BB Power

I HATE packing lunches. I have yet to meet a woman who enjoys packing lunches for her hubby and family everyday. My mom did it for all the years we were growing up and she's still doing it for my daddi-o, but I know in her heart she secretly hates packing lunches. But - it's not cost efficient or healthy to eat out for every single lunch for the both of us - been there, done that. So, what I've taken to doing this summer (and I really like this method) is on Sunday evening - either Clint or I grill 8 chicken breasts. Chicken is almost always on sale at Meijers either fresh or frozen, but fresh is soooo much tastier. Apparently Sam's Club has huge chicken breasts for sale at 1.99 a pound - always, so we're going to check that out. Anyway - grill up the breasts and then I set up a little assembly line of 9 square gladware containers and two bags of lettuce, 3 cucumbers and about 5 peppers (I love the colored peppers) and then I just assemble 9 salads and stick them in the fridge. When the chicken is done, I bag up 9 bags of breasts and stick them in the fridge in a bowl. Then I also bag up 9 bags of baby carrots as well and stick them in a different container. Grab and go - baby! And it's a tasty healthy lunch that I don't have to do every single night. Takes me only an hour on Sunday evenings for the whole week!

For the past two weeks I've also bagged up these brownies from a recipe that I found online - it's a Weight Watcher recipe that I stumbled on during my days of Web surfing. I was a bit incredulous at it, so I wanted to try it. All you do is get a chocolate brownie mix, dump it in your mixing bowl and then take a normal size can of black beans, drain the juice out of the can while keeping the beans in it. Then fill up the can of beans with water and then puree the heck out of it. So that the skins are all pureed and everything. I have a Magic Bullet (WHICH ROCKS) and it takes about 1 minute to do! Then dump that in with the brownie mix and blend up. Then bake according to the directions on the mix. It totally works! They are a bit of a different consistency and I like to melt about 1/2 a bag of chocolate chips on top for a "frosting", but they are pretty healthy (for being chocolate) and give a big boost of fiber! There's a little something off about them, but not that much and I really like them.

Well - I had been packing them for our lunches prior to this week and this week, I just have little snack bags of something sweet to go with our salads. Anyway, the salad, carrots and brownie have totally satisfied both Clint and I until dinner - I remember coming home from teaching and just wanting to SCARF while I was getting dinner - cuz I was so hungry. Not these days. This week both Clint and I have been SOOO hungry in the afternoon and just feeling like the salad wasn't enough. And we figured out that it was because we were missing the black bean brownie!! Isn't that incredible? Seriously - the brownies were only maybe 1-2 inch squares and they would hold us for 5 hours!!!!! Having just figured that out, I was totally amazed. Gotta get me some more of those made! I'll have to add it to the Sunday evening line up.

Another recipe that I tried from WW (I'm not on WW, but the bb brownies led to this one and I didn't believe this one either) is to make a cake out of a cake mix and a can of Diet Coke. Is that crazy or what??? So, I tried it. Dumped my chocolate cake into my mixing bowl, added a 12 oz can of DC and mixed it up. Baked it according to directions and out it came!! It really light and fluffy and I eat it with Cool whip, rather than frosting because in the beginning it was so light that it looked as if frosting would tear it up or be too thick tasting. The cool whip is really tasty on it. Is that amazing or what? Apparently the DC only really tastes good with chocolate cake mixes and for white or yellow cake mix they recommend fruity pop like 7up or Sprite or red pop, etc....

How crazy is all of that???? The power of carbonation and the black bean can totally eliminate the need for eggs and oil in a recipe. Who figured this stuff out anyway???

Almost there

I think we're almost out of the woods with Annie and being sick. She's been barking like a little dog all weekend - we're talking NO sleep here. I've been giving her some amoxicillian that was left over from June and it seems to really be helping. We have a dr. appt today (AGAIN) and hopefully they'll give her an "official" refill or some steroids to help her or something. She doesn't have a fever or runny nose or anything, just these horrible coughing/choking spells where her eyes get all watery and everything and of course she usually pukes up her formula after one of these spells. At our last appointment the doctor said everything was clear, she's just draining, but there's got to be something we can do to get the choking under control! It reminds me a lot of asthma and bronchospasms and also when Gracie had the RSV when she was just a little bug. So, all that to say, it's been a weekend with virtually no sleep - Clint had to work all weekend, so no chance of catching up while he handles the girls. Our usual arrangement is, I'll get up with the girls during the week so he can sleep, and he gets up with them during the weekend, so I can sleep in. But on the weekends that he works - doesn't work so well. On Saturday night - I was up from 1 am till we had our afternoon nap after church at 2pm. Yesterday at work I was so fried, I was barely functional - but good sleep was ours last night. I woke up and went to look in her basinette and there she was just happy as can be, rested and smiling so sweetly up at me. She's such a precious!

Vacation's coming up next week - we're headed to Traverse City again. Last minute arrangements were thrown together and now we're all going - Jeff & Becky, Ric & Bone, Clint, Amy & girls. Woohoo! I'm so excited. I love vacation and I always cry when it's over!

Grace is very excited about it as well. We got her a suit and cover up and new Ariel beach towel - she dragged it around all weekend. Apparently the house we're renting has a great beach for young children! Hooray! She's a fish in the water and last year had no fear when it came to the lake and swimming pools. I am glad to report though, that I took her swimming over at a friend's pool and last year when I did that, she would jump right in without any concern of whether or not someone was there to catch her. Scared the heck out of everybody! This summer, she was much more cautious and it took a while for her to get rambunctious and jump in. Thank goodness!! Maybe we'll see a little bit of common sense in that girl yet!

Oh - and Grace has new phrases - "Can ya believe it?" and "Are ya kiddin' me?" So funny. And also - "Mom - can ya answer me?" She's closer to 3 years old now, but her speech still amazes me - she speaks so clearly and maybe I'm biased here, but I think she's pretty advanced in her vocabulary and comprehension. That's my girl!

Obsessed

Well, I've found a new obsession...I mean "hobby". I'm totally addicted to couponing now! I can't believe it! That's right, work is so incredibly slow that I've found myself menu planning and cross referencing the Meijer ad and what's on sale to what we have in the pantry. Yes, I know that's just common sense, but I've never really done it that way. I've just made up menus and then bought, hoping that stuff was on sale. Never the other way around - yep - I've finally clued in.

AND I'm addicted to Internet coupons. Hee! A couple of sites have some good coupons - coupon.com and mycoupons.com, and also - you have to dig for it, but Meijer also has a link where you can print out coupons for Meijer products. Well when I went grocery shopping two weeks ago - turns out most of the coupons I printed off the Internet were for items that were on sale! So - double whammy. I print off the coupon as many times as the site will let you and then buy that many items. Apparently the key is to build your pantry to the point that you only have to buy fresh items every week. Well, let's just say that between the sales at Meijers and the coupons I found and printed off - I got 300 dollars worth of groceries for 180 bucks! (I only went 20 dollars over our 2 week budget). I even got four cans of Planters nuts for free!

Last week I looked at the sales, looked at the coupons and ONLY bought what was on sale that I had a coupon for and saved more than I spent ;) I saved 36 bucks and spent 34. And the nice thing is, they are for items that we will totally eat and don't really expire. I got bags of frozen veggies for 50 cents. 1/2 gallon ice cream? 1.50 baby! (So I bought 4!) AND I would have gotten 8 boxes of spaghetti for free, but they were all out and if I'd asked for a raincheck, my coupon would have already been expired. So I used the coupons on the whole wheat pasta and still got them for 70 cents each :)

This week I'm cashing in my formula coupons. I've been holding on to the Good Start formula coupons you get at Meijer. Each time you buy a can, you get a new coupon - this one is buy 4 cans - get 10 dollars off. It's a good coupon if you can shell out 90 bucks for formula at a time because then you've got your whole month covered. Well - I've been waiting till Annie finished the last round of formula I bought - in JUNE - and formula is $1 off this week and I've got my 10 dollar coupon - plus a 5 dollar off your entire purchase coupon from last week's trip. So - 98 bucks down to 78 baby!

Yeah - I'm stoked and I'm a nerd. But seriously, with gas so freaking expensive I can change some of our grocery budget into gas money and alleviate some of the pressure!

Triple A

There are two old friends I have welcomed back into my life this week and I am so glad they are here. We are the 3 Musketeers, the 3 Amigos, the 3 Stooges - we've been tight for the past 20 years of my life and as of late - especially due to pregnancies over the last 3 years, we've been apart. I've missed my two buddies - my pals - my compadres. I've missed them to the point that I have been sick about it for about a month now.

I'm talking about my good old pals: Antibiotic and Antihistamine. Throw me in the mix and we are Triple A.

I've been sick for about a month now with a horrible sore throat and coughing and the girls were sick as well in the beginning. All three of us went on meds, but the antibiotic didn't clear up whatever it is for me. So, I had to go back to the doc again because it was just painful to even think about swallowing. And then when I had to do it - OWWW! I wasn't getting any sleep, the girls were tag teaming me just about every night since they've been sick and I swear I thought I had mono. I finally broke down and went to the doc again - who simply reported that my allergies were out of control and "here's an antibiotic - just in case" - Just in case what? I don't know - but I was very relieved to have Augmentin and Allegra back in my life.

I haven't been able to take Allegra because it's such a high level drug, that I couldn't take it while pregnant and it's really the only allergy drug that works for me. So - I'm Day 2 with my old pals and last night was the first night in a month that we all slept so soundly and so peacefully - I actually woke up at 1:30 and couldn't really get back to sleep till about 3am -just cuz I was used to being up! But no matter - the rest of the night was wonderful and I woke up this morning feeling about 75% rested and not dreading the day - which has not been the case lately. I even had to wake the girls up to go to daycare! That NEVER happens.

So, cheers old pals - it's good to see you again. Although Augmentin will be gone in a week, Allegra is movin' in and it's lovely having her here.

Freedom Awareness Day

Yeah - I saw that on a sign in town this weekend. LOVE IT...that's hysterical - Independence Day = Freedom Awareness Day - what is this world coming to??

This weekend was simply PACKED with good old family fun. Clint took the day off on Thursday so we could head over to Coldwater and visit his dad - who is in town on vacation. We took the girls on the pontoon and all I can say about that is 2 1/2 year olds and pontoons don't mix that well...

Pretty sure I already knew that, but 2 1/2 year olds mix better than 18 month olds from last summer! Ha ha - Actually Grace was all about the fishing this weekend. She didn't get anything but a couple of bites on Thursday, but on Saturday we all went out to a campsite by the lake and she caught like 3 fish - one right after the other! Almost as soon as she cast out! Those fish sure do like that Dora fishing pole! Excellent investment.

Annie pretty much slept the whole time at the lake - except for some fussy bits - she is eating like a little piggy! It seems like all I do is feed that girl! But she's also holding her head up, pulling herself up - almost rolling over and she jibber jabbers NON STOP sometimes! She's going to be a talker, I can tell. My sister in law and I tested her out by telling jokes, and darned if she didn't laugh in all the right places! So funny

Clint and I took Grace out for her first canoe ride on the lake - There are two seats in the middle - I'm guessing it's just a standard canoe - and so we took the seats and paddles and put Grace in the bottom of the boat in the middle and head on out. About halfway through she looks at me and says:

"Where's my paddle?

"Oh, there's just two paddles, honey - Daddy and I will row the canoe."

"Oh. I wanna go back."

That girl cannot sit still for anything.

"Well, come here and you can stand in front of Mama and help me paddle."

"No. I want my own"

BOY! She's bossy lately. Well, Clint said he could do what he needed to do just paddling by himself. So I had Grace position herself directly in front of me, between my knees and paddle (keeping my hand on the top of the paddle, of course) and she actually did pretty good until she looked back and me and snidely said,

"Can you get in the middle?"

Whatever! Good grief - she totally wanted to replace me! Is that funny or what?? I think we'll put the Pocahontas DVD in cabinet for a while - she's getting thoughts in her head!

From Sneezy to Sleepy - trying not to be Grumpy

I never realized how much you can accomplish on so little sleep. I am starting to wonder if I will EVER have a full night's sleep again! One thing can be said for having babies young - when I was in my 20's I counted myself fully rested on 5 hours of sleep. That skill would certainly come in handy right about now. I'm sure I wasn't the easiest person to get along with in college, but I'm pretty sure I was a highly functioning, somewhat pleasant person - most of the time. Now, in my 30s - I'm wondering where all my energy went. Zappo - right to 3am feedings and 9 oclock story bedtimes, while trying to keep the house clean, dinner on the table and show up for work on time. Oh!

Some Saturday mornings, as it's 6:00 am and BOTH Annie and Gracie are wide awake and ready to go, I allow my mind to daydream to the days when they will be teenagers and it won't be until 10 oclock that I have to drag them out of bed. My thoughts don't stay there for long because - yikes! TEENAGERS??!??? - but I am looking forward to the days when I actually get to stay in bed for a significant period of time...sleeping...

Now about my husband keeping me up...*hee hee*

*clipart.disney.com