Train Day

So this week is Spring Break for Shark. He didn't have any classes to go to. We got to hang out with him all week. (And by all week, I mean Monday and Tuesday.) Well, Danger has fallen in LOVE with trains lately. Anytime we hear one, he puts his hand up to his ear and exclaims, "Hear trains, momma!" It's pretty cute. He gets just as excited to see motorcycles, helicopters, and airplanes. But I can take him to see some trains. I have wanted to take him on the Frontrunner for a while now. He's free to ride it, and Shark has a transit pass, so it would just cost $6 for an all-day ride pass for me. Not too shabby to watch that little boy's eyes light up at the trains!

Last week, I told Shark of my plan to take Danger on the train on Tuesday. I thought he had class. He told me didn't, and asked, why not take the train on Monday. So after my ultrasound on Monday

(baby boy is doing great, he's weighing an estimated 5lbs 7oz right now, he's head down, and has been for months, just tossing and turning, kicking and punching.) Shark and I snagged some lunch and headed to the train station. Danger was SOOOO excited to watch the train pull up to the station, so excited to see the other engines there. He skipped the whole way to the train.

The train has a double decker car, so we went up to the top deck and got a seat with a table. We were done with our lunch before the train even pulled away from the station. But that meant Danger could focus on the train going down the track. He loved it. At a few crossings, our train blew its horn, and Danger put his hand up to his ear, and looked up at me, with sheer joy on his face, "Hear trains, momma!!!" He then looked at Shark and told him the same thing.

Riding the train down to Salt Lake was a lot of fun, he was bouncing up and down in his seat. He loved looking out the window and looking at everything. There was an old set of tracks from the parking lot to the platform, and Shark found an old railroad spike, he picked it up and Danger played with it the rest of the trip. He'd hammer it against the rails and just listen to it resonate. It was so much fun to watch him try to figure out how and why that sound was made. Once we got to the Salt Lake station, we hopped on the Trax and Danger was ecstatic to get on, yet another train! It was different, but he loved it all the same. We went to the planetarium. It wasn't very far, but he enjoyed the ride, and we enjoyed watching his face light up.

We didn't spend a lot of time at the planetarium, we didn't go to a show, we just walked around the exhibits and watched the marbles bounce around. My little man was getting tired and cranky. So it was a very well-timed trip, we didn't stay too long, we didn't try to do too much.

He was so excited to get back on the Trax, he giggled and laughed. So happy! We waited at the station for a while for our train to arrive, but it was totally worth it to see that little boy jump up and down as the train pulled up to the station. For me, going to the planetarium is lots of fun, but there is a tradition Shark and I have, we always get rock candy. And it just so happened, they had a 3 pack of rock candy. Now, these rock candy are on the cheap side, they just dip the rock candy in food color after it's made, so Shark's teeth were green, Danger was red all over (it looked like blood, it was such a bad idea!!) and I had pink, probably, everywhere. Danger did have a melt down when I took his rock candy and put it back in the bag. We eventually got him distracted with the other trains we passed. We counted the train cars. He's been stuck on the numbers 18, 19, 20 lately. He'll say 2, 3, 4, but his go-to is 18, 19, 20. So when we got up to 17, I asked him what came next, and he belted out 18! 19! 20!!

Once we got home, the boys took a nap. I think Danger's Train Day was a huge success. It was good to give him a day with just us. We did things he wanted to do, we played with him, and let him go where he wanted, we just followed him. I think every month we can plan a Danger Day, where mom and dad just hang with him all day, just him. And once the Colonel gets bigger, we'll give him a day too, a day with just us.

I feel bad it's taken me so long to start spending good, fun time with Danger. I know he thinks every day is fun, but we never really went anywhere before. It means a lot that he enjoys spending time with me, and smiles as much as he does around me. I love being his mom and am so grateful for the blessing of him in my life. I adore him.

And this week

Well this week has been the same as other weeks I suppose. The beginning at least.

Shark and I went on a double date on Tuesday. It was really nice for us to go on a date. Lately our dates have had a 3rd wheel. It's not that we can't find someone to watch Danger, it's just that lately our dates have been sort of spur of the moment. We just sorta get in the car and go. 

Then Wednesday, The Headache hit me. It was the worst headache I've had since before the heart surgery! I haven't had a bad one like this in a long long time!! Thursday I went to the chiropractor and the crick in my neck went away, but the headache stayed. Today (Saturday) is day 4 of this blasted headache. Day 4 of the aura, of the lightheaded ness, of the dizzy spells, of the pain. Ugh. I can tell you, after I went to the chiropractor, the pain changed. I don't know how to explain it, it's like it went from an external pain that can be fixed to an internal pain that I just have to deal with. I've been dealing with headaches for a long long time. Thank goodness I have a flexible schedule and am able to just hang out on the couch with Danger. 

Friday I went to drop off stuff at the DI, then ran to Walmart, and I ended up parking next to a friend of mine! So we hung for a while that day. Her youngest son is 2 months older than Danger. I decided I needed something else to do so I thought I'd make some "calm down bottles" I found on Pinterest. 

The pink and purple don't have the stickers off yet, and I have to use goo-gone to get the sticker residue off the blue and green. I took SmartWater bottles, bought way more glitter than I'll ever need, and some tacky gel glue. I used hot water, poured the glue in first to mix it in, then dumped copious amounts of glitter in. Then, since super glue didn't keep the lid secure I used Gorilla glue. They last for about 3 minutes. 

I've been working on Christmas presents, wedding presents and baby gifts. My sister is getting married next week. (I KNOW!!!) And so I've been working on getting something together for them.  Danger and I are flying back to WI for the reception. It'll be his first time on an airplane. He's going to sit on my lap, he won't be 2 yet, so he'll be free. We're bringing a portable DVD player and plenty of fruit snacks. Grandma and grandpa are so excited to see him. 

This kid is why I can never find my cans of food!

Peace love and cheesy grins!

Me - 16 weeks. 

Day of Fulfillment

Alright, so there are days, even weeks where I don't cook dinner.... It's not that we don't have food at our house.... But when I look in the fridge, all I find are ingredients! Ugh! That's the worst!

So I've been searching the Pinterest for CrockPot Freezer Meals... I love my crock pot, I love being able to dump a bunch of stuff in there and have a meal when Shark comes home. And for the most part, the meals are pretty delicious! And way easy. In the summer I lean heavily on the crock pot, I don't want to turn the oven on!

So I found a CrockPot Freezer recipe gold mine! I stumbled upon Baked In the South, and decided to make ALL of her recipes. She's got 5 parts! This link goes to Part 5, because parts 1-4 don't link up part 5. But part 5 links up the other 4. She's got about 5 recipes per post, so that's A LOT of food.

 Please ignore how disgusting my freezer is.... I bought berries from Dollar Tree... once the packaging froze, it cracks and broke open... Lesson learned.

It feels so good to have a freezer full of meals. I made 20! And no repeats either. Although I did have enough of some recipes to make doubles, I figured we'd try them out first, see if they were tasty, then make more.

Also, I ended up not having a few things, I thought I had more than 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, so I put on the bag the things I needed to add when I put it in the crock.

So easy, and I bought all the ingredients (expect for the stew beef!) with my bi-weekly grocery budget! It worked out so good!

little diaper bags

Ok, so I go to the Dollar Store and I buy those little baby powder diaper bags. (the ones you put stinky diapers in.) And everytime I pull one little bag out of the box, all the bags come out and then I have to stuff them back into the box (very tedious and annoying). Well, I've had it in my head for a while to make it easier and less bulky. (Carrying around that box takes up some space.)

Well, I saw this ideas about reusing grocery bags. Rerolling and sticking them in cuted-up Lysol wipes canisters. I saw this idea over at Tater Tots And Jello. Now, the little diaper bags are exactly like the grocery bags. You just roll them up really tight and stick them in a small bottle. (I was thinking about using an old Tylenol bottle, but discovered an old prescription bottle worked better cuz it fit more bags in it.)

Ta da! Then I wrote DIAPER BAGS on it and tossed it in my purse. Ooh, bonus : I can let Danger play with it, cuz now it's just a bottle, rather than a flimsy, broken box with plastic bags in it. Way safer, smaller and less frustrating.

Easiest Easter Blocks

So I have been the lamest crafter ever. Ok, so I've been crocheting like a mad-woman {cuz I don't have to leave the couch...} hey, my baby has been sick! But I haven't been doing a whole lot of crafting and sewing.

But a while back I went to Target {Oh, I love that store.} And every time I go there I go specifially for the Dollar Section. Well, anyways, while checking the bins in the $1 Section, I found these SPRING blocks.

I had an idea. I'm all about multi-purpose decor, as you can tell by my seasonal word blocks. I counted it out, and there are the same number of letters in EASTER as there are in SPRING. {Yes, I stood there in the aisle and counted the blocks to make sure my idea would work.} So I decided today was the day, 2 days until Easter, and I was finally going to do my project. I measured and cut out the word EASTER in white vinyl.

Then turned the blocks for SPRING around and stuck the vinyl letters on so all I have to do is spin each block around so it says Easter!

Easiest craft ever. Maybe I'll eventually get around to making my St. Patrick's Day/Valentine's Day blocks... Did you know that St. Pat's and Valentine's Day have the same number of letters in them?!

Ta Da! So easy and cute! And those blocks only cost $2.50 in the Dollar Section! Awesome! Now If I can just remember to take them out every year!

binky clips

Ok, so I've been searching for a way easy binky clip. I've bough a few, but decided not to spend ANY more money on the, - cuz I knew I could make them!

So when I found tons of suspender clips on Amazon AND that I had a credit on my account from a gift card, I jumped on it. {I found some mitten clips in the dollar section at Target, but only found 1 set! grr!}

So, cheap and easy binky clips! These clips are useable with ANY binky! I had a hard time finding a clip that would work for the Soothie binkys that Danger likes. The elastic cord fits thru and loops around any hold or ring!

What you need :
- suspender clip
- length of ribbon (I went for about 22-24 inches)
- elastic cord
- sewing machine

Ribbon and suspender clip.

Get your ribbon, fold over the edges and sew the ends in - facing the inside of the ribbon.

Now make sure when you put the clip on, the clip part is on the side you want, the outside of the ribbon.

Put your elastic between the sewn ends of the ribbon. Now I go to town and sew this bad boy up, like 20 times. Just make sure the ends are sewn together and the elastic is secured {remember, little ones are going to be tugging on this!} Don't lift the needle from the ribbon, just lift the foot and rotate the ribbon.

Sew down the edge of the ribbon, stop just short of the suspender clip, lift the foot and rotate the ribbon again, sew across the ribbon - parallel to the suspender clip, lift the foot when you get to the edge and then rotate the ribbon. Sew up the other edge of the ribbon, back to the end with the elastic.

So basically, you sew a square around the inside of the ribbon.

I love the football one I made for Danger!

suffering and crafts

So I've been missing for about a week. Shark has been sick. So work on top of school on top of sick means no ones been doing really anything but sleeping, eating and coughing.

Cuz oh yeah, I'm sick.

Yeah 3 days ago it was just a sore throat, but now its a full blown cough. Ugh.

Danger has a touch of the cough too. Humidifiers and vapor rub all around. Our house smells like a mix of Halls cough drops and eucalyptus. {spelled that one right on the 1st try!}

I'm going in today to InstaCare, to see if there's something they can give me, or hopefully to catch this before it becomes pneumonia. {spelled THAT one 1st try too!}

This weekend my sister in law and I got CostCo memberships. I love it. We might always have king size jumbo food service size containers at our house. Hmmmm we might need another fridge.

Also, my brain function hasn't returned to normal. I'm forgetting things and not remembering things off the top of my head like I used to. And it bothers me. I hate not being able to remember little things, like where something is, or all the places I need to go. Argh!!

I really wish I could watch Rachel v Guy Celebrity Cookoff. I'm watching little clips on Swagbucks TV, and I love it. Hurry Netflix, add the Food Network! Please!

My love affair with American Idol has ended. No more running around trying to spend a few minutes with it. I was only watching cuz Scott Dangerfield made it to Hollywood week again. And he made it to the Top 40, but didn't make it to the Top 24. Which I'm bummed, I think they let some people thru who shouldn't have made it. And they hardly showed him at all. Every episode, I was squinting my eyes trying to catch a glimpse of him. Hardly a glimpse at all, ever! Oh well. At least now my Wed & Thru nights are free for baseball, come April!

So our mailman is seriously afraid of our dog. Well, not just our dog, but all dogs in general. I feel bad, cuz Bandit is a scary looking dog {let's face it, if that big furry face is charging at me, yeah I'm a little freaked out.} but he is really just excited to see everything. So he runs fast, at everything. He scares kids sometimes. But he really is a sweet dog, and wouldn't intentionally hurt anyone. Oh well, I know Bandit is a good dog, but I also know he sounds scary when he barks.

I've done something crafty!! I made pacifier clips. Yeah sure you can buy them, but they are so stinking expensive. I took a piece of ribbon {I like grosgrain ribbon best, satin is fine, but hard for me to sew, satin ribbon might like you better, it doesn't like me too much...}, some elastic cord, and a suspender clip. I like the elastic cord cuz I can keep track of Danger's Soothie binky and all his other ones too!

So easy and so cute.

hair tie lollipops

Earlier this week, I was shopping around at Michael's. I was wandering, and in the baby shower section, they had these Hair Tie Lolli-pops.

Well, I have a few friends who are pregnant with girls, and while I thought these were cute, I really didn't want to pay $4 a pop! So I figured I could make them!

 I bought (2) packs of 100 hair ties each, at Dollar Tree.

 I know I could have made 1 with the pastels and 1 with the brights, but I wanted to have a mix in each lolli-pop. So I divided each 100 pack into 2 groups. There were 5 glittery hairties of each color and 5 solid of each color, so I went 2 solid and 3 glittery then 3 solid and 2 glittery.

 Then I started wrapping the hair ties around the sucker stick. I was extra careful not to PULL too tight on the hair ties, we all know if you pull too tight, the elastic breaks.

 When I felt my lolli-pop was big enough, I wrapped it in cellophane and tied it with ribbon!

At first I thought I would get 1 lolli-pop out of 1 pack of 100, but I ended up getting 2 lolli-pops out of each 100 pack! Sweet deal!!!

And so darn cute for gifts for little girls!!

birthday

So, I completely spaced (it's been that kind of month, year actually!) My brain has been missing since I got pregnant and clearly hasn't returned now that I'm no longer harboring a fugitive...

Shark had a birthday on the 5th! I went all out and made him a cake! From scratch! I can totally check off number 65 on my List! I made the cake from scratch AND the frosting from scratch!

I used Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate cake recipe. And I used the Chocolate frosting recipe at the bottom of the cake recipe. Both turned out great tasting.

I did have an oops, tho. I didn't take the cakes out the pans after they cooled a bit, so they got stuck in the pans. I shook 1 round out of its pan, but the other 2 would not budge, so I ended up scraping them into a bowl. Shark ate the cake bits with frosting and thought it was awesome. Also, I doubled the frosting recipe because it says it makes about 2 cups... and in my head, 2 cups is just not enough frosting for a cake. So I had a TON leftover frosting.

It ended up turning out pretty good. I used the cake bits and the left over frosting for my holiday Cake Balls. I love making these, they are delicious! (That'd my hand not his!)

I got Shark really big peanut butter cups! They were a 1/2 pound each! I found them in the Christmas candy aisle at Wal-Mart. Delicious!

Love to birthdays! ♥