Baby Shower 1

We had our first baby shower one week ago today, which our oldest had a blast at. Click below to see Photos.

Baby Shower 1

Baby Sister

Less than 6 weeks to go! I'm getting a little anxious with all that we still need to accomplish before baby sister is born, but we are all very excited for her arrival. Soccer Dad has finished sanding our daughter's new chest of drawers and now all we have left to do is paint it :) We picked out a pale pink (she helped) and I think we'll do the knobs white. The paint that we purchased to touch up the crib and baby's chest of drawers, was found spilled in a puddle on the garage floor last Sunday. Of course, it happened on a Sunday. Luckily the dogs had just dragged the bag off the shelf, only one can spilled, and they did not track doggy prints all over. I'm just happy it wasn't the pink paint :)

As soon as we can get the chest of drawers painted, we can move our oldest's current chest of drawers, which matches the crib, into the nursery, start washing all of the belongings. We're replacing the three sets of navy blue panel curtains with something much lighter and airy. The nursery is currently rather dark and drab. Imagine all four walls with wood panneling, wooden closet doors, wood floor, and navy curtains. Great for a hunting lodge, but not so great for a nursery.

We have our church shower tomorrow, yay! We'll be able to figure out what we still need for baby after this and get everything put away. Phew! Our first shower was marvelous and Our oldest had so much fun opening all the presents and eating chocolate cakcake. I'm sure she'll have just as much fun at the next.

We're still in the process of picking out a baby name. We've narrowed it down to two. We wanted to pick before going into labor, but at least we've got it narrowed down to two names, instead of ten, like last time :) Our oldest thinks we should name the baby big guy and the baby in her tummy is named little guy. Her imagination has really been developing lately. A few days ago she was pretending that I was Garfield and Soccer Dad was Skeeter. Meow!

Christmas Cards

I'm super excited to take our picture for our Christmas cards this year. We have a pretty funny idea, as long as we can get our toddler to cooperate :) I'm not sure if we'll attempt to get the dogs in the picture too...probably not, the cats may feel left out!

I'm going to be using Shutterfly to order our cards this year, they have a great selection and you can even save 20% with the promotion they have going on right now. Here are a few examples and you can find more here: Holiday Cards


















It's super easy to upload your pictures, we've done this for ordering prints, plus they offer 50 free 4x6 prints for new members, which we took advantage of! To upload pictures click here: upload pictures or go here to sign up as a new member: Sign Up! After ordering, your prints arrive in the mail, which I found to be super convenient.

Shutterfly also offers many other items such as cards, calendars, invitations, etc. Not only do they offer traditional calendars, but also desk calendars which are currently 20% off.

So now for the really good part! My fellow bloggers may be able to grab up 50 Free Holiday Cards from Shutterfly as well! All you need to do is hop over to Shutterfly and register. It only takes a minute and you might be able to get your holiday cards for free!

I hope you all go sign up and spread the word to others that might be interested!

I provided this post for Shutterfly and will be receiving 50 free photo cards for sharing my review.

Blessings

We've been so blessed since moving to our small town and I've especially been noticing it since we've gotten pregnant. Most recently, we really needed another dresser or chest of drawers and I felt like I prayed and prayed, and nothing was coming up. Last weekend we were driving by a yard sale and we happened to see a chest of drawers. Soccer Dad hopped out and asked and the husband said he would like to get at least $10 for it. Whoopie! It needs a little TLC, but now we can finally move our Toddler's chest of drawers, which matches the crib, into the nursery. Which means I can wash the baby's clothes, put them away, and get the rest of the room set up. Phew, I feel like it's coming down to the wire. Our toddler is also super excited about her new dresser :)

We were given a "like new" two seater stroller, which was originally purchased for $200 something. Yay, God! Our toddler also loves the new stroller and that she'll get to ride with baby sister.

Work and church both want to throw showers for us, what a blessing for our second baby!

Biggest of all, God has provided a house, church family, and friends. It took a while to start making friends (over a year), but it's finally happening.

Our cooking adventures

I've had several friends and family who've made subtle comments about how I haven't been keeping up with the blog. I find that when I haven't posted in a while, it just gets harder and harder to create a post, because there is soooo much I have to share and I get overwhelmed and decide to wait longer. Makes sense right?

I don't think I've posted since we were in Oregon and while there my lovely sister-in-law kept talking about Dave Ramsey. I've always leaned toward Suze Orman's financial advice, but I was curious about what Mr. Ramsey had to say. I waited for weeks for his book to be returned to our library, but when it was around 3 weeks late, I decided to fall back to old faithful, Suze Orman and read "The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom." This resulted in revamping our budget, other financial areas of our life, and our eating habits.

My toddler and I have been baking and cooking many more recipes from scratch, which I've had people asking me about so I've decided to share a few of my favorites with you here. She does love to help with all the cooking, including whisking, beating, cracking, dumping, pouring, and even on occasion stirring with her toes. If you see an item of interest, just click on the link

1. Mayonnaise : don't forget to pasteurize your eggs before creating to avoid salmonella. Pasteurizing eggs is also great when cooking or baking any recipe that involves an uncooked egg. When making Mayo, please don't add too much salt, it is also a bit of a different color than store bought mayo.

2. Pita Pockets : time consuming, but turned out great!

3. Pumpkin Bread : My new favorite pumpkin bread recipe! Recipe calls for 1c honey, but I use 1/2 c honey and 1/2 c apple juice and recipe turns out great. Honey is a bit expensive for our family to use that much in one recipe.

4. Tortillas : Amazing! My whole family loved these and they were so good straight off the griddle. This website is written by a Mom whose family is debt free and has many great reads.

5. Wheat Bread : The best homemade bread recipe that I've ever used. I make the dough in my bread machine and bake the bread in the oven. If you scroll down the page, she'll tell you how to do it. We use this bread for about half the bread we consume monthly and it is fabulous. The recipe calls for 2T brown sugar, and we've made it with 2T, 1T and no brown sugar and all three tasted great.

6. Yogurt : My toddler loves this yogurt! The recipe calls for 1/2c plain yogurt, but we prefer to use 1/2c vanilla yogurt for a bit of added flavor. Yogurt CANNOT be frozen and thawed. We also use 1 or 2% milk and add 1 packet unflavored gelatin. This results in a nice thick yogurt that is easier for Abby to eat. When using the gelatin, refrigerate for the gelatin to solidify. I also love this website for her other crockpot recipes. She will list a regular recipe, but also a gluten free version, as her family does not consume gluten.

I've been using 1/2 wheat and 1/2 unbleached flour in all recipes that call for flour and our family has been perfectly happy with the taste. I usually always leave out all sugars and replace with honey, apple juice, or apple sauce. Agave nectar is also supposed to be a great alternative, but it's more expensive in our stores.

Let me know if you try any and how they turn out and I'll continue to post recipes that I find to be wonderful.

To church on time

It seems as though every Sunday morning since I was a kid there was always something, should I say someone, trying to prevent us from making it to church, at least on time. I'll not mention any names, but I think we all know who the culprit is. This last Sunday was one of the worst as far as pee-pee and potty is concerned.

On Saturday, our toddler peed in her car seat, as seems to be the trend lately. I washed it and hung it out to dry, so it would be ready to re-install on Sunday morning. I packed up her snacks, drink, my purse and the cover, and put it on the table. At some point when I wasn't looking, she pulled the cover down off the table and left it on the floor. I happened to find it a few minutes later with dog pee on it, ahhhh! Our little squirt man has picked up the bad habit of peeing in the house.

At some point during the weekend one of our kitties urinated on something in the laundry room. I swept and mopped the floor on Saturday, took absolutely everything out that could be removed on Sunday, wiped it down before church, and the room still stunk!!! Our toddler has also decided that she needs to use the potty chair all by her big girl self. She occasionally misses the potty and this send a lovely aroma through the bathroom.

While cleaning the bathroom, I noticed how well behaved and quietly our toddler was playing in her room. I popped my head in to see what she was up to and found that she had ripped up four colors of play-dough into pea sized pieces all over the floor. Yay...another thing to clean up before church! Once this was all picked up, we managed to make it out the door and to church on time.

I've learned my lesson, all I need to do is shower an hour before my normal time, as I did on this Sunday, then I'll have time to clean up all of life's little disasters. It turns out that the cat had relieved itself in Mat's shoe when it was sitting in the garage and Mat placed his shoes in the laundry room to dry, where the smell was multiplied 100 fold by the heat of the dryer. Stinky!

Anyone have any other Sunday morning stories?

Our Babies

I've begun feeling the baby kick quite often within the past few weeks. The biggest difference I've noticed between this one and when I was carrying my firstborn, is the intensity this one has. My firstborn was always wiggling around and I was constantly feeling little flutters and quick movements. When the current little one moves, s/he means it! I don't feel the baby as often, but the kicks are very strong, possibly a future soccer player! Soccer Dad has even been able to feel the kicks on several occasions. Other than that, I seem to be carrying the baby the same as the first. My allergies have been much worse and I've had more skin problems (my wedding ring doesn't like me). I did find out that my Aunt had the same problem with her ring when she was pregnant as well, phew, I'm not such an odd ball.

Our other baby isn't such a baby anymore! She's already two, I can't believe it! She watches mommy get ready for work everyday and wants to be just like me :) She puts makeup on with me, plays with unplugged curling irons, and picks out her own clothes, which she changes about 5 times per day. She especially loves all of her pretty dresses. Last week she noticed that I had a different pair of earrings on that I don't normally wear, and she wanted to wear earrings too! Normally I hang bracelets or rubberbands on her ears and she's satisfied with that, but I remembered that I have three pairs of Grammy's clip on earrings. She was so tickled to wear her great grandmother's green sparkly clip-ons, that I couldn't get her to take them off until bedtime for two days in a row. I know how much those earrings pinch, but she's a tough little thing and didn't seem to mind. I hear her calling me now, have a fabulous afternoon!

Watermelon Festival

One thing I love about small towns are all the little events that the whole community gets into. The Watermelon Festival started on Wednesday went through Saturday. We live within walking distance from the Fest, and were able to make it everyday except Wednesday, wahoo! In preparation for the Fest, watermelon flags and banners, begin popping up all over the place, even at many houses. My aunt took me out for lunch on Wed. and the special included watermelon salsa, Yum! It was organic and 100% homemade from the owners garden outback.

Our first try at the Fest was a flop, we arrived, and not five minutes later, there was a severe thunderstorm warning announced over the loud speaker. Luckily we had just purchased dinner and were seated under a large tent. We did have to move to the inside of our table, because the wind was blowing the rain sideways and it was pelting our backs. We stayed under the tent for about 30 minutes during the downpour, then walked home when there was a break. There were no complaints about the rain though, because we were very much in need of it. The lights only flickered once during our meal :) Our toddler had a fabulous time upon arriving home, donning her rain boots and stomping in many a puddle.

Our second and third visits to the Watermelon Fest were fairly uneventful. We wandered through the craft fair and carnival zone, ate free watermelon, and had some yummy homemade hot fudge cake. We were both expecting there to be more homemade crafts and homegrown produce, possibly some watermelon, for sale, but it was mainly like any other fair with a few small town touches.

On Saturday, we took our toddler to her first parade and passed the 5k racers on the walk to main street. She loved the clowns and bands, but was a little nervous about the large and loud motorcycles. Things were wrapped up on Saturday night with a fireworks show, which we could hear loud and clear from inside our house. Luckily, our toddler stayed sound asleep, but poor Boo boo was a little terrified. Apparently the cats were happy with us on Saturday as well, because I awoke this morning to find another bird on the floor of our bedroom. At least this time it was dead.

Sam's Club Winner

Our Sam's Club gift card winner is Pixie, who is planning to give the gift card to her starving student :) Congratulations! I guess it was pretty good odds, since only two entered the giveaway.

Rain!

Praise the Lord it's finally raining! We've been praying for rain for weeks, especially for the farmers. This is just another way that this small town is different from So. Cal., not a bad different, just different. In So. Cal. EVERYONE has sprinklers or some system of watering, other than relying on the rain. Here, the farmers, homeowners, and the whole town relies on rain. Our yard, the University's lawn, and the crops are all brown. The corn stalks are turning into spikes and the cotton plants are wilting. Hopefully these showers will bring a little life back to the plants.

It's also great to have a break from the heat, not only for us, but also for the wildlife. The birds have been spending their time on Mat's practice field in the sprinkler and Abby and I saw a big bull frog in a pipe, where there was about one cup of water. We didn't realize the frog was there, so Abby was happily dumping fist fulls dirt into the pipe, when the dirt started moving. She came up to me with a very alarmed look on her face, so cute! We got out a water bottle and rinsed the poor little fellow off and Abby learned to say "ribbit." On our drive off the field (yes we park on the field) Daddy showed us an empty turtle shell. So many learning opportunities!

Reminder: Only 2 days left to enter the Sam's Club gift card giveaway!

Updates

Want to know what's going on with the Phelps Family without checking the blog to sometimes see an update, and sometimes not? Maybe you forget to check and would like a reminder. Enter your email address in the box to the right and you'll be sent an email whenever there is an update.

I look forward to sharing more of our lives with you! Don't forget to enter the Sam's Club gift card giveaway!

Giveaway - Sam's Club

Sam's Club and General Mills have provided me with a $25 gift card and one $25 gift card to giveaway! To enter the giveaway, leave a comment letting me know why you want the card by Wednesday, July 28. I'll announce the winner on July 29.

More great news! If you're new to Sam's club, they are offering $20 Gift Cards to new Members who join by August 1. Sign up or renew a Sam's Club Collegiate Membership and receive a $15 gift card. Must present a valid student I.D. and university e-mail address at the time of sign up to qualify for Sam's Club collegiate membership.

Looking for a place to collect Box Tops? For an easy solution, head over to your local Sam´s Club from Aug. 11 through Aug. 31 and earn more cash for your school. At the Sam´s Club Back-to-School event, you can get a head start on your collection and find 6 Box Tops on participating General Mills products. With your favorite Box Tops for Education brands at a great value, Sam´s Club is your one-stop destination for all your back-to-school supplies you need to send your kids off to school with confidence!

In addition, Sam´s Club is giving you the opportunity to earn even more Box Tops when you upgrade to a "Plus Membership." From Aug. 6 - Aug. 13, or while supplies last, visit the Member Services Desk of your local Sam´s Club and upon payment for your Plus Membership, you will receive a certificate for 150 Bonus Box Tops! For more information on how you can take advantage of the Back-to-School event at Sam´s Club, visit www.samsclub.com today!


*Sam´s Club and General Mills have provided me with a Sam´s Club Plus Membership, a gift card, information, and this giveaway through MyBlogSpark.

Oregon Adventures

We had an absolutely fabulous time while in Oregon. We were away for two weeks and crammed as much in as we possibly could. We were able to go camping twice, see both sets of Abby's grandparents, among other family and friends, attend a family reunion, celebrate birthdays, hear my brother in law preach, visit a winery, go to coast, and much more!

Our first camping trip, two days after we arrived, was to "the lot" where Mat grew up camping with his family. Five of us stayed in Mat's parent's trailer, and Mat's aunt and uncle met us there and camped in their own trailer. Mat especially enjoyed this trip, even though Abby did get sick with a fever.

Camping at the lot

~Click on any image to see more photos.~

We returned from our first camping trip on the 4th of July and after showering and doing some much needed laundry, we headed over to a BBQ (not pulled pork) at Grandpa and Grandma Phelps' house. Mat's Aunt took Abby out to see and pet the horses, but Abby was much more interested in the kitty. We were originally planning on watching fireworks somewhere, but once we returned home, we were exhausted and stayed in and listened to the booms instead. Just as fun, right?

Tide Pool at the Aquarium
Mimi and Bapa arrived on Monday, the 5th with bundles of home grown fruit...yum!! I ate as much as I could before we left. We had Mexican food on Tuesday (I miss it so much!). The remainder of the week was filled with a trip to the coast for retirement house hunting, breakfast with Grandma Brown, a visit to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, a joint birthday party for Mat and Abby, and a haircut for my mother and I by Mat's cousin.

Abby loved the Aquarium, especially the tide pool where she could poke all of the sea creatures. Abby had a wonderful second birthday party, where she enjoyed sneaking finger fulls of cake before it was cut and was so excited to open her presents.

Baking the Cake with Grandma

On Saturday, Abby and I both attended our first family reunion. We had breakfast with the family and saw some relatives. Abby tried to play with the big girls, but I don't think they understood that she was trying to play with them by giving them leaves and dirt. Mimi and Bapa had to leave for home on Saturday after the reunion. It was a very sad departure full of tears, but we were so blessed to have their company for five days. The only way it could've been better was if Danny and Elody had made it up. Boo hoo.

Crater Lake
Sunday we headed south to hear our brother in law preach, then on to Crater Lake. On our way down, we were able to make a last minute stop to see some dear friends staying in Eugene. It was so nice to spend several days in a row with Mat's sister's family and for Abby to play with her cousins. Crater lake was amazing, most likely the deepest blue body of water that I have ever laid eyes on. We stayed at a lake outside of the park and the mosquitoes were terrible! Mat took Abby swimming in the lake, later to find out that it had blue algae. Whatever that means! Don't worry, they weren't infected.

We returned to Mat's parents on Tuesday, packed, and flew home on Wednesday. We also had the pleasure of seeing one of Mat's high school buddies and his family on our last night.

As much as I LOVE the west coast and our families, it was great to return to our home and pets. Ahh, it's always nice to sleep in my own bed after a time away.

New Baby, New House, New Doggies!

It's been a super exciting and busy time for us these past few months, as we have purchased and moved into our first home, adopted two new dogs, and are expecting a little one in December.

I am just past my first trimester and the baby is due December 27...please not Christmas! We would really like to have another girl and boy, so any healthy baby would be a blessing. We have not decided on a name yet, except that the middle name of a boy would be "Dean." Abby has decided that she, Mat, and myself all have babies in our tummies, she is so precious. The morning sickness and total exhaustion have let up quite a bit, and I am looking forward to setting up the nursery again. I have placed the ultrasound photos someplace safe, which I have yet to find.

We moved sometime in late May/ early June, that time of my life is a bit of a blur. We are finally getting settled into our house, and still have quite a bit of work to do on it, but it will have to wait until we get the new heat pump paid off. My dear friend Melissa was visiting during the moving process and was a huge help in cleaning the old place, moving, cleaning the new, and watching Abby. When we moved into our house, it smelled a great deal like a wet dog, most of which is gone, but I fear it will not fully leave until we throw out the carpet. Shortly after we moved it began to get very hot outside and it took two weeks to have our heat pump installed. Needless to say, Melissa was an angel, and babysat Abby for Mat and I in our smelly, hot house, while Mat whisked me away to the beach to celebrate our 6th anniversary.

Our New House

Backyard

After seeing photos every week of the dogs up for adoption at our local coffee shop, we decided to go "look" at the dogs. We wanted Abby to grow up with a dog that she could play with and not think it normal for a toothless pom pom to growl at her on a regular basis. For some reason we thought getting another dog would also take some of the Abby pressure off of squirt. We ended up with a yellow lab/boxer mix named Brooklyn who came with the offer of her shepherd mix pen mate for free. We decided just to go with Brooklyn and a few days later adopted Dodger as well (see if you can figure that one out). Dodger was a little rough around the edges and needed more training, but is wonderful with Abby, the cats, and squirt. Brooklyn was incredibly easy to train and is wonderful with Abby. The cats and Squirt don't like her, as she thinks they're toys.

Brooklyn

Dodger

We are headed to Oregon for Mat to officiate one of his high school friend's wedding and to see both sets of grandparents. We'll be with Mat's family and extended family for two weeks and my parents will be visiting for 5 days. While away, Abby and I will both have the honor of attending our first family reunion. Abby will also go camping for the first time, see her first fireworks show, and celebrate her second birthday. Mat will also celebrate his 28th birthday, I know, just as exciting. Abby is now calling Joy's parents: Mimi and Bapa, and Mat's parents: Banana (formerly Nana) and Grandpa. Don't worry Nana, Abby is very fond of Bananas.

Click Here to see Abby's 22 - 23 month photos

There is not a doubt in my mind that our little Abigail has entered her wonderful and sometimes terrible twos. Abigail has sometimes begun throwing herself onto the ground in "tragic heaps", as Aunt Jolynn likes to say, when something goes wrong in her little mind. She says around 97 words and often uses two word sentences. She loves her babies, purses, stomping around the house in her dress shoes, and she adores "The Little Mermaid" and "moomies" (movies). From what I can gather, Abigail would prefer to be a dog, as she has attempted to eat grass, chew on a chew toy, drink the dog's inside and outside water, eat dog food and treats, scratch herself with her back foot, and lick her "paw".

For all who may see her in the future, we are no longer giving Abby candy.

I thank God for our many blessings daily and would covet your prayers, as we have decided to begin volunteering with the youth at our church upon our return from Oregon.

Love and blessings to all!

We have a winner!

Our dear friend Jessica is going to school and Mat found that to be a noble cause, so she is the winner of the Jiffy Lube gift card.

21 Month Photos

Abby's new 21 month photos have been uploaded. To view them click here or on the link on the right sidebar.
We are currently babysitting one of Abby's 9 month old friends and she just doesn't understand why he is taking a nap and she can't go in there with him. It's so tough being an almost two year old.

Please continue to keep my grandpa in your prayers. He has been moved from the hospital into a nursing home and still has the feeding tube and tracheotomy in. We are hoping that he will recover to the point where he will be able to go home and care for himself with the help of others.

$35 Jiffy Lube Gift Card Giveaway

I have been provided me with a $35 Jiffy Lube gift card to giveaway.

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on our blog about why you should be the winner by May 31, 2010! Let's get creative! Mat will choose the winner on June 1, 2010 after I anonymously read all of the submissions to him. :) Be sure to leave your name and address so we can mail the gift card to the winner. If you would rather email your address, you can do so at matandjoy@gmail.com.

Did you know that in the United States the average age of cars and light trucks on the roads today has reached a record high of 9.4 years? That means it’s more important than ever to take proper care of your vehicle.

With the informative Web site www.MotorOilMatters.org (created by the maker of industry-leading brands Pennzoil and Quaker State) you can easily locate key information about how quality motor oils can help prolong your engine’s life and improve overall efficiency, as well as help answer other questions you may have about motor oil. In addition, the site offers a fun, educational game for you to play called “M.O.M. Knows Best” where you can put your motor mind to the test with an interactive quiz.

Did you know?

• According to a recent survey from the Automotive Service Association, more than 54 percent of customers who take their vehicles for service and repair are women


• Using a high-quality motor oil in the right grade can help maximize fuel economy


• Low-quality oils that do not meet industry standards or the vehicle manufacturer’s requirements could cost consumers in the long run by potentially damaging the vehicle’s engine or possibly voiding the manufacturer’s warranty


• Another reason to look to a high-quality motor oil – like Pennzoil and Quaker State - is that it is designed to meet the demands of today’s engines

A $35 Jiffy Lube gift card will cover most of the cost, if not all, of a conventional oil change at most Jiffy Lube locations (please click on the following link to locate your nearest store:
http://www.jiffylube.com/findlocation/storelocator.aspx).

MotorOilMatters.org and Shell Lubricants provided me with the gift card and information was given through MyBlogSpark.

Home buying

We've had SO much going on in the past two months that I've neglected our blog. As usual, it's the first thing I forget about. Instead of writing about everything that's been happening, as I was originally going to do, I've decided to break my writing into various events in our lives, otherwise this might turn into a five page essay! Yikes!

In early April we decided to look into buying a home, partly because the first time home buyers tax credit was ending in April. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! To make a long story short, we found a place we liked and decided to make an offer. After a few negotiations, our offer was accepted and we moved forward with the home inspection, bank loan, and everything else involved with buying a house.

It was and still is a new and exciting process for both Mat and I and we're looking forward to hopefully moving in at the end of this month. We're still waiting on a finalized closing date, and waiting for the current homeowners to do the agreed upon repairs.

It has been so amazing watching God work out all the big and little details in this process. I firmly believe this would not be happening if it wasn't for Him!

20 months/Easter photos

New photos of Easter and Abby's 20th month of life have been uploaded. Check them out here or click on the link on the side.
I'll have a new update about our crazy lives up later this week. Hopefully things will slow down in August. Ugh...So long away!

Meeting with the Pastor

We met with Pastor Josh yesterday and we both were very happy with our time. His theology, mission, and vision are all biblical and he is very open to change and suggestions. It sounds like there are plenty of opportunities to volunteer, as with any church, and now we're praying about where God wants us. With our passion and experience it would be really easy to jump into youth ministry again, especially since this group is about the same size and makeup as our last two groups were, but we don't want to do it just because it's comfy. It would be amazing to be able to just be volunteers though.

Another thing that we were very happy to hear, is that the church is open to possibly integrating contemporary music into their existing service, or starting a new service, maybe in the evening. We would really like to see some of the college students in the area get involved with a church. We also learned about the Sunday school classes that the church offers. We're going to try out the "young" (mostly under age 50) couples class. I miss being in a small group, it feels like I'm missing a toe (was going to say leg, but I don't think it's that severe).

Abby also had a wonderful time in the pastor's office, as she always does when we are someplace new. She wandered around the office, pulling books off the shelf, poking the ceramic lion, spilling snacks EVERYWHERE, and trying to squeeze between the couch and coffee table. She's just not as small as she used to be, and I don't think she realizes that yet. On Tuesday she was digging through her "too small" clothes and found her old favorite shoes and brought them out for me to put on her. We tried and tried, but her little foot wouldn't fit and she just didn't understand. The same thing happened when we were trying on sandals today at the store. She insisted on jamming her foot into this tiny sandal, silly girl!

There are a few coming events that we're really looking forward to at church. The Saturday before Easter there is some sort of fun kid's day and I'm not sure, but I think there will be an Easter egg hunt, which should be very fun this year, with Abby at her current age. Then, on Easter Sunday, there will be a graveside sunrise service, breakfast, Sunday School, and church. I so miss the sunrise services that we used to be a part of when growing up. There was always something exciting about waking up while it was still dark, putting on warm, grubbyish clothes, and heading out into the cold to hear about Jesus! Breakfast always tasted so much better when we ate after such a celebration with family and friends. I'm excited about this Easter, because the church has a grave yard directly behind it, which is where the service will be. This is especially meaningful since the very first Easter took place in a grave :)

"They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the Lord's majesty. Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; exalt the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea. From the ends of the earth we hear singing: "Glory to the Righteous One."
-Isaiah 24:15-16

Spring

Mat and I discovered a new playground the other day, which is amazing considering how tiny our town is. It is within walking distance and has a sandbox, which Abby loves. It was behind what we thought was a children's program building, so we weren't quite sure if we were supposed to be using it, but you try telling Abby she can't play on the playground that we're walking right past when she's pointing and saying, "ohh, oh"! Needless to say, we went and played and had a wonderful time.

Last Tuesday a friend and I took our chillens to the same park and apparently the children's program no longer occupies the building and we even have access to the trikes that are in the shed, Yay! The fence around the park was recently removed, opening it up to the public. i guess we never noticed the fence before.

Last week it was warm enough to go out to the park and on other outdoor adventures, but now that it's officially spring, it's been cold and rainy. It's supposed to clear up by tomorrow, just in time for kids soccer practice :)

Potty Training

We began potty training the little munchkin about three weeks ago and she is doing fabulous! She has her own little potty chair, but prefers to use the "big girl toilet". She calls both #1 and #2 Bopo and raises her brows and squints her eyes when saying it. She also wears "big girl panties" whenever we are home. She still has #1 accidents but has only gone #2 in the potty chair for the last two days. We've taken her out of the house without a diaper twice and one of the times she peed on the Men's Soccer locker room floor, te he he. Daddy and Mommy are so proud of our little girl who is growing up too fast!

19 Month Abby photos

We have 12 new Abby photos. Sorry it's only 12, but the good news is, I've already started taking pics. for next month. Click here to view her 19 month photos. Below is one of my favorites.


We are headed to a beach city on Saturday and Mat will be going to north on Sunday. It will be Abby's and my first time to the beach city and we are taking the car in to have a recall fixed, couldn't be more exciting, huh? I was going to take her to the park while we were waiting, but there is a 100% chance of rain, bummer. While on our mini adventure we will also be going to AAA, the mall, and Mat will be recruiting. All of the things we don't get to do in our po-dunk town. If we're lucky, we might even make it over to a Target or Trader Joes.

Abby is currently trying to dress squirt in her pants that she recently removed from her legs, and succeeded in getting them to stay on his back. He has become the most crotchety old dog since Abby has become mobile.

Mat is at a short day of work today, Spring break starts today for students, so that means no practice! We had a small turnout for our first day of the youth indoor soccer program, so he's in the office working with the city trying to get the dates pushed back to allow more time for registration. I'm hoping that will go quickly, then he can come home and we'll finally be able to fill in the writing on the support letter shell that's been stowed away in our computer.

Another Excuse

This time my lack of posting is my fault, not hubby's. I've been spending all of my computer time helping Mat type soccer addresses and creating a fund-raising letter, Yay! I actually really do like doing that kind of work, weird, I know. He's hoping to raise enough money to buy game day shirts, warm-ups, and more! I don't know much about soccer (even though I'm married to the coach) or athletics in general (even though I work in the department), but I wanted to do something to help him out, because he's so busy. After all, the guy is making lunch for us right now. Grilled tuna, yummmm. Squirt is getting so excited, because for some reason he thinks he's getting food, that he's started barking, and Abby's napping. Oh, that dog!

The past week

So much has happened in the last week, I don't even know where to begin. I guess I could start with Mat's new favorite sport, curling, which is currently on the tube (yes, we still have one). During this Olympics a new love has blossomed between curling and my husband. I actually don't mind watching it as much as some sports, but I prefer ice skating. Mat has finally finished his two classes and is on his way to a 4.0 in his graduate program. He is going to be taking an additional soccer class, outside of school, in Florida. The class is a week long and he will earn his National Diploma from the NSCAA. This is thankfully during the same time that my parents will be here visiting. Mat's new class begin on March first, but he will only be taking one class the next quarter.

Abby has mostly conquered her bow-bow (pacifier) addiction, which we began weaning her off of about a week ago. She still uses it during naps and at night, and I must say that I don't see this ending any time soon. She struggled and really missed her bow-bow for about the first four days, but now she hardly asks for it at all. We were hoping that without it constantly being in her mouth, she would begin to talk more. She now babbles non stop, and is saying more words, more frequently. Her favorite word is Uh-oh. Sometimes she throws her cup on the ground just so she can say uh-oh. I think she's really begun to enjoy her English words and sometimes she'll say a string of as many words as she can think of and in no particular order. "Mama dada Bubu hi uh-oh." Or, she'll just walk up to Squirt's face, "Bubu, Bubu, bubu, bubu." Abby calls Squirt Bubu, it is much easier to say, and it's what Mat and I call him the majority of the time. As well as she is doing learning her new words, there are some words where she's stuck in her ways and won't even try to say them correctly. Mama has four meanings, depending where she puts the emphasis, Mommy, Grandma, All done, and one other word I can't think of right now. I've tried having her say, "all" and she says, "Ma", then I'll say, "done" and she'll say, "Ma". We've also been working on potty training, but I'll save that for another day.

The pets are all hanging in there. Garfield is more annoying than ever, that cat just doesn't know how to shut his little kitty mouth. He is constantly meowing. We do love having him around though, because he is the only of the three pets who lets Abby maul him. Skeeter sleeps next to my head every night and has developed the new habit of drinking out of the sink, I guess it's an improvement from the toilet. Squirt is still terrified of life in general. Besides his normal issues of rotting teeth, no hair, old age, and low thyroid, he is constantly in the wrong place at the wrong time. Flying objects and Abigail's body gravitate toward him. He spends as much time as possible sleeping and has even been know to sleep in until noon.

I've been busy trying to save all the money I can using coupons and shopping strategically. We're on a very strict budget trying to get all of our debts paid off. I'm enjoying my job in the Athletic Department, someplace I would've never in a million years, imagined myself. It involves time on the computer, organization, and numbers, three things I enjoy. Abby and I are still going to our weekly coffee group, where we've made some new friends. I'm especially enjoying having Mat back, since his classes have ended. It seemed like for two or three weeks I never saw him, because he was always drowning in school work. God has been so good to us in providing for all of our needs, some of our wants, and allowing us the privilege of caring for his child.

Mat's life

Mat is finishing up his final papers and presentations for his online classes, thus I have not had much access to the computer. As soon as he is finished, and hopefully when his new class starts, I'll be able to post more often. He is only taking one class next semester, instead of two. He's been quite the busy guy. He's a student, a husband, dad, in the process of starting up an indoor youth soccer program, and soccer coach. Many have asked what he does in the off season. He has weightlifting four times a week, study hall twice a week, miscellaneous tests and compliance paperwork, recruiting, scheduling games for next season, and much, much more! In between all of this, he's trying to squeeze in watching the Olympics. We love our busy guy!

Thrifty Thursday

I've discovered some wonderful sites to grab free coupons during the last few weeks. Some are even the coupons that are found in the Sunday papers.

Redplum
Enter your zip code, select your coupons and print.

SmartSource
Enter zip, select coupons, print.

P&G eSaver
No more clipping, coupons are downloaded right onto your shopper card.

Coupons.com
Sign up for 131 free coupons, plus local coupons.

Mysavings.com
Random free products and coupons

Abby News

Abigail's has figured out that if she pushes the dining room chairs around the house, she can get into practically anything and this is one of her new favorite things to do is. She usually pushes her chair around the kitchen and draws on shopping lists, does dishes, or plays with the water in the teapot. She's such a great little helper.


Abby and I had some new friends come over today. Abby's friend is 17 months old and they played peek-a-boo, hugged, shared sippy cups, played in the princess castle, and ate snacks together. We met them last Wednesday, at our weekly coffee Mommy and baby group. Hopefully it is the start of a wonderful new friendship :)

We've been having quite the nightly adventures when Mat goes away to weightlifting/study-hall. Last night Squirt puked three times on the same rug and on the couch. The cat puked in our bedroom. Abby and I found squirt standing in the middle of the street in the dark...did I mention that he's black? And last, after Mat was back home and in bed, around midnight Squirt puked on our bed!! Ahhhhh! We've spent all day today trying to get our bed back in order for sleeping purposes tonight. The last load is about to go in the dryer.

Mat and I have been slowly trying to wein Abigail off of her pacifier. We noticed that she talks a whole lot more when she doesn't have it in her mouth, and we're hoping that this will continue. We started out by only giving it to her in the house and in the car. She is now used to that, so we've moved on to only giving it to her in the car and while she is sleeping. She doesn't like this process so much, but she's not putting up as much of a fuss as I thought she would. It also helps that she's easier to distract now with little things, such as spaghetti noodle boxes.

Have a wonderful evening!

18 month Photos

New Abby Photos have been uploaded. There are images of our first snow, lounging in the sink, and much more. Click the pic below to view more.



My child usually likes to try new foods, but lately she's been a little picky about the look of things. Take lentil soup for example, it took her two dinners before she would actually eat it, and even then she was suspicious. With this knowledge, I don't know why she likes to try eating dirt/sand. On four or five different occasions she's tried to taste one or the other and promptly spit it out or had me scrape her tongue. This afternoon, while were were walking about Squirrel Park, Abby squatted down and full on began eating the dirt. I'm not just talking about a little taste, but two fist fulls went into her mouth and she was crunching on it all the way back home. I tried pulling some who knows what (possibly moss) out of her mouth along with the dirt, but couldn't get it all out.

Thrifty Thursday

Welcome to Thrifty Thursday #2!

Everybody likes to get something free, right? So, this week I focused on freebies, some of which are samples, but still free.

Free Powerbar sample
Register with powerbar.com to get a free PowerBar Gel Blast sample. Don't know if it's yummy or yucky, but it's free!

Free 20 oz. Orange Julius
Sign up with Orange Julius and receive a coupon for a free 20 oz. Julius fruit or Premium Fruit Smoothy. Yum! I was sadly unable to use this coupon, because I could not find an Orange Julius within a reasonable distance.

Box Tops Coupons
Sign up to receive a FREE Box Tops for Education coupon booklet with $10 in savings.

Freeflys Samples
Freeflys Samples is a fun website with MANY free samples listed in different categories, such as, "Food", or "Children". The only bummer is that you have to sign up to view the samples.

Almost Free Bar-S Hotdogs
Many stores double coupons, and if you are able to find one of these stores, this $1 off Bar-S coupon will give you two packages of hot dogs for around 39 cents each. That was the deal we got at our local grocery store.

These were a few of my favorites from coupon hunting this week, hope you enjoy!

Desitin Anyone?

As I was on Facebook this afternoon, I heard my little daughter making some noises from her room, which indicated to me that she was up from her nap. As I was finishing up on the computer, I noticed that she was suddenly silent, which usually happens when she falls back to sleep, so I decided to let her "sleep" a little longer. A few minutes later, I heard her making some happy noises, and went in to get her. I found her sitting on her bed, quite proud of herself, and holding the Desitin in one hand and rubbing it into her face with the other. Oh my! After my inspection of the messy Missy, she leaned back, crossed her legs and let out a content sigh. Daddy very promptly retrieved a baby wipe to clean Abby up. By the condition of the changing table, I could also tell that she had it to get to the Desitin.

This story strangely resembles a tale I heard of Abby's cousin. The following is a message from Abby's Aunt: "Cousin T was up all night Sunday crying and finally we determined he had and ear ache so I took him in on Monday to the doc and he has an ear infection in both ears, but he slept 12 hrs last night so that was really nice. Then after we got home from the doctor, we ate lunch and I laid Cousin T down for nap, then I got a phone call and Cousin T got quiet so I assumed he was sleeping, about 15 minutes later I went into put Cousin L down for nap and lo and behold the little monster was not sleeping but making a royal mess with the container of butt paste. It was everywhere, his whole face, in his hair, all over his clothes, on the floor. Let me tell you that stuff is greasy and not the easiest to get out, I've found baby wipes is actually the most effective method."

I guess they must be related.

A Church to Call Home

After our fifth Sunday visiting a local church, we think we may have finally found our church. It is a traditional church with a young pastor, only 25 years, straight out of seminary (it's weird that I'm calling 25 young). He and his wife live in what we are assuming is the parsonage on the other side of the lawn from the church. Mat is going to schedule an appointment for us to meet with him sometime this week to discuss the church's core beliefs, mission statement, etc. We also mentioned to him that we may be interested in getting involved with the youth. I really miss youth ministry, I think even more so than Mat, because he's still able to do a form of youth ministry with his team. One of the main things we were looking for in a church was a pastor that preached from the Word, and he definitely does this. Today, his first fourish minutes of the message was a medley of scripture that he quoted from memory. He is currently going through 1 John and uses scripture throughout his sermon.

We really enjoy how friendly the people of the church are, but they don't hold a candle to the friendliness of Brookside, the super-dooper friendly church. Abby seems to enjoy the nursery, she knows exactly where the baby dolls are and goes straight to them every time. This is the oldest church in town, founded in the 1700's. The church does not have a website, but below is a picture of the current building.

1842 ------------------------------Current

How to Create a Blog

I’ve been asked several times how to create a blog. In this post I will take you step by step through the process. For those of you who already have a blog, I would just ignore this post, because it may be rather boring.

1. Create a gmail account. If you don't already have one, I think it's easiest to first create a Google email address by going to www.gmail.com and clicking the white button on the right side of the screen that reads, "create an account". Follow the steps to create your account. If you already have a Gmail address, skip to step 2.

2. Create a blog. Go to www.blogger.com and click the big orange "create a blog" button on the right side of the page. This will take you to a new page where you must Create a Google Account. If you already have a gmail address, or you have just created a new one, click on the blue underlined "sign in first" at the top of the page. If you see "Sign up for Blogger" at the top of the page, then you are in the right spot.

3. Sign up for Blogger. Fill out the "Sign up for Blogger" form and click the orange continue arrow at the lower right hand corner of the page. Be sure and check that you agree to the terms of service.

4. Name your blog. Select your blog name and address. These are usually identical or similar on most blogs. Click the orange continue button.

5. Choose a template. Choose the template that you feel best suits your site or that you think is perrrty. Don't worry, you can change it later. Before selecting the template, you can preview it by clicking, "preview template". This will show you an enlarged example. I chose the "minima" template. After you have made your selection, click the orange "continue" arrow.

6. Your Blog has been created. Hooray! You've created your blog, now click the "start blogging" arrow to start blogging.

7. Layout. You will then be directed to a page where you can publish your first post if you would like. I would suggest that you hold off on this for now and click the "layout" tab as seen below.

Once you have clicked "layouts", as seen below, you can choose to change your "page elements", "fonts and colors", "edit html", or "pick new template".

"Fonts and colors" lets you change exactly what it says, fonts and colors, but I'll let you do that at a different time, because it is very self explanitory. I wouldn't even bother with the "edit html" option, because that will be way too confusing. The "pick new template" option takes you to the same page we were at earlier when you chose your original template. There are a few more options available if you would like to browse those at a later time. Right now, we will focus on the "page elements".

8. Page Elements. Everything in this section is broken up into neat, easy to navigate boxes. We'll start at the top and work our way down. In the center of the page, you should see a large gray box with a blue strip across the top titled, "Navbar". Click the word "edit" on the right side of the blue strip. Here you have the option to change the "Navbar" configuration. I chose "tan". Make your selection, then click, "save". Under the Navbar you should see your title, and this can also be edited by clicking the word "edit" In that box.

9. Add Gadget. Below the title, the same length as the title box, is an "add a gadget" box. We're going to ignore that box for now. Below and to the right of the add a gadget box there is a column of smaller boxes, please see below.

The top box is also labeled "add a gadget". Select this box. A new box will pop up, where you will be able to scroll through, and read about different gadgets. If you see one you want, feel free to push the "+" button to add it to your blog. I'm going to add the "search box". As I said, to do this I press the blue "+" button, as seen below.
This will take you to a new page where you can make any selections or de-selections that you would like. I de-selected web, because I only wanted the search box to search the blog that I'm creating. After you make your selections, click the orange, "save" button. There is now a "search this blog" box listed under my "add a gadget box". I'm also going to to add the "labels" gadget following the same method as above. When a gadget is added, it is automatically placed at the top of the list, but can be moved by clicking and dragging the gadget to the desired location. I reorganized my column to the following order: Search this blog, About me, Labels, Followers, and blog archive. Feel free to edit the other gadgets as you see fit, by clicking the blue "edit" to the right of each gadget. Don't forget to edit the "About Me" gadget and add in a little information about yourself to allow your readers to get to know you. Before moving on from this step, you must click the orange "save" button on the upper right. If this is not done, you will lose all of your work.

10. Postings. We are now ready to create your first post. Click the "postings" tab, which can be found in the same line as the "layout" tab, please see below.

This is where you will go anytime you would like to write a new post. There is a box at the top where you can type in your title, I would always recommend using a title, it makes searching a little easier. Below the title is where you will type the content of your post. Below the content is a place for lables. I would also recommend using labels with as few words as possible, and always using labels for searching purposes. Each post can have multiple labels. After you have typed your post and are happy with it, click the orange "publish post" button at the bottom left of the page. You can always edit your posts later. After publishing, you can click "view post" or you can wait until the next step where I will tell you how to view your blog. If you decide to view the post, use the browser's back button to return to this page.

11. View Blog. At the end of the row of tabs with "posting" and "layout", you will see the words, "View Blog". Click these words to view your blog. Here you will see the address of your website, please see below and are able to navigate your blog. To return to the your blog layout (see #7 above), click "customize" in the upper right corner, to the left of "sign out", please see below.

If you would rather "sign out" or create a "new post" this can be done by clicking those words in the same row as "customize".

Edit Posts. After clicking "customize" and returning to the layout page, click the "posting" tab (see #10). In the row below the "posting" row, click "Edit Posts". You will be redirected to a page where you can edit any previous posts or drafts that you have written. From here you can also delete and add labels.

Sign Out. To sign out from your blog, click the words, "sign out" in the upper right hand corner of the page, please see below.

Sign in. After signing out and when signing in, you will be at the blogger start page, found at www.blogger.com. Go to this address whenever you would like to access your blog. To sign in, type your gmail address and your gmail password. After signing in, you will automatically be directed to a the "dashboard" page. From here, you can get to "new post", "edit posts", and "layout" by clicking on any of them in the box titled, "manage blog", please see below.

Hopefully this should be enough information to get you a great start. If you have any questions or would like to leave me a link to your blog, please leave it in the comments. If you are unsure of how to leave a comment please go here.

Thrifty Thursday

I found some grrreat coupons and I thought I'd share my favorite's with you just in case you're interested. I might make every Thursday Thrifty, but only if it's not too boring. I'll share my favorite finds from the week, maybe. Below the coupons are a few Abby tidbits that I thought you might enjoy.

Free Gallon of Milk:
Enter to win the Got Milk free milk for a year give away and they will email you a coupon for a free gallon of milk with a $100 grocery purchase from any store, any brand of milk.

Free Coupon Booklet:
Sign up with Eat Better America and they'll send you a book of coupons in 6-8 weeks. I'm not sure what's in the book, but I thought I'd give it a try.

Free Tuna:
Click Here and print the $1 off coupon, good for any Starkist Tuna pouch (that's the technical name). We used our coupon at Wal-mart on the cheapest pouch, only 97 cents, making the tuna free!

$2 off White Cloud Toilet Paper:
Sign up with White Cloud Promotions and print a two coupons, one for $1 off and one for $2 off. After much research and reading consumer reports, this is what we've found to be the cheapest, yet still two ply toilet paper. Hurry, this one expires 2/17/10.

$1 off Desitin:
Go to desitin.com, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and print the coupon. Nothing to sign up for! I know most of you don't personally use desitin, but we think it's great, cause it's the only thing that works on Abby's rear.

As I was writing this post, I saw a stream of White Cloud T.P. running down the hall. Ahhh, our precious dollars are being waisted away by our precious daughter. She certainly is a cutie patootie. A few of Abby's favorite's:

-Foods: Peanut Butter on a spoon, graham crackers, uncooked pasta, grapes, fruit cocktail cherries, whatever mommy has on her plate.
-Drink: Juice = water, orange juice, vitamins, which she pronounces as "Ice"
-Bath Time Adventures: Soaping up her belly, sucking the water out of her toys, waving bye bye to the water, inviting the cats in with her.
-Books: Prodigal son, good Samaritan, baby faces, Animal Baby
-Entertainment: LOVES washing dishes, is currently enjoying shoving play-dough up her nose, coloring (only on things she's not supposed to or things mommy and daddy are using), anything outside.
-Toys: Car baby, baby, remote control from Sarah Light, Squirt
-Things to do that she's not supposed to: climb on the dining room table, climb on the coffee table, try and pick up squirt, kick squirt, feed squirt, dip anything into the toilet.
-Ways to mimic mommy: put makeup on, puts baby powder in her hair, shaving legs, clipping nails, laundry
-Ways to mimic daddy: blow nose, dancing, pig noise
-Little habits: turning on the angel night light from Charlie (our homeless friend), putting dirty clothes in the laundry basket and clean ones too, finding diapers and laying them out across the floor.

Dinner time!

Toothpaste Race

Well the Toothpaste Race has finally come to an end. I'm sad to announce that Mat was the winner by 26 uses. He's such a faithful toof brusher! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was supposed to use Mat's toothpaste 20 times to make up for the amount that he used mine while on vacation. I finished my tube and was only able to use his seven times before it ran out, and I mean it was dry as a bone, I made sure. In the time it took Mat to use up his tube, I was only able to use 2 and 22/23's tubes. I know, it's sad, but at least Piglet is a boy to make up for it :)

I had asked if anyone had any good homemade granola recipes at the end of a post a few days ago. Nobody, not even my mom left me a comment with a recipe, and Mom, I know you have a good one, because I've tasted it. I found one online at that I'm going to give a whirl at. Here it is, if anyone else wants to try it too. I'll be sure and let you know how it tastes.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted I'll use Smart Balance
  
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt We'll leave out the salt for Mat's heart
  
• 3 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 2/3 cup raisins

Directions

1. In a bowl, stir butter, honey, cinnamon and salt until well blended. Combine the oats, coconut and walnuts in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Add butter mixture and stir to coat evenly. Bake at 275 degrees F for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown, stirring every 15 minutes. Add raisins. Cool, stirring occasionally. Store in an airtight container.

I will also be leaving out the coconut (mat doesn't like it), raisins, and walnuts. I wanted to try a pretty plain recipe to start out with and this one caught my attention because it doesn't use sugar, but honey instead, yum! I might try adding in a little vanilla too.

If anyone as another recipe, or tries this one out, let me know!

Remember how I told you I was going coupon crazy? Well, here's a coupon for $1 off any Quaker oatmeal and it doesn't expire until 4/30/10. We'll be able to get at least two uses out of this. It does require you to already have installed or to install the coupon printer. Just follow the prompts and save it to your computer.

Abby and I are off to make some granola, Good Evening!

Chuck-O

Chuck is on tonight! Eeeee! We're about to start watching, now. It's officially my favorite television show. Abby's in bed and Mat is making cookies...again! We went coupon crazy today, and our best deal was making seven cents on a bag, yes I said bag, of tuna. We had a manufacturers coupon for $1.00 off and we went to Wal-mart where the tuna was only 93 cents. Yay! I should've saved the website that I found the coupon at, but I didn't. Oh well, I guess I'll learn my lesson for next time. I just caught someone sneaking cookie dough out of the bowl...

Our snow is melting and our first and only winter storm is over with. We're a little sad, but mostly sad that abby didn't enjoy it like we thought she would. We took pictures, but not too many, since all she wanted to do was eat the snow. She fussed on our walk to and from the school, but once we returned to our yard, she was happy eating snow again. She's such a cutie-pie. I do have to say that in her defense, it was sleeting, blowing sideways, and hitting her in the face when we went out.

Remember to keep Haiti in your prayers.

Mr. and Mrs. Bourne Prejudice

About 1.5 weeks ago Mat made the sacrifice of watching Pride and Prejudice (2005) with me. To make up for his suffering, we are currently in the middle of watching the Bourne trilogy, which I fell asleep during last night. Surprisingly, slumber did not overtake me while watching Pride and Prejudice, even though it was the same time of night. My Pa thinks it is absolutely amazing that my mother and I have the ability to catch some z's during the middle of action packed suspense films. After this happening repeatedly during various films, such as Bond vs. Sleepless in Seatle, I've come to the conclusion that it all has to do with where the viewers interests lie. I just don't understand you men, because who can resist, "And how are you this evening...*kiss* Mrs. Darcy? *kiss* Mrs. Darcy... *kiss* Mrs. Darcy... *kiss* Mrs. Darcy." Or even better, "you have bewitched me, body and soul/and I love, I love, I love you, and I never wish to be parted from you from this day on"

Today, I finished watching the last 30 minutes of Bourne Identity, that I slept through last night, and I must say that I did enjoy it. We are all set to watch the rest of Bourne Supremacy tonight, after Abby goes to bed. But honestly, his girlfriend was already killed, so what is there to look forward to? On a side note, I asked Mat which movie we watched last night, and he is currently standing behind me spelling B-o-u-r-n-e I-d-e-n-t-i-t-y. After he finished this, he began talking to Abby about the malleability of her play-doh. Is there something wrong with this picture? So all you guys...what is it that you see in those action films anyway?

P.S. Hubby made din din tonight and it was excellent!

Permanent?

This last Sunday, as we were readying ourselves for church, I was amazed at how quiet our little Abigail was being. For those of you who don't know, a quiet Abigail usually means trouble, but it is nice when I'm busy doing something, like getting ready for church. I went in the office and what do I find, only a little Abigail having a good time. She had 10 or 12 pens out of the pen cup and had created a lovely drawing all over some papers and other objects laying around on the desk, such as the printer. Not to worry though, only one of the pens was a permanent marker, and she only managed to get one black dot on her shirt and some stripes on her hand.

As I head back into the bathroom, I think to myself, "I'm glad that mess is behind us, as usual, Satan is up to his old tricks again of trying to stall us from going to church." Now, as I'm putting the finishing strokes of mascara on my lashes, Abby is playing quietly on the floor next to me. Usually I hold her in one arm, while putting makeup on with the other. For any of you who have ever put on mascara, you know that this is done rather close to the mirror, with all concentration on the brush, because heaven forbid a poke to the eye! Once again, I find myself thinking, "wow, this is so nice that I've been able to get ready without my girl clinging to my legs." As soon as I look down, I notice this strange white powder substance in Abby's hair, wait a minute it's on the floor, and her hand, the scale, all over! It's baby powder! I often put baby powder in my hair on the days I don't wash it, and as I said, she's usually always in the bathroom "helping."

Surprisingly, I didn't learn my lesson the first time, and as I was filing some paperwork in the kitchen on Tuesday, I noticed that it was terribly quiet in the house. Upon arriving in the spare room, once again, I saw my little artist with all of her pens and markers out, but this time drawing on the desk. I took a picture, so you could see how talented she it, but it was taken after I had already removed half of the masterpiece. The green is permanent marker and the black is pen. After doing a bit of research, I found that pencil erasers (you know, the little pink bricks) remove "permanent" marker from wooden furniture. Hooray!

The results are in!

After one long week, the polls have closed and Piglet is a...Boy! We had 12 people vote, only three of whom thought he was a girl, which leaves remaining nine votes for boy. The following are a few of the more, hmm, shall we say, interesting posts:

"Piglet is a boy! Little known fact: every character in Winnie the Pooh, with the exception of Kanga, is of the male gender."

"Piglet seems to be "Pretty in PINK". My vote is female!!"

"BOY. duhh."

"Ever since I was little I thought Piglet was a boy. These were Christopher Robin Milne's toys so I think most of them would be male with the exception of Kanga. Also in A.A. Milne original stories Piglet was always referred to as a boy. And as for the pinkish like clothing Disney is the one that put Piglet in these. A.A. Milne's Piglet is in a green jumper. I do feel that Piglet was made to appeal more to girls then to boys though, especially where Disney's marketing is concerned."

To view the rest, go here.

Thanks to all who participahyte;o (how Abby spells participated).


I've got bread baking, dinner planned and done (leftovers), and a semi-clean house, so I'm off to go play outside with my babe. It got all the way up to the 60's today, HEAT WAVE! We need to take advantage of it while we still can, the high tomorrow is only supposed to be 39.

Have a wonderful evening!

Last Chance

Today is your last opportunity to vote on the Gender of Piglet! If you haven't done this, and would like to, click here. We'll tally the votes at the end of today, so far we have three votes for "girl" and four for "boy". Thanks to all who have participated thus far.

Abby's fever seems to be gone this morning. She's much more lively and sitting on the floor reading a book to herself. She went three nights straight, sleeping through the night on her new twin size bed. Hooray! Last night she did wake up briefly, because she had lost her bow-bow (pacifier), but she was able to fall back asleep on her own, even if it was on the floor.

At the age of 27, I've finally figured out how to cook scrambled eggs, ha ha. It turns out that I've been doing all wrong. The key is to cook them over medium heat, not medium-low, who knew? Anyone have any good homemade granola recipes? If so, please leave it in a comment, I'd like to try my hand at that.

Abby Growth Stats

Here is the latest on our girl:

Height: 33 Inches, 90th Percentile

Weight: 24 lbs., 25th Percentile

Head: 75th Percentile

Please pray for her, she currently has a fever of 101.9 degrees.

Why our baby does not watch TV

Some may be wondering why we have never let Abby watch TV. During one of Abby's first few doctor appointments we were given a paper that said television viewing was bad for the brain development of children under two years of age. Today I decided to do a little research into why this is so.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, "Children six and under spend an average of two hours a day using screen media (1:58), about the same amount of time they spend playing outside (2:01), and well over the amount they spend reading or being read to (39 minutes)." This being said, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests "children under 2 years not watch television and children over 2 years watch 2 hours or less per day."

In a study published in the April 2004 issue of Pediatrics claimed, "hours of television viewed per day at both ages 1 and 3 was associated with attentional problems at age 7." I was told by a friend that this "reprogramming" of the brain is caused by the fast images flashing across the screen. Eisla Sebastian agrees, when she says that the overstimulation of the brain "has to do with the fast-paced images flashing constantly across the screen, which interfere with the brain's development."

This is just a quick overview of what I found. To read more, click on any of the links within the text, or do a search of your own, there is plenty of information out there.