Crafty Time and going a little overboard

   I am naturally a crafty person, it is something I have always enjoyed. I remember when I was in elementary school sneaking into the shed when my dad was not home to get his plaster and use it in whatever make shift mold I could find, then I would paint it and hide it somewhere in my room.
   Whenever I am feeling blue I get the urge to make something. And every once in a while I go a little overboard and bite off more than I can chew. For instance this week. I am currently sanding and staining a dresser. The goal is an aged look and it is about halfway done. So far I am pleased with all but one drawer and depending on how the rest goes I may sand it down and try again.   I also took on repainting my downstairs bathroom and plan on adding shelves to the back wall. I have 3 walls done and the back wall is waiting for me to decide the exact shade I am going for so I can purchase the wood for the shelves and get going there. I am also redoing JT's room. For his birthday we are giving him a fun superhero themed room. His room has been undecorated save one picture and a wall decal since we moved in. I think its about time that he gets something fun in there, and since he loves to play by himself sometimes I think he deserves to have some space to himself.
   In addition to all of this I am knitting a blanket for my friend Krista's baby. I have not told her yet, but since she is reading this.... It may not be done in time for your delivery.. I still have to plan JT's party this weekend =) I also decided today that the blog needs a bit of a makeover.
   I am not sure what possessed me to take all of this on when you all know that my floors are currently lacking in a few areas, but I think that I just got tired of sitting around staring at half completed rooms. I will not however turn down any offers for help, lol , as I have not completely lost my mind.. yet.
   In the meantime I have been going to the gym on a regular basis and am getting back in the game when it comes to my and Ian's side business. I mean the money for all this fabulousness has to come from somewhere . besides I have nothing else going on right?
   Now.. who wants to come occupy my children? No? What about a salvation Army drop off? Craigslist posting for me.. ok fine. I will re evaluate my to do list to incorporate the grocery shopping and bills.. and hopefully a shower. Because today I spent the time when all of my children were sleeping on cleaning diapers.. Ok maybe I have lost it.

Single White Baby

  While talking to Porter tonight to make him smile I was thinking to myself.. ok and a little bit out loud too... how funny it would be if babies had personal ads. The things they could say would get most adults in trouble.. or at least be frowned upon.
  For instance:
  

               My name is Porter, I am 2 months old, but large for my age. I enjoy long walks in my stroller, drinking from boobies and being cuddled. A few of my faults are falling asleep with food in my mouth, and spitting up breastmilk on people other than my mommy. Nothing makes me feel better than a nice long bath followed by a good poop, in a fresh diapy. I like to smile and coo, but I am not a big talker. I prefer my surroundings to be on the cooler side. Not too hot, and not too cold or I will cry.
               I am looking to meet a cute baby girl who is not too needy, and enjoys the same things as I do. We can hang, but I am not looking to be too serious. It will be another 16 years before I get my license, and until then I think we should just keep things casual. If you would like to buy me gifts though I am down with that, as long as you don't expect anything in return. I will share my toys, but I take my food seriously. Please send pictures to be considered. Include DOB, weight, height and full name and I will have my people call your people.

   Admittedly I have a strange thought process some days. I am going to claim no fault here and simply point the finger to my dad... Who if by chance he reads this.... Love ya dad, thanks for the strange sense of humor and hairy toes. You're the best.

Things That Go Bump

   With Ian being a Service Technician there are often times where he is "on call". Even when he is not, since he is a remote tech for a shop based in Baltimore MD, sometimes the on call tech will call him to run something that he can get to much faster than they can. While that stinks for me, I do feel for the other techs wives, since sometimes they are the ones whose husbands have to leave in the middle of the night so that mine doesn't.
   Tonight was one of those nights. After looking forward to the Season Premiere of Suits for almost 6 months, I sat watching alone tonight. DVR is a magical thing, but just because Ian was feeling nice tonight did not mean that I was going to miss it. As I sit sipping my Moscato all I hear besides the glorious world of television are the sounds of Porter's swing going click click click. Since I finally got him to sleep somewhere other than my arms, I did not have it in me to cross the room and turn it off, despite his batteries not being strong enough to move him more than an inch side to side, for fear of it disrupting him and having to rock him for another half an hour.
   Once Suits concluded I turned the TV off in order to not allow myself to get sucked in to something I had no original intent to watch, and decided that I would spend my time waiting for my dear husband to get home with my WaWa sub by taking a bath and picking up around the house. . .  But you know what?? Silence has revealed a few strange things to me tonight.
   Firstly, all of my children mumble in their sleep. Ellie screamed out " NO Bub Bub, That's mine" in her sleep tonight while I was in the tub. {Bub Bub is Ellie's name for JT for those who don't know} Porter grunts and sighs loudly, and JT talks incoherently. I would love to say that these things are strictly a trait passed on from Ian, since I have already shared his weird sleeping habits with all of Internet-landia but I must confess that mostly it's me. Aside from the really strange and active dreams Ian has every couple months its actually rare for him to talk in his sleep. Maybe a mumble here and there, but generally he sleeps like a rock. A pillow stealing, blanket hog of a rock.
   I on the other hand, have frequently woken myself up mid perfectly enunciated sentence and been unable to stop myself from speaking the rest of it. It's kind of like that scene from the end of BeetleJuice, the part where Winona Ryder brings home good grades (or something of the like) and the ghosts agree to use her body to sing.. yeah it's just like that, except without the cool floating up in front of the stairs or dancing part, just the I can't control what's coming out of my mouth and it sounds stupid part. I have been known to sing as well. And since that is not a pleasant sound in the daylight waking hours, just imagine what happens when there are no restraints of society or preservation of cool points.
   The second thing I realized is that my fridge makes a noise every so often that remarkably resembles Chewbacca. Which is then followed by a more quiet glug glug glug. Since I was alone I attempted to communicate with it. It didn't work, but it did make me think again, for the millionth time how grateful I am that there is no nanny cam in my house. And reminded me to check that the webcam is always off.. things could get awkward.
   Sadly I think my talking to the stupid leaking fridge would be one of the least embarrassing things I could be caught doing while alone, for instance reenacting the sliding through the hallway scene from Saved By the Bell, or dancing ,like a buffoon to Miley Cyrus in an attempt to cheer up my children, and walking into walls.. it happens almost weekly and even alone I try to play it off like it didn't happen.. because at that moment I always remember the conversation I had with friends after watching Deja vu... and then I have a mind rant about what if the government and scientist really do go back in time and the moment that I had sitting in front of Starbucks today waiting on a lady to sell me a bird cage really had already happened....
   And with that I am off to have strange dreams... night ya'll


 Or good morning cause most of you should be in bed already.

Nom Nom Nommy

   Ian and I have been married for going on 5 years, the first year and a half of which we lived with my parents.  Basically for the last 3 years we have been eating the same things over and over and over and over and over, with very little variety thrown in there except for when we eat out ( a rare occasion). Mostly our dinner diet consisted of salmon, pork chops, chicken and lasagna.
   I am not a large red meat eater so steaks are generally reserved for a special occasion or nights when I was not home. We may have cooked them a little differently, or served with different sides, but it pretty much boiled down to lots of pasta and ready made sides even though I like to cook and bake. I just didn't really bother looking at recipe books despite having a whole shelf of them.
   Since Porter was born though my taste buds really kicked up the boredom signals. I just didn't want to eat Alfredo noodles with grilled chicken, or breaded pork chops every night. So, I did what any crafty lady would do, I turned to Pinterest. I figure I spend so much time on there planning my life I might as well plan the food that would fuel it.
   I am amazed at how many recipes I have found that have really been amazing, easy to make and cheap. That my friends is the recipe trifecta. Since I am allergic to raw tomato ( the acid from the juices really breaks my skin out when I touch it and I get hives from eating it ) I have always steered clear of anything involving tomato. What a mistake! I have found a few new favorites that include diced tomatoes ( and since they sell that already cooked and canned we are in the clear )
   I have them pinned to Pinterest and you are free to check out my "Food I dream of making" board. Tonight's meal is the Buffalo Chicken Potato Skins. But so far I have tried the untitled noodle sausage mess..  Sarah and Andrea were here to try that one, they approved. I have tried the broccoli cheddar quiche with the brown rice crust, the tortellini crockpot meal ... talk about easy; throw the ingredients in a crock pot for 4 hours and serve. I have also tried the banana and oatmeal cookies, more of a breakfast thing than a desert but good nonetheless. Another favorite -especially for Ian- is the sour cream enchiladas. The turkey roll ups with laughing cow cheese and cucumbers have been devoured in my house as well as the grilled cheese with bacon and avocado.
   Most of the ideas have been a new way of preparing something we already enjoy, but it has made a huge difference around here. I am actually excited about making dinner, and grocery shopping is a lot easier because I actually have to plan out what I am making and what I need for it. In addition to my average necessities ( TP, Milk, Cheese, Bread etc. ) I bought enough food for 6 new meals and still only spent $130 at the store. In this list was also a good amount of things I don't need to buy very often, ex. buffalo sauce, Nutella, noodles.  I am mostly looking forward to the Salmon with Feta cheese and roasted red peppers, served with roasted potatoes courtesy of my lovely neighbor Andrea who made them for a " Congrats you just pushed a baby out of your hoo-ha " meal. Those are the best!

    I will keep you posted if I try anything on that board that is not so fabulous... but tell me that making your own Chinese food doesn't sound appealing.. I mean minus the fact that its not served with completely irrelevant fortunes inside lemony hard as rock cookies. Also, Ladies and Gents.. please share anything that you have tried new that is yummy to your tummies... because I am looking to try new things. Avocado was kind to me when I finally gave it a chance... who knows? There may be a whole world out there my tastebuds have never given a chance...

Just Beachy

    After having a somewhat rough few weeks my friends Andrea, Sarah and I decided to take a day to check out of life and spend at the beach. We spent Saturday night in front of my fire pit roasting marshmallows and sipping on some fabulous wine, where Sarah got a little inpatient and bit into her burnt marshmallow, resulting in a red swollen lip and many, many cell phone selfies.
   We crawled out of bed around 6 and get ready for the day, made a much needed coffee stop on the way out of town and hit the road. Getting set up on the beach was a little interesting, as it was 10 am and the sand was like little miscroscopic bits of lava, and half an hour in we broke the umbrella. $25 later we rented one of those beach cabanas ( which I later saw in the store across the street for sale at the same price .. of course!) which did a great job of keeping Porter sand free-ish and cool. Combined with a wet towel and a chair made out of sand I think he was living it up. I mean look at this....

  The water was fabulous, perfectly clear and there were even little schools of silvery fish. I would have taken a picture of that, but with my luck I would have dropped my cell in the ocean and Ian would have declared me done with technology. {I have lost phones in some unique liquids, like film developer, pumpkin pie filling, and coffee} I have to say that we thoroughly enjoyed the waves, but the beautiful water had a downfall. Andrea caught the worst of the rays, with me coming in a far behind second.
   The burn started setting in right around the time that we were getting ready to leave. By the time Porter demanded that we stop for him to eat ( we grabbed some Subway, cause this lady has a hard time resisting some chicken teriyaki ) there was a whole lot of rubbing down going on. I am fairly certain that's the most action that Food Lion parking lot has seen since it was first paved. But for Andrea, it did not stop there...
  


Traffic was AWFUL on the way back- not that you can tell from this picture but trust me-, but it allowed for some age inappropriate music at extreme volumes, and a who has the best white girl dance competition. Sarah really needs to catch up on some lyrics though.. I mean if we are going to make fools of ourselves driving through Richmond, the least she could do is know more than the chorus right? But check this out... Lots of aloe, wonderful, wonderful aloe.

   A Sunday beach trip was just what I needed to reset. Too bad the resulting burn lasted a few days and now I have a peeling forehead.. BUT.. I did not end up looking like a lobster. I do however have some super sharp little Porter fingernails digging into sensitive skin every few hours in an effort to gain head control.. And I had the luxury of sitting at home avoiding a bra, unlike my favorite neighbor who got a good public shaming for her lack of skin care despite her efforts to apply sunscreen frequently. I feel as if I have no room to really complain though, as I only applied sunscreen about 2 hours before leaving. Here's a ride home selfie for you. . see that? only slightly pink.. the tall one in the back, yeah apparently she bought the good stuff. . with skin that pale who can blame her right?? We love you Sarah, apparently the sun feels otherwise. Perhaps next time I take a me day it will be without a demanding, fresh skinned, breast attachment. . but who am I kidding? The rugrats make life fun. Without tag-alongs my days just aren't complete.. AND Ellie has a way of making things fun. Mainly because she has a terribly smart mouth on her, but what is relaxation without a few frustrated laughs?

   Oh, and in case you were worried I might get too relaxed, Reha took care of that remember? Here's to hoping that the $60 cage we just bought off a yard sale site lasts long enough to replace the floor, get her fixed and purchase a nice hefty steel doggie jail.

   Happy Vitamin D to you all!

All the reasons I should have gone to bed earlier

   I should have taken Ellie resetting Pet Rescue Saga when I was at level 43 as a sign to go back to bed. . . at least then I may have had more energy to deal with screaming kids, a sore throat, pounding headache, the dogs destruction and a clingy baby.
   The morning started well enough if you don't count having to restart my game. I can let that slide really.. it's just a game that I play while nursing or when I cant sleep. I met 2 ladies from yard sale sites at Buy Buy Baby to purchase some diapers and a carseat stroller. Porter seems to be outgrowing things faster than I expected, like my arm muscles. Couldn't beat a $20 stroller to save me from having a dislocated shoulder from carrying around a carseat with an already 16 lb baby in it.
   After that we went to Chick-fil-a to waste some time before my gym appointment. the gym was fabulous. I needed a good workout, although if anyone has any fun workout songs they would like to share my playlist could use some vamping. Picking the kids up from the KidZone was where things started going down hill. I walk in to hear Porter screaming, apparently I missed them paging me, and there was an accident report for JT, as another kid hit him in the eye.
   He is fine, but apparently this little girl straight decked him for no reason. . not going to lie I wanted to laugh. While feeding Porter in the parking lot Ellie decided to take my slightly messy van and add her own style... she dumped everything she could find and fought with JT. The plan was to come home and let her nap so I could put together my shopping list and sit down for something hot to drink to ease my scratchy throat. . . except Reha happened.
   As I pulled in the drive I noticed the foretelling sign of Reha doom. . . my front door was open just a bit. Not fully, just enough that it takes you a second to notice. Immediately I back out of the driveway and visit the house 2 doors down that she frequently visits on her escapes. Unfortunately she wasn't there. . but she did come running to me after I called her. Must have been just after her break to freedom. As if I was not angry enough that she had left the house again ( through a dead bolted door I might add) I came home to a pleasant surprise.
   The carpet from the front door half way down the hallway had been torn back. She broke part of my fridge handle ( which had I not used masking tape to keep her out of may not have happened) and she ripped one side of my tree limb curtain rod straight out of the wall, leaving behind a nice hole in the wall that I will have to patch and paint... Oh. before I left (a mere 4 hours before) I had given her 3 benedryl. . Oh how I long for her drug tolerance, 'cause I would be in a coma.
   The neighbor was nice enough to come save my day (as a fire fighter I am sure he would have rathered not have to rescue my sanity on his day off) and help me rip up the carpet and tack strips so that my children did not step on them with bare feet.. or in Ellie's case bare anything. Underneath we discovered something unfortunate, linoleum, which means in order to tile it we are going to have to replace the sub-floor. boooo. A super big sarcastic thanks to the previous home owners who loved to half-ass projects.
   Hours later, and a hefty mop job we have an intermediate entry way that matches nothing in our house. But here I am, pounding headache, 2 hours of dog crate research, no grocery list or meal plan and a clingy baby in my lap leaving me with one hand to use for typing. Its after 8 and the husband just walked in to save me from the kids who have not stopped screaming and fighting since around 3.
   My hope is to go soak in the tub that is only half caulked and to avoid looking in any other room that might remind me of the state of disarray my house is in right now. After that soak I plan to rest and pray to wake up healthy and without the hatred I feel for my dog right now.
   my advice for you for the day may not be wise, and I will take it back after my bath.. but it's Stay kid and pet free... just trust me.

   In an effort to end on a happy note:  here's a picture of my clingy chunk.