Getting all my Ducks in a Row: 2010-02-28

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Mommy & Me Monday # 1

Mommy and Me Monday at Really, Are You Serious?

Hosted by Krystyn

Check out this great new meme -- who doesn't have a ton of pictures with their kids and themselves?
Mommy's that who!!
We are always the ones taking the pictures!!

So grab a camera and snap a picture yourself or have someone do it for you!!

Then click the button and link up!!

Here is a shot of Me and E taken while playing with play-dough on the floor with the kiddo's!!

It Pays to Follow Blogs!!

I am participating in MailBox Monday @ A Frugal Friend. If you would like to join...click on the image below...and make sure to visit the other blogs and see what they got too!!

If you are nosy like me -- then you will probably enjoy this!!

Hi! Hope everyone is having a fantastic week...my mailman had it kinda easy this week with the freebies -- although he did have to bring one box...My Out of the Sample box -- not a freebie but my favorite of the week!

Have a good week all!

Reading Material

Forbes
Forbes Life
Lucky
3 Lego Club - 2 were taken by younger boys.
Business Week

Samples and Coupons

Playtex sport samples - 3 and $1.00/1 coupon
Playtex Gentle Glide samples - 3 and $1.00/1 coupon
Yogi Tea samples and $1.00/1 coupon
Advantage Brand Coupon booklet
Betty Crocker 10 Prize Winning Holiday Cookie Recipes
Betty Crocker coupons - says on the back -- Thanks for being a member.
Cream of Wheat Sample Chocolate and $1.00/1 coupon
Sweet Leaf Sweetener Samples
Staples $10/$75 coupon

Giveaway Wins

No Giveaway wins this week -- although I did win Tongs from a Kikkoman contest.

Promotional Items for My Blog's

I got this fabulous jacket from eshakti.com for review.

If you would like to have a mailbox so full that it feels like Christmas every day...I suggest that you follow

It's Hip to Save

and

Free Sample Freak

and now -- my new blog for Giveaway's

Win My Year!!

Monday Mingle

Each week Jennifer at

hosts Monday Mingle...3 to 4 questions that you answer in the form of a vlog and then link back to her site.

I think it's a fun way to get to know some fellow blogger's and also a great way for you guys to get to know me a little better.

1. Do your kids have chores? Do you pay them to do chores?
2. Were you in Girl Scouts/Brownies or Boy Scouts? Are your kids? Favorite Girl Scout Cookie?
3. Does your family go camping? If so, do you have a funny/interesting experience?

Next week's questions submitted by Greg from Telling Dad!:
1. If you were forced to choose between skydiving, base jumping off a skyscaper, or rock climbing, which would you choose?
2. Are you an aggressive or defensive driver?
3. Due to a sour economy the genie can only grant you ONE wish. What would it be?

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Sweet Harper Hair Clips Review

I just got in an order from Sweet Harper and I wanted to share with you guys!!

Tracy is the Sweet behind Sweet Harper...and she has become one of my newest bloggy friends.

She not only has a good variety of items in her shop...she ships fast -- which I love.

Make sure at the bottom of this post to find all the ways that you can follow her as she does Great Giveaway's on her blog and the last time that I ordered she has a free shipping code on facebook!

Here is a little bit from her Etsy Shop Profile:

Welcome to Sweet Harper! My name is Tracy and I have a very sweet little girl named Harper. (I also have an adorable little boy named Jack.) Since having my daughter, I have had so much fun shopping for all the "girlie" stuff...which is what led me to make unique hair clips for little girls. Honestly, I got tired of telling everyone that my daughter, dressed in pink, was indeed a girl-not a boy-despite her slowly growing baby hair. Needless to say she's almost always wearing hair clips in public these days! I am an elementary teacher, but am currently taking some time off to be at home with my cuties! Sweet Harper allows me to have a creative outlet without leaving my home, for that I am grateful. My future goal is to add some jewelry for all of the Sweet Moms out there. ;-)

I bought:

and

These are my favorite clips of those I bought.

They are too cute!!

I love how this hair style looks from the back....

and the front. Sooo Sweet!!

I was a little surprised to see that they were hot pink instead of red -- but they really work out better...since Miss Maddy is the only girl out of 4 children...and she is the last --

Which means that she doesn't colors other than pink and purple very often!!

Sweet Harper's clips are very strong...while Miss Maddy's hair is not super thick...she is super wild...as only a 2 year old can be...

She had put these clips through their paces...

and they always stay in place.

Check out what the actual Miss Maddy says about Sweet Harper!!
(try and ignore the boy's voice in the back ground -- he was in time out)

This is the 2nd style that we tried....clipped away from the face on both sides...

Very effective at keeping bangs out of the eyes...very important when you haven't had your first hair cut yet...

You can see from the side view that this clip while layered lays flat enough not to be obtrusive.

This look is also very very very simple and easy...great to do when in a hurry -- like on Friday's when we are in a rush to get all 4 kids out the door for school and Mommy's Day out.

This is Miss Maddy's newest go to do -- I call it a messy Princess Leia style. It's a little extra messy here -- Miss Maddy had a roll fest with the couch during the middle of our photo shoot or as I like to call it smile for the iPhone baby!!

Try to ignore the fact that I can't really part Miss Maddy's hair very well and check out those awesome Sweet Harper Clips!! I need to remember to order my next set of clips in doubles...as we usually wear 2! But I think that these orange clips look really good together!!

Miss Maddy had a different idea about which clips to wear...try all of them!!

I gotta admit -- the girl's got spunk -- she could probably pull this look off!

What do you think?

Just a quick note -- you may see some clips that are not available at Sweet Harper yet...Shhh we got a little preview...

Don't forget that Tracy was so sweet to offer up a giveaway for 3 hair clips and a headband...

and if I get more than 300 entries -- I win too!!

Check out the Giveaway here!!

You can find Sweet Harper online at:

Etsy : http://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetHarper

Blog: http://www.mysweetharper.blogspot.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/sweetharper

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sweet-Harper/233574276326

Jamie Oliver scared me

I wanted to share this video with all of you...My bloggy friend Sara @ sweet somethings sent a link to this video --

After watching this -- I had a long talk with Hubby about what we could do for our kids -- While I do cook for and with my kids...We take them out to eat all the time -- they are eating chicken nuggets, pizza and all that for lunch everyday.

What we are going to try to commit to:

We are going to be putting in a garden -- I am going to get some seeds to start inside to be ready and Hubby is going to work on some raised beds for the yard.

We are going to start sending our kids to school with Lunches.

We are going to commit to eating out only once a week. (I wanted once a month but since we both work in a restaurant...Hubby wanted once a week. although I think once we get going...we can make it a month)

Would you like to join in with me? What can you commit to?

Friday, March 5, 2010

Aloha Friday #23

Welcome to this week’s edition of Aloha Friday.

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link Here.

My Question:

Do you do Spring Cleaning? If so, when do you start?

I got an early jump on spring cleaning last night...I found these fabulous glass jar's @ an antique store yesterday and wanted to use them for my salt, sugar, coffee & flour.

$6.00 for 2 jars, lids and shelf.

$10.00 for green. $8.00 for yellow.
Wonder why green was more expensive.

Which led to cleaning the kitchen counter tops, stove, and cabinets out.

(anyone have a good tip for cutting through grease on stove top?)

Still looks a little cluttered...but I use all of it.

Try not to notice the white stuff on my cookie jar...it's from an antique store too...it was used to hold candles....apple cinnamon to be exact...and while vinegar and lemons took the smell out of the glass jar...

The lid now looks like that and still smells like a candle...and makes the cookies I put in smell like them too.

Aloha.

My Glass is Half Full

Eye Girl over at

is doing a great meme on Friday's...

Keep a list of something good that happened each day of the week -- then post about them on Friday...click the banner above to link up!

Since I just found out about this ... I don't have a list from the week before ... so I am going to improvise a bit.

I am happy that I got some more practice decorating cakes last night.

While it is way way less than shall we say passable for a horse cake...(believe me - I am not fishing for compliments -- I know how bad it looks - lol. Sad really...but it is strawberry cake so it will still be yummy. Ugly yes, but yummy.

Just want to point out that thing on this poor pony's face was supposed to be a tuft of hair...lol!

Positive Notes :

I learned 5 things from this cake.

1. Eyeballing it is not recommended when cakes are going to be placed side by side. Measure amount of cake mix that you put into both 9 in cakes pans...otherwise you will get one thick and one thin.

2. It's much easier to put frosting in piping bag (i.e. a Ziploc bag) if you have something to place the bag around. I used a glass jar that I keep my Splenda packets in...this made no mess -- once I got the frosting in...I tucked my hand under the bag and wiped off spatula...forced icing down to tip and twisted closed the bag.

3. I need to work on going easy on the frosting in the final layer...a few times i even dipped past the crumb coat (think layer of frosting that seals in crumbs). Be very generous with the frosting so that you have a think layer smooth out. Take your time when smoothing out the final layer so that it's actually smooth.

4. When taking cakes out of pans to cool -- make sure you place them down the way they were sitting in the pan. Silly me -- placed the last 2 cakes dome side down...and the top of one was ripped off.

5. Less is more when you are a beginner. Today is my sister Crystal's Birthday. She is staying here at my house since she is working here this weekend and her family is coming to see her at work tomorrow...so I offered to make her a cake since I was going to make one for practice anyway.

She and I both got a really big laugh out of my first attempt....above....but she hasn't seen the one below...

It's really not that much better...but at least it's not -- well -- at least it's not the one above. :)
Like I said -- not fishing for compliment's and I won't take offense if she laughs her butt off at the one below and refuses to take it to work. LOL>>> at least I learned a few things.

Sorry the pic is sideways - sometimes I forget how my iPhone works.

What good things have you been able to see this week?

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Roasted Chicken with Veggies Fail

I have just enough time this morning for a little free writing session...

10 mins...no editing -- I hope that you guys will give this a try with me...if you do leave me a comment so that I can check it out!

I am not a trained chef. I have never been to cooking school or attending a single class about cooking. I learned to cook by watching the food network. Rachael Ray was my constant compaion in the early years of my marriage. She introduced me to the wonderful world or stoups and quick cooking pasta dishes...she sucked me in with her burgers the size of my head. I was entranced by her beautiful and colorful kitchen full of all sorts of yummy goodness. I started experiementing with various recipes and while the first few went straight to the trash ... Man I got good. I mean I really had learned to cook from watching her show...

I later got bold enough to watch other's on the Food Network...like Giada, Paula and Ina. Maybe even a few with Tyler -- but hey he's just to cute not to watch right?

So all this to say: They would all be utterly disappointed with my efforts at Roasted Chicken and Veggies.

Not to shabby right? You might be saying -- looks good.

I was so excited to try this...it was like a true test...I mean it's simple really --

Wash the chicken, pat dry, cover in melted butter-salt & pepper.

Stuff with lemon, garlic and thyme.

Tie her up and place on cut up veggies.

Bake at 425 for 1 1/2 hours.

Simple right?

To bad I messed it up so royally.

Mess up # 1

I forgot to pick up kitchen twine....so the bird wasn't really tied up.

Mess up # 2

I also forgot the thyme...no prob I thought -- I had rosemary and sage -- and if Rachael Ray had taught me anything it's that cooking is really about methods rather than recipes.

Mess up # 3

I also through in some broccoli thinking that would be good roasted. (not so much)

Any of these things might be considered minor infractions...unless that is you count the last mess up...

I cooked the thing upside down. I didn't even realize that I had done this until I went to slice off the breasts and hit the rib cage with my knife.

I think I need to set my dvr for some refresher courses in the school of cooking from the Food Network.

I will say this for my family...they ate it up...every stinking bit of it...but I need a do over!

Updated March 5th -- I am going to submit this for -- click the link to see some more fails!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Wordless and Wordful Wednesday

I hate to start my post off on a negative note since it's really been a good week...but I need some help!

Anyone know how to set some parental controls on a Direct Tv DVR?

When the kids were Finally asleep last night - Hubby and I sat down to watch LOST -- and only 2 min were recorded.

Kids turned the channel on us.

:( not the first time either. So we will be watching on HULU.com today.

My 2 favorite photos of the week:

My beautiful (he says handsome) son E!

Miss Maddy's long hair. So Pretty.

Since last Wednesday -- we have been taking so many pictures...that I am afraid that I am going to turn some of you away with them...

But I just gotta show ya

Miss Maddy got her ears pierced!!

I am so wishing that I had taken her in as a teeny tiny baby -- cause I swear she is carrying a grudge. She maybe smiling and cute in these photos...but she is still a little wary of me. :( Hope she gets over it soon -- as she and I are spending a ton more time in each others presence....she is potty training -- which means 4 - 6 times (sometimes more) we are stuck together in the tiniest room in the house.

I was chosen for a Spark from My Blog Spark...called Bake Life Sweeter...basically in exchange for a couple Great gifts for me and a giveaway for you ... I need to bake one of my kid's birthday cakes.

OMGosh - I BUY Birthday cakes.

So I thought I would need all the practice that I can get...Night before last - I made a Butterfly cake.

This is going to be a lot harder than I thought...

This is what my cake looked like after the crumb layer -- which is supposed to be a thin layer or frosting to seal in the crumbs. P.S. My crumb layer was 1 1/2 tubs of frosting...but it kept falling apart and you can see that while it was supposed to be a white cake -- it looks a little more like cookies and cream.

But after a little help from my friends on face book (thanks girls) and trial and error I have learned a few things.

1. Freeze your cake for 30 min before frosting it.

2. Heat frosting for about 10 sec - this loosens it and makes it much easier to spread.

3. Don't by the biggest offset spatula you can find...it really needs to be as big as your hand.

4. When your cake is falling apart...more frosting really doesn't help. :)

But in the end...it really did turn out OK.

In the interest of full disclosure... the sides of the cake even after 2nd frosting:

For More Wordless and Wordful Wednesday:

5 Minutes for Mom ~ Go Graham Go! ~ Jolly Mom ~ Look What Mom Found… ~ Mom of 3 Girls
~ Momspective ~ Momma Findings ~ Run DMT ~ A Daily Dose of Toni ~
Keeper of the Cheerios ~

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss and Show Me Your Giveaway's!

Today is Dr. Seuss' Birthday!
3 of my children will be celebrating at school today with Green Eggs and Ham and I bet a lot of reading.

Av is taking my favorite Dr. Seuss book to school today -- Horton Hatches an Egg!!

Today is my day sooo

Don't Forget to stop by From Blah to Ta-daa
and check out

Green Eggs and Ham Scramble and Pink Yink Ink Drink

Got Giveaway's?

Please link them up so that we can all come and enter! If you are not entering Giveaway's -- I would really encourage you to give it a try...not only is it possible to win -- it's really fun to!!