Making a Dream Reality

A lot of you already know that I've been wanted to write a book for a very long time. There were a lot of things holding me back. Frankly, life got in the way. Not to mention, my computer was extremely painful and I wanted something fresh and new that offered pizazz when starting to write. By promising to get the book off the ground, Josh said I could go ahead and purchase a new one. I've wanted a Mac for a long time - not just for writing, but for the amazing creativeness it could help provide. I love doing fun things with photos and videos, and it will also allow me those same capabilities. So, I've now got my Mac and I am so excited!! I am totally consumed in it, and I've already started the book outline.

As I write this, Josh is smoking some ribs and chicken in our smoker, I'm not quite sure what Olivia is doing, and Bea is telling me that we have three options of things to do right this second:

1. Go to the jumpy place (sorry girl, it's too nice outside)
2. Go to raging waters (I don't want to dump $150)
3. Pull out the easy-bake oven and make some goodies

I need another choice....otherwise, we might end up making more photos like this one:

Times Are Changing

Oh, where has the time gone? I've blogged a total of one time this year. I'm not sure why I wasn't blogging, but I think it could be time to start it on up again....

A lot has happened in the last six months. Bea is now 6. Olivia is 5. Bea finished kindergarten, and Olivia will be starting in about a month. It's incredible how fast time flies. The girls have been busy in swimming and t-ball and numerous birthday parties. So, here we go with toting the kids here and there, and everywhere.

We've also come to the conclusion that our house is no longer a suitable living arrangement for us. Four people living in approximately 750 square feet is a little difficult. We are tired of bumping into each other, waiting in line for the bathroom, and having our own privacy. So, the time came....we put our house on the market. And, unfortunately, we are having to do a short sale due to having bought at the height of the market. It's damn scary. We have accepted an offer, and now we wait until the bank says yes or no. From here, I am not sure what is going to happen. We don't know what is going to happen. Do we try to purchase another home? The overpriced bay area is killing me right now. I think we are ready for a change, but I think I am the only one that is for the notion to get the heck out of dodge. I love living here, but it's so expensive to live here. I guess stay tuned on that one...and hopefully it won't be another six months before you hear from me.

Not sure there is much else to say right now, but I'm hoping to write much more. I've started trying out new recipes, some of which I would like to post here. If you're still reading, thank you....

New Year, New Things

I've decided that this will be the year of new things for me...things I have been wanting to do, wanting to try, for a really long time. The first item on my list that I want to tackle is learning to sew. I learned to sew when I was younger, in school as a class, but I haven't done it since. My mom gave me her old sewing machine quite a few years ago, which has been sitting around gathering dust. Every time a new season of Project Runway comes on, I claim that I am going to get my act together and get it out and learn...I haven't. Now it's time. There is a sewing store in my area that even offers classes, and I figure learning how to make a pillow can't be that hard, right? I guess we'll see...

I am so excited to learn. It would be so much fun to make kid's clothes, too - and clothes for my girls!

Do any of you sew? Or, is there something that you want to try this year that you want to share? I hope that I'm not the only one trying something new!

Once I have a product to share, I will post a photo of it - no matter how ugly it might turn out! I promise!

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope this year is a great one for everybody!

I'm back!

More to come...

My old blog posts are below, and I've decided to add on to it instead of starting a whole new one.

Here's to a great 2011!!

It's time to move on...

which means it is the end of the rope for this blog...

I have started a new blog. Learning as I go was special for the first few years of the girls' lives and an outlet for me to talk about my learning experiences, how they were growing, etc. I still want to share some of our experiences, but I want to expand on that as well. As the girls are now 3 and 4 (almost 4 and 5!) and they play together more and I don't need to hover over them so much, I have had the time to start to remember me, and who I was before having kids. There is kind of a lot I want to share and some new experiences that I've had in recent months.

Family, friends and blog commenters: You'll hear from me soon because I won't be listing the new address here, and I'll be up and running in the next few days (hopefully today, but I can't promise).

If you've been anonymous and want the new address, please email me at jennakuhl@yahoo.com. Not that you would because you're anonymous, but I thought I would just put that out there.

Halloween - Part 2

Never one to reveal the girl's costumes before Halloween, this year we bring you the expected and the not so expected.

Expected: Bea choosing a kitty costume.


She really wanted to be a pumpkin, but there wasn't one to be found for the "over 2" crowd. I wanted to make one, but there just wasn't enough time and I wasn't sure where to begin. Maybe next year.

Not so expected: Olivia as a ... power ranger? Yes.


We really thought she would choose one of her many princess dresses for the festivities, but no. The day she told me she wanted to be a power ranger I just looked at her with a question mark on my face and asked, "Really? How do you even know what that is?" But she was certain that is what she wanted to be. A quick trip to Target and it was fate...for we got the last one in the store, that just happened to be in her size, and it was the correct power ranger color.

Also, they insisted on taking a few hugging photos...I couldn't resist this:


And then they did their best feisty pose for me:


Happy Halloween! And a very happy anniversary to my parents on this day, too!

Halloween – Part 1 of 3

At least, I think there will be 3 parts to the Halloween post. And, you might be seeing Part 3 right around Christmas if you’re lucky, which is par for the course on my blog updates lately.

In any case, I’ve always liked Halloween and Fall is my favorite time of the year. I had no idea how much more exciting Halloween is once you have kids to enjoy it with. The past couple of years have been a lot of fun, but I do have to say that this is the first year where there has been actual excitement building since the beginning of September. First, it was all of the talk about the candy that surrounds the occasion and specifically, candy corn and how WE MUST HAVE SOME BY HALLOWEEN. This was said by someone under the age of 5.

Then, it was all talk about going to the pumpkin patch and picking at least 20 or so pumpkins (if they could have it their way). We ended up with 11 total – four of those are large, another four are fairly small and are on the borderline of not being sure if we should carve them or not, and then two of the smaller deep-ridged thanksgiving-style pumpkins. We also acquired one of the small ones in white, which I have declared mine and no one can touch or carve into it.

And then it was the costume decisions.

Now it is the roasting of the pumpkin seeds and the carving of pumpkins and the Halloween decorations (MOM, WE NEED MORE DECORATIONS!).

Well, somewhere in between all of that, we all had a big bout with the flu, and since we’ve had our flu shots we were thinking that we had that “other” flu...I forget what it’s called. And on one of those Sundays not too long ago, three of us were feeling better and so we made Halloween cookies for the first time ever. I made the dough, bought cutters and icing, and we were good to go.

Here’s a few of my creations:


Here’s some more. We had so many cookies that I ran out of ideas of how to make them different and that is why there are names on some of them:


These are Olivia’s creations. There is a reason they look the way they do. She put the icing on them and decorated them, but then she licked the icing all over the cookie and then declared them finished:


Guess who’s these are:


I have to say that I am enjoying this time of the year more and more! Happy Halloween!