The End

Alright y'all (like how I went Paula Deen on ya?) I've decided I'm no longer going to try and string together any kind of blog here anymore. I just can't get myself to write and when I feel like it, I honestly have nothing to say. :-( So, here it is - the end of my blog. It was fun while it lasted, but I just don't have it in me anymore.

Thanks for reading when I did write. It was great to have you as a reader!

WFMW :: Disposal with a twist.

Did you know that a cut-up lemon or orange ground up in your garbage disposal can freshen it up? I don't remember where I learned this trick but I remembered it one day when I thought my disposal smelled a little... uh, iffy. I had some oranges in the fridge, cut one up and threw it in the disposal (with the water on, of course) and whaddaya know? Disposal that smells as good as it possibly can. No more stinky garbage disposal! So, if you find that yours stinks - toss a cut up lemon or orange in there and it'll do the trick!

Want some more awesome tips? Head on over to We Are That Family!

Works for me Wednesday:: CDs for $1!

Recently David and I have discovered what great gems you can find in the CD's clearence section of Half Price Books. Sometimes it takes quite a while to find things since you have to flip through everything, but it's worth it. David will go to HPB for like a half an hour and come home after only spending $15 and he'll have 13 new CDs. There are lots of CDs in there for $2 and $3 as well, but the $1 are the best finds! He found a brand new, never opened Imagination Movers for $1. He also found The Laurie Berkner Band DVD Audio for $1. He thought it was a cd and then found out (after purchasing) that it was a DVD and was bummed becuase he thought it was a cd but then we discovered the kids actually LOVE the DVD.  

If you have a Half Price Books near you I definitely recommend heading in and checking out their CD selection, you never know what you might find.

For more great tips, head on over to We Are That Family.

Speaking of tuning in

As part of National Baby Safety Month, my friend Missy (from The Marketing Mama) is going to be on the Fox 9 Morning News (which by the way, is my favorite morning news station!) this Wednesday, the 16th, at 9 a.m. She'll be sharing her reviews of the featured products with everyone! Missy will also have the products featured on her blog (I'm assuming afterwards) but you should totally check her out when she airs!

If you haven't "met" Missy yet, take a moment and head on over to her blog. I promise you'll like her; she's a really cool and smart lady.

p.s. I just wanted to add - I'm excited that I will be one person that may soon be able to say, "I knew her before she got famous!"

Are you tuning in?

Ever since I can remember I have always been so excited for the new fall TV lineup. It seems every year my list gets shorter and shorter of shows I'm looking forward to. Oh well, I have two kids, a husband and school to attend - I don't really have much time for TV anyways... especially because we don't have Tivo or a DVR. Some shows I can catch first run but sometimes (if a show is aired on a Mon-Thu night) I have to watch it at a re-run, online or OnDemand.

This fall I'm looking forward to:
Brothers & Sisters - Premieres on ABC on Sunday, September 27 at 9pm
The Biggest Loser - Premieres on NBC on Tuesday, September 15 at 7pm
Dexter - Premieres on Showtime Sunday, September 27 at 8pm (wish I had Showtime for this one!)
Community - Premieres on NBC Thursday, September 17 at 8:30pm
The Office - Premieres on NBC Thursday, September 17 at 8pm

Continuing to watch:
Top Chef: Airs on Bravo Wednesday nights at 9pm.
Househusbands of Hollywood: Airs on Fox Reality Saturday nights at 8pm.

Waiting for:
Big Love on HBO
Nip/Tuck on FX

What shows are you looking forward to this fall?

Since you've been gone.....

...Er, actually, since I'VE been gone a lot has happened. Obviously it would take me forever and a day to update everything that we've done in the last 3 months, so I'll give you the quick rundown.

• I got another tattoo! Well, it's technically two (one on each shoulder) but I say one. It's a pair of swallows. I got them for the kids. Swallows represent loyalty and pride. They always come back home and I would like to think that I am home to Graycen and Parker.

• We got family pictures done by Emily Schnick, who happens to be an old friend of David's family. It was sort of a One Year birthday shoot for Parker/family picture day. We went down to Hidden Falls in Highland Park and Emily shot our pictures. She did a FANTASTIC job! You should go check her out!


• Parker turned one! Woo hoo and Boo Hoo all at the same time. My little baby is officially a toddler now and it's such a bittersweet moment. He started walking about a month after his birthday and now he's all over the place.

• Parker was officially diagnosed with food allergies. After a scary discovery that he was allergic to peanuts (I had to call 9-1-1 even) we had the allergy testing done again. Turns out he is allergice to peanuts, eggs and soy.  We now have to be very aware of what he eats and always carry around EpiPens. I'll write more on this one later.
• Our sweet niece, Ava Mae, was born to my little brother, Zach and his fiancee, Emma on June 28. She is absolutely adorable!
• Graycen went and spent the weekend up north with Grandma, Grandpa and Buttons. Now, Buttons is their dog and while up there those two created such a bond. She sure loves that puppy. This was her first time away from home so it was pretty rough on myself, David and Parker. Parker was so grumpy and whiney the whole time she was gone. Poor guy missed his sister. She had a great time though! There's another trip in the works, we'll just see when it will be!

• We made a trip to Como Zoo and the kids enjoyed it like they always do!

• As a family we went out to this mini family fun day at Arbor Lakes in Maple Grove. Graycen had fallen asleep on the way out there so she was a grump for the first little bit that we were there. She got to do a few little crafts, but her favorite thing was when she got "a tattoo" on her cheek. She sat till long enough for the lady to paint a tiger with a rainbow on her cheek. It was pretty cute.

• Graycen was a flower girl in our friends, Dino & Dana's wedding. She was adorable in her little dress and tiara. She wouldn't cooperate for pictures, but did so well walking down the aisle with Bobby (the ring bearer) It was a beautiful wedding and we couldn't have been happier to have Graycen in it.

• Graycen was asked to be flower girl in another wedding! Our niece, Katie, is getting married next August and her and Josh decided to ask if Graycen would like to be their flower girl. She was super excited when I asked her if she would like to. Of course we accepted!
• David and I got a night out and went and enjoyed Jason Mraz at the Xcel Center. He was amazing, as he always is. His openers were Bushwalla, K'Naan and G. Love & Special Sauce. The show was fantastic!!

• The whole gang made the trip to the fair. The kids were great and they both fell asleep in the stroller, which allowed more time for David and I to stroll around and look at more stuff (and of course, eat more!)

• I made Ambassador at school. In short, what this means is I'm kind of like an honors student/teacher's aide. I will be graduating with additional honors because of it. You're chosen based on your grades, attendence, behaviors and participation. I'm very proud to say I have kept my GPA at 3.89 and have only missed 2 days of school. Not too bad!
• We met up with my aunt Diane at the MN Zoo. Graycen instantly became her bestie and they hung out the whole time. It was a great time, the weather was perfect and since the fair was going on - we really had no traffic there!


• We tried to get Graycen into Head Start. Did you know there are income guidelines and waiting lists to meet to be able to get into this program? That's crazy to me, but whatever. Anyways, because I am in school we actually meet the income guidelines right now BUT there is a huge waiting list. There were 174 kids on the list ahead of where we would be had we chosen to put Graycen on it. The average wait time to get her in - 8-14 months. No thanks, we'll find somewhere else.. even if it means we have to pay to get her in there.
• Graycen turned three! We had a mini celebration at my aunt Rae's house last Sunday when they had a BBQ and we brought a cake and it turned into a little party.

• 
  
  Saturday was her actual birthday and Ma (David's mom) came down for the day. Our plan was to hit up Como Zoo after we went brithday hopping for the girl, but there was seriously no place to park over there. It was horrible. Change of plans - we went to Applebee's for some lunch and then went back home. Both kids fell asleep in the truck on the way home and Graycen stayed asleep. We waited awhile then woke her up so we could do cake and presents before Ma had to leave for home. It was a good day.

(don't know why the cake is sideways)

I'm sure there's more but my brain is fried for the moment. If I think of something I will add it in.

Happy Labor Day!

For me, Labor Day has been different ever since 2006. You see, I actually went into labor with Graycen on Labor Day. So since then, it has kind of served as a mini day of reflection for me. I constantly find myself thinking, "at this time xx years ago I was doing (fill in the blank.)" It has been 3 years since she was born but I still remember everything so clearly - almost to the minutes still. It's amazing!

Even though Graycen's birthday was 2 days ago I'm still going to wish her a very happy 3rd birthday.

Graycen -

To our little sweetie girl who is so incredibly intelligent, crazy, amazing, beautiful, imaginative and so many more words that I can't even come up with right now, Happy Birthday! Mommy, Daddy and Parker love you more than anything in this world! Hope your 3s bring you many good things!!

...And at this time 3 years ago I was probably just rolling (literally) out of bed getting ready to do some housecleaning...

Interested in reading her birth story? Click here.

I swear I'm still alive.. I promise.

I know, I know, I know. You don't need to give me the third degree for being away for so long. I'm sorry. Life has kind of gotten in the way and my blog was the first thing to be let go once I got too busy. Also, I will admit, I am having an affair with Facebook was spending a few moments each day over on Facebook and my blog got the back burner because of it.
If you haven't noticed, I've given the blog a huge overhaul. I'm hoping this will bring back some of my motivation to write over here. I do miss being able to speak in more than 3rd person (like you do on your Facebook status) and being able to write in more than as many characters that can fit into my little status update box. I miss talking - even if nobody is listening. Boy, oh boy, do I miss my Works for me Wedneday posts! Heck, I just miss blogging.
I've missed you, friends. Hopefully some of you still come back and you'll be happy/surprised to find that I'm here again. I can't wait to write some more!

I want to know..

There are some things I have been wondering lately and thought - what better place to put them than on my blog?

• Have you ever used Mederma or any scar reduction cream? I have a really ugly scar on my back from where they removed a mole last fall and I would just like to lighten it. It's really dark pinkish/purple and well, like I said, just ugly! Any tips?
• Do you use Oxyclean or any product like it? With an almost pre-schooler and a toddler on the loose you can bet we have stains galore on our kids' clothes. I know they're kids and that's what they do, but I'd love to be able to salvage things so they're not always wearing stained clothes. I also want there to be a higher resale value for them when they've outgrown them. If you do use a stain removal product, please let me know what you use and how you use it.
• Got any great tips on how to rid an almost 3 year old of a pacifier? Graycen has become too dependant on her pacifier (which she didn't pick up until Parker was born) I know we'll need to replace this with another comfort item I just don't know how to do it. She screams in the middle of the night if she can't find it and will not go to sleep without it. HELP!

Thanks for your help!

Works for me Wednesday :: Zip it up

Last weekend when we decided to take a trip to the zoo we forgot the stroller. Now, with two kids in tow and a diaper bag you know this was going to be interesting. Well, Graycen decided she didn't want to wear her little zip up jacket and the diaper bag was too full to jam it in there. My only options were going to be:

• A: Tie it around her waist and constantly watch to make sure it doesn't fall off.
• B: Carry it around and have one less hand for child handling and making sure I don't set it down somewhere.
• C: Make her wear it even though she didn't want to.
• D: Figure something out - pronto!

Thankfully I was able to think of something out - pronto! I took her jacket, wraped it around the strap of the diaper bag (like the strap was the body) and zipped it up. Now her jacket was not going to go anywhere because it was closed around the strap of the diaper bag! That works for me!

For more awesome tips head on over to We Are That Family.