Not a whole lot to report. Third day of all-day band camp and we're all feeling it! One of our chaperones fell in the parking lot yesterday morning and broke her finger in two places, poor thing and then one of our kids went to ER today with possible appendicitis! I cannot believe how many of these kids have knee problems and other chronic injuries. We also had a kid pass out cold yesterday afternoon. Thank goodness we have like, three parents who are nurses!
It is HOT!! And HUMID! Someone told me that this morning when they stepped on the grass it was as if it was raining up from the ground! When I got home today I got in the pool in just my undies and sports bra! My "fat girl" bathing suit just had too much material to deal with this afternoon, hahaha!
Anyway, I'll report back when I have more to say...peace ya'll!
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Friday, August 3, 2012
The Road to Indy! 8/1
Hi there my peeps! Last night we had a band parent meeting and my son's awesome high school marching band will be traveling to Indianapolis for a national competition this year! It is going to be such an INCREDIBLE experience for our son and the rest of the band! We were also informed about all of the fundraising projects we're going to attempt in an effort to make the trip as cost effective for everyone, called "The Road to Indy." One of the methods involves a competition for producing YouTube videos! This is right up my son's alley, so I will post about it when and if I can convince him to make a video.
At any rate, C and I are so excited for S (my son) and the year he's about to have! He's beginning high school and is a member of one of the best high school marching bands in the country! He's going to be making a whole new set of friends and will be academically challenged as he's never been before. He's growing up and we're so proud of him!
At any rate, C and I are so excited for S (my son) and the year he's about to have! He's beginning high school and is a member of one of the best high school marching bands in the country! He's going to be making a whole new set of friends and will be academically challenged as he's never been before. He's growing up and we're so proud of him!
Seriously at 8:00 am? 8/3
Good morning folks! I have a bit of a "vent" I need to express. If you get suckered-in to having someone come to your house and share"an exciting opportunity" with you, please DO NOT send them my way. Today I received a call at 8:00 am from a very pleasant young man named J:
Me: (inner monologue) hmmm, doesn't ring any bells. Mind you, he has woken me up from a dead sleep.
J: Have K and R had a chance to let you know I'd be calling?
Me: (inner monologue) uh oh. "Umm, no they haven't."
J: <chuckles> Oh, I guess I beat them to it. I'd like to speak with you about a project I'm working on.
Now, at this point I'm still not fully awake and since he mentioned being a student I'm thinking "whats he selling? Magazines? Newspapers? Is this a survey? and then a little light of recognition begins to glow somewhere in my brain and an image of a text on my iPhone appears. It's from the afore mentioned "K" regarding a nice kid who would be calling, etc. and then the name "Cutco" appeared in my head. Cutco kitchen knives. And so began the dance of trying to gently tell this nice young man I'm not interested, I don't want you at my house, and never call here again while he assures me he only needs 30 minutes of my time, etc. etc. Of course every fiber of my being just wants to say, "sure, come on over tomorrow!" in order not to hurt the kid's feelings, but then I envision the look on C's (my husband) face irritated as all hell and saying "are your friggin' kidding me? So I stuck to my guns and refused to set up an appointment to hear about knives that I don't need. During this conversation, C has walked out of the bathroom and is trying to figure out who I'm on the phone with. When I told him, I still got "the face" with a "seriously? And he calls you at 8:00 am?"
Ugh.
Me: (inner monologue) hmmm, doesn't ring any bells. Mind you, he has woken me up from a dead sleep.
J: Have K and R had a chance to let you know I'd be calling?
Me: (inner monologue) uh oh. "Umm, no they haven't."
J: <chuckles> Oh, I guess I beat them to it. I'd like to speak with you about a project I'm working on.
Now, at this point I'm still not fully awake and since he mentioned being a student I'm thinking "whats he selling? Magazines? Newspapers? Is this a survey? and then a little light of recognition begins to glow somewhere in my brain and an image of a text on my iPhone appears. It's from the afore mentioned "K" regarding a nice kid who would be calling, etc. and then the name "Cutco" appeared in my head. Cutco kitchen knives. And so began the dance of trying to gently tell this nice young man I'm not interested, I don't want you at my house, and never call here again while he assures me he only needs 30 minutes of my time, etc. etc. Of course every fiber of my being just wants to say, "sure, come on over tomorrow!" in order not to hurt the kid's feelings, but then I envision the look on C's (my husband) face irritated as all hell and saying "are your friggin' kidding me? So I stuck to my guns and refused to set up an appointment to hear about knives that I don't need. During this conversation, C has walked out of the bathroom and is trying to figure out who I'm on the phone with. When I told him, I still got "the face" with a "seriously? And he calls you at 8:00 am?"
Ugh.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Keep On Truckin'...or Thank You Google Maps!
So here's what's been going on this Summer in a nutshell. We've been in the van...a lot.
We moved from the West side of O-town to the East side of O-town which doesn't sound like a big difference, but it is...a one hour one way difference...a one hour one way four times a day difference...a one hour one way four times a day for a month difference! That's a lot of van time! We're in the process of short-selling our home, a process which taken almost two years and we still haven't closed on the deal. We moved already because we were supposed to close at the end of May. F.Y.I. "supposed to" is a four-letter word. So we drove an hour one way four times a day for the last month of school.
We also continued to shuttle the kids to music lessons, 8th grade celebrations, Girl Scouts, and attended our son's end of the year concerts, all of which were in Apopka.
For Father's Day, we spent a weekend with friends in Ft. Myers
In addition, my son attends band camp at FSU every Summer, GO 'NOLES! This year since he's going into high school, the camp lasted two weeks, i.e. the hubs and I drove four hours one way to Tallahassee and back three weekends in a row as there was a performance after both the first and second weeks of camp.
O
Meanwhile our daughter was attending an art and drama day camp for three hours/day for 5 weeks. They did a production of "The Wiz." Wait, "Ease On Down the Road?" Maybe that should have been the title of this post. Anyway, luckily, her camp was located just a few miles from our rental home.
However, in mid-July we traveled with the F.L.P. to West Palm Beach for our annual Dave Matthews Band Weekend! They didn't tour last year, so bada bada hoo hoo!
We moved from the West side of O-town to the East side of O-town which doesn't sound like a big difference, but it is...a one hour one way difference...a one hour one way four times a day difference...a one hour one way four times a day for a month difference! That's a lot of van time! We're in the process of short-selling our home, a process which taken almost two years and we still haven't closed on the deal. We moved already because we were supposed to close at the end of May. F.Y.I. "supposed to" is a four-letter word. So we drove an hour one way four times a day for the last month of school.
We also continued to shuttle the kids to music lessons, 8th grade celebrations, Girl Scouts, and attended our son's end of the year concerts, all of which were in Apopka.
For Father's Day, we spent a weekend with friends in Ft. Myers
In addition, my son attends band camp at FSU every Summer, GO 'NOLES! This year since he's going into high school, the camp lasted two weeks, i.e. the hubs and I drove four hours one way to Tallahassee and back three weekends in a row as there was a performance after both the first and second weeks of camp.
OMeanwhile our daughter was attending an art and drama day camp for three hours/day for 5 weeks. They did a production of "The Wiz." Wait, "Ease On Down the Road?" Maybe that should have been the title of this post. Anyway, luckily, her camp was located just a few miles from our rental home.
However, in mid-July we traveled with the F.L.P. to West Palm Beach for our annual Dave Matthews Band Weekend! They didn't tour last year, so bada bada hoo hoo!
And finally this past weekend the hubs and I schlepped down to South Beach (in Miami) for his 20 year high school reunion. Go Cobras!
Needless to say, we won't be going anywhere anytime soon! :)
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Just Another Manic Monday
I've decided to post on "the crazy"since that really does seem to be what makes the most sense to me. How's that for a wacky concept. So, let me start by telling you about my day yesterday. Now, the process I'm about to describe to you lovely readers is supposed to be a weekly event. You may understand why it doesn't alway happen after hearing it.
In an effort to save time, money, and keep my family healthy, I like to plan a weekly menu based on:
1) the weekly sale items at our local grocery 2)"pool" of a month's worth of recipes my family likes
3) coupons. Here's our menu board thanks to one of the genius' on Pinterest.com:
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| There's a clothespin for each day and they hold a meal card. The pockets on the right hold the rest of the 30+ "pool" of recipes; bottom: meals not yet made this month, top: meals already made this month. |
Here are close-ups of the meal cards:
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| The meal is on one side |
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| The shopping list (minus staples I have on hand) is on the other side |
Then I choose meal cards from the bottom pocket on our menu board that use food items that are on sale and make my grocery list. I also check to see if there are any staples we're low on or out of in the fridge/pantry as well as toiletries and cleaning supplies.
Once I have my list, I try to find coupons for those items only. I subscribe to couponmom.com
They will send you lists of sale items for your local store(s) including Target! (you must hear this in your head like the Target lady from SNL. If you have no idea what I'm referring to, go here).
Next, I search the "coupon database" on coupon mom.com to find coupons for items that aren't on sale. Now, you may be asking yourself "where are you getting the coupons themselves?" Well, I sometimes use printable coupons, but I mainly use coupons from the newspaper. I subscribe to our Sunday paper, save the coupon books with the date I received them written with a Sharpie marker, and file them in order by month in a large poly expandable file. The sale/coupon lists on coupon mom.com will tell you which coupon book to look in by title and date received to clip only the coupon(s) you're going to use immediately. That's right, I don't sit for hours clipping coupons anymore! There are detailed descriptions and instructional videos on how to "coupon" all over the internet, including couponmom.com. Depending on how organized I am this process can take anywhere from an hour to an entire morning as it did yesterday. By the time I had my list and "coupons for today"ready to go, it was lunch time. ALWAYS eat BEFORE going grocery shopping!! So I finally get to the store with my list (in order of the aisles at my store), and my envelope labeled "Today's Coupons"on my mini clipboard, and my bin of reuseable grocery bags. Yes, I have a bin for my bags and yes, my husband makes fun of me, but the cashiers and bag boys think I'm awesome so <pppbbbbllllttttt> on you, hubs! Here's a pic of my bin, which keeps my bags organized and helps me remember them!
While my prep took a long time the actual shopping trip went very quickly, making the prep worth it. Plus, I now have everything I need to make our lunches and meals for the whole week without having to figure-out what I'm making each night. I'm not a huge fan of cooking and not having a plan is the number one reason we end-up dining out so often. Which of course means lots of extra fat and calories and lots of cash spent. NOT buenos!
The rest of my afternoon consisted of the "post shopping" debacle of putting the groceries away. In my slightly OCD/Monica from "Friends"method, this does not mean simply putting cold stuff in the fridge and everything else in the pantry. While this IS essentially what I do, I am addicted to (in addition to several other useful, but expensive products) Tupperware. Most of my pantry is organized using Tupperware's Modular Mates (can you hear the choir?) and I use their "Fridge Smart" containers for fresh fruits and vegetables in the fridge.
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| Fridge Smart |
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| Modular Mates |
I also try to cut up/store fresh fruits and veggies in an easy-to-grab fashion to encourage healthy snacking. These are, of course, stored in other various Tupperware containers :) You would be surprised at how long it can take to transfer dry goods, and fresh food into afore mentioned containers.
By the time that step is complete, its time to start dinner. Yesterday the hubs happily grilled our salmon so all I had to do was prep/season the fish and steam some fresh veggies to go with it...whew! Then there's making sure our kid(s) get cleaned-up and in bed at a reasonable hour and MAYBE a while to "pin" on pinterest.com and watch some t.v. This particular day I went to bed pretty late, but got up at 3:30 to take my parents to the airport. Luckily we didn't have anything planned early on Tuesday so I was able to come home and go back to bed for a little while. Tired yet? Yeah, me too :)
Let's Try This Again!
Hello! So, this is my third time attempting to start a blog. I'm a stay at home mom (SAHM) of two amazing kids and have been married to my husband and best friend for almost 15 years! I'm still trying to figure out what the subject of this blog will be. I have my hand in so many activities on a weekly basis that it is tough for me to narrow it down to one topic. I have many interests and not enough time to spend on any of them.
*I'm on the PTA for my daughter's elementary school. I volunteer in the classroom there as well as volunteering as a chaperone our son's high school band :) I'm very grateful for being able to be involved with my kids' schools. It's something I aways wished my Mom could have done more, so I'm trying to do it for my kids.
*I love making cards and paper crafting as well as baking and various other crafts as the mood strikes #pinterest#obsessed#need therapy!
*I'm a lover of art (I have my B.A. in Renaissance Art History), music, movies, and some t.v.
*I would love to go back to school for my Master's in an effort to actually use my degree.
*I'm on a never-ending path of struggling to try to lose weight and become "ok" with myself.
*I've been trying to live and eat greener. Which really does take some time!
*I TRY to run our household, but don't take enough time to do so well.
*My wonderful family lives near us, so we try to see them when we can AND we have our chosen family of friends, "the F.L.P." that we don't get to see nearly enough even though we all make a concerted effort to do so.
Can you see how confusing it is for me to try to choose a topic? And like every other woman, all of these interests/concerns barely scratch the surface of the cacophony in my head at any given moment! So, do choose one of these or do I attempt to journal "the crazy?" (That's how my "besties" and I lovingly refer to our messes referring to any of the following: our lives as wives and mothers, our children, our marriage, our house, etc.)
*I'm on the PTA for my daughter's elementary school. I volunteer in the classroom there as well as volunteering as a chaperone our son's high school band :) I'm very grateful for being able to be involved with my kids' schools. It's something I aways wished my Mom could have done more, so I'm trying to do it for my kids.
*I love making cards and paper crafting as well as baking and various other crafts as the mood strikes #pinterest#obsessed#need therapy!
*I'm a lover of art (I have my B.A. in Renaissance Art History), music, movies, and some t.v.
*I would love to go back to school for my Master's in an effort to actually use my degree.
*I'm on a never-ending path of struggling to try to lose weight and become "ok" with myself.
*I've been trying to live and eat greener. Which really does take some time!
*I TRY to run our household, but don't take enough time to do so well.
*My wonderful family lives near us, so we try to see them when we can AND we have our chosen family of friends, "the F.L.P." that we don't get to see nearly enough even though we all make a concerted effort to do so.
Can you see how confusing it is for me to try to choose a topic? And like every other woman, all of these interests/concerns barely scratch the surface of the cacophony in my head at any given moment! So, do choose one of these or do I attempt to journal "the crazy?" (That's how my "besties" and I lovingly refer to our messes referring to any of the following: our lives as wives and mothers, our children, our marriage, our house, etc.)
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