I Need a Potato Master

So, I don't know if anyone else has this problem: I am a decent cook and I can make most dishes turn out alright, but I cannot bake a potato to save my life. I would say my baked potatoes turn out really well about 5 % of the time. I can do great mashed potatoes, potato salad, roasted potatoes, but the baked potato continues to allude me. The great tragedy of this inadequacy is that twice baked potatoes are one of my very favorite foods.

I NEED you potato master. I know there is someone out there who can help me with my plight. Come to me (or I'll come to you) show me the way of the potato. Let me watch your masterful hand. Help me achieve one of my life's goals of being able to bake a potato right 100% of the time. (Okay, I'll settle for 95% of the time. )

I'm not joking, if you make good baked potatoes, please help me. How do you do it? Tell me in detail.

BTW what do you guys put in your twice baked potatoes?

Pick Me!

Hi All! So good news, I found my camera cord. YEAH!
For the actual reason that I am blogging today: I follow this amazing blog called Not So Idle Hands that has so many fun projects that I do all the time. Anyway, they are doing an awesome giveaway for a cute clothing complany called Mikarose and if I blog about it, I get my name entered in the contest. So here I am, blogging about it. Cross your fingers for me so that I can win something fun. Cause everyone knows that you never have enough clothes. (Hey that rhymed!)

Crazy Hair Day

This week was spirit week at Emma's school and we had a little fun on Friday which was crazy hair day. When one of her classmates heard about crazy hair day she said, "Mom, that's great! I just don't have to comb my hair that morning."
Emma wanted to do something a little more simple, but I persuaded her to be a little more wild. For those of you who knew me in high school, I tried to instill in her the idea that we held firm to: when you do spirit week, you do it all out. I had fun telling her some of the fun things that my friends and I did for our spirit weeks. Emma was converted to an 80's Cindy Lou Who and we both had a lot of fun in the process.


After school, we went to the park and hung out with a bunch of the moms and kids from Emma's class and it was so nice and relaxing. I thank my friend Diane so much for taking the pictures for me because sadly, tragedy has struck the Chipman household and we cannot find our camera battery charger. I am at a loss what to do and am fearful for my blogging outlet as it is temporarily stinted significantly. Alas, we will eventually prevail and either find said charger or pay an arm and a leg for a new one. C'est la vie!

A Little Love From My Love

For Valentine's Day this year, Mike got me a present that he will probably never be able to top. He got me a dog! We named her Foxy because she kind of looks like a fox and she has red fur. She is 1 year old and their guess is that she is part Australian shepherd, corgi, and queensland heeler. She is absolutely adorable and she is all mine!! (And the family's too I guess.)


Here's the story: We have been talking about getting a dog for me, but always as in "some day in the future when we get a dog . . ." We have always wanted an Australian shepherd.
We were at Petco getting a cage for a lizard that Mike's school kids found him and they were doing their adopt a pet day. I saw the dog and took her over to Mike and said (in my most adorable voice), "Isn't she cute . . . she's part Australian Shepherd . . ." So Mike said let's find out more about it. We asked a lot of questions, spent some time with her, talked about it and I asked Mike, "What do you think?" He gave me that adorable half smile with a dimple on the side, leaned in and said, "Happy Valentine's Day."

Mike told me that the real clincher was that she had such a great personality. She is such a good dog who is a pretty good listener. We think she was with a family before us because she never comes in the house (she's an outside dog for now), even when the door is left open and she goes right into her crate at night (she sleeps in her crate at night) without us having to coerce her.
She has been so good for Emma who has someone's undivided attention whenever she wants it. She has stopped crying and whining as much as she was and she's been better about doing her chores. I think I am going to have her help me train Foxy, as soon and I figure out what I am doing.
Anya and Foxy have an interesting relationship. She gets nervous if Foxy gets too close, but she loves watching her run and play. She will pet her if Foxy isn't too excited. Anya's new favorite thing is using the hand sanitizer every time she touches her.
Here's a video of all the kids playing in the backyard. (I was just watching it with the sound turned on a realized that I was talking on the phone with Liz in the background, so please turn your sound down. : )


P.S. Everyone has been asking me, so what did you get Mike since he got you something great? I will give myself some credit and say that I already got him a big gift (because a lot of his Christmas gifts from me didn't work out) and he got a fire pit. He really, really wanted it, and he really, really loves it. We have already used it even.

Swimming in the Park

We had a huge week of rain and all our washes and park bowls got really full of water. A lot of our streets flooded and made some great puddles. Emma and I decided to go puddle jumping and park swimming one evening and we had a lot of fun. We got into our grubby clothes, rolled up our pants (not that it mattered much) and set out to find the biggest puddles and the deepest wash.
We splashed each other and got thoroughly wet.
Emma floated her sandal, literally, around the block and down the storm drain that goes down to the park bowl.
And at the end of it all, Mike surprised us with hot apple cider and warm kettle corn to help us warm up. (Aren't we so lucky to have such a great husband/dad?) It has been one of my favorite memories made in Arizona so far.