Wordless Wednesday ~ Fun With Bubble Wrap

I've been MIA

So, it's been awhile since I've written here, but I have (kind of) a good excuse.

Welcome to my madness.

Part of the reason was I went on a vacation. I mean a real vacation. As many of my readers know, us stay at home mom's never get the real vacation and time off we deserve. I've often said in the past I was going to take a day off and do absolutely nothing at all - but ya know, it never happens that way. There are still meals to be cooked, laundry to be done, someone always needing or wanting something. Why even dream of a day off?

The past month I had been very stressed. In attempt to get things ready for the busy summer I've been desperately trying to get my household in a certain order in hopes the summer would go smoothly. It seemed like a loosing battle. No matter how much I thought I had accomplished at the days end - my To Do List seemed to be twice as long. How can that be? You know how it is - the more laundry you wash the more laundry you have to do. Or something like that.

I was desperate to have everything caught up and organized - all at the same time. I thought if I could just get everything done - things would go smoother - easier. Even when I started staying up way past my bed time and getting up earlier - the more I worked the more needed to be done. It was almost like I was trapped in some crazy tornado - doomed forever to never ending laundry, multiplying coupons and dirty floors.

On April 4th was my oldest daughters (15th) birthday and she had gotten the Twilight movie from her grandparents - in which she made me watch with her. Before hand, I knew nothing about this movie - except that everyone, including my daughter - was crazy about it. I purposelessly try to stay away from the current fads - they drive me bonkers. So, much to my surprise, while watching the movie with my daughter, I was a little intrigued. It reminded me of a recent documentary I watched about a lion who befriends an antelope. It was very interesting - the documentary that is. For her birthday I had ordered her the Twilight Gift Set - all four books. She instantly began re-reading them and I mentioned to her that once she was done I might be interested in reading them. Now, I love reading, but it's not an activity I participate in often. I tend to get a bit obsessive when I start to read a book. It's enough to drive me insane along with anyone around me. I never understood how people could just read an hour a day or right before bed time. The 'need to know' with me is so great - I find it very difficult to minimize my reading - which becomes obsessive - which is why I don't read books very often.

So, anyways, my daughter bought down the first book of the series and laid it on my desk for me to read. It laid there for nearly a month. I picked it up a few times and thought about reading but then my To Do List started yelling at me so I put it back down. Then last Saturday, about midnight - past my bedtime - the mood struck. I picked up that book and started reading - and I didn't stop - until WAY past my bedtime. This was the beginning of my vacation because for the past week I had done nothing but read. I finished with Twilight and instantly picked up the next one in the series. I would read all day long, first thing in the morning - until lunch. During babies nap time - to dinner. After all the kids were in bed - to WAY past Mommy's bed time - I would read. After a few days my body was achy and stiff. But I kid you not - I did NOTHING but read that dang Twilight Series for a whole week - almost exactly. To let you know how much reading I did, I started on Saturday around midnight and finished the whole 4 book series by the next Saturday around 9 PM. That is over 2,444 pages in a week!

I was lucky my husband was laid off and home - he was so ------ understanding? Supportive? Patient? Or maybe he was just wanting me to hurry up, finish and get this obsession out of my system.

The thing is, I learned something. For the first time, in a very long time, I was doing something for ME! 100% Just Me! I can't remember that last time that happen.

Another thing, I remember thinking a few times during my vacation that I was going to 'pay for this'. When I finished I was going to have Soooo much work to do. But the strange thing was, I didn't. I mean, yes, there was still the house to upkeep and things that needed to be done. But they were the same things as before my vacation. Nothing more. Laundry - yes. Floors - yes. Dusting - yes. To Do List - yes - always. But it was no more or less than usual. And this made me think - if I can go on vacation for week and come back to no more or no less than the usual Mommy Duties - what am I getting so worked up over? It's never going to be all caught up. The To Do List is never going to be satisfied. The laundry is never going to be completely done and the floors and dishes and coupons and anything else is never going to be all done - all at once.

Which makes me wonder why I was striving for this in the first place....

*Sigh*

All I know is right now, I feel better realizing that - it's never going to be all done. Just do what you can each day and stop driving yourself bonkers.

My Baby Turned 15 Today

That would be 15 years.

It seems like yesterday she was turning 13 and I couldn't believe I officially had a teenager in the house. And it seems like a few weeks ago she was playing with Barbies and My Little Ponies. And wasn't it just a few months ago I was teaching her how to walk and proud and excited every time she would say a new word.

*Sigh*

This past week my 3 older children have been at my mom's (spring break). I was planning on making a chocolate cake from scratch for her birthday and when I called her this morning to wish her happy birthday, she informed me that she didn't like chocolate cake.

What? When did this happen? I mean, what 15 year old dosen't like chocolate cake?

Oh, and she also informed me - definitely don't put chocolate frosting on it either because that just taste weird.

What? Weird? Chocolate frosting?

So what kind of cake DO you like - today? She said she liked carrot cake. Fine. I had a box carrot cake in my stockpile - I was kind of disappointed in using it cause I really like making the birthday cakes from scratch but I didn't feel like searching for another recipe, since I already had the chocolate cake recipe picked out and had all the ingredients for that.

But here is what I did do to make it a little different and special. I saw this idea on Sandra Lee a few weeks ago:


The frosting I used is just simply powder sugar, butter, milk, nutmeg, vanilla. By using decorating gel icings you make circles, lines or other designs on top of the icing and then take the tip of a toothpick and drag it through the icing to make awesome designs. For the tie die ones, just make a bunch of dots all over the cup cake and use your toothpick and swirl the colors together. Of course, mine don't look as good as hers and I wished I would have gotten some brighter colors - but I think they turned out pretty good. It definitely takes some practice and getting the hang of it.

Here are some tips I figured out along the way, maybe it will help someone - if they decide to do this:

1. If you make you icing from scratch don't make it too thick. You want the icing to be smooth and wet enough to be easily manipulated when you run your toothpick through it - otherwise it will crack and crumble and ruin your design.

2. Also, if using your own homemade icing I would suggest only icing one cupcake at a time - for the same reasons as above. After sitting for a few minutes the icing forms a 'crust' and it's hard to manipulate the frosting. By the time I figured this out I actually when back and had to scrap off all the frosting and then iced and decorated them one at a time.

Wordless Wednesday - Coloring by Lucy...

...my 5 year old daughter.

What are kids thinking?

This past weekend my son spent the night at his friends house. When he got home he told me he needed some new socks because his friends cat did something to his socks. I looked down to see what he was talking about - wondering what in the world a cat could do to a sock - and this is what I saw:

"Uhh...Dear son of mine, did you ever think your sock was on inside out?"

He gave me a strange look and I told him to turn his sock inside out (the right way) and let me know what he thought.

After he did this he kind of laughed and had a puzzled look on his face. I was left shaking my head wondering if I should even ask for further explanation. I mean, why in the world would he think his friends cat did 'something' to his sock - instead of thinking 'hey, it just might be inside out?' I mean where do they get this stuff?

The Neatest Dolphin Playing with Bubbles Video!

The link above has the most amazing video of Dolphins playing with bubbles! The video is on the right hand side and I've never seen anything like this before. They actually make these bubbles underwater and play with them - it's truly amazing! I have always wanted to go to Sea World and see the dolphins and other marine life. Maybe one day - someday, I will make it there.

People Blessing People

I am constantly amazed by the generosity of people.

After our kitchen sink drains went berserk, dishes everywhere and our handyman who usually does this kind of work for us couldn't come until the next day, I threw in the towel and decided this was a good night to just go out to eat. I had 3 free kids meal coupons for Bob Evans Restaurant, which is our all time most favorite restaurant. When we do go out to eat I always try to keep the bill around $30 - $35, that's including the 15-20% tip. I figured with the 3 FREE kids meals I could certainly do this. So I gather everyone up and we head for the restaurant. We had a very nice, relaxing dinner, great service and great tasting food - as always. At the end when the waitress brought us our bill it was only something like $21 dollars. Now, I hadn't given her any of the free kids meal coupons yet so I was it was strange that it was so low. After looking at the bill, I noticed several of the kids meals weren't even rang up! I pointed this out to my husband and I was afraid that if she mis calculated the bill she would get in trouble if it came up wrong at the end of the night. So, my husband called her back over to the table and pointed this out to her, in which she responded, 'Actually, the gentleman who just left asked to pay for 3 of your kids meals!' What?! My head shot around amazed and trying to catch this person who had blessed us. I guess this good samaritan told the waitress not to say anything to us until he was gone, which was a real disappointment - I really wanted to thank him for his thoughtfulness.

This is not the only time something like this has happened to us, actually it's the second time it's happened to us at Bob Evans. This past summer when we were out to eat at Bob Evans, someone payed for our ENTIRE meal! That guy tried to sneak out on us as well but we managed to catch him and thank him. He told us that our family reminded him so much of his family growing up. There was another time, a few years ago we were at Perkins, and just as we were almost done, an older woman came up to us and complimented my husband and I on what a beautiful family we had and such well behaved kids (yeah right - little did she know). Then she handed my husband a $20 bill to take the kids out for some ice cream.

It used to bother me when things like this would happen, it would make me feel like a charity case - (not that we were trying to be and we never asked for anything from anyone). But this last time, it got me to thinking, it's not charity, it's not a hand out. Simply put, it's people blessing people. In the end, isn't that what's it's all about? Helping your neighbors, friends, church and strangers - just to reach out a caring hand and let someone else know that they are blessed too. And when I pay the blessing forward by donating some of my stockpile to a family in need or help a neighbor out who has lost their job, they too might feel blessed and pay it forward.

To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity:

I've seen this list a few times over the past years, but it still makes me laugh when I read it. Especially if you visualize in your head...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice!

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want Fries with that.

4. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

5. In the Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write 'For Marijuana'

6. Finish All Your sentences with 'In Accordance With The Prophecy.'

7. Skip down the hall Rather Than Walk and see how many looks you get.

8. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

9 . Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is 'To Go.'

10. Sing Along At The Opera.

11. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area and Play tropical Sounds All Day.

12. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You have a headache.

13. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream 'I Won! I Won!'

14. When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards the Parking lot, Yelling 'Run For Your Lives! They're Loose!'

15. Tell Your Children Over Dinner,'Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.'

Wordless Wednesday ~ My 4 Year Old Artist

Wordless Wednesday - Rules

Wordless Wednesday

I Voted!

With all the anxieties that have been building up over this election, today I finally found relief by voting.

Take a few 'hours' and get out there and vote today!

Proud Mama of a 4 Year Old Bargain Hunter

While at Kroger today, I stopped by the baby section to get some baby oil. I saw a few more catalina deals and was trying to read them and do some math in my head. My 4 year old daughter was knelt down looking at something on the lower shelf with excitement, "Look Mommy, Look!" I briefly looked down to see the NutriPals Granola Bars - she loves these things. I said something like, 'Yum Yum," and went back to doing math in my head. She continued to get excited, "Look - Look Nola Bars. I got these at home. Mommy Look!" She was getting so excited and I looked over again and I saw the yellow tag: 2/$6! It instantly clicked; $5/2 PediaSure 6 pk product coupons! I stopped working on whatever deal it was and knelt down beside her and asked her if she found a bargain. She said yes! It was so darn cute you just had to be there. I got in my coupon box and found a couple coupons and got 4 boxes. At .50 cents a box I couldn't pass it up and that is my bottom line price for granola bars.

So, I was excited and she was excited and we get up to the cashier and he wouldn't accept the coupons. He said the coupon was for the 6 pack PediaSure shakes. I pointed out that the coupon says 'any PediaSure 6 pack product', and showed him that the boxes of granola bars were all 6 packs. He said that wasn't right and said that the coupon was only for the shakes. I really liked this cashier and he's always been very nice to me in the past so I let it go. Clearly one of us was confused on what a 6 pack product was.

Tomorrow I will call PediaSure and ask them what product(s) is the coupon intended for.

Meanwhile, I am tickled pink that my 4 year old spotted that bargain. Maybe it was just a conquincidence -- or maybe I am raising a future bargain shopper.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Happy Halloween!

Hurricane Ike Visits Ohio

Yup! That's right. Who would have thought, huh? I mean, this is Ohio. We get tornadoes and floods -- not hurricane. Well, I guess nothing is really off limits right?

We lost power before the storm even hit us, on September 14, 2008. The surrounding Miami Vally (which is where I am) got hit the hardest with a lot of damage to peoples houses, trees and even a local restaurant had caught fire and burned down. Winds were reported being 70 - 80 mph.

There were over 2 million people in Ohio without power. DP&L had called workers from out of state to assist and even with triple the number of workers they were still talking about not regaining power until the end of the weekend. However, Wednesday night, the blessing happened and our neighborhood regained power. There are still thousands of people in the Miami Valley without power - I'm hopping they too will get theirs restored soon.

All in all it was definitely an adventure. Being without electricity for 4 days was definitely an experience and I'm pretty sure now, there isn't anything you can't cook on a grill. While our land line phones weren't working I did have my cell phone that I charged up everyday in my husbands new Jeep Patriot. It has this handy little outlet which you can actually plug things into, which worked out great since I didn't have a car charger for my cell phone.

Thank you to my friend Jane who kept me company one the phone one day for FOUR hours while I was board out of my mind. Also to my aunt and my brother who I'm sure I also talked their ear off over the days without power. The kids all really handled it quiet well also. We played out side more, cleaned, read books, drove around, went to the mall or did our grocery shopping to keep us busy. They are quiet the troopers.

Wordless Wedensday - Morro Bay, California (again)

Wordless Wednesday - Morro Bay, California

Back from vacation

Actually, I’ve been back for a few weeks now – but it’s taken me a few weeks to get things back in order and going again. Isn’t it funny? By the time you get ready for your vacation, go on vacation and get back - you need a vacation from your vacation.

So, ask me how California was? It was Wonderful! My husband’s parents are the most wonderful people I have ever met. I am grateful to them for raising such a wonderful son, whom I truly love. My mother in law really inspired me to be a better mother and wife, while my father in law is really an amazing and charming man. I also met my sister in law and her two children who are such neat kids. It was instant comfort to be around them and to get to know them.

We reminisced over old photos (or rather they reminisced). It was so neat to finally place photos to the stories my husband has told me over the years. They let us use their motor home so we could go to Morro Bay – Which was beautiful. We also took a day trip to Yosemite – which was breathtaking. I will have to post photos of all these wonderful places.

I’ll tell ya, I’ve only been out of Ohio a few times in my life – but never to anywhere as different and exciting as California. I am very easily entertained. Here in Ohio about the only thing we grow is corn and soybeans. So when I get to California and I see fields and fields of grapevine fields – I am amazed! Also, in California, the cattle ranches are HUGE! Here in Ohio we have these dinky little farms – nothing compared to the thousands of acres of cattle land they have in California.

I was also tickled to see real orange trees!

Actually, my in laws have about five of them in their back yard, and beyond their yard is a whole orange grove!

There were also palm trees –

All the mountains and hills that seem to go on forever also amazed me. There were tons of rock formations and ridges, like these:

I know to some this might be everyday stuff, but I'm just a small town hillbilly (who doesn't get out enough) and everything was truely amazing!

I think what shocked me the most is that California was nothing like what I envisioned in my head – but then nothing ever is…

California Here I Come!

I am leaving tomorrow for California where my husbands parents and family live. We will be staying for a week so I wanted to let everyone know I will be gone.

Big Savings and Happy Shopping while I am gone!

Major Tackle It Tuesday

A month later and I am finally seeing the light! As some of you may know, my stress levels and sanity was tested when my basement flooded. To read more about that - Click Here.

This past week I have really begun to make some progress on getting things back in order. Here are my accomplishments:

Remember when I said all my food and stockpile items that weren't ruined in the flooding were sitting in boxes in my dinning room?


~~~Not anymore~~~

My cupboards are STUFFED and I had to make some arrangements in the kitchen but I got everything put away for the time being. At least things are more organized and I can find something to eat now. I found storage and places to stuff things I never thought of before.

I refused to go shopping or put anything else in my fridge until I got it cleaned out. You know it's time to clean out your fridge when you become fearful of opening containers.

Here is my pretty fridge - all cleaned out - ready to go shopping!!


I have learned something with my garden. At the end of the season, pull any plants and leftover veggies. I didn't do this last year and so this year I had tomato plants EVERYWHERE. Not only the ones I planted this year but also the tomatoes that were left over from last year began to grow. My thinking was that that leftover tomatoes would just get mixed back in with the soil - the same as when you put them in compost so it didn't hurt to leave them in the garden at the end of the season. Apparently it does cause that is the only reason I can come up with on why I had so many tomato plants. Maybe someone who has more experience in this, can tell me for sure.

So anyways - I got all the extra tomato plants cleaned out and weeded. I had to transplant some of them so they are a little traumatized in this photo - but they should perk back up. I wish I would have taken before pictures because really, this whole garden bed was COVERED with tomato plants and weeds. The bare spot is where my green peppers were supposed to be growing but after I pulled all the weeds and tomato plants - I didn't see any green peppers. Not sure what happened there. So I planted some more green beans.

Here is my other garden bed - mainly for herbs and lettuce. This is still a work in progress. I managed to weed one section where my lettuce was supposed to be growing and found a few plants. Also found some parsley and sage. I think the weeds killed off most everything else. Sad to say. I picked up a few more herbs this weekend. I want to replant and hopefully have enough time before the end of the season to get something to grow.

Yesterday I mowed the lawn for my husband. He's been working so hard in the basement and trying to fix other things around the house - just wanted to help him out. Normally I don't mow the yard - that's his thing. But I know it was appreciated.

I have also officially defeated the huge mountain of clothes growing in my attic. I have gotten all the kids summer clothes out and winter clothes and future clothes are now stored neatly in their individual totes. All the clothes no one can wear anymore are now out in the garage ready for the garage sale that I am having this weekend. Yes, in the mist of this crazy month I decided what a great time to have a yard sale!

One other thing I accomplished just last night - my dinning room table! It's been pushed over to the side of the room and piled high with all kinds of things for the past month. Last night I finally got the dinning room organized, took the kids TV, VCR and DVD player and movies up to the attic for the time being and cleaned off and found a place for everything on the table. I got it pushed back in the center of the room like we normally have it and it looks much better.

Yup - finally seeing the light!