Tip for the Laundromat

If you're needing to keep lots of quarters nice and neat, $20 in quarters fits perfectly in an m&m's mini tube! We've been using these for a long time, and periodically have to replace them due to them getting broken (they are kid magnets). But I'd say there are worse things than having to eat m&m's...

Class Favorite

A few weeks ago Oscar came home with a note that said he was voted as the favorite boy in the class and that we needed to help make the parade float that he would be riding on in the homecoming parade. We were a bit surprised, Oscar can be a bit.......odd (just look at his parents... they're crazy people...), but we were proud and excited for him! Here he is on the float - they all were dressed as police officers and had the other team's mascot in jail.

Here they are getting ready to go. somewhere between here and where we saw him in the parade he manage to eat TONS of candy and had chocolate smeared all over his face.

Alice had lots of fun picking up candy and putting it in her purse.  When Daddy or Nana didn't go get the candy out of the street fast enough I had to hold her back so she wouldn't get run over. She also ended up with 6 necklaces.

Here they come - class favorites!

Can you see the smarties he threw us?

Since we planned on taking Oscar to a football game, we figured we should go to the homecoming game since he had been in the parade.  It was a perfect crisp fall evening and the kids had lots of fun and Oscar even tried to watch the game.  The girl from his class that was voted class favorite was also at the game, and Oscar was heartbroken when he realized she left and he didn't get to say goodbye. He was crushed. We tried to mend his broken heart with funnel cake, but ended up leaving the game a few minutes early. Hopefully it was just because he was worn out from all this fall fun, I don't think I'm ready to worry about girlfriends.

Things checked off the list:

• Wear scarves
• Go to a football game with Oscar

GABI September

Phase 2 of GABI had two domestic challenges - Kitchen deep clean before and after, what is your cleaning routine and what sort of cleaning products do you use?

So above is about how our kitchen usually ends up. We do a nightly dishes/counters/sweep cleaning and Monday is my day for deeper kitchen cleaning - fridge, oven, microwave, mop. We use vinegar/water/tea tree oil and baking soda for most of our cleaning needs. I added some printables that I found on pinterest, but can no longer find the website they came from!

Challenge #2 was to pick a nook that needed some TLC, what sort of things did you buy to help organize? pinspiration?

This nook needed a LOT of work. It was mostly just straightening things up, taking some things off of the bookshelves so that they didn't feel as cluttered, and dealing with that stack of stuff by the wall.

The computer chair FINALLY got some new fabric on it (it only took 4 years after blogging about it...). The bumbo got a belt attached and was set aside for Lucy. Some work things got taken to work, a few books got put in a donate box.

I did buy the two drawers that are underneath the printer.  I had been searching and searching for one drawer that would fit there, but after months of carrying around the measurements and a tape measure, I gave up and bought these.  The books and dvds in the basket on the printer are all ones that I've listed on paperback swap and swap-a-dvd. 

The nook looks a lot better now and hopefully upkeep will be easier! 

GABI goodies

Back at the beginning of August a couple ladies from YouTube started the GABI  Boot Camp Challenge (Grin And Bear It). A whole month of Jillian Michaels, water drinking, no night-time snacking, and random weekly challenges. There was also some self-inflicted torture (no mocha frappes!) But somehow a few of us managed to finish without cheating. I thought I might fall over dead after the first time doing the 30 day shred, and somewhere around day 7 I could barely walk and needed to buy a knee brace, but by day 30 I was more than 10lbs lighter and had a lot more stamina. I don't think I will ever be one of those people that looks forward to exercising (ew - sweat..), but I made it through and I met a lot of awesome ladies in the process.

So from GABI I learned that:

1. I CAN resist the mocha frappe!
2. My body is (mostly) capable of vigorous daily workouts
3. Spinach DISAPPEARS in fruit smoothies (if you have blueberries in there to hide the color...)
4. Walking 2 miles with a baby on your back takes a whole different set of muscles than the 30 day shred.
5. I have a really hard time cooking without taste testing (Jeremy had to taste test if I was making something after dinnertime - he didn't complain)
6. Jeremy is the super-duper-awesomest guy in the UNIVERSE (ok, I knew this one already..). He did the 30 day shred right along with me (or by himself when he got home from work since I mostly did it in the afternoon) and is the best cheerleader EVER. (cheer captain?) 
7. While I normally lack follow-through, I can be pretty determined when someone challenges me.  

Marie fixed up a gigantic pamper pack to go to one of the people that made it to the end with no cheats, and even though I didn't win it, she still sent me a very very sweet package filled with sparkliness, goodies, and love. It's got all sorts of things to pamper myself with, but my favorites are the high five from her little genius-beeble, Scarlet and the "I AM LOVED" pin. Scarlet is the same age as Alice and SO. STINKIN'. SMART.  She's adorable! And the pin is a well-needed reminder that I am loved (and worth loving!). Marie also has a new blog (here) and I'm excited to see what it's going to grow into. I'm intrigued by the mention of books in the title and I'm crossing my fingers that there will be some Marie written and illustrated books because she's got a wonderful way with words, a love of little ones, and massive amounts of creativity and style. Thank you, Marie, for the challenge AND the goodies!

we have a winner!

and according to random.org, our winner is #4 - danielle rudd! i'll be contacting the winner shortly.

awesome water bottle giveaway!!! - ENDED!

  happy birthday to me!! i turn 30 today, so i thought i would do something fun and have my first giveaway! yay! now i know it's a bit silly to have a giveaway on my little bitty barely ever updated blog, but that's ok - i'm a bit silly myself.

so i've got one of these awesome thermos roho hydration bottles up for grabs. i got one for mother's day 2010 and have been pretty much attached to it since then (alice was the other thing i asked for for mother's day, and i've pretty much been attached to her too). a second one followed for christmas so that i can rotate them out. they are stainless steel. they have a really neato lid so you dont have to unscrew the top all the time (i hate that). you can open the bottle and take a drink one-handed. a ring on the lid pops up so you can grab it with just one free finger when you're carrying 20 things, two bags and a baby. plus it fits in cup holders. and looks pretty nice, too.

i love these water bottles!

so all you have to do to win this fabulous piece of hydration equipment is leave a comment telling me your name and something interesting about yourself. everyone besides jeremy can enter (he asked - he likes these water bottles too). i'll pick a random winner on june 23rd.

aren't you so excited?! i am!

trapping

one night oscar and jeremy set traps all over the apartment using oscar's stacking cups and play food.

then while they weren't looking, i snuck in oscar's room and grabbed a pile of stuffed animals and filled all the traps.

trapping became oscar's favorite activity for the next few days.

i bet you didn't know you could catch giraffes with shrimp and frogs with english muffins!

30 day challenge

mid-september to mid-october i tried to do a 30 day challenge where i was supposed to get rid of 10 things a day. i know i didn't do it EVERY day, but i think after cleaning out my craft closet for 2 days i probably got rid of enough stuff to make up for the missed days. above is the before picture.

and here is the after! there is still a LOT of stuff in there, but at least what is left is in some sort of order. i would like to label all of the shoe boxes of stuff at some point.

and the trash that was left from the closet clean out. (there was also a box of things to donate)

picnic

at the beginning of october we had some really nice sweater weather, so i packed us a picnic and we headed over to the little playground they just put in


we ate sandwiches, string cheese, grapes, and these apples:

you cut around the core, reassemble and then hold them together with a rubber band. they were pretty fun, but the apple got a bit brown. i think if oscar likes these when he starts school i'll get a mini spray bottle of lemon juice to spritz on before reassembly.

$3.99 well spent

friday evening i got a phone call about doing my first home visit (!!) so i called jeremy to see when he would be home and while we were on the phone the honda died! (again!). so instead of doing my first home visit i had to head to mobile to rescue jeremy. actually, i got almost to citronelle and he called to tell me he fixed his car (with a (pink) pipe cleaner!) and was headed home. i decided to go to citronelle and wait for him there in case he had problems along the way, but he made it fine! i found some maternity work pants and a few other things at the thrift store (score!) and jeremy found this nascar steering wheel thingy for $3.99. it is supposed to hook up to a computer, but we didnt even bother with that because oscar LOVES it. then we went to subway for dinner (mmm.. veggie delite with sweet onion sauce - my fav). oscar lucked out - i got him chocolate milk.


he drove home with his steering wheel and honked at daddy a lot (we were following behind in case of more car troubles). i thought it was hilarious to see him driving along with his brown mustache! he's loving the steering wheel and has been taking us all for rides in the car (living room).

relay for life

jeremy's mom's church was having a special fundraising event in state line for relay for life. they planned a bake sale/live music/food vendors/face painting(me). i made some treats for the bake sale: mini loaves of pumpkin, sweet potato, and banana bread, flower cupcakes and bunny cupcakes. a lot of work went into the event, but it started raining just as we were about to start! it poured and poured and no one came. they still raised some money by calling people and selling food plates and baked goods over the phone.

oscar came to buy a cupcake and he let me give him an easter bunny on his cheek, so i raised $1 with the face painting! (yes, that is chocolate cupcake on his hat...)

twin lakes

last weekend i went on another LLL leader retreat! we went to the twin lakes camp and conference center just south of jackson, ms. as soon as i saw the places i was super bummed that oscar and jeremy didn't come along... it was gorgeous!

denise may kill me for posting this photo, but i think it's great! in the background is the lodge that we stayed in.

and this is the walk to breakfast. there were lots of cute walkways and bridges across the lakes.

a post-breakfast swing - these swings were super fun.. i love it when people make playground equipment that fits grownups.

the beginning of our great adventure to hammock land

pulling our way across the lake to hammock land! you can see the hammocks in the upper right hand corner of the picture.

i had a great time and would love to go back there.

boo

was very sad to take down my heart garlands this year. but since i've had them up for about a month and a half, it was about time.

while jeremy and i went on our romantic getaway to fabulous waynesboro, ms, oscar took nana to the valentine's banquet.

busy busy!

we've been busy busy around here getting ready for our trip to ohio! we leave tomorrow! YAY! the boys have been busy too:

finding creative uses for used up wrapping paper rolls

and christmas picnic lunches in the living room (may as well since we STILL dont have new carpet. plus the table was/is buried under wrapping supplies)

ok.. back to packing...

oh my! have you seen my desk?!

i was originally going to post this picture to show you how busy i've been.. but really it just shows how messy i've been!

my wall is being taken over by post it notes. oh! but look at that HUGE stack of books! that is the beginning of my la leche league library! the lovely ladies at the hattiesburg la leche league gave me all their older books. now i just have to become a leader and get a group going in waynesboro....

our food system

lately i've been packing up our leftovers in these rubbermaid takealongs in the sandwich keeper style (4 for $3 at our dollar general). they're just right to fit a homemade tv dinner in! we've been wasting a lot less food with this method, and saving money as well. we were buying jeremy about 3 or 4 frozen dinners a week for in his lunch, but now he can just take leftovers! (i do still buy him some hot pockets sometimes so he doesn't feel deprived). also, we always have something in the freezer to eat if we have a busy day and neither of us feel like cooking. i found some file labels at the dollar tree that are the perfect size for sticking on the side.

movie night

on saturday night, jeremy's mom came over and we watched twilight. i can't say i was crazy about the movie, but it gave me an excuse to make red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and vampire bites.

(would also pass for mummies with red eyes?)

and use these cute labels from here.

we also had some parmesan & garlic popcorn (garlic to scare away the vampires, of course)

more twilight cupcakes

missy's tattoo parlor

today i had to go to the health department to sign a new contract and get some stamped envelopes (and girl scout cookies! mm!) oscar and aaron came with me, since it wasn't a real meeting. afterwards we went to walmart and did some shopping.. i picked up a pack of 50+ temporary tattoos, because who doesnt love some temporary tattoos? when we got home i gave aaron a belly button tattoo and he loved it... so did oscar, so he wanted a belly button tattoo also. here they are showing off their tattoos.

shhh...

oscar and i just mailed abby's birthday box off earlier today! it was a relief to get that done and sent. i wont post any pictures of what i made yet (and i just realized there was something i didnt take a picture of), but here is the pattern i used:

i seriously love those shirts/dresses that cross in the back like that. SO cute. if i ever get my alice, i'm going to make a billion of them.

mitten

this is what strawberry shortcake's mittens look like.