Rembmer When...

I am seriously the worst blogger in the world?  I will probably do this a few times..ya know, forget this exists.  Life got CRAZY!!

Mom, sis and I went black Friday shopping.  Um...seriously, new tradition!  SO much fun and so productive!  I am now 99.9% done Christmas shopping. 

We went and cut down our tree together this year, also a new tradition. 

School is out of control.  I have a redic teacher.  Thank goodness classes are only five weeks long! 2 weeks to go with this one!

my Scentsy business is also out of control.  Out of control in this case is a GREAT thing!  Scentsy MORE than paid for our families Christmas this year!

I don't really have anything else to say at the moment.  I'm all jacked up on coffee and can't focus.

Life of me with A.D.D.!

Attention Mom's (or gift givers) Of Disney Freaks!!

The Disney Store  is running an awesome offer right now!  If you have a Disney freak to buy for, this is a perfect low cost gift that he or she will love!

A Fleece blanket with a Disney character on it that is typically $19.50 is on sale for $10 right now.

To top off that great deal, if you personalize the blanket (typically $3.95) for FREE you also get FREE standard shipping (usually $4.95)!

My total after checkout was $10.60 due to the 6% sales tax in Michigan.  What a steal,  I saved $18.40!

Use the Promo code FREEPZ  after you add the blanket AND the personalization to your Bag! 


Don't tell the kid, but he's getting the Mickey blanket with his name on it!


Let me know what blanket you're getting away with!

Sandy Freak Out Follow-Up

So, a few hours ago I posted about a redic freak out about a hurricane and power outages...on the East Coast.

To calm my nerves, I decided that I was going to prepare a bit of an emergency kit. bad mom, blah blah I didn't have one before, blah blah.  I made my first trip to Aldi and then hit up Family Dollar.  $60 later, this is what the kid and I came home with:

6 Gallons of water
Juice boxes
Crap ton of canned veggies, beans, tomatoes, beef stew, ravioli type stuff. 
Breakfast Bars
Chicken salad/cracker things
Box of cereal
Candles (because we have NONE in our house.  (It hurt the Scentsy consultant in me to buy candles)
Lighters
and a deck of cards.
Also, three avocados that are not close to ripe.  My kid loves them and they are a super food.  If the power goes out this week, he'll be good.  If it doesn't, he'll still love them.

Anyways, Aldi was alright.  We will see how everything tastes. I figured that if we were desperate, we'd eat anything, ha! Normally, my husband is against non-name-brand foods.  I was pretty impressed with the prices though!
Family Dollar gave us 3 bags of tea lights, four mini candles and four big candles. I hate candles.

Sandy. Showing my Freak.

Hurricane Sandy is starting to hit the Eastern part of the United States.  There are so many people who are going to be in the direct path of this "MegaStorm"

crap.

So, I'm a freak.  Well, more honestly put,  I have an anxiety issue.  My anxiety got much better when I was pregnant and being a mom has definitely helped.  Though, I'm not sure how since I worry about things constantly.  Maybe it is because the things I worry about now are legit.

We're in Michigan.  Hurricane Sandy is going to bring us wind and rain. There are millions of people who are in danger.  Selfishly, I am thankful that we are not in the immediate danger of the storm.

I'm, however, terrified of losing power. I know that sounds stupid, but I am.  What if my husband is at work and the power goes out? What if we can't talk to each other? What about the rest of my family? How do I deal with a two year old with no power or heat?! Do we have enough food and water? Candles? crap.

To put my anxiety to rest, the kid and I are headed to the store to stock up on supplies.  Do I need to consider wine/beer in a disaster kit? or should I go vodka because it has medicinal purposes?

 Hopefully we will not need the disaster/power outage kit. 

Praying for everyone out east who has to deal with the actual dangerous part of the storm. 

Pumpkin Seeds

My husband hates pumpkin seeds.  I love them.  This means my kid loses and I will be making spicy pumpkin seeds. But, for the record, I don't think he could chew them well, so I'm not being a crappy mom. More like good mom!

So, I got about a cup of pumpkin seeds from the "dog" pumpkin. (see below).  This is what I did to get my spicy pumpkin seeds.

1 cup washed and dry pumpkin seeds
1 table spoon of butter, melted
1 glob (decide how big that is) of minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon of Thyme
Pepper to taste
More garlic. (seriously, can there be too much? no.)

I cooked them for about 50 minutes at 350 degrees.  I took the seeds out every 15 minutes to stir.

The result: amazing.  i need more pumpkins, now.

Dog!!

We think that the kid calls Mickey "Dog" because of the "Hot Dog Song" at the end of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.   Anyways, today we ( I ) carved a pumpkin and blew my kid's mind!  He helped me gut it, which made him gag every time he touched the guts with his hands.  Being the good mom i am, I kept handing him pumpkin guts to see it again and again.  He made disgusted faces when I would pull a big chunk of them out and put them in the bowl and an even more disgusted look when the dog (real dog, not Mickey) would sneak up and take a chunk to eat.

I carved Micky.  Took me about 45 minutes.  I got sweaty.  Then I got a candle and we turned off all the lights. 

 He yelled "DOG!!" and ran over to see the pumpkin.  He "oohed" and "aahhhed" for a few minutes and then got bored when it didn't sing or call for Toodles.   He walked away, we turned on the lights.  He freaked out. We had to keep the pumpkin lit until he went to bed, thankfully he let us have the lights back on.

Is this Kids R Us, or Grown-ups R Us?

So, this came in the mail on Monday.  

Every night since then (so four nights, now) my husband has curled up on the couch with it.  Here are two of my favorite things that I have heard while he looked through "The great BIG Toys R Us Book" You can tell it has been well loved in its four days in our home, it's wrinkled and marked up.

• "How are Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles $11.99?! These were $4 when I was a kid.  They must have more pieces or something.  Maybe they're bigger?"
• "Hey buddy, what do you want out of this catalog, I'll get you anything you want

I'm sure Christmas shopping for the 2 year old is going to be interesting this year...and every year from here on out. 

Best.Balls.EVER.

Meatballs, that is.

So I have a slight Pinterest addiction.  Like, I have 20-some boards including "baby needs" "I want" "I want to make" "Pins I've tried" "dogs".  Seriously, too many.  Each board is barfing with pins I'll never look at again.

Oh well.  I'm a freaking crafty cooking cleaning working out biatch.

Anyways, I found a pin for what was called "best meatballs ever".  Everything on pinterest starts with "best" and ends with "ever" but these looked great, so i decided to "pin" the recipe.  When I decided i was going to make these best balls ever, as i call them, the website was flagged as "spam", but Jesus loves me and the recipe was in the description of the pin!

So, I have no idea whose recipe this is.  I'd love to give them credit, because these are good balls of meat!

Ingredients:

• 1lb hamburger (I use as lean as i can get my hands on) (also, if you want to mix it up or are doing a double batch, add 1lb of sausage in, so good and a major crowd pleaser!)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 2 cup Panko or bread crumbs (I've made them both ways.  Both good, but I prefer the Panko!)
• 1 small onion, minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground peeper to taste
• 1/4 minced fresh basil (never done this. who has fresh basil at this time of year?!)

Steps in getting the best balls ever: (These pictures are for a half-batch) There are always left overs for our family of three even with this half batch!!

     1. Beat egg(s) and milk in a small dish

 

     2. Put the egg/milk mixture in a bowl with all of the other ingredients. 

      3. Mix contents of the bowl completely with hands.

      4.  Spray the bottom of a baking dish with cooking spray.

      5.  Make golf ball size meat balls. Put them in the baking dish.

 

      6.  Preheat oven to 350.  (this is when I get the rest of my meal together.  We use Traditional Prego and don't dress it up at all.) 

       7. Bake best balls ever for 30 minutes.

       8. Serve!  I've not made these for anything other than spaghetti and meat balls, but they're pretty mulch-purposeful!

 Mouth watering?  Thought so.

Eat 'Em Up, Tigers!!

We're in the World Series (oh damn, it's game 2 already!!)

 So...

Also....

Do you Zulily? I do.  Too much? Maybe. 

What is Zulily you ask? This is an answer directly from their website, "Shopping here is like opening a new treasure chest every day. You never know exactly what you'll uncover, but you know gems are waiting. The day's bounty might be whimsical. Classic. Trendy. Eco-friendly. Educational. Or just plain cute."  See, Zulily buys things in bulk and then sells them...and then you get them, cheap.

Babies, Maternity and Moms.   There is household stuff, too.  There is literally something I could buy every day.  My husband doesn't have the same love for Zulily.  Sad, I know. 

Anyways, if you're having a baby, have a kid, or are a woman...or need to buy for any of the above, click here.  Why am I showing you links? Because when you sign up and buy stuff, the person who referred you gets credit. boom. Do it.


It is always a good day when we get a Zulily (is it getting old yet?) package.  They ship via USPS.

This is what we got!  (Recommended by my SIL! She told me her kids loved it and learned a lot!) I got these because we have a DVD player in the car, which apparently we can not move an inch in if the DVD player is not on.

We got a basic pack of Preschool Prep DVDs. There is a DVD for letters, numbers, shapes and colors.  Also, you always get a coloring page with a thank you note on the back!

Anyways, I love Zulily.  Check it out.

I make my own cooking spray.

I pretend it's super healthy.

In all honesty, I saw someone post this on Facebook like a year ago and when I ran out of cooking spray mid-recipe i whipped it up.


What you need:  olive oil, water, spray bottle. 

Mix 1 part olive oil with 3 parts water in the bottle.   done.

Since it's water and oil, obviously you will have to shake the "cooking spray" before use. 

I really like this.  I use less olive oil than I normally would, which is great.  Sometimes, I have to add a bit more because the water evaporates out. 

Weight Watchers, Week 3

Success!  I lost the weight that I gained last week.  I lost 2.8lbs this week! I'm down a total of 6.8lbs.  I suppose i should really start moving now.  I have a gym membership, I just need to use it. 

See, the problem is the kid doesn't want me to get my fitness on.  He hates the child care center there. They have to come get me because of the fits he throws. 

Come on kid, momma doesn't want to be a chunk and it's far too late to re-lactate!

Anyways, this week I will MOVE. 

Ways i will move: mowing the lawn/chop up leaves into tiny pieces so my neighbor doesn't know they were my leaves that blew into her yard. Because obviously chopped up leaves can not be traced back to the original tree(already done, win!). Cleaning.  Yes, I count cleaning as moving.  I vacuum every day and mop 2 times per week.  My dogs and my kid make huge messes.  Thank goodness I have all hard floors though! I hate to imagine all the crap that would be in my carpet. The rest of my movement will be done at the gym. When I go to the gym, i go early. Like 3 hours before the sun comes up.  All the school teachers are there.  Whatever.  As long as they don't try to teach me math early, we'll be fine. 

Looking for another 2lbs down this next week.  We will see!

Woops

So, Weight Watchers didn't go all that well this week.  Maybe I should have actually tracked the food I was eating like I'm supposed to. 

Being sick was bad enough, add a sick kid and a sick husband on top of it made me lazy and tired.  I didn't make as many meals as I should have.  I definitely didn't drink as much water as I should have.

Back to tracking.

Speaking of tracking, I'm making a smoked sausage, potato and cheese thing for dinner.  It has Velveeta in it.  My husband is going to poop he'll be so excited.We don't keep that kind of stuff in our house. ever.

13 points plus for a cup.  holy crap.  Smells and looks good though. 

anyways, I was up 1.4lbs this week.  I am going to take that down this week.

Sickness.

About a month ago I got a cold.  Then the boys both got it. That cold pretended to go away, only to then to sneak attack our immune systems a few times.  Turns out my husband and I both got bronchitis.  

I'm all like:  (See 0:22)

I also got an ear infection.  Then the kid got an ear infection.  2 cases of bronchitis, 2 ear infections.  Mom is lucky enough to have both. Wait, lucky?

But seriously, don't you love Sweet Brown? 

Loud Noises

Last night around 9 our Carbon Monoxide detector went off.  It sounds something like:

SCREECH!!! SCREECH!!! 

CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTED!!!

 SCREECH!!! SCREECH!!!

Scares the poop out of you.  Obviously this is not something that you want to hear in your house.  We grabbed the kid and took him to the car and turned on The Lorax (aka Kid Crack), told the neighbors since we live in a duplex and waited for the fire department to get here. 

For the record, we did take the dogs outside too.  They thought we were going somewhere great until they realized they were just stuck in a car with a two and three year old.  Could be worse, dogs.

One fireman came in a pick up truck. Not even one flashing light.  Way less exciting than we thought that was going to be.  Our house was deemed safe, whew.  

Fyi: A normal house has a CO level of 0-5ppm.  Our house had a 2 and that was near the dryer.  A CO detector is not supposed to go off until about 400ppm. At that point, people would be feeling very sick, condensation on the walls, etc. 

So, I called the landlord.  He's bringing us new detectors since the fireman told me that we probably needed to get some new ones.  Ours were form 2008. I'm kind of shocked they go that fast. 

My anxiety got the best of me.  We went and grabbed a CO detector from the store so that we could sleep in peace.  Too bad that didn't really help my anxiety.  I kept checking on the kid, kept telling my husband how I was so dizzy (um, if you breathe, you don't get dizzy).  He made me take an Ativan.  I passed out. 

My husband is awesome.

No Popcorn for Breakfast

If you asked my kid right now, I'm seriously the worst mom. Ever. He took his 2-year-old self to the "popcorn drawer" and grabbed an un-popped bag and brought it to me.  I thought I said "Popcorn is not a breakfast option" in a very nice and understandable way.  Apparently I was wrong.  

He threw himself on the floor and said "moooooom" over and over. ha. 

I opened the freezer to grab the waffles, he spots the popsicles and perks right up.  When I told him that I was going to make him waffles he threw himself back on the floor.

Whatever. I win. he's in his chair sucking down waffles like they were popcorn flavored popsicles.

"Flavored water"

Part of getting healthy means drinking water. I cut everything besides coffee/lattes/tea out and drink only water. Water gets boring though, so I like to flavor my water! Every night before bed I make a new batch of water. Today I have cut up apples! This is one of my favorites! I do end up drinking both of these through the day. Toilet paper was not a "get healthy" expense that I thought I'd see. Oh well.

Another Procrastination Post (2 in one day!)

I'm a Stay-at-home-mom.  My job is to keep my kid alive, fed and if we're both lucky, happy.  Sometimes, this job that seems so simple gives me a run for my money.  There are days that go by and I'm not sure how it got to be 5pm or why either one of us is crying. It just happens.

But most days I don't cry.  

On normal days, 5pm hits and I take off like a mad woman making the house look presentable and getting dinner going so that when my husband gets home, it looks like we've had a productive day.  I don't know why I do this.  He doesn't care if we've been productive.  I have one of the most helpful husbands ever. He's glad to look at a few of the hundreds of pictures I've taken of our son that day and sit in a mess.  Please note that our mess is not dirty, it's just toys and dog hair. 

But, he does go to work every day so that I can stay home and raise our son while he is gone, so I feel like at least dinner has to be made every night when he gets home.

Today I used a crock-pot and took a much shorter nap than normal (Yes. I  nap every day).  So, I can play on the interwebz until he calls and says he's 2 minutes away.   

Also, that paper that I talked about earlier today? Still not done. I need to do my best work, which means I need to wait until the very.last.minute. 

A Case of the Mondays

It's no secret, I'm an honor student at a prestigious online university.  I am on the softball team. School runs from Tuesday to Monday.  All assignments are due Monday night. This means that Sunday nights and Mondays are a whirl of catching up on  my excellent procrastination skills. 

 I am not lying, I have ah-maz-ing skills in this department.  Even more amazing? My ability to get crap done, quickly and well! It's not even 9am on Monday morning and I have taken my groups crap PowerPoint presentation and turned it into something beautiful.  

Now all I need to do is write an individual paper and get a conclusion written for our group paper.  Seems like a lot of work, I probably should have done work through out the week.  I could learn from this or just keep repeating this.  That's what I will do. Keep repeating this weekly battle. Why? Because I have a 3.8gpa, that's why. I usually seclude myself in the basement in my "office" during these times of procrastination catch up, but I brought the laptop out to the kitchen table so that I can get work done with the kid plays. Good mom, I know.

Okay, fine!  There is no softball team.

Weight Watchers, Week 1 recap

So this week was easy.  Really.  I've been on the program before, so nothing was shocking about it.  eTools make things a breeze when tracking.

I weigh in on Sunday afternoons.  Last week after my meeting, I went grocery shopping.  I made sure to get stuff for Pumpkin Spice muffins and Garden Veggie soup.  The muffins are 2 points, the soup is 0.  The soup is good and freaking 0 points. Sweet!!

Each night before bed, I cut up an apple and put it in a gallon of water with a cinnamon stick.  This made for delicious flavored water, which helped me with my soda-strike. I usually had a coffee from Biggby or made a chai latte at home and then water was my drink for the rest of the day.  

Dinners were clean and easy.  I'm trying this whole clean eating thing because it freaks me out that I can't say the names of some of the ingredients on the box of hamburger helper. Scary.

Tracking is the absolute best way to not shove crap in my face.  I write everything down before I put it in my mouth.  Tracking really makes me think about if something is worth eating or not.

In my first week, I lost a ridiculous 5.4lbs!! I know this is not normal and that it is not healthy to lose that fast.  However, I drastically changed some major habits.  I know that the weight loss will slow down.

My plan for week 2? I should probably get moving. We had Art Prize in town the past two weeks, so we walked around downtown for that a few times.  I have a gym membership, I need to use it. I'll also keep tracking and drinking a crap ton of water.

I'll let ya know.  Obviously you care otherwise you wouldn't be reading this, right? 

Why Weight Watchers?

Honestly?  I need someone to say "dude, knock it off".

I graduated high school weighing about 110lbs.  A mixture of (needed) Ritalin and ballet classes almost every night made me eat as much as my guy friends who played football. When I went to college, I quit dancing, taking Ritalin and started drinking. Winning combo!!  I gained weight, but not bad. At some point in college I got a random golf injury.  My weight shot up to 150.  Then life happened, I met my husband blah blah 180. bam. Just like that.  Crap, 180?! that is my all time high, until I was pregnant, of course.

My weight got up to 217lbs when I was 36 weeks pregnant.  That was at my check in at the hospital when I was in labor.  I breastfed my kid and another (via pumping--another story to get into later). I was a member of weight watchers, went to the meetings and dropped weight like crazy.  Too bad I was still eating Big Macs! I was a dairy farm. I donated just over 5,000oz of breast milk over 6 months. Anyways, my little sister got married in July 2011 and I looked great (I'm not being a jerk, I really did. Way better then I looked at my own wedding!) Freaking sweet!  I started weaning in August 2011 and slowly the weight came back on.  I didn't change my eating habits right away so the weight started packing on quickly.  I've gained 30lbs since 2011.

I've done various exercise programs, tried using My Fitness Pal and blah blah.  Nothing worked.  I need accountability. I need the "we're in this together" thing.  Weight Watchers is expensive, but I need that kick start to my new healthy lifestyle.

So, that's why I chose weight watchers.

Stop Licking That? Really, that's the name you chose?

Yep.  So, I have the sweetest two year old little boy. He cracks me up all the time but I find myself saying "stop licking that" on an hourly basis some days.  Seriously kid.  Why?! Why are you licking the door, refrigerator, dog, bath tub, TV stand...the list could go on and on and on. Kids are GROSS. 

I just started Weight Watchers to try to lose some of the 30lbs I gained back after I breastfed. That was a slap in the face, but we can discuss that later.  I don't necessarily lick things, but I am now very conscious of the things that I'm putting into my mouth (let's not turn this into something dirty..yet). 

This isn't my first attempt at a blog.  I usually get bored and move on.  I don't have high expectations, you shouldn't either.  Just sayin'.