Dog Pile Soap?

Just ran across this soap from Lily Bay Soap & Sundry while snooping around on Etsy. Thought it was funny and original. Check it out. Oh, and it's chocolate scented, how appropriate :)

Busy Baker, Buyer, Wrapper, Gifter

Well, I still have loads to do for Christmas. We will have 3 Christmas get-togethers this year. Thank God that the third is on New Years Eve so we have a little more time, rest and another payday in between. Christmas Eve we will go to my FIL and SMIL's house. Hubby has the night off, woohoo! It gets very exhausting packing up Little Buddy and all his things, gifts and my own junk oh, plus a dish to pass when I am going places without him when he's working. He also has New Years Eve off so that will be nice too. Christmas Day daddy works but not til the afternoon. So we will be able to wake up on Christmas Day and have our own little Christmas with Little Buddy (the best part of the whole year). Then we get ready, pack up Little Buddy and all the gifts (in 2 separate cars) and head to my sister's house to have Christmas with them. Then Daddy leaves from there to head to work. Phew! It does get a little exhausting, help or no help. I deeply resent divorces for all the separateness that it creates especially during the holidays. It's near close to impossible to say that we will be spending Christmas elsewhere once you have a child.

Anyway, I am relieved that many of my family and hubby's family are being a lot more frugal this year and spending less and not getting and giving all the extra stuff. I have decided to bake a lot of cookies and put them in small cellophane bags along with small candy canes and Ghirardelli Squares and give that with a small gift. After all, who doesn't like to get a few homemade cookies during the holidays? I have narrowed it down to three different cookies. I WAS going to make an assortment of different flavored spritz cookies, but then decided against that. Too much conformity. So, I have selected to bake: 1) Chocolate Crinkles: never made them before but love eating them and that will fill the chocolate cookie requirement. 2) Snickerdoodles: One of my all time favorites. This is only the second time that I am attempting to make them but found a recipe with cream cheese and apple cider vinegar that sounds REALLY good. 3) Libby's Great Pumpkin Cookies: Never made these either but love pumpkin anything. I also plan to ice or glaze them and will skip the nuts and raisins. I feel the need for a creamy vanilla taste with pumpkin kinda like whip cream on pumpkin pie.

So, that's that. I have finished making the snickerdoodle dough and chocolate crinkle dough and have it chilling in the fridge. I will have to make the pumpkin dough later tonight. I stayed up late last night wrapping presents and am just so feeling so lifeless today. I have hardly been eating anything lately. Not sure why, maybe a little overwhelmed, maybe a little depressed too. This time of year I have high expectations. Not as far as gifts and money but just that it should be very memorable for us as a family and for Little Buddy. Instead, it turns into a stress fest and I just run around last minute like a nut. I am very happy and we will have extra money to get presents for people without using the charge card once. I have counted it and we end up gifting about 26 people. That does not mean that all 26 people get "gift" gifts, but we give something to at least 26 people. Maybe that's nothing compared to some people but it gets to be a lot for one person to take care of. Some of these people we are not very close to but we still want to give them a little something so we I will probably give them a card and little bag of Christmas treats. I love giving, I really do but it is a lot of work to get it all together especially when I am home by myself most of the time with Little Buddy needing my attention. Anybody out there get overwhelmed this time of year? The 26 people does not include co-workers or mailmen or anything like that.

Looking forward to Christmas for Little Buddy. There are just so many things I keep seeing that are really cool for him but I go very easy and just get a few. Plus, his birthday is just a month away from Christmas. Can't believe that the little stinker is gonna be 2. Where did the time go? I can hardly believe that I ever contemplated not having kids. What I would have missed seeing and experiencing in this life. I actually used to think that maybe I would just skip it. Now I think it's humorous when I meet a young person that says that. I think, "What do they know?" and "Oh, how you will most likely change your mind, just like I did, most of them anyway"

Oh yes, and I'm down 7 pounds. No wonder.

How are all of you doing this time of year? I stay home with my son and am out of the loop so to speak. I'd love to hear what other people's lives are like. Good? Bad? Stressed? Simply perfect? I know I read all your blogs and I know WHAT most of you are DOING, but I don't usually get to know how you are DOING this time of year.

Happy Holidays All!!!!! Keep yourselves safe, warm, and appreciative. Oh and sane too :)

*Little Buddy's first visit with Santa. No crying but couldn't snap out of the "deer in headlights" look. I love him!

In Seek Of The Perfect Lasagna Recipe

Hi all! I am just beside myself with crap I need to do so I apologize for slacking on the blog. I am however already thinking of party ideas for my son's 2nd birthday at the end of January. I plan on making a big pan of lasagna and salad and some type of garlic bread. That should make a nice meal for all (after all, who doesn't like a nice hot cheesy, piece of lasagna?). Just curious if anyone out there has an awesome recipe for lasagna? I am hoping to find one that uses fresh garlic and real cheese and also has a good yet simple recipe for the marinara/tomato sauce. I am open for suggestions, recipes if they don't meet those criteria. Thanks in advance for any help you can lend in the lasagna department.

Support Farting?

I saw this magnet on the back of a car the other day. I was at that moment in a tense/stressed mode and started laughing out loud uncontrollably. Needless to say I saw it at the exact time that I needed a good laugh. Enjoy! Farts ARE funny!

Reunited And It Feels So Good

Well, Little Buddy is back to sucking his thumb again. About 2 weeks ago his thumb got so dry and cracked from all the saliva, sucking, and dry cold weather, (plus, I still need to get the house humidifier up and running) that it started to bleed. It didn't do this last winter. I noticed it was getting bad but left it be thinking that if it got bad enough maybe he'd stop sucking it. Yeah, right! It got so bad that one night when he was eating corn chips, he began to cry and make a pain face and was rubbing his little thumb all over his shirt. It took me a bit to figure it out. We thought he was having a painful poop or something. Turns out the salt was getting into all the cracks and burning really bad.

I called the pediatricians office and asked the nurse if she had any recommendations. She told me that I could put Neosporin and a band-aid on it but to be careful because if he kept sucking it he could choke on the band-aid if it came off with all the saliva and suction. Then she told me that there was a good chance that he'd either start sucking the other thumb or that he'd wait til the sore one healed and go right back to it and it would just be a vicious cycle all winter.

So I got big knuckle band-aids and Neosporin and bandaged it up. It was very frustrating for him. He was used to soothing himself to sleep that way for so long he was very restless. He's keep sticking it in his mouth if he was going to sleep or sad or scared and then pull it out right away and look at it all pissed off. (It was kinda funny, am I the worst mommy ever? Oh, well.)

Before long his thumb healed and he wasn't sucking it anymore even with the band-aid off.

Then about a week ago I went in to check on him during nap time and saw him sucking away. It was very cute. I was a little happy that he found it at least for sleeping purposes. He was not sleeping very soundly when it was bandaged. Think it will be OK if this is just an occasional think he does in his sleep. Turns out usually when I go in to check on him he isn't sucking his thumb. Just once in awhile for short periods.

Discount Laundry Room Re-Do

OK! I did it! I did it! I did it! It was agonizing and probably the hardest room to do in the whole house despite the fact that it's the smallest next to the bathroom. I actually re-did the laundry room with a little help from my mom and my husband. I had to do a low budget, low dust, and most of the time low noise re-do. We have since we moved in re-done every room in the house except the garage and the laundry room until now. The garage even got new insulation and drywall a few years back. The laundry room was the pits though. Honestly, I could have cared less BUT it is right off of the kitchen and the door is open the majority of the time so I had to look at it and it was so gross. If you haven't seen the before pictures check out my original laundry room post called Val's Big Idea. I wanted to get this room done forever and my deadline was to get it done before Thanksgiving when we were having 20 people over. It had never been properly painted since it was built. The popcorn ceiling had cobwebs loaded with dryer lint hanging from it. The light fixture was from the 70's and so ugly. The one outlet in the room had only one working receptacle in it. The light switch was completely dirty and grimy like one in a car repair shop and had been clawed at by a large dog from long before we moved in. The blinds we hung needed to be shortened and the AC drainage hose was grotesque transparent vinyl that was loaded up with dirt and mineral deposits, was barely attached and had become a toy for Little Buddy.

Anywho, I couldn't go hog wild patching and sanding due to noise and dust with a young toddler in the house. So I did my best and used a wet sanding sponge for most of the evening out of the plaster patches. I asked for gray paint on Freecycle and actually received some fairly quickly. When I picked it up it was more like a light blue but I noticed it was originally from Home Depot so I took it there and asked if they could tint it for me. They said that the bargain paint (originally purchased for $1.61) was 6 years old and most likely had expired. Then after telling them that it had been stored in a basement and being checked, they decided that it was in fact still good. The tinting process took over and hour, Little Buddy was such a good boy. I had a kitchen floor tile with me so they had an idea what I was aiming for shade wise.

I painted a sample patch of it on the wall and left it there for a few days to see how I (and my husband) felt about it. He said it was way too dark. Then a few days later he said it looked really good. Men?!. So, it was a go.

The floor, is not my favorite. I am not a fan of linoleum BUT was told by the guy that did our kitchen that we would have to go that route due to the fact that there was a sloping floor for the utility drain in there. I purchased a few single tiles from Menard's in various styles to see what would look the best. I had several that were faux stone or ceramic looking and one that was faux wood. We have real light wood floors through our house so I didn't think that the darker faux wood would work. Then when I placed the faux stone and ceramic next to our real ceramic kitchen tiles it looked totally bad. The faux wood surprisingly looked like it would work pretty well due to the fact that it was pretty far from any of our actual wood floors and was not too far from the shade of our kitchen cabinets.

If I thought that contorting my body in all kinds of bizarre and painful positions to paint around and behind and under the appliances, water heater, and furnace was bad, the issue of flooring in there was another story. I laid many of the floor tiles in the center of the room fairly quickly by following the marks on the floor from the old floor tiles. Then came the hard part going around the doorways, under the water heater's feet and piping, around the furnace, and under and behind two monstrous appliances. My mother helped me one Sunday evening for 7 hours (the absolute hardest parts of the room) and then I finished up the remainder of the tiling which took half a Monday. Again, making paper templates and a hundred little cuts and angles, lots of cutting, measuring and back aching!!!

So, below is the breakdown of the cost involved in my discount laundry room redo. I cannot believe that it came to less than $100!!!!! Keep in mind, we wanted the room to look nicer but do not plan on living here much longer than we have to. I think it turned out pretty well for a budget redo that I did mostly alone minus the help from my mom with the flooring and some roller painting my husband helped with (the easy, gratifying part of course).

Peel and stick floor tiles $56.88 Menard's (On sale, 79 cents psf down from $1.09 psf)
Paint Brush $7.99 Menard's
Painters Tape FREE (Found on the ground in the parking lot)
White paint for ceiling and trim FREE (Leftover from previous house projects)
Gray Paint FREE (Asked for on Freecycle then brought it in for tinting at Home Depot to more desirable shade, tinting also FREE because paint was originally from there)
New Light Switch and Switch Plate and Insulation FREE (Leftover from previous house projects)
New Outlet .39 cents Menard's, Outlet Plate and Insulation FREE (Leftover from previous house projects)
Slim Roller Refills $8.99 Menard's
Spackle and Caulk FREE (Leftover from previous house projects)
Cable Ties FREE (Leftover from previous house projects)
Utility Hose $2.88 Menard's (Drains AC condensation, old one was trashed)
Hose Clips $4.99 Ace (Positions hose onto floor and into drain and makes it harder for little hands to yank around)
Light Fixture $5 On Sale at Menard's (Floor model, I asked if there was a discount on floor models, the guy gave me an additional 20% OFF!)

The rest of the items we had leftover from previous house projects like the paint roller pan, stepladder, rags, etc.

Phew, so much easier on the eyes and cleaner to look at from the kitchen :) I love how the gray looks with the white trim, ceiling and appliances. Amen! Now what do I need to work on next before Little Buddy's 2nd birthday at the end of January? JK! That should do it . . . . . I think?

Sigh . . . . .

Well, lately I have been totally neglecting my blog. I have been sooooo busy. I just had 20 people over for Thanksgiving and was scurrying like a mad woman to get my laundry room re-do done in time. Which I did. I will be posting pictures very soon. I just quit drinking coffee for 3 days and today is the last day of the experiment. Bedtime has been so much better for Little Buddy and nap time has been alot better too. Though he refused to take one today. Now that it's 3:42 pm, he must now stay up til at least 7 pm. That's the way we roll. It began a little over a month ago with this sleeping bit. Issues, issues, issues. It became impossible to put him down for a nap AND to bed at night. He was so tired and so was I. Very frustrating. I finally decided that most likely the coffee that I had begun to drink again after not since I gave birth to Littler Buddy was creating problems for Little Buddy's sleep. His naps became later and later and then he would wake up at 5 and 6 pm screaming and kicking for up to 30 minutes. It was horrible. So a few days ago I called my LC again and asked her if she thought it could be the coffee. She told me to do this little experiment for a minimum of 3 days so that most of the caffeine was out of my and Little Buddies system. I noticed results the very first night. Then more the second day. He is also not crying out and squirming all over his bed either. I was so happy to have my beloved coffee back to charge me up and help me through my days. Looks as though I will be saying goodbye to coffee again til Little Buddy weans unless I have conceived by that time in which case I will not be drinking it at all during my pregnancy like last time. Boo!

Anyway, I have not been able to blog like I like to and have not had much time to myself for much else due to the fact that my husband has been working all kinds of overtime and side jobs possible so we can have plenty of money for Christmas. I am very fortunate to have a husband who busts his ass to provide so that I can stay home and we can have all the things we need and a few things we want too. Thank you God.

Now my husband has a three day weekend and he had a string of residential burglaries last night and didn't get to sleep til 2 am so is now napping. Today is a wash. Tomorrow however we will be taking LB to hang out with grandpa and head to a movie. Ahhhhh, time alone. So precious and rare. So important the longer we have been together and the older that Little Buddy gets. I don't need fancy hairdos, manicured nails, girls night out, expensive clothes, wonderful furniture and electronics, etc. BUT . . . . . I DO NEED a night out with my husband once in awhile to see a movie or grab a bite together.

My scale is my worst enemy. I have through much of this time been working my ass off caring for a non napping, crabby Little Buddy and prepping the house and food for Thanksgiving, and re-doing the laundry room. So, without my husband around I have completely neglected going to the gym much of the time. Now I have gotten back into the swing of things. BUT, the horrid scale shows me that I have eaten too much over the holiday and need to keep myself more active especially in this cold weather when much of the time we are stuck inside. Tried to bring Little Buddy to the day care at the gym yesterday which went OK for a bit then he just stood around the caretaker all sad and crying. Enough of that. Some days, I do feel a little trapped into being inactive and fat when it seems like everything fights me when I try to invest in myself and being active. Blagh!!!

Anywho, I will be posting my laundry room pictures very soon. As I type, Little Buddy is pulling at my arm and saying, "Ma Ma!" "Ma Ma!" Ma Ma!"

Keeping my eyes on all your blogs meanwhile. How is everybody? I see a few of you also haven't been blogging as much. How's it going?

Check out this bizarre collectors Barbie I found at Walmart last night. Ha! Thinking it may give little girls nightmares, don't you? Love the doll though. I am a huge Hitchcock fan.

Almost forgot, any movie recommendations? Haven't read the book but I checked the trailer for Twilight and wasn't impressed. Comments, comments?