Not so good!!

Abby really had a rough day yesterday. For some reason, she wouldn't listen and she kept hitting Ryan. He is discovering how to talk and he keeps saying "Mine". Well, Abby doesn't like this one bit. Every time he says it, she either says it back to him or hits him. I know CRAZY!!! Most of the time there is nothing there when they say MINE. Even more crazy!!!

Ryan had his 18 month check up yesterday. He weighs 28 lbs and is 34 inches tall. He is in the 75th percentile for his weight and 90th percentile for his height. I guess he will be tall. The doctor said that he doing well. I also had a list of questions to ask him about Ryan. Things like: Is it ok that he drinks all the time? I fill his sippy cup and not 5 minutes later it is empty. I also asked the doctor about the screaming. Some of you know......THE SCREAM that comes out of my child. I asked the doctor if Ryan could really hear himself as loud as we do. (Thinking that maybe he had some hearing problems.) NOPE just being a boy. If he can get a reaction out of you or someone else by screaming, then he will scream.

Conclusion: I have perfectly normal children who scream, hit, disobey, and drink constantly. Kids what cha gonna do with em??? Love em right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I do....I sooooo do. (Even though it wasn't an awesome day.)

Menu Plan Monday-July 28-August 3, 2008

Well, last week was great again and dinner was on the table every night at around 6 or 6:30 as opposed to 7:30 or 8. This is good because the kids aren't as cranky and they are more willing to try the dinner that is placed in front of them. Anyway, here is the menu for this week.

Monday-Round Steak, Rice and Gravy with Baked Beans

Tuesday-Catalina Chicken with Mashed Potatoes

Wednesday-Leftovers

Thursday-Spaghetti and Meatballs, green beans and garlic bread

Friday-Breakfast night-Eggs and Bacon with toast

Saturday-Leftovers

Sunday-Mac and Cheese and Fishsticks


Check out I'm an Organizing Junkie for more menu plans and organizing tips.

Day 2 of Fun in the Sun

Today was our second day of Fun in the Sun!!! I didn't really plan on being in the sun this much all in one week, but that is what happened.

Yesterday, we went to the waterpark because I just realized that the waterpark will be closed during the week after August 8th. With that in mind, we will be at the waterpark a lot in the next couple of weeks.

We really had a good time yesterday. We started out at the wave pool which has a beach area and that got kinda crazy. All Ryan wanted to do was run away from me. So, we headed to the kiddie area. The kids really have a blast in this area. We stayed there for a little while and then we went in the lazy river. I have finally found out what works to get two kids in the lazy river and not having any drownings. They both had arm floaties and they both had rings around their waist. We stayed in the lazy river for two and a half rounds. That was pretty cool. When we got out of the river, we were in the old kids area so we checked it out a bit. Abby is still too young to play in this area, but I wanted to see what it was all about.

Ryan had a blast going down the "big" slide in the kiddie area. The only things that went wrong were one time I put him down on the concrete. He didn't have his footing just right and he fell and scraped his knee. Then a bigger kid was not watching where he was going and pretty much ran over Ryan. After that, Ryan had enough and decided that he wanted Momma to hold him the rest of the time. Momma said "I don't think so!! I think it is time to leave." So off we went. Of course, Abby didn't want to go. By the time we walked to the car she was ready. Of course, Ryan fell asleep on the way home.

Today, was day 2. We went to a friend's house for a pool party. It was really fun. Again, I put both kids in arm floaties and rings and it worked really well. I had more luck this time with bringing two kids to the pool and not being stressed out. Anyway, Abby did her own thing and Ryan was trying to do his own thing. All Ryan wants to do is do what Abby is doing, so I have to separate them so that he doesn't see what she is doing. Most of the time, he is not capable of doing what she does. Anyway, Ryan and I found our groove after eating a bunch of snacks.

Stay tuned for more fun in the sun as our summer quickly comes to an end.

PS I know that public schools start the first or second week of August, but my kids don't start school until September 1st. We will have almost a whole month with pretty much nothing to do. Even the free movies are finished the first week in August!!! This will save a lot of money on gas, though!!!

Help I have OCD

Hi!!! My name is Candice and I have a problem. I have a terrible case of OCD. I like to do things a certain way and if it doesn't go that way, I have trouble breathing. I know it sounds crazy but it's true. My house doesn't have to be in perfect order but certain things do have to be in a certain place.

Well, apparently, I am passing this on to my daughter. We had visitors this weekend and she told her Paw-Paw that he needs to put the seat back down when he leaves the bathroom. Now, this is the same girl that not even a week ago went to the potty and lifted up both seats. She was about the fall into the toilet when I got there. I asked her why she lifted them both up and she said, "That's what AJ (her cousin) does!!!" While that is true, my girl was holding on to the cabinet next to the toilet for dear life.

Anyway, back to the OCD thing. Papa folded some towels and I had to go and scream into a pillow. While he did fold them, they have to be folded a certain way or they will not fit into the cabinet. He sooooo did not fold them the right way. Anyway, that's all I have for now. Tune in next time and I will probably give you more OCD moments to laugh about.

Lata gata!!!

"Golf" of Mexico

I know that I didn't spell it like the body of water but I did that on purpose. You see, Abby has this thing where she just makes up a name for something. Her and Ryan have this set of toy golf clubs and they love to play with them. Well, the other day she told me that she forgot to put away her golf of mexico. Yes she said it just like that. At first I didn't know what she was talking about until I looked outside and her golf set was out in the yard.

Then today, she was putting away her skates and she saw Papa's golf clubs. "Momma, look!! That is Papa's "golf" of Mexico." Now you understand why I call her crazy girl.

Menu Plan Monday

Last week went pretty much according to the plan. The only thing that we deviated from was the Red Beans and Rice so I will add that to the menu this week. Here it goes...

Monday---Red Beans and Rice with Sausage

Tuesday---Sloppy Joes

Wednesday---Leftovers

Thursday---Szechuan Barbecue Chicken (See Blue Momma's Post here.)

Friday---Breakfast Night--French Toast

Saturday---Grilled Chicken

Sunday---Leftovers


Everyone loved the Breakfast Night so I will incorporate it into the weekly menu. We will alternate between different breakfast foods to keep it lively. Abby says that she pretends that she is eating at IHOP.

Weird Post

I wanted to try out the mobile blogging feature that is offered here!!!

Watching Madagascar!

Structured Chaos

Does that make any sense??? Today was total chaos. I let the kids make too many decisions and we ended up not doing much. I started out the morning balancing the checkbook, then I moved on to laundry and a little bit of house cleaning. I really did get a lot of work done before the kids woke up. Actually, Ryan woke up before me but I didn't get him out of his bed until 7:30 when he was full on crying. Not sure what is up with him, but he has been having some really weird poops lately. (I know TMI, right)

Anyway, we did our usual learning time and reading time but when we got to activity time, Abby couldn't make up her mind if she wanted to ride her bike or play in the backyard. We ended up back in the house because we were all thirsty and I really didn't want to be out there in the first place. (I had too much to do inside.)

On my nap break, I finished balancing the checkbook and get our finances in order for the rest of the month and made out my grocery list. This took up pretty much the whole nap time.

I made my spaghetti and meatball supper and just finished cleaning the kitchen and putting people to bed and now it's my turn.

Menu Plan Monday

So I decided that I would join some other moms and start menu planning. I have tried this in the past and I just gave up, but now I'm going to make a concerted effort and stick with it. I did this last week and while it didn't save me much money in the grocery store, I will stick with it. Hopefully, my grocery bill will start going down.

Anyway, here goes our menu for the week. If you see something that you would like the recipe for please post a comment and I will get it to you.

Monday--Spaghetti and Meatballs and garlic bread

Tuesday--Roast with Rice and Gravy (Paula Deen recipe), and some kind of vegetable (probably green beans)

Wednesday--Red Beans and Rice

Thursday--Leftovers

Friday--Breakfast Night at home (I will make either pancakes, waffles, or French Toast.)

Saturday--Tacos (We have company coming over and this is the easiest thing to cook, since they do not like to eat out.)

Sunday--Mac & Cheese and Fishsticks

I hope that I can remember to de-frost the roast. Every time that decide to make a roast, I go to cook and the roast is still frozen. Anyway, that's the plan. Hopefully, this week will go as smoothly as last week.

Cute commercial

This is my favorite commercial right now!!!

Stronger and Thicker

My girl just told me, "Hey mom, new clorox wipes are stronger and thicker AND they can clean anything." Then she went and spilled a cup of water!!!!

What's up with that?

Last night was like any other normal night around here...OR WAS IT??? We ate supper, had some ice cream, and got ready for bed just like usual. The only thing different???? I'm still not sure. The boys passed out...Eric went directly to bed at 9, he almost forgot to kiss the kids good night. Ryan usually cries in his bed for at least 10-15 minutes, but not last night. PASSED OUT

As for Abby and me, I cleaned up the kitchen and did some laundry. Then I went to lay down in bed and guess what...WIDE WAKE!!!! Since I couldn't sleep, I went into the living room to get my palm so that I could quietly play games in bed and I noticed that Abby was sitting up in her bed. I went in to tell her to lay down and try to sleep and she told me that she was having a "Care Bear Birthday Party" I so wanted to play that game with her but it was after 10 so I didn't want to go down that road. It sure would have been fun, though.

Anyway, what the heck was wrong with us last night? Were the stars out of line? Maybe it had to do with Venus??

Wow, That's a new record!!!

Ok, so for the most part Abby takes ok naps. Sometimes it takes her a while and other times it just doesn't happen. The one thing that I have learned with Abby is that I can't put her down too early. By that I mean that she doesn't usually take a nap until 3 or later. If I try to move naptime up at all, she doesn't take one. But if we don't talk about it until around or after 3, we are ok and we end up sleeping. Today, we learned, played games, and read books. Not a very active day at all. We read a book at 3 and then after the book, I told her that it was naptime. I got the usual "I don't want too's" and the "I'll take a nap in a little while", and then I held her for a little while and we talked. I told her that Mimi was taking her nap (I just got off the phone with her) and that if she took a nap at the same time as Mimi, she would dream about being with Mimi and playing with her. After I put her down, I did some laundry and cleaned up a little, then headed upstairs to do some sewing (I'm trying to make some pants for me). When I got upstairs, I put a timer on so that it would remind me to go and check on her to make sure that she was sleeping. I set the timer for 4 and I just checked on her and she is SLEEPING!!! That has got to be a record. A little over 20 minutes. YAY!!!

Our good day

Today was a really good day with Abby. She was very pleasant. I got frustrated with Ryan a lot today, but I kept my cool when talking to Abby. This morning we had to meet with someone to give them our highchair. I finally sold it on craigslist. We needed to leave the house before 9:30 this morning. I woke the kids up around 8:45 and told them, if they were good and brushed their teeth and got dressed without fussing, that we would go eat breakfast at Chick-Fil-A. Nobody fussed to brush teeth and get dressed (we don't really have problems with this). We left the house and got on the road. Being really sweet, Abby helped me keep Ryan in line. We met with the lady to give her the highchair and then we headed on to Chick-Fil-A. We ate breakfast and nobody cried when we left without going into the play room.

After we headed to Wal-Mart to use the money that we got for the highchair to get Ryan a booster seat. Abby and Ryan were really good listeners while we shopped at Wal-Mart. I didn't even have to put Abby in the cart. She stayed by me most of the time. They were so good they even got to pick out which coloring book they wanted. When we got home, we colored and played. Then we outside to eat lunch and play a bit. It was a little too hot to go outside but the kids really wanted to go out. It was a really nice day (so far). Now it is almost naptime and Abby has the "don't want's". We will see.

Is there a such thing???

Ok, here is the story...Ryan is a boy as I'm sure most of you know. And most of you that have one of each know that boys are a differnet species. It's not a bad thing but they are drastically different from girls. In 18 short months, Ryan has gone from a person that could do nothing for himself to a little boy who gets hurt...a lot. Last week, I noticed that one of his front teeth is chipped. At first, I couldn't imagine how that had happened, but after thinking about it I remembered that about 2 or 3 months ago he was trying to help me with the laundry. While trying to be helpful, he lost his balance and hit something (I couldn't tell if it was his chin or his mouth). At the time, I thought that he had just bite his lip, but now I'm thinking that maybe he chipped his tooth.

Abby didn't get hurt nearly as much of him and when she did she was sure to let me know, even if it wasn't that bad. Ryan only cries when he gets hurt really bad, like the laundry incident. The other day, Papa was playing with him and it got a little rough. Well, he bit his tongue. Now, you know that it hurts when you bite your tongue, but add in the chipped tooth and it had to really hurt. He cried a lot and I held him close and rocked him. All the while, trying to check and see if it would ever stop bleeding. When the bleeding started to slow down, I could tell that he had a little slit on his tongue. Ouch!!! Anyway, back to the story...

Is there a such thing as a macho-metro-sexual man??? If so, I'm probably raising him. Hubby says that because he is with girls all day long he is bound to pick up some habits, but I'm not too sure about that. I call Ryan my macho-metro-sexual little man. He has macho tendency's, like vrooming cars on my legs when I'm trying to pee and wrecking cars into each other (I taught him that). Then he has metro-sexual traits, such as when he falls down in the grass, he sticks his tongue out and says "UGH" actually it comes out more as an "EEEEEE". Anyway, I'm doing my best to raise him just the way he is. Hopefully, he won't turn out too bad.

Our crazy trip

So, I told you that we went to Louisiana this weekend and we had a good time. What I didn't tell you is that on Thursday (the day that we left) at about the halfway mark along the trip, we realized that we forgot to put some bags in the truck. These bags were already packed, but we just forgot to load them. One of them was the bed for Ryan and the other was the toiletry bag. You know one of the most important bags besides the clothes bag. Well anyway, we had to stop along the way to get all of the little items that you need to keep yourself clean and groomed. Silly, I know but it could only happen to us...

Today went by so fast

We just returned from a visit to Louisiana. We were there for my nephew, Anthony's 5th birthday party. It was a really good time. My sister rented a fun jump water slide for the weekend and the kids (and adults) went nuts. It really was fun sliding like that. I haven't done that in a long time. Anyway, my mom recently got a brand new computer (and it is really nice) so she gave me her old laptop computer. This is the most wonderful thing in the world. I am a free woman now. I can get on the computer any time I want without leaving the kids for an undetermined amount of time. Right now, I am blogging in the living room while watching a tv show during naptime. This is the best. If it wasn't for the laptop, I would have to decide which one I wanted to do watch tv or do work on the computer. AAAAAAHHHHHH freedom!!!!!!

Well, after the show is over I will be going upstairs to the dungeon to sew. The whole reason for the laptop is for sewing/embroidery purposes, but it doesn't hurt that I can check my email down here and look things up when I need to. Anyway, I have a lot of sewing projects to catch up on. I haven't sewn anything in a couple of weeks, because I was embroidering things and it is not easy to switch over from embroidery to sewing. Hopefully it will be a little easier with the laptop because I won't have to move the sewing machine, I will only have to move the laptop. Anyway, hopefully you will be hearing from me more often now. (Not sure if that is a good thing for you, but.....)