The Care Fair

Seriously, this name sounds like something out of a Care Bears show that M would watch. Infact, I think we did or still do have an episode on VHS about the Care Fair Scare! Ha! But I'm sure that wasn't the intent of our most recent adventure.

So here's the scoop. A Shout Out to my SIL for reminding us about it and encouraging me and M to still go regardless of the fact that it was hot, on a Saturday, I'm hugely preggers, and hubs was home sick. We all went and it was worth our while.

The Brushy Creek Assembly of God (I think this is right) is a church directly across the street from Century Park. Those of you that read this and visit Century Park have most likely seen the big sign out front about free groceries on Wednesdays 5:30-6:30pm. Well, they put out fliers about the Care Fair that they were to have on Saturday May 3rd from 10am till about noon. It advertised that the first 500 families represented would receive a box of free groceries. Well, seeing as our cupboard was almost to empty this month and there was a major freeze on any spending period, this was appealing to me...AND since my brother recently lost his job, this was equally appealing to my SIL. We decided we'd go and see.

On top of the free grocery perk, there were advertised free haircuts, free face painting, free hotdogs, free inflatable games...and the list went on with the very active word being free of course.

On Saturday, M and I headed that direction about 9:15am. not knowing what to expect as far as the number of people that would be there. She wanted Mickey Mouse Pancakes for b'fast, but as hubs was still sleeping, and the cupboard was just about bare, we took our $3 and some change. I ate cereal at the house and she got a donut and brought her own juice. I got some coffee. We headed through the drive through at DD and then on to century park. When we parked, there was already quite a line. we ate, made potty, played a little and then headed to claim our place in line.

Now when you have a 2 yr. old you know that waiting in line is not the easiest thing to do, but God and M gave me a bit of a break that day cause she did really well almost all day...and there were several lines!

They allowed people in in groupings. Mainly cause they forced you to hear a gospel presentation before you could wander around to all the free stuff. Now, I'm not sure how I feel about all that, because I certainly can't complain! Everything was free...AND they didn't ask for all my contact info so they could come knocking on my door, calling, or sending unbelievable amounts of mail.

The presentation lacked quality and theology that I prefer, but my background is such that most of such things would. Seminary degree, varying larger church atmospheres...And you know I appreciated it all the same. The theological things were more blaring to me, but those actually came more in the music and lyrics. "There's a blessing in the room tonight...is it yours?" "there's a place were RELIGION never dies!" Still M loved the Sisters in Motion and enjoyed dancing with her momma to the music (ah the freedom that children find in that--no inhibitions).

Then we're off! On to the ticket for groceries! On to booths about Free Medical Care, some things that didn't really apply to me, AND a free diapers booth! M doesn't need them, but they gave me some for baby boy! Hallelujah! Then we checked out the fire truck, ambulance, motorcycles, and the police men. M really liked the police badge sticker! Off to the free hot dogs! Free chips and bag of cookies! Free beverage! And M spots the face painting. Now this is VERY high on her priority list! So she gets 2 hearts on one cheek and a free balloon that has to be blue please. It has a big star on it that says Jesus' light shines on me!



She decides she absolutely does want a hair cut, so we wait in line for this. The gals were from the Greenville Tech and the teacher was there. Talk about meeting a demand! Wow! so we wait! And this is where her naptime starts to catch up with us, but she managed to remain distracted with lunch. She gets a hair cut that is shorter than i'd like, but a VERY GOOD CUT actually. I was pleasantly surprised considering how little she cooperated AND the wind that had picked up. Yes...this was all in a row outside!

Now for our box of food. When I say they had plenty, they must have cause we basically were at the end of the line when all was said and done and they carried a box to my car AND I was able to get a free loaf of bread. I nice loaf, not some mediocre hand me down left over loaf. All FREE!
AND on top of it all, they told me to please come back, that on Wednesdays they do the free groceries and diapers, and the family is allowed to do that once a month! They didn't care who I was or my socio-economic status. They didn't care that I don't really qualify for lower income but I'm barely making it in middle class. All they cared about was that I cared enough for my family to be there, and get help.

This is something you don't see alot. I dare go into pointing fingers cause we are all guilty I assure you! They gave because they loved. They did this most likely because they felt led by God to act out in social justice in much the same way that Jesus did. I was blessed to be a recipient, and I hope to be reminded and blessed to be a giver in the future. It's not always easy. The people all around me were all soooo different! Older feeble people who probably had trouble with the month to month, lots of young families with strollers full! And all in between. I was blessed to be amongst them. I feel like Jesus was probably there in the midst as well. How much the forced presentation did or did not reach would be hard to say and I could really break it down and do free consulting, but what does speak is that they are reaching out to the community. Not just once for this fair, but consistently on a weekly and monthly basis.

Captian Poo's

Seriously, very close to our condo was this sign and restaurant/bar "Captain Poo's". Uh...what do you do with that?! I wish I had a pic. I wanted to get one of hubs by the sign but he chickened out at the last minute!

Our mini-vacation was nice. We have our word of mouth ways of finding very inexpensive if not free ways of taking regular getaways with eachother. God has always provided us these small luxuries so that J and I can keep up our relationship.

M is with her Nani and Pop and is having such a good time that she doesn't want to speak with me on the phone for fear that she will have to come home! Ha! Fun to see vacation through your childs eyes even when you aren't with them. We saw things that we new she would have loved! We saw an alligator the one night we went out to eat. We saw numerous rather large jelly fish on the beach! We picked up sea shells and some sand for her (she's never even been to the beach!). One night there was a green tree frog hangin out at our front door! We knew she'd love that too! J even found a shark tooth in our scavenging for sea shells!

Mostly we just relaxed! I made J wait on me more than usual. Though I cooked a bit, I didn't do dishes. He made us a candlelight dessert on the screened in porch on night. We took naps everyday--long ones! we tried to sleep later than usual and had some success with that the second day. We day dreamed about the fantastic beach houses! Ones you only see in movies and such!

It was relaxing. J even did all the driving which is good with me being oh so pregnant. I know that was hard on him, so I'm extra appreciative. We are still enjoying a bit of vacation even though we're back in town and he's at work during the day. M is still with her Nani and Pop in North Carolina, so it is much quieter around here and there are no demands as far as schedule and time. I've done a whole lot of reading and not much else today. I'm bout to finish getting ready for the day (note that it is already 3pm) and then run to the bank and pick up a very few groceries to get us by till the end of the month!

Tomorrow is J's b-day but we have birthing class so our celebration will likely be Thursday or thereafter. Can't wait to tell you about all those surprises!

Make Ready the Way!

Well the "nursery" is coming along. I'm sure many of you that have been to my house are very curious about this since we live in a 2 bed/1 bath Mill House. We actually quite enjoy our house and though we seriously entertained the idea of moving, we found that staying put was our best option for now and I'm o.k. with that. I hate moving anyway! I mean seriously...I've done it all my life!

So, baby boy's room will now be in what used to be the dining room. We are working on the stackable washer and dryer swap so that we can make room for a small eat in kitchen space. Not my most favorite cause It may cramp the kitchen just a bit, but I'm going to do my best to keep the space very clutter free and simplistic (not to mention clean). That will make me feel a bit more relaxed about it all.

I love baby boy's room! We have arranged the furniture and mom is well on her way to finishing the bedding. I wish I could say that I helped, and I did, but my help has been minimal. I am so grateful to have family that can help out in such big ways. I know I am blessed!

We did really well on rearrangements and getting things that we needed to really make the room and rearrangement of the rest of the house a success. In fact, even though I consider my mom quite young, she managed to qualify for the senior citizen tuesday Goodwill 20% off! I'd call it a coincidence, but I don't really believe in those. We arranged and rearranged and decided that we needed a bookshelf for the den so that we could use the big cubed bookcase for babe's room with colored cubes for storage. What did we find at Goodwill? A bookcase at $15 (plus 20% off). We knew that we would need a twin size bed frame for the mattress and box spring that we will be "storing" for mom and dad (and using for when they stay) and we found one for $8. Then mom says check the back aisle, you never know what you'll find as the guy from the stock room is bringing out new stuff that is dented special from wal-mart. Sure enough he had just placed on the shelf the very thing that I said I wanted to get M for her b-day! What?!

You know the fisher price Easy Link system that hooks into your computer and allows the child to place the character in its spot and it takes them to that secure web page! Well it's for 3 and up and this would be a good bonding thing for her and her daddy since he's the computer guy! It was still in the package and every piece was there but the mouse pad (and who cares about that!) $6.40! That's all. So I have gotten M's present. Awesome!

I will post pics when we are finished or at least almost finished with baby boy's room. I love how itsamomthing posted pics and a run down on cost. I may try that as well. It may be a little while as I do have to figure out how to do a slip cover for the rocker I got for his room. never done it before, but can't be too hard.

The Stuff of Today

I've gotten back into the Tightwad Gazette. There are a hundred and one things in there and with my limited memory I have to revisit it. We are in a crunch this month simply cause too many expensive things fell in one month. A little more planning certainly would have helped but some of it just couldn't be avoided. So, we absent--mindedly closed our eyes and prayed that we'd make it to the end of the month so that we could revisit our budget for the next month. Now we are rolling on fumes for the remainder of the month and even have a beach trip planned.

Lucky for us vacation to me and hubs means sleeping alot and taking baths and enjoying the silence that is typically hard to come by. We'll enjoy God's creation as well since we'll be at the beach and all. I suppose we'll bring our own food since we are on budget restriction. That'll take annoying extra planning but will certainly be worth it in the end.

Today I'm excited to announce that I got a lot of things done on my to do list! I did feel a little frustrated that many of the chores left me stuck in the house when it was quite a nice day outside. Thankfully, my parents came in town and felt like taking M outside to play. I managed to actually do every dish in the house (mind you I have no dishwasher). I did a good deal of laundry, unfortunately it has to be put up now! I'm quite certain I would have finished the laundry entirely except to find out that something is up with the washer--boo--and it is leaking a bit of water (nothing huge--yet).

I made dinner...tacos, refried beans, spanish rice, tea, and made from scratch chocolate chip cookies! AND almost all of the ingredients minus the tea, splenda, meat, cheese, and sugar came from the box sale. I got the taco shells, refried beans, spanish rice, chocolate chips, flour...at the $6 box sale! So lets just say that the entire dinner was CHEAP! And there are tons of cookies leftover and tortillas for chicken enchiladas another day! Hallelujah!

I collected the things of M's that were scattered around the house and was amazed at how many things there actually were, and dumped them in her room intending to tackle that cleaning project another day, but hey, why not now. So her room is almost clean except for hanging up a few things.

Tomorrow I'm excited to say that hopefully baby boy will have some semblance of a room. Mom says she's at my disposal for getting that ready and you know I'm anxious! Ready to get my nest in order. So, hopefully I actually have something to report tomorrow!

Still amazed at ALDI prices on milk and other things. Because money is tight right this minute I opted for the frozen juice instead of in the plastic containers. I found 100% apple juice that reconstitutes to 64 oz (the normal size of the plastic containers) for a mere 89 cents. yahoo! so we got two and one milk at $2.85 Love ALDI...or should I saw I re-love it! ha!

Not According to Plan

This is going to be one of those posts that I am sure I will hate tomorrow, but here is the deal...things did not go according to my plan today! I laugh at myself even as I type that cause Who's plan is it really anyway.

Yeah I know. But here goes. The one day M is sound asleep and not waking up early, I have to wake her up early to get her ready for school quickly so that we can have b'fast with daddy before he goes out of town. We still run late, so she is at school late. I'm way behind on getting ready for the amazingly overscheduled day ahead. I finally shower but don't really get to fix my hair. ugh. I'm thinking I'll get the chance later but never really do.

I rush out the door to get J to work to meet his ride to the airport, something I hadn't planned on doing which threw kind of a wrench in one of my later plans (a birthday surprise for him). Then realized I would need some kind of lunch snack to get me through my facial that was scheduled at noon till about 1:30. Then I'm in a mad rush to get home, pack up a bunch of things for the surprise--my hair is a mess now cause of the way she did the facial. The facial was nice, but not very relaxing really cause the gal talked the entire time, left the light on bright, no music...It was her first day back after like 4 weeks. At least it was good conversation, but I think I could really have used relaxation more at this point.

So I'm packing up stuff to go to the surprise and can't find much of what I need (never can when you are in a hurry). My mom came to help and thank goodness she did cause M was in a bit of a wild mood and was pretty hard to keep up with. In the end, I was a bit disappointed with both the decision that I had to make ALONE (not good at this anyway), I wasn't as thrilled with some of the product or the price. I may just be being hard on the whole thing cause I'm pregnant.

Then off to dinner where in my bro reports that he's been laid off! what! geez! AND my mom is obviously equally tired and none to thrilled about watching M any longer. I scarf down dinner in the midst of trying to maintain some semblance of order with my 2 year old. Mom and dad SURPRISE head back out of town cause they have to be back...wasn't expecting that.

At this point I am physically and emotionally worn out and have no relief cause I know that I'm am going it alone cause J is out of town for the next 4 days AGAIN. I'm on the verge of tears due to exhaustion, fatigue, pregnancy, loneliness, you name it. Get M to cooperate long enough to head for the shower/bath together, and do the bed time routine. Put her to bed (taking me far too long really), and realizing that one blankie may have been left at the mall and that I forgot to brush her teeth. Now it is 9pm and I'm too tired to dry my own hair before I go to bed.

That is just too much for a gal this pregnant! Thankfully I had the help that I did. Anticipation does sometimes let you down though. Things can't always be as we would like. Hopefully in the end it'll all work out perfectly!

I need a break. So, night night.

$40 + haircut!

Yikes! Ya'll know how "frugal" I am. I was in desperate need of a haircut, but could go a bit longer without a color job. So I thought I'd just go to the gal I usually get my hair done with and just do a cut. That shouldn't be too bad. Now, bear in mind that I dont usually pay to have my hair done, cause I find it hard to spend 100 dollars on myself. But my mom gets fed up with my hair before I do (which is nice to have someone looking out for me! ha!). And often she foots the bill.

I know...I'm a grown woman and I should absolutely be paying for my own hair. I'm aware. Anywho, so I go in for the haircut. I have cash in hand thinking I have plenty to pay for hair and tip and have some leftover for my eyebrows. Ha! I paid for my hair and tip and had $5 leftover. Not enough for a splurge on eyebrows!

So what do we think? To get a really good haircut, is this a good price?! I did the shampoo, cut, and style--LOVE IT BTW! Just curious if I was on another planet thinking it'd be about $25.

Check out my new digs!

Seriously, I made these pant on a whim. didn't have much to lose as I wouldn't have worn them as is, so I tried to alter them. They would have looked different in my mind (the opening will be on the outsides of the legs next time), but they still turned out really cute! I'm offering to do something similar on TeederToddlers if you wanna check it out. Otherwise, I just wanted to show my readers the fun maternity pants I get to wear for a little while longer. Thanks to MIL for buying me the pants at her local yard sale! A little ingenuity gave me another pair of maternity pants...and very posh too I might add. M calls them fancy pants!

New Orleans Box Sale Meal

Couldn't think of anything to make for dinner. Had to be chicken cause that was the only thawed meat in the house. Nothing sounded spectacular to me, AND I had a time crunch cause we had a long morning which led to a late nap, which led to a late wake up time, so dinner preparation was crunched.

I look in the pantry, see the box of Tony's Cacheres Red Beans and Rice so that sounds pretty good. And us being from New Orleans, I knew that J would like that. Wish I had some sausage to put in it, but had to make due with chicken.

Boil the one large chicken breast for about 20 min. whilst preparing the red beans and rice. Get that going and decide to add more rice cause I like it thick, not soupy. When the chicken is ready I cut it up and put it in to simmer with the rest of the seasonings for the remainder of its cook time.

Then...what goes with red beans and rice. Well, greens, of which I have none. AND corn bread. Now this I can do! I've never made cornbread in the iron skillet before but it is my favorite way, so I decide to give it a try. I pull out the package of Martha White Corn Meal that I also got at the box sale. I follow the recipe and voila! It comes out perfectly!

M helped the whole time which I enjoy but find somewhat frustrating when I'm in a bit of a hurry. Still I know she loves to cook with her mom so I really can't complain.

Then I had to make tea, cause you can't have that kind of cooking without tea! wish I'd had something green, but oh well. Good thing we do vitamins! Ha!

Seriously, when all is said and done I swear the entire meal cost less that $2 total AND we had left overs! alot! So hey I fed my family for about a dollar tonight! That's what I'm saying. Course you'll have to add in the hot dog that M opted for after trying the red beans and rice. I was proud cause at least she tried it...and several bites too.

Saving Money

It's stocking up time again for us. We aren't picky about shampoo around here...I mean not too picky. We don't use prell cause I've felt softer brooms than my hair after using it. We don't use Pantene cause my hair looks and feels fantastic after the first use and then proceeds to looking like a wet noodle. But besides those two, we aren't picky. BUT what I have found is that VO5 tends to be the best bang for the buck. Even if we have to buy some in a pinch cause we forgot, it tends to run around a buck!

RIGHT NOW IT IS ON SALE AT CVS FOR 65 CENTS! This is as cheap as I've ever seen it! I usually buy it when it hits what I consider rock bottom at 77 cents! Ha! I will be stocking up ASAP.

I hit the box sale again on Saturday--thank you bro for going with me. K and I went together since I am nearly 30wks pregnant and shouldn't be lifting. J stayed and watched M and my SIL stayed and watched their son, whom we call on this blog "Cuz".

It was a little crazier than I remember even the last time I went! I swear, when they reminded us of the rules and then said go, people actually ran down the aisle! What?! Still, K and I got a box each. Not as many canned veggies as I needed and not too much cereal, but some. I always look for certain things...juice, fruity snacks, diapers, cereal, canned veggies. That's really about it. then everything else is extra. If we have room in our pantry, I will likely go back in about a month. It's every two weeks provided the weather holds since it is outside. I'll be out of town 2 weekends from now (yahoo!), but that's alright. Take advantage of this! There is usually a lot of baking type things like flour, cornmeal, baking soda, chocolate chips.......the list goes on.

I went to ALDI tonight to get the bare minimum to get through till payday Monday night. It was awesome. I've been on a Bloom kick cause I like doing the scanner myself as I go. That keeps my tally running with tax and all, but the prices are significantly more than ALDI and/or Walmart. Still I use the $10 off coupons and that has helped. I bought a gallon of milk for $2.85! That is amazing! seriously! it's $4 and something at bloom! What?! O.K. so I may have to make my switch back. I mean, everyone would like their money to buy them more things.

My friend over at itsamomthing reminded me of a very awesome site to check out if you haven't already www.moneysavingmom.com She mostly deals with CVS deals, which is great for me since I can walk across the street to do this shopping! check this out if you haven't already.

Mercy's Mouth

I'm well aware that my little one's mouth is going to get her into trouble in the growing up years. Mine always got me into trouble. Now for those of you who don't know mean I do not mean in any way that she uses foul language, I mean that her mouth is never closed unless she is sleeping! Ha!

Today as we are walking to our car after PDO, we are passing the playground. M tells me that that is where she was supposed to be playing today, but she was hitting the boys. Now this takes me back to the 4th grade when the minute the recess bell rang, me and my gal pals hit the door running after the boys to kick them in the bottom. Apparently some "game" we created. I don't know. Don't remember. Don't ask. Not real proud of this memory.

Now my little girl is not a bully. She is bossy, but she is rarely out and out mean. So ask her why she was hitting the boys. Were they being mean? She said yes. So I say, "what were they doing? were they hitting you?" Then she says, "No. They were spitting in my hair." PAUSE... "They were spitting in your hair?!"
"Yes"
"Well, I can see why you hit them."

I put her in her seat and proceed to tell her that it's not o.k. to hit, that this does not please God. I did say that I understood and I told her to make sure that she told the teacher. She said she did tell the teacher and they got mad at the boys, "not at me cause I wasn't spitting in anyone's hair." Later her daddy asked her if the boys got punished for their unacceptable behavior? and she said, "punished, yeah, reprimanded, they got consequences." I thought that was soooooo funny coming from my precious little 2 1/2 yr. olds mouth! What?! punished, reprimanded, consequences?! and all used correctly?! I have got to be on guard what I say cause she is a sponge!

Her daddy and I felt the same way. and told her that next time try to tell the teacher right away, but if she can't, at least give the perpetrator a warning and the chance to make the right choice, but if they reoffend then you might just have to hit them. We said that it is generally not acceptable to hit, but sometimes it is necessary.

What a story! seriously makes me laugh just rehashing it now! What do you think about our response?! I'm not sure myself. Turn the other cheek and all, but really, if something inappropriate is happening or someone has my kid trapped, I want her to not be afraid to fight for herself if she needs to.

So many things...

There are so many things to blog about today so I will hit them all. In a weird way they don't any of them go together, but yet they are all part of my random day, so here goes...

Love having deep meaningful conversations. they are much harder to come by in these days of stay-at-homeness. But my SIL is good at continuing to engage me in adult conversation. We talked of healing and prayer and whether or not our earnestness, relationship, prayer, etc actually plays in the effects of prayer or God's decisions. Of course, we aren't pretending to know the answers to these questions, but it was sort of a tennis game of questions and possibilities backed with scriptures. See our friend Monica is in the hospital. We don't like to talk about the end result of this battle she is having with stage 4 lung cancer, because we dont' want to go there and because we don't want to put limitations on God's awesome power. But it does leave us with lots of questions.

On another notewe saw a fashion show this a.m. Haha. it was cute and slightly amusing as I am pregnant and I will be nursing for a good year more post birth. But I was also reminded by another pregnant friend not to succomb to the nursing frump. No need for all that nursing wear if you can call it that. too many layers, too much bulk, not attractive unless you buy the really expensive brands and immediately fit back into you pre-pregnancy sizes (which they seem to assume were rather small and sexy to begin with). I had a good laugh with that. Nursing is not the most attractive time in a womans life especially if she was already bigger to begin with (interpret that as ye may!).

I recieved a baby gift today! Diapers and wipes. I'm 10 weeks from my due date and this is the very first of any diapers that I have for baby boy. I'm so far behind what I was this time into M's pregnancy! Still I found the coordinating fabric to the already picked out theme fabric for his bedding, so I'm about ready to cut out and get busy sewing. I'm a little nervous about making my own piping but my mom swears she's got it down pat now...so I suppose I'll learn something new.

We picked up the $25 rocker that I got on craigslist. It's not exactly as it seemed in the pic, but it was a small pic, so its sometimes hard to tell. It is in really good condition and is very clean, but the fabric is old and dated, so it will have to be recovered! another project. oh well, I intend to tackle it quickly so as not to frustrate my nesting instincts or my hubs preferences for things of particular beauty.

I worked sub childcare at my SIL's church and they didn't actually need me so I got paid to sit around and jabber with her for a while and had a break from general responsibility (including Mercy). I am very thankful to have her friendship even though we are family. So many different points in our lives so far have intertwined and we have benefited from eachother. I don't have that one special friend that we've been praying for and she too prays for that same type of thing, but we do have eachother and for that I think we are both thankful.

Lastly, these Wednesday nights subbing in childcare have left Daddy and Daughter Date nights fantastically available. These are turning out to be such a joy for everyone. There date food is usually Moes which is very near our house. She loves it and so does he so it works out. Then this night, he decided to treat her to an actual manicure at a nail salon in the same shopping center. She wowed everyone in there with her wit and charm (and verbal skills cause boy is she a talker) and daddy was overjoyed with her excitement about her $5 pink manicure with designs and sparkles! Good idea dad. And I told him that next week he could take her for her toes! haha. seriously good way to spend $5 on a little girl!

Can't have our yard sale again as we had hoped cause the weather is very uncooperative, but mom took all the yard sale stuff to her house to put in the garage till weather and travel permit an actual sale (gotta go before the babe comes!). Hallelujah! It feels like we might be getting our house back. We have NO storage (this is not an exaggeration), so it was all just hanging out in ugly piles here there and everywhere. Literally 3 closets in the entire house. Each are small, one is in our room and is only mine (and the vaccuum, gift things, some storage, guitar...) one in the "hall" which is J's and all his sporting good storage, and one in M's room (normal closet with a bit of her extra storage things). No linen closet, no laundry closet, no pantry, no broom closet. There is an attic, it's huge if you can fit anything into my closet and through the opening. Which we have not had any success with thus far. Ha ha. so we are reclaiming our house from the clutter.

Every step is a step closer to a more contented relaxed environment! That is my so many random things. Theological discussions, rocking chairs, fighting the nursing frump, daddy daughter nights...It's whats going on!

The Day's Happenings

Well, it was a weird day for M. I mean, did I not post last night that she hasn't had an accident in like 2 weeks! Sure enough today, just about everytime she needed to go, she had a little bit in her panties! Gee Wiz! We had a play date today and I hadn't even brought her a bag, cause it's been so long since she had an accident. In fact, tonight, she was obviously frustrated about it all and just asked for a diaper! hahahahaha! seriously?! when is the last time she had a diaper?! But who knows. they say this happens. I just wish it didn't.

I'm feeling a little better about baby preparation. I'm fighting the urge to be discontented with our housing situation. It's a moment by moment thing as I am pregnant and these mood type things seem to be fluctuating a good bit! A friend gave (let me borrow I'm sure) her carrier/base car seat which I'm thrilled about cause though I had the one M used, it was bought used and apparently as of today is no longer up to standards (3 point harness instead of a 5 point harness). I was a little annoyed at that, but now I don't have to worry about it! AND me and M did go pick up the sit and stand stroller from the craiglister fro $30! seriously! I registered for one at target that was a good price but was still a good $100 more! I'm thrilled! Thank you Lord! We scored a really cute, unisex portable swing at a yard sale this weekend for $10 which I thought was a decent price seeing how on craigslist they are going for $15 or more even the ugly, dirty ones. We can only do a small portable one because of the space issue.

My next project is making the kitchen livable after the hopeful yard sale this weekend (though I'm not sure the weather is in my favor). AND making baby boy's space situated (Not to mention the lack of bedding as of yet). I've had trouble finding something to match the fabric I've chosen for a portion of his bedding. I'm bout to give up and go the alternate route and remake my fave quilt that never gets used into his new bedding motif! Seriously! just ready to have it done!

Rocking chair situation! Found the one I like on craigslist a while back but wasn't sure if I was ready. it reappeared this weekend at $25! for an upholstered swivel, gliding rocker that doesn't smell or squeak and that quite possible already matches my existing decorations! OK. that could only be God or too good to be true. We'll see bout it all on Wednesday evening.

My hubs is finally home. Yippee! no more out of towns for another almost 2 weeks. Hallelujah! Had a neat conversation with sis today about needy people and Jesus and our responsibility and how hard it must've been for Him and how hard it is to be like Him. Also about how to live on one salary...that is a fave topic of mine and you know it's not all peaches and cream either, but I still love the choice I/or rather God made for me. Making it work is tough sometimes, but always in the end is worth it. Always. Oh so many good things. Only one slight let down...my hopeful friend, though still a friend and to be determined just how great a friend did turn out to be needy. My radar has been up since I met her and I was beginning to think I was just untrusting or cynical about the idea of having true friends cause we could sit and talk for hours, but I was right. The "needs" came out today and they are not small! They are heavy. So heavy that I have prayed for her and her fam several times since we were together. I even had trouble napping. But it isn't my need and I can not do much about it but pray, so I do that. Knowing that God is over it all.

Where is MY responsibility in it all I don't know. I wanna fight but I also wanna flee, so we shall see what God's plans are in all this. Still I pray for that like minded, safe friend that God has for me in His time.

Relationally Inept!

Seriously...I don't wanna sound like a school girl, but as out going as I am...as social as I am and extroverted, I still find it hard to make friends. I'm not talking about the kind of friends that you see once a week and like and find things in common. I can claim many of those. I'm talking about the kind where you actually wanna play catch up on the history and past of the person to see how they came to be as they are today. I'm talking about the kind of friend that laughs and cries in the same conversation. The one that can talk about important things, vulnerable things, and then nothing all at the same time. The one that you have a hard time hanging up on the phone with.

No I'm not trying to date this person...but I suppose all relationships do have similarities. We all have our trials and tests that we put people through to see where they fall in our little world. I'm not saying you don't befriend someone cause they don't meet your standards, but the counselor in me knows a good bit about safe people and healthy relationships and there are different levels of intimacy for different kinds of friends.

I am, I'll admit, giddy at even the idea or possibility that I might have a new friend. Now things are still new and I'm sure that the friendship will evolve as time is spent together, but I spent over an hour on the phone with my new gal pal and could have kept talking. AND we are supposed to get together tomorrow as well for a play date.

We aren't the same, though things in our life make us laugh at similarities. But I find her easy to be with and talk to. She is new and therefore safer considering all the harmful relational things I've been through in the past 3 yrs with Katrina, moving, moving again and again, trying to rebuild, my fathers forced termination and various levels of rejections surrounding that. It is nice to have freshness. I need a friend. A good one that I can call in a pinch. One that would do the same. Who doesn't need one really...but with all the life change that seems to never end in my life, it seems I've been unable to secure one of those kind of friends for years.

God has his ways...I will continue to pray. In a funny way I'm very cautious. I don't want to be too excited by the mirage in the desert, but I also don't want to be a cynic! May God help me balance emotional things in my life as I am well aware that I'm pregnant and will have a hard enough time doing that.

just us girls

Feel like its been just us girls and the boy in my womb for way too long. Let me tell you, preggo women in their third trimester need others! Well, I mean I am talking about a grown woman and a little girl who are both extremely extroverted and social! Me and M have really been having a great deal of bonding time which I will treasure my whole life most likely (and I'm glad to be getting it as baby boy is coming close to being a huge new part of life). However, it's sure been a while since I even had the mental break that hubs was coming home at some point to help out. We chose to go on our last hoorah, so I certainly can't complain. But I will say that eating, sleeping, and breathing with M, though delightful, is quite tiring! Luckily, with the whole visit to Minnah I know I always have a helping hand cause she is soooo great with kids!

Now, J is out of town for a little boy fun and "class" (gun play as he says). It's sort of his last manley hoorah before baby boy gets his name! ha! I'm thrilled that he gets to go and I know he's having a ball, in fact tonight it a night shooting course, so he is still going. However, M and I got home late Monday night, Tuesday night was birthing class, so no real quality family time, Wednesday nite I worked childcare at SIL's church, Thursday night J got stuck at work till 10pm and Friday morn he was gone on his trip and won't be back till monday midday or so. ugh.

I can't really complain. I do have it good. THank goodness I have the love of my life to miss you know...Thank goodness we have family to take trips to go visit. Thank goodness I have little miss M to spoil. And excess money to spend in said situations. I suppose I'm just feeling pregnant, bored, lonely, whatever...pregnant! ha!

It's not like I don't have an atrocious mess here at my house from leaving my hubs alone here from 5 days to having a 2 yr old all by myself for several more days! I've got massive cleaning to do, and no motivation, and no help. Fun times. Tomorrow will be devoted to cleaning, and hopefully picking up a sit and stand stroller from craigslister! I really hope this works out. it'd be perfect and inexpensive! Getting ready for final yard sale which I hope to hold next weekend if all gets pulled together and weather permits. I'm ready to get this junk out of my house!

On an amusing note, M asked me if my belly was getting bigger tonight! I said probably, what did she think? She said, Yeah, I think so! Ha ha. She also told someone a few days ago that her baby brother was running out of room! I couldn't agree more!

Pregnant Brain

Here are some things that I have noticed this time around that I didn't notice, or maybe didn't experience, the first time around.

1. The many, many weird dreams! I had one last time that was so intense I woke up sobbing (hubs didn't even wake up!) This time I have 3-4 in a night (or nap) and they too are intense and slightly realistic--meaning they always involve real people, but the scenarios are less realistic

2. I feel huge like I'm carrying a large rock in my womb (especially by the end of the day)...AND I have almost 3 months left!

3. I have far less patience than usual, or maybe my threshold is lesser of something.

4. Once I reach the threshold I have a difficult time containing my true feelings.

5. I have a good bit of nesting instinct but not enough energy to make it happen

6. Apparently, laughter and tears seem to go hand in hand. It seems I get teary at random times...if I'm talking about anything personal at all.

7. I'm back to having no idea what to eat!

8. Love to feel the boy wiggling in there, but even though he feels huge to me they say i'm measuring under! How?!

9. I want a house to fit my family in (which isn't going to happen now at least), and Jason wants an excursion to fit our family (which isn't going to happen ever! ha!)

10. My hubs thinks I'm a hot pregnant woman and sometimes, I think so too!

Last Hoorah

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Cousins Easter Egg Hunt!

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Chikalada Pasta

This is one of my favorite dishes! It's really called Chicken Enchilada Pasta, but this is the way it came out when M said it tonight. I thought it was cute enough to stick.

Chickilada Pasta

cook some spaghetti noodles (or any kind of pasta really)
--enough to cover the bottom of the casserole dish.
When you are finished cooking and draining, add a smidge of olive oil to keep them from sticking.

Boil a chicken breast or two for about 20 minutes, then cut into bite sized pieces. (I usually boil a whole bunch and do all this cutting and boiling at once and then freeze the rest for any recipe that calls for bite size chicken).

Place the chicken on top of the noodles.
(Optional-but I love it!) Place a few jalapeno pepper slices around the chicken.

Now for the sauce (which is basically a gravy)!
in a saucepan, melt a stick of butter.
when it is melted, add in a hair less than 1/2 cup of flour.
stir immediately, making sure there aren't any clumps.
While this is cooking (for a minimum of 4 minutes), microwave to boiling 2 cups of chicken bouillion.
Stir the butter flour mixture, and then pour the bouillion quickly into the saucepan (after it has cooked for at least 4 minutes.)
stir rapidly as it will quickly begin to thicken.
turn down to low to medium and add seasonings to taste. Salt, Pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, and jalapenos and/or jalapeno juices.

Pour this sauce over the casserole dish evenly and add cheese on top.

Bake for 15-20 minutes @ 350 degrees.

Found a Quote I Love

"Be True to Who You Are and the Family Name You Bear."

What a day it was yesterday! We were very productive around here! And on palm Sunday! Wouldn't they have thrown us in jail back in biblical days! how dare we be so productive! Still our Sabbath proved to fall on Saturday this week.


After naptime we found hubs hard at work recreating a table for my sewing projects. He's so sweet! He seems to be really supportive of all my TeederToddler projects. He's even remaking an old table we had in order that I might have a place to sew besides the dining room table and half of baby boys space! Hopefully we can get it organized enough in here before baby comes! We'd like to feel as though we fit in here! So much to do and time is fleeting.


M dressed herself. We didn't go anyway for conventional "church" but she picked out a sunday dress and shoes and all just to go outside and play. She is so cute and as girlie as they get! When she saw her daddy working outside, she wanted to help! So she gave it her best go.

Up to No Good

Me and my serger! Ah. We were the best of friends, we are the worst of enemies! No seriously, check out my post over at TeederToddlers for more of that story. But it seems that my serger needs a name cause I personify her quite a bit. Let's see...Ah, perfect. My serger, Suri, will have to go to the Dr. first thing this week cause her mother/owner--me--can't seem to take care of her properly and she is a bit over sensitive as I hear most of her species are. So, Suri the serger will be staying in the serger hospital overnite a day or two till her timing is realigned!



I pulled and prodded as you are not to do with a serger and managed to bend a needle in a big way! Then I proceeded to change it and restring Suri several times just to be sure and yet...alas, she will not loop. not even a little. And after further investigation, it appears that the needles are rubbing into the loopers and some other bit I have no idea what its name is, so...it is beyond my scope of fixing. Metal on metal is definitely a shop kind of thing, at least for now!



Still, I am forging ahead on new projects! check out my latest over ollie at teedertoddlers! AND I posted a pick of my latest diaper wreath that was delivered as a present at the shower I attended today! That turned out great and is a really unique gift if you'd like to order one!

New 6/9 month outfit @ TeederToddlers

Projects have begun! check out TeederToddlers.blogspot.com for the latest!

Priceless

Yesterday was Priceless.
-Dropped car off at the garage next door at the crack of dawn for some brake work. (expecting a charge from $150-$600)
-Rode to Mom to mom with SIL and cuz and M of course
-had interesting theological discussion in group. Very fulfilling for me as deep thought is somewhat hard to come by in the stay at home mom world
-had lunch with SIL, cuz, and M
-M went easily down for her nap
-checked in with parentals
-after nap had a snack (jello!) and walked next door to check on our car
-it was done and the bill was fantastic ($161.50!)
-since it was in the 70's, checked in on hubs to see if he was coming home for sup (was having a computer meltdown day at work). and he wasn't, so M and I decided to go to the park.
-Park was closed for maintenance, bummer, so M says lets go to the zoo!
-Why not? don't know if it'll be open since it is after 4:30pm at this point, but there is a fabulous park in front of the zoo if it is closed.
-zoo is closed but park is in full swing! M plays and plays!
-m is a big girl and goes potty, no accidents!
-time for sup and since we are so close to downtown westside we head there and park in the lot behind hub office (its the cheapest).
-we get out the stroller and decide on either pizza or soup.
-m says soup, cheesy, or potato.
-we locate Atlanta Bread Co. and she decides no soup, but p,b,and j is perfect. She eats a good bit of her sandwich, her entire bag of chips and all but one bite of her pickle!
-she goes potty again like a big girl! no accidents!
-i have one of my fave sandwiches too
-off to Marble Slab for some ice cream!
-M wants pink ice cream but no strawberries...not sure if that exists. Sure enough they have pink bubble gum ice cream.
-she samples, she like, I buy her a cone with sprinkles on top.
-we are both in heaven.
-back to our car, pay the parking lady, and head for home as the sun has now officially set.
-its 8:30 when we hit the bath together (as hubs is still working bless his heart)
-by 9:30 she is almost out cold.
-call sis and have a long overdue fun chat (50 min!)
-go to bed
-hubs finally gets home around 12:30 poor guy!

I spent a total of $19 on M and me. Cash from craigslist sale. I loved every minute of my date. And I realized, I don't do this enough. I left the dirty dishes in the sink, I left the huge pile of clean clothes unfolded, and we did spontaneous things. And she was delightful. It was a glimpse into my big girl's life. I wondered if my mom must have felt these same things with me sometimes as I grew. I cherished every minute of the night. All the "I love yous" that she lavished on me. I think we both felt so special! I to her and she to me. I felt special to God that He would allow me such a privilege! Priceless day!

Productivity

Well, I was sluggish yesterday...that is true. But even still, I was a bit productive. Did a good bit of dishes, worked on the laundry, hung and put up all of M's clothes and straightened her room. I decluttered our very small hall. In fact, some of the decluttering led to craigslist, and thus today I will have made a quick $35.00 (most likely to pay for dinner tonight with hubs).

I picked up my check, made a deposit, ran an errand for mom, and got our free monday night redbox movie. AND...I got a decent nap in there. M got to play outside a bit, which thrilled my soul seeing as it was perfect yesterday! We (me and M) even walked over to the neighbors at DeYoung's Garage yesterday to do some checking on some brake work that we needed done. That will have to wait till Friday...or maybe I can squeeze it in tomorrow. we'll see.

Today has been far more productive than I would have expected. I dropped M off at schoo, caught up with a friend via telephone (been meaning to do this for awhile), made a quick stop at starbucks (most recent craving), stopped at Goodwill and hit the motherload for my teeder toddler projects and on half off! I came home and did some more laundry, ate lunch, caught up with parentals, met a craiglister, straightened the living room since k and SIL are coming over to watch M while we attend birthing class. The bathroom is straight, finished ALL the laundry! Now I have to work on dishes and folding the clean clothes. There is a permanent (or so it seems) pile of stuff next to the back door that is for ebay, garage sale, and/or goodwill! Can't wait till that is gone!

Gotta get M in a minute, but I'm going to keep goingsince I seem to be on a roll. I'm less sluggish today and no nap! maybe that exhaustion had more to do with daylight savings time?! We shall see. In the mean time. I'm determined to get to a point on this housework that leaves me sanity to work on TeederToddlers. Got a big project up my sleeve that I hope proves to be profitable! Fuller schedule than usual for this stay at home mom! I'll post when I can.

Third Trimester?!

Seriously...I'm going to be 25 wks. tomorrow, and I'm already feeling the tug of the exhaustion that comes with the third trimester! Not yet! I was feeling so good! I felt it yesterday. One day is no big deal, but I feel it really bad today and I've remembered to take my vitamins and such. Of course M had a little rough night last night. She had some nightmare or something. At any rate she was scared and called for me in the middle of the night. I had to deal with that. I laid down in her bed for a while, but that never works for long cause she wasn't sleeping and neither was I, so I tucked her in again and tried to go back to sleep. Couldn't get comfortable. tried various things and finally went back to sleep. That doesn't help my sluggishness! I'm going to try to be at least a little bit productive today. I've got quite a bit of work to do. We'll just see how far I get. Not going to make a list, cause I think I would get depressed.

Chester the Third

So you know how they say that Cats have 9 lives...well, I now know that mice have at least 3 lives. Only time will tell as for the remainder of his little lives. We had a visit from Chester again last night. After two previous times, I was actually better able to sleep, but he did wake me up a good 3 times. No we are not extremely dirty people, though J swears we have too many crumbs around here from our toddling eater. We are in a very evolving spot.

The first mouse came after they cleared the lot to build the CVS diagonally across the street. The second visitor came the very morning they drove the house off of the lot across the street. Now they have begun construction on a huge "lot" and are in the process of moving two more houses (already drove one off). They are clearing the area and preparing to build a whole bunch of townhomes. And we got a visitor. We have packets under the house and plugged up the only "hole" we knew of. Still, he came, he visited, he died...and all that for some peanut butter (on the trap of course).

Hope that is the end of chester!

TeederToddlers Official Blog

Well, its a start. TeederToddlers has an official blog site and email address. http://teedertoddlers.blogspot.com and teedertoddlers@gmail.com These are your ways of contacting us on questions about our latest creations and such. Enjoy. And seriously, the only way we can help you is if you contact us. Go ahead. leave comments, email with questions. This is only the beginning.

I'm posting.

I'm posting though sometimes I feel like I've got nothing to post about. J was out of town last week all week so I was worn out and didn't feel much like blogging. This week we are working off the illness that M got at school last Thursday. Yippee. I almost kept her home today, but she isn't contagious and seemed alright, so I sent her. I had tons of things to do today anyway..

It is only 10:30am. I've barely been out and about for more than an hour and I already got a huge portion of my list complete. I returned our free redbox movie from yesterday, I ran to the bank to finally take care of all that. I went to pay rent and visit with the landlord. she is an older woman who loves to chat...so that usually takes a while. I have an appt. with a kids consignment place at 10:45 but gotta wait for mom and dad to get here to help with the loading and such since it is heavy things we are checking out today. can't do any of that heavy lifting while i'm pregnant.

I have even called to schedule my doula appt. and childbirthing classes. we are all signed up and ready except for paying. now I just need to organize child care for M for the next 8 tues. nights. guess that'll be date night for us for a while.

Things are moving along...trying to figure out what to do with our housing situation. feeling a bit cramped here, but know that we could make it work if we have to. Dreary day, supposed to get several thunderboomers as M would say. can't believe I'm actually being productive on such a day as this! Amazing.

On Napping

This is a quote or such from the back of Celestial Seasonings box. Seriously dorky I know, but I kept it for a long time maybe cause I agreed with it and/or because it justifies one of my favorite things...a nap.

"When we were young, the 'tall' ones told us when to slow down. When the demands of the world became too great, their powers of reasoning proved maddeningly accurate. 'I think someone's tired,' they observed. And off for a nap we went. Ten minutes later, our dreaming faces had put us back in good favor with our exasperated parents. When we woke, the world somehow made sense again. What kind of truth might a napping child impart to us? Now we are the tall ones, living in a complicated world with no one to tell us when to slow down. The slumbering little one knows the value of not having the last word, of accepting a minor defeat. It's so simple. Miss out on something. Put yourself back in your own good favor. The world will wait."

Single Mom and Snow

Seriously, it snowed this morning. Some people didn't even realize it that's how little it is, but I had flurries on my car and grill (and no it wasn't frost--i do know the difference) Last week it nearly peaked at 70 degrees and this morning we had snow flurries! Ugh. I'm officially ready for spring.

And...I'm officially ready for hubs to come home. I'm a single mom for the week. Luckily I only have one child though she is 2 1/2 and one on the way. I've tried to be remotely productive, but I have low motivation. I swear if I don't get ALL the dishes done and ALL the laundry put away before J comes home I may check myself into the mental institution.

On a good note, M didn't have any accidents today and was in two situations where she had to go while in the car. She held it till we got to a potty. AND she gave me warning! That was amazing! She even went #2 by herself twice! So victory there.

On napping however, for about a week or more she has been having a really difficult time with naps. This is fairly new. We have a serious routine around here...I'm careful about the sugar intake anywhere near naptime, and still...she gets bout 45min. to 30min. by the time she goes to sleep. Hoping this is just a phase.

Well, Friday and Saturday have come and I'm finally going to post this which I began probably on Wednesday. M is sick (and napping of course cause she needs the rest). Going to the Dr. today. Poor girl. I need more sleep myself, but at least I'm getting my massage today. Ah!

Nanny-Nanny-Boo-Boo

We have officially named our little boy on the way! And..................We're not telling yet! That's so mean I know. There is just always such a stink with certain people over something that is our choice anyway that it's easier to wait and announce it once the ink has dried on the birth certificate. If I choose to tell earlier it will be at my discretion. (Our discretion really).

My M has returned from the mother ship, at least for this lovely valentine's day...Of course tonight should be interesting considering the amount of sugar she has taken in! We shall see, but so far, so good.

Met with a doula today. Glad I'm choosing to do that. Seriously worth the money.

Getting ready for a yard sale tomorrow. Ookie! You would not believe the amount of things I save! Actually most of you are probably more like me than you would like to admit. And I am always cleaning out, but alas. still plenty to sell.

We celebrated Valentine's day as a family this morning! That was really awesome! I mean it. A lovely little memory I will enjoy for the remainder of my memory's existence. We splurged (which won't happen for a long time to come)and actually bought real Hallmark cards at the Hallmark store! I know. I'm officially crazy! I was costly let me tell you, but M really enjoyed picking them out for each person. She loved hers from her dad so much that she took it to school and held onto it at least half the day her teachers said. It had glitter and disney princesses on it. Daddy's and daughters are great!

Got to split lunch with Mom at Brickstreet from my Valentine's Day treat and J got me a Starbucks card. That was perfect! I didn't ask for it and didn't even think of it, but it really is perfect. I have trouble splurging like that on myself, but I do love my Starbucks! I wanted to get him a specific something that will sound ridiculous to anyone else, but J would've loved it! I wanted to get him one of those shower curtain rods that is curved for extra room. Thought they ran around $25...nope. They are more like $40. Then add in tax. So I didn't get it. I did howver find him a hilarious book about "How Babies Are Made" Seriously amusing. He will enjoy that too. Gotta go through garage sale stuff and make sup. More later.

The Child Formerly Known As...

Anyone who doesn't believe in original sin doesn't have children.

Anyone who doesn't believe in original sin should have been a fly in my diaper bag all day. Now, to date, my child is generally a fairly well behaved child. I'm beginning to think that my family was part of some kind of awful experiment by the aliens to see how aliens and humans interact, because that surely wasn't my M...that must've been an alien trapped in her body...a pod person.

Granted maybe she feels a bit like I do that we (she and I)have had more than our usual fill of eachother in the last two weeks, cause I know that especially after today I could use, I mean really use, a break.

She was uncooperative most of the day. Purposefully choosing to not listen, obviously ignore, roll/avert eyes, attempt to distract, and just about anything she could do to be frustrating, disobedient, and whiny. At least the potty thing went well most of the day, so I can't complain about that.

Sweet girl woke up from nap time and stayed till about supper. Then I was convinced that maybe I did carry twins the last time I was pregnant cause this child looked just like mine, but was absolutely undisciplined!

Now you know as her mom I'm totally going to spend the rest of the night trying to figure out what I did to contribute and overanalyze how this happened and what I ought to have done to get different outcomes. The truth is. I felt frustrated and angry a good bit of the day because I couldn't make her obey.

HOW MANY TIMES DO I THINK GOD FEELS THIS WAY ABOUT ME! ABOUT US!

Ah, we do learn alot from our children.

Tomorrow is Another Day

Bout half-way through the day I was feeling like the above statement...praying that God would indeed give me another day to make up for the slow going, one step behind kinda day I was having. But it got better.

Here goes:

7:30am--wake up feeling cruddy (still)

Wake M up who is officially sound asleep. This never goes well cause she is usually quite cranky in such scenarios. This was a medium cranky episode (whew). She goes to the potty and her diaper was dry (yahoo!). Then she whines and fusses cause she wants to put on a diaper. I didn't cave. She wore the panties.

7:46am--get M some rice milk and convince her that she needn't watch a movie at this time. No desire for breakfast and barely drinks any milk. I hop in the shower, get ready...slowly, and go to get M ready (granted by this time it's closer to 8:30am).

Argue over which potty she's going to go pee pee in...leave her on one only to come back and find that she has hiked herself up onto mine is going potty! Hey, I'm confused but proud. Finally get her dressed...ask her to finish watching some Disney thing while I get her lunch ready...and her bag ready...and my bag ready.

By the time we get out the door it is pushing 9:30am. I've cut her bologna into hearts, cupids, and other various shapes. Realize I don't have any juice left, so make up an on the go drink and poor it into two sippy cups. Whew. Grab a snack for myself since I'm getting my hair done and sometimes that takes awhile.

As we are locking up the house, M says that her tummy is rumbling and that must mean she's hungry. I feel bad and convince her to have my granola bar. She doesn't think she will, but she really likes it. We make it to school, tell her teachers she hasn't had an accident in 4 days, so I don't expect any problems, but I'll be at the salon. I hope upon hopes she is still in the same outfit when I pick her up, but I don't really expect her to be.

I'm gone...and running late...and still have to stop at the bank. I have to do it on the way cause that's how I'm paying the tip. I call a friend to assure her that I haven't forgotten about her, just been sick. Love credit unions cause I was out of deposit slips but I still needed to deposit some and keep some. So the guy just asks and then takes care of it for me! Yeah. That's service!

I pull up for my hair appt. just a mere one minute late! hallelujah. Getting your hair done is always fun. And she threw in an eyebrow wax for the heck of it (mainly cause I've purposely neglected to keep mine up since they needed some adjusting). I still got out of there in under 2 hours.

Met mom for lunch...perfect. I was in the mood for Schlotzkys and she was right there. Splurged on the caffeine and had Cherry Coke (love it). Then went home to wrap b-day present for M's friend's party. Called Sarah to let her know that I (which means she) will not be at Mom to mom tomorrow cause I'm still not up to par. Talked longer than we should but enjoyed it. Didn't nap and did a mediocre job at wrapping that present. Went to get M.

M was still in her same outfit, had had no accidents, and took a nap! Which is huge since she didn't nap at all yesterday! We went to the elmo b-day party. Got two requests for the "Overhauls". M gets a little overloaded in that type of environment, but she had fun. We got a pic with Elmo and a cute video I'll post later. Cake was good too, but M didn't want any. She'd already had cupcakes and suckers...

We came home, M wanted to watch Pocahontas (which is like her new favorite) so I let her so that I could doze a minute and then start on dinner and dishes. Didn't want to, but I did and now I'm glad. Dinner was delish! M ate sooooooooo much brocolli! She thought it was sooooo good! Hilarious! And fantastic really. Made Chicken Enchilada Pasta (one of my faves), and broccoli and sweet tea! Even Hubs enjoyed it all.

Potty time comes after dinner always in our house till we get it down (the #2 I mean). We had a little resistence, but I didn't cave. She did it and was greatly relieved and had energy like you wouldn't believe after that. Nani came by with a special prize for her perfect potty day and all ended well that started off sloppy! Thank goodness I didn't have to wait till tomorrow to redeem my motherhood abilities! What a day. And I'm still up.

DIY

Seriously...Here are the bow pics for the birthday project. Please enjoy laughing along with me as I try to figure this creation out!

See the previous post for the frontal pic of these "overhauls". Here is the frou frou on the back. So now to make a matching bow!

I actually downloaded and printed, read and followed directions to make this bow. besides the fact that it's too big, it looks a mess! Buh...so I decide to give it a go without the instructions. I eyeball it if you will. And I'm relieved to have this as the outcome!

TeederToddlers

My mom and I are working on a new project. We are making and recreating boutique clothing for toddlers. We've only just begun and right now we are only doing girls clothing sizes 2-5...and it is fun. Not to mention that M is the beneficiary of all the demo model clothes (the ones we work with first to get them just right). Then she gets to be our little model/walking advertisement! There is one more outfit that is complete minus the monogram so I will post it later. But the scoop is that we will have an Etsy store/site very shortly (Thanks itsamomthing for that tip) and you and anyone you tip off can go, search, browse, shop...


Here's the scoop. TeederToddlers is our name. We make clothing for toddler girls sizes 2-5. Our goal is to make one style of clothing per week/one pattern if you will. We will make only one item in each size (unless there is a special request for twins), and that is it. The next week will be a whole new item. The purpose here is to keep things very original. The quality will be high, and the demand great because THERE ARE SO FEW THAT ARE ALIKE! If there happens to be a particular pattern and/or fabric that is extremely popular, then you can expect to see it reappear in the following month's picks. But the goal will be to keep things unique and individual AND high quality, made in America! Can't wait to publish the post that says that we are up and running.



THIS IS THE PREVIEW! Here are the items (minus the one in need of monogramming) that we have experimented with so far.


This is a birthday present for one of M's classmates! It comes with a matching hairbow and there are a few cute embellishments on the back as well, but I've maxed out my pics for this post. Will post the hair bow pics next cause it was a funny experiment.

Baby Boy Pics

Finally scanned these in...Thanks Mom and SIL! If you know what you're looking at you'll notice the boy parts to be very obvious! The two middle ones are face pics 3D and the last is just a pic of his hand spread out. Very cute to me the mom.

Update! We had a great potty day with M. She didn't have any accidents. In fact just before dinner she went potty all by herself and then called us from the toilet. That was funny. We celebrated by going to Ruby Tuesdays and ordering dessert. Keep in my mind I am pregnant as well!

I did the sinus flush last night. No idea if I did it right, but after a great deal of dosing off and on and big nap this afternoon I feel a good bit better! Still going to repeat flush and tea tonight.

Went to Earth Fare last night. We decided to do meats and dairy's all organic to reduce the amount of hormones and antibiotics that we put into our bodies. I've heard to many tales of early (and I mean really early) periods in young gals most likely due to the hormones in most meat and dairy. Not to mention I think M may be allergic to dairy or milk or something that causes a lot of her bathroom woes. So, I went and only got the things that fall in those categories and some of the other things that I needed for treating my current illness. I spent more than my usual $50/wk. Thank goodness this was the first trip the the grocery for me this week. It was $63. And that's not too bad considering I bought more than enough meat for at least 2-4 weeks. We'll see. I guess I'll have to do some budget adjustment for this new Whole Food type adventure. Any tips? Everything else is going to be bought somewhere else. I've read enough about pesticides and such and fruit to know that in general if you wash fruit you are rid a good majority of these things away. I just want to rid of hormones and antibiotics for now. When we get rich or something then maybe I'll be able to afford all whole food all the time.

Me and Hot Tea

Well, I managed to ward of the evil bug for a good while and then woke up this a.m. several times with way too much mucus (that's all I'm saying so I don't gross anyone out). been battling a bit of a slightly achey throat. Today is the first day I actually felt sick. So I call my midwife...this should be interesting cause I'm not all super all natural mamasita, but this is the general routhe that she takes. Still, cost wise, if it all actually works then I will be less broke if you know what I mean. I generally pay out of pocket for Dr. visits and medicine, so most sick visits are no less than $100!

I'm doing hot tea. I'm sleeping upright. I'm preparing to collect things for a disgusting over the sink sinus irrigation. I'm also collecting my all natural ingredients for specific types of very hot tea. Gargling with salt water...and let's not forget creating my own ear drop solution in the event that I have an ear infection which tends to be the case only when I'm sick and pregnant. One good thingis that I can have mucinex! That I can do. I'm just curious if my ear is going to smell like garlic since the whole ointment is made up of olive oil and garlic (oil). Should be an experience. Hey I'm willing to try anything at least once!

In the meantime I'm still potty training. We had an awesome day yesterday. No accidents all day even at nap. today not as good but still not bad. One big accident and two little dribbles that required an undies change. we even had a huge success at going #2 on mommy's big potty! those of you who frequent this post know how hard this is in our house! The key to getting M to drink more is the juice box. I think its the concept rather than the juice.

I'll be taking it easy this weekend...and hoping that M isn't getting this funk too (started with the congestion today too.) We covet your prayers round here.

Something Going Around

I mean besides all the pregnant gals...there really is something nasty going around. Two of the gals pregnant with in a week of my date are really sick with flu and/or major congestion etc. I've been reading about it and am simply praying that I too am not coming down with it. I am at the beginning of something and am hoping to head it off with vitamins (lots), rest, and fluids. It's all not making my tummy feel very good either and nothing sounds good so I don't guess I'm eating as I should.

AND we are trying to catch the whole potty training thing while we can cause M is finally waking up fairly regularly with dry diapers. That's cool. Still there is a little bit of battle of the wills. I've heard the words, "No, I don't want to," or " no, I don't have too" a few more times than my nerves can generally tolerate. Coaxing doesn't generally work, so I just tell her that when Mommy says______ (whatever, fill in the blank), your response is "yes ma'am." and we obey. That usually does it. (at least for now). And while I was rocking her before bedtime tonight she told me she had to go potty, so we went...even though she was all ready for bed and in a diaper! AND on her initiative. That was cool. we made it 7 or 8 times and only to close calls but no big accidents.

I'm trying to focus this for the next two weeks, so I hope and pray that we don't get as sick as it seems everyone else has been getting. It seems especially rough on us pregnant gals, especially when we have another toddler at home! Please say an extra prayer for all us sickies this week!

I'm Blue...la-da-dee-la-da-die...

I feel like I should change my blog template to blue for this post cause I'm having a boy! Crazy huh?! I don't mean blue as in sad...I mean blue as in boy! and healthy I might add. That's all so crazy! I guessed boy, but who really knows! Well...I'll post more later. Maybe I can get a quick snooze in before it's time to rouse the big sis and tell her the news (about which she will be heartbroken and probably still insist on calling it "Sissy"). More to come.

Time to Vote!

Seriously, sorry that this will be quick. I had my appointment today and then we were to schedule our Ultrasound appt. didn't realize we'd get there so quickly, but apparently we will find out on Friday afternoon. Still deciding whether to take M or not. Hmm. It will be during her naptime so that makes it a little bit of a tough decision.

Here's the low down on hunches. I think it's a boy, Hubs thinks it's a girl, M thinks a girl, mom thought it was a boy, but today she changed her mind. The midwife originally said she leaned towards boy, but today after heartbeat and extreme movement in there she said that I may have an active little girl on my hands...so who even knows! And who really cares?! I just want a healthy human. That'd be great! So cast your vote in the side bar and I'll give you the results over the weekend!

The Rest of the Photo Shoot

These pics were taken on 12/14/07. Love them. I linked to Jana's blog so you could see some of them. Here are the rest of M and Cuz. Enjoy!

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Winter Wonderland

Make a photobook - it's easy!

Snow Day!

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

200th Post!

This is my 200th post! AND...it's snowing!

I sort of hope that there is actually snow on the ground in the morning so that M can experience it. I mean she's never experienced snow. All children should and she's at the age that it will be really fun to watch her discover it! Just wish I had a fireplace to warm her up with after it's all over. I also sort of hope that there will be ice on the roads so that I can have an excuse to keep hubs at home since he's been out of town and we've missed him. Not to mention that he is worn out from all the manual labor he did on this business trip.

Grocery Shopping:

We started to talk about this just a smidge in Mom to Mom today and I thought I ought to post about some of the basics. I do not pretend to be an expert, but lets just say that I tend to have a nack for it.

1. If you're going to do coupons, really do them. Now I know that couponing is hard. It takes organization, time, and effort. But if you are not an organizer, then do a basic organization of alphabetizing, or collect them into like categories (cleaning supplies, packaged goods, cereals, etc.) But it pays to collect alot. Get several sunday papers...you can get them at a discount at walmart or dollar stores and I think walgreens. It's better if you get them from people who don't care about coupons.

2. It really does pay to have more than one coupon of the same kind (especially if you use that product alot). Here is why. When you have a coupon, the most savings can be had when you use your coupon with the product in its smallest size or quantity. So if you need more diapers than the 30 pack, it really pays to have $1.50 coupon for a 30 pack and then another $1.50 coupon for another 30 pack. That way you've saved $3.00 on 60 as opposed to buying the 60 pack and only using the one coupon and only saving $1.50. Do you see you just saved twice as much.

3. Lots of supermarkets double coupons (look out 2-4 times a year some triple coupons). So, coupons do pay...sometimes double. usually up to .50 or .60 cents. Check and double check. One of my fave stores I thought doubled coupons, does not. It was disappointing.

4. If you want to get the best deal, then you can't be brand selective. Let me clarify. I always thought that this meant I had to get the generic, but keep in mind you don't have coupons for generic. Sometimes the brand name when on sale and combined with a coupon are way better deal then just buying the generic.

5. Buy One Get One combined with 2 coupons (yes this is legit cause you are buying 2 items, so you can use 2 coupons) is almost always the best deal! Try it and do the math. I'm serious. 2 coupons and bogo!

6. When It's at it's Lowest Price, Buy Extra! I can not express this enough. A few weeks ago I found Sirloin Steaks for 2.99 a pound, that was $4 off. We never have steak cause it's expensive, but at that price I got two packs. One we ate that week, and the other pack is in the freezer for another week. This way we can have steak twice and not have to pay the full price either time. Same with things like paper towels. I do have my favorites...paper towels are Viva and if I can get them on sale I'll buy those. I just got them almost half off in a pack of 6, or I could buy them for almost 2 times that if I just bought them one at a time as I neede them. No way. This way I have my fave paper towels for a good 6 weeks and they were half price!

7. Don't forget the coupons on the back of your receipt! That's how we get out hair cut around here for under $7!

8. If you are not a couponer and probably never will be or maybe you have fallen out of the habit (like me) shop at ALDI. If you don't have an ALDI, do the Wal-Mart thing. If you like to get all your shopping done in one place, then these are generally your best bet. You could also just shop sales (look through the adds and go to the various stores for the various deals). Only don't forget that gas is expensive and time is precious.

9. Make things from scratch. This is almost always cheaper than pre boxed/packaged things.

Hope this is helpful to those who frequently ask how I do it.

*Just as a note of encouragement, even if you fell of the coupon wagon and feel drawn to a particular grocery store (like I am to Bloom right now), you too can save a good $25 every visit. Last time I saved $25 and only spent $25 (don't think I used coupons that time, just shopped the sales only). Today's visit I spent my usual $50.00 and saved $25.00. Using one coupon for diapers and a nice, fat coupon for the entire purchase. The store sends these to me the more I shop ($10 off $35). I got 4 of these for the month--hallelujah.

Almost 17 weeks

So, I can't remember alot of things...in general. And I don't remember in great detail things about my first pregnancy, so I haven't any idea how to gauge or compare this one to that one.

I am "showing" if you will. I have a friend who isn't always up on social graces who lets me know that I don't really look pregnant. Thank goodness I love and understand her in the way that I do or I would want to smack her for basically reminding me that I look more plump than bump if you know what I mean. Still, truth be told. If you don't know me, then you might thing that I have simply put on a hefty bit of holiday poundage. And yet at my last visit to the birthing center I had actually lost a pound since the day I found out that I was expecting (at about 4 1/2 wks)! I was sort of surprised since I felt like I was hungry and eating all the time...and I was never really throw up sick. Now granted I was unsettled and I was a million other kinds of sick, but I think it way have to do with the weird cravings that I have had. I eat healthier now than I ever did before, and not cause I'm trying to be such a good mom. Now really I'm totally selfish and I just want what I crave which is generally fruits and veggies in their raw form. I know! It's great, but really odd!

Only thing is that I am very uninterested in meat in general, so I'm curious about my blood work, although they said they'd call if they were concerned and they didn't call. Still, my iron tends to be low anyway. I was also concerned about my energy levels cause I was extremely tired even in the 14th and 15th weeks, but Amy (my midwife) felt sure that the up and up was coming in the 16th week. And...she was right. I'm finally feeling significantly better! Hallelujah!

So, I guess I'm to be expected to get some real things done now that I'm feeling better. My ribs finally healed from the awful strains of all that coughing, so that pain is gone (which was immense btw). Now mom and I are up to sewing and creating! I sould be fund, but boy do I have alot to learn! And I'm still a little curious how in the world we are going to make this 2 bedroom, 1 bath mill house work for our growing family. especially since I had such a hard time sleeping with a child in my room. Should be interesting. Well, my next appt. is scheduled at the very end of the month (about 2 weeks) and then we will be scheduling the U/S. So not long now till the sex and general health of the baby is determined.

And that's the update.

See Cousin Pics

Check these out! Isn't Jana a great photographer?!

This is a Review!

Seriously, I never do this, but I just have to say that I love this product. Yesterday I went to Sears to get two "tummy sleeve"s. My Aunt Martha told me about them when we visited them over the holidays and she had heard it from her dental hygenist. How odd is all that by the way.

Does anyone remember the old "Units" idea from the early 90's? Well this is only slightly similar and yet I am constantly reminded of it. It is basically a moderately thick, spandex "band" that is not too tight (cause its all elasticy), that holds up your pants and can cover your entire pregnant belly at the same time.

Now this is really good for early pregnancy when you are in between clothes and such. You put this on and you can leave your pants entirely unbuttoned and/or unzipped, and this covers it up, smooths out the lines, and holds your pants up as well. And it just looks like the bottom of a longer t-shirt. You can even get them in different colors with or without lace as a trim.

In this cold weather, I'm loving that it is another warm layer on my belly that also keeps the wind from getting in, since its fitted. And I love being able to wear some of my favorite pants still! It also saves me from having to spend a bundle on so many maternity clothes of varying sizes.

Here is an example of some really funky ones. Mine are simple one white, one black...And Sears had them for slightly less than $17!