot steadier on my skates than I expected I would be - I only fell 3 times (I think *everybody* falls at least once a practice).  For being my first time in anything like this, I held my own.  And all the girls were so nice and encouraging.  I was afraid that they would be extra hard on the noob, but they really weren't.  The only places I'm *really* lacking in skills are balancing on one foot (picking up my right skate and touching across to my left hand <and visa versa> is *not* happening yet) and hitting/blocking.  I am so excited to do this!  I've wanted to do something more active for a while but wanted to do something different.  Ya think roller derby is different enough?  Yeah.  Me, too.

OK.  Enough of that.  Now for the *real* reason you come to my blog.  The pretties!  I've got a good water marble for you today.  Remember my last marble (it wasn't all that great)?  This one made up for that one.

I'm not saying this marble is *awesome*, but it's definitely better than the previous one!  I wore this in the beginning of June for my vacay to Cali.  I started with a white base (OPI Alpine Snow) and then marbled three ChGs from the Tronica collection: Hologram (silver holo), Hyper Haute (magenta holo) and Techno Teal (teal, duh).  My index and pinkie on my left hand (pictured above) were my favorite out of the group.

I don't know why, but I only got 2 decent pics from this mani.  And, wow!  I'm amazed at how much my nails have grown since early June!  It's hard to really capture the holoness of these polishes, but if you enlarge this pic, you can kinda see the holo effect on my thumb.

I want to do more water marbles, but I always have a hard time coming up with good color combos.  I know I have a really nice one still waiting to be prepped.  Suggestions for colors?  Lemme have it!

Well, I'm going to relax tonight and do my nails with a new OPI color I picked up at Ulta yesterday.  Have a great evening!