Love being a Mommy!

Week 4 of 52 Week Organization Challenge

2012-02-01T10:39:00.000-05:00

Week 4 of the Organization Challenge is Organizing the Frig and Freezer. You can find the link here.
I'm a day late posting this because Emma was sick yesterday and I stayed home with her :(

My refrigerator stays pretty organized most of the time because I have spots for specific items. This is what each shelf is supposed to hold...The top right hand shelf holds the Brita Filter Container plus Brian's yogurts. The left hand side middle shelf holds the eggs. The right hand side middle shelf always holds the Crystal Light pitcher and the Milk Jug. The bottom right hand side shelf always holds the pop. The bottom right hand drawer always holds the cheese and tortilla shells. So I feel that my frig is pretty organized, but it definitely needed a good cleaning. I was a little lazy this week and didn't get around to cleaning the frig. I was going to do it Monday but I wasn't thinking and went grocery shopping for the week so my frig is chuck full again! I will clean it this weekend though. The freezer was a mess! Most of the stuff up there really could go down to the big freezer in the basement.

Before

This is my freezer After. The plastic bin holds the stuff I need for the weeks meals! More organized and I moved some stuff down to the deep freezer.

Here is the before picture of my basement storage area. This are holds extra food we have and also the extra cookware we don't use very often and takes too much room in my cabinets upstairs. I really need to keep this area clean and organized because I had to thrown some food out because it was expired. I also need to get better that even though its an awesome sale, if we are not going to eat it, do not buy it!

This is my storage area after! Looks so much better and I can actually get to the shelf and I organized it with some dollar store totes. And yes, we have a TON of gold fish crackers! The kids live on those things and they were just 10/10 get the 11th free at Meijer so I did stock up on these!

The pictures below are the before pictures of our deep freezer by the storage area in the basement. Things were just kind of thrown everywhere and were only sort of organized.

Below is the after pictures of the organization. All the roasts are now on the top shelf, steaks are on the second shelf, the 3rd shelf holds the random items and the bottom shelf has the hamburger and hamburger patties. The door now holds all the veggies.

Hopefully being more organized with our food storage we will waste less and I will be able to find what I need easier.

A sneak peak for Week 5's Challenge... Recipes and Cookbooks!

Weigh In Wednesday: Week 2

2012-02-01T10:31:00.002-05:00

Well my 1st week down on my new diet down and I lost 3.5 lbs! WOO HOO. Other than peeing all the time because of all the water I have been drinking, it did not go to bad. Having the meal plan was my saving grace a few nights! Wednesday I stayed a bit later at my friends picking up Caden and on the way home I so did not want to go home and cook dinner. Most of the way home I thought of just stopping at McDonald's and getting us all food! But I thought about my diet, all the hard work I had been putting in the last few days and all the stuff at home to make calzones, I decided to just drive home! So glad I did because the Calzones were amazing and only took 30 mins total (that includes prep and cooking!) Brian helped out and had the oven preheated and all the ingredients out! Having all the ingredients all in one spot on my pantry helped! We even ate out at Flat Top Stir Fry Saturday and that was ok on my diet!

I also made my Motivational Marbles jar! Each little marble represents 1/4 lb, so I have 200 in there to represent the 50 lbs that I want to lose. It was really satisfied dropping those 3.5 lbs worth of marbles in there! I got the jars at the dollar store. I like them but they are bigger than I really needed. I was surprised that the marbles really don't take up much room! One of the reasons why I decided to do each 1/4 lb. The stickers and marbles came from JoAnn Fabric (my most favorite store!). It was fun to make and even funnier moving those marbles over.

14 Marbles moved over! One Jar says "Pounds to Go" and the other jar says "Pounds Lost"

This week our gym membership starts back up so I'm super excited to start back up again. I think I'll go Friday during the day with Caden, Saturday for either Zumba or Pilates and a little time on the treadmill! Brian and I also need to figure out a schedule for during the week. They have child care on Tuesday and Thursday nights so we will definitely go together on Tuesdays but on Thursdays Brian will probably just go with Caden by himself because I'm at Gym and Dance with Emma most of the evening. Saturday mornings we will definitely both go together too! Looking forward to going back, I have missed it and am ready to get back into shape!
Here's to next weeks Marble Move!!

Meal Plan Monday: My Meal Plan for the week of 1/30

2012-01-30T09:54:00.000-05:00

Last week we did pretty good on our meal plan. Tuesday night I had a meeting for Heartland at 6 so Brian and the kids were on there own and they ate leftovers. So the chicken tamale casserole we were supposed to have on Tuesday I made on Friday. It wasn't to bad, there are a few things I will do different the next time we have it, but everyone liked it so that was good! Saturday instead of Beef Fajitas we ended up using a free stir fry coupon to Flat Top and had that and it was amazing like always!

This week's meal plan on my new meal plan board!

The one thing I love about WW is that you can pretty much eat anything you want, you just have to account for the points! I'm on a diet but it really doesn't feel like it. Some of the stuff that is on our menu is not the best for you, but when paired up with a free veggie, I can eat it as long as I watch my points for breakfast and lunch.

Monday 30th: Chicken Stir Fry with 1/2 cup Brown Rice (WW- 10 pts)

Tuesday 31st: Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches (Pinterest- 6 pts per Sand)

Wednesday 1st: Calzones (Pinterst- 6 pts) We had these last week too and they were amazing! We wanted them again this week!

Thursday 2nd: Spaghetti and Meatballs (9 pts)

Friday 3rd: Oven Hot Dogs (Amanda/Pinterest- 6 Pts)

Saturday 4th: Hamburger Balls (Amanda- 10 pts)- Amanda made these for me and the kids when Brian was out of town and they were AMAZING! Can't wait to make them for Brian.

Sunday- Parents

Whats for dinner at your house this week?

Paper File Box

2012-01-27T13:15:00.000-05:00

I have this awesome 9 cube black storage piece that I got at Target a few years ago that sits in my living room. It is super handy in that it holds a bunch of different stuff in canvas totes. You cant see what is in the totes so you can put whatever you want in them! But I don't want the whole thing filled up with totes, I like some of the holes open and the 3 on the top shelf hold things that I want to be able to get to easily and wouldn't fit to well in a tote.

I have been thinking of a way to store all the important papers that I get from Emma's school, magazines and anything else I want. I looked into getting a nice metal or even plastic file folder that could hold files and I could stick all my stuff in one of those to be nice, neat and organized. The problems is that they are all too big! The hole is 11x11x11 and most of the file boxes are at least 13x11x11, so obviously they don't fit :(

My finished product!

On pinterest I have seen a few people talk about decorating cereal boxes or old mailed boxes and I thought that that would work the best for me. So I got 3 Mail boxes that we had received at work, 1 yard of clearance $4 a yard fabric and got to work!

I first measured out how long I wanted them to be and cut the tops off of them. I than took packing tape and taped all 3 together.

My pretty $4 a yard fabric!

Because you could see the dark parts of the box thru the fabric, I decided to take some white scrapbook paper I had and mod podge it on the top and 2 sides. I also decided to put paper on the shelves of the box as well.

To get the front edge of the fabric looking nice and not having it continue to fray, I used some Heat Bond hemming tape and my iron to make a hem.

After this i used my mod podge again to glue the fabric onto my box. I pretty much put it on like you would wrap a present.

And here is the finished product in my 9 cube storage unit! So happy with how it turned out!

Emma's Very 1st Report Card!

2012-01-25T15:22:00.002-05:00

Yesterday in our Tuesday folders at Emma's school, there were report cards for the 1st semester in there!! How excited was I to look at it and see how the teachers feel that Emma is doing in PreK. And I have to say that I am one proud mommy!! You either got a check mark for "Yes I Can" or an X for "I am learning". And of course my amazing daughter got all CHECKS!! It is so awesome to see that they feel she is doing what she needs to in school. The teacher's comment was "Emma is having a great year! A pleasure to have in class. Very nice well adjusted child!"

Each day Emma loves going to school and that just makes me so happy. When she 1st started in August I just had her in 1/2 day all week because I felt that going all day 5 days a week would be too big of an adjustment from going just Tuesday and Thursdays 9-11:30 at her preschool last year. Well my hot stuff little girl wanted to go to all day after the 1st week! She wanted to stay with her new friends and wanted to be able to go to lunch there too. I'm just so proud (but also super sad) at how she is growing up. She knows so much stuff; its amazing what these little kids can learn!

I am a proud Mommy today!

Weigh In Wednesday- Week 1

2012-01-25T08:51:00.000-05:00

As I talked a little bit about in my Meal Plan Monday post this week, I've gained back some weight I lost last year and am feeling fat again. Last year Brian and I did Weight Watchers and I also starting going to the gym and working out and lost about 25 lbs! I got rid of all my FAT (I don't even want to admit the size!) clothes so there would be no going back for me. With these 10 lbs I gained back my pants are starting to get snug and tight and I'm not ok with that.

I have always felt comfortable with my body and my size but now I want to be healthy! I want to be able to keep up with my kids busy schedule and not feel tired, I want to wear cuter clothes, and (here is my vainest reason) I don't want to be a Fat Mom anymore. Losing weight is hard, but since I have had my kids, I have 2 or 3 times lost 20-25 lbs, but the keeping it off is the hardest part for me. I get super lazy with working out and even lazier cooking good meals for the family. Its sad, but the kids usually eat better than Brian and I do. One thing I am proud of (other than my son LOVING poparts) is that I usually make sure they eat healthy, good for you food. Nutrition at such a young age is so important and I do not want to be the cause of unhealthy eating for them.

So my goal for my total weight loss is going to be 50 lbs! YIKES that just seems so much, but if i break it down, I'm hoping that this goal will be attainable. My 1st goal will be 25 lbs. I hope to have lost this 1st goal weight by the end of May. That is 4 months, 16 weeks, only 1.56 lbs per week to lose. Im hoping that I can do this! This week I have started us back on WW and in the next week or so our gym membership will start again so I HAVE to work out 3-4 times a week. This will be super hard for me to do with work, cooking, kids, and sleep! Even if I can just do a Zumba class a few nights a week and than hit the treadmill for even 20 mins each time I'm there I'll be happy. I'm gonna hold off on weight training until I lose at least 15 lbs.

Each Wednesday I'll check back in and post about my success from the week before. I need something to hold me accountable! I also found this cool idea on pinterset called Motivation Marbles and am going to do this as well. I'm going to have each marble represent 1/2 lb, so that means I'll have 100 marbles total. Each Wednesday when I weigh in I'll be moving marbles!

Here is a picture of me right now and below that is a picture of me from the summer I got married. I honestly dont even know what my weight was than, but I do know it was a heck of a lot less than what I am now!

I have so much belly fat and my face looks huge!

This is me in 2004, at my reception at home. Hardly any belly fat, thinner arms and a skinny face.

This is me at my wedding in 2004 on the beach in OBX!! I wasnt skinny skinny by anymeans but I felt and looked healthy! This is what Im going to work towards!

Week 3 of 52 Week Organization Challenge

2012-01-24T08:49:00.001-05:00

Week 3 of the Organization Challenge was Food Storage, Pantry and Spices. You can find the link here
During week 2 which was cabinets, I had already organized my pantry cabinet and my spices.

My spices that i use regularly are in the clear plastic basket that I can pull down easily and get out what I need and put right back in. I put my cereal in the Snap N Lock containers and so wish I would have spent the $6 each on them long ago. It is so easy to pour the cereal out of these things and they fit on my shelf perfect! I just got the 3M removable labels that are cute and put what the cereal is and the good till date on it. I was never able to put the cereal in this cabinet before because the boxes would not fit on the shelf. The containers hold the full box of cereal! I also have some snacks in this cabinet as well as some cooking ingredients.

My other upstairs food storage is a little built in by the back door which is right around the corner from the kitchen. This built in was already there when we bought this house and for the 1st year or 2 I had no idea what to do with it. Then one day I got a bright idea and had hubbie cut out wood and put the shelves in! Instant canned good storage! The 1st 2 shelves I decided to keep the ingredients for the weeks meals here so I knew what I had and could find the stuff easily. I just decided to do that this week and hopefully it works out well for us.

The last food storage area is in my basement. I have some nice heavy duty shelving units in one of my storage areas for food and extra cookware. If there is a good sale on stuff or its super cheap after coupons, even if I don't need it that week, I like to stock up on it. This area is good for that because it stays cool and dry down here so I don't have to worry about any of it getting icky, most of it is canned goods anyways. I haven't done this area yet, but I'm hoping to get it complete this week when I do the Deep Freezer this week.

I did also organize and clean out my under the sink cabinet. It was a hot mess before I attacked it! It had 7 vases in it (which i really only use in the summer and that is only 1!), it had a ton of Meijer plastic bags and things were not very organized. So I went through and took all the vases downstairs, cleaned out the plastic bags (although I'm still not sure what to do with these, I'll probably just buy one of those fabric bag holders) threw away the old nasty cleaning supplies, and now have a beautiful cleaning product cabinet!

This weeks challenge is the Refrigerator and Freezer! My frig is pretty good (but could use a good clean) but my freezer is a mess! Cant wait to do this weeks challenge!

Meal Plan Monday: My Meal Plan for the Week of 1/23

2012-01-23T10:42:00.000-05:00

About a year ago I went on the Weight Watchers Diet and starting working out some and lost almost 25 lbs. I was doing good keeping it off until I went back to work this summer and starting going to Chesterton 3 days a week for work. I put back on 10 lbs! My clothes are now starting to get tighter and uncomfortable again, and I feel so fat lately! So its definitely time to get back into eating healthier and exercising. I'm hoping to start doing WW again and next week Ill start working out again. So my meals from now on will include the WW points. Some of the meals are not WW recipes, they are my own and I have just calculated the points for them! I'm allowed 29 points a day and 48 weekly points. That should not be too difficult. I need to start drinking a ton more water again. I got really lazy on drinking water too.

Monday 23rd- Pizza Casserole (pinterest) 10 pts

Tuesday 24th- Chicken Tamale Casserole (WW) 7 pts

Wednesday 25th- Calzones (pinterest) 9 pts

Thursday 26th- Cubed Steak and Potatoes in the Crock Pot 8 pts

Friday 27th- Chicken Chili (WW) 5 pts

Saturday 28th- Beef Fajitas (WW) 4 pts

Sunday 29th- Parents

I'm good with dinner ideas, but I'm kinda picky with my breakfast foods and I usually cant eat right when I get up so I eat at work. If anyone has any good suggestions on quick, easy and filling breakfast ideas send them my way!

And an update on last weeks meal plan and not going out to eat or the grocery store... I was good and did not go to the grocery store! Monday I ate cereal for dinner because my babysitter took the kids to Chick-fil-a, Wednesday my friend Amanda had us over for dinner and cooked an amazing meal! I did treat the kids to McDonald's on Friday because they were so good for me that week and I was just too tired to think about dinner!

How Many Days is Too Many Days for a Hubbie to be Gone?

2012-01-20T16:19:00.000-05:00

Brian rarely travels for his job (he is in customer support for a company that designs and supports shipping and receiving software- he has a fancy title and would probably describe his job a whole lot different, but honestly all I know is he works on the computer and makes decent money doing it!) but it seems like these last 3-4 months he has. On average he has to go to Atlanta where the company is out of or a client site about 2-3 times a year. Since November he has gone away 3 times! The time in November and December were just nice 4-5 day trips and he was home by Friday night. This time he was gone 10 (TEN) LONG days!
I know I don't give my hubbie enough credit but he is an AMAZING husband and father. He does 50% of all the household and kid related stuff (which is alot more than some people's husbands do!) He works from home so he helps out and takes Caden to the babysitter in the morning while I take Emma to school, he gets Emma at school when she gets off at 2:15 each day, on Tuesdays he is able to leave work early and take Emma to gymnastics, he gives the kids their baths, and does a ton more stuff I'm not even mentioning. So him leaving last Wed morning and not coming home till late tonight was a huge adjustment for us. This was the 1st time he had been gone over a weekend.
My kids were so amazing these days that Brian has been gone, hardly whining, fighting or being really upset that their daddy has been gone what seems like forever. The 1st few days Brian was gone he worked a ton so we didn't get to talk to him much, but on Sunday we did Skype for the very 1st time and were able to talk to him! It was really neat seeing him and being able to talk to him. Caden didn't want to let the Ipod Touch go! Once we put him to bed we had to call Brian back so Emma could have a chance to talk to him!
I was doing pretty good while Brian was gone, dealing full time with the kids, household chores, my crafty stuff, and the daily snow we have been getting. But my breaking point was 7 days! On the 7th day, which was a Wednesday I cried on the way to work! The stress of him being gone and missing him finally got to me. Thankfully I have awesome friends and family who have kept my mind off him being gone and kept me sane for those 7 days! After the good old cry to work, I was feeling better, feeling that I could do these last 3 days without much injury to those I came into contact with.
So thank you to my Dad who was able to bring Emma home from school each day with him and came out to my car to get Emma in the morning so I didn't have to get Caden out of the car, my mom for watching Caden both Thursday nights while we were at gymnastics and Dance, Amanda for feeding me twice, Amanda for being so helpful with Caden and watching Emma on MLK day, Ferris for being my best friend (even though I didn't stress out on her, she is just always there to talk and that makes a huge difference), my work for being so great about my hours and to all you that are reading my blog and making comments! Its so nice to know that there are people out there that care for you!

So, How many days is too many days for your hubbie to be gone??

Valentine's Day Felt Wreath

2012-01-19T13:47:00.001-05:00

Of course I found this super duper cute idea on Pinterest! I really don't have too much Valentine's Day decorations, it seems i go right from Halloween to Christmas (which also includes winter stuff) than to nothing really. So I'm looking for more Valentine's decorations and came across this super cute DIY idea.

So I went to Joann Fabrics this week and got a foam heart, 3/4 yard of red felt off the bolt and straight pins. The foam heart was in the floral section and was 4.99 but I had a 50% coupon so it was only 2.50! The 3/4 yrd of felt was 3.50 (this was not on sale, the yd price was 4.99) and a pack of straight pins which were 3.29. So this DIY project cost about $10.

Once it was all laid out I drew 3" circles using my frisk circle and cut a ton of circles, 172 to be exact!! I cut all of the felt.

Next I took the circles and folded them in half and than half again.

Folded in 1/2 once

Folded in 1/2 again- Side View

Folded in 1/2 top view

Than I took a pin and pinned the folded circle from the bottom corner onto the foam heart. Just keep doing this, making sure to fill in all holes with circles. i did not pin any on the back so that it would lay flat on the wall.

I actually ended up with 54 leftover circles, so if you buy a 1/2 yard of felt you will have enough. I still just need to buy a white ribbon to pin on the back to hang though, but I'm really really happy with how it turned out!

ART Clipboard Display

2012-01-17T08:24:00.001-05:00

Now that Emma is in PreK, she brings home a ton of school work and art work she does in school daily. So far I just put it in a canvas tote to sort later to see what to save and what I can throw away. Every once in a while one of the sheets makes it to the frig. For being 5 she does some cute, fun stuff and I would love a better way to display her art work. I searched pinterest and found a few different ways to do it. I was thinking maybe to put string up kind of like a clothes line and display her art on the wall that way, but wanted a more organized way to display it. I found some people have covered clipboards and figured this would be the best way for me to do it! Cute and organized.

I bought 6 clip boards and 1/2 yard fabric in 3 fabrics that went together. I also bought wood letters to spell ART in a cute design, than a paint that would match the fabric.

I gave the ART letters 2 coats of paint called Lemonade. I am so happy how the color came out, it matches the greenish yellowish color in the fabric almost perfect.

The next part was the hardest for me, making a template for the clipboard so I could cut my fabric out around the clip part. I tried to do it myself, than I had to keep going back to the picture of one I found online till it finally clicked how to do it! I measured the distance from the edges of the board to where i would need to start cutting the middle section out. I kept measuring and marking each section of the clip board till i got it! I may be easier to do than all the measuring I did with my ruler but I just couldn't wrap my brain around it! At least now I have a template in case I ever want to do anymore.

Next I went through and traced this template around my fabric. I left extra fabric on each side so that I could wrap my fabric around the back and glue it on. Each 1/2 yard of fabric got me 2 clip boards with some left over.

As you can see from the picture above, I had to iron the fabrics so they were nice and smooth. Once they were ironed I decided to glue them on with spray adhesive. I like this stuff because it holds really well and its easy to spray on but I also hate it because it gets my hands all sticky and icky! 1st I layed the fabric on the clip board so it lined up with the clip at the top. Than I flipped the fabric back to the clip and glued that down than I glued the top. Last step is to wrap the fabric around the edges and back like you would a present. A little time consuming but so easy.

And the end project all put together with some of Emma's art work on it! I LOVE the letters but am not sure if I like how I have them hanging. I'll give it a few days to see if it grows on me! Any suggestions on how to hang them is appreciated!

Week 2 of 52 Week Organization Challenge

2012-01-16T09:39:00.001-05:00

Well Week 2 of the 52 week organization challenge was Kitchen Drawers and Cabinet organization. This is the link to last weeks challenge. Don't let just reading the post overwhelm you. Its a great post but there is alot of information in it and shows how to do it all. Each night, take 1 or 2 drawers or cabinets and start there! You can do it! This week should go pretty smoothly for me though because over the last month or so I have been slowly making more room in my cabinets and drawers and ridding my kitchen of unused items and items I rarely use. These items have been going into my basement food storage area. As you could see from last weeks challenge, my kitchen is super small so I really need to make the most of what I have. Most of my cooking ware takes up alot of room and that cabinet is always a mess! That will be my biggest challenge this week.

A few weeks ago, I went through my 2 junk drawers! Can you believe I have 2 junk drawers in a kitchen that has 6 drawers total?? That was not good. So i threw away alot of stuff, moved alot of Brian's tools back to where they belong and combined them into 1 drawer! So that means that I have 1 drawer fully open! (it is a small drawer though!) So here is my list of drawers and what is in each!

1. Silverware drawer- this drawer is not a very big one and stores all the silverware, including the kids stuff. I still had Caden's baby baby spoons in there, and as I am done having kids, I got rid of the ones we don't use. That still left me with a bunch of toddler spoons and forks. I went thru those as well and limited myself to 5 spoons and 5 forks. We do the dishes daily so that will keep me good.

2. Utensil drawer- this drawer holds all the stuff in it that I can not fit into the holder by the stove.
3. My towel drawer- this drawer holds all my kitchen towels and used to have some junk in it as well, but not anymore! Only my towels now!

4. Junk Drawer- Holds some junk!
5. Empty Drawer- Right now just holds some box tops as I don't know what else to put in there!

6. Hot Pads- Holds just my hot pads!

Up next were the cabinets. Over the weekend I did reorganize the kids cabinet and Tupperware cabinet so those are checked off the list. The kids cabinet isnt the most organized because they get into it but it holds what we need and no more junk!

My Tupperware is all in a tote in the pull out drawer and the lids are in a tote on the shelf above.

All the kids plates, bowls and some of Caden's food up top.

I also went through our drink cabinet and got rid of some old plastic cups that we don't really use and take up way to much space. We have entirely too many sippy cups so that cabinet needed to be purged bad! I combined the kids cups with ours and put the cups we use but not everyday in the one next to it

As you can see from last weeks challenge I have Emma's lunch schedule on one cabinet and important papers for her school on the other side. The basket on the top left shelf holds spices that I do not use very often but wanted to keep in the kitchen.

The over the frig cabinet really doesn't have much in it because I cant reach it so that was not too bad to do.
I also combined the cereal cabinet with my pantry cabinet so I was able to move my pots and the big pot into a cabinet with a slider!

I went through all this and organized my spices into a basket so I can pull the basket down easily to get what I want.

I do have more pots but they are all in the dishwasher right now!

The cabinet that I was not looking forward to doing is the pots and pans! I HATE that cabinet. Its hard for me to get in and out of that cabinet all the big bulky stuff. But since I did gain a cabinet by moving the cereal, I think this should work out! By moving the the pots over to the other cabinet I have more room now and I can easily reach everything in there.

I may put the pots back in here and move the glass bowls to where the pots are at, but haven't decided yet. Ill give this current set up a week to see how I like it.

The one cabinet that I did not get to was the under the sink cabinet. That one is pretty bad and I was putting that off for sure. I am going to do that with week 3 challenge since week 3 is Kitchen Pantry, Spices and Food storage. Since I did most of that with this weeks challenge I will definitely have time to do that. See you next week!

Meal Plan Monday- My meal plan for the week of 1/16

2012-01-16T09:26:00.001-05:00

So this week I am not going to go to the grocery store at all! That meant that I had to scrounge around for stuff in the house we already have. As I was doing this I realized we have alot of this and that but it was hard to come up with some meals. Beware, these are not elaborate or fancy meals!

Monday- Chicken Ravioli- this night will be an awesome dinner! Meijer makes some good chicken cheese square ravioli that is in their freezer section. Just add a can of spaghetti sauce and bake in the oven like the package tells you.

Tuesday- Grilled cheese and Broccoli

Wednesday- I'll have shrimp and rice and if the kids don't like that they can have Mac n Cheese and a veggie

Thursday- Leftovers- This is the busy Gym/Dance night so Ill take Emma a sandwich to eat in between so she wont be hungry and I think Caden will be at my moms so I don't have to worry about feeding him.

Friday- Hot dogs and green beans

Saturday- Out to dinner with my family for my mom's birthday!

Sunday- brunch at our friends house to finally celebrate Christmas! My item to bring is 2 quiche! And I may bring a surprise treat as well!

So as you can see this week will not be anything special, but we will be eating somewhat healthy meals, not getting fast food, using what we have at the house, and not spending money at the grocery store!

10 day Goals

2012-01-11T10:44:00.001-05:00

Updated Sunday 1/15/12

So for the next 10 days I will have extra free time at night so I want to come up with a list of goals to get things done each night! Each room in my house has a little (or alot) of clutter that I want to get put away, the basement area is a mess again (at least the storage areas are clean!) and I have a few projects that I want to begin and complete. So here is my list.

So today is day 5, I'm halfway there! Thought I would update my progress and still see what I have left to do.

1. Make my Valentines Day Heart Felt Wreath. This is priority number 1 since I want it up as long as I can for a Valentines decoration. I think this will take about 1.5 nights since there is alot of cutting circles.- ~~I have the wreath put together but just need to get a white ribbon to put on it to hang from. 90% complete with this goal!~~ This is 100% complete! Looks soo cute!

2. Week 2 of Organization Challenge. - I have all but underneath the sink to do, so not looking forward to that but it is one of the things Im going to do today! 90% complete on this goal.

3. Look at my meal plan for next week. I don't want to have to go to the grocery store, so I may have to move some things around so I cook what I already have at home! This should save me about $100 too! Each week I spend about $100 at the grocery store and if I don't go I won't spend it! I know we have enough food and junk in the house to last all next week! So this is a very important goal for me!- 100% complete on this! Its not the most spectacular food week, but check tomorrows post to see our meal plan.

4. Finish my MENU board for the kitchen. I already have the days of the week plaque chalk boarded just need to get my letters for the days of the week painted, put the super cute fabric I have on the cardboard it will hang on, and get some letters made for MENU to hang above it.- I haven't done anything with this yet. I bought some blue paint but isnt the color I really want to need to take that back and buy a different color. I am 50% complete on this.

5. Do my ART Clipboard project. I have 3 really cute fabrics that I want to put on 6 clipboards to hang on the wall by Emma's dinning room chair to display all the art work she brings home from school. I need to also paint the really cute ART letters I bought with the paint I bought. So I have all the supplies, just need to put them all together.- All I have left on this is to get some blueish ribbon to hang my letters on and this will be complete! The clipboards are already hanging on the wall and im very happy with the way they turned out! 90% complete on this. This is 100% complete!! If you havent seen the blog already, here is the link

6. Put the super cute fabric up on the back of my cube bookcase. This will be sort of hard since the backing on it is on each little cube. Ill need to take them all off and cut some cardboard to fit the whole area. ~~- Have not even started this yet. I did buy an iron yesterday so I think while Caden naps today I will try to get this accomplished. 0% complete~~ This is 100% complete! Love the look of it!

~~7. Cover my important paper holder i already made with the fabric I already have.- Have not even stated this yet, hopefully I can get this done today as well. 0% complete.~~ This is 100% complete and I am very happy with it!

~~8. Clean off the top of Gabby's crate which has just collected junk in our bedroom~~.- 100% complete on this!

~~9. Take the kids clothes totes to the basement instead of in our bedroom.~~- 100% complete on this! I even put them in a good spot in the storage area of the basement instead of just leaving it by the bottom of the stairs.

10. Put away all the CRAP that is in the basement that just keeps accumulating! 30% complete as I have been putting stuff away each time I go downstairs.

11. The regular household stuff like vacuuming, laundry and cleaning.- unfortunatly this will never be complete as I have to do this daily. But I did do all our laundry Friday so that is one thing i can check off!

As I am typing this i realize that I have alot of fun projects to do and alot of not so fun stuff to do! But over the next 10 days, I only work 5 days so this list should totally be doable!

Tonight I am getting together with my Dance girl friends and kids for a party so I'm hoping tonight I can cut the circles for the Heart Wreath- I was too tired when I got home and didnt do anything!,

Thursday I hope to complete the heart wreath (but its a busy dance and gym night so I may be too tired to finish it!)- as I listened to my audio book after the kids went to bed I got 65% of the circles cut.

I'm off Friday so I'm hoping to complete the Clipboard project,clean my bedroom and redo my meal plan- I finshed cutting out the circles and when I went to put them on I found out i bought too small of pins so had to hold off on that. I did paint my ART letters and cut out all the fabric for the clip boards. I did clean my room and did get the laundry done and put away. I also did most of my 52 weeks challenge.

Sat I'm hoping to do laundry and finish week 2 of my organization challenge- I spent most of the day with my family but I was able to pin my valentines wreath together and iron and glue the fabric onto my clip boards.

Sunday I hope to clean up the basement- Im changing this to cover my bookcase with fabric and my important paper holder and to finish the 52 week challenge I did end up covering my bookcase but did not finish the challenge. We went to my parents for dinner and did use Emma's Crayon Maker for the 1st time! It really is pretty cool.

Monday I work so at night I hope to finish my important paper holder- this night I hope to have bought the ribbons for my ART and wreath and get those hung. I did hang up my ART letters and the wreath so that was a good thing!

Tuesday I am off so I hope to tackle the bookshelf project and finish my menu board- I hope to have already completed the bookshelf so that leaves just to finish the menu board! I was pretty lazy this day. even took a little nap while Caden did (even though I felt even worse afterwards) but I did get everything for the menu board done expect hang it up!

And I think that takes care of all my projects!! Each day Ill be doing the dishes and vacuuming. So that leaves Wed, Thurs and Fri open for more fun things! Although Thursday is our busy day of dance and gym so I may not get anything accomplished that day!

Here's to hoping that I can get this all accomplished!! Ill post back a week from Sat to give updates and show pics of all the cool stuff I made!
Stay tuned for another update once I finish all my goals!!

DIY Powedered Laundry Soap

2012-01-10T18:44:00.001-05:00

Since I have loved my DIY Fabric softener found here I decided to scour the Internet looking for a fabulous DIY Laundry Soap. After viewing all the was involved with liquid laundry soap, I decided to make powered laundry soap. I have never even used powdered soap you buy at the store so I looked up my owners manual on my HE Frigidaire front loader to make sure I could even use the stuff, and yep, I sure can use powered soap, and I still put it in the same spot as the liquid stuff.

So now that I can use powered soap I had to find a recipe that I wanted to use. Most all the recipes are the same, all call for a bar of laundry soap, borax and washing soda. I had found a few that also added oxy clean and baking soda. I decided to use Zote Laundry Bar, Borax, Arm and Hammer Washing Soda, and Oxy Clean (to help with the dirtier clothes)

Recipe: ( I found all this at Meier)
1 4 lb 12 oz box Borax (2.15 kg or 76 oz) found in the detergent isle ($3.99)

1 box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55 oz (3 lb 7 oz) found in the detergent isle ($3.29)

1 small container of Oxyclean 1.3 lbs (20.8 0z) found in the detergent isle ($3.99)

1 bar Zote Laundry Bar (14 oz) ($.99)

1st I opened my Zote and cut it long way into about 4-5 pieces. I let this sit out over night to dry out a little because when I 1st went to grate it, it was very soft and clumped up. Then I grated it with the medium size holes on my block grater. It made 2 bowls full. Some people than put this in their food processor or magic bullet to grate up even more but I don't have either so I opted out on that. The pieces I have though aren't that big. This took the longest time, maybe 10-15 mins.

Than I took a cleaning bucket I had and lined it with a trash bag. Next you just pour all the ingredients in and mix up! Next time I will pour half of each item in, mix that up and than pour the rest in and mix it all up again. I found that it was difficult to make sure everything got mixed up together since its all white powder.

I than got some screw top plastic containers (2 in a pack for 1.00) at the dollar store and divided it all up. The oxy clean container is actually a really nice container that has a little scoop with it, so I am going to use that container to keep by my washer and I'm using the scoop as well. The 3 small containers I filled for 3 friends so they can try it to and let me know how they like it!

Add caption

All you need to use is 1 TBSP per load (2 if you have a larger load or extra dirty clothes). So on my oxyclean scoop i measured out 1 TBSP and 2 TBSP so i know how much to use each load. This makes (if im doing my math right! Its been a while since Ive been out of college!) about 165 ozs of soap. There are 2 TBSP per ounce so I should get about 330 loads of laundry if I do them all at 1 tbsp! This will be just great! For about $12.50 I will be able to do 330 loads of laundry! I could be saving almost $20-$30 each time I make this soap- Ya I can handle that!

This is a low sudsing soap so do not get nervous when you don't see any suds in your washer. Since it is low sudsing, that is why I feel safe in using it in my HE washer!

We have done a few loads so far and I am very happy with it. There really isn't a perfumed smell to it (we usually used a laundry soap with fragrance in it) but it smells really fresh!

Week 1 of 52 Weeks of Organizing Your Home

2012-01-09T11:17:00.000-05:00

I think most of my blogs will start like this...

So this is something I found on Pinterest (the best site ever!) and am really excited to be doing. I even got my friend Ferris to do it as well! My biggest pet peeve about my little house is that there is no room and that it gets sooo cluttered. I blame it on my 3 kids (Emma, Caden and their daddy!) I never make any clutter of course! Home Storage Solutions 101 is where I found this cool challenge. Every week there is 1 new thing or area of the house to declutter, clean and reorganize. This weeks challenge is your kitchen countertops. I have a little galley kitchen and really don't have to much counter top space, so every little bit I can gain by keeping them clean will help. I started this on Sunday Jan 1st with my refrigerator (even though countertops were the weekly thing, but I needed to start somewhere and I thought since the refrigerator was the 1st thing once you walk into my kitchen that would be a great place to start). For this I am really sad I did not take a before picture because it was a mess! The freezer section housed a dry erase calender that I think still had August or Sept on it, Emma's school lunch schedule on it, a grocery list and a ton of magnets. The bottom part was the kids junk, it had a dry erase board covered in different color markers, a leap frog alphabet learning thing that never got played with and the alphabets everywhere. So I decided to clean it all off, wipe down the frig and reorganize it. Here is an after pic and I am very happy about it now and to me makes the kitchen look bigger even! I did put the school lunch schedule on a cork board that i put in one of my kitchen cabinets, and on the other inside cabinet I put the dry erase board plus other of Emma's important school stuff.

Very Happy with my Frig now!

Next I went to the stove and cleaned it off because it was getting pretty grummy. Finally I am getting to the countertops which was this weeks challenge. But at least this challenge got me motivated to clean and organize! This part I did on Monday the 9th ( I know it was actually the start of week 2 but I was super busy each night with making stuff for Emma's Birthday parties). I keep my spinny tool holder next to my stove because I really don't have enough drawer space to keep them in. I did give this a wipe down and went through my utensils to get rid of anything that I really don't use anymore. Then I went to one of the 3 problem areas in my kitchen, the back corner. That is where alot of junk just gets stored. I needed to scale back on what I really need left out and what can be put in the snack cabinet. Here is a before and after pic.

Ok in my defense, the bottom part was 1/2 stuff for Emma's birthday treats and the other 1/2 was stuff that needed to go downstairs, and there is no excuse for the shelf!

WOW Look how nice it looks now! Just have to make sure to keep it this way! No more laziness!

The 2nd problem area is the area by my microwave. This is a catchall for stuff that needs to go to the basement and stuff that really doesn't have a spot or I'm too lazy to put away. I'm very happy with it now! The 3rd problem area is the space on the other side of the sink. Right now it holds my mini Keurig and my toaster plus more junk that gets put there. We don't use the Keurig or the toaster every day, sometimes we don't even use them once a week, but for some reason I cant just put them in a cabinet (one reason is I don't have much cabinet room). I decided to put the toaster in the cabinet underneath this little area and left the Keurig out since I really didn't have a place to put that in a cabinet! Maybe this week when I do week 2 challenge (which is cabinets and drawers) I can make room for the Keurig too!

Again, just stuff that needs to be taken downstairs but looks like crap.

There is no excuse for this area!

Love it looking soo clean! MUST keep it this way!

So this 1st week challenge was good and got me motivated to clean some other parts of my kitchen as well. I guess the good thing about a small kitchen is there isn't too much to clean!
Looking forward to the next week challenge..... Kitchen Drawers and Cabinets!!

Meal Plan Monday: My Meal Plan for the week of 1/9

2012-01-09T10:24:00.001-05:00

One of my goals for this new year is to meal plan each week. I wouldn't say that we eat out alot during the week, but I do feel I spend too much money at the grocery store each week buying food! I have meal planned in the past and it did work really good for me, but I get lazy and stop and than get into buying/spending too much money at the grocery store. So hopefully I can stick to this meal planning and save money at the same time. Here is my menu:

Monday- Sherry Sirloin from Weight Watchers with Rice

Tuesday- Chicken Stir fry

Wednesday- Dance Friends Christmas Party- Pizza

Thursday- Either take out or Grilled cheese sandwiches (Thursdays are hard days because we are at Gymnastics and Dance from 4-6:30. I take a sandwich or lunchable for Emma to eat in between classes so she already eats and Brian usually takes Caden home and feeds him, but Brian will be gone this Thursday so I may be too tired to cook!)

Friday- Lasagna Toss from Kraft I think

Saturday- Leftovers

Sunday- My parents house.

Another good thing with Meal Planning is hopefully I will get better at cooking Weight Watchers meals. Both Brian and I want to lose weight and eating better meals will help.

For my meal planning I found this Meal Planning Form that also has a grocery list on the side! So as I made my meal plan I wrote the ingredients I knew I needed on the other side and took the whole list with me to the store. It really was easy, especially since I sat with my cook book and wrote down some of our favorite meals. I did meal plan about 4-5 weeks out. It was really easy to do all that at once.

I am hoping that I can keep to this each week!

My Baby is 5!!!

2012-01-08T10:48:00.001-05:00

Yesterday my little girl turned 5!! I just can not believe how fast this time has gone by. 5 years ago Emma decided to come 5 weeks early. My water broke in the morning Sunday Jan 7th, 2007 and she was born at 10 pm that night! She was a healthy little girl and we were able to leave the hospital 3 days later with her (we actually came home on her daddy's birthday!)

Born 1/7/07 at 10 pm weighing 4 lbs 1 oz. 17 3/4 inches long

She has grown into such an amazing little girl. She is defiantly my lovey, sweet girl. She has gone thru some whinny phases, but all in all she is one perfect girl! She is super active and never sits still or stops singing or talking (she gets it honest from her mom though!) She is in full time preschool and does gymnastics 2 times a week and dance one night a week.

Yesterday in the morning she opened her presents from Brian, Caden and I. Over night the birthday fairy came and put streams up around the house like she does every year. Emma loves waking up and seeing the decorations.

Later that afternoon was her family birthday party and it was a fun party, her theme was Pinkalicious, her favorite book. She got some awesome gifts, and even got some money to spend herself! She definitely likes to go shopping and spending money so those were great gifts for her. Today she went to target to spend some already! Target had some good clearance deals and she got more for her money! A bargain shopper like her mommy!

Pinkalicious!

Emma with her Abby and Courtney

Yea for Pinkalicious

5 years old!

Poor Caden! The balloons got the best of him!

Than today was her friends birthday party at the place she takes Gymnastics and Dance. It was a 2 hour bounce and flip party. The kids had so much fun, and even some of the parents did some of the stuff too! (I will not admit that I got stuck in the foam pit trying to get Caden's socks before they got lost!)

Caden had to be right in the middle of everything

This is me NOT getting stuck in the foam pit!

Emma and all her friends eating cupcakes!

After Emma's friends party we met my parents and brother and sil at Hacienda for the yearly birthday dinner! It was good food and Emma even got another sombrero and they sang to her!

My pretty princess!

Caden enjoying the ranch dip

Singing to Emma

This was an awesome birthday weekend for her! Thanks to all our friends and family for celebrating this beautiful little girl!

DIY Fabric Softner

2012-01-04T23:20:00.000-05:00

Again, something else that I found on Pinterest! I would have never thought to do this before. I am a pretty loyal Downy with Febreeze fan! Well now that I'm on a diy kick I thought that I would give this a chance. Over the past weekend we ran out of Fabric Softener and instead of going to the store to spend $4-$5 on a bottle that would get me about 42 ozs I decided to make it myself. Sorry that I have no pictures of me making this but it was before I decided to start my blog back up.

But here is the recipe for FABRIC SOFTENER:
6 Cups Hot Water
1 Bottle (approx 10-13 oz) of your Favorite, or the cheapest Conditioner
3 Cups of White Vinegar
Container to Hold it

From my previous years of bargain shopping, I had a free bottle of conditioner, I think the brand was Loereal and had a bottle of vinegar I had got with a coupon for about .50. I did need a container to put this in, and of course we had just thrown out the old empty bottle of fabric softener so I couldn't even use that (which is what I wanted to do) so I used my water jug that we do not use anymore.

Steps:
1. Get hot water from your tap (or microwave it for about 1 min to get it hot) and add your bottle of conditioner. Stir it until the conditioner is dissolved.
2. Add your 3 cups of Vinegar and mix together.
3. Pour into a container with a lid

Use 2 TBSP per load of laundry.

That is it! I did make a double batch of this (using 2 different brands of conditioner) so I about filled up my container. When I was making it Hubbie was very leery about it because of the vinegar smell but I told him to trust me on this.

And this is my fabric softener! I made about 166 oz and using 1 oz per load (1 TBSP equals .5 oz) I will get about 166 loads out of this! Woo Hoo

Well we have done a few loads of Laundry with this so far and it really does make the clothes feel softer! And there is no vinegar smell at all! There really is not a smell at all, only clean if that makes sense. I am very happy with this so far and will be saving our family a ton of money! The double batch cost me about $1.00 and if I would by it at the store, It would cost about $15-$20 using coupons!
If you end up making this, leave a comment on how you like it!

And here is the link for my DIY Powdered Laundry Soap!

Pinterest and DIY Dryer Balls

2012-01-03T21:37:00.001-05:00

For those of you that don't know, I am addicted to Pinterest with a capitol A D D I C T E D! Oh my how I just love this website. I have really never been one to do things myself, I usually just like to buy as is, or the materials are all in the box, have the hubbie screw them all together. That all changed with Pinterest. One of my Amanda friends (yes I have 2 very good Amanda friends, both that I met about 2.5 years ago in my daughters very 1st dance class and both of who I see regularly! I mean what are the odds that I will meet 2 Amanda's at my daughters dance class that had about 7 girls in? But in the beginning it did make it very easy to remember their names LOL) started telling us Dance girls about this site that was awesome that you pinned stuff onto boards. At 1st I had no idea what she was talking about so didn't really give any extra thought to what she was saying. Than on facebook I started seeing some other friends post recipes and cute things on their updates from Pinterest, so I thought what the heck, I'll give the website a try. 1st time I went on there I was quite confused and had no idea what the heck it was about, than I realized you had to be invited to be able to see most of the stuff. I was like, what the heck, this is stupid! But of course I had to email Amanda to have her invite me ASAP. After that it has been a love affair! Good thing the hubbie isn't a jealous person!

I have made some stuff from this site in the last few weeks and am hooked on saving money and making cool stuff. Over the weekend I made some homemade DIY fabric softener (I'll take some pics and post tomorrow) and reading some of the comments and sites saw you can make Dryer Balls that will help reduce the drying time of your load and if you put essential oils in them they will make your clothes smell good just like dryer sheets! I was hooked. Alot of the sites talked about wool dryer balls and something about felting, um hello, I am new to this whole crafty, sewing, DIY stuff and that looked way to hard. You had to buy this certain wool yarn (that some people said was hard to find) tie it around your finger, than make a ball, put it in a pantyhose, wash and dry it (i guess that is what felting is, still kinda confused about that) and than you could use them. Well that was way too much work for me. So I kept searching and found This awesome Link for dryer Balls.

So this is what I did...

1. Got 2 of my old tshirts, 1 of Brian's and 3 pairs of socks I don't wear anymore.

2. I than cut the sleeves off and than the shirts into strips.

3. Than I knotted the sleeve part two times- this makes your core.

4. Next I just took 1 strip and wrapped it around the knot, than took another strip and wrapped it the opposite way, and I kept doing that until I got about a fist sized "ball" (mine are very misshaped!)

5. Take your "ball" and put it into the toe of a sock. Then twist the extra material once, and turn the sock into itself. Keep doing this until you can't anymore.

6. Sewing comes into this last part! As you can see I am a TERRIBLE Sewer but in my defense, this was the very 1st time I have ever sewed anything!! Yes I am a 30 year old college educated wife and mother and have never sewed anything. I blame my Catholic High School for not offering Home EC!

All in All this project took me probably 2-3 hours. Would have taken alot less time if I knew how to sew. But really still not bad for not having to buy fabric sheets anymore. I did buy from the Vitamin Store some Essential Oil- Nature's Alchemy Orange flavor and put a few drops on each one. So hopefully that will give the clothes a nice fresh smell as well.

Its a New Year!

2012-01-03T13:05:00.000-05:00

I can not believe that it is already 2012! Last time I posted was in 2009! YIKES So much as happened since then and I'm not going to summarize it all, so we will just go on from now. I am inspired by my awesome friend Ferris to start this back up again. We started this blogging journey together way back when, and even though we both stopped, she has posted a ton more than me. Here's to hoping I can keep this up!

I came back to work today after having 5 days off and it was a little rough! Thankfully I have Friday off so I only work 2 more days. But I will be busy at home these next few days. My BABY GIRL turns 5 on Saturday. Holy Moley where has those last 5 years gone?? She is such a super star and I love her to death. She is everything a mother could ask for in a little girl. She is such a lover and cuddler and an awesome big sister to her brother. She is an amazing gymnist for her age and excels at school. I am so proud of her and make sure I tell her that as often as I can. If all my children would be like her I would have at least 5! But alas, my 2nd child, my son who we have nicknamed Turd McFerguson, definitely fits his nickname! He really is the sweetest, cutest, nicest lovey boy there is, until you make him mad or tell him no! Than he turns into Turdie! What is a mom to do when your 1 1/2 yr old makes you mad one minute but laughing at him the next because of the way he is acting??

So this week at home I need to make Baby Girl's birthday treats for school, Oreo Pops, get all her stuff together for her 2 parties this weekend, finish making my dryer balls (will blog about later), keep my house clean, and finish my organization project for my 52 Week Organization Project (will blog about later as well!) Emma also starts school back up tomorrow and she has Dance Thurs as well (at least she doesn't have gym this week though!)

Yesterday we had some snow so we all went outside to play! It was alot of fun, Caden didn't care for it too much because he could barely move in all his layers and snow pants, poor baby! Emma of course LOVES the snow. This is the 1st winter we have had our dog Gabby and its really fun to watch her in it as well because she LOVES it just like Emma. She would probably want to stay outside most of the day if we let her, I don't think the cold would bother her! Our cute little foster dog, Noah, does not like the snow and cold at all! But he is just a little guy so I'm sure its cold to him. Ill end with a few pictures of the kids outside yesterday...

Caden and Little Noah in the background. Neither Caden or Noah particularly like the snow!

Daddy with not too happy Caden

My snow lovers, Emma and Gabby

Trying to make a snow man but the snow was definitely not good snowman making snow!

Busy Busy

2009-11-22T19:01:00.001-05:00

This weekend was a fun filled one! Friday night we did some shopping at the mall and a few odd stores. Saturday we got paint for the babies room and went grocery shopping in the morning. We had tickets to the ND game so we dropped Emma off at Ashleys and went to the game with my parents. We had a good time, even though ND didnt play that great! Our seats were awesome and we had a Joyce parking pass which made getting out super easy.

Today Emma and I woke up Brian at 8:45 and talked him into painting the babies room! He was planning on doing it Wednesday morning since he has the day off, but of course I couldnt wait!! So we taped the baseboard, trim and ceiling. I was able to help paint a little because the paint was the kind that had low fumes. We put on one coat. Emma and I than had to run to Meijers and Walmart to get Emma some black shoes for Chrissy's 2nd birthday party.

We had a ton of fun at Chrissy's party where we ate good food and even better cake made by Rosanne! The kids got to decorate cookies, pin the nose on Elmo and Elmo pinata. Emma didnt take a nap and did really good thru it all! Once home, Brian put another coat of paint on the walls, and I am loving it so far. I was kinda leary at 1st on the color, but I think it will look great once the furniture is all up and the bedding is up as well. Here are a few pics of the room so far with the comforter in it.

I LOVE GYMBOREE

2009-11-20T20:14:00.000-05:00

I am defintely loving Gymboree this week. I have shopped there 2 times this past week and have gotten so much stuff for such a cheap price. Retail all the stuff I would have got was $486 and I only spent $109. I also earned $50 in gymbucks that can be redemmed in January!
They have a sale going on right now that anything that is on sale is an extra 20% off. I also had a 20% coupon that they took off after all their discounts I used over the weekend and I had a 15% coupon that I used tonight. It was good because they had a ton of summer stuff that was already on a super good deal, so I was able to get Baby Caden a ton of summer stuff for $56! He got 2 bathing suits and 1 swim long sleeved top. 6 summer outfits, a pair of sweat pants, a pair of shorts and a polo shirt, plus a long sleeved outfit for when he is 1st born! Emma got 15 pairs of undies, 1 pair of shorts for next summer, a pair of jeans, and a long sleeved shirt and skirt outfit for next fall. I am just super excited about it that I just had to blog about it! And they usually have an awesome Thanksgiving Day sale that I hope to get more stuff at. Saving money is the best! Especially for all the boy stuff since I have no boy clothes!

ITS A BOY!!!

2009-11-17T10:45:00.002-05:00

I went for my Big Ultrasound yesterday and we found out we are having a Baby Boy!! Both Brian and I felt that we were having a boy and when we would ask Emma what we were having, she said brother, although she kept saying she wanted a sister! We are very happy to have found out, he had his knees up for the whole appt. The u/s tech took the prob off because she was done with everything but she said "Lets try one more time" and she was able to get him to move a little and gave us 99% sure its a boy!! Everything else looked really good as well. Its so cool to see the heart chambers and see the heart beating away, the spinal cord, and the sections of the brain. Im 19 weeks 6 days today with a due date of 4-9-09.
So now the big dilemma is what to name Baby Bean!! Brian and I can not agree on a name at all. We had this same problem with Emma, we had her name but no boys names. This time around we even had 2 girls names we both loved, but again, no boys names. So we have at least 15-20 weeks to decide but it will be hard! So name suggestions are greatly appriciated!
I have found he bedding we are going to get though! Brian and I both love it! We already have the furniture, we bought that a few weeks ago on an awesome sale at BRU and couldnt pass it up. Its a honey pine color and looks so cute!

Indy Children's Museum

2009-11-13T09:57:00.000-05:00

Last friday Brian had to go down to Indy for work to train a client, and since I dont work on fridays, Emma and I decided to tag along and spend the night! We dropped Brian off at the clients and than went to Indy's Childrens Museum. That place is the coolest place ever! Emma loves going and playing there. They have tons of fun stuff to do.

This is Emma playing with the food in the Eygpt Market.

Emma still in the Eygpt area

Emma as an Indy Car driver!

She loves to play in the water area.

She was able to get that thing moving all by herself.

After we spent a few hours there and ate lunch, we headed to the mall and got some Christmas shopping done with some good deals! We picked Brian up at 5 and than had yummy PF Changs for dinner. We also went swimming in the hotel pool. Just had a nice relaxing night. Saturday morning we checked out, hit a few stores and headed home. Such a good weekend!

Im Pregnant Again!! (for the 5th time!)

2009-11-12T15:36:00.003-05:00

So here I find myself almost in the middle of November pregnant yet again!! Although this time I am 19 weeks and seem to be doing great! I found out I was pregnant for the 5th time (including Emma) in August. I waited until I was about 8 weeks to even call the Dr. because if something would happen again, I didn't want to have to go thru everything again. I went to Vegas with 2 girlfriends and had an awesome weekend, although I was super tired when we got back! So at this point, 9 weeks into the pregnancy the only people that know are Ferris (dang her and just always knowing when i am prego!), Megan and Jenny. I couldn't even bring myself to tell my parents yet.

I finally tell my parents around 12 weeks. As excited as I am to be pregnant again, I just cant seem to get excited you know what I mean. I hate being so afraid that something is going to happen again. At 19 weeks into the pregnancy I don't like to talk about it too much because I'm still so nervous, I'm scared I'm gonna jinx it or something. The only people that know are my best friends, parents, his parents and sister and my brother and his girlfriend. I am sure these people have told people they know but I don't care because I'm not the one really talking about it! No one on my dads side knows yet, but I plan on telling them all at Thanksgiving. I have an ultrasound on the 16th so hopefully everything will be just fine and we will find out what we are having!

I have felt really good this whole time, other than 2-3 weeks of all day/night nauseous that really sucked, and some bad heart burn here and there. My awesome niece Ashley had a baby heartbeat doppler that I have borrowed so its great to be able to hear the babies hear beat when I'm feeling down. I had an u/s at 6 weeks and 11 weeks and everything seemed normal and good those 2 times, so that give me hope that this 19 week u/s will show the baby grown at the right pace and healthy!

Almost the end of 2009!

2009-11-01T15:24:00.000-05:00

Well my 1st post was way back at the begining of the year, and now its almost the end of the year, guess I didnt do so hot in keeping it updated!

Tons has happened since that 1st post. I had a second miscarriage at the end of January at about 12 weeks. Unfortunatly I had a blighted ovum which means there was no baby, but my body still thought I was pregnant, my uterus still grew and my hormones thought i was pregnant too. It was so diffucult to have those few ultrasounds and see nothing on the screen, when there should have been a baby growing there.

In May I found out I was pregnant yet again, I guess Brian and I sure are fertile! Unfortunatly I had another misscarriage at about 5-6 weeks. This just doesnt get any easier the more you have. If i didnt already have my wonderful daughter Emma, Im not sure how I would have got thru this. I only told my parents and Ferris this time, which did help knowing that not too many people had to find out we had yet another misscarriage.

Im Pregnant!!

2009-01-08T14:24:00.004-05:00

I have never done anything like this before and hope that I can keep up with it. Some info about me, I am a mommy to Emma and one due on the way (shhh i haven't told anyone but my parents yet!) I am 6 weeks today and really excited. I had a miscarriage in Sept at 6 weeks 2 days so that is why i havent told anyone else yet, I am hoping to in a few weeks. Thankfully so far this pregnancy is totally different from my m/c in Sept is. I found out the Monday before Christmas and its been so hard not to tell anyone! My boobs hurt so very bad and I'm always tired!
I went to a New Years Party at Rosanne's house and made the jello shots, but i made the grape ones without alcohol so it wouldn't look weird that i wasn't having any, I think Ferris is on to me but she hasn't said anything yet!
I did the Chinese Gender Predictor and its says I'm having a girl, so it will be interesting to see in about 14 weeks at my u/s as to what i am having! I have already found really cute baby girl bedding i want to get if its a girl, and Brian is happy bc he wont have to repaint the room either.
Right now I stay at home with Emma because i was laid off. Hopefully I will be able to go back to work by summer, but if not, than I'm ok with that too! My ideal working schedule would be to work 3 days a week, 8-4!