Leap day!!

That means frog cupcakes!! I hope I find a cute easy way to make faces on them before this afternoon :)

New diy decor

So I decided I liked my valentine wreath and I wanted to make something for St.patricks day too. I found this ball for 7.99 and I used a 40% off coupon so I got it for around 5.00 and the ribbon I paid .99 for since it was regularly 1.99 50% off. I used hot glue to glue the ribbon to itself since it was only glittery on one side and then I just tied it up. I think it's just enough to say I am celebrating without going overboard lol. The ribbon is also not permanent to the ball so I can change it if I want. New outdoor accessory for around 6.00. Total time to make this = under 10 minutes. Total effort= none :)

More ideas for traps

So here are the drawings I found in the book to get my trap ideas from. I thought I would share since Rylan has asked me to read him the book every night since we got it and Charles' mom keeps texting about how much she loves it :) in case you dont have cans you can use boxes and other crafty stuff! Good luck :)

Big Daddy

Last night Rylan had his first sleep over friend. His BFF came over for a play date and at about 4 or 5 they came into the kitchen and were both saying "can we please have a sleepover?" and Charles was saying "Please call my mom and ask!!" So I text Rhett and asked if he was cool with it. Before he could respond the other mom called to check on them. I told her what was going on and she was a little surprised because he hasn't ever spent the night out at any ones house except his grandparents. I told her I didn't think they would make it all night anyway, I figured as soon as it was dark outside he would be ready for me to call her. I told him he would have to stay over without his blanket and sleep buddy etc. and he was cool with it. She said she was cool with it as long as we were. Rhett was cool with it (after he voiced his concerns of

Traps are ready

Well after they colored pics and each asked me to draw rainbows and leprechauns on their paper and I glued them together with the hot glue gun and made ladders using straws and chop sticks I have successfully completed two traps lol. The kids are sooo excited

Cute idea

Can you put a quarter in there and tell rylan that when you catch one they have to pay a quarter to escape? That way he's not sad when there's not leprechaun!

That is the message that my friend corny sent me. I just told the boys that I just found that out. At this very moment they are trying to figure out how to make a trap that the leprechaun just can't escape from. One with a metal lid one says and the other one says YEAH!!

The mom of the other kid asked me if we do food color in the toilet? I said what?! She said yeah bc leprechauns pee green didn't you know? Lol!!! So green milk and toilet water is what will happen at our house :)

Blueberry clafouti

My stepmother in law made this once for fourth of July and since then I can honestly say it's my favorite desert...it ranks in my books under diet food right next to carrot cake... The veggies and fruit cancel out all the rest.

Serves 8-10
2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries (1 pint)
3 drops almond extract
1 c flour
1 c sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 c milk
1 stick butter
Vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 350

Sprinkle almond extract over berries and set aside

Sift dry ingredients into 2 1/2 quart souffle dish that you would like to bake the clafouti in. Add milk and mix well. Pour melted butter over the dough (I spoon in on with a ladle so it goes on to nicely) place blueberries on top. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until dough rises through the berries and the top is brown. Serve warm with ice cream!

You will not regret this desert :)
Thank you Kim for sharing this with me :)

Leprechaun

Order forms were sent home from school for parents who would like to order books. I decided on a few holiday books. The new favorite here is called The night before St. Patricks day. I didn't go all fancy and use quotation marks because I'm not sure if that is the exact name, it could be Twas the night before St. Patricks day. I don't know for sure. Anyway in the story the two kids build traps to catch a leprechaun and talk about how you find out where he keeps all the gold. I don't want to ruin the story for those of you who might want to get the book.... So I collected some essential leprechaun catching items that you will see in the pic. Tomorrow Rylan has a friend coming over for the day (he doesn't know that yet) so we will make two of everything. We will bait the little guy with pennies and shiny items... Stay tuned to find out how they look and if we catch any.....

Dinner tonight=win!!

So tonight I made the spinach and ricotta cheese filled pasta shells. It was amazing! I doubled the recipe because you can't really buy the ingredients in portions that this calls for. I also didn't see on the recipe where it said how much was a serving I just found a link to another blog that took all of the work out of it for me though... She already typed it up! Her blog says that 4 is a serving and the magazine says a serving is around 400+ calories so I'm pretty sure I had two servings tonight lol!!! It was amazing! By the way let me add to this story that I went to the grocery store today and paid for yet got home without ricotta cheese so I had to run out in the middle of cooking to buy more....ugh but that's alright I made the best of it I picked up a half of a gallon of ice cream while I was out ;) all of those calories I was saving by eating a recipe out of the fitness magazine.... Anyway here is the link and for those of you who are like me and don't know chorizo (sp?) is sausage... I looked near the cheese for a good 5-10 minutes (all I knew was that I needed 4 oz of it and it needed to be crumbled.... Sounds like meat to me... Right? WRONG! Thank goodness for google and iPhones)

http://getfitwithnikki.com/2012/02/19/spinach-and-ricotta-stuffed-shells/

This weeks menu

Inside my fitness magazine (free subscription of course) there were some recipes I decided I would try. We are going to have spinach and ricotta stuffed shells tonight. We will also have smoky black bean soup with sausage (it calls for chicken sausage but we are gonna try it with deer sausage) and penne with shrimp and feta (this one calls for olives but I don't like olives so maybe I'll separate it after it's done so Rhett can try it with the olives) I also have some cheater seasoning packs for honey mustard baked chicken and I'll likely make chicken burgers too since we discovered we love them. Wish me luck and I'll keep you up dated

Bridesmaids

Just finished a second movie on our list. Bridesmaids... So funny! Last night was contagion another good one. I am into end of the world movies sometimes lol now all week I'll think before I touch everything lol. We don't usually stay up late enough to watch movies together that are for grown ups because by the time we put Rylan to bed we are usually less than an hour behind him. It has been fun for sure. Earlier today I started to write about all the fun we have been having the last week and why I haven't written in a while but I really needed to make a grocery list... Plus where did all my energy go today I slept for an hour on the couch while I was snuggling with Rylan and he was watching toons..... I even put on the cartoons I like so I would stay awake and I think i lasted a whole ten minutes. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get some stuff done outside the house. After my little nap today I forced myself to get up and get the house clean so at least that is done. I wanted to be outside but I didn't ever seem to make it. I can't wait for summer to come or more like spring I should say bc once summer gets here I'll whine about how it's too hot... Anyway until tomorrow.... I hope I dream about my silly friends who I thought as i watched bridesmaids :)

Ellen

So I'm wondering if Tony can get me tickets to the show bc I think Ellen is ignoring me

Rain rain stay around :)

So tonight Rhett took Rylan and I out to eat a little seafood which was amazing btw (Rhett screwed up and ordered a burger at Dons :( he said it was bad, I think that is like ordering a taco at chick fil a you just dont do that) anyway on the way home I asked Rhett if he would take in my purse and I would take in Rylan, I said that with a grin. I took off Rylans shoes and socks and Rhett asked in whisper mode if I was about to play in the rain- well yeah! We both giggled because we knew Rylan was going to be excited. Well Rhett smiled and I giggled I'm not sure that grown men giggle. So when we got home I scooped up Rylan and we started to walk toward the house and he was laughing saying how his hair was going to get wet. He didn't really realize I had turned around and walked back out into the driveway and was just standing there. After we laughed about how crazy it was I put him down and asked if he was interested in jumping in a mud puddle I spotted. You already know he was! He jumped, ran through it, and we danced together in it as I taught him how to do "a little jig" as I called it but really it was more like we were just kicking water at each other from a very close distance. Rhett this whole time was standing safely near the house watching and smiling. His back is still not ready for mud puddle fun (tonight I told him he broke his back from stepping on so many cracks and Rylan immediately stepped on one then grabbed his back and said "awwwwww" as if he broke his then laughed lol) Just before we went inside he said "what if I just fall down in here" I threw my hands on my knees and started laughing before it happened because I thought it would have already happened by now so he said I'm just gonna do it watch me. There he went face first into the cold sandy muddy rain water!! Then he stood up and I asked about his backside so back in he went! It was great after he sat in the water he got up and stood for a sec and the cold got to him lol so we went in. All he could say was "man we are just so crazy mom, we are the kids and dad is the dad tonight right mom...." he said "I just can not believe we were playing in the rain and mud, but you will wash our clothes right mom?" lol that is all exactly right bud!!! When Rylan was an infant I could not wait for this age to come now that it is here I hope it lasts a long time! First times are the best (but this summer when we get our first warm rain I think it will be even better!)

Chuck E. Cheese

Last night to show Rylan how much I love him I took him to his most favorite place, Chuck E. Cheese! Rhett had school after work so he would not be home until much later in the evening so I figured why not. It is so expensive to go there. I'm sure we could have done it for cheaper but.... To eat a personal peperoni pizza and a salad bar with a bottle of water and child's drink was over 20.00.... I guess I am just in my best bird noise.....cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep. I had a coupon for 150 tokens for 25.00, we could have gotten less but I wanted to go all out for this special occasion lol. I was thinking really that we would only use maybe half of the tokens and take the rest home for our next visit. That place is like a casino, there are no windows (well they have some in the front but I don't count those) and no clocks anywhere, my phone was dead and I forgot my watch so I had no idea how long we were in there. I really am a little kid inside I wanted to play every two player game in there so I had an excuse to play all of the kids games, not that I really feel like I need one I mean before Rylan, Rhett and I had a date there because I was talking trash about how I could beat him at ski ball. Long story short, we spent all of the tokens and Rylan got a .50 slinky lol. I did convince him to save his biggest amount of tickets (400) for our next visit so he can cash in on something really big and cool. As we were leaving I was thinking that since each item has a "ticket price" and basically each ticket is worth a penny, so if he wanted something that is 1000 tickets we could basically just buy it for 10.00 so I was telling myself we could have gotten the token deal that was 15.00 for like 85 tokens played with those then I could have purchased an item that was 1000 tickets lol. It really is just fun to play with him though. I like to go and feel like the time doesn't matter and we can do whatever he wants to do, play whatever games he wants to play and be kids together.

Car problems.....agian

So I've been pretty busy in the last few days with Rylans' class party and all that fun stuff. Yesterday I went to the auto place that is by my house since the check engine light came on about a week ago. The guy plugged in the machine and he told me that the code said "cooling issue" so I explained to him that only a few weeks ago we found a line that was disconnected and so we hooked it back up. I wanted to know if he would look under the hood and just tell me if it looked right. We opened the hood and we found something that was waaaay not supposed to be there.... A rats nest.... with babies in it!!!! (They were dead of course from the heat of my car) I wanted to cry and throw up all at the same time and I was certainly screaming in my head. The guy had a stick he was poking the nest with so that he could knock it out of my car and I made him stop for a second because I told him that if a momma rat comes out of there and is pissed off I was going to lose my mind!!! I told him he might see a crazy person if a rat jumped out at us. Anyway there was no momma rat and that was not the first time that I have been told that there are nests in there. The last time I had problems the guy at the Volkswagen dealership told me that something had made a home in there. I got rat poison yesterday and will be putting it out today! I also decided to change my parking spot for a while....... UGH this car hates me and I hate it too, it probably sent out an invitation to those rats........

Lunch

I was just so excited to have a friend call me who I haven't seen in a while. She was in Covington and wanted to have lunch. I love those kind of dates. Remember to call friends and family when you are near them :) It was nice to catch up but I feel like we could've talked for another day or two lol.

Chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels

Today I am making chocolate covered pretzels and strawberries for the moms and kids and teachers who attend the valentines party at school tomorrow! The strawberries are around 2.00 a pint I got two. I decided to get the sticks bc I have cute long bags that came from the dollar tree that will be perfect for them. First you have to wash and dry the strawberries very well. I split mine up into two groups bc I am making some with reg. Chocolate and some with white (since that is what I like) you pour the little chips into a bowl and melt them it only takes about 1.5 minutes then get to dipping! I lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper so when they cool they will come off easily. I hope they are delicious!!!

Valentine wreath

I don't think I posted this last week but I sure meant to... I saw a wreath on pintrest that I liked so I went to hobby lobby and got the stuff to make it. The wreath was 4.99 and I used a coupon for 40% off and the heart was under a dollar. I have a hot glue gun already but if you dont you can buy them for around 7.00 (without a coupon) at hobby lobby.

I'm a slacker

So for the last 3 days I've had amazing ideas (thx pintrest) for my 14 days of valentines.... I decided to keep the idea from the site I saw but make mine a little different, tomorrow I hope to catch up (I owe 4 bc I've only done 6 lol) I'll let you in on them in the morning I hope :) goodnight

Mardi Gras!

We just left an old folks home with Rylans' school. The kids all dressed up and they had wagons with beads and music and cute stuff to give out to the old people... it was pretty cute! They ended the "parade" with king cake :)

Pillow talk

So each night Rylan asks me to rub his back. I used to scratch or rub it each night after story and prayer time but now he wants to lay in bed and talk and giggle more than get his back rubbed until he goes to sleep. Either way I am good with it hehehe :) we giggle about whatever is happening in that moment, sounds we hear or sometimes we make up crazy stories and laugh about how silly they are, sometimes we giggle about what we want each other to dream about. Tonight we giggled for a while about the whipped cream we put on our strawberries (we have shared a pint of strawberries every night for at least a week now) then I decided I would try some of my late night silly questions on him that I usually save for Rhett. Rhett now just thinks I'm crazy lol he used to think they were funny and cute now they are weird lol..... Anyway I have found someone who likes them... Rylan!!!! So the first question was, if you could be any animal what would you be? Without a pause or even a second to think about it (as if he has been waiting forever for me to ask this exact question) he said, I would be a cheetah-lion (he said it like it was all one word, like there is such an animal) I said oh ok then he only a breath later changed his mind, he said no I want to be an alligator-snapping-turtle with spikes on my back. Then we talked about what his body would look like, big alligator head and body but with a hard turtle shell with spikes of course. Then he wanted to know what I would be, I already knew I want to be a Jesus lizard I told him (I don't know what they are really called but the ones that walk on the water really fast) I tried to explain it to him but I bet he thought I was making it up like his cheetah-lion. Then I said but I would have pink skin and he said oh yeah mine would be purple. Then I said well if you could have any job in the world what would you be? He said he would be a bat hunter!!! Lol OH REALLY NOW?! I imagined him in one of those safari hats and outfits being all sneaky outside of a cave in his little 4 year old body holding a bat slaying device of some sorts. Next Rylan said "what kind of job would you have in the world mom" I said oh well I guess I want to take care of baby animals... He started giggling uncontrollably and I didn't know why but I was laughing too then he said "you are gonna be a babysitter mom" lol!!! I said yeah I guess I want to do that I told him how I want to give bottles to baby monkeys and cute stuff like that and he said "yeah and you are gonna change poop diapers too!!" lol we were both laughing so loud but I said yeah I guess that is part of it. I think he can smell the 5 year old inside of me ;) I'll go to bed a little happier inside tonight. I love being a mom.

Day 6

I love you to pieces!!

YMCA Update

I spoke with the lady at the YMCA near me and in fact they do not offer free membership to active duty however they do offer free membership for 6 months for families who have a loved one deployed. She said they will offer 10% off to active duty members however. So contact your local YMCA to find out what you need to do if you want to join.

Day 5

I love you a "latte". I found this vday card with coffee on it so I thought it was pretty perfect ;) I forgot to post it yesterday

Valentines day party

I used a cute paper from hobby lobby with little hearts on it and got pink gum and tied it to the paper over the date, time and location of the class party. Total cost was around 9.00 for the invites. I used the play on words idea from the website I posted about the 14 days of valentines ideas.

Great gift

One of my favorite wedding gifts that we received was a matted and framed wine inspired ABC picture name thing. My friends and one time room mates Shelly and JJ had it made for us. I have a friend who lives in New Orleans and loves everything to do with it. Every time she has visited our home she comments on how she likes our picture. I looked online to order a New Orleans inspired picture and the cost was anywhere from 140-300+ and that was just not in my just because gift budget. However 25-50 was, I went to Micheal's and found the frame with the right amount of slots for their last name. I waited until it was on sale and bought it. Then every trip I made to New Orleans I made a point to look around me for things that looked like the letters in their name. The "o" is a water meter that we passed when the said couple and my

husband and I were all in New Orleans taking a day to ride the streetcars. The "s" is from the blue letter tiles that are famous because they have been there for so long and most are originals. One day she and I were out shopping and we passed seventh street and so when she wasn't looking I grabbed a few pics and ran to catch up with her. The "n" is from inside Jackson Barracks (which is where they got married and where they live) when we visited them at Christmas I took 5-6 pics on the way out so I would have some options when I got home. I got a few from the Internet too since it would have taken me a hundred years to get them all lol. Anyway I printed them all in black and white at Wal-Mart for 3.00. Great gift and I can't wait to give it to them on Sunday :)

Day 4

Give me a "shot"

I found this two pack of hand gun Nerf guns at Wal-Mart for around 5.00.

Day 3

A little birdie told me you were looking for a Valentine.... How about you "chews" me. The site I got the ideas from suggested gum but I decided beef jerky would work better at our house. If you want to do the same (14 days of valentines) check out the post that says if you are married to me stop here.

Food on the table

A few days ago or more I mentioned a website dedicated to helping you plan dinner based on what is on sale at the store you shop at. I am not sure I love the site at all. It is free to sign up, the only store available in my area was Albertsons and I don't shop there (mainly because the one closest to me smells weird and it seems old and dirty) The other thing I don't like about it is that I couldn't figure out how to "plan" more than 3 meals for one week and we usually make at least 5 meals a week, the other two days will either be left over nights or what I like to call cheater or easy nights and that is when it is too late to start cooking something or I am just plain being lazy and so we have something like pizza from the freezer. I also usually try to shop for two weeks worth of meals at a time so I didn't like that I had to save and go back to do an additional meal planning week. OK I just visited the site again and now I see why I could only plan 3 meals at a time, that is the free plan the other plan offers up to 7 but that one is not free...... take a look and make a decision for yourself...

For dinner tonight new recipe

Basic meat lasagna I got this recipe from Food on the Table. I hope I didn't screw it up I'll tell you what I did wrong lol, First I didn't have the right size pan, it called for 9x13 and I'm pretty sure mine was a 11x15 I'm not exactly sure though all I know is it called for only 3 noodles across and I used 4-5 each layer. Also it said to mix the shredded cheese together in one bowl and the ricotta cheese and a few other ingredients in a separate bowl.... yeah I read way too fast and put it all in one bowl lol. I am pretty sure they should have made those two instructions two different numbers on there instead of all in one (not that I can promise I would have followed correctly the other way) I promise I follow directions well in all other situations except cooking. I really do like cooking too (most of the time) maybe I should cook with wine more often (I mean in a glass) Anyway it looks amazing and smells even better. I am on my last 10 minutes of cook time so wish me luck and I will try to remember to tell you how it tastes I'm sure I will be ready to pass out though so we will see.

Please do it...

You have heard me talk about my friend Corny. Well today she posted one of our wedding pics to a site for a chance to win toothpaste I think and a chance at a valentines get away! Please go vote! For those of you who don't know Rhett he laughed so hard about this later because he was worried I was going to freak out because the photographer said ok lets have all of the bridesmaids kiss the groom... The look on his face was an actual reaction

YMCA

Why didn't anyone tell me!!!!!???????!!!!!! I heard from a friend that the YMCA offers T-ball to kids Rylans age (4 and up) at a great price and the kids love it so I called today to ask about it. I got the prices and fees from the lady and then I said, "while I have you on the phone can I ask what your membership costs are?" She told me it was 70 something dollars a month. I said o.k. great and do you offer any type of military discount (because a lot of places do that) and she said well actually for active duty (which Rhett is) the membership is FREE and most of the activities your child wants to participate in are also FREE!!!!! SAY WHAT!!! She put me through to someone who was out of the office but I left a message so she can call me back and tell me what I need to bring in to do this! Where is the person with all the info here geeze I could have been a member over a year ago when I was shopping around for a gym and finding that the ones around here with child care were around 200.00 a month (that was the military discount for just myself and Rylan...) anyway I will let you know what I find out about this I am pretty excited though. Here is something I found online that I think will be able to help you find a participating YMCA.

Day two

A dozen love fortunes.... I am so "fortune"ate to be loved by you.

If you are married to me stop here....

So this morning on Facebook my friend Patrice posted the cutest thing. The first of 14 valentines for her hunny. I knew right away I had to steal it. It was pop rocks with a note that said "you rock my world" I immediately went to the store in search of pop rocks! Got home and it was a success! I couldn't wait to see what the next days surprise was. Thankfully at lunch today she emailed me the link to the blog where she found all of the ideas!! I want to share so you can be a little more awesome at your house too (like we need to be more awesome....I know, it's hard being so amazing) I was thrilled to read that there is a day of fortunes bc last year at the end of valentines day I bought a box of blank make your own fortunes at hallmark for about a dollar(I had no idea what I would ever do with them but they were so cute I couldn't pass it up.

Go here and like her blog
I'll try to post pics tomorrow

Good luck! Go be awesome :) I gave Rylan the extra pop rocks today he was thrilled!! I think I am going to try and get Rhett a card to go with his treat each day (at dollar tree they sell 2/1.00) and they don't have to be "valentines" cards to be honest some of my favorite cards are the ones that I scratch out happy birthday and write ---fill in the blank here-----

A little thought my favorite card I possibly ever got though was from my friend Corny, on mothers day one year she got me a card in Spanish and wrote this whole thing about being a good mom and said well this card says happy mothers day I think but I don't know bc I don't speak Spanish but we live in Houston Texas and that's how we roll now.... I laughed so hard I almost peed! I still have that card maybe I'll pull it out. Did you ever hear about these two old guys who one sent the other one a goofy card one year for his birthday and the next year the other guy sent it back. That became a tradition between the two guys for nearly 50-60 years if I'm not mistaken, when one of the guys died his wife found the card and sent it to the friend. Isn't that cool?!?! Maybe I'll send corny that card back bc for all she knows it could say I miss you............. Food for thought

Correction

It was a Christmas card that the two men exchanged..... For those of you who are so confused, read the post just before this one.

Christmas Card story

That is the article. Happy reading