Mother's Day Video From Matt.

Earth Day Gift.

Matt came home from work with a little Earth Day surprise for me. Two beautiful Bougainvillea plants. I had mentioned that I wanted to plant a tree on Earth Day, but truthfully planting something, anything is better than nothing at all. Bougainvillea are one of my favorite plants ever! I recently visited my good friends Christina and Steven who just bought their first home and Christina was explaining how her "Boug." plants were driving her crazy b/c of their thorns. And yes, you don't want to get too close or fall into one! But when they are full grown either as a hedge, bush or up a fence, in my opinion there is nothing as cheerful! I love the variety of tropical colors they come in. But before I go any further, I have to admit that last spring Matt and I planted 4 Boug. plants, in the hot pink/magenta color. I either did something wrong, or it was the freeze that lead to their demise. But it's a NEW DAY, and a fresh start. So here's hoping! I first fell in love with them, at my Mom's old house (on Country Club Lane). She had the more gorgeous, enormous Boug. plant. It had grown up the side of the patio and then grew over to the detached garage. It was so big, it created a tunnel that you walked under to go up the stairs to the "apt" above the garage. Unfortunately, one of the terrible hurricanes 4 years (I think) ago destroyed it. But it was magnificent. We do have a lasting memento of the beautiful backyard scene in my sisters condo in Chicago. I painted a small painting of it as a gift for my sis. Also, on our honeymoon in St. Lucia in the West Indies last year...they were EVERYWHERE! So I will forever think of our glorious honeymoon when I see a Bougainvillea plant.

chw oxxo

Earth Day! Here are some of my GREEN ideas!

I love that we are more aware than ever that the way we are living is affecting our beautiful planet. And because it's EARTH DAY today, I thought I would share a few simple ways that I have changed the way I live and consequently become more green! Maybe you'll pick up a few tips that you'll incorporate into your own lifestyle and I hope you'll share some of your own green ideas in the "comments" section at the end of this post!

1. Take the paper towel roll off the counter. I have it under my sink, out of sight, and by doing so, I hardly ever grab a sheet here and a sheet there for quick clean-ups that I can easily use my sponge for. And for those of you who don't like the idea of using a sponge in your kitchen b/c of the scary commercials that portray sponges as killers, with deadly bacteria...all you have to do is throw it in the dishwasher every once in awhile OR fill a bowl with water and microwave the sponge in water and it sanitizes it. Additionally, I hardly EVER clean with paper towels anymore. I have a large stack of rags under my sink next to my cleaning products. And b/c I clean with earth-friendly and non-toxic products, I just use rags to clean, wash and use again. For over a year now I've lived by these practices and I've noticed that the ONLY time I actually use a paper towel is to cover something I'm reheating in the microwave. A roll of paper towels lasts well over 2 months in my house.

2. I use cloth napkins for every meal. It's nice to not have them reserved for only the holidays or special occasions! Everyday is worth it! I picked up this practice from a friend of mine. And it adds a nice touch to ever meal when you have a cloth napkin in your lap, even if it's just eating a sandwich alone and checking your email, there's something, old fashioned (maybe?) that I love about it and can't see myself ever going back to using paper napkins or paper towels! And to answer the question I know you're asking yourself....how does washing cloth napkins end up being green when you have to wash them? Well, if it doesn't get too dirty, we fold it back up and use it again. But as for the dirty ones, we simply throw them in the wash (that we are already doing) with our other laundry. And between Matt, Jack and myself (and the size of our washer) I do enough loads to where we've never had the issue of not having a napkin for a meal.

3. Store everything in tupperware. I can't remember the last time I stored something in a resealable plastic bag. And if I do...when I'm done I rinse it and reuse the bag! Even when I pack a lunch for Matt, I go as far as putting chips (for example) in tupperware, same with his sandwich-everything!

4. Recycle EVERYTHING you can!

5. Buy Organic! I try to buy as many organic products as I can. Some items are more important to buy than others. Meat, produce, milk, eggs are some of the ones I always buy organic. Some things can be dramatically more expensive than the non-organic version, so I price shop between publix and super target, and found that super target beats publix's prices when it comes to most of the organic products I buy. And for the baby mamas out there, target has the absolute lowest price on Earth's Best Organic baby food. I use their jar food and rice cereal, and no one is cheaper than target!

6. Make your own cleaning products! This sounds like a huge job. But honestly it's one of the easiest ways to clean green and save green! Lavender oil and Tea Tree oil are natural disinfectants, you mix them with water and clean counter tops, sinks, floors, any surface really. I bought a book by the company Seventh Generation called, Naturally Clean: The Seventh Generation Guide to Safe & Healthy, Non-Toxic Cleaning it has the recipes for the cleaning products, along with alot of other great information. The oil is a small investment initially, but it last SO much longer than a bottle of product from the grocery store. And it's so much safer...especially if you have little ones crawling, touching and eating everything!

These are just a few small things that I thought of and wanted to share! Please leave any of your GREEN ideas in the comments section to share!

chw oxxo

It's the little things.

It's the little things as a mom that make you smile! Little things like the first glimpse of the tiniest tooth, babies first smile, sitting up on his own. Practically every milestone is cause for celebration! However, it's not just all the wonderful new things that Jack is doing that's getting me to break out the camera and start blogging. This time it's a fab new product that I LOVE! Last week I found myself at Babies R' Us upgrading Jack's "bink" to the next size, in addition to the next level baby bottle nipple (Born Free brand-love that too-I'm still nursing, but that's another whole blog entry), and buying him his first sippy-cup. Other mommies I've chatted with, say 7 mths is a good time to introduce it (sippy cup) by having it "around" during meals-so the transition at 1 year isn't so difficult. Anyway, in addition to the upgrades, I came across a bib a mommy-friend from MOPS and my play group told me about. Bumkins! It's great. I don't know what material it is, but after Jack is done eating I rinse it quickly in the sink and lay it either over his high chair or from a cabinet knob, and it's dry in no time! No need to keep adding dirty bibs to loads a laundry. It's stain resistant and it's free of PVC, phthalates & BPA. Bottom line: It's safe material! Plus it has a pocket at the bottom to catch food etc. I believe they are sold at Target as well. So if you are in the market....try a BUMKIN bib! ;)
chw oxxo

A longer video of Jack....(like 4 minutes!)

So here I am again apologizing for being a delinquent blogger. But I thought instead of hearing what's new, or posting a bunch of still pics, videos would be fun for a change. In order to HEAR the video, scroll down to the bottom of the page PAUSE the music, then return to the top of the page, hit PLAY on the VIDEO and you'll be able to hear Jack laughing etc.
Hope all is well & much love,
chw oxxo

Videos of Jack Richard

All around updates....

Jack SIX MONTHS OLD!!!

Hi Everyone! So many exciting things happening right now. Matt is in Costa Rica with some friends on a "man-cation." haha He has been working so hard at home and at work that when the opportunity came up for him to go on a 24/7 surfing trip with his best guy friends, I was so happy for him! So he's there for a week, I'm heading to my Moms for a little while and plan on spending some time with friends from south Florida that I always miss, like....Lindsay Dance, Christina Lewis and Steven, Lindsey Roth, Jennifer Epstein and her baby Brenna, Jacqueline's Mom Valerie and her cousin Ashley and her baby, Cameron, maybe my Godparents Dave and Jennifer (if they are down from Illinois) and of course Gigi and Grampie! In addition to getting ready to head down south..I had a blast this weekend running the Gate River Run with Lindsey Kaiser and her friend Leighton and my good friend Courtney Hartford and Kristen Perez. We had a blast! It was a 15K which is 9.3 miles. I finished in 1:41-which I was pleased with. But there is always room for improvement! I'll have to wait to post pics until later today because Jacquie has all of them on her camera. Anyway-other than that we had a short visit with Alivia on her way back to Tally from Stuart last night. Jack always loves to see Aunt Liv. Alivia is graduating in May! I can't believe it! After she walks-shes finishing her last semester in Greece over the summer!!!!

On a different subject...I have a few new blogs on my page. Christina and Steven's Sweet Home Silver Oaks is so exciting because they just bought their first house and they are posting all the new and exciting developments with it! We love them and are hoping to get a special tour when we are down this week. Hope all is well. Love to you all!

chw xoxo

I'm back!!

I know I know...I'm such a slacker! But the good news is, it's just when it comes to my blog! I've been super busy with random stuff lately. My week usually holds: MOPS on Mondays, Tutoring on Tuesdays (ok I swear I'm not trying to do that, haha). I started volunteering in the fall to tutor 1st graders with their reading at a school near our house. I attend a Bible Study on Wednesdays, Jack's "Music Together" class on Thursdays and a new play group I just joined on Fridays. And just keeping up with my SIX MONTH OLD! Can you believe it?? Is keeping me on my feet! And I also run as much as possible and train. I just ran a 5 mile race on Saturday and on March 14th, I'm running in a 15k (9.3 miles). And I can't wait!!! They are so much fun. OK so what else have I been up to? As of recently...I've finally been able to help with some bathroom stuff. Up until this point all the work has been stuff only Matt can do..but yesterday I started painting in there and pretty much finished most of it (minus a little trim) this morning. Below are some pictures of our bathroom window creation. And it requires a short little story. When Matt and I were in Costa Rica, we spent some time at a house that had a shower, where one of the walls in the shower was just a screen, looking out to the rain forest, I'm sure it's common there, but it was so unique to us and natural, Matt and I fell in love with it. So when we started brain storming on ideas for our master bathroom. We thought that it would be neat to put the shower in front of the huge window, that was already there and plan to plant climbing vines on lattice, so that eventually it would be a huge window covered in plants that would give the feeling of showering outdoors and it would have beautiful natural light. And below the pictures of last weekends project-the lattice (which by the way we had a blast building it together...very rarely, actually never have we had a project that we've started and completed in one day!) And the rest are the most recent pictures of the shower with the fixtures in it. I promise to post some more tomorrow if Matt hangs up our new mirror. Hope all is well with everyone. Christina, I hope you're reading this and it's somewhat entertaining! She gave up Facebook for Lent! Very impressive...I gave up chocolate, which for some reason doesn't seem as intense as no Facebook for 40 days! You go GIRL!!! much love

chw xoxo

Master Bathroom Construction!!!

OK-so here's the update on our master bathroom. As most of you know we had an empty room off of our bedroom. There was nothing in it besides electricity. So my AMAZING husband made walls and created a walk-in closet (for me ;) a shower, an area for the vanity and a toilet room. He also added all the necessary plumbing, which required hours underneath our house connecting pipes to the existing system. When we first started the discussion on the bathroom, I had NO idea the amount of work it would be for Matt. However, unlike the rest of the work we've done on our house over the last year, the master bath has been the first project that we've gotten to enjoy designing together, unlike the other bathroom we added in the studio. Matt and I have enjoyed everything from deciding the color scheme to picking out tile and fixtures. And the nice thing is we agreed on 95% of it!!! haha This little project as gotten me excited about building a house one day. I can only imagine all the detailed work and choices!

Below is a picture of Matt working on some plumbing under the house. Followed by a picture of the shower with the "backer-board" up. It's what you stick the tile to. The picture after that is the beginning of the toilet room. And then another pic of the pre-tile shower.

Here are some pics of the tile work that my Dad and Matt got done last weekend. The shower was about 1/2 way done at this point.