Christmas Recap

What a wonderful Christmas! The kids were well behaved, the visits were full of laughs, and the food was fantastic! My wonderful husband had some of our wedding pictures blown up and printed on canvas prints for us and they are gorgeous! Is it conceited to keep staring at your own self?

This is one of the ones he blew up:

The kids loved all of their presents! Especially their new laptops! (They are just low end cheapy ones, but now they don't fight over the computer!)

I hope everyone else had as much fun as we did! Happy New Year!

3 days to go!

and I think I broke my toe!

Hmmm... some highlights of the last few weeks for you before I dig into the fun story!

• my shopping is done except for one exchange I have to do tomorrow
• the presents are all wrapped
• I still don't have a job, but have had lots of interviews and am hoping that some of them will come through next week for me!
• I found a renter for the townhouse, so that is one mortgage payment we do not have to worry about
• I started making candy bouquets and am really proud of how they are turning out. I might start selling them for fun. I sold one for cost to a friend of mine for her to send to her husband at work and he loved it!


• 1 Christmas dinner down, 2 to go. I made Christmas dinner at my sister in law's house for my Father in law and his wife for our Christmas visit with them. We did it early because they are going away for Christmas. I made a stuffed pork roast. It was so good.
• I made food for my daughter's Christmas party at school and one kid said it was the best thing he ever tasted! All I did was wrap hot dogs in biscuit dough and bake it!
• I attended on Christmas fundraising concert for the kid's school, one family fun night at the kids school, and one Christmas assembly at the kid's school.


• My husband had the scarlett fever
• I hosted a Christmas party with all my girlfriends. We had a blast!
• I helped my sister and my mom get their shopping done, and helped my mom with some wrapping
• I did a holiday baking session with my mom and sister, the butter tarts didn't turn out, but the cookies were fantastic (and the fudge!)

And that about sums up the last few weeks for me!!! Crazy! Between job interviews, searching for a job, showing the townhouse, getting Christmas ready, etc, I am ready for a vacation! (Note to husband who never reads my blog, I would like a vacation for Christmas, please and thank you!)

Anyhow, so my daughter is fighting off some stomach bug or something. She started at 4 am on Saturday morning with the puking, then it turned into diarrhea. And she has had it since. So this morning she was in the tub and I was in there washing her hair and helping her dry off and she screeches that she has to poop! So I jumped off the toilet (where I was sitting to start brushing her hair) flipped up the lid on it, and ran for the door while trying to pull the door shut behind me all in one fluid movement. My middle name is Ann, which means Grace, and I have none of it! My baby toe caught the door frame and I screamed in agony and went down. My son came running up the stairs "Mommy, are you all right? Wait, you are lying on the floor screaming, of course you are not all right!" So, I think I broke it. I have been hobbling around all day and it is just getting worse. I finally took a painkiller this evening and it feels much better, but it was so sore earlier I almost passed out when I got off the couch and put weight on it. The good news is my daughter made it to the toilet!!!

Hopefully I will have time to post more now that my Christmas stuff is all caught up!

I quit my job yesterday

After a very stressful week in which I was already considering it, I got pushed too far and quit!

I feel relieved and a bit uncertain. Yes, I just quit my job 5 weeks before Christmas.

Hmmm...

It will all work out! Right?

Taking Control

Things haven't been going so well for me lately.... so I am taking control of my life back!

I am going to find a job that allows me to be a great mom to my kids and still pay the bills! There is one out there... and I am going to find it!

I am really tired of the stories coming from my kids about the daycare. Skipping snack, leaving kids at school by accident, etc. And it seems no daycare is better than another.

Plus, work hasn't been so good for me lately, so maybe it's time for a change there too!

Anyhow... we will see how things turn out! But I would really like to go back to working part-time as my overall goal!

My favorite trick or treaters!

Happy Halloween!

Unfortunately my week has not gone as planned. I spent the last few days in bed with a crohn's attack. Hopefully I will feel well enough to carve pumpkins and decorate a bit today!!!

The kids were a little disappointed. A note came home from the school asking that kids not be in their costumes until last recess. So how are parents supposed to help them? I tried best I could, but I sent my son with some face make up so who knows what he will come home looking like!!!

This year my kids had to follow a budget for halloween.

We have a huge trunk full of dress up clothes, so I told my kids they could be whatever they wanted out of the trunk and then they could spend $3 at the dollar store to make their costume better. My daughter is a witch and my son is a zombie!

What do you do around your house to save money during the spendy holidays?

From cool suburban mom to trash in 24 hours or less

I had the funniest experience today. Well, at least I can laugh looking back on it!

So I was home all day with my sick kid and I was planning on going to the grocery store for the last day of dollar days to stock up on a few things but her darn fever wouldn't break. Needless to say when my husband came home I saw my escape and took it! I grabbed my non-sick son and we fled! Halfway there I realized I had not combed my hair or put on make up or anything yet. I found a hair clip in the car and tried to make the best of the situation. When I got home my husband came outside to help unload and looked at me and smirked. I said "what?" and he goes "did you look in the mirror before you left the house?" I said "no" and he made some comment about how I should at least brush my hair. I asked him if I looked that bad and he says "Oh, I am sure they get all sorts of country bumpkins and white trash in that store, don't worry, you blended right in". So when I got inside I looked in the mirror. What a wreck!!! Then I realized that not only did I look like trash, but I just spent $45 on dollar items, so they probably figured I definitely was!

Oh well, I usually wear make up and brush my hair so they won't recognize me at all next time I go in, right?

Sicko

My daughter is home sick today. I am really not that disappointed that I have to take a day off work to stay home with my kids. Plus, it was a PD Day at school anyhow, so I was going to have to pay the daycare an extra $50 for them to be there today. This way I get to stay home from work, clean my house, watch some movies cuddled up on the couch with my sicko and sit online and play! Sounds like a good day to me!

Does anyone else have things they do on a "windfall" day off? When you aren't expecting it?

Maybe if she is feeling better later we will get out the halloween decorations and put some up.

In the meantime my son just woke up and realized we were staying home and that we are all out of the good kinds of cereal. LOL Poor kid!

Works for Me Wednesday

Works for Me Wednesday is getting personal this week and I thought I would join in with my top 10 ways to please my husband. (It's not as dirty as it sounds!)

1. Give him a back and neck rub while he is sitting at the computer.
2. Keep the freezer well stocked with pizza pops for those midnight snack attacks.
3. Keep the laundry caught up.
4. Keep the front entrance free of clutter such as shoes, coats, backpacks and other kid gear.
5. Keep a jug of his favorite juice in the freezer at all times (otherwise he will drink my pop!)
6. Make him 3 egg sandwiches every Saturday Morning.
7. Shovel the driveway for him (he has a bad back)
8. Keep the kids quiet when he is working or goes to bed early.
9. Have dinner prepared quickly when I get home from work (it helps to prep the night before and menu plan!)
10. Keep my credit card spending on the lower side. (I am trying REALLY hard)

And just for the heck of it... here is 10 ways he pleases me!

1. Gets up with the kids on Saturday and Sundays and lets me sleep in (until one or all three of them get hungry)
2. Randomly does things to my car like take it in for a new windshield or fills it with gas or takes it to the car wash.
3. Reminds me to do important things when I have too much on the go.
4. Keeps me grounded and spend conscious.
5. Thinks I am beautiful even on days I don't quite see it staring back at me in the mirror.
6. Always sides with me when I whine about someone else (family, coworkers etc.)
7. Spoils me with expensive appliances and electronics.
8. Makes me laugh every day.
9. Does his own laundry.
10. Gets movies for me that he thinks I will like even though he has zero interest in seeing them!

And those work for me!!!

For other works for me Wednesday tips click here.

New and Improved!!!!

Any comments on my new template? I really hated the orange. The only think I liked about it was the flower. Change is good!

RIP 42" plasma tv

Our tv broke. It is only 3.5 years old. The entire bottom of the screen just went black for no reason. It's only been 2 days and I already miss it. Apparently this is a common problem on the plasmas. I wish I had known that 3.5 years ago. The husband is taking it to the tv doctor to see if surgery will help. But if it costs too much we might have to put it down and send it to tv heaven. :(

Next time we will get an LCD.

____________________________________

I have been meal planning lately and reading a whole bunch of blogs about saving money on groceries. My goal is $50 per week. I spent closer to $75 the last two weeks. But I think I will get there! Tonight I decided to try pigs in a blanket. But I thought it was ridiculous to spend $4 on a tube of refrigerated crescent roll dough like all the recipes suggested. And I couldn't find any reasonable recipes online. 99% of them used the pre-made dough. DOH! So I decided to try it with my favorite biscuit recipe and I have to say they were pretty darn good! I will post it for you!

Leslie's Homemade Pigs in a Blanket
(Kids of all ages will adore!)

1 pkg of hotdogs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 TBSP Sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup of milk

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees
2. Boil hotdogs in a pot big enough that the water completely covers them.
3. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until it looks like fine crumbs. Stir in milk until dough leaves the side of the bowl. It will be soft and sticky.
4. Place dough on lightly floured surface. Split in 2 and put half back in bowl.
5. Roll one half out into large circle (about 1/4 inch thick) then use a pizza slicer or knife to cut into 12 equal wedges. Repeat with second dough ball.
6. Rinse cooked hot dogs under cold water and cut each hot dog in half. Place at the wide end of your dough wedge and roll up. Place on cookie sheet. Repeat.
7. Bake at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes or until the dough is golden. Serve with fries and ketchup!

I substituted 1 cup of flour for whole wheat to make it a little healthier.

Everyone enjoyed and I have enough leftover that I will send some to school for the kids for lunch tomorrow!

Meal planning is really working for me though. The point is to limit the amount we are spending on take out on the nights when I don't feel very imaginative. I did 2 weeks at a time then tried to shop for those two weeks and I picked my menu by looking through the flyers and coupons and seeing what I could get deals on, then based on that and what I had on stock I dreamt up my menus! I also tried to go for ingredients that I could use more than once. Such as canned diced tomatoes were on sale when I went shopping so I bought 2 tins and made chili one night and swiss steak another night. I am trying to cut out as much pre-made processed crap out of our diets as well, since they add up to cost quite a bit! Also I am thinking of ways to stretch the meat a little further, since it is usually the most expensive part of the meal!

What is your favorite way to save money on groceries? Any tried and true tricks for a newbie on how to coupon clip, menu plan or save altogether?

We gotta get those debts paid off so I can have a baby! It's amazing what a little motivation will do!

I suck at thinking of titles....

Especially since my posts are usually random bits of crap. lol. No topic to speak of and I can only use "random" so many times.

I have spent the last few days trying to play catch up on housework. Cuz, you know, when mom is out of commission for a week nothing gets done! I had a talk with my new husband the other night and told him he either needed to help out more or let me quit my job. Since we are incredibly far in debt right now, I think he decided to help out more. Amazingly enough I came home last night to the dishwasher unloaded and reloaded. Hmm... Interesting.

We finally made it to the public library last night. It was a necessity. If you refer to my bucket list post you will notice that # 93 says read all the Harry Potter books! I am finally doing it! I was borrowing them from my new Brother in Law but he only had up to the Order of the Phoenix. So I HAD to go the library last night because I finished it on Monday night and couldn't wait to start Half Blood Prince. So last night I happily borrowed it, plus 3 cookbooks, and went home. Of course the kids needed books too, so E got some books on magic and was trying to make coins disappear all evening.

One of my oldest and dearest friends is moving away and is having her goodbye party on Saturday. My Father in Law decided he was having Thanksgiving on Saturday. Hopefully we are done eating early enough for me to stop by the party! Isn't it funny how you can have nothing planned at all, then as soon as you make a commitment to something you end up with more than one thing at that same time? Anyhow, I am trying to figure out what to bring to dinner. I am thinking an appetizer. Maybe spinach and artichoke dip? Or stuffed mushrooms? Any ideas from the peanut gallery?

Back to work I supppose...

Random Snip its

First Up:

From time to time I watch the show "18 kids and counting". I do enjoy it. While I don't agree with some of their principles, I do think they are funny and are a great example of a family. They are far from perfect parents, but their kids are moral and have great senses of humor. On tonight's show they made the most fun looking water slide ever! Then, an announcement. Turns out baby Jordan has been fussing while nursing and Mommy Duggar is having troubles losing her baby weight, so she put two and two together and thought maybe Jordan was fussing because her milk changed and maybe her milk changed because she was preggo!!! AGAIN! So she peed on a stick and sure enough... PREGNANT! So now it is 19 kids and counting! When on earth do they have time to have sex?

Second:

I got my wisdom teeth out on Friday and I am soooo sick of pasta, since it is soft enough to eat. Does anyone have any good recipes for me?

Third:

My daughter and I had the following conversation tonight:

E: Mommy, What is a whore?
Me: What?!??!! Where did you hear that word?
E: A whore, like it took 3 whores to get there
Me: oooohhhh you mean hours!!! (phew!)

Don't you love when I little one is learning how to read? LOL.

Fourth random thing:

I got in trouble for spending too much last month. Ooops. And I thought I was being so good too! I really have to start watching my money now that I am accountable to someone else. Send coupons and good deals this way please!!!

My stoned weekend

I spent my weekend stoned. This was a regular occurance before kids. Now... Not so much! The drug of choice then: Pot. The drug of choice now? Tylenol3!

The joys of painkillers.

I spent Friday morning letting a semi-cute dental surgeon remove my 4 wisdom teeth. Now I am in recovery. It hurts. A LOT! I already miss solid food. And you would think living off of pudding and ice cream sounds like a great idea. Not so much. Then I found out I cannot eat popcorn for 2 months!!! It's my favorite snack food!

But, I have the best husband in the entire world. He has been waiting on me hand and foot, catering to my every need. Taking care of the kids. Spending $100 on pudding, ice cream and soup. Reminding me to take my meds. He has been great. I recommend him if you are ever sick!

Hopefully I can eat solids by Friday night when we go out for dinner with my family for my parents big anniversary! 25 years! Hard to believe!

Anyone have any ideas for soft foods I can eat?

September Already?

Where does the time go?

What a great day... the kids were on time (kind of) for school today. Yesterday was the first day and my Darling Husband hit the off button instead of snooze on the alarm and I woke up with 20 minutes to get out the door and drive to the daycare. I sure looked like crap yesterday! lol.

My lovely siblings and I are going to get pictures done tonight for my parents 25th wedding anniversary. My mom keeps mentioning how the last pictures done of us 4 siblings was about 15 years ago, so we are going to get a photographer to come and take pictures of us having a good time at a playground like little kids. BUT the other 3 decided it would be fun to have us all wear jeans and white t-shirts. I hardly have anything in my wardrobe that is white. I tried them all on last night. Hubby finally looked at me and told me to go shopping today at lunch for a white shirt. So I bought 4 shirts and have 2 pairs on pants on hold because they will be 20% off on Thursday. LOL. Our conversation after lunch went something like this:

Me: So, would you be mad if I bought four shirts instead of 1?
Him: Not if you get rid of 10 from your closet
Me: But I need more clothes
Him: But you don't wear the ones you have
Me. But I couldn't decide between a t-shirt and a blouse, and I need a blouse anyhow so I bought both, then the t-shirt was a buy one get one, so I had to get another one in another color.
Him: Had to huh?
Me: and then the 4th one they didn't have in my size in white, so I had to buy it in pink, but I really loved it so I had to buy it. It was only $14.99!!!
Him: You have too many clothes. you need to either give some away or pack some up.
Me: Ok I will pack some of the stuff that will fit me when I lose 10 lbs. K?
Him: Alright.
Me (in my head): Thank god he doesn't know about the bin under Emma's bed with all my winter clothes in it!!! Can you imagine if all that was in the closet too!?!??!!

And I got an email from my photographer today:

Hey Leslie,
So I've waited and waited...not more than you I'm sure, and they are FINALLY HERE!!! BUT, they didn't deliver to my house today, they put a little Delivery Notice, pick up tomorrow after 1:00 in my mail box!!! SERIOUSLY??? I wanted to surprise you and bring everything up to you tonight when you got your family pictures done! I'm so upset, I'm so sorry! I will pick up the albums tomorrow and courier them to you overnight because I can't believe that they did that!
I apologize for this ridiculously long wait and hope that you'll be able to hang in 1 more day!
Amanda

Wooooohooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! I cannot wait to see my pictures!!!!!!!

And my boss has been in such a good mood this week! I sure hope that continues!

And my ex texted me to say he was on his way to maintenance to drop off a cheque for me!

I sure hope this trend continues! I like it when my world is all smiles!!!

Cash Only

Today I was planning on meeting a longtime friend and her daughter out at Pembina River where we were to have a lovely picnic lunch and then go tubing on the river. Sounds like a fantastic way to spend the day, right?

My day started to go wrong the minute I left.

First we went to the closest ESSO Gas station for Coffee and gas. I waited in line in the drive thru, ordered my bagel, donuts and coffee, got to the window and handed over my VISA. The guy hands me my coffee, looks at the visa and says "oh, we don't take Visa." I am like, "but that's all I have" he kind of shrugs. I am like "how can you not take Visa, that is the stupidest thing I ever heard!" and shoved the coffee back in his hand, grabbed my card, and drove off. So frustrating! So I had no coffee and the kids had no donuts. I got gas and started the 1.5 hour drive to the river. 15 minutes in I realized I forgot towels. Lovely. We are going to play in a freezing cold river with no towels.

So we finally get to the river, meet my friend, she had extra towels! We let the kids wade in the river and play around for an hour and ate our sandwiches etc, then made our way back up to the town to the tube rental place. We then stood in line for an hour to find out that:

1. They took Cash Only. (replay coffee catastrophe) so everyone offered to chip in so the kids and I could still rent a tube and hope they all had enough left over.
2. The next shuttle bus to the drop point on the river wasn't for another 2.5 hours and we had to wait there with our tubes for them to hold our spot. 2.5 hours with 3 kids in the burning hot 30 degree sun with nothing to do, yep sounds fun.
3. They were out of tubes and couldn't guarantee they would have enough back in time for our shuttle and wouldn't reserve the next ones for us. We either had to stand there waiting for people to come back off the river or walk away and risk there not being any.

My friend stayed with her daughter to wait for a tube. I decided it wasn't worth waiting 2.5 hours with no guarantee that we would even get a tube in time for the last shuttle bus and not knowing if everyone would have enough money to cover me. So the kids and I decided to come back home.

I felt bad that the kids fun day was ruined so I thought we would stop at the ice cream shack close to home for some gourmet ice cream. So we get there... Guess what!?!?! CASH ONLY! Argh! Who actually carries cash these days anyhow? lol. So we went to Dairy Queen and got blizzards. Then we came home and I made the kids help me wash my car. It's funny how it is work to me, but when you hand a couple of kids a big bucket of soapy water and a cloth and let them climb all over your car in their swimsuits it's a load of fun!!! lol.

Then we ordered pizza for dinner (they took visa!) and after I took them to the new playground by our house and I read my book while they played. A perfect ending to a pretty disappointing day I would say!

But seriously! I never carry cash! And usually it isn't a problem. It was just bizarre to me today that everything I wanted to do was cash only. argh!!!

Wishing there was more hours in the day.

As you know I got married just over 2 weeks ago. Now, I am trying to be a good wife, a good mother, and still find time for the things that make me, me! But honestly there is just not enough time in the day for cooking, cleaning, playing with kids, working full time, surfing the internet, laundry, errands, reading Harry Potter, and sleep!

If anyone knows of a cheap and/or free house keeper please send them my way.

I am trying to get back into meal planning to make things easier when I get home from work. Tonight we are having steak and baked potatoes and some kind of veggie. Tomorrow night I think burgers and maybe some homemade fries (I love julienning potatoes, tossing with a little olive oil and seasoning salt and baking them. So yummy and not all that bad for you!) Friday night... I dunno!

I am also trying to get the kids more involved in chores and we started giving them allowance ($5 a week) to encourage this.

Things I am trying to find time and energy to do in the near future are:

1. Clean out pantry
2. Organize kitchen (make room for wedding presents)
3. Clean out and wash car (soooo bad after a few road trips over the summer!)
4. Clean out and organize all of our closets and send rejected clothes to goodwill

And of course while I am trying to get everything done, I am getting a cold. So last night I said screw it and went to bed early. Yep... great wife and mother... not such a good housewife!!! LOL.

Please share any tips you might have! I tried fly lady, but it really doesn't work for a mom working full time I find.

Sigh...

I have been doing admin work for over 10 years. I have had the following titles: Jr. Receptionist, Receptionist, Administrative Assistant, Office Assistant, Office Manager, Secretary and now finally, Executive Assistant. They all mean: Someone to yell at when things go wrong.

What I really want to do is start my own event management company. Or be a housewife. So I sent my Darling New Husband a text today: I wannabe a housewife!

His response: But then you would have to clean.

Thanks! LMAO!

He has his titles wrong. Housewife = organizer of houses activities and stuff. House cleaner = cleans house. So I need to quit my job and hire a house cleaner. Makes financial sense, right?

I wish. Methinks I need to be more convincing! *evil plan hatching in my head* Too bad that man cannot be manipulated! I have tried everything! The only thing he responds to is logic. Hello, I am a blonde! How is that ever going to work!!!!

Oxymoron at work over here!!!! Smart Blonde. Really! How come no one ever believes me?

Speaking of Blondes, this is my new favorite blonde joke:

Why didn't the blonde make ice cubes?
She forgot the recipe!!!

Ridiculously Excited!

My photographers posted my wedding pics on their blog!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so unbelievably excited! I look so happy I think, which makes sense since it was the best day of my life!!!!!!

In other news, I made an awesome pie yesterday. Aren't I a good little wife?

Bad Blogger

but now I am a married blogger! And now that the wedding is over I am hoping to have more time to blog!!!