Losing it....

I am starting the New Year weighing 12lbs less then I did when I started December!!!!

Here is to being a **LOSER** next year!1

The first *official* day of Summer break!

Actually it was last Friday but I planned so many things that day there was real vacation involved!

So we start today! I want to have some sort of schedule to the day. I absolutely hate to look at the clock and see 1145am and realize nothing has been accomplished. Relaxation is fine and well.. laziness bothers me! So I did allow some video games this morning while I did a few things. Then I shut them down! Then I got the kids moving along! So far- on this fine cold windy June day I/we have:
played some video games
taken dirty laundry downstairs and pulled the dry out and flipped loads.
Emptied the clean dishwasher and put them away.
Made the kids breakfast and loaded those dishes into the empty washer
Make my hubby a mug of coffee and took it to his work. ( okay fine i carried it over to the recliner.. but still I did that!)
ordered everyone dressed, all teeth brushed and beds made.
library books gathered and off to the library for new books, sign up for summer activities and some educational computer games.
Ran to the grocery store for dog food( I keep forgetting that one!)
Home again!
I fixed the kids a quick morning snack of juice and strawberries.
Took the kids outside and instructed them to pick up all toys/chairs/junk in the yard and put it away so I could mow.
Pulled out the tractor and mowed the back yard. Had kids help me pull all the trimmed bushes behind the barn so I could mow around the fire pit.
Came in and prepared lunch for the kids, b/c no one mentioned to daddy they still had not eaten lunch!
Time to load lunch dishes into the machine and check on defrosting turkey breast that will be tonight's supper.
(kids are currently fighting over who gets to sweep the basement where Michael is working between calls/meetings)



So far this is my day.. a work in progress. There will be days I do more.. and days I do much less!

Time to use those brand new permanent markers..

I defrosted a freezer bag of cooked chicken yesterday. Half the bag went onto a yummy BBQ chicken pizza.. The rest was just staring at me in the fridge. The obvious answer is soup. Too bad my people don't like soup. Then I thought about a MoM's friend who just had a baby.. Soup is a simple lunch.. you scoop out the veggies and noodles and give that to the kids. So I decided to whip it up and then let it do its thing while I ran a few errands.
Into the fridge/freezer I went. Last of a bag of carrots, few stalks of celery, bay leaves, frozen quart bag of homemade chicken stock, baggies of leftover canned broth I froze instead of wasting.
Into the pot went the frozen broth to defrost. I scraped and chopped the carrots, finely chopped the celery leaves and chunked the celery down.. perfect sizes for toddler fingers. I grabbed a can of broth to give more liquid. A few shakes of black pepper, a few garlic cloves cracked for a fresher homemade flavor. I tossed the veggies into the liquid and turned the crock pot on to warm. I figure I will toss the hot liquid into the crock and the veggies will have lots of time to soften.
Before I go to dump the soup I grab a spoon to taste for seasoning... The first taste was not right... I stirred it a bit more and tried again...

CRAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP! That last little baggie was not the dregs of a can of broth.. it was lemon juice..... Now only if I were Greek could I save this pot....

Sorry Amanda... No soup for you!

It is Ohio... There will be snow in Feb.. GET OVER IT!

I am cracking up at newspaper articles where people are talking about being "over " all the snow.. ready for spring etc.. Maybe they missed the memo that Ohio can have snow into May.. That Spring is not a guarantee here in O-HI-O. Head south my friend! Head south...

So MY big complaint is not really that big... I am so grateful that our school system has this cool auto dial line where they call you and tell you school is cancelled. The downside .. that call comes at 540am.. and scares me every time. The positive is I roll over and turn the alarm off. DONE! try to go back to sleep.

So this morning the dog wanted to go out. I ignored her for a while but she is persistent so I was up at 315am taking her out. Seriously what are the chances that at that exact moment, you know where I am standing in the door to my house wearing only a t shirt... the road crew drives down the main road and turns onto my street to plow. Dog is barking, I have no doubt the neighbors could hear her. I flipped the lights off and hoped that the plow driver couldn't see anything/ wasn't paying attn.

So I was actually surprised school was called off.. roads were being worked on all night, plowed and salted. Must be the amount of snow. It is still snowing - late morning. I am putting off pulling out the snow blower. I hate to have to do that with the kids in the house. Un-At-tended... that is the equivalent to TROUBLE!

I am sure I will have to do it.. I *will* take photos so send to my sweetie. So he can see what he is missing here in OHIO!

Madeline-isms

Sometimes after talking to my daughter I am left scratching my head.. The things she says make me wonder what is going on in that head .. Today...for example.. she says..

"WHEW! That snow is so deep.. I was almost stuck to death...- while playing in the backyard and trying to walk through drifts.

" Mama.. when we go inside can we have some hot chocolate so I can cool off?"- there was snow.. I don't need to explain that it was NOT hot outside

THEN after brushing her teeth I had her rinse with kids ACT fluoride rinse. She informs me...

" That pink is burning me.. It is burning my eyes so bad. " so I ask her. Did you get it in your eyes?
" NO, just in my mouth.. and it is making my eyes burn SO badly"

Happy February!!! ( forget that it is already the 7th)

I am such a liar! I swore to myself I would try to post something everyday.. I obviously am not as interesting as I thought I could be...

Lets see.. What do I want to remember in 5 years....
We got a LOT of snow this weekend... Woke up Sat and there was so much snow the side door was drifted up to the door handle...
There was so much snow the front door could not open to let the poor dog out.
Michael was so excited to be able to get out and actually PLAY with his new snowblower. We called across the street and told Bob to not kill his back trying to shovel out. Michael walked out our drive. Across the road to blow out B/E. Bob filled the blow with gas and Michael headed next door and helped M finish his driveway. THEN he headed down and started in on J/M drive. He caught up with F and they figured that they took care of everyone that needed the help.

The kids are trying to figure out the mystery of the missing bird feeder. The 2liter soda bottle feeder.. The bottle is MIA... there are no footprints in the back yard... it was tied in at one point.. HMMMMMMM Swiper the fox? A crazy squirrel? You be the judge...

I was awoken this morning to defend Madeline. Ben offended her by accusing her of being "Born in the 90's"... I have no idea what I am going to do when they all hit puberty..

The Saints won the superbowl.. not that I actually watched the superbowl.. but it was background noise...

Why I Coupon...

I am really lucky to have a local grocery store that doubles coupons. Giant Eagle doubles coupons up to .99. (They also have a gas promotion where for every 50.00 you spend you get .20 off every gallon of gas. )

So I collect coupons. A LOT of coupons. Every couple weeks I get a sackful of coupons from the inlaws who gather them from friends- Grandfather in law finds it interesting that I get so excited about coupons. Here is an example of WHY I get giddy when presented with coupons.

Marcal/Small Steps is a paper product brand that is more organic b/c it is recycled and environment friendly. They also are way overpriced. IMHO! But they put out pretty good coupons. Not good enough to use regularly but I cut and save them Just.In.Case. and I waited.. patiently...

Last week the new sale ad came out and I flipped when I saw that this brand of TP/PT/Napkins was on sale 2 for $4.00. I grabbed my coupons and planned my attack. I ran out and bought everything I could. Then over the weekend I received my much coveted sack of coupons and my Sunday paper had 4 fliers in it... I set to work after dinner. MORE COUPONS!!!

When all is said and done I used coupons that were for 2.00 each item, 1.50 off each item and 1.00 each item.

On my 2 shopping trips I purchased.

6- 2 packs of paper towels
9-4packs (double roll) toilet paper
2-250ct pack of napkins.

Total cost.....$ 9.00!

That saves me a run to BJ's to stock up on my paper goods!

I have found a positive to cold weather

Kids are all at school/preschool. I come home and shower. While I let my hair partially dry I fold and put away 4 loads of laundry. Pull out the hair dryer and dry the mane.. put some simple make up on and go to grab some clothing... I grab a pair of jeans. Cannot figure out which shirt I will be most comfortable in. Which is the most flattering... long enough to cover the *bulge*.. Then it hits me.. It is FREEZING outside. Who the hell cares what shirt I am wearing? I will have my long coat on and will likely not be anywhere long enough to unbutton it anyway! SWEET!!!! I grab the first white t shirt I see and a pair of random socks b/c who will look under my pants anyway?

ready to go..

So I have come to the conclusion that as long as my face and hair are presentable and my pants are long enough... The rest is FINE! Thanks Ohio weather! You made my day!

Kicking off the new year...

The year ended with a great aunt of mine passing away. Which means the new year starts with a funeral...Mom flew in from FL for the service which worked out as Michael had decided to take the 3 kids out for Daddy/Kiddie day..

Mom and I started the day out on the most altruistic way.. We donated blood.. Okay SHE donated the blood. My blood retrieval did not go as planned. Initially I started a good strong flow then it trickled out. Three different nurses and techs checked and could not figure it out. I was set up for a double red cell donation and they could not even get a full single donation out of me. The decided that it was not going to happen and stopped it. When they were unhooking me and tearing the tubing apart they figured it out.. Blood Clots. They tech must have jarred my needle when she was trying to get it in proper position b/c it started to prematurely clot and there was a clot in the needle and a HUGE one stuck in the beginning of the tubing. I was bummed. I was donating like I do a few times a year.. but this time there was a gas card promotion and since I was doing a double donation I was due to get 2 $25.00 gas cards... In the end I got them b/c I was there to donate and it was totally out of my control. THEN b/c mom went to donate with me she got a card too.. She tossed it my way so that is $75.00 in gas cards.. AWESOME!!!!!

Then we continued on.. Took her to get her glasses adjusted, grabbed a quick lunch and off to the memorial service. After the service we ran to Chapel Hill and I managed to buy 3 pairs of jeans/pants at LB. This is amazing for me b/c I now pretty much double my pants supply.. Sad.. I know...
I attempted to buy some boots... Boots are pretty important in Ohio. My zipper busted the first real snow we had. Nice....No luck with that little task.. Thank you Payless, Famous Footwear and Target for NOT stocking a full selection of super huge footwear...

After returning home we go to listen to all the stories the kids told, how they ate at Cici's pizza, shopped at the Dollar Tree and went to the Planetarium and Discovery Museam at McKinley Monument.

The day ended with mom entertaining the kids with Perfection and Scrabble. Now as long as Maddie doesn't really have a sore ear.. ALL will stay good...

Happy New Year 2010!

I can honestly say that this was the first time since before we had kids that I managed to stay up until/past midnight( at least that did not have someone attatched to my chest.) We spent the evening hanging out with friends and watching the *ball drop*

New Years day was spent doing laundry. Lots and Lots of laundry. But all of our bedding is fresh and clean.

Dinner was chinese buffett. YUM! and my house doesn't smell like pork and sourkraut.