Lori Babble

Any readers still out there?

2012-01-22T22:50:00.001-08:00

I feel like every time I come on here, it’s to post that I’m still here and still around...reading blogs but not really having the time to comment or energy to update mine. I’m currently in California, visiting my folks and trying to make a very important life decision. I find myself stuck, talking to anyone that will listen and getting the same “go with your gut” answer from everyone. Which I suppose is really the only advice you can give to someone going through what I am (it is definitely the advice I would give) but my gut is pretty much just telling me to vomit and go back to bed until the decision just gets made for me.

I’m sure I’ll post about it at some point but I’m going to try and just get myself back into regular blog posts about what me and the kids have been up to. I think I’ve been avoiding my blog because I didn’t want to talk about what’s going on in my life but I’m also passing up recording all the little things. So the major life decision stuff will likely stay out until I ultimately make the choice but the little stuff will be back. Hopefully tomorrow.

Ending/Beginning

2011-12-31T06:48:00.001-08:00

A friend of mine posted this the other day and I have to say......it just about sums up my feelings about December.

I want to post about this whole North Dakota saga, and I plan on doing it at some point this week. I’m going to try and do it without saying anything mean or negative, even though that’s all I want to do. But, a tidbit for now, Tonya and her family moved out of our house yesterday. They told us a week ago, pretty much right before they were supposed to pay their part of the rent for January. There are so many emotions I’m going through right now...part anger that they would stiff us like that when we were so accommodating to them and part happy because my life can go back to (somewhat) normal and I don’t have to be nice to people that don’t seem to like me or my kids very much. Plus, now I know that any groceries I bought will still be in the fridge when I wake up in the morning and a gallon of milk will last more than a day. I think January will be a rough month but at the end, it should be time for JP and I to be together again and then I can put this whole ordeal behind me.

Our Christmas Story

2011-12-27T07:16:00.001-08:00

Christmas was so strange this year without JP. He’s not super into the holidays, not the way I am anyway, but his presence was definitely missed. I don’t plan on spending any more Christmases without him after this one.

Calvin and Ethan knocked right out on Christmas Eve after leaving cookies for Santa and reading “The night before Christmas”. Piper was much too excited and kept finding reasons to get out of bed. Finally, I hopped online and we tracked Santa. She saw him deliver a present and then wanted to watch him deliver ALL the presents so that plan almost backfired.....but I told her he wouldn’t come to our house unless she went to sleep so she trudged back to bed. Luckily, I had already wrapped all the gifts so I just had to put Calvin’s workbench together and arrange everything under the tree.

When the kids came out in the morning, they were pretty mellow, just wanted to start opening. Calvin saw his workbench right away and just wanted to play with that and forget all his other gifts.

Piper’s Barbie house was hidden in the other corner and she didn’t notice it until we were almost done. She then tried to climb over all the presents in front of it and pull it from behind the tree, almost knocking the tree over in the process. To say the Barbies were a huge hit would be an understatement. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her have that kind of reaction to a present before and she’s been playing with them pretty much non stop since Christmas. She combs their hair, changes their clothes and shoes and has these super elaborate conversations between them. Best Christmas Ever for her, I think.

Calvin got tons of Playdoh which he wanted to play with right away, lots of new trucks and building sets and a few new puzzles among other things.

Oh and that truck? He loved it until I took it out of the box, turned it on and it started chasing him. I kept finding it on it’s side and he would get so mad when I would put it back on it’s wheels because he didn’t want it “vrooming” by itself. Crazy kid. Ethan loves it though...

....which is good because Calvin has already decided that all of Ethan’s new toys are his.

Ethan opened a present or two but was, of course, more interested in the wrapping paper and his sister’s Barbies.

We spent the rest of the morning playing with toys, cleaning up the mess and making phone calls to family. In the afternoon, we went to Audrey’s parents house for dinner (Audrey and I mended our friendship back in November and I’m so happy we did, she’s been so helpful this whole time JP has been gone). Dinner was delicious, I won $25 in McDonald’s gift cards by winning 3 out of 5 Christmas games and the kids had a blast playing with all the other kids. Being so busy helped me keep my mind off JP not being there but by the time I came home, I was just drained. Physically and emotionally. So yesterday, I took down Christmas and am not going to start preparing for our move to North Dakota, hopefully at the end of January.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and that you have a safe and happy new year!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T18:56:00.002-08:00

I'm still here, I'm alive and almost well (we've been sick for about a week and under an insane amount of stress!). JP made it to North Dakota and I have so much to share but I just haven't found the time to sit down and do it! Will try to get caught up with my blog after Christmas, just wanted to write a quick note to say Merry Christmas!!

Five Question Friday

2011-12-02T06:22:00.001-08:00

So the boys are leaving for North Dakota tonight and I don’t feel at all prepared!! Allen went to finish up some work on the camper and JP is still sleeping....he’s about to get woken up because we need to run to the store to stock up on supplies for the house and for his drive.....I’m not quite sure I’m ready to start this journey but there is no turning back now! So I’ll just relax, drink my coffee and do some

1. What is your favorite Christmas decoration in your house?
I’m gonna have to go with the tree. I don’t really have any other Christmas decorations....for some reason I never think to buy them. Probably because we still haven’t found our “permanent” house and so I haven’t ever decorated, even just normal every day stuff. I plan on changing that next year because once we move to North Dakota, I refuse to move again until it’s time to buy a house or pick a new state.

2. Do you finish your Christmas shopping early or are you a last minute type?
I tend to shop right up until Christmas because there are always last minute things I come across. I usually get the bulk of my shopping done by the first week of December, this year I got a huge chunk done in November and felt way ahead. But....of course, now that just gives me more time to find extras so I’m still not done.

3. When do you turn on your heat?
When it gets cold! Usually not until maybe January.....Actually, we keep our heater set at 70 so if I think the temp in the house is going to drop lower than that, I’ll turn it on. It’s been on for a few days now because we had a nice frosty cold front blow through Florida but I think it’s going to start heating up again for the weekend. 70 probably sounds high but any lower than that and our house feels icy....even 70 is pushing it, I think it would be more comfy at 72 but I just can’t let myself set it that high.

4. Do you ever wish your blog was private?
Mine *kind of* is. I’d say less than a handful of my friends and family have the address so it feels private to me. Sometimes I do wish I had the ability to block a person from reading it because there are some things I want to talk out on here and feel like I can’t because I would end up starting a war that I’m not up to fighting......especially since my blog is supposed to be my outlet for things and when I can’t even talk about something that really needs to be mentally worked out...... it’s frustrating.

5. Do you put your deodorant on before of after you put on your shirt?
Ok, JP always gives me a hard time about this...he thinks it’s weird that I put my shirt on first and then my deodorant. I just don’t have the skills to do the deodorant first! Even if I use the kind that isn’t supposed to leave white marks, they always do and I end up with streaks of white down the sides of my shirt. I’m convinced it’s a lady thing to do it that way and I’m really curious to find out if my theory is true when I read everyone else’s answers.

Changes

2011-11-29T06:15:00.001-08:00

I think today is going to be my last “normal” day before all these huge changes start taking place. I feel like I should just relax and spend the day playing with my kids and enjoying how empty the house is, but I know I will likely spend most of it obsessively cleaning and moving stuff around to make room for Tonya’s family. I have to finalize everything with her today but I think they’ll all be staying here as of tomorrow night.

We’ve been talking about and preparing for this for weeks but now that it’s finally all happening, it’s freaking me out a little. Tonya and Allen came over on Sunday to drop off a bunch of stuff in our garage and as soon as I saw all those boxes, I just knew that there is now no going back. I’m excited for the new adventure and finally leaving Florida but I’m just a little apprehensive about sharing my house for two months. I don’t know what it is either, I’m just nervous.

JP and Allen leave on Friday and I think both of them have their last day at work tomorrow. They go in today to sign paperwork and find out all the details of their new jobs so that’s exciting. Nerve wracking for JP though, he said he felt all nervous and nauseated when he got the call about the meeting. That was his “boxes in the garage” moment apparently. He’s been stressing out a lot lately and has been slightly unbearable to live with. I’m trying to be understanding because this is such a tremendous change, but I feel like I’ve been walking on eggshells around him and if I even just look at him wrong, he flips out. It sounds awful to say but I’ll be so happy when he finally gets in that truck and gets on his way! I think it’s just all the waiting that is causing these huge stress levels for him but it’s getting to be a bit much and I’m soooooo over the mood swings. I love him but he sure knows how to drive me crazy.

Wanna win a custom hat?!

2011-11-28T06:40:00.001-08:00

I have decided that I’m going to do a giveaway for a custom hat when my Facebook store hits 100 likes. As of last count, I was at 86 so only 14 more to go. I’m not quite sure how the giveaway will work but it will likely be super simple, leaving a comment on a post maybe.....not sure yet. But, here’s a sample of some of the hats I’ve made.

This is just a small sample, you can see a lot more if you go to my store; Love, Loribug. I make adult hats too, as well as scarves and blankets.

Oh and super cute mug cozies. This is actually the only one I’ve done but they are super quick to whip up and can be customized with almost anything.

I’ve also been asked about Angry Birds hats so those will probably be worked up sometime this week.

I make every order custom so if there is something you want that isn’t in my shop, just ask. As far as pricing....I charge $10 for the first hat, $8 for the second and $6 for each additional (in the same order). Scarves are $15, blankets are priced depending on size and the mug cozies are $5. Shipping is a flat rate of $3. If you’re interested in placing an order, just send me an email to loribugleath@gmail.com. Payments are taken via paypal and turnaround time is about 2 weeks (I usually finish up in less than one but to account for shipping and possible other orders, I always quote 2). Get your orders in now, still a few weeks to get them done in time for Christmas! Oh and even if you don’t plan on ordering, go like my page so you can win a hat!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T07:08:00.001-08:00

I hosted Thanksgiving at my house for the first time ever yesterday. It went really well, probably because I only had to make the sides (Tonya brought the turkey and her mother in law brought a ham) and I may have had a drink or two while I was preparing said sides. Either way, it was really mellow and fun, the food and company were excellent and I had a lovely time. It was so much like the Thanksgivings I remember growing up.....kids running around outside while the guys supervise, women cooking in the kitchen...lots of talking, laughing, eating and drinking.

Clean up was a bit of a headache and we have no leftovers (even though there was tons of food left) because it sat out, uncovered on the counter for an incredibly long time after our meal and I didn’t think it was a good idea to eat any of it. Apparently JP had only eaten a small starter plate and planned on having more later in the evening but didn’t set a plate of stuff aside so it all got tossed before he had a chance to get seconds and he was quite bummed about that. So Tonya and I discussed making a smaller version of the meal before the guys leave for North Dakota next Saturday.

I didn’t pick up my camera at all but when I plugged my memory card into my computer this morning to get my pictures from earlier in the week, I found these pictures. Someone must have picked up the camera for me! I’m a little bummed that I didn’t get that family picture I was hoping for, but it was nice to see these candid pictures.

Yes, we are watching Monster Trucks. Good ol’ Florida Thanksgiving television.

I have no idea what he is doing.....

The kids were playing with that google turkey thing forever.

Piper had been taking pictures with my old camera, so I plugged that memory card in and found these:

After everyone left, I cleaned up and wrestled the kids into bed. Then took a quick 30 minute nap (totally not on purpose) and then went out to Target for a little Black Friday shopping. We were in line by about 9:30 and I’d say there were maybe 100 people in front of us...not too bad because we weren’t going for the crazy tv deals or anything. Tonya wanted a camera so I tagged along to pick up these awesome remote control monster trucks for JP and Calvin. (JP had been asking for one ever since he saw the ad and since his birthday was yesterday and he never asks for gifts, I had to get one for him. We gave it to him this morning and Calvin is itching to play with it, he’s gonna be so happy on Christmas when he unwraps his!). I also picked up jammies, slippers, a few games, a cool Cars playdoh set, gloves for all three kids and a dvd of Christmas movies (it was only 2 bucks so I figured, why not). I think that just about completes my shopping for the kids too! So happy to be done! I may check out Cyber Monday to see if I can’t find the Leapsters I wanted to get them.....they had them at Toys R Us for half off but I really, really did not want to go there last night.....but other than that, it feels good to be finished.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

A Dose of Cuteness

2011-11-22T06:32:00.001-08:00

I made this Pikachu hat as a present for my nephew but I may have to make another because Ethan does not want to give this one back to me! Doesn’t he look so darn cute?!

Don’t forget, I make and sell hats to order and there is still plenty of time for me to get them done and in the mail before Christmas!

Find me on Facebook: Love, Loribug. If you have an idea in mind, just ask, so far no one has asked me for anything that I couldn’t do.

(Ok, so this post may have been a shameless plug for my shop....but Ethan does look super cute in that hat.)

Preschool Thanksgiving

2011-11-21T06:07:00.001-08:00

On Friday, Piper’s class had a little party. They had prepared a few songs and then we had a potluck meal. I made Piper’s favorite pasta and the whole pot was scraped clean (yay!!). All of the food was very good but is it sad that my favorite thing was the hot dog wrapped in a crescent roll? I have such juvenile taste buds. They are one of my favorite things to make at home too.

And the little show was so cute!! This is the stuff that I had been looking forward to when Piper started school this year and I was so proud of her!

At the end, Ms. Tomie had the kids each say what they were thankful for (they all said their family) and in that moment, I realized how much Piper has changed in just a few short months. Back in August, she would have never talked in front of so many people! It was one of those happy/sad moments for me and I may have had to wipe my eyes a few times.

After we were all done eating and visiting, we started to make our way home. They just recently had a playground put in for the kids and some of the other kids were out there playing on it so I let Piper and Calvin get their sillies out for a bit before the walk home.

That’s one of Piper’s classmates at the top of the slide, she kept telling Piper “slide like a rockstar!!” which is what they are doing in this picture.

Ethan had a great time just watching the kids run around!

Eventually, we did have to get going so Ethan could take a nap. I told the kids they could slide one last time and then we went home. I was a little bummed that JP wasn’t able to go to the party but I took videos, one of which I’ll use to end this post.

A little update

2011-11-17T06:07:00.001-08:00

Ok, I said I probably wouldn’t write about North Dakota again until it was time for us to go but there have been some changes so.....

JP and Allen will be leaving December 3rd. After much searching for a place to live and contemplating sleeping in the bed of Allen’s truck, they finally got a hold of a camper. That’s a relief because I suspect they would have frozen to death otherwise. JP thinks he’s super tough but I don’t think he would survive being that cold, especially after living in Florida for 8 years.

When they leave, Tonya and her three girls are going to move in here. It’s a little unconventional and it will be slightly crowded but, it *seems* like a good idea. JP was repeatedly going over the budget, trying to decide what he could cut when Tonya and I started talking about combining houses. She had wanted us to move there but we still have to pay rent until our lease is up in January so that didn’t make much sense. So we decided to move them in here. It cuts each of our bills in half, something we would not have accomplished by nipping little things out. Also, it keeps the both of us from being alone. I’ll admit, I was kind of nervous about being in this house day in and day out all by myself. She does have a dog and cat that I’m not super excited about letting in to the house but....it’s for the greater good so I’ll deal with it. The plan is for the guys to come back for us in January and have us out of here when our lease ends.

JP and Allen may have jobs too! The owner of the store that JP works for now owns a huge construction company. He’s been contracted to do a ton of building in North Dakota so they’re hiring all sorts of workers right now. JP went for an interview yesterday and they said they just need his and Allen’s resumes to decide where to put them. So hopefully that works out, it would be better for them to go with jobs than to have to look for them when they get there. I don’t doubt that they will find work but it’s just one less thing to worry about here. So that’s that. It’s all happening and I’m crazy excited for all the changes!!

Stupid “thinspiration”

2011-11-15T07:05:00.001-08:00

I’ve seen a lot of blog posts lately about how awesome Pinterest is and yet also, how annoying. Especially the “motivational” weight loss stuff. I have nothing against finding what motivates you to lose weight but most of that stuff on there is only going to motivate you to an eating disorder or a body image problem. I came across this today and it is really, really bugging me.

This isn’t even the worst one I’ve come across but it’s really sticking with me. What does it even mean?! That if you want to be skinny you’re not allowed to eat flavorful things? Doesn’t almost all food have some kind of flavor? I’m all for being healthy and losing weight but I don’t think this post is going to get anyone to go about doing it in a healthy manner. There is nothing wrong with enjoying what you eat, it’s about finding the balance and making smart choices. Ughhh, I’m so annoyed with whoever made this and with every single person who keeps repinning and putting stuff like “this is so true” “must remember this” etc. I feel the need to go find and pin a bunch of dessert recipes just to make up for the bad taste this is leaving in my mouth.

It happened last week

2011-11-13T06:04:00.002-08:00

My kids are playing library and watching Harry Potter right now; two things that are making me very happy. Every time a commercial comes on, Calvin says he doesn’t want to watch the movie but once it starts up again, he’s glued to the tv. He's sick so I'm trying to keep him on the couch but he's been getting up and down all morning. Piper is the librarian and is handing out one book at a time but Ethan is annoying her because he keeps trying to sneak the books when her back is turned. She keeps renewing books and pretending to stamp them and at first I didn’t know where she learned that but then remembered that her class took a field trip to the library a few weeks ago. She’s so cute, I think I could make it more fun by putting check out cards in her books and giving her a real stamp....maybe we’ll do that this week....needless to say, it’s been a very entertaining morning around here with very little fighting. I’m taking advantage of this peacefulness to get my P365 post up.

Sunday 11/6/11

I bought those trays for the kids when I did my Christmas shopping. I had originally intended them as gifts but decided to give them to the kids now because I knew they would get a lot of use. Best purchase I’ve made in a long time, the kids use them for everything.

Monday 11/7/11

Mr. Boo working on his fitness. Calvin got my weights out and left them on the ground and Ethan thought they were the greatest things ever. He played with them for a really long time and never dropped them!

Tuesday 11/8/11

Ethan is a little obsessed with opening and closing things and really wants to figure out how to open the front door.

Wednesday 11/9/11

Piper has been riding her bike to and from school this week. I was a little nervous about it, I didn’t want her to ride too fast and I was worried she wouldn’t pay attention. She’s super cautious though and stays right in front of the stroller and it’s made the walk too and from school a lot easier now that I don’t have her running all over the place.

Thursday 11/10/11

I very rarely put all three kids in the bath at the same time but sometimes I’ll be trying to bathe one and the others will come along and hijack the bath and I end up with all three in the tub. This was one of those times. I was getting Calvin ready for a bath and I could not keep Ethan out of the bathroom, once Piper saw the boys in the tub she wanted to join them and it was a bubbly splashy mess.

Friday 11/11/11

Piper and Calvin had sooooo much energy towards the end of the evening and I needed to get them tired out before bed so I suggested the “dancing game” (Just Dance Kids). They had a blast and played it the next night too. Piper has actually been asking to play it all morning but I want Calvin to rest so it’ll have to wait until later today.

Side note: am I the only one that didn’t make a wish on 11/11/11 at 11:11? I didn’t have anything against that whole “ultimate wish” thing, it just completely passed by for me with no thought about the date or the time.

Saturday 11/12/11

Piper dressed him up. It’s not the first time Piper dressed up one of her brothers and it won’t be the last, luckily they are fine with being her life sized dolls. I’m not sure they’ll be as fine with it when they are teenagers and they see the pictures though....

Five Question Friday

2011-11-11T05:58:00.001-08:00

My Dad sent me out his spare phone and it came in the mail yesterday. It’s an older version (his is the 3G and I had the 3GS) but it’s pretty similar. Except for the fact that it doesn’t do video and I can’t update to iOS5. I’m not complaining though, I’d much rather have an older edition iPhone than that silly slider I was using for the past couple days. I’m too used to fancy technology, I didn’t want to go backwards!! I’ll use this one until I can upgrade in July and then I’m going to get a 4S. I never buy anything for myself so I think I earned the opportunity to buy something with a bigger price tag.

It’s pretty chilly in our neck of the woods today. Not as cold as the places that are getting snow or anything, but we’re all in long sleeves and pants and I’m predicting a day spent indoors. We’re only supposed to get a high in the 60s, which isn’t really that cold, but there is a bit of biting wind blowing right now which makes it feel so much colder. Now I just need to come up with enough activities to keep the kids entertained. They are happily playing with stickers and crayons right now and once I finish up here, I’m going to take a look on Pinterest for some crafts or yummy things to bake. Maybe both. Should be fun day around here!

1. What's the last thing you spent too much money on?
Honestly, nothing really comes to mind. I’m pretty frugal (I don’t really coupon but I do pay attention to sales). I did just do a bunch of Christmas shopping, and while it was a good amount of money, it wasn’t crazy spending and I came out under budget so I wouldn’t count that. Maybe the last time we had a date night. We had only planned on spending a certain amount and in the end, we spent about $20 over that. But it was kind of worth it because we never go out so I don’t think I would call that too much money either. So.....nothing.

Oh wait....does the electricity bill count? Cuz we definitely spend too much money on electricity! We’re not running our AC anymore and it’s not quite cold enough for the heater yet so we should see a drop on our next bill though.

2. What celeb chef would you want to make you dinner?

I’m gonna say Jamie Oliver for a few reasons....1) no other chef comes to mind besides Paula Deen and while I’m sure her food is delicious, I also feel sure I would go into cardiac arrest before I finished eating. 2) He makes healthier food that looks delicious. 3) He’s not bad to look at....and the accent....am I the only one that’s a sucker for a British accent? 4) He likes to teach people to cook too so I could pick up a few lessons from him to improve my own kitchen skills.

3. Where do you hide things when visitors pop over or do you let them see the real deal?
Why does it seem like visitors only pop over on the days your house is a mess, you’re in your sweats and you haven’t combed your hair?

For me, it really depends who it is. If it’s JP’s parents, I always hear them coming up the driveway before they knock so I gather up anything laying around and throw it in my room and then obsessively tidy things up while they’re over. They always manage to come over right as I was sitting down to lunch or after the kids have thrown all their toys around the living room.

Anyone else, I usually just leave it and apologize for my messy house and then settle in for a chat.

4. Who is your oldest living family member?
I think (and I’m probably wrong on this because I really don’t know much about my Mom’s side of the family) that it’s my Dad’s Mom. She is.....hmmm....I don’t know her exact age but she was born in the late 20s so she’s in her 80s. She has had some health problems over the years but she’s still fairly active. This reminds me that I haven’t talked to her in awhile, I should call her this weekend. She’s always been so supportive of me and she’s the one that taught me how to crochet. I love my Grandma!

This picture was taken a few years ago, the last time we went out to California. My Grandma lives in Arizona but she was visiting for Christmas and my Dad flew us out to spend the holiday with the family.

5. What is your favorite DQ treat and/or Sonic drink combo (ie: cherry vanilla dr. pepper)?
We don’t go to DQ that often so I don’t have a favorite but I do love the Blizzards. That or any of the sundaes with like brownies and fudge and crazy chocolate-ness. My favorite Sonic drink is an Ocean Water. I don’t know what it is about that drink but it is quite tasty. I don’t even really like Sonic but I would eat there just for the Ocean Water.

Crazy Calvin

2011-11-10T07:16:00.001-08:00

I think it goes without saying that I love this kid. And just in case it doesn’t, I do. He is the sweetest boy who is constantly making me laugh with his made up jokes, silly dance moves and funny faces. He gives the best squeezy hugs and I just love him to bits and pieces.

That being said, he is currently driving me crazy.

He’s always been a very active kid and such a typical boy, giving me daily heart attacks with all the almost accidents (and a few pretty bad ones involving lots of blood, smashed fingers and head bonks...not to mention one traumatizing trip to the ER to get stitches in his chin). But ever since he turned three it’s like he got this fresh burst of energy that is NEVER ENDING.

He loves to play with Ethan but doesn’t quite realize that Ethan is still a baby and can’t rough house in the same way. Ethan loves his brother and is his constant companion but he is also always getting hurt. For the majority of my day I will find Calvin dragging Ethan across the floor by his feet, laying on top of him, putting a blanket over his face for an overzealous game of peekaboo, piling toys on top of him or grabbing him by the back of his pants and pulling him down to the ground. For the most part Ethan thinks it’s funny but the laughing always turns to crying and no matter how many times I ~~yell at~~ remind Calvin to leave his brother alone or to play gentle, all it takes is for me to walk away or turn my back or blink and he’s right back at it. Plus, Calvin is always taking toys away from him. Ethan will be playing quietly, pushing a car around, and Calvin will come up and snatch it and then put it somewhere that Ethan can’t reach.

Then there is the constant running, jumping, climbing, spinning, dancing. The thing I don’t understand is that I’ll send him out into the backyard to get all that energy out and he ends up doing this instead.

Super quiet and mellow, just putting rocks and stuff in his dump trucks and driving them around. Then when he comes back in, he’s right back to all the crazy behavior that made me send him outside in the first place. I don’t get it!!

And the questions! We all know that kids ask a ton of questions but Calvin will repeat himself over and over, even after I’ve given him the answer. And if he’s asking me for something and I’ve said no, he never accepts my response. Lately it’s “I want one more piece of candy.” I say no. “I just want one more piece” and this continues over and over until I just walk away. Before I moved the candy to the top of the refrigerator, he would just climb up onto the counter and help himself.

Oh and then there are all the noises. He loves to roar like a dinosaur or a “scary creature” but he also does this super obnoxious yell that I can’t quite describe. It’s so throaty that it always makes him cough and he’s usually making this noise at the table when he’s supposed to be eating lunch so not only does it echo, he ends up coughing food everywhere.

He stomps around the house, kicking and throwing toys. I have been hit more than once by a toy or his boot when instead of sitting down and taking his shoe off, he just kicks his foot really hard to make it fly off.

He is always hungry, except at mealtimes.

We still cannot get him to stay in bed after we tuck him in and usually spend a good half hour taking him back to his room over and over again while fielding requests for water, candy or just one more hug and kiss.

I spend most of my day telling him to do/not to do things over and over and over again. I start out in a normal voice and try to talk to him calmly but after the 500th time of telling him to stop getting up from the table or to go use the potty or to leave his brother alone or to stop hitting his sister, I’m so frustrated that I can’t stop myself from yelling. And I really do not enjoy yelling. It doesn’t accomplish anything ever but since he doesn’t really listen to anything I say, neither does normal calm talking.

He is turning all my hair gray and we’re going through ibuprofen faster than we ever have in the past. By the time he finally falls asleep I am exhausted and just want to go to bed myself. I need to find some way to harness all that energy and get him focused on something other than destruction. I know a sport or something would be good for him but I think he’s still a little young to do the whole team thing. He never pays attention to me so I don’t think he would listen to a coach. My only hope is that he starts mellowing out as he gets older.....but I highly doubt that is going to happen any time soon....

That and This

2011-11-08T06:32:00.001-08:00

A couple months ago, my Dad was having some serious back and leg pain. After a bunch of tests, they finally did an MRI and found out that he had an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He had surgery, not to remove it because they only do that in the severe cases, but to put a tube around it and contain it. I’m sure there is some medical jargon I could use to explain it better but I think I summed it up pretty well. He’s been on leave from work and I think he goes back in the beginning of December. I was talking to him on the phone last night, after he had taken a pain pill, and he was trying to price plane tickets to fly us all out there. Talking to my Dad when he’s drugged up is pretty hilarious (this sounds like he’s on drugs all the time and I promise you he’s not....he only takes them when the pain gets really bad because he doesn’t like that loopy feeling he gets from them). Tickets were crazy expensive, like $2000 expensive, so I suggested that he come here. He started looking and pricing and so I’m hoping he finds one and agrees to come. He hasn’t been out here to visit at all and he hasn’t even met Ethan yet! It would be great to see him and spend Thanksgiving with him. I’m crossing my fingers it all works out because I know the kids would love to see him too.

I don’t know if I mentioned but this North Dakota thing is definitely happening. Well.....I have been hesitating to use the word definite because to me nothing is set in stone until the day JP pulls out of the driveway to leave......but he has a date for leaving and we’re starting to gather winter clothes for him. He’s going to go first with our friend Allen (Tonya’s husband) and work for a bit and find us a place to live. Then they will come back for the families and we’ll all caravan up there with our moving trucks. We’ve already told our realtor that we’re moving when the lease is up and JP’s parents are actually considering moving here when we leave. We had talked about moving me and the kids in with Tonya while the guys are gone but in the end, it just doesn’t make sense because we still have to pay rent until the lease is up. Plus, we don’t want to uproot the kids until it’s time for the big move. I probably won’t talk much more about it until it’s time for us all to go (or if we don’t end up going) because I don’t want to advertise all over the internets that I’m alone or anything.

In regards to the move, I was talking to Emma about it and instead of being upset that her supposed best friend is moving halfway across the country, she started freaking out about her car. She has an issue with the oil pan and so no one except JP’s shop will change the oil. She’s been stressing for the past two days and hasn’t really said one word about the fact that I’m going to be gone. I think I would be more upset about it except for the fact that I’m looking forward to finally being away from all the drama. Maybe now the relationship will just phase out and I can get on with my life.

Oh and exciting news! I won my first football poll! One of the stores that JP’s shop gets their parts from organizes the whole thing, it costs five dollars to play and the winner gets all the money. I’ve done pretty well in the past weeks but this is my first time winning. I was up by two picks as of Monday morning so no matter how the game turned out last night I would still win. I get my money today and it’s going to buy a new Christmas tree. JP got rid of ours last year because he didn’t want to move it from the old house to here so now I don’t have to take money out of our Christmas budget for the tree!

This and That

2011-11-07T07:13:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was a rough day. Getting woken up at 5:30 and then dealing with two kids that were visibly tired but refusing to stop running for five seconds to rest.....wore me out!! JP slept in and took two naps and I was just dragging by the end of the day. I held out until about 7 before finally putting the kids in bed and they knocked right out. Long day.

I did manage to get of the house for awhile to get some Christmas shopping done. I want to get it handled now before JP’s North Dakota plans become definite, he’s talking about leaving at the end of November and it would be nice if I had Christmas all taken care of by the time he leaves. I went to Big Lots recently to pick up a birthday present for a friend’s daughter. I had never been in there before and I was actually kind of shocked at all the cool toys they had at really reasonable prices. So I made a mental note to come back and that’s where I went yesterday.

I found Calvin a bunch of those Trio building sets which I think he’s really going to love and a few playdoh toys. I got puzzles and coloring books and a few toys for Ethan (plus a few other cool things for Piper and Calvin). I got a huge chunk of my shopping done and spent less than what I had intended on spending yesterday! I was so proud of myself and now I have it all hiding in my closet waiting to be wrapped. I’m sure I’ll still pick up a few things here and there....I really wanted to get Piper and Calvin Leapsters and they’ve been begging for pillow pets, happy nappers and those stompeez slippers. I’m not getting all three, I’ll probably go with a pillow pet since they have them at Walmart.

After I finished that, I came home to clean up the house. I was in the kitchen about to start cleaning up and went to move my iphone out of the way. I ended up dropping it face down on our tile floor and shattering the screen! When I picked it up, I didn’t expect it to be broken because it’s not the first time I’ve dropped it but no such luck. I actually started to cry when I saw the damage. Now, I’m not obsessed with my phone.....I’m not on it constantly and I don’t use it for everything but I do love it and it’s the only real “luxury item” that I own. Plus, we don’t have a landline so that’s my only way to communicate with JP during the day. I’m not eligible for upgrade until July and cannot afford to buy one without the discount. Besides, I want the 4s when I upgrade so I’m not about to buy another 3GS. We have a few old phones around the house, even one brand new one that JP upgraded to and didn’t like so it’s not like I’m without a phone. I just can’t get used to using any of the other ones! I tried out the new one but the touch screen doesn’t work as well as mine did and it feels so flimsy. I ended up just using my old slider phone but I miss my iphone and it still bums me out that it’s broken. Luckily, I remembered that my dad used to have an extra one so I called him and he still had it! He agreed to mail a it out to me today and is even giving me his old case so this won’t happen again. Crisis averted; I love my dad, he’s the best!

This morning, I was getting Piper dressed for school. She is currently obsessed with tights (anyone know where I can find cool kids tights with lots of different colors and patterns?) so I figured I would put her in one of the dresses I bought from the yard sale. I picked out this jumper type one that needed a shirt underneath. Got her tights and shirt on and she started freaking out as I tried to put the dress over her head. She kept saying, “I already have tights and a shirt, I don’t need that dress!” I had to explain that tights aren’t pants and the dress was not another shirt. She wasn’t having it so I finally put a jean skirt on her and called it a day. Moral of the story: choose your battles. So not worth it to argue over even though it’s an adorable dress. I will get that dress on her one of these days though. It’s too cute to just keep hanging in the closet.

It’s been drizzling off and on this morning and I want it to just stay raining! I’m supposed to leave to get Piper in about 10 minutes and I just know it’s going to start raining on me when I leave the house. I really don’t need another shower.

It happened last week

2011-11-06T06:30:00.001-08:00

Anyone else get woken up before 6am this morning?? My kids are usually unphased by the time change and just wake up when the sun comes up like normal. Ethan obviously didn’t get the memo and I could hear him talking to himself around 5:30. I stayed in bed hoping that he would go back to sleep but he ended up waking up Calvin with all his chatter and so my day started way earlier than I would have liked. I’m going out a little later this morning to do some Christmas shopping which I was excited about yesterday but not so much today.....I really just want to take a nap! JP is still sleeping and I’m super jealous......also hungry because it’s donut day and I have to wait on him to wake up to go get them! I gave him his 30 minute warning a few minutes ago so I expect to have my bagel soon. In the meantime, I’ll write my P365 post for this week.

Sunday 10/30/11

Ethan was watching Piper put on a show. She was singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider at the top of her lungs and twirling around in circles.

Monday 10/31/11

Halloween!!

Tuesday 11/1/11

I bought that toy box from my friend’s yard sale, originally intending on putting it in the backyard for outdoor toys. Then, after I washed it, I realized that it was in great shape and it seemed like a shame to put it outdoors. So I decided to put it in our entryway to house all the shoes that are normally on the floor. Calvin likes to hide in it and Ethan loves to take all the shoes out.

Wednesday 11/2/11

Calvin loves yogurt! It’s probably his favorite snack and he’ll eat any kind that’s in the fridge.

Thursday 11/3/11

Pretending to be a ballerina. Piper has been asking me if she can take a dance class so I’m going to be looking for one soon.

Friday 10/4/11

Ethan loves to lay on the ground and push his cars around, I think he likes to watch the wheels turn.

Saturday 11/5/11

Hanging out with his bear and watching a movie.

Our Day at Disney (Part 2)

2011-11-05T07:56:00.001-07:00

After we finished up with Mickey, we went back outside. It had been raining the whole time we were doing pictures and our stroller was soaking wet. My Aunt and her family went on a ride to the castle in one of the old fashioned cars that drives around but I was super confused as to what was happening so stayed behind. We took the kids on yet another break and changed Piper out of her Snow White dress because she was so hot and sweaty, then we went in search of something to drink. One thing we learned that day was that if you ask for ice water at the little snack carts, they’ll give it to you for free. So we definitely took advantage of that!

Luckily, we were in the same area as Crystal and so we were able to meet right back up and get in line for the teacups. I never know how my kids will react to certain rides but this is definitely a new favorite for them. Calvin loved being able to control the spinning and they immediately wanted to ride it again. There was pretty much no wait so we got right back in line.

I couldn’t stomach a third ride so we left to find something else. We were right next to a race car ride (the kind where the car is on that metal track so you’re driving but you have to follow the designated path). Ethan was hungry and only two people could fit in the cars so JP took Calvin, Crystal and her husband Rob took their kids and I stayed with Piper and Ethan and the strollers. Being able to sit for a bit after all the walking was a nice break.

After the ride was over, it was just about time for Crystal and her family to head out for their dinner reservation. We made tentative plans to meet up later in the evening for fireworks and the Electric Light Parade but took pictures just in case we weren’t able to see each other later.

Ethan was so cute when Crystal and I were trying to get a picture, he was so fascinated with her and kept peeking at her and then being shy.

Then they left and we went to find another ride. We decided to go on the people mover since there was no line and it was something we could all ride together. That was fun but I do not understand why such a long portion of it is in the dark and why they haven’t changed the recorded thing that plays while you ride it, some of the stuff it was saying we were seeing wasn’t there anymore.

The kids had been begging to go on the carousel so we went on that first. JP didn’t really want to go on so he stayed with Ethan while I took Piper and Calvin.

Then we went to Dumbo. The wait for that ride said 20 minutes but there was no way.....it felt like we were in line forever. This is another one that JP opted to skip so I had control of two squirmy, antsy, hungry kids and it was NOT FUN. There were puddles everywhere the Piper and Calvin kept splashing in and the woman in front of us kept giving them dirty looks. We finally get on the ride and it lasts about 30 seconds. My kids understandably do not want to get off and can’t seem to understand why they can’t just stay on and ride it again. Piper refused to leave the seat so I had to pick her up while Calvin is running around all over the platform; everyone was staring at me, Calvin ended up running into the metal fence so both kids were screaming as I was half carrying, half dragging them off the ride and I have never been more embarrassed in my life.

Luckily I had packed a bag of snacks for the kids so I loaded them up after the ride and they calmed down. It was about 6pm and JP really wanted to leave to beat the crowds and the traffic. But I managed to convince him that was a bad idea by reminding him that it was only one day of our life, the kids were having a great time and we hadn’t been in the Haunted Mansion yet. We looked for some other rides with short lines but were out of luck so just went to the Mansion. Our kids did surprisingly well, they were so fascinated with everything they were seeing that they forgot to be scared.

Then I wanted to find another ride but didn’t really know what I was looking for so we just wasted time walking around. It was starting to get dark so we made our way back to the front of the park to find a spot for the parade. It was just way too crowded though and I couldn’t handle being around so many people so told JP we could head back to the car. I texted Crystal to let her know we were on our way out and she texted back that they were pretty exhausted too.

So we hopped on the monorail and made our way back to Epcot. We got stopped a few times though so by the time we made it back into Epcot, it was just about time for their fireworks display. That was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t even describe it but it starts off with these super loud explosions and Piper freaked out thinking the princess castle was being blown up. It took forever to explain to her that the castle and the princesses were fine because they were in another park.

Then we made our way back to the car and went home. As we were hitting the parking lot, JP was talking about how nice it would have been if we were staying at one of the resorts. We started discussing taking a week vacation to see and do everything and JP said he would love for us to do that! We made tentative plans to go during Piper’s spring break.....of course, now all that is up in the air because of North Dakota but if we do move and can’t make it next year, then the following year is definitely happening.

All in all, we had a great day. We didn’t get to see and do everything but we got a nice taste and the kids had a blast so I’d say it was a success. I wish we had more time with my Aunt and her family but a crowded theme park probably isn’t the best place to have a reunion. I know we will see them again and next time we’ll plan for something a little different. It was great to get the kids together though and I know they all had fun.

Five Question Friday

2011-11-04T06:03:00.001-07:00

I forgot today was Friday when I said I would do the rest of our Disney recap today. So that will have to wait for another day in favor of Five Question Friday.

1. What movie do you love to quote?
When I was a teenager it was Empire Records. I have that movie memorized and there wasn’t one occasion that didn’t warrant an Empire Records quote. And just thinking about that movie is making me want to watch it so I think I may just have to do that this weekend.

Of course, now that I have kids and the movies I watch the most frequently are cartoons.....that most quoted movie has become Despicable Me. That movie has the BEST quotes! My favorites are Vector’s and everyone in the house is always saying “Oh yeah!” just like he does.

2. Have you ever ridden a motorcycle?
No and I really have no desire to ever ride one. I don’t think I’m afraid exactly, it just seems like a really unsafe way to travel. And what’s with the guys that ride around with their helmet on the seat instead of their head?! I really don’t get that.

3. What's your favorite thing to do on a rainy day?
Hmmm....I don’t really have one. I like to stay dry indoors but rainy days here are not like rainy days everywhere else. For one, it doesn’t really get cold. Our rainy days are in the middle of summer when it’s still crazy hot outside. So it’s not like cuddling up in a blanket on the couch is an appealing option. Usually it’s just movies or something else to keep the kids entertained so they don’t bounce off the walls. If there is no thunder then they can go outside and splash around in the puddles while I get to clean something that I can’t while they are in the house.

4. Do you prefer a bunch of small gifts, or one really big, (expensive) gift?
You know, now that I’ve grown up and chosen a mate that doesn’t really get into holidays, I don’t really get gifts anymore. So really, I appreciate anything. JP usually just sets aside some money in the budget for me to treat myself to something that I normally wouldn’t, like new clothes or something. I can’t tell you how much I would love for him to just spend five minutes picking something out. Expensive or not, it doesn’t matter to me.

5. Do you ever lose track of days and show up somewhere wrong?
Nah, I’m not super crazy busy with activities and I write everything on the calendar so I’m always on top of the days.

Our Day at Disney (Part 1)

2011-11-03T07:01:00.001-07:00

I was sitting here this morning, racking my brain for something to write about when I realized I never blogged about our day at Disney!

I think I’ve mentioned that I live near Disney World and that because Disney employs so many people, you are bound to know someone that works there and is willing to get you in for free. My friend Tonya’s mom works at one of the resorts and was always offering to give us her free tickets for a day and with my Aunt Crystal and family coming to visit, we decided to take her up on that offer and spend the day at Magic Kingdom with them. We had been once before and it was disastrous so I was hoping that this second visit would go so much better.

Tonya’s mom had to be with us to sign us in and since she didn’t want to pay for parking, she took us through her resort at Epcot and then we had to get ourselves to Magic Kingdom. Which doesn’t seem like a big deal but Epcot is huge, is easy to get lost in and you still have to take the monorail and the ferry to get to MK. I had planned on meeting my Aunt around 11 but it just didn’t work out.

We got signed in after taking a bathroom break and then started on our trek. It was brutally hot that day and we were sweating buckets after 10 minutes. After wandering around lost for awhile, unable to figure out where we were on the map, we ran into the Finding Nemo ride and the kids begged to go on it. We really wanted to get out of the heat for a few minutes and the wait was short so we got in line. The ride is really cute, you sit in these clamshell cars and go through different parts of the movie. The kids loved it, even if they don’t look all that impressed in this picture.

When we got done, we started heading towards Spaceship Earth which is at the front of Epcot. It really shouldn’t be that hard to navigate but we kept getting turned around. The kids started getting whiney and complaining about being hungry (I think we had been there for over an hour at this point) so we had to stop for lunch. I had been messaging with my Aunt all morning and we made plans to meet up for the parade and to see Mickey and the Princesses.

After eating, we finally managed to find the front of the park!

Then it was just a monorail and ferry ride over to Magic Kingdom.

When we got through all the lines, we got fast passes to meet Mickey and the Princesses, texted my Aunt to figure out when and where to meet and then got in line for It’s a Small World. The line was only a 15 minute wait but when you have two kids itching to ride and a squirmy baby that just wants to walk around, it felt like it took forever to get on our boat. It was worth it though. I find the song to be a bit annoying, of course, but the scenery is so intricate and detailed that it’s kind of an awesome ride. The kids had never seen anything like it before and were so quiet the whole time. Piper immediately wanted to ride it again but we needed to get back to the front of the park to meet my Aunt.

We met up with her just as the parade was starting so stopped and watched that. It had started sprinkling a little bit and the rain was such a nice relief from the heat that I didn’t even care about getting wet. Calvin didn’t want to though so opted to stand back away from the street with JP to stay dry. Plus, I think he was a little afraid of all the giant characters (they are so much smaller on tv!). Piper was in a mood and didn’t seem like she was enjoying the parade at all but she talked about it the whole way home so maybe she was just being stubborn.

I have to admit, I was smiling like a little kid during this whole parade. I went to Disneyland with my parents as a kid and I still have very fond memories of that trip. Plus, I love Disney. It’s just such a magical place!

After the parade was over, we used our fast passes to go meet Mickey and a few of the princesses. It was so cute to watch Piper and Calvin with their cousins. They met last year for the first time but you would have no idea that they barely knew each other. They were all laughing and dancing and talking and getting along so great!

We saw the princesses first and Piper was in awe. I don’t think she could believe that she was meeting them in person! Calvin hung back, he didn’t really want to get his picture taken or talk to the princesses.

After having a chat with Cinderella, Piper is obsessed. That’s all she’s been talking about since our visit which is funny because she’s never even seen the movie. I think Santa may have to remedy that for Christmas though.

Then, even though Mickey and the Princesses are in the same building, we had to go out and back through to get in line for Mickey. This is when the majority of the dancing happened with the kids and they were so hilarious. They kept saying “Do this!” and then doing some crazy dance move and getting the other kids to copy them. They kept trying to top each other with silliness.

I don’t think Calvin was completely comfortable with Mickey and Minnie, we couldn’t get him to smile at all!

I really wanted to get a family picture so we did that last. I love it so much that it may end up on our Christmas card this year. Next time we go, I am definitely getting everyone the hats with ears and we are taking this picture again! I meant to get those on this visit but completely forgot when we were actually in the park.

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow........

Our Halloween Adventure

2011-11-02T06:47:00.001-07:00

Our Halloween started out pretty sucky. We had stayed out kind of late the night before and so getting Piper out of bed for school in the morning was a chore. She barely ate breakfast but seemed to be in an ok mood on the way to school. There was a 70% chance of rain but I didn’t expect it to start until later in the morning or even the afternoon. Imagine my surprise when 3/4 of the way to school, it starts pouring. Of course I don’t have an umbrella and I can’t call JP to pick us up because he keeps his phone on vibrate in the kitchen all night long. I had brought a windbreaker so I put that over Calvin and Ethan was mostly covered by the stroller canopy. We dropped Piper at school and made a quick exit but Ms. Tomie graciously gave us her umbrella to get home. I couldn’t hold it and steer the stroller so I had Calvin hold it over himself and Ethan and then walked as fast as I could. When we got to the house poor Ethan’s legs and feet were soaked and I was drenched. I changed us all into dry clothes and told JP he would have to pick Piper up from school whether it was raining or not.

When he brought her home from school he informed me that apparently they had been unable to do any of the fun activities that they had planned for the day at school because they had spent the entire three hours trying to deal with Piper. From the second she walked in the classroom, she had a bad attitude. Refused to do anything, stomped her feet and threw things and when one of the other teachers stepped in to help, Piper took a swipe at her. I tried talking to Piper about it all because this is the third time this has happened since she started school but she wouldn’t tell me anything. I knew she was tired and hungry so I fed her and put her down for a nap (she slept for two hours) and she woke up in a much better mood. Ms. Tomie called me while Piper was napping and we talked about what happened and she suggested bringing in a helper to observe Piper’s behavior and then she’ll give us tools to help control these outbursts.

I’ll be interested to see what they say but am, of course, worried. I have my own opinions about why this happens and I think it has somewhat to do with her eating habits......the days with the worst behavior are always the ones where she barely ate her dinner the night before and refused to eat any breakfast in the morning. So I’m focusing on that aspect for now, getting her up earlier and giving her different breakfast options to make sure she always goes to school with a fully tummy.

The afternoon was pretty uneventful and eventually it came time to get the kids in their costumes. Calvin finally decided on being a cowboy and Piper chose to be a cowgirl so I dressed me and Ethan to match.

Piper seems very sad in all of these pictures.....once she put on her first pair of tights she completely changed her mind about being a cowgirl and wanted to be a ballerina. I told her she could dress as a ballerina the next day but that she was a cowgirl for trick or treating. Then we waited. And waited. And waited for JP to get home from work. Tonya, her daughters and her nephew were there to go out with us and JP finally got home just before 7.

We never trick or treat in our own neighborhood, for the past three years we have been going to our friends’ housing community. So many people participate and the whole thing goes in a circle so it just makes it mellow and easy. We go in a big group with other families and all keep an eye on everyone else’s kids. We were a little late getting there and the big group had started without us but we did eventually catch up.

Piper stayed with some of the older kids and was running house to house with JP keeping an eye on her.

Calvin was content to stay in the back of the group with me and Tonya’s daughter Kaity, walking slowly and checking everything out, inspecting every piece of candy that was put in his bucket. He was super polite to everyone, saying “trick or treat” and “sank you!” when they gave him candy. Everyone thought he was adorable and I wish he was that mellow on a daily basis! Most kids get all super hyper and crazy at Halloween but it has the opposite effect on Calvin.

Ethan didn’t trick or treat because he can’t eat candy anyway; he was perfectly content to sit in the stroller and eat crackers and just people watch. One house tried to give him chocolate and I politely declined and tried to joke with them but I think they may have thought I was being rude. I should have just taken the candy!

There was one other incident where we stopped in the middle of the sidewalk for some reason.....I think I was getting a caprisun ready for Calvin or something.....and there was one small group of people behind us. We apologized for the holdup and they made a huge show about going around us, muttering under their breath “stopping in the middle of the effing sidewalk, what the eff are you doing, stupid b***ches”. I kind of couldn’t believe how ridiculous they were being about having to walk around us. I didn’t let it ruin my evening though and we actually had a great time. It think it was the first year that I didn’t stress or get annoyed or have to carry a kid. Fun times!

The kids had been munching on candy the whole time we were out, I always let them eat a little while trick or treating because they will burn it off with all the walking. I pick it out and inspect it before I’ll open it but it’s usually lollipops or m&ms. When we got home, I had them put on jammies and then pick out one last piece of candy before going to bed.

After they went to bed, I sorted the candy. JP always takes the stuff that I won’t let the kids eat like gum and gobstoppers and then I sort the candy into two bowls. Chocolate and everything else.

Piper’s been doing fine at school for the past two days so I’m hoping not to get another report of behavior like that and Calvin is back to his crazy self. Now we’re into November and I’m getting geared up for Thanksgiving. It’s crazy how different November 1st feels from October 31st and it’s just the next day.

Annual Pictures

2011-10-31T07:22:00.001-07:00

Every year, I dress the kids up and take their pictures. I have every intention of taking the pictures around their birthdays but it never happens and I usually end up doing them in September. Piper is the only one that has had professional pictures taken. We took her right after her first birthday and it was an experience that I really don’t want to go through again. {I tried to find a copy of the pictures but they aren’t on my computer or Shutterfly and my laptop isn’t set up with our scanner so I’ll have to skip that pic.}

When Calvin turned one, I decided to try and take the pictures myself. They came out pretty cute and so I’ve done them every year since.

I don’t have a fancy camera or anything so I’m sure they could look a lot better but the kids and I always have lots of fun with these.

Last week, I put the kids in their nice clothes and took them out into the backyard for our pictures. I did them one at a time so I wouldn’t have all three kids running around and getting dirty which worked out so much better. I wasn’t sure what to expect with Ethan because he’s never had to sit still for pictures before. I shouldn’t have worried, he’s such a ham and so agreeable.

These pictures did turn out a little blue so I may try and fix the coloring a little before I order them.

Calvin had to be bribed with candy corn to actually face me (he kept putting his chair to face the wall) but then he had a lot of fun. He posed himself in all of these pictures....the very last one is the one I will be printing and sending out. This is just a small sample but they were all super cute and it was really hard to choose just one.

Piper wasn’t as agreeable. She really doesn’t enjoy sitting still or getting her picture taken or listening in general so it was a bit of a headache for me. Also, she’s started doing the “fake smile” and it’s really hard to get her to stop and just be natural. She said she had fun and asked me to take more the next day but I was worn out and very low on candy corn.

After we finished up the individual pictures, I took some group shots. These ones came out super cute. Ethan kept looking back and forth between Piper and Calvin, he thought it was hilarious whenever they said “cheeeeeese”.

All in all, I’m really happy with the pictures this year. I like the group ones so much that one of them may even end up on our Christmas card.

I happened last week and the week before...

2011-10-30T07:03:00.001-07:00

So, this whole North Dakota adventure has been taking up all of our free time. Looking for a job, trying to find a house, looking at pictures of the snow and preemptively missing Florida winters. JP and Allen may have found a job which would offer them free housing and meals and even though it’s not the job that JP ultimately wants, he would rather go up there with a job and a free place to live than nothing at all. So, like always, we just have to wait and see what happens.

I am, once again, behind on my pictures! So let’s catch up!

Sunday 10/16/11

We went to the Harvest Festival in the next town over. Piper and Calvin probably could have spent all day on that roller coaster if we had let them.

Monday 10/17/11

I was cleaning up the kitchen after breakfast, when I came out to the living room I found Ethan sitting in his toy box just chillin’ and watching Mickey.

Tuesday 10/18/11

Eating some of the super delicious iced pumpkin cookies that I made. Piper loved them, Calvin was unsure but ended up really liking them too.

Wednesday 10/19/11

Ethan-Boo got caught taking my books off the shelf for the millionth time. I was putting a gate around the bookshelf but decided just to take that book shelf out of the living room because I got tired of picking my books up ten times a day.

Thursday 10/20/11

Yes, Calvin bites his toenails. I knew he was picking at his nails because they are always so short and ragged but it wasn’t until this day that I realized he was biting them off.

Friday 10/21/11

We visited JP at work!

Saturday 10/22/11

Ethan loves to take baths. He splashes in the water and plays with all the toys and is super fascinated with bubbles. Piper was taking a bath with him and washing his hair with a toy submarine.

Sunday 10/23/11

We went to a friend’s daughter’s birthday party at the park. The kids had a great time playing on the playground and Ethan spent most of his time trying to escape to the parking lot. Very tiring but lots of fun for everyone.

Monday 10/24/11

Calvin loves to dress up like a ghost right now. He was putting his sheet over his head but kept walking into walls so I found this pillowcase in the linen closet and cut eye holes for him. He says “Booooooooo, I’m a scary ghost!”

Tuesday 10/25/11

Every year, I dress the kids up and take their annual pictures. I certainly could go someplace professional to get them done but....I like doing them myself. I didn’t actually intentionally dress them to match but I think it’s cute that they all do. I’ll post the other pictures later this week.

Wednesday 10/26/11

Sweeping up the backyard. That broom was the best yard sale purchase we made last weekend, it keeps the kids so busy outside.

Thursday 10/27/11

Testing out the tutu I made for her. The picture is blurry because she was twirling.

Friday 10/28/11

All dressed up for her storybook parade at school. Of course, the boys had to get in the picture too. As you can see, Piper was not very happy about them stealing her spotlight.

Saturday 10/29/11

We had to go into Kissimmee to get the rest of the stuff for the kids’ costumes so we stopped in to see JP’s parents. Piper and Calvin are saying their full names in this picture. Piper knows our last name (well....not mine, theirs) but Calvin thinks his last name is Coolidge. I’m sure it has nothing to the do with the fact that we always call him Calvin Coolidge

And that’s it for my pictures! But I have to share this one I found on Pinterest because it’s still making me laugh. Yes, I love Harry Potter. Yes, I’m probably a nerd.

Five Question Friday

2011-10-28T05:52:00.001-07:00

I was all set to walk Piper to school this morning when I opened the door and realized it was raining. I guess that explains why it was still so dark at 7:30. It was actually a nice surprise because even though I appreciate the daily exercise, sometimes I like a little break from the trek. We woke JP up and he drove Piper and I got to put my sweats back on and cuddle up on the couch with some coffee. Today Piper’s class is having a fall festival and the kids could dress up as a character from a book. Piper dressed up as a Beautiful Butterfly (from the end of The Very Hungry Caterpillar...she doesn’t look much like the one in the book but she loves pink so what can you do?).

I think this was the teacher’s way of having a Halloween celebration without actually calling it Halloween. They are also having an open house at 10 this morning so we’re all going back to take part in a scavenger hunt with Piper’s class. JP said he is going to try and make it, I hope he does because I think it will be tough trying to keep the boys out of all the fun stuff in Piper’s classroom.

For now, I’m going to keep enjoying this coffee and do some Five Question Friday.

1. Do you prefer cotton, silk, or flannel sheets?
I like the cotton jersey sheets. They are super comfy but JP hates them because he says they are too warm. He likes the cotton sheets that are cool to the touch, I don’t even know what kind of sheet that is which makes them really hard to find. Every pair we’ve ever had comes from JP’s Mom and she doesn’t know what they are called either. I think she comes into them on accident and doesn’t like them so gives them to us. They are always some ugly brown or green (the ones we have now are brown) but I’ll admit, they are comfortable in the summer.

2. What time zone are you in?
Eastern! Which is the best because I never have to worry about anyone spoiling the shows I want to watch by posting updates on facebook as they are happening. I hate that! Although, I’m facebooking less and less lately and just deleted a ton of people so it’s not a huge concern anymore.

3. What is your favorite part of the holiday season?
Everything! But......I know it happens every year that Christmas stuff starts getting put out super early but locally, it was all out before any Halloween stuff was which is too early in my opinion. Even now, at our local Walmart, there is hardly any Halloween decorations but Christmas stuff is everywhere! I do love the lights and the smells and the music but I personally don’t want to start experiencing it until after Thanksgiving. Let me enjoy all the Fall holidays please!! I realize this is a bit of a digression from the actual question but I can’t help it, it bugs me. I also hate how every commercial on Nickelodeon is for a toy at this point. My mornings are spent listening to kids fight about not wanting to share toys they don’t even have (and ones that I would never in a million years buy). I love Christmas, I really do, but it bugs me too.

4. What is your favorite "wintry" drink? (It doesn't have to be an "alcoholic" drink!)
Mmmm, hot chocolate with whipped cream or lots of marshmallows. I’m still trying to get my kids on board the hot chocolate train, they don’t seem to understand why anyone would want to drink something hot. I also really love coffee with the seasonal creamers, can’t wait to try out some new ones this year.

5. In your opinion, what is the worst job in the world?
Customer service representative at a call center. I know everyone hates them because it seems like no matter where you call you get someone rude or unwilling to help. I have been on the other end of the phone and let me tell you, you start your day wanting to help people (at least I did) but after about an hour of having people yell at you for no reason, threaten you or your family over a perfectly valid charge or get called a b***h or a c**t (yes, it happened on a daily basis) enough times, it gets hard to separate the callers. That job sucks the life and the compassion out of you. When I eventually quit, my boss asked why I was leaving because I was so good at my job. I told him that I was good at it because I forced myself to be but that I hated doing it. I told him that it hurt my soul to walk into the building every day and I just couldn’t do any job like that ever again.

My week in recipes

2011-10-26T06:41:00.001-07:00

Has anyone else’s kids picked their costumes for Halloween yet? This is the first year that the kids are really picking their own without any input from me and I’ve been hearing a different list every day. Calvin goes back and forth on whether or not he wants to be a scary ghost. As of yesterday he had settled on cowboy (which is what he dressed as last year).

I think he just wants a new pair of boots and another set of “shoot guns”. Piper said she maybe wants to be a cowgirl (and if she dresses as that then Ethan will be a cowboy as well) but I think she just wanted a new pair of boots too if Calvin was getting some. She has also said she wants to be Jasmine, Ariel (she calls her Errrriel and she was that last year as well), a scary ghost, a cat or maybe an elephant. So I’ve given them a deadline of Saturday morning to make their final choices so we can gather up the missing supplies. I’m kind of hoping they lean towards cowboy/cowgirl. They already have the outfits and the boots can be worn after Halloween too so it wouldn’t seem like a frivolous expense for just one day.

These past two weeks, I didn’t make very many new recipes. We had the baked spaghetti again and also the parmesan garlic chicken. I love that chicken! It’s the easiest thing to throw together and it’s sooooo good! We had friends over for dinner on Sunday and I made them the baked spaghetti. Apparently they aren’t fans of pasta or cream cheese but they all seconds. Heaven on a plate, I tell ya what.

Creamy Chicken and Noodles
Super easy, super good. It almost tastes like those box meals but soooo much better. It’s hearty and a little sweet tasting. JP has already requested that I make it again. I cooked the chicken as I was making the noodles because I didn’t have any cooked chicken made up already and it didn’t really add any extra time or effort to the meal.

Creamy Chicken Pockets
I had some trouble making these. Getting the chicken mixture made was no big deal but filling the crescents was super messy. I don’t know if maybe the chicken chunks were too big but I was only able to put a small amount in each one. So I had tons of the mixture left over. Then, when they cooked, of course the rolls got bigger, and they were almost empty. JP said these tasted really plain but I liked them. I didn’t think they were plain but they weren’t overly flavorful. I probably won’t be making them again though.

Maple Cookies with Maple Butter Glaze
These make your house smell amazing but honestly, I wasn’t a fan. The cookies were plain and dense and just not very good. The glaze was amazing though.....so delicious. I only used a little bit of milk so that it would be more like frosting and I will definitely be making it again. I think it would taste awesome on a butter or sugar cookie. So I will be experimenting with different combos in the future.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies
These cookies, on the other hand were awesome! So pumpkiny and Fall tasting....yum! I didn’t use ground cloves because I wasn’t about to pay five dollars for a small container of something that I would only use in these cookies. I don’t think they missed anything by having that ingredient missing. I also used canned pumpking puree and didn’t use lemon juice in the glaze, I just used milk. I wasn’t sure if anyone would like them but the kids gobbled them down and the rest disappeared in about five minutes when JP took them to work the next day. These cookies are really moist and cakey and so flavorful. They will be on the Fall baking agenda for years to come.

I also tried out a few other things I found on Pinterest that I thought I would share.

I don’t have the exact pin for this one but I remembered seeing the picture and was able to figure it out on my own from memory. Piper has tons of art supplies and finished products and I just have nowhere to store it all!

So I put this together based on the aforementioned pin I came across.

Just three flat rate boxes taped together with one end cut off. I plan on making it pretty at some point with some contact paper but it does the job.

How to clean your glass cooktop
I have a glass cooktop and I have not be able to find anything to really clean it with.

So when I came across the tutorial for cleaning it with hot soapy water and baking soda, I had to try it. It works!! I only did it once, I think if I had tried one more time, I could have gotten all the gunk off but I think it did a pretty good job.

And that’s it for now!! I’ve got so much cleaning to catch up on, I was so lazy yesterday!

Busy Weekend

2011-10-25T06:30:00.001-07:00

Saturday morning, we went to a community yard sale. My friend Cristina had some Little People for me so we stopped at her house first. She had some stuff out for sale so I let the kids look through it while we talked. I found some play clothes for Piper and the kids picked out some toys. She said it was ok to park in front of her house so we left the van and started out walking. It was a large community but I didn’t really think we would end up being there that long. We walked for over two hours!! I think we bought every single truck at every yard sale as well as some puzzles and books. I had been hoping to get clothes for the kids but hadn’t managed to find any. Just when I was giving up hope and we were around the corner from Cristina’s house, I hit the jackpot. Bin upon bin of clothes in Piper’s size. I went to town, JP ended up leaving me there to go back to the van because I was taking so long. In the end I got her four pairs of pjs, a light jacket, four dresses, 11 pairs of pants, six skirts and 22 shirts (half long sleeve, half short) all for $60. I’m still excited about it!

We were supposed to go downtown to the Fall Frenzy later that day but we were exhausted from all the walking and we had date night that evening so I opted to skip it. Instead we spent the afternoon cleaning out old toys to make room for new ones and just relaxing.

That evening we went on our date night with our friends Tonya and Allen while two of their girls stayed at the house. We decided to go to this thing called The Trail of Terror. It was actually my idea and I’m still not sure why I wanted to do that....I hate being scared. We were in line for about 45 minutes and the closer we got to the front of the line, the more nervous I got. They took us on the tour in a group of ten and basically, it’s a walk through a few old buildings and through the woods while things jump out and scare you. There was a story but I wasn’t paying attention to it because I was so on edge. I knew going in that if I showed I was scared, I was going to get picked on but I couldn’t help it. I started screaming about five minutes in and didn’t stop until we got done. The people didn’t just jump out, they would actually follow you for awhile and at one point, there were four of them circling me and I almost started crying. There were three in front and then I turned to hide behind JP and there was one right there. Everyone in our group thought it was hilarious and kept pointing the people in my direction. Plus, there was this guy in a bunny mask that pretty much followed us through the whole thing. He kept popping out of nowhere and scaring the crap out of me and I kept telling him “I hate you! Leave me alone!” By the time we got back to the car, I was laughing about it but I was so terrified during! I know it’s all fake but I just get so caught up in the whole thing.

We went to Chilis for dinner and talked to Tonya and Allen about North Dakota. Allen is a truck driver and there are so many job options up there for him so they may actually end up going as well! JP figured he and Allen would go first and work and find a place to live and then we would come later. So Tonya had the idea for us to combine houses (basically, I would move in with them because their house is bigger) but I’m not sure I want to do that. It would be nice to not be alone but I think it’s going to be strange enough for the kids not to see JP, I don’t want to add anymore crazy change until it’s time to actually move. JP and I talked about it and he agreed it wouldn’t make sense, especially since we still have two months on this lease and a whole house full of stuff that would have to go into storage.

On Sunday, we went to a birthday party for Cristina’s daughter and JP was talking to her husband James. He asked him how he was liking Florida and James said “actually, we were thinking about packing up everything and moving to North Dakota”. I guess a coworker of his had heard about the huge job boom and jumped on it so James started looking into it too. If that’s not a sign that this needs to happen, I don’t know what else to look for. We only really have two sets of friends here and if they are both going, it would be so perfect! JP finally finished up his resume so I’m really pushing him to get on applying for work. He has a tendency to procrastinate until he loses interest and I really don’t want that to happen this time. I’m already preparing myself for the cold and I want to get out of Florida so bad!

Five Question Friday

2011-10-21T06:11:00.001-07:00

Today is the start of Piper’s four day weekend! Even though I got woken up at 7 am, I am loving that I didn’t have to get dressed and walk Piper to school. It’s cold outside! Our heater actually went on last night and when I went to get Ethan out of bed, his little hands were so cold! I think our temps are going to go back up this weekend and beyond but these past two days were kind of a nice change.

Time for Five Question Friday!

1. Where do you escape to when you've had enough?
The kitchen for some coffee or chocolate?! I actually don’t really have an escape place. If JP is home, I’ll usually just mutter something about him keeping an eye on the kids and then go jump in the shower (with the bathroom door locked so no one can come in and bug me) but the days I need to escape the most are usually the ones when I’m alone. So then I’ll just usher the kids into the backyard, hand them some ice cream to keep them busy and then collapse on the couch. Mother of the year over here.

2. What shows are you watching this fall?
Besides my old favorites like How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, The Office, Grey’s Anatomy and Glee (etc...) I am really loving Hart of Dixie, Terra Nova, Ringer and Up All Night. I really liked The Secret Circle but it conflicts with the Thursday shows I’ve watched for years so I had to give it up. I did like The Playboy Club but it already got cancelled and I have all the episodes of Pan Am recorded but have yet to watch them. Oh and I am really looking forward to Once Upon a Time and Grimm. They both look really good so I hope they stick around. Terra Nova started out as a show for JP (I even gave up Gossip Girl for it because he really wanted to watch this show and he never really watches tv) but I ended up really liking it too. Do you think I watch too much tv?!

3. What was the longest roadtrip you've ever taken and where did you go?
Right after I graduated high school, my Step Mom and I flew to Nebraska (from California) to visit some old family friends. Then we drove with them to Arizona. We were going to Arizona to visit my sister and her new baby and our friends were going to visit family in Arizona at the same time, we drove with them so they wouldn’t have to go alone. It was.....interesting. A bird flew into our windshield at one point and we broke down in Colorado. I believe it took four days, including the extra day, and I was so done with being in a car by the time we got to Arizona.

4. Do you plan on taking your kids to Disney World?
Yes!! We have actually already been twice (I’ve been three times, once before all the kids came along)....actually we just went a few weeks ago, we met up with my Aunt and her family who were visiting, and it was wonderful. Early next year we are planning on taking a proper vacation there. Going for a whole week and staying in a hotel and everything. I’m very excited! I’ve been to all the parks but the kids have only been to Epcot and Magic Kingdom so it will be so awesome to see them experience the full Disney Magic.

Seeing Piper with the princesses almost made me cry. She was just in awe of their dresses and actually seeing them in person (and talking to them!) when she’s watched their movies so many times. I can’t wait for the kids to meet all their favorite characters! I’m getting super excited right now and it’s still a few months away!

5. What is something people would surprised to know about you?
Hmmmm.....I don’t know! I think I’m pretty much an open book and I don’t have any crazy secrets or anything. Maybe that I’m super impulsive? I don’t know if that’s really a surprising secret and I think people that know me well, know that about me already, but I don’t think that anybody meeting me for the first time would believe it. I try to be a planner but really, I pretty much just fly by the seat of my pants. It seems like the bigger the decision is, the less thought I put into it. Which works for me but I can see how it would be hard for most people. I make a lot of mistakes but I like to think that I always learn from them.

A little bit of this and that

2011-10-20T06:51:00.001-07:00

Last night (or very early this morning, rather) I woke up thinking it was already time to drag my butt out of bed and get Piper off to school. Then I looked at the clock and realized I still had over an hour until my alarm would go off. It made me so happy and I snuggled right back down into my comfy bed and fell right back asleep. Of course, I ended up overdoing that sleep and had to practically run Piper to school this morning but we made it and then I got a nice leisurely walk home.

Piper has a four day weekend so I don’t have to set my alarm for the next few days. We have a busy weekend ahead, including date night, so I’m thankful I get two extra days to get everything done. At some point, we’ve got to make Piper a costume for her to wear to school next Friday. Her class is having a Fall Festival and the kids can dress as a character from a storybook; I’m pretty sure it’s in place of a Halloween party. I think Piper is going to be the butterfly from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. She has a pair of wings that we’re going to paint and then I want to attempt to make her a tutu and antennae. If it comes out the way I see it in my head, she’s going to look awesome. Hopefully she’ll want to be that for Halloween too and then I only have to worry about a costume for Calvin. He’s been saying he wants to be a ghost so I think we’re going to go with that and hope that he doesn’t change his mind when Halloween rolls around.

JP and I have been spending all our free time looking at pictures of North Dakota and finding houses for rent. I found this one that made me laugh, the pictures are awful and the description makes it seem like they don’t really want to rent their house.

They couldn’t clean the kitchen before taking pictures?? And what is in that jug on the counter?!

I am fascinated by the paint choices in this house.

What exactly is this a picture of? Why is there a pole, is it holding up the ceiling?

This is the description from hotpads.com: “3Bd/2B/LR/DR/Kit/W-D FURNISHED Propane Heating unfinished basement Located 90 West of Minot,ND. Entire state population only 500,000. Recent increase in oil related business. Drilling expected to last 15 years. Limited housing additionally due to recent floods. Over 5000 lost their homes. RV parking for Oil workers costing $500/month. Extreme weather last minimum 6 months a year, reaching lows of minus 40 with 65 mile/hr winds. Extreme frigid climate for most of year. Rental housing very expensive and most unable to find jobs in oil industry without existing housing confirmed.”

And they are asking $3500 a month!! We’ve already figured out that if we do in fact move, JP is going to have to commute. Everything near the town he’ll work in is outrageously overpriced. JP spent last night sprucing up his resume and then he’s going to do his first application tonight. I’m really hoping this all works out because it could mean great things for our family. If you have a second, could you send some good thoughts our way? I will definitely miss being able to go to the beach in December and I’m sure I will freeze during my first winter (a cold front rolled into Florida last night, it was about 60 degrees on our walk to school this morning and I was shivering!) but....I’m still kind of excited about the change of scenery and a new adventure.

Jar-O-Lanterns and Spectral Eyes

2011-10-19T06:57:00.001-07:00

When I woke up yesterday, I had no idea I would be spending the evening looking for a place to rent in North Dakota. JP called me yesterday afternoon and asked if I wanted to move there. He then proceeded to tell me about something he had heard on NPR about how they were finally able to extract the oil that’s been sitting underneath the state and now that place is booming. Jobs galore with competitive pay, benefits and a severe lack of workers. And not just in the oil industry. So I looked into it. And it’s true. And it looks very, very promising. There is a bit of a housing shortage because they can’t build the houses fast enough to accommodate all the new workers but I’m sure that will remedy itself in time and JP said he’s not afraid to commute. I’m a little terrified of the cold, something I found online said that in July (which is their warmest month) temperatures average about 63 degrees. Yikes!! But, you know, I think I could handle the cold for the type of life we could have there if it all pans out. JP has found a few possible jobs and is going to spend his next couple of days applying and then we’ll see what happens. I’ll update when I know something. I don’t think we’re going to pick up and move to North Dakota tomorrow but we are really gung ho about making it happen.

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about the Halloween crafts the kids and I just made so I’ll get on with that now. I found these in the Disney Family Fun magazine, but not surprisingly, they were also on Pinterest. I did both on the same day so we could do all the painting at once.

Jar-O-Lanterns and Spectral Eyes

You’ll need a few glass jars, some boxes, paint, yellow tissue paper, black construction paper (or cardstock) and a glue stick. (Oh and some white lights and/or battery operated tealights). I didn’t have multiple boxes, so I just used one flat rate postal box and it worked fine. Use masking tape to make jack o lantern faces on the jar and then cut out some eye shapes in the box(es).

Then paint the outside of the jars orange and the front, sides and top of the box blue (or I suppose any dark color would work). It says to use acrylic paint, which I did not have so I just went with tempera. We also painted the lids of our jars green. Let the paint dry.

Then put doubled up yellow tissue paper on the inside of the box behind the eye holes. Use the black paper to make pupils and glue those onto the yellow tissue papered eye holes. I decided to use the same white christmas lights needed for the spectral eyes in my jar o lanterns too. I just put a hole in each lid with a screwdriver so I could push a few lights into the jar. Then cut open the bottom half of the box and shove in the rest of the lights. Plug in and enjoy your craftiness!

Now, you’ll notice ours are a little messy. I had to resist the urge to continue painting the jars after the kids said they were done. I’m sure if I had covered over them with another coat of paint, you would be able to see the faces on the jars a lot better but since this was the kids’ project, I didn’t want to mess with their art. I think they came out cute and it adds a little Halloween to our kitchen.

It happened the last two weeks....

2011-10-18T09:36:00.001-07:00

Remember last weekend when I posted about all the rain we had? Well....we are gearing up for another tropical system to pass over us today. We are currently at 100% humidity and on the radar the storm is just skirting our county. JP dropped Piper off at school this morning because it had just started to sprinkle and I was worried that it would get heavier on the walk. It still hasn’t started really raining. I’m supposed to leave in about 30 minutes to go pick her up and I really want that rain to start so I don’t actually have to get dressed and leave my house (JP will pick her up and bring her home if it’s raining). I really want to just make another cup of coffee and snuggle up on the couch with my babies. Rain, rain, rain already!! (Incidentally, it didn’t start raining and I had to leave the house....)

Once again I am behind on my Project 365 posts. I have decided that I am going to put together a photo book at the end of the year. And even though I started this in March, I’m going to start over again in January so next year I have the full year in one book, rather than March to March. So this year won’t be a full P365 but I think the book will still be cute with all the pictures and little stories.

Sunday 10/2/11

Ethan-Boo multitasking with his walker and school bus. He doesn’t need the walker anymore but he still likes to push it around.

Monday 10/3/11

Very focused on his Lego creation. Calvin makes some really cool stuff with Legos these days.

Tuesday 10/4/11

Doing flips on the couch (which he isn’t really allowed to do but since he was leaving Ethan alone, I just let him have fun).

Wednesday 10/5/11

Clapping his hands and dancing. See that giant mosquito bite on his head? The mosquitos just love Ethan, he’s got bites all over.

Thursday 10/6/11

Playing with his “computer”. It’s really just a notebook with a picture of a keyboard on it but Calvin loves to pretend he’s computing.

Friday 10/7/11

Escaping! I can’t use that cool fence anymore because no matter where I put it, Ethan figures out how to squeeze through it or open it up.

Saturday 10/8/11

Stuck indoors, Calvin found new ways to amuse himself. He discovered the junk drawer and busied himself for about an hour with what he found inside.

Sunday 10/9/11

Rainy day adventures!

Monday 10/10/11

The yard was still flooded so the kids got out the boogie boards.

Tuesday 10/11/11

Calvin is obsessed with the stuff in my bathroom, mostly our deodorant and JP’s hair gel. He got ahold of the gel and put it in Ethan’s hair. Ethan didn’t seem to care and Calvin thought it was hilarious.

Wednesday 10/12/11

Watching a movie together. Piper and Ethan don’t really interact that much. She thinks he’s super cute and loves to pet him (seriously) but she doesn’t really play with him at all. I thought it was so sweet to see them actually sitting together.

Thursday 10/13/11

Ethan was eating some Trix yogurt and it must have had a sour flavor because he kept making this face. He wouldn’t stop eating the yogurt though.

Friday 10/14/11

Making a Halloween craft. I found this project in a recent issue of Disney Family Fun magazine. I’ll post about it soon, the kids had lots of fun making them.

Saturday 10/15/11

Watching Mickey. This is Ethan’s favorite show, he loves Mickey.

Harvest Festival

2011-10-17T08:36:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, we did the first of our fun Fall outings. Last weekend we had planned on going to the Fall Festival at the Civic Center but due to all the rain, we opted to spend the evening at home instead. So, I was really looking forward to the Harvest Festival this weekend. I knew there would be rides and food but I had hopes that there would be pumpkins and/or other Fall things. There weren’t. But we had a good time anyway.

When we got there, we had a quick debate about how many tickets to buy for the rides. Whenever we go to these types of things, we usually just buy the kids the ride bands so they can ride whatever they want, however many times they want. However, there were only about four rides the kids were tall enough to go on and not enough other activities to keep us there all afternoon so it seemed silly to spend $50 on two bands. I really should have just done that because in the end, I spent $40 on tickets. Oh well, lesson learned.

Normally, I help the kids get on and off the rides but this time, I would hand them their tickets and have them stand in line and get on and off the ride by themselves, or with the help of the attendant if needed. I’m trying not to be so hovery, I want them to be a little more independent and brave.

The kids rode the train first. JP tried to talk them out of using their tickets on this one because it just goes around in a circle very slowly but Calvin really wanted to ride it...he loves trains right now. I think the kids liked being the only ones on it and getting to sit in the very front.

Then we rode the carousel. This is Piper’s favorite ride wherever we go. Even at Disney. She would spend all day on it if she could. Calvin wasn’t tall enough to go by himself so I had to go too. I kind of like riding on this one with the kids, I never sit on the horse, just stand next to Calvin but it’s fun going around in circles and being right there to watch the kids have fun.

After that, the kids rode the bears that you can see behind Calvin in the above picture.

Only two of the bears worked so the guy running the ride put Piper and Calvin in with some other kids. They were squished into one side, Calvin wouldn’t go near the other kids and he did not look he was having one bit of fun. This ride went on forever! I felt like were standing there for five minutes and Calvin looked miserable the whole time. After that, the kids rode the roller coaster.

When the kids rode this at the fair, Calvin was terrified so I was a little worried about putting him on it again. He had a great time though. They loved this ride and probably would have stayed on it all day. This is why I wish I would have gotten the arm bands. After that, we walked around a little bit to see if we could find a game or something for the kids to play. There were a few but nothing that they were interested in, so we came right back to the dragon coaster. This time, the kids picked a different seat.

Ethan was fascinated with this coaster, he was happily kicking away in the stroller and enjoying the breeze.

I started getting hungry so we went off in search of food. There really wasn’t a whole lot to choose from, I couldn’t find anything the kids actually wanted to eat. We got some kettle corn that Piper devoured and Calvin kept asking for vanilla ice cream and chips. The closest thing I could find was Italian ice which they have never had but were excited to try.

Piper really loved hers, I think she actually ate the whole thing. And thought it was hilarious that her mouth was so red.

Calvin ate some but I don’t think he was a big fan. He doesn’t really like the icy stuff and I’m pretty sure he only picked this because it was blue and we couldn’t find his vanilla ice cream. I think he really only ate it to make his tongue blue. JP gave some to Ethan but he didn’t like it either.

When we finished out snack (I ended up having “sloppy nachos”...nachos with sloppy joe mix on top....they were pretty good), we took potty breaks and then walked around. The kids thought the portapotties were the funniest/grossest things ever. We found some puppies and the kids spent time petting them and talking about how cute they were. Ethan walked around in the grass a little.

Then we decided to use up the rest of the tickets and leave. We had talked about spending the rest of the afternoon at the lake so the kids could play in the sand and visit the cook playground there. There were enough tickets for the kids to ride three more rides so they went straight back to the roller coaster.

This time they rode in the very back. I think they liked that spot best.

Then Piper wanted to ride the ferris wheel but Calvin didn’t, so I rode with her. I haven’t been on a ferris wheel in years so I was a little shaky the whole time but it was lots of fun. The ferris wheel took four tickets each though (all the other rides took 3) so there were only four tickets left, giving Calvin a ride but not Piper. Calvin wouldn’t go on anything without her so JP talked to the guy running the roller coaster and he let them both ride for the last four tickets. They chose the middle.

Then we left to go to the lake. Piper protested a lot, she wanted to ride some more, but Calvin and Ethan were very subdued. Ethan seemed a little cranky and warm but I figured he was just tired and that he would fall asleep in the car which he did. We stopped at home to pick up drinks and snacks and use the bathroom again and then we were on our way. We got to the lake and Ethan woke up super cranky. The kids opted to play in the water instead of on the playground and so they splashed around until they got too cold.

I didn’t really prepare for them to swim so hadn’t brought towels, but I did have a strange assortment of clothes in a backpack in the car. Note to self; never let the kids pack their own extra clothes. Calvin had a pajama top and shorts, Piper had shorts and no shirt. Luckily, I had one of Ethan’s one piece rompers in the bag so Piper wore that as a shirt. She wasn’t happy about it but it was that or a soaking wet shirt.

When we got home, I put the kids right in the tub. Ethan felt really warm and fevery and was so cranky that I gave him some tylenol and put him to bed. Then the kids and I settled in for The Nightmare Before Christmas (it’s the shortest movie we have and the kids love it) and then off to bed. Except.....towards the end of the movie I could hear Ethan whimpering in his room. I went in to check on him but before I even opened the door, I could smell something really bad. He had vomited EVERYWHERE. It was all over the bars on the crib, on the floor, all over the sheets, caked in his hair and ears.....I’m not sure when he threw up but some of it was dry so he had probably been laying in it for awhile. He had been in bed for about an hour so it could have been at any time but except for the whimpering, I hadn’t heard any noise come out of his room the whole time he was in there so I just don’t know. I got him in the tub and then handed him off to JP so I could change his sheets and clean up the room. I got it all cleaned up and Ethan seemed to be feeling better so we sent all the kids off to bed. I must have checked on Ethan a million times last night but luckily, there was no more vomit and he seemed to be in much better spirits this morning.

Next weekend we’re going to a thing in downtown St. Cloud called Fall Frenzy so I’m hoping that’s more like what I was hoping to find at the Harvest Festival. If it’s not, there is a local church that has a pumpkin patch set up so we may just have to go there and pick out pumpkins and then make some fall treats at home.

Five Question Friday

2011-10-14T06:08:00.001-07:00

JP dropped Piper off at school this morning and when he came home, he told me that Ms. Tomie said we need to check Piper for lice because one of the other kids has it. Insert shudder here. I was prepared for the preschool sickies. I was NOT prepared for lice. I will be checking Piper’s head like a mad woman when she gets home today and probably for the next few weeks. I had lice when I was a kid and it was traumatizing. I do not want to put my kids through that. Now that I’ve given you the heebeejeebees, lets get on to

1. Do you prefer your ice cream in a bowl or in a cone?
I love the waffle bowls. I like the taste of a cone but I don’t enjoy having ice cream melt all over my hand. The waffle bowl is the perfect solution. I don’t let myself buy them from the store though, otherwise I would eat way too much ice and of course hot fudge. You can’t eat ice cream in a waffle bowl without hot fudge. It’s like the law or something.

2. What three things do you love the smell of?
My babies heads when they are fresh out of the bathtub, vanilla and the smell right after you blow out a candle. I actually like that smell better than the candle itself.

3. Giftcards or no? (In regards to gift giving...)
Sometimes. It really depends on the person. I personally like getting gift cards, especially if they are for a book store, so I don’t mind giving them if I have no idea what to get someone. I like to give them for restaurants because then it’s not just a gift card, it’s a night out. Which honestly, I wouldn’t mind getting as a gift.

4. What sports did you play in high school if any and do you still play them?
I’m not very athletic, like, at all. I don’t enjoy playing sports for fun and I don’t really do the whole “team” thing. I did Drama in high school, the club and the plays. It was fun but I mostly did it because all my friends were involved and I didn’t like being left out. I didn’t have a whole lot of passion for it or anything.

5. Were you in band in high school? What instrument did you play?
Not in high school, but I was in elementary school. I played the clarinet in sixth grade but quit when I moved on to seventh. I had been borrowing my clarinet from the school and I guess I thought they wouldn’t let me do that at the junior high and I didn’t think my parents could afford one so instead of asking about it, I just decided not to try anymore. I still regret that because I actually really enjoyed band and would have loved to stay a part of it through junior high and high school. I was a part of the flag team in 8th grade but didn’t make the cut in 9th. Which is how I ended up doing Drama.

Crazy kids

2011-10-12T07:03:00.001-07:00

We are having some “behavioral issues” in our house lately. I would blame myself but really, I’m starting to think that my kids are crazy.

Calvin is three now and has suddenly realized that he doesn’t actually have to do anything I say. I could tell him “Calvin, come here and eat this bowl of candy” and he would say “NO!” It’s his favorite word and he says it all the time. Variations are: “not right now”, “I’m busy”, “I don’t want to” or just plain old grunting and crying. I hate the grunting and crying, it makes me want to tear my hair out. Add this to the fact that he has boundless energy and spends his day bouncing off the walls, climbing the furniture, refusing to eat and hitting his brother and sister.....well, I am definitely ready to sell his butt at the flea market.

Piper has introduced the concept of a “line leader” into our home and it’s making me wish I had never sent her to school. She used to just scream that she wanted to do everything first because she was bigger but now she’s declared herself line leader. Whenever the kids are doing something and Piper wants to go first I hear “I have to go first because I’m the LINE LEADER!!”. Then lots of crying and stamping of feet. It’s all very dramatic and I’m to the point where I don’t even care to intervene because they won’t listen to me anyway.

Time outs don’t seem to work. I can’t even keep them sitting in their corner long enough to the do the time out and if they do sit still, they scream and cry the whole time. Putting them in their room doesn’t work because as soon as I open the door, the behavior starts right back up again. I honestly don’t think there is a way to control this ridiculousness and am just hoping to keep my sanity and my hair until they outgrow it. Or maybe it’s time to call Supernanny and get some professional help. I would do that in a second if 1) I thought I would get picked, 2) it would actually help and 3) if the the rest of America didn’t have to see my messy house and lack of hair combing.

How real can that show actually be though? It seems like some of the parenting (or lack there of) is to the extreme and there must be producers there telling the parents and kids to behave a certain way to make for better television.

Rainy Day Fun!!

2011-10-10T09:29:00.001-07:00

It rained here all weekend. Started Friday night and didn’t let up until late Sunday afternoon. Our yard was majorly flooded.

After having the kids contained in doors for a day and a half, we finally put some bathing suits on them and let them go wild in the yard. They were hesitant at first but after JP went outside with them, they had a blast.

Then JP had the brilliant idea to get the boogie boards from the garage. Piper and Calvin got on them and JP pulled them around the yard.

They thought it was the greatest thing ever but got tired pretty quickly so we brought them in for lunch and naps. JP and I ordered Chinese food and we settled in and waited for the rain to start up again. It never really did though so after the kids woke up and recharged, they were back out in the flood again.

In that corner of the yard, the water was up to their knees! Perfect nature made swimming pool.

The whole time that Piper and Calvin were outside, Ethan was indoors nice and dry. Watching tv and walking around. I think we officially have a walker on our hands now. He’s choosing to walk instead of crawl and it’s so cute to watch him toddling around.

It was such a lovely way to spend a Sunday. The kids were exhausted at bedtime! We still have a bit of a puddle in the corner of our yard today so they went out there after Piper got home from school and swam and boogie boarded for about an hour. It’s looking like we might get more rain this afternoon though so I’m predicting a yard full of mushrooms when it finally all drys out.

Here’s a fun video of the kids being pulled around on the boogie boards.

My Week In Recipes

2011-10-09T11:17:00.001-07:00

JP went and picked up the Barbie bonanza this morning and let me tell you, I totally got my money’s worth. The house didn’t look that big in pictures but it goes almost to my waist and will be just about as tall as Piper. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold onto that surprise for two months without bursting so after I hid it all in my closet (JP had the kids outside playing in our flooded backyard), I decided to give her just one of the Barbies. She is happily playing with it in her room right now and I think that will hold me over until Christmas. I think I get that from my Dad, he always wants to give Christmas presents early. Last year he decided to get me a laptop. In November. I hope I can hold out until Christmas. JP said that he’s going to pack it all up and put it in the attic so Piper doesn’t see it and that will definitely stop me from giving her anymore of the Barbies. There is no way I’m going up in that attic.

Anyway, onto my delicious week!

Green Monster Smoothie
When I came across these on Pinterest, I was determined to make a tasty one. I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making smoothies in an effort to get more fruit in my diet and when I saw a way to add some leafy greens without affecting the taste, well, I was on board to try them out. I’ve come to realize that you can follow whatever recipe you want but it all comes down to your taste preferences. The first two smoothies I made, I used a banana as the base. I don’t like bananas but wanted to give them a fair chance. Both of those smoothies were disgusting and I didn’t finish them. The third one I made using a handful of spinach, a couple tablespoons of yogurt, a handful of frozen blueberries, a handful of frozen strawberries and a couple splashes of apple juice. This one was quite tasty (I couldn’t taste the spinach AT ALL) and I think I’ll be using yogurt instead of a banana from now on and I’ll be picking up a wider variety of frozen fruit next time.

Baked Spaghetti
Amazingly delicious. I was originally going to serve this to the whole family (minus Calvin who I’ve mentioned doesn’t like pasta) but once I got it all assembled, I wasn’t sure Piper would eat it. So I stuck it in the fridge and then baked it after JP came home from work. He claims that he doesn’t like casseroles and was not excited about eating this for dinner. He ended up having seconds and probably would have had thirds if he wasn’t so stuffed. I thought the cream cheese taste was just slightly overpowering so next time I might go lighter on that layer or add some more spaghetti sauce but otherwise, this is heaven on a plate. I used ground turkey instead of beef, light cream cheese, Prego Veggie Smart sauce, fat free milk and whole wheat noodles to try a make it slightly better for us and I also left out the peppers in the cream cheese layer. This is definitely going into our rotation. I actually think I’m going to make it again this week.

Chicken "Things"
I will never make these again. They really stuck to the bottom of the pan and tasted so heavily of oil. I don’t do a lot of frying, I don’t like the way it makes my house smell and I just prefer my fried food to come from a restaurant where it will be done right. I make an exception every once in awhile, if it’s something I think the kids might like. The kids wouldn’t eat these though and I didn’t even try to serve them to JP. It was kind of a waste of chicken.

Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken
Another hit! I didn’t have anything planned for dinner one night and it was getting late. I remembered I had this recipe pinned and that it only had four ingredients that I actually had on hand. Chicken, parmesan cheese, garlic powder and a pack of italian dressing mix. The chicken came out crunchy and very flavorful. I will definitely be keeping italian dressing mix on hand so any time I need a quick and easy chicken recipe, I can just throw this together. I served it with a Knorr noodle side and green beans. Yum!

I’m not sure what I’ll be making this week but I think I’m going to do some kind of Halloween cookie, I have a few of those pinned and the kids have been begging to help in the kitchen again. I still need to do my menu plan and make my shopping list but I honestly don’t feel like leaving the house today. It’s been raining since yesterday and even though it stopped for a little bit right now, there’s another wave of tropical weather on it’s way. I think I may just send JP out for a few necessities and then do the shopping later in the week. This was a great week for recipes, I hope next week is just as delicious!

Christmas shopping has begun

2011-10-08T11:00:00.001-07:00

Like most things on the internet, I have a love/hate relationship with Craigslist. More specifically the people who use Craigslist. And maybe not hate so much as general annoyance (as usual....when am I not annoyed by something).

I’ve been looking for Barbies for Piper’s Christmas present. When I was a kid, I got this sweet Barbie house one year and a few months later my stepmom came home with this giant box of everything Barbie you could possibly want or need. It was awesome and we played with that stuff for years. Well, actually, we would spend all our time splitting up the stuff that once it all got sorted we had been going at it for several hours and didn’t want to play anymore. But I still have fond memories. Piper has been bitten by the Barbie bug and I want to re-create that same awesomeness for her this year. So I’ve been scouring Craigslist.

Most people are selling collectibles which I am not about to buy. Others are too far away. A few days ago, I hit the mother load. I found two possible buys. One was a huge collection with all sorts of stuff and the other was a three story house with furniture and a working elevator. The one selling the huge lot was asking $185 which there is absolutely no way I was willing to pay, I don’t care how much stuff there was. The other I made a deal with, talked her down to $70 and had arranged to pick it up on Sunday. Only to find out that she had posted she lived in Orlando when really she lives in Altamonte Springs. Which is at least an hour drive for us. Um, no thank you. Annoyance.

So, I decided to contact the other woman. I offered her $100 for the whole set, explaining I had three kids and couldn’t really afford what she was asking. I told her that I knew it was a lot less than what she wanted but was hoping she would hang on to my offer and consider it if she wasn’t able to sell it. After a lot of very polite back and forth where she offered to drop it to $150, I talked to JP and he said to offer her $125 and let her know that was the highest we could go. She took my offer and we’re picking it all up tomorrow! I still can’t decide if I’m over paying, what do you think?

The pictures aren’t posting super clear but there are over 20 dolls, two horses, lots of little animals and accessories, a house, two cars, a little pool, a little forest, furniture, an RV, a little grocery store and a box of clothes and stuff. Piper is going to go nuts, she already told me that she wants Santa to bring her lots of Barbies because she only has one and it needs some friends.

Five Question Friday

2011-10-07T06:11:00.001-07:00

1. What is your go to comfort food or sweet?
Hot Chocolate. It is my absolute favorite beverage, even more so than coffee. I used to have a cup of hot chocolate every single night before bed and I would always order it as an “appetizer” when we went out to dinner. One year for Christmas, after I had moved out, my stepmom gave me a giant box of hot chocolate mix and it was the best present ever. I haven’t had any in a long time because it’s unbearable to drink it when it’s so hot but once the temperatures cool down, I will restock my pantry.

2. What is the most romantic place you've ever been to?
This is going to be dumb but........the library. I’m actually not a very “romantic” kind of girl. I feel a little vomity whenever things get too sappy and I just have to make jokes.....I find romance in the simple gestures and that’s enough for me. One of the first dates that JP took me on was to the library. The fact that he barely knew me and yet somehow knew that would be the perfect place to take me, well, that was pretty darn romantic.

3. What is your favorite thing about fall/Halloween?
Everything! I love going into the stores and seeing all the decorations and costumes....I love when people go all out and put spiderwebs and gravestones in their yard.....I love Halloween movies (the kiddie ones, I don’t do scary)....I love dressing up....I love dressing my kids up.....I love taking them trick or treating and seeing the pure joy on their faces....I love the day after Halloween when it seems to suddenly get colder and it feels like winter is just around the corner.....

4. How would you spend 24 hours alone?
Sleeping! Actually, I would sleep in as long as I wanted and then take a gloriously long bubble bath with a book and a hot cup of coffee. I would make whatever I wanted to eat without someone standing over my shoulder telling me it looked disgusting. I would stretch out on the couch and watch whatever movie I felt like watching, it would likely be a dance movie or a dry comedy, and I wouldn’t have to be interrupted by children or JP telling me how hot all the women were or how dumb the jokes were. I would pretty much be lazy as all get out and not feel even one tiny bit guilty.

5. Does you husband bring you flowers? Are you the bring-me-flowers type of girl?
No and no. JP doesn’t see the appeal in killing a plant to look pretty on a table and I just don’t feel like taking care of them until they eventually die. The one thing he does (that I love and appreciate more than I would anything else) is calls me before he leaves work and asks me if I want anything from the store on the way home. And no matter what it is, he’ll go get it. Usually I just ask for a bottle of wine or maybe a candy bar but even if it’s a gallon of milk or diapers or some movie that the kids have been bugging me about, he’ll go all the way to Walmart and pick it up. Way better than flowers.

It happened....

2011-10-03T09:24:00.001-07:00

Man, I am majorly slacking on my pictures lately. I know I didn’t get out my camera every single day so I’m about to find out if I at least used my phone to get the past two weeks worth of pictures. I am already trying to be better....starting....NOW! I charged my camera’s battery and everything.

Sunday 9/18/11

Our friend Tonya and her family came over Sunday evening for a barbecue. Her youngest daughter asked me if she could play Legos and I asked her to play them at the table......she didn’t listen to that part as you can see. But Calvin loved being able to sort through them all and he built all kinds of cool stuff. I’m thinking about getting or making him a Lego table for Christmas.

Monday 9/19/11

Making pizza.

Tuesday 9/20/11

Piper has been wanting to help out in the kitchen a lot more lately, so I let her make grilled cheese. She got mad when she couldn’t flip the sandwich by herself but I’m not giving up, I like having her help. It’s something fun we can do together because Calvin isn’t showing much interest in cooking yet.

Wednesday 9/21/11

Ethan, playing with his toys. He loves that alligator, when you put the plastic balls in the belly, they pop around and out the mouth. Very entertaining.

Thursday 9/22/11

Watching a movie with Daddy.

Friday 9/23/11

My Aunt Crystal came to Florida with her family for a week at Disney. We met up with them Friday night at Downtown Disney. This was taken inside the T-Rex café, the kids were staring up at the ceiling watching shooting stars. Piper got a little scared because they have big dinosaurs and loud noises inside but we were able to calm her down.

Saturday 9/24/11

Peek-a-boo, I see you!

Sunday 9/25/11

We spent the day at the Magic Kingdom!! We went to spend the day with my Aunt and her family but after getting lost at Epcot, we ended up only getting to spend a little time with them. We did have a pretty magical day at the park though and I will be posting about that this week. We’re also talking about taking an actual vacation there (it’s only about 30-45 minutes from us but we don’t want to have to do that drive and pay for parking for an entire week so we’re going to get a hotel) in the spring! I’m really excited.

Monday 9/26/11

Walking home from school together.

Tuesday 9/27/11

Calvin picked out his own clothes and dressed himself.

Wednesday 9/28/11

I’ve been working on some new hats for my store (find me on Facebook! Just search for Love, Loribug). This is a pumpkin hat modeled by Calvin. He loves it and refuses to give it back to me.

Thursday 9/29/11

Ethan modeling another one of my new hats. he looks so cute in this one! I actually found a pink camo yarn and am going to make one of these up for Piper too.

Friday 9/30/11

I’m told that this is a monkey mask. I’ll admit, it was just a tad bit creepy seeing all the kids walk out of Piper’s classroom wearing them.

Saturday 10/1/11

Saturday was just an all around lovely day. The weather was perfect so I took the kids on a walk to the library, then we went to visit JP at work. On the way home, we came across a yard sale where Piper found a dollhouse for $3. It was very dirty but I cleaned it up and we made it an “outside only” house. Then we stopped at the corner thrift store where I found these glasses and Calvin got some trucks and then we made our way home for lunch and naps.

Five Question Friday

2011-09-30T06:14:00.001-07:00

1. Do you apologize to your kids if you're wrong?
I feel like we’ve had this question already.....

I do apologize....at least once a day. I think it’s important for the kids to know that everyone makes mistakes and that we should own up to them when we do.

2. Do you have a class ring, letterman's jacket, or similar obscenely priced high school "must have"?
No, I think the most expensive thing I bought to commemorate high school were my yearbooks. I still have all four of them sitting on my bookshelf in my living room. Other things though...not so much. I don’t even think we purchased my senior pictures. The one thing we really splurged on would be Grad Night at Disneyland and I still have all the memories. Does that count?

3. If you could be one age for the rest of your life, what age would you choose?
Oooh, that’s tough. I’m kind of liking 30. I feel like I’m at an age where I’m comfortable with my self and my decisions. I’m grown up but not too old that I can’t act like a kid every once in awhile. Mostly I just don’t want to get any older than this and I can’t even imagine going back to my 20s. I had a great time during that decade but I don’t think I would survive a second round.

4. What is your favorite (unused) baby name?
I’m not sure either of these will go unused because we are still tentatively planning a fourth (not anytime soon though!!). However, I’m very fond of Owen Oliver and Avery Allison. If we do have another baby, I think one of these will end up being used. [If you’re new to my blog, all of our kids have a double initial]. If we did have another boy and went with Owen, all of our boys would have names that end in N. Calvin, Ethan, Owen......cute, right? I love the name Avery but I still can’t get used to the 3 syllables when our other kids only have 2. I thought it was just a crazy pregnancy brain thing that wouldn’t let me pick that name when I was pregnant with Ethan and we didn’t know if he was a boy or a girl but.....it’s still stuck with me. So in that sense, Avery is my favorite unused baby name because I’m not sure I can ever get past that syllable thing.

5. If you could make your child like something what would it be?
Skipping the obvious answer, food (they eat pretty much nothing), I’m gonna go with the Muppets. I’m kind of a Muppet fanatic and I just can’t get my kids on board. They love Elmo but have no interest in my favorites.

I cannot tell you how many times I have put on a Muppet movie and tried to force them to watch it. They actually voluntarily get up and play in their rooms until it’s over. What is wrong with them? The Muppets are awesome!

My week in recipes

2011-09-27T05:51:00.001-07:00

I have been so super busy lately, trying to get myself into some kind of daily routine. My blog just keeps slipping my mind!! I have quite a few things to talk about (like that possible move to Tennessee that I keep mentioning and our non disastrous trip to Disney this weekend) and I aim to get to some of them this week. In the meantime, here is my week in recipes.

Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuits
I finally found Bisquick at the store so I was able to make these biscuits. And you know what? I’m pretty sure I’ve made them in the past. I haven’t been to Red Lobster in years so I can’t say if these taste exactly like those but they are super easy and crazy delicious. I made them too big though so they weren’t quite perfect tasting. I served them with our favorite pasta and JP and I both loved them. I ended up making them again later in the week, with spaghetti and meatballs, and this time they came out perfect. I will definitely be making these any time I need a quick garlic bread.

Crockpot Salsa Chicken
I wasn’t 100% excited about this recipe. It calls for salsa and sour cream, which I must admit, are not my favorite things. I can deal with sour cream and the taste tends to disappear when you mix it into things but I really, really don’t like salsa. At all. I knew JP would probably go nuts for this, though, so I decided to try it. I didn’t change anything with the recipe, except I added about two cups of cooked rice at the very end when I added the sour cream because I made these into burritos and thought the rice would make it a more complete meal. In the end, I really loved this and JP thought it was too saucey. I think this would make a really good dip for tortilla chips so I might try it as that the next time. It had a ton of flavor and wasn’t super spicy, which is probably why JP wasn’t crazy about it. He needs his food to bring tears to his eyes. I might tweak it a bit though, maybe less salsa and sour cream....or possibly cream cheese instead of sour cream to thicken it up a bit??

Crescent Roll Pizzas
This one was all me. There may be a crescent roll pizza recipe out there, likely some kind of pizza roll up, but I came up with this in a pinch. Piper made pizza in school on Friday and asked if we could make it at home for lunch. I didn’t have a crust option on hand so at first I told her we would have to wait until we went shopping on Sunday. Then I noticed I had two cans of crescent rolls in the fridge and decided to invent my own pizza. I made these as individual slices by separating the dough into triangles. Put a little spaghetti sauce on each (I really need to start keeping pizza sauce in my pantry) and then mozzarella and mini pepperoni. I’m betting if you rolled them up with just the cheese and pepperoni and then used the sauce for dipping, they would be pretty tasty, but I wanted to give the kids something that looked like pizza. I actually kind of liked this but after all the fuss, Piper and Calvin wouldn’t eat any.

Our Favorite Pasta
I got this recipe from a package of garlic bread a few years ago. It’s a huge hit at our house, Calvin is the only one that won’t eat it, so I usually make it on a weekly basis. I thought I’d share it here because it’s super simple and so delicious.

You’ll need:
A box of Penne pasta
1 jar Prego 3 cheese sauce (Definitely go with Prego....I’ve tried other brands and they never taste quite right with this recipe)
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
crushed red pepper

Cook the pasta according to directions. Heat sauce in a saucepan (I usually do it on medium heat and keep it covered the whole time). When it starts bubbling add the cream and crushed red pepper and stir. There is a measurement for the pepper but I don’t know what it is. I just give the container a few shakes but you can put in as much or as little as you like, depending on how much of a kick you want in your sauce. Stir occassionally and once it starts bubbling again, remove from heat and pour over cooked pasta. Then you can put shredded mozzarella on top if you like cheese on your pasta (I do and I think the mozzarella makes this extra tasty). I typically serve this with chicken cutlets.

Five Question Friday

2011-09-23T06:40:00.001-07:00

1. Dream job...realistic and completely unrealistic.
I’ve always dreamed of being a teacher. I am planning on going back to school and I’m still deciding if that’s the route I want to go. Unrealistic job.....hmmmm.....coffee creamer taste tester? Or roller coaster designer? I used to be really good at that Roller Coaster Tycoon computer game. I bet I could make some awesome real life roller coasters. Oooh, maybe a jeans designer. I could design and create affordable jeans that are comfortable and that women want to wear. It is next to IMPOSSIBLE to find the perfect pair and I could solve that problem.

2. Do you fart in front of your significant other?
Of course! If I didn’t, I would probably explode because...well, I’m kind of a gassy girl. I also have a very juvenile sense of humor and farting makes me laugh. JP on the other hand, the only time I’ve ever heard him fart is in his sleep. He is very shy about that kind of thing and I’m convinced he has trained himself to make them silent.

3. What's the furthest you've ever traveled from home? How far and where was it?
Well, I’d say Florida from California. And now that Florida is my home, from Florida to California. It’s about 3000 miles. World traveler over here!

4. How do you celebrate birthday for your kids? Family only or friends?
It depends. We usually do some kind of family day on their actual birthday and then a party with friends on the closest weekend. Unless they don’t want a party and then we don’t have one. Piper has had a party every year but this was the first year that Calvin was really interested in one.

5. Fave thing about fall?
Yeah, we don’t get Fall in Florida. I’m looking at the weather report for the next week and it’s all in the 90s with daily afternoon thunderstorms just like the rest of the summer. I do miss the light sweaters and soup and the crisp air and rosy cheeks and beautiful colors and all things apple and the smell of fireplaces from California Falls though. I really cannot wait to move out of this state next year.

It happened last week

2011-09-21T07:01:00.001-07:00

JP started back up at his old job today. When he told me on Friday that he was going back, I wasn’t exactly overjoyed. There are many benefits to him going back (more money...although not as much as he was making before, very close to home, better hours, weekends off), I'm just nervous about the longevity of the job. He didn’t say yes right away, he was let go because they couldn’t afford him, so he wanted assurance that the store wasn’t going under any time soon. Apparently there have been major changes, they completed restructured their business and brought in new investors so I guess we’ll see what happens. We are still planning on moving next year (although now, we are actually looking at Tennessee instead of Jersey.....but more on that another time) so as long as the job holds out until then, I think I can *try* to just relax and not stress about what could happen. No more borrowing trouble!!

Sunday 9/11/11

Watching a pretty crazy lighting storm. Normally, we would not have been outside for this but, there was no thunder and all the lightning was cloud to cloud so JP didn’t seem worried. It was really pretty but very intense.

Monday 9/12/11

Ethan loves those school buses. He pushes them all over the living room for hours and gets so mad when Calvin takes them away. Which Calvin always does.

Tuesday 9/13/11

That is the show and tell suitcase. It gets sent home with a different student each day and they have to fill it with five different things, then bring it back to school and share it with everyone. Piper put her talking Jessie doll, her Princess Celestia Pony, her Princess music player, her blankie (not shown) and her magnetic drawing board.

Wednesday 9/14/11

All dressed up for school picture day. I’m told she didn’t smile at all when they were trying to take her picture, which I pretty much expected.

Thursday 9/15/11

Playing games on my phone. I tried putting a passcode on there so the kids couldn’t get into it without asking but Calvin kept getting me locked out of it! This is the first time in awhile that he snatched it when I was out of the room so we had a talk about asking before playing and then I found a few new games for him to try out. Piper likes to play on the computer but Calvin isn’t very good at using the mouse, I think the touch screen on my phone is much easier for him to maneuver.

Friday 9/16/11

Ethan feeding himself spaghetti. I did not start out with that spaghetti on his tray, I was feeding him with a fork and he kept knocking it out of my hand. So I finally gave up and just let him do it on his own. He wants to feed himself more and more which is really hard for me because I just can’t stop thinking about the mess while he’s flinging food around.

Saturday 9/17/11

Ethan-Boo playing with his mega blocks. He’s getting really good at putting them together. This is another toy that Calvin likes to take away from Ethan.

My week in recipes

2011-09-20T06:27:00.001-07:00

I meant to get this up at some point this weekend but we were so busy! We did have a wonderful time though, date night on Saturday and friends over for a barbecue on Sunday. If I wasn’t sick this morning, I think I would still be feeling relaxed and refreshed from all the friend time.

Cookies and Cream Bars
This recipe was a disaster! That’s not to say it wasn’t delicious. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t have a food processor so I just put all the oreos in a ziplock and smashed them with a cup. It was fun, I enjoyed taking some aggression out on those oreos. I think the problem I had was that I used too many marshmallows. I used one bag of the mini ones but I think it should have been only about 1/2 or 3/4 of a bag. This ended up being super marshmallowy and really good while it was all still warm and gooey but then it hardened and was impossible to cut through so I had to throw the whole batch out. I will definitely be trying this again with less marshmallows. Or maybe more oreos.

Chicken Chimichangas
Another recipe I had trouble with....I actually attempted this twice. I think the rice part is weird, it’s not like any rice I’ve ever made, and it never cooked all the way through so that night I gave up. I made it again another day but not really according to the recipe. I’m not really fond of chicken with tortillas and it’s really the outer shell that makes it a chimichanga, you can fill it with whatever you want. So I made ground turkey the way I normally do for my tacos, seasoned with a pack of taco seasoning. Then, because I didn’t have ingredients for my super awesome Spanish rice, I made some of that boil in a bag rice. I stopped it right when the water started boiling so it wouldn’t over cook and then added the rice to the meat. Then I put beans, meat/rice mixture, cheese and olives and followed the rest of the recipe. These tasted nothing like chimichangas. They did however, taste exactly like a grilled stuffed burrito from Taco Bell. I think I will probably make these again, maybe when I want to change up taco night a little, but JP said that he really liked the addition of the rice to the meat and never wants his tacos without it now.

Home Made Pizza Rolls
The kids and I made these for lunch yesterday and they were mighty tasty. I didn’t really follow the recipe instructions, I used it more for a guide. For one, I put sauce directly on the crust, rather than for dipping Calvin doesn’t like to dip and I wasn’t sure he would eat it without sauce. I didn’t have pizza sauce on hand and because I forgot my list when we went shopping, I forgot to buy it. So I just used a couple big spoonfuls of my favorite Prego three cheese sauce. If you decide to put sauce on the crust, you may want to precook the crust a little bit because it made it a little gooier when I was trying to cut the rolls. That could have also been due to not rolling the dough very tight. I topped mine with mozzarella cheese and mini pepperoni. I made one little mistake when cooking, I had all the rolls touching (like you do with cinnamon rolls) and so the crust didn’t cook evenly so I had to separate them all and cook for just a tad bit longer. Next time I think I will make the crust more garlicky and I’ll probably use pizza sauce and more cheese, but otherwise, these were awesome. The kids didn’t want to eat them at first because they didn’t look like pizza but they ended up really liking them. And they had a great time helping to cook so we will definitely make these again!

The kids pretty much made the whole thing with me supervising. I rolled out and seasoned the dough and then rolled up and cut the rolls but otherwise, it was all them. They had a blast, I need to find some more kid friendly recipes!

As I put the rolls in the oven, Calvin got into the flour. I just let him have his fun “cooking”, it kept him quiet and happy until the rolls were ready. I did put away the flour though so he wouldn’t dump out the whole bag.....

Feeling a little humbled

2011-09-16T18:58:00.001-07:00

You know how much I’ve been ~~whining~~ complaining lately? I’ve just been feeling like the world is out to get me and have been having a hard time finding the happiness in anything! Even though I tried to be a bigger person, I was still pissed about the neighbors and that dang tree! (Which, the city came by and picked up all the branches and stuff....I’m still convinced we are going to get a bill but I’m not going to stress any more over the whole situation). Well, tonight, I’m feeling better about people and their goodness.

First a little backstory.

I have been on the lookout for a sit and stand stroller for years now. When we made our last trip to California, I knew we would need a double stroller. JP’s parents offered to buy us one as a Christmas gift and so I told JP’s mom what I was looking for. Apparently, she did not like the look of the sit and stand strollers so she bought me a side by side double stroller instead. At the time, I just had Piper and Calvin and it wasn’t until we got back from California that I found out I was pregnant with Ethan so even though it wasn’t what I wanted, I was happy for the stroller that would carry both my babies that I did not have to pay for.

Fast forward a few years and now that stroller is being used by Calvin and Ethan. And Calvin is slightly too big for it. He likes to drag his feet or put them on the wheels and pushing this thing is a pain in the butt. And I use the stroller twice a day to walk Piper to and from school so it was really time to find a new solution. So, I started actively looking for a sit and stand again. Now, we don’t really have the money in our budget for a new (or used) stroller but I managed to convince JP that if we found one on Craigslist or at a yardsale, I would sell our double stroller for whatever we paid and it would all even out. But then I couldn’t find what I was looking for at a decent price. So I turned to Facebook. I posted as my status that I was looking for a sit and stand and to make a long story short, my friend reposted it as her status. She got a response within an hour and we were able to make arrangements to pick up the stroller today.

And are you ready for this? They ended up giving us the stroller at no charge. Apparently they haven’t used it in years, it’s just been stored on a shelf in their laundry room. It may not seem like a huge deal, but when I was prepared to pay and then they declined any money.....well, it kind of reminded me that there are still good, kind, generous people out there and maybe I shouldn’t lump everyone into the same basket. When JP brought the stroller home and told me that they just gave it to him, well, I haven’t really stopped smiling since. And we’ve decided not to sell our double stroller and instead pass it along to someone else for free as well.

We spent about an hour tonight, walking around the neighborhood and testing out the new stroller. The kids love it and all three of them can fit in it! Which will be so nice when we’re walking Piper home from school and she’s begging Calvin to switch places so she can ride and he’s being stubborn and refusing to walk. I’m also anticipating more walks to the playground and library.

Oh and JP found a new (old) job tonight as well! He’s going back to the store that let him go back in June. I am understandably nervous but he’s happy so I’m just going to *try* and not stress about history repeating itself. Right now though? Right now, I’m feeling good and even happy.

How to annoy your big sister

2011-09-14T05:46:00.001-07:00

Learning how to deal with annoyances

2011-09-13T06:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I came home from walking Piper to school and I was greeted by this:

In case you can’t tell what it is you’re supposed to be indignant about (and it’s understandable, you don’t see this tree every day like I do), that is the tree in my front yard that is now missing half of it’s branches. Those branches are now stacked up in front of my house. And no, we did not cut them down. Our neighbors took it upon themselves to cut down the half of the tree that hangs over onto their lawn. And they waited until we were gone and made a hasty retreat inside when they saw us come home. I thought something strange was going on when we got back from the store but I was so focused on getting my groceries in the house that I didn’t even notice that half our tree was gone.

I have to be honest, at the time, I really didn’t know why I was so upset. I just knew that I was. And when I talked to JP about it, he couldn’t figure out why I was stressing because it’s not like it’s really our tree or anything. We’re just renting this place so it shouldn’t bother me that much. After fuming all day, I finally realized why I was so angry. It wasn’t so much that they cut down the tree, although that does really bug me because they butchered the poor thing, it’s that they didn’t even have the common courtesy to come over and let us know what they planned to do. Am I the only one that would be offended by this? I just think it was incredibly rude to take it upon themselves to destroy something that did not belong to them. They had to come into our yard to do it and obviously waited until we weren’t around to stop them. Had they knocked on our door and let us know what they intended to do, I would have put them in touch with our realtor so the owners of this house could be informed. It’s about respect and it just seems like more and more these days, people are severely lacking in that area.

The neighbors have a history with that tree. Apparently a few days before we moved in, there was a huge beef between the neighbors and the people that lived here. The leaves were falling into the neighbors yard and the neighbors thought it was the responsibility of the people who lived here to clean it up. The people were busy moving out and said they wouldn’t rake up the leaves, the neighbors got out their chainsaw and the police were called. I heard two versions of this story.....after I moved in and met the woman living next door, she spent the first 15 minutes telling me all about the tree and how she was the victim. After living next to them for a few months, I’m inclined to believe the first story.

Back to my story though....I spent the rest of the day figuring out how to get even. I looked for things of theirs growing in our yard that I could go cut down. At one point, I noticed that they had hung some kind of blanket or sheet on our fence to dry and I was so tempted to toss it on the ground back into their yard. I didn’t do any of these things but just thinking about them made me feel better. At the end of the day I finally made myself calm down and realize that JP was right. It doesn’t matter, it’s not our tree and if the owners of the house get mad we can just send them over to the neighbors. It isn’t helping anyone for me to stress about something I can’t control and the whole situation is just silly. So I just have to keep reminding myself of that and I should be fine.

However, they did leave the branches and things stacked up in front of our house. Presumably for the garbage collectors when they pick up yard waste on Fridays. If they even pick up the stuff, because it’s not in the designated garbage area, they are likely to bill us because they charge you for anything that is not in a can. If we get charged for that, JP has already agreed to go to their house and let them know that they will need to pay that bill as we did not ask them to cut down half the tree. And if the garbage collectors do not pick it up, he will tell the neighbors to move the stuff out of our yard. In the meantime, I am going to set my brain on other things and try not to let myself get worked up over something silly. I’m almost there. I’ve already spent more time than necessary thinking about it this morning though.......

It happened last week

2011-09-12T15:34:00.001-07:00

Well, last night we watched our first football game together and it was pretty fun. We ate JP’s steak sandwiches and laughed and talked and I actually learned a little about football. I always found football boring due to all the talking and commercials and stuff but I was really getting into the game last night. We had paused it a few times to do things here and there so we would be able to fast forward through commercials but I didn’t realize that I had two things set to record on the dvr and so the channel changed! I stopped one recording and got back to the game but it went to live tv and apparently during the time we had paused, the Jets scored. After I ate, I fell asleep and missed the whole rest of the game including the Jets scoring a 50 yard field goal with 27 seconds left in the game, which gave them the win. Exciting stuff and I didn’t even see it! Oh well, there will be more games.

On to my week of pictures!

Sunday 9/4/11

Sunday was Ethan’s 1st birthday. We had already done the party the weekend before so we just had a nice little family day on the 4th. I normally make everyone’s birthday cakes but we had been having so much cake lately that I just wanted something small to celebrate but not leave any leftovers. So I bought a small cake from the store and it was enjoyed by all.

Monday 9/5/11

Piper had the day off from school but JP had to work so we didn’t have any big Labor Day plans. It was rough having Piper home all morning when she really wanted to be at school and I was very happy when the day came to an end. I did get some quiet when I broke out the bubbles. Very shortly after this picture was taken, the kids decided it would be much more fun to bathe in the bubble mix so baths were taken very early that day.

Tuesday 9/6/11

I’ve been putting socks on Ethan in the mornings, he won’t keep shoes on and it’s been a little chillier (not cold or anything just chilly enough that I think Ethan needs something on his feet). He is fascinated with the socks and this is him trying to get them off.

Wednesday 6/7/11

Playing together and watching cartoons while Piper was at school.

Thursday 9/8/11

I caught Piper reading library books when she was supposed to be napping. She doesn’t always want a nap anymore but I still put her down for quiet time because I never can tell if she needs a nap or not, she’s pretty high strung most of the time.

Friday 9/9/11

I have a whole series of these pictures that I have to post because they crack me up. Ethan kept trying to steal Piper’s blanket and she was getting so mad! I have no idea what in the world Calvin is doing but he’s been walking around like that a lot lately.

Saturday 9/10/11

Ethan’s favorite toys right now are those schoolbuses. He pushes them around the floor, pulls them up onto the couch...he loves them. And look, he has top teeth now! He’s got five teeth coming in up top right now but still only two on the bottom.

My week in recipes

2011-09-11T07:03:00.001-07:00

Easy French Dip Sandwiches
I love French Dip sandwiches and I have never made them myself. I don’t know why it never occurred to me to make them either, especially since I ate them at least once a week when I was pregnant with Ethan. I craved them constantly!! This recipe is super easy and oh.my.word. delicious. These will be on our rotating menu for years to come. JP was hesitant about them all day, he’s never had french dip and didn’t think he was going to like them. He ended up eating his whole sandwich and then stealing the other half of mine. Luckily, there was still enough au jus left over so I was able to make one for lunch the next day. A few changes I made: ok, I didn’t know what beef consomme was. I meant to google it before we went shopping but, of course, forgot. When I got to the store I didn’t think it would be that hard to find but it was, especially since I had no idea what I was looking for. So I went with beef broth, one that said thick and hearty. When I did look up beef consomme, it’s basically a thicker beef broth so when this recipe called for a cup of water, I didn’t add that so the juice wouldn’t lose any flavor. I didn’t buy deli meat either because the line was just too long at the counter so I went with Oscar Meyer. Also, next time, I won’t put the meat in the oven. I’m just going to heat the bread so it gets a little crispy and then put the meat on after so it stays nice and juicy. JP and I give this recipe two very enthusiastic thumbs up and if you like French Dip, you should definitely try this out!

Chicken Rollups
Do yourself a favor and make this as soon as possible. I don’t think I’ve ever made a more delicious chicken recipe. I wanted to make this for the whole family but it took longer than I thought it would to cook the chicken and Ethan was already wailing for dinner, I knew he wouldn’t last another half an hour while it all baked. So I mixed up the filling and refrigerated it for JP and I to eat later in the evening and then microwaved some Kid Cuisines for my buglets. I didn’t make crescents because I wanted to get a lot of filling in each rollup, I kept them as rectangles and was able to get 8 rolls out of two cans of crescents. I put a little too much sauce on top and so the rolls weren’t as flaky as I would have liked but it didn’t even matter. I had potatoes and green beans as sides but the rollups were so good, they were all I wanted to eat. JP said if he didn’t have to work the next day, he would have stayed up late to let his food settle just so he could have another helping. He didn’t even season these which is the highest compliment you can get from JP because he has almost no taste buds, he puts sriracha on pretty much everything. I wanted to have the leftovers for breakfast because I didn’t want to wait for lunch to eat this again!! Definitely a keeper.

Slow Cooker Lasagna
This had the potential to be really tasty but I made one mistake. I did not anticipate the size of my crockpot when I was throwing this together and I should have halved the recipe.

I mixed up all the ingredients and then sunk the noodles in as best I could. I used meatballs instead of sausage because I’m not a big fan and I forgot to put it on the list. Next time I’ll try it with sausage and I’ll cut the recipe in half so it will all fit. While it was super tasty, it was pretty mushy and so I had a hard time eating it. You only need to cook this for about 4 hours, maybe even a little less so just pay attention to the noodles.

This week I will be making:
Chicken Crispers
Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuits
Chicken Chimichangas
Crockpot Salsa Chicken
No Bake Cookies and Cream Bars

This week looks delicious! Oh and we finally agreed on a football team (actually two). We went with the Dolphins for Florida and the Jets for New Jersey but I have a feeling we’ll eventually just be rooting for the Jets. I talked JP out of the Patriots when I realized that Chad Ochocinco is on that team. I really don’t like that guy. The Jets are playing tonight so we’re going to watch our first game of the season, I’m excited!

Five Question Friday

2011-09-09T06:15:00.001-07:00

1. What ringtone do you have on your cell phone?
I have different ringtones for certain people....JP’s is “Stuck Like Glue” by Sugarland, my Dad’s is “Highway to the Danger Zone” from Top Gun, Emma’s is “The Sound of Settling” by Death Cab for Cutie and then my default is “Pop (goes my heart)” from Music and Lyrics. I have a few other people specific tones but they don’t call me enough so I can’t remember what they are.

2. What is your favorite memory from this summer?

Maybe this one. It was such a great surprise to see JP’s sister and her family and I loved watching Piper and Calvin play with their cousins.

3. Paper books or ebooks?
Hands down, paper books. That being said....I kinda want a Kindle.

4. If you could have one home upgrade what would it be and why?
I think the biggest home upgrade I could get would be to actually own my own home. I like renting for many reasons but I look forward to the day when we have a house of our own. As for right now, I think the upgrade I would take would be a screened in back patio. We’ve had one before and it’s pretty much the best. I’d take that and a pool, please.

5. When was your first serious boyfriend/girlfriend?
I was 19, my second semester in college. I spotted him around campus my first semester and had a few random run-ins with him. The second semester we had a few friends in common and so we had some flirty conversations here and there. I wanted to give him my phone number but was just too shy to do it myself so a friend did it for me. He called me that night, just a few hours later, and he asked me to be his girlfriend a week or so later. He moved in with me three months later and we were together for five years exactly. We have matching tattoos that we got on our first anniversary (no, I don’t regret them). We talked about getting married and having kids all the time but I think we just met too early on in life. We got to a point where I was ready to move forward. I wanted to get married and have babies and he just wasn’t there yet. I didn’t give him an ultimatum or anything, things kind of naturally came to an end when I realized that he wouldn’t be ready for what I wanted for a very long time and so we parted ways. It was really hard moving out and starting a life on my own, thinking about it now, it still kind of makes me sad and it’s been six years. I think it really is true that you never forget your first love.

Figuring out a plan

2011-09-08T06:22:00.001-07:00

After spending yesterday stressing about money, I decided to make a plan. There is always the chance that JP will find the perfect job with the perfect pay and the perfect hours but I don’t think we can wait forever for that to happen. I think that maybe it’s time for us to become a two income family. I don’t want to just go back to work though. Around here, I don’t have much chance of finding a job that pays more than minimum wage and with the cost of putting my kids in daycare it wouldn’t really even out. So, I decided to start looking into going back to school.

I never saw myself as having a career but I also can’t imagine being a stay at home mom if I don’t have any kids at home. I’m looking into nursing or something else in the health industry. Those jobs seem to have the most staying power and there is always a demand for nurses. Plus, I would have more schedule flexibility and I have lots of great women in my life that have gone that route and could really help put me in the right direction. I don’t think I can start full time school until next fall when Piper will be in school all day and Calvin will start Pre-K, but I want to start now by getting information and seeing what classes I can do online. So, I’m excited.

And after coming up with the plan, I listed and sold a few things on craigslist. I didn’t get a lot of money but I felt like I made a contribution and was able to clear out some clutter. One of the things I sold was my treadmill. I finally agreed to it after figuring out that I’m walking 14 miles a week taking Piper to and from school. I don’t really think I need a treadmill when I’m walking so much already.

So I’m feeling in better spirits this morning. I’m just going to have to be even more budget conscious and try to find things we can cut out completely or just cut back on. I know we’ll get through this, we always seem to figure out a way. And when I’m feeling down or overwhelmed, I’m going to remind myself of something that’s making me very happy and excited lately......my Aunt Crystal and her family are coming to Disney in a few weeks and we are going to meet up with them for a day at Disney. I’m really excited to make up for our last trip there and I can’t wait to see them all. And bonus: we get to go for free because JP has a buddy who’s wife works there!!

Living is hard!

2011-09-07T06:23:00.001-07:00

It seems like every time life gets going in general direction something crazy comes up to turn us all around. I feel like we were finally starting to get back on our feet from JP’s job loss back in June and now, of course, something comes along to mess with that. I don’t normally like to talk about our financial situation because money is one of those things that JP and I are pretty private about but, I’m kind of stressing out right now so I’m gonna open up. Because I’m hoping that will make me feel better.

Starting with the next pay period (which is tomorrow), JP’s new job has decided to change the way they pay their employees. He used to get paid an hourly wage and then commission on everything he sold, plus bonuses and things if he sold a certain amount of whatever it was they were promoting. He would also get commission on anything anyone on his team sold. Which kind of allowed two of his coworkers to not work very hard because they would still get some commission off of everyone else’s sales.

I’m not sure I’ve mentioned what JP does for a living but he’s in automotive service. I know that guys like JP get a bad reputation because everyone thinks that they are out to get you and take all your money but trust me, there are a lot of people in this industry that just want to you to drive in a safe vehicle. JP is one of them. Anyway, on to the issue at hand.

Now instead of an hourly wage and commission, they are going to get paid based on billable hours. To break it down, everything that needs to be done on a car has a set amount of billable hours (and it’s the same no matter where you go....the reason shops have different overall prices is due to their markup on parts and tires...and just a hint, that price is almost always negotiable). It’s a way to regulate the automotive industry to make sure that customers aren’t being overcharged. For example, an oil change can only be billed as .2 hours of work (I’m not sure that’s the correct amount but I know it’s low and it will take several oil changes to equal an hour). So even if, for whatever reason, that oil change ends up taking 3 hours, they can’t bill you extra. In the section that JP is in, he’s only supposed to sell certain things. Things with very low billable hours. And he’s only getting $3.50 a billable hour. He has to get an awful lot of customers to come close to what he is currently making and even that was a pay cut from his last job.

He says he’s not going to stress about it, that he’s lucky to have a job (which is very true) and he’ll just work his butt off and look for a better paying job in the meantime. That does not stop me from stressing out. Especially since we’re getting into a very spendy time of year. I know that I should be happy for what I have and thankful that he even has a job, and I am, but that doesn’t stop me from worrying about money. For now, as long as my bills are paid and we have food on our table, I am going to *try* not to think about it too much and if I can’t be genuinely happy and stress free, I’m going to fake it til I feel it. And this is the only pity post I’m going to allow myself, I promise.

Are you ready for some football?

2011-09-06T09:26:00.001-07:00

JP has decided that he wants to start watching football this season.

I grew up watching football with my Dad. Sometimes by choice (I went through a very short phase where I was interested in sports) but mostly because my Dad controlled the remote, always seemed to be home when a game was on and we only had one tv. I grew up in California during Joe Montana’s heyday (that phrase doesn’t make me sound old at all!) so naturally we were all 49ers fans. I did eventually get to the point where I was so sick of football that I promised myself I would pick a mate that did not enjoy sports. JP was that guy.

But now, I think he feels left out when all the guys at work talk about the games. Last year he made some lucky bets on the Super Bowl and won about 60 bucks. We kind of had a lot of fun watching the game together and finally knowing what everyone else was talking about. And so....now he’s on a mission to pick his team. Which probably sounds crazy to anyone reading this that is nuts for football. He’s curious how people pick their team. He doesn’t know if he go with a Florida team because that’s where we live now (although that leaves us with the Dolphins, the Jaguars and the Bucs...none of which we are excited about) or if he should go with a New England team since we still have plans to move up north.....as of writing this, I *think* he finally settled on the Patriots. I’m torn. It seems crazy for me to root for a team other than the 49ers because even though I haven’t watched football in years, I always pay attention to how they’re doing when I watch the news. Maybe I’ll secretly root for them but vocally root for the Patriots so JP and I have something to share. We have complete opposite taste in everything else, it would be nice to share something with him.

To be honest, I’m mostly just excited about the food. I’ve been pinning snacks like crazy and planning small parties in my head ever since JP made his announcement. Don’t these snacks look delicious?

Bacon Wrapped Weenies
Homemade Pizza Rolls
S'more Bites
Homemade Cheese Crackers
Football Whoopie Pies
Chili Cream Cheese Dip

Now, I know I could make that stuff without the game but I think it would be fun to belong to this club that all you football lovers are in. I like cheering for things! So, we’ll see how this all pans out but any advice for JP on picking a team would be much appreciated, he’s being very scientific about this whole thing.

It happened last week

2011-09-05T08:24:00.001-07:00

I am finally feeling so much better!! JP was off for the past two days and we got so much stuff done around the house during that time. Yesterday he spent a lot of time with Piper and Calvin, playing legos, riding bikes in the front yard and going on an “archeological dig” for rooster bones in our yard (more on that another time...but the kids thought it was the coolest thing ever and now we have rooster bones drying out in our garage). He spent so much time with them that I got a nice little break to rest and just get better. We went to the library in the morning and found a yard sale on the way home, I got some really great stuff for super cheap and we ended the day by watching The Adjustment Bureau. I LOVED that movie. JP fell asleep and claimed that it was boring, which just proves that he didn’t pay attention to any of it because it’s a movie that he would have really liked. I think he just didn’t want to give it a chance because my movie boyfriend (Matt Damon) was in it and I kept going on about how handsome and charming he was. My love for him goes back to high school, I just cant help myself! Yesterday was a really great day though and even though I had planned on spending this day being lazy, I think I’ll finish up the last of the stuff I didn’t do yesterday so our house is nice and sparkly clean when JP gets home from work. But first I’m going to post this blog while the kids are occupied in the backyard with bubbles and Ethan is napping.

Sunday 8/28/11

Calvin and Ethan’s birthday party. Such a fun day!

Monday 8/29/11

Calvin does this to his pants all the time! I have no idea why but he thinks it’s hilarious.

Tuesday 8/30/11

Playing with the Lincoln Logs Calvin got for his birthday. I think Santa is going to have to bring some more of these for Christmas.

Wednesday 8/31/11

Look at my little Baby Boo! He looked so darn cute, I had to take a picture. It didn’t even phase him, he was snoring so loud!

Thursday 9/1/11

Ethan Boo playing with his birthday toys and watching his favorite movie, “Rio”.

Friday 9/2/11

Calvin had asked me earlier in the week if he could sleep in Piper’s room. I told him no because Piper wakes up early during the week to have time to get ready for school (I get the boys up right before we leave otherwise the house is too chaotic in the morning) but I told him I would let him have a sleepover in her room on the weekend if he continued with this no accident trend. Yes, I bribe my kids. He had no accidents so I let them have their sleepover. After an hour of listening to Calvin jump from Piper’s bed to the air mattress though, I declared the sleepover finished and sent Calvin back to his own room.

Saturday 9/3/11

Watching “How to Train Your Dragon” with JP. We have a lot of favorite movies in this house and that’s one of them.

My week in recipes

2011-09-04T07:51:00.001-07:00

This week was slightly random. I was sick for most of it so I wasn’t up for much cooking. I don’t even remember actually eating dinner a couple of nights because I just wasn’t hungry and so I found some kid friendly food to whip up for the kids and JP was on his own for the most part. Halfway through the week, I got it together but since I hadn’t made a meal plan, I just browsed through my pins on pinterest and picked out a few recipes with ingredients I had available.

Buttermilk Pancakes
I had purchased buttermilk for an oatmeal pancake recipe but when I went to make them, realized that I was supposed to soak the oats in buttermilk overnight. I had already promised the kids pancakes and I wanted to use the buttermilk so I looked up a basic buttermilk pancake recipe. I think this is by far, my favorite pancake recipe ever. They taste as close to restaurant pancakes as I think I could ever get. They are so light and fluffy and were delicious with warm maple syrup drizzled all over them. The kids devoured them. As long as I have buttermilk on hand, this will be my new go to pancake recipe. I did follow the recommendations made by one of the comments—upped the flour and buttermilk to 1 1/2 cups and left everything else the same.

Buttermilk Baked Chicken
Another case of wanting to use up the buttermilk before it expired. I could have saved it for more delicious pancakes on Saturday morning but I needed an easy chicken recipe one night. I deviated from the recipe just a bit.....I did not make my own breadcrumbs because I do not have a food processor and I had a perfectly good container of breadcrumbs just asking to be used. Also, it asked for hot-pepper sauce.....I assumed this meant some kind of hot sauce (did it?) and I didn’t have a lot of choices on hand so just went with Franks. I use that stuff for everything so figured it would be fine here. I did not put thyme in either because I was being lazy and didn’t want to go through the cupboards to see if we had any. I assumed we didn’t and I didn’t think the chicken would miss any flavor by leaving it out. Oh and I used chicken breasts cut into strips because we never buy anything else. This chicken made my house smell AMAZING and I could not wait to taste it! I served it with Pasta Roni Garlic and Olive Oil Vermicelli (my favorite boxed pasta!!) and corn. This came out pretty good but honestly, I’m not sure I’d make it again. I wasn’t blown away by it so I think I’ll keep looking for more baked chicken recipes.

Sweet Chicky Nuggets
These are supposed to be similar to Chik-Fil-A nuggets. Now.....I haven’t been to Chik-Fil-A in a long time. The first time I ever ate there was when I moved to Florida but we don’t have one close to us and apparently JP isn’t a huge fan so we really haven’t been in years. But I’m always up for a new nugget recipe because I love me some chicken. I could have sworn that I had powdered sugar in my cupboard when I picked this recipe but low and behold, after I had already marinated the chicken in the milk, I realized that I was out. I decided to go ahead anyway. They were awesome! Mine had a distinct floury taste, likely due to not having powdered sugar and not putting in enough salt but it didn’t even matter. When I dipped the chicken in sweet and sour sauce, it hid the floury taste. Marinating in the milk makes the chicken super tender, so tender that Ethan was able to eat it with no problems. He and I were actually the only ones that did eat these. Piper and Calvin were in a mood and JP was at work. I will definitely, definitely be making these again. I don’t like to fry in oil very often but I think it was worth it for these little guys. I must remember to pick up powdered sugar for next time though!

On the menu for this week:
Chicken Rollups
Easy French Dip Sandwiches
Slow Cooker Lasagna
Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuits

I am almost certain I remembered to buy the ingredients for all of these this time!! Except.....I couldn’t find Bisquick! Well, I found the shake and pour stuff but not the actual box, I always have such a hard time finding it too. So...I may either find a biscuit recipe and then just add the garlic and cheese to make them like the recipe, or I’ll hold off and do these after I find bisquick.

InstaFriday

2011-09-02T06:20:00.001-07:00

You’re so lucky, you get two posts from me today! Don’t you feel lucky? I actually almost forgot about InstaFriday this week, boy am I glad I didn’t. I think I took some good pictures this week and I just love looking through them. I hardly even use the regular camera on my phone anymore because I love the filters on this app. Even pictures that come out dark or blurry can still end up looking cool if you filter it right. If you’re on Instagram, find me (loribugleath) and I’ll add you too!

Mr. Ethan Boo has gotten very curious about the kitchen. I keep the baby gate up if Piper and Calvin are playing something at the table or I’m cooking or cleaning but otherwise, I let him wander on his own. He loves to open and close that drawer and cupboard. Oh and the PJs! He was feeling really cold and clammy that day so I put the warm jammies on, he was so fascinated by the sleeves!

This was the only day that our weather was really affected by Hurricane Irene. It was so breezy and beautiful that day, this was taken on the walk to school. I didn’t even filter this picture because the natural colors were just so pretty. I feel bad that I enjoyed our weather when there were people seriously affected by Irene though....

During nap time one day, Ethan woke up before everyone else and he and I cuddled on the couch watching tv and enjoying the quiet. He always looks so serious when he watches tv!

We pass this guy every day on our way to pick up Piper. I kind of love that we walk past a cow pasture to get to school, the cows don’t seem to mind the fact that they’re right next to a busy street.

This is my view every single morning when walking Piper to and from school. Love it.

One of Piper’s classmates had a birthday this week and his Mom brought in cake. I’m not sure if she brought in the balloons too or if Ms. Tomie handed them out but the kids were all really excited about them. Can you see Piper off to the left, the only one not paying attention? Poor Calvin was so sad that he didn’t get a balloon, we still had some at home from his birthday party so he wanted a string tied to one and then couldn’t figure out why his wouldn’t float like Piper’s.

Playing with the Lincoln Logs he got for his birthday. He calls them Linked Log Legos.

We pass this clearing every day and it just looks so magical to me! I took a better picture of it today, so I’ll put that one up next week. Doesn’t it look like it leads to Hogsmeade or Narnia or some other super magical place? Even Piper can sense it, every time we pass it she asks when she can explore it because it will take her to a land filled with butterflies and unicorns.

I was giving Ethan a bath and Calvin came in and asked if he could get in too. Before I could say no, he already had all his clothes off and was halfway in the tub. When Piper realized everyone was in the bathroom, she got in before I could stop her too. Ethan loved sharing the tub with his brother and sister.

Five Question Friday

2011-09-02T05:42:00.001-07:00

I have some very happy, relieving news (no pun intended)! I think Calvin is past his potty training regression! In a brilliant Mommy move (no criticizing, I tried everything!!) I told Calvin last week that if he had any more accidents on the days leading up his birthday party, I would have to cancel the whole thing. Surprise, surprise no accidents. As long as I made him stop what he was doing to get up and use the bathroom, we were great. Last night, I put him to bed in underwear and he woke up dry and this morning he actually got up on his own and used the bathroom without me having to ask if him if he needed to go!! I don’t know if we’ll be completely accident free from here on out but it’s looking like the days of daily incidents (sometimes twice or thrice daily) are over. Hooray!! Now onto some 5QF.

1. Shoes in the house - yay or nay?
Both. We almost always take our shoes off as soon as we come inside but we are known to wear flip flops around the house. The kids are not allowed to wear shoes at all in the house because theirs always seem to be covered in mud.

2. What do you call them- flip flops, slippers, thongs, etc?
I call them flip flops but JP calls them slippers and it always confuses me. The kids and I all have actual slippers so when he asks where his slippers are and I tell him he doesn’t have any, he looks at me with this blank look until I realize he means flip flops.

3. What song are you almost embarrassed to admit you know all the lyrics to?
I’m not really embarrassed by any of the songs I know. I’ll own up to listening to Justin Bieber and whatever else is considered embarrassing these days. I’ll sing anything and everything and I don’t care if people think I’m lame because of what I like.

4. What is the best quality to have in a friend?
Wow....I think I would have to say....honesty. There are so many fake friends out there, the ones that are nice to your face but talk about you behind your back. And the ones that won’t tell you what they really think for fear of hurting your feelings. I want a friend that will tell it like it is (in a nice, friendly way though) and who I know I can trust not to repeat everything I tell them. I feel like I have yet to find that friend. I’m still looking and accepting applications. A friend of mine used to have a quote on her myspace page (that doesn’t date me or anything) that said: “Looking for kindred spirits and bosom friends. No Josie Pye’s please.” That’s pretty much my motto to this day. And if you know what that means, I love you right now.

5. Do you know what you want for Christmas?
I was just talking about this with JP. I kind of want a Kindle. I love my books and it bums me out that everything is going electronic but it would be super convenient at this point. And I wouldn’t have to worry about the kids pulling my bookmark out every day so I have to search for my spot each night. Plus, there is this book I really want to read and it’s ONLY available for the Kindle. That’s reason enough for me. I don’t think I would give up going to the library or anything but I would be able to start collecting books again and not having them take up all my extra space (and money....ebooks are so much cheaper than actual books!).

Calvin and Ethan’s Birthday Party

2011-08-31T18:27:00.001-07:00

This post is a little long and picture heavy...

On Sunday, we had a birthday party for the boys. Calvin turned 3 on the 25th and Ethan turns 1 on September 4th. It just made sense to put their birthdays together and have a double party. When they get older, they may not want to share but right now, they’re still little and I get to make the choice. Calvin asked for a Bubble Guppies theme which proved to be harder than anticipated. This is a fairly new show so they don’t have party supplies out yet and all the homemade ones on etsy and whatnot were just too pricey for what they were. So I improvised.

I bought a new pool because I popped the one we bought earlier this summer, luckily Walmart had them on clearance. Then I bought bubbles and bubble wands (those were on clearance too so since I only had a few guests coming, I bought them for party favors too. They each got a big jug of bubbles and a huge assortment of wands and I only spent 12 bucks on favors.) I planned a couple bubble themed art projects just in case it rained and found an easy cupcake decorating idea to make them look like fish. I didn’t plan any games because my kids aren’t really big on party games and we’re so disorganized when it comes to parties that I didn’t figure we would ever get around to playing them. I didn’t really decorate, just bought balloons because my kids go crazy for them.

We were all sick on the day of the party but I medicated everyone and offered the guests Airborne when they walked in the door (we had the two families come that always come to our parties. Emma was invited but Sabella was super sick so she opted to stay home). For the first time EVER, I actually had all the food prepared and everything set up. When I finished filling the pool, I started to hear thunder so I was a bit bummed that the kids may not get to swim. I broke out a few board games to keep the kids occupied until the storm passed.

Piper was being really quiet and not very sociable, I think she was hiding in her room while the other kids played games. It never started raining so the kids all ended up outside with the husbands and Piper finally started perking up. Surprise, surprise all the kids ended up in the pool. I was a little nervous because we were still hearing thunder but since we never saw lightning and it never started raining and the Weather Channel App showed the storm pretty far away....I just gave up trying to keep the kids out of the pool.

They swam for awhile and ran around the yard. Cristina’s husband James tried to fit in the big red ball.

JP’s parents came, which was nice. I haven’t seen them in weeks because his Dad has been in so much pain. They really wanted to be there for the party though and I was shocked at how thin he’s gotten. He was in good spirits though and had a good time. I put on Rio for Ethan (it’s his favorite movie, he dances to the all the songs and will watch it from beginning to end) and JP’s parents both really enjoyed watching it with him.

After awhile, the kids got tired of swimming. Calvin was starting to drag, I think he was getting really exhausted. JP was originally planning on barbecuing like he always does but since he was sick, he didn’t feel up to it and didn’t really want to get anyone else sick so we just ordered a few rotisserie chickens and fresh bread from the grocery store. JP went to pick it up while the kids played Legos.

Everyone ate and then the boys opened their presents. Well, Calvin opened his while Piper opened Ethan’s and Ethan tried to get at the Legos.

We got Calvin a new big boy bike. He’s always riding Piper’s so we figured it was time for him to get his own. He really loved it but he was so burnt out by this point that he really wasn’t feeling up to riding it for very long. I decided to do cupcakes and then wrap up the party.

I couldn’t get a very good picture of the cupcakes for some reason, they looked much cuter in person. I was really proud of how these turned out and the kids loved them.

Look at Calvin, he looks so sad here but he was just so tired and sick. He blew out the candles but I don’t think he really ate much of his cupcake.

Ethan got grossed out when he touched the frosting on his cupcake and ended up throwing it on the floor. I got him a fresh one to try again....

....he seemed to enjoy it but it did eventually end up on the floor again.

I tried to get a family picture but Piper was just not interested in cooperating. I can’t even believe I’m posting these because I look so gross in them, I was so sick and even though I tried to ignore it all day, by the end I felt like I had been hit by a truck. But I think they’re kind of funny so....

Then everyone left and I got the kids in the tub. Calvin got some color changing hot wheels and he spent most of the rest of the night playing with them in the tub.

Overall, I’d say the party was a success. All the food was eaten, the guests seemed to have a good time and Calvin has been talking about it for days.

It happened last week

2011-08-29T08:38:00.001-07:00

...and the week before.

I didn’t even realize I had skipped last week’s pictures until I sat down to do this week’s. I almost threw in the towel completely and decide just to give up because I totally slacked using my camera but.....I’ve put in a few solid months and I’m determined to keep going with this! I really want to put together a photo book with all my pictures and little stories so I need to soldier on.

Sunday 8/14/11

Calvin has been doing really great sharing a room with Ethan. He used to climb in the crib every morning with all his stuff but lately, he’s been staying out. That morning though, I could hear the boys laughing and playing together and when I went in their room I found this. They were just so cute!

Monday 8/15/11

Coloring her school mascot to take to open house.

Tuesday 8/16/11

JP’s sister and her family came for a surprise visit!!

Wednesday 8/17/11

Playing games on the Nick Jr. website. I held back for a long time on letting my kids play games on the computer but after checking out this website, I decided to let them try it out. It has lots of educational games and Piper just loves to play them. Lately I’ve been letting her use the computer during the boy’s nap time because it keeps her quiet. Calvin’s not so great at the games, he just can’t work the mouse yet, but he likes to watch Piper play.

Thursday 8/18/11

Ethan searching for the perfect toy.

Friday 8/19/11

Practicing her letters with the new pencils and paper that my Aunt Valerie sent. Piper was never really interested in learning letters but now she wants to practice every day.

Saturday 8/20/11

Calvin loves it when JP throws him up in the air!

Sunday 8/21/11

We took JP’s sister’s family over to our friend Tonya’s house so they could all go muddin’. That’s Frankie in the back and Michelle in the front (Piper and Calvin’s cousins) and Tonya’s daughter Ashley is the one holding the dog. The kids had a great time swimming and playing together. I have a post about this day coming soon.

Monday 8/22/11

Piper’s first day of preschool!

Tuesday 8/23/11

Piper’s second day of preschool! I swear I didn’t take a picture every day but when we were leaving that day, Piper kept standing by the door saying cheese so I snapped one. I think she thought it was going to be a part of her daily routine due to all the fuss I made the day before.

Wednesday 8/24/11

I am trying anything and everything to get this boy to use the toilet again! We took his animals for potty breaks every time I wanted Calvin to try and go....very time consuming but we made it the whole day without an accident. This did not work the second day though so back to the drawing board I go.

Thursday 8/25/11

Calvin’s third birthday! We didn’t do a lot this day because we had a party planned for him on Sunday but JP brought the kids Happy Meals for lunch and we ended the day with cupcakes. This was also the last day of Mercy’s visit, they came by long enough to wish Calvin a happy birthday and then they had to head back home.

Friday 8/26/11

Watching cartoons while Piper was at school. This is the morning that he woke up sick so he was pretty quiet all day.

Saturday 8/27/11

Playing with the new toy that Auntie Mercy got him for his birthday (his first birthday is coming up Sept. 1st and the party we had for Calvin this Sunday was also for Ethan).

My Week in Recipes

2011-08-27T10:37:00.001-07:00

Ok.....I totally only made one of my recipes from last week’s plan. I’m really not sure what happened. When I look back, I can’t even really remember what I made each night. I know Mercy’s husband cooked again and we ordered pizza one night but otherwise, no idea. With the excitement of Piper starting school and getting us all onto a manageable schedule, my brain took a backseat last week. And this week.....I did my shopping super rushed last night so I don’t even really know what I bought for the week. We have a ton of chicken in our freezer so that will be eaten a lot...I’ll have to figure out some kind of menu plan based on what I can find in the house. As it is, we’re having a birthday party for Calvin and Ethan tomorrow and we’re ALL sick. I think we caught our first case of the preschool germs. I’ve been debating all day whether or not we should cancel but I don’t think I’m going to....JP had to do the most complicated switch shift ever to get the day off, we already bought all the food and party supplies and Calvin has never had a real party for his birthday, he’s just too excited for us to cancel. Maybe I should hand out Airbourne to everyone as they walk in the door......

Anyway...

Crock Pot Orange Chicken
I put this together during nap time and it was so fast and easy to whip up. No complicated ingredients and really, the only thing it had that I don’t typically keep on hand was frozen oj. I think I might buy a bunch of cans next time I go shopping so if I’m stuck for a dinner idea, I can just throw this together. Because it is GOOD! I had high hopes that it would taste something like Panda Express orange chicken but since that stuff has a bit of a kick to it and this recipe didn’t call for any kind of spice, I knew I was out of luck. It didn’t matter though because this is just so darn delicious. I will definitely be making it again. I served it over white rice with a side of green beans and it was the perfect combo. It’s warm and citrusy and hearty and just everything I like in a meal. I highly recommend you try this. I didn’t give it to the kids because I didn’t think they would even taste it, they ended up with hot dogs and mac and cheese and were perfectly content. JP devoured this, he says it’s the best thing I’ve ever made (although he does say that whenever dinner is especially tasty) so this will be put into our rotation. I just want to find some kind of complimentary spice though because I think it would be just a smidgeon better if it was spicey.

Oh and completely off topic; we made it through our first week of preschool!! The first two days were quite dramatic and tearful at dropoff but by Wednesday things went much smoother. Piper is still a little shy and won’t walk to the line by herself but as soon as I say my goodbyes and the teacher takes her hand, I walk away. She’s still not really talking about her day much but she has learned the ABC song and on Friday they cooked for the first time. When we walked home yesterday, I told her that she was getting two days off and she seemed to think that meant she didn’t have to go back anymore. Imagine how surprised she’ll be on Monday.......

InstaFriday

2011-08-26T05:46:00.001-07:00

I decided to do a different blog hop today.

Instagram is probably one of my favorite apps and I use it all the time but I only know a few of my friends that use it too, so I have tons of pictures that a lot of people never see. If you’re on Instagram, add me (loribugleath)!

We took JP’s sister and her family to our friend Tonya’s house on Sunday. Mercy’s husband Mike cooked his fabulous Italian meal for everyone (he calls it Chicken Pepperoncini but no luck finding the recipe!), the kids all swam in the pool and then later they all went Muddin’. If you’re not from the South or don’t live in the South, you may not know what Muddin’ is but it is pretty much the only thing people talk about around here. I took this picture on the way to Tonya’s house, I may have had a beer or two before leaving the house.....

Walking Piper to her first day of school. She got less and less excited the closer we got to her classroom.

Waiting for Piper outside her classroom. I think this was the day there were all kinds of tractors and things around the school and boys were completely fascinated.

Calvin has been wanting to play restaurant a lot lately. I’m always the customer (the kids will say “Customer! What do you want to eat? and no matter what I tell them, they bring me everything.). This was the lunch that Calvin made for me and he wouldn’t take it away until he saw me “eat” everything.

Ethan playing in the tub. He loves baths, gets so excited when he hears the water running and he LOVES to stick his hand under the waterfall.

Playing with Piper’s sunglasses while she was at school. Shhh, don’t tell her!!

Yesterday was Calvin’s third birthday, these are his cupcakes. We are having a party for him on Sunday so we didn’t do a lot yesterday. JP brought him a happy meal for lunch and we did cupcakes at night. These were actually Piper’s first day of school cupcakes, I saved a few so I wouldn’t have to make three sets of cupcakes this week.

Books!!

2011-08-24T12:33:00.001-07:00

Today when I picked Piper up from school, I noticed her teacher handing out flyers to all the kids. Even from where I was standing, I could tell what they were.......Scholastic Book flyers!!!

When I was in school, I loved those things. I would take them home and pore over them for hours putting little x’s next to the books I wanted and then numbering them by importance. Then I would work on my presentation to ask my parents if I could please order all those books. A lot of the time, we just didn’t have the extra money but every once in awhile, they would say yes and let me order a book or two. Then came the agonizing wait for the books to come in.

When I got Piper’s flyers home today, we looked through them together and put little x’s next to all the ones that looked interesting. She picked out a few books and I picked out a few for her. She, of course, wanted all the Barbie and Princess books but I made a few different suggestions and I think we came up with a good selection. Now we just have to turn in the form and wait for them to come in.....

We picked:

Pinkalicious and the Pink Pumpkin

This one looks cute and if she likes it, there are all kinds of other Pinkalicious books to add to the collection. Plus, it’s a Lift the Flap Book which Piper loves.

Strawberry Shortcake’s Spooky Night

Piper loves Strawberry Shortcake and this one also comes with stickers. This was the compromise to the Barbie book. I have no problem with Barbies, the books are just never any good or very well written.

Little Critter: The Best Show and Share

I LOVED Little Critter as a kid and have always had plans to fill our bookshelves with these books. I was a little surprised that this was the only one in the flyer but I can always pick up more online and in future orders.

The Berenstein Bears: Go Out to Eat, The Trouble with Chores and Bedtime Battle

I also loved the Berenstein Bears and had almost all of the books. This one was a three pack and I just could not pass up ordering it. If there were more, I would have picked those too. I can’t wait to read these ones to the kids!

L M N O Peas

I didn’t even notice this one until I was filling in the form on the back and picked it because we don’t have any alphabet books right now. This will be good for Piper who is learning letters now and also for Calvin to be prepared when he starts school next year.

I think I made some great choices and will end up with 7 books for $27. I’m actually debating picking one more book to make it a nice round $30 but that would require perusing the flyer again and I’m bound to pick more than one if do that. It’s probably safer if I just send this back with Piper tomorrow so I won’t be tempted!

Piper’s first day of school

2011-08-23T06:50:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was Piper’s first day of preschool. She was pretty excited the whole way there, she waved to all the school buses and was chattering non stop.

We were a little early so only a few kids were there, milling around outside. After a few minutes, the teacher came out and asked the kids to line up. Piper wouldn’t leave my side so her teacher, Ms. Tomie, came and took her by the hand and started walking the kids to the room.

I could tell she was scared but was trying to be brave. She was doing a good job too, until they had to stop the walk because a few late comers started showing up. The longer they stood waiting, the more antsy Piper got. And then.....one of the girls started crying and then another girl ran from the line back to her dad.....that’s when I heard Piper start crying. And she booked it out of that line, all the way back to where I was standing and refused to move. Ms. Tomie had to come and carry her into the room, crying the whole way there.

When I picked her up, she seemed like she was in good spirits and even said that she wasn’t ready to leave. I told her she gets to go back almost every day from now on and she seemed pretty excited about that.

I didn’t find out until this morning what happened after she got in the room, but at breakfast today she told me that the teacher let her go in the playhouse and one of the older girls helped her put together Mr. Potato Head. It took all day yesterday and this morning to find out what else they did. I know she colored and worked with scissors and she said they played a song that scared her so she cried. She also did something with sorting colors because in the afternoon she was doing stickers and she grouped all the stickers in certain spots based on their color. She also did something with numbers but doesn’t remember what, all I got from her is that there were numbers by the door and she may have traced them with her finger.

I asked if she made any friends and she said yes but that she didn’t remember any of their names. I asked if she learned anything and she said no. I need to figure out what questions to ask to get her talking about her day.

Today she said she wouldn’t be scared and that she was going to try very hard not to cry. And she was doing really great too, she lined up when the teacher asked her to and was ready to go into the room until.......one of the other girls threw a full on screaming tantrum, wouldn’t leave her moms side and practically had a wrestling match with Ms. Tomie when she tried to pick the girl up. Piper started slowly edging out of the line and eventually started crying. As she was being led away from me she kept turning around and crying for me and trying to get away. I don’t know if I should just leave once she gets lined up or if I should wait until she gets in the class but it broke my heart leaving her. I think it was harder today than yesterday because it seemed like she really didn’t want to be there today when yesterday she was just scared. And I could still hear the girl screaming all the way down the block. I know it will get better each day but it’s just so hard!!

While Piper was at school yesterday, Calvin didn’t know what to do with himself. He alternated between doing stickers, watching cartoons, following me around the house and asking if he could check outside for Piper. I didn’t really think about how hard it would be on Calvin but he just seemed so lonely.

I, on the other hand, really enjoyed those 2 hours and 20 minutes (Piper goes to school for three hours but with the walking time, I only get 2 hours and 20 minutes at home). Ethan went down for a nap almost as soon as we got home and slept the whole time. Calvin was so quiet that I got so much accomplished! I was in such a good, mellow mood all day! And since I got all my cleaning and stuff done in the morning, I had the whole afternoon to spend doing whatever the kids wanted. I love school!

My week in recipes

2011-08-21T06:19:00.001-07:00

This week, I only made three of the promised five recipes. Because....JP’s sister and her family visited unexpectedly and cooked us dinner one of the nights AND I completely forgot to buy crescent rolls even though they were on the list and we ended up barbecuing twice......next week should go much better. I didn’t put the actual recipes in my blog because I thought it would make the post too long, so the title of each is a link to the actual recipe if you’re so inclined to try them too. I also did not post any pictures because I think you need a fancy camera to make pictures of food look appetizing. All of mine turned out terrible. I was thinking for future posts I might count a side dish or a roll or a desert as one of my five new recipes because I have found some really delicious examples that I’m dying to test out. I’m bound to get better with this as time goes on, but for now, here are the first three tests. Side note: I wrote each little bit up after I made and tasted the recipes. I may have had a cocktail or two the night of the Bubble Up Enchiladas.....Also, if anyone has any suggestions for a better title let me know!

Three Cheese Chicken Alfredo Bake
Ok, I had issue with this recipe right away because it called for a few cups of cooked chicken. Question: how do you cook your chicken when a recipe asks for it that way? I asked JP once and he told me I could just boil it, which is what I did in this case. I think next time I make my menu plan, I should check how many recipes call for cooked chicken and just make it all up in one day to be measured out accordingly. [Note to self: remember you wrote this!] So around 4pm, I put 4 chicken breasts (actually, 2 large breasts cut in half) in a pot of water to boil. Cooked it up, sliced it up and put it in the fridge to use later. I debated making the whole casserole right then and refrigerating it until I was ready to bake it but with JP's sister and her family surprising us, I wasn’t able to do that. Also, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. For one thing, I couldn’t find refrigerated alfredo sauce so I just bought the jarred stuff I found in the pasta aisle(I used one 16oz jar) I also only used about a cup and a half of ricotta cheese and garlic salt because I completely forgot to buy real garlic. This dish is Delicious with a capital D. Also Decadent with a capital D. Almost too decadent. It’s very, very cheesy as the title suggests.

**I heated up the leftovers for lunch the next day and Piper and Ethan could not get enough. I didn’t even try to get Calvin to taste it because he doesn’t like pasta yet. I personally think it tasted better the second day. I will definitely be making this again!**

Bubble Up Pizza
I threw this together the night of Piper's open house. It was a quick meal to make and I had been promising the kids pizza so I thought this would fit the bill. The kids seemed pretty excited about it, until I plopped the plate in front of them and expected them to eat it. I just put pepperoni in because I didn’t think they would like any other toppings. Piper took one bite and refused to eat any more and Calvin just kept picking out the pepperoni. I finally called it a day and just made them peanut butter and jelly. I thought the pizza was good but the biscuits in the middle of the dish weren’t cooked, while the ones on the outside were pretty crisp. I think maybe only one can of biscuits and a little more sauce and cheese would make it better. It was honestly just ok, kind of plain tasting and since it didn’t seem to go over very well with the kids I’m not sure I’ll be making it again any time soon.

Bubble Up Enchiladas
Ok, I’ll be honest.....I kind of made this dish the night after the Bubble Up Pizza to spite JP. What? You’ve never done something to intentionally annoy your significant other while getting a visit from your lady friend? [Speaking of which, JP has told me that I am not allowed to call my period my lady friend any more because apparently I do not act like a lady during that time.) He was being so vocal the night before about the pizza looking like mush that I’m convinced that is the reason the kids wouldn’t even really taste it. So I intentionally did not lay anything out for dinner on Friday (I had ground beef in the fridge already) so I would have to make this and force him to try it, or we would have to order pizza. He hadn’t done the budget for the week yet so enchilada mush it was. Now I may have thrown the whole two cups of cheese into the meat mixture (I did) and also added sriracha because we like our spicy food extra spicy. I added some shredded cheddar to the top during the last ten minutes of baking since I used up all the called for cheese. I’m not even sure JP ever tried this. I.....liked it.....but in that way where I was starving and a little drunk and may have eaten anything at that point. It didn’t really taste anything like enchiladas but it was filling and spicey and I could see myself making it again if I thought anyone else would eat it.

I heated up some of the leftovers for lunch the next day and it was quite good. Still didn’t taste much like enchiladas but it would be such a good, filling dinner for a chilly Fall evening (if we had real Fall in Florida and my family would actually eat this!).

This week I plan on making:
Crock Pot Orange Chicken
Three Cheese Baked Ziti (I will probably not make my own sauce)
Sweet Chicky Nuggets
Oatmeal buttermilk pancakes (to be made as a special treat on Saturday morning after Piper’s first week of school)
Crock Pot Chicken and Gravy (carried this over from last week)