Sunday Sunday

Today I took Jaina down to the park for awhile.

We parked the car and walked two miles to the park through town and enjoyed the nice weather we were having.

When we got back to the car we were both sweating and Wednesday it's suppose to be 33 for the high. Ha! I don't get it?

But I am ready for it to start getting warm so I can start our garden and flower beds for the spring.

We came home and have just been having a lazy rest of the day.

We have a busy week coming up with school and Jaina going to her new babysitter so we shall see. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well!

So glad to see you

Thursday I left for Houston and this was the traffic at 3:45 in the afternoon! I thought work wasn't over until 5:00? This was on 610 going south on the west side of town and it only got worse. It took me over a hour to get across town and I was itching to see my baby.

I finally got there.

We were SO excited to see each other.

She was fired up when I got there, she was going 90 miles an hour.

She had to show me her new silver purse filled with real make-up.

She also told me "I gotta go see my boyfriend".

Haha! I was like what!

I leave you for 3 days and she's already gotta boyfriend!

LOL I wonder where she got that from??

I think she's about 10 years old with brown hair.

She had to show off all her cool new toys at MiMi's house We played Cooties!
Does anybody else remember playing that game when they were little?

The weather was beautiful the last couple of days so we took a couple of pictures out in my parents back yard. Thursday night we had dinner with my parents and then came back and hung out with my parents.Friday my sister Jennifer met my mom, Jaina and I for lunch in Alvin. Then Jaina played with her MiMi and PawPaw while I ran some errands in BayBrook and then came home to chill with my baby for the rest of the night.
Today Jaina stayed with my parents while I ran and washed and cleaned out my car. It had been the first time in probably a year,Lol. Then I came home and got Jaina and we headed back to Temple. When we got home she was so excited to see her daddy! Now we are home trying to get back into routine before the week starts again.

I Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

What I want to be when I grow up

Yesterday in my HR Staffing class we had an assisgnment to take an aptitude test. An aptitude test is basically a personality test but at the end of the test it will tell you what your top job should be when you grow up. If your interested in taking the test you can go to www.myplan.com and take one for yourself and see what you come up with.

When I finished and got my scores it said my top job should be a kindergarten teacher at 96%, lol and that's what Im going for! So that was good to see.

Some other jobs on my list which I've ALL thought about doing before is Health care provider, Art Director, Chef, pysician, ect.

But other jobs on my list were just down right hillarious like, a ship & boat captain, exhibit designer, boilermaker,miner and a glass blower! LOL

Justin took the test too and his top number one job at 100% was a Police Dectective!

So you never know but it was still fun to take.

No pictures of Jaina because she's still out of town.

Life (and blogging) gets kinda boring without her around.

I dont know what we would do with out her.

I'm going to Houston tomorrow to pick her up and will spend to weekend at my parents house.

I cant wait to see her tomorrow and I know Justin will be even more excited to see her on Saturday!

Obsessions

At the moment I have two huge obsessions!

The first being a t.v. show that both Justin and I are obsessed with.

Have yall ever seen "I survived.....Beyond and Back"?

It comes on the Biography channel and is about real people who have actually died, experienced Heaven/Hell and Survived!

It is an absolutely amazing show.

We watched the whole season and every story is amazing.

The show for me makes me think of my experience not that I died but when I was in labor and had my emergency surgery due to an uterine inversion I was screaming bloody murder because the pain was so intense. I remember pleading with God to just let me die and stop the pain, that if he let me die everything would be okay and as I laid there pleading with God a wave of the most powerful comfort and peace came over my body and every pain I had went away I couldn't feel a thing. I knew that was God's power coming over my body letting me have peace.

The show also gives us great imagination of to whats to come. If you haven't seen it you should. Just check the biography channel or go to Biography.com

My other new obsession is couponing!

(Mom you knew I was going to post about this sooner of later)

I have always been the frugal type of person and have always been a little curious about how it works. I always thought that couponing meant you would only save .50 on your over all bill or they only have coupons on junk food or you have to buy at least two items to even get the .50 off.

Well I decided to check out the book "Coupon Mom.com" and see how this all works. Then my Mom and sister were telling about this show on TLC called Extreme couponing and I was hooked from that point on.

I pretty much have the system down on how all this works.

Since mid December I have saved over 350.00 on groceries!

And all this stuff in this picture I have gotten FREE or for less then a dollar!!!

So far I have gotten make-up, bath room products, pet food and food all for FREE!

And it's name brand stuff, not out of date, stuff that you would go to the store right now and pay full price for. I will never again pay full price for any grocery item again. Couponing will allow us to save money on groceries to spend in other areas like vacations, paying off bills or just saving it.

Justin thinks I'm absolutely crazy and says I'm cheap but I say I'm smart!

After seeing me go to the store 3 or 4 times last week and come home with free stuff he's allllll for it now! LOL

I went by Target tonight and had a 22.00 bill and paid just 6.00! Ive even walked out of the store with only having to pay a couple cents!

SEE WHY I'M OBSESSED!!!

So if any of yall don't want or need your Sunday coupons you can send them my way!

I do plan on donating some of the items I really don't need to some kind of charity but I'm not sure which one yet but will let yall know if your interested in helping. And I believe every Tuesday I'm going start posting some deals that can help yall too on how to buy groceries for free like me!

Off to Grandmother's House We Go

Yesterday was the first time in a couple days even weeks that it was actually sunny and nice outside.

I had to get Jaina out in the sun for awhile and enjoy the day so we headed to our local park here in town.

she was brave enough to walk across the "bridge" by herself this time.
But she wasn't to much into playing, instead she wanted to "paint".

She likes this statue there that has all these different painted slates on it. She will stand at it and look at all the different paintings from all the little children.

Then she'll stick her hand on it and say, "Look momma, I painting".
It's too sweet.
Since I'm in school now Jaina has to go to the babysitter like once a week when I'm in school and Justin is working.
Her regular daycare couldn't fit her in this spring so we had to opt to finding a babysitter.
We did find one but she and her kids had the stomach flu this past week and I didn't want to drop Jaina off on Monday thinking that she might get the flu again.
I definitely don't want to go through that again!
So I called my Mom to see if she would meet us half way to pick her up and take her to Houston for the week and I would go down there on Thursday and pick her up. Justin, Jaina and I left this morning to meet my mom, dad, and niece in Brenham.
She was so excited to be staying at her Mimi's this week!
We had a great lunch with my parents and then it was time to say goodbye to our little girl for 3 whole days!
She wasn't sad at all!
She was ready to go and then off they went :(
Then mommy and daddy felt really bad, but it's alright cause we'll see her on Thursday!

Randomly Randoms

Does anybody else shop at HEB?
This is the only grocery store we have in Temple and they have this little program for kids called Buddy Bucks and Jaina LOVES Buddy Bucks.
When ever you pay for your groceries they give you 1 or 2 paper slips that look like kid money. Then the child takes it over to this machine that has a wheel on it that spins and has points on it. Kinda like the wheel on the price is right. When its spinning she will hit this big button and it will stop on whatever point like 1, 10 50 and so on. Then it will spit out a sticker with the number on it and she can put it in her Buddy Buck Book. When she has enough points she can turn it in for a prize like a lunch box, a snack cup and so on. Its super fun for kids and she loves it.
(Here she is holding up her Sticker with 50 points on it)

Last night she decided to dress herself, sponge bob t-shirt, shorts, a skirt and tennis shoes, Haha
Does anyone find this scary?

LOL

Because I do!

Justin finally fixed a problem we've been having for a looooong time.

We needed a pet door.

We have 3 cats and a dog and there all indoor/outdoor pets. They are all really good about using the bathroom outside and wanting to go out on there own but the problem was they would sit in front of the door and cry until we let them out. And after awhile that gets old.

So Justin installed this nifty little door in the wall of our kitchen so they can go in and out on there own. We still need to do some patch work to it like painting around it but it works for now.

At first they had no clue what it was so we had to entice them with a can of tuna and then they got the picture! It took about 3 days for all of them to get use to it but they all love going in and out of it now and we love it too!

When I was a child I loved Gilligan's Island. My uncle got me the whole set of Gilligan's island on DVD.

The other night I stuck it in my computer as Jaina and I were going to sleep and she fell in love with it too. Haha!

Now all I hear her saying is "I wanna watch Islands, I wanna watch Islands". she even tries to sing the song.

Ha! It's so funny. Today I had to run some errands and get my oil changed. Jaina is usually such a go sport when we go into town but lately shes been becoming a little more vocal in the store

So to break up the tension we stopped at the Whistle Stop Park for a while

She loves coming to this park. Its right next to the train station so she can see and hear the trains as she plays

We saw two trains go by while we were there today. It made for the rest of my running around alot more peaceful!

Food For Thought

Ok as promised back in December here are the oh so yummy treats I made for Christmas.

This heavenly little piece was SO good. It looks heavy but is actually pretty lite and very easy to make.

I clipped it out of a magazine, not for sure which one though (I told yall I love clipping recipes out of magazines)

French Silk Chocolate pie

Here's what the recipe calls for:

1box Pie crust (but I actually use a Graham cracker pie crust instead, which is fine and turned out great)

3oz. unsweetened Chocolate cut into pieces (I used bakers chocolate)

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla ( I used Mexican vanilla that I bought in Mexico but any is fine)

4 eggs

Topping:

1/2 cup of whipped cream and chocolate curls

Ok the first step bake pie crust if its the frozen kind if not and you buy a graham cracker one like me then its one less step in your baking process.

In a 1-quart saucepan, melt chocolate over low heat, then let cool but DON'T let it harden up. Then in a small bowl with a electric mixer, beat butter until fluffy. gradually beat in sugar until light and fluffy. beat in cooled chocolate and vanilla until well blended.

Add eggs one at a time, while beating on high for 2 minutes after each addition; beat until mixture is smooth and fluffy. Pour into pie shell and refrigerated for 2 hours before added whipped cream.

I would probably wait alot longer because the whipped cream will melt. I just put the whipped cream on the whole top of the pie. Then I put the curls ( or tried and sprinkled shaved chocolate on top) and it was SOOOO good.

To make curls take a piece of waxed paper and poor chocolate in swirls and let it harden on the wax paper.

And Wa-La!

French Silk Chocolate Pie

Ok so let me tell you I have never made Apple Pie nor even made it from scratch but it looked simple so I tried it and it turned out super yummy!

Easy as Apple Pie

Here's what you'll need:

1 package refrigerated pie crust (you can not use a graham cracker pie crust on this one and make sure the box comes with 2 pie crusts!)

6 peeled cored and sliced apples (I heard Granny Smith apples make your pie sweeter)

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon divided of sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons apple-pie spice

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into pieces

1 1/2 tablespoons milk or cream

Pre-heat oven to 425 and bake just 1 pie crust into a 9 inch glass dish

In a large bowl combined apple slices, sugar, flour, apple pie spice, salt and milk with spoon until all the apple are coated

Then put apple mix into baked pie dish and spread evenly

Then scatter cut pieces of butter on top of the apples

Next fit unbaked pie crust on top of the apples and pinch around the edges to fit the top.

Then brush top of crust with milk or cream.

* This is VERY important! Make sure to then cut slits in the top of your unbaked pie crust. (I just cut the top to look like a flower. If you skip this step the top of the pie with burn and the inside wont get cooked.

Then before you bake make sure to sprinkle with sugar.

Bake pie on 425 until gold for 40-45 minutes.

And Ta-Da!

Homemade from scratch Apple pie!

Ok my last recipe will sure knock the socks off your company, relatives or husband. This is a sure way to impress them and make them *think you can really cook. Ha!

I got this recipe from Justin's step-grandma Pat. She made it at Thanksgiving and I just HAD to have the recipe and share it with my family for Christmas and now with permission from Granny I can share it with you! And let me warn you, this should only be eaten once a year, there anit anything in this recipe that's healthy, lol.

Hashbrown Potato Casserole

Here's what you need:

1 bag hash browns (ore-ida country style)

12oz Velveeta(cut up)

8oz Sour Cream

1 can cream of chicken soup (no water)

1 stick butter

Topping:

3 cups corn flakes (make sure to measure them and then crush them up)

1 stick of butter

Spray a 9x13 glass baking pan, pour the whole bag of frozen hash browns in pan

salt and pepper to taste

Heat and mix all remaining ingredients in a large bowl. I put the cut up Velveeta, soup sour cream and butter in a bowl and heated it up in the microwave for about a minute or two and stirred it together and poured it over the hash browns.

Then spread the crush corn flakes over top of hash browns

Next melt the other stick of butter in microwave and pour over crushed corn flakes.

Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes

And you got yourself some nice good eat'n!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Good but not so good on the rear end! LOL

Wordless Wednesday~Bad Hair Day

First day jitters

Today was my first day back in a college class room in over 4 years.

Ekkkkkk!

I don't know what it is but Jaina has been on a little terror lately.

See when she was first born everyone wanted to come and help out when we didn't need the help but now when she is 2 and going through the terrible 2's all I hear is crickets, lol.

I'm kidding, lol we get more help then we need.

I'm not sure if its because its been raining, she's been sick or she's not going to daycare any longer but she's just about worn me and her daddy out.

There are just so many no's, stops, and timeouts we can handle in one day!

And I'm not going to lie this morning was one of those days.

I tried everything with her, even going out side to play and it just wasn't working so we left early and went into town to get some fresh air and a new environment.

My first class started tonight which is a 3 hour class. I haven't been back in school since Mortuary school in 2007 so I was a little nervous. And on top of that it's Business Statistics class!!!

What was I thinking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had no clue its math and I'm horrible at math.

See my degree plan is a BS of Applied Science which is directed only for students who already have degrees and in my case I already have 3!

And I only have 12 classes to take to graduate this coming up fall/spring.

8 of the classes have to be business classes and 4 can be easy electives so I randomly picked out 4 business classes being business correspondence, business ethics and recruit/placement which all seem very easy and then i choose business stat.

After I signed up people started telling me that its worse then algebra and I HATE algebra. So now I'm stuck until May with this class!

But the good news is tonight in class our professor said you pretty much have to be dumb to fail his class so I'm hoping I don't fit into that category, LOL.

Tomorrow I have class from 1-7 so wish me luck!

While I was in class tonight I dropped Jaina off with my friend Rosie. She and her daughter Lilly had a blast together. They went to Chick Fil A to eat and play. Rosie said they played kitchen tonight in Lilly's room and was very well behaved. By the time I got out of school to pick her up she was fast asleep.

Maybe getting out of the house and around other kids will do the trick for a well behaved Jaina!

Gig'em Aggies

Today went spent our whole day in Aggie Land.

My uncle had the day off and asked if we wanted to go for a ride to Bryan/College Station with him.

My uncle is a HUGE Texas fan but loves going to College Station for one reason.....food!

We had lunch at the Chicken Oil which serves the best old fashion hamburgers and the best onion rings.

(I left my camera at home so I had to use my crummy cell phone)

Then we headed over to Half Price Books.

If you ever want to buy books, software, movies, cds, records, and great finds you can get it here for cheap. Some of it is brand new and some of it is used but in great condition. Its kinda like Hastings but way better.

I always hit up the children's section for Jaina and can always find a couple things for her.

Here is my uncle and Jaina out in front of the Chicken Oil.

Then we headed to the Post Oak Mall.

We just walked the mall to see what they had.

I'm not much of a mall girl put Jaina loves looking at all the stores they had, especially the pet store and she really loved riding in this ice cream truck!

Which then she cried for ice cream and since my uncle just can't say no we went to Dairy Queen and got her ice cream :)

After a day in Aggie Land we were worn out and ready to go but not before stopping a Der Weinerschnitzel.

My belly couldn't take anymore food but he suckered me into it.

I have never been to a Der Weinerschnitzel and this was one of the original hot dog stands so I told him just one and that was it!

I'm not a big hot dog fan but this was really good.

I would give my hot dog experience at Weinerschnitzel a thumbs up! Lol

After a day of eating, eating, eating and probably gaining back the weight I've lost I don't think I'll ever eat again!

She's Back

My Girl's back!!!!

No more yucky flu!

It's officially been 6 days since she got sick. She's done taking her medicine and I believe she's all better.

She's still sleeping alot but that's okay because she thinks not taking a nap during the day is okay and its not! So she's back to taking her naps and its been great for us.

Today we got out in the rain and ran some errands.

She was ready to go and get out of this house.

The other night we had to stay at my sister's house because Justin and I had something we needed to take care of and my sister was watching Jaina during the day for us. She was feeling much better and did not want to go to sleep even though her momma wanted to. So we played around with the camera for a while. I told her to strike a pose for me and do something funny for the camera and she sure did! Ha! And on a totally different note this little gadget is the coolest thing.

I got it for her for her birthday from Target.

You push the button and it makes a water fountain and lights up. She loves playing with it and so do I when I take a bath, haha.

All Better

Jaina is feeling much better but not fully herself just yet.

She's been sleeping alot during the day and is still pretty crabby but not so much sick.

The other day when she wasn't feeling to good she spent most of her day on the couch. I fixed her up a little trey and let her eat it on the couch and she just thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Other then that we've been taken it pretty easy staying at home because we have a very busy week coming up.

I would like to also tell everyone out there thank you for praying for Jaina while she has been sick. We got alot of phone calls asking about her.

We very much appreciate it.

Moments of being a Mother

Sorry no pictures again.

Jaina's still was not up to par today.

Today Jaina slept in late. She would wake up for about 10 minutes and then fall back asleep. I finally woke her up around 1:00 and she seemed to be feeling alot better so I decided to take her into town and get her out of the house for awhile.

I thought it would be good for her because shes been cooped up in this house for a week or so.

We stopped at Chick Fil A to eat. She ate so good and sucked down her chocolate milk like a champ. After we were finished eating I let her play in the Jungle gym they have there for awhile.

Which was a bad idea.......

She threw up everywhere!

What was I thinking!!!!!

I was like oh my....ummm....I need help in here, lol

Luckily there was no other kids playing and the people sitting beside the window eating didn't see her so we were in the clear, Ha!

After I cleaned her up I walked up front and asked the little girl behind the counter for, towels, cleaner and a trash can.

She looked at me and said oh I can clean it up, I said no that's ok I'll do it.

I know how it is and I know if I was working at a restaurant serving food I would not want to be cleaning up little kids throw up, lol.

After cleaning up, we left and came home and gave her a bath and got her straight in bed.

Poor, poor baby I hope she starts feeling well soon!

This is not normal

Wow weeeeeeeeeee Its been a long day.

Jaina's fever continued into the night last night and I woke up to her at our bedside so I put her in bed with us. About 30 minutes later I woke up to her throwing up on our bed so we stripped the sheets and got back into bed. We were asleep for about 30 and then Jaina woke up screaming bloody murder to the top of her lungs saying "theres bugs in here" "I'm scared, theres bugs on the ceiling". I immediately tried calming her down but she was not having it. she was clinging to me for dear life.

My first thought was well she must have had a night mare but she was acting really really strange so we went in the living room. She was frantically looking around and pointing to the ceiling saying there were bugs and airplanes on the ceiling.

I thought that maybe she was just scared of the "bug" stuffed animal she saw the other night but she kept talking about the butterfly which made me remember that about a week ago a huge black and blue butterfly flew in our kitchen.

So I then tried calming her down but then decided to check her temp. which was 101. She had been running over 101 since the morning before last so I immediately called the doctor thinking she must be hallucinating from the fever.

The doctor called back and said she did in fact have the flu and we could go ahead and pick up her medicine.

We got her calmed but then in the afternoon she did the same thing.

So I called the doctor again.

She told me apparently this "new" H1N2 strand of flu causes high fever, muscle spasms, headache, loss of appetite, and hallucinations.

She told be that her ER was packed with older kids who were having hallucinations worse the Jaina.

She told me that I should give it til tomorrow and if her fever doesn't break or shes still having the hallucinations to bring her back in.

I was just in shock and couldn't believe that this flu actually causes this.

I remember growing up we had the normal flu of throwing up and diarrhea but now we have the flu that causes kids to freak out and see bugs on the ceiling?

SO weird.

We finally got her calmed down this afternoon.

I still had some trouble putting her to bed but at least shes not screaming and having muscle spasms at the same time.

I hope and REALLY pray that this goes away quick and doesn't leave any long term effects.

Has anyone else had there kids have this flu and if so did they Hallucinate because this was very traumatizing for both me and her?

Double Dose of Sickness

The last week or so has just dragged on. I guess being sick and not wanting to do a thing makes for a loooooong week.

I was feeling much better and was ready to start getting this house back in order until Jaina woke up sick.

She was very listless wanting to just lay on the floor and had 102 fever so Justin and I rushed her to the baby after hours clinic since she didn't have an appointment.

They got her in right away.

They made me dress her down and then put her into this little baby gown.

she looked so sad in that little gown, poor baby.

They checked her weight (30.4 pounds), height, and temp which was a 100 then the doctor came in to see her and said we needed to give her some baby Tylenol and plenty of fluids.

Before we left she wanted the nurse to take a sample of her snot to see if she has the flu. The nurse came in and was super excited to get a sample of her boogers, LoL

I had no idea there are nurses who just take, check and test boogers all day, LoL

Anyways we left and headed home.

Jaina laid on the couch and slept while Justin and I made some Tennessee Chili and Corn bread. It was SO good! A nice dish for a cold day!

Maybe tomorrow wont be so rough.

My how you grow

Jaina, What have you been up to lately?

You have been growing like a little weed!

I was just looking at you sitting in your car seat yesterday and thought "oh my, you are growing so fast, and your little legs are getting so long".

You are growing taller and taller everyday.

You are 27 months old and are wearing 2T now.

You love wearing comfortable clothes and hate wearing blue jeans or anything tight. If I put you in jeans you complain the whole time saying "momma there too tight, too tight, there too tight".

Most of the time when you are at home all you want to wear is your diaper and a T-shirt. You love playing outside with all your toys and swing, you love going to the park, and "going to town".

You recently found a love for your toys and love making a mess in your room. You still love horses and anything to do with a horse. You have found a new love for Mickey Mouse (or "hotdog" as you would call it) and Strawberry Shortcake. You love all things girly especially painting your finger and toenails.

You say some of the funniest things.

Instead of saying yes or yeah you love to say "yep". Yep, is your response to everything! You also say "I love me" (which means I love you) and have for some reason started saying everything with an "a" at the end of it, like Mimi-a, mommy-a, daddy-a.

You can say more words then I can even count, you repeat everything and I can even hold somewhat of a conversation with you. You can tell us yes or no, what you want and don't want, if you feel bad or need something.

You are still scared of the vacuum and are terrified of bugs. You found a stuffed animal spider behind the dryer the other night and kept saying "I don't like that bug" even though we tried to explain to you that it was just a toy.

On most nights I find you standing next to my beside because you get scared during the night and want to sleep with mommy and daddy.

(Hey doesn't that sound familiar mom?)

You learn so quickly. We usually only have to show you once and you've got it.

You have been learning how to line things up and put things in order. You can sing parts of the ABC song and can count 123. You love more then anything to read. You read your books over and over. You know what mostly all the animals are and can say there names like hippopotamus. You have a map of the United States and can point and say where you live (Texas), where Grandma lives (Tennessee) and can say all of the names of the other states like Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, ect.

You are just so smart and makes me wander what your going to be when you grow up.

You are just so beautiful, smart, funny, loving and caring.

Your daddy and I thank God everyday for giving you to us.

We love you so much!