You, Sir, are a SNEAK!

Last night the hubby was eating some of the Halloween candy that I had bought to pass out to trick-or-treaters. I hadn't opened the bag, and I knew the boys hadn't opened it because I kept close watch all day. But when I went to go hide the rest of the candy, I couldn't for the life of me find a tear or hole in the bag. How in the world did he get the Starburst out? The only ones we had in the house were from that bag. And then I found this, hidden under the seam on the back:

*Smacks head* The hubby is worse than the kids!

How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways.

I had an experience with a consignment shop that I brought clothes to today that was LESS than desirable. It was my first visit to their store, and definitely my last.

Here's my beefs with them:

1. They don't do appointments...walk in only. And their consigning hours are M-F from 12-5. I went in today with all 3 kids (the boys had a half day) and got there at 1pm. I was told I'd have to wait 2 HOURS before they could let me know what they wanted, and pay me for it.
2. I killed 2 hours with three rambunctious children (I didn't want to go home because we were all the way across town) and came back to find out that they only wanted a few peices of clothing from the BOX of things that I brought them. It totalled a whopping $3.50. I'm almost laughed out loud when the employee asked me if I wanted it in cash or store credit.
3. They told me that the clothes that they passed on were stained (um...NO! I don't consign stained clothing...GROSS!) or old label brands. Come again? The box contained mostly Gap, Abercrombie, Old Navy, and American Eagle clothes....all of which were listed on racks of clothes that I passed on my way in.
4. They took my very nicely folded clothes and just threw them back in the box...making it extremely hard to carry because it was overflowing.

On the way out of the store, Noah was carrying Sophia because I had to maneuver a heavy box to the car, and she knocked down a pair of boots off of a display. I told Noah that I didn't care that she knocked them down and to just leave them, becuase I wanted to get out of there. Totally petty and immature, but I couldn't help it. I was mad. It made me feel a tiny bit better. And to top it all off, I still had errands to run afterwards! I had planned on just using the cash from the consignment to get the few things I needed, so I put them off until after I went back. It was a total waste of a day, and all for $3.50. I used more than that in gas trying to kill the two hours I had to wait!

Just call me Mrs. Productive!

I'm so proud of myself today. I had a HUGE to-do list for myself, and I got every single thing done! That rarely happens, so I'm thrilled! Here's what my list consisted of:

• Laundry- one load of towels, one load of whites.
• Wash dishes.
• Go to Walmart to get tights and ribbon.
• Go to Sally Beauty Supply for more alligator clips.
• Drop off donations at Goodwill.
• Make spider clippies for an Etsy order

• Post Office run.
• Finish Jonah's Halloween shirt.
• Make Tinkerbell wand for Sophia's Halloween costume.
• Make Yoda ears for Noah & Jonah's Halloween costumes.
• Make Reindeer Korkers for my Etsy shop.

• Sweep
• Vacuum

Now I can sit back and relax when the kids go to bed!

Sing it, baby!

Here's Sophia's rendition of the ABC's.

Jonah-isms v.3: Future Beer Vendor?

Noah and Jonah's favorite indoor pasttime is playing hockey in our hallway. It's a teacher workday today, and it's raining, so they have been playing hockey all day. Jonah came in to the living room asking for Sophia's ride-on car, saying he needed the zamboni to clean the ice between periods. A few minutes later he went into the kitchen to get some waterbottles for himself and Noah. Then I hear him down the hall saying "Get your ice cold beers here!" I got up to see what he was doing (and to make sure that they hadn't grabbed any of Bobby's beer from the back fridge), and this is what I saw:
I'm thinking we may have spent too much time at Jobing.com Arena when we lived in Phoenix.

Going down...

I was running to the post office to mail an Etsy order (http://jenscraftcorner.etsy.com), and saw something that made my heart skip a beat. Gas was $2.69! It's been under three dollars for just over a week now, which is defnitely something I never thought I'd see again. But it's slowly creeping closer to $2.50 a gallon! Hallelujah! I can almost afford to gas up my Tahoe again!

Jonah-isms v.2: Peeps

Jonah has always added the "e" sound to the end of his words, i.e: drink-y, snack-y, book-y, you get the idea.
Anyway, last weekend we had family in town for Noah's birthday party, and my cousin Val sent up some Halloween goodie bags for my munchkins. They had coloring books, chocolate, and Peeps. Jonah got all excited at the sight of sugar, and while bouncing up & down he said, "Momma! Open my Peep-y's!" Seems innocent enough, right? Well, re-read it and say Peep-y's out loud. I'll wait.
Yep..."Peep-y's" sounds an awful lot like "pee-pee's" which is the word we use in our house to refer to "boy parts". Noah instantly started sniggering from across the room. I caught a glimpse of my sisters who were in the kitchen, and they were doubled over in silent laughter. It was all I could do not to explode with giggles myself. I have never had to concentrate more on getting that plastic cellophane wrapper off the box of Halloween Peeps!

Emotional Tug-of-war

While I was out running my errands today, I noticed that the stores are starting to stock their Christmas items. Normally, this is my favorite time of year. I love to decorate my house for the holidays, and I actually enjoy Christmas shopping. But this year it's different. Money is tight, and I won't be able to decorate how I want to. We are in a new house this Christmas and we finally have a big front yard to do up, and nothing to do it up with. Sure, we have our Christmas lights from last year, and with any luck they'll all still work this year, but for once we have a lawn and I won't be able to make it festive. I have a feeling our yard will be reminiscent of Charlie Brown's sad little Christmas tree.

As for Christmas gifts, we'll be getting pretty creative this year. I already plan on making most of the gifts that we will be giving (really not a problem for me...I'd like to consider myself a military wife version of Martha Stewart), and the rest will be inexpensive, but meaningful.

I know that we are not the only family having to cut back on Christmas this year. Maybe we should all just revisit the Christmases of the past and bask in the fact that we have our loved ones near, and make it a great holiday despite the current economic situation.

Squirrels-1 Pumpkins-0

We have the worst squirrels living in the tree in our front yard. They are totally fearless of humans. More than once I have gotten yelled at by a squirrel when I walked out the front door. And I swear they wait until we are on our front sidewalk and then they start throwing the nuts from the tree at us. I am not exaggerating here...our friends will attest to that fact! I get beaned in the head at least once a day when I go outside. Noah and Jonah have even said that they need to wear their bike helmets when they walk under the tree.


But today they have crossed the line. I went outside a few minutes ago to bring letters to the mailbox and found this scene:

Jonah's pumpkin has been knocked on its side, and Sophia's lid is on the ground. Notice the bite of pumpkin to the left of Sophia's lid. I put the lid back on Sophia's pumpking and noticed these bite marks along the rim. The large bite mark is still juicy, so apparently I interrupted the squirrel's morning snack.

I am about ready to channel my inner Carl Spackler and go medieval on their tails!!

Carving Pumpkins

My favorite part of Halloween is picking out and carving pumpkins. We didn't go to the pumpkin patch this year, but we did get some great pumpkins.

Sophia decided to taste test the insides of the pumpkin while she was 'helping' clean them out. Hence the dirty face.
The finished products: Noah's pumpkin

Jonah's pumpkin. I picked this pattern because it just reminds me of my Jo.

I'm so happy that I can finally do girly pumpkins! Sophia's is Cinderella.

Mmmm Mmmm Monday: Pumpkin Bread

I thought that becuase it finally feel like fall here in South Carolina, that I'd share my favorite fall recipe. Pumpkin Bread. This is a huge hit in my house, and perfect for fall because the pumpkin pie filling (a staple for this recipe) is stocked to the brim on grocery store shelves. My husband loves it so much that he requested it be mailed to him during his last deployment. I sent it quite a few times, becuase every time I sent a loaf it was gone within hours, becuase everyone in the shop wanted some too. And when a recipe is well-loved by men in uniform, I consider it a success! So from our cozy house to yours, I give you pumpkin bread. Enjoy!


Pumpkin Bread
Prep time: 20 min
Bake time: 55-65 min.
Makes 2 loaves

3 cups sugar
1 cup cooking oil
4 eggs
3 and 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspooon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2/3 cup water
1-15oz can pumpkin

Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of two 9x5x3-inch (or three 8x4x2-inch or four 7.5x3.5x2-inch) loaf pans; set aside. In a very large mixin bowl, beat sugar and oil with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add eggs and beat well; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Alternately add flour mixture and water to the sugar mixture, beating on low speed after each addition until just combined. Beat in pumpkin. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans.

Bake at 350* for 55-65 minutes or until a cake tester (or toothpick) is inserted and comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.

Now, here's where I differ from the recipe. It says to cool completely, then wrap in saran wrap and store overnight before slicing. But I'm a sucker for a warm slice of freshly baked bread, so I slice it up as soon as I remove it from the pan. I don't taste a difference between the two ways, other than it's not warm bread. So do as your little heart desires. Just savor the season!

Jonah-isms: An explanation.

My four-year-old is a trip and a half. The things that come out of that boy's mouth are some of the most hysterical things you'll ever hear. For instance:

I am allergic to cats. The boys know this, yet they still ask why we cannot have a kitten. One day while we were in the car, Jonah asked me yet again for a cat. I said no, explaining for the billionth time that cats make momma sneeze. His response was this: "Well, can you go move in to the doctor's then? He can give you medicine all the time, and then I can FINALLY get a cat."

Thanks kid, I feel the love.

My dear friend Natali summed Jonah up the best when she said that he is a living, breathing cartoon.

We have lovingly labeled Jonah's phrases & antics "Jonah-isms". They're just too good not to share, so be on the lookout for quite a few posts regarding this topic!

The Big 7.

My firstborn child is seven today. I know this is super cliche, but it really doesn't seem all that long ago that he looked like this:

And now he looks like this:

Where does the time go?

Down By The Bay

Jonah came home from school today singing a song that brought me back to my childhood. "Down by the bay" was one of my absolute favorite silly songs ever. It goes:

Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mother will say,
"Have you ever seen a mouse
painting a house"
Down by the bay!

You repeat the song over and over, changing "Mother's" sayings to other silly, rhyming sentances ("Llama wearing pajamas", "Snake baking a cake", "frog walking a dog", etc). It was the best and it sure gets lots of laughs out of 4 year olds!

What are some of your favorite songs from when you were a kid?

First Steps

While we were visiting Natali & Brandon in California, Sophia took her first steps! She's very stubborn about taking anymore, but hopefully soon my baby will be walking all over!

Memories of California

Here's some of my favorite pictures from my trip to California last week.








My great friends Kara (left) and Natali (right). They're the reason we went to California!


And finally, Natali's husband Brandon, at his best ;)