Coupon Queen (sometimes)

Do you coupon?  Well, I am an on again off again coupon-er, and right now, I’m BIG time into it.  Especially for TARGET.

Check this out.  Did you know…. That at the bottom of Target’s website, they have Target Store Coupons???  If you did know that, did you know that you can combine these with manufacturer’s coupons to get extra savings???  For instance…. I have a Huggies Diaper coupon from the paper for $2 off diapers.  Target has another “Target coupon” for $3.50 off of Huggies Diapers…. That means I can save $5.50 off the same box of diapers.  Genius!!

And while I love Target for everyday shopping, I do not grocery shop there.  I know lots of people who do, and they love it.  But for me, I cannot get the variety that I like and I’ve found it to be more expensive comparatively speaking to other grocery stores.  So, I shop mostly at Meijer.  Granted it is not the cheapest either, but they have this GREAT couponing program called m-perks.  With this program, you can also combine coupons.  You sign up with your mobile phone number, go online, “clip” coupons and they are automatically saved to your phone number.  When you get to the store, use the credit card swiper to enter your m-perks member info, and voila!  Your coupons are taken off during check-out, plus, you can use actual manufacturer coupons for the same products. 

Now, there are lots of other online places to look for coupons also.  Smartsource.com, redplum.com, and coupons.com are my top favorites.  Then, there are people who run websites that have “coupon databases”……  These people are my friends!  If I am looking for a coupon for something specific, you can usually type in a search box and see if there is a coupon out there for it.  My Indiana favorites are Bargain Briana & In Good Cents for some others not from Indiana, there is the Krazy Coupon Lady, Coupon Mom, Money Saving Mom, & Coupon Divas. 

Now, as far as coupon organizers, you can go really crazy and have big coupon binders or go as simple as having an envelope to stash your coupons in.  I have this coupon keeper called the Couponizer.    This thing has pockets divided up like a normal grocery store is divided, it gives extra pockets for coupons you are going to use during your next trip, and a pocket to keep the coupons for items you’ve already got in your cart.  It gives you a shopping list, and even a handy sorting device for clipping coupons from the paper.  I rarely utilize all of the great aspects of this thing, but I highly recommend it.  I bought mine off of Amazon.

  

Of course, there are always the coupons from the newspapers on Sundays.  I get the Thursday and Sunday newspaper for the coupons and the ads.  Those two days of the paper each month cost me $10 and I save wayyy more than $10 by couponing, so I think it’s worth it.  Now, I am NOT one of those people you see on the TLC show Extreme Couponing.  I do not get my groceries for free.  We buy too much produce for that.  But… I do save where I can, and taking a little time each week to coupon and review the ads for great deals is worth it to my family.  Two weeks ago, by being a member of m-perks, I got a gallon of milk for free, just because I was a member.  That right there saved me $2.69! 

Do you coupon?  Do you have any couponing tips for me?  I’d love to learn more and become a better coupon-er!   Have a great Thursday! 

Recipe: Yeast Rolls & Cinnamon Rolls

Recipe today for the yeast rolls and delicious cinnamon rolls that I posted yesterday! J  I know most of you that read this blog aren’t inhaling carbs like I am while pregnant, so please excuse me as I tempt you!!

First, it should be known, that to make the cinnamon rolls, I simply use the yeast roll recipe and go from there…..  So for the roll recipe here it is.

Ingredients:

1 cup lukewarm water
2 pkg yeast

1 stick melted margarine or butter
1 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs-  room temp. Beaten

6 cups flour( may use a little more or less)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

Mix together and let sit until frothy:
1 cup lukewarm water
2 pkg yeast

Mix together:
Yeast mixture
1 stick melted margarine or butter
1 cup milk (it’s best if room temp also, but doesn’t have to be)
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs-  room temp. Beaten  (tip on making eggs room temperature fast:  place in a bowl with warm (not hot) water for about 5 minutes, then they’ll pretty much be room temp)

Add:
6 cups flour( may use a little more or less, you want them to be sticky and not too dry, I used about 6.5 cups each time, but I was mixing with Kitchenaid stand mixer & dough hook)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Place in covered greased bowl to raise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours.   You should get something that looks like this when that step is finished.…

Roll Out and shape into A) Cinnamon Rolls or B) yeast rolls and let raise another 45 minutes. 

A)     FOR CINNAMON ROLLS - I combined about 1 cup packed brown sugar with 2 tablespoons cinnamon then added ½ cup of white sugar to the mix. (Feel free to change this mixture if you need more or less of something)    Then once the rolls are rolled out flat – take 1 entire stick of softened butter and spread along the rolled out dough.  Then sprinkle (quite heavily) the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Roll into a long jelly roll, slice and place in baking dish.  (I made mine really big this time…..)  Let raise according to directions above if you want to bake immediately.  If preparing at night, place dish in refridgerator overnight, in the morning place the baking dish in cold oven – let rolls warm up while oven preheats – and then bake.  Bake @ 350° for 30-50 minutes (depends on the size of the rolls – mine took FOREVER)  For glaze, combine powdered sugar with milk until smooth (still runny) and pour overtop while still warm.

B)      FOR YEAST ROLLS – roll out flat, use biscuit cutter to get circled portions and jelly roll each piece.  Place in baking dishes and let raise according to directions above.  Bake @ 350° for 8-10 minutes until light brown.

End Result should resemble the below….. One note…. I have NEVER gotten THREE 9x13 pans of rolls until this time, I have no idea what happened – I guess my yeast was super fresh!

I hope you enjoy – both versions of this recipe are simply delicious!!! J

Misc Monday

Linking up with Carissa today for Miscellany Monday.  It’s a fun linkup, just write completely random and join in!

One.  Some songs baffle me.  The one I have been hearing lately is  “Beer with Jesus.”  It’s a country song.  I listen to country most of the time.  But this one, I can hardly believe it.  I just have no words.

You can listen to it here.   

Two.  This weekend was wonderful.  I got to bake things I don’t often bake.  We spent a lot of time at home.  We caught up on some much needed laundry.  We worked in the baby’s room.  We played hard.  I love weekends like that. 

Cinnamon Rolls, YUMMO

Yeast Rolls

Cooper reading books while we were cleaning the baby’s room.

Playing hockey.

Three.  While working in the baby’s room, we decided to go ahead and change the furniture in Cooper’s room so that we can re-use his dresser/changing table for new baby.  He is adjusting, but not loving this adjustment.  I am loving the look of this furniture in his room though.   

Four.  Color Wonders stuff from Crayola is the bomb.com.  Cooper can color and paint with this stuff and the best part…. NO MESS.  He loves it, and mommy does too.

Coloring

Five.  Sweet sleeping boy.

Now it’s your turn, write miscellaneous and linkup with Carissa!

Baby Johnson: 20 Weeks

Week 20!  On the way down the hump now!  Just 18 more weeks to go! J  I’m super excited, I can hardly believe I’ve only got 18 weeks left!!  Baby girl is moving quite a bit lately, she’s not moving crazy, but more often than last week, every couple of hours or so she wakes up and starts moving around in there. 

Let’s get into the new stuff for this week.

• On Monday, we were to get the results back from the quad screen that I had done the previous Monday.  I told you here that baby had a place on her heart that was a bit concerning (overwhelmingly for the mama) and we did this blood screen to make sure there were no chromosomal abnormalities.  Well, the results did indeed come back and there is a 1 in 5117 chance that baby has anything wrong, so THANK YOU for the prayers, I really appreciate it!  Mama about jumped for joy I was so happy that she is going to be ok. 
   
• Sleep – that has been quite difficult this week.  Tuesday night was awful, I slept from around 10 to 3:30 then was up until 5:15, slept for a half hour, then had to get up and get ready for work.  It was a brutal day.  Exhausted.  Then Wednesday night I was up from 3-5 but did go back to sleep after that until the alarm.  Thank God I slept last night.  I still had to wake up to pee a couple of times, but thankfully I went right back to sleep each time.
• I’ve had a couple of times this week where I’ve tried to move around like I didn’t have this belly in front of me and got up too fast, or tried to play with Cooper and have had some muscle pain in my lower abdomen.  I’ve got to realize that I am indeed pregnant and not everything is going to work the same as it did when I wasn’t!
• It’s getting harder and harder for Cooper to sit on my lap when we read books before his bedtime.  Poor guy will probably not be able to sit on mama’s lap for too much longer, I’m sure we’ll find a way to cope somehow.
• Cooper is still pretty excited about his baby sister.  One night this week when I was putting him to bed, he didn’t want to sing songs, he wanted to talk about Katy and where she’d sleep, her room, and anything else he could come up with.  He’s cute and I know he’s going to be such a good big brother!!

 

That’s about it for this week!  I thought I’d leave you with a progression collage, the belly grows…….

Pregnancy Favorites (first half)

Since I am nearly 20 weeks (tomorrow is 20 officially)  I wanted to write about a few of my favorite things so far during my pregnancy with Miss Kathryn Elisabeth.

1)      Cuties Mandarin Oranges.  I can probably eat these by the dozen, but I’m only allowing myself two at a time, and most times, Cooper helps me eat them because he too loves these things.  Sweet, no seeds and easy to peel, can it get any better??

2)      Aveeno Clear Complexion Daily Moisturizer.  I’m not sure if it’s the winter or pregnancy, but either way, my skin is SO dry and this has really helped on my face – it doesn’t cause me to break out any more than usual (although that does tend to happen more when I am pregnant), it’s not greasy, it’s perfect!

3)      Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream.  Not Ben & Jerry’s specifically, just that flavor of ice cream.  I also love banana ice cream this time too, just not as much as CCCD.

4)      Sour Patch Kids.  I loved these back in high school but hadn’t eaten them much since except I craved them when pregnant with Cooper and I’ve been the same way during this pregnancy.  Weird.

5)      BabyCenter Iphone App.  I don’t check it daily, but I love on Fridays when I turn another week along, it tells me all about baby’s progress and I go ahead and look forward for the next week so that I don’t have to check it daily.  Nice and short summaries of activity with a checklist of things to accomplish during the week.

6)      Old Navy Maternity Jeans.  When I was pregnant with Cooper – I borrowed most of my maternity pants/jeans.  I only bought a couple of pairs for myself, and I hated them.  I decided to buy a couple of pairs this time because I knew I’d be wearing jeans most days to work during the winter, and these jeans are great!  They were way too long for me when I got them home, so my mom being the awesome one that she is, hemmed them for me, and now, they are the perfect length and oh so comfortable!

7)      Apples.  Specifically Honeycrisp apples.  I don’t recall ever having Honeycrisp apples until this fall, but they are wonderful.  If I cannot find this type, I opt for Gala.  Yum.

8)      Motherhood Maternity V-neck shirts with button embellishments – These are THE MOST comfortable maternity shirts!  When my blog BFF Holly sent me a couple of their maternity shirts as a gift around Christmastime, I discovered Motherhood Maternity.  I had to go into the store and check it out.  I promptly bought three of these shirts in different colors, and I LOVE!

 

I think that’s it for the first 20 weeks.  I feel like I’m centered around sweet stuff, at least 2 of the 4 food items are halfway decent for me…..  Now, let’s see what changes in the next 18-19 weeks!

Happy Thursday ladies!

So What! Wednesday

Linking up with Shannon for So What! Wednesday today….

This week, I’m saying SO WHAT! if……….

• I wish I could be home, in bed, catching up on sleep.  I’ve been awake since 3:39AM this morning.  Well, I probably got 30 minutes of sleep between 5:47 and 6:18, but other than that zilch.  I’m tired.
• My daughter will be almost a year younger than her precious niece Soup?  They’ll still play together and have fun.
   
• The last two days all my family has had for cooked meals is pasta.  Sue me, I’m craving carbs.
   
• I eat oatmeal for breakfast almost every day at work, out of a Styrofoam coffee cup.  I’m too darn lazy to actually wash dishes.  The coffee cup works fine.
   
• I skipped the normal tv time with the hubby last night, I wanted to catch up on blog reading, so I spent almost two hours reading and caught almost caught up!
   
• I’m obsessed with People magazine and People.com.  So what?  I like to know what’s going on with celebrities?
   
• I eat cheese and crackers in bed several nights per week?  I make sure that I get the crumbs out before I actually go to bed.
   
• I gain forty pounds again during this pregnancy?  I seriously hope I don’t, but that ice cream every night isn’t helping things.  I’ve only gone up 5 lbs so far, and I’m ½ way there, crossing my fingers on this one….
   
• I want the baby’s room done now.  And by now, I mean like this weekend.  It won’t happen, I know that, but I still want it. 

What are you saying So What! to this Wednesday?  Link up and tell us!

Winter's Highs and Lows

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!  Anyone else suffering the FREEZING temperatures that we are here in Indy?  I just checked weather.com and this is what’s going on in Indy right now.  FOUR degrees and with wind-chill it feels like -11.  YUCK. 

 I normally do not mind the wintertime all that much, I just layer on lots of warm clothes and do what I’ve got to do, but with the little bit of snow that we had yesterday, and the frigid temperatures, I’ve had about enough.  Too bad Mother Nature doesn’t seem to care if I’ve had enough, we’re not going to get above freezing until this weekend potentially.

Cooper begged me to go out in the snow yesterday.  We didn’t have much, less than an inch probably.  It was gone by midafternoon, but he still wanted to go out.  We had bought him some snow boots a couple of weeks ago, and he hadn’t been able to wear them, so I gave in, and layered him up, and we went out.  I’m glad we did, because he had a great time, I’m just glad we weren’t out very long, because it was soooo cold even with 3 layers of clothes plus our hat/gloves!

  

Being pregnant in this weather isn’t exactly the most exciting thing to me either….  I have a maternity black fleece zip up jacket that I got from Old Navy, and you’ll pretty much see me in this thing 24/7.  All of my maternity shirts are pretty thin because I had most of them when I was pregnant with Cooper in the spring/summer, so I didn’t exactly buy wintery type items for my wardrobe.  This time, I’m just too cheap to go out and buy new clothes, so I just wear the black fleece on top of everything.  I am still able to wear several shirts/sweaters that were my “fat girl clothes” and I’m thankful for that.  Once they start getting too short for me because of this belly, I’ll really have to rely on that fleece.  To be honest, I’m thankful that I’m going to have 12 weeks off when it is warm outside, so I’ll stop complaining about the winter weather RIGHT NOW.

Do you all feel the same about winter or do you love it? 

Weekend Wrap-up & MPM

\We have had a busy yet pretty fun weekend.  Friday evening, Tim, Cooper and I drove to Louisville, KY to visit my dad in the hospital.  I mentioned here that he had been in quite a car accident.  He to have a follow up surgery on the 18th, so we went to visit and see how it all went.  Other than being nauseous and in a lot of pain due to the surgery, he was going to be fine.  The surgeon was quite impressed with his work, and that’s what we always want!

Cooper fell asleep in the car on the way down, we were only about 30 minutes from the hospital, but at least he got a little nap.

After the hospital we stopped to get my beloved King Fish for dinner then headed to my Mom’s house.  We stayed the night at her house.  Cooper stayed awake until around 10 that night when we all decided to hit the sack.

The next morning, we hung around my mom’s house for awhile, then went to lunch and then we headed to the hospital to visit my dad.  We stayed around the hospital for a couple of hours then went home back to Indy, back to the frigid temperatures.  On the way home, my boy fell asleep quickly in the car, he’d had a long day.

Sunday we had church, out for lunch, then came home, made some more brownie cupcakes, hung out with Erica and Mel, and watched several children’s television shows.  My favorite!

When we were at lunch, Cooper sang us a song that he had learned.  I’ve gotta tell you, this made me tear up, I was so proud at this moment.

Sooooo cute!

 

Today, Three day weekend for us due to MLK holiday, we visited with Steph, Ryan and Soup, she’s just the cutest thing!  Tim put up some shelves around Kampbell’s room, and I made buffalo chicken stuffed shells for us to eat for lunch.  Yummo!

This is a long post, but I need to get my MPM post in for the week!

Here’s what’s on the menu for this week.

• Steak and baked potatoes
• Teriyaki Chicken Noodle Bowls
• Grilled Chicken over a green salad
• Tuna Salad Sandwiches
• Spaghetti (we didn’t have this last week)
• Chicken Stroganoff (we didn’t have this last week)

That’s it!  Easy peesy!    What’s on your menu for this week?

Baby Johnson: 19 Weeks

Week 19!  I’m halfway through!  May 31^st is exactly 38 weeks, which is when I will most likely be taken into the hospital, if not that day a few before or a few after.  This is because I am diabetic, which makes me “high risk” and they will not let me go much past the 38 week mark.  So… new things for this week:

• I had two appointments this week.  The first one was on Monday for the anatomy scan with the Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) office.  I get to visit them because I’m high risk and they tell me all about the baby’s heart and I get a more detailed ultrasound.  We even got to see the 3D ultrasound and boy was it creepy at 18 weeks 3 days!  All of the pictures we got were pretty horrible, so I’m not going to put them on here.  But that is the day we got to find out we’re having a girl. Baby’s heartbeat was 153 bpm.  They did find an Intracardiac Echogenic Focus (ICEF) on baby’s heart, which gives us a slightly higher risk for chromosomal abnormality than a baby without this condition.  The ICEF does nothing to the function of the heart, and in normal babies it will disappear sometime during the 3^rd trimester.  I did the quad screen blood test during my appointment, and the results of this should help determine if there is anything wrong.  If the test results come back with high likeliness, we’ll have to do more testing, so any/all prayers you can give us for good results are much appreciated!  I go back on Feb 19 to MFM for another ultrasound.
• The second appointment was with my regular OB, they did more bloodwork, and they measured me as well as hearing baby’s heartbeat again.  It was 142 bpm at this appointment.  Doc assured me that I shouldn’t worry about the ICEF, that in his experience, he’s never seen any abnormality if that was the only thing that was found on the ultrasound.  He did say that its possible, but not likely.  Again, prayers are appreciated.  It was a quick appointment – I don’t go back until Feb 19 for my 24^th week appointment.

• The baby has started moving quite a bit since Monday.  She got poked and prodded enough to decide to start kicking her mama.  Right after that ultrasound, Katy started moving where I could feel her.  I love feeling her and I have really missed this, and knowing that it’s the last time I’ll feel it makes it even more special.

• Sleep has remained the same, waking up frequently and finding it hard to go back to sleep after my internal 5am wakeup call.
• Cooper has been pretty excited about his baby sister.  Last night he even asked Tim to forgo singing songs with him so that they could talk about the baby.  So sweet.  He’s going to be a great big brother!
   
• Stephanie brought over all of Soup’s newborn and 0-3 month clothes yesterday, so I get to start looking at what little miss will be wearing!  Thanks Steph!
   
• We’ve decided on decorations for Katy’s room, so excited for that reveal later on in this journey, but we’ve got a lot of purging to do before that time comes!

I think that’s it for this week, thanks for reading along.  Have a great weekend!!

WILW

I haven’t linked up with Jamie in a long time for What I’m Loving Wednesday, so I figured it was about time.  There are so many things I’m loving this week, why not share them?!?

This week, I’m LOVING…..

…….That we found out we’re having a BABY GIRL!  I cannot stop smiling and cannot wait to meet this little girl that God has blessed us with!

…….That baby girl has been kicking me ever since my ultrasound on Monday.  She wouldn’t move so they had to poke and prod her, and now she’s been awoken and likes to kick!

…….That this little boy and I had a major date night last night.  We visited his old babysitter, visited Meijer where he got to ride the horse, went to Mickey D’s for some grub and playtime on their play place, then he even got an ice cream cone to top off our night.

Coop on the horse at Meijer

Coop at the top of the play place at McDonalds

……That this precious girl is going to let her aunt Kathryn borrow her clothes!  She and Steph went through all of her 0-3 month and 3-6 month clothes yesterday to send them to our house for Katy!   Looks like Soup was a big help too! J

.…..That we found some cough syrup that is safe for a 3 year old!  We looked and looked and finally found this (actually my mom did, thanks mom!!)!

….That I found these cute skorts at Meijer for $1.50 each.  Kampbell is going to look so precious in them this summer!

And last, that these two love each other.  So cute, they’re gonna be good buddies!

What are you loving this week?  Link up and tell us!

Baby Johnson: Gender Reveal

A few of you voted, so I wanted to share our news…..

I guess a whopping 87% of you knew what you were talking about, because guess what???

Now, who is wondering what her name is???  That’s right, we’ve got it all figured out.   Her name has been picked out since I was pregnant with Cooper as a matter of fact…  If Cooper had been a girl, it would have been his name.  There were another name out there contending for this baby girl, but we stuck with our original choice. 

So, baby girl’s name is: Kathryn Elisabeth (Katy or Kate)

Tim and I are both thrilled.  We would have been either way, but I am pretty excited to get to experience both a boy and a girl.  Tim has obviously had these experiences before, but it is all new to me!  That’s todays big news!

MPM

I haven’t done a MPM post in quite awhile, because frankly, we haven’t been making meal plans.  We’ve been just going with the flow and making whatever, but not this week.  We planned out the next couple of weeks – so plan on at least a post for the next two weeks with our meal plans. 
Tim and I are trying especially hard to stick to our grocery budget, and he’s trying to keep as healthy as he can as he’s trying to lose some weight.  We did all of our grocery shopping over the weekend and not only stuck to the budget, we were way under!  So… without further adieu, here’s our meal plan for this week.
Sunday: 2x4 (soup-very chili like)
Monday: Soup & Grilled Cheese
Tuesday: Breakfast
Wednesday: Stuffed Buffalo Chicken Shells, Green Beans
Thursday: Salmon, Broccoli, Couscous
Friday: Out of Town
Saturday: Out of town if we make it home for dinner, well have Spaghetti
That’s our meal plan for this week!
Do you meal plan?  Do you find that it helps your family stick to a budget and eat at home rather than going out?!?  We do, it has really helped us in the past and we need to get back to it!

Baby Johnson: 18 Weeks

Since I’ve been MIA on posting updates, I figured today might be a good day to post one – it’s been exactly 4 weeks since the last post!  I am now 18 weeks along in this pregnancy.  I forgot to take the picture at home, so I’m doing it at my desk at work.  Thank goodness for the self-timer app! 

There haven’t been all that many changes over the last month, but here are a few small things:

• My sleep has become more interrupted.  I seem to wake up at least 2 times to pee.  Then, around 5am each morning, I am awake and I’m finding it hard to fall back to sleep.  My normal wake-up time is 6, so this 5am wakeup call has really started to annoy me.
•  I’m still staying up later at night, but have been going to bed between 9-10 since getting back into the work routine.  I’m just pooped by this time at night, often Tim waking me up as I’ve fallen asleep on the couch.
•  My belly has grown, but it doesn’t seem too dramatic if I compare to the 14 week picture, as you can see below.  The only way I can really judge is by looking to see how much further the belly is sticking out from the boobs.  It seems to be out further in the 18 week picture.  Ha.

• We find out on MONDAY the gender of baby as long as baby cooperates!!!
• We are planning to tell Cooper that he’s having a baby brother or sister this weekend!  EEKS, anyone have any good ideas on how to tell a 3 year old?!?!
• My insulin requirements are pretty much the same, my doctor has added some insulin in at dinner, but that’s it. 

When we find out baby’s gender and after we tell the family – I’ll reveal his or her name!  Yes, we have names picked out! J

Have a great weekend!!

Freezer French Toast Stix

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, please forgive me, as you’ve seen or heard of this from me before. 

I’m writing today to tell you about this little time saving task that my husband and I embark upon once every couple of months.  It saves us time 2-4 days per week in the mornings.  We make French Toast Stix for the freezer. 

Cooper eats a variety of things for breakfasts and these French Toast Stix work well many mornings.  He will eat eggs, yogurt, cereal, pancakes and toast, but he LOVES these things.  So, when I posted a picture of me during mass production to Instagram, Shelly asked me to blog about it.  So here we are.  Below is the ingredient lineup…..

When we make these things, we usually make two loaves of the Texas toast, so I’m going to give you the measurements that I use for two loaves.  Feel free to cut in half or modify at your own discretion.

Eggs – 14 of these bad boys. 

Milk – 1-1.5 cups You may want less or more depending on your tastes  (We use whole milk since that’s what Cooper drinks and that’s who is eating them)

Vanilla – 1.5 tablespoons (I don’t measure very often, I like vanilla a lot, so I use a lot)

Cinnamon –2-3 teaspoons???  - I do not measure this at all.  Since cinnamon doesn’t actually ever dissolve into the mixture, when it looks like it’s all gone from the bowl, I add more. 

Granulated Sugar – 1/3 cup  (I forgot to include in the picture, please forgive me.)

Wisk your eggies and then add the milk and vanilla and wisk them in and finally add cinnamon.  Dunk your bread and cook on hot griddle until you get the texture you want.  Below is my griddle with 8 lovely pieces of the stuff, you can also see how the cinnamon is floating at the top, silly stuff..  We cook until it’s almost dry, because it is easier to flash freeze. (more on that in a minute)

Once we have them cooked, we cut each slice into thirds, and put on a cookie sheet to flash freeze in our deep freezer.  After they are frozen enough that they won’t stick together, we put them into gallon sized ziplock bags and throw them into the freezer so that we can grab as many as Coop wants to eat. 

We simply warm them in the microwave on each side for 15 seconds at half power.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar or serve with syrup, or both!  Yummy and very fast for morning breakfasts.  Really, this entire process only takes us about a half an hour to get them all cooked and put into the freezer, we let them sit for 30-60 minutes and then bag them and freeze them again.  Easy Peasy!

For those of you with kiddos, give this a try, it makes our lives easy, and we know they are better for Coop than the ones you can buy at the store.  We tried those once and they were son darned greasy I vowed to never again buy them!!!

Running Shoes Link-up!

Hey ya’ll, I’m blogging again today….  This time to link up with Mel & Laura for the Favorite Running Shoes linky party.

I couldn’t help but to share my favorite running shoes, because it took me MONTHS to find a pair that fit my foot well and that were comfortable to me.  I pronate a bit, so these shoes have extra support in that area, and they are awesome.  I’m definitely a Brooks girl from now on because of these shoes!

My favorite running shoes are the Brooks Addiction.  Since I started running last year, I have had two pairs of these Brooks Addition 10s.  I would be on my third pair by now if my silly foot wasn’t so hurt and if I was allowed to run – but I’ve had complications with my prior pregnancy, so I’m taking things pretty easy and just walking for exercise during this pregnancy.

These shoes are awesome though, so please, if you have any pronation issues, check them out!

Thanks to Mel and Laura for hosting this link-up!

Cooper's new school

Ever have those times with your kids where you are more anxious/scared about something than they are?  Well, that was me last week when Cooper started his new preschool.  He has been looking forward to January for quite a while, because he knew he was starting his new school in January.  Not that he didn’t love his old in home daycare, he did, but he just got excited at the thought of starting big boy school, which is EXACTLY what we wanted!  His girl-friend from the previous daycare, Hayden, was also starting at the new school on the same day, which we knew would make the transition much easier. 

He was supposed to start on January 2^nd, and he did, he was there for that day only last week due to him being sick on Thursday and us going south for my dad’s surgery on Friday.  Anyway, that was probably a good thing, because his teacher was on vacation last week and there was a substitute, so that meant more adjustments, thankfully, he didn’t have that much yesterday since he was there only one day last week. 

When we brought him in yesterday morning, we finally got to meet his teacher, Mrs. Marilyn.  She is a very sweet lady and we know she’ll take good care of our boy.  She works from 6:30 am until midafternoon, at which time another caregiver comes in so that the teachers can go home.  Miss Ellen is his teacher for the last part of the day, where they mostly play and read books.  They do the “school” part when Mrs. Marilyn is there. 

We knew the teacher wouldn’t be there when we picked him up yesterday, but we had completely forgotten about his “cubby” where any paperwork they did during the day would be.  When I remembered it this morning, I checked, and she had written us a note!  She answered all of my questions and I’m so glad to know he did pretty well.  When I talked to her this morning, she said he only cried when she was laying out their cots for naptime before lunch.  He thought that he had to take a nap at that time and he just wasn’t ready yet.  Once he knew he got to eat lunch and had more time before naptime, he was fine. 

About lunch, Cooper might be THE pickiest eater I have ever seen.  That boy will not touch most food given to him by anyone.  We’ve got to break him of this habit, and pretty quickly.  I’m getting tired of specializing a dinner just for him! 

Cooper has met at least one boy who is not in his class that he really likes.  Jacob.  Jacob is in the next class up and Cooper LOVES him.  He talks about him constantly so far.  I’m hoping that he’ll bond with a few others, and it looks like from Mrs. Marilyn’s note, that he is working on that. 

He was hesitant about leaving me this morning when I dropped him off, but I know he’ll do just fine after I leave, there was no crying, so that definitely helps! J 

How have your transitions to new daycares/preschools been with your kids?  Have they handled it well?  Any tips for me?

Crazy Weekend

It’s Monday again!  I say that with great JOY.  Honestly.  After the weekend I had, I am actually glad to be back in a regular schedule, routine, back to normal.   This post is long and rather intense.  Feel free to skip this one, I just wanted to get it in the record books before I forgot to write it out.

You see, last Thursday night, as I was driving home alone (because Cooper was sick and Tim stayed home with him), I got a phone call.  One of those types that you hope you don’t ever get.  My dad had been in a car accident.  My brother didn’t really know how bad it was, he knew that his leg was bad, but wasn’t told anything else.  He would get back with me as soon as he knew more.  You see, I live 2 hours away from my dad and brother and I was struggling with whether or not to get home, pack some things and jump in the car to head there.  My brother advised me to stay put until they knew more.

Turns out, he had broken the bone in his lower leg twice and had another break that went through the skin and they had to fix this one immediately in the ER.  And by immediately, I mean whenever their busy ER at The UofL Hospital could get to it, it took them a few hours to get to him.  He also would have to have surgery in the next couple of days to repair even more damage.  I was a basket case Thursday night to say the very least.  Then, around 10pm, I got a phone call, and it was my DAD!!!  He sounded awful, but he wanted me to know that he was going to be ok.  I told him that I would be heading that way after work tomorrow OR as soon as they knew he would be in surgery. 

On Friday morning, I had just dropped Cooper off at preschool when Gwen sent me a text saying that Dad would be going into surgery soon, so I hightailed it into my office, picked up my laptop and any other essentials and went to pick Cooper up and headed to the hospital.  Tim had a conference already scheduled in Chicago this past weekend, so he had to go there, which meant taking Cooper to the hospital with me.  I am glad I had charged the iPad so that he could be busy while we waited for the surgery to be done.

Dad was finally out of surgery and back into his room later Friday evening, which was great.  He was in lots of pain and was quite incoherent.  I stayed for a while then headed to my mom’s house so that Cooper could get some energy out and play with his cousins.  Larissa and Layne were scheduled to be there all weekend because my brother had plans to be out of town this weekend also.   I finally convinced my brother to go on his trip so the kids had a great time together. 

I spent Saturday in the hospital most of the day, letting Gwen head home to take a shower and rest a bit, Dad and I snoozed in his room.  He would be either going to rehab on Sunday or heading home depending on what the doctor and physical therapist said.  In the end, he headed home yesterday afternoon and was home around 5pm.  He is doing alright, he even hobbled down the hall in his house a bit.  I took a look at his leg before he left the hospital yesterday and I couldn’t have been able to tell how bad it really was from it.  They doctors and surgeons did an excellent job.  Yes, he has several pins sticking out of his leg, yes, he almost severed it during the accident, but the repair they did was amazing.  I am so thankful that they were able to save his leg and then on top of that, for it to look so good was simply awesome.

From what I could tell from pictures of the accident and from the story I heard of what happened, the end results could have been much worse.  Praise God for saving my dad and for the only damage to him being his leg.   He has one more surgery scheduled on January 18^th – and I’m hoping that is the end, we’ll find out more when they are done with that one.

My weekend was stressful emotionally and I’m so thankful that I have such a great Mom and her husband Shawn to watch my son so that I could take care of necessary stuff with my dad, I’m thankful for Gwen and my Grandpa and Kieran and brother who will be helping dad on a daily basis as they did this weekend also.  I’m exhausted today, but I wanted to get this post written so that I wouldn’t forget it.

I sure hope your weekends were much more pleasant than mine, and Happy Monday!

Emily from A-Z

So, I've been seeing everyone do this little A-Z survey and so I decided to jump on the bandwagon and participate too.  So, here goes nothin....

A. Age: 32, eek how did I get so old?

B. Bed size: King – I LOVE all of the space!

C. Chore you hate: Cleaning toilets and showers.

D. Dogs: One red-headed step dog named Chauncey.

E. Essential start to your day: A shower and checking my phone while blow drying my hair.

F. Favorite color: Blue, I loooooooooooooove almost every shade.

G. Gold or Silver: White Gold or Silver.

H. Height: 5'5

I. Instruments you play: None!

J. Job Title: Sr. Financial Analyst

K. Kids: One, and one on the way.

L. Live: Huh? I love live Improv comedy?  Does that work?

M. Married: Yup, the hubby's name is Tim

N. Nicknames: Em, Emy, Emmers

O. Overnight hospital stays: Only with Cooper, another stay coming in late May/beginning of June!

P. Pet peeve: I have so many, but I have to say my biggest at the moment is when people don’t send THANK YOU cards.  I really think it’s the least a person can do when you’ve given them something, either in the form of a material item or your time and energy. 

Q. Quote: "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

R. Righty or Lefty:  Righty

S. Siblings: One brother, Craig.

T. Time you wake up: 6am

U. University attended: IU Bloomington

V. Vegetables you dislike:  Lima Beans

W. What makes you run late: My husband, my son.

X. X-rays you've had: My teeth, and my foot.

Y. Yummy food:  Spaghetti, Pizza, brownies, ice cream.

Z. Zoo animal favorite: Monkeys.  I’m not a huge zoo fan, but I love monkeys.  Plus, my son makes the zoo more fun.

So, did ya learn anything you didn't know?