Traveling and the belly

Ugh. the only thing I hate about traveling (besides the actual driving) is the changing of eating habits. At home we don't eat all natural, 100% healthy, but we also don't eat junk. Traveling while trying to spend as little money as possible always means eating fast food. UGH. that does a number on your belly! And it's definitely NOT how to reduce stomach fat.

When we got to Beth's she eats very healthy, in fact my husband didn't eat much while we were there because the food was just too good. he he. Now we're at his friend's house and it's a mix of eating out and eating home cooked meals. All this changing up is really messing with my stomach though. I loved all the fruit and healthy food at Beth's house, my body is craving fresh fruit!!

Maybe we should just drive the 7.5 hours back to her house to get a plum. Sounds good to me. Don't think my kids would go for it though.

Diners and motorcycles

Last night we got into town around 7 and hadn't eaten supper yet. We were starving so we stopped by Eugene's friend's house and we all went to the local diner. It's a place that Eugene used to eat a lot growing up, so it's a requirement that we eat there every time we visit the area. The old town diners always have the best food.

Last night we decided to save some gas and take their van and motorcycle. I got to ride home on the bike, it was a little chilly but oh so nice. I can't wait until Eugene gets his bike and we can ride together. I'm not sure what i like better, riding a motorcycle or atv riding though. with motorcycles you have to stay on roads and have to balance better. atvs you can drive through puddles and over mountains. :)

Tomorrow morning we leave for camping, I can't wait to see all my family and just hang out at the campground!

Old Friends

We're having a good time on our vacation, we spend almost 3 days with my bestest best friend, and then drove from Indiana to the western side of PA to visit with Eugene's best friend. We got here last night and hung out, and then today we drove around and went to visit his old neighbors. I love visiting them because we don't let them know we're coming we just drive up ring the doorbell and hang out.

Today it was just the perfect weather out we just sat on the porch. It was about 83 degrees but there was a wonderful breeze that just kept things cool. The girls played in the soft grass in their front yard and we just sat and chatted. I hope it's that nice while we're camping!

homeschooling

So all the homeschooling mom's out there, what's your recommendation for Math curriculum? I am teaching my niece, we just finished 4th grade and have been doing saxon math, she's had a hard time grasping some of the concepts and I'd love peoples input on different options out there. I know I'm not worrying about sat prep yet, but I'd still like her to understand 5th grade math. So what do you recommend? and while I'm asking for input, what about science too?

YAY for friends!!

Yup, I just spent the past few days with my bestest best friend ever. We've had fun. Our children have blended so nicely and it's kinda fun to have 5 kids ages 1-5 in the house. I'm just glad they're not all mine, I think I'd go crazy if there weren't two mommies here.

We've gone to parks, a zoo, ran through a fountain, had some coffee, eaten lots of hummus, splashed in a pool and talked a lot. It's been good times. All the laughing has to be the best fat burning supplement available. I DO NOT want to leave tomorrow, there will probably be lots of tears and whining, not only by Lexi but me too. :)

But I do have a fun weekend ahead of camping with my family, so the vacation is not ending yet.

Friday- Finally!

Every since we made the decision to go visit my friend on Sunday this week slowed way down. But today is Friday and it has the potential to be a very good day. The girls came home this morning after staying at their aunts house for the night. Then She took one of the kids I watch with her, leaving me with 3 (of course the one she took is the 10 year old who causes no problems at all).

Either way it's Friday and we're going to be going on vacation in just 2 days. I have nothing packed yet, but that's ok. Someone needs to invent some sort of scanning software that will scan your list and house and just pack for you. I think that would be a good invention and I bet lots of people would buy it. :)

Thankful

I must say I'm very thankful for my husband's cousin right now. He's helped us out a lot with car stuff this week. First he changed the spark plugs and wires (something my husband was supposed to do about 5 months ago...) We've had the stuff sitting here waiting for him to do it and yet he never did. His cousin comes along and changes them in like 20 minutes.

The other HUGE thing he did was change the seat belt on our car. Well, just the part you click the belt into. I'm SO THANKFUL. I was sick of riding in the middle of the front seat of the Taurus. In case you were wondering, even though there's a seat belt there, it's not meant for a person to ride in.... That probably would have taken my husband a few hours to figure out and he got it done in about 20 minutes. That will make our trip up to Indiana a whole lot more comfortable for me! Kinda like going from a pair of dollar store shoes to a pair of Cole Haan shoes. Yah, the middle seat is that bad.

So Thanks Cousin, you rock.

It's been a long day

Seriously. I woke up thinking it was Friday. That never goes well when it's not actually Friday unless of course it's Saturday, but Today was in fact Thursday. Then every hour that went by today took about 3 hours to go by.

We spent 3 hours outside in the morning (really only 1), then the babies napped for 4 hours (ok only 2) Then we played outside for another 4 hours (yes I mean 1.5) you get the picture. It was one of those days where I wondered if there was some wireless security systems watching me and rewinding everything.

Luckily the kids were all really good until about 3 or 4 when the two littlest ones got tired and started getting whiny. It was just a long day.

Then it picked up because My husband's sister just happened to stop by tonight and decided to take the girls for the night! WOA! yah I have no kids right now and I'm sitting here blogging. I'm awesome.

It's getting real

Today I had my first Ob appointment, although I'm only 9 weeks a long and we didn't get to hear the heart beat and they didn't do an ultra sound for some reason the pregnancy started to feel real today.

I started dreaming about the newborn phase, the nursing, the snuggles, cute little baby clothes (which will hopefully be in blue this time...) I just can't wait to see the cute little baby, the little toes and fingers, the soft skin and cute little nose. I can just see all those features on little photo cards announcing the arrival of our newest addition. Too bad we never actually get around to mailing those cards out that my husband designs. :)

I do have an ultra sound scheduled for two weeks from yesterday, it would be sooner but since I'm going to be gone all next week the earliest I could get in is the first. I can't wait to see the baby, and just know that everything is alright. It will certainly give me a lot more peace.

Watch out Indiana here we come!

I couldn't be more excited right now. My little idea to go visit my best friend is ACTUALLY going to happen! Yup, Sunday morning we are getting in the car and driving to Central Indiana! I hope my friend has homeowners insurance or renters insurance or whatever cuz between her family and my family there will be 9 of us in her house. :) YAY

I've been told she has lots of stuff planned for us to do like going to parks and a zoo, and lots and lots of walks. :) I'm hoping that since she homeschools her daughter who is a year older than Lexi that Lexi will get to sit in on school and kinda get the feel for what's supposed to happen. Then maybe Lexi will accept that mommy is the teacher and she needs to listen. If not I'll ship her off to Beth to teach next year. :)

Anyway, I'm excited!!

Feeling the pressure

Well, another month has gone by and my husband still can't find a job. He's been working on trying to start a business. He's a draftsman by trade but has amazing talent with graphic design. He's picking up on all the code and details needed and has made several websites, custom myspace pages and logos and headers for people. Problem is as of right now it's not enough to support us. He's also a web dealer for Eagle carports, so if you're looking for a carport, barn, storage building or horse barn let us know. :)

I'm getting pretty frustrated with the lack of job, he stays busy either working on things or learning things but I'd still feel a lot more comfortable if he had a steady job. I guess God is still teaching me to trust Him!

could it be?!

I'm very excited tonight. There is a chance I could get to see my best friend in a few weeks. We are going camping over memorial day weekend with some of my family at a state park below Harrisburg PA. That's really far from central Indiana where she lives, BUT you see my husband was offered a free testosterone booster (aka motorcycle) if he goes to Western PA and picks it up.

So today I was thinking we could leave a week early, drive from here to central IN, visit for a few days, then drive to Western PA, pick up the bike and spend the night with his friend, then drive to the campground. To me it's a win win situation. See, she's my best friend and yet we haven't seen each other in 4 years. Yah. sad I know, she's never met either of my girls and I've only met one of her 3 kids!

So I say we do it. There's only one kinda major thing we have to work out. That is how to get the motorcycle which isn't running from PA to here. We only have a Ford Taurus with no hitch, so renting a trailer isn't an option. Maybe we can throw it on the roof? I really hope something works out because I want to see her!!

30 minute muffins take 3 hours

At least this morning they did.

See, this morning I was digging through the house looking for something good for breakfast when I discovered I had 2 bags of frozen overripe bananas in the freezer. (When a banana gets too brown to eat I just put it in a ziplock in the freezer, and I add to the bag until it's full) I decided Banana muffins would make a great breakfast and got started making them.

I quickly realized I didn't have baking soda, but since my niece and nephew were already here I had to wait for my husband to get done showering before I could send him to the store for some. So the muffins waited on the counter half mixed up for an hour. Of course he came to the rescue and I was able to finish making the muffins.

I had already preheated the oven, so I put them in the muffin tin and stuck them in the oven. I set the timer for 20 minutes and walked away to take care of some other house hold stuff. When the timer went off I checked them and they were no where near ready, so I set the timer for 5 more minutes and walked away. Timer went off, checked, still no where near done. 5 more minutes. 5 more minutes. FINALLY after they had been in the oven for about 40 minutes I realized I never turned the temperature of the oven up to 375. It was on 200. That was when I remembered starting to set the temperature and hearing massive amounts of screaming coming out of the toy room so I stopped what I was doing and ran to see what happened. Apparently I never remembered to set the temperature. Whoops.

So my muffins took an hour to cook, and they didn't rise up very well, but they taste good enough that I had 4. (Now you understand why I haven't made banana bread or muffins in about 5 months....) Time to start looking for some fat burners. Or I could just blame it on the pregnancy and forget about it until the baby is born...

"MOMMMAAA"

I want to start this post by saying I love being a mom, even on the whiny days and the days where I barely ever get to sit down.

However, this week I've wished I could change my name and produce infomercials on the best shampoo for thinning hair or something. My oldest has spent 90% of her day saying "momma...." followed by some silly thought or command. I'm honestly sick of hearing my name! especially since it's normally in a whiny voice because she wants to complain about something or beg for something.

I'm sure I'm not the only mom who thinks this from time to time, right?

Yard Sale!

Saturday we're having a yard sale. Technically a 5 family yard sale. I can't WAIT to get this junk out of my house, and hopefully we'll sell enough to be able to buy a new seat belt for the passengers seat in our car, I'm getting tired of riding in the middle seat.

Yard sales are a bit of work, but they're always worth it to me, I love getting rid of unwanted toys, clothes we no longer wear/fit in, and random stuff that's sitting around our house like old speaker boxes and cardboard displays. If this baby is a boy and I actually new already i would have a whole bunch more stuff to sell, for now I'll keep holding on to all those baby girl clothes and blankets though. oh well!

Houses

A few of my friends are either house hunting or have just bought new houses and it always makes me think about how nice it would be to own a house. It's not enough that it makes me want to make unwise financial decisions and do whatever I can to get some high interest APR with no money down just to own a house, but it is enough that I start thinking about what I'd like in our own home.

We have the normal list about how many bedrooms, a garage, big kitchen etc. and of course land! I think the most exciting thing about owning a house would be changing things, painting, new carpet, new Quoizel lighting oh and being able to plant a garden and flowers!

This year we have a family garden at my SIL's house, I hope it produces a lot of crops, there's nothing better than fresh veggies! I look forward to walking out to the garden and pulling beans off the stalks. Fresh produce. even better than local farmer market produce. (because I don't have to pay for it!)

Whenever I start thinking about owning a house I start listing off the nice things about renting, like when something breaks you don't have to pay to fix it. Or if you get sick of living in one place you can just move, no selling, re buying, loan applying etc. So for now, I'm happy in my rental house. Probably happier than I've been in any rental we've lived in!

Motorcycle

I forgot to mention in the last post something going on with my husband, Something he's pretty excited about. One of his good friends is giving him his old motorcycle. We just have to get it down here from PA and fix something small on it. Looks like it's time to get some wholesale term life insurance. I'm just kidding, I think he'll do fine. But if anyone is driving from PA down here and has room for a motorcycle, let us know! :)

Something totally random, Caylee is doing bridges in the middle of the floor right now. Are 20 months old supposed to be able to do those unassisted without ever seeing anyone do one?

Teething and other craziness

Caylee has gone completely crazy. She spent several days, almost a week, just whining. It wasn't until she started to calm down that I realized two of her canine teeth had come in. Whoops, bad mom for overlooking that one! I should of known with her lack of eating. Now she is talking up a storm, she doesn't really stop, new words come out of her almost daily and she's putting words together too.

She has a fascination with horses or "neigh neighs" as she calls them. She loves the show Mr. Ed and tonight she was watching horse races. She climbs on everything, plays with everything, gets into everything and puts almost everything in her mouth (except the food that we want her to try, she's a pretty picky eater). All in all, she's really been making life interesting and more fun.

Lexi has become pretty independent and LOVES playing on the computer. We have my old computer hooked up in the toy room where she would spend all day on PBSkids.org if we let her. She's been spending a lot of time talking about her birthday party. She wants a "dance party with cookies, cake, ice cream and video games." her words. Should be an interesting party.

We've been starting to take family walks and I think next time we might take a walk around a little fishing pond. It seems to be an exciting thing around here to go fish at these ponds, They're stocked full of fish and have fish feeders and fountains and the whole works. I think it's one of those places you pay to fish, or pay for the fish you catch or something, nothing I'm really interested in, but other people are obviously!

Anyway, that's the current crazy news for our house!

Whole Foods

I took my first trip to a Whole Foods store, I liked Trader Joe's better. It seemed less crowded, there was a little less variety at Trader Joe's, but the prices were better. We got some yummy grass fed, antibiotic free beef and I can't wait to taste it! I also found a few different types of aluminum free deodorant. I need too look them all up and see what is the best one, it's something I've been thinking about switching to for awhile I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll probably come across some hydroxycut information while looking for healthy deodorant stuff, seems weight loss pills are advertised everywhere.

I was kinda disappointed that we drove the hour down to the store and really the only thing there that I couldn't get in a regular store up here was the good meat. We're going to be researching and asking around up here for some local farmers who sell meat and some good milk too. Surely there's someone around who has grass fed cows and free range chickens right?