the simple life

Tootsie Roll

I'm sorry I've been missing.  Our basement is SO cold, that I can hardly stand being down here.  Tonight I made a desperate dash to Wal-Mart to pick up a space heater and they were completely sold out.  I found one display model, and it's now keeping me warm and cozy.  :)

I'll check in tomorrow and will leave you with this fun little game that my friend tagged me in on Facebook.  If you want to play, consider yourself tagged.  ;)  goodnight!

**don't forget to get your blue photos taken before February! :)

There are a few more photos in our flickr group here from Madelynsmummy and Nicole
Lawana (my mama)
Aloise
Am I missing anybody?  I know there were a couple of girls who said they were going to play along, but their blogs are password protected, so e-mail me or comment to let me know if you want me to link to a flickr account or anything.  :)  February's on it's way,  so think PINK!

RULES:
1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. Tag 10 friends (make me #11 so I can see your results).
5. Everyone tagged has to do the same thing.
6. Have Fun!

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IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY?
“Delicate” Damien Rice

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
“Styrofoam Plates” Deathcab for Cutie


WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
“The Ark” Dr. Dog


HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
“Brainwascht” Ben Folds

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
“Sunshine” Keane


WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?
“On, Off” Snow Patrol

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
“Dragonflys” Devendra Banhart


WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
“Parasite” Nick Drake
(ouch. that one stung a little bit!)


WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
“Ten Cent Blues” Eisley


WHAT IS 2 + 2?
“Hold Me” Weezer


WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
“Hold Music” Architecture in Helsinki

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
“cold roses” Ryan Adams


WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
“The Drugs Don’t Work” Ben Harper



WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
“Transfiguration #2” M Ward


WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
“Habla Me” The Gipsy Kings

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
“Dirty Old Egg-Suckin Dog” Johnny Cash


WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
"Roll the Credits" Peter, Bjorn & John

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
“Fade Together” Franz Ferdinand

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
”The Sky is a Landfill” Jeff Buckley

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
"Meat is Murder" The Smiths

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
"St. Apollonia" Beirut

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
"Tootsie Roll" Stan Getz

tails

*Today is Julian's last day to be 4 years old!  We are celebrating :)

(Seriously in shock over having a 5 year old boy)

*trying to decide on a birthday cake.  Last minute, that's how we roll.

*2 more lovely peeks of blue

Valerie

Karine

*So...how about that Barack Obama?  :)   I'm a fan.  I'm spending today trying to catch highlights online, as my boys were less than cooperative during my TV time yesterday. 

*But  Michelle Obama is the one that I'm enamored with.  I absolutely adore everything that I've seen about that woman, and love the wife and mama and woman that she appears to be.  If I find out that she has a thing for Pillsbury cookie dough, I might just die.  She would be too perfect.  :D

*LOST STARTS TONIGHT!!!
Any Losties in the house?  (or in the blog, i should say)

*We have a random home inspection today, so I've been cleaning and re-cleaning the same darn things over and over.  Is there ever a time in the future when my boys won't destroy the house?  I would prefer it to happen before they move out.

*Julian wants to know if there are other people in the universe.  Are there "hooman beeyeens" on the other planets?

One part of me wants to nourish his thinking processes and imagination.  Tell him that it is possible that there are other people out there and new worlds to see and explore.  And then the part of me that is very much a protective Mama wants to say, "Nope.  This is all there is.  So there's no reason for you to ever leave home.  That is all, who wants cupcakes?" 

*The other night Ezra sat in a laundry basket and got a bra attached to his pajamas.  He ran around the house, so excited about his "tail".  This is the best shot I could get before it fell off.

 

I'm hearing much screaming upstairs, so I better go pull the boys off of each other...

blue blue blue

So a few girls have posted some of their BLUE photos for January (read more here) and I thought I would link you to them for more inspiration.  :) 

Just in case you were wondering, February will be PINK so you can be thinking of things now that you might want to photograph for February!

Shanna

Kristy

Lisa

Be sure to email me or comment to let me know when you post your blue photos (don't stress, you still have a couple of weeks before February!) and I'll link here for everybody to see!  :)

Also, I'm setting up a flickr group.  If you already have a flickr account, you can join here: 2009: a year of COLOR!

Here's my blue collage so far. I added a couple of photos from last year to have an even number, but i may or may not replace those with any new pictures that I take before February. :) If you want to make a mosaic with your photos (you don't have to have a flickr account, but it does make it easy to use your flickr photos also!) check out fds flickr toys.  (scroll down to the "Mosaic Maker"). 

okay, my fingers are officially frozen, so I'm getting off this computer and going back upstairs where it's toasty. 

*seriously considering photographing my frozen "blue" fingers.   hardy har har...

Charlie Brown

this made me smile today :) enjoy!

12 bits of randomness on a snowy monday evening

1. it's been snowing this week.  before this, we really haven't had much snow since before Christmas.  Cold, yes.  Snow, not so much.

2. i LOVE LOVE LOVE waking up to snow.  i wonder how long it will take to get tired of that feeling?

3. i made no plans to leave the house all day...until I saw in my Sunday paper that K-Mart was doubling coupons again.  Up to $4!   Made a quickish trip for a few necessities.

4. also picked up chinese food from Panda Express  and a movie.  Picked the movie based solely on the hotness of the lead male character, and have no idea what the movie's supposed to be about.
 that's bad, i know.  I hope i don't hate it.
  

5.  Dustin helped me with the overwhelming stack of dishes in the kitchen.  I miss having a dishwasher.

6. First week back on WW, and I rocked it.  9 pounds down!  Booyah! <---a word that is so not "me", but I use it a lot with a silly accent.

7. have an addiction to a new breakfast type meal, that I've eaten for Breakfast, lunch or dinner almost EVERY day this week.  Whole wheat english muffin (toasted), spread 1 wedge of light swiss laughing cow cheese on that, fry or scramble an egg and put on top of muffin, add 1 Morningstar veggie sausage.  Booyah.  Best meal ever, and I don't miss McDonald's sausage biscuits at ALL anymore.  I was addicted to those rotten things also.

8. Two  nights ago I was doing my grocery shopping, and got a panicked phone call from Dustin.  Ezra's fingers were smashed in the bedroom door, and looked HORRIBLE.  I took him to the ER.  He's okay now, but we were so worried that they might have been broken.  They were swollen like little sausages, and they guaranteed me that they would turn all shades of ugly colors, but the next morning they were perfectly fine.  Thank goodness.

9. Ezra tried to scare me with another ER trip by attempting to stick a beater from my hand mixer into an electrical socket.  Caught him just in time.  Little stinker. 

10.  Ezra also says a new word (as part of a song that he loves):  "Bamboleo"

11. Dustin said that he finally understood a complete sentence that Ezra spoke today while I was at K-Mart. "I want my mama." He's a mama's boy and I rub that in Dustin's face a lot. I love it. ;)

12. Look at this cute placemat. 
I bought it at Target (of course) and when I was drying it, part of it stuck to my window.  So I stuck the whole thing on the window.  And now the table needs one more place mat b/c this one is staying here for now.  The colors make me happy (and also keeps my backyard neighbors from seeing me from the neck up when I'm washing dishes). 

 

a few peeks of blue...

Here are a few peeks of blue from this week. 
I can see that blue will be an easy one for me, as it seems to have surpassed apple green as my favorite color this year.  Or at least tied.
These are just a few things around my office, I'll move upstairs tomorrow.  :)

fabric stash

my 2009 journal :) 

a favorite new book, written by my sweet friend Elizabeth, mailed to me this week by another dear friend, Lisa.  Thanks girls for making my life brighter.  :) 

i have lots of old cans, painted and covered in colorful papers to hold sharpies, pencils, sponge paintbrushes, scissors, stickers...

blue butterfly hair sticks, in a blue/pink can.  :) 

a blue birdie torn from some magazine ad.

from my iGoogle homepage.  It's a rotating theme of Paul Frank images and i LOVE it.  Do you have an iGoogle homepage?  what theme do you use?

*I've been thinking about this color challenge so much lately.  I even had a dream last night that I saw the most beautiful old little barn type of building in the middle of a field of tulips, with the brightest blue sky ever.  I made a mental note to take a picture of it for my color challenge.   When I woke up, I was so disappointed that it was just a dream.  :)

Okay, that's all for now. 

I bet you'll be able to find some blue once you start looking.  You might not be able to stop :) 
Bye girls!

quick check in

today was such a great day.
i think it's because i fell asleep around 8pm last night, and despite the 2 hour interruption when Dustin came home from work, I woke up feeling AMAZING.

Did a hundred million things that I've needed to do, had a good attitude all day, the kids were super.  Dustin was sick, but not too whiny.

A good day.

Off to watch a movie, and I'll try to post for real tomorrow.  :) 

Woohoo for good days!

daily Frizz report

This is our Frizz report on accuweather.com for Des Moines today. 
I've never noticed this before and it just made me smile.  :)

Does your city have a daily Frizz report?  



Frizz Index

 

Frizz Index

The weather can have a dramatic effect on how well people’s hair looks and holds it style. The Frizz Index uses a proprietary algorithm especially developed by AccuWeather.com that combines measurements of atmospheric humidity with other weather factors that create hair frizz. The Index correlates to the level of frizz that can be expected under various conditions:

• Frizz Watch = Light frizz and flyaway hair are possible for frizz-prone hair.


• Frizz Advisory = Some frizz is possible, especially for people with naturally curly or wavy hair.


• Frizz Warning = Frizz is likely for all hair types.


• Frizz Emergency = Frizz is unavoidable! Sticky weather affects all hair types, so anyone may have a "bad hair day".

2009 monthly photo challenge, anyone?

i've been thinking about a few photo projects for 2009, and realized that one I'm doing right now is easy and fun and some of you might want to play along with me!   :)  Especially those of you who got new cameras or camera equipment for Christmas, or those that know they would like to do some little photo project but don't know where to start!

I'm focusing on a different color each month (I'm doing blue this month.  I don't know why, but January is just a "blue" month to me for some reason). 

I'm just searching out blue things around my house and outside (when we dare venture outside...) and snapping away.  I'm not sure yet what my finished project will be, but I'm thinking of making a big rainbow colored (but not REALLY rainbow, since it won't be in Rainbow order) collage of my yearly photos. 

You could do one photo a month, and do a 3x4 collage of your 12 colors of 2009, or 1 photo a week, or 1 a day or whatever.

You could post these on your blog or your flickr, and if you want, I'll link to your project here too.  :) 

One of my favorite bloggy friends EVER, Suzanne, puts together these random inspiration color collages and they make me so happy.  I thought it would be fun to make my own using my own photos (although I'm tempted to borrow a few flickr favorites, because the talent over there is just INSANE).  

here's an example or two of the mosaics that Suzanne's put together from her flickr favorites...

 

 

Beautiful, right? And so fun.  Seriously, don't be overwhelmed by the thought of taking perfect pictures, just fun pictures of our favorite colorful things. 

Okay, so if you want to play, let me know and I'll try to figure out some way of reminding everybody what colors we're focusing on and to get out there and take some pictures.  :)

the truth about Santa: he's your UPS man.

so hi.  :)

I added my daily web cam photo album over there ----> 
today's photo is showing a peek of one of my favorite Christmas gifts this year (that is currently 30% off at Target right now, in case you want some too).  It's the cutest blue/green/brown fingerless gloves. 

I've never understood "fingerless" gloves.  The little fingers are what gets the coldest, right? Being down here in our cold basement in the evenings requires some little gloves, but typing in gloves usually looks like this.  LKSDJEIU OWDK".  
 So I pretty much wear these things all night and I can still type.    :)

Aren't they cute?  I got a matching hat too, but I had to return it b/c it didn't cover my ears.  (code for "my head is too darn big") 

++++++++++++
Annabelle had a really good Christmas.  She got several new pieces of jewelry which she is really looking forward to showing off at school, and she hasn't taken her new MP3 player out of her ears yet.  It's really cute to watch her bopping around and singing along with totally made up words. 

The thing that she's been asking for all year though, was a Barbie dream house. 
She was so sure that she would get it, and dropped several hints to Poppy and Tata, since she doesn't believe in Santa Claus.

It seemed to surprise a lot of our family that Annabelle didn't believe in Santa, but she came to that conclusion entirely on her own.  We were at my Aunt's house when she admitted that she thought Santa was fake.  Julian adamantly declared that HE BELIEVED! HE BELIEVED!  (He really does and it's the most precious thing.  As far as Annabelle goes, I don't think she's ever believed in Santa, so having a child REALLY BELIEVE is kind of adorable.)

My Mom said, "Annabelle, you really don't believe in Santa?"  and she said, "Nope."
Then Mom said, "But Madison believes in Santa Claus."
Annabelle said, "Not anymore.  I talked to her about it." 

So great, my kid is the one breaking the news to everybody about old Saint Nick.

On Christmas morning, we opened all of our gifts, when my brother CJ heard a "knock" at the door.  He went to the door, and said loud enough for us all to hear, "For Annabelle?  Okay, wow, I'll give it to her."

Annabelle ran into the kitchen to find a giant Barbie dream house box, and CJ said, "Annabelle, a man just dropped this off for you.  He had a big belly and wore a red suit and had a big white beard!"

Annabelle hugged my parents so tightly, hugged Uncle, turned to pose for a picture with her new gift, and I said, "Annabelle?  Who do you think this is from??"

She shrugged, still beaming, and said, "I don't know!  Some UPS guy with a big belly and white beard!"

the weather man

I ran into Wal-Mart tonight to find a water bottle. 
I found the aisle, and there was an older man stocking kitchen utensils.
I maneuvered around him, found what I needed and he said, "It's cold outside, isn't it?"

Now, give me an opening and I can talk about the weather for ages.
It's cold, let me tell you how it was in Austin, Arkansas, Mexico...
Summers in Iowa, Arkansas, humidity, mosquitoes...
Snow, ice storms, power outages...
It's fun to commiserate with others about the weather.

Only I didn't really get the chance. 

This man TALKED MY EAR OFF, for nearly 25 minutes.

He told me about his time in Tennessee, working at some military base.
Working on airplanes.
One October when they got 8 inches of snow and the whole city practically shut down.
Watching the rain roll in from the distance, and tornado and hurricane warnings.

Arizona and the type of snow they get in the mountains there.
The 3 week vacation they take in the Florida Keys each year and how nice the sun is.

His brother in PA, who was stinking rich.
His home, his 200 acres, how his property had 3 houses on it and he wanted him to come live in one of the houses, and how the brother didn't even have snow over Christmas.
How his brother's house was so huge that it had FIVE living rooms, and 2 dining rooms, and dens and offices and bedrooms and TWO underground 3-car garages. Seriously, he told me about the house, complete with hand gestures and walking motions.  "Now you walk through the second dining room through an arch like this (makes an arch shape with hands) into the first living room..."

As he talked I was trying to figure out if he was a little slow (because of a few of his mannerisms and the way that he didn't seem to pick up on my body language that I was in a little bit of a hurry), or if he was just super friendly, or a little lonely. 

I let him tell me about his niece's $50,000 wedding and how his brother flew all of their friends and family to Oregon for the wedding.  Their dinner at a fancy restaurant where his brother left a $400 tip. 

And by making one small step backwards every few minutes or so, I was finally at the end of the aisle where I said, "It was good to talk to you..." only I didn't get my sentence out because he started in about the wet snow that we get here, and how he can't stand the ice.

I let him finish his sentence, and waved at him and told him that I better be on my way. 
He said "It was good talking to you", and went back to stocking his shelf.  I went down the next aisle and heard him start to say something, so I listened to see if whatever he was saying required a response from me or not.

I heard him say to himself, "I like her.  I really do. "

It kind of broke my heart a little, but I was glad that I was patient with him and let him tell me a hundred stories, and smiled and nodded, instead of my first instinct which was to say, "Yep, it's sure cold outside" and walk away.
 

diverted by old man Winter again.

I had big plans to hide away in a giant Barnes & Noble tonight, with a stack of books and a Hazelnut latte.  Dustin woke up sick, and I babied that man all day, knowing he would never tell me "Not tonight" when I would mention my bookstore plans with him later.

He slept in, I ran his errands, I kept the kids quiet, I made him some "get better" soup.
I vacuumed and vacuumed and vacuumed this house, did laundry, loaded up 4 more boxes of junk to take to Goodwill.
I scratched his back and got him a movie.

Right when he was good and buttered up, I checked the weather and it's freezing rain outside. 

Now I'm not a winter girl, as most of you know, but I can handle the snow.  Truth be told, I still love the snow.  But freezing rain is just not a friend.  Not at all.

In my desperation, I decided that I would be brave, pretend the weather was no biggie, and all Dustin said was "Try to walk down our driveway and you can go". 

Um.  Yeah, that didn't happen.  

I fell.  A few times. Then, Dustin and I watched a neighbor spend about 10 minutes trying to pull into his driveway, tires spinning and smoking, narrowly missing a tree, and I sadly marched back into the house and pulled off my 30 layers of clothing.

SO, here I sit.  Dustin's returning the favor by keeping the kids upstairs, feeding them dinner (again.  I already fed them.  what the heck?) while I mope down here and try to think of something fun to do.

Julian just came downstairs and whispered to me "We're eating tortellini.  THAT's a REAL DINNER". 
Stinker.

So, how's your Saturday?  I saw that it was high 80's in Austin today and nearly wept. 

long torso drawing, and then a lot lot lot of rambling.

we Bartell girls are known for our long torsos...

i love everything about this picture that Annabelle drew a few months ago.
the row of cute flowers at the girls feet, the birds flying by that look a little like turkeys, the detailed butterflies, the peeking sun, the splayed fingers and rockin piggy tails.

i've been cleaning and sorting and purging the kids toys. 
cleaning rooms and making space for new things and trying to find things that aren't too sentimental to toss.  (sentimental for me, the kids have little attachment to anything)

Bella's room is filled with scraps of paper, covered in scribbles and artwork and notes and letters and journal pages.  (and Julian's room is starting to look the same)
It is SO hard for me, because I am very sentimental and like to save things like that, but am also devoted to decluttering and cleaning this terribly messy house.

I'm picking out a few for the kids scrapbooks and this one made the cut.  :)

+++++++++++++

I love New Year's.  I love the ambitious feeling that starts stirring a few days after Christmas.  The fact that I bought a new vacuum tonight after a couple of weeks of not vacuuming, has only solidified my NEED to clean this nasty place.

Along with the tossing and sorting and cleaning, I'm mulling over a few ideas for 2009. 
Last year I decided to focus on setting goals one month at a time, and it seemed to be much more effective for me, so I'm doing the same this year.

I have a new journal this year (a real one!  not just a spiral notebook!!) to record my plans, and the ideas that are brewing around in there are making me pretty excited.  Anybody know how to make this feeling last throughout the entire year?  If you do, you could probably sell your secret and make a fortune.  :)

+++++++++++++

One little project, (and I don't know if it's going to be a month long project or a year long project) is that I want to take a self portrait every day, just from my computer's camera.  (that way i don't even have to open photoshop, as I don't edit those low quality photos, and the thought of dealing with photoshop on some days is enough to make me give up before i've started).

Until recently, I could count on one hand the number of pictures that I was included in during the year.  I typically hate being photographed, and as I'm usually the one with the camera, I am able to avoid it often.  But it's nice occasionally to see ones self in a stack of photos, I think.  Photos taken from the neck up, at just the right angle to avoid the double chin, or the pimple that surfaced overnight.  (what the heck?  I'm 29, shouldn't I be over this adolescent skin phase?)

I'll probably post an album later, just for fun, but here are a few fun ones from today and yesterday...I can't decide which ones I want to use, so I'll probably re-hash some of these "poses" later this month.



and a non-silly (boring) one:

(that pretty blue book with scalloped edges is my 2009 journal :) 
it makes me super happy right now.

Still kicking around ideas for a baking project this year, and setting some reading goals (I read 37 books this year, 83 if you count some of my favorite kids books, and probably quadruple that if you count ALL of the bedtime reading I did with the kids, but I don't count that).

My goal for 2008, was a little weak: 12.  But you have to understand that I had such a poor reading year in 2007, so 12 was almost intimidating to me.  This year my goal is 30, although I really just want to beat last year's 37. 
++++++++++++

I also want to do another fun photo project, plan at least 2 fun trips this year (one is almost definite right now:  a trip to Chicago in February), work on my 30 things to do before I'm 30 list (holy cow, did I just say "before I'm 30?  I'll be 30 this year.  yowza.  I don't use the word "yowza" lightly.) 

Anyways, sorry for the terribly long post, I should probably break this up into 2 or 3 posts, but I'm not sure where to stop and start...

whatever.  goodnight dearies.  :)

December 2008

December 2008, originally uploaded by mindibartell.

Goodbye December. You were good to us. :)

Happy New Year!
I've had good intentions to blog, but between a filthy house full of sick people and messy kids, well...this is the best I can do. :)

I updated my December cookie and my final photo for my 52 weeks of Happy over there ----> 

I'll be back tomorrow with new plans and projects and good intentions for 2009! :)