Spills and sleepless nights

 Oh today is just not my day.  Last night Emma woke me up at 3am,,I do not know why she does this.  She's been doing it quite often.  She wakes up and runs through the house(sounding quite like a crazed elephant), stomp stomp stomp super fast in a dead run, so I know shes coming before she gets there. She has to come all the way across the house to get to our room.  Does she try to crawl into our bed?  NO.  She knows she not really allowed to do that.  She wakes me up(although shes already awoken me with her stomping run through the house) and says "Mommy, take me back to bed".   Now really, what is the point of that besides to just wake me up?   I know shes only 5, I know she has probably woken up and having trouble getting back to sleep, but all that just to make sleeping me get up and follow her back to her room and tuck her back in and turn on her music box.  This is almost a nightly occurrence.  I guess it wouldnt be such a big deal accept for once I get up and go back to bed I have such a hard time falling back to sleep.  I lay there dog tired but toss and turn and think of things,,things I need to do, things that are emotionally bothering me, last night it took me 2 hours, so from 3-5am I was laying in bed feeling bad cuz I wasnt very nice to her this time when I took her back to bed, thinking about the food I was going to make today to put in the freezer for  quick meals for the kiddos in busy times, thinking about missing my dad, wondering why he doesnt call or come around, thinking I need to be a better mother......seriously people my mind races.   And this normally doesnt happen unless Im woken up by the lovely Emma.  ugh...   Enough of that,, just so you know, I love her to pieces and I'm just venting because I'm tired and dont know what to do to make it better.

So fast forward to 6:30am,, Jess wakes me saying I need to write her a check for a yearbook,,I get up do that, send her off to school, hop in shower to get ready cuz fairly new babysitting girl is coming at 7:15 this morning.  Before I'm even out of the shower Emma is up,  once new girl arrives shes crying and sad,, She doesnt like her mom going to work and is having a hard time with it bless her heart, but it sure makes for a long day.  I hope this wont last long!
I didnt mean for this to be a day in the life post so lets skip forward to around 10am, I start my getting ingredients out for my marathon baking and spill almost a whole container of cocoa powder all over the kitchen floor,,, what a stinking mess!!!  That was not easy to clean up, especially when I have to tell a 1 year old to stay away and out 500 times while Im trying to clean it up and every time I tell him to get out he throws a fit.  (deep breath)  First I get the pancake sausage muffins done, then corn dog muffins, and applesauce bread!  I sure thought it seemed like more than it looks like here

LOL   the hot dogs in the muffins arnt really a surprise are they?

I gave the kids some corn dog muffins for lunch along with some peaches and chex mix,, they really liked them.  Im hoping to put the rest accept for maybe a few cuz I know Gary is super excited to try out those muffins when he gets home from school today, in the freezer.  Soccer season is starting and things are about to get crazy here!
After I got the kids started I got my lunch ready, leftover crock pot fried rice and grilled chicken from last nights dinner.  Ben made sure to save me some so I could have some for lunch.  I was so excited,,, put it in the microwave(which we keep in the laundry room due to lack of space in the kitchen), got it out.  It smelled so good! I was carrying it out to the table and low and behold that bowl slipped right out of my hand and spilled all over the floor!  :(
I was so sad I could have cried.  I didnt even bother cleaning it up, the dog was already there enjoying what I was supposed to be eating... So instead I tried out the corn dog muffins I made and they were really good so I ended up eating 2.  Plus some hummus chips with hummus and raw carrots and grape tomatoes.  Over 500 calorie lunch that was only supposed to be around 300.  
Lets hope the rest of the day looks up,  ,I think we are going to Apple Bees for dinner tonight for a treat so at least I dont have to cook anymore!

And I hope you all dont think I'm a terrible mother now for complaining about Emmas sleeping habits.

Homemade poptarts

So the kiddos had school canceled Monday due to snow(Spring is here but the snow and cold weather are also still here :(  Anyways we have been talking about taking a try at making homemade pop tarts and I decided today was the day.  I am loving Laura's recipes and cant wait to receive her book I ordered in the mail! I mixed up the dough and let the kiddos help with the rest.  We decided to fill them with strawberry spreadable fruit and nutella! (notice the flowers in the background? Bennie was sweet and got them for me the other day, just because) 

Here's a few on the pan waiting to go in the oven.

Emma pressing the edges with a fork to seal them.

Enjoying the fruits of her labor!  Still not a low calorie snack but the ingredient list is all healthy and homemade so I feel better about serving these as a snack instead of the boxed poptarts.

And just because,, here's a pic of my girls..  I love when Jess helps out and acts loving with her sister :)

Soup and the Ballet

Remember that chicken in the crock pot from my last post?  Well from that one chicken I made a crock pot full of chicken broth that I froze some of, and then I turned the rest of the broth and leftover chicken that we didn't eat the night before into yummy homemade chicken noodle soup!  I kept it simple, chicken, broth, noodles, carrots, onions, and seasonings simmered on the stove for a couple of hours.  It was yummy.

 Saturday we were treated to the ballet.  My mom bought tickets for all of us(thanks Mom).  It was Cinderella, the girls really enjoyed it as did I.  The only problem was I had nothing to wear.  My old dressy clothes are way to big and sloppy looking but we managed to throw some pieces together and I didn't look to bad. :)  The shirt and skirt were some of my sisters old things,, mom had the skirt, it was what she had worn to her high school graduation.  New to me though :)

 They didn't let us take any pictures during the performance but I took a couple beforehand.  Jess and Emmas smiling faces

 And me and Amira :)

Afterwards we went out to dinner.  Yummy Mexican food!  I splurged on my calories and just ate what sounded good.  Yum

Just another Monday

Oh Monday how I loathe you. Today was a busy one too. I played catch up with the laundry( actually still have quite a bit of folding to do). Bens mom was here over the weekend! They came all the way from California and are moving to Ohio so instead of being across the country they will only be 3 hours away. So it will be a easy long weekend trip to get to see them. We are thrilled. Anyways I disnt really do any laundry owr the weekend.
I put a whole chicken in the crockpot this morning for dinner. A couple hours before it was time to eat I threw in some carrots. That was a super yummy and easy dinner. We also had baked potatos to go along with it.
I Made some pumpkin chocolate muffins for the kiddos. I only kept out a few and put the rest in the freezer to rtake out as needed for lunches. I also made some smoothie pops. Ill talk more about that later. We are really excited about them!
Then this evening we had a freshman soccer meeting for Jess. Even though shes not a freshman yet apparently they start conditioning tomorrow for next school year. Crazy!!! Im excited for her though and I know she is going to learn a ton and I hope she makes some great new friends and enjoys being part of this team.

Life in pictures

We've been busy.  And I didn't wanna go to long without posting so I decided to post some recent pics from my phone for you guys...
Here is Ms Emma hangin cool in the car reading her books

She just looked so darn cute I had to snap a pic!

Here is a pot beans ready to be cooked and transferred into re fried beans without the re fry.   There are pinto beans, a whole onion, lots of garlic and some seasonings. Then I filled up the crock pot with water, turned it on high for 4 hours, then low for about 2 or 3 hours.  Then I drained out just a little water then used a potato masher to mash it all up. .It was delish!!  It made a ton so we froze some and ate some. :)

Here is me.  Ben told me to send him a picture while he was at work on Friday and I was busy so just snapped this one of myself really fast.. He asked how many times I took a pic to send him because he said this is the best looking picture of me in a long time.  lol..  I dont see it.  But its sweet of him to say that.

And here is Gary and Emma, we went to the Home and Garden show with my parents yesterday and they had a little booth with a real live tortoise.  The lady asked Emma if she wanted to pet it and she wouldn't but Gary did!  Arnt they just the cutest kids!

Now I'm waiting for Ben to get home from work, then we are gonna have lunch then hit the gym.   Its day 2 of our free 7 day membership at the fitness center.  It was sooo nice working out there yesterday and having all the options of the different machines.  

30 Day Shred Results

Are you guys tired of hearing about the 30 Day Shred yet?  :)  Well its done so I shouldn't be talking about it for awhile. I'm going to report my progress on it though.  Not huge numbers but still losses so that's good.  I wish there was a way to measure strength cuz I know I'm stronger! I can actually do a real push up now when I couldnt when I started!  I did things on level 2 and 3 that I never thought I would ever be able to do so I would defiantly call that progress also!   So for the numbers...
In weight I went down almost 4 pounds....nothing superb but I guess if you talley it up that's a pound a week.   As far as body measurements goes
My neck stayed the same,,
My waist went down 3 inches! ( I was very happy about that,, i thought my pants were getting loose again!)
My hips went down 1 inch
My right arm,down 1/2 inch
My left arm, down 1/2 inch
Right leg,down 1/2 inch
Left leg,down 1 1/2 inches

I'm pretty happy with these results,, I know I gained muscle in my arms and legs, but I still have a lot of fat on them so I'm glad for the loss.

For exercise now I think I'm just gonna keep mixing it up with different circuit workouts, and dvds.  Next week we are going to take advantage of a free one week membership at a gym that my mom works out at.  That will be different and fun!

Prepping for the week

Its Sunday night and were ready for the new week. Tomorrow we have 2 orthodontist appointments. Wednesday Emma and Bennie get to do fathers night at preschool! And Thursday I go to the preschool and help with the 3 year old fathers night. So a busy werk ahead.

Saturday Ben worked and then we had our appointmant to get our taxes done. He gave us a rough estimate of what we would be getting back. Its a decent amount but not as much as Id like. I was hoping to be able to pay off more debt than I will be able to. But its better than nothing I suppose and I will just need to make a strict plan to pay off the rest.
Today Ben was off and we had a nice relaxing day at home. Jess and I knocked out our last day of The Shred!! I really am proud of myself. I stuck with it and finished it out. I know Im stronger and tomorrow morning Im gonna take my measurments and see the results. Ill post them here!
Besides that we watched a couple movies. I also made granola bars and banana chocolate chip baked oatmeal muffins to eat through the week. Then we watched a episode of Pretty Little Liars. A new netflix show Ive become sucked into.;-) oh the little guilty pleasures.
Days like today are some of my favorite. When we stay home and veg!