Living Large on a Dime

Garden Update #4

2010-07-11T18:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been awhile! I've been away on business and as you can tell, the hubby did not take care of the garden like he was supposed to. :( Regardless, I'm going to try my best to bring it back....I'm leaning towards some type of organic fertilizer and following up with some coffee grounds.

Here is the squash, zuchinni, and potatoes. They are probably struggling the most...

Here are the eggplants in box #3. Not getting huge, but they do have three or four little ehhplants on them.

Here is on of the tiny baby eggplants! Cannot wait to make these into something delicious!

I've discovered two squash plants have come up in box #3. Only one little squash so far though (although it looks an awful lot like a pumpkin to me)???

And here is the green beans....struggling without water.

Here is all of box #3.

Planted red onions in box #2. These seem to be doing really well. I have no idea when they are "ready" though, hmmm????

And this I believe is garlic. It's either supposed to do this, or it's dead and I look like a fool! Ha!

And on to box #3....

Here are my little banana peppers. Not getting very big...

And one loan bell pepper. Not sure if this tiny plant can hold it much longer though...

And we've got quite a few cucumbers growing despite how bad the plant looks.

Wow....it's been awhile huh?

2010-06-10T19:18:00.000-07:00

Garden Update #3

2010-05-31T17:23:00.000-07:00

The garden is amazing me with how quickly last weekends seeds sprouted and how fast everything else has been growing. I guess the extreme heat, humidity, and a good nightly watering have been doing them good. And, to my own amazement, I've shocked my husband who thought this whole garden thing was going to be a waste of time and money. ;P So far I've only had four squares of strawberries (from the root seeds?) not come up and one square of cucumbers which I'm out of. But other than that, every single thing has sprouted and is going strong so far.

The strawberry bucket hasn't seen much growth yet, especailly compared to everything else in the past week, so I decided to move it to a more sunny spot. We'll see if that helps it take off.

Both the zuchinni and the squash sprouted and as you can tell, they are doing phenominal considering I planted them last Sunday!

And a few of the potatoes finally sprouted yesterday! Woohoo! I was a little worried how these would turn out.

Here are the sugar pumpkins I planted up against the house, all four plants have tiny sprouts.

And the two watermelon plants!

And the two jack'o lantern pumpkin plants!

This is kind of a hodge poge area where I tossed extra seelings I had, and then forgot to mark, but I think there is a broccoli plants here and the other is a brussle sprout plant. ;P

And my four melon plants are strewn about in the landscape.

Here's a overall view of my three square foot raised beds.

Box #1 is still going strong. The peas are flowering like crazy, so from what I read, that meas we should be harvesting sugar snap peas in just about a week. We also did our first harvest of lettuce and spinach this week. I made homeade ranch dressing to go over it using chives from the garden and Todd proclaimed it the best ranch he's ever tasted in his whole life! ;P We had some spinach in a pasta dish, but I'm making spinach strawberry salad tomorrow, so I'm super excited. The spinach isn't at it's peak like it was about two weeks ago, but thankfully it's still as good as the stuff from the super market, so we'll use it up while we still can! The dill plant is going crazy! I cannot think of enough dishes to use that all up! Anyone know if I should just trim it back?

Box #2 is just a steady grower. It's mainly plants that were supposed to be planted earlier in the season, before the last frost, but the first plants got ate by rabbits, so this is the second go around. No heads on anything yet though, so we'll see. I also have a giant mystery plant in the middle. I seriously have no idea what it is, haha!

Bed #3 is finally picking up too. My garden plan got a little messed up, so there is a mumble jumble of beans, carrots, lettuce, marigolds, and a zuchinni plant in the north part, but I have the south part under control. ;P The beans I planted last weekend really started strong, the eggplants are getting huge, and the new square of carrots, along with the new square of green onions all have tiny little sprouts starting.

Haha....and while this is not my garden, this is our neighbors, these are "our" tomato and pepper plants that got planted this weekend. Our neighbors just enjoy gardening and no longer can their produce, so they are very generous with what they drop off on our front porch. Not only that, but they remind us almost on a daily basis to come pick and pick away. They only have a few eggplant and zuchinni plants, but they grow about thirty varieties of peppers and tomatoes around their house and nestled in their landscape. So needless to say, this is why I don't grow a single pepper or tomato plant! And why I'm shooting a picture of it and watching it's progress, hehe!

Garden Update #2

2010-05-23T17:45:00.000-07:00

I'm 99% done with the garden and all it's associated projects. I decided to wait for the most humid and hot day of the year so far....go figure! But Todd and the kids had a blast getting the inflatable pool, sprinkler, squirt guns and slip and slid out while I was doing it, so at least it kept me a little cool every time I got srayed or a bucket of water dumped on my head!

Here is the three raised beds as of 2pm! We added two trellises to the 4'x4' boxes and added chicken wire around the 3'x6' box since rabbits ate all my plants in that bed only!

This is box #1. The Amish snap peas are doing great! I had a really hard time getting the trellis in between the middle, but they were happy once I started working them up the trellis! The spinach and lettuce are also in DESPERATE need of being picked over. I've got two salad on the dinner menu this week and two pasta dishes for the spinach...so hopefully that should keep them manageable!

This is box #2. I was lucky enough to find some pretty large cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and brussel sprout plants at Meijer this weekend for cheap, so I figured why not. Well try to grow them and see what happens.We also added leftover chicken wire from the compost pile around the bed to keep the rabbits from coming back and having another feast!

This is box #3. The pole beans are going crazy! I also noticed quit a bit of the romaine is coming up as well as the carrots. The eggplant has also gone crazy and the leaves are getting huge compared to the tiny little seedlings we planted just a few weeks ago!

As for the structures, here is a picture of the whole trellis. We actually found out Lowes carries cement remesh panels, which are much cheaper than the 100' roll others use. The panel is 3 1/2' x 7' for only $6.39. These panels fit perfectly inside the beds and then we attached them to t-stakes with zip ties.

This is a good picture of the chicken wire we placed around bed #2 to keep the rabits out. The hardest part was keeping the top of the chicken wire from bowing out, so we needed lots of stakes. Thankfully we found some wood stakes in the shed as well as a few scrap pieces from the deck railing. May not be pretty, but it works great!

I also didn't plan out my garden before ordering seeds, so I already had watermelon seeds as well as pie pumpkins and jack o'lanterns. So it wasn't until I planned it out that I realized there was no way I'd have room for these in the raised beds. So after thinking it over, I decided what the heck, I threw some dying herbs in our beds last year and they did great, so why not try a few plants in there was well. I also picked up a few melons at Meijers last night as well. So below are the freshly planted melon seedlings.

Along the pack of the house, we put in the watermelons and sugar pie pumpkins. I also threw in an extra brussel sprout plant and extra broccoli I had.

And over here is the pumpkins. Currently they are marked with tiny toothpicks so I know where to water, but this is still on my to-so list....figure out a way of marking all of my plants. ;P

This is our potato bin. The "seeds" came in a variety pack I bought with onions, strawberries, and asparagus, so I figured I'd give them a try. I read online that they could be grown in a trashcan, so I figured, why not try a plastic bin I already had in the basement. So we cleaned it out really good and drilled several holes in the bottom for drainage.

I also ordered zuchinni and squash plants without really looking into how they can be grown in a square foot garden. After finding out how much room they really need, I decided to try container gardening for these. And wanting to keep cost down, I figured I'd try using some galvanized tubs I had leftover from our wedding 5 years ago! Again, we cleaned them up and drilled holes in the bottom. Again, not finished just yet though. We have an old wood ladder under the deck which I'm going to make into a trellis for these.

And last but not least, another idea I saw online was growing strawberries in a bucket. I was able to get the bucket for just $2.99 at Home Depot (as if you can't tell ;P). I then bought a 6 pk of strawberry plants. Tod used his 1" spade drill bit and made 16 or so holes in the bucket. I then placed the 6 plants inside the bucket, weaving the vines out through the holes and filling it up with compost as we went. I'm hoping we have lots of strawberries in another month or so!

We're super excited about the progress we've made so far and all the work we've put into it. The ony thing left we have to do, that I didn't mention earlier is a small herb garden on the deck. I want to grow some basil, cilantro, and parsley in a 3 basket planter. Hopefully I'll get around to that one night this week!

Saving on your landscape!

2010-05-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, Todd owns a lawn and landscaping business. So thankfully for me, that means free labor for boosting curb appeal (which also boosts your property value). But really, landscaping is easy and anyone can do it. So much easier than most DIY projects like learning to hang drywall. The biggest money saver though is buying young plants at places like Lowes and Home Depot. They have a yr warrenty (so save your reciept) and in just a few years, it'll look just as good as the plants you want to pay 4X as much for at the nursery! Here is a prime example!

This was the picture in the listing for our house. It had sat on the market empty for close to a year! It was UGLY! Original landscape from 1979 and hadn't beentouched since then. The beds wre overgrown, no mulch had been laid, even the weeping cherry was growing into the roof of the house! This was March 2007.

That same weekend we started removing the landscaping because it was just so ugly. That July, we gave the house a fresh coat of paint, got some new shutters and new lighting. We also took down the giant tree. Then in Oct 2007, after any threat of drought had passed, we put in the new landscape. We watched out for end of the year auctions and got some killer deals on a few plants. We also found hostas and daylillies for free on Craigslist. Note how small the plants in the landscape were at the time we planted them! But we had faith!

This is our landscape now, just two and a half years later. And this is after a good pruning where Todd cut everything back to size. The trees, both the weeping cherry and maple are doing great. The daylillies and hostas are already going to have to be divided this coming fall ad the hollys are growing tons of berries now. The privets along the garage were going crazy but considering they can be used for privacy, we cut then back quite considerably to keep them from getting overgrown.

An addition this spring was the small retaining wall around the weeping cherry. This fall we hope to get a nice size bed built around the maple tree extending towards the front left corner of the house.

Our First Garden

2010-05-16T18:18:00.001-07:00

I've wanted a garden for years and finally the timing was right. We started falling in love with fresh from the garden vegtables last year after tending our neighbors garden for two weeks while they went to Florida. We also saw the joy Luke got from picking the tomatoes. We figured now was a perfect time to give gardening a shot! I did a lot of reading and decided the Square Foot Garden method seemed to be most kind to beginners. Todd still has a very "half cup empty" outlook on this whole garden thing, so I'm really hoping we get some beautiful produce from it!

Here is our three raised beds. Two on the ends are 4'x4' and the one in the middle is 3'x6'. Todd made them from composite decking leftover from our deck project last fall. They turned out great! And the grids were made from the roping we used to measure of the deck as well, so another free item w had around the house! I ordered most of our seeds from Seed Saver Exchange, but I must admit I never got around to starting seeds indoors. Being pregnant with #3 has me totally worn out. So I did have to buy a few seedlings from the local garden center, but all in all, we're still on plan.

Bed #1 on May 1st. This bed is planted with Amish snap peas, strawberries, Longfellow cucumbers, spinach and lettuce. I also have a border of dill and oregano by the cucumber, thyme by the strawberries, and marigolds by the peas. These are supposed to naturally ward off harmful bugs and disease.

Bed #2 is now a disaster and needs to be replanted....hence the reason I'm using photos from May 1st! This bed contained sweet onions, red onions, shallots, garlic, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower. There is a border of oregano around the cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli, a dill border by the onions and broccoli, and rosemary by the cauliflower. Problem? I got a little cocky. Our neighbors have had gardens for years and had no problem with animals eating the seedlings. So, I figured why go to the extra effort, it'll be fine! Wrong! Sometime between Friday and Saturday, a rabbit ate all the broccoli/cauliflower/cabbage! Some of it is totally gone, some is just the stems eaten all the way to the soil. Not even sure if it's worth replanting these at this point with the temperatures getting warmer. But I can tell you....chicken wire is being wrapped around every single bed this week! I'm not opening a buffet line for nature!

Bed #3 still needs to be finished, but will eventually be planeted with carrots, lettuce, golden zuchinni, Kentucky Wonder pole beans, empress beans, Black Beauty eggplant, and more garlic. This bed also has a border of marigolds by the eggplant.

We still have a lot to do not only for our vegtable garden but also the gardening for all my flowers around the house, so this weeks to do list is rather long. I hope my energy returns as I cruise into second trimester towards the end of this week.

TO DO:
-put chicken wire around all beds
-make trellis out of cow panel or cement rebar for peas, beans, and cucumber
-set up trelis along house for pumpkins, melons, and more zuchinni
-drill holes in galvanized tubs/rubbermaid tub/strawberry buckets for drainage
-finish planting in bed #3, containers, strawberry bucket, potatoes in rubbermaid tub and along house
-put flowers in planters and hanging baskets around the house (thankfully I bought these all over the weekend, just need to plant them!)

Finally, a use for leftover taco meat!

2010-03-01T19:46:00.000-08:00

Our family always manages to always have a little taco meat leftover, no matter how much I cook. I've recently stuck with 1 lb just because it's easy. I usually have about 1/4 lb left, which I throw in a frezer bag and it gets lost never to be seen again. So I'm always looking for ways to use it on something within a few days, but not something that is TOO similar to tacos.

Todd said he was in the mood for pizza, so into the kitchen I went searching for some kind of pizza to make. Low and behold, my taco pizza was born.

Crust is just a Betty Crocker pre packaged mix since I had it on hand, but any crust would do.

Sauce: 1 6 oz can tomoato paste, 3/4 cup water, 3/4 of a 1.25 oz package of taco seasoning, 1 tsp hili powder, and 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne powder - mix all together and set to the side

Beans layer: mix 1 16 oz can refried beans, 1/3 cup salsa, and 1/4 cup finely chopped onions

Then begin to layer...crust, tomato/taco sauce layer, bean layer, crumbled leftover taco meat, some black olives if you have them left over from tacos, and some shredded mexican cheddar cheese. Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 min!

After done baking, we also drizzled it with thinned sour cream and some fresh green onion, but it's optional.

This recipe is enough for two pizzas but we would never need that much. Instead we used it for lunch the next day...layer of cream cheese, bean mixture, tomato/taco sauce, meat, cheese and olives. Makes a great dip for tortilla chips!

We're ready for spring!

2010-03-01T18:47:00.000-08:00

Luke clearly is ready for some warm weather. This weekend, after having the stomach flu run it's course through our house, Luke told me it was time to go out and play. He must have taken his clothes off as he was playing in his room and then came to me with cowboy boots, Todd's winter hat, and holding his mittens saying it was "time for the fresh air mom!" He actually didn't have undies on the first time he came and asked, but I made him put some on and ask me again, HAD to take some photos for daddy!

He also picked out sunglasses that would be "pwetty on Brookey mom" while we were at the Carter's Outlet. Of course the second we got home, he said he needed them for the bright sun. Did anyone else besides him see sun on Sunday? Yeah...I didn't think so...

We did manage to get Brooke's nursery complete though this dreary weekend. Yeah, yeah, I know, this should have been done, oh, 9 months ago or more! Haha! And if I was even half a mom I would have gotten it done BEFORE her pictures in the nursery, but no, couldn't get that done either. Oh well, it is finally 100% finished!

Here is a good picture of the tissue paper poms I got from http://www.etsy.com/. The store is called Pros to th Host. I'm so going to be getting some of these for Brooke's first birthday party! SOOO cute!

And here's a closeup of the name art I made from scrapbook paper and framed with cheap frames from Kohls. They are hanging behind her crib.

These two photos are on either side of the window in Brooke's room. They aren't the greatest, but I needed something I coul get done in about 10 min while both kids somehow managed to nap at the same time. Todd woudn't let me spend any money so I already had these frames and scrapbook paper laying in the closet. The first is a bird on a branch and the second is supposed to be "mod" flowers that match the crib bedding. Not bad for free hand from the world's most uncrafty person! Haha!

I also have a few recipes to share. Todd and I were going through some old photos this week while we were all sick and came across some of our all time favorite recipes from this summer. I don't think I ever had time to share either of them, so I thought I'd do it now...maybe to get everyone motivated to start the seeds for their gardens soon! ;P

Anyway, the first recipe is a Grilled Eggplant Panini. The recipe can be found here: http://www.5dollardinners.com/2009/08/grilled-eggplant-panini-with-rosemary-garlic-aioli.html

We saw this recipe and just happened to have almost everything on hand. Our neighbors garden was overflowin with eggplant, zucchini and tomoatoes so we just had to try this out. Messy, BUT wonderful! We cannot wait for the first eggplant this season!

We served the panini with grilled broccoli (recipe below) and "fried" eggplant. Th fried eggplant was a little heavy with everything else, but I can't wait to make it again, this time as the main dish! All you do is slice the eggplant as thin as you can. Shake with a little salt an place on paper towels to get out as much water was possible. Then mix about a cup of mayo with a little lemon juice and some seasoning. We used a little seasoned salt. Then dip the eggplant into the mayo to cover all sides, then dredge in italian bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for 20 min, flip, and bake for 25 min more. Serve with a little warmed marinara sauce. SO good!

As for the grilled broccoli, this is a staple in our house. I'd never heard of this until my father in law started grilling all kinds of veggies. All you do is grab a square of foil, cut up a large head of broccoli, add a few tablespoons of butter and season with a littl garlic salt. Fold it up so none of the butter can leak out and then place on the grill for about 20-30 min depending on how hot you are cooking other items on the grill.

We made out at the Gap sale!

2010-02-16T17:55:00.000-08:00

We ended up with a pretty heft haul at Gap yesterday for their 45% off sale! Even though there was a major winter snowstorm on it's way in, we trudged out in the snow, credit card in hand!

We got there about 20 min after they opened and boy am I glad we went early. Within 20 min or so, it got insanley packed! Todd found himself a pair of work pants for only $3 (!!!) as well as 3 pairs of jeans for around $15. I got Brooke a few of the favorites I've been drooling over on the internet for spring, as well as a pair of plain white Robeez sandals that will match many outfits this spring/summer. I got the most stuff for Luke for next fall. He got several pairs of shoes/boots, a book bag for preschool, and several shirts. I did pick up two pairs of pants for myself, but both just don't fit right, especially for $25 still. I'd rather get a pair from (gasp) JCPenney's for half the price. Sorry, I have a lot of love for the Worthington Wear pants for work!

Anyway, here is a few pictures of the kids in their new clothes:

I also bought about a bag full of sale extras to sell of Ebay. My "strategy" was to pick things that there was only one left of, thinking it was probably a popular item! Seems like it worked pretty well. I've started listing things on Gymbofriends and I've sold quite a few, but the only thing I'm getting from that is rewards and points towards silver. I didn't add any extra for them. Tomorrow I plan on listing on ebay and starting my bid at the price I paid. If they buy it for that amount, great, if they pay more, added bonus!

Our frugal dinner...

2010-02-16T17:20:00.000-08:00

We got another surprise bill tonight...$241 at Gymboree that I thought was part of last month's $500 bill. Oppps! Yeah, this is a great example of how I got WAY off track on meeting our savings goals. And just because I needed to use my Gymbucks (aka, I bought $500 worth and got $250 off, plus another 5% off) is no excuse. I shouldn't have spent that much period on just part of Brooke's spring waredrobe!

I hate grocery shopping because it's one of the biggest budget items for us. I also hate grocery shopping because it feels like it never ends. Every Thursday I start thinking about it again. I'll write a list of what we have on hand and I'll try to mingle that with sale ads and coupons, but a lot of times I fall into the trap of seeing a recipe that looks delicious, and it might use up the chicken we have in the freezer, but then I need to buy 5 things to make the recipe. We also fall into the trap of quick snack items, especially for the kids.

My solution, a month long menu, well in our case it went from Sunday to March 18th, the day we leave for our Gatlinburg vacation, so about 33 days. We're going to try not to eat out or get carry out, not even for lunch, that entire time. AND we're going to try to stay under $50 every two weeks which is a BIG goal for us considering we have been spending about $150 every week.

I will post my monthly menu soon, but tonight's meal was frugal AND delicious, so I had to share. Our locally owned grocer had chicken leg quarters on sale for $.49/lb. I was able to get 6lbs (6 leg quarters - which is basically the drumstick and thigh I believe) for around $3. Last night I boiled them in some water and taco seasoning (I made a big batch of homeade seasoning since our family loves tacos). I then shredded all the chicken off the bone. I put 1/3 aside for tacos tonight and divided the other 2/3 into freezer bags, one for chicken tacos in the future and one for chicken tortilla soup next week. I then saved the chicken broth for both tonights spanish rice and next weeks tortilla soup saving me about $4 from two large boxed chicken broth.

For tonights dinner, I just tossed the shreded chicken in a skillet with more taco seasoning and just a tad of water. I also threw in a little corn to make it stratch a bit. We just threw that on some small soft taco flour tortillas we found at GFS for under $2 for 50 of them, topped them with chopped tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, a few packets of Taco Bell sauce I found in the fridge and a little sour cream.

As I side, I made spanish rice. I had remembered a recipe my brother had to make for his 4th grade class...a rice with tomatoes and bacon. For years I've tried to recreate it, but the second I laid eyes on this, I knew this was it. You have to check out this recipe at http://oneplusoneequalssix.blogspot.com/2009/06/spanish-rice.html. Added bonus...I've had two giant bags of long grain white rice sitting in my pantry for a long time, but never knew what to make with it. Pathetic huh? I'm a minute rice kinda gal. But this recipe not only used the rice (only 1 cup made a HUGE pot), but it also used up green onions I had for later this week, chicken stock I made last night, and a leftover can of diced tomatoes from dinner last night.

***These are borrowed pictures from the internet. Brooke was *dying* of strarvation, so I rushed to the table to feed her before I had time to snap pictures!***

Kids clothes...

2010-02-14T19:17:00.000-08:00

I've only been shopping for kids clothes for about three years, but I finally think I've figured out the best way to save money. You know the old saying "it takes money to make money?" Well, I take that saying to heart! Well, not really making money, but maybe saving money.

Anyway, in the past, I've always been good about shopping clearence racks, buying ahead, buying used clothes, etc. BUT, almost everything I bought was just a single item. For boys, it was fine most of the time because pretty much anything matched a pair of jeans or khaki pants, but for Brooke this just hasn't been working out! Do you seriously know how many shades of pink there are or how hard it is to find plain jeans for girls without hearts or flowers embroiderd on them?!?!?

I recently joined a messag forum called Gymbofriends and started "educating" myself. My first thought was a bunch of prissy moms who blow money on their kids clothes. But I figured I coud scoop up the deals by buying their used clothes that were to small. But what I didn't know was all the coupon/sale savvy moms on that site. With the knowledge I've learned on that site, I am hoping to break even from now on as far as the kids clothes and a few items I might actually make money on! I first sarted buying Brooke's spring/summer clothes during the Gymboree Rd Balon Sale. Everything was $6.99 and under plus I used a 20% off coupon. I also got 5% off for using my Gymboree credit card and recived $25 in Gymbucks for every $50 I spent. I was able to sell those on Ebay for $5/$25 Gymbuck. I also bought a few extras and sold them on ebay. One dress was bought for about $4 and went for $25! Crazy! And the resale for these outfits are great. I should get back at least what I paid for these items after she's done wearing them.

Then the Old Navy Baby sale came around. I only got the kids a few things, $4 sweat shorts for Luke, brown thong sandals for Luke, and oxford shirt, anda dress for Brooke. I also got myself a pair of pants for work at 40% off. On top of the already reduced prices, I got free shipping for spending $50, $10 off with the THANKYOU code, and an extra 15% off. I ended up getting 9 things for $45!

Gap has always been my favorite brand for Luke but I just haven't seen that great of sales s I've been buying most of this spring/summer waredrobe online, through Gymbofriends or ebay, or in store at Once Upon a Child and Moms Market. I also bought him two pairs of jeans during their buy one, get one for $10 jeans sale yesterday because I coulld use a 25% off coupon in conjunction with it. $30 for two pairs of jeans isn't too bad.

But lo and behold, Gap is now having a ridiculously good sale tomorrow, 45% off for cardholders!!!!! That is like insane considering it'll sell used for about the same amount! I'm so excited to not only get a few things for Todd and I, but also to get a few things for Brooke. Luk may get another shirt or two, and another pair of flip flops, but that's it!

Another HUGE tip I've learned is buying things in outfits! For resale purposes, this is HUGE, but it also is nice for planning purposes. I've started keeping complete outfits in the kids closets in those canvas shoe cubbies. I don't always get the kids dressed (either my mom does or Todd when he gets home for work) and sometimes I'm embaressed at how mismatched they are. So this has helped us tremendously!

This sure beats reselling Circo brand shorts that I paid $5 for for $1.50 at Mom's Market though! It may have cost less overall, but the quality just isn't there so it's hard to justify asking much for it when it'll probably only last through one or two more kids. But quality clothes go for more resale becase the quality is so good. It still looks brand new even if we wore it every week all winter long! Not to mention they look cute nd "stylin" inall their clothes too! Now if I'd just dress like I cared as well...haha!

Anyone else have tips of cutting your clothing balance???

And I just have to share...

2010-02-12T19:03:00.003-08:00

something happened to my baby! She's growing so quickly, I just had to share a quick picture or two of her!An this last one, I swear she was actually stapped in and we were right there. It was quite halarious that Luke has fallen in so much love with a stroller we found at the curb (even though it looked brand new!) We found it when I was still pregnant with Brooke and Luke recently found it back in storage! Go figure! One day he decided it would fit Brooke perfect and much to our surprise, it actually did. This was a one and only time though..Curious George is now the lucky rider in this vehicle of style...prepared for long walks as soon as this 20 ft of snow melts away! Oh, and yes, he has no pants on. During potty training he picked up this no pants thing and it's stuck. Thankfully it's just a home habit or we'd have some trouble! ;P

Our first bulk meat purchase!

2010-02-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

We've talked about it for years but we finally walked the walk. I've done lots of research on the benefit of buying grass fed beef (mainly the decrease in fat and the increase in Omega 3's) and I've searched local farms high and low. From my research, it ran from about $3-$6/lb fully processed. And there is every range from someone who posts on Craigslist (with bad grammer and spelling errors) to farmers who come highly recommended on many local eating sites yet have a wait list at least a year long to recieve their meat, yet still require a $250 deposit up front! I did end up finding our farm, Bare Family Farm on Craigslist, but he had a very nice ad with a link to a very informative and nice webpage.

In early December we actually went to the farm to visit and they were the nicest people. Showed us around the farm and even invited us in so our kiddos could warm up and play with their kids. The farm is a working farm, aka, not the picturesque farms you see in a issue of Martha Stewart Living, but overall very clean and a great set up for raising beef and their 4-H goats (their kid's projects for the county fair).

Three weekends ago we picked up our first bulk meat order from the butcher, 142 lbs, a 1/4 a side of beef. Just for anyone who is curious how much meat that actually is, here is pictures of everything on our counter.

We actually ended up giving my parent's about 50 lbs of it so after all that, it really isn't all that much. It will easily last us 4 months I'm sure though if we only eat beef 2-3 times per week.

And just in case anyone is interested, this is a picture of how our beef is marked. I was a little weary beforehand about knowing what was what, but I was so relieved to see the packages marked this way, with the date and what each item is.

For 142 lbs we got approx 40 lbs of ground beef (1 lb packages), 6 packages Tbones steaks (3/4" steaks, 2 per package), 6 Ribeye Steaks (3/4" thick, 2 per package), 2 packages of soup bones, 2 or 3 packages of short ribs, 4 packages of beef stew meat, 5 packages of cube steak, a half of a flank steak and several roasts.

So hows the taste? This was probably my biggest concern is that we wouldn't like it. Overall, we do like it and will do it again. The biggest thing for us to get used to so far is one, not having large steaks. In a restaurant, we are used to being brought T-bone steaks that amost fall over the side of the plate. With grass fed beef, especially from a younger, smaller (aka, more tender) cow, the steaks are MUCH smaller then we are used to. BUT, we know this is the amount of steak we should be eating so it's just something to get used to. The other is more variety. We had flank steak the other night and it was great. Todd asked when we could have it again. Well, the next time we buy a cow since cows ony have one flank per side. But we like flank more often than this. So that is something we just need to get used to.

As for the taste, I think it's delicious. We made burgers the other night with the ground beef and they were just to die for. Steaks are okay, but we just arn't huge steak fans since we don't eat anything around the fat. Flank steak was incredible and we're looking forward to trying a roast, short ribs, and cube steak in this weeks menu.

Also stay tuned for my report on buying 1/4 pig (110 lbs). We're picking it up tomorrow. Not sure how it's going to fit in our already stuffed to the brim deep freezer and fridge freezer, but tomorrow morning I better get it figured out!

I'm back...to living on a dime!

2010-02-10T19:41:00.000-08:00

Call it a blogging break, call it a case of the winter blues, call it whatever you want, but I took a break. My main reason...I felt a little funny writing a blog called "Living Large on a Dime" when we were not living it. We were living large, but we were also paying large. Our biggest splurge ever, a third vehicle.

We did need a bigger vehicle, and we decided that keeping my 2003 Honda Accord would save on gas mileage to and from work, but still, it wiped out our entire savings. We still have our 2 year emergency fund, sitting high and tight earning a whopping 4.5% BUT it's been a long time since we've lived exclusively on my income along to build back up our savings. We've also had some of those "large, one or few times a year purchases" like buying a 142 lbs of beef in bulk, 110 lbs of pork, paying 1 year of trash service, paying 1 year of preschool, carpet for our basement remodel, title and taxes on th new vehicle, and many more I feel like. So we have gone from living very large to saving every dime we can. We've even resorted to making as much extra money as we can. I've been working my rear off bringing in extra income by selling things we don't need on Ebay/Craigslist/several other diaper/clothing resale sites. I've made close to $1,000 in the past month. Todd has been pulling in extra money by shoveling snow which we have been getting A LOT of lately! He's also been finding odd jobs like painting a friends interior, selling tools he no longer needs (or has two of), and making raised planter boxes from the extra decking we had left over. Who knew he could be so efficient during the small 1 hr window when both kiddos were napping!

A big area of improvement for us has been tracking expenses. We've never been serious about this until now, mainly because I always thought I had a pretty good grasp on what we spent and where it went. Anymore, it's gotten out of control. So we started tracking everything...how much we spent, how much we had come in, how we paid for it, and how much we saved. Only 2 weeks in and we're really excited to see how it's coming along.

Another huge improvement, mainly for me, NO EATING OUT! I'm ashamed to admit it, but when I became pregnant with Brooke, I craved McDonald's sweet teas BAD! But of course you can't just go through the drive thru for a $1, so I added on breakfast as well for about $3-$4 per day. Then to make matters worse, I got into the habit of grabbing food at work when I was running late, which was basically everyday. It wasn't anything special - sandwich, chips and a pop but it came to $5-$6. So almost $10 a day for food. For the past three weeks, I have not ate out once! Tonight was the first night we've had dinner out in a LONG time too. We got carry out from a bar and grill type place and only because it was Todd's birthday and he had recieved a gift card. Halfway into eating it, we realized this is one thing we really don't miss. Our biggest cravings have been fresh vegtables.

So, here's to my committment to get back on th frugal living train. We've got a lot of thing we plan on buying in the next few months, so hopefully documenting on how I got the best price on things will be quite an intersting journey.

Christmas photo shoot!

2009-12-20T17:17:00.000-08:00

I've been overly excited about getting a Christmas photo shoot done by our photographer, Alison Kamper, but low and behold, Saurday brought snow and a grey dimly lit house! Boo! So I decided not to have her waste her time and instead, talked my mom into letting me break out my new 50mm lens. I have to say...I'm IN LOVE! That lens rocks! Anyway, here are a few of the awesome shots I got...not even edited. Next step...learn photoshop!

Sorry for my lack of posting...

2009-12-15T17:24:00.000-08:00

but my camera lens broke! It was over something so stupid too...roof vents Todd wanted me to sell on Craigslist. The same ones we couldn't even give away on Freecycle! Ughhh! I was taking a picture of it, moving around on my knees, tripped on the strap and boom, went crashing into the hardwood floor, camera lens first. It's the basic kit lens, and I already know there is a 50mm waiting under the Xmas tree for me, so it wasn't a HUGE deal, but it still makes me cringe thinking of all the holiday photos I've been missing. =( I've got a few shots from across the room with my zoom lens, but trust me, nothing blog worthy!

I also should no longer be absent from blog posts due to my health. I FINALLY had my gallbladder removed on Dec. 1st. They call it a "minor" surgery, but it was a wake up call for me that I NEVER want real surgery if hat was just minor! I'm a big baby, but not being able to put on pants or eat for almost two weeks just about killed me. And I went about an entire day without helping out with the kids. How can you not hug them and squeeze them and tell them you love them? That is probably the hardest part of all. Anyway, one surgery later, a terrile cough and cold later, and one bout of hives and I'm FINALLY feeling better. Well, the cough isn't entirely gone, but the antibiotics will hopefully kick in tomorrow.

The only other news I have is our deposit was paid on our quarter of beef and pork this past weekend. This is something I have thought a lot about for the past several years ut never got around to it. There was just too much to self learn and I never found the time. Well, after watching Food Inc. with Todd, he never wanted to eat meat from the grocery again. So we found a small local farmer who does 6 beef a year and 6 pigs. We will be getting apporx. 100 lbs of beef and 60 lbs of pork. I'm really excited to try out some new recipes with cuts of meat we normally don't eat. The extent to our beef eating ends at ground beef, sirloin steaks, and stew meat. It'll be nice to cook Todd a NY strip and have him tell me it's more delicious than his favorite steakhouse! Anyway, we will be picking that up from the processor on Jan. 19th, so I'll be sure to share pictures and our experience.

Guess that is about it for now. I need to get working on those Christmas cards I've been seriously slacking on! =)

Beco Butterfly II

2009-11-07T04:36:00.000-08:00

Brooke is now getting to the point where she's heavy enogh that she's starting to hurt my back in the carriers we already have - Hot Sling, SweetPea Ring Sling, HautePocket, and our LoveyDuds wrap (WAHM Moby). BUT I still need to carry her in something. She's not really old enough to sit in the carts at the store (and quite frankly, I'm not sure I want her in it anyway with all this H1N1 crap going around) yet I NEED two (okay well maybe 3 or 4) hands to keep tabs on Luke. So I've been looking for a new carrier that will last us quite some time. I've also been looking for something that my mom could easily throw on during the day and something that ::gasp:: Todd might even try to wear. This was not a small task! Here are some of the benefits of a Beco Butterfly in case you are unfamiliar with them:

* Comfortably fits users from under 5’ to over 6’ - I'm 5'4 and it's very comfortable and fits great. It adjusts great so it fits my husband excellent as well.

* Newborn to toddler up to 45 lbs - Excellent built in infant insert for little ones. I tried it on a doll (since my daughter is 14 months already) and it worked great. I also tried this on my son who is about 35 pounds and I was literally amazed at how well he fit and comfortable it was to carry him.* Ergonomically curved shoulder straps - The shoulder straps were great, adjustable and padded which made it very comfortable.

* New redesigned body style - The designs are absolutely the cutests things ever. The body style fits your baby great with no cutting of the legs.

* Inside panel enables to pass baby front one parent to another - I love this, it's so easy to get on and off, just like putting a backpack on with a baby and it is very, very easy to pass back and forth without worrying she's going to fall out.

* Easy and safe front and back carry - I wear this mostly on the back because my daughter likes to face out a lot and this lets her be up high and in the action. Both ways are easy to get on and with the buckles around your waist and one just beneath your collar bone, you know your baby is secure.

* Lightweight and Stylish - Very lightweight, but a little big for just stuffing in your diaper bag. This is very good for extended wearing, for walks, hiking, etc.

* Hands free nursing - A MUST and yes it works great!

Well after driving almost 2 hours to a store in Columbus called Sprout Soup, I tried on the Beco I'd read so much about and LOVE it! It's everything I've been asking for all wrapped up in one. But okay, I feel bad for saying this, but I just KNEW I could find it online cheaper. I'm all about small businesses, and I do understand they need to mark things up, but sorry, someone else can pay the mark up, I look for deals! Anyway, a deal I did find. Be sure to check out BabySNAZZ. With coupon code flipflop5 you get 5% bringing the price down to $132.05. Plus, they offer free shipping on orders over $75. Then, as if that isn't enough, they also have a 10% back rewards program. So I should expect $13.20 in store credit coming my way! I've got my eyes on some of those super cute baby legs in their clearence section! ;P

Anyway....if anyone is looking for a new carrier, I HIGHLY suggest buying the Beco Butterfly II from BabySNAZZ!

In other news...

2009-11-04T18:06:00.000-08:00

Of course our biggest news is the newest member of our family. Meet Harry. Yes, Luke has started naming Todd's lawnmowers. Haha! We have NO idea where he comes up with this stuff or where the heck he heard the name Harry, but whatever, the laughing is good for our health right? Anyway, Todd made yet another "risky" mower purchase. One of these times I'm convinced he's going to get burned but he's now 2 for 2 on Ebay. He paid WAY below market value and got it for only $4800. Now I know.....$4800 for a mower seems like an awful lot, and it's sad to say that this is just one of 15 other mowers, but he's gotten to the point where mowers are like shoes with me. You buy a new one, you must get rid of an old one. So the one he got rid of he had used for over 3 years, and although he took very good care of it and it'll last someone many years to come, he still got $2,000 for it! Craziness in my opinion! Anyway, Harry, meet my friends!

Now onto something people more normal than us might care about, my sewing skills are getting better and better with each project. Yes, I'm still in the beginning project stages, but still, they are finally starting to look like they were done by someone who knows what they are doing. I'm really proud of myself for sticking with this and finding time to dedicate to it. Normally, I'll get real into learning something, make an investment in all the stuff needed for it and then a week or two into it, I'll just give up, espeially anything that requires creativity, since I basically have none of it. Haha!

Anyway, this is another fleece soaker I made for Brooke for under $2. These are working great at night over Brooke's diaper just in case there is a small leak. I made the size up so she could grow into it, but it's working great even now.

And this is my first attempt at a cloth wipe. I kept reading up about how to make them and they seemed so easy, but there was several options and tons of different materials you could use to make them. I ended up buying OBV (organic bamboo velour), some terry cloth, and flannel. Then there is single layer wipes where you just cut and stitch around the edge. There is a double layer where you just put two layers together and stitch around the edge. Or, the third option is a T&T wipe (which I believe stands for turned and top stitched). Basically you sew wrong sides out and leave a little gap. Then you turn the wipe right side out an do a decorative stitch around the edge. I decided I thought I could try option 3 and it tuned out perfect. I'm glad I went the extra mile as it turned out really well.

Halloween was a howlin' good time!

2009-11-04T17:38:00.001-08:00

We had a really great Halloween night. This is the first one since we've "been on our own" that was on a weekend. Normally we're rushing home from work, figuring out that we forgot to get candy or forgot to carve pumpkins and then afterwards it's a mad dash to get to sleep because the daily grind starts again the next day. Plus, the past two years since we've had Luke, it's been down right miserable and especially cold. So not only was the night perfect, but the temperature was perfect too. I doubt we'll get a Halloween this nice again until the kids are graduated from high school. Haha! Isn't that funny to think about.

Anyway, Saturday afternoon after Todd got home from work, we started carving pumkins. We had picked up 5 pumpkins along the way and somehow only paid for one of them. We never made it to the pumpkin patch to pick our own, but it's top on our list next year. Anyway, the one pumpkin we did by was the enourmous one from Sam's Club. I HAD to have it because I'd always dreamed of putting one of my kids in a carved pumpkin. When I saw them at Sams for $8 I jumped for joy, quite literally. ;P

Anyway, here is Brooke posing for her pictures in her pumpkin....she's getting SO big but she still wasn't happy sitting in a giant, cold, damp pumpkin. She's a trooper though!

After that, Todd tore into carving it. Luke's ben real obsessed with the movie Monster's Inc. right now, or "Inky" as he calls it. He LOVES talking about "scary guy." So when Todd decided to make Mike from the movie, I thought it was not only way out of his reach, but a really cool idea. It turned out pretty good with the help of a few toothpicks, haha!

And a picture of the pumpkin all lit up. It was the talk of the neighborhood.....everyone was saying ti was the best of the night! Haha!

Then the picture of the kids in their costumes. Is it sad that this is the best one I have? Luke's new thing is "rubbing bellies mommy." He LOVES rubbing him and Brooke's bellies together and she just thinks it's about the funniest thing in the world. And if you can't tell what they are, Brooke was a bumblebee and uke was an Indian. I was feeling unmotivated this year so store bought costumes all the way! Go me!

This picture pretty much explains how our entire night went. Luke ran from house to house yelling "I need more." Glad I've done well teaching my child manners. Actualy though, it was a great opportunity. I wouldn't let him leave a single house without saying thank you and he did a spectacular job. We managed to make it through about 3 blocks in 2 hours.....how that for a world record? Just kidding! He enjoyed running house to house, ut he'd also sit right down on people driveway and start counting all his pieces. Haha! What a site to see.

Anyway, I hope everyone had as wonderful of a Halloween night as we did! And shockingly enough.....what does this mean? Holy crapola....I'm hosting Thanksgiving in less than 1 month....AHHHH!

New Family Pictures...

2009-10-30T18:46:00.001-07:00

Here is a preview of our fall family pictures - http://alisonandoliver.blogspot.com/2009/10/todd-andrea-luke-brooke.html

I once again super shocked that there was any good pictures at all. Since Luke's been about a year old, and basically not sitting still for 10 seconds, I have no idea how anyone captures pictures of our family at all. And then to throw our baby Brooke in the mix just makes it all that more interesting!

The first day of our shoot ended up getting rained out. It started out just cloudy and sprinkling. We braved through it and got the chair/field shots and then went to a giant sunflower patch b our house before it started to really pour. We rescheduled for three weeks later and thankfully it worked out pretty good. The leaves had begun to change and the day was beautiful, but chilly and windy. Brooke was not real happy about it, but she did great! Luke didn't get his nap that day either. Can you tell? Anyone hope everyone enjoys them as much as we do!

Plus, the highlight of the shoot was actuall finding out some super information about our photographer that I had been praying about nightly. I even bought her a little something already because I couldn't contain my excitement! ;P Yeah....

Feeling accomplished!

2009-10-27T18:39:00.000-07:00

It's almost bedtime and I just had to come blog about my day, I just feel so accomplished, like the old me. I did take a half day off work today since I apparently slept wrong last night and needed some heating pad time and lots of Mortin, but still. I woke up as usual at 5am with the babe. I'm not complaining considering she's zonked out by 7pm....hoping she'll last anymore than 5am is wishful. So I get her her bottle and of course uke just somehow knows we're up and comes right in asking to watch "Inky, Inky mama" (aka - Monster's Inc.).

Anway, I'll spare you the rest of the lame details of my day and get to the good stuff. So basically, I was super bus at work this morning, but hunchd over my keyboard at work was just not working for me. So I headed home at lunch time, took some Motrin, laid on the heating pad and took a little nappers.

I was feeling better so I thought I'd run some quick errands before starting dinner. In less than an hour, I dropped off my WAY overdue dry cleaning (I'm pretty sure I'm going to wear the same pair of black pants three days in a row), dropped by the grocery for Halloween candy ($1.48 a package - score!), and got some lost books taken care of at the library. Funny how I found them on their shelve huh?

Then I came home and made this delicious salmon dinner. Normall, I try to make fish about once a month. Really, it's all we can handle. I've tried recipe after recipe and we just eat it because I made it but you can tell no one likes it, incuding me. I saw reviews for this recipe saying it didn't taste fish, some said they hated fish but loved this recipe, etc. So I figured, well salmon is only $3.99/lb for fresh wild caught salmon, so why not give it a shot. OH MY GOSH! Wonderful! Of course allrecipes.com is down right now (go figure), but it's called Baked Salmon II I believe. I'll come back and edit this post with the recipe. I just paired it up with some white rice (with the marinade poured over it) and grilled broccoli. Even Luke ate every single bite and kept saying "mmm, mommy, mmmm."

We also decided to start Brooke on her solids tonight. I had made that butternut squash this weekend and there was about two servings that wouldn't fit in an ice cube tray. She ended up LOVING it and being totally read for it. She did great!

She also enjoyed plaing with her "spoon" afterwards too. I picked a few of these up at Target when Luke was starting solids and they work great. It's a little gross to me to let them use our finger like a lot of the books suggest, but this is very similar. Hopefully I can find some more at the store since I can only locate two of them in our house. I'm sure the'll pop up sometime when she's around a year. Hehe! So much for my super organized pre-kid self huh?

And here ou can tell just how happ she was about her first experience with solids. =)

After dinner I had my last table decor sewing class at JoAnne's. I honestly thought about not even going to the second class. I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out (the front of the pattern looked really ugly) and I had some major issues in the first class with getting the wrong fabric, not knowing how to use the machine at the store, etc. BUT, I paid for the class, I was going to go. So in I went and not only finished my first placemat, but also finished a second one in a little over an hour as well. YEAH! It's amazing what nice fabric really does for something. Goes from looking like something grandma made to something hip. Oka, so maybe hip people don't sew placemats, but hip moms do right? Can I at least be a hip mom?

Oddly enough, while I was in my class, our local Kroger store had trick or treating for the kids and a big sale. Of course I'd already told him we got plenty of candy, but of course he thought he needed an extra 10 bags for whatever reason. He also decided he needed enough carmel apples and frosted brownies to feed an army. The kids got ANOTHER huge bag of candy too. Seriously, we now have three giant bags of candy from three different Halloween events and trick or treat isn't until Saturday! Gesh people!

All in all, I can say we had a pretty exciting day. Hard to believe it's onl Tuesday.

Finally feeling like myself...

2009-10-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

I don't know if it's Brooke sleeping through the night, the change of the season, or the fact that I basically "got a week off" since I went to Chicago for business last week, but I'm feeling more like myself again. Regardless, we've had a super busy weekend, full of all kinds of Halloween festivities.

First, Friday afternoon was my office kid's Halloween party. Last year I was basically in charge of the entire thing by myself, so I didn't get to enjoy it with Luke. This year I told them I'd help before hand, but I was enjoying it. And enjoy we did. Luke's favorite parts were of course the eating (cookies galore!) and trick or treating around the cubicles in the office. Everyone goes all out decorating and it really gets spooky. Luke is still talking about all of the "scary guys" as he says.

Then I started making Brooke's baby food. Can you believe she's 5 months already?!?!? Where has the time gone? I still plan on starting her on bananas, avacado, and brown rice cereal, but butternut and acorn squash were on sale this week so I decided to freeze some of it into cubes too. Just chop the squash in half, la in a baking dish with 1=2" of water and bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.

Then scoop out of all the "meat" and place in a food processor or blender. Then add a little bit of the water that the squash cooked in. Roasting squash as I've read retains the most amount of nutrients and adding the water which it roasted in adds back some of those nutrients.

Then process and spoon into ice cube trays. Cover with seran wrap, freeze, and then pop them out and play in freezer bags. Be sure to label what it in the bag and the date you made it. Butternnut squash looks and auwful ot like carrots and sweet potatoes and acorn squash looks a lot like pears and applesauce. =)

Then toss the skins into the compost pile. Did I mention Todd put a compost pile together for me??? I can't WAIT to start a garden next spring!!!

Then,take the flesh that you scooped out at the beginning, put it in a strainer to seperate out the seeds. Then toss the seed in olive oil and kosher salt. Sprinkle with fresh ground black pepper. Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 min! I also saved a few before cooking to plant next year. =)

Then we had our neighborhood annua Children's Halloween Party in the Park! This is our third time going and thie first one where the weather has actually been decent and we didn't have to come home after 20 minutes because we could no longer feel our toes. =)

Anway, it all starts off with a police escorted "parade" from in front of our house down to the park. Of course the kids get a big kick out of this.

Then they have the custome contest. Luke won 1st place last year for his "duct tape" costume. This year Brooke won in her $2 Walmart bee costume. I'm sure it didn't hurt that she smiled the entire time we stood in line...

There was also a chili cook off forthe adults. I submitted Rachel Ray's Tex Mex Corn Chip Chili. It was okay, but didn't win. There was some tough competition though.

Then there are tons of games for the kids to play. We could not get him away from bean bag game. He NEEDED another set of dracula teeth. =) That's his new thing b the way....everthing is "but mom, I NEED it!"

And Luke's other favorite thing was the hayride. It's nothing big, just a neighbor who takes his "tractor" (aka riding mower) through the "haunted woods" (aka the tiny patch of woods with a couple older neighborhood kids that jump out with masks).

Oh and the other boys in the picture are our new neighbors. They are such well beahved boys and take Luke under their wing just like another brother. We're been really blessed with great neighbors and getting to know them better and better has been great.

Time for bed, hope everyone had as wonderful of a weekend as we did!

6 Meals in a snap!

2009-09-29T17:46:00.000-07:00

***This blog post will not have any pictures.....I have a stupid virus I can't get rid of and it won't let me attach pictures....booo! But I promise, everything was delicious!****

So I haven't posted in quite some time. I have to be frank in saying that we have been having some probems at home. Everytime I "think" I understand why they call it the terrible twos, it gets worse. We love our little guy to death, but I swear he just is like the energizer bunny and keeps going and going and going. I do not look forward to eating any meas with him anymore and I feel horrible for saying that. Every night is a struggle. It's an absolute war (or should I say carnival, since we have to make up about 4 different games to get him to eat 10 bites) to get him to eat anything and I'm not sure it does any good because during that time he's probably burned twice as many calories. He's up on the table, he's hanging from the chair, he's crawling under the chair, he's everywhere. The upside to all this.....well I guess I'm still losing weight because I have no time to eat! J/K! I'm still glad we eat dinner every night as a family, but still, when does it start getting better. When do we not have to stop mid-bite every two seconds to tell him to sit down, stop spitting out your food, stop feeding the dog, stop this and that. I feel like the worst mom in the world.

Weekends, yeah, well, they aren't much better either. I get just about nothing done except the family room and basement picked up every 10 minutes and by the time I'm done I start all over.

On a lighter note, I'm trying to streamline things as much as possible. I keep telling myself Luke's behavior problems are because Todd and I work and so he does these things for attention. I know I'm probably beating myself up more than I should, but regardless, I continue on. Anyway, so I came up with this awesome little three night supper/lunch plan. As long as you don't mind having chicken for lunch and dinner three days in a row, hopefully you'll love this as much as we have! (You could also probably freeze the chicken and use at a later date to space out these meals if you think 3 days of chicken is a little overkill).

Anyway, I started out on Sunday morning marinating the chicken breast. I used my new favorite meat marinade I posted about a few weeks ago. In case you forget, here it is again:

1 1/2 cups vegtable oil
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 Worcestershire sauce
1/2 red wine vinegar
1/3 lemon juice
2 Tbsp dry mustard
1 tsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp fresh ground pepper
1 1/2 tsp fresh minced parsley

Just shake everything up in a jar and use as you need. For this recipe, I only used about half of the marinade for all the chicken.

Then Sunday night Todd grilled the chicken breasts and I served with some simple baked potatoes with butter, fresh chives from our herb garden, kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. We had brownie sundeas with it for dessert. The remaining 5 chicken breast were packaged up and put in the refridgerator.

The next day for lunch I made chicken cesar wraps for both of us for lunch. I got some tomatoe basil tortilla/sandwich wraps on the manager's special rack for only $.99! I used those, tore apart 1/2 a chicken breast for each wrap, tore up a few leaves of Romaine lettuce, sprinkled with a little parmesean cheese, and put a little Ceasar dressing down the middle. Todd and I both thought it was delicious.

Monday night for dinner was Chicken Pasta Primavera. I actually got this recipe from http://www.5dollardinners.com/2009/09/pasta-primavera-2.html so go on over and check that recipe out.

Then for lunch on Tuesday I split another chicken breast and tore it up into a tortilla wrap. This time I made chicken cobb salad wraps though. A little bit of mayo, colby cheese, lettuce, chicken, tomatoe, and avacado. Todd added some ranch to his. Again, they were delicious, quick, cheap and easy.

Tonight for dinner was chicken pesto pasta. I just made this up with what we had on hand. I again tore a leftover chicken breast into pieces and tossed it in a skillet with some olive oil and garlic. I sauteed that until it got warm and then turned the burner to low. I added 1 and 1/4 cup heavy cream, 1/2 cup parmesean cheese, 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes in oil, and 1/2 prepared pesto. Meanwhile I cooked a 16 oz box of pasta to al dente. At this point I drainedit and tossed it in with te chicken and sauce. I served with a simple side of garlic bread.

Tomorrow for lunch we will be splitting up our last leftover chicken breast. We both loved the Ceasar wraps so much we're going yo do those again. We tossed around the idea of making it into BBQ chicken wraps, but maybe another time perhaps.

Brooke's 3 months - super belated!

2009-09-10T20:02:00.001-07:00

Yeah, so I know Brooke's now been 3 months for almost half a month, but hey, better now than never right? So here's a few pictures of her from the past month:

Brooke's 3 month "birthday" shoot by me! Can you tell she thinks I'm halarious?!?!

Brooke went to her first festival inTodd's home town. Yeah....she had about as much fun as I did. ;P

Who crawled into who's bed? And are my kids color blind? Don't they know blue is for boys and pnk is for girls.....guess not!

We've been having a TON of thunderstorms this summer. Chloe is still a HUGE baby during storms, she just has a new pal to protect her. She may be about 1/4 of her size, but hey, it works I guess.

And Brooke modeling her newest additions to her fall wordrobe (and newest additions to mommies OBSESSION). These are both recycled wool longies from seller Chickadee on Etsy.com. Cute strawberry on the bum of this one...

And recycled wool footies with a matching hot pink flower on the bum of these. Too cute! She loved them too if you couldn't tell. ;P

So this month Brooke has really started to "wake up" and see the world around her instead of sleeping for 20 hours a day. I wasn't complainging, but hey, it's fun to actually have fun with them during that baby baby stage though. She's holding up her head pretty well now and loves to do her tumy time. She is eating like a bottoless pit and laughing pretty much every inute of the day. I guess when you have a brother as silly as hers, one can't help but laugh all day long. She's also sleeping very well. She goes down right after Luke about 7:30, sleeps until Todd goes to work at 3am, and then sleeps again until about 9am. We switched to her crib without any fuss as well. I can only hope this great babiness doesn't turn into toddler hell X 2. I don't know if we can take it if she's any more "active" than Luke. "Active" is a nice way to put it, right? =)

Bread and butter pickles!

2009-09-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

Todd is OBSESSED with condiments. That guy can go through a bottle of ketchup a meal! I swear! But bread and butter pickles are his one obsession that drives me nuts. Ketchup, okay fine, I just grab the bottle of Heinz in the grocery store and we're on our way. Mustard, better make it Plochmans. But pickles....on no, not just any store brand will do. Instead he HAS to have the $7 gourmet, small business canned pickles. Okay, fine, I'm all for supporting business, BUT, not when my husband goes through pickles like it's his job. $7 for pickles once a week is not economical. And guess where his new favorite pickles are from.....yeah Gatlinburg, TN....some 400+ miles from where we live! He'll seek out people going down there just so they can bring him back pickles! It's nuts!

SO, I set out to find him some I could make myself. I tried about 20 recipes before I came across this one. I tweaked it a bit based on the taste of the ones he gets, but who would have thought cooking them in the microwave was the key!

So first, chop up three large cucumbers.

Next chop up three large onions into thin slices about 1" in length. If you don't like these as well, you could probably cut it down to one, but he likes the onions on his sandwiches too!

Toss the cucumbers and onions in a bowl with 3 cups of sugar, 3 tsp salt, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 and a 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar, 1/2 tsp celery seed, and 1/2 tsp ground turmeric. I added just a dash of red chili peppers too, just for a little surprise kick!
Then give it a good stir and pop it in the microwave and cook until cucmbers are tender, sitrring every 2-3 minutes. For me this was about 15 minutes.

This is what the finished product will look ike. They will take a while to cool down, but they are delicious from the start, but the taste will get better with each day as well. I'm sure these would be great for canning I just personally haven't tried. We are keeping in the fridge until they are gone.....maybe a week or two.

Deck sneak peak!

2009-09-06T20:44:00.000-07:00

Yeah, Todd promised me a deck in March. Then he promised me a deck by my birthday, in June. THEN, he PROMISED it would be done by 4th of July. Yeah.....it's now Labor Day....BUT, he's almost done! Anyway, here is a few sneak peaks.....it already looks 100% better than these pictures, but I haven't had time to snap any pictures.....so for what they are worth.....the sneak peak:And even though it is far from a finished masterpiece, we've already began to enjoy it. Only one section of railing is up, but we moved our old table and chairs and grill up on the deck. We hung out there this morning after harvesting our neighbors garden and then we ate dinner out there tonight. I LOVE it out there. Now if only I could just go buy new patio furniture, a new grill, ourdoor rug, and a new patio set, I'd be in heaven. But that is the bad thing about this getting done so late in the year......yeah EVERYONE is sold out. Boooo! So we'll just have to make do until this spring. Plan is do a 6 person teak table, blackish outdoor rug under it, new black grill of some kind (thought Weber but now hearing not great reviews) and then a bar with bar stools up by the window. Oh and we ran cable out to it to, so we'll be setting up a tv mount as well. Obviously we won't be able to keep the tv out there ALL the time, but we can bring it out for parties and what not.....how cool huh? Totally Todd's idea! Men! Anyway....more to come! Stay tuned!

How does it fit?

2009-09-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

I always wondered how different diapers fit babies at all the different stages. So, whie this is a little late, late is better than never right? Al these pictures were taken just as Brooke turned 2 months. We weighed 10 lbs 5 oz.

First is a Suzie's One Size fitted diaper. I wasn't a big fan of these when we first got them. They do fold down to supposedly fit a newborn baby, but they would be super bulky. Also, the outside of them is regular cotton fabric, not the stretchy soft knit like most fitteds. Kind of threw me off at first. Oh yeah, and they take FOREVER to dry b/c they are so thick! BUT, I've come to love these diapers. They work GREAT for nighttime!

Next is a Medium Blueberry Al In One. While this diaper is super cute I just haven't ever been a fan of it. We've had some major leak issues and I think it's due t repelling. I've tried everything though and nothing seems to work.

Next up is a one size Goodmama fitted diaper. I really like these diapers. They fit her a little big at this point, but the have cut prints, super soft and stretches a nice amount. We use these overnight as well.

Fishnoodles cover in size small. I really love the print on this diaper and also the fit. It gets nice and snug around the legs yet isn't so tight it leaves a mark. Has held up very well too!

This fitted is by Spoiled Rotten. They are no longer in business for whatever reason, but it makes me sad because we loved this diaper so much. Love the print and the fit was very good for her thin legs and tall rise.

Next is a size small BumGenious. This was a perfect diaper for that "transition period" from newborn diapers to one size diapers. They work great and are easy to use. This is our main "mimi" diaper used during the day when she watches Brooke.

Next is a size small BumGenious 3.0 AIO. These are our "mimi" diapers because they are the only ones my mom will use when she watches the kids during the day. They work great, are easy to put on, and there is just no hassle with them. Needless to say.....at about 13 lbs now, she's outgrowing them. =(

This is the one size Swaddlebees pocket diaper with aplix closure. For the most part I really like these. They fit good and absorb well, but I'm not a fan of the fact that the soaker just "lays" in the diaper, not snap in. Other than that though, it was a very nice diaper for the price and cute print too. :P

Again, one size Swaddlebees pocket diaper, this time with the snap closure though. Its fit her pretty well so far, but usually I'm not a snaps fan. It seems my kids are always in between sizes and I can never get a perfect fit with snaps.

Next up is a size small Thirsties AIO. These arecute, trim, and easy to use. This is another of mimi's favorites. They last forever too! We've been using them since about 10 lbs and I'd say we have at least another month in this size.

And a pair of SBish (Sustainable Babyish) interlock wool pants. EVERYONE talks about how wonderful these are but I personally don't see what all the hype is about. They were soft for wool but they were not stretchy AT ALL. DD is very skinny and yet these pants were to tight in the waist and too long in the legs. I wonde what baby WOULD fit in these properly? The upside? I was able to sell these in a heart beat for exactly what I paid for them.

Lastly is a MonkeySnuggles pocket diaper from Etsy. I thought the print was cute so I thought I'd try it out. It's a very cute diaper and a cute print, but the insert it came with is just not enough. I added a secnd doubler with it, tried with BG doublers as well as some hemp inserts from ArtsyFarstyFooFoo and the diaper worked perfect!

I had quite a bit more in my "stash" at this time, but hey, never enough hours in the day right? Maybe I'll have a "new" fashion show and stash pics any day now.....we'll see. ;)

Perfect for Potty Training

2009-08-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

I wasn't sure exactly how we were going to potty train. Luke had been interested in going to the potty every since we switched him to cloth diapers at 18 mo. Almost immediately he wanted to be changed as soon as he got wet. And after fighting with him for a long time about putting one on, all of a sudden he'd lay right down to be changed. Anyway, we finally decided two weeks ago that we'd start really giving potty training a try. I read a TON of stuff online, but I was still totally confused at what would work for him.

We had some of the Gerber trainers, but they were horrible. If he did have an accident, they caught maybe 10%, if that. And a lot of courses say to have him run around outside and he'll feel the sensation to pee pee better. Not only did he not even slow his run during a pee, but it was darn near impossible to keep him outside all day with a newborn. So next I looked into absorbant trainers. Even then I wasn't thrilled with what we tried even though reviews said it was "the best." I was stuck until I thought about soakers. Brooke's diapers were soaked overnight and yet the wool kept everything in.....so why couldn't that work for Luke? So I ordered up one wool soaker. Laolized it up and put it over some Gerber trainers. Low and behold....perfection. Here is the three we have so far and I LOVE them all!

A new motivation!

2009-08-27T18:33:00.000-07:00

A co-worker friend of mine just bought a new house. It just happens to be a ranch home built in the early 80s and very similar to how ours looked when we first moved in. She loves the house and the location but she just couldn't get past some of the 80s decorating. So, to give her some inspiration I organized all the pictures I already had on shutterfly by room and in order of how each room came along. I started looking at it though and it just gave me such motivation. I guess I had just gotten used to a lot of stuff being done in our house. I had forgotten, or maybe not realized, just how far it has come along. Take a look and see for yourself....

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8QbtGLly0csN6

Anyway, so just looking through those pictures made me realize that all the hard work we've put into this house is so worth it. And I've really been slacking in the decorating area lately. Especially when I look around and see what seems like everything being destroyed.....oh there goes my rug now that Luke is throwing spaghetti down on it.....oh there goes my floor since he just threw this or that across the room. But really, aside from a few nicks and scratches here and there, our house has held up pretty well against the toddler. I feel like I'm ready to get some rooms finally finished and to start some new ones.....mainly the basement and then Brooke's "big girl room."

Anyway, this weekend I am actually going shopping kid free for house stuff. First time since Brooke was born 3 months ago! So another mommy friend and I are headed south to go to Ikea, the Ballard Designs Outlet and then hopefully we'll have enough time to hit up Kirklands on the way back. I am thrilled beyond belief. Can't wait to shop with my renewed sense of the decorating bug!

Meal Planning: It's working!

2009-08-27T13:51:00.001-07:00

It's impossible for all four of us to go to the grocery store anymore, but we all love going together just because we can't spend enough time as a family. So, my solution, cutting down grocery shopping to one large trip every two weeks. I had meal planned in the past and used the sale ads in the Sunday paper as a guide to my meals, but I'd never really stuck to it. Now I've finally found out what is working for us. And as an added bonus, for whatever reason, it's saving us about $40 over two weeks.....down to about $70 per week. I am shopping two stores when I can....usually getting only dry goods from one of the stores so I can go during my lunch break, the other one Friday night or Saturday morning.

Our neighors brought these vegtables over on Thursday night. They knew Todd loved their yellow tomatoes so they brought tons. They also knew I made a green paper casserole and they threw in the ggplant for good wishes I guess. We'd actually never had eggplant before. And I figured I could make salsa with all those tomatoes!

This past week at work was busy, so I braved Meijers by myself with the two kiddos. Luke was in the big part of the cart with his trains and I wore Brooke in the moby wrap. After only bagging up two bags of peaches and Luke already throwing a fit, I thought for sure this trip was doomed. But somehow I was able to distract him long enough to get through the store. Here is everything we got for only $65.50 plus I got an extra $5 off coupon to use on my next shopping trip (thanks to my Entertainment book!)

Highlights include: 4 boxes of pasta for $1 each, Keebler cookies were 2 for $4 + $2.00 off 2 (Luke's potty treats!), Tropicana lemonade and tropical punch $.99 each,, peaches were $.69/lb, 2 boxes each of Wheat Thins and Triscuits were 1/2 off, Light and Fluffy noodles were $.99, Pears were $.77/lb, Cucumbers, Zucchini, and squash were all $.77/lb, 75 ft Recycled Aluminum foil was 2 for $4 + $2.00 off 2.

Then Sunday morning I hit up Krogers before the rush. I scored two loafs of Italian bread for $.69 each, 2 liters of pop were only $.79 and delicious corn for $.19/ear. I don't think there was any other godfather deals this week. Total bil was $79.20.

Later that night though our neighbors brought over even MORE produce. Here is the 6 lbs of green beans they brought and about 5 pints or so of cherry tomatoes. I didn't get pictures, but they also brought over 6 more eggplants, another bag of about 30 tomatoes, 15 assorted peppers, and about 10 more green peppers!

So total for both shopping trips and all the free produce from our neighbors was $154.70.

So, two weeks worth of meals from this?

Hamburgers with grilled broccoli and grilled foil packet potatoes
Ham and cheese quiche
Goldren pork chops with green beans in bacon and corn
BLTs with corn on the cob and chips and salsa
Marinated flank steak with griled zucchini and potatoes
Summer Sausage pasta
Soft tacos with mexican rice
Fried perch with baked beans, beer battered onion rings, and macaroni salad for 8
Stromboli pizza packets
Salsa chicken with mexican rice
Ratatouille with homeade garlic bread
Cheese tortolini with sundried tomatoes and grilled chicken
Marinated gilled chicken with arkansas green beans

Lunches included pasta salad, salads, leftovers, sandwiches, and peanut butter and jelly with granola bars, wheat thins, triscuits and cheese

Breakfast incuded pop tarts, cereal, orange rolls, yogurt, smoothies, bagels and cream cheese, and Christmas breaffast casserole this coming Sunday.

Snacks for Luke include hummas with pita chips and baby carrots, turkey dogs served with pretzel sticks, celery with peanut butter and raisins, pretzel sticks with rolled up ham and cheese, grape and pear kabobs with yogurt dipping sauce, applesauce, dried banana chips, peanuts with banana cheerios and :ahm: 8 lb bag of M&Ms for bribary purposes. Granted, the bag of M&Ms will last about 6 months, but I thought it was funny they came in bags that big! Haha!

And a few extras we got from these shopping trips: frozen pears and frozen peaches for Brooke's baby food I'll make this winter, microwave pickels, salsa (enough to fill 6 canning jars, 4 of which we gave away since I don't have canning supplies yet), oatmeal chip lactation cookies, sundried tomatoes couple pounds of frozen tomatoes I'll make into marinara sauce or salsa later, and a couple lbs of trimmed and blanched green bean.

We literally have more than enough food to eat for the next two weeks and for less than $80/wk. It's not the healthiest food in the world, but trust me, this is much of an improvement over what we used to eat and we're working on it.

It's been awhile!

2009-08-24T20:46:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, it's been awhile! I have no idea how working mothers do this! Anyway, I guess I'm averaging about one post every two weeks. I need to pick that up some huh? Anyway, here are some pictures frm the past couple weeks. I promise, we haven't just been sitting around with our thumbs up our butts! Haha!

So, what have we been up to? Well, the first big thing is potty training. I always thought the toughest part of that would be actually getting Luke to go potty. No, really it's training for the parents. We are the ones who forget to ask him if he needs to go. And by the time we realize it would be good to set the timer for every 30 minutes, now he goes on his own. Things are going well though but he needs watched every second just in case he changes his mind. Nothing repares yu for finding an accient under the dining room table! (Yes, we will never have house guests again now! J/K! I cleaned it GOOOOOOD! Trust me!)

Secondly, my newhews were in town so we got to hang out with them a lot. They are 10 and 12 and the perfect age. They get the fact that if they don't fight when they are down here, they can come more often. Grandpa (Todd's dad) even told them they could go on vacation with us next year if they act so good. A lightbulb went off in their head and they were perfect gentleman!

I've also been doing A LOT of shopping! We've got a baby shower coming up, fall pictures at the end of September I need to plan outfits for and have some things made for, Brooke is outgrowing yet another size in diapers, so I needed a awhole new stash and with Luke potty training, we've been selling his diapers and buying new ones.

Hee's what I have for the shower present so far. I'm going to try and find hot pink and green fabric and make an applique onesies and some matching burp clothes to finish out this gift.

Here is a fleece soaker and upcycled wool longies I got to go over Luke's underware. Also, those 6 little bags around them are reusabe snack bags. I got them from Etsy seller MojaCreations (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6871436). Se is great though and we got t pick out al the fabrics we wanted. So 4 bags for Brooke and 4 for Luke. We go through so many baggies taking snacks here and there though.....so the bags will pay for themselves in no time!

And lastly, we've been overtaken by the neighbors produce. This is just one small batch she brought over and it hasn't stopped since.....corn, eggplants, tomoatoes od all kinds, jalapenos, green peppers, etc. I've been trying to freeze them or use them up as fast as possible, but it's tiring for sure! Especially at midnight every night. Last night I tackled slasa. Today I blacned and froze 6 lbs of green beans and made ratatouille for dinner.

Well, I'm headed off to seep for my beautfy rest! Good night!

I am learning to sew!

2009-08-13T18:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks, so I decided I needed some "me" time to relax. I decided to sign up for two sewing classes at my ocal JoAnne Fabrics. Monday I took Sewing 101 and Wednesday I took 201, How to Make a Tote Bag. Mondays class was all the basics - equipment, terms, and how to thread and perate your machine. This was the biggest obstacle to teaching myself. My machine was given to me by my mom. It was brand new in the box, but from about 20 years ago. And somewhere along the line, the manual got lost. I couldn't find one on line, so I was winging it. Yeah, I never did get the needle threaded. Anyway, so Monday I learned to thread the needle, thread the bobbin, and do a couple simple stitches.

Wednesday we actually made something - a tote bag. I messed up a couple times, but just small stuff like not sewing a straight line or forgetting to back stitch in a few places, but I was still super impressed that I actually made something. I'm totally addicted now. I've already got a list of about a hundred things I want to make! YEAH!!!!!

I'm also going on Saturday to their open house. You get 50% off classes during this event. I'm debating between Table Decor (placemats or table runner) and children's jumper. Each one of the classes is two sessions, but this time I'll get to learn how to read a pattern which I'm eager about.

Starting on the baby food already?!?!

2009-08-13T17:48:00.001-07:00

Yes, I've decided it's the perfect time to start freezing fruits and vegtables fr making baby food this winter. When I started making baby food for Luke in November 2007, the pickings were quite slim and might I add VERY expensive. Have you ever tried to find organic peaches in November? Yeah, I think they were something insane like $4.99/lb! Maybe that is why Luke's had so many bananas and sweet potatoes!

Anyway, this time I decided to think ahead since so many fruits and veggies are in peak season right now and if frozen now, will taste their absoute best too. Oh, and as an added bonus, buying in season saves me a TON of money. So tonight I started on peaches. I scored 5 lbs of organic peaches at the farmers market for $.99/lb. All I did was boil a pot of water and prepare a bucket of ice water. I dropped four peaches at a time into the boiling water, let them sit in there about a minute. Then removed them and dropped them into the ice water for another minute or two. At that point, the skins pretty much slid right off. Then just cut the peaches in half, scoop out the seed (or is it a nut? whatever) and then cut the peach into wedges. I then covered the slices with apple juice to keep them from browning and preventing freezer burn. They can apparently stay frozen fr up to 12 months in a deep freezer, but we'll be preparing this as one of the first foods sometime around January I would guess. We will again be processing the fruits and veggies in a blender with breast milk, then freezng in ice cube trays and froze in ziplock baggies. This worked out very for us last time.

Also in season right now is apricots, plums, mangos, green beans, peas, and zucchini. This fall I'll freeze pears, apples, carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash.

Stuffed Green Pepper Casserole

2009-07-30T07:09:00.000-07:00

Growing up, my mom made stuffed green peppers a lot. I'd always ask her to make extra "stuffing" because that was really the only part I liked. She'd serve me the pepper and I'd scoop out the inside, put extra cheese over it and then eat it. When Todd and I got our own first house, I just followed my moms recipe, yet after the meal, there sat Todd and I's green peppers that neither of us touched. Yes, we both eat like a 5 year old child!

So one day Todd asked why I didn't just make this into a casserole. He said he's probably like the peppers better if they were mixed in. He figured he liked green peppers on a pizza, but it was because it was all mixed in. So I search all over the internet but found nothing that was exactly like my moms, so I came up with my own. It's super simple, yet delicious and semi healthy at least. Luke LOVES it now too!

Stuffed Green Pepper Casserole
1 lb lean ground beef or ground turkey
small package frozen corn kernals
2 cups prepared brown or white rice
3-4 green peppers, cut into thin strips
1 large can tomatoe sauce
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Brown ground beef or ground turkey in a skillet until browned. You could add a little onion to this if you'd like.

2. Mix 2 cups prepared rice, ground beef, green pepper strips, corn, 1/4 cup cheese, and tomatoe sauce. Stir to mix up and place in a baking dish.

3. Top with cheese. Place in oven and bake for 45 minutes. Enjoy!

Best meat marinade EVER!

2009-07-30T06:59:00.000-07:00

Please excuse the crappy picture, we are still catching up on dishes and laundry from our vacation, so alas, tupperware plates and an old christmas tablecloth it was last night!

I just HAD to share this delicious chicken marinade recipe with you. Todd constantly complains that I'm incapable of eating "plain" food. I always have to "doctor it up," as he says. It's the truth though. I can't just grill chicken and think it tastes good. So I've tried many many marinades over the past couple years, but every time it just gives the meat a slight hint of flavor and yet the meat is still dry and rubbery. UNTIL last night! Yes, this is the first ever chicken marinade I have LOVED. Todd and Luke both loved it to. Todd is known as the condiment king in our house because he needs either ketchup, BBQ sauce, or ranch on everything. He even ate the chicken just as it was. It was that good. So, go check out the recipe at http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Marinade-for-Chicken/Detail.aspx

Oh, and I will wanr you, it makes a lot of extra marinade. I mixed it up in a large mason jar. We grilled 6 chicken breast and used about 1/2 of the marinade. The other half I'm thinking of trying on steak.....hmmmm. I hope your family enjoys it as much as we did!

It's time to shop ahead!

2009-07-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

I've always been a fan of going to garage sales and buying gently used clothes. I did this before I even got pregnant with Luke and most of his first year or life. I love garage sales in general, but it just got more and more tough once I couldn't just put Luke in a stroller and he went along happily for the ride. So many garage sales were just junk so I decided to focus my efforts on used kids clothing stores and sales. They worked well up until now. I think toddler boy and used clothing can't be used in the same sentence. Its seems like no one has used toddler boy clothes. I can fully understand this though.....Luke has stained or ruined 95% of his woredrobe. It's all Goodwill bound for sure...so I'm sure everyone else is in this boat too.

Ao I've decided I just needed to become smart about shopping and that it would be alright to buy it new. So I've now been buying next years clothes at the end of the season. So far, clearence sales havn't been that great. I did pick up 3 t-shirts from Target for $2 each, but other than that I just havn't been willing to pay $9.99 for a clearence t-shirt from Gap! This weekend, Children's Place had an additional 50% off already reduced clearence items. The picture above is everything I got from the store...4 pairs of shorts, 3 pairs athletic shorts, 6 tshirts, and a ball cap, all for a little over $50! Originally they would have cost around $130!

And if I do take the time to pretreat stains and send Luke out to play in Goodwill t-shirts, I can sell them for about the same as I bought them for. Woohoo!

I also scored $25 in free Gymbucks from an awesome bumpie. So I went through their clearence and finished up what I'd need for Luke for next spring.summer. I also got a bunch for Brooke. I'll have to share once the package arrives...

Happy 2 Months Brooke!

2009-07-29T19:59:00.000-07:00

I can't even believe I'm posting this.....but Brooke is 2 months old already. We just had her appointment yesterday and she's weighing in at 10lbs, 3 oz, so almost double her birth weight! Dr. Thome said she is doing great though for starting off her life in the NICU and she sees no delays at all. Great news!

Here are a few pictures of her from the past month. Happy 2 month birthday my sweet girl!

Another Mission Organization Complete!

2009-07-22T11:53:00.001-07:00

Another project I finished up this week was my Home Organizer. I constantly had papers and notebooks laying everywhere in our house. I had one in the office, stacks of magazines in the office, another notebook by the junk drawer in the kitchen, several baggies full of coupons, a little recipe box where I keep my recipes I like to make again and again (like I said before though, there is very few that we make more than once). I decided it all needed to be organized once and for all and in a way it would be easy to add to, easy to clean out, and easy to access/take with me. The result, a home organization binder and a seperate coupon binder which I'm working on now.

I first started by going through all the old magazines I had. Maybe of them were saved just because of one or two pages. So I went ahead and cut out the information or pictures I was savings, and recycling the rest. Then I gathered my go to recipes, sorted through my email and notebooks and consolidated all those little "tips" I had wrote down. Then I just started organizing them all. One tab is go to recipes, another tab is laundry/home "tips" such as how to get certain stains out of clothes which was clipped from a RealSimple magazine, simple entertaining ideas like my go to appitizer recipes and the layout of where the fork, spoon, and knife should go during a dinner party, then some house decor "inspiration" pics as well as some how-to articles on home improvement.

Todd input was to add a list of when things around the house needed to be done, such as the furnace filter gets changed the first Saturday every month and windows get cleaned the first weekend in April each year. He also added a few pages of business cards of people we use for things around the house, the heating and air guy, the electrician, etc. Here is a picture of the inside. Nothing speacial, but it works perfeclty for keeping us organized and having everything in one location.

I'm currently working on a coupon binder. Before, I kept seperate ziplock baggies for each coupon category - food coupons, restaurant coupons, baby coupons, and everything else like coupons for oil changes or Bed, Bath and Beyond. This worked alright for keeping everything organized, but it would be easier to have it all in one place and to keep the binder in my car. I'm going to start putting it in my reusable grocery bags while I go grocery shopping since I'm constantly finding sales that weren't in the flyer and think, shoot, I had a coupon for that. Now, when I have the binder on me, I'll hav the coupon. Or, when we're out and about, we often decide to go ahead and eat out, but our coupons are always at home. Lastly, I'v added a little zipper pencil case and some looseleaf paper. The pencil case is for loose coupons or when I don't have time to "file" them. The looseleaf paper is to start tracking priced. When I know what the rock bottom price is, I'll know this is the best time to stock up.

Well, I think that's about it for now. Back to packing.....we're off for Lake Michigan/Holland, MI tomorrow. We tried to forgo a vacation this year, but we just couldn't do it. So a long weekend in Michigan is better than nothing, right?

Meal planning...

2009-07-21T14:38:00.000-07:00

So you might ask what I've been up to the past couple weeks since I haven't been blogging much. Well, I have to let you in on a little secret. One, I'm super Type-A and I'm incapable of sitting still. My type-A personality makes me HAVE to be organized in life. I just can't function unless my life is organized and I have a plan in place of what will get done and when. So, as much as I love Brooke and LOVE having a new baby to love, she's kind of threw our world upside down. Our little life and how it operated has been majorly thrown off course. So we've spent the past couple weeks with me back at work part time and the other time spent getting our lives re-organized and figuring out what works best for us now.

That being said, somewhere I needed and desperatly wanted to get more organized was meals. We are also trying to cut our grocery bills at the same time as food costs seem to be rising even more, but I'll hit that a little harder in a few months. Anyway, I have a lov hate relationship with food. I LOVE the way it tastes, but I hate how it consumes our life. Food is one of our biggest budget items every month AND we spend so much of our life thinking about food, making food, shopping for food and eating food. It kind of makes me sick. But, I refuse to surrender to processed an convience foods as the solution. Quite the opposite, I'm trying to make the best, quickest, healthiest food for my family that I can.

So lately I have really been cutting down on the amount of time and money spent on food. We've also bee eating healtheir than ever before (but we ate SUPER bad before having kids, as in the #1 meal at McD's was a regular weekly meal and Subway was our go to when we wanted to eat "healthy"). One of my biggest struggles has always been what to make and even though I meal planned, about 50% of the time, the produce or fruit would go bad, or I'd forget what meals I had planned and then everything I bought just sat in the pantry. So I've REALLY been working on this one. Here are my tips that seem to be working for us:

1. Since we're also trying to keep cost down, I first look at what we have. This week for example we had some frozen shredded chicken meat, ground sausage, and kielbasa to use up. So I found recipes with not too many ingredients I didn't have on hand. I mainly use http://www.allrecipes.com/, ut sometimes I'll look at kraftfoods.com and search by ingredient or go to a products webite, such as http://www.pillsbury.com/ and see what I can make. We made marinated chicken one night with rice I had in the pantry, chirstmas breakfast casserole from the sausage, and kielbasa pasta as I call it, but basically roasted veggies with kielbasa and pasta with Italian dressing. Sometimes I'll look at the ads to see whats on sale (like wild caught fresh salmon for $2.99/lb at Kroger). Other times I'll try to see what I can make from the leftovers of what I'm already getting (so like if I need 1/2 a carton of cherry tomatoes for a dish, then I'll use the other half for pasta salad another night for dinner and lunch the next day). I also look for coupons either what I have on hand or online I'll google for it.

2. Then I'll come up with what we'll have for each day. For breakfast, lunch and snacks I just put a big list so when I'm hungry or packing lunch, I just look at the list. For dinner I plan out every night, trying to plan meals with produce/fruit that will go bad at the beginning of the week and then stuff like pancakes or breakfast casserole for the end since nothing in the recipe goes bad. We are also trying to shop for groceries only once every two weeks. We normally like to shop as a family but it is just getting too challenging with two kids in tow, so I think I'm going to move my shopping night to Monday after the lil ones are sleeping.

I also try to plan that if I make grilled chicken one night, I can grill extra, slice it, put it in the fridge and use it in say fajitas the next night. I post this entire list on the fridge so if anyone has any questions, they just look at the list.

I do plan two meals a week out, usually Saturday and Sunday because we'll be out and about or go eat with one of our parents. BUT, sometimes if we need to eat out during the week (or grab carry out for us), then I'll shift the meals down and force us to stay in and eat it on the weekend instead of going out. If however, you get to the end of the week and you still didn't eat a meal, roll it into next week's meal plan.

3. Last "tip" (and I'm working on this too), but having a go to list of recipes. Todd jokes that I am incapable of eating the same meal twice. Even if it's spaghetti, I have to cook it a different way each time. BUT, I'm getting better at this knowing I have the things on hand already and I can use up the other half of packages (like this week I made meatloaf with stuffing mix....normally I would have just thrown out what I didn't use, instead I used the whole package and made 4 meatloaves)

4. Oh yeah, and look at the list right before you go to bed and see if there is anything you have to do for the next day (take chicken breast out of freezer and put in fridge) or anything you can do to cut down prep time the next day (like chop tomatoes ahead of time).

So hopefully that helped. I'm still trying to get into the freezer meal thing. We did really well with the 10 packages for frozen taco chicken I made before Brooke was born. We just used the last one last night on nachos. I made Mexican lasagna, Mexican lasagna roll ups, taco pizza, nachos, Mexican calzones, and of course a few tacos/burritos. And I think I'm going to make some large batches of ground beef now already cooked and grilled chicken in slices. That's about as far as I'm going to venture for now. I'm just not a huge fan of actual frozen meals because they always taste like leftovers.

Line drying your clothes

2009-07-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

I had Todd hang me a clothes line this spring in the hopes that we could switch to line drying. Growing up, Todd's mom always dried their clothes on the line, so he'd begged me for years. I just couldn't understand why anyone would want to do that. But alas, here I am giving it a try. But this spring, we made the purchase of 2 packs of clothes pins and a 50' rope. Todd tied it up on the fence posts, and then it sat. See, our laundry is in the basement, and we have front loading machines which you can fit a good 20 lbs of laundry in, I swear! So here I am, extremly pregnant, carrying 20 lbs of wet laundry up from the basement to hang on the clothes line. Yeah, just wasn't going to happen. Until one nice Sunday afternoon when I asked Todd to help. He graciously agreed, carried it up, and we hung it all on the line. The result......a huge load of stiff shirts that I decided needed thrown back in the washer. Todd said his shirts were fine, but there was no way in hell you'd catch me in something as soft as sand paper!

So until now, the clothes line once again sat, waiting to be used. Well, wouldn't you know my cloth diapers saved me. I had read that virtually any diaper stain could be removed with the power of the sun. So I had a few with horrible stains, so I figured, why not, I'd give it one more try. I looked online and found a couple tips. Mainly, stiffness was due to laundry detergent build up. So even though I was using the front loading detergent, I cut that recommended amount down to half of what it called for (so 1/2 Tbsp for you other Crunchy Clean users). Then I set my washer to have an extra rinse cycle so that I can make positively sure the diapers are detergent free and then I added 1 cup white distilled vinegar to the wash load. Then, once everything had been washed, I actually cheated and threw the diaper in the dryer for just a quick 5 minute fluff. I use the ultra delicate cycle. Then up the stairs I went to the clothes line.

So......the result? MUCH better! A few things like my hemp inserts (which are kinda stiff anyway) and some hemp diapers needed fluffed, but I just waited till I had another load at night to put in the dryer. I also threw in a tennis ball just for kicks (hey, it works for down comfoters, right?) and they came out perfect.

Today I tried the rest of our laundry and this system seems to be working for us. PLUS, as an added bonus, I doubt I'll ever use OxiClean again. Some of Todd's work shirts that haven't been near any shade of white in over 5 years......look pretty darn good. Maybe not "brand new" white, but give it another line dry or two and I bet you won't be able to tell. Plus, I noiced it got out a ketchup stain on Luke's shirt I must have missed! Amazing! That sun is something else....

My next experiment??? Washing with only cold water. I just read today that it can save $.25 per load. For us, we're looking at at least $2 in savings per week! Woohoo!

Kielbasa Summer Pasta

2009-07-14T18:59:00.000-07:00

This is one of our all time favorite go-to summer recipes. It's quick and easy, tastes delicious and makes delicious leftovers that last me at least three days.

Here is everything you will need.

1 lb rotini pasta

1lb kielbasa or smoked sausage (turkey sausage works great too)

1 zucchini

1 summer squash

1 red onion

approx. 1 cup italian dressing (my favorite is Newman's Own Ceasar dressing)

1/4 cup parmesean cheese

First, slice up the zucchini and place it on a foil lined cookie sheet.

Next, slice up the summer squash. Add this to the foil lined baking sheet as well.

Next, chop the red onion into 1" squares. Add to foil lined baing sheet.

Thn slice up the kielbasa. I personally like smaller bites, so I then cut each slice in half. Add the the baking pan.

Meanwhile, start cooking your pasta according to package directions.

Then drizzle olive oil over all veggies and kielbasa on the baking sheet.

Place under broiler on high until the edges of the meat start to crisp and the veggies start looking cooked. I usually turn the broiler to low as this point so it's nice and hot after the pasta gets drained.

Lastly, toss the pasta into a bowl. Toss in the meat and veggies and add 1 cup of Italian dressing. Toss to coat and sprinkle with 1/4 cup of Parmesean cheese.

ENJOY!

Red Skinned Potato Salad

2009-07-12T04:07:00.000-07:00

What is the 4th of July without a BBQ, right? It was my in-laws turn to host the holiday picnic, so I volunteered to make potato salad, Todd's all time favorite. I get a lot of comments on this salad too and it's my go to side dish during the summer when I have potatoes to use up. So here it is:

1. Use 2 lbs red skinned potatoes. Boil in lightly salted water for 30 minutes or until soft.

2. Meanwhile, make the hard boiled eggs. To do this, put 4 eggs in a pot and fill with cold water, 1" above the eggs. Put on the stove on high. When the water comes to a boil, remove from heat and let sit for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes, drain the water and rinse eggs with colr water. I then let them sit in the fridge to cool some more.

3. When the potatoes are done, chop each into 1/2" cubed pieces and place in a bowl.

4. While chopping the potatoes, get the bacon cooking. I personally like to cook bacon for salads in the microwave using paper towels. I put 4 on the bottom, lay on the bacon, and then two on top for 4 minutes. It gets done just right and is super easy to crumble.

5. Chop the bacon up and add it to the chopped potatoes.

6. Next, chop up the oinion. Normally I like to finely chop red onion, but I forgot to pick one up from the store. I had some green onions on hand, so they got used instead. Just finely chop and toss in with potatoes and bacon.

7. Next, peel and chop the hard boiled eggs. Toss in the bowl with the potatoes, bacon, and onion.
8. Next, chop two pieces of celery and toss it into the bowl.

9. Then mix in 1 to 1.5 cups mayo. I prefer to use Hellmans but I guess if you liked it a little sweet, Miracle Whip could work fine too. Mix in mayo with a spoon. Then place in refridgerator for at least 2 hours or let the flavors come together. I personally think it tastes best after coming together overnight in the fridge.

Teriyaki Salmon Foil Packets

2009-07-12T03:51:00.000-07:00

Freash, wild caught salmon was on sale at Krogers last week for only $2.99/lb. We've been trying to eat healthier, eat on a budget, and fit more fish into our diet so when I saw the salmon, I knew we had to find a good and kid-friendly (both for Lue and Todd) recipe for it. I saw a couple teriyaki recipes and a couple done in foil and put them together to create this dish. It's super simple, cheap, and yet delicious. To make it super simple I used a premixed teriyaki marinade purchased from the store.

1. Marinate salmon in about 1/2 cup teriyaki marinade 1-2 hours in the refridgerator.
2. When salmon is done marinating, place each fillet in the middle of a squae piece of foil. Top with carotts (I used chopped baby carrots since it's all we had in the fridge) and snow peas. Top with another 2 Tbsp teriyaki marinade. Wrap up the foil so that the marinade cannot leak out yet steam can escape through the top.
3. Grill for 15 minutes on medium high. In the winter, I'm sure you could cook it in the oven too, probably around 350 for the same amount of time. Check the fillet for doneness by flaking it with a fork.

I served this with Lipton Teriyaki noodles on the side for an super easy and delicious meal. Luke mainly liked the noodles, but we were able to throw in small flakes of salmon and he never even noticed he was eating it. =)

Lots to catch up on!

2009-07-12T03:29:00.002-07:00

I've taken a blogging break the past couple weeks. I went back to work this week, only part time, but I really needed to finish up my "maternity leave to do list." Sick, I know! But we had so many things that had to be done during the day and while someone was at the house or stuff that I've been meaning to get to for some time like having our tubs fixed and cleaning out the toys in the basement. I'm also really big about schedules. I have to keep to somewhat of a set schedule, at least during the week when I'm working, or I'll go mad. There is just no way to get everything done unless you do a little bit each day. Obviously since our family has grown, so has our daily "to do list" like extra laundry and dirty dishes and it's also impossible to go shopping with Luke and Brooke, so that has had to change as well.

I've also been cooking up a storm lately for two reasons. One, we really decided we need to eat more healthy, especially with the farmers market stands in full swing. Todd and I both feel we could stand to loose a little weight and I recently got my last promotion for graduating my trainee program at work. It's been 4 long years but I'm finally at my top "guarenteed" pay which is pretty good for just turning 26, in my opinion at least. But after calculating how much more we'll be bringing home this year, we realized how much we don't want this extra money to just "disappear" like it has seemed to in the past. Every year, after each raise, we'd look back and wonder how we used to live on so little. I've heard it before, but with each raise, you just find more things to spend it on. So we've decided that we really need to get back on our budget. So I'll be posting many of the recipes we've made as well as review how we liked it.

We've also been car shopping the past two weeks. We don't really need a new car, and we're not even getting rid of my Honda Accord for at least a few more years, but for some reason, now seems like a good time to buy. The problem is that we figure if it's going to be something we're going to keep for 10-15 years, we better get something with a third row seat AND a good amount of storage. But by that point we are basically limited to Tahoes, Suburbans, Sequioas, Expeditions (XLT), and Yukons (XL) and possibly the Saturn Outlook/GMC Arcadia. But of course, those are all beaucoup moola! So then we are looking at used ones and really its a toss up. If you go too old (older than 2007) the interest rate to finance it is 3.897%, so it makes sense to leave the money in the bank earning 4.5% (our new credit union checking account rate!), but if it's a 2006 or older, well then we might as well just pay cash. So then we look and they all have super high miles for their year and are really beat up. So we're getting quite frustrated.

Free activities for kids!

2009-06-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

Although I had dreams of taking Luke to a bunch of fun places on my maternity leave like Kings Island, some small water parks near our house, the zoo and the aquarium, it just isn't possible right now with me being on unpaid maternity leave. With my paycheck gone, we've really had to cut back in order not to dip into our savings. But keeping a toddler occupied at home, with the same old toys he's played with everyday, just wasn't working for me. The tv of course was working, but I HATE using the tv as a babysitter. I really like to limit it is one hour a day, or a movie. Anyway, I racked my brain for some free activities that would be fun and even educational and something that would keep him occupied while I took care of Brooke.

So early today, to celebrate his actual birthday, I took him to the Greene, an outdoor mall near our house. In the center they have one of those interactive fountains. It was packed, but really I think that was good for Luke. He was he youngest one there, and he's still a little timid about getting water in his face, but seeing th other older kids running through the fountain really helped. He had a blast. And the cost? Nothing of course!

Then, for my birthday, my aunt gave me a deck of cards called "50 Activies for You and Your Toddler." It's a simple idea, but a gift I'm really glad I got. My aunt knows that I love being a mom more than anything in the world, so why bother getting me a gift card or something when she knows all too well I'm just going to spend it on my kids. So what better of a gift than something I can DO with my kids!

Anyway, today I had Luke pick two cards from the deck that we could do during Brooke's naps. During her first nap, we did the card called "Color Changes." We followed the directions which said to fill a couple plastic cups with water. We had these left over from his party. Then I let Luke stick red, yellow, and blue markers in the glasses to tint the color of the water. Then, wth my help, we poured water into a couple other plastic cups, mixing the colors to make new colors. Of course he learned that red and yellow make orange and yellow and blue make green and so on. Something so simple in my mind, yet he thought it was magic. I loved seeing the delight on his face. During Brooke's later nap, he drew the card that said "Bowl Away." We grabbed 10 empty water bottles from the garage (leftover from his party as well, otherwise I'm not a fan of going though tons of plastic water bottles) and then I taught him how to roll a ball to knock them all down. He had gone bowling a few weeks ago with some friends down the street, and I was suprised to see that he totally knew what to do. Of course he wanted to cheat little, but I just looked the other way. The idea is to hae fun right?

And this past weekend we were at Home depot buying a nail gun for Todd's Father's Day present when I noticed these Mickey Mouse shaped cards in the paint section. Apparently Behr has a line of Disney colors. So these paint sample were just sitting there. I thought it would make a great, and free, matihng game for Luke. So I grabbed two in every color (a few are missing already if you can't tell) and threw them in my bag on the way out. So to help Luke learn his colors, I do a few different things with these. We can either tell him to match the colors, or we can turn them over and play memory, or we can just point to the different cards and ask him what color each card is. He has a blast and he'll sit there by himself for a good 20 minutes just going through his colors. My favorite is when he says they are all "yewo." Yellow is his favorite color and although he knows his colors.....sometimes everything is yellow just because he loves to say it. =)

Happy Birthday Little Man!

2009-06-25T17:50:00.001-07:00

Dear Luke,

My little boy is two years old today! I seriously am in shock and have been starring at you with wonder all day. How the heck did two years just fly by? I know everyone says it flies by, but you really don't realize it until it happens. It feels like just yesterday that I was learning to become a mom and take care of this tiny baby in my arms, and now I'm chasing you around the house, and hearing you tell me no to everything. =)

Your dad and I love you more than you'll ever know. We've enjoyed every minute of the past two years and we think you are the funniest little dude ever. Although you test our patience on what seems like every minute of the day, you couple it with you quirky personality that just makes us laugh and wonder what we were mad about. We cannot wait to see the man you grow up to be. Love you now and always!

Love,
Mommy

Teaching an old dog new tricks...

2009-06-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

and I'm the old dog! =) No, really though, I had a big well duh moment today and it was so good, I thought I'd share it. Normally when I return stuff to the store (which I do a lot because I can never make up my mind), I just ask for store credit and consider it free money. So then I'll walk through the store looking for something to buy. 99.9% of the time, it's not something I need, it's just something I decide I want and it's not a smart purchase. The returns are usually to big stores that I go to often to - Target, Walmart, Kohls - so its not like it'll be more than 10 days before I actually do go there for something I atually need.

So today I'm out running errands and returning things. I had stuff to take back to Kohls, Target, Walmart, and Hobby Lobby. But I was meeting my mom and grandma for my first ever sewing lesson in less than two hours, so I knew I didn't have time to shop. So as I ran my errands, I did the unthinkable, at least in my case. I just took the store credit and *gasp* actually put it in my purse for later!

So yes, while it's burning a whole in my pocket and I'm racking my brain for stuff I NEED, I'm not going to use it. The next time 'm at these stores and have to get something I really need, THEN I'll pull the cards out and get a good discount on my purchase.

So, like I said, it's probably a "well duh" moment, but for me, it's working and it's a change that'll help me save probably about $200 a month! And in a time when I'm on unpaid maternity leave, every $200 counts!

Our new favorite dinner recipe!

2009-06-24T04:04:00.000-07:00

I read Darby's blog at http://flythroughmywindow.blogspot.com/ almost on a daily basis. She is just such a fun writer and her kids are adorable. We have a lot in common, so of course it's easy to think we'd get along in real life. Anyway, Todd and I are both not big on veggies. We try to like them, we try to get them into our meals each day, but it's a struggle for us. We're cheeseburger and fry people at heart!

Zuchinni and yellow squash are one of our favorites though. We always threw together these chicken packets when we knew we wouln't have time to cook or didn't want to deal with the dishes to clean after dinner. http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Chicken--n--Summer-Squash-Packets. Then we'd just serve it with a side salad, some crusty bread, or sometimes some roasted asparagus, another favorite of ours.

But I saw the recipe for chicken delight on her post. I had everything on hand, so I thought I'd give it a try. We ended up LOVING it and it's so easy. Just tear a couple square pieces of foil, lay on chicken, season with seasoning salt, top with sliced zuchinni and squash. Then top with marinara and some parmesean and mozerella cheese. Then fold up the foil packet leaving room for the cheese to melt and toss on the grill for 25-30 min.

For an easy side, I just tore off an extra square of foil, sliced up on of those 99 cent loaves of french bread from Kroger (on sale for $.68), top each slice with butter and a little garlic salt and toss on the grill for the last 8-10 minutes.

This recipe was soooo good......I didn't even get pictures of the final product. They smelled so good that everyone just dug right in! Maybe next time....

Brooke's 1st Fashion Show!

2009-06-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

I got this idea from a Nestie friend of mine, MeganBrian. She took pictures of her daughter in all of her newborn cloth diapers so that others could see how they fit on a 5 lb baby. I thought that was a great idea since we have different diapers and because Brooke is now at 7 lbs, so the typical size of a newborn. So here she is, in all her adorable fluff!

This is my absolute favorite diaper right now. It is a Sposoeasy AIO (all in one) in size extra small . I actually use these during the day, but only because they are easy for my mom to use. She just can't get down the whole prefold thing.

This is a small BumGenious 2.0 I believe. As you can see, they are a little big on her still, but they work on laundry day when everything else is dirty.

Here is Brooke in her XS Thirsties AIO. This is our scond favorite diaper. It's still a little big on her, but it's very trim and works well. It's also easy to use since it is just like a disposable.

This is Brooke in a orange edged Green Mountain Diaper prefold. I use the tri-fold and secure it with a snappi. It's not the trimmest thing in the world, but it does work. I usually just put the tri folded prefold inside the cover and call it a day though. I don't think the snappis are really needed until she starts moving around, but what do I know?

Here is a Little Bettle wool cover in size 1 over the prefold. This is my favorite cover, especially for use at night when Brooke sleeps for about 5 hours straight.

This is a Blueberries cover in xs. It fits her really well right now.

Here is a KL0 (Kissaluv size 0). I'm not a huge fan of these, but I can't say they leak. I just don't like how big and thick they are. Brooke can barely move her legs once a cover is on top.

Case and point, here is a Bummis Super Whisper Wrap in size XS over the KL0. The cover fits well over a tri-folded prefold, but I'm not a fan when pired with the KL0.

Here is a Very Baby fitted I find on Hyena Cart in size newborn. I have yet to find anymore, but they are BY FAR my favorite fitted. Not only is the paisley print the cutest thing on earth, but it's trim, leak proof, and one of the few diapers that fit her when she came home at 5 lbs, 2 oz.

This is another of our favorite fitteds, a Happy Heiny in size 1. It's very trim, yet absorbant, and works well with any cover on top of it.

Here is a Thirsties XS cover over the Happy Heiny's fitted. It's still a little big, but I do really like it. It'll work great over a tri folded prefold in another pound or two.

Luke's 2nd bday party.....on a dime!

2009-06-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

My husband hates parties. I seriously think something is socially wrong with him. He loves going to parties of course, he just turned into a maniac anytime we actually throw one. So since I'm off work, on unpaid maternity leave, I promised I wouldn't go overboard. It was my version of "low key." Apparently to him it STILL cost too much and was too over the top, but whatever, he came around once he saw how much fun Luke was having.

Anyway, the first thing I had to find was a cheap place to have the party. This is probably the toughest part because while there are tons of ideas, a lot of them can be ruined by rain (hence his party last year when we ended up cramming about 60 people in our 2 car garage!) or cost an arm and a leg since you need to buy a whole "party package." The city we live in has GREAT parks though.....the Centerville Washington Township Park District. They recently started building some really nice covered pavilions at a couple parks per year. One of our favorites is at a park called Activity Center located on State Route 48 just behind Marions for you locals. It has your typial baseball fields, tennis courts, etc. But it also has an incredible "spray garden" as well as a really nice play ground. Here's a few pictures so you can see how nice it is:

The party was supposed to be really low key. We asked that no one bring presents (frankly because I don't have the time anymore to pick up anymore toys OR write thank you cards) and instead for everyone to bri9ng a side dish. With Brooke only being a month old, most people asked anyway, so I figured we'd just do a word of mouth thing. We provided 2 liters of pop, water, cupcakes, chips and a party sub from Walmart. We only invited family and a few very close family friends. All the kids were either younger than Luke (cousins/family friends) or much older, like 10, so they could care less about the games and favors, so I skipped those.

I got simple pirate invites from Target that just ran right through the printer. With all my medical problems before the pregnancy, I never got around to sending them out until two weeks prior to the party though. Invites were $16 though, no exactly cheap, but I was desperate at that point. Then I just got matching red and black paper plates, napkins, cake plates. I also got plastic silverware, clear plastic cups, and a sparkler shaped in a "2" for Luke's cupcake. I was able to get all of that, plus a few extra small presents for him from Flower Factory for $40. I then ordered a 4 ft sub from Walmart which was going to come to $29 for three meats, cheese, lettuce, onion and tomato (on the side), and packets of mayo and mustard. Oh, and the cost to rent the covered pavilion was only $30. The 2 liters were $1 each, so $6 for 6. I also got chips for $2.88 a bag (had to support our local Mike Sells) so a total of $8.64 for three bags. The cupcakes were made by a friend for only $25 (thanks Nestie DS1013!). Oh and we had some bottled water on hand already and a bag of ice was $3 at Sam's Club. So total cost would have been $156.64 for 40 people.

However, here is where the chaos begins. My good friend who made the cupcakes said she'd drop them off Sunday morning. As luck would have it, I of course waited too late to give Brooke a bath. So just as I'm getting her out of the tub, my friend Gwyn shows up. We put the cupcakes on the dining room table, I pay her, and I run back to Brooke crying in her room. (I laid her in the crib, just on a towel only.) Todd goes back to his sweeper. The second I heard it I went running for the dining room table. I KNEW Luke was going to want to check them out. Just as I turn the corner, down comes one of three boxes of cupcakes.....and yes, the lid fell off and they all rolled onto the floor! So we were down to about 34 cupcakes before the party even started.

Then, we had to go to Walmart to pick up the sub. Since the party started at 1pm, I figured 11am would be perfect to pick it up. We'd keep it on ice at our house till the party and all would be well. HAHA! We ended up choosing to order the sub from our brand new Walmart. It had only been open for four days. I had this gut feeling it wouldn't be ready, but the manager assured me everything would be fine. Well, surprise, surprise, we get there, ask for our party sub and they look at us like we have three heads. So not knowing what the heck we'd do, they said they could have it made in 20 minutes. So we headed for the toy section and let uke loose. We figured we'd give them a little extra time and played there for 30 minutes....all while Brooke is screaming because she needed to eat and I wasn't about to breastfeed at Walmart, not that I'm that good yet anyway. Anyway, long story short, it took them close to an hour to get the sub done. At this point, I complained and got it for free. Oh and we never got mayo and mustard packets, all the condiments were on the sub, and we discovered that the lettuce was atually shredded cabbage. Sweet!

Spending over an hour picking up the sub totally through our shcedule off. The second we got home, we literally just started throwing stuff in our cars and crossing our fingers we remembered it all. We got to the park just as guests were showing up. Thankfully, we have the best family and friends in the world and they all just chipped in to get it set up. In the hurry of the day, I only got a few pictures though. =(

Regardless, Luke ended up having a blast and so did everyone else that attended. Everyone really helped me out by bringing some awesome side dishes, everyone ignored the fact that the sub had cabbage on it, and of course everyone ignored my plea for no gifts.....I think he got more than Christmas! PLUS, everyone brought presents for Brooke. Too generous!

Newborn cloth diaper review!

2009-06-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

WE have officially been using cloth diapers on Brooke for three months now and wow, do we love it! I've been a little one the fence about cloth diapering Luke. Yes, it saves money, keeps him from getting diaper rash, it's better for the environment, etc. BUT I really hate those #2's. They don't smell up the diaper pail or anything and pretty rarely is it anything but a big ball that just plops right into the toilet but still, I don't look forward to them. Anyway, we do really like cloth diapering during this newborn stage for sure. Not only do they keep the diaper rash away, but they also contain those early blow outs great. But I will hae to say there are a few slight downsides. For us, Brooke was too big for anything we had on hand when she first came home from the NICU. At 5 lbs, even a prefold with a cover on it made her bum twice as big as her head. The best solution during this time was a trifolded prefold which we just placed inside some of the newborn sized Prowraps and they were still big, but the least amount of fluff. Also, like I said, most of the diapers are SUPER thick. While this is good for absorbancy, it also looks down right ridiculous on such a small baby. By the time I get a super thick Green Mountain Diaper prefold around her, the a cover, or a KL0 fitted and a cover, her bum is HUGE. Literally, the diapers go down to her knees and she can't even move her legs. So while we still do it, I only use these once we are out of everything else.

So what are my favorite diapers? Well, we've leaned towards AIOs for sure. At this size, they really don't take long to dry at all and they are just so darn convienant and worth it because they are more compact. The Sposoeasy ones were the only ones that fit at first and are still by far my favorite. I got them on a local craigslist and haven't heard too much about them. She recently has grown into her XS Thirsties AIOs and we really like those as well. The only fitteds we like are the newborn Very Baby we have (pictured above). Not only is it the cutest print in the world, but it fits pefectly and works very well too. It runs SUPER small though.....I wouldn't get newborn size if you plan on having a baby over 7 lbs or so. Brooke is currently close to outgrowing it at 7 lbs. We also really like our Under the Nile fitted. It is very compact yet absorbant, just what we like. As for covers, our Little Bettle wool cover is our favorite. I think I ruined ours, but it's still my favorite. I gt it used, again off the local craiglist, and didn't realize it was wool. I've washed it in the regular wash now several times. Still works great though, just not as soft as when I first got it. The Prorap covers are okay. They do their function but of course aren't the softest and look boring too. Now that she is gorwing into her Thirsties and Bummis Super Wraps covers, I've decided I like them both about the same.

Well, thats about it. I'll continue to update my thoughts on the whole cloth diapering thing as we go along. I wonder if I'll change my mind.....

http://livinglargeonadime.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-110-complete-diaper-stash.html

We may not be perfect...

2009-06-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

but at least we had fun! I'm speaking about Brooke's newborn pictures we had taken at our house this past Sunday. I had fully intended to get her pictures done within the first two weeks, but since she was in the NICU, it got pushed back until she was 3.5 wks old instead. I was a wreck though......her nursery STILL wasn't done, the house was a mess, and let's just say Todd enjoyed the wedding we had attended the night before just a little too much! We've been working with this new photographer though, Alison Kamper from http://www.alisonandoliver.blogspot.com/ and she was incedible once again!

I like getting the whole first year of photography done from the sme photographer so that you can mix and match them and they all look like the same "style." But I just couldn't afford our old photographer any longer. The best deal she could do was $1500 for 5 sessions the first year.....wow! So I went on a search and as luck would have it, a friend of mine from work found out her neighbor was starting a photography business. So, the Saturday before Easter, we decided to try her out with a little "urban" shoot for Luke and Brooke while she was still in the belly. I don't think I ever shared those pictures, but here is a few of our favorites.

I, of course, thought they turned out wonderful and since then I couldn't WAIT for our little Brooke to get here. Of course just one of the reasons was so we could get photographs taken by Alison again. And for $200 for a two hour plus session PLUS a CD of all the images she takes, holy crapola, what an awesome deal! To anyone who reads this blog within a 100 mile radius, I highly suggest having your families photos taken by her, even if just once. What an awesome memory! Here is a few of our other favorites though from Brooke's newborn pictures. Be sure to check out her blog though which has about 30 more photos.

So between the house being a wrekc, Luke not wanting to sit still for more than 2 seconds, Luke not following any directions what so ever, and Brooke peeing, pooping , or crying for 90% of the shoot, I have no idea how she got so many amazing shots. And I never knew such little elements of our house, like the wood floors, could look so incredible in pictures! Does it sound a little strange that I want her to come photograph just the house?!?!? Hehe!

PS - Sara......do you notice the blanket in the basket?!?!?!? It was the present that just kept giving! Thank you again for spending your peaceful prebaby days making us a blanket that'll be in our family for years and years to come! You are a true friend.....even if I never have met you in real life! Someday our Destin trips will collide.....hopefully sooner rather than later!

A slower pace...

2009-06-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

Brooke came home from the hospital yesterday afternoon and since then, it has been an emotional roller coaster in our house. We just cannot believe how fast Luke has grown and that now we are a family of four. We are so thankful for everything we have and yet sometimes it doesn't seem like enough. If only there was a way to stop time, at least for a little bit. But we all know there isn't, and that life keeps moving forward. Our children are going to continue to grow up and we're going to continue to get older. So as we cried ourselves to sleep last night (tears of joy of course), Todd and I decided that we really need to slow down some and just enjoy life. We work so hard for what we have, yet sometimes the sweetest things don't cost a dime. We've also worked hard to be in the financial position where we can enjoy the money we have earned and we decided there is no better time than now to really start doing that. So we decided to come up with a list of 10 things we want to do/accomplish in Brooke's first year. Sure, she probably won't remember any of them, but it will just be a new thing for us.....spending more time as a family, putting aside things that "have" to get done, and enjoying life. So here is the 10 things we put on our list:

1. Have a picnic in the park. Todd and I started saving money for our first house just a few months after we started dating, when we were 16. People thought we were crazy, but we just knew. Anyway, we'd often go on picnics instead of going out to eat. One of our favorite spots was the top of an ampitheater near our current house. We'd go there when there wasn't a show, set up a picnic, and look out over the town. Now we'd like to take our own kids there, bring dinner in a basket, and then play at the playground afterwards as a family. Just a nice relaxing night AND it wil give me a chance to try out some of those picnic recipe ideas in the Real Simple magazine this month.

2. Go to the zoo. This one probably seems dumb, but Luke really loves animals. For over a year, we've kept saying, we really need to take him to the zoo. Yet, somehow, we never have found the time. Well, we decided we just need to put an end to this. There are many other places we want to go to too, like the Boonshoft Children's Museum, the Aquarium, etc. but the zoo was the one place we've kept saying we needed to go and never have.

3. Make a family stone for the backyard. Luke is really getting into arts and crafts type projects and I thought it would be great to spend time as a family making something that would remind us of this great time in our lives. So I thought a stepping stone with all of our hand prints would be a great idea.

4. Find a volunteer opportunity to do as a family. We are big on not wanting to raise spoiled children that become brats. Growing up we weren't very thankful for what we had, but we don't want our kids to follow in our footsteps. We each volunteer, but we'd like to find something that we can do together, as a family. We think Luke is old enough now to understand giving and sharing and helping others, so we're going to look for something that we can all do together.

5. Enjoy a week long vacation without worrying about money. We had decided to skip vacation this summer. We had a lot of projects around the house, Todd's business has been booming despite the slow economy, and I'm already having to take mostly unpaid maternity leave. But the more and more we think about it, we need that week to just spend time as a family and enjoy ourselves. Normally on vacation, we watch our money very closely and don't allow ourselves to get dessert when we go out to eat, buy a t-shirt from the trip, etc. But this year we decided we just need to enjoy time as a family and not worry about anything else. So if we want dessert, we'll get it. If we want a souvenir to remember a special day trip by, we'll get it.

6. Visit the Cincinnati farmers market and then make dinner as a family from the produce/meat we bought. I love to cook and I love when Todd helps me. My dream is to cook with my kids as much as possible. My mom didn't cook much, and when she did, I wasn't really allowed to help much because I'd make a mess. This is something I want to chance with my kids. I also think that Luke will have more of a love of fruits and vegtables than Todd and I did if we allow him to pick them out from places like a farmer's market or grow them ourselves. So I thought it would be fun to visit a local farmer's market I've wanted to go to for years and then cook up our produce all together.

7. Camp out in the backyard. Todd and I both "camped" out with our dads when we were kids. Ours usually consisted of sleeping bags in the basement and staying up late and watching movies, Todd's consisted of tents in the backyard. So until we can go to family camp outs when the kids get a little older, we figured the back yard would be a perfect place to set up a tent, roll out our sleeping bags, and even make dinner and some smores for dessert over a fire. Hmmm, just have to build that fire pit first. =)

8. Dance in the rain. Is there anything better?!?!?!? Luke LOVES water and worms and splashing in puddles and everything that goes along with a rainy day, but we've never let him hang out in the rain. So next time it's warm and raining on a Sunday, you'll find us dancing in the rain!

9. Throw a party just because. Todd hates entertaining. He just feels like it's a lot of work and is just for "impressing people." I on the otherhand LOVE to entertain. I think it's just a fun way to get to know people better and to share my love of food with others. It also doesn't hurt to hear my (fill in the blank here) was delicious and they'd like the recipe. Okay, okay, not the point, I know, but it is flattering. Anyway, I got Todd to agree that over the past couple years, our lives have really changed and we've changed. Our old friends just aren't the same and there are some new friends that we'd like to get to know better, but haven't had the time or the opportunity. So why not throw a party......a just because party. Who knows, we just might all have fun!

10. Tell each other one thing we are thankful for each and every day during dinner. While we do eat dinner, at the table, together every night, we sometimes just talk about our day and not the important stuff in life. So we decided to start saying something we are thankful for that day. Luke doesn't exactly have the words yet to say what he is thankful for, but he defintly understands. I figure by this time next year he'll be able t come up with something each and every day and truely understand what he is thankful for.

Spray Painting Tutorial

2009-06-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

I recently spray painted for the first time and I thought it was going to be SO hard. The project sat and sat because I was so scared I'd mess it up. It was so easy though and turned out great, so I thought I'd share my tips and tricks for those of you who are scared of learning as well.

I had this "bath" sign I had bought at Bombay Company right before they had closed. It was just a simple wooden sign that said bath and had three little hooks on it for towels. For some reason, I loved it, but it was black. So I decided if I painted it brown, it could go in our guest/kids bathroom and would work great for Luke to hang his towels on. Todd was having a cow though, saying that I was going to ruin a perfectly good sign and that it would look horrible when I was done. I HAD to prove him wrong!

So I took a trip down the paint aile the last time we were at Lowes and I took a look at the spray paint. This sign happened to be wooden with metal hooks, so I needed something that would adhere to both materials. I found a product by Rustoleum that looked perfect.

First I taped off any area that I didn't want painted. Thankfully for the sign, there was only three small glass knobs. So I just grabbed some leftover newspaper, wrapped it around the knobs, and secured with some masking tape. Then I just followed the directions exactly like they said on the can. Only to get a really even coat, I wanted to "set" the sign up on something. So I just found some cups laying around the house. I wouldn't suggest spray painting in the grass though. One, it's probably not the best for the environment (what was I thinking?!?!?) and two, it left a huge brown area in our yard. Thankfully Todd was cutting the grass that afternoon and you can't even tell where I spray painted anymore.

But I think the real trick was waiting for a day that was a little cloudy and not too windy. Then setting the sign up so I could easily get every angle helped as well. Then just follow the directions about spraying distance and coutinuing to shake the can as you paint. I think I ended up doing 4 light coats, since I had read it was better to do a bunch of light coats than less heavy coats which could cause the paint to run.

It turned out fabulous and Todd had to admit it as well! I can say one thing for sure now - I'm addicted to spray painting. Next on my list......a lamp for Brooke's nursery and a chair that I'd like to use in the office/guest bedroom! I'll keep you posted!

The 99.9% complete guest bathroom!

2009-05-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

Remember when we started our bathroom remodel? Yeah, like WAY back in January?!?!?! Well, I have been working on decorating it in between getting ready for the baby and I finally got a chance to clean it good today, so I thought I'd take pictures and share with you all how it turned out. As weird as it sounds, this bathroom is my favorite room in the whole house. Not because it's the place where we do our business, but because it just turned out SO well! I'm very please with the final result and the only thing left to do, if you'll notice, is photos for the empty picture frames. Knowing me, I'll get to those next winter! Just kidding! I hope I get it done a little sooner than that!

Anyway, just in case anyone forgot what it looked like before, here is the only horrible picture we have. The bathroom was seriously SO small (well the same size it is now, only divided into two rooms, one for the vanity and one for the toilet and shower) you couldn't even take decent pictures of it without a wide angel lense! Tomorrow I will follow up with a cost breakdown, but our goal was $3000 for the whole project. I think we went slightly over, but we'll see when I add it all up.

Before:

Afters:

We have a discharge date!

2009-05-28T13:19:00.000-07:00

Brooke has continued to do well the past couple days. She has not had an episode of sleep apnea for 36 hours now, but she has had a few drops in her oxygen levels in clusters after she eats. They are just slight decreases though and she is doing fine self regulating it, which is great news. They were supposed to have her in a regular bassinet by today, but apparently it's been pushed off to tomorrow. So she is now expected to go home Sunday and we're super excited! The only thing that could push that date back is if she has another sleep apnea episode or if she isn't able to self regulate her temperature.

She also got the go ahead yesterday to breastfeed. We tried for the first time last night and she did great! Latched right on like a champ and she's a very good eater which will only help her grow and get stronger faster! We met with the lactation consultant this afternoon just to make sure she was doing alright and she was even surprised at how strong Brooke was for how small she was. She is back up to 5 lbs again, after losing some weight yesterday. She's actually at 5 lbs 1.4 oz today.

Here is a picture of us from yesterday! I look terrible because I feel like I have no time for anything anymore, so excuse how disgusting I look! I'd just rather spend another 30 minutes with Brooke than blow dry my hair. Can you blame me though?

And here is a picture from this afternoon. We spent an entire hour out of the incubator breastfeeding so the only picture I got was of her sleeping in the incubator. Still adorable though!

Brooke's 5th Day!

2009-05-26T04:32:00.000-07:00

Brooke is continuing to improve each day, which is great news to us. She did have 4 episodes where her oxygen level decreased around 1am Monday morning, but she was able to regulate it on her own all four times. She also has been eating close to 60 cc's at each feeding and since my milk came in, she has been getting all breastmilk and we stopped supplementing with any formula. She did lose some weight, but is at 5 lbs, 2.8 oz. Here are some pictures from our visit last night.....she was wide awake!We've been trying to keep things as normal for Luke as possible, so yesterday between visits was spent enjoying the pool and having a BBQ with both families. It was hard to "have fun" without Brooke, but we've all been so exhausted with everything that I really think it was good. Here is some pictures from the festivities.
This week we're hoping to get on somewhat of a schedule. Thankfuly my mom quit her job a couple months ago to stay home full time with Luke and Brooke. Luke will continue to go to in home care just two houses down from ours two days a week though, so Mimi can get one on one time with Brooke. I also get to call and schedule my gallbladder surgery today. After everything I've been through, I'm not sure why I'm so scared, but for some reason I am. But I think it would be much easier to have surgery while Brooke is still in the NICU than when she comes home and is possibly hooked up to a monitor that goes off for false alarms constantly! We'll see how this week goes...

Baby Brooke has arrived!

2009-05-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

The past couple weeks have been a whirlwind and it looks like the next couple weeks aren't going to be much less eventful. I have been in and out of the hospital with my gallbladder problems just about every other day. But this past week, I was in the ER Monday and then started having terrible pains again Wednesday morning. I was too embaressed to go to the ER again though, so I just kept taking Vicodin at work and bearing through the pain. It finally got so bad though that I couldn't stand it anymore. I tried to drive home but couldn't even make it. My mom met me about half way and drove me to the ER. They figured it was just another gallbladder attack, but it's routine to call Labor & Delivery to check for contractions and listen to baby's heart beat just in case. Well turns out that under all the pain of the gallbladder attack, I was actually having contractions and was 2 cm dialated, 60% effaced.

So they sent me on up to Labor and Delivery about 5pm. They hooked me up to Pitocin and I was still on the Nubain from the ER for my gallbladder attack. Around midnight they said they wanted to break my water. They told me it was rather painful and that I might want to get my epidural then, so I didn't refuse. The epidural didn't hurt at all compared to the pain I have been through the past couple months. I don't remember getting it at all with Luke, but this time it just felt like getting blood drawn, a little prick.

Once they got the epidural going, my blood pressure ended up dropping below 70. They got super concerned so they turned the Pitocin off. My blood pressure stabalized out, so they went ahead and broke my water and told me to rest for the night. I did a good job of sleeping through the night but by morning I was only at 6cm. Just as the one doctor on call left though, at 8am, I went from 6cm to 10cm in a matter of 20 minutes. They called the next doctor on call and he was still about 20 minutes away. At this point, if I would have opened my legs, Brooke would have fell out I think. I was feeling such intense pressure and wanted to push. The nurses even called for "any OB in the house to come." My doctor ended up showing up and I pushed a total of 6 times through three contractions before Brooke was born at 9:01am.

Her Apgar score was an 8 and a 9, but she was on the small side, 5 lbs, 5oz and 19 inches long. They didn't rush her off to the NICU like they had with Luke, but they said I could feed her and then they'd send her up for a check just since she was small. She did perfectly fine on all the NICU testing and literally right before being discharged, she stopped breathing and turned blue.

So Brooke was admitted to the NICU. She has now been there for 4 days but it showing a lot of progress. At first they had her on an oxygen hood as well as a tube to suck out stuff from her mouth. She aso would drop her oxygen levels while she ate, so she was put on an IV with antibiotics. Here is a picture of her on Friday, 5/22, her second day:

On Saturday, 5/23, they took her off the oxygen hood and started her on "room air." She continued to keep her IV though, but started bottle feeding. Since my milk hadn't come in yet, they supplemented what I pumped with formula. She did well drinking 30cc's though. But she was still having several episodes where her oxyen levels would drop and she couldn't get them back up on her own. She also passed her first stool, which was a good sign. Of course she waited for mommy to change her first diaper for this to happen! Here she is on Day 3, the first day we got to hold her:

On Sunday, 5/24, Brooke had now gone 24 hours without having an episode. She was feeding well and was given the go ahead to "eat as much as she wants." She also got her IV taken out. On her first feeding this morning, she drank 55 cc's of breast milk which I was totally shocked at. When we visited her at night she still had not had any episodes but didn't eat well. She had a stool in the middle of her meal and then ended up burping up just about everything she had already drank. She also was very sleepy during her feeding, so we didn't have much progress. Here are some pictures of her fourth day:

So we'll see what tomorrow brings. They are not giving any indication as to when she'll be released, but they mentioned we'd discuss a plan on Wednesday after the holiday. Tonight they are working on bringing down the teperature of the incubator she's in. Once they bring it down and she can regulate her own temperature, she'll be able to sleep in a regular basinett type bed, which will be nice. I still have to have my gallbladder removed, which thankfully can be done lapriscopically and is an outpatient surgery, but I've heard it will be a rough couple of days. In a way I'd like to have it done while she's still in the NICU, but on the other hand I want to wait until she comes home and we get all settled. So who knows, we're just taking it one day at a time...

More nursery progress...

2009-05-11T19:20:00.001-07:00

Brooke's nursery has been one of the hardest tasks to complete, not only due to all my medical issues, and Todd working some crazy long hours, but also because I have about 10 times more ideas than wall room! Anyway, for Mothers Day, I wanted nothing more than to get some more work done on the nursery.

Two new collage frames from Michaels. We are having her professional pictures done at 1 wk old, so those will go in the frames as soon as I have them printed. The vinyl word quote also came from Michaels. It's not so light in the room, but for some reason it will not show up in pictures. Anyway, it reads "such a big miracle inside such a little girl." I also got 4 new canvas bins for the bookcase to store toys and blankets in.

And this is a sneak peek of the wall art and how it will be hung. I am having the hardest time finding 6 matching frames, ughh! Every time I got to Hobby Lobby, they'll only have 4 of the same kind. I've now redone this project three times due to frame availability. I FINALLY got 6 matching frames tonight and at 50% off.

Here is a close up of the framed wall art though. I attached two little hooks (by 3M) onto the back so that the ribbon could hang each of them. Then I just tied the ribbon and hung it on a push pin. Works perfectly fine. I'm considering having DH use his heavy duty molly bolts though and just hot glueing a pretty scrapbooking charm to the end of the screw, just for safety reasons. I'd feel horrible if one of these pictures feel on my little girl!

And a sneak peak of what I've been working on tonight:

Budget Meal Idea

2009-05-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

Easy Asian Stir Fry

Stir fry has always been one of our favorite meals, but it's normally been a pretty expensive one. I usually tend to pull some sirloin from the freezer and cut it into strips myself. It usually ends up costing around $3 just for the meat and really, I end up throwing about half of it out. Well, this week I totally realized they sell stir fry meats, already cut up! Duh! And the best part of all, I bought .20 lbs, which was more than enough really for three people, at $3.99 a lb was $.76!!!!!!

So I threw the stir fry meat in a wok with a little bit of oil.

There are the rest of the ingredients I had on hand. The broccoli was $1 a bunch and I used half. Mushrooms were $2, but I used half. Onion was a whole bag for $1, so lets say $.10. Then I used 1/3 a bottle of Asian Stir Fry sauce. The bottles runs about $3, so lets say $1 in sauce. I also used about 1/4 box muti-grain spaghetti which was $1, so $.25 for the noddles. Totaling.....$3.61 for the meal!!!!! And what was the best part...we had enough leftovers for lunch for me the next day and two lunches for Luke! What a steal!

Boil the noodles while stir frying the beef.

Then toss in the chopped broccoli and onion. Stir fry until everything gets a little browned on the edges. Add a little bit more oil if you need to.

Then toss in the mushrooms.

Then, when the noodles are done, drain them and toss them with the rest of the stir fry.

Toss with 1/3 bottle of stir fry sauce and serve!

So easy and SO delicious! Reheats wonderfully too!

Oh, and this may be my first and last cooking post. Todd laughed at me the entire time I was making dinner. He wanted to know what I was doing and why I was taking pictures of it. He just doesn't understand the whole blog thing. Anyway, so if I can convince him that taking pictures as I cook doesn't take longer, then I'll be posting more cooking ideas. Otherwise, enjoy this one at least!

New Happenings...

2009-05-08T19:58:00.000-07:00

It's been another one of those weeks where I really haven't gotten much done. I started having gallbladder problems yet again on Monday night, stayed home from work Tuesday, tried to work Wednesday and ended up in the hospital again. I stayed home Thursday recovering and then finally made it back to work today. Still not feeling great, but what can I do? Doctors at the ER basically told me to just try to get the next 4-5 wks to pass as quickly as possible, come to the ER when I need to, and work on inducing labor on my own. Great! Thanks for your help!

Anyway, so I've spent a lot of time lounging on the couch just watching tv and looking at my to do list grow and grow! Ughhhh! But being that I am feeling better tonight, I'm hoping to get a few things checked off my list.

Of course one of the most important things to me is family. My brother recently bought his first condo. Obviously, ike the typical 23 yr old male, my brother could care less what his place looks like. But being that he's the baby of the family, my mom of course does care. She's been freaking out about every aspect of his house and of course wants it fully decorated and furnished the time he moves in next Saturday. Her normal furniture shopping style isn't exactly working for my brother either. My mom and dad just go shopping wherever......Ethan Allen, Drexel Heritage, antique stores, etc an buy whatever they want. Doesn't exactly work when you're on a budget and the only place they even knew to look was Value City furniture. SO, Happy Mother's Day mom......I'm going to take care of your little boy!

Here's pictures of his new condo: (realtor photos.....so sorry, they suck!)

So, as you can see, the place is pretty much plain Jane. My brother bought it from a single older man who was moving into a retirement home......so obviously this place has never seen an ounce of style! I'm going to try and ma it feel "home-y" yet traditional and manly.

So here is the pieces I have picked out for my brother:

Couch and matching love seat for the family room

He has a full sized matress set from college, so while it was tricky to find a set with a full size headboard, I found a nice one at Target.

Then he of course needed a desk in there for all his computer stuff as well!

Then for the dining room, he needed a small, yet nice dining table.

And that'll at least do him for a couple weeks hile he gets comfy. Then we'll start painting and working on some decor on a budget....my specialty!

In other news, I sold the stroller and car seat we used for Luke. I got $175 for both, which is a little less than I could have gotten for it on Ebay, but it saved me the hassle of having to list it, package it up and ship it. Now the last big item I need to sell is our airplane nursery set. I'm hoping to list that on Ebay tomorrow.

So, hmmmm, what to spend $175 on????? I think I'll figure out something. =)

My 110% complete diaper stash!

2009-05-02T15:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm admitting it. I'm finally 110% done buying any new diapers for Brooke until she starts outgrowing some. I know we have more than enough, but I just wanted to be over prepared rather than under! Anyway, here it is, my 110% complete girly stash! Also, for those of my friends who have asked me to share with them all the info I've learned about cloth diapers, I'll be adding that as I go.

Prefolds

First is our stash of newborn prefolds. I have 18 Little Lion prefolds, which from the feel of it, don't seem like they'll do real well, but I got them for free and I figure they are better than nothing. I also got a dozen orange edge (newborn size) Green Mountain Diaper prefolds. The four "t" shaped things below those are called Snappis. I got these "used" from Jilliams Drawers, but they look brand new to me.

So what's so great about prefolds? Well, these are the type of diapers most people think of when they hear cloth diapers. But even then, they've come a long way. And no more pins, the Snappis have little plastic teeth on the three ends that "catch" the cloth on the prefolds to hold it all together. I personally haven't used prefolds (learning all the folds on a toddler trying to run away just never happened), but I'm really looking forward to trying them with Brooke. Prefolds do have to be used with a cover though.

These are the prefolds I have for Brooke as she gets bigger. The dyed and ebellished ones are technially yellow edged Green Mountain diapers, but the actually measure like their new red edge prefolds, so I'm guessing the sizes have changed sometime in the past. The stack behind those are a dozen brown edged (toddler size) Green Mountain Diapers.

Wet Bags

These are the three wet bags I got. I don't think everyone needs this many, but like I said, I'd rather have more than enough. The top left is from Earth Mama. The top right is a Whammies. And the bottom is from MonkeyFootDesigns.

The Extras

And no "stash" would be complete without the extras. Here is one of two pail liners we have. The Whammies liners work great! I also bought a donzen new wipes and spray bottle for Brooke's room. We just mix a few drops of California Baby baby wash with hot water, shake it up, and it's perfect sprayed on baby's bum during diaper changes. Smells nice too!

Fitteds

8 Kissaluvs Size 0, better known as KL0s. I have a feeling these will be my "go-to" diaper once Brooke is here. They have a snap so the front folds down before the umbillical cord falls off. I think that'll be nice to have.

These are the other newborn fitteds we have. The top left is a Happy Heineys fitted, size newborn. The top middle is a WAHM (work at home mom) made fitted I got off Etsy. The diaper all the way to the right is a Very Baby, size newborn. The bottom left is an Under The Nile fitted, size 1. And the bottom center is another WAHM made fitted, size nb.

Fitteds are nice because they just snap right on like a disposable diaper. But they do have to be used with covers. Sometimes this can make for quite a fluffy bottom!

These two are GreenSprouts fitteds, both in size medium/long. I had actually bought these for Luke and they ended up being too small. I've tried selling them, but not gotten any good offers, so I figured I'd keep them for Brooke. They are very trim, but the downside to it is that they don't last real long. I usually pair them with a FooFoo Hemp Liner from Etsy seller ArtsyFartsyFooFoo.

Also, not pictures, I have two one size Goodmamas fitted diapers. These are expensive, but they work really great and of all the fitted, are my favorite. So why no pictures? Yes, even though they hav pink on them, my son uses them now! They had a sale, 3 for $70 a while back and I only saw one boy print I liked, so I figured I'd get one boy print for him and two girl ones for Brooke. Well, turns out I loved the diapers so much that even Todd was okay with lettering Luke wear them, as long as they were worn with a manly cover! Haha! I doubt they'll fit Brooke anytime soon though, even though the size, one size, replies they will. I'm guessing around 4-5 months. We'll see....

Covers

This is my very small collection of wool covers. Most people go crazy over these, but I'm just not sure how I feel about them yet. They are really pricey, and while they do work very good at preventing leaks, especially overnight, they still are just a one time use cover for me. They don't get soaked, but they still smell like pee in my opinion. So if I have to hand wash and then lanolize a cover after just one use, then it's not really worth the extra cost and time spent washing them.

Anyway, the cover on the left is a Disana wool cover. It was actually my sons, size large until it accidently got thrown in the washing machine. So now it's the perfect size for a newborn! The cover on the right is a Little Bettle.

These are the rest of our newborn covers. The top three and bottom two are what we plan on using first. They have a little dip in the front so that it doesn't irritate the cord. They are called Proraps. The light blue cover in the middle to the left is a Swaddlebees cover. Second with green dots is a Bummis Super Whisper Wrap. The third is a Bummis Super Brite. And the one all the way to the right is a Thirsties cover in XS.

These are the covers I have for when Brooke gets a little bigger. The first two on the top are Bummis Super Brites, size small. The top row, all the way to the right, as well as the green one below it are WHAM made, from Etsy Seller OliveJanes, both size small. The middle left is Imse Vimse, size small. The bottom two are both mediums. The one on the left is a Dappi cover I got for free and the one on the right is a Snap Ez fleece cover I got for free.

All-In-Ones

All in ones are the diapers Todd and my mom like the most, of course for their ease. They don't have to worry about covers or inserts, because like the name implies, everything is really, all in one, just like a disposable diaper. You pull one from the stack, use it, and when your done you just throw it in the pail. The only downside is of course, being the easiest, they also are the most expensive. A downside for others is that they take a long time to dry. I've found tht if I toss them in the dryer on the ultra delicate cycle, and then hang them to dry overnight, they are fine by morning.

Although the All-In-Ones are everyones favorite, I only got 4 in the newborn size. I figure I'll be the one changing diapers the most for the first couple weeks and we won't be going out too much either. So, I got two Thirsties All-In-Ones in XS and two Sposoeasy All-In-Ones in XS.

These are all the next step up. I have four size small Thirsties All-In-Ones which are on the left. Then on the right, I have 7 size small BumGenious 3.0s.

Last is the two size medium Blueberries All-In-Ones. Those are the two pretty printed ones. The other two pink ones are one size Bum Genious All-In-Ones. I'm trying to keep myself from buying anymore in size medium because I figure by then, Brooke will probably be about 5 or 6 months old and we can just use the stash we had for Luke which is pretty gender neutral. The key to this equation though......will Luke be potty trained by then? My hope is yes, reality, I'm not really sure. He's doing well now, but we'll see how he does once he has a baby sister taking all his attention away from him.

Hurry over to the Hyper Homemaker...

2009-05-02T11:23:00.001-07:00

I urge you now to hurry on over to Katie's blog, The Hyper Homemaker at http://hyperhomemaker.blogspot.com/. It has been such a valueable resource to me for well over a year, but due to her accpeting her dream job, she has to take her blog down!!!!!!! Oh no!

So quick, before Sunday night, be sure to go on over to her blog and spend a few hours reading and copying down any ideas you may need for the future! This information is just too good to loose! Thanks Katie for sharing your knowledge with us for the past year and a half!

But don't worry, you CAN still enjoy her recipes and boy does she have some good ones. Her food blog, Good Things Catered, will be continuing. So be sure to check it out too for some amazing ideas! http://goodthingscatered.blogspot.com/

And another wall art idea!

2009-04-30T04:18:00.000-07:00

I must be on some kind of kick today about wall art.......maybe because I need to get my rear in gear and finish the walls in both the bathroom and Brooke's nursery!

Anyway, I came across this idea and had to share. What an easy way to reuse and old t-shirt that got to small or got a stain on it!

http://www.aroomsomewhere.net/2007/09/t-shirt-art.html

Cool new wall art idea - and cheap too!

2009-04-30T03:33:00.000-07:00

I think wall art is one of my biggest challenges when decorating a room. Even a reproduction print or a canvas piece from Hobby Lobby can run you more than $50. And then it probably still needs a frame for $20 or so! So multiply that by 4 or 5 pictures in every room and you are talking about some money!So anytime I see an idea for cheap wall art, I always sock the idea away for a rainy day. It'll just be a matter of time before I can use it in our house.

So I randomly came across this idea today and LOVE it, so I thought I'd share it all with you. I'm normally the type that just tosses this kind of little junk, but not anymore! Now I'm saving little things in a mason jar on my craft desk....hehe!

http://www.designspongeonline.com/2009/02/diy-project-kates-uncommon-valentine.html

When price doesn't matter....

2009-04-28T19:40:00.001-07:00

I'm usually all about finding something for cheaper and I actually make it a game to see how cheap I can do everything from groceries/meal planning, to clothes, to home improvement. But this past week I've finally realized that there is one aspect of my life that I really could care less how much it costs......medical expenses!

I've always been on of those people that when I get the slightest bit of a cold, I run up to the closest pharmacy and grab tissues (the expensive ones with aloe even), throat drops (the expensive ones that actually taste good), and Calratin D along with bottles of gatorade and popsicles. Ususually it's like $40, which seems like such a waste, but I'd rather feel good than save money.

Well, for the first time in my life, this example was really put to the test. I've never been to the Emergency Room in my entire life, I've never really been more sick than the flu or a broken bone. I've never even had family or friends with anything big happen to them thank God! Well, it finally happened.......I have gallstones. I went to the ER about 8 wks ago, then again about 3 wks ago. I knew I'd have to have my gallbladder removed, but I never thought I'd spend time in the hospital for it. Well I had another "attack" two Sundays ago, but just kept taking Vicodin. Tuesday I tried to go to work but it just kept getting worse so I was forced to go t the ER when Vicodin wouldn't take the edge off the pain. I ended up getting admitted and spending the next 4 days in the hospital! It seriously was the worst experience in the world.

Anyway, we are now getting the bills for it all. I'm VERY thankful that I have such a hardworking husband who gets his butt up at 3am every morning to work a second job at UPS just so we can have good health care. So, the total for 3 ER visits and a 4 day stay in the hospital.........$112,000!!!!!! Can you believe that?!?!?!? And how much do we owe? Thank GOD, only $25 for each ER visit and $10 for the time I was admitted to the hospital. But to be honest, they could have said we owed the entire $112,000 and I still would have been alright with it. There is nothing worse than being in pain, not being able to do anything about it, and not knowing wha is wrong!

Anyway, things are finally getting back to normal around the house, so I promise, more new blog entries to come....

I swear, I haven't been slacking!

2009-04-14T18:19:00.000-07:00

Even though it's been awile since I last posted, I swear, I haven't just been lazy! Two weekends I went to the ER and found out I have acute chloecytisis....basically a fancy name for an inflammed gallbladder. I was given morphine (yeah, the good stuff) for the pain and basically sent home that night because they can't do anything until Brooke is born. So, three weeks after giving birth, I have the pleasure of going back into the hospital and getting my gallbladder removed. Apparently it's an easy out patient procedure, but still, with a two year old and a three week old, I'm not really looking forward to it!

But between the Vicodin pills (no really, I am feeling much better now), I have gotten a lot done to prepare for Brooke's arrival.

1. I made 6 nights worth of freezer meals. I have three chicken lime taco fillings and three regular taco fillings. Both were REALLY good. The chicken lime tacos can be found at http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Lime-Chicken-Soft-Tacos/Detail.aspx and the regular chicken taco filling was made from this recipe http://www.recipezaar.com/Crock-Pot-Chicken-Taco-Meat-4957. We are both big taco fans so this is 6 easy meals for us......just throw on some soft tortillas or nacho chips, top with some cheese, sour cream, and some store bought salsa and guacamole and we're happy!

2. We finally got Brooke's nursery to "blank slate." I put her bedding in the crib and removed almost everything airplane related. The one frames still have plane prints in it, butthat is just until I finish the DIY art I'm working on, I promise. Here's some pictures though:

3. I also made some name art for Brooke's nursery. It's going to go in 6 seperate frames, either 5 x 7 frames or 8 x 10 frames with matting, I haven't decided for sure yet. Here is a sneek peak though.

4. We also celebrated Easter last weekend and I made two fabulous meals! Luke had his first Easter Egg Hunt too and LOVED it! We had breakfast at my parents house and I made a breafkast casserole and pecan sticky rolls. Both were out of this world delicious! The breakfast casserole can be found at http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Christmas-Breakfast-Sausage-Casserole/Detail.aspx and the pecan rolls an be at http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Melt-in-Your-Mouth-Pecan-Rolls. For dinner I made a mock Honey Baked Ham that really did taste just like the store made ham, only for $16.99! I found the recipe here http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Honey-Glazed-Ham/Detail.aspx. I served it with some simple asparagus roasted in a pan with just a little butter and garlic and also hot crashed potatoes. They were SO good and can be found at http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/crash-hot-potatoes.pdf. Dessert was just a simple strawberry shortcake. The highlight of the day though was Luke and his hunt for all the eggs. He LOVES jellybeans but won't hesitate spitting out a flavor he doesn't like. =) Here's some pictures of him collecting his loot!

5. And lastly, we "tested" out our new photographer two weekends ago as well (before I collapsed over in pain). To say she passed with flying colors would be the understatement of the year. She was fantastic and Luke LOVED her. We decided to do a little something different and did an "urban" scene, but it was SO much fun. Check out the "teaser" photos at http://www.alisonandoliver.blogspot.com/. I cannot WAIT till Brooke gets here so we can shoot her newborn photos with her!

6. I've also got Brooke's newborn cloth diaper stash finally completed. I just ordered the last of what I needed today, but here is pictures of her stash:

Well, I think that about sums up our past two weeks. I've also been doing a LOT of shopping, getting everything ready for Brooke's arrival. No, it's not really things I need per se, but she's already having the standard set of most apoiled princess in the entire world! Haha!

Erin's Mood Board!

2009-04-02T19:13:00.000-07:00

And I almost forgot to mention.....I had another slow day at work, so I made a mood board for a friend's master bedroom. I thought it turned out pretty well. I added the brown accent color though and I'll be going back and changing that tomorrow. =)

BEFORE:

The Proposed AFTER:

And just in case your asking yourself.....isn't that the same furniture from yesterday??? Yes, it is the same Canopy collection from Walmart! Erin beat me to ordering it so there was no choice but to decorate the room around it! =) Plus, of course I think it will look great in any space!

Brooke's Baby Shower!

2009-04-02T18:50:00.003-07:00

Okay, so I've promised everyone and their moms that I'd post pictures of Brooke's baby shower, so here they are:

I cannot believe I am sharing this with you, as I DON'T do belly shots, but someone snuck in a picture of me, so I guess I'll shame myself and share it all with you. This is my 30 wks belly! Gasp! And check out that facial expression.....I love having my picture taken, can you tell?

And here is Luke greeting everyone. Where did my little baby boy go???

This was the couple that my aunt invited to sing at my shower. They are auditioning for Nashville Star so they were so happy for an audience. They sang "In My Daughters Eyes," and they were AWESOME! How cool would that be if they became famous???
And of course another one of Luke....testing out all his little sisters toys and clothes. He was totally clueless that all the presents weren't for him! =)
And the end result.....WAY too much stuff for a small shower! I cannot believe that by inviting only 11 very close family and friends, I still brought home an entire carload of baby stuff! They were all too generous, but of course, I love it all and I love you all! I can't wait to meet Brooke and now dress her in all of these fun new clothes!

We're getting a tax return!

2009-04-01T18:25:00.000-07:00

Every year around tax time I cringe thinking about how much we owe. And it especially makes me even more mad when I hear everyone and they say they are getting $3,000 or $4,000 back and what big thing they are going to buy with it. Todd's accountant does our taxes since his business is rolled into our taxes, but every year, whatever I was going to get back didn't even come close to canceling out what he owed. But this year, lady luck must be on my side! This is the first year it was more beneficial to file seperate and I got Luke. So I was expecting back $1200. Todd was going to owe $800 though. I was searching around some money message boards though and learned that if we contributed to an IRA (which we had set up already, just didn't contribute this year because of the sucky economy, 28% of what we put in it would cancel out what Todd owed or boost my return. So we decided to contribute $5K (which we plan on using to pay for college, and if not needed for whatever reason, more for retirement). So we are now getting back close to $1500! Finally, I get to make a big purchase too! So what am I picking????? A new bedroom suite!

I know what your thinking......a $1500 bedroom suite, YEAH RIGHT! Let me introduce you to the Canopy Collection from Walmart! Yes, I said it, Walmart furniture. But if you remember, we actually have a piece from this collection already, the Anywhere Console in our dining room. It's solid wood and great construction. I've heard just as many positive reviews about the bedroom furniture too! So for a queen size headboard and footboard, long dresser, tall dresser and 2 nightstands all for under $1400!!!!!!! And even better, they ship for free to the store!

So here is the mood board I created to show Todd my ideas for the room. I really want something "beachy" and "airy" so I can wake up on the right side of the bed every day! I think a master bedroom should be the one place you can go, relax, and just be able to wind down. I can't think of a more serene place than the beach. So here it is:

Oh, and the new curtains!

2009-03-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

I was trying to wait until we had curtains in both the living room and the dining room to share, but since the past few nights have been so hectic (what's new, I know) I couldn't wait any longer. I am IN LOVE with my new curtains. They seriously just made our room into a home! I still need some accessories for the room and in a MAJOR way, but I LOVE this room now! So, here it is:

And a close up of the pattern on the drapes. I just LOVE the paisley print right now, and I've been dying for a room with light blue and brown in it, so when I saw these panels on sale at Target for $22 each, I knew I HAD to have them! =)

The sale was a success!

2009-03-24T18:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, just had to post this real quick.......after all is said and done, how much do you think I'll take home from that kids sale this past weekend???? Any guesses, any, any? $156.40!!!!!! I had to pay the charity 20% and then subtracted after the 20%, I owed $137 in IOU's and I STILL brought home over $150. And to make matters even better, I still have two sets of Pottery Barn bedding to sell, a couple carriers, our stroller, and a bunch of other stuff I have piled in the corner of our office (Todd's old Abercrombie clothes, shoes/boots I got on sale and never wore, etc). I'm so flipping excited! I LOVE making extra cash! YEAH!

I've seen the light!

2009-03-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am finally back above water! Our Semi-annual Twigs Kid's Sale was yesterday and I finally made it home just in time to put Luke to sleep last night. I crashed shortly after myself! But, was all the hard work worth it? I think so! Not only did Twigs sell almost $50,000 worth of merchandise (they keep 20% of profits which goes to the Dayton Children's Hospital) but I also sold a TON of my own stuff and got some new deals as well. Here is come pictures of all I got for $137! A ton of clothes for Brooke, clothes for Luke, a bike for Luke (for only $5!), and a really nice Circo stool and t-ball set! I think I did really well. And the best part.....when we are done using this stuff in a couple years, I can sell it for pretty much the same price I bought it for! How's that for being cheap and green!

Does life ever slow down?

2009-03-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I'm still getting used to the time change or if this pregnancy is just kicking my butt......but whatever it is, my body better figure it out and get back in shape! Haha! I've literally been late to work every single day for at least two weeks and I feel like I can never get everything done I want to. Enough whinning from me though. Here's the latest on what I've been working on.....preparing for the local Mom's Market Sale this weekend!

Anyway, I finally got everything organized this weekend, thanks to my mom. Luke ended up with the flu and just wanted to snuggle and watch tv all weekend. And he NEVER sits still, so as much as I really wanted to snuggle with him, I knew I had to get this done. So several hours later, I got eveything I wanted to sell, all in one place, and organized by size. Wheeew, what a task! Then I got to snuggle with my little one. =)

But now every night, I'm trying to tag and price two of those piles. Each pile takes me at least an hour and then somehow, I'm supposed to make up a spreadsheet of every item I'm selling in case anything gets stolen. They had about $600 in items stollen last year (although most were DVDs and video games), but still. They give you back the tags of the things that sold and then you obviously get back eveything that didn't sell and you are supposed to match it to the spreadsheet. You can claim anything that wasn't sold or given back and they'll refund you as long as you have a spreadsheet showing where it was marked before the sale.

Anyway, when all is said and done, I should bring home somewhere around $400-$600! I only need maybe $50 worth of clothes for Luke for this spring still and I'm not buying anything else from Brooke because I have a feeling my friends and family have gone WAY overboard on clothes for my shower next Sunday, so I need to stop myself from buying anything else for her. I honestly don't even know where it's going to fit! Regardless, the extra money can then be used to buy the few things I do "need" according to my mom, like pink swaddling blankets (apparently girls can't be swaddled in blue blankets), a few more cloth diapers, a moby wrap, and a few of the cute little outfits I've seen on etsy for her newborn photos. Hehe! Oh yeah, and I can splurge on some cute stuff for her nursery! Hehe!

It's almost there...

2009-03-11T04:21:00.000-07:00

I hope this is only my second to last post on our bathroom remodel. I seriously cannot believe we started this project the week after Christmas and it's STILL not in useable condition! Here's some pictures of it "almost" done:

And as if we hadn't had enough bad luck, things have once again taken a turn for the worse! Everything was up and running after the plumber came on Friday. Todd specifically had a master plumber do all the plumbing since directly below the toilet is our furnace. Well......I went to the bathroom on Saturday night and thankfully Todd was downstairs. He heard almost the entire toilet bowl of water leak onto the furnace!

So Monday the plumber came back out and they figured out that apparently, the toilet somehow passed inspections yet there was about 7 cracks in the bottom of it! Wonderful! AND, when we went to turn our furnace back on the other night, it made the whole house smell like smoke! Great! So we are now waiting for Home depot corporate to get back to us (they followed up last night at least) on an insurance claim they sent in for us. $150 for the two plumber trips and also to have someone fix our furnace! Ughhh.......I love home ownership!

Sorry I've been MIA!

2009-03-04T19:36:00.001-08:00

I haven't had time to post the past day or so because I've been working on a nursery bio. I've been keeping a ton of really great ideas on my desktop and I thought......why not share?!?!? So I decided to use the wonderful googlepages free website tool and make a nursery bio full of anything to do with nurseries. So if you're bored.....check it out. http://nurserybio.googlepages.com/home

The slowest bathroom remodel ever!

2009-03-03T08:10:00.000-08:00

So, finally, after three weeks of working on tiling the guest bathroom floor......it's FINALLY finished! Pretty pathetic huh? We had to lay "self" leveling concrete three times and it the floor still wasn't level. We finally had to have a professional come out to level it and even then, the guy was convinced our floor had a mind of it's own! Haha! Anyway, here is pictures of the bathroom with the flooring installed and grouted.
The grout has to dry for 48 hours, so we get to install the vanity tomorrow night. Then our countertops will be installed on Friday and all the plumbing will get done early next week! I'm SOOO excited!

I love a good deal!

2009-02-22T12:27:00.000-08:00

Today I finally got my dream stroller! We went on a family trip to a store called Treehouse Kids in the Cincinnati Mills outelt just to "test drive" the Phil and Teds stroller I'd read so much about. As shocking as the price is, Todd felt the same way I did, it really does live up to all the talk. It's nothing like any other stroller we looked at. If anything, it's lighter and sturdier than the Peg Perego Pliko P3 we already have (and love)! However, at the store, it was $450.00 for the stroller plus another $100 for the doubles kit. And then on top of that we'd pay 7.5% tax, so another $41.25! As much as I'm a fan of local small business, we just couldn't afford to pay this knowing we could get it online cheaper.

So I checked it out online when we got home, and sure enough Pish Posh Baby had a 2008 model, brand new, and in the charcoal color we liked best, for only $450. Only they throw in the doubles kit for free, don't charge tax, and ship for free. And then, if it couldn't get any better, I found a coupon code, SAVE5, which saved another 5%. So we got the stroller for $427.50 out the "door!"

And if our day couldn't have gotten any better, I decided to take the time during the drive home to read our Sunday newpaper. Low and behold, inside all those great Sunday sale ads, was a brown paper bag. And not just any paper bag, but a "coupon" of sorts. Bring in this bag and recieve a free burrito to our favorite place in the whole world......Chipolte! So we'll also get dinner for all three of us tonight for $5.95! It must be my lucky day or something!

It was a productive weekend!

2009-02-17T03:42:00.000-08:00

We also got our recessed lighting installed yesterday. It only cost us $180 for the installation and the lights were about $12 for each light (only 5 installed so far). Anyway, it made a HUGE difference in our kitchen! Only problem, I'm leaning towards making an island in the kitchen again. The more and more I think about it, it would really complete the kitchen and I could use the extra chopping room. =)I know this has seemed like the slowest bathroom remodel on the face of the Earth, but we're trying. We've been working on about 5 things around the house and DH has been waiting for friends to help him out when they are available (to save money of course!) BUT, we finally have a tiled tub/shower surround.
Next up......painting the bathroom and starting the tile floors. We'll see if we have as much as we've been havin lately. =)

Save money and the Earth.....while cleaning!

2009-02-08T12:32:00.000-08:00

We have now been using homeade "green cleaners" for a litte over two months with success, so I figured I' share with you my methods! At first, I of course decided to switch to green cleaners due to the fact that I couldn't sleep at night dreaming Luke would accidently get under the kitchen sink (even though it's babyproofed) and start chugging a bottle of Lysol toilet bowl cleaner. But then there is of course all those looming threats of even if he doesn't actually chug these cleaners, they could still cause him harm in the long run, just using them in our house. But then to learn that homeade green cleaners are really a bunch of cheap supplies I can find at the grocery store, now I was really sold. So here is my journey into making and using my own homeade green cleaners!

First, I picked up the book, Organic Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck, from the library of course. As I read it from cover to cover, I took notes in a notebook for future reference. She has a lot of great green ideas for anything from removing ink stains from fabric to washing fruits and vegtable with nothing buy hydrogen peroxide. But I'll only share with you her great ideas I use on a weekly basis, but if you want to know more, be sure to pick up her book at your library. It really is a good non-fictional read!

So after I had my notebook started, I decided I needed to pick up all the supplies I would need for my new cleaning methods. I picked up a couple of cheap spray bottles from the Dollar Tree, then I picked up a castile soap (Dr. Bronners, $8.99 at Trader Joes or Krogers in the organic section for a HUGE bottle!), two huge gallon bottles of distilled white vinegar, a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and 2-12 pack of Vroom microfiber cleaning clothes from Target's auto section. I believe the clothes were $7.99 for 12 towels. I already had a Swiffer mop on hand, some baking soda, a soft bristle brush and a toilet scrubber. I also cut up a few old t-shirts we were planning on donating to accumulate more cleaning rags and started a small pile of newspapers under the sink (for cleaning glass).

Then I decided the only way to get everyone on board (Todd and my mom in our case) was to get rid of all our regular supplies as well as make everything easy to use and accesible. I made three cleaners, one pure vinegar, one hydrogen peroxide, and one my all-purpose cleaner. I set the rest of my supplies under the sink, making sure the three spray bottles were in front. I then places the cleaning clothes in a cute little basket next to the spray bottles and the newspapers in a basket next to the clothes. Now there was no excuse!

Mixing the cleaners:

-Vinegar and Hydrogen Peroxide: I think these mixtures are pretty straight forward. Just pour from bottle it came in to spray bottle! All ready for use! =)

-All Purpose Cleaner: mix bottle half way with vinegar, then fill the bottle almost to the top with very warm water. Then just add a few drops (maybe a Tbsp full) of Dr. Bronners castile soap (we prefer the peppermint scented one, I've also heard lavender smells good as well). Then just shake the spray bottle a litle and this is ready to use as well. (Note: the warm water will obviously become room temperature, which is fine when cleaning. I find the warm water just mixes everything together a little better.)

-Bathtub cleaner: (I mix this in a little bowls before every use.) Just mix a little bit of baking soda (maybe 1/4 cup) with some Dr. Bronners castile soap until you get a creamy mixture. It's ready for use.

What to use and where:

-For every day floor cleaning, I just wet a microfiber cloth, fold it in half and pinch it into the little holders on the swiffer. Then I just run that over the floors to pick up excess dirt and hair. It also stays wet enough through all three rooms and the entry way that I don't have to change it. It gets up all those little feet smudge marks too. =)

-For the kitchen, I use the all purpose cleaner. I just squirt and wipe down with a microfiber cloth. For the sink I spray the sink with hydrogen peroxide. When it stops bubbling, all the germs have been killed!

-For the bathroom, I use several cleaners. For the mirror, I use pure vinegar and wipe it down with recycled newspaper. (If you find that it's streaky, mix in a little Dr. Bronners with vinegar for the first cleaning to remove any old cleaner build up.) Next I spray the sink with hydrogen peroxide. Then a wipe down the counters using the all-purpose cleaner and a cloth. Then for the toilet, I flush once to get the sides wet, sprinkle with baking soda and spray with pure vinegar. While it sizzles, I scrub it with the toilet brush. Then for the shower, I use the bathtub mixture I mentioned, scrubbing it with my soft bristle brush. Rinse this off with water from the shower of course. Then last, I clean the floor with a rag and pure vinegar.

-For windows around the house, I again use pure vinegar and newspaper. Only, since I don't do these as often and want to give them so extra shine, I follow up with 100 proof vodka.

I hope this helps you to make the switch to green cleaners! Although it was intimidating at first, once we got thr routine down, we loved it. Everything just seems so much cleaner now and we don't have to worry about the harsh chemicals hurting any of us!

And decided on a stroller!

2009-02-03T17:21:00.000-08:00

Well, I decided on a stroller! I'm no longer giving Todd the option to choose. =) As frgual ::ahem, cheap:: as he is, even he admitted he liked nothing at Babies R Us. We went there a few Sundays ago and tested out every model they had on display. Either it was HUGE, bulky, and heavy or it was cheaply made and wobbly, or it was managable but the seats were so tiny that I honestly don't know how much longer Luke would even be able to fit in it. The only thing we remotely liked was a double jogging stroller, maybe a Schwinn, not sure. We just couldn't see spending $350 on something we didn't love. It wasn't too bulky, it steered well and was easy to push, but it didn't recline and didn't take a car seat, so we really couldn't see pushing around a 6 lbs newborn in it!

So the more and more I look, the more times I keep coming back to the same thing, the Phil and Ted's sport buggy with a double kit. We'll look just like Brooke Shield's pushing around her kids at the park (and I'll be back to size 6 like she is! Haha)

It's the answer to all my problems though. Here's is all the positions it can go in:

So it's basically adaptable to every situation. And from all the reviews I've read, it isn't "too good to be true." The only slight problem I've found......the cost! The cheapest I've found it is $449 with free shipping and it's the 2008 model/color the are discontinuing. Think Todd might get this for me as a Valentine's Day present???? Doubtful! So I'll just have to figure out another way to save up $450 buck-a-roos! I love a challendge though!

And speaking of bathrooms...

2009-02-03T17:15:00.000-08:00

There hasn't been much progress really. Todd did get the rest of the drywall up, got the drywall all finished and primed it all, but now it's just sat, waiting for us to make a final decision on tile color, paint color, countertop, etc. We did end up buying the tile we finally choose this weekend, but we're basically back to square one on the countertop. We're down to either getting unwarrented granite for $560 or just going with Corian for $400 (which I'm not fond of, but at this point, who knows). I'm just not paying $900 for a quartz or silestone countertop!!!!! Tha is just ridiculous. (The countertop store called us back and told us they mis-quoted us by the way, errr!)

Anyway, Todd was supposed to start tiling tomorrow with his buddy, but we've also been qaiting for about 6 months to get our last 4 windows put in. Of course our other friend calls and says he has the time on Wednesday to help Todd put those in. So tile is bumped to next week now, BUT I do get my new windows in, which means my new curtains can go up soon! YEAH!

Got a great deal on nursery bedding!

2009-02-03T17:06:00.000-08:00

So I ended up looking for bedding as soon as we found out we were having a little girl. I knew DH didn't want to spend a ton of money on it, but I still didn't think the "airplane" theme that currently occupies the nursery space was really appropriate either.

So at first I was dead set on a black and white paisley set I'd seen on Walmart.com for only $79.98! I couldn't sleep for a couple nights just dreaming up all the decorations that would match it. But it ran out of stock and now three weeks later, is still out of stock.

So I had a slow day at work today so I thought I'd better use my time to find a back up bedding. Turns out Target was having a huge sale. I ended up finding the perfect set and for 3 pieces it was only $64! I also picked up a crib skirt for another $15 and also 3 packs of wall decals for another $15! Even better, they had a free shipping deal! So here's the bedding:

And even more good news, it'll look good with the existing tan walls (saving $25 in paint) and the existing cherry furniture Luke used. I plan on getting a small brown rug, some nice brown curtains, a fun girly lamp or two, some pink and brown baskets, and some pink and brown accents among the room! Starting in early March, we'll be sharing the nursery progress with you! Just have to finish that darn bathroom!!!!!

Insight from another money saving mom!

2009-01-25T07:11:00.000-08:00

In our local paper this morning, there was a huge full page article about a mom near me that has an excellent website for saving money. In ust 2008, she either earned or saved $26,153!!!!!! In my opinion, that is just incredible! Imagine having over an extra $25K a year! But what's even better? She shares with her readers exactly how she does everything so you ca save along with her!

So here's her website in case you want to check it out. I'm sure I'm going to be hooked all day on it! Hehe!

http://moneysavingmethods.blogspot.com/

Date Night on a Dime!

2009-01-25T06:43:00.001-08:00

Normally date night includes maybe a $20 meal between the two (water only to drink) and a free or nearly free "activity" afterwards, like going to a park to watch the sunset, attending a free festival, shopping the mall sans kids, etc. But twice a year, we go all out! Okay, maybe not all out, but it's a splurge for us. Two times a year our local restaurant association puts on restaurant week where we can each get a 3 course meal for the price of the year, so this year $20.09. And to save even more money, since this event lasts a whole week, we work out a babysitting switch for Friday and Saturday night. One night we watch all the kids while our friends go out to dinner, the other night, the other night we switch.

So now the only decision, which restaurant do we try this time? We have it narrowed down to these three:

1. Carvers (a local steakhouse):
Choice of one: Tomato Zucchini Soup with Parmesan or Mixed greens with goat cheese, pine nuts & pinot noir vinaigrette or Romaine with bleu cheese, sweet onion, bacon and balsamic vinaigrette or Classic Caesar salad.
Choice of one: Prime Rib with Port Au Jus and Baked Potato or N.Y. Strip Steak with Steakhouse Fries or Filet Mignon with Port Shallot Sauce and Au gratin Potatoes or Tilapia Oscar with Asparagus, Lump Crab and Roasted Root Vegetables or Atlantic Salmon with Basil, Citrus, and Mustard Seed Crust and Rice Pilaf or Chicken Breast with Sun Dried Tomato, Pine nut and Garlic Sauce served with mashed Potatoes
Choice of one: Creme Brulee " Carver's Speciality Creme Brulee of the Day or Butterscotch Fudge Brownie's

2. Cena (a local Brazillian Steakhouse):
Enjoy Cena's feat table- laden with 40-50 items including specialty salads, salmon, grilled vegetables, cheeses, sushi and homemade soup. Then enjoy a plate of five Churrasco -cooked meats inlcuding our signature cut, picanha (beef top sirloin) and parmesan chicken. Starch of the day and speciality sauces included OR Award winning Brazilian Beef Stroganoff served over a bed of white rice accented with sauteed onions and garlic. Rolls included

3. The Melting Pot:
Appetizer: Cheddar Cheese Fondue
Entree: Chicken and Sirloin Fondue with a variety of vegetables
Dessert: Your choice of Chocolate(Dark, White, Milk) Fondue Dessert

Hmmm.......decisions, decisions! I'll have to let you know when we finally decide. Oh yeah, and most importantly, how much will we be saving??? Well, using Carvers for example. Three courses would have been about $40 per person. So its about a 50% off deal. Not too bad!

It's a........GIRL!

2009-01-23T04:10:00.000-08:00

We had our ultrasound last night at 5PM. Todd and Luke of course came along as well. Even though we were at least 10 minutes early, somehow the girl that was supposed to be after us snuck in before us. So we didn't get to go in until 5:50! Needless to say, we did kind of rush through it since Luke wanted nothing but to go home and eat dinner at this point.

But everything is perfectly on schedule and we found out it's a GIRL!!!!! I'm of course thrilled, but Todd not so much. All he can concentrate on is paying for dance, watching her cheerlead, paying for a wedding, and her having her heart broken by boys, none of which he says he can handle. So we weren't as quick to call people this time b/c Todd was so upset. I'm sure he'll come around, at least after she's born and he becomes wrapped around her little finger, but still, it's kind of upsetting. I want to celebrate and go buy a bunch of cute little pink clothes.

The only upside, I still did secretly want the third child I always dreamed of. Now, of course, he says we are having a third so we can have another boy. Haha! So we'll see. I was kind of looking forward to getting rid of all the baby boy stuff so I could buy a bunch of little girl clothes, but oh well. =)

I'll scan the ultrasound picture today hopefully.

It was a productive day!

2009-01-19T15:43:00.000-08:00

Today was a federal holiday so thankfully, I had the day off from work. Whenever I get an extra day off, I always feel like I need to make the most out of it. Today, I think we accomplished our goal......and then some! We got so much done!

After returning from the countertop store and Home Depot, here is everything we got done:

1. Got bookcase finally built for Luke's big boy room.

2. We got the candle holder from Kirklands over a year ago and I finally found the perfect spot for them, the dining room. Here's a few pictures:

3. Then we the wine glass rack I bought over a year ago finally hung:

4. Then we also got the tray dividers installed in our kitchen cabinet. We paid almost $130 extra for (dumb mistake when you can buy the same thing from Lowes for about $30!) almost a year ago.

5. Then I got the cabinet next to the fridge organized! This has been the space where everyhting just gets thrown, so it needed organizing BAD. Here's the after:

6. Then I got the mantel and entry way cabinet redecorated. They were looking pretty bland after the holiday stuff got put away:

Then, I went to Once Upon a Child (local 2nd hand shop) and got a whole bag of maternity clothes from the clearence rack for only $42! I had to pick up some dog food as well.

Now since I'm on such a roll today......I'm heading off to do the laundry. Hopefully I won't be up till midnight again! =)

Countertops are on order!

2009-01-19T10:24:00.000-08:00

So we just got back from the countertop store, and suprise, I had it narrowed down to two Silestone choices, Antique Gold and Ivory Coast. But, neither seemed just right to me. One was a little too light, one was a little too dark. So I started looking around the store and low and behold I came across LG Quartz. Here's is a sample of ehat we choose:

Afterwards, we headed to Home Depot to get paint. I decided on Ralph Lauren's Burlap. Here is a paint sample:

Great deal on bottles!

2009-01-18T19:20:00.000-08:00

Okay, call me crazy, but before Todd and I were even married, I started shopping for baby stuff. Todd knew about it, but we both agreed we wouldn't tell anybody because they'd think we were crazy. But I did it partly because I knew we'd eventually have kids together, partly because it would space out the "upfront" costs, and partly because, well, I was bored out of my mind on Saturdays while Todd worked. We also lived about thre blocks from a really rich area of town. So, every Saturday, I'd get up bright and early, make Todd breakfast before work, and circle the garage sales in the paper I wanted to visit that day, even mapping out my route around town. Each week, I had $50, so each week it was a challendge to see what I could buy for the money. I found all kinds of great things, but I kept coming acorss these sales with barley worn, name brand baby clothes. I kept thinking, $.50 HAS to be a good deal. I might as well buy it while I have the time and money. I started buying boy and girl things, thinking I'd just sell what I couldn't use and at least make back what I bought them for. After two summers, I was ashamed to admit how many boxes full of baby stuff I had. Toys, equipment, clothes, etc.

So this is where I originally got all of our bottles from for our first son. I had visited a garage sale just before they were closing. I was looking at a giant box full of Avent bottles and the lady said she was about to close up and she'd give me the whole thing for only $10 (originally priced at $50 and probably $400 with of bottles and assessories.) I figured I'd just replace the nipples with new ones and save some money when it came time. So I literally spent nothing on bottles for Luke.

The whole BPA thing had just made it to the lime light when he was about 4 months old, but at the time, the last thing we had money for was new bottles, and there wasn't any BPA free bottles besides glass on the market anyway. So I just crossed my fingers and soon switched him to sippy cups which were fine.

But with the new baby on the way, I was totoally freaked out. Of course I needed new bottles, but it seemed like such a waste. UNTIL, I found out you could return your old Avent bottles for new BPA free ones. Sure, they only returned them for a mere fraction of the price ($35 for 12 bottles) but it was better than nothing. And, as luck would have it, Born Free (which I had heard were better anyway) were on sale. $5 off any 3-pack. Score! So for 12 new bottles, we only spent $43!

More Guest Bathroom Purchases...

2009-01-17T09:36:00.001-08:00

I almost forgot to post all the new bathroom fixtures we bought on Thursday. So here they are:

MOEN Lindley shower (only ours has a bathtub faucet as well)

MOEN Lindley faucet

And the lighting for above the mirror. And here's the glass lamp shades that go over the blub:

Oh, and I almost forgot...

2009-01-14T15:43:00.001-08:00

Which countertop???? We decided to go with Silestone since it's got the beatuy of granite, but a better warrenty, it's man made, and it doesn't need to be sealed. We're getting it for $700 installed for 61" inches with a built in sink and 4" backspalsh. So which color???

#1 #2 #3 #4

Now I need your help!

2009-01-14T15:33:00.000-08:00

So I've narrowed down our tile choices to one main tan tile, a 10 x 30 cm tile for the shower area which will be laid "brick" style or "subway tile" style as they call it. The floor will have a matching tile, but will be 12" x 12" tiles. About four feet from the floor, around the tub area, we're putting in a decorative boarder about 3" wide. I've narrowed down to two kinds, which I must add are VERY similar. Now, help me choose:

#1 #2

And from a distance:

So which choice would you go with?

More Bathroom Progress!

2009-01-14T15:24:00.000-08:00

The bathtub and surrounding drywall all got ripped out this weekend using Todd's new jigsaw he got for Christmas from Santa. Too bad he now needs a new blade for Valenine's Day! Haha!

He's now working on patching the various spots of drywall which he got a chance to work on today.

The guest bathroom reno has begun!

2009-01-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

So here is some before pictures of the bathroom. I will admit up front that all pictures of this bathroom are going to be horrible on my Nikon D40. It's just too big of a camera to take pictures of a small 6 x 8 bathroom! Errr!

Here's some before pic:
Again, horrible picture from our real estate listing, but at least you can tell from the picture how the tiny bathroom part and toilet is seperated by a stupid wall and door that couldn't even close if you were sitting on the toilet and didn't open all the way because it hit the tub! Who's idea was that?!?!

And some pictures now:

So far we've spent:

$150 for the electrician to rewire an electric outlet on the wall we removed as well as the light switch.

$60 for the plumber to install shut off valves where the sink/vanity was.

$180 for our 60" vanity on clearence

4. Mirror from Kirklands for $59.99

6. Lighting for above mirror for $99.99

Sorry for my absense....AGAIN!

2009-01-10T11:19:00.000-08:00

So my morning sickness thankfully took a few days off for Christmas, but quickly returned and was even worse this time. Thankfully, yesterday, after missing three days of work, I got some medicine to take care of me.....Zofran! And since this is a saving money blog, THANK GOD for DH's UPS insurance. The pills were $399.99 for 10 generic pills (5 days worth). And how much did it cost us? $0!!!!! Thanks UPS! Sometime I get mad that DH has to get up and go to work at 2am every morning and instead of having our Saturday's together, he goes and works, but it's days like these, I'm thankful he makes that sacrifice for his family! It's like getting a bonus check, hahaha!