Who'se the mom around here?

This week has been a bit chaotic around here. For someone who is a *tad bit* organizationally challenged and a *wee bit* fly by the seat of my pants, I require a surprisingly large bit of routine in my life to keep me sane. A holiday week detracts from that. As does a mildly out of whack 10 month old. Seems as though Turner has a touch of an intestinal something or other as the childcare workers at the Y had to pull me out of my spinning class yesterday (2 poopy diapers in less than 45 minutes) and after 5 minutes on the elliptical machine (and 5 minutes into A Baby Story on TLC by-the-way) for a poop blow out that caused some angst in the childcare room. We got him cleaned up and they let me finish my workout!!! By the time I showered up and picked him and Olivia up there had been 2 more poops and 1 waiting for me when we arrived home.

Are you kidding me, dude? Give a mama a break here. But for sure something is outta whack when he didn't touch lunch and refused drinking milk. He has no fever, a runny nose but seems to be playing just fine. Until lunch time. He's just whiny, snotty and a bit grumpy. He seems pretty fine if I hold him and snuggle him. Sure signs something is not right. These days he could care less if I hold him- he wants to be on the move.

Turner and O were playing in the kitchen at this Leap Frog music toy when all of a sudden he lost his balance, toppled over and hit his head pretty good on the tile kitchen floor (I would have suspected foul play from one older sister had I not been an eye-witness). I swooped him up, gave him a ton of kisses and hoped the ear popping screams would end soon (not nearly as loud as the screams that came from yesterday's bloody nose, but that's for a different entry.) As I was trying to console him, Olivia came running from the kitchen and said, "Shouldn't we pray for him, mom?"

Duh, prayer, I hadn't thought of that one! I immediately teared up. My soon to be 3 year old was pointing me back to Jesus. And I'll tell you, after this week, somebody sure needs to regardless of their age! Let's just say I've been operating on auto pilot and it hasn't been working out so great.

How sweet to have your daughter want to ask Jesus to help her little brother! She said, "I'll hold your hand." So I prayed for Turner and for myself and thanked God for such an amazingly sweet gift in the middle of a "poopy" day!

happy birthday, bebe!

We are so glad today is your birthday (if you don't believe us, just look at our faces!)

Ah, yeah, these are actually the best of the bunch. Let's just say these two were not the most cooperative when it came to holding birthday banners and smiling.


Tinkerbell wanted to say she loves you and that it's your birthday, you should wear a crown (just not hers!)

We hope that your day is fun and that it is going better than ours (bloody noses, nasty poops and crayon on the wall- thanks Turner.) We can't wait to see you on Saturday and celebrate you then. There will be toys, cake, crowns and gifts waiting.

Hurry up Saturday!!!!

Let me introduce you...

to my new love~!

I promise that this is not just a simple ploy to entice the fine people at Hostess to dump a truckload of 100 Calorie pack cupcakes at my doorstep as a thank you for my huge endorsement of their product to my 26 readers!!! (although, if they did, who am I to stop them?)

Since joining Weight Watchers, I have been on a quest to feed my sweet tooth with delicious yet low cal treats. Early on I found these 100 calorie pack cupcakes (in chocolate) and LOVE them. If you know WW speak, finding out that they are only one point should be music to your ears. Three yummy cupcakes for only one point! (That means I could eat nine of them to equal a fun size Snickers bar... but I digress.)

Yesterday at the store I happened upon a new flavor- Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Icing and Creamy Filling. Yeah, baby, these are the bomb! I'm usually not a fan of fruity flavors (I'd take chocolate over strawberry any day) but even I need to switch up my routine now and then and thought I'd check it out. Well, I'm a believer! I may like them even better than the chocolate ones .

Anyhoo.... if you are in the market for a portion controlled treat, I HIGHLY recommend testing these out. If you've got any secret gems, let me know about 'em, I'd love to try!

Football fan???

If you live in my neck of the woods, you are very well aware that this past weekend was the much awaited and anticipated Buckeyes vs. Wolverines game. Because I am married to an avid Ohio State fan, I too root for the Scarlet and Grey. But I'm not sure how deep my allegiances run.

Here are a few things that I discovered this weekend:

Football for me is about 3 quarters too long!

This late November game is best seen from my warm sofa, with good friends and yummy snacks

Stadium hot dogs are $4.50 (and 1/4 lb!!!!) 1/4 lb. hot dog???? Wow- I'm speechless.

Grown men wear floor length fur coats to stadiums. RIDICULOUS

You really can be THAT COLD and still survive. (It finally warmed up to a balmy 28 degrees.)

Some how we were able to manage a smile, even though I could no longer feel my toes, despite wearing my beloved Ugg boots. (That one was for you, Erin!)

So, Buckeye fans left satisfied with another victory (one guy behind us even took a picture of the scoreboard for his Christmas cards because apparently nothing says "Happy Birthday, Jesus" like a Michigan massacre!) and perhaps just a bit empty at the realization that what they had been living for all season is over and now they begin looking ahead to next season. As for me, it's a good thing that American Idol is so much more fulfilling!

Move over Martha

There's a new girl in the kitchen!

It's dang cold here and although I'm not a fan of playing outside in the sweltering heat, it beats being couped up all winter. So, I've been trying to come up with some indoor activities. I think I just remembered how I came to find myself at Weight Watchers in the first place.

Olivia and I baked our first batch of cookies together. It was actually a ton of fun. She did great at putting the butter in the bowl, pouring flour in and watching the Kitchen Aide mix it all up. The whole while, she only licked her hands 1/2 dozen times and sneezed "near" the ingredients once. (Mental note, if you're ever offered dessert at my house and you come to find O has helped out, you may want to think twice.)


Her favorite part? Take a wild stab at it. Although it was fun having a baking buddy (my favorite thing to do at the holidays) I realized I'm not the only one who wants to lick the spoon. Motherhood- a daily choice to die to yourself (and steal a lick or two while your assistant isn't looking.)

What does Turner do while the girls do "woman's work?" What does any boy do? He banges pots and pans REALLY loud and breaks stuff. I figure as long as he's not actually in the oven, we're good to go.

One of these days he may even get to sample some fruits of the labor (then I figure any and all chances of me getting a lick off that spoon are gone.)

Oh, PS- thanks for leaving comments and letting me know you're reading this thing. That was really fun for me. Feel free to keep on checkin in!

Odds and Ends

Of all days to leave my camera at home (and right after I bragged about how no one is safe now that I am blogger extraordinaire blah blah blah). Steve was away for work today so I was trying to think of some fun ways to kill the day (oops, was that out loud?) I heard on the radio yesterday that the Radio City Rockettes were going to be at the mall this afternoon between 4pm and 5pm. Perfect way for a 2 year old diva to spend the post-nap funk time of the day.

Poor Turner first had to endure a short jaunt to Victoria's Secret (excuse me! I'm not that indiscreet as to share ALL my nitty gritty.) If you must know, I got a gift card for a free pair of underwear and $10 off any bra in the store... but I digress... Turner behaved just like a man would in there. Unlike his usually content and ridiculously adorable self, he protested the whole time. But wait T-bone, there's more! Next we pull on up to the "Christmas Cottage" at the mall where the Rockettes were signing autographs. O was mesmerized, yet instantly mute.

To their credit, the Rockettes (I hate to keep referring them as the Rockettes- there were only 2 of them, but I'm at a loss for something more creative) were super sweet with her. It would have made an awesome picture and I'm sure someday she would have thought it was pretty cool. But I didn't even have my phone w/ me to snap a shot with that. What a loser mom moment. So she just stared for a couple of minutes, they signed an autograph for her and off we went.

Oh yeah, and T wasn't screaming any more. But let's just say he was more interested in the guy emptying the garbage can (true story) than he was the dancing girls. I know I know, give him a few years and he'll trade in garbage for girls, but I'M in no rush.

Totally unrelated- we got a letter back from the Senator yesterday. No luck on help with expediting our form. BUT they did send us a copy of an email from CIS basically saying that if we documented the fact that China would not supply us with the required letter, that was good enough. (You know I'll be keeping that in a fireproof lock box "just in case.") I feel a peace about that and also feel real good about pursuing extra avenues.

Finally, here is a plea for some work on your part. I'd love to find out who is reading this thing... or if anyone is (Buehler, Buehler). Through out my week I'll catch an occasional random "I read your blog" or "I heard you've got a blog" but I'd love to get a roll call of sorts. Just for fun and just to satisfy my curiosity. Of course, don't feel obligated... just know I'd be encouraged to think someone other than my mom and Jenny read this thing :) Have I just blown all blog etiquette by requesting comments? How needy is THAT? Oh well, I can live with it.

Hell has frozen over!

How do I know? Because I actually got this coupon thing to work for me this weekend!

Please indulge me as I brag about my endeavor.

Thanks to my mom teaming up with me and sending me her coupons, I now have twice the opportunity to screw up. However, this weekend I scrounged up my coupons and headed off to Target where I knew I'd have some luck w/ some kick-butt Glade deals, but what I forgot was thanks to my wheeling and dealing there earlier in the week (Dunkin Doughnuts coffee was on sale and after buying 3, I got a $5 gift card as well as another transaction kicking me back yet another $5 gift card) I had $10 in Target gift cards. So I was able to buy all of this:

1Glade flame less candle

2Glade scented oil candles

3Glade scented oil refills

2Glade scented candles

1 pair of socks for O

1 box of 36 electrical outlet plugs

For $7. BUT WAIT---- I got another $5 Target gift card (I'm not exactly sure what for, but it most certainly had to do w/ the Glade products.) So really, I got all this stuff for $2 and some change. Hallelujah!

So, I'm ready for battle. But horror of horrors: we rolled in yesterday evening after being in Toledo for the weekend and as we went past our house I realized there was no Sunday paper waiting for us. "Steve, did you cancel our paper???" Panic! "Yeah." What the heck??? We weren't even out of town 48 hours and he cancelled the dang paper. So, I'm sure I'm gonna miss out on some kind of sweet deal. Let's keep an eye on this, I may be headed straight for an addiction to coupons. Thanks a lot, Jenny!