Meet Mr Prickles

The 100th day of school is fast approaching for many schools in the U.S. Those of you in warmer states celebrated yours a while ago I'm sure, but here we'll be celebrating on Friday. As is the apparent tradition, teachers in elementary grades give kids a project, Reagan's was to make a picture using 100 objects, to be creative, 100 pennies on paper was not considered creative. So on went the thinking caps, she already made one project that she took in last week, but the over achiever that she is she wanted something different, she didn't feel her last project was creative enough and within a couple of hours Mr Prickles was born. How cute is he ? 1 piece of brown card, 2 wiggly eyes, a black pom pom for his nose, a glue stick and 100 tooth picks and you too can have your very own Mr Prickles.

Happy Birthday to me

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME !! To celebrate my Birthday with you, for one day only (FEB 5th) I'm going to give 44 cent shipping and handling on all orders within the U.S and Canada. Refund will be given via PayPal so I don't have to go in and change everything, afterall it's my B'day and I just wannna have fun :)http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheGivingTree#

Have a great day everyone, I'm off to eat doughnuts and go shopping with my favorite 7 y/o :)

Public service announcement

I was going to post a recipe for some amazing fat free cupcakes (yes they do exist) that I made, BUT I got the cupcake ready for it's picture debut, turned around and promptly ate it and yes, it was the last one and I don't know about you but a recipe without a picture is like milk without cookies... it's just not doable, sooooo I'm going to share something totally creepy that happened to my 18 y/o the other day and it's something we all need to keep in  mind next time we go out to the grocery store.

Wednesday Victoria received a private message on Facebook (thankfully her profile is private) from an old man, a creepy old man, an old man that she'd never seen before. In his email to her he documented her whereabouts and what she was doing several days earlier, he concluded with "Now I'll tell you how I found you, you were cashing a check in Walmart, I was standing behind you, you flashed your check, I read your name and haven't being able to get you off my mind" CREEPY, NASTY  STALKER DUDE !!!

So to all of you out there that use checks in a store, be careful who is standing around you and cover up as much of your information as possible. After reading the message I will never use a paper check again unless it's to a friend, from now on at the store it's debit card all the way.

So there's my public service announcement, now go about your daily lives as usual and beware of all suspicious looking characters around you, especially creepy old men.

Alien Abduction

I know there's a lot of speculation as to whether or not there is life on other planets and whether or not aliens come down to visit earth, well after this morning I am here to tell you it is very, very real.

Reagan and I were in the living room doing some of her Scratch Art (very fun) once we were done I asked her if she'd like a snack and that's when the alien abduction happened, the child in front of me said " Yes, once I vacuum up these small pieces." 'Scuse me ? my child does not like the vacuum and she especially doesn't like to clean up, confused I said "Have at it" and I went to prepare the snack. Whilst doing that the Reagan lookalike went and got the vacuum plugged it in and proceeded to pick up every single speck of paper and then she caught me taking her picture and that's when it almost got ugly, do you see that face ?

I retreated back to the kitchen as the Reagan lookalike continued cleaning and as quick as the abduction happened my sweet child reappeared, ate a brownie downed a glass of milk and left the cup and plate on the table for me to clean up. I was kind of hoping the alien Reagan would hang around for a while and clean up the whole house, but alas no such luck.

You know it's time for a haircut when.....

The wind is blowing 90 miles an hour, you start to cough, the wind blows your hair into your mouth and down your throat, whence making you cough, gag and choke all at the same time, once you have recovered from all of that you jump into the van to take a child to school, you slam the door, get yourself situated only to get a raging pain go through your head, yes, the wind blew your hair back outside of the van without you noticing and you have just slammed a whole pony tails worth in the door. And that boys and girls is why I get my hair cut shoulder length in the Winter, my appointment is next week, until then it will be tied up and under a hat.

Pure genius

My children are not the best milk drinkers in the world, Reagan would prefer to down a gallon of water before she drank a glass of milk but she knows she doesn't get any flavored drinks until at least 1 glass of milk has been consumed, Ben would rather walk on hot coals than to have to drink white milk but he will happily down a glass of chocolate milk, the only problem is that he'll empty 1/2 a bottle of syrup into the glass or a cup full of powder, so all the nutritional benefits of the milk has just been depleted. He's old enough to make his own drinks mommy shouldn't and won't make them for him. The other night he asked if I'd buy some Ovaltine, I'm ok with that, it  has added vitamins and minerals and he needs all he can get right now at 13. My issue was how much he puts in the glass, yesterday I picked up a canister and had a pure genius moment. I went over to the craft aisle and picked up some small baggies that are generally used to keep beads in, you can buy 100 for $1, came home and filled up 30 bags w/ Ovaltine and put them back in the canister, now every time one of the kids wants chocolate milk all they need to do is take one of the premeasured baggies pour it into their glass, add milk, stir and voila, chocolate milk made to a Mother's liking. The kids don't throw the bags away instead we have a bag hanging in the pantry for them to put the empties in until they get refilled the next time. Another bonus ? Doing it this way actually gives you about twice the amount of servings than is specified on the jar, I'm sorry but 4 tablespoons of mix to 1 glass of milk is a bit excessive don't you think ? The only downside to this ? The kids are drinking more milk now than they ever have and I'm having to buy 2 gallons of milk a week instead of 1 :)

So, do you wanna knit but don't know how ?

I do desperately and so does Reagan. I've looked on YouTube, I've read the books but I'm too much of a hands on learner, reading a book and trying to figure it out makes me feel stupid, watching a Youtube video I always forget that maybe I'm looking in mirror image and well it's just not pretty. The last time I tried to learn anything via YouTube was how to crochet... FAIL !! and it didn't help that Marc walked by and told me I looked like a monkey trying to do a math problem. I have no clue what that looks like and I'd like to know how he does but from his tone it wasn't complimentry.
When Reagan told me at Christmas that she wanted to learn how to knit my heart sank a little, it was one of the few things she's wanted to  learn how to do that I couldn't help her with.... "mommy fail'  then I saw an advertisemnet for Michaels Daily special, it was one of these http://www.createforless.com/Provo+Knifty+Knitter+Loom+with+Hook+1+set/pid76932.aspx and it was only $7.99 so I picked it up along with a ball of yarn. Since Christmas it has sat in a corner of her room, yesterday was one of those days where it was cold outside and I just wanted to snuggle up on the couch watch the football and craft, so I asked Rea if I could try figuring out her knitting loom, the wonderful child that she is she gladly obliged, so I opened up the package raring to go and saw that the directions were for a hat... SERIOUSLY ????? Could we not start out with a scarf ?  Directions for a hat were all I had to go by so what could I do but 'knit' a hat and that's what I did. Now I'll admit that casting on the first time for me was tricky, remember I'm a hands on learner, reading the directions made little to no sense to me and I felt like a total moron when I saw that on my first attempt I'd done it backwards, but I persevered and 3hrs later a hat fit for a 7 y/o was completed and the 7 y/o was thrilled and we all lived happily ever after.

I feel like using a loom is somehow cheating a little, it seems so easy but looking on various websites you can make some pretty neat things, and the fact that it's so easy means my 7 y/o can use it hassle free and she is and loving it and is making a hat for a friend. Sooo if you want to learn to knit but are totally clueless then I absolutely recommend going out and purchasing the Knifty Knitter, then you brag to your local friends about it and one of them will announce that she knits and will give you knitting lessons. I'm so psyched, I'm going to go buy my first pair of knitting needles tomorrow :)