Friday Favorites

After my almost being hacked incident I'm too afraid to find images for today's post so it's going to be a little boring/wordy - sorry about that.

My favorite TV shows this week:
The Bachelor || Hello, is anyone else sick and tired of Lace?  She's a fruitloop and should probably be on medication.  I'm on Team Olivia but also like Caila.  Your thoughts?  And how embarrassing to be told you smell sour!  Also, who wants to run then be sniffed by the bachelor -- what if your 'coot coot' stinks??  He was sniffing awfully close to that region.  No thank you!

Married at First Sight || OMGeee!!! This show is such a hoot.  I make Andy watch it with me and we do nothing but laugh through the whole thing. It is so super uncomfortable and awkward.  This week one of the couples, who have yet to hold hands after being married for 3 week (the half way point), decided to go on a semi-romantic date.  They go up in a huge ferris wheel where the guy half fakes that he's terrified.  It's going great - she's laughing at him for acting so nervous in it and they're having a great time.  Then, as they're coming back down from the top he decides to make his move and attempt their first kiss.  Remember - they've never held hands before!  He has his arm behind her so puts it around her shoulders and says .... bring it in.  Um, excuse me?? Bring it in?? Isn't that what you say to your 'bros' when you're giving them a bro hug??  So, he says "bring it in" and she turns and gives him the cheek.  Bah ha!!!!  Dang, AWKWARD!!!

RHOBH ||  Any other Housewives viewers/fans?  Any other Beverly Hills fans?  I can't decide if I like BH or OC better. BUT!  I am loving the new housewife Erica this season!  Isn't she the coolest?  Gah, she's just so calm and put together.  I really like her, a lot!

Ed ||  Way back in, I don't know, 2004, this little show on NBC called 'Ed' premiered.  It follows a man who moves back to his hometown called Stuckeyville after finding his wife cheating on him with the mailman.  He buys a bowling alley and fate shows him that he is still destined to be a lawyer, something he was planning on giving up after being fired from his law firm.  So, the show follows him as a lawyer who owns a bowling alley. The court cases are always a little quirky, which is fun, and most of the characters are quirky, too.  Add in his high school crush and you have a hit!  At least in my world.  It only lasted 3 or 4 seasons and I was totally crushed when they cancelled it.  Fast forward to 2016 and the UP! channel has picked it up and is running the original episodes!  Holy smokes, I'm so super happy!


Favorite Song this week:
Thomas Rhett's "Die a Happy Man"

Favorite News this week:
Brennan doesn't need glasses!  At least not right now.  Long story short, Brennan is growing so fast right now that his eye muscles are playing catch up.  When you focus on something close up your eye muscles contract, and then when you look up at something farther away they relax.  So, when he looks up at the board his muscles aren't relaxing enough thus having a hard time seeing the board.  His eye doctor is pretty sure he'll grow out of it but we are going back end of February for a re-check just to be sure that's what the problem is.

Favorite Event This Weekend:
Brunch with my girlfriends!  Sometime in 2014 we started going to brunch every other month together.  It has been so much fun and this month's date is Sunday.  We've tried a few different places over the years and have had some really yummy breakfasts (and lots of fun gabbing)!  It's an easy time for all of us to get together since our husbands can stay home with the kids, no one has to work and it's a lazy day so no one's in a hurry to get anywhere (most times).  I can't wait to stuff myself Sunday, ha ha!

Favorite New Recipe this week:
White Chicken Enchiladas || I saw this recipe floating around FB and thought I'd give it a try.  It was a huge hit with the entire family, even Andy who doesn't like sour cream!  Adding it to my rotation for sure!

What were some of your favorites this week?

Public Service Announcement || A Warning

Oh my goodness, you guys, yesterday I had a total freak out moment.  I was working on a blog post for Friday, looking up pictures to use, when out of nowhere I get a message that says my computer has been compromised.  The message looked legit. There was a phone number to call, supposedly to a Windows Support Center.  The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.  I was absolutely sick.  I have seen news stories about computer hackers who take over your computer and the only way to get your files back is to pay them thousands of dollars.  Now, I have nothing that important on my computer so they can just have it if that ever happens but still, it made me sick and feel so violated.

I called the phone number just to see what was up and a man with a foreign accent answered.  I told him about the message on my computer and he said the only way to fix it was to give him access to my computer.  Hello, red flag!  I asked him how I knew I could trust him and he got lippy with me and asked who else I could trust to fix this.  Another red flag.  I just knew this was a scam.  I hung up immediately and grabbed my cell phone to start changing all of my financial passwords.

I could not close out the browser screen I had up that was showing the message but I could toggle over to Outlook which was a good sign, this virus attack hadn't completely locked up my computer.

After that I called our internet provider and talked to technical support.  They had me immediately shut down my computer.  Then I restarted it.  The message was gone and everything worked correctly.  The guy told me I had narrowly escaped the virus but to make sure to run my virus protection just to be sure.

I was shaking so bad after all of this, my stomach was upset.  I felt so violated!  It was an awful feeling and I can't believe I came so close to being taken over like that.

I wanted to share with all of you so if you ever get a similar message you know not to call the number on the screen and to immediately shut down your computer.  I am lucky enough to know that those numbers usually lead you to danger, not help, so was on top of things and didn't trust that man.

Oh, and I deleted the post I was working on for tomorrow so I'll be typing up a new one -- without the images!

Tenley's New Bows!

I am a sucker for bows.  I try not to go too overboard because, lets be honest, I could easily send us into bankruptcy buying cute, adorable, sweet, pretty clothes and accessories for Tenley!  I found a new shop on Etsy with a huge variety and selection of bows when looking for her Valentine's bow last week.  They were priced perfectly, a total win!  And, the shop owner was super easy to work with when I made a special request for the Valentine's bow!  Because of all that I wanted to show off the bows I bought and brag about the shop Charming Little Baby.  I'm not getting anything from the owner for this post, just passing along my finds!

This one is Tenley's Valentine's bow.  I didn't want something *too* Valentine's-ey because I want her to be able to wear it for more than just that.  I found the prettiest pinwheel bows that were made with a paisley fabric - super cute!  I knew Tenley didn't have anything to match those paisley prints but I loved the pinwheel bow so I asked Megan if she could use that same style with some ribbon for a Valentine's bow.  She messaged me back almost immediately with a picture of this red and white ribbon asking if I liked that.  Perfect!!!  She whipped up my bows that same afternoon while her kiddos napped and I got a message that same afternoon that my package had been shipped. What?!?  That was fast!  So fast that I received them 2 days later!

This one I saw and knew immediately I had to have it - that hot pink color matches 2 of her outfits that she's about to grow into perfectly!

I have a weakness for lace and shabby chic so this one I put in my 'cart' right away!

And this big pink flower bow, YES!  It accentuates her kissable chubby cheeks. :)

During our photo shoot I caught a few smiles. :)

I can't get enough of those sweet, gummy smiles!

If you are looking for bows for your own little one or to give as a gift look up Charming Little Baby on Etsy!

Intro & Resolutions

I'm a week late but thought I'd still join in on the fun with Momfessionals.

First, let me (re)introduce myself!  I'm Erin!  I've been married to my high school sweetheart for almost 14 years!

In those years we've had 4 kids - Aiden (9), Brennan (6), Tate (23mo) and Tenley (2mo)

- and have moved 3 times.  I'm a licensed cosmetologist but haven't worked in a salon since Aiden was born - that's almost 10 years ago!

For the last 4 years I've been a stay at home mom and I love it!  Yes, there are many challenging days but the fun ones outweigh those for sure!

I enjoy gardening, whether that's in my flower beds or vegetable garden.  I also love to mow - I just hit cruise control on my John Deere mower, crank up the tunes on my hearing protection and zone out.  Love it!

I like to cook but I hate trying to figure out what's for supper every night.

I like to read but ever since having Tate I haven't read as much as I used to.  Which brings me to the first thing on my 2016 'To Do' list.  I don't like resolutions because I never follow through but these things are what I'd like to do this year.  I hope I can cross them all off my list by December 31st.

So, reading.  I'd like to read 15 books this year.  Not a lofty goal but I'm being realistic.  And I've already crossed 1 book off so I only have 14 more to read to meet my goal!  Friend me on Goodreads so you can see what I'm reading and what's on my 'to read' list!

The second thing on my 'To Do' list is to deep clean every single room in the house.  To make this manageable I plan to clean one room each month.  And by deep clean I'm talking washing down the walls, purging, reorganizing, etc.  My husband doesn't know he's my lucky helper with this task, ha ha!

Next, my veggie garden.  Last summer I thought I had an abundance of canned green beans and tomato products so I didn't plant many of either and didn't can anything.  Guess what -- I was wrong! And now I'm buying green beans from the grocery store.  Boo.  This summer I need to plant a lot of beans and tomatoes.  It'd be nice to grow those and not weeds (they got away from me last summer and it was a jungle out there!).  My 'to do' item is to weed and hoe regularly and to spread Preen early in the Spring and in mid Summer to help combat them.  Also, I want to purchase my tomato plants from our school's FFA instead of from the store.

I have a couple other odds and ends on my list, but nothing noteworthy.  What are your goals/resolutions/ To Do's for 2016?

Here are the other topics for this year's Momfessionals Show and Tell Tuesdays, join in on the fun!

Life Lately

Hey all!  Your eyes do not deceive you, this is Homemade Happenings still, I just fancied up the ol' blog again.  I was ready for something a little simpler and more streamlined looking.  What do you think?  There are a couple tweaks I still need to make, otherwise this is it!

I took a little break last week, unintentionally.  Monday midday I realized I'd forgotten to write a post for that day. Tuesday, different day - same story.  Didn't even think about it Wednesday or Thursday and Friday thought why start now?  So here I am starting off the week on the right foot.

Last week flew by so fast. We were all getting back in the swing of things after a nice Christmas break from work and school.  We spent part of the week licking our wounds after the awful outcome of the Rose Bowl game.  Poor Iowa, we had such a great season, bummer to see it end that way.  But Stanford got quite the ass whooping thanks to their horrid marching band show so that helped a little. :)

We've had some whacky weather here - warm enough for rain a couple days, then this weekend it got so stinking cold with actual air temps hovering around the zero degree mark.  Because of that we stayed in all day Sunday so Tenley wouldn't be out in that cold stuff.  It's supposed to "warm up" to the low teen's today, down to the single digits tomorrow so we won't be going out either of those days either.  I'm going to venture out all by my lonesome tomorrow after Andy gets home from work - we need groceries!

Saturday morning Aiden's basketball team played in a tournament here in town.  Our school hosted, which was fun to be a part of.  Andy is helping coach Aiden's team, also makes it more fun.  They played 3 games, one at 8, 11 and 1.  I wasn't planning on staying past the first game because I didn't know how I was going to corral Tate while keeping Tenley with me but he sat next to me the whole time so we stuck around for the game that followed ours.  It was so great to get out and chat with my friends at the game!  I never expected to ever nurse Tenley at a school function but one friend convinced me it was no big deal.  Because of that we were able to stay for the second game at 11. I'm so glad we did, it was a super close and fun game to watch -- and they won it!  By the time that was over it was lunch time so Tate, Tenley and I headed for home.  So nice to have that one nursing session under my belt - now I feel comfortable enough to do it again at the next tournament.  So great to have that freedom again, I was getting tired of missing out on all the fun!

Tate has 2 new 'tricks' that he does every day, multiple times a day.  First, he opens the book cabinet and pulls out one book, brings it over by me to lay down, then goes back for another one.  He'll do this until he has a big pile of books. Then he sits down next to me, grabs one and reads it out loud to himself.  Once finished he starts a new pile for the read books.  He grabs another one, reads it out loud, puts it in the read books pile.  He does this until all of the books have been 'read'.  After awhile we put the books away.  After nap he starts all over again.

His second 'trick' involves his toys.  He sits down next to one of his baskets full of toys, pulls out one toy and carefully places it on the floor.  Then he grabs the next one, finds the perfect spot for it and sets it down.  Again and again until the basket is emptied.  I'm not sure what the purpose is for it in his mind but I love watching him do it and I love that it keeps him busy and quiet for more than 2 minutes! :)

I propped Tenley up quick one day last week while I was helping Tate with something.  1 minute later I found her sound asleep.

Tate still loves and adores Tenley!  He is constantly giving her kisses, always checking on her and asking "Where Baby go?"  The cutest thing is when I'm holding her and he comes up to me with his arms outstretched and says "Here go. I go"  meaning "I'll take her, give her to me."  Ha ha!  I love it when he does that!  He's 100% serious. I think he believes she is his baby, I'm just there to help him out. :)

Last week Brennan came home and said he couldn't see the math on the board at school.  I didn't take him seriously to begin with because both my niece and nephew got glasses the week before Christmas so I figured it had something to do with that.  Well, he mentioned it again a couple days later so Andy and I started testing him at home - can you see that, what does this say from 15 feet away, etc.  Uh yea, that kid is blind as a bat with distances!  Oh great, looks like glasses are in his future. Totally bums me out.  I'll be calling the eye doctor today to make him an appointment.

That's life lately around here.