Indian day!

Today is the festival of friends and I can't wait to see my baby and his friends complete their first individual presentations! I hope it is as funny and entertaining as t-ball!!

More clothing confusion

As I stood in front of a rack of "new arrivals" at UAL which was flooded with tops bottoms and dresses I had yet another moment of confusion. I saw a very nice Ralph Lauren lace item that I picked up and held up to my chest thinking "is this a tube top?" then I lowered it to my waist and thought "no it's probably a skirt" so then I checked the tag because certainly it would tell me, right? Wrong! "M" that's all it said. Either way if I have to ask myself that it is definitely not going into the dressing room with me. So further into the store I found what I thought were linen shorts on the kids rack that would have been nice for Rylan when I saw that they were only 2.00 I checked the tag inside to verify the size and saw the word "boxers" written largely I didn't even see what size they were since I decided if I didn't know the difference between shorts and boxers we didn't need them at our house! Now that I'm sitting still in carpool line I think back to other shopping trips where I was unsure if I was holding up nightgowns or dresses... I always look around to see if anyone else notices the confusion on my face because I always figure that surely everyone else knows the difference between all of these things I've talked about. There are usually moments where I start to head toward the nearest sales associate with an item in my hand to ask "excuse me but is this a top or a bottom?" but then as soon as we make eye contact I turn my little happy butt back around and put the item away. I never want to be the girl who they laugh at for the rest of the day I know I made fun of people for asking stupid questions all the time hahaha so I just decide it doesn't matter anyway. Possibly all of my life I have had clothes issues though now that I think about it. I remember my parents would always get so irritated with me because I would pull my pants up as high as they would go causing them to be highwaters, they would try to explain to me that pants are supposed to be at your waist. I didn't care I hated for there to be fabric hanging between my legs so I wanted them pulled up where I thought they should go. I see so many pictures of myself with about 5 inches of ankle showing (I guess I was wearing capris before they were cool and that's why I feel like they fit weird, I always feel like I couldn't decide if I wanted to wear shorts or pants or it feels like they are really long shorts or really short pants either way I can't wear them now) and in most of my pictures from my child hood everything was bedazzled (I have no problems with that these days in face I pretty much want to bedazzle everything I own) and I wore what seems to be extra large t-shirts too. I'm sure my parents purchased clothes that fit me I just preferred the hiked up jeans and huge tops look I guess.....

"that" age

I realized today that I have reached "that" age where everything on the racks in retail stores just don't work for me. I often find myself shopping in the maternity section thinking how nice and flattering everything is until the pregnant woman next to me gives me dirty looks as we hold the same shirt up to our necks. How do I not notice I'm shopping in the preggo section? I have no idea but I promise it has happened far more than I'd like to admit. I usually just walk away from my buggy at that point maternity clothes in it and all.... Just walk! Then there are days like today where I'm looking in the dress racks and as I hold every other dress up to the front of me I think "surely this is not a dress look how short it is" but then I go into the thought process of well it IS in the dress section so maybe it is... EVERY OTHER DRESS folks!! Then I browse the tops only to think "how do you even wear this?" does it go alone or are you supposed to wear something under it or over it maybe then I just put it back because I really have no clue. Don't even get me started in "skinny" pants... Why do they make my feet look so huge?! Will I wear boot cut for the rest of my life?? Seems that way. I think I may just be stuck somewhere in the middle of "juniors" and "ladies" I feel like a lot of that stuff either looks too grown up for me still or too junior high and I never want to be that lady who dresses like a 16 year old even though I'm 40 bc I don't want to admit I'm not young anymore. I want to be classy yet I still want my husband to think I'm sexy (I could wear a potato sack and he would say I looked great and probably mean it too but that is besides the point) and I want to feel good when I look in the mirror but geeze I need to start a clothing line apparently....

Colon cancer is crappy

Colon cancer is "Crappy" (get it? lol) that is what I think my shirt will say when I run the 5K this year again on April 28.. Who wants in??? It's gonna be fun!!

Becoming a Native American

This week at school Rylan will have a "Petit Monde~Festival of Friends". Each student will represent a different country and culture. Rylan decided that he wanted to be a Native American. I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and got leather strips, feathers, and a bag of scrap leather. It was only $3.00(30% off of that) for a huge bag of leather strips which made more sense than buying individual pieces for a dollar per two. Once I got home I was so glad that I did because

Capri sun

Now Walmart has a "great value" Capri sun. Rylan hasn't tested them yet so I don't know if they will stand up next to the "real" thing or not but they are under 2.00 which is a great price.

Kimcake

Kimcake is what we have named the newest favorite around our house. Our friends are also big fans of this desert. It has been the first plate that is cleaned out regardless what is made... It is so simple yet seems so fancy. It consists of homemade whipped cream (I never knew how easy it was to make by the way) and nabisco chocolate wafers. Rhetts stepmom Kim introduced me to this amazing desert and I was hooked (much like the blueberry clafutti) I defiantly say try this one I will be making it a double for Easter! You should be able to find the wafers at "fresh market" that is our "whole foods" for our area... I haven't seen them at our regular grocery stores. You use 2 cups whipping cream (the liquid not the premade stuff) and a little sugar (I use around 2 tablespoons it's not in the recipe but per Kims say-so I add it) and a bit of vanilla extract I think it called for a teaspoon. Then you use a mixer until it has the correct thickness (which is when it can hold a peak) then you put a tablespoon of the whipped cream between each cookie making two rows until all of the cookies are gone and cover it with the remaining whipped cream. The cookies are very dry and brittle but when combined with the whipped cream it becomes the amazing cake texture that is to die for. Trust me when I say you won't be sorry (I AM a closet fat kid!!!) your kids and husband/wife or friends will be glad you tried it :)

Birfday

With the anniversary of the day of my birth just around the corner I am already receiving emails and cards in the mail for freebies! Love it!! My favorite all time restaurant the melting pot sent me a certificate for a box of chocolate covered strawberries...uh yes please!!! Anyway it should be a good few weeks to come (even though my roomies have traveled back to Kansas) May should be equally as amazing as it is our one year anniversary!

Cookies

At this very moment I am hungry for something sweet and I wondered if peanut butter cookies are the equivalent of carrot cake... you know diet sweets.... I will let you know...... hehehe

So much to do so little time

I am so happy to announce that my old roomies are here staying with me! We have been to the Audubon zoo and spent all day walking around (they had a special event actually for earth day or something like that) there were bands and all kinds of fun goodies for the kiddos. They built home depot kids clinic toys and loved that and learned all about taking care of our planet while having fun. I got to act like a 16 year old again too since I had my friends here to laugh with me about things that are crazy at the zoo (they say spring is mating season...the birds and the bees if you know what I mean) so there was more than enough to laugh about! They brought their 8 kids and 3 went to see their dad in Florida for the week so we picked up a cousin and a friend with her two kids to make up the difference :)

learning to cook a brisket

I've never cooked a brisket I don't think. I got one on sale (of course) at Winn Dixie a while back and stuck it in the freezer and defrosted it yesterday so I am going to attempt to cook it tonight. It came preseasoned so that part is already done for me yay! I read online that I should cook it slow so I have my oven set at 350 and I have a roasting pan ready with an onion that I will cut into big chunks with some celery too for the bottom to make a sauce and give flavor. The brisket weighs about 2 pounds so I think I will set a timer for 30 minutes and then check it and put in back in for longer if I need to. I also read that I should put some liquid at the bottom such as wine or beef stock so I am going to mix up some beef stock from the dried stock stuff (I don't know if there is an actual name for the dehydrated stuff other than stock lol) for the bottom of the pan. It doesn't say if you are supposed to cover it or not so I am going to go with my instincts and cover it....

Not red cabbage....

OK so I don't know why I looked up red cabbage recipes and even posted that recipe and cooked it lol It was AMAZING by the way but I used purple cabbage NOT red I guess I don't know my colors lol and when I cooked it to make it soft it made blue water (I read that happens because of the alkaline in the water we drink...I think that is what it said lol) and turned the leaves blue but I read online that the red and purple cabbage are very much alike and also that you can add an acidic like lemon juice it will change it back purple I don't know if that is true or not because the fact that it was blue did not bother me I thought it was more fun that way actually. I wish I would have taken a pic of it when Rhett took it out of the oven for me because it is not very often that the first thing he says is "It looks pretty" and he was so right it looked a lot like the pic in the recipe page I would say exactly but the pic they had showed blood red cabbage and ours was a lovely purple blue... I'll try to take a pic tomorrow when I am eating left overs I did get a pic of the first rib that came out of the crock pot because we laughed before we could taste it since I could hardly get it onto the plate since it was falling off of the bone and away from the fork it was sooo tender! I said I'm sure these will be terrible because it is never good when meat is this tender Rhett maybe you shouldn't taste it for me (I always ask him to be my tester in case it is poisoned or just tastes terrible if he falls to the ground I will know not to try it) and I said I should just eat it instead lol.

rib rub

I am actually going to make the cabbage rolls for lunch today and for dinner I just put some ribs in the crock pot. I have gotten great reviews from the men in my life from this recipe for a rib rub. In the past I have cooked them slowly in the oven wrapped in aluminum foil but today I am trying the slow cooker I hope it works the same. I will cook it slow for around 6-8 hours with only the rib rub then for another 30 minutes to an hour I will cook them slowly with a homemade BBQ sauce on them I will post that recipe too. I got that one from on of my favorite recipe sites, I love it so much because you can change the serving amount and it will calculate the recipe for you so you don't have to figure out what half of the recipe is if you only need that much.

Dry rib rub recipe it calls for sage but I don't keep that in stock around here so I never use it

BBQ sauce I cut this recipe in half (16 servings) because I only need around 2 cups that is enough to have for my ribs and a little left over for Rhett to use for his dipping enjoyment.

Red cabbage

My dad gave me a head of red cabbage fresh from his garden so today I am going to try cabbage rolls made with red cabbage.... Here is a recipe I found that looks amazing. I'll try to remember to let you know how it tastes :) The recipe calls for ground beef but I am using a breakfast sausage that is maple pork sausage (it was amazing in the green cabbage rolls I made a few months back)

Red cabbage rolls

What not to do

Last week I purchased some silk shirts for the spring/summer. They are beautiful bright flowy fabric that are not only comfortable but give me the appearance of being dressed and put together. What more could you want right? So this morning with my new haircut fixed and makeup done I went to the ironing board and plugged in the iron and turned it on. I immediately started ironing since I was in a bitmof a hurry to get out of the house on time. I gave the iron a few minutes to heat up and when the wrinkles were not coming out I turned the temp up thinking that would speed up the process. Have you ever looked in a mirror when you put cotton candy on your tongue to see what happens? Well for those of you who have not, let me tell you, it seems to just melt and disappear. Today I found out that silk does the exact same thing when ironed at temperatures that are too high. I set the iron down on the shirt and it was like the fabric just disappeared.... I sucked all of the air that I could into my lungs to keep from swearing. Rhett rushed around the corner and said "baby are you ok? There is no air left in the house because you just sucked it all up, what's the matter?" I just stood there standing over the shirt with the iron in the air, I told him what happened... I could not believe I had just done that! This was a brand new shirt that has never been worn yet. The only half way good thing is that the holes are not that big since I caught my mistake so quickly and they are on the back of the shirt. I could possibly still wear this with a jacket in the winter since it would kill me to just throw it in the trash. I hung it back up and Rhett laughed at me and I then moved on to the second shirt making sure the iron was turned down low enough! I basically threw 20.00 down the drain with that move (thankfully I shop smart so it was not 50.00 like the original price tag said)....... So if you have a silk shirt I suggest making sure your iron is on low or use a dry cleaner......

Nearly 200.00 later

I am so upset today, I had an appointment to have my hair cut and colored. I got there early for my 11:15 appointment so I could look through books and choose all the right things to show. I want this look long in the front and short in the back only I want the back to look like this not like that. I want the color to be blonde like this not like bleach blonde not brown chunky and not grey looking just natural pretty blonde. We talked about it all and we brought the books to the station. They first take me back for a "treatment" to prime my hair and rinse some of the red out but it is not a stripper I was told. Ok. Then they cut some hair off as they didn't want to waste product since they knew how short I was going and they wanted to get the product in all the right important places so they don't have to put it in unnecessary places. Fine. Then they blow dry my hair, I told her before hand that it was curly and I'm not sure why no one believes me when I tell them things (it is kind of like when I go to the dentist and talk about using the strongest numbing meds because my body metabolizes them so quickly they have to use the special one well it is like I'm making it up bc they never use it until I'm crying bc I can feel everything they say you are so small we didn't think you needed it) she says while drying it as if she was surprised wow! You DO have curly hair (yeah remember we just went over that about 4 seconds ago where were you?) so they then have to flat iron my hair to apply the color evenly. They have to go to the back 4.... Count them 4! Times to mix more color.... Haven't you done this before?

Tball

Last night was the first night of T-ball for Rylan. It was so cute!! The tiny 4 year olds all running around being more interested in the grass and what the other kids were doing rather than the sport lol.

Its been a while

I feel like I have been away from my blog even on my phone because the weather has been so amazing we have been outside for as long as the sun has been out for the last 3-4 days! Yard work, car washing, and today I just ran the roads then went to the park for about two hours after school! I will elaborate later tonight on my "steals" from Michaels today!! I actually walked out of there with stuff for free! I was freaking out lol!! I can't wait to dish about it :)

End of the year party

I'm already thinking about the class end of the year party and rylans 5th birthday. I am going with a bee theme for end of the year since his class is the busy bee class. I have little mask glow stick things as party favors for his class and all of the paper products we will need so now I'm just looking for a game and a craft. For the birthday party I'm mostly gathering ideas for now. I also am putting together a gender reveal party that I'm pretty excited about! That is a lot of ideas right now too until I find out how many people will attend. I have most of the paper products though and ideas are ready to go just have to finish up and I'm looking for the perfect invited for that.

Gas?!?!

So I heard on the news this morning that gas will be going up again next week, there was a price increase this week and there will be another next week, if I were you I'd go fill up before it goes up again. Don't forget to buy your Winn Dixie shell gift card because I got .25 off a gallon today from using mine.

I win!!

I guess I entered a contest at some point for winded electronic wipes??? I won lol I don't remember that at all so it must have been a while ago, from right at home. I love free stuff in my mail box!

Great start

This morning we got off to an amazing start! Woke up a little later than usual since I got everything I needed prepared last night before bed. Took Rylan for breakfast at mcDonalds (thank you Lauren for the breakfast coupons!) we had buy one get one free pancakes and sausage. At drop off Rylan was the first kid in his class there so he was thrilled to be able to show me the new centers that have been set up in his class for march. They change every thing out each month to correspond with holidays or special activities. They are finishing up a unit on transportation so they have a giant Tupperware tub of blue water with boats in it (like bathtub toys) and he loves that!! Lots of new transportation puzzles and there is also an Australia center with maps, animals and a few other hands on things. Last continent was Asia and they had a kimono (I don't know how to spell it but one of those robe things that ladies wear) and chop sticks and animals and a map. They also have a dramatic play center that has been a post office for the last month. I love his class probably bc I'm mostly a five year old but I love that he can choose what he wants to do and that none of it is just colors or play dough, each one teaches a different skill or lesson and it changes all the time to keep them interested!