Sleep Sweet Boy...

Ahhh, sleep. I haven't gotten enough sleep lately. This little man doesn't sleep much either. Every now and then he will completely pass out in the car. It is so sweet.

 

I love to watch him sleep. 

Biggest Loser Update...

Hi, gang! I'm trucking along slowly but surely. I'll weigh in again this Wednesday. I'm also going to post my new favorite recipe for dinner. Yum!

Here lately I have been eating spinach salads for lunch. One day I will add mushrooms and carrots and the next strawberries. I also add a few pieces of turkey. Soooo good.

What are your favorite low calorie, healthy lunches?

Sitting Ball...

I am completely void of all creativity these days. Look at sweet Ella and pretend that I blogged something inspirational. Maybe I will get a post or two finished soon...


 

 

Rocket Good...

Nothing says Home Sweet Home quite like a rocket.

 

That was lame. I admit it. It still seems odd to me that of all places for the government to stick rockets Alabama was chosen. At this rest area, there is a rocket...and some cows in the field next to it...and it's only a skip, hop, and a jump from a trailer park....one of these things is not like the others. :) 

Take a Dip...Take a Bow...

People, we did it!! It's Friday and the work week is over for most of you! I will be slugging my way through some tax returns this weekend, but it won't consume the whole weekend. :) I'm determined to have some fun! In another couple of months we'll be able to take a dip....

 

...not yet though! Our local weatherman claims we might have some snow flurries this evening. I doubt it though.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Outtakes and Take Out...

Ella and I had fun coming up with what picture she wanted to use on her valentines this year. She selected the picture that I used on the actual card. I liked some of the ones that she didn't. Here are some of the outtakes....


She only makes this heart with her hands 50 times a day. No joke. It's so sweet though. 

All about the heart.

She also likes to do fish face. That's what we call it at our house. Fish face.

 

I'm also hoping for some take out soon. I'm sort of tired of cooking. Ha!

Happy Valentine's Day!...

Happy hearts and hugs! I hope you all enjoy your day of love! We (J and I) don't actually celebrate V-Day, but our children love to give and receive valentines. This year I decided to do something a bit different. I took pictures of the littles and printed cards instead of buying cards. Hadley seems to be too mature for valentines. :)





Layton taped gum to the back of each of his cards. Get it? Chews you? I thought it was cute. 

Ella taped suckers to the back of her cards. Sucker. Hahahahah. The codependents are so punny this year.

 

 I hope their friends at school like suckers and gum!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Meals at my House...

Hello! I weighed in today and am holding steady where I was the week before. That's better than gaining! Ha!

 I wanted to discuss meal planning. I plan our dinners a week at a time. I put the menu at the bottom of each day in my calendar. After I figure out what I'm going to prepare each week, I make a grocery list. On the nights when I make something that Layton cannot eat, I make a separate dinner for him. He loves cheeseburgers (just the meat and cheese, no bread), so I keep patties in the freezer for him. I'll throw one or two on the George Foreman grill while I'm making the main dish for the rest of us. Planning for him is easier than you would think. Every couple of weeks, I'll buy a pound or two of beef; pat out the patties; put each one in a quart size freezer bag; and Ta-Da! Dinner for the little man.



I'm a little anal about my grocery list. I map it out by section. Meats, Dairy, Frozen, Fresh Veggies and Fruit, etc. It makes it easier for me as I walk through the store each week. I can mark off the items I need as I place them in the buggy. 

 

I would really like to expand my meal planning to cover two or three weeks at a time, but I am reluctant because I like to use lots of fresh ingredients. I've been tooling around with the Once a Month Mom website.  I would love to give it a try. Does anyone use it? Does anyone plan their meals a month at a time? I'm looking for feedback and helpful suggestions. But seriously. I don't know if I have the ability to take care of a month at a time. Thoughts?

Sticky Fun...

Check out Layton's ipod. He has a case for it, but he loves to take the case off when he's playing with it on his bed or the sofa. Look at all the sticky, little boy finger prints. I promise; he washes his hands. He's a boy though and gets dirty and sticky as fast as I can get him clean.

Ewwwwww.

In These Hands...

I am putty. 

I'm a Bad Girl...

Yo, friends! I failed to weigh in. I will do my weigh in on Wednesday this week. I have been doing better about my food choices. Actually, I think I will do an entire post Wednesday regarding meal planning, and how I manage it for my family. I'm sort of obsessive about the way I grocery shop, but I figure putting it out there will keep me motivated. :)

The Sun...at Last...

I love beautiful days. I love the sunshine and slightly warmer temperatures. 

When it is just warm enough to play outside and take a rest in the grass...

When there are smiles a plenty...

These are the days that I love.

These are the kinds of days that fuel my soul.

Branding?...Mine is Crazy...

Last week a few of my twitter friends had a conversation about branding. That's not something I think much about. I'm not creative or artsy, so I am lacking a brand. Do I even need a brand? Does this little ole blog need a branding campaign? Probably not. If I were to attempt a brand for my blog....



-Do you ever have one of those days when anyone who gets near you is in danger of being decapitated by your sarcasm? Yeah, I'm on the verge of committing a felony.

-How much is too much to write about another person? See, there is this one person that I have been dying to blog about for a long time. Like, years. I wouldn't use his name, but I would lay down the basic details of the story. Dude is the creepiest of the creeps. He seems very normal though. You would never guess that he is not right in the head. I didn't know it either...until the ill-fated day when he said the creepiest of creepy things to me, and I made the connection that dude might try to enjoy my liver with a nice chianti and some fava beans. So what I'm asking is...how much is too much to say?

-I convinced Layton to get a hair cut. This is how he felt about it. I think he looks better now that the fro is sort of under control. We saw my friend John while we were at the salon. He was getting a haircut as well and had the pleasure of being seated across from Layton. John no longer wonders why I seem frazzled all the time. Just so you know...I pulled out my phone, pointed that sucker at Layton, and asked him to give me a "good smiley face." This. This is what I got instead.

-Hadley got highlights. I am going to try and get some decent pictures of how it turned out tomorrow. She looks fabulous!

-Earlier this week I had either a stomach virus or some seriously bad food. It was the most unpleasant Wednesday I have had in ages. No, it was awful. It was bad enough that I had to wake up J and ask him to take the kids to school. It was bad enough that I had to ask him to leave work early to pick the codependents up from school. Even when I had a kidney stone, I drove the kids to and from school, so it had to be awful if I asked J to take over for me. BUT.... My coworkers are not buying it; that is what happens when you joke about being a functional alcoholic. The people you work with start to believe that you actually drink as much as you joke about drinking. Then again, these people have met my children, so they probably assume that I have to drink just to make it through the day. See the picture above for further clarification.



...It's sort of obvious that my brand is Crazy. One of you should come up with a clever way to brand that for me.

A Star...

 

This little lady is my star.

ipod...schmypod...

Layton spends a lot of time playing games on his ipod. He emails me every day and adores a good snap chat. :)

 

It makes rides in the car easier. Between the ipod and his adorable singing, he never asks, "Are we there yet?"

Used...at Last...

Ella finally got the chance to use her rubber boots for something other than stomping around the house. Her classic reaction...



She was thrilled to be walking in the creek just like her daddy does. She walked for as long as her tiny legs would carry her.

The view from the bank was almost more than my heart could stand. She was so happy and kept smiling at me and yelling, "Look, Mommy!"

 

Something as simple as a pair of rubber boots gave her hours of fun and the biggest smile.

That's a Wrap...

These young ladies did a great job this year as the dance twirl team. The performances are over now. This is their last group photo. :)

 

Some of them are trying out for high school majorette next year. Hadley doesn't seem too interested in that right now. She said she wants to take a year off from extracurricular activities. We shall see....I have a feeling she'll find something she really wants to do because one of her friends is involved. Keep sparking!

As Seen on TV...

As seen in the backseat of the Jeep from time to time....



Ella insisted on having a pair of rubber boots to wear at the farm. J has a pair and walks through the creek in his. A certain little woman who thinks she is in charge of the world had to have a pair of her own. Ella loves shoes; I have no clue where she gets this passion. Bwhahahaha. She was so eager to wear her boots that she has taken them everywhere we went since the boots arrived in a lovely box from Amazon. It cracks me up that she fell asleep holding her purple, rubber boots.

Radio 2.0...

***This was originally published last month, but I just had to revisit it...you don't even want to know what has happened since...

Radio Popped It...

While cruising around town in the Volv-Ro, I normally have some type of music playing. The codependents like the hot station. You know, the one that plays the top 40 hits. During the last few months, I have realized that allowing WZYP and KISS FM to play in my car is not a wise parenting move; however, it has already been established that I am not the most responsible parent on the block. In fact I am a most pitiful excuse for a parent. I try very hard, but this whole nurturing thing just doesn't come naturally to me.

Side Bar: Hadley had to write about her role model for school. She told me she didn't have one. I implied that I could be her role model. She promptly told me that I am not role model material. Yep, my own child realizes that at any moment DHR is going to come in and scoop all the codependents up for a more suitable and responsible home.

So the radio plays. I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the songs until I notice one of my offspring rocking out to a particular song. In the last year the following conversations/events have been precipitated by a radio song...

-Payphone - Thank you, Maroon 5. We went on a whole payphone expedition in an effort to find one because my children didn't know what a payphone happened to be. This one is kind of my own fault though. I didn't have to take the payphone hunt all over North Alabama. I could have given this one up or shown them a picture on the Internet. Instead, I launched an all out fatwa to find a working payphone.


-Too many boys. - Taylor Swift. Sweetheart, let's talk. Ella tried to convince me that Ellie Goulding was the artist behind one of your songs because she didn't want to admit you had been dumped. Again. Her reasoning? She is convinced that every song you sing is about a different boy that broke up with you. To quote Ella, "Too many boyfriends." That's right. My nine year old thinks you're a floozy based entirely off the number of songs you have played on the radio.


-Menage a trois - Thank you, Katy Perry. There was a most uncomfortable moment in our local Burger King when Layton began singing about last Friday night. In my usual state of dishevelment, I hadn't even noticed that three-ways were mentioned in your hit song. Thank you so very much for that Kodak moment at the BK.


-What's sex? - Did you know there is a song called Birthday Sex? Well, there is, and I kind of fell apart when Ella asked, "What's birthday sex?" Layton followed it up with, "You know, it's sex on your birthday." The obvious next question was, "What's sex?" Meanwhile, Hadley is sitting shot gun laughing out loud while squealing, "I haven't told them a thing." Don't forget, she was corrupted by middle school. Thank you, radio stations of the world. My children were further corrupted by an innocent drive home. I successfully avoided that question with the littles. Distract and Redirect. Works every time.


-Let' get the hell out of here. - Thank you again, Katy Perry. Ella may or may not have yelled, "Let's get the hell out of here" after hearing Waking up in Vegas. I ran like hell because I was afraid someone in an authoritative position might over hear my child's somewhat colorful quote. We had a talk about how little girls shouldn't talk that way, but that Mommy can blog that way. Ha!


-You're not sexy. - Thank you, LMFAO. Your songs are delightful. They are less delightful when a seven year old boy starts to dance in the grocery store while singing I'm Sexy and I Know It. Need I
say more?

-Jack Daniels v. Scope - Thank you, Ke$ha. My little cherub of a son just loves to tell people that he brushes his teeth with Jack Daniels.


You would think that at some point I would pull it together and turn off the radio.

Slow and Steady...

Hi, friends! I don't have a whole lot to report this week. I have been busy at work and haven't had enough time to really monitor my food intake as well this last week. I am down one more pound, but I am hoping that this week will bring more than one pound lost. :)

My biggest problem is my addiction to bad carbs. I LOVE bread. Rolls. Mmmmm. I adore a buttery, yeast roll. I have been cutting back on the carbs, but I really need to cut all the white bread out of my diet. That is my goal for this week....further reduction of white bread. :)

Here Kitty, Kitty...

The first grade recently presented a program. It was about Kitty Cat Capers. Our children's school doesn't really put on plays. The program is more like the whole grade standing on a stage and singing 5 or 6 songs.  For each song a small group of children will step forward and dance/jump around. Some of the children have a speaking line too. Layton had a speaking part in this particular production.

The time he spent speaking was my favorite part of the play...because little man didn't bother tilting the microphone down. He stood on his tip toes and stretched his neck just to be able to get his mouth close enough. It was hilarious.

As usual he spent the entire time acting out each song while he sang. Layton is never content to just stand still and sing. He loves to dance and wiggle.

He was an especially cute cat.

The whole thing was adorable. I still miss the days when the children actually put on a play. I always loved being a part of a play in elementary school. Even though I was never the star of any production, I still felt special and like a star in my own way at the end of each play. Memorizing a line or two and having a costume seriously made me feel like a little miniature Meryl Streep. I would love it if the school could go back to doing plays like that. There isn't enough time in the day though for the children to practice a real play and still keep up with the education initiatives that have to be met.

Layton is definitely a little performer. He loves to sing, dance, and have an audience. I have looked into a couple of theater type programs for children his age, but none are terribly convenient for us because each is at least a half hour drive one way. I do want to find a way for him to have an outlet for all his performances though. Does anyone have any suggestions? 

Sweet, Baby Jesus...

Thank you! It's Friday! It also happens to be the day after the w-2/1099 deadline at work. It feels fantastic to have that out of the way! Now it's time to crank up the productivity levels and get some 1040s and 1120s complete. 

Is it completely inappropriate that I titled this post Sweet, Baby Jesus? Talladega Nights, anyone? Poor taste? Maybe so....considering I decided to add this picture....

Word. 

Let's get our weekend going!