Doctors and Elmo and Worms

Christopher had a doctor appointment yesterday so he stayed home from daycare. I took the iPad with us to the appointment but he didn’t want to watch anything so I had to keep him entertained for an hour and a half. Fun stuff.

I broke out self-portrait mode on the camera because he normally loves to take goofy shots but he immediately got all sulky and serious and refused to be silly.

I don’t know if I mentioned, but I got glasses back in the fall. I had lasic surgery when I was 21 and had perfect vision afterwards, (couldn’t see the big “E” before!” but after I had Christopher my visions started getting worse. I haven’t had optical insurance in the 5 years that Stephen and I have been married, so I hadn’t been to the eye doctor to test my vision. My parents gifted me with money for an eye exam for my birthday, and I was happy to find out that my vision is still 20/20 and I only have a slight case of astigmatism. I “notice” the astigmatism most driving – especially at night – and when working on the computer. I feel like an old school marm when I wear them but I can tell that they help, especially when driving (and it was dark and rainy yesterday)

Anyway, Christopher’s check-up went well.  His ear infection from a few weeks ago had cleared up and he got a clean bill of health. He’s in the 50th percentile for height and weight. (Weight was 35 pounds, not sure what his height was…forgot to ask.)

I had to wake him up from his nap to go to the appointment and he wanted to take his Elmo stuffed toy that he sleeps with. Normally Elmo doesn’t run errands with us but since he was still waking up and it’s a comfort thing, I didn’t really think anything of it. Well, Elmo got left at the doctor’s office and I didn’t even realize it until I was putting Christopher into bed last night. He was so upset and I felt so bad for him. I told him I would go by the doctor today and pick Elmo up. WELLLLL I had planned to do it this morning on my way home after taking Christopher to daycare, but it slipped my mind. I decided to do it this afternoon. Went by at 3:45 on my way to daycare and remembered that my doctor’s office closes at NOON on Wednesdays and so nobody was there.

I cried. I felt so guilty for not picking it up this morning and knowing that he was going to have to go to sleep without Elmo AGAIN.  He was so sad when I told him… and tonight during prayers he prayed for the doctor’s office to be open so that we could get Elmo back tomorrow.  Last night during prayers he prayed to see Elmo again and that he would be so happy and give Elmo a kiss when he saw him! I love the way his mind works.

I bought the supplies to make his Valentine’s day treats for his friends at school. I had seen an idea where you take Rolos and roll them up in red paper to make them look like sticks of dynamite. (Here is the post where I saw them.) I thought it was really cute so I decided to do it… but it took me about 15  minutes to put one “bomb” together and he has 23 kids to give treats. Christopher thought it was really neat but I was not looking forward to rolling 60+ Rolo dynamite sticks so I nixed that idea and searched the web and came across this idea from Lil Luna and decided to go with it.

Here’s a picture of what she did…

I decided to just put our gummy worms in little snack-size Ziplock bags since it was a last minute thing and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have found little pails anywhere in Mena anyway. Plus, again, 23 kids. Even at a buck a pail… Mama’s not made of money.

Photoshop and I were NOT friends this morning. This is not what I had envisioned last night when I decided to go with this idea, but it’s about all that Photoshop had in mind for me. It’s still cute, anyway.

Christopher helped to assemble these. He’ll be 3.5 in FIVE days. I’m not sure where time has gone but I seriously need it to slow down because I’m not ready for my baby to be four.

The Proof is in the Pin

I’m linking up today with Sarah at Life {Sweet} Life for The Proof is in the Pin!

I missed last month’s Proof is in the Pin link up, but I’m back this month with several fun pins.

Pin #1 -- First up, the DIY Coffee Mug Holder. I pinned this quite awhile back. I don’t have a Cricut so I can’t do vinyl and this offered an alternative way to get professional looking text on wooden objects. I made one of these for my mother in law for Christmas and she loved it!

I used a paint pen to fill in the text. That scroll below was a B to trace and then my gold paint pen didn’t want to cooperate with me.

I just printed the word “java” in different sizes and fonts and placed them randomly.

I ended up putting one or two more “javas” in the bottom right corner. I also painted over that stray gold mark underneath the scroll.  Stephen drilled holes for the coffee cup hooks for me. I think we did six hooks total, but I never took a picture of the finished product. (Why on earth?) We gave my MIL and FIL personalized coffee cups from Shutterfly.

This was a fun project to work with. I’m not extremely crafty so I really enjoyed doing this! I think the personalized coffee cups made it really neat, too.

Pin #2 – Photo on Canvas. I mentioned in the last few posts that I ordered new bedding and I’m kind of re-doing our master bedroom. I’ve been wanting to try one of those “DIY Photo Canvas” projects for awhile and I figured now is as good a time as any. I used this method from Love Bug Living. I know there are a ton of different tutorials out there for this and it’s really just however you want to do it. I bought my canvas at Wal-Mart and already has the 8x10s from Christopher’s 1-year photos… ahem… 2.5 years ago. I had never done anything with them and this was the perfect use for them. This was also my first experience with Mod Podge. Yup. I told you I’m not that crafty! I bought it at Wal-Mart with the canvas. I think I spent about $7 on the Mod Podge and $5 for TWO canvasses so the whole project cost me less than $13… which is a great deal considering the prices for photos on canvas. I also bought two 11x14 canvasses and I plan on having a wedding picture & a family picture printed off to put on those.

That amazeballs clock is from Target.

I painted one canvas black but decided to leave the other white.
I think since the picture is so white it looks better.

I just threw them up on the wall to take these pics, but I do think I am going to do a second coat of Mod Podge, just to be safe. I was skimpy with my first application since I really didn’t know how it worked.  This was a super simple, QUICK, cheap project for my walls and I love the way it turned out!

Pin #3 – Valentine’s Garland. I was wanting to add some Valentine’s Décor to my house, but since it was already so  late in the month I didn’t really want to spend much time or money. I made this super easy garland last Tuesday when Stephen was sick and Christopher was at daycare and I was having a Downton Abbey marathon. All it took was some red felt, string, scissors, and a glue gun! I love it on my new-to-me china hutch.

If I were to do it again I would do half of the garland with the hearts facing one direction, and the other half with the hearts facing the opposite direction, so that when you hang it up, all the hearts are right side up.  Regardless, I love this and the pop of color it adds to my dining area.

Pin #4 – Oatmeal Raisin and Cinnamon Buttercream Sandwich Cookies. Oh. Em. Gee. This babies are good. Stephen was wanting Oatmeal Raisin cookies one night so I did a Pinterest search and found these. The cookies by themselves are delicious, but the Cinnamon Buttercream Icing takes them a whole new level. Stephen isn’t a fan things that are “too sweet” (which doesn’t really exist, in my opinion) so he prefers the cookie by itself, sans icing. I like to use the icing as a topper for just one cookie instead of making them into sandwiches.

Pin #5 – Chicken Cordon Bleu wraps from Plain Chicken. I made these several months ago for Christopher and myself for lunch one day. They were pretty good, but not something I would make again. I thought it was a little time consuming to marinate the chicken overnight and then cook it just to turn around and put it in a flour tortilla. This past weekend, though, I was craving some sautéed mushrooms (noIamnotpregnant) and these were the first thing that came to my mind. I took this general idea and made my own wrap with it.

I took oven roasted turkey lunchmeat, avocado, sauteed mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, and spicy ranch (regular ranch with a few dashes of hot sauce and a sprinkling of cayenne pepper) and rolled it all up in a soft taco sized flour tortilla. I sprayed a skillet with a bit of Pam then placed the wraps in it on medium low heat and turned them a few times. I kept a lid on the pan in order to trap the heat so that the mozzarella would melt and get all stringy. I should have taken a picture but I was distracted and didn’t think to. They were SO good. We all loved them!

Pin #6 – I’m searching for a new rug for my bedroom to match my new bedding/decor and came across this pin. It leads you to this website which then leads you to Urban Outfitters. I don’t know what you consider “cheap” for a rug, but for me “cheap” means, like, $50 or less. I know I’m never going to find a large new area rug for $50 but I can always search yard sales and such. Anyway, I did find a rug on their website that I fell in love with and I’m adding it to my Wish List. Just in case anybody in my family would like to go in on it for my birthday or Christmas or congrats-on-your-new-bedding. *wink wink*

I’ll take the 8x10, please!

….and that wraps up this ridiculously long Proof is in the Pin blog. Peace out!

la semana y el fin de semana

Our week just FLEW by!  I’m trying to be better about posting regularly. I need to get in a better groove. Once a week is better than nothing, though.

Last Monday night/early Tuesday morning at 3am, Stephen woke up with a stomach bug. He was up most of the night sick. Christopher went to daycare and I spent the day at the house. I went to pick Christopher up that afternoon around 5 and realized I was feeling queasy. I came home and started making dinner and realized that I was going to be sick as well. I called my mom and she came to pick up Christopher around 6:30 or so and I went to bed. The bug officially “hit me” at around 8 and I was up till after midnight. Tuesdays are the WORST day for Stephen to be sick because of his schedule with work. He spent most of the day in bed and got up around the time Christopher went to moms and wrote some articles from home then went in to work for just an hour or two late that night when everyone was gone and he was feeling better.

I slept in late Wednesday morning and spent the day recovering and then disinfecting the house. Christopher came home close to bedtime Wednesday night.

The best part about Wednesday was that my new bedding came in!!!! {Insert shrieking and jumping up and down here.}

LOVE.

Christopher normally stays home on Thursdays. It’s our day together and I look forward to them every week.  We started the day with Thomas and his friends.

A local place, Joe’s Dog House, has a yogurt bar and Thursdays they have a special for yogurt so we usually go there. Sometimes we eat hot dogs there for lunch too. It’s a good place to go and spend a few hours and let Christopher burn some energy.

Our new mattress was available on Tuesday, but because of sicknesses and rain, Stephen and I had to wait until Friday to get it. I’ve spent the weekend putting everything together in our room and we still have a few tweaks before I considered it finished. Hopefully I can share pics soon. BUT I can say that we LOOOOOOOVE our new mattress.  SO comfortable. And soft. We both are sleeping so much better and we wake up without our backs hurting. Best investment we’ve made in forever and I wish we’d done it three years ago!

The weekend consisted of working on our room, playing cards, hanging out. I had some steam that I needed to run off yesterday so I went for a walk during Christopher’s nap.  It was a chilly 40 degrees but I walked fast and was gone for almost an hour. I’ve been itching to start Couch to 5K up again but I really just wanted to walk and think and listen to music really really loud. I love taking Jasper with me.

These jonquils didn’t care about the 40-degree weather.
Um… it’s only February 9th!!!

I wasn’t really ready for winter to be over, but the flowers seem to be saying that spring is right around the corner. I love spring too…I REALLY do love spring. Just seems like we didn’t have much of a winter this year.

We played cards with my parents on Friday and Saturday night. We won Hand and Foot both nights. They won Spades both nights.

I always have more energy on Sundays than Saturdays, so today I cleaned and did laundry and worked on my to-do lists. Christopher spent the entire day with my parents and Stephen had a work thing so I had the afternoon to myself.  Tonight I planned our meals for the week, made our grocery list for tomorrow, to-do list for tomorrow, added a few things to our Spring Cleaning list to work on over the next few months... And now we’re finishing up the Grammys.

Happy end of the weekend! Is that an oxymoron?!?

Randoms

Happy Monday!

Really… it has been a good Monday around here.

Stephen and I have hosted a Super Bowl party every year since we’ve been married. We’ve always invited family and friends. Usually it was just my family, his mom, and a few friends. Last year was the first year that my MIL couldn’t make it, but we decided to invite a few more people than normal.  And it was CRAZY.  I was sick the day before and was so worn out on the day of the party that I could barely hold my head up; Stephen cooked all day, the house was a wreck, and there were so many people and so much going on that we felt like we barely watched the game. (Or more importantly, the commercials.) We decided after last year’s party that we would be doing family-only and keep it LOW-KEY! So yesterday my parents took Christopher to church and Stephen and I super speed cleaned the house. We decided to just order pizza and Stephen wanted to make wings. I also made Velveeta Rotel dip. My mom brought sausage balls and my sister-in-law brought a yummy dessert dip. And it was more than enough for just 6 of us! It was sooo not hectic and I was able to watch every commercial. And during the game I got on social media. Ha!

So anyway, the house (at least the main rooms) were still super clean and organized today, which is a rare occasion. Christopher and I stayed home in our PJs all day and relaxed in the nice, clean house.

In other news, we FINALLY took down the Christmas lights and took all of our Christmas decorations to the storage building.

Our lights came down the last day of January. Uumm… at least it was before February?

This was the pile of Christmas junk in the corner of my living room.
It started to give me a nervous twitch. SO glad it’s all gone now.

And now this new-to-me China Hutch has taken its place.
It’s not finished – this is just what I got done yesterday.
I LOVE it.

Christopher has a new love for Play-Doh and is constantly wanting me to make things.
Friday morning I made a “rubber ducky.”
P.S. – I totally copy things off the Play-Doh box.
You know I have no artistic talent.

And I have a new love for Downton Abbey.
And, um, Dan Stevens? Yummy.
I wish Stephen had a sexy British accent.

Ordering a new bedding set has really gotten me into a decorating mood.
I want to try to make the master bedroom feel a little more “homey” so I decided to put a few things up on the wall.  I ordered this clock from Old Navy and I kind of love it. Can’t wait for it (and new bedding) to be delivered and start putting together my “new” bedroom!

Spaghetti Squash

Ever had spaghetti squash?

I’ve never been a big fan of spaghetti. I don’t love most tomato sauces so I’ve just never enjoyed it. When I was a kid and my mom would make spaghetti, she would keep the noodles and sauce separate and I would just eat spaghetti noodles with a little butter on them.

Since Stephen and I have been married, I’ve never made spaghetti. (Up til two weeks ago, at least.) He’s the same way as I am with red sauces… just not a fan. BUT I did read a recipe for a chicken lasagna one time on a blog, and the blogger recommended Bertoli’s 5 Cheese tomato sauce, so we tried it.  Stephen and I BOTH like this red sauce.

I’ve been trying to make healthier meals and I read blogs/follow several people on Instagram who suggest healthy alternatives. One girl (Skinny Meg) raved about how easy spaghetti squash was to prepare. Stephen had voiced at some point in time that he wouldn’t mind trying it, so when I was shopping in the produce section one day, I saw one and thought I’d give it a try.

It’s SO easy to make. It does take a bit more time than just boiling spaghetti noodles, but it’s just as easy.  Mine came with a sticker on it that instructed how to prepare it… but there are several ways and you can just google it for more suggestions. I’ve made this twice and used two different methods to cook the squash and I still want to try a few more before I decide which way is easiest.

We use turkey smoked sausage, spaghetti sauce, and spaghetti squash.

Put a little olive oil in a skillet and then while it’s heating up, slice the sausage into rounds. Sometimes I slice it into rounds, then half those again so that they’re half-circles. Once the oil is nice and hot, add your sausage and get them good and brown on both sides.  I zest some fresh garlic in while it’s cooking, just for some extra heat. I’ve even thrown in red pepper flakes for days when I needed my sinuses cleaned out. I like for the sausage to be almost burned on both sides.  Once it’s cooked the way you like, throw in the spaghetti sauce and let it all meld together on low for 5 minutes or so. This makes the sauce a little less runny, which we like.

Take your squash and remove the seeds then scrape out the “noodles” using a fork.  You can see the picture above. One-half of a squash filled made a big heaping pile of noodles on a plate. It makes a ton!

{Buzz Lightyear plate optional!} I topped ours off with a little parmesan the first time I made it but it doesn’t really need it. Christopher LOVED this. Loved it. He always asks for seconds when we have this and always cleans his plate with no whining! It’s a super easy and healthy dinner for me to make and we all three love it; Stephen and I prefer the spaghetti squash noodles to regular spaghetti noodles. I will say that they are crunchy, not like you would expect, but I think it gives the dish good texture and not such a baby-food-like quality.

Sooooo, the next time you’re in the produce section I would highly recommend getting a spaghetti squash and giving it a try!

bedding and possums

Stephen and I received some Christmas money from my parents this year. Our first thought was to put it towards the G6 (we’re sooo close to having it paid off!) but we were given strict instructions to spend it on something we needed/wanted and not groceries, bills, etc.  We talked about several different things we wanted to do with it; buy a KitchenAid Mixer, buy Stephen an iPad, etc. We ended up deciding to buy ourselves… a new mattress.

Boring, I know.

I don’t WANT to spend my Christmas money on a new mattress, but we need a new one really badly, and it’s something that we both need that is a little out of our price range right now. Had I gotten a teaching job last fall, it would have been a purchase we probably would have made before Christmas.

We were gifted a king size mattress when we got married – it was actually my parents, and they were getting a new one so they passed theirs down to us. And now Stephen and I have slept on it for close to 5 years. It’s got a hump in the middle and it’s sagging on the sides and worn out and just not in good condition at all. So we did some shopping around and found a mattress that we both loved and ordered it and it should be in next week! And as much as I didn’t want to spend my Christmas money on a new mattress… I am SOOO excited about sleeping on a nice soft plush mattress and not waking up with an aching back!

SOOO, Stephen and I have said for over a year now that when we bought a new mattress, we would replace our bedding set. The one that we have now is a bed-in-a-bag set from Walmart. I really liked it when we bought it but it’s cheap and has rips and tears and the tassels have fallen off the throw pillows and it’s basically in worse shape than our old mattress! I don’t know why we felt the need to wait till we got a new mattress to get a new bedding set… but whatever, we did.

I was avoiding getting online to look for one though, because I knew I’d get overwhelmed and plus I hate shopping online for stuff like that. I want to see it, feel it, etc. So I just figured we would make a trip out of town sometime and go to Bed Bath and Beyond or JC Penney’s and look for a good quality one that I liked.

Last night was my monthly Bunco night (dice game) and while I was getting a tour of the Bunco host’s house, I saw her bedding set and fell in LOVE with it.  I immediately asked where she got it – JC Penney – and as soon as I got home, looked it up online.

“Kashmir”

I knew I loved it, but I didn’t love the price of everything, (once you added in the pillows and all) especially considering the fact that it didn’t come with a bed skirt or matching sheets. (My current sheets are chocolate brown and won’t really go with it.)  So I decided to look around the clearance bedding to see if I found anything else that caught my eye. Big mistake.  I found the “Rochelle” bedding in clearance and fell in love with IT, too. It came with a bed skirt and would be about $40 cheaper than the Kashmir set, not including the money I would spend on a bed skirt for the Kashmir.

I especially love that chevron throw pillow!

Sooo, what’s a girl to do when she can’t make her own decisions?!? Solicit advice from others, of course! I texted Britney and my mom. Then I posted it on Instagram. Then I texted my MIL. Then today I had my hair done and asked my hair dresser and another girl who works at the salon. Most people on Instagram preferred the Rochelle.  Most people in real life like the Kashmir. Some people were no help and said they liked both. Basically, I still didn’t know what to do!

I drove myself crazy all day today thinking about it.

I finally just decided tonight that I knew that I loved the Kashmir set when I saw it last night and it was the one I wanted. There were also some other factors. We’re living at my MIL’s and have been for over a year. (ANYBODY want to buy our old house that’s up for sale?!?) I haven’t done anything to the inside of this house as far as wall decorations, painting, etc, because it’s not “my house” and it’s not something that we plan on staying in long term. My MIL told me to make myself comfortable here and treat it as my own, and I know she meant that, but I just didn’t see the point in spending my time/energy/money panting and decorating a house that is not intended to be a long-term thing for us. So anyway, this house is pretty neutral. It has a lot of earth tones on the wall color, it has hardwood floors throughout except the kitchen and bathrooms… and I’m getting just getting tired of the brown and green. Even our old bedding set is earth tones; gold, brown, burgundy. I felt that if I chose the black and white bedding set it would just be another “blah” thing in this house. I’ve been wanting to branch out of my comfort zone and I feel like the Kashmir bedding set is the perfect thing for me to start with. Plus, there will always be black and white bedding sets to choose from and if I want to go with that when I buy my next one, I will!

SOOO I ordered the “Kashmir” set tonight and it should be in around the same time as our new mattress next week and I’m sooooo excited to get everything in and all set up!

I should probably be sad about the level of excitement I have over a new mattress and bedding set. But I am just excited for some CHANGE! haha. And COLOR!

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Before I go, a story about Christopher. This kid cracks me up every single day. I need to do a post soon of “Christopherisms” because he says so much funny stuff and I want to remember it. Tonight he was eating leftover spaghetti for dinner. I had cut up some turkey smoked sausage and put it in our tomato sauce when I first made it, but tonight there was just enough of that batch of sauce left for one plate of leftovers. Christopher finished it off and asked for seconds. I just popped open a second jar of tomato sauce (Bertoli 5 Cheese is the BEST) and poured it over the noodles (actually spaghetti squash, maybe a new post on that coming up soon) and heated it up for him. When he started eating it, he looked at me and pushed it back and said “Momma I want some-tin in this.” I knew he was missing the turkey sausage but I played dumb and asked what he wanted in it.

 

“Some-tin, Momma. Some… uuhm… possum.”

Huh? You want what?

“Some possum.”

Possum? Who told you about possums?

“I don’t know.”

You mean you want some turkey sausage?

“Yeah! I want some turkey sausage!”

I explained to him that he had eaten the last of the turkey sausage and there was none left. I couldn’t figure out where he had come up with “possum” until I turned Curious George back on for him after dinner and realized he was in the middle of a “nocturnal animals” episode and they were talking about… you guessed it, possums.

I came out of my bathroom one day to find him laying like this on my bed.
His PJ pants were pulled clear up to his armpits. Crazy child!
(Also, if you were curious what my old bedding set looked like, that’s it!)