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Wow!!!

It is Saturday morning. I am exhausted....completely and fully. 

I was awoken by a 6 yr old at 7am who just had to tell me the Monte Carlo comes out on July 1st. What????? I am not sure I have recovered yet. 

At about 8am I was asked if they could play outside. I almost said yes because I was craving the quiet...but then I figured my neighbors would hate me. So instead I told the kids I would take them swimming at 10:30 while their daddy was playing tennis.  

It is 10:22 right now. I have absolutely no desire to put on my bathing suit. I have less of a desire to swim. But I am about to drag myself off the computer and away from my coffee to get on my suit.

Happy Saturday friends!!!

May madness

We brought the month in with a bit of madness.  Between softball games, baseball games, birthday parties, mother's day muffins and tea at the kids schools, end of the year parties, field days, family picnics and registering our little man for kindergarten I feel like I am losing my mind.  But the kids are happy so I guess that is what matters.

Tyler will graduate from preschool on Wednesday.  It is hard to believe that in August he will start kindergarten. I am still not 100% sure it is the right decision for him. I am worried that his lack of interest in school and learning is going to make for an interesting first year. I can only hope that he has a teacher with lots of patience.  I also hope she has a good sense of humor because he can come up with some doozies.

Rebecca has almost finished her first year in kindergarten.  It is amazing to me to look at all she can do.  She loves to read and says science is her favorite subject.  She clearly gets that last part from her daddy. She played softball this season.  She loved it. She wants to play again next year.  So far she isn't interested in trying any additional sports so I guess she will stick with just that.

And Jason... he will finish up his first year in preschool on Tuesday.  In July he will turn 3 years old.  That is the hardest thing for me to believe.  He is Mr. Independent and has at least 3 tantrums a day.  His screaming occurs so often I honestly don't think I hear it anymore. He thinks he is as old as his brother and tries to do everything Tyler does.


The hubby and I have been busy as well.  He put down all new floors in the first floor of our house.  It looks so good. I can't even describe how happy I am to be rid of the carpet. He also helped coach Rebecca's softball team.  She loved having her daddy as the coach. He has also been playing tennis.  As for me, I have been mostly busy trying to keep up with everyones activities. But I have managed to have lots of nice "me" time as well  as nights out with the girls.

Still working....

Here is my new project...
We are still working on it and official launch will come soon.
But I wanted my friends and family to see it first ;-)

Apples to Peaches

Spring Break...

Okay we have had a busy spring break (pics will follow another day this week).

So far, we had a baseball game and family pictures.  Sunday we celebrated Grandma Tina's birthday. We spent Monday at the park.  On Tuesday we went to Chuck E Cheese (headache check!).  Today we are hitting up I.N.K.!  I should be showering and getting ready but instead I am enjoying a slow(er) morning.

Will update more later....

Apologies

Okay so I haven't posted in a while.  Last time this occurred I promised you I was working on something big.  Same thing is true this time.  Once the consignment sale ended (and I took a week off from working), my BP and I got to work on phase 2 of the business. 

If I thought the sale was hard (which is was but only b/c it was our first one I think), this has proven to be much harder.

I spend hours upon hours working on it.  And typically it feels like I haven't gotten much accomplished.  Except we are almost done.  It is almost ready to be launched.  I can't wait, can you?

I promise to tell soon. And then I will get back to blogging, pinky swear!

Sale, Sale, Sale

So our big sale is over! It was great.  Extremely tiring, but wonderful.  I feel like I have lost about a week of my life.  It was such a blur.

Now we are all back to normal or our version of normal anyway.  The hubby and I celebrated V-day on Sunday.  We went out for breakfast and for a walk at the park sans kids.  Then we went to the bookstore to peruse and have a coffee.  It was extremely nice and relaxing. 

I woke up Monday morning to the little dude and little man being sick.  Yesterday, I took all 3 kids to the doctor.  All three kids had double ear infections and terrible colds.  The little dude also is wheezing so breathing treatments for him. Yuck! The Little Dude may get renamed the Drama King soon.  He "hurt" his foot yesterday.  He refused to walk all day and crawled everywhere. I figured he would forget but today he is only walking on the side of his foot. But at least he is walking.

This weekend is the Little Man's last indoor soccer game of the season.  And on Saturday evening he has his first baseball practice. The Angel has her first softball practice on Thursday night.  The cycle of craziness is starting all over again....

Food update

We did very well following my meal plans.  Three of the nights we didn't follow it but we didn't go out to eat either. We ended up being invited to friends homes these past two Saturdays so we ate there instead.

However the plan ended last night. I haven't had time to come up with a new one...so we are going to Burger King tonight.

A call for support

This is our friend from Ga. Please let think about ordering a wristband!

Robert the Great: 1/15: "I am a modern gal who knows how important it is to accessorize, but appreciates the importance of a good value. On..."

Grocery Shopping & Meal Planning

Okay so I am trying extremely hard to cut the grocery bill in 1/4 (at least) for 2011.  One way I read to do this (besides extreme couponing) is to try and only go to the store once a month.  As I am not one for drastic changes, we are going to try to only go once every two weeks.  In order to do this I came up with our meal schedule for the two weeks.
So here it is:
1/9  -- crock pot lasagna
1/10 -- chicken enchiladas
1/11 -- pork chop skillet (I've posted this recipe before)
1/12 -- chicken breasts with french pan sauce
1/13 -- crock pot chicken with black beans
1/14 -- leftovers
1/15 -- farfalle, peas and goat cheese
1/16 -- crock pot pork roast w/ apples, sage and rosemary
1/17 -- Date Night with hubby (kids will eat leftovers)
1/18 -- king ranch casserole
1/19 -- crock pot chicken tortilla soup
1/20 - ravioli lasagna bake
1/21 -- leftovers
1/22 -- my famous meatloaf (which is actually my friend Susan's recipe)
1/23 -- sesame chicken

So far, so good.  We have stuck with the plan but honestly we haven't left the house so we had no choice. I will keep you updated on how it goes.

Snow Days 2011

Well for once the weather forecasters got it right here in Atlanta...

They predicted snow Sunday night, followed by sleet, followed by freezing temperatures, not to be better until Saturday.

I think we ended up with close to 6" of snow. For the first time ever my kids have sledded.  Two of them even seemed to really enjoy the snow.  I got to sled once.  The hubby got to a lot more. I will admit to being jealous. 

The Little Dude, he enjoyed it as long as he didn't have to walk in it.  He seemed scared to walk.  It may be because on Day 1, he fell down a lot.  In the picture below, he is crying.  But when I held his hand, he was fine.

It is now Thursday. The kids have missed 4 days of school. Don't worry, they haven't even noticed. Although I was asked once on Wednesday when they could play with their friends.  We had a happy hour playdate with some of our neighbors. Other than that, they are completely content to have their daddy home, drink hot chocolate all day and play.

I heard on the weather channel that the only place state in the country that doesn't have snow right on the ground right now is Florida.  Even Hawaii has snow.  I am contemplating a move to Florida...

Reflections and Resolutions

Well I said I would post by goals for this year but first I need to go over 2010's resolutions. So I am going to list them out and let's see how I did.

1. Cook dinner at least 4 times per week.

2. Use the crock-pot for 1 meal per week.

3. Keep my house clean.

 4. Only volunteer for things I really want to do.

5. Stay on top of the laundry.

6. Exercise more and eat better.

7. Do not yell at my kids.

Okay, so I would say I had success with #'s 1, 2, 3, and sometimes 4.

I tried with #6 and did fairly well when I was able to get to the gym. It is definitely going back on the list.

I started off well with #7 but now I babysit anywhere from 2-6 kids somedays and really I lose my patience. Plus the Little Dudes tubes came out.  So for about half of the month, he is whining non-stop because of the fluid in his ears which is a little trying. I would say I failed at this. And it probably not going to make the list again.

I completely failed at #5.  Consistently and regularly. I am going to attempt it again, I think.

So on to 2011! Here are my resolutions!
1. Have *me* time daily.
2. Complete laundry in a timely manner. No more than a one load backup.
3. Say no more often than yes to favors/volunteer opportunities.
4. Make money for our family. 
5. Use the cash system to save money and pay off debt (car, house, etc.) I am not going all Dave Ramsey crazy but going to take steps in that direction. We already use the cash system for weekly purchases but we are amping it up big time in 2011. We have some big financial goals this year :-)
6. Coupon more.
7. Say yes more than no to the kids.
8. Have one family time activity/event/outing a month (or 12 in the year).
9. Make time to exercise(at least 3 times/week).


Okay so I think this is it for 2011! I will check in and let everyone know how it is going.

Happy New Year!

More Christmas posts are coming this weekend but I wanted to take a moment to say Happy New Year!

We spent the night at home with the Sportsmans (our 3rd year) of us all hanging out.  For the first time in the 3 years, all the kids made it until midnight. 

We enjoyed lots of appetizers, played Wii, and watched Dick Clark.

I am thinking of my posting my resolutions at some point and reflecting on last years.  Hopefully in a little while.  But first I have to put away laundry (a definite resolution failure from 2010)...