Jan-Feb in Fast Forward

Here is the speed version of some of the highlights from the past 7ish weeks.

1) Reese and Quincy finally saved up $30 and earned their long-awaited trip to Build a Bear. They were so proud of their accomplishment and told pretty much every person in the store that they raised baby chicks, took care of them, and sold the extra eggs once a week. I love that they paid for the experience with their own money. The girls are eager to feed the hens and gather and wash the eggs every day now that they have a physical reminder that hard work brings great rewards. Here they are in the store, flashing their cash around like gangstas. It was super tacky and totally awesome.

Quincy chose an obnoxious hot pink valentine kitty to stuff and named her Emma.
Reese chose a white puppy with a red heart patch over the eye and named him Pupcake.
Corbin fell in love with every animal in the store and filled an entire basket with treasures.

I had a coupon and we paid for Corbin to make a little brown dog named Puppy.

2) Aaron and I went on a date to see Hairspray at the Rogers Little Theater. The show was great...mostly because of Aaron's coworker. Kalisha is a Planner for Walmart by day, but a highly talented singer, dancer and actress by night! She played Motormouth Maybelle and one of her solos was given a standing ovation in the middle of the show. She is amazing. Aaron and I both love live theater, but it is even more enjoyable when you know a member of the cast. This was our first time to the RLT and we will definitely go back. Great job, Kalisha!

3) Preschool was great and busy as always

4) This one is a highlight for the kids, but was definitely a lowlight for me. We Bunny-Sat for a couple weeks. The children fell in love with having regular access to a furry pet. I learned that bunnies smell absolutely terrible and threw up every time I went into the garage. Our friends picked up their sweet bunny during naptime, so now Corbin is confused and still looks for the bunny cage in the garage every time we go out to the car, and says, "Oh no! The bunny's gone, Mom!" and occasionally searches for her in the yard when we're playing outside. Asia (the bunny) was very spoiled with hay and carrots (and a few Little People) stuffed into her cage during her visit here and the children loved taking care of her.

5) We wore a lot of pajamas and ate a lot of pizza and takeout

6) We discovered Mario Kart, Skeeball and the sushi chop game on the Wii

7) We had our first snow day and the kids spent an entire day putting their little snow bunny suits on, playing in the backyard, then coming in and taking them off, warming up with hot cocoa, then putting thier suits back on again. I loved that it was warm enough for them to actually enjoy the weather and spend a good amount of time playing in the snow without freezing. Usually when it snows here, it is so cold they only last a couple minutes outside. We didn't get a ton of snow, and it melted after one day, but that day was a good one, especially for Reese, who loves snow so much she prayed for it to come before winter ended.

Aaron pulled Corbin all over the yard in this little inflatable sled.

A Crappy Day. Literally.

Little miss thing still hasn't passed her quarter.

I might have freaked out a little and taken her in for xrays to make sure it wasn't stuck inside her somewhere.

$100 ER visit---check!

exposure to radiation---check!

$fazillion xrays---check!

Just as everyone predicted, I paid a ton of cheddar to have a doctor tell us to go home and wait it out. But I figure, there's always that ONE case. You know, the one where the quarter gets lodged in the esophagus or whatever and has to be surgically removed. The one case where the kid has a terrible allergic reaction to the foreign object they swallowed. I don't want to be the "one case" and wish I had done more to help my daughter.

So we had xrays done, I paid through the roof, and now I have some peace of mind.

You just can't put a price tag on that. Not when it's your baby girl.

Annnnnnnnd there it is! It's in her colon and the ER doc said it should be out in 24-48 hours.

That was 7 days ago.


I've sifted through some serious [expletive] over the past few days.

It was really really gross. Especially since poor Quincy heard the ER doc say it was probably going to hurt to pass the quarter...so she decided to "hold it in" until she couldn't hold it any longer.


My girl has some iron will. Or should I say "nickel will"? "copper will"?
Whatev, she managed to hold it in for 5 days.
TMI? Probably.


And we still have no quarter. She's like a little money pit...the cash goes in, but it isn't coming out.

But during my little treasure hunt, I had to laugh. THIS is motherhood.
Any of you women out there that are expecting your first child, don't read that "What to Expect" nonsense...drive over to the ER. That's where you see the real mothers.

The mother on the phone with the insurance company, trying to settle a crazy bill that wasn't covered for who knows why.

The mother digging into the depths of her bag, desperately trying to find a stray fruity snack or stick ot gum to buy her another 10 minutes of peace while stuck in a waiting room with antsy children.

The mother holding a bowl while her son pukes in it.

The mother being wheeled out to her car with a yummy newborn in her arms. Awwww sweet. Wait, why is she in a wheelchair? 45 minutes of stitches and 2 ice packs, that's why. Maybe a broken tailbone, cracked ribs, or a herniated disc.

The mother that rushes in holding her daughter's teeth in place under a bag of ice.

So yeah, I laughed out loud as I became aware of my one arm in the toilet bowl, and the other holding a toddler on my lap to keep his hands out, and the third child yacking in the corner because she inherited her mother's gag reflex and toilet diving is the epitome of gag worthy tasks.


And then there is Little Q, just standing by, exhilerated, clapping, giggling, and asking,

"Hey, did you find it, Mommy? Can I keep the money?"


They are totally helpless without us, aren't they?
I am totally helpless without them.

I love being a mother.

I Chose My Love and I Love My Choice

For the past few years, I have been saving.
About a year and a half ago, I really started saving.
Cash.
In an envelope. Stashed.


I wanted to surprise Aaron on our 10th Wedding Anniversary with a vacation fund. I know you probably think it is totally lame and unsentimental to give my husband CASH for our Anniversary, but it isn't like that, at all.


It's an act of love, as all $2915 that I have saved, so far, has not come out of a paycheck.
It isn't money that I just moved from one bank account to another and it isn't from my preschool, either. It is cash I have saved from babysitting, our summer garage sale, birthday money, etc.

{See that, HolleeAnn? "never underestimate the power of small change. Cha-ching!" hahaha}

It is one thing to have money in your account. But that money has been spoken for.
Budgeted for living expenses, college funds, retirement, food, new car, whatever. We have a vacation fund. This will just be like icing on the cake and mean we can do extra fun things on that vacation.

"This is found money, Jerry!" -George Costanza

I also had a plan that the money that I end up saving by using cloth diapers would be deposited monthly and added to this little fund. Cuz that way, when Aaron asked 'where all the cash came from', I could honestly tell him 'it is a reward for all the $#!t I have had to deal with!'


So yeah, I have a money stash.
I also realize that this makes me sound a little bit like a granny-with-getaway-cash-under-her-mattress, but whatever.

I wanted it to be a surprise, and if it went into the bank, it wouldn't be.

And weird, tacky, unsentimental, lame, crazy, or not...wouldn't YOU love for someone to give you $1000?

I thought so.

Unfortunately, 5 months early, my Big Secret came cRaShInG dOwN last night, when I was foolishly adding some money from babysitting yesterday to the stash while Aaron was home.

(Do you see where this is going?)

Since I knew I was getting close to my $3000 goal, I (again, foolishly) decided to count it.

(Don't do it, Meg! Don't count the money!)

There I was, counting out the bills, like a little kid does when she is saving up for a new toy, when in walks Aaron.

And I am standing there with an armfull of money.

I think he thought I was planning to run away, or something.

BUSTED.

Happy Anniversary, My Love.

He loves my unsentimental, lame, thrifty, crazy-paranoid-granny of a gift, and we looked at a map and, like we often do, we started talking about where we are going to go on our Big Trip.
And more than the actual gift, he was surprised by my ability to keep it a secret for so long.


He decided it wasn't fair for him to be the only one receiving an early present, and told me he bought tickets for us to go see this, on Saturday!


I LOVE this musical. Can't wait! I hope the roads are clear enough by Saturday to get to Fayetteville!
Happy (Early) Anniversary to him.
Happy (Early) Valentine's Day to me.

Cloth Diapering Day #1/60

Whoa! Baby got BACK!

How HUGE is that diaper booty? It's like a regular diaper that's been in a swimming pool and is now swollen to maximum capacity.

It's still pretty cute.

Here he is practicing his Heisman.

Impossible to get a still photo.

That face is so naughty, it kills me.

This kid is soooo cute.

All the time.

Even more so in his rocket ship diaper.

I can do this for 60 days.
I can do this for 60 days.

Cuz after 60 days...it's money in my pocket.

Recycle

I have wasted a small fortune on plastic baggies since Reese started school.

You can only fit so many plastic reusable containers into thermal lunch bag. I recently restocked my baggie supply and discovered that I had spent $9 on plastic bags. $9 freaking dollars! What a waste! I know they hold a purpose and all, but $9?

But I just can't live without the convenience. At least, I don't think I can...and I don't want to. It is absolute torture when I really need a ziplock bag and don't have one available.

I still feel like I threw $9 away.

While all of this was on my mind, I was reading a book about a pioneer, and it described her wrapping contents of her lunch (jerky, nuts, slice of pie, etc) in brown paper, or fabric napkins.

I'm not about to put a piece of pie in a napkin.

But it did help me to look around and think about what I would do if ziplocks weren't available.

I didn't discover some superb alternative.

But I did find that I'd been throwing away even more than $9 worth of plastic bags.

A lot of the food we buy already comes in a plastic bag or container.

bread

apples

oranges

bagels

butter

cool whip

english muffins

A lot of people already think to reuse plastic containers, but why not reuse plastic bags, too? I'm not about to wash and reuse something 100x, or save the bag my frozen chicken came in, but why not shake the bread crumbs from the breadbag and fill it with something else, at least once? That's one bag I don't have to buy.

My favorite re-usable so far, is the tortilla bag.

We eat a lot of tortillas, and they come in a ziplock bag.

Tortilla crumbs have been shaken out, and now the bag is keeping the leftover white bread from going stale.

Look around your house and see what containers can be reused for another purpose before they get tossed or recycled.

Do you reuse or repurpose something in your house? Tell us about it.