the rain?

Yesterday was such a strange, bizarre day. I really don't know how else to describe it- I am pretty sure that someone slipped me a sleeping pill (JUST KIDDING :) But really- that's how zombie-like I was.

I'm sure my zombie-like state was due more to the fact that I hadn't really slept the previous night, but it sounds cooler to say that I think someone slipped me something. ;)


The day started off really sucky. Ryan and I don't argue- like ever- I mean maybe a little here and there about stupid stuff- but ya know, really nothing substantial. Yesterday morning, I woke up and saw our K-cup carousel COMPLETELY empty. Cue arguing.

I called Ryan and said some ridiculous things like "How could you drink the last cup of coffee and then just leave??" (Yeah, I'm laughing about it now as I'm typing....) It wasn't really arguing- it was more of just an annoying way to start the day.

Anywho, Angie saved me, by bringing a little baggie of kcups by the house. AHHHH :)

I chugged a cup, and within a half hour we were in the car, ready to go to the treehouse.

It was somewhere on I-94 when I started to feel like I had lead weights on my eyelids. I mean, really, I was TIRED. Even with my kids screaming in the back, Jimmy Buffett filling the car, I was tempted to pull over the car and take a quick cat nap... how weird.

We made it to the treehouse- I think it might've been around 11 or so? I unloaded everyone, thinking "Okay- I'm going to get in there, start talking with my friends, get picked up and be good to go."

I LOVE the treehouse- don't get me wrong- but they do something that REALLY ticks me off- allowing entire classes from schools to come during peak morning hours. REALLY???? I am not joking- this place was packed. I couldn't find Maeve anywhere and the baby space looked more like a minnow pond.

I plunked Henry down and tried to find a seat (unsuccessfully- yes, that's how packed it was!) I chit chatted for a minute with Angie- but she had to run because Sammy (her little guy) had crashed a pizza party (FUNNY!!! I am still laughing Angie ;)

As she ran off to get Sammy, someone motioned towards Henry, and asked "Is he yours?" I smiled, surely looking glazed (since this is how I felt) and said "Yup, that's Henry." And the lady said (nicely enough) "Well Henry just vomited."

OHHHHHHHH. MYYYYYYYYY.

Sure enough, he had indeed, vomited. Not spit up- but like chunky puked all over the place. HOLY COW.

My cheeks were hot as I scooped him up, my mind racing with what to do. Babies, babies, everywhere- inches away from crawling into puke. Another gal pal that was there, Maria- noticed what was going on and jumped up to go grab wipes- meanwhile, every parent was grabbing their kid saying "Ohhhh stay away from there." I felt AWFUL.

Before Maria was back with wipes, Maeve managed to slide in it. Fab. All over her pants and on her hands. G-R-O-S-S. Although, I am thankful it was my kid and not someone else's. She can deal with her brothers puke for a minute :)

Maria cleaned up Maeve, I cleaned up the puke and then I scooped Henry up and loaded him into his carseat. We had officially made an entrance and now it was time to make an exit.

I paid 6 bucks to spend 20 minutes at the treehouse, scrubbing puke and apologizing to parents.

Back in the car, my droopy lids caught up with me again. I kept thinking "make it to Nutrition Revolution- get some of that energy tea...." I did in fact, make it to NR and chugged a shake and some of that energy tea. When we got home, I said a silent prayer that today was the day my kids both napped- simultaneously and for a long amount of time.

He must have been listening... or it could have been the rain, but either way, BOTH of my kids slept from 1:30 or so to 4:30.

I, myself conked out and woke up feeling even more drugged. But very thankful for the sleep :)

My laziness did however, effect the rest of our evening. Dinner was kind of shot- so we ended up getting (don't laugh too hard) "The Burger Bundle" from Culvers. HAHAHA :) What is a "Burger Bundle" you ask? Well, it is 5 (FIVE) cheeseburgers, a family pack of french fries and a huge drink... all for 10 bucks. Yeah, talk about classy!

I am thankful for the burger bundle- it saved me from cooking and filled our bellies.

After dinner, we all lazied around the house some more. And I was shocked that I was STILL feeling tired... it had to be the rain...

Around 7 or so, Maeve said she wanted to watch cartoons on "the baby tv" (the tv in Ryan and I's bedroom... haha, I guess its pretty small). We lied down and the next thing I remember is looking at the clock, seeing it was 8- something- and that Maeve was gone.

I had fallen asleep again, and missed putting the kids to bed :(

I watched an episode of "48 hours" and was thinking that I needed to gear up for a night from hell- after all, I have the worst insomnia ever- and I had slept away half the day... surely, I'd be up until 4 AM.

Strangely enough, I zonked BACK out (I don't recall the time) and didn't wake up this morning until 8:30- that's when the kids woke up- and that NEVER happens.



So yeah, it was definitely the rain that threw us off and slowed us down.

Thank you rain... I needed to be slowed down for a day :)

HAPPY FRIIIIIIIIIIIIDAYYYY!

Storms! & a few randoms...

WOW- last night my mom, Ryan, my brother & cousin (& Maeve of course) all went to the fair. I had heard Sunday is the best day to go- less crowds- and it's true! The fairgrounds were practically empty! We walked around for about 45 minutes looking at the animals (which Maeve loved- a huge turn around from last year when she had a breakdown in the horse barn). Right about when we made it to the chicken barns we all looked at the sky and noticed it had gotten super dark, super fast. RIGHT when my mom said we should probably start walking back so we don't get stuck in a barn in the rain it started POURING. Sooooo yes- we were trapped in the goat barn- we chose the goats over the chickens... yuck. It was pretty awful. The animals were going nuts because of the storm and I was getting a bit nervous myself- the winds were SO strong and the clouds were looking funny- not your average storm. To say the least I got a bit claustrophobic in the barn and visions of the movie "Twister" were swirling in my head (no pun intended). After about 15 minutes of being stuck with the goats, Ryan decided he was going to sprint all the way to the car, drive around to the nearest exit and pick us up- I was all for it. About 20 minutes later we were rescued by Ryan- thank GOD- I couldn't take the smells or the heat anymore! Driving home, we listened to the radio, and sure enough a tornado had touched down in Jackson county (apparently it ripped a roof off a middle school!?). And as we pulled up to the house, I was pretty darn sure the tornado ripped through our back yard. ALL of Maeve's giant, HEAVY outdoor toys were not only blow into the neighbors yard, but they were all torn apart!!! WTH??? I thought those things were supposed to be indestructible! Our screens on the windows had also blown off- and our back patio was a nightmare- all the chairs were flipped and the table was upside down. Really- gusty winds??? I think not- it was definitely a twister... or so I'm telling people :) Here are a couple of pics of Maeves destroyed toys...



Okay now starts my random ramblings...
1st- Maeve is going on an eating strike. And to say the least, its driving me a bit crazy. I don't want to say I'm cheap- so I will say that I'm frugal- therefore, wasted food irks me like no other. EVERY SINGLE MEAL Maeve not only doesn't eat her food but she makes a horrible mess with it- yogurt goes in her hair, grapes are thrown on the floor, peanut butter and jelly is smashed on her tray, you get the picture. Anyways my question is- how do I get my child to eat????????? And here's the scary part- I've cut down a LOT on her snacking because I was sure that was the reason she wasn't eating her meals. Snacks are now very strict and planned out... for example- she will get a little cup of goldfish around 10 AM or so and a yogurt at 4 PM. You'd think a growing girl would be starving when meal time rolls around, but nope... she drinks (thank goodness) but the food she couldn't care less about. HELP ME OUT!!!! Really- its getting on my last nerve buying food, food and more food all to be thrown out (or thrown on the floor).



2nd random rambling- I am just about 25 weeks preggo- which means 3 more weeks until I am in my 3rd trimester- thank GOD?! There's a part of me that wants to be DONE, DONE, DONE. And another part of me is reminded of how BAD my labor was and how hard waking up with a newborn is. So in a way, November is coming too fast- in another way, it can't get here soon enough. My belly is HUGE. People are blown away that I still have about 3 months left (I am staying optimistic- hoping I will go early again!). My maternity clothes are digging into my stomach- and as much as I am reassured that you carry girls and boys differently and THAT'S why my stomach is the size of a hot air balloon, I am still pretty hesitant and concerned that I am carrying a 10 lb. turkey. In that case- I will demand a c-section- Maeve did enough damage and she was a teeny 6 lb-er.




3rd Random Rambling: Not sure if you're getting sick of all my talk about saving money but its really become more than just saving money- its almost like a hobby now. I truly enjoy spending my Sunday nights clipping and organizing and figuring out meals and deals for the week. I've noticed since I really got into couponing our grocery bills gone WAY DOWN, and I've been cooking a lot more- we've also been enjoying a much broader range of foods. Not only am I addicted to a good deal- but now that Ryan has seen the fruits of my labor (again no pun intended! haha Ang- you're going to love this post) he's all into it as well! He prints me oodles of coupons, using all the Culligan computers and he is more than willing to watch Maeve on Sunday afternoons while I stock up the pantry. Anyways, with all that said- I thought I should add in another great find this week at Meijers.

Danimals crush cups & smoothies (I opted for the smoothies- thinking I could easily pour those into a sippy?) are 2/4.00 this week (or 2.00 a piece- you don't have to get 2 to get the deal- does that make sense?)

Anyways, if you were GOOD clippers yesterday and clipped the 1.00 off Danimals yogurt coupon you'll be all set! Take THAT coupon, combine it with the Meijer Mealbox coupon and get your free yogurt!

Here's the math:
Danimals yogurt on sale for 2.00
Mejier coupon 1.00
Danimal manufactor coupon 1.00
= free.

I got 6 copies of the free press yesterday because of the great Kraft cheese coupons (those are SO hard to come by and we use a TON of cheese so I broke down and spent the 10 bucks on the papers (which have already paid for themselves...:). So yeah, guess who has a fridge full of danimal smoothies??? Maeve better like 'em! :)

UPDATE*** after a yogurt disaster at lunch time I thought of a new idea for the smoothie things- I poured it in a sippy and thinned it WAY out with milk- Maeve LOVED it- no mess & the best part??? SHE ATE YOGURT (although she thinks it was strawberry milk :) Now I want MORRRRE coupons for MORRRRE yogurt!

ALSO- Applesauce is .35 cents a pack when you do this coupon combo- scour the internet for a .50 off Motts Applesauce coupon (I would give you the link but I CANNOT find it!!!!!! I got these coupons a few days ago off of some website- so I KNOW they're out there!) combine the Motts coupon with another Motts Meijer Mealbox coupon and get your super cheap applesauce!

Here's the math:
(you have to get 2 packs to do this!)
1 pack of Motts applesauce 1.85 each, for 2= 3.70

-(2) 50 cent off Motts Internet coupon (which doubles to a dollar!) 2.00
-(1) 1.00 off Motts Meijer Mealbox coupon
=70 cents for 2 packs (or 35 cents a pack)

rain, rain, go away.

wow its been a wet couple of days here in Jackson. I LOVE rain but usually just at night- it helps me sleep better. These past few days have been tough- cooped up inside with a stir crazy toddler is just not too much fun. We've been doing a little shopping here and there, trying to get out, but most of the time is spent here, at home :(

Today, waking up to MORE rain I decided to get Maeve something that would keep her busy for awhile- like a craft project of some sort. A friend of mine had recommended the "Aquadoodle" play mat- so we went to Target to look. I wasn't going to get one if the things were super expensive, but as luck would have it they were on clearance- 11 bucks! :) We picked one up and brought it home- surprisingly enough, Maeve has really enjoyed it. It's not messy ONE BIT so its a lot easier to leave out as an option for her to play with, rather than say, play doh, which we all know is pretty messy. Anyways, I think I at least got my 11 bucks worth- she played with it after lunch and is back at it after her nap. So if rainy days have got you down, check out Target for an Aquadoodle- cheap, clean toy!

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head!

Today, Maeve and I hung out with Aunt Meghan (or Aunt Menee). We shopped our booties off at target looking for some fun water toys that Maeve could play with in the teeny tiny pain in the butt pool we bought... Then we went to JoAnn fabrics (my new fave. store) and bought material to make Maeve a picnic blanket... and Meghan made some head scarves out of scrap fabric... and I finished up (well kind of) making the holiday cans I've been working on for a few months- I will blog about those in a minute...
Well I got Maeve this super cute blow up pool- but I had no clue how hard it would be to get the thing in working order!!! It took both Meghan and I about a half hour to get that thing blown up!!! Ugh.... we were so excited to see Maeve sit in it with all her little toys we had just spent hours picking out! So Meg dressed her in her bikini and I filled the pool up with some warm water (cause the skies were looking a little gray... not too sunny) We dumped the toys in, carried the pool to the front door and it was POURING rain. Not just sprinkling a few drops, but we're talking torrential downpour!!! I was like "Well this kid is swimming on the porch!" Don't worry guys- it wasn't lightening or any of that scary stuff! So we dragged the pool onto the front porch and sat Maeve in it. She LOVED it! She was so mesmerized by the rain though that we couldn't catch a cute picture of her! She kept trying to climb out and grab the rain! She is such a little mermaid! I swear she could've lounged in there all day. So even though it rained, the pool was a hit and I can't wait to try it out on a sunny day.
I had a really fun day with you Meghan!!! I am going to miss you like a child misses its blanket when you leave on Monday!