A Pocket for your pocket

Feeding a toddler isn’t always the easiest thing. In the morning rush of getting ready for work, getting him ready for school and trying to get us all out the door in time leaves no time to make breakfast. Before we changed daycares I honestly didn’t know what kind of breakfast he was getting; a bottle and banana in the car could have truly been the extent of his meal until snack. Thankfully now I have a copy of his weekly menu from school and know he gets a full 2 meals and 2 snacks a day. When I came across these Peanut Butter Pockets on http://www.anotherlunch.com/ blog I knew they would be perfect. My favorite part of the post was that they could be frozen and quickly thawed out for the quickest sandwich possible. I love that he can enjoy one in the morning walking around the house or in the shopping cart at Target on a Saturday afternoon. I’ve modified her recipe and find them to be perfect to toddlers and adults.



What you need:
1 can Pillsbury Grand’s biscuit (8 count) *
Peanut butter
Jelly (we use strawberry) **


Preheat oven according to directions on rolls.
Take a round biscuit and roll it out flat; I would say a 4 inch diameter works great.
Then take a scoop of peanut butter and spread on half the biscuit; make sure you don’t spread all the way to the edge. Depending on what age group you’re making them for use ½ TBS for a smaller child and 1 TBS for yourself.
Then do the same with the jelly; I normally do a little less jelly because it can get very runny and cause mass filling explosions on your pan.
The next step in VERY important; fold in half and press sealed. (When I say press I mean message the edges together so they form one- don’t just fork it down! When the biscuit expand they are likely to come open and start the jelly explosion if they are not sealed tight! ).
Repeat the steps for the remaining 7 rolls and then place in the oven for 10-15 minuets, depending on oven and how crispy you like the outside. Make sure they cool before feeding to your toddler or lodging halfway back into your throat and having a filling explosion leave burn marks on the roof of your mouth the rest of the weekend.
I like to freeze them as soon as they’ve cooled to keep their freshness. I take one out at a time and microwave 10-25 seconds, again, test the temperature before hanging to a toddler.


* I recently used the multi grain biscuit and they are great! Slightly sweet and really compliments the filling.
** You could get fancy and use a blackberry preserve and eat them in bed with your husband on a Saturday morning.

Straight Swaggin'

After briefly scanning old blogs I noticed I’ve never mentioned Swag Bucks, or at least I can’t find where I did! Anyways I’m sure as it is becoming more popular a lot of you have heard of it but if you haven’t let me break it down real simply: you use their website like you would Google to search stuff, the more you search the more “bucks” you get, after you get so many “bucks” you can redeem them for prizes like Amazon gift cards, ect. My favorite feature is the toolbar I place in my regular internet window; that way when I want to search something I can type it in right there without having to redirect to their home page. The best part about the tool bar is I get “bucks” just for signing in and using my toolbar. Sometimes when you’re searching a little note will come up saying “Congrats you’ve won 15 swag bucks” and then you keep on searching like nothing ever happened. It adds up all your bucks and keeps the total for you so you know when you’re getting close to prizes you’ve been eyeing. My favorite would be the Amazon gift card because you can buy whatever you want on Amazon; I would use it for the Kindle store and stock up books! Anyways the more you explore the more you find ways to earn and the more free stuff you can get! Just click on this little linky and it will take you right where you need to go! Happy Swaggering!

It's only teenage wasteland

My favorite part of this long holiday weekend was Monday morning. I rolled over to daylight hitting my face and checked the clock, 8:15am. I listened out for a chatting baby but heard nothing so I dosed back to sleep. 9am rolled around and I couldn’t stop tossing and turning; I laid with my eyes open in disbelief the house was still silent. With To-Do list scrolling through my brain of every corner I was going to clean I had to get up and get started. Davy woke up from all my moving around and he decided to get up with me, both still is disbelief Moses wasn’t awake. I begged Davy to go check his breathing status (because all moms instantly feel their baby is lying dead in their cribs if they oversleep, right?) and sure enough he was sound asleep, still breathing. I headed for the playroom to fold the Mt. Everest clothes pile and Davy got the mower going before the sun got too hot. And then I folded, and waited, and folded, and waited. 10am comes and goes, 10:30 comes and goes, and finally at 10:40am I heard chattering. For a baby who normally sleeps 8pm-7am I was stunned that my baby had morphed into a teenager overnight. I open his bedroom door and there he is, standing up leaning over the railing smiling at me. The diaper wasn’t overflowing, the passies weren’t thrown all over the room, just my miniature teenager finally deciding to wake his sleepy head up. This morning also marked a special day in Moses’ year, it was his half birthday! Officially closer to a two year old than a one year old; I thought it couldn’t have been more appropriate that an 18 month old decided to act like an 18 year old.

This sums up my teenager: sitting on the dining room chairs like he owns the room, playing on his laptop (which only makes noise but he swears if he moves the mouse something special is happening) and that stare. Oh that share is saying "Mom, please stop taking my picture, I'M BUSY". But the passey helps me float back down to reality, thank the lord!

I'll hopefully update this post later in the week if I can sift through the 50 family pictures we took and see if any of them turned out! In the meantime, enjoy lots of coffee, 50 e-mails, and work up to your eyeballs today!

Update: a FEW pictures from Memorial Day- I know, waaay late!

O hey babe! Yeah, I know, I'm sweating from the heat too!

This is what happens when babies grow into kids and they no long fall for the peak a boo camera trips they once fell for. "Aunt Caroline....we're OVER this!"

We thought we created a pretty festive flag :)

And MY friends think I'm a nut...*cough*

Fluffy Bunzy Fluffy Bunzy

W Baby #2 is already has an opinion and whispering tiny suggestions in my ear; the first one being cloth diapering. If you’re not a mom or like saving money and the environment go ahead and stop reading right now- you’re going to hate this post! I am constantly on the internet reading blogs and product reviews and this one specific topic keeps getting throw in my face; cloth diapering. At first I thought “hippy/ weird/ stupid/ poo everywhere no thanks” but then I actually started to read the post and articles and even visited a few diaper sites.I was so surprised to see how far they’re come from a white napkin with huge safety pins to ultra absorbent (cute) diapers that you can reuse! At first I was lost in the world of brands and style and material and absorbency but found some great web sites that broke it down for us Pamper lovin’ moms. Cotton Babies creates a few of these new awesome diapers including Bum Genius which is my new personal favorite. Shoot they even have all-in-one one-size-fits-all styles that are perfect for Grandma or daycare. After finding some I like (well think that I and W Baby #2 could potentially like) I started browsing prices; holy moly was my first reaction. Did you say twenty five dollars for ONE diaper? Wait a minuet; doesn’t a newborn need their diaper changed like, ten times a day? And won’t they need five different sizes as they get older like I’m used to? Most people probably have the same reaction that’s why I was able to find many charts that crunched the numbers for you. Thankfully most brands sell the diapers in discounted bulks and surprisingly most sites say if you are using the one-size-fits-all style you’ll need anywhere from 15-24 diapers for their diaper wearin’ lives! So with the bulk discount 24 diapers sits somewhere around $500, plus some extras (like stink proof on the go bags and extra liners for nighttime) were looking at close to $600. Here comes the reaction again, holy cow that’s a lot of moo-la. Then I looked at the disposable diaper column on the chart (they were smart enough to place cloth and disposable prices side by side so idiots like me could get the picture quicker) and those bad boys rack up to $20-$30 a pack. I tried to do an estimate in my head but I’m guessing we’ve already spent close to $1000 throwing away diapers within the last 18 months and project he’ll be in diapers for another six months at least! That’s at least $1500! Not only is it going to be saving us $1000 it will help reduce the amount of garage that sits in our local landfills. I have not completely sold the idea to Davy or myself but it really gave me something to think about; and plus we have a looong time to figure it out!

Wiggle Wiggle to loose this Jiggle!

I walked out to my car Tuesday night and my legs were shaking, I tried to walk down the stairs Wednesday and my legs were hurting, I was sitting on the floor and tried to get up and my legs felt like they are about to give; all because I’m exercising! I am one credit hour short of graduating so instead of sitting in a classroom hearing about politics I decided to take a two nights a week aerobics class. I was excited at the potential of being forced to attend class to work out. The first day I was skeptical of how much “exercise” we would actually be doing; with a room full of all different sizes and shapes I assumed they would go easy on us so everyone could participate…not the case! My buff, dreaded, twenty-something-year-old instructor laid out the expectations within the first 15 minuets and if you weren’t ready to sweat you needed to leave. The class has dwindled in size which makes it easier to get one on one eye contact and enough room to throw your weights down at the end of a long pump. I love that he pushed me to my limits, something the treadmill or the Real Housewives of New York wouldn’t do for me at home. I am committed to attend every class and give it my all, even if I’m the white girl with the post baby belly jiggling out of my shirt during jumping jacks.

My sister had a convertable once.

One time my sister should have died. She was in her car driving home when a semi truck in front of her stopped and she didn’t see it; she slammed on her breaks and swerved to the right but the car still caught the corning on its backside. I remember sitting at work when I got the phone call from my mom. It was one of those phone calls when you recognize the number and pick up the receiver chipper only to hear the panic in the voice on the other end. I’ll never forget the day my Great Aunt Ruthie called and quietly asked to speak with my mom; it was New Years Day and I asked if she was enjoying the new year only to be answered with “ I need to speak with you mom”. I bounced into her room and handed her the phone in bed only to watch her face drop and hear the shriek in her voice as she screamed “No” in response to finding out her dad passed away the night before. That day in my cubical my mom was slow to speak and crying; “Mom what happened?” was the fastest thing that could jump out of my throat. Before she could even speak tears welled up in my eyes; when someone answers the phone crying and can’t even talk the news has to be bad and if they took the time to call you while still crying you know it’s because you’re about to cry too.


“Your sister was in a car accident?”


Now at this point I’m crying because hearing the news your blood related, Barbie doll sharing, punk of an older sister was in a car accident life was about to fall apart quick.


“Is she okay” I mustered out.


“They are taking her to the hospital now”
“Who’s taking her?”
“The ambulance”


And then something clicked in my head; my sister has two kids who are with her at every moment of her day…..which means they would have been with her in the car…. “Mom, what about the kids”? Silence. “MOM”? It was the yell of hope. “They’re fine, they’re with me”. Out of all the days in the year the kids happen to be staying with my mom so my sister could “hurry and run some errands”.
The hours progressed and eventually found out she was doing okay at the hospital. And by okay I mean great. And by great I mean an absolute miracle happened when she looked up and realized she was about the run into a semi truck. She later said she just felt like she should lean her head right and she did in perfect timing; the right edge of the back on the semi smashed into her windshield, hooked onto the car, and literally peeled the roof of the car backwards. Seeing pictures of the totaled car you wouldn’t expect anyone to survive that. In small moments like seeing a rainbow driving down the highway or getting the last good parking space at the mall you know God is real; but when you’re sister should have been decapitated and she walks out of the hospital that day with a few bruises you know God is incredible.

The after shots taken at the junk yard

Perfect way to be thankful.

Obviously Eclipse is the only thing on my mind today but if you want a good read check this out:


http://chroniclesofamonster-in-law.blogspot.com/

One of my girlfriends at work seriously has the craziest mother in law of all time! Once she started telling me little stories here and there I practically begged she turn it into a blog so all of us with non-crazy mother in law’s can appreciate the little things in life. She is just starting out so there are limited post but I recommend following her because the stories are far from over! She is a super sweet girl and if you think she is being mean or exaggerating, nope, she is just telling it like it is (and chose to protect her identity so MIL doesn’t turn Ax murderer)!