Saturday, August 23, 2014

Pretty Princess

My friends and I had a makeover desert photo shoot one day last week.  We got dressed up and fixed our hair and did our makeup and while I was getting ready Summer was watching.  She quickly dashed off into her room and came back wearing a dress.  Awww, sorry baby, I don't have time to get both of us ready, but how about we do a photo shoot for kids in the next few days?   The next night daddy put her hair in sponge rollers before bed and she woke up the next morning with soft curls.  I had purchased this fancy white wedding looking dress at a local thrift shop for $8.  When I saw it I knew it was too big but figured Summer would grow into it and could use it to play dress up. The dress barely fit!  Not to mention it is probably to short too.  We waited until after dinner and headed to this area not far from our house to get a desert vibe.  Summer did her best job making cute poses.  She had fun, friends came and had their pictures taken too, the whole process took less than 30 minutes and after we headed for ice cream.






Oh, Pepper took a few pictures too.  On the way to this area that is not even 5 minutes from the house she fell asleep in the car and wasn't in the best mood - of course.  She is still a little cutie and her dress, that I bought last year, was also really too tight.  Why do they keep growing?!?



Friday, August 22, 2014

Going strong since 2009

In September 2009 I met a lady in an online mommy chat group that had 2 kids and wanted to make more friends.  We met shortly after that at a park near her house.  I am pretty sure this is the very first picture I have of the two girls together.


The girls were only 2 and 3 at the time and did not get along that well.  Well, they just didn't understand how to share and be friends yet.  Over the years things got better as they got older and look at them today!  Born almost exactly a year apart (both in July) they are now really good friends.  5 Years and counting!

August 2014
August 2013
April 2012


July 2011
February 2010 
November 2009

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Names

When I found out I was having a girl and she would be born in the summer I knew I had to name her Summer.  I love the sun, the heat, the color yellow, the hot, so Summer was the perfect name.  If she had been born 6 weeks earlier she may have been a Spring, or something else, but Summer it was because all things aligned in the universe.  Summer is not extremely common, and it is not a traditional name, and cannot be shorted since I did not want her to have a nick name (Jessica - Jess/Jessie). Sometimes we call her Summy but usually she is just Summer.  And no, I never considered Somer, or some other odd spelling.

Since her first name was not a traditional name (Jane, Kelly, Jessica) I wanted her middle name to be more traditional but yet somewhat unique.  I wanted it to start with an A and have at least 3 syllables because I felt like it sounded good.  I told Kris he could pick her middle name because I could care less, to me middle names are stupid and pointless.  I only use my middle initial when I am signing my name, otherwise you would never even know I had one.  And I don't recall my mom calling me by it when I was in trouble - but she could have (Jessica LYNN!).

To much disappointment from family and friends, I did not pick Shine, Rain, Moon, or other random things that you think would go with Summer.  Those names seem to be common lately and I am not at all about being common.

Kris picked Amelia.  When I heard it for the first time I thought of Amelia Earhart, and she was dead, so it was a pretty uncommon name.  I had never heard anyone else use the name.  I will be honest, I did not like it, and have issues with the fact that it can be both 3 and 4 syllables depending on how you say it (a-mill-ya) or (a-mill-e-ya) but again, don't care about middle names so Amelia was fine and went well with Summer.

Since having Summer I have met a lot of Amelia's - so what we thought was pretty uncommon ended up being way more common and is on the top list of baby names.  Who knew?  If Summer ever decides she doesn't like Summer for some reason, which I thought might happen when she acted like she hated being hot and being outside in the summer, then she could switch to her worthless middle name.  Maybe she could be a Milly?

Pepper was not as easy to name.  And no, much to the disappointment of family and friends, I did not want to have a Summer and an Autumn, even if she was born in the right season.  I wanted a much more unusual name this time around and had several names considered (like Clover and Willow), it is apparent that I like "thing" names better than real names huh?  My very beautiful and clever niece had just had a little girl a year earlier and named her daughter Pyper and I really liked that name.  When Kris agreed on the name Pepper I sent my niece a facebook message and asked her if she minded if I used the name Pepper.  Pepper and Pyper would see each other once or twice a year (if lucky).  Of course she said she did not mind.  At least she typed out that she did not mind, who knows what she really thought.  And what if she had said No, that would be too awkward.  Pfft it is my child and I will name her what I want!!!  My point is why bother asking someone if they mind if you name YOUR child something, they will either say they don't mind because they are being nice, even if they do mind, or they will say eh its odd and you will still name your child what you want.  But I really don't think my niece minded.

Besides sounding really cute to me, I also named her Pepper because she was very active inside my belly and I liked to say she was spicy.  I did have to have an emergency c-section because I ran out of amniotic fluid which I like to say was because she was so spicy.  I guess not all peppers are spicy ... and honestly I don't love peppers, I mean I will eat them and the hot ones don't bother me much, but I can't eat the green, red, or yellow raw - texture issue.  Pepper will eat raw peppers (yay) which makes me feel better for naming her Pepper.  Imagine if she hated peppers :o/ awkward!

Most people I meet that are 39 and under think the namePepper is really cute.  People 40 and over usually just say oh when Pepper tells them her name, or they look at me and confirm what they thought they just heard her say, Pepper?  Pepper Potts is a character on Iron Man, which is not at all where I got her name, and no one ever assumes that, which leads me to believe those movies aren't very popular?

Since Pepper is not a traditional name and incase she hates it when she grows up I wanted a more traditional middle name.  Since Summer had a vowel three (or four) syllable middle name I wanted Pepper's middle name to also start with a vowel and be 3 or 4 syllables.  Somehow we found Isabel. We joked about calling her a Bell Pepper (isaBel) and even thought about reversing the order but I was pretty set on Pepper.  She is our little Bell Pepper.  Isabel was also just an eh name for me.  Again - who cares about middle names?  When we picked Isabel I don't think I realized how common it was, well with the exception of Spanish names.  I just thought it went with Pepper and I liked that it could be shortened to Izzy, who I always liked on Grey's Anatomy.

Pepper was also a name that could not be shorted into a nickname, or at least I thought.  I find myself calling her Pep or Peppy often, even though Peppy is not any shorter than Pepper.  I hope she doesn't find herself the brunt of name jokes (pepe le pew, Peppa Pig, Dr. Pepper) but if she does she will survive like we all have had to do.

If I have another daughter, which is not going to happen, I already have several names picked out just incase.  Of course it would probably change a lot because picking the right name is such an important deal to me, but I love thinking about names.  Bunny would be a cute name, don't you agree?  I also like Ginger and have a great aunt named Ginger, but I don't want to have 2 food named children.

And that is why my children are named Summer and Pepper, and here is why my blog is named Summer Sausage and Pepperoni.  Now I am hungry :o/




Sunday, August 10, 2014

Annoying Facebook Game Request?

I love the games on Facebook, really I do.  I have played a few over the years and they always keep me busy.  Currently I play Candy Crush and Words with Friends.  That's it.  No time for anything else.  I notice a lot of people on Facebook get annoyed with game requests and I wonder why they don't just block the games.  It doesn't take that long to block them and they never have to worry about request again, well, until a new game comes out :o/

From your computer here is how you block a Facebook game request:

Click on Games under the APPS section (usually on the right side of your Facebook).


Next click on Activity

Check out the Invites and Requests areas.


If you click the little X under each game request you have three options, one will let you block the game.  You only have to do it once for each game.  Click Block Papa Pear Saga, or whatever game you want blocked.


When you select to block the game you will get this pop up box.  Confirm the block, and don't worry, you can always unblock the request later if you change your mind.


Confirmed!


If you need any help, send me a message, I don't mind the game requests but if you get them all the time they can get annoying!


Friday, August 8, 2014

False Information

If you know me at all then you know I am pretty computer savvy.  Not to mention I am married to a man who knows a lot more about computers than I do, he is way techo.  Yah I made up the word techo, and I don't like the fact that the word savvy has two v's ... but anyway, we would be considered pretty knowledgable about computers and the internet.  If you are a person who uses the internet you should understand that things on the internet are not always true.  In fact there are people out there who make up false stories so that you will believe them.  Why?  I don't know and I don't care but when I read something that sounds iffy I go look it up.

My husband recently went on a Facebook de-friending spree because so many people were sharing stories about things that were false.  It is not hard to verify if something is real or not, you just have to do a quick "google" search.  In fact there are so many false stories on the internet that a web page was created specifically to let people find out if things you see on the internet are real or not - www.snopes.com.

Another thing, Huffington Post ... while I find it a rather interesting site, it is basically a blog, and the stories it post are not necessarily true either.

I like this article (source) about the reliability of the Huffington Post.

Q

Is huffington post a reliable source?

A

Answer: Most college instructors would say the quick answer is NO.  This does not mean that stories found on this site cannot be useful.  Like Wikipedia or other online sites, especially those which provide sources for the information they display, they can be used to lead you to solid, reliable sources, such as those published in scholarly journals.  To a large extent, what you read on the Huffington Post are opinion pieces, commonly called blogs.  These are, generally, not what your instructor wants to see in your college paper.

So if you want me to believe something is true and you try to quote an article from the Huffington Post ... ya it is not going to happen.  I am sorry but I am a sceptic, I rarely believe anything, but especially an article in the Huffington.

Oh, and another thing, peppers do not have genders, it does not matter if they have three or four bumps on the bottom, it has nothing to do with how sweet they are nor does it mean they have more seeds.  I know, you read about it on the internet and it has to be true right?

So just remember the internet contains a lot of false information, you have been given the ability to make sure something is true before you believe it and share it. If you read something and it seems like it is out to scare you, it might not be true!  If you read something you have never heard before and it sounds amazing, it might not be true!  If you read something you don't agree with - well it might not be true!  Do your part and stop spreading false information, look it up first!

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Floyd Lamb Picnic

Yesterday us and a few friends headed to Floyd Lamb for a fun picnic.  The weather was just on edge, we were able to sit in the shade and there are so many shade trees that we avoided the heat we are use to having.  The kids were hungry early (of course) so we had a fun picnic together and then they all just ran and rode scooters and bikes and played.  They fed some of the ducks, avoided the scary geese, and a great time.  They didn't even get very dirty!  









Santa Monica Beach

Kris sold his mustang and wanted to buy a new motorcycle, a Ducati, and the closest place to buy one was in California so we packed up the car very last minute and headed to the Santa Monica beach so the girls could enjoy a mini vacation in the ocean.  Overall I think it was our best beach trip yet.  We left around 9:30 am and got to the beach sometime around 2:30 pm.  The weather was perfect, hot enough to not be too cold on the beach.  The wind was mild, the sun wasn't horrible and the water wasn't freezing.  The girls loved the water, except the scary slimy seaweed.  Mini last minute vacations are the best, and Kris got his bike so overall it was a great quick vacation.



















Overnight Camping

Since day camping was so much fun, and since I have a lot of friends who actually own things to go camping with, we decided to go group camping with a bunch of those friends and stay overnight.  Mt. Charleston has a nice campground area and we ended up in Hilltop.  The girls had fun playing with their friends and mostly getting dirty.  In fact, I actually think I would like to do it again!