This is what I would like to do

This is what I would like to do.

1.  I would like to go shopping with Joy and Bethany and no children!  They don't know each other but we would have a blast!  We could try stuff on, eat cheesecake, take all the time in the world, not worrying about if our husbands are being inconvenienced or bored.

2.  I would like to fly to Mass to see Libby, her house and her girls by myself or with just Justin.

3.  I would like to go see Taylor Swift in concert with my Aunt Renee.

4.  I would like to stay up at Mom and Dad's and go swimming in the dark and roast marshmallows with my siblings.

5.  I would like to ride on my parent's boat and watch everyone ski and tube.

6.  I would like to work as a bridal consultant.

7.  I would like for my arms to stop hurting.

8.  I would like to go on a date with Justin to the cheesecake factory and then to a movie and get candy and popcorn and then go back for dessert at the cheesecake factory :)

9.  I would like to drink pop that has caffeine in it.

10.  I would like to go shopping with Libby and pick out clothes for her to try on.  She's so pretty it would be fun to play dress up with her.

11.  I would like to watch tv.

12.  I would like to sit and read for a few hours by myself in the quiet.

13.  I would like to go somewhere on an airplane, figure out flights, layovers and stuff and then stay in a sweet hotel with Justin.

14.  I would like to lay out on Saylorville beach in a new swimsuit that looked awesome and that didn't cost $100.

15.  I would like to go to a pet store and play with puppies.

16.  I would like to go wedding dress shopping again and take ALL DAY.

17.  I would like to have a box of chocolates under my bed just for me :)

18.  I would like to own all the Twilight books and have time to read them.

19.  I would like to ride in a boat with Justin, either a canoe or regular boat, doesn't matter.

20.  I would like to have a close relationship with God and be able to maintain it.

21.  I would like to have people believe me when I say things, or take what I say seriously.

22.  I would like to have a lot of money and a little girl to play dress up with.

23.  I would like to be able to take walks or bike rides in the evening with Justin.

24.  I would like to have money to buy a bunch of really nice shoes so I always have the perfect pair for the outfit.

25.  I would like to have a clothing budget of at least $100 a month :)

26.  I would like to have a clothing budget of at least $100 a month for the boys :)  (Micah looks sooo cute in skinny jeans!)

27.  I would like a magnolia tree in my yard and I would like for the ugly mustache to be gone.

Now you know me :)

Gotta share

So I was clipping coupons the other day and came across some good ones.  At Kmart, where I never ever shop, they have a deal that goes like this.  Buy 2 Hillshire farms lunch meat packages for $5 and get a loaf of bread and a package of cheese slices for free!  Sweet.  Well so I went there and they were out of meat but darn it I'm going back tomorrow.  Oh and I also printed off a coupon for hillshire farms lunch meat, $0.55 off so I'm gonna pay $4.45 for all that!  I did score another deal while I was there.  Two boxes of Nabisco crackers for $2.76!  I got a full size box of Ritz and a box of those cheese sandwich crackers!  They are on sale for $1.88 when you sign up for their rewards program and then I had a coupon for $1 off two boxes!  YAY!

Then I was at Menards (aka the Man store) the other night and got paid for buying shampoo and conditioner!  I paid $36 at the store then I'm getting back $36 in rebates and they were having their 11% off sale and they took it off the $36 that I paid!  So I'm getting almost $40 back in rebates!  And trust me, we'll use it!

If you're wondering the shampoo is pry still free.  The Kmart deal goes through March 3 if you want to check it out.  Oh and I swung by Hy-vee for some deals last night and found an Edwards turtle pie for $1.99 it is delicious!

Oh and I found a good easy to use website for coupons.  www.smartsource.com  Have any of you found any good deals you'd like to share?

weird day

What a  rough day!  Poor baby Jacob is so sick.  I took him to the dr yesterday and they said he has croup so they gave him steroids for his throat.  Then I also told the pediatrician about this thing that he does with his eyes.  I had taken a video of it and brought it along.  She showed it to two other pediatricians and they are all stumped.  She's now trying to get ahold of a pediatric opthamologist (sp?) who recommended that she get a urine sample.  So today we went back to get the urine sample.  Wow, if you thought peeing in a cup is bad...  So they put a little bag over his peepee and it kinda suctions on and then you just wait til he pees.  Well, my very miserably sick Jacob, coughing, sniffling Micah, and I sat in a gray room with minimal toys for at least an hour, no pee.  By the end both boys were crying and I was pretty close.  The sweet nurse came in and said just go home and bring the pee back in this cup later.  Lol so Jacob is now napping, I don't know if he's peed yet,  hopefully if he has it's staying in the bag.

On a happier note my darling husband came to the office as we were leaving and carried the heaviest of us to the car, put Jacob to bed and got Micah a video.  So now, for a moment I have peace, I'll let you know how the transfer from bag to cup to dr's office goes :)

Gooey, yummy, chocolate and peanut butter

It's been a little while since I posted and I've tried two more recipes since then, I thought I'd share them with you.  I found them on pinterest.  Both recipes are from the same blog.  I have links to her blog on this post so you can check it out.

This first one is a taco dip I tried for our super bowl party and it turned out to be easy and delicious.  Here is a pic.



As you can see she made hers in little cups.  I took the same recipe and put it in a 9x13 pan.  Worked perfect!  Here is a link to the recipe.

The second one is more up my alley.  Peanut butter chocolate bars made with yellow cake mix!  Same blog but I used my own pics this time.  I just made them today and they are sooo gooey!  Then again, Justin and I are huge fans of baking things just a few minutes less than the recipe calls for.  Anyone else?  Here's the recipe with my own pics thrown in.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Barsby Greta White

1 (18.25) package plain yellow cake mix

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 eggs

1 (12 oz) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 Tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup coconut (optional...my sister did not like the texture of it in there)

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2) Combine cake mix, melted butter, peanut butter, and eggs in a large bowl using a mixer or spoon. Press this into a 9X13 pan reserving 1 1/2 cup of the mixture to crumble on top.

 

 

3) In a small pot, melt chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and butter. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and coconut.
4) Spread chocolate mixture over the mixture pressed in the pan and then crumble the 1 1/2 cups of reserved cake mixture on top evenly.

 

5) Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

 

Anyone wanna bite!?  I really think the peanut butter part of the recipe would make for excellent cookies.  I'm gonna try that next time I make this.

 

 

Let me know your reaction or comment below my post just so I have an idea of how many people are reading my blog.  I'm curious to see how many friends and family are reading and trying out these recipes.  My next post should have pics of a craft table that Justin just finished making for Micah!  Enjoy the deliciousness.

It got better

Today was not a good day.  In retrospect, neither was yesterday.  I was super crabby both days, which we all know means crabby kids.  I'll admit I lost my cool a few times with Micah over silly things.  This led to guilt, more stress piled on top of sleepiness, crying boy cuz mommy is upset, J not sleeping right, etc.  Anyway I just want those of you who keep telling me I'm such a good mom to know that sometimes I'm not.  Sometimes I yell, sometimes I have to go to another room and flail my arms because there's no other way to get out the frustration, and sometimes I cry in front of my kids. 

On days when I'm not sleepy and my blood sugar is balanced nicely then I can handle two kids.  I can patiently explain why it's bad manners to stick your finger in your nose or stay calm when for the 31st time in a month Micah has cried because I had to turn off his video to put him down for his nap.  If those two things are not at the right levels I'm a different person.  I can't handle the load, guilt for all the things I believe I'm doing wrong rises to the surface, my to do list suddenly is overwhelming. 

Example, my darling husband comes home almost every day for lunch.  Well today as I mentioned I was in a very bad mood.  I then felt guilty for being in a bad mood while he was home which led to tears because I didn't have any homemade purees in the house for Jacob.  Justin in his ever patient way told me that it's ok to use store bought baby food on bad days.  That I don't need to stress about that, of all things.  Then he went back to work.

I took his advice, (as I always should) and fed Jacob a jar of baby food.  I then put Micah to bed, soon after put Jacob to bed.  Was blessed by God for a 20 minute nap before J woke up and suddenly everything was better.  The whole rest of the day was changed.

Thank you God for my patient, caring, genious of a husband.  Without him I truly would not be able to function.  Thank you that I have been allowed to be married to him for 6 years.  Please please please let us be married for 50 more.  I don't want to be with anyone else but him.  Thank you for getting us all through the day and please give me wisdom to do it better tomorrow.  I love you, Amen.

David and Goliath

Well, last week went so well with studying a Bible story that we are going to try it every week.  Pray I don't forget :)  This week we are doing David and Goliath.  We started off today by simply reading the story in his children's Bible and then praying together.  Later, while I was taking a shower he watched David and the Giant Pickle, a Veggie Tales story.  After my shower I asked if he liked the video.  Micah said something to the effect of, "that story wasn't about David and Goliath."  I tried to explain to him that it's just a funny version of his Bible story to help him remember.  Ah well.  I also quizzed him on what we studied last week and he remembered Jonah, the big fish and Ninevah. 

While at the library today I checked out some books about this Bible story.  They actually had more than I expected.  I recommend checking out the juvenile non-fiction section of your local library.  I found some other fun things there too.  Potty training books, books on manners, tantrums, obeying, etc.  All geared towards reading to your child!  I also checked out a video called, the Happiest Toddler on the Block.  I've skimmed the book but being a visual learner I thought it might be interesting to see how they turned that into a video.  I've wished recently that I could take a parenting class or watch another mother of toddlers in action.  One who does it right, never loses her cool and is able to hold her giant baby for more than 2 minutes at a time.  I need to know how to do these things.  Hopefully this video will clue me in a bit.

I checked out a non-fiction book for myself in that section as well, called the Toddler's Busy Book.  It has "365 creative learning games and activities to keep your 11/2 to 3 yr old busy."  Score!  I've only read the first 9 pages and already it has so many things I want to implement here at home.  The author is Trish Kuffner.  Check it out!  But if you live in Mtown you'll have to wait 3 weeks...sorry.

To end this post I'll tell you that right before I started typing I had to use a tweezers to get a penny out of a closed vent, I was successful and now my room is starting to get warm again.  Oh and I'm waiting for Micah to decide to take a nap.  Probably won't happen.  Even though I would love to close my eyes for awhile.  Last night was rough. 
12:16am J wakes up I go in he starts screaming bLOODY MURDER while I change him and lay him back down.
12:30am I cave and nurse him to sleep.
1:30am I lay him down, he wakes back up screaming.  Falls asleep in about 2 min
2:00am J wakes up crying and puts himself back to sleep in a few minutes.
3 or 4 or so Micah wakes up crying for me.  Justin goes in and M kicks and screams for me...aargh I get up, we both lay him down and i think it was quiet the rest of the night til 6:50am when J was up for the day.

I miss sleeping.  Hope all of you are getting enough sleep.  Those of you who are first time moms, please take a nap when your babies do and pity me  :)

New idea with Micah

So a couple of posts back I mentioned that I was going to try something new with Micah.  I realized recently that we don't really have a plan each day.  I mean we have a weekly plan...Tuesday's we go to story time.  Wednesday we have MUGGS.  Thursday and Friday are tot town.  And usually in the afternoons we bake something or make supper together.  Needless to say I felt like I should be teaching him something.  He already knows every word of every item in our house, can count to 11, sing a few different songs, is slowly memorizing the gist of a few books, plays nicely with Jacob and is my official doorman every where we go.  So I've kinda slacked off on the teaching since Jacob was born because it seems like Micah already knows everything.

Well since he doesn't have Awana or sunday school yet I realized I could start teaching him Bible stories.  I found a book about Jonah at the local Salvation Army for $0.25 and he loved it so this was my idea.  Every week we would study a different Bible story.

On Sunday because of J's nap schedule we weren't able to go to church so we started that day.  We read his new Jonah book, then we read the story of Jonah in his toddler Bible.  The next day we read the Jonah book again and then for his prenap video we started the Veggie Tales movie about Jonah.  I also asked him questions about it to see if he was retaining the info.  Stuff like that.  Today we read the Jonah book again and I went into the next room for a brief moment and I could hear him talking about the story.  I heard snippets about Jonah disobeying God, going to Ninevah, etc.  Then later when we were wrapping up the week and what we had learned I mentioned a few things and then on his own he said, "and God is everywhere."  Yay!  So not only is he remembering the story but he's picking up lessons too!  That was pretty neat.  Then we prayed together.  Which in itself is adorable.  He always says, " Dear Jesus, help me to be a good boy."  So cute I have to try not to laugh when he does it. 

Anyway next week we'll be starting David and Goliath.  I'll keep you posted.  Oh and on a side note I've been waiting all day to hear about my new little niece.  My sister in law has been at the hospital all day!  The horrible snow is keeping me from going down and waiting in the waiting room with two little boys under the age of 3...Oh wait, thanks God for the snow otherwise I'd be sitting in a waiting room with two little boys :)  I'll go tomorrow with my handsome chauffer anyway.  Signing off!

Two New Recipes

So I've been reading this really good book, Becoming Dad by an old friend of mine from high school, Kelly Crull.  It's really good and it's based off of his blog and so it's been inspiring me to write in this blog more.  I really don't know if anyone reads this but for now I'll keep posting   :)

I tried a few recipes recently that were pretty good.  One was a chocolate chip cheesecake dip which sounds FANTASTIC in theory but was only pretty good.  I'll still share though because I tested it out on our friends the Dobbs and they seemed to really like it/couldn't stop eating it :)  Here's a pic first off...

You dip graham crackers or teddy grahams in it.  I think it could work as a fruit dip too.  Here is a link to the recipe if you want to try it.  chocolate chip dip  It made a really large bowl, so far 6 people have snacked from it for a long time and we still have a fair amount left.  Would be great to bring to a party!  I did add more powdered sugar and brown sugar than it called for but I like more of a sweet flavor than a cream cheese flavor.  I'd say I added at least an extra tablespoon of brown sugar and at least a 1/4 cup powdered sugar.

The second recipe I tried today was a huge hit with my husband.  They are called carmelitas.  Justin had a piece for dessert then while we were waiting for Micah to finish his snack a few hours later he looked at me and said, "I want another piece of that stuff."  Anyway, I made it because he's a big carmel fan.  So here's the pic that was on the blog...

It was super easy to make and was a good one to make with Micah.  He helped me unwrap the caramels and sprinkle the 6oz of chocolate chips.  I added nothing to this recipe.  It only makes an 8x8 pan but they are pretty rich.  I think it will take Justin and I longer than our traditional two days to finish this pan.  Here is the link to the blog:  carmelitas

Let me know if you try any of these recipes and what you thought of them in the comments below.  I'll try to keep trying and letting my 3 followers know how it goes.

New/used stuff I got!

So it's been awhile since I posted, but some new cool things have been thrown in my lap recently.  First off, we purchased a different (not new) vehicle. 

Yes, it's  a minivan but it's a cool minivan.  Any haters out there should come take a look, so decked out!  Love Honday Odyssey's!  I'm talking to you Jennifer H.

Next new thing, I finally decided to check out pinterest!  Such a fun website!  I've already tried one craft idea and two recipes.  The craft idea bombed but the recipes were really good.  Here's a pic of one of them.

Made from scratch butter herb biscuits.  SO delicious!  Let me know if you want the recipe, no yeast or kneading was required!  Oh and it makes twice this many.  So you can follow me on pinterest now if you want too.  Nicole's pinterest page  I'm going to make a cream cheese chocolate chip dip tonight for a game night with some friends.  I'll let you know how that turns out.

Oh and then I just got a sweet used, ivory, canvas pottery barn slipcover from the marshall county freecycle.  I just got that today.  Here's a pic of that too.

Isn't it pretty?!  Justin said it lightens up the whole room.  Even Micah said it's "so pretty."  Success.  Love free things.

So I think that's all for me; but, oh, wait, Justin got something too.  In order to be a supportive wife I should show that to you too...

Yes, I agree, it looks terrifying in the picture.  It is in real life too.  But I did buy him a membership to the shooting range here in town so I guess he needs a new toy to show off to all the other kids that go :)  No it's cool, at least it's shiny.

To abruptly end this blog I'll mention that I'm trying something new with Micah.  I'll be posting about that later this week so stay tuned.