Do you Swagger?

“Wanna make you smile; wanna be your sunshine!”

So technology is awesome.  Sometimes it kills me though . . . like when it comes to my husband’s iPhone.  He has that thing in his pocket, by his nightstand, or in his hands 98% of the time.  The only time it’s not with him is during a shower, I suppose.

I like to refer to this piece of technology as his “mistress”.  I have threatened many a time to throw his obsession across the room.

I, however, have a healthy relationship with my iPod touch.  It is mostly shared with our toddler; she probably uses it 80% more than I do.  Anyway, here’s a break down of some FREE apps we like . . .

Toddler Games*

• WordWorld- Drag letters to build word animals.  Abi loves it so much we bought the full version.
• Baby Piano Lite
• FirstWord Sampler- Move letters onto letters to spell simple words.
• Baby Draw- Draw shapes with different color choices.
• Shapes- Touch the diamond, hexagon, etc.  Then they earns stickers and applause.
• Ding Dong Bell & I Close My Eyes Lite- Abi loves these animated cartoons.
• I Hear Ewe & iBabyBuddy- Touch animals, and they make sounds.
• Shape Lite & Toddlelite- Puzzles.  Abigail really likes these ones.
• PreK Safari Lite- watch animals and learn letters
• Peekaboo Barn- find animals
• 123 Counting- Counting Animals, etc
• 123 Count with Me- Set up like a book
• Alphabet Creatures Lite
• Super Match Madness- matching game
• Letter Quiz Lite
• Up- Pop balloons to find the house.

Healthcare:

• iNeedMilk- It tracks how long you’re nursing and on what side you’re nursing.
• Breastfeed- Mostly for newborn management.  Has FAQs and lets you know what meds interfere with nursing
• What to Expect

Sports:

• ScoreMobile- Convient way to find scores in all sports.
• At Bat Lite & Pro Baseball- Tells you scores, play by play, and more of MLB

Games:

• Paper Toss- Super addicting.  You flick a wad of paper into a trash can, while a fan blows.
• Word Warp- Like Text Twist.
• Sheep Launch- Tap a sheep up into the sky.

Misc

• Voice Memos- Need a microphone for this.
• Mapquest- Find gas stations, stores, restaurants quickly.
• TheFind- Finds nearby and web stores that carry whatever item you search for.
• Bible- I like taking my bible to church so I can mark it up; Jonathan, however, likes using this app.
• Pandora- Choose music you like.
• Moron Quiz & Imbecile Test- How smart are you?
• Traffic!- Especially helpful when you live in a big city; it tells you which streets/highways are crowded, etc.
• Sporcle- Trivia game.  This passed the time on a 9 hour car ride.

So what other apps should I look into?

*I feel as if many of these apps are quite annoying.  However, they occupy Abigail’s attention, so I allow her to play them.

On Tuesday, Brasil will be playing their first game in the 2010 World Cup!  Finalmente!  We’re gearing up for tomorrow’s big game; here’s my to-do list:

1. Make Abigail a Brasil soccer shirt with freezer stenciling (Check out the picture.  I’ll do a tutorial for how you can make your own personalized shirts–if you want–at some point in time.) ✓
   
2. Make Lydia a Brasil shirt  ✓
   
3. Get a new WC Brasil shirt for me ✓ (thanks Judy!)
4. Make Brigadeiros
5. Make Pao de Queijo ✓
   
6. Have Guarana ready to drink  ✓ (thanks Daniel!  I only have two left from my Xmas/Bday gift.  I’m drinking on for Brasil’s opening game and saving the other for the final, in which I hope Brasil will be playing.)
7. Pray that the girls will be napping or otherwise not needing my attention during the game. ✓
8. Celebrate like crazy

Va Brasil. O tudo mundo tenta, mas so Brasil e penta!!!

Ingredients:

• Cake mix (I used one box of Betty Crocker Butter Pecan) and whatever it needs (eggs, oil)
• Frosting
• Food Coloring

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray the bottom of a 13×9 in dish with baking spray (the kind that says it has flour).  Grease a 1 qt Pyrex bowl with shortening and then, coat with flour.
2. Make the cake mix and pour 1.5 cups of the batter into the 1 qt bowl.  Then, pour the remaining batter into the 13×9 dish.  [If you want the sheet cake taller or the soccer ball higher, then, you could use two cake mixes, but I just preferred to use one box).
3. Bake the 13x9 dish for 20-30 mins, depending on your oven.  [You might be able to bake the soccer ball and sheet cake at the same time, but I was too nervous to try that, so I baked the sheet cake first, and then, I baked the soccer ball.]  And then, bake the 1 qt bowl 25-35 mins.  Cool each cake for 10 minutes.
4. Then, turn an 8×8 dish upside down and spray the bottom/underside of it with flour baking spray.  Flip it over, and push the coated side onto the sheet cake, in order to get rid of the “dome” shape.  It really works!  With the soccer ball cake, I used a Tupperware bowl (sprayed) to push that dome shape down.  (Sorry I didn’t take a picture, but you can look here: http://www.ehow.com/how_4816098_soccer-ball-cake.html at step #3 for the idea).
5. Flip the sheet cake over onto the serving tray (I put wax paper under mine, so I’d be able to tear the paper off, in case I messed up with the frosting).  And flip the soccer ball onto a plate.  Freeze cakes for 1 hour each.
6. I frosted each cake with a thin layer of frosting as a skim/crumb coat (blue sky, green grass, and white for soccer ball).  Then, I put them back in the freezer for almost an hour.
7. Put the soccer ball on top of the sheet cake.  [Frost the soccer ball again, if you think it needs another coat (I didn't).]  Cut out a pentagon shape and a hexagon shape.  The pentagon needs to be smaller than the hexagon.  [I can't remember my measurements.  I wanna say 1 3/4 in for the pentagon and 2 1/3 inch for the hexagon.]  Use a toothpick to outline the shapes onto the ball.
8. Then, fill in the pentagon with a star shaped tip (I used a decorator’s icing tube) and the lines with a straight tip with whatever color you choose; typically black, but Abigail wanted purple.
9. For the sheet cake: Re-frost most of the cake blue (for the sky).  Re-frost the bottom part green for the grass.  If you have fancy tips/bags, you can make it look more like grass.  I don’t, so I frosted it, and then used a spatula to pull at the frosting from different angles.  I used a decorator’s icing tube to make the soccer net, but I ran out and had to use a knife to do the soccer goal.
10. Store loosely covered at room temperature.

The camera was in Abigail’s room while she was napping, while I was making the cake.   So, I didn’t get a chance to take pictures, until Jonathan got home, and we used his iPhone.  Sorry.

I started making this cake about 11 am on Saturday and finished around 4 pm (maybe?).  And the party was on Sunday, but the cake still tasted great on Sunday and the next day and the next day . . .

Store loosely covered at room temperature.

Any questions?

I apologize to my readers.  I’m still here; just really busy, and blogging has not been my priority.  Sorry.  I will try to be better . . . maybe next week.

Some recent good news

• We found out that my dad doesn’t have cancer . . . after doing several tests for the past 3 months. Praise the Lord.  His lesion seems to have “disappeared”.
• Also, we bought Abigail a cute outfit for Halloween; her Daddy picked it out.  Maybe she’ll win another contest like she did last year.
• I went to the orthodontist, and he was talking about scheduling my next appointments.  He said, “Make one for six weeks and four weeks, and they’re off.”  I said, “Wait, in 10 weeks, they’ll be off?!”  He said, “Well, that would only put you at having braces for 10 months, so maybe we better slow down.”  So, I said, “But you think I’ll have them off by March (Abigail’s bday).”  He said, “Before Christmas.”  What what!  Awesomeness.  They had originally estimated 20 months, and it looks like I’ll be getting them off before 1 year.  Yea!
• Braves have won 7 in a row!!  This weekend, we’re taking on the first place team in our division, so if we sweep them, and other teams do poorly, we’ll have a shot of getting into the playoffs.  I never used to have to worry about that; it was always a given that they’d be in the playoffs, but in the last few years, they have disappointed me!

Head on over to Chick-fil-A for their Labor Day promotion.  Wear your favorite sports team apparel, and get a FREE Chicken Sandwich. This promotion starts at 10:30 am and ends at closing.

We’re going to meet Jonathan at the one in the mall by his work for lunch.  And we might even go to another one for dinner, too!  Abigail and I will be wearing Atlanta Braves shirts; Jonathan will be sporting a team that is less awesome.

I saw this video on Allison S’s blog, and thought it was too fun not to share.

About the video:

The 2009 big east baseball tournament Dance off between USF and UCONN which took place at bright house field May 21st, 2009. . . .  This dance off was a result of the two teams waiting though a 5 hour rain delay.

Baby & Kids

• Parent’s Choice Formula
• Pull Ups

Finances

• Watch Town Hall for Hope for free, by Dave Ramsey on Hulu

Food & Drink

• Free single size bag of Mars chocolate to the first 250,000 people to go here. They’ll mail you a coupon.  (This is on FRIDAYS only!)  Limit is 4 coupons per household
• Buy a 31 degree below dessert, get one free from Baskin Robbins.  Expires 6/21
• Coupon for a Free Fling Candy Bar.  Only for 3 States.

Health & Beauty

• Men’s Aveda Pure Performance Shampoo.  Coupon for free bottle.
• Arm & Hammer Advanced White Toothpaste: http://armandhammertrial.com

Photo

• Free 5×7 Personalized Card w/ $0.99 s&h.  Use code: CARD4U
• Free 8×10 portrait collage at Sears.   Expires 6/2
  

Other

• Free Ticket to Baltimore Orioles Game for your Birthday
• $10 Swimsuit from Land’s End.  Use code: MEMORIALDAY and pin: 2958 for free shipping.
• Kids 12 yr and under can get $3 worth of books from Half Price Books for every week that they read 15 minutes a day
• Free Gallon of Napa Washer Fluid.  You get a coupon.  Only available for 7 States
• Wildflower Seeds
• Free Tote
• Glue Dots
• Coupon for $10 off a $25 single item purchase at JC Penney Expires 6/2. Use code 10GIFT for online shopping
  

Some tips about requesting samples or buying anything online.  I’ve never had any problems; these are just me being extra careful.

1. I always put Mrs in the “first name” column– not my first name.
2. I type in a fake number if they ask for a phone number.
3. I have set up an email account that I only use for requesting samples.  Be sure to do this, so you don’t fill up your personal email account with newsletters.
   
4. I don’t give my correct birth date; I type the same year I was born, but I mix up the month and day.
   

Be patient for your samples, some of them take up to 8-12 weeks to come.  Check out the past weeks’ samples, as many of them are still good.

Right now, Abigail is in her bed . . . not sleeping.  I think it’s because she is anxious like I am.  I cannot wait another 2 hours to *possibly* watch the Atlanta Braves opening game. We don’t have cable anymore, but my parents do, so I might head over there later.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, shame on you.  Baseball has brought so much joy (and honestly, grief, too.  I won’t lie.) in my life, and I want you to share that awesomeness, too.  So, if you need to pick a new team to love, go with the Braves.

We’ll be playing the defending World Series Champions, the Phillies at their stadium.  A new pitcher, Derek Lowe, will be starting.  This will be his 4th career opening day start.  Hopefully today will end better than his previous three starts, which he went 0-3 with an 8.44 ERA.  But, this is his first career start for the Braves though, so maybe, fourth time’s a charm.

After being a Braves fan for 13 years, I got to go to my first game!

Jonathan took me for our one year wedding anniversary!

And I got to meet my favorite player, Chipper Jones, and he signed my bat!