Updates...

Wow!  Has it really been almost three months since I've posted?!  I guess life got in the way like it always does!  Since I've last posted....

• I graduated and recieved my certificate in phlebotomy (blood drawing) -yay me!
• LKS graduated from her program and recieved her degree - yay LKS!
•  We've had 4 visits from family
• My house got really messy (okay, it's always been messy, lol)



Lots more has happened, but I can't think of it all right now.  The kids and I just returned from a LONG, fun, LONG, exciting, did I mention LONG, weekend in Pennsylvania at Blue Knob State Park on Monday.  Me and my kids; Leah, Gene and Sarah; Matthew, Taya, and their kids; Dad and Kay; Gramma Baldwin; and Mom and Tim all went camping together.  Yup, two sets of divorced and remarried parents who hadn't seen eachother in oh.....eight years or so, and my Dad and Kay, and Gramma, had NEVER met Tim.  Considering that fact (yikes!), it was a really fun time and I'm so glad we went.  The kids all got a chance to hang out together, and mommy had a chance to relax and not worry about both boys 24-7.  Yes, there were many awkward moments, but isn't life all about those awkward moments? 

No??  Oh. 

Oh, well....lol!

So now that I have mountains and MOUNTAINS (there literally is a mountain of clothes right now in my laundry room!) of laundry to do, what did I decide to do instead?  fart around on the computer, yeah!  That's a good idea.  Maybe not.  I hear the laundry calling my name.  I think it's actually starting to creep out of the laundry room, slowly so I won't notice of course, and wind itself around my legs.  Ok, laundry, OK!  I'm COMING!  Sheesh, that laundry is impatient.  Alright, blogging can wait, back to real life. 

No fun.  But here's some fun pictures!  And oh yeah, I turned 29 again-hah!

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.

Thinking

It seems like I'm always thinking. Thinking about my marriage, thinking about family, thinking about the kids, thinking about sewing, thinking about what to do next in the house, thinking about college. I like to think, because it expands my mind. But I also realize, I need to do more "doing". It's one thing to have a great idea. It's another thing to use it. So that's my goal for the month of April - to not just think about things, but to do them as well.

I finally got something I've wanted for a while now:



Oh, yeah, I got me a sweeper! Adam likes to pick on me because I act like it's some new invention, and last night he said, "Wow! You discovered what they invented in 1973!", or something like that. But I'm still excited. I remember when I used to be in the nursery at church they would have one, and everyone would fight over getting to clean up after snack. But I bought this one because:

1) It has no motor, no battery, it's all hand powered, so it saves electricity

2) It's so much easier to do a quick clean up and not having to drag out the vacuum.

Laugh if you must, but when the power is out, don't come crying to me asking to use my sweeper when your floors are covered with hair and dust....although I guess that's what brooms are for, lol.
Wow, the boys decided they want to take a cold bath. That could be interesting. On the other hand, maybe that will make them want to snuggle up in their beds and get all warm and take a NIIIICE, LOOOONG nap.....ha! I can't even write that with a straight face, lol.
I made the most heavenliest (if that wasn't a word before, it is after these) cinnamon rolls yesterday. Seriously, these things were sooo yummy. If they weren't all gone, I'd have a nice yummy photo for you, but alas....lol!

Worm Juice

What a day. So far, I have managed to:
1) fend off a psycho squirrel that kept climbing up the window screen and trying to eat/terrify the cat and dog
2) clean up the psycho squirrel's poop that he left for me (isn't he nice??)
3) lock myself, and Ayden, out of the house while cleaning up the poop from the aforementioned squirrel
4) successfully break into my house
and 5) play with worms...for a VERY long time.
Why play with worms you ask? That's a great question! Didn't you know I have boys?! I wish I knew the real answer....but it was actually pretty fun. I was picking up some of the kids' toys outside, and under one of those big bouncy jumping balls I found a whole family of worms, 4 of them. So Ayden and I decided to sit there and watch them. I remember playing with worms when I was little (by the way - it was WAAAy funner back then!), and thought Ayden would like it too. First we picked them up, then we rolled them around. I got some "worm juice" on my hand, so I told Ayden we had to go wash our hands. Then he said, "No mom, I like worm juice! I'm going to drink worm juice lot of lot of times!" (Which in Ayden language means he's going to drink lots of worm juice.)
Another accomplishment this week....cinnamon raisin bagels!

Yummy yummy. They look kind of funky, but they are very good. I got the recipe from Allrecipes. It uses a bread machine, which makes the dough much easier, but I'm sure you could do it if you didn't have a bread machine.
And, my new obsession:

These things are *HEAVENLY*. I went to this big discount store called Ollie's last week, and Ayden and I were browsing around, and we stumbled upon the treat aisle (and by stumbled I mean made a beeline for, lol) and found all these treats, repackaged by a company called "Angel Treats". These were one of them. They also had Hershey's Kisses, Skittles, and every other kind of candy you could imagine. The great thing was, the bag was probably 3 or 4 pounds, and it was only $1.99! What I'd like to know is why I have never seen these Hershey's sticks in a store, because I would have started inhaling them MUCH sooner! Oh, well.

"Suck my hair!"

Yes, that's what my silly 3 year old asks me to do every time I use the hose on the vacuum. He is so funny.
Today was pretty productive, I got both kids shot records and 181 forms to get them registered at the CDC on base. I have to take B there for A's preschool Easter egg hunt. Then I stopped by the housing office to ask about when we'd be moving. The first girl I talked to said April. I was like, "WHAT??!!" So then she's like, "Um, hold on, let me talk to my supervisor." So I talked to that lady who REALLY knows what's going on, and she said sometime between June and August. Which isn't bad. There's a ribbon cutting ceremony/open house for the new housing in Thrower Park on Thursday. I'm excited! I can't wait to walk through and see what they actually look like!
So after housing, I went to Wal-Mart and bought our "essentials" for the next 2 weeks. Yup, pretty boring, except for the fact that while we were IN the store, B had 3 tantrums. Yup, 3. It would have been more, I'm sure, but I grabbed some baby goldfish off the shelf and let him start eating them. I'm sorry, but I've got to get stuff done, and that's pretty much impossible when you have a 21 month old screaming at the TOP of his lungs. His tantrums have been driving me crazy lately! He's very emotional, especially when it comes to Thomas the Train, of all things! If A takes one of his trains, watch out! That's what the first tantrum was about, I wouldn't let him get a Thomas book. Then it just kind of spiraled downward from there.
Well, I hear one of the kids waking up, and I need to get dinner in the oven before hubby gets home. This is my last night of being on vacation (although it's unlike any vacation I've taken before!), so I guess I should enjoy it....now let's see if hubby will give the kids a bath tonight...

Eggs, eggs, where are the eggs????

We went to the easter egg hunt at the marina playground on base this morning. We went last year, and there were hardly any kids there. This year, yeah.....there were a lot more. The kids had fun, though. J was there with C and S. A and S kept walking around holding hands, it was so cute! Here are some pics...







I was surprised, A caught on really quick to the fact that he was supposed to pick up the egg and put it in the basket. I shouldn't be though, he is so smart, and he's got a great brother to teach him.





So today I'm going to try and work on the dining room. I can't believe I'm doing this...but....here's a before pic.....yikes (hanging head in shame).




In my defense, it has only looked this bad for about a week. I decided to finally try and consolidate my sewing stuff into the cabinet Bobbie gave me, then I got sick and stopped. So, by the end of this weekend, my goal is to finish it up. It's going to take a lot of work, but it has to be done before we move anyway. Speaking of moving, there was an article in the Keesler News about the new housing. The first people get to move in in 5 days on March 20th. I'm so frickin jealous. I can't WAIT to move. They are so nice....
Anyway, hubby is bugging me about getting on the computer, he wants to go play WOW. Wow, what a dork, lol :) I like that. And I need a nap. Badly. I'm still feeling kinda gross and stuffy, but I think the worst part of being sick is over. I also need to call my sister and discuss some ideas for this summer......

Ahh, child labor....

Isn't it great???? It was so nice out today, the kids were outside for a long time before lunch. And yes, B is still wearing his pjs - so sue me! Check out my latest side of the road find - someone had it out by the road in the housing area next to ours.











Just call me Ms. Garbagepicker...actually, technically, I made hubby go and get it because it was too heavy, so he's the garbagepicker this time! The kids love it though. And there's really nothing wrong with it! It has a couple cracks by the turret, but other than that...perfectly fine! Crazy people.

So I still feel like crud today. But I actually feel a little bit more human than yesterday. Yesterday I thought I must have been dying. I haven't felt that crappy in years! I think being outside with the kids, as opposed to lying on the couch with my head glued to the pillow, helped a lot.

I was looking at another girl's blog who also lives down here, and is also a military wife, and also lives in base housing (I think, from her pictures), and she had an idea that I liked - a house makeover, or something along those lines. She had mentioned that her house needed a makeover because it was so dirty. Yeah. Can't imagine that feeling....lol. So I decided to use her idea, and it kind of works. I took before and after pics, and it made me clean faster to get to the after ones! I think I may use this on the whole house....starting with...the bathrooms...dunh dunh dunh.....

Here's the before pic...or not!

Well, darnit, it's not working for some reason. So, I'll have to leave you in suspense of seeing my dirty bathroom until next time.

uuuugh....

blech. That's how I feel. I am so sick. I think I have the flu. Waaahhhh...that took too much energy. What a wuss I am! At least the kids are sick, too. A's been out of preschool since yesterday. He would have been out anyway today, his teacher said there was a really bad gas smell there this morning.
Here's A:


Here's B:


They're cute when they're sick. Unlike their mother, lol. For your viewing pleasure, I will NOT be including a picture of me today. Count your blessings.

Surprisingly enough, my Etsy site has had a lot of business lately. Purty cool. I have a lot of fun doing the crayon rolls, they are my best seller. I may have another order coming in from a lady who ordered one this weekend. We'll see!

Work is going really good. My job is easy, and I like making $8 an hour for doing cake work. I make more, doing less work, than I did at Cortland Wal-Mart in the cash office. That was 5 years ago, though.

LOL! A is going around taking pictures, and he said, "Mom, look at this red thing I took a picture of!" It was his finger on the lens. Funny funny. Funny kids. I need to shower. Or do something human. Brush my teeth maybe....put my contacts in....eat food.....something. I just want to curl up in bed and sleep for hours and hours and hours. Sigh.......well, I guess i should make the kids something to eat.
Here's to the flu :(