Boy Crazed Momma

Perspective & Opportunity

2011-05-27T14:35:00.001-05:00

I am heartbroken for another Oklahoma family. When the tornado went through our metro area this past Tuesday evening, a Piedmont family lost not only their home, but two young sons as well.

This is the story as I know it. I believe it to be accurate, but I’m piecing it together from various sources.

The father of the family was out of town. As the storm approached the mother, who is pregnant, took cover in the family’s bathtub (which is recommended procedure if you can’t get underground) with her three children. When the half-mile wide tornado hit, it tore their home apart and ripped the 3 year old boy from his mother’s arms. I know the mother is is critical condition & has undergone several surgeries already. They did find the baby’s heartbeat. The 5 year-old daughter is in serious condition, but she is expected to be okay. The 15 month old boy did not make it. About 36 hours after the tornado the body of the 3 year old was finally found.

You guys, I can not fathom what this family is going through. Can. Not. I have cried numerous tears for this family. This family I do not know. I broke down in my kitchen and sobbed uncontrollably yesterday. I feel a kind ship with this mom because our boys where close to the same ages. My heart is heavy for them.

This family’s story has given me a healthy dose of perspective. I have hugged & kissed on my boys so much they are sick of it. I have a thousand times more patience with them than I was having. It has been a reality check to me about just what precious gifts my boys are. I cherish the time I have with them. Really cherish every minute. That word—PERSPECTIVE—has constantly been in my head.

Also?

I want to help. But where do you begin? So, I did the one thing I could & prayed for them. And I will continue to do that.

But yesterday another opportunity presented itself. And the best part is that you can help too. This might be a pipe dream, but it is worth a shot. This community is pushing to get Extreme Makeover Home Edition (EMHE) to build this family a new home.

Here’s where you come in.

Go on over to EMHE’s facebook page. On the left hand side of the page you will see a discussions link. Click on it & find the discussion titled “Help Rebuild the home of the Hamil Family” & and a reply in support of this family. (There are several discussion threads for this family, PLEASE find the one by this title because I believe that is the only one that counts as far as nominations go.)

That’s it. In as little as 5 minutes you could do a small part in helping this family begin to piece their life back together. The question is,

Will you?

***PLEASE PASS THIS INFORMATION ALONG TO ANYONE & EVERYONE. THIS FAMILY NEEDS SUPPORT.***

Pinching Pennies

2011-04-28T16:46:00.001-05:00

Yes, I’m doing that coupon thing that is all the rage right now. But, no, I am not being crazy coupon lady. Or at least I’m trying not to be. ::side eye:: It’s hard not to hoard when you can get things for free. But you’ll be glad to know that I’m refraining from getting 72 bottles of mustard. (Although I did snag 6 boxes of FREE tea last week & 4 things of FREE pasta.)

I have to credit my friend & her sister for getting me started on this.

I resisted for awhile because who has the time, right?

But then?

I saw how much MONEY THEY WERE SAVING. And you’ll just have to trust me on this.

It. was. astounding.

So, I decided to give this couponing thing a real shot.

I only started a week ago & have already saved over $200!!!! & all on stuff I’d normally buy anyway.

Several of you have asked me on Twitter how this works, so here is what I have learned so far. Remember I have only been at this for a week, so I am by no means an expert.

1. You will have to invest some time into this up front. Figure out some system to organize yourself. My system is this box. I have the following in it:

Envelopes for coupons that are tabbed for categories & stores. (When I make my shopping list for a particular store, I put all of the coupons I will need in that store’s envelope so I only have that one envelope to carry in the store with me.)
Scissors
Coupons that need clipped & filed
Notebook to make shopping lists
Pen

2. Create an email address for just for couponing. You’ll need it to sign on on various sites to access their coupons.

3. When you go to print your first coupons, your computer might have you install a program before it can print the coupon. This is okay. The program it wants to install will enable your printer to print the bar codes. You need these.

4. You can usually print 2 of the same coupon from each computer. (Read between the lines there. 2 computers means 4 coupons.)

5. Find out which grocery stores in your area double coupons & when they do. For example, some stores will always double them, but other stores only double them the last week of the month or whatever.

AND HERE IS THE KICKER….

6. Find a local blogger who posts coupon match-ups* for the grocery stores in your area. Here are the ones I have been using. The grocery stores are local to my area, but I believe the Walgreens, CVS, & Target match-ups are national. (Don’t quote me on this. Like I said, I’m new to this, but it’d be worth checking out.)

Coupon Closet

Deal Detecting Diva

Simple Saving Savvy

Consumer Queen

*The match-ups are important because this will save you time. These bloggers have already put the puzzle together for you. (i.e. matched the sales up with the coupons out there.) Some coupons will be from Sunday’s paper; some will be printables. Here are the match-ups I used for the haul pictured below. It’ll give you the idea of how this coupon thing works.

On my first coupon trip to the grocery store this was my bounty. I spent $18.73. I saved $64.88 between sales & coupons. This store doubles coupons. I got several items FREE even.

That whole chicken was around $3. I think I spent $.50 on the A1 steak sauce. The ball Park hot dogs where $ .50. 4 things of pasta, 2 boxes of tea, a tube of toothpaste, Chinet napkins, homestyle Kraft mac & cheese, 2 packages of warm & serve Rhodes dinner rolls, & 3 boxes of Wheat Thins Stix all FREE.

Now my trip to the grocery store this week didn’t seem like quite as good of a deal to me (I think because I only came away with a few freebies), but I still got this:

Spent $24.25. Saved $69.68

Here is my first Walgreens haul. Walgreens & CVS (which I haven’t even attempted yet) are a little more complicated than the grocery store because they have RRs & ERBs. Check out those about links to blogs that can explain those way better than I can.

I basically got the 3 boxes of Splenda free after the RRs. Turned around & used the RRs on a second transaction for the rest. Got the 4 cleaners for $.50 each. The razor was $1.99 as were the blade refills. The wipes where on sale for 2 for $5. Had two $2 off coupons so I used one on each, which means the wipes where $1 for both boxes.

Oh, one more thing. This couponing has a language all it’s own. Here is a run down of the lingo.

Phew! I know that’s a lot to digest all at once. Get organized & spend some time checking out those links. I promise it really is pretty easy &, once you figure it out, it isn’t all that time consuming. The hard part is done for you if you find the right sites.

And???

It will be so very worth it when you start saving money!

Painkillers? Yes, Please!

2011-04-15T11:43:00.001-05:00

In 12 years of teaching, I never had a truly embarrassing moment in front of my students. Never left my pants unzipped. Never fell flat on my face. Never walked around with lipstick on my teeth all day. Never accidently tucked my dress into my panties & walked around. Never went into labor in class.

But yesterday?

It happened.

I passed out in front of a class of 8th graders.

I was subbing in the same school I taught at for the past 6 years—thankfully in a place where I knew everyone & they knew me. I was sitting at the desk & bent down to get something out of my purse & TOTALLY threw my back out.

But, of course, that wasn’t enough.

Apparently the pain was too much for my body to bare at that moment. The room started spinning. The noise became muffled. I was having an out-of-body experience. I knew this feeling. I knew I was about to pass out.

I sent a student over to get the teacher across the hall. I know she probably thought I had to go to the bathroom or something. She walked in, and I motioned for her to come over to the desk. I had just enough time to tell her what was up, & I was gone. Out like a light. And apparently I stayed that way for about a minute.

When I came to, I was so disoriented. My friend was standing there & now an assistant principal was too. The kids were all trying to figure out what happened. I had no idea where I was or what had happened. I was covered in sweat.

I finally started to get my bearings; I realized what had happened. And I was completely mortified. But, hey, what could I do? The assistant principal found a teacher to cover the last hour of the day for me, & I gathered myself & my wits & went home.

And now? Percocet will be my best friend for the next couple of days.

Pure Bliss

2011-04-13T12:53:00.001-05:00

Tea Time

2011-03-29T11:19:00.001-05:00

I have a running joke with a couple of ladies I used to teach with. You see during the time we taught together, we had many a TGIFs & during one of these, we were introduced to one of my favorite margarita recipes. When we wanted to have a TGIF (which were not necessarily on just Fridays. Go teach. You’ll understand.), we’d email each other to see if we’d like to go have tea.

Tea being code for margarita. Just in case you missed it.

All I remember is this recipe came from a book on of the ladies happen to be reading. Sorry I don’t remember more or I would credit the book; it’s been 7 years & several of these margaritas later.

Ready?

You need FOUR—yes that is all—ingredients. (You can of course add salt & lime to the list but those are just bonus. These are the cast of stars.)

Frozen limeaid (12 fl. oz.)
7 Up (Never, Ever, Ever, Sprite. And I have no idea why. I just put that here because I remember the book saying it. .)

Corona (Regular or Light)
Tequila (But of course)

Dump the frozen limeaid into a pitcher. Using the now empty can of limeaid, fill it with 7 Up. Add it to the pitcher. Use the limeaid can again, fill it with Corona. Add it to the pitcher. (You will have a little beer left in the can or bottle. Just go ahead and drink that yourself. You have my permission.)

And, finally, using the empty limeaid can one more time, add the tequila. You can add anywhere from a half a can to a full can depending on what you like. (aka how strong you want them.) I generally add about 3/4 of a can. Mix it up. Serve on the rocks in salt rimmed glasses with a slice of lime. This recipe usually makes about 4 margaritas.

Cheers! Now go invite some friends over for tea.

*I do not condone excessive drinking of alcohol. This is simply for fun and for my blog.

Loosening Apron Strings

2011-03-25T07:14:00.001-05:00

They took off.

The kids—Sweetie Pie & his twin 10 year old cousins—took off in a sprint down the uncrowded path of the River Walk. Blurs of brightly colored shirts & their blonde hair streaked in my line of view. And just as that momma freak-out, panic feeling started creeping in & I was about to ~~yell~~ screech for them to come back, they all stopped, as if on cue, & looked back to let us all catch up.

They were never in any danger. They weren’t running over other people on the path. They didn’t get very far ahead of us…maybe 40 feet ahead. They were just being kids letting some energy out.

And my inner helicopter mom was beginning to surface. I was hovering—or about to hover.

It was then I realized that my 4-year-old is growing up. Sweetie Pie is capable of much more than I give him credit for. Than I’m ready to give him credit for. These years are going by in the blink of an eye.

He can run with his cousins. No problem. He isn’t going to fall into the river. He can hang upside down on the railing of the stairs without falling. He can slide down those same rails. He can play rough & be fine.

As much as I want to stop the clock, as much as I want him to be little forever, it’s not going to happen.

It’s ALREADY time for me to BEGIN to ever-so-slightly loosen the apron strings. Which isn’t going to be easy. Because , you know, we all have the helicopter mom in us. I now have to control her.

River Walk Stroll

2011-03-22T21:55:00.001-05:00

The Magic Spacing Number

2011-03-18T06:00:00.001-05:00

And last, but certainly not least in this guest post series is Chantelle. She is a mom, wife, & florist. She has a new feature on her blog called Conversations With My Kids that I am loving. Venture on over and check it out.

I’m so excited to be guest posting here at Boy Crazed Mama. I hope Jami is enjoying her vacation. I’m Chantelle from Mom Went Crazy. As the name implies my kids drive me absolutely nuts. They’re clearing a space for me at the loony bin as we speak. I mean they’re cute and everything, but...well, you know.

I have two daughters. Emma is three and Sophie is six months. They are two years and eight months apart in age.

I think this is the absolute pinnacle of child spacing. I don’t think I could have them any closer in age without involving ~~some serious drinking binges, medication or~~ some sort of therapy.

My husband, Mike, wanted our kids spaced further apart. I said no and went off birth control. He vowed not to sleep with me until six months later when he thought we should start trying. I was pregnant seven weeks after that conversation.

For anyone else considering the 30 to 38 month window of child spacing, here is some food for thought.

I love a good list, don’t you?

Pros

· Emma is old enough to understand the word ‘no.’ Not that it matters.

· She knows that the knife drawer is not for playing in.

· She knows you don’t drink the ‘blue juice’ under the sink.

· When the baby needs to be put down for a nap, or eat, or mom needs to make herself a mid-morning martini, I can put on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and know that she’s not going to kill herself in my absence. FYI – that martini makes the ‘hot dog dance’ so much more fun.

· Emma is old enough to know how to be gentle without maiming Sophie. This means mom can pee without having to bring the baby in for safekeeping. Although an audience usually ensues regardless.

· Emma will be out of the house when Sophie starts driving so I won’t have two kids fighting over who gets to take the car.

· They are close enough in age that they can play together. Alone. More martini time for mom.

· Emma can talk really well so I’m not left guessing what a toddler wants while holding a screaming baby.

· Emma is totally potty trained. This knowledge makes me feel good on days when Sophie craps up her back. (You know what I’m talking about.)

Cons

· Emma can open a door. Not cool when you’re nursing a baby and your three year old runs out the front door. Forget babyproofing, I need to preschooler proof that shiznit.

· Just when I got finished with diapers, I had to start all over again.

· Emma doesn’t nap anymore. There is No. Alone. Time. Ever. From six in the morning until eight at night those bitches own me.

· Emma can reach things and can find ways to get at what she can’t reach. Have you ever walked in on your three year old putting lipstick on your baby?

· She can talk which may prompt her to say things to strangers like “Mommy has milk in her boobies.”

· They’re close enough in age to gang up on us.

What do you think? Don’t agree? Think I’m a genius? Let me know!

Kids. They Can Drive You CRAZY…

2011-03-17T06:00:00.001-05:00

…especially when the snow keeps you
cooped up in the house for days.

Welcome Sandi. She is a crafty SAHM to a 6 year-old boy who clearly had to spend too much time indoors with him during those 2 weeks of snow we had in our neck of the country. I was totally there with her. Those days we were snowed in were crazy. My boys needed to go outside BADLY. Almost as badly as this momma needed them to go outside.

Sandi blogs over at CraftingWithRHINOS.

When I volunteered to share a story with Jami's followers while she was on her family vacation, so many crazy adventures came to mind. You see, I grew up in a family that loved travel. My grandparents had an RV and took us on fabulous trips all over the United States. It was miserable being cramped in such a small space for hours at a time, but also very fun.

I started by making lists of some of my favorite excursions, and soon had pages written with all sorts of hilarious stories I could write about. Narrowing it down became frustrating, especially with my 6 year old son high on cabin fever.

Being trapped in our house during all of the winter weather we have been "blessed" with, along with his nasty cold, has had him poking at my nerves with imaginary thumb tacks. Inevitably, I started daydreaming of far off (and somewhat horrific) places that I could ship him off to.

You understand.

I know you have spent moments wishing your kid(s) were anywhere but where you are because they were making you want to shave your head bald.

Ok, so maybe that is just me. The bald part.

So the daydreams started coming more frequently as I found myself trying to hide from him (and sometimes his friends) in my own house. That's when I began writing down some of the more "unfortunate" destinations my mind had been plotting for him.

Here are just a few:

Trekking through the Sahara, with a bottle of what appears to be water dangling mere inches from his grasp. Only to find out after reaching and gulping down half, that it was filled with donkey sweat.
Being made to pick up glitter (one piece at a time) after a Martha Stewart taping, to be allowed entrance to LegoLand. And then finding LegoLand had been closed down forever.
Be given the keys to drive a race car at the Indy 500, but every step he took towards the car, it would get smaller and smaller. And when finally reaching it, it poofs into a pink Barbie corvette toy.
Letting him loose in a video game store, with an unlimited shopping spree card. But finding all the game cases to be empty, and all the game stations not working.

You get my drift. I am diabolical. I truly do love my son, and don't actually wish him any harm. Most of the time. But this last week has been the bane of my existence! But I do thank you for letting me stop by, and hope that none of you actually never get the chance to piss me off!

Footprints in the Sand

2011-03-16T06:00:00.003-05:00

Meet my friend Zelma. She lives on an island. A tropical one. Puerto Rico to be exact. Yes, I am jealous. Very jealous. How I’d love to dive there! And? Zelma bakes. Sweet, sugary, yummy things. Should I ever make it to Puerto Rico I will meet Zelma, eat her baked goodies, & dive those beautiful waters.

And, Zelma, thank you for your kind words about some of my posts.

________________________________________________

I met Jami a few months ago through Twitter, and we have become good “virtual” friends. We have a lot in common, as we both have a 4-year-old son. She was also fortunate to have a second son; after my miscarriage 2 years ago, I’m still working on that. I also love to read her blog. She has an awesome sense of humor and a huge heart. She has made me laugh (read: “Say No to Double Strollers”) and she has made me cry (read: “Wawk”). She is also a very loyal friend who would stick by you and offer her unconditional support when you need it (read: “Moms: Let’s Stop Judging Each Other”). Ohh, and even more that we have in common? We both hate shopping and bad drivers!

I also love the fact that she’s a teacher. True, she may be a SAHM now, but once a teacher, always a teacher. I love love LOVE her Tots & Teens Thursday series, it has given me a lot of tips on how to work with lil man, especially getting him motivated to read. It is usually very hard to get him motivated to do something, especially something new. I think he gets embarrassed that he will fail at whatever he needs to do, and simply refuses to try. He doesn’t have any diagnosed disorder, but he does have a bit of delay in his neurological development, which has affected his thought process, as well as his fine and gross motor skills. He is getting weekly Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy sessions at home, and I have to say, they’re not always good sessions. He started about 8 months ago, and he has made a lot of progress, especially in his motor skills, which has greatly improved his self-esteem.

But lately? Not very cooperative. He used to love both his therapists, and would even go outside to their cars to pick them up every time they came by. Now it’s a crying fit every time they get here. I think it’s because now the exercises are getting harder, and he doesn't want to do them. Right now I can hear him talking to his Occupational Therapist in the other room, and after she managed to calm him down, their conversation was hilarious!

Her: Hey lil man, want to take off your shoes for your massage?

Him: No.

Her: Why not?

Him: Because it’s cold.

Her: OK, let’s turn the fan off. {massaging his feet with a scrub} Does this feel as hard as last week?

Him: No.

Her: Good! Maybe next time you go to the beach, you can walk in the sand without your shoes.

Him: I can’t!

Her: Why not?

Him: Because the sand is hot.

Her: OK, so maybe in the afternoon when it’s not so hot.

Him: No, the sand is hard, and gets in my toes. Then it’s hard to clean it out.

Her: But your mom can help you clean it out. Besides, getting dirty is fun!

Him: Uh-uh! No it’s not! Why are we talking about this? I don’t want to talk about this anymore.

I swear I’m not making this up! I *just* heard this conversation right now! This is the kind of discussions that he has EVERY SINGLE TIME! If I overlook the fact that he’s being incredibly difficult, I would say that they’re totally hilarious! His therapist tells me that he will make an excellent lawyer. I just hope he doesn’t drive me nuts in the process.

Being A Boy Mom

2011-03-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

Meet Julie. She is a fellow boy mom. Her Brayden is about the same age as Boogaboo, so we have shared quite a few of the same toddler woes—hello, picky eaters-- together. In this post, Julie asks a good question:

How do we let our boys be boys without letting them be bullies?

Julie blogs over at Back to the Basics.

When Jami needed a guest blogger, I was all over it! I mean, Boy Crazed Momma? It pretty much sums me up at this point. My son Brayden is 19 months old, and I am expecting baby #2 in early October. Obviously, we don't know the baby's gender yet so for now? It's all boy stuff around here. Tonka Trucks, car, planes, trains, blocks, etc. All boy.

And with that comes destruction, throwing, wrecking, destroying, and trying to find my sanity. I mean, I know that boys "generally" play rougher. Brayden knows he needs to be gentle with the cats. But everything else? Fair game. I am all about letting him explore that side of him and since we have been cooped up due to the snow, sometimes knocking down towers gets out some of that built up energy. But a couple of weeks ago, my views were changed slightly.

It was when my mom took Brayden with her to Bible study. She said he could go to the nursery and that it would be really good for him since we are having a hard time with him staying in there during church. There were 2 girls in there playing with a dollhouse and Brayden walked right up to the dollhouse and just smacked his hand, taking out all of the dolls and their little accessories. My son does not know gentle in relation to other kids, and quite frankly, how would he? He is either with me or my mom and dad, playing mostly by himself with no one to share with. This really bothered me- I certainly don't want to be raising a bully. And when things get out of hand at home, I feel like I have been handling it well. This scenario made me think about how I really am handling it at home and if I am doing the "right" thing. It was definitely an eye opener for me, and although at this point I am not sure what to do about it, I know that I need to do something. I need to find the balance between being a boy mom and not raising a bully.

They say that boys will be boys, but will toddler boys ever figure out how to play nice? So far, I am not convinced. I guess we will see what happens!

11 Step Program to Becoming a Parent

2011-03-14T08:03:00.000-05:00

***DISCLAIMER: I DID NOT WRITE THIS MYSELF.***

The following is an email I have received 3 or 4 times now, and it cracks me up every time. Because it is so true! I wish I knew who to credit for writing this. I really do. He or she needs some kind of an award. Go use the bathroom first. I about wet my pants when I read this.

This is so true…

Lesson 1

1. Go to the grocery store.

2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.

3. Go home.

4. Pick up the paper.

5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...

1. Methods of discipline.

2. Lack of patience.

3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.

4. Allowing their children to run wild.

5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.

Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...

1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)

2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.

3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.

4. Set the alarm for 3AM.

5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.

6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.

7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.

8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.

9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4

Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...

1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.

2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.

3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.

4. Then rub them on the clean walls.

5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.

6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.

1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.

2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.

1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.

Leave it there.

2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.

3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.

4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8

1. Hollow out a melon.

2. Make a small hole in the side.

3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.

4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.

5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.

6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's all worth it!' Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!

Are you wiping away the tears of laughter yet? My favorite one is the grocery store one—and the full grown goat. I can really appreciate it now that I have a 4 year-old & 20 month-old. My favorite when I had itty bitty ones was the octopus & mesh bag. Seriously, a big thank you to the author, whoever you are!

Which ones can you relate to best?

Lesson Learned

2011-03-10T20:38:00.001-06:00

I don’t know why. I have no good reason. But I never believed that kids could pull furniture down. Just seemed impossible to me.

Until my boys did it.

I was loading the dishwasher, & I heard one of my boys cry out from the back of the house. The water in the sink was running so I couldn’t tell which boy it was, but I thought they were playing and one had taken a toy or wrestled the other too much & the cry was just a protest cry. The tattle cry. Not at all uncommon around our house.

And I only had a few more dishes to load. So I finished.

As soon as I turned the water off, I heard the cry again. This time I knew it was a distress cry.

And I ran.

To the back of the house.

To Sweetie Pie’s bedroom.

To the cry that was Sweetie Pie.

As I entered his room, where I should have seen the blue wall opposite the door, I saw wood. The pine, stained wood of the chest of drawers. Laying at a diagonal. The top resting on the foot board of the bed.

Everything normally on top of the chest was thrown across the bed. The blocks that spelled Sweetie Pie’s name. The clothes I had folded earlier but hadn’t had a chance to put away yet. The pictures of my boys.

All I could hear was the cry of my son.

I couldn’t see him.

I had no idea where Boogaboo was.

Panic filled my blood. I felt it in my entire body as my heart rate rose.

I heard movement to my right. A quick glance revealed Boogaboo standing there. Safe.

My mind raced. I could hear Sweetie Pie but could not see him.

After what was hours in my head, but what was only mere seconds in reality, I heard a “I’m alright, mommy.” through his tear-strained voice.

It was then I looked under the chest of drawers and saw him. Crouched down on the floor.

Unharmed.

I later found out he had climbed up the drawers to reach something he wanted on top of the chest & pulled it over in the process. Thankfully, he had the where-with-all to drop to the floor when it started falling.

I sat and held my boys for a long time after that. Ever so thankful the situation was not worse & neither of my boys were harmed. We came away scared but smarter. The only physical damage done to the furniture itself.

Needless to say we will be securing the furniture to the walls.

Learn from my mistake. Because I can’t stop thinking about how much worse it could have been.

Crazy Shoe Day…

2011-03-07T20:05:00.001-06:00

…well, okay, morning.

Elena over at Mommy is in time out! had an idea that hit me smack in the face when I read it.

S-M-A-C-K.

The premise is this:

Make a point to have some crazy mommy fun with the kids.

You see? I find myself forgetting to have fun with my boys sometimes. I get so wrapped up in the day and getting through it that I forget to actually enjoy the day. Laugh with my boys. Be crazy with them. Create memories. This is something I continuously work on.

This morning opportunity knocked & I went with it. We were headed to the store and Sweetie Pie could only find one tennis shoe. The next thing I knew he had a flip flop on the other socked foot. My first inclination was to make him change shoes—you know to matching ones—but instead I went with it. He went to the store in his crazy shoes. And he loved it!

And then when we got home we all had crazy shoe day. I only wish I would have thought to change Boogaboo’s and my shoes to crazy shoes before going to the store.

What are some crazy mommy things you have done with your kids to have fun?

Just a Swingin’

2011-03-02T08:19:00.001-06:00

From our trip to Cozumel this past summer. Sweetie Pie’s favorite drink was a “Manana Naiquiri”.

Tots & Teens Thursday: Label Your House

2011-02-24T16:59:00.001-06:00

In the previous 2 Tots & Teens posts, I discussed reading to your little one & how to get your teenager interested in reading.

What I am going to tell you to do in this week’s post, you will probably think I have completely lost my mind. What can I say? It’s the elementary teacher background in me.

Are you ready?

Here it is.

Label your house.

Not your actual house, but items in your house. When you walk into my kitchen, for example, here is what you’ll see:

There’s more, but you get the idea. Once your child shows interest in what words look like & how things are spelled, they are ready for this.

When Sweetie Pie was about 3, he started being really interested in how words looked. He wanted us to write names on his doodle pro. Then we had sheets of paper with every. single. Thomas. train. friends’ name on it. And believe me, he knows them ALL. We’ve now moved on to him wanting me to type out names—especially when I’m tweeting. So, if you notice weird tweets from me containing random names, you know what is happening at my house.

The labels are just another way to show your child that every word they hear can be written. It serves as another way to immerse them in words.

So, go. Make labels with your child & put them up all over your house. You’ll love the response you get from people when they come over.

Hmmm, Something is Wrong with this Picture

2011-02-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

This is what happens when you hand a silly 4 year-old clothes & tell him to get dressed. Jeans on head, shirt on legs, & socks on hands. (Sorry the quality of the picture is pitiful. All I had handy was my iPhone. This was too cute not to share.)

Pregnancy Amnesia

2011-02-22T07:04:00.001-06:00

Fancy meetin’ you here. I am guest posting today over at Peanut Butter in my Hair. Melissa just had a baby girl last week & thought she might need a little help with some blog posts while she adjusts to being a mom of three kiddos. I can’t imagine why. Can you?

My BFF, Heather, is pregnant with twin GIRLS (Just found out they are girls last week.) and then several of my online friends keep coming up pregnant. And then there are Melissa and a few others who have freshly baked newborns at home now. Maybe there’s something in the cyber water??? Just pass my cup along please. I won’t be partaking. Don’t get me wrong, I am so excited for my friends & over the moon excited for Heather, but this baby factory is closed. God willing.

But there are a few things I loved about being pregnant. A few. And that’s what I am writing about over at Melissa’s place today. What I miss about being pregnant. Now bring your coffee along & join me over there, please.

Shrinky Dink

2011-02-20T20:16:00.001-06:00

Apparently I have been focusing too much on the wrong numbers…the scale. Which hasn’t been all that encouraging.

I was getting dangerously close to popping out of my size 16 pants when I first started this journey back in May. According to the scales I’ve lost a total of 17 pounds; however, I knew my clothes where getting looser. I didn’t realize just how loose until I broke down and went to buy some new jeans today since nothing fit anymore.

Look what size I bought!

Yes. Those are a size 12! This is the number I should be paying attention to apparently. So, even when the scales aren’t moving, the muscle building is totally paying off. And just to show you they really do fit…

What have I learned from this? While I will still be looking at the scale, I have learned to focus on the way my clothes are fitting. I do want to lose weight, but one of my new goals is to be in 10 by the end of the summer.

Tots & Teens Thursday: Teens & Reading

2011-02-17T12:43:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the beginnings of Tots & Teens Thursdays. If you missed last week’s post, I discussed reading to your tot. This week I am expanding some of those ideas to teenagers & I’m including some new ones.

I’ll be the first to admit that I do not have a teenager in my house. But I did teach middle school for 12 years. These ideas stem from both that experience as well as ingenious parents who shared ideas they used in their homes.

So, how do you encourage your teenager, who might be reluctant (or downright obstinate), to read?

Let’s be honest. It’s safe to say most teenagers are not big readers. Most. They aren’t going to choose to spend their free time engrossed in a book. This is especially true at the middle school level. And especially true for boys. I will say this. The more ownership kids have in what they read, the more likely they are to read it. (Read: Give them choices in what they read when at all possible.)

Here’s the good news. If your child loved to read in their elementary days, that love will more than likely return…eventually.

But, in the interim, there are things you can actively do at home to help promote reading.

1) Model. Model. Model. Your kids need to see YOU reading. Book, newspaper, magazine, Kindle. Doesn’t matter. They just need to see that it is a priority for you. This will not make an immediate impact, but they’ll refer back to it later in life.

2) Go on a hunt for reading material. As a reading teacher, this was key to getting my reluctant readers to read. Find SOMETHING. ANYTHING. they are interested in reading. It might be a reallyyyyyyyy long hunt, but don’t give up. There is bound to a magazine, type of book,or particular author your child would like. I will get a page up soon of titles & authors that have proven to be good starting points on this hunt. Other good sources for reading suggestions? English teachers, librarians (both school & public), your kid’s friends, & your kid’s friends’ parents.

3) Have a reading community in your home. Yes, your teen is going to bock at this. You might even have to force this on them. But if your are reading this prior to your kids being teenagers, start this early. Then it’s just something you do as a family. Ideas straight from parents of middle school kids…

--Have a set family reading time. Everyone sits in the living room together each with their own reading material & reads. Same time. Everyday. For a set period of time. When you first start this, the it might be for just 15 minutes. Gradually work up to 30 or 45 minutes. Maybe bigger chunks of time on the weekends.

--Keep at home library & visit your local library. This doesn’t have to be extensive, but have some books for you & your kids in your house. Kindles & Nooks have made this easy, but I’m guessing if your teen isn’t a reader, he or she doesn’t have one of those. Utilize your public library as well. A plethora of choice awaits there. Remember the importance the role of choice has in your child’s desire to read. (And by the way, the choice doesn’t have to be extensive. Pick 3 or 4 books you have had recommended to you for your teen & let them choose from those.)

--Conduct a family book club. If you find a book that everyone in the family would enjoy reading—or halfway enjoy, as the case my be—read it as a family. Make a reading schedule together. Decide that you all are going to read the first 2 chapters by Thursday night & then instead of reading during your family reading time, you are going to have a book discussion. I know this sounds cheesy & you’re thinking ::Yeah, like my kid is going to discuss anything with me, let alone a book.:: Give it a try. You might just be pleasantly surprised. Think about how much more you enjoy what you are reading when you have someone to discuss it with. You will have to drive the discussion, of course, but the more you do this, the better everyone will get at it. And if a book is too daunting to start with, maybe find a newspaper or online article to use before moving to a book.

Conclusion?

The most important thing you can do for a teenager who doesn’t enjoy reading, is to help him or her find their niche. Hunt until you find it. I am a firm believer that those who don’t enjoy (or at least tolerate reading) never found what they like to read. So, be on the look out for magazines about anything your child is interested in. Books by authors their friends are enjoying. Books where the main character plays the same sport your child plays. Check out graphic novels. Anything you can grasp onto to pull your child in. All in hopes of finding something he or she will never put down.

Finally! We’re out of the house…

2011-02-16T06:00:00.000-06:00

…and riding on the carousel at the zoo!

Down With Mail-Order Pharmacies!!!

2011-02-15T06:00:00.000-06:00

I am pulling my hair out over here! Warning you now this post is a rant on my part. Feel free to exit the ride at this point. Because I am ticked.

We are forced to use a mail-order pharmacy on our maintenance drugs (i.e. inhalers, allergy meds, birth control), or we pay a HUGE premium for the convenience of using our local pharmacy—to the tune of around $1k per year. The other day I had a the gazillion and 1st run in with them. I hate, no I LOATHE, the fact that we are forced to use them. And here’s why.

1) It takes FOREVER to get to a real, live person when you have to call. Like literally ten minutes of automated crappola before the option of a “customer service” agent is even an option. (I use the term “customer service” quite loosely here.)

2) If you need to talk to the pharmacist, you are out of luck. You can’t. I have no idea why; I just know you can’t because my husband asked to speak to one during one phone call & was told that the pharmacist was not available.

3) We are FORCED to have to use the mail order because with our prescription plan we pay a premium to use our local pharmacy. So, we pay more for the same medicine & the same amount of the medicine if we get it filled locally rather than using the mail order pharmacy. Unfortunately, we don’t have the extra money to spend.

4) THEY LOST TWO PRESCRIPTIONS I MAILED TO THEM. How do I know the mail-order pharmacy lost them as opposed to them getting, say, lost in the mail? Two of the scripts I mailed them where in the same envelope. One was for my husband; the other for me. They have my husband’s but not mine. Yeah, they lost it. On a different day, I mailed a script for my son. They don’t have that one either. I can only assume they lost it as well. (And, yes, I know what assuming does, but, in this case, I feel justified in my assumption.)

5) The above mentioned script for my husband had the wrong date on it. See, he went to the doc in early January when the year had just changed. The doc—like all of us do out of habit—put 2010 instead of 2011. Now a local pharmacy would have caught that, called you &/or the doc, & gotten it taken care of in a day. Maybe 2. The mail-order pharmacy never contacted us about it. If we hadn’t of called to check on why it was taking so long to get to us, we would have never known.

6) I have to clean up their mess when they screw up. The three above mentioned scripts? I have to call the three different doctors now & ask them to fax in new ones.

7) They automatically fill whatever script. No questions asked. Which might be a good thing at times. But this literally cost a $100 one time. Hubs doc changed the strength of his inhaler. Didn’t mention it to him. We just mailed the script in thinking that they would put it on hold in his file until we needed it. You know? Like the local pharmacy would do. Nope. Filled it. Without any regard to the fact they JUST FILLED THE SAME MEDICINE a week ago because THEY PRESSURE YOU TO AUTOFILL. Don’t you think someone would have noticed something was wonky? So, hubs ended up with 6 inhalers, 3 of which he couldn’t use.

Okay, I feel better. I love how venting always makes me feel better.

Please tell me we are not the only ones who had had these bad experiences with mail-order pharmacies. Who else is in our boat?

McFatty Monday—2/14

2011-02-14T07:51:00.001-06:00

Wow, I’m behind. Normally I have this typed up & ready to go Sunday so all I have to go is add the weight loss/gain & hit publish Monday morning. That didn’t happen yesterday; we spent the majority of the day outdoors. Good riddance snow.

So, here’s the skinny. (ha!)

This week went MUCH better than the past couple. So. Much. Better. Even with a Valentine’s Day dinner with my husband that included cheese fondue, beer, parmesan chicken, wine, and dessert.

The scales are FINALLY going in the right direction.

Did you hear that?! Woohoo!

Recap of Big Picture Goals:

1) Lose 40 pounds total
2) Run a 10k in April
3) Bike 50 miles with hubs by the end of June
4) Make healthy eating my lifestyle.
5) Get my cholesterol & triglycerides to a normal range without medicine.

This weeks tabs:

1) Weight Loss/Gain: –1.4 pounds

Total loss: -7.8 pounds

Remaining to lose: 32.7 pounds

This week’s goal: 2 pounds. I’m going for loosing 2 pounds this week.

2) Exercise: Made it to the gym 3 times this week. And…I got to go for a run OUTSIDE yesterday. Loved that. Outside running it so much better than treadmill running. I think I ran a total of about 10 miles this week. My longest run was 4.5 miles, but I walked .75 of that.

This week’s goal: Do another 4 mile run AND do a 3 mile run working on some interval running to increase my speed.

3) Diet: I really don’t remember what I ate this week. But the only bad eating I think I did was this weekend--the Valentine’s dinner Friday night, the cake at my cousin’s wedding reception Saturday, & Old Chicago pizza last night. I’m doing good at not eating past 8 every night. I’m really doing more low calorie now than anything else. It’s just easier.

This week’s goal: I want to start using my Lose It app again to track what I’m eating.

So, week 5? I’m very pleased. Yes, it’s only 1.4 pounds, but there is a minus sign in front of it this week. That makes me happy.

My Tender-Hearted Boy

2011-02-11T06:00:00.000-06:00

Dear Sweetie Pie—

At just 4 years-old, it is becoming more & more obvious that you have a precious, sensitive, & tender heart. It is one of the qualities I love most about you. You want to make everyone feel special.

Those Handy Many tools? You think we all have a favorite one. In your eyes Turner is Boogaboo’s favorite, Philippe is Daddy’s favorite, Rusty is your favorite, & Squeeze is my favorite. If you find any of these tools out of our reach, you will bring them to us. I was napping the other day, & you brought me Squeeze. I woke up with him next to me. You will spend hours searching for a particular tool just so one of us can have it to hold. I think that you think they are our comfort objects , & you don’t want us to be without them. It is precious.

The other day you shared your pop tart with your brother. Without me asking you to. Today you shared your muffin all on your own because you knew it would make him happy.

The empathy I see developing in you each day makes my heart proud. You, my sweet, sweet son, are making momma proud. I hope you always want everyone around you to feel special and loved.

XOXOXO~
Mommy

Tots & Teens Thursday: Read. Read. Read.

2011-02-10T06:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the beginning of Tots & Teens Thursdays. If you missed last week’s post, here is how this whole idea come about.

This first post is more for tots than teens, but I will be taking this idea & expanding it to teens next week.

You’ve heard it before, & I’m telling you again.

The single.most. important. thing. you can do for your child to create a love of reading is to read to them.

Read. Read. Read.

Just like building a house, you have to build a reading foundation. Sitting down with your child and reading books is the way to establish that solid foundation.

When my boys were babies (read: before they were mobile), reading books to them was a piece of cake. They were a captive audience. Then they started getting wiggly when I tried to read to them. It’s okay. Let them move around. Let them walk around the room. Play with toys. Just sit and read to them anyway. I promise the day will come that you will once again have your captive audience back.

Another thing? Have books in your house. Please don’t read that as “You need to go buy a gazillion & 1 books for your child.” Sure, buy some books, but hear me on this…

Take your child to the library. Often.

1) It saves you money buying books.
AND…
2) It surrounds them in books.

Our local library has several options for baby & toddler & preschool play times, singing times, & story times. Granted several of the programs are during the day, but there are some in the late afternoon & early evening. If your local library has these options available, I recommend you partake if you are able.

Board books are great for the little ones. You know the ones, right? They have the big, chunky pages. My boys love the Sandra Boyton books. Eric Carle is awesome too. Lots of good ones out there. Chantelle over at Mom Went Crazy already has an awesome list of great children’s book titles & authors. I couldn’t have made a better list myself, and, in fact, I would have included the majority of the same titles. The list has books for wee ones all the way up to 7 or 8. (Charlotte’s Web, for example, could easily be a read aloud book for a 5 or 6 year-old & an independent read for a 7 or 8 year-old.)

So, what exactly is your child learning when you read to them?

Besides that all-important foundation you are building, your child is learning the way books work. Which way to hold a book. Where the front cover is. That you read print front left to right. That pictures relate to the words on the page. When you hand a book to your child upside down & with the back cover up & he or she turns it right side up & flips it to the front cover, you know your child is understanding the early, early foundations of reading.

First Snowman

2011-02-09T06:00:00.000-06:00

Sweetie Pie’s first snowman. My husband really made it, but the little man helped…some. He put the ears on.

Pay It Forward

2011-02-08T06:00:00.000-06:00

Just like the movie by the same name, this is project involves me doing something for you & then you doing something for someone else, hence pay it forward. And in this project the “doing something” involves actually making something by hand.

My friend Laura posted about this project on her blog. I loved the idea, and, of course, hopped on board. Here’s how this works:

I promise to make a handcrafted item in 2011 & mail to the FIRST 5 people who comment that they would like to join in, only asking in return that you post this on your blog and offer 5 people something you make by hand and mail to them this year.

My handcrafted item is yet to be determined, but I am leaning toward some sort of homemade canned goodies—dill pickles, sweet pickles, bread & butter pickles, Christmas pickles, apple butter, salsa, relish, or something(s) like that. Or maybe I’ll dust my scrapbook supplies out and create something fun once again. We’ll see where the wind takes me.

So, who’s in? Who wants me to send them something this year? Remember. You have to pay it forward too. Ready? Go!

McFatty Monday—2/7

2011-02-07T04:38:00.001-06:00

The scales? Still not moving in the right direction. All I have to say is we were SNOWED IN this week. Literally did not leave the house for FOUR days with the exception of a trip to the pediatrician for Boogaboo’s ear infection. So, 4 days cooped up equals 1) eating everything in & b) not being able to get to the gym to exercise. And I don’t know about the rest of you, but my exercise routine has a direct impact on how healthy I do or do not eat. This week the diet was. not. good.

Recap of Big Picture Goals:

1) Lose 40 pounds total
2) Run a 10k in April
3) Bike 50 miles with hubs by the end of June
4) Make healthy eating my lifestyle.
5) Get my cholesterol & triglycerides to a normal range without medicine.

This weeks tabs:

1) Weight Loss/Gain: +1.6 pounds

Total loss: -6.4 pounds

Remaining to lose: 33.4 pounds

This week’s goal: I have to get the scale moving in the right direction again this week. I want to lose AT LEAST 2 to make up for this week. But I would prefer 3.

2) Exercise: Ran 4 miles—without stopping. They were slow miles. (12ish minute miles) But they were MY 4 slow miles. ALL running.

This week’s goal: Do another 4 mile run AND do a 3 mile run working on some interval running to increase my speed.

3) Diet: Confession time. Remember how at the eat of last week’s post I said & I quote, “No pizza or ice cream will be had this week. Scouts’ honor.” Well…It’s a good thing I’m not really a scout. Had both this week. I know, I know. But at lest I’m honest.

This week’s goal: Sticking to last weeks goal: No eating after 8. Hopefully that will help curb my binges after the boys are in bed. Really going to try to stick to one serving of fruit & one serving of complex carbs each day this week.

4) Beverages: Was a total water slacker again this week. Had way too much DDP. I MIGHT have one beer a week in a typical 7 days, but thanks to the Super Bowl & cabin fever, I think I had 3 this week. Hmmm, can we say wasted calories?

This week’s goal: Water, water, water! I will drink it! 64 oz. each day. No pop. Period.

So, week 4? Still biting the big one, BUT I have to say, I really thought the weigh-in this morning would have been worse considering the horrible diet & lack of exercise this week. All-in-all, feeling kind of like Switzerland about this week.

Did I mention we are supposed to get MORE SNOW Wednesday? Please just let the roads be good enough for me to get to the gym.

Snowmeggedon Saga

2011-02-03T22:16:00.001-06:00

As I stood in my bathroom intently watching one of our two shower heads, I looked down at my gray, furry Ugg boots & surveyed the rest of my 3 AM outfit. Thermal long john’s, a Thunder t-shirt, my OU hoodie, a hot mess of a sprout ponytail, & glasses that are so loose they barely stay on my face. I was smokin’ hot. I had to laugh. I looked ridiculous.

How did I arrive at this point?

Twenty minutes earlier, my husband had woken me out of a dead sleep. I still had a crick in my neck from being startled awake. I was in the middle of a great dream involving a trip to a tropical island & an irresistible cabana boy named Miguel when I vaguely heard my husband calling my name. I shot up in bed when I realized that wasn’t part of my dream.

We had a frozen pipe in our shower.

So, at three o’clock in the morning, here we were.

Once my husband got all geared up in his snow day best, he was even a hotter mess than I was. I mean who can resist a man in ski bibs and face mask hat, with two blow dryers sticking out of his coat pockets. Grrrr. Hold me back ladies.

The first trip into the attic, I can hear my husband tromping through the eves & then I hear some kind of disgruntled ~~cussing~~ ~~cursing~~ yelling. Turns out the flashlight had quit working and he had forgotten to take the extension cord up with him that he needed for the blow dryers.

Enter me. Had to go get my winter’s best on (see description of my rockin’ attire above). We were quite the pair let me tell you. My job was to feed the cord to him so it didn’t get tangled & then go watch the shower head for water to start coming out. I drew the long straw if you ask me. My job was easy.

So, that brings me back to the beginning of this little story.

There I was dressed to the nines watching the shower head. You know the saying—a watched pot never boils? Yeah, it’s like that. I can hear my husband above the shower running both blow dryers. We’ve got the shower running hot water on full blast. And I am praying this water starts running before we have a busted pipe and a major remodeling project.

After 40 minutes of the hot water turned on & pouring out of one of the shower heads & the blow dryers heat blaring over the pipes, we finally got a TRICKLE of water from the other shower head. You would have thought we’d ~~struck gold~~ won the mega millions by the happy dance I was doing.

Just a few minutes later, water come pouring out of the previously blocked shower head. I screamed that it had worked up to my husband.

Crisis averted. And back to bed I went.

Tots & Teens Thursdays

2011-02-02T20:37:00.001-06:00

During on of the “For the Love of Blogging” week, Katie over at Sluiter Nation hit on a point that struck me. Hard. It was one of those “Well, Duh!” kind of moments, but it just clicked for me right then.

The point she made?

Write What You Know

Sounds simple, right?

This got me to thinking. What could set my blog apart from other mommy blogs out there? Besides this motherhood, wife, friend gig, what do I know? My answer?

Middle school kids & reading

What you might not know about me is that I taught middle school for 12 years. That kind of makes me an expert on those moody people—you know the alien that took over your sweet child—if you ask me. Do I have all the answers? Absolutely not. But I have been around that block a few times, & I do have some tricks and wisdom up my sleeve.

The other thing I know…reading. Many of you probably don’t know this, but I am a reading specialist. And now that I have kids, I have found myself using my Master’s degree in reading to build as strong of a literacy foundation as I can for them. As I began to label my house for Sweetie Pie (more on this in another post), it dawned on me. Any parent can do these things. They just need to be made aware of them.

Enter Tot & Teen Thursdays.

My idea is to dedicate Thursdays’ posts to 2 concepts:

1) Sharing ideas on how to foster reading skills in your little one. A strong literacy foundation will serve your child & you well in the coming years. And, seriously, there are hundreds of little things & even reading lessons you can do at home to give your kid that extra little boost.

2) Either sharing thoughts on middle school kiddos or taking questions from you concerning a struggle you might be having with your middle schooler. Topics could range from grades to attitude to organization to how to address a problem with a teacher. I don’t know. Just throwing some ideas out there.

I’d love to hear your thoughts & opinions on this idea. Would there be interest out there for these posts? Or is this just a hair-brain idea? Be honest with me, please. Yay or Nay? What say you?

My Snow Angel

2011-02-02T06:00:00.000-06:00

After his begging for 5 hours to go play in the snow, we couldn’t say no any longer. He was only outside for all of 5 minutes, but look how much fun he had!

Throwing a snowball at Daddy.

Little White Lies

2011-02-01T06:00:00.000-06:00

I catch myself doing it all the time. Telling Sweetie Pie those little white lies. You know the ones I’m talking about. The ones that are just easier than explaining the actual truth.

You know.

Like telling him a light switch is hot. Now let me explain that one.

The switch was on the side of a kitchen island at my friend’s house. We’d gone over there for a play date. That switch turned on the garbage disposal. So, when Sweetie Pie kept trying to flip it on, I was telling him not to.

He asked me why.

I told him he just didn’t need to do that.

Then he asked me, “Is it hot?”

Yes! Yes it is hot son.

See. Sometimes the simplest answer—even if not exactly the truth-- is just easier.

Maybe that’s just me being lazy & not wanting to explain every little detail to him. And maybe it’s just me being realistic & knowing that he isn’t going to understand the truth.

Which leads me to the question. Do you tell little white lies to your kids?

McFatty Monday—1/31

2011-01-31T06:21:00.001-06:00

I’m embarrassed to share this week.

Really.

I’m not embarrassed because the scales went the wrong way for the first time. I’m embarrassed because I KNEW I was sabotaging myself and did NOTHING to stop this part of me.

But here it goes. This week bit it. Hard. And it is totally my own fault. I’m kicking myself as I type this. I completely blew the start of phase 2. My will power apparently went on vacation. I don’t even know what else to say, so here it goes.

Let’s get it over with.

Recap of Big Picture Goals:

1) Lose 40 pounds total
2) Run a 10k in April
3) Bike 50 miles with hubs by the end of June
4) Make healthy eating my lifestyle.
5) Get my cholesterol & triglycerides to a normal range without medicine.

This weeks tabs:

1) Weight Loss/Gain: +1.8 pounds

Total loss: -8.2 pounds

Remaining to lose: 31.8 pounds

This week’s goal: I have to get the scale moving in the right direction again this week. I want to lose AT LEAST 2 to make up for this week.

2) Exercise: If I get a gold star for anything this week, here it is. This is about the only area in which I feel like I did well. I ran my goal of 3.5 miles on Friday! Can I get a amen?! It totally kicked my butt, but I did it. In addition, I ran 3.2 Monday, biked 10 on Tuesday, did a power pump class & ran a mile Wednesday. There were some weights & ab workouts in there too.

This week’s goal: Sticking with another long run of 3.5 miles. Hoping it will be a tad easier this week. Also, I want to add a weekend workout to the week.

3) Diet: Blew the diet this week. B-L-E-W. It. Phase 2 did not get solidly started. I had pizza twice this week. Ice cream was consumed in mass quantity. I ate more than my one serving of complex carbs & one serving of fruit per day. I had no will power at all this past week. None. My struggle with eating really happens at night, once the boys are in bed. It’s like I go nuts eating because I finally have me time. I’m thinking the whole calories in vs calories burned might be a better plan for me, but we’ll see how this week goes.

This week’s goal: New rule. No eating after 8. Hopefully that will help curb my binges after the boys are in bed. Really going to try to stick to one serving of fruit & one serving of complex carbs each day this week.

4) Beverages: I slacked on drinking my water this week. And I drank way too much pop this weekend. Had coffee with sugar. What happened to me this week. Gah!

This week’s goal: Water, water, water! I will drink it!

So, week 3? Can kiss my behind. I’m moving on. Today begins a new week. No pizza or ice cream will be had this week. Scouts honor.

Little Gems

2011-01-29T07:21:00.001-06:00

Check out these little note cards! Do you likey?

I think they are beautiful. The photographs on the fronts were taken by Julie of Julie Sancken Photography. Here’s a closer look at them.

Julie uses her photographs on the front of these blank 3.5 x 5 note cards & was gracious enough to send me some of these to review.

I have to say, I love ‘em. You will too.

Gotta say, the black & white one is my favorite. I was so excited to learn that she sells these photographs as prints as well. I have my eyeball on that black and white as a print for my living room.

But back to the notecards.

Perfect size for a quick, little handwritten note without all the white space left over. And the handwritten note? That is a past time that should be rekindled if you ask me. I know this is the digital age and all, but a handwritten note is just more heartfelt. No way of getting around that. In fact I wrote a note on one of the note cards today for my husband. He loved it.

And the quality is stellar. Yes, I did just use the word stellar. They are printed by Kodak. I took the liberty of writing a little note to Julie on two of the cards just so you could see the quality. The first one is written with a Sharpie marker, & the second is just a regular, ol' ball point Bic pen. Both wrote on the cardstock nicely.

If you are interested in Julie’s note cards or her prints venture on over to her photography site & take a look. Here. Let me make it easy for you. All you have to do is click on this button. What can I say? I’m a helper.

The Elephant in our House

2011-01-25T06:00:00.000-06:00

Y’all, I’m in trouble. Sweetie Pie is too smart for his own good. He has the memory of an elephant. He is not a child who you can just wave off with a random statement of “Oh, we’ll go to Sonic tomorrow.” Because tomorrow will come, & I GUARANTEE he will remind you that you said you’d take him to Sonic. And then you will have to get yourself & 2 kiddos dressed & out of the house to go get a drink. Pain. In. The. Boo-Tay.

Take this past Thanksgiving for instance. We actually had turkey dinner with my family TWO weeks BEFORE the holiday. During this time my mom told little Sweetie Pie that she wanted to take him to see Santa before Christmas. And, honestly, we talked about it for maybe two minutes & moved on. Two minutes, folks. Stressed the Santa visit would be after Thanksgiving. That was it. Moved on.

Fast forward to FIVE days before CHRISTMAS. No mention of Grammy taking Sweetie Pie to see Santa since our Thanksgiving dinner. None. Now, I had taken both him & Boogaboo to get their picture taken with Santa, but that was it. So, the Monday before Christmas COMPLETELY out of the blue, Sweetie Pie & I have this convo:

Sweetie Pie: Momma?

Me: “What, babe?”

Sweetie Pie: “Can we call Grammy & see when she is going to take me to go see Santa?”

Are you kidding me kid???!!! How in the world do you even remember that she said she wanted to take you?!

So, we called Grammy and she & Grandad took him to see Santa that night. Only the line was wrapped around the store, so they were finally able to convince Sweetie Pie with a promise of pancakes for dinner that writing a letter to Santa would be sufficient . And then they went to IHOP, where my child hopped the entire way to the table because he thought he had to in a place called I-Hop.

But that’s another story….

My kid obliviously got his memory from his daddy’s side. Because me? I can’t remember squat.

McFatty Monday—1/24

2011-01-24T05:15:00.001-06:00

This week was interesting—to say the least. Started off strong. I went to the gym Monday & Tuesday morning. Eating was going well, and then our house got hit with…The Bug. You know the one. Yes. It starts with one person in the house and hops from person to person until everyone has shared it. Tuesday night it struck. Boogaboo woke up throwing up. And, if you have a toddler, you know just how much fun this experience is. I could say more, but I’ll just leave it at that. Then Thursday evening the bug got Sweetie Pie & me—within 30 minutes of each other. And Friday the hubs got it.

So….I told you that to tell you this.

This week I did not see the results I saw last week. BUT I’m okay with that. With our little household visitor, there was no way to stick to phase 1. None of the foods good for you tummy after having a stomach bug—bananas, rice, apple sauce, toast, crackers--are aloud on phase 1, & I’m sorry but peppers, lettuce, broccoli, & lean protein weren’t happening. That being said, who knows how accurate my weigh-in today is. I didn’t eat hardly anything Thursday & had 5 saltines & an orange Friday. And obviously the workouts ceased as well.

Let’s get to the nitty-gritty, shall we?

Recap of Big Picture Goals:

1) Lose 40 pounds total
2) Run a 10k in April
3) Bike 50 miles with hubs by the end of June
4) Make healthy eating my lifestyle.
5) Get my cholesterol & triglycerides to a normal range without medicine.

This weeks tabs:

1) Weight Loss/Gain: –3.0 pounds

Total loss: –10.o pounds

Remaining to lose: 30 pounds

This week’s goal: 2-3 pounds—I’ll be starting phase 2 of South Beach, which is a much more realistic & healthy way to eat, so the weigh loss is supposed to start coming off at a more reasonable & healthy rate.

2) Exercise: Pitiful this week—although for good reason. I did make it to the gym Monday & Tuesday before the bug arrived. I did cardio & weights both days. But I never did run my goal of 3.5 miles this week. So…

This week’s goal: Run a long run of 3.5 miles.

3) Diet: Stuck to phase 1 as planned until Thursday evening. Then I had to abandon it for a couple of days. I did okay until yesterday when my MIL & I took the boys shopping to look for bedding for the new bed boy bed. She bought fruit snacks & chocolate covered pretzels to pacify my angels. Guess who didn’t want the chocolate covered pretzels? Yep. Guess who ate too many? Yep.

This week’s goal: Solidly start phase 2, adding one fruit & one complex carb into my meals daily for one week. I’ll probably have the fruit with lunch & save my complex carb for dinner.

4) Beverages: I have learned to actually like Splenda in my coffee now. it will NEVER be as good as sugar, but I don’t mind it. So, I drink it with that & a splash of skim milk. Then the rest of my day is water except for the occasional glass of tea in the evenings. Oh, & I did have one pop this week too. One pop a week for me is spectacular!

This week’s goal: Just continue

So, week 2? Not too bad. Could have gone better, but with all the chaos ensuing, it could have gone worse too. I’m a stress eater. But I resisted eating my way through this week. Mainly because I knew I was reporting this to the world. And? There is pizza sitting in my fridge RIGHT NOW. I haven’t touched it. Not a bit. I think I will go have an orange.

Wish me luck! Who else is doing this McFatty Monday thing too? Let’s cheer each other on!

How We Spent Our Day

2011-01-20T22:00:00.001-06:00

The boys and I were cooped up all day today because of ice & we didn’t get out of the house yesterday either. The cabin fever hit this morning. Sweetie Pie was the kind of wound up that only being outside can cure. So, I did the only thing I could think of to do. Brought the outside in.

This monstrosity took up the ENTIRE living room floor. I had to move the coffee table & an ottoman out to get enough floor space for this thing.

Can you see the energy burning off of him?

Almost worn out….

And we’re there. Energy gone. Mission accomplished.

Which Is Easier?

2011-01-19T21:11:00.001-06:00

The age-old question. Who works harder? Moms who work outside of the home or moms who stay at home?

I have been in both positions, so I feel like a have somewhat of a unique perspective. I worked teaching middle school before even getting married and having kids. I continued to work the first 3 years of Sweetie Pie’s life. And it was hard. exhausting. draining. My day was nonstop from the moment I got up until the moment I went to bed. I kept thinking how much better & easier it would be if I could be a stay at home mom. I could be with my boys all of the time. My house would always be clean. The laundry and dishes always done & put away. The boys would be eternally happy. Ahhh, the PERFECT set-up. And then out of the blue, the opportunity came. I was going to quite my teaching job & spend the days with my boys.

Then reality hit. Staying at home? EVERY. SINGLE. BIT. as hard. exhausting.draining. as working outside of the home. But in a different way. And, as SAHMs out there will tell you, I was totally delusional in my thinking. My house is messier now & I clean more often because we are always home. Making messes. Dropping crumbs. Tracking in mud. Dirtying dishes. Dragging out toys. When I worked my house was always messier on the weekends. Now it’s like those weekends everyday. And those ~~demanding~~ ~~pesky~~ adorable little kids? Well, they want your attention. So you don’t have all the time in the world to clean. And? Don’t get me wrong. I love being at home all the time with my boys. Love it. But, think about. I’m at home with my boys all of the time. It’s both incredible & nerve-racking. All at the same time.

Honestly?

I think sometimes we all suffer from the grass is greener syndrome.

I think neither kind of mom has it easier than the other.

I do think each being type of mom has it’s advantages & disadvantages. So, here I give you my charts. Tada! Are you impressed? (And this is, of course, how I see things. After all my blog, my opinion, right?)

Working Outside of the Home Mom

Pros	Cons
extra income	away from your kids/feeling like you missed things
break from kids	hard to find time to run errands
adult interaction	every minute of your day is planned
household duties shared more

Being a Stay at Home Mom

Pros	Cons
with your kids 24/7—don’t miss things	with your kids 24/7—no break
flexible schedule	might be expected to do all household duties
have time to go to the gym/workout	one income
have time to run errands	lack of adult interaction
no daycare expense	sometimes underappreciated

You may totally disagree with me. I’m cool with that. We are all entitled to our opinions. Like I said, these are just my thoughts & realizations after having walked in both shoes. And I’m sure there are things I haven’t thought of. What would you like to add to my lovely charts?

My conclusion? I realize not everyone has a choice on this issue. We were that way for years. But, me? I wouldn’t go back to work right now if you paid me. ::giggle::

But I’m fortunate enough to have that option. And I don’t fault any mom for any decision she makes (or is forced to make) on this particular issue.

And those moms that work at home? Well, I’ve not been there, but my guess is that position has its pros and cons as well.

*The word mom everywhere in this post could very easily be replaced by the word dad. I know they stay at home too.

Savor the Moment

2011-01-18T06:00:00.000-06:00

This is supposed to be a random topic post. One about the random topic of egg yolks given to me on Twitter today. But I feel I need to write about something more than that right now. (But I do have something to say on that topic. I’ll tuck it away for now.)

Instead I need to write about something that has been heavy on my heart lately. Something I have been focusing on & working toward. Something I need to write to myself.

Savor the moment.

Let it sink in, Jami.

Savor the moment.

Oh, how I want to freeze time at moments like these. The ones when the reality sinks in that my boys are not going to be little forever. When I look at my Sweetie Pie and legitimately wonder how he got to be 4 already. And don’t even get me started on Boogaboo and him being one day shy of 20 months.

These two boys? They have captured momma’s heart forever.

Yet, I find myself wishing days away sometimes. Rushing from one task to the other. Getting the boys busy with something else so I can do housework.

When really? I just need to stop, be still, & be with my boys. Really be with them. Enjoying the moment. Savoring the moment.

This has been my focus for the past few days. Tonight I actually caught myself living in the moment & savoring it.

Sweetie Pie was ready for bed. We’d done the bed time routine--bath, medicine, brush teeth. And then he started playing with a bucket. He was putting it on his head & pretending to be a monster. He wanted me to draw a monster face on the bucket. Normally, I probably would have forced the bedtime issue. Made him stop playing & go to bed.

But not tonight. I was savoring the moment.

So, instead? I grabbed a paper sack, cut some eye & arm holes, & drew a monster face on it. He LOVED it. He would growl at my husband & I & we’d scream like we were scared.

Then, here’s the part that melted my heart. He’d stop playing like he was a monster & say, “It’s okay. It’s just me.”

The sweetness. The innocence. The precious joy those few extra minutes up with mom & dad brought him. Brought me.

Savor the moment, Jami. Savor the moment.

McFatty Monday—1/17/11

2011-01-17T05:55:00.001-06:00

Last Monday was the day for me. The day I woke up and told myself I was really getting back on the wagon to being healthy. And this time I meant it. Unlike the 13 other times I told myself that during the holidays. So, without much planning, I got up, started South Beach, & went to the gym. And I have been faithful for a whole week, which, sadly, is good for me.

Really? This right here is how I still feel. In addition to all of that info, I have since found out my cholesterol & triglycerides are high. Not so high that I have to be on medicine, but still too high. So, we’ll now add that to the list of goals. Get those lowered.

Big Picture Goals:

1) Lose 40 pounds
2) Run a 10k in April
3) Bike 50 miles with hubs by the end of June
4) Make healthy eating my lifestyle.
5) Get my cholesterol & triglycerides to a normal range without medicine.

This weeks tabs:

1) Weight Loss/Gain: –7.0 pounds. 33 more to go.

Next week’s goal: Loss as much as I can because once I start phase 2 the weight loss will decrease.

2) Exercise: I ran this week, & it felt awesome! I hadn’t really run since the holidays. I had been to the gym & worked out, but I had been doing aerobics classes for the most part. This week I really ran again. I forgot how much I love it. Man, I got in the zone on the treadmill Friday and did 3.2 miles before I knew it. This week I ran a total of 8 1/2 miles. I did pilates once & lifted weights once.

Next week’s goal: Complete a long run of 3 1/2 miles. Pilates twice. Weights 3 times.

3) Diet: I started back on phase 1 (which only lasts 2 weeks) of South Beach last Monday. After losing 15 pounds last fall, I gained 6 back over the holidays. Prior to that I was somewhat following South Beach & doing well. So, I jumped back on the wagon. I started on phase 1 because of the amount of weight I need to lose. And, just as importantly, phase 1 gets rid of the the cravings for sweets and bad carbs. Added bonus of phase 1? You lose a crap-ton of weight in the first couple of weeks. It gives you a jump start. That being said, I have been eating a lot of lean meat & veggies this week. A lot. No carbs. No fruit. (Those come back in phase 2.) Results? I feel great. Cravings for sweets & bread are greatly diminishing. I even resisted pizza tonight!

Next week’s goal: Continue phase 1 for 1 more week.

4) Beverages: I have probably tripled my water consumption this week. I’d say I drink a minimum of 64 oz each day. But, the TRULY AMAZING THING??? I have ONE, yes ONE Diet Dr. Pepper this ENTIRE week. And that was in lieu of the wine I really needed that afternoon. Besides water, I have had tea—both hot & iced—and coffee with Splenda & a splash of milk.

Next week’s goal: No cokes. None. Cut them out completely.

So, week 1? Let’s just say I am very pleased. I want to kick it in the rear again this next week to get the most out of this jump start. That’s what is motivating me right now—getting the most bang for my buck before the weight loss slows down like I know it will & as it should.

Wish me luck! Who else is doing this McFatty Monday thing too? Let’s cheer each other on!

The Blankie Bandit

2011-01-14T06:00:00.001-06:00

Doesn’t every baby & toddler have a lovey? Both of my boys are/have been blankie boys & thumb suckers. They hold there blankets while sucking their thumbs. We broke Sweetie Pie of the habit about a month ago, and, once the blankie was gone, the thumb sucking stopped. But, every so often, I catch him hiding somewhere in the house taking a hit off of Boogaboo’s blankie.

I made sure it wasn’t a certain blanket they got attached to but rather a type of blanket. (And yes I know part of that was just me getting lucky because it worked.) The receiving blankets actually. You know the ones, right? The small, thin ones? I figured that would be ideal so we could have several with the logistics of laundry and all. I had hear horror stories of the ONE special blanket & getting it washed.

The past couple of weeks I have been finding said blankies ALL OVER THE HOUSE. One on the couch. Two on the floor in the living room. Still another in the kitchen. Maybe a couple in the hallway. And one on the train table. I was perplexed. You see, we only give Boogaboo a new blanket at night. Then he uses that blanket the next day as well. Night comes & he gets a fresh one. Simple enough right? So where were all of these blankies coming from? That’s what I couldn’t figure out.

Until…(picture it)

I followed Boogaboo down the hallway to his room the other day. He sundered with his little toddler waddle right over to his dresser, opened the exact drawer where we keep his blankies, grabbed a handful, shut the drawer, and meandered back down the hallway. Blankies in hand. Right to the living room where he handed a blankie to his brother, kept one for himself, and dropped the other 2 on the floor. Then he proceeded to go about his business of playing.

Mystery solved.

Mental note: Get those blankies moved to a different drawer of you don’t want to be washing blankies every day. Because you know. You have blankie boys.

Heaven in a Crock Pot

2011-01-12T19:55:00.003-06:00

I just made this for dinner tonight. And all I can say is Oh. My. Goodness. D-E-L-I-S-H. My ONLY regret is that I didn’t make it sooner so I could link up earlier in the week to the crock pot blog hop over at Not Super Just Mom, Middle of Mommyhood & Sluiter Nation. Hopefully several of you will see this because this tasty goodness needs to be shared. Here we go.

Caribbean Pork Pot Roast
3 1/2-4 lb boneless pork shoulder roast
2 tsp salt-free Jamaican jerk seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil (I used olive.)
1 20 ounce can pineapple tidbits, reserve 1/2 cup juice
2 4 ounce cans diced green chiles, undrained
2 tbsp tapioca
1 tbsp packed brown sugar
Rice

Some notes:
1) I used a pork roast with a bone just because it was what I had. It was also more like 6 pounds but whatever.

2) I didn’t have the jerk seasoning so I found a recipe online. Since the recipe has salt in it I omitted it from the above ingredient list.

3) I used WAY more than the 2 tsp. of the jerk seasoning. I just slathered it on. In fact I used the entire amount that the recipe made.

4) I didn’t have tapioca to use for a thickener, so I used cornstarch.

(I feel like one of those people on All Recipes that is giving a review of the recipe and talks about how good it is and then goes on to say they did this differently & that differently. To the point it wasn’t even the same recipe.)

Anyway…

Trim your meat. (Proof I taught middle school too long? I giggled when I typed that.) Rub the roast down with the jerk seasoning. Heat oil in pan and drown all sides of the roast.

Mix the pineapple, the reserved juice, green chiles, brown sugar, & tapioca together in a bowl. (I about threw this recipe out when I got that mixed together. It was not appealing to my eyes. So glad I went ahead with it. Just mix it up & go with it. Trust me.)

Put the browned roast into the crock pot, & pour the pineapple mixture over it.

Cover & cook on low heat setting for 8-10 hours or high heat seating for 4-5 hours.

Serve this goodness over rice and with the juice it made while cooking. So good. In fact, I think it’s time for seconds.

::runs to the kitchen::

Wordless Wednesday—Mickey Cupcakes

2011-01-12T06:00:00.001-06:00

***Quick disclaimer. This was going to be a picture post of the entire birthday party. Problem. I have no good pictures. So instead you get the highlight of the party.***
I made these for Sweetie Pie’s birthday party this past weekend. All by myself.

Top Ten Tuesday—All-Time Favorite Posts

2011-01-10T21:23:00.002-06:00

I’m joining the ranks of Katie over at Sluiter Nation today with my Top Ten Favorite Posts on my own blog. So, folks here they are in no particular order. Some funny. Some touching. Some about motherhood. Some about friendship. Hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Adventures in Motherhood—The story of how I went from being a working momma to a stay at home momma.

One of THOSE Days—I was 30ish weeks pregnant with Boogaboo. And this day SUCKED the big one. Totally snowballed on itself. To the point I had to laugh—eventually.

Say No To Double Strollers—I wrote this the day I had had ENOUGH with attempting runs with both boys.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!—Hormones gone crazy is what this post was. I wrote it 2 weeks before Boogaboo was born. Proof you should never mess with a pregnant lady.

What Happens in Mexico—One of my very favorite posts ever and the first real one on the blog. An “incident” that happened on a trip we took with our bffs. You can’t make up a story this good.

Grab a Kleenex—Not my usual type of post. Written from the heart. A touching story of friendship.

“Wawk”—Love this story of when Sweetie Pie needed some snuggles.

Moms: Let’s Stop Judging Each Other!—I don’t get fired up about much. But I was fired up about this. (If you have a hard time reading some of the lighter text, highlight it. You’ll be able to see it then.)

Boy Toys—If you are a fellow boy mom, you will totally relate.

Jami’s Favorite Things—This one was recent, but I really liked it. What can I say? I’m here to help. Got several comments & questions on Twitter about it.

So, there they are. My favorite posts. Take me to your blog & show me some of your favorite posts. I’d love to read them!

Switcher-Roo—Guest Post

2011-01-10T06:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome my first guest blogger! Jessi Arias-Cooper blogs over at Mama’s Got Flair. I was first introduced to Jessi by reading her post about Happy Pappies. You have to see this post. Have. To. See. It. Go ahead and read it. I’ll wait.

Did you pee your pants laughing? Good stuff, right?

Jessi is no stranger to being a boy mom; she has 3 of the rug rats. She shares my lack of estrogen in her house. Ahhh, the craziness of boys. Gotta love them!

Jessi and I are doing a “Mi casa es su casa” blog switcher-roo today. She is in my house & I’m over at hers. You’ll find my Christmas story of the almost trip to urgent care over on her blog today. So, meet Jessi & then hop on over to her house to visit me!

Cooper Family Vocab: Take That Webster!

Just as every region has it's lingo, so does every family. Growing up, some terms that passed our lips as little ones, stuck, forevermore, as Arias family terminology.

For example, if you were to dine with my parents, you would sprinkle your spaghetti with “butt cheese” (grated Parmesan) and sop up mom's delicious meat sauce with “stinky bread” (garlic bread).

Even though my sibs and I are grown up, married and have families of our own, these terms have hung around, and will be passed on for generations to come...just ask our kids.

Speaking of kids, I happen to have an energetic brood of young boys (ages, 5, 3 and 1). I'm just as boy-crazed as my pal, Jami, here. I think that's why we get along so famously...or on Twitter...infamously. Well, that and a deep and passionate appreciation for a wicked-rad mullet.

So, anyhoo...

The vocabulary in the Cooper house is just as diverse and unique as la casa de Arias. As my kids grow, and toy with language, our family dialect evolves. In the last four years, these additions have been made, and mind you, I'm only sharing ones that we use on a regular basis.

“Schmoin”- pronunciation: sh-moyn- translation: Storm - My oldest apparently couldn't say our dog's name, so he made one that worked for him.

“Peanutbutterjellyfish”- pronunciation: peenut butter jelleefish- translation: PB&J sandwich – While they all call jelly, jelly, they still refer to the actual sandwich as a “peanutbutterjellyfish.”

“Dundun”- pronunciation: dun dun – translation: Being done. Finished. Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

“Oh naps”- pronunciation: oh naps – translation: Oh snap! Courtesy of my middle child. He used it regularly, and now we do, too.

“The hot”- pronunciation: the hot- translation: The heat vent. All three of the boys refer to the vent as “the hot,” and they all love sitting on it during the cold months. Interestingly enough, in the summer, when that sweet, delicious, can't-get-enough-of-it central air conditioning blasts through, they call it...the vent.

Even as the boys learn the right words and begin to actually use them, it's still a hard habit to break, not that I really want to, anyway.

What words and terms originate from your household?

The Best of 2010

2011-01-07T06:00:00.000-06:00

Yes, I know I’m a little late with this post, but better late than never, right?

So many AWESOME things happened this year.

--Boogaboo’s first trip to Cozumel.

--Our first family vacation just the four of us—road trip to Arizona.

--Hubs & I’s 5 year anniversary & trip to Florida sans boys.

--Diving in the Keys.

--Really meshing as a family & getting in the swing of life together.

--I became a SAHM & am blessed to spend my days with my sons.

BUTTTTTTTTTT, I think the most-est, awesome-est thing that happened this year didn’t even happen to me. It happened to my BFF. Yes, Thelma.

She’s preggers!!!!! Wait! I’ll say it again. Thelma is pregnant! Due in July. With twins!!!

Check out her blog.

In Which I Get Back on the Horse

2011-01-06T06:00:00.000-06:00

I will begin linking up with McFatty Monday posts all over the world of blogging as I get back on the horse to get healthy & comfortable in a bathing suit.

And, yes, I realize today isn’t Monday, but I wanted to post a Happy Birthday to my Sweetie Pie this past Monday. So, here I am doing my McFatty Monday post on a Thursday. I’m cool with that & I think you guys are too. If it helps, I wrote this on Monday; just posting it a little late.

I started this mission back in July, lost about 15 pounds, & really started getting in the workout habit. Then the holidays & colder weather happened. I’m still down 10 pounds from my original weight, but I have gained 5 back. And now had to my post back in July that I now know my cholesterol & triglycerides are too high. I need to lose weight & get healthy.

So, here we go. Back on the horse starting today. I WILL be swimsuit—not swimsuit model—ready this summer.

I will workout at least 4 times a week.
I will run at least a 5k this year. (I’d really like to run a half marathon, but that seems like such a stretch right now.)
I will only eat ONE cupcake at Sweetie Pie’s birthday party Saturday.
I will drink 64 ounces of water each day.
I will eat no more than 1300 calories each day.

Please hold me accountable. I need it. I’ll post every week (Yes, usually on Mondays) about my progress.

Eviction Notice

2011-01-05T06:00:00.000-06:00

Every night these 2 get evicted from Sweetie Pie’s room. Every. Single. Night. Apparently they make too much noise for him to sleep.

Help! I’m Pulling Hair Out!

2011-01-04T21:53:00.001-06:00

I need help mommas! Please, I am begging you. And if you haven’t been here yet, please, for the love of all things good & the sake of my sanity, get this to someone you know who can help me.

My now 4 year-old Sweetie Pie is trying to transition to no nap during the day. And this is a problem for me. Let me explain why.

If he doesn’t take a nap, he is CRANK POT & wound up by 4:00. Which is also way too late to put him down for a nap. So, from 4:00 until bedtime is a b-a-t-t-l-e. And that is putting it nicely.
If he does by some miracle take a nap—even an hour one—he is so much better in the evening. And we all have a Kum Dah Yah time together.

I really think if he would take a nap 3 or 4 times a week, we’d all be better off, but I also know a consistent schedule helps.

We have tried the whole put him in his room for “rest time”. And it has worked a couple of times, but usually results in him coming out every 10 minutes and asking if rest time is over for an hour.

PLEASE tell me what worked for you. I know it’s all trial and error, but maybe one of you has an idea that will work for Sweetie Pie.

Apparently my blog is having comment issues. Please email me if you have trouble. boycrazedmomma@gmail.com

Random Topic—Elastic in Underwear

2011-01-04T06:00:00.000-06:00

Alright, folks. For the third week in a row, I am writing about a random topic from a Twitter friend. My previous posts have been on socks and mac & cheese. Those topics were a piece of cake compared to this weeks random topic sent to me.

This week’s topic? Elastic in underwear. Thanks, Jessi. Thanks. I thought we were friends momma. Just kidding! I can totally do this. I will also be discussing elastic in pants as well. Because I can.

Both of these elastic topics for me take me to this issue: potty training. The term that makes all mommas cringe. But you see, I have made 2 discoveries involving elastic because of potty training.

1) Either the elastic in little boys’ underoos really stinks, or my little man is rough on his undies. A lot of his underoos’ waistlines are getting frazzled. He says, “Momma, I got a string.” I know that means I need scissors to cut that string that gets longer and longer the more you pull on it. Do you know the type? The more you try to pull it to the end, the more frazzled it gets. So I always end up cutting the string. Then the little elastic strings in there start sticking out & I cut them off too. (Mental note: Sweetie Pie may need more undies. Check it out.) And the underwear has everything to do with potty training because, hello, he went from diapers to underwear.

2) Once your child is potty trained only buy pants/jeans/shorts with elastic waistbands. YOU CAN THANK ME LATER. You will exhaust yourself buttoning and snapping. With the elastic waists, Sweetie Pie can go to and from the bathroom whenever he needs to without needing my help. Some might see it as laziness on my part; I see it as ingenious. You say pO-tA-tO; I say pO-ta-tO.

Okay, that’s the best I’ve got on this topic. Whew! That was tough.

ADDITION: I just (like since writing this post this weekend) bought new undies for me. Yes, I was still wearing maternity panties. What of it? I got Jockey Super Soft Bikinis. Bought them based on the recommendation of Blair. Oh my, I heart them. So soft. Great coverage without being granny. And? What does all of this have to do with this post? The elastic waistband is awesome. Doesn’t cut into you at all.

Happy 4th Birthday Sweetie Pie!

2011-01-03T06:00:00.000-06:00

How is it possible for you to be 4 already? You have grown up so fast, and I know it’s just going to go even faster. There isn’t a day that goes day that I don’t look at you & think about your sweet, precious, sensitive heart & your sense of humor that completely cracks me up.

Right now you:

Love to help me cook & bake. I can’t be in the kitchen without you wanting to help. You are becoming quite the little chef & baker.
Will be starting Pre-K this fall, which is completely unreal to me.
Are “reading” like crazy, which makes your reading specialist/English teacher momma very happy. You love books. You have every pre-literacy skill you need. Next? Actual reading!
Are fascinated with numbers. You count (& want us to as well) everything. You just learned how to do connect the dots the other day.
Love your little brother. He is getting big enough that you two wrestle around & really play together now. You miss him when he is taking naps & you are up. You make sure he is okay when we are at the playground.
Speaking of playground, you love being outside. This time of year the weather is hit & miss, but we get out there as much as we can. You love to ride your bike & play soccer & playing with the kids across the street.
Are starting to learn to swing on your own. Just this past week we were at the playground & I looked over & you were kicking your legs up & back while telling yourself, “Up! Back!”
Are at the age where you are learning you are a separate individual from mom & dad. You are pressing boundaries to see what you can get away with, which is both exciting and frustrating to Daddy & me all at the same time.

We love you little man! Happy Birthday!

Jami’s Favorite Things

2010-12-30T07:57:00.000-06:00

For the past 3 or 4 Christmases, my mom has started giving my sister-in-law & I a gift of her favorite things. Kind of a knock off of Oprah’s Favorite Things. She puts some of her favorite things in a bag and has us open them at the same time. It’s a gift I really enjoy getting because I always end up discovering something new that I LOVE. This year my favorite thing of mom’s favorite things was a jelly watch. While I can’t give you all a gift of my favorite things, I thought I’d at least tell you about my top 10 (in no particular order). Ready? And Go!

(I have not been compensated by any of these companies for my opinion on their products. These are truly some of my favorite things. If you came to my house you’d find them all. Well, except for the chocolate & the beer; I’ve consumed them.)

1) Arbonne RE9 Corrective Eye Cream

I honestly believe my crow’s feet have been drastically reduced by my use of this eye cream. That little bottle lasts me about 3 months. It’s a bit expensive but totally worth it. TOTALLY.

2) Pampered Chef Stones

I own almost every single stone Pampered Chef sells. And I. Love. Them. All. There is truly a difference in cookies baked on a cookie sheet & cookies baked on a stone. The stones just cook more evenly than other pans.

3) Diet Dr. Pepper

I drink WAY too much of this stuff. But I do heart it. I wish all restaurants carried it. I’ve been know to choose where I will eat based on whether they carry DDP.

4) Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate & Caramel Squares

Just doesn’t get much better than chocolate and caramel together. These really are a little piece of heaven. Santa leaves them in my stocking every year.

5) The Stephanie Plum Series

If you have not read this series, GO. Start now. You will love it. It’s entertaining to say the least. I like to read them on the beach. So, get to a body of water and introduce yourself to Stephanie.
Trust. Me.

6) Dunkin’ Donuts Dark Roast Coffee

I wasn’t a coffee drinker at all until I became a SAHM with my 2 boys. Now, seldom does a day go by that I don’t drink a cup of this coffee in the morning. And, yes, it is really more like a cup of creamer & sugar with a little coffee mixed in. BUT this is the coffee I am stocked up on.

7) The Pioneer Woman’s Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever

Just make it. You’ll see. That is all.

8) iPhone

This is one of those things that I didn’t know I was missing until I finally got one. Wouldn’t be without it now. I’d be lost without it. Lost I tell you.

9) Lindemans Peche Lambic

My husband introduced this to me at a local pub. The peche=peach by the way. Oh my. It is a delicious beer.

10) Bissell Sweep Up

Just got this for Christmas from my parents. LOVE IT. So much easier than dragging the vacuum out every time the boys get crumbs all over the floor. I think I will grow to love it more.

So, what are some of your favorite things?

Fresh Swordfish

2010-12-29T06:00:00.000-06:00

I cooked this meal for us while we were on our anniversary trip in Florida. I had never cooked swordfish before, but it was so easy and good. And that Robert Mondavi Zinfandel wine? PERFECT with it. Mwah! Can we go back?

Random Topic—Mac & Cheese

2010-12-28T06:00:00.000-06:00

Last week it was socks. This week it’s mac & cheese.

When I asked for a random topic yesterday, my friend and fellow AD fan, Angela, replied with Macaroni & Cheese.

Piece. of. cake. Here we go.

If I had to pick one comfort food to eat forever? Mac & cheese. Hands Down. It’s ALWAYS been my favorite. Always.

One of my aunt’s favorite stories to tell about me from when I was little—probably around 5:

She, my mom, and I were shopping in a town about an hour from where we lived at the time. My aunt and mom were discussing where to stop for lunch and couldn’t agree on a place. My aunt wanted Chinese food, while my mom wanted a burger.

So, turning to me to be the tie breaker, they asked, “Jami, which would you like for lunch, Chinese or a hamburger?”

My response?

“Macaroni & cheese.”

I grew up loving the stuff & I still love it to this day. My mom made a version of it with egg noodles, Velveeta, & browned hamburger meat. OMGoodness. Heavenly. (That reminds me. I need to make that soon; it’s been entirely too long since I’ve had it.)

I used to always make the boxed stuff. Still do if I am in a hurry. And to be honest…I love the stuff. But homemade is really better, right? All the recipes I had ever found were just to complicated for what I consider to be a simple food. But then I married into my husband’s family. His grandma & mom make killer homemade mac & cheese. The best part? It’s SUPER SIMPLE.

And if you know me at all you know I am all about the simple.

Here’s all you need & part of the finished product (This is actually left over from last night’s dinner.):

Yep. That’s it. Cook the noodles, drain, put in a baking dish, add some American cheese & milk, & bake for about 30 minutes. No need to measure things. I just stir it around after about 15 minutes. Add some cheese if it needs it or add some milk if it is too dry. Just eyeball it. Easy PeeZee.

My conclusion? Mac & cheese is my PERFECT comfort food. What’s yours?

Christmas Traditions:Gotta Love ‘Em

2010-12-27T06:00:00.000-06:00

I’m not here today! I am guest posting over at Mountain Mum. I shared one of our Christmas traditions in my family with you Friday. Visit me over at Kristina’s blog to read about my CRAZY extended family. After over 34 years we still do this one thing. You’ll have to venture on over to see what it is.

XOXO
~J~

Our Christmas Mantle

2010-12-24T06:00:00.000-06:00

I love my Christmas mantle. It is a Christmas tradition around my house. Growing up, Santa & these little elves & mice graced our fireplace mantle every year. My mom gets tickled at me because she never knew it was a tradition to me until the year she tried to change the mantle decorations. I. Threw. A. Fit. And I was about 16 or so. It wasn’t pretty (The fit that is.). Funny how many Christmas traditions grow out of something that you never intended become a tradition. She gave me the decorations so that I could use them in my house.

Here are a couple of closer looks.

Through the years the little mice & elves have gotten chipped and pieces have broken off, but I don’t care. I’ll use them until they are unfixable. Poor Santa bit the dust two years ago now. My husband tried to fix him, but so far he hasn’t had much luck. He was a cutie though. Here he is in a mantle picture from 2007.

We have started creating our own Christmas traditions with our boys now. My favorite one is eating Christmas Eve dinner on china in our Christmas pajamas. So. Much. Fun.

What are some traditions you hold dear?

XOXO
~J~

Boy Toys

2010-12-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

The following phrase exits my mouth NO LESS THAN 5 times a day:

“Get your hand out of your pants.”

The boy moms in the crowd are shaking their heads in agreement. You completely understand what I am talking about.

From a VERY early age, both of my boys discovered their manly play toys. I’d say probably around the same time they were discovering their ears and noses and hands and toes. It was just another body part they discovered right along with the others. When I change diapers, hands are (or were cause the 3 year old is now potty trained) immediately drawn to it. Like a moth to a flame. It’s like a magnet.

The theory I have developed about this as a result of being a boy mom? Women don’t play with their girls because we haven’t had them since day one. Men? Well, their boys have been keeping them company since they were in diapers.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

XOXO
~J~

Random Topic—Socks

2010-12-20T23:08:00.001-06:00

I asked for a random topic on Twitter last night. Little did my tweetin’ tweeps know, I was going to take the topic and run with it for this blog post. The first response? Socks--via my Canadian girl Tara. P.E.R.F.E.C.T. Here we go…

Socks. How do I LOATHE thee? Let me count the ways.

1) The people who make you for toddlers have plotted a conspiracy against parents by putting six different pairs of socks in the same package. Oh, they all look similar, but they aren’t the same! I bought Sweetie Pie & Boogaboo each a six-pack of you. All the of you were white, but each pair of you had distinguishing markings. (which could not be seen because of the packaging)Three pair of you in the set had a gray heal. The other three a navy one. BUT of the three gray ones, one pair had two gray stripes around the top, one pair one gray stripe around the top, and the third no gray stripe. Ditto on the navy. Whyyyyyy? Are you trying to make me lose my mind? Make all the flippin’ socks white (with the size on the bottom—I actually so appreciate that) and be done with it already. Amen.

2) Folding you is a PAIN IN MY ARSE! Seriously. You sit in my laundry basket well after all of the other laundry has been put away. In fact at this very moment, my family is having to dig through the basket to find a pair of you to wear. I will go through 10 rounds of laundry before I admit defeat and finally sit down, bump you out of the basket, & pair you up. And I curse you the entire time I have to do it. Every. Single. Time.

3) Keeping track of those of you that Boogaboo takes off is a NIGHTMARE. What is up with toddlers and socks??? I mean really. Is it that difficult to keep the things on? I find socks in the most random of places. Purse. Garage. Pantry. Blanket drawer. Under car seats. In the yard. And the really strange part? It’s ALWAYS the right one. Never the left. I know this because his right foot is always the one that he strips the shoe and sock off of. To be fair, Socks, this one really is something you don’t control, but you are involved and the situation is maddening. So I blame you.

4) The washer and dryer eat you. Hence the reason you are a pain in my arse to fold. When I do finally get around to matching you up, half of you no longer have mates. At least no mates that are clean. You must be the washers payment for cleaning clothes. Like one load of clean clothes costs me 5 random socks. All from a different set. Just to make the task of matching the socks up more fun. You know. Because I don’t have enough to do around here.

Ahhhh, I feel better. Thanks Tara.

XOXO
~J~

Sour Cream Enchiladas (Please see my comment below.)

2010-12-16T14:24:00.001-06:00

I've made this so many times I don't really measure, so these are my best guesses. I have tried to make these healthier with fat free sour cream and reduced fat soup. They are still good, but using the bad stuff is so much better!
Corn tortillas are key! And, yes, I know these are flour in the pictures. They are still good that way, but I have recently discovered how much better these are with corn. Try them both ways. You’ll see.
1ish pounds drowned hamburger (I brown mine with some chopped onion.)
1 8oz sour cream
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1can chopped green chilis
3/4 tbsp cumin
Salt & pepper to taste
Corn tortillas
Shredded cheddar cheese
Mix the drained ground beef with the remaining ingredients. This is your filling.

Use CORN tortillas. So much better than flour with these & I'm a flour tortilla girl myself. Wrap the filling in the tortillas (a good spoonful or two is enough. This one is a bit too full.) & place in baking dish.

Leave some filling to cover the top of the enchiladas in the baking dish.

Top it all with a couple of cups of shredded cheddar cheese. (And, POOF! magically the tortillas have turned to corn.) This is a picture of the ones my family will be eating tonight. The enchiladas in the previous pictures have already been devoured.

(Side note: At this point, you can cover them with plastic wrap and foil and freeze them. They work great that way. Then you have dinner made on a crazy, busy night. I’ll double and even triple the batch sometimes so I have plenty in the freezer.)

Bake covered with foil at 350 for about 30 minutes. You just want to get them melded together and hot. Uncover and bake long enough for the cheese to melt and brown a bit.

Hope your family enjoys them as much as mine does. I grew up eating these. Come back and let me know what you think after you’ve tried them!

The Yearly Torture

2010-12-15T08:10:00.001-06:00

Our trips to take the boys to sit on Santa’s lap have gone like this:

2007: Sweetie Pie was 11 months old. We went to the mall where the picture packages where ridiculously overpriced. Our picture is of him screaming with a puff—you know those Gerber thingies—hanging out of his mouth. Paid like $30 for that. Yes, I know it is a classic picture that you have to have, but we were all stressed out after the event. Took like 2 hours to calm all 3 of us down.

2008: Sweetie Pie was almost 2. We discovered Bass Pro Shops give you a free picture with Santa. Ha! While I did what to have the classic Santa picture, I didn’t want to pay the money if he was just going to scream. I. Was. Thrilled. So, off we went to Bass Pro. And, indeed, I ended up with exactly what I expected. A FREE picture of E screaming while on Santa’s lap.

2009: Sweetie Pie (SP) was—Well, you do the math. And Boogaboo was 7 months old. We went to the zoo for a special event called Santa Delivers. We watched Santa deliver gifts to a few of the animals. Sweetie Pie actually gave Santa a high five. Cut to hubs and I smiling & looking all hopeful that maybe this was the year…we’d get a good Santa picture. But nope. Not from SP. He wouldn’t even get close to sitting on Santa’s lap for a picture. But Boogaboo did us proud. He was still young enough to be clueless, so we did get a good first Christmas picture with Santa of him. With our own camera. Again, Free. I know I am cheap. Or frugal. Or whatever you want to call it.

2010: With Boogaboo being 18 months now & with Sweetie Pie’s track record, I was FULLY prepared for a meltdown performance from both boys when I took them to see Santa this year. The day we were going, I talked Santa up BIG TIME to SP. All he could talk about was going to see Santa.

I.Was. So. Excited.

I got the boys dressed in their little Christmas sweaters & off we went. To Bass Pro. Because it’s free & they usually have a pretty decent looking Santa. We got there and NO LINE. (Play Hallelujah chorus in the background here.) Santa gave both boys candy canes, which apparently won there hearts because, people, we actually got a decent Santa picture this year.

Complete with reindeer in the background.

Now by decent here’s what I mean. There were no tears. No fits. No meltdowns. SP didn’t actually smile, but he doesn’t smile in pictures these days anyway. Boogaboo does have a freaked out look on his face, but still not tears. Success. I even dropped $10 for a picture package. I know. You’re shocked.

And Sweetie Pie actually TALKED to Santa. Faint! Here’s the conversation.

Me: Sweetie Pie, tell Santa what you want for Christmas.

SP: (as Santa looks intently on) I want ping pong paddles and a big bowl of water.

Me: (thinking ‘What. the. heck?’)

Santa: What are you going to do with the big bowl of water?

SP: Put my boat in it.

Of Course! Children are so logical sometimes. Except we don’t have a boat.

XOXO
~J~

The Birth of Boy Crazed Momma

2010-12-14T14:05:00.001-06:00

Welcome to my new home! What do you think? I’m in love with the colors. This blog will be sort of a continuation of my previous blog, The Ditzy Duo. That blog was originally created to tell stories of my best friend and my adventures & eventually morphed into more of a momma blog. So, I decided to separate them. Enter Boy Crazed Momma.

My desire for this blog is simple: I want to connect with people. Please fell free to leave comments galore. Have conversations with me and each other. I love dialogue people. The more the better.

All of my previous posts are here now. Along the side you’ll see links to a few of my favorites. There is a mixture of momma stories, girlfriend stories (under the Thelma and Louise title on the right side) , random thoughts, and some recipes.

I hope you’ll join me on this new side adventure. I plan to use mainly this blog, but I’ll still post a few good Thelma and Louise stories at my other address from time-to-time. Grab your coffee. It’s going to be an exciting ride!

XOXO
~J~

Wordless Wednesday—11/17

2010-11-17T08:22:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite sleeping pictures of him.

Gaga and Penguins and Buzz, Oh My!

2010-11-16T08:21:00.000-06:00

Better late than never, right???

I really had two Halloweens. My first one was at Bunco , and then the second was taking the boys trick-or-treating on Saturday night.

We happened to have Bunco the Thursday night before Halloween weekend. So, of course, it was a costume party.

Lady Gaga stopped by:

And a penguin and flapper

And here we all are…the ones who dressed up…

Up next, the trick or treating! We had Buzz and Thomas at our house. It was hard to keep Buzz out of his costume before Halloween. He wanted to wear it all of the time. Thomas had a hat to go with his costume, but he wasn’t about to wear it. The battle was not worth fighting.

This year was fun because my 3-year-old really got into it. He kept saying, “Can we go to another [house]"?” as soon as we’d get finished at one. It surprised me that he really didn’t mess with the candy while we were walking through the neighborhood. We trick-or-treated around our house for a while and then we headed over to my in-law’s house so my 3-year-old could go around their neighbor with his cousins. If the proof is in the candy stash, then the evening was a success. And the bonus was that the boys are still too young to know which is the good candy, so mommy and daddy scored some good stuff. (Oh, don’t act like you don’t do it too.)

99 Things

2010-11-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

I’m pretty sure I stole this from my friend Laura’s blog. I have had it in my drafts for a while now and had forgotten about it. I stumbled upon it today, so here you go. A little get-to-know-me post. Feel free to lift this for your blog. Laura won’t mind. Promise.

Instructions: The post is a list of 99 random things. Bold the ones that you yourself have done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disney World
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (No, but I have on a plane.)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke (With a little liquid courage)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing (And threw up the entire time)
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling — snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching (Sort of—Got lucky and saw them)
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House (Just from the outside)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

The Season of Giving

2010-11-08T06:00:00.000-06:00

The Sears family in Canada needs our help. I met Dana on Twitter, & we have since become e-pals. Her family is struggling to pay for the care her son, Mason, needs. I know many of us look for ways to help those in need, especially this time of year. PLEASE consider helping this family. Thanks to Bonnie’s Bows you can even get some Christmas shopping done at the same time! Here is a sample of Bonnie’s goodies:

Here’s Dana’s story in her own words:

Hello, My name is Dana Sears & I am Mason's Mom. Mason was born with Special Needs. At this time we do not fully understand the "Special" but we do understand Mason's "needs". Because Mason doesn't have a diagnoses, Drs dont really know what causes his issues, we do not receive government funding for Mason's needs. In 2009 Mason received his G-tube, this is a tube implanted into his stomach to allow us to bypass his swallowing. Mason's feeding costs are around $100 a day, that works out to $36,000 a year, just to feed him. That is impossible for a young family. Mason also needs Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Developmental treatment, Behavioral intervention & tools to help us in our day 2 day life.

Many families with Special needs Children struggle financially due to the extraordinary costs of raising our children. Our Family has gone $64,000 dollars in debt just giving Mason the bare minimums for the last year and a half. We are unable to supply Mason with everything that the Drs. and specialists say he needs. We have had help from Variety-The Children's Charity, they supplied one year grant of $5000 when we were weeks away from having to give Mason over to the Ministry, we had no where left to borrow money from.
I never thought by Blogging my feelings, or our journey trying to solve Mason's Riddle that I would run across someone like Bonnie. Bonnie is an amazing woman, to want to help my family is more than I can thank her for. I am not good at asking for help, but we are again needing some funds for Mason. We are stuck waiting to hear about our appeal to the government and waiting to hear from Charities. As the next couple of months go by we will be in need of more medical supplies again.

What will we use the Donations for? The specialists have asked for Mason to have a swing that he can use at all hours of the day. Swinging is a long acting drug in Mason's body, better than any pharmaceutical available. Mason is the happiest when he is swinging. Over time we have purchased most of the parts like the swings, rope ladder, rings, and just need to purchase the lumber and bolts to complete it! This swing will allow Mason to use one anyone type if swing at one time and will sit in a room in our house. Also we need to purchase some more feeding bags, and a few Mic-key buttons. We go through a Mic-key button every two months, these cost just over $400 a piece. On average I spend $30-$45 a week in parking for appointments. This is a huge expense that most people don't realize. We have one credit card, right now it's maxed out at $1500 for just parking dues. It's crazy.

Our family can't thank you enough for helping. Complete strangers helping my family, it just amazes me. When everyone around us has left, complete strangers have picked us up, encouraged and now want to help support us. It's.Truly.Deeply.Amazing.

Warm Regards,
The Sears Family
www.DanaSears.com
Twitter: DanaSearsFam

So, how can YOU help? SIMPLE.

1) Head on over to Bonnie’s Bows and make a purchase. Twenty percent of her sales will go to Dana’s family.

2) You can go directly to Dana’s blog and make a donation through PayPal. There is a donate button on the right hand side of the page.

3) Spread the word. If you blog- steal as much of this as you want and re-post. Twitter? Link us up! Facebook, Myspace, Message Boards- we will take any advertising we can get!

In this season of gratitude and giving, please consider helping this family out in any of the above mentioned ways. Anything is appreciated!

‘Tis the Season

2010-11-06T11:55:00.000-05:00

W.O.W.! Have you seen the selection for Christmas cards and invitations over at Shutterfly? And there are some really unique ones! Let’s take a look, shall we?

I like this one just because it’s pretty without being too girly. Living in a house of testosterone, I look for things that meet that criteria. Love the colors. Love the simplicity. And I totally have a picture of the boys that would go great there. I found this one here.

The story cards are INGENIUS! I love getting caught up on my friends and families lives, but sometimes those Christmas newsletters are just a little too long. These story cards solve that problem. Hit the highlights of what happened during the year without giving every single detail. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. this one.

And who doesn’t love a party? Shutterfly has a great selection of invitations. If I was having bunco at my house in December, I would be all about this cookie swap invitation. Who doesn’t love cookies, right?

My choice for a card for my family would be this one. I love the short, sweet updates you can put on it, but, most of all, I love the colors!

Go take a look for yourself at the traditional Christmas cards, the story cards, the Thanksgiving cards, and the holiday party invitations that Shutterfly offers. They really do have a plethora of choices.

AND….

If you are a fellow blogger and would like to receive 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly, go here. Clever 1000 is the referral source I used.

Moms: Let’s Stop Judging Each Other!

2010-11-04T21:07:00.000-05:00

After reading this post over at the Heir to Blair my heart went out to her. You see, I’ve been there—a work-outside-of-the-home mom. And it’s though. Really tough. I totally get the guilt and frustration it can cause. I also get how exhausted you are at the end of the day. But I also think I have a unique perspective because while I was a work-outside-of-the-home for 3 years, I am now a stay-at-home-mom. (Do I sub one day a week, but that’s just for my sanity and because my MIL wanted to watch the boys one day a week still—perfection!) I am lucky to have such a great gig. Incredibly L.U.C.K.Y. As a mom who has been in both positions, I will just say each has their pros and cons and leave it at that for now.

Here’s what killed me, absolutely KILLED me about Blair’s post. It was the comments. The judgmental ones. I kills me that we moms judge each other so much. Now granted some of the comments could have been from people who do not have children, and let’s be honest, they have no clue what they are talking about and I can dismiss those. But some of the commenters where very specific about having children, so we know they are moms (or maybe dads). And some of the things those moms or dads said…Oh my. The GALL of some people.

Here’s an example:

I’m just curious about something here. Why isn’t you not working an option (I know, kinda personal, maybe you make more money than your hubby). But the work seems to be at the base of every problem you complain about. So quit. You don’t NEED the double income, no one NEEDS two incomes in a family. You just want one so you can keep buying pretty shoes and trendy hair bands, keeping your kid in the coolest clothes, and your hubby with the newest golf clubs. Life is about finding balance, and learning what is most important to you. You say it’s time with your kid, so than spend time with the kid.

Two things that got my feathers ruffled here.

1) Really? You don’t NEED two incomes? WHAT? You don’t know the financial situation of other families. A lot of families out there can’t survive on one income, especially in this economy. And they DO NEED two incomes to make ends meet. And they should be made to feel guilty about that. Yes, we are now a one income family. BUT we are doing A LOT of scrimping , pinching pennies, and rearranging of expenses. We are sacrificing quite a bit to make it happen. And? Here’s the other thing. I am a teacher, so once the boys both get into school, I will go back to work full-time. It’ll be a perfect situation again—on the same schedule as the boys. But some, no most, moms don’t have that luxury. Their careers aren’t so mom-friendly. And you know what? At that point my family will NEED the two incomes because you know what we aren’t able to do right now on one income? Save for college.

2) Apparently this whole comment isn’t even true, but even if it was, who cares? It’s none of your business why moms work. If they choose to work or if they have to work—not your concern folks. Priorities are different for everyone. Some people might work because they want to be able to take their families on nice vacations. Well, I can’t fault them for that. Think of the value of the cultural experiences, think of what you learn by visiting national parks. Honestly, I have big plans for vacations I want to take the boys on. That’s another reason I’ll be going back to work when they get in school. And some moms might work to give their kids nice things. And if that’s what they want, then more power to them. And? I’ll just say it. Some moms are not cut out to stay at home and, likewise, some are not cut out to work outside of the home. Love, love, love my boys, but I couldn’t get out of the house to sub fast enough today. They were driving me batty. I need this one day away to keep my sanity. Some moms may not need to work for the money, but they might need to for the sanity. I get that, and, even if I didn’t get it, not my place to judge.

Another example of a comment that made my blood pressure boil:

Blair has blogged about at least two weekends away without Harrison since he was born. I (and most moms I know) have had exactly zero weekends away from my baby at almost a year old; I already have very limited time with my daughter and I cherish what I do have. I would miss her if I went away.
Then again, I didn’t have the severe PPD/PPA issues, which I imagine would make you want to escape in a bad way so that’s a different situation that I don’t claim to understand.

Wait a minute. Hold the phone. Did this person really just insinuate that you have post partum issues to need time away from your kids? I can imagine that MAYBE, just MAYBE that might exacerbate the situation (and I am totally speculating here) but what mom out there can’t say she needs some time to herself? If you raised your hand, you are LYING. I’m just going to go ahead and call you on it. We all not only WANT some me time, but we NEED it as well. In fact I’ll just go out on a limb and say that I’m a better mom & wife when I get my me time. And how dare we judge moms who leave their kids for an evening to go out for some girl time. Or on a date with their husbands. Or whatever they need to do to have some time for themselves. And if a mom takes a weekend away to go to a conference, or a scrapbooking retreat, or a shopping trip once in a while, well, that’s her prerogative. More power to her. Heck, my husband & I have been known to take vacations without the boys. GASP! Judge if you want, but it has, dare I say, saved our marriage. We all love our kids, but sometimes we moms and dads need a break, yes?

My bottom line? This motherhood gig is hard enough no matter which side of the working fence you are on. We mommas need to be supporting each other, not tearing each other down. So the next time a mom is doing something you wouldn’t dream of, try to remember, you are doing something with your family & kids that another mom wouldn’t dream of. We are all different. Need different things. Want different things. Have different priorities. And just like with a society, shouldn’t we embrace our differences?

Fantastic Friday—10/29

2010-10-29T08:50:00.000-05:00

What an awesome week I’ve had! A-W-E-S-O-M-E.

1) I really did finally get back on the horse with my running and eating. I’ve been half a$$ing it for a few weeks now and had gained 2 pounds. This week I was finally able to drop them. AND I MADE A BREAKTHROUGH DECISION!

2) Hubs and I went to the Thunder season opener game on Wednesday. So much fun! I forgot how much I love basketball season. The game was exciting; we played the Bulls, and the score was close the entire game. We finally were able to pull ahead in the last 3 or 4 minutes and won our first season opener.

3) Bunco was last night. I play with several ladies I used to teach with, & they are such a fun, amazing group of women. Oh, & Lady Gaga, Marilyn, & a penguin showed up to play last night. (More on that in a later post. I know. I know. I’m leaving you hangin’.)

4) I got to hang out with my girl, Louise, last Friday night. It had been awhile since it was just she and I out together sans husbands and kids. We went to The Melting Pot for some chocolate. What better way to send some girl time, right? The best part? I got a good Thelma & Louise story out of the night! Again, that’ll be for another post, BUT here’s a little reminder to tide you over.

5) Although I know it is still a work in progress, I feel that I am FINALLY starting to find a good balance in playing with my boys & being a domestic goddess (okay so maybe that’s a wee bit of an exaggeration) in this crazy, chaotic, awesome SAHM life. This past week, I was able to keep my house at a point where I was comfortable with it. If someone where to show up unannounced, I’d have been fine inviting them in.

6) This week I have been a blogging goddess. No really. I mean that this time. I blogged all week—except for yesterday. And for me that is incredible. When I get in over my head with the house, the boys, and running, this is the thing that gets taken off my plate. BUT, like I said above, I am finding that balance. I am figuring out how to get the housework, the playtime, the writing, the socializing, the family time all into one day. Some days (like yesterday) something has to give, but, at least this week, I did something right.

I’d love to hear about the good that happened in your week! Leave some comments & let us know what you are grateful for in your week.

Wordless Wednesday 10/27

2010-10-27T18:00:00.000-05:00

The east side of Cozumel that a lot of visitors don’t see. I highly recommend taking the drive around the island if you are there. B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!

Say No to Double Strollers!*

2010-10-26T21:33:00.000-05:00

(*Not THIS particular double stroller, just double strollers in general.)

Today was the last straw. I will quit running before I run with the boys in the double stroller again anytime soon. What’s that you ask? You want to know why? Well, let me just give you my two (Yes there are only 2) reasons I’m going on this little strike.

1) It is an absolute ~~mad house~~ ~~zoo~~ three-ring circus getting all three of us ready to go.

I have to wrangle the boys, get them dressed, get socks & shoes put on them, get my contacts in, put my running clothes & shoes on, pour sippies of something to drink, pack a snack for the boys, grab the blankies, grab some small toys, put jackets on the boys, open the garage and push the double stroller out, close the garage, grab all the above mentioned crap, shoo the boys out the door, grab my keys and iPhone, get the boys buckled into the stroller, hand out all their “goodies”, get my headphones in ears, turn on the iPod, and start my Joglog.

Fun, eh?

2) Getting them to sit still and just enjoy the ride AT THE SAME TIME is next to impossible.

I am still at the point that running is a challenge for me. I can usually run 2 or 2.5 miles and consider it an easy run. BUT I need to focus, concentrate on breathing correctly. NOT GONNA HAPPEN WITH THE MUNCHKINS. EVER. This is my 2 mile run on a typical day.

9:00—Start running (Goes pretty smoothly until the snack is gone.)

9:13—Help 17mo find his sippy cup

9:15—Pick up said sippy cup out of the street 17mo threw it into & put it in the cup holder with me so he can’t throw it again.

9:15-9:23—17mo throws a fit for the sippy cup.

9:23—17mo finds his blankie & all is well with the world.

9:25—3yo asks me the 3,564th question since we began the run. I answer the question only to get the 3,565th question of the run.

9:26—Turn the iPod up to tune out the incessant question asking by the 3yo. (Yes, I do this & I don’t care if you think it is mean. You aren’t there. You don’t know. And the questions are NEVER important. And I can still hear him if by some chance is ever was important. He just thinks I can’t hear him.)

9:29—Tell 3yo to stop messing with his brother.

9:30—Tell 3yo to stop messing with his brother in a stronger tone.

9:31—Stop my run, look into 3yo’s eyes, and tell him to stop messing with his brother or we aren’t playing outside when we get home.

9:35—Stop my run to pick up the train 17mo has thrown in the street.

9:41—Again with the questions

9:44—17mo hits 3yo—crying ensues

9:46—Return home vowing to NEVER run with the boys again.

So, be honest. Do you blame me? My new plan is to go on my runs as soon as my husband gets home from work. Ahhh, nice, peaceful runs. The absolute bliss.

Sleep: I Need It

2010-10-25T21:31:00.000-05:00

Picture it. You’re all snuggly in your bed. You’re sleeping so soundly you have a drool spot on you pillow. (Gross? Maybe Satisfying? Definitely.) The window is open so you can hear the storm rolling outside. You you are dreaming the BEST dream you have ever had, and it is gettin’ good.

Cue the 17 month old. Screaming. Bloody murder. You wake up and look at the clock. It’s 2:00. IN THE MORNING. You’ve only been asleep since 11:30. You get up, stumble into his room, change his diaper, and determine his tooth must finally be coming through. You go ahead and take him into the living room, give him some ibuprofen, and—what else?—watch a Blue’s Clues so the medicine can kick in. Finally you get him back in bed, and you go crawl back into your warm, cozy snuggly bed. It’s 2:30.

Cue the 3-year-old. Up and down for the next TWO HOURS. He has to go to the bathroom. He has to put a bath toy he found in his room back in the bathtub. (WHY???) He needs a drink of water. You get up with him no less than 3 times. Finally you get back to sleep somewhere in the neighborhood of 4:30.

And then, per the norm, the 17 month old is awake for good at 5:15.

This has been my life the past three nights. Not all three nights have been this bad (This was the first of the three & by far the worst.) I mean, come on. I feel like I have a newborn again—in a fog and running on autopilot. Sure I am used to getting up at 5:30 or 6:00 everyday courtesy of the younger little man, but really? What is up? Shouldn’t my 17 month old be sleeping better by now? (My 3-year-old is BY FAR my better sleeper. This particular night was so out-of-character for him.) I have tried putting the littler one to bed later. Still gets up at 5:30. So, I out him to bed earlier. Still up at 5:30. Limit his naps during the day. Hello 5:30. Let him sleep the day away. You guessed it. 5:30. So, my next plan of attack? Back to baby basics. Get him back on a schedule. Starting tomorrow. At 5:30 AM.

Do you other mommas have any words of wisdom? How do I get this kids to sleep later?

Splish Splash!

2010-10-17T08:41:00.000-05:00

We discovered this splash park near our house late this past summer when our air conditioner was on the fritz. We spent just about every afternoon there that week because that’s how long it took the AC people to get out to our house. The boys LOVED it! (Well, it took the 16 month old a bit to warm up to it, but he loved it after a few minutes.) It was a great place for them to cool off from the 100 degree temperatures. As soon as the splash park opens again Memorial Day weekend, I’m sure we’ll be there.

5 Years & Many More to Come

2010-10-15T09:54:00.000-05:00

Today my husband & I celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary; it feels kind of like a small milestone.When I decided I was going to write this anniversary post, I had trouble deciding between writing about our actual wedding or writing about our actual marriage. I decided on the latter. Too often I think people go into marriages thinking it will be a piece of cake. That everyday is going to be full of honey and sweetie and sugar pie. That the hot passion will last forever. And please don’t get me wrong. Some days are like that; sweet, kind, passionate. But it’s rarely like that ALL day, EVERYday. Because, you know, real life happens. Kids, careers, merging two families, creating a home. So here are a few “lessons” I have learned in the past five years. (I can’t speak for my husband, but I’d venture to guess he has learned a few of the same things too.)
In the case of my husband and I, we are both first borns (i.e. stubborn) and we were older when we got married (i.e. set in our ways), so you can imagine how much we can butt heads some days. The words, “You know you don’t always have to be right!” have come out of both of our mouths on more than one occasion. We have learned to fight (Yes, we fight. You’re shocked I know!) in a way that works for us. I have continually discovered through these past five years just how important it really is to know your partner’s “fightin’ style”.
I know this isn’t a new concept; that you have all heard “experts” say this, but I am here as a non-expert to say it is OH. SO. TRUE. You have to make time for date nights & time for each other. When hubs and I have a few days in a row that aren’t just peachy-keen, one of us will realize it has been a few weeks since we had time just us. Ideally, we try to have date nights at least twice a month. (This doesn’t always happen.) But they really do rekindle & refresh us. And these date nights are all well and good, but want to know the secret that I think really works for us? We go on a vacation every year sans kiddos—yes you read that right. EVERY YEAR. And while we miss our boys like crazy (I almost cried when we boarded the plane this year—ALMOST I said), we find we reconnect on so many levels while we are away. We are reminded that the most important thing we can give each other and our boys is a strong, loving relationship between us. And while being the best parents we can be is so very important, being the best wife/husband might be even more so. Because, let’s face it, the boys will leave this house eventually, and it will be just my husband & I living here. I want that day to come and be looking at my best friend not a total stranger. My point is I’ve learned it’s important to make time for you as a couple.
Another lesson I’ve learned? I feel closer to my husband when we do activities together. Sounds weird right? Let me give you an example. We are both divers. There is nothing we enjoy more than diving together. There’s just something about experiencing something together that not everyone sees that makes me fell close to him. And the conversations about the dives last way past the dive itself. Heck, we still talk about the dive when my husband touched a shark at least once a month. Other activities we enjoy together? bike riding and following our local NBA team. Simple things.
The most important thing I’ve learned is that for my husband and I both is to know we each have the others’ back; that we are on each others’ side. And I am going to leave that one just that simple.
So, that’s my wisdom I have to impart on you. Please don’t read this and I think that I think we have it all figured out. Because I don’t. We are still learning daily, but I do feel like we are pretty good at some things. That’s ok, right? No matter how long you’ve been married, I believe you always are learning new things. What have you learned in your marriage?

Jack-O-Lantern: McMelon

2010-10-14T22:04:00.000-05:00

We have a new member of the family: our jack-o-lantern. The other night we were all outside playing, and E asked his daddy if they could make a jack-o-lantern. So, my husband dropped his workout, and they got started.

Once the face was drawn on and the top cut open, it was time to clean out the pumpkin, E got grossed out and went to ride his bike. So much for the father-son bonding time (not to mention the workout that daddy dropped).

When E did grace us with his presence, getting him to pick up the stem was about the only touching of the pumpkin we could convince him to do.

Of course daddy would have had to do the carving part by himself anyway.

We thought he turned out well. E is so proud of him that I think he thinks he carved the jack-o-lantern himself. And we’ll just let him think that cause, well, he’s 3 and what’s it going to hurt? But I know the day is coming when E will carve a pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern all by himself & not get bored or grossed out because, you know, time flies.

A Little Hike

2010-10-10T06:20:00.000-05:00

These are my boys in action this summer. We were at the Grand Canyon. this was right after we had a picnic lunch; they took off with their daddy on an exploration. I didn’t realize how closely their close matched until my husband showed me this picture. Love that each of them have a foot off the ground. Yep, this picture pretty much depicts my life—always on the move!

Fantastic Friday 10/8

2010-10-08T08:25:00.000-05:00

Still love this idea. My goal is to do a fantastic Friday post every week. It really does make you realize what you have to be thankful for. And I’ve got a lot of gratitude to express for things that happened this week.

1. We got the garage cleaned out! This bares repeating. WE GOT THE GARAGE CLEANED OUT! Finally put all of the baby stuff in the attic while we figure out if we’ll have a third child. And we got all of the boxes full of my “classroom” put away on selves or in the attic.

2. While cleaning out the garage and the attic, we re-discovered 12-18 month fall/winter clothes that my 1-year-old can now wear. AND we found 4T clothes friends & family passed down for my 3-year-old. Now we don’t have to spend money on clothes for the boys this season, which is awesome since we are still figuring out this one paycheck household thing.

3. The stars aligned, & I got to sub yesterday. It looks like this will be the Thursday norm of me. I’m thankful for this for a couple of reasons. 1) Though small, it is a little extra money for us. 2) It keeps me in the loop for when I go back to teaching in a few years.

4. I am thankful for my husband who wants me to be home with the boys as badly as I do. He worked his rear off the past couple of days to figure out more ways we can cut expenses to give us a little more wiggle room every month.

5. The scales are finally headed in the right direction again! After two weeks of the numbers going up (Remember that vacation my husband & I took?) and then holding steady, I’m FINALLY down one more pound. Yay!

6. It’s been a great week home with my boys, but the best part was Wednesday afternoon when my 3-year-old took a nap (That was a good thing, but that’s not where I was headed.) & woke up wanting to cuddle. I got 30 minutes of cuddle time with my sweetie pie.

7. Thunder tickets came in the mail this week. I am so excited for the season to start. Going to really enjoy going to games this year because next year me might have to sell off several tickets. No way we can afford season tickets with me staying at home.

8. Can’t believe I almost forgot his one, OU BEAT Texas! BOOMER SOONER!

How was your week? What happened that you are thankful for? Remember, sometimes it’s the little things. :)

Paradise Found

2010-09-29T13:33:00.000-05:00

A Little Slice of Heaven

2010-09-29T13:24:00.000-05:00

Putting It Out There

2010-09-15T10:41:00.000-05:00

I know this is supposed to be “Wordless Wednesday”, but this photo needs a little explanation. I have been really working to lose weight for a little over a month now. I posted about my plan of attack in July, but I didn’t hit it really hard until mid-August. I have been running, lifting weights, and watching calories, and I have lost 13 pounds. So, while this number is still about 35 pounds higher than my goal weight, I am proud of it for now. My scales have not shown this number since before I got pregnant with my now 3 1/2 year old—so what? Over 4 years, right?At this rate I should be right around 130 (my goal) right around the new year. :)

Mexico Moments

2010-09-14T09:39:00.000-05:00

This is a repost of one of the first stories I wrote for this blog. I need to write about Thelma and Louise again soon. But in the meantime, I thought some of you would enjoy reading this now that you have gotten to know us a bit better.

O.K. we have to admit, sometimes our funny stories roll out of the M-O-S-T embarrassing of situations; we are sure many of you girlfriends out there can relate. This particular running-to-the-bathroom-story is so embarrassing that we have made a pact with each other to never let out which one of us it happened to because, well, you will TOTALLY understand when you get to the end...

Let's just say there is a hotel cleaning lady in Mexico still cursing our names. It all started in 2003 with a trip we took to Ft. Lauderdale (There are some stories there too!) when we spent the week talking about going parasailing but never did. Once we arrived back home, we both regretted not taking advantage of the opportunity to fly high over the ocean. We promised each other and ourselves that if the moment ever presented itself again, we'd dive right in and not let it pass. Ok, jump ahead four years--a wedding and a child later. We, along with our husbands, finally took that trip to Mexico we had been talking about for years. Before we even left, we decided this was it; we were going to parasail over the Carribbean. How beautiful and tranquil, right? So, finally the last day of our trip we did it, and it was an experience neither of us will ever forget. EVER.

Nerves were building as our scheduled parasailing time crept closer and closer. One of us even tried to back out, but, true to our friendship, the other part of the duo twisted her arm and reminded her of the promise she'd made years ago and guilted her into holding up her end of the bargain. (You thought I was going to say something sweet about providing support and encouragement, didn't you? Yeah, that didn't happen.) Our husbands, being the supportive men they are--who are we kidding; they wanted ammo on us--bought a seat on the boat. So there we were, on the boat full of people who were also going parasailing. After the first person took his turn, we were up. The guide had told us each turn would last around 15 minutes, what sign to make to come down early, and that they'd try to bring us in so we'd land on the platform but there was a chance we'd end up in the water. Getting into the air was no problemo; it was smooth sailing (after all of the screaming and prayers on the way up). Our experience started off as we had envisioned--beautiful and tranquil--then it all went south in more ways than one.

We couldn't have been in the air for more than five minutes, maybe not even that long, when it hit--quite literally. Have you ever seen Sex in the City: The Movie? Remember Charolette's experience in Mexico where she did everything she could to avoid consuming any of the water only, when she accidentally did, she went running for the nearest toilet only to find herself unable to hold it any longer? Well, we are here to tell you, those "Mexico Moments (MM)" really happen, and this one happened to one of us 500 feet into the air! So, there we were in quite the predicament. The "accident victim" begged the other one of us to make the sign for an early landing and prayed we'd end up with an ocean landing (Who cares about the possibility of attracting fish and maybe even sharks? Landing in the water might at least give us the chance to get out of this situation with a little dignity). No such luck. We landed on the platform and were welcomed by questioning looks from our husbands. We did the only safe thing we could do in that situation; we said one of us was feeling sick. Now the trick was to get the boat to the dock and fast. The problem? There was still one person on the boat who hadn't had their turn not to mention the guides who's English was limited. At this point we can't even recall how the conversation went, but somehow we convinced the driver we need to get back to shore. And as luck would have it, a couple on the boat with us told us of a close bathroom once we got to the dock--the VIP lounge.

We both took off to the VIP lounge as soon as the boat got to the dock. I'm pretty sure neither of us had ever run that fast. We burst through the lounge and into the restroom. Let's just say there was no salvaging the bathing suit--never mind the HOURS it took to find that suit--so luckily she was wearing a cover up as well. And then another "MM" hit. She was in luck, right? We were in a restroom with a toilet right there. Well, if you have ever been to Mexico, you know the toilets don't flush like they do here. (At least this has been our experience.) So to make a long story short the toilet got stopped up. So there we were, one of us sick at this point, a toilet full of well, you know, and a RUINED bathing suit. What do you do in that situation? No amount of life experience could prepare you for this, right? Like any good girl would do, we PANICKED. (Here is where the bathing suit cover up came in handy since the swimsuit was now IN THE TOILET right along with--well, you know.) We ran out of the VIP lounge as fast as we could and across the resort to our rooms, where we stayed for the next three hours. We just knew somehow the hotel people would find the culprits.

Now we are sure you understand why we wish to keep this story anonymous. We promise this really happened; we couldn't make this story up if we tried.

Make Yourself at Home—Part 2

2010-09-09T21:08:00.000-05:00

First it was a tour of my fridge and deep freeze. Now, I invite you in to see my pantry (or pantries). I don’t really have a pantry per se. I’d kill to have a good sized pantry, but until we move I’ll just have to dream. (In my dream I also have an island in the kitchen, beautiful countertops, tile that does look dirty 5 minutes after I mop it, plush, cozy carpet, a big laundry room where I can actually do laundry, great, big walk-in closets, a huge, relaxing master bath, a bonus room for the boys play area, and a maid to clean it ALL. But I digress.)

So for now we have made this book self in the garage work for us. It mainly is used to store our canned goods. We go through a significant amount of tomato sauce and paste, so we always stock up on that. The boys like their fruit. We’ve been buying a lot of fresh, but we like to keep some canned on hand in case we are out. The ravioli is a quick, easy lunch when we are in a pinch.

Inside the house, I have a couple of sets of cabinets (Oh and a basket) I use for the rest of the pantry type foods. One set is above the microwave. It has cereal, pop tarts, fiber one bars, oatmeal, & that kind of stuff in it. The Bisquick is now gone thanks to Elle the Heiress pigs in a blanket craving on Twitter the other night. She had several of us craving them by the end of the night.

Another set of cabinets has our coffee, tea, jello, cake mixes, pastas, and such in them. Apparently I have Hamburger Helper. I forgot that was even there. And it is almost cornbread weather! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE me some Jiffy corn muffin mix. I can’t make it better from scratch.

And we of course have a snack basket above our fridge. Don’t you to? This is where we store the travel snacks. You know? The ones moms grab in case they need saving while running errands with the ~~hellions~~ ~~monkeys~~ children. Goldfish crackers, animal crackers, graham crackers, regular crackers. Are you seeing the theme here? We also keep our chips up in the basket too. Or sometimes they are beside the basket if it is overflowing, which it is right now.

That’s really it. I think it’s pretty normal stuff that we have. Now let’s be nosey and see what Elle the Heiress and Katie over at Cleared for Takeoff have in their pantries. They are giving us a tour today too! But my real question is what’s in your pantry? Care to show me around?

That’s What I Call Progress

2010-09-07T12:06:00.000-05:00

Thought I’d write a weight loss update in case any of you are wondering how that’s going. Well, it’s going. Slowly but surely. Since I began trying to lose weight and get healthy back in May (I didn’t really hit it hard until the second week of August.), I have lost 12 pounds and am almost down one size. But I am also building muscle—lifting weights, running. I can see more of a difference than my scales portray.

My arms are not nearly as flabby. My waddle when I wave—you know what I am talking about—is smaller. Now that it is getting cooler out, my arms are looking good for sleeveless shirts! I’m come to terms with the fact I will always have big thighs. It’s something my family has passed on to me. But I decided I would rather have big, muscular thighs than big, fat thighs. The running has started making a HUGE difference in this already.

I was surprised how quickly I was able to work up to running two miles. I don’t do it very quickly and sometimes it isn’t pretty, but I can run just a little over 2 miles without stopping. I don’t do this everyday. Like today, I was lucky to get a mile in before I had to stop and walk for a bit. I just wasn’t feeling it this morning. Not sure whether it was the humidity or the constant multitasking between my run and my boys in the stroller. Some runs are like that. Then there are the mornings my husband (Who I am so thankful for. He has been my biggest cheerleader through this process.) is home and I get to go for a run by myself. Without kids. Without the monster stroller. Now those are the mornings I really enjoy my run. Those are the mornings I can really push myself.

Now to really start focusing on my belly. Oh my how that area of my body has been neglected. I’ve always had a little pooch there and now, after two kids, Mamma Mia! I’ve been doing some Pilates and ab work, but I really think it’s time to kick it up a notch (or two or three).

So, yes, I have made progress. Quite a bit actually. I have a ways to go yet, but this has been the best start on getting fit and healthy I’ve ever had. Wish me luck on the rest of this journey.

Fantastic Friday-9/3

2010-09-03T10:11:00.000-05:00

I love this idea! What a great way to look back at the week and remember the positive and be grateful. Thanks Cameron Crazy Mom and Elle the Heiress for turning me on to this FANTASTIC idea!

Great things that happened to me this week:

1. Got to go have a girls night out and play bunco with my much missed teacher friends last night.

2. Weighed yesterday morning and I am officially down to my pre-baby weight.

3. Having a date night with hubs tonight.

4. Looking like we probably will get my oldest into the school district I’d love for him to be in. (After camping out overnight.)

5. My boys are playing more and more together. It’s so much fun to hear them laughing with each other.

6. I got my fridge and deep freeze cleaned out and organized!

7. My oldest is getting better and better at learning the “basics” of soccer. The whole family played in our street one evening.

Okay, I know there is more. Next week I’ll keep track as the week goes. :) What made your week so fantastic?

Parenthood Craziness

2010-09-01T11:16:00.000-05:00

This is crazy. I am sitting in a long line full of other people to try to get my 3-year-old into a school for NEXT year. Yes, that’s right. The 2010-2011 school year. My oldest will be going into Pre-K. The craziest part of this is that I have been in line—technically my chair as been—since 9:00 last night. I have been in the back of the Explorer tweeting, eating ice cream & sleeping (for a whole hour) up until now. I am number 86 on the unofficial list to get my kid in here. But I’m number 27 on the Pre-K list. The people at the front of this line have been here for a week. Yes, a week. They have pitched tents and barbequed food. I drove by here Friday night, and there was a smoker going in the parking lot. The superintendent of this district even provided port-a-potties. Craziness, no?

We won’t know for sure until May whether we are in or not. I’ve been told by the other parents out here who have done this before that being 27rd we have a pretty good shot. I’ll try not to get my hopes up though. We’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed until then.

Make Yourself at Home

2010-08-29T21:37:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my fridge! Are you hungry? Feel free to whip up dinner while you are here. When I first heard of this idea for a blog post courtesy of Elle the Heiress, who got the idea from Katie over at Cleared for Takeoff, I thought it was a little kooky. (Check out Cameron Crazy Mom too.) I believe my first thought was, ‘I wouldn’t want to show my cluttered fridge and freezer to the world. Why just the other day I was thinking about how I need to clean it out. And don’t even get me started on the deep freeze. I should really clean it out too. I have no idea what all is in there. I bet I’m wasting a ton of money buying food we don’t need because it’s hidden in the black hole.’ Okay so it was a rambling thought, but that’s what popped in my head. BUT the more I pondered this idea, the more I thought what great incentive to get this chore I hate to do done. So, here we go. Mi casa es su casa.

First up: the deep freeze. WARNING: IF YOU ARE A VEGETARIAN YOU WILL NOT LIKE THIS PART. YOU WILL QUICKLY SEE WE LIKE OUR MEAT. We are the stock-up-while-it’s-on-sale kind of people. And you’ll see that when we stock up, we stock up.

Before the Clean-out :

After the Clean-out :

This is a collage if the goodies in the nooks and crannies. We have enough mozzarella cheese to make pizza for the entire neighborhood. (This is why I need to do this little project.) We also have a ton of steak; it was on sale a couple of weeks ago. That deli cheese in the middle there on the left is THE BOMB. We get it at a place on the way to Branson. We’ll stop to eat at Lamberts, and then we go buy cheese while we wait on our table. In the middle are the pre-made meals—some by me and some store bought. Some nights you just need something EASY, you know? With the buns and bread, I have banana breads and Amish Friendship breads I made and froze for later. My husband smokes the best ribs, so we have four racks of those. And the crown jewel of the deep freeze? The Blue and Gold Sausage. This is made in Oklahoma and is BY FAR the best sausage around. In addition to all of this, we are stocked up on chicken, pork chops, and ground beef. There are a couple of roasts in there and a pork roast too. Should we not be able to leave our house for some reason, no one worry about us going hungry. I think we’ll be just fine. (as long as we don’t lose power.)

Next up let’s journey back into the house to the fridge. I know there are all kinds of goodies in there. Meet my fridge. (Sorry these pictures are the best. I had to do this project quickly while my 1-year-old was sleeping, so I grabbed the first camera I could find, which was my iPhone and got moving.)

After I finished organizing the inside of the fridge, I cleaned the outside. Here is the reality of what it looks like now. I think it’s a nice compromise of the above two pictures. Because, let’s face it, I gotta entertain the boys while a cook, and they love the magnet toys. Oh, and I have since found the M, so my boys will only have 3 letters they don’t know. The collection of magnets on the side of the fridge are from various places we have traveled. The little measuring cup on the front is my lifesaver. it contains all kinds off cooking helps. Substitutions, equivalent measures, those type of things.

And now on to the inside of this monster. Yes, this is going to be a long post. Go grab a drink and some popcorn. Maybe take a potty break if you need to. And then come on back and settle in again. Go ahead, I’ll wait for you…

Okay, are you back? Here’s the inside of this bad boy. And, yes, these are after I did a little cleaning and organizing.

Oh my. The left side of that picture is way blurry. No need to fret! I have some close ups! Let’s take a closer look at what my family is eating.

We have two open bottles of ketchups and 2 open jars of mayo because we went on vacation and had to buy more. Those then got brought home and added to our fridge. I have no idea why we have 3 bottles of open BBQ sauce. None. My 3-year-old would not survive this life without his strawberry milk. We never run out of this. We are trying to eat healthier, which explains the many bottles of salad dressing. Most of it is light. (A quick apology here to my Dad who works for Borden. Sorry about the milk. The boys where in meltdown mode, and I wasn’t making another stop. I know you understand.) Of all of that yogurt, we have three left in the fridge as I type this. My boys eat at least one a day and usually more. Oh, and the homemade jarred stuff? Most of it is courtesy of my mother-in-law and my grandmother-in-law. Just wanted to give credit where it is due.

Almost finished. Only have the freezer left. This is the one place that I really needed to throw some things out. There was a lot hiding in there. This is what I pulled out of the freezer. Crazy huh?

And here it is all cleaned out and pretty:

I was excited to see that we had more fish and seafood than I thought we did. Those Whips yogurts make great little low cal treats when frozen. I found the pecans, almonds, and walnuts I thought had disappeared.

AND BONUS POINTS: RANDOM FIND

Now tell me how in the world that crayon got on the top self in the door of the freezer.

And just as I was finishing all of the cleaning and organizing, my toddler woke up from his nap. He helped me finish the job.

Your turn. What’s in your fridge and freezer?

Will you help me?

2010-07-09T09:41:00.000-05:00

I’m on a mission, and I need your help. ~~PLEASE~~. ~~PRETTY PLEASE~~. PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON TOP. My mission is to be COMFORTABLE in my own skin for the first time in a LLLOOONNNGGG time. We are talking since middle school maybe—20 some years ago. For as long as I can remember, my weight has always been an issue for me. In middle and high school I think it was more of a negative self image thing than really being overweight, but that still prevented me from being comfortable in my own body. So, here I am, entering my mid-30’s (Can’t believe I’m going to be 34 next month; I feel like I should still be 23.), married with 2 little kids, & part of a family chalk full of diabetics. It’s time to change things. NOW. Here’s what I want to do:

1. Be comfortable in my own skin. I’m realistic. I am never going to be a supermodel. I just want to be halfway comfortable in a bathing suit.

2. Not be diabetic. My family is WONDERFUL and I have inherited their sense of humor, their love of family, and their boisterousness. I, however, do not wish to inherit their diabetes. No thanks!

3. Be able to play and run around with my boys and not be out of breath. I want as much energy as they have. Okay, I’ll be realistic and say half as much energy as they have. There no way at my age I’ll have the energy level of them. They’re crazy! (You moms of boys know what I am talking about and are nodding your heads right now.)

That being said, now I need a plan. This past week and a half I have started implementing one (and am already feeling the difference). Here’s what I have been doing:

1. Drinking WATER. Yes, I know it is a novel concept, but I was drinking 64 ounces of Diet Dr. Pepper a day. Now I know this is stupid, but I have a 32 ounces mug I got in the hospital when I had one of my boys and, for some reason unbeknownst to me, I will drink water out of it and not anything else. (I think it reminds me of how thirsty I was when I was breastfeeding.) I’m talking will GULP it down if water is in it. So, that’s what I did. Got it out and started drinking up! Pretty sure in the past few days I have drank no less than 3 mugs full each day. And I haven’t totally dropped the DDP, but I have limited it to one a day about every 2-3 days. (Drinking my first Sonic DDP in probably a month while I edit this post, and it is SOOOOO good. I’m sorry if you are reading this and don’t have Sonics where you live. You really are missing out. But I digress.)

2. South Beach eating. I know, I know, some people thing this low-carb thing is from the devil, but let me tell you why this is right for me. With me already being predisposed to diabetes, I decided to look at this diet a little closer because it focuses on leveling out your blood sugar. And it makes sense to me. The focus isn’t on NO carbs; it’s on GOOD carbs. And the way your body processes the good carbs. In fact, my mom’s diabetic doctor told her this is the way everybody—especially those with diabetes—should be eating. That all being said, I also believe the saying everything in moderation. (And confession here. I took a break from blogging to eat dinner and I ate WAY TOO MUCH tonight. I feel sick. I’m pretty sure the three pounds I lost in the past week and a half are back. Back on the horse tomorrow.)

3. Exercise. I’ve discovered I really like running. When my husband and I where dating, he introduced me to running. (I had never been a runner—still wouldn’t consider myself a runner but working on it.) I actually worked up to about 2 miles at that time. We also started bike riding. I’ll never forget the time he took me on a bike ride from our house to Yukon— a 30 mile round trip ride. I had no idea it was that far and he acted like it was just a little jaunt down the road. I almost killed him halfway through the ride. Then life happened, the kids came, and now here I am still needing to get my rear up and moving. I needed to quit using the kids and no time as an excuse not to exercise. So, this past week I picked up running again. I ran one whole mile without stopping yesterday. Yay me! And that being said, I promise I will go run as soon as my 1-year-old wakes up from his morning nap.

So, here’s the part where I tell you how you can help me if you’d be so kind. I’d like you to just randomly ask me how it’s going. If I’m drinking my water. If I’m eating right. If I’m running and riding my bike. I tend to do better if I know people are going to be checking up on me. Because (Here comes the sarcasm.) believe it or not, this isn’t the first time I’ve said I was going to lose weight and get healthy. BUT I really would LOOVVVEEEE it if it were the last. Will you help me along the way, please? Tell me your tricks? Send me a message on Twitter? Come back to this post and leave a comment every now and again? That would really mean a lot to me. :)

The Best No-Name Dinner

2010-07-02T20:42:00.000-05:00

I remember walking into our former babysitter’s house to pick my boys up on a few occasions and smelling the aroma of something wonderful for dinner. Come to find out it was roast. Now this wasn’t your typical potatoes and carrot roast. It was roast—Mexican style. You see her mother-in-law is Hispanic, and this was a recipe she taught to my sitter. So, based on the smell and the rave reviews she gave it, I had to make the roast.

And that was what my family had for dinner tonight. The only word I can think of to describe it is PHENOMENAL. No exaggeration. It was easily one of the best meals I have ever cooked. And it gets even better. It is also one of the easiest meals I have ever cooked. Score! The only downfall is it takes all day to cook, so you have to babysit it a little bit. But if you are going to be home all day anyway, you ~~might want to~~ ~~need~~ HAVE to make this for dinner.

Note: I’m sorry I have no pictures of this. I was too excited about making it and then way too excited about eating it to remember to take pictures. Next time I make it, I’ll add some shots to this post.

Here is how simple this is. Get a roast ( I don’t think the type of roast really matters, but you might find one cut is better than another. I don’t even know for sure what kind I used tonight; I think it was a rump roast.) Put the roast in a Dutch oven and cover it with water. Chop 4 or 5 or 6 garlic cloves and add to water along with a healthy amount salt and pepper. Put the Dutch oven on a burner set on medium-low-ish heat. You kind of, sort of cover the pot with a lid. Don’t put the lid on all the way; put it on kind of crooked-like. Leave it so that some of the steam is able to escape. Hope that makes sense.

Now you babysit it. Let it simmer for 5-6 hours adding water to the pot every so often to keep the roast covered throughout the process.

Isn’t this difficult so far? (Hope you sense the sarcasm there.) Now here come the hardest part. Get ready. You might need a nap after this part. Here we go…

After the 5-6 hours (or when the roast is tender and done) take the roast out and shred it. Pour off some of the water. Put the shredded meat back into the pot. Slice up onion and bell pepper—as much as you like—and add it to the pot . You should have just enough water to cover the meat and veggies. Do the kind of cover the pot thing again and let it simmer for 1-2 hours longer.

Make sure you have a margarita while it is cooking because you know you have been slaving away over this meal all day.

When ready to eat, serve in tortillas (We liked the corn best.) with guacamole. We had sour cream, cilantro, and lime juice with ours too. Yummy! Go crazy and figure out what condiment-type things you like to serve this meal that doesn’t have a name with. What should I call this meal???

My Heavy Heart

2010-06-02T14:23:00.000-05:00

I can’t quit thinking about this. It has really consumed my thoughts since I got the news, so I thought I’d write about what is on my mind. Maybe that will help.

Yesterday I woke up to a text message letting me know a student I just had in class this last semester had been in an ATV accident on Memorial Day and had died. He was 13 years old. 13. So young. Too young. He had so many friends; I know he will be missed. I can’t even imagine what his family is going through right now. I just keep picturing his mischievous smile and that ornery look in his eye. He was so full of life.

I just keep hugging my boys and telling them I love them.

Adventures in Motherhood

2010-06-01T15:05:00.000-05:00

Well, I’ve done it. I’ve quit teaching to be a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) for a few years. Isn’t it funny how one thing in life leads to another? And sometimes it’s the decisions other people make that effect your life. In this case what started out as a terrible morning for me, ended up being the best “bad news” I’d ever gotten.

It all started on Friday morning a couple of weeks ago. I dropped the boys off at the sitter’s (whom my boys and I LOVE) like normal, but, when I told her my parents would be picking them up in the afternoon, she broke the news to me through tears—she wouldn’t be able to watch my boys next year. She and her husband were going to try to get pregnant this summer, and she wanted a light work load in the fall. My boys were the last kids she took on (not to mention part-time), so they were the first to go. I didn’t mean for that sentence to sound as flippant as it did, but that’s the gist of it.

As I was on my way to school after the tearful convo with her, I called my husband to let him know hat was going on. I had to pull over when the water works started again. Being a man he immediately started looking for solutions to the problem; one of them being me staying home. Now, mind you, we’d had this conversation before with it all circling back to not being able to afford for me not to work. I told him that he knew that wasn’t a possibility, but he said he’d “run the numbers”. When we hung up, I was trying not to hold my breath as I realized that staying home with my boys was exactly what I wanted.

Fast forward to that same afternoon. My phone rang while I was on the bus with 130 eighth grade boys on my way to a sex ed field trip. Yes, that was loads of fun. But I digress. So, my phone rang. It was hubs. He told me he figured it out. The finances. He figured out how to make it work so I could be at home with my boys. I never in a million years would have believed we could figure out how to afford for me to stay home, but, thanks to my wonderful, number-savvy husband, we did!

Gotta be honest here. As much as I knew this was what I wanted, I had mixed emotions about it. I was super excited about getting some of these treasured years home with the boys, but I was also nervous. Nervous about money and nervous about the lack of adult interaction in my coming days as a SAHM. I was also sad about leaving my fellow teachers whom I love. But, I have to say, as soon as this decision to stay at home was final, and I saw the smiles on my boys faces as I played with them that night, I knew hubby and I had made the right one.

And besides, I always have Twitter and Facebook for my adult interaction, right?

Feeding Frenzy 2

2010-04-03T10:27:00.000-05:00

Here we go. My family’s dinner menu for this month. (I’m a little late in posting it, sorry.) I lived and learned with last month’s. And now I will pass my new-found knowledge on to you. (I’m a giver; what can I say?)

1. It’s okay not to stick to the menu EXACTLY. I found even when I digressed from the menu, it was still helpful because I knew exactly what was in my freezer.

2. Having a menu REALLY did the trick on helping us not eat out. Dinner no longer felt nearly as overwhelming every night now that I had a plan.

3. I have re-discovered my crock pot. And, oh how I have missed it! I have a friend who was gracious enough to share some of her recipes with me. I’ll let you know how they turn out.

4. I found in making the menu out for a month that if I went from what I had in the freezer and pantry already and then filled in the rest, my grocery shopping list wasn’t nearly as large and expensive.

Have you ever meal planned? What tips do you have? Recipes? I’m always up for new recipes.

Super Simple Brunch Ideas

2010-03-14T15:05:00.000-05:00

This is actually the menu I served for a family brunch we had one Christmas morning. I needed something E.A.S.Y. since it was such a busy time (And did I mention this was my son's first Christmas?), but I also wanted something that was nice since it was Christmas. So, I made this menu and broke out the china. I think it turned out beautifully if I do say so myself.

All of these recipes are ones that can be made ahead of time which makes it nice the morning of the brunch because you won’t be rushing around trying to get everything prepared and cooked. (I even set the table the night before.) I promise they are just as tasty as they are simple.

Almond Bread

(I got this recipe from Claudine—see Haunted Texas. She made this for us before our San Antonio Trip.)

Do the prep work (as simple as it is) on this gooey bread the night before you want to eat it. Then in the morning pop it in the oven.

24-28ish frozen Rhoades dinner rolls
1 stick butter or margarine
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp. Almond extract
1 small box dry vanilla pudding
¼-1/2 cup sliced almonds

Liberally (And I do mean liberally) coat a bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray. Place the frozen dinner rolls around the pan. Melt the butter and brown sugar in the microwave. Add Almond extract. Pour mixture over rolls in pan. Sprinkle dry vanilla pudding over rolls. Sprinkle sliced almonds over rolls. Spray a piece of plastic wrap with non-stick cooking spray and place treated side down and cover pan. Let rolls rise over night. In the morning, remove plastic wrap and bake at 350 for approx. 30 minutes. Let cool for ten minutes and turn out onto platter.

Sausage Balls

My dad has been making these for years, and they are a family favorite. I’ve seen a lot of variations out there, but these are the easiest to made and, trust me, they are just as good if not better. These little treats only have three ingredients and are simple to make. Make two or three batches and freeze them. Then you can pop them into the microwave to defrost and reheat as needed.

1 lb sausage
2 1/4 cups Bisquick
12 oz. shredded cheese (I like cheddar and pepper jack the best.)

Preheat oven to 375. Put all of the ingredients in a bowl and combine using your hands. Roll into balls and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. Doesn’t get much easier than that!

Fruit Salad

Ok, so I know fruit salad isn’t the hardest thing to make anyway,but this truly is the EASIEST fruit salad ever. It’d be something you could really just throw together at a moments notice. It’s the canned fruit cocktail that is the base. You can basically add whatever other fruits you like. Here’s how my mom always does it.

2 cans fruit cocktail, drained
3 bananas, sliced (If you aren’t serving this right away, dip the slices in lemon or lime juice to keep them from turning so fast.)
1 apple, chopped
3/4 cup miniature marshmallows

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, chill, and serve. Walla! Fruit Salad!

Try them and let me know what you think. :)

Haunted in Texas

2010-03-12T21:34:00.000-06:00

Thelma & I went to Austin, TX to visit a fellow Phi Omega Sigma pledge sister a few years ago. (We’ll call her Claudine.) When we got there, she had a big, wonderful, exciting surprise for us--an overnight road trip to San Antonio! Woohoo! Let’s repack our bags and get moving! Nothing like a road trip with the girls.

We titled the theme of this Austin trip “Are We There Yet?”. It all started with plane delays because of weather in Dallas. (I refer you back to a previous post: Stuck on a Plane.) Our theme continued as we traveled south by land to San Antonio. The traffic along the stretch from Austin to San Marcos was bumper-to-bumper.

When we finally made it to San Antonio, we found out Claudine had booked a room for us at the historic Menger Hotel. It is adjacent to the Alamo and next to the Riverwalk. Could she have picked a better place??? It wasn’t until we were checking in that Claudine informed us the hotel was said to be haunted. Yes, you read that right HAUNTED. Here, see for yourself here. There were problems with our first room, so Claudine (who is a read head so picture the fiery temper) promptly called the front desk and told them the room was unacceptable, and we were upgraded to a suite. Yay!

Once we switched rooms, we got ready for a night out on the Riverwalk. Before we left for the evening, we turned on a few lamps, so the living room in the suite wouldn’t be dark when we returned. (And, of course to ward off any ghosts that might be lurking about.) Before dinner, we went shopping for a girls’ best friend—SHOES! The previous year we had a girlfriend reunion and all of us bought toe rings. This year it was shoes. And, yes, by the end of our evening walking around the Riverwalk, our feet were killing us. But weren’t our feet cute?!

Upon returning to our suite in the supposed haunted hotel, we found the lamps we had left on had been turned off and the lamps we had left turned off were on. Hmmmm, me thinks we had visitors while we were away. Caaaa-rrrrreeeeepy. Luckily, before we left Claudine’s house that morning we grabbed some of those little sample-sized bottles of wine she had in her refrigerator. We did what any group of FREAKED out girlfriends would do--took that opportunity to crack those bad boys open. While we were sitting there ~~getting tipsy and more paranoid~~ talking, the lights started to flicker. Now, we realize that lights flicker all the time, especially in old buildings. The weird thing about this particular light flickering was that the flickering only happened when our conversation got steered back to the possible ghost in the room. Seriously. It was like the ghost was letting us know he was there in the room with us. As we carried on our conversation, the phone rang (again when we were referencing the possible paranormal activity). When we answered it, no one was on the other end (Claudine said she could hear breathing). At this point, we had convinced ourselves a ghost was among us. (And the wine might have been making was even more sure of that.) If one of us had to go to the bathroom, we all went. We didn’t want to be alone. In fact we had this huge suite to stay in, and we all three slept in the same bed that night. Yes, picture it. Three grown women in one bed. I have to laugh when I think back on it.

So, is the Menger Hotel really haunted? We really don’t know. We might have been creating it all in our heads; you know how girlfriends are when they get together. And I don’t really even know if I believe ghosts exist. But even I have to admit there is the possibility that we had visitors that night. Ahhhh, never a dull moment with Thelma around. Love her!

“Wawk”

2010-03-10T20:32:00.000-06:00

If I think about this too hard, I get a little watery-eyed. My three-year-old is PRECIOUS and in the midst of this trying age where he is testing boundaries night and day (and I sometimes feel like I am losing my mind), I sometimes forget just how precious he really is. And sometimes I get a much needed reminder. Last night was one of those times.

Last night he slept for the first time in big boy underwear (and no changing sheets this morning either!) He woke up at 2:30 hollering “Momma” because he needed to go pee pee. Annoyed because he doesn’t get that he could do this on his own just yet, I got out of my cozy, warm bed and stumbled down the hall to his room to get him. All I wanted to do was get him to the bathroom and then get back in bed. As he washed his hands, he kept telling me he wanted to “wawk”. I kept guessing what we meant. Walk? Work? Water? I couldn’t figure it out. I was frustrated at this point because I was clueless as to what he was telling me, and I also realized going straight back to bed was probably going to be a struggle.

Now, I need to back up here and say that when he tells me something that I don’t understand, I always tell him to show me. So, when I couldn’t figure out what “wawk” was, and I was just trying to shuttle him back to bed, he said, “Let me show you.” and proceeded to run into the living room. You moms out there can relate to my mood at this point; you know how grumpy I was that he was fighting me on going back to bed. All I could think about was the fact that I had to be up in three hours.

But then he did something that is making me tear up as I type this. My non-snuggly boy who I have always had to BEGGGG to let me hold him (even as a baby he wasn’t big on being held) ran to the recliner, patted it, looked at me, and said, “Wawk”. My heart melted. M.E.L.T.E.D. The annoyance was gone. My attitude immediately changed. He wanted me to rock him. And of course I obliged. Gladly. I didn’t care that it was 2:30 in the morning anymore. My baby wanted me to hold him. Rock him. Scratch his back. I could have held him all night.

Yes, sometimes I need those little moments that make me realize life goes too fast, and kids grow up too fast. If I get ~~a little less sleep~~ very little sleep in this phase of life, it will be okay. If my house isn’t perfectly clean (okay a mess), my kids won’t care. If we eat out every now and then, it isn’t the end of the world. There is a country song by Trace Adkins that my husband reminds me of every now and again, especially when it seems like life is getting too chaotic. The chorus goes like this:

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These Are Some Good Times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

And, yes, I am going to miss this. I am going to miss my precious son being three. I already miss him being a baby. Savor the moments, Jami. Stop when everything around you is a whirlwind and savor the moments.

My Bucket List

2010-03-08T22:15:00.000-06:00

My husband and I were talking the other night about the things we’d like to do before we die, so I have mentally been forming a list. Today I decided to put it down “on paper” and share my list with you. (I’m sure this list will grow as I think more about it.) And, I admit these are all about me, me, me. We will have to take out a ~~small~~ gigantic loan for all of this to be possible, but a girl can dream can’t she?!

Take our Alaska trip
Travel Europe
Dive the Great Barrier Reef
Go on a picture safari in Kenya
See the Pyramids of Giza
Drive through the NE in the fall
Eat lobster in Maine.
Camp at the Grand Canyon
Swim with dolphins
Play Blackjack in Vegas
Write (& maybe publish) a book
Throw a fancy party
Ride in a hot air balloon
Stay in a bungalow over the ocean
Skinny dip in a hot tub while it snows
Be comfortable in a bathing suit
Run in a 5k race
Surf

So, what’s on your bucket list? Do share. I might steal some of your ideas. :)

Feeding Frenzy

2010-02-23T06:32:00.000-06:00

So, I feel I need to apologize to you up front about this post. It’s really not that exciting, but I am trying something new in my house and wanted to share it. It is a step in the right direction for my resolutions in my Happiness Project. The other reason I choose to share this tonight is I am looking at my house and have the laundry that needs to be put away staring me in the face and the kitchen I still need to clean calling my name. So, here it goes…

I had heard of this mom who scheduled her family’s meals a year in advance. Wow! I have a hard time planning dinners out for the next night. But as I made all of those meals to freeze this past weekend, I decided I’d try to schedule things out—just to see how it would go. So, here is my family’s meal calendar through March. I tried to schedule the frozen meals during the week and make meals on the weekends. As you can see, I altered my plan on day two, but, as my dad said, even the best laid plans get ruined some days. Smart man.

(Click on image to zoom.)

***A little explanation on my notations: We had to be somewhere last night and I read the thawing and cooking directions wrong for the Shepherd’s Pie and didn’t allow enough time to cook it. (P.S. The Shepherd’s Pie was so good!) So, I moved that to tonight and tonight’s meal to Friday. The arrows on the roasted chicken to the chicken enchiladas is to remind me to use the leftover chicken for the enchiladas. Same thing on the roast.

So, now I (along with my family)shall embark on this meal menu adventure. Wish us luck!

Just Call Me Rachael Ray: Part 2

2010-02-21T14:21:00.000-06:00

So, as I finished up making my meals to freeze today, I thought of a few more tips in case you need them. Mind you, I am not an expert on this (This is probably the fourth or fifth time I’ve have a meal-prep-a-thon.) but these are some things I have learned while doing this. (The first three are repeats from yesterday’s post.)

1. If you are making a “casserole” type dish that is going to require some cooking, make a double batch. It’s really not that much more work, and you’ll be happy you did.

2. Have plenty of freezer bags, 9 x13 pans, and a Sharpie on hand.

3. I find picking one day to make the meals is easiest for me. That way I am only making a complete mess of my kitchen once. (I hate doing dishes.)

4. If you are making meals that require you to brown hamburger meat, brown it all at once and then separate it out to make your individual dishes.

5. You will need plenty of plastic wrap and foil for the “casserole” dishes. (The first three times I did this I run out. You’d think I’d learn.)

6. Clean out your freezer and make room for the meals you are going to create before you get started.

7. If you are using pans that don’t have lids, you can use pieces of cardboard to put between the dishes so you can stack them in your freezer. (Look I took a picture for you!)

And now for another recipe. Before I go on, I feel I must tell you that I am one of those g als that doesn’t really measure while I cook, especially if I am making something I have made hundreds of times. That being said, I tried to really pay attention as I made my lasagnas today so I could give you the recipe, but if you like yours saucier or meatier or whatever, feel free to tweak this to your liking. (I know you feel better now that you have my permission to change the recipe.) This recipe came from a friend of mine’s mom. I couldn’t believe her DELICIOUS dish was so simple. It tastes like you slaved over it. But homemade lasagna really is this easy. I promise. You trust me, right?

Lasagna (This makes 2 lasagnas.)

2-3 lbs hamburger meat (depends on how meaty you like it)
2 boxes oven ready lasagna noodles (Key here! This is part of what makes this recipe so simple, no boiling the noodles.)
2 large containers cottage cheese (I hate cottage cheese by the way, but in this it tastes wonderful.)

2 blocks cream cheese
3 jars 1 lb 10 oz jars Ragu, (I use the traditional, but whatever you like would work.)
Salt and pepper
Whatever Italian-y type spices you like. I use oregano, garlic, & basil.
6 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Set the cream cheese out to soften. Brown your hamburger however you normally do. I put chopped onion and grated garlic cloves in mine. Drain it off and put it in a big bowl. Add the Ragu, salt, pepper, and spices.


Put both blocks of cream cheese and both tubs of cottage cheese in a mixing bowl. Using a mixer (a hand one works too) blend the cheeses together until semi-smooth.

Now it’s time to start layering. Get two 9 x 13 pans and lay them side-by-side. Put just enough of the meat sauce at the bottom of each pan to make a very thin layer. (This is to keep the noodles from sticking.) Put a layer of noodles over the sauce. Put a layer of cheese on top of the noodles. (Don’t worry about spreading it out perfectly. It will spread out when you cook it.)

Place a layer of the meat sauce over the cheese.

Repeat the layers. Noodles, cheese, sauce. Top with a layer of noodles and finish off with mozzarella cheese.

Cover with plastic wrap and foil and freeze.

Thawing and cooking directions: Take the lasagna out of the freezer the night before and place in refrigerator. When ready to cook, take off plastic wrap and re-cover with foil. Place in oven and heat oven to 350 degrees. (I let the cold pan heat up with the oven.) Bake covered for about an hour*. Uncover and bake 15-20 more minutes until cheese is browned.

*Check the lasagna to see that it is heated through. If not bake covered until it is.

Enjoy and happy eating!

Just Call Me Rachael Ray: Part 1

2010-02-20T22:39:00.000-06:00

My feet hurt. My legs are sore. I feel like I have run miles today, but the only place I ran today was the grocery store—twice. But it was totally worth it! I spent the day making meals to freeze. I do this every now and then, usually when it hits me how much my family has been eating out. And just how much spaghetti and tacos we’ve eaten lately. I find when I have meals in the freezer, dinner on the weeknights doesn’t seem so overwhelming, and I feel so much better feeding my family home-cooked meals.

Today was no different than any other time—I set my sights high and planned too much for one day. I did, however, make a lot of meals. I’ll have to finish up tomorrow. Here was my plan of what I wanted to make. Yes, the crossed off ones are the finished ones that are sitting in my freezer right now. :)

Lasagna (2)
Sour Cream Enchiladas (2)
Dijon Chicken
Apricot Pork Chops
Mini Meatloaf (3)
Maple Mustard Pork Chops
Tortellini Soup (2)
BBQ Meatballs
Apricot Chicken
Cinnamon-Braised Pork Tenderloin (2)
Pecan Crusted Orange Curry Chicken
Pork Chops and Apples
Curried Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie (2)

So, tomorrow I'll finish up the lasagnas, enchiladas, and the BBQ meatballs. The bulk of this list is the staples of what I make when I freeze meals. I did try a few new ones though. (The last four are new to me.)

If you have never done this cook ahead and freeze thing before, here are a few tips.

1. If you are making a “casserole” type dish that is going to require some cooking, make a double batch. It’s really not that much more work, and you’ll be happy you did.
2. Have plenty of freezer bags, 9 x13 pans, and a Sharpie on hand.
3. I find picking one day to make the meals is easiest for me. That way I am only making a complete mess of my kitchen once. (I hate doing dishes.)

I’ll leave you with one of my recipes and then I’ll continue to post more in the coming days. If I tried to put all of the recipes in this one post it would be super long. :) Apricot Pork Chops are one of my favs. Here’s how simple they are:

Apricot Pork Chops:
4-6 thick cut pork chops (can also use chicken)
1 cup Catalina or Russian Salad Dressing
1 cup Apricot Preserves
1 pkg dry onion soup mix

Place pork chops in a gallon freezer bag. In a bowl combine other three ingredients. Pour into bag over the pork chops. Get the air out of the bag and seal. Work the dressing mixture through the pork chops. Label the bag and place in freezer.
Thawing and cooking directions: Take the bag out of the freezer the night before you plan to cook them and place in the refrigerator. When ready to cook, pour the entire contents of the bag into a baking dish and arrange pork chops in a single layer. Cook at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

And on that note, I am off to bed. My eyelids are so incredibly heavy. Please forgive any typos in this post; I’ll edit it tomorrow.