Happy Birthday to Me A Day Early

Yay! Tomorrow is my birthday. I am almost 30. That scares the crap out of me :( I have already gotten some nice presents from people, the ones who didn't know not to send them to me before my birthday - lol! I'm saving the cards to open til tomorrow, though, I'm not a total birthday Grinch. Besides, I like it this way, it's like my birthday all month long! I'm so smart.....

What a Week.....

Well, I am totally slacking on my posts. In my defense, this has been an incredibly trying week. Adam left for TDY 3:30 Monday morning. The next day, Sue and I and the boys had TONS of fun swimming at her hotel and hanging out all day - I am so lucky to have such a great MIL! But she and the lady she had driven down with left Tuesday morning, and that's when the fun began.....

Tuesday I decided to go to Sam's Club and stock up on some basics so I wouldn't have to drag both kids to the store as often. Cereal, pasta, flour, diapers, yogurt, ground beef.....etc, etc. That was all fine and dandy. On the way home I remembered I had stuff to drop off at Airman's Attic, so I stopped by there also. In the parking lot, I realized that my driver's side window, which was all the way down because of the beautiful sunny weather, was now STUCK all the way down, and there was a thunderstorm on its' way! I hurried into AA and got my stuff done, came out, and it had rained, hard. So, I figured, "I'm a trooper, no big deal" and set my jacket on the seat and drove home. I left the flour in the car because I was tired and frankly, didn't want to deal with it. By now, it was almost time to pick Anthony up from school, so we went inside for a potty break and got back in the car. I tried my window again, and lo and behold, got it to work a tiny bit, then pulled it up the rest of the way, where it now stays. Picked up Anthony from school, then needed to unload the flour and get it in the house. As soon as we pulled in the driveway, the neighbor kids wanted to come over and play. I started unloading the non refrigerated stuff, and the flour was last.....as I picked it up, the bag got caught on a metal piece sticking out of the stroller, and.....yup, you guessed it, half a 25 pound bag of flour, on the garage floor and in the back of my van. Then the kids and their friends started running around in it, creating a tornado/whirlwind of flour, spreading it all over the house, the garage, and the driveway. I sent their friends home and went inside and wanted to scream.

So that was Tuesday. On to Thursday.....

The kids were stir crazy in the afternoon, so I decided to let them run around outside while I sat on the back porch and tried to read. The dog kept trying to get out, so I closed the inside door so he couldn't push the outside door open. If only I had known Ayden had been playing with the push lock on the inside door earlier........I tried to open the door a few minutes later, only to find it locked. Yup. The front door was locked with the deadbolt, because I lock it as soon as I walk inside. The door from the garage to the house was locked because I was freaked out about someone being able to go in my van and use the garage door opener, then get into the house that way. And of course, safety-conscious me had gone around to all the windows the first night Adam was gone and made sure they were locked. So we were pretty much screwed. The only good thing was that I had my cell phone in my pocket. Oh, and I should mention, there was a thunderstorm coming, we were ALL barefoot, and Anthony was in his underwear-lovely!
I called Security Forces and explained what happened. The guy was probably thinking I was a moron...he asked me if I had my car keys so I could drive to meet someone at the housing office to get a spare key. No, I said, they were locked inside with my house key. How did you lock yourself out again, he asks? So I explained to him the craftiness of my two year old....I don't think he got it. But a few minutes later, while I was sitting in the rocker in the garage balling my eyes out, and the kids were strapped in their car seats in the van because they kept running down the street and I got tired of chasing them, a VERY nice, polite housing maintenance guy pulled up and introduced himself: Hi, I'm so and so (I wasn't listening to a word he said) from housing maintenance.....YAY! He saved the day. He was so nice, and he didn't even say anything about me crying, which was a GOOD THING, because I probably would have cried harder. He just said, it's alright, it happens all the time. So it was all over.

I know there was more stuff that happened this week, but I either can't remember, or I'm purposefully blocking it all out, lol. Those are just some of the things that really stuck out. Yesterday I ended up having BOTH kids at the CDC for a few hours, luckily the 2 year old class had a spot because somebody had cancelled, and I was RIGHT on top of that one! It was a welcome break, I got some housework done, and enjoyed a quiet house for a few hours. And it ended up only costing 12 dollars for 4 hours! I think that's a pretty sweet deal. I may just start doing that once a week.....

So today I'm waiting for a call back from a wildlife guy I called last night because some of the neighbor kids found a bird that was just a little bit older than a baby that had hurt it's foot. It's still sitting in a box outside on my back porch (don't worry, it's still alive). The dog keeps trying to figure out where that scrumptious smell is coming from every time I take him outside. It looks a little bit better today, but what do I know?? I'm just really hoping this guy doesn't stick me with a thousand dollar bill or something, for this bird somebody found on the ground. I love animals as much as the next guy, don't get me wrong, but I can't afford to save every baby bird who falls out of its' nest!

Well, on to see what today brings in this adventure called MILITARY LIFE.........

Motivate Me Monday-A Little Late

Well, technically it's still Monday for me since I haven't gone to bed yet. I cannot sleep without Adam in bed! I never thought it would happen. All through the blanket and bed hogging I would think, man, if he ever goes TDY, I'm gonna LOVE having this bed to myself! But no, my brain decides to be all dumb.

So here's my list for this week:

-mop kitchen and dining room floor (it REALLY needs it, just ask Sue, lol)

-finish laundry

-go through kids clothes and give PILES AND PILES of them away (anyone need 2T clothes??? Anyone??) UPDATE: DONE!

-call Adam's new troops' wife to welcome her to the base...well, before I do that, I need to find her number....

-go to bed at a normal hour

-try not to go crazy with Adam in FL for a month

Sounds easy enough right? Heh heh heh. Heh heh.....I think I'll probably accomplish everything except the last one.

Updated Shrinky Dinks, and Other Random Stuff

Well, I actually had a request for pictures of my project! Yay! It's exciting to me that someone else (who isn't family, lol) has read my blog! Woo hoo I'm famous!!! Lol. OK. Enough of that.

So here is the keychain I made. I wish I had fancy handwriting or something, but....we all have to work with what God gave us, lol.



I couldn't find my regular hole punch, so I used a heart one. This thing is indestructible! I can't believe how thick the plastic gets when you bake it, it's awesome.

And here's the little plaque I made for the boys. I love this book, my step mom gave it to them (I think for Christmas?) and we read it all the time.

Again, fancy (or even straight, see the lines, lol) handwriting is still wishful thinking, but I love it. The funny thing is, the finished plaque is about 2 inches wide. I started with a piece of plastic that was about 6-7 inches wide-this stuff is called "shrink"y dink for a reason. I'm just amazed by cool stuff like this-we never had shrinky dinks growing up, we were too poor. Ew....I just noticed how dirty that window is.....disregard please!

I've been making the yummiest bread...now get ready, you're going to drool.....

Mmmm, I'm hungry for it just looking at it. It is the best bread, and it is SO easy. My kind of recipe! It's from this site, which I mentioned in a previous post. I love the recipes on that site, they are great. Now I just need a wheat grinder for my 500 pounds of wheat (well, not that much...but pretty close!). For the bread, I made it in this tiny pan a couple of times, then after it was scarfed down in a day or less, I started using my big bread pan. Yes, I'm going crazy with the linking, I know. But I'm too lazy to just write the whole link out, lol.

I decided last night that I want to redo the boys' room. It is really mismatched, and kind of.....I don't know....childish maybe? They're both getting older, so I think it needs to be more mature. I want to get rid of their HUGE train table, which is really just hiding a whole buch of toys under it, and get them a nice, solid wood table and 2 chairs. Now what I really want is for Adam to make it, but he's so busy I doubt it will happen. The one I came up with that I really like looks like this:

I'm hoping I can find one at the thrift store, or Airman's Attic, or even better, the side of the road (yes, I'm a garbagepicker!).

Well, I need to clean up the house a little bit, Adam's mom is coming down for the weekend, and as it is.....well, let's just say my house looks bad. We'll put it at that. No more info needed, lol.

Homemade Shrinky Dinks!

OK, prepare yourself, this is addicting. You will find yourself at every grocery store in town begging for #6 plastic containers, lol. I found this post at infarrantlycreative's blog, and just had to try it out for myself. The results are amazing! So far, I have made a keychain and a little plaque to hang in the boys' room. I would take a picture of the plaque, but that would involve going into the room of a sleeping child and taking a picture, and we all know that is NEVER EVER a good idea. I love cheap, easy crafts!

Yuck.

Waaahhh. Wah. Wah. I'm sick. I'm pathetic. I feel like a limp vegetable. Yuck. Thanks Anthony!

Sadness

Wow. I can't believe Grey's tonight. I know there may be some people who haven't watched it yet, so I won't spoil the shocker. But man.....is it depressing!

OK, well, my mind just went blank. I had all these thoughts that I wanted to write down, but now all I want to do is sleep. I'll try again tomorrow.

Worth Your While Wednesday

So I've decided to come up with these silly little names because I have nothing else to do in my life (yeah right!). But seriously, I have found that reading other people's blogs has given me lots of tips and insights, so now I have to impose mine on everyone, lol.

So today, what is worth your while, you ask? Well, here's a short list:

-Windex Vinegar Multi Surface Cleaner

-this stuff is awesome! it's great in the bathroom, you don't need a separate glass cleaner and bathroom cleaner. plus it doesn't smell like chemicals.

-Method Microfiber Glass Cloth (at Target, and I believe on clearance right now! yay!)

-again, awesome, and it works great with the above Windex for mirrors. i have never had such a streak free mirror before. and when it gets too dirty (you know, when you wipe something and it gets more dirt on it than it had before you wiped it :), all you do is throw it in with the next load of wash! how easy is that?

-a website: http://www.safelygatheredin.blogspot.com/

-this is a great resource for LDS and non-LDS alike. there are some great recipes, the author is really funny, and....just go there, OK? just cause I said so, that's right.

So, that's what's worth your while today. Go check out this stuff. It's good stuff. It's even better than the other stuff. Anyway....

Motivate Me Monday and grrrr.......

I'm so annoyed! I finally have a Target in the area, and they don't have fresh produce. I found a coupon for a dollar off a lb. of apples, and they are on sale at Target for 1$/lb. Grr. I wonder if the commissary has apples on sale....

I'm really into apples because I used the dehydrator to make apple chips this weekend. They turned out soooo yummy - just ask Ayden, he ate them all in sacrament meeting, lol. Anyway....here's my list of things to do today for Motivate Me Monday:


-figure out if Ayden is actually enrolled in Early Head Start next year

-finish the pile of laundry waiting for me

-be consistent with Ayden's time-outs (that is obviously an ongoing one!)

-potty-training (another ongoing one)


I love going through and finding everyone's blogs with cool stuff on them. I found a really great one where the girl uses her food storage to make a bunch of great sounding recipes (store what you use, use what you store). Her link is on the top right. If you can't see it, her blog is called Safely Gathered In.

Pretty Day

It is so pretty outside today! I took some bricks from the vacant house across the street and am starting to put them around our garden out front. It looks pretty good, I'm about halfway done. I also took some of those spiky plants from another vacant house and replanted them around the bottom of the little tree in our front yard. I really should take another shower because I got SO muddy and dirty, but....I don't feel like it. I'll be dirty for a day, lol. It's not that bad.

So I just read that they are opening the crown on the Statue of Liberty back up so you can go on it. That is so wierd, the other day Anthony was saying how he wanted to see the Statue of Liberty. I had no idea he even knew what it was! I thought that was really cool.

So I've got lots to update on, but only a few minutes on the computer before I have to go pick Anthony up from school, so I'll do that later today. Until then!

Motivation

Motivation....where are you?! Please help!