Go Munchkin!

The Man of the House turns 29 today!

Ain’t he handsome? I’m so blessed! Happy Birthday Babe!

With my wonderful husband’s permission, I went to Dream Dinners last night. I made twelve different meals, but since I did two three-serving portions of each, I ended up with twenty four. My bigger freezer is stuffed to the gills and that’s after taking out two roasts (to take to mom’s next week), two backs of cooked chicken (chicken pasta salad!), two ice packs, half bag of coffee beans and two bags of chocolate chips.

Dream Dinners is kind of like doing once-a-month-cooking only all of the planning, shopping, chopping, prep and, most importantly, clean up is done for you! Yes, you can do it for cheaper at home, but it sure is nice to go and do it the “easy” way. It was like a two hour vacation and I was productive to boot!

I actually did it twice between ^Bun’s^ hospital stays two years ago but then after a bad c/s experience, never went back. (It’s amazing how one store owner can ruin your opinion of an entire chain!) We have since moved away from the area near the “lame” store and when Kim mentioned going to dream dinners a few weeks ago, I figured I’d give it another try. I was not disappointed! This place is amazing!

When I walked into the store last night, they actually treated me like they were really glad to see me! Everyone was super helpful and spoiled me rotten, even when I managed to tip an entire container of oregano over! LOL. When I was finishing up my last meal, one of the girls started packing my coolers up for me and then they put it on their nifty cart and rolled it out to my car for me! Now THAT is service.

I don’t think I’ll go in April since their menu seems a bit boring and easy to make at home, but I’m anxious to see what they will offer in May.

I got some M&Ms (read LOTS of M&Ms) at the grocery store a few weeks ago and I needed to put them to good use. A few minutes on trusty old Google and I found this recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups candy-coated milk chocolate pieces

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, mix sugar, eggs, shortening, and vanilla thoroughly. Add flour, salt, and baking soda to creamed mixture. Blend well. Add 3/4 cup of M&M candies.
2. Drop dough by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet. Slightly push a few candies on top of each dough ball with remaining candies.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 9 to 11 minutes, to your liking.

This recipe supposedly makes 72 cookies, but I only get that many if I double it. Make sure you put plenty of M&Ms on top of the cookie ball (step 2) because otherwise it’s a lot of cookie and no chocolate.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with my IM (instant message) status the past few days. They are very powerful communication tools that cause your friends to “ding you” and ask about them! LOL.

Monday’s was “I got deleted!” The Man of the House and I IM quite a bit during the day while he’s at work, well we did until about two weeks ago when we suddenly couldn’t see each other anymore. Since computer problems happen, we didn’t really worry about it although it was a bit annoying to have to type links into our URL bar instead of copying and pasting from IM. Yes, we use the IM as a communication tool even when we are in the same room, hahaha.  So we had this conversation on Monday:

[on the phone]
Me: Hahaha. Look at this.
He: Send me the link.
Me: Okay, hold on…. ARGH. You’re not online.
He: I’m online and IM’ing people.
Me: I am online and IM’ing people, too, and I just reset Adium!
He: hmmm…

Now usually at this point he would say it was my computer’s fault, but today it was different…

He: Hmmm. You know, I wonder if I accidently deleted you off my buddy list.
Me: Well that would be a problem!
He: Yup, that was the problem.
Me: There you are! I see you now! And you thought it was all my fault! Not this time…

It is so satisfying to be right about a computer problem, especially when the one who is wrong is my super smart Geek husband. ROTFLOL!

Tuesday’s was “My cell phone is the greatest disappearing artist EVER! Does that make me the greatest finder?” I admit it, my cell phone is almost always missing. I just can’t keep of that thing. I guess that makes me a loser and a finder!

We went grocery shopping last night… at about 9pm last night. It was kind of sad because Bamberina was crying because she wanted to go to sleep in her own bed, but Mommy was on a mission and Daddy was kind enough to come along as protection, bag carrier and Bamberina minder.

Why was it so important to go last night?! Grocery Game of course! I haven’t gone the past three weeks because it just didn’t seem worth it with everything else going on around here, but this was an awesome week and there was lots that we needed, not to mention my bigger fridge was feeling a bit neglected!

The whole premise of the grocery game is that you buy when it’s the cheapest price possible and save it for when you need it, eliminating the need for buying at full price. The way you get the cheapest price is sale + coupons + doubled coupon!

We got home last night at 10:15, but we had scored eight STUFFED grocery bags for $55! The total value of what was in the bags was about $160. WOOHOO! Not a bad deal.

My parents got us a stroller for our birthdays! Bamberina’s first birthday was last month and the Man o’ the House’s birthday is on Sunday and mine is next Sunday. My parents combined them all together and added a little extra and got us an AWESOME jogging stroller! We walk (almost) every day for several miles and our poor little Graco Metrolite (which I loved btw) was really getting trashed. This new stroller just kills the mud and the grass and every other surface we walk on. It’s great. Thanks Mom and Dad!

We also got a new fridge yesterday! We ordered it last Friday night and have been waiting excitedly for the past four days. It’s a little bit nicer version of what we have and it’s got 20% more space which is going to be wonderful for once a month cooking! I’m in love already!

And yes, pictures of both are forthcoming!

Lauren asked me about our CD stash last week. We have three types of diapers in our stash: Fuzzi Bunz, Tinkle Traps and GMD prefolds, but let me start with the simplest one:

GMD prefolds are a certain brand of prefolds. They cost a bit more and you have to pay for shipping (as opposed to the free shipping offered by a lot of sites) but I find that we don’t get nearly the number of rashes with these as I do with other brands, not to mention they last forever due to the quality of materials use. There are ladies on the different boards I’m on who brag that the GMDs they bought 10 years ago are still useable. These two things combined make it worth it to spend an extra buck or two, and then, on top of that, the sizing is awesome. Karen has done quite a bit of experimenting with different dimensions and the result is a diaper for almost every baby at every stage without having to do a bunch of folding down which causes bulk, etc. etc. Oh yes, and she has started offering an unbleached version which I hear is a lot softer. I’m going to try those out when I order next time! Prices for GMD prefolds range from $1-3 each. You’ll need to use a fastener (snappi or pins) and a cover. I’ll talk more about those in another post.

Tinkle Traps are a prefitted diaper which is basically a glorified prefold. It’s cut to fit a baby without having to do any folding and it has elastic in the legs. You can have them made with a aplix or snap closures, or you can use pins/snappi to close them. You also need a cover for these.

Fuzzi Bunz are a pocket diaper. The outer layer is the waterproof layer and the inner layer is a stay-dry fabric. There is a pocket that you can put absorbent materials into. The diapers are about 17.95 each unless if you can find some of the older styles that were on clearance last year for 13.95. They come with a microfiber insert. I personally prefer to use a prefold because it seems to absorb better and I don’t get as many leaks.

Why did I choose this stash? I’m so glad you asked!
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Sad Face.

I can’t really point to any one thing that has caused this poor blog to be neglected. Perhaps it’s the fact that we have five hours of therapy per week. Perhaps it’s that the little Munchkin wants to help me type. I don’t know, but it must stop.

Now.

Happy Face.

I have been meaning to post about this, but couldn’t think of how to word it until my friend, Joanna, sent this e-mail this morning. I think it sums it up well so I’m quoting it here:

Dear Friends,

On Thursday, February 28th, the a California Court of Appeal issued an opinion, In re Rachel L., that essentially makes it illegal for parents to home school their children in California without a teaching credential. After reading the case, I believe that it was wrongly decided both in its interpretation of California law and in its application of constitutional law. Not only is the case bad law, but it could have a devastating impact on tens of thousands of families in California who have enjoyed the right to home school.

There are many groups and individuals involved in fighting this decision including the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). HSLDA is trying to get the Court of Appeal decision depublished. If the case is depublished, it will only be binding on the parties to the case and will not be binding law for others in California. I urge you to visit the link below and sign HSLDA’s petition to depublish this case:

https://www2.hslda.org/Registrations/DepublishingCaliforniaCourtDecision/

Thank you,

Joanna Lampkins

PS – Here is a link to the In re Rachel L. opinion in case you are interested in reading it:

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B192878.PDF