No, Really... I'm Not Dead!!!

I'm SOOOOOOOOO sorry I've been leaving all of my millions of blog readers without quality, interesting, exciting blog content! I promise I'm not dead! And I haven't given up the life of a blogger! Really, I've just been crazy-busy these last few weeks since we returned from our Wisconsin trip. And there's SOOOOOOOOOO much to share! From my sister-in-law's wedding, to the approximately 1,800-mile road-trip, to baby showers, parties and date nights!

Our LO is pushing 15-months old, hubs has a birthday on Monday and we've got 6 of our 9 nieces & nephews with birthdays in September & October. We've been busy! And with the wonderful Fall weather presenting itself these days, we can't help but get outside for some fun. One day last week we met hubs for lunch, then went to a local park. It was the BEST little park EVER! It used to be a rundown, dilapidated old park but some serious money has been put in it and I'm ever so happy about it! There was an entire little playground area just for children under 5 years old, which we got to play on by ourselves! Check out LO enjoying the swing:
Here's LO and I wasting time at The Home Depot while hubs was shopping around for who-knows-what:
And here's one of our crazy girl with crazy hair!
I promise you'll be hearing more from me very, very soon! So stay tuned! Pretty please?

Really, I'm Not Dead...

...I've been on vacation, and then I was sick, and then I was just too durn lazy to post.

But to both of my blog readers, I want to say, "I am alive!" I plan to get back on the posting wagon and share all of the fun that is my life with hubs and LO. We had a wonderful time at my sister-in-law's wedding in Wisconsin, and we had a not-so-great-time after we got back and I suffered some kind of stomach flu or food poisoning of some sort. Yuck.

I'll be sharing some fantastic photos and some fun stories of what we've experienced over the past two weeks since my last post, so stay tuned!

Recipe Time!

Hey, all! Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I've been a bit busy and have been enjoying the new lifestyle I've adapted! Since reading this book, I haven't been able to eat any meat, chicken or pork. And it's actually a good thing! It's been a lot easier than I expected! I'll write more about that later, but I've been sitting on this recipe since last week and I wanted to share it with you! It's a delicious recipe from my good friend H. I made it last week (before I read THE book), so it does have chicken in it. BUT, you can also make it with some fresh veggies instead, just steam them so they're slightly undercooked and use them in place of the chicken! Yum! I hope you guys enjoy this one!

H's Crescent Chicken

Ingredients:
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and chopped
1 can Pillsbury Big and Flaky Crescent Rolls

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided

1 can Cream of Chicken soup
1 can of milk


Directions:

1. Separate the crescent rolls and line them around a small casserole dish with the base being on the bottom and just the "tails" hanging over the side.
   
   
   
2. Divide the chicken pieces evenly on the bases of the crescent rolls.
3. Sprinkle 1 cup of shredded cheddar over chicken (add more or less depending on how cheesy you want it).
   
4. Pull the "tails" of the crescents over the chicken and cheese and tuck them under the base.
   
   
5. Pour the soup over the crescents and then sprinkle cheese on top.
   
   
6. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until cheese is slightly browned and soup mixture is bubbling.
   
   
7. Serve with your favorite side dish and enjoy!
   

Bon appétit!

Carnivores Beware!

I like me a good, medium-well done steak. I love chicken. I'll eat pork, too. I've always been a meat eater. And never really thought that much of it. No big deal, right?

Insert book here. Pardon the expletive, but the book is called Skinny B*tch. It caught my attention when I was watching a rerun of The Ellen Show and the books authors, Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, were guests on the show. I thought to myself, "Hmmm... I could use a No-Nonsense, Tough-Love Guide for Savvy Girls Who Want to Stop Eating Crap and Start Looking Fabulous!" I was thinking it would be all about how fad diets are bad, carbs and sweets should be eaten in moderation and exercise is key to losing weight and looking thin.

WELL... boy was I ever surprised with this book! Sure, I could definitely do without the expletives strewn about on most of the pages. But overall the information contained in this book was absolutely nothing short of phenomenal! Essentially these writers researched the crap out of the foods Americans tend to eat on a daily basis. It went all "scientific" on what's really hiding in some of our favorite foods. It went on to talk about some very intriguing information about the dairy and meat industries that we as consumers have no knowledge of. The reason for this is the billions of dollars these industries spend in marketing their products. They want us to think that milk really does a body good and meat should be an essential ingredient in everyone's diet.

Let me clarify here that I am NOT currently a vegetarian. The thought of becoming one had never really crossed my mind. Sure, I get totally grossed out like every other person on the planet when prepping meat or chicken or pork for dinner. I sometimes physically gag while removing skin or fat or whatever. But after reading an entire chapter devoted to how that meat, chicken or pork gets from the "farm" to your local grocery store, I was convinced that becoming a vegetarian might be something worth looking into. Seriously, every vegetarian saves more than 100 animals a year from horrific cruelty. If you aren't afraid, click on the video below to see just one example of how the chicken suppliers for KFC are treated.



Watch more videos at KentuckyFriedCruelty.com.

Anyway, I'm seriously considering the idea of eliminating meat from my/our daily diet. Of course LO has already beaten us to the punch... she's been refusing to eat meat since the day she started solid foods! But I seriously can't help but think that I'd be focused on what I read in that book if someone were to put a steak in front of me. I'm not about to go overboard and turn our lives upside-down, but I do think there's something about vegetarian and organic foods that I ought to look into.

Do yourselves a favor. Read this book. You should know what foods you're putting into your body and the process that brought them to your table. If only for information purposes. Really. You'll learn about carbs, sugars, caffeine, meat, dairy, exercise and so much more! After all, knowledge is power and you'll definitely find yourself empowered after reading this book! Oh, and I read it all in about 3 hours last night... it's a easy, short read!

My Sickly Self

Sorry I haven't been posting anything new for the past week. I've been battling some kind of nasty head cold that has totally kicked my butt! I think it's safe to say I slept an average of 20 hours a day last weekend (thanks to hubs for stepping it up in the LO department for me), and have been napping every time LO napped since last Friday. I'm starting to feel somewhat better today so hopefully I'll be able to post more soon!

I hope everyone is feeling superrific this week!

Needle in the Proverbial Haystack

I have a serious problem. There is something wrong with me. At least in my opinion, anyway. Shopping for shoes is a necessary evil for me. See, I absolutely LOVE shoes!!! The problem then? I've got big ol' feet! Seriously. Like double-digits big. And even then, the number's not as low as you might be thinking. They're big feet. I've never really thought they looked like aircraft carriers or anything because I feel they are somewhat proportionate to my height. But I've been struggling since high school to find cute dressy shoes that fit. Now sneakers are not a problem--I can always buy them from the men's department if necessary. But sandals, flip flops, peep toes, basically anything in the "pump" or "heel" family is an absolute horror for me.

Those of you with the perfect little female feet (i.e. somewhere between sizes 5 through 9) probably have to make tough decisions when shopping for shoes, like which color to buy or which style you like best. Me? It's only about what will fit. My options are almost null. When I do find something that fits--whether I really love them or not--I typically purchase them only because it's so rare to find a pair of shoes that my heels or toes don't hang off of.

So that brings me to my latest dilemma: shoes for my sister-in-law's wedding. I bought a dress (on eBay for a whopping $9!!) and have been searching feverishly for the perfect (and by perfect, I mean ones that fit) shoes to wear with this lovely floor-length strapless dress.

Now I can't even bother with department stores. You know the ones, where you see the amazing selection of gorgeous shoes with the bright light from heaven shining down on them, the voices of a choir singing, "Ahhhhhhh" in the background? Ya, I can't even bother with that. It's like looking being a child staring at a room full of delicious candy that you're not allowed to have! There's not a single pair of dress shoes in any department store on the face of this earth that carries shoes in my size. Ugh.

Since department stores are out, and since I've already visited every shoe store in my entire county (with no luck!), I had no choice but to turn to the Internet. I checked a TON of stores, such as Piperlime, that don't carry a single shoe in my size. The few random sites I came across that did sell shoes in my size in the color I wanted, I went ahead and bought 'em. Got 'em. Tried 'em on. No luck. Paying for shipping to and fro on literally at least a dozen pairs of shoes over the past few months? NOT my idea of fun. It's like throwing money away. But I have no choice!

I finally came across Zappos a few weeks ago. They do have a HUGE selection of shoes, and, believe it or not, actually had several choices in my size in the color I wanted. I had ordered 3 pairs, none of which fit, so I sent them back. The best part? FREE SHIPPING BOTH WAYS! Finally! I felt like there was hope.

On Monday I went back to Zappos and "expanded" my search a bit. I ordered several more pairs, which arrived today. This was my living room seconds after they arrived:

Like a kid on Christmas morning! Yes. Several pairs of shoes. I dropped about $450 on this order (Side note: Hubs got a call from our credit card company to inquire about the charge... LOL!)

After trying on all of these shoes (these are quite literally my last hope!), the very last pair actually fit well enough for me to make do with them! They aren't at ALL what I envisioned to wear with my dress, but I don't have the luxury of being choosy.

All I can say is, Thank Goodness for Zappos! I love the free shipping and returns, and I was actually impressed with their selection of dress shoes for those of us with unbelievably large footsies.

Ahhhh... Crisis averted. Me got shoes.

A Glimpse at Toddlerhood

My husband is awesome. Seriously! He's been planning on taking the day off today (Tuesday) since Friday, but never said a word about it to me until Monday evening! I was SO EXCITED to hear we'd have one more day together before he headed back to work after the holiday weekend. The best part? Now we were going to be able to take LO to the zoo for the first time! We had originally planned to go to the zoo on Labor Day, but it just didn't work out. It was so perfect to go this afternoon because the zoo was basically empty and we got to roam the place almost by ourselves!

The trip was fun, and we got lots of pictures of the animals and our girl! I'll spare you all by not posting an entire photo album here on the blog, but I did want to share one little glimpse into the "toddler-ness" (i.e. bipolar!) of our little girl!

Exhibit A: So we were at the lion exhibit. It was still early in our trip and the little one was relatively pumped to be there and wasn't in serious need of a nap (yet). She was all smiles and having a fantastic time!

Exhibit A

Exhibit B: I have no idea. Seriously. Is this the same girl? What just happened? Maybe the wind blew wrong or something? Weird.

Exhibit B

Exhibit C: I can just hear what she's thinking: "Mommy, didn't you see me crying? Didn't you? You certainly didn't do anything about it. Should I have been louder? Maybe kick my feet around a bit?"

Exhibit C

Exhibit D: Just listen to her beautiful little brain work: "Sheesh! I guess it's not gonna work with Mommy this time. Guess I'll try again later!"

Exhibit D

Exhibit E: "Weeeee!!! I'm at the zoo!!! I'm watching a big ol' lion! Weeeeeeee!!!!!! I'm lovin' it!!"

Exhibit E

I love this girl like all get out.

Recipe Time!

Lately I've been scouring the Internet for new recipes. I'm tired of the same old chicken! I especially love recipes for my slow cooker. Just dump a bunch of stuff in and forget about it, then have a delicious dinner ready and waiting 5 hours later! I love easy!

One of my favorite recipes growing up was Cranberry Chicken. My mom would make this for us--usually for Sunday lunch after church--and I really loved it! She baked it in the oven over rice, so when it was done, you'd have chicken and rice with a super-tasty cranberry dressing. Yum!

I asked my mom for the recipe. She remembered most of it. Basically everything but the rice part. Sweet! So my next step was to modify it for the crock-pot. Should be super-simple, right? Well, I will admit that the chicken came out delish, but the rice just never managed to cook so the whole thing turned out soupy with crunchy rice. But have no fear! We ended up ditching the rice for my fabulous mashed potatoes (i.e. backup plan).

Since this recipe really is quite good, I thought I might share it with you guys in case any of you are looking for a new and different way to cook the same ol' chicken. Believe it or not, you really don't have to like cranberry sauce to enjoy this recipe. Trust me. Hubs is not a cranberry sauce man but he really likes this dish!

So without further adieu, here is the recipe... with pictures even!

Slow Cooker Cranberry Chicken

Ingredients:
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 can whole-berry cranberry sauce
1 cup French dressing

Directions:

1. Rinse chicken with cold water; pat dry.

2. Place cranberry sauce, dressing and onion soup mix in a lightly greased slow cooker.

3. Mix ingredients well, adding a dash or two of salt and pepper. Add chicken to slow cooker, covering it with the soup mixture.

4. Cook for approximately 4 hours on High or 6 hours on Low.

5. Serve over rice and enjoy! Unless you attempted to include rice and some water in the slow cooker like I originally did, in which case the rice would've come out crunchy and inedible. In this case, whip up some mashed potatoes, top 'em with the cranberry sauce mixture and serve with a veggie of your choice!

NOTE: This recipe makes enough to feed our family of 3 (keeping in mind LO only ate a bunch of corn). When I cook dinner, hubs and I always split a single chicken breast and it's plenty for us. You can use this same recipe but with 2 chicken breasts and it'll come out just fine!

Bon appétit!

Where to Dine?

We're in serious need of a new kitchen table. We have a little nook area where our current ugly glass-top table resides. This table was purchased by me pre-hubs from some place like K-mart or Big Lots. In other words, it was cheap. But it has served us well. However, I'm tired of looking at it and am ready for a "real" kitchen table now.

So begins my search. I'm not looking to pay $1,200 for a new dining set. I just want a table and some chairs. But WOW is it proving to be harder than I expected! The first (and really only) table I found online that I liked was the Allegro Dining Table from Crate&Barrel.

With a price tag of only $399, it could definitely be an option. The problem? It's two-fold. First of all, I really don't care for any of the chair options that can be purchased to match this table. Secondly, I refuse to pay $80 for shipping on a table I haven't seen in-person. What if I don't like it? That'd be another $80 in return shipping. Just not worth the potential waste of $160. Especially since I'd have the chair issue to deal with.

On Saturday, hubs, LO and I spent the afternoon visiting various furniture stores in two counties! I was surprised to find there really aren't a lot of regular ol' round tables out there! Nowadays, you'll find a lot of counter height and bar height tables. At first, we weren't thinking we'd like that idea for our kitchen nook area, but after shopping around a bit, I think we changed our minds!

We happened to find the Carlyle collection at Ashley Furniture. It's a beautiful contemporary set with a dark mocha finish, and the one we liked best was the Butterfly Leaf Table (an extension "leaf" is built in to and stores in the table itself).

I really like this set and am hopeful I can convince hubs to bite the bullet and make the purchase. I think I might go the route of calling this our combined 3rd anniversary/Christmas gift for each other. I think that's the international sign that we've been married awhile... combining gifts and making a purchase for the house constitute said gift.

Good times!

Memories...

When I was pregnant with LO, I bought the cutest little baby book from Hallmark. It's completely adorable! And, being the good first-time-mommy that I am, I've kept up with that book like nobody's business. It had pages about our baby showers, a letter to the baby from mommy and daddy, info about her birth, her footprints, and a page for each month of her first year of life. And of course it also had a few pages dedicated to her very first birthday! That book is complete, with the exception of a snip of her hair from her first haircut (since she hasn't had one yet).

So here's my dilemma... What about month 13? So basically after my little girl turns one, I'm supposed to stop tracking her firsts, stop taking pictures and stop writing about the fun we're having with our little one?! Seriously. That's not cool! I mean, really. We just turned her car seat around so she's forward-facing now. But it happened after she turned one. I still took pictures of the big event! And I'd like to write it down somewhere, too! But where?

I've searched online quite a bit and have had ZERO luck finding a "toddler" book that begins at age 1 and goes through 3, 4 or 5. Am I alone in this world in my thinking that I'd still like to "scrapbook" somewhat all the things LO is doing and will do over the next few years? Sure, we'll probably have baby #2 at some point, and I'll have a new baby book to keep up with. But that doesn't mean I don't want to still keep up with our toddler's milestones!

Have any of you seen something similar to what I'm talking about? A baby book that's not really for babies? Like a toddler book that starts at age 1? If anyone has any idea what I'm talking about, PLEASE HELP!

A Letter to the Westin Hilton Head Resort & Spa

Dear Westin Hilton Head Resort & Spa,

Thank you for hosting hubs, LO and I as we spent our very first family vacation together in Hilton Head. We were very pleased that Priceline was able to step in for us to prevent us from paying an overpriced $189 per night for the luxury of staying at your establishment. Frankly, we're not sure our $64 per night was money well spent.

My darling hubs is quite a strong and capable man. If he wanted to borrow one of your luggage rack thingies to unload our luggage, you should have allowed it. Instead, you sent a very-not-needed bellman along with the luggage thingy who insisted on helping with our stuff, even though hubs had everything well under control. When I had the joy of following your bellman up to our room with LO while hubs moved the car (no valet parking, thankyouverymuch), you sure did take your time. Couldn't you tell LO was waaaaay past due for her afternoon nap? I just didn't have the time to stand by while you made small talk with your co-workers. Seriously. Oh, and the fact that you counted the tip hubs handed you before you walked out the room? Tacky.

While I know you were super excited to have us staying with you, the added luxuries were not necessary. Charging us for the sodas and bottled water we removed from the mini-bar so we could refrigerate LO's milk while waiting for your people to bring us the mini-fridge we requested? Not cool. Although it was quite interesting how the mini-bar was apparently all technology-driven somehow since we took the stuff out, put LO's milk in, then put the stuff back in exactly where it was. And magically you knew all about it, even though we never once allowed your staff in our room. Slick. That other luxury? Standing in my own filth as I took a shower? It was over the top. Really, we're those normal, grounded kind of folks who enjoy shower drains that, well, drain.

Now we certainly loved the fact that you removed those insane mini-bar charges after hubs stopped by your front desk and chatted with your manager. What we really didn't appreciate was the unexpected $14 per night "resort fee" we were charged. Especially since I called your hotel after Priceline booked us with you specifically to make sure there wouldn't be any "hidden charges" such as this. And of course I was told there wouldn't be. What really got us was the little card you enclosed in our check-in packet that explained this resort fee, and how it included "complimentary self-parking" and "complimentary" housekeeping-type services (which I was thinking most hotels typically provide for their guests). For your future reference, Webster defines complimentary as "given or supplied free of charge." The fact that we paid for the luxury of parking our own car and housekeeping-type services (which we didn't once use), but yet it was complimentary, but yet we paid $14 a night for it, although it was free, well, we really appreciate that, too.

Sincerely,

mom2lo

Back from Vacay!

Hubs, LO and I returned from our very first ever family vacation, which we spent in Hilton Head, SC! We had a wonderful time on the beach, at the pool and seeing the sights of Hilton Head. Here's a photo recap of our trip! Enjoy!

We stayed at The Westin Hilton Head Resort & Spa. If you recall, we got a great deal on Priceline at only $64/night, which was absolutely fabulous because we really didn't feel this resort was worth the average $189/night price tag. I'll share more on that later...

We arrived Sunday afternoon and headed right over to the beach. LO actually seemed to enjoy splashing in the water with daddy on day 1. Not-so-much on day 2 (as you'll see shortly).

For dinner Sunday night, we headed to One Hot Mama's. We actually intended to eat at the Hilton Head Brewery, but upon finding said establishment, we decided against risking whatever disease appeared to be running rampant in that location. Luckily, right next door, we found One Hot Mama's and had quite the delish dinner! It was hands down the best BBQ pork sandwich I've ever tasted! Yum!


After dinner, we made an impromptu trip to the local Harris Teeter grocery store to pick up some bananas (for LO's breakfast) and soda (for mommy & daddy's breakfast).


Then it was a quick stop at Marley's Ice Cream for--you guessed it!--ice cream! Yummy! LO wasn't too into it, but it was getting late and past her bedtime.

Monday morning, we headed back to the beach. This picture cracks me up because it looks like it was super-foggy on the beach! Actually, it was the condensation misty stuff all over my camera, proving just how humid and sticky it was out there!

Love this shot of LO hanging by herself.

As you can see, she didn't enjoy the beach the whole time we were there on Monday.

Here's our little social butterfly making yet another friend. She kept finding little tots her size to chat with and share her toys with the entire time we were in Hilton Head.

As you can tell, LO had her own plans for our family vacation. She had things to do, people to meet, wandering to do...

These are my two favorite shots of my two favorite people! Daddy and LO on the beach together.


Exhausted after a long day of beaching and pooling.

We did a little sight-seeing while we were there, too. This is the lighthouse thingy near some golf place on some part of the island (plenty of information, huh?).

Ah, The Salty Dog Cafe. We opted not to eat here just because it wasn't quite dinner time while we were on this part of the island, but I thought it would be nice to take a pic anyway.


Outside of The Salty Dog Cafe, there was a lovely little patio with live music playing. Not being one to pass up an opportunity to entertain strangers, LO busted a move. I think there was a Beyoncé move or two in her routine:

Later that night, we headed back towards our hotel and stopped for dinner at Guiseppi's Pizza. It was To. Die. For. I had a delish slice of pineapple pizza and helped LO with her spaghetti and meatballs. Hubs had some kind of a meat explosion wrapped up in a calzone of sorts. It would've been an awesome experience if it weren't for LO's bum. That's right. The poor little thing developed one of the worst diaper rashes ever, and being the horrible mommy that I am, I totally forgot to pack diaper rash cream.

So, after dinner we walked down to the Piggly Wiggly and picked up some diaper cream.

Well isn't that a wonderful note to end this post on? Diaper rash and diaper cream? Fun times. Actually, after the Piggly Wiggly run, we headed back to the hotel, put LO down for the night and started packing up to leave the next morning. I'll share more in another post about our hotel issues... We can't go on vacation and not have problems, right?

Our Little Entertainer

Hubs and I were hanging out and playing with LO tonight before her bedtime and she was acting so crazy I had to share it with you guys! Notice how she takes the time to glance at mommy (the one with the camera, of course) with each go 'round. Isn't she a whole bunch of fun!? I think my favorite part is when she tries to clap for herself after she does a face-plant into the hardwood floor! What a trooper!

Enjoy the little glimpse of our little one! Leave a comment if you enjoyed watching and if you'd like me to post more video clips in the future!

What to Eat?

My little baby girl will be 13 months old in just a few days. It's so hard to believe how quickly she's growing up! I have to say one of my most favorite things about her growing up is the increased number of activities she can participate in--just like mommy and daddy. Walking, of course, was the biggest first milestone she reached. Now, if only I could get her to keep her shoes on, she'd actually get to walk around when we're outside! Silly thing! Another big milestone was the transition to "grown-up" food. This has been awesome in one sense, but extremely frustrating in another.

If you know anything about me yet, it's that I love to cook (and bake, of course!). But I'm having a hard time finding things to cook that hubs and I will enjoy but also that LO will eat, too! She is sooooooooo picky! First of all, the girl straight up refuses to eat meat. Any kind of meat. All kinds of meat. If meat somehow manages to sneak into her mouth, those little fingers will go in after it and get it out--pronto! Ugh. She also isn't a big fan of pasta, which both hubs and I could eat our weight in on any given day. So what will the little one eat? Corn. LOTS of corn. Green beans. Mashed potatoes. Sweet potatoes (like they're goin' out of style!). Bread--but only sometimes if she's in the "mood" for it. One thing she could eat her massive 20 lbs. worth of weight in?

Gerber Lil' Crunchies.
Anyway, finding things that LO will eat is only half of the battle. The other question is whether or not it's healthy for her! See, I don't want to start her out this young with the bad habits I've got (cake, anyone?). I want to feed her healthy food and snacks. But it's so hard sometimes to know what the "right" things are that I should be choosing. Like, just because it has a Gerber label on it, does that mean it's the right choice for LO? I dunno.

I was surfing for info on this earlier this week and I found what looks like a great little book:

I haven't purchased it (yet), but it looks like this will be a great addition to my library! I mean, who would've known that Spaghetti O's are healthier than the ol' blue box of mac & cheese? Certainly not me! Would you believe I've been feeding LO Kraft mac & cheese since she started eating "grownup" food?! Ugh. I mean, really, it shouldn't be that hard. But this book looks like it'll be really helpful in choosing the right things to feed LO for snacks, when we're eating out, or even what to cook at home.

The best part? There's also a version of this book for adults. Guess I'll be adding two books to my library!

I Lied.

I thought the Pollenex Wall-Mount Microban Showerhead was the answer to my showerhead's mildew-y, moldy yuckiness.

But alas, I was wrong.

Hubs was ever-so-sweet to install his own birthday present (ha-ha!) last night. Unfortunately, I was totally bummed to find out that there was absolutely no water pressure with our new purchase. Phooey!

I returned it to Sears today and decided to make do with the one we've got. I will give hubs some props, though. He impressed me with his mad cleaning skills. I put him to work with a spray bottle of Clorox 2, an old toothbrush and a handful of toothpicks (sounds like stuff MacGyver would use to escape a prison cell!) and our old showerhead was as good as new! At least for another few weeks before I make ask him to do it again!

I Need This!

I had an epiphany today. It happened while I was in the shower this morning (don't worry, this story is most definitely G-rated!). I was looking up at the showerhead and, well, words cannot adequately describe what I saw. Pictures will, though:


Can you see it? Surely you can! If not, click on the images. Seriously. Do it. I'll wait. See it now? The disgusting, nasty, moldiness that is all over our showerhead! It's like all up in the little holes where the water comes out! Eeew! How can a person get clean in the shower when the water is passing through dirty, nasty holes? ((gag))

Now, I routinely force ask hubs nicely about once a month to clean the showerhead and remove any and all of the "goo" on it that most definitely should not be there. I guess I haven't been paying attention lately as much as I should have. I totally think I threw up in my mouth when I saw that nasty thing.

Enter the Pollenex Wall-Mount Microban Showerhead. Oh, baby! Check this bad boy out:


My goodness! "Manufactured with Microban™ antimicrobial protection integrated into the plastic components, this showerhead is the only showerhead in the marketplace that fights mold and mildew." Would you believe this thing retails for only $20.00?! Amazing! I've never heard of Microban antimicrobial protection, but I know deep down that this is a must-have for our household.

The best part? I think I've convinced hubs that he wants one of these for his upcoming birthday! ;) So it's a win-win, right? Really, it should save him the nagging cleaning of the showerhead each month. AND it would make ME happy. I'll go pick it up tomorrow at our local Sears. If only I can remember to slap a big ol' waterproof bow on it for hubs' big day!

Vacation, Anyone?

THIS JUST IN! THIS JUST IN! THIS JUST IN! THIS JUST IN!

Hubs, LO and I are heading out for a family vacation!!!


((stunned silence))


((crickets chirping))


Seriously! I'm so stinkin' excited! And you would not believe how easy it was to get hubs on board with the idea! For those of you that know hubs, it takes an act of congress for him to approve any frivolous expenditures like vacations (LOL!). Anywho, we were chatting the other night and I mentioned that I'd love to take LO to the beach again one more time before the summer's over. I didn't want to go back to the Isle of Palms where we typically go every May. I wanted to do something different. Go somewhere different. Experience something new--as a family.

I have always wanted to visit Hilton Head Island as I've heard great things about it and have seen some really beautiful pictures...




Goodness! I can't wait to hit the road! And I can't believe it but hubs is actually quite excited about our trip, too! But his excitement has little to do with being at the beach. He's totally trippin' about the awesome deal we got on Priceline! See, hubs was a "Priceline virgin" when I mentioned the idea, but actually was willing to give it a try (after reading tiny print and disclaimers and terms and conditions for hours and hours, of course!). Anyway, we managed to get a Resort hotel for $64/night right on the "main drag" of Hilton Head Island! He went to work the next day gloating and telling anybody who would listen all about it (and probably some who couldn't care less, too!). It was SO cute. But SO exciting! What a great deal!

I can't wait to tell you guys about the hotel when we get back and whether or not they stuck us in a tiny room with no view next to the maintenance/air conditioning room with all the loud noises. I'm not a big fan of hotels just because I can only imagine the germs and other lifeforms that may very well be coexisting with us during our stay (eeew!). But as long as we keep our socks on and have a big ol' bottle of Purell nearby, we should be okay! LOL!

It's an Elmo Christmas!

This, my dear friends, is one of the more fun and exciting Christmas gifts we're getting for LO. Yes, in case you haven't been reading my blog and/or don't know me from Adam (or Eve?), I am a planner and like to do things as far in advance as possible. I'm just an organized person and I can't help it there's nothing wrong with it!!!
It's Elmo Live! Check out this little demo of the latest and greatest Elmo so you can truly appreciate him:

Pork Gone Bad

Last night's dinner was a disaster. Ugh. I'm really trying SO hard to only use the ingredients I have on hand. I'll admit I did make a quick grocery run on Wednesday but it was only for milk and a few Gerber foods for LO.

So I was scrounging around in the freezer yesterday and found some pork ribs seasoned with a BBQ rub. If I recall correctly, I had purchased them a few months ago, kept them in the fridge a day or two, then plopped them in the freezer (prior to the expiration date). So they've probably been in the freezer for about two months. And I'm not one of those people that take meat out of it's original packaging and put it in special freezer-safe wrap or what-not. I just throw it in the freezer in the same packaging it came home from the store in.

Now I figured I'd call my fabulous sister to get tips on cooking these ribs since her and her husband make totally killer ribs! She said they typically season them, wrap them in foil like 4 times, then bake them at 250 degrees for a few hours. That way, all they do is toss them on the grill for a quick few minutes and voila! Perfect, delicious, fall-off-the-bone ribs!

Well, I had put the ribs back in the fridge about two days ago to defrost. After talking with my sister, I got them out of the fridge and prepared to put them in several wraps of foil. When I punctured the packaging, I almost gagged at the smell. Is pork supposed to smell funny? I dunno. I googled it. People said it wasn't unusual for pork to have a funky smell. One guy recommended rinsing it. Okay.

So I get over it, wrap it all up in foil and throw it in the oven at 250 degrees. Sweet.

About two hours later, I went to check on them. I opened the oven and suddenly was hit with the smell of... fish? Is that fish that I smell? Gag. It was at that point when I decided this pork would not be part of our dinner. It would be meeting our outside trash can in 3... 2... 1. Done.

Now, what can I make instead? I had some ground beef half-frozen in the fridge, but making meatloaf would take over an hour (note it's about 5pm at this time--hubs is due home any minute), I was too lazy to make meatballs with spaghetti, and nothing else sounded easy or good. I figured I could have hubs throw some beef hot dogs on the grill, but that totally didn't sound good, either.

So what did we do for dinner last night? My solution was the frozen pizza I found buried in the freezer. Whew!

Not really what I had in mind, but it worked!

And I'm happy to say that we've spent ZERO DOLLARS on eating out this entire week! And with the exception of my $13.97 shopping spree at Blooms on Wednesday, we've spent NOTHING on groceries!

Note to self: My shopping list is growing very long since we haven't done any shopping this week. I'm afraid when I do return to the grocery store next week, my total spending will be DOUBLE what it usually is... Who's great idea was this again?

Cookie Time!

Today was the beginning of what will most definitely be a mommy-daughter tradition: baking cookies! What a fun time we had! The best part that this was LO's first taste of mommy's chocolate chip cookies! We made them together (as best we could considering she's only 1!) and she got to enjoy all the best parts of baking!

Here's our delicious cookie dough:


Here are the beauties right after they've been popped into the oven:


Here they are after baking a few minutes:


And here they are just about finished:


Voila! Here are the delicious chocolate chip cookies LO and I made today:


Now that you've seen the cookies through the whole process, let's see what LO was up to the whole time...

Here she is enjoying the beater. Isn't that really the best part of baking anything? Yum!


She's going to town!


Oh! No more pictures, please, mommy...


Once the cookies were cooled, she got to have one of her very own! Mmmm!


Do you think she enjoyed her first chocolate chip cookie?


Oh, ya!

Of course I'm not a cruel mommy... You can't tell from these pictures but LO did have a sippy cup of cold, refreshing milk with each phase of our cookie baking! You can't eat chocolate chip cookies without milk, silly!