Splinters, Squeezers and Drama!

Yesterday I looked at Madison's foot and noticed that she had a splinter. As soon as I said the word "splinter" she started whispering to me "please don't tell Daddy!" She said this because she remembers the last 2 splinters she had and the drama involved in getting the splinters out.

Well, needless to say, Daddy heard about the splinter and told Madison to not kick him like she did last time and he would get the splinter out. After about 20 minutes of her screaming bloody murder and saying things like "you are going to hurt me with those squeezers (aka tweezers)" there were also multiple threats of "if you don't let me get this splinter out then you will have to go to the doctor to get it pulled out and the doctor will use a big needle." You should have seen her big eyes with that comment about the big needle. It was left last night with the decision that she would go to the doctor today to get the splinter out.

This morning, when she got up, she came in and immediately started saying "Daddy is going to hurt me with those squeezers!" She finally allowed her Daddy to take out the splinter with his squeezers and no trip to the doctor was necessary.

In all of this drama, I really thought that Madison was going to stop breathing permanently, pop a blood vessel in her head or actually scream her head off. But when it all came down to it, her Daddy saved the day and got the splinter out. What she doesn't know is that we have to go to the doctor anyway this week to get her check up and shots so she can start school. Oh well, you win some and loose some.

Thanks Nick for being emotionally and physically strong enough to remove the splinter.

Couponing and Debt

Ok...so some people think that I may be crazy with my new recent obsession with coupons and freebies. Yes the freebies are not that big of a deal but the coupons - HELLO - they save us so much money. SO far my big savings has been from Pampers. I sent them an email with my feedback about some of their diapers..within about a week, I had a huge suprise in the mail - FOUR $20 COUPONS FOR DIAPERS. That alone was worth $80 (in case you couldn't do the math). I also managed to score free toothpaste (I stacked 2 coupons on top of a good sale) and got some air freshner for $.49. I was pretty pumped. I think that Nick that I was pretty crazy with my obsession until he started hearing about and seeing my savings on my receipts. Hopefully I can help save my family some money so that we can help get ourselves out of debt.

If you are at all close to me and Nick, then you know about our financial situation, as I freely share about it. Why would I share that information??? Well hopefully someone will learn from my/our dumb mistakes. So far in 3.5 years we have paid off over $25K in credit card debt. YIPPEE!! We have about another year until all of our credit card debt is paid off. We could not have done this without the help of Harbor Credit Counseling. This agency, consolidated our debts into one payment and got all of our interest rates lowered so much. This agency has been amazing and our saving grace. If you want to know about the agency just ask me.

Hopefully this couponing obsession of mine will help us get out of debt quicker.

Don't let the opportunity pass you by.

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of when my Grandmother passed away. Which means that one year ago tonight, I thought about calling my Grandmother just to chat with her and I got too busy and never made the call. On July 3rd of last year, Nick and I were just sitting down to a tea party with Madison at our house and looking forward to a long weekend at home. As we sat down, before we took our first bite of food, my mom called me and told me that Grandmother had passed away during the night. I don't remember the conversation with my mom but I remember hanging up the phone and laying in the floor sobbing. I had just started realizing that I would never get to see my Papas face again and now I had to come to terms with never talking to my Grandmother again either.

Grandmother gave me lots of great memories. I remember when I was little, all the grandkids would stay at their house and all the girls would pile in grandmothers bed for the night. Papa would come around the corner saying "Fee Fi Fo Fum" and all the girls would squeal and just about crawl under Grandmother. I remember trying on Grandmothers costume jewelry, all 8 grandkids piling into Grandmother little Pinto heading to the corner store. I remember the smell of biscuits and chocolate gravy in her house when we would come to visit. I remember the fact that they always had breakfast after church on Sundays. I loved the fact that as I got older and would go out to visit, we would sit in the den and talk forever. I will always remember my Grandmother and her high heels and her poor ankles. There was nothing like seeing her roll her hips and just waiting for her ankles to collapse. I will never forget her sayings such as "well, I declare" or "I swunnee". I remember marking how tall I was by how short Grandmother was. I loved how she always kept the chocolate candy stored in the refrigerator under the vegetables (I guess she thought that we would see the veggies and decide that the veggies would taste so much better - but that never happened). I will always remember her decorating her Christmas tree with white envelopes for each person in the family (which contained money). I will never forget how she never called you the correct name on the first try, she always had to go through all the grandkids and then she would eventually get your name right.

I will always regret getting too busy on the night of July 2, 2009 to call my Grandmother. One year later I have no idea what was so important that I didn't call her to chat. I don't pass up that opportunity now. Now I talk to my mom every day and I talk to my Granny on a very regular basis. Don't let the opportunity pass to tell someone that you love, that you love them. I know that my Grandmother knows that I loved her, no doubt about that but I just wish I could have told her again.

I am in Mobile this weekend to visit with my parents and the first thing I noticed in the house was a picture of my Grandparents. I miss them so much....I just wonder when/if it will get to the point where I can look at a picture of them and not tear up.

Here are the lyrics to the song "If you only knew" by the Inspirations. It is a really good song and it makes me think of both Grandmother and Papa. Grandmother was not sick but I do think that she passed away of a broken heart - after my Papa left this earth, she was so lonely and she was ready to be with him again. My Grandmother passed away in her sleep and did not suffer and I find peace in that as well as knowing that she is in Heaven now.

Here are the lyrics:

Have you prayed for a loved one... struggling hard with pain
you asked the lord for healing.... but that healing never came
and in spite of all your efforts , the good Lord called THEM home
its hard to let go, when your trying to hold on
Now your down in the valley looking up to the sky
and your praying.... "lord you know what's best but I don't understand why"
if you could hear your loved one... speaking now to you they'd say...
you wouldn't be grieving, if you only knew.
If you only knew, I'm just going home, your prayers have been answered, my sickness is gone,
Things look much better from Heavens view, The sun always shines we're having a good time if you only knew
To be absent from the body is present with the lord, I'm in the arm of Jesus now & I'm not suffering any more,
hand in hand we'll stroll together down Heaven's avenue...We're having a big celebration if you only knew.
If you only knew... I 'm just going home Your prayers have been answered, If you only knew.

YUMMY

If you know my daughter, you know she is not shy at all. A couple of weeks ago she took off to the neighbors house to see their daughter, who is 20 years old (yes Madison is 4). Madison came back awhile later with a plate of food and said that she had been over cooking with Miss Christa. I tasted the food and it was delicious so I begged for the recipe and she willingly gave it to me.

Spinach Ravioli/Pot stickers/Won tons - I don't really know what to call it except YUMMY!

• 15 ounces ricotta cheese
• 1 cup mozzarella
• 1/2 Parmesan cheese (the recipe that she gave me did not say 1/2 of what so I just guessed and poured some in)
• 2 cups fresh spinach (finely chopped)
• 1 large egg
• salt/pepper to taste
• lemon zest to taste (I liked the kick of the the lemon so I added zest from a whole lemon.)
• 2 tbsp garlic (I used garlic powder and just sprinkled some in)
• won ton wrappers
• 1 tsp paprika (ha ha...I am just realizing that I forgot to add this in mine)

Mix all the ingredients (except the wonton wrappers). Place 1 tbsp of filling in center of the wonton. Then brush the edges with water. Fold and pinch edges. (I bought the small wrappers so instead of folding the wrapper, i just put another wrapper on top - yes you do have to use water so that they will stick together). You can boil or pan fry. (I pan fried them).

I did not make anything to go with these....as I ate about 8 of them as they were still cooking. This was my first attempt at making them. They were not the prettiest thing in the world but they were DELICIOUS. I do have some of the mix left over so I am going to try it on a tortilla in the morning and warm it up for breakfast - I hope it tastes as good tomorrow as I hope that it will.

Freebies - Coupons - Crafting

So recently I have become addicted to Frugallivingandhavingfun.com This is an awesome website and shows you how to get alot of samples for free and coupons for things you use all the time. You might wonder, what would cause the sudden interest in saving money, well that answer is simple....The lack of money. Our Air Conditioning went out at the house and yes it will cost over $2000 to replace it, yippee...so now we need to make up the money some how...so I am going to be resourceful and save us some money. You should really visit this website. I wish I had the time to dedicate to clipping coupons to the point that I can go get a full cart of groceries and only spend a few dollars. That is my dream because I could then use that money for other things such as heating and air conditioning.

Due to the lack of finances, I have also decided that I am going to be more crafty as this will help me save money. For instance, I went through Madison's huge box of crayons and pulled out all of the broken ones and I decided to use them rather than throw them away. Here is what you do to make new/fun crayons.

• get a small muffin pan and divide the crayons up into the muffin tins. You can mix the colors to make a multi colored crayon or use all similar color crayons (both are great).
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and cook the crayons for 10 minutes till they are all melted.
• Remove the muffin tin from the oven - do not stir the melted wax - and let the wax cool all the way.
• Dump the newly formed crayons out of the tins.
• Have FUN!!! (Victoria - by "Have Fun!!" I mean now you can color with these crayons.)

Madison was so excited to see her new crayons and those were crayons that she would have thrown away. (yes the cheap crayons work just as well so have fun!!) I got this idea from a magazine....What I really want to do is find some tins that have letter shapes so I can spell out Madison's name.

I will try to post some more crafty ideas later but I am working on a few projects and want to see if they work before I post them. Plus, I don't want to ruin the suprise for a lucky friend of mine who will hopefully be on the receiving in of some of my new found craftiness.

My Delights!!

In class on Sunday morning, the person was teaching about how God delights in us. He started talking about what that meant to really delight in something. He compared God's delighting in us to delighting in our children. The teacher then went through and listed alot of things that he delights in with his kids so it got me thinking about what I delight in. Here is what I can come up with:

Madison

• the way she gets so excited about picking out a present for someone
• the way that when she gets a card in the mail, she then writes on the card too
• her crinkly face in the mornings when she doesn't want to wake up
• the funny songs that she makes up
• listening to her playing when she thinks no one is listening
• when she hugs me for no reason and says "I love you, Mommy!"
• when she gets my heels out of my closet and prances around the house
• how she thinks that my slips are elegant dresses for her to wear around the house
• priceless things that she says such as while at my grandmothers funeral and she said "why is Grandmother so dressed up?" and "Do her privates go to Heaven?"
• the way she sings songs even when she doesnt' know the words
• her big blue eyes
• the many interesting dance moves that she has (ok, so she does look a bit like a stripper with her moves but she is still cute)
  

Tucker

• his swollen face first thing in the morning
• the smell when he first gets out of the bathtub
• the way he claps for himself
• when he shakes in excitement when he sees food of any kind
• the way he snuggles up in my arms so perfectly
• each and every little fat roll on his body
• watching him explore everything around the house
• the way he lights up when his sister comes in the room
• when he starts bouncing when ever he hears music
  

My wonderful husband

• that he manages the finances so I don't have to stress about it
  
• that he always pumps the gas when we stop at the gas station
• watching him play with our kiddos
• that he always says "sleep sweet" when I go to bed
• that he knows exactly how to make the kids and me laugh at any given moment
• that he always lets me have the remote if I want it
• that he lets me play the fun word games on his phone even though I know that he really wants to play them

I will stop with these delights because I list all day long in regard to all of my family. A few other things that I do delight in:

• a good hot bath
  
• a stormy day with a good movie
• a good glass of sweet iced tea
  
• my potato salad
• a homemade meal by my mom (she is the best cook ever)
• a clean kitchen
• a good haircut
• an awesome outfit that fits me just right
• making someone smile

Now the teacher of our class said if you DELIGHT in these things....just take a moment and think about how God DELIGHTS in each and everyone of his children. The teacher went on to explain that besides just delighting in us, God actively PURSUES each and every one of us. He pursues each and every one of us to be HIS son or daughter. The teacher said, if you actually go into each day approaching God as he delights in you and is pursuing you, it will make a huge difference.

(Nathan Bland was the teacher on Sunday and did an amazing job.)

On a side note - Happy Memorial Day. I hope everyone had a great day with their families and thanking God for all of the men and women who have ever put themselves in harms way to fight for our country. GOD BLESS THE USA.

Summer, Preschool, crawling and other things

Well life has been busy and that is why I have not posted in a couple of months.

I have signed Madison up for Preschool full time starting August 9th. I was very torn about this decision as I only wanted her to go part time but things did not work out we signed her up for full-time preschool. I did not like this decision but it had to be made. Fast forward one week....Madison has been getting very bored over at the babysitters house each day so I now know that I have made the right decision to sign her up for school full time. (Thanks Nick for telling me that this is what we should do.) I know that Madison is ready to start school and she will have a blast but I am not so sure that her mom is ready for her to start school. It seems like I just brought my sweet baby girl home from the hospital, but now she is 4 years old and about to start school. I am sure that I will be a basket case on that first day.

With that said, Summer break is here. Nick has one more day of work and then he will be home with the kids for the summer. I hope that he is looking forward to it. I know that even as much as Madison complains, she loves to be home with her daddy....and this year they get to add sweet Tucker to the daily mix. They will have their hands full.

Speaking of Tucker, he is now 8 1/2 months old. I really don't know how that happened. He has been crawling for the past 2 weeks now and now he is trying to pull up. He can clap his hands, say "mama" and bounce to music. I just know that i am going to turn around one day and both him and Madison are going to be grown up with families of their own. I am not ready for that and I don't want time to go by too fast. Each stage of their growth is so precious and amazing (yes it can be a pain in the neck too) and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Now to get the house clean so I can go spend some much needed time playing with the kiddos, while they still think I am fun.