The Challenge Has Been Accepted

I have this almost OCD where I have to have full cupboards and a full freezer/fridge. I buy in bulk and when stuff is on sale. I got a vacuum packer for my bridal shower, and I love it. I can buy the value packs of meat and then put them in the deep freezer. I save money or so I think. The problem is I forget that I have it. Example: I buy spaghetti when it goes on sale for 75 cents a box. I put it in my cupboard. We don't use the spaghetti, and I go shopping the next week. Spaghetti is on sale again. I can't remember if I have any, so I buy more. I end up with 5 boxes of spaghetti in my cupboards. 5 boxes! That's 10 meals with that type of pasta! Another example: chicken goes on sale and I buy a value pack. I vacuum pack it into meal portions. I put some in my freezer and some in my deep freezer. I may or may not use some that was stored in my freezer. I go shopping again and this time the bags of chicken are on sale. I buy one, maybe two because 3 pounds of chicken for 2.99 is a good deal! The bags go into my deep freezer. You get the idea.

My current grocery budget is about $75-$100 a week, putting us between $300 and $400 per month. For a family of 3, that includes a toddler. Granted, my husband eats alot. And so does my toddler. And sometimes we are feeding my BIL and various other people, and we take leftovers for lunch so we don't waste a whole lot of food.

Or do we?

Here is my challenge. For the next 3 weeks, I am only alloted a grocery budget of $10 per week. This should buy fresh milk and produce and possibly bread for lunches if needed. For all other food, I have to use up what I have in the house. It's time to deplete the stash.

This should not be too hard, in all honesty. But I am really nervous about it. BECAUSE I AM A PACK RAT! I HAVE A DISEASE, PEOPLE!

This was sparked yesterday evening when I went to the store for crescent rolls and grapes and came out $50 later. Upon putting things away, I realized I already had most of the items I had just purchased or something very similar. The challenge starts today, and I don't get my $10 budget until Monday since I already went shopping. I should need milk by then, so that's my $ date. I have to get through until at least October 8th.

So here we go! On tonight's menu: Oven fried chicken, southwestern hashbrowns and leftover veggies.

Bunny Buddy

For his first Easter, my MIL gave Isaac a big blue bunny. At the time, this bunny was bigger than he was. We gave it to him right away, but he wasn't really interested in it too much besides to chew on it occassionally and to feel the silky fur. We put it into his crib, which he wasn't sleeping in, and it occassionally moved around his room, before ending up back in his crib permanently. Now? He loves it. I mean, he looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooves it. Loves it so much that for months it had a hole in the back from where he had pulled on it repeatedly. Once he got big enough, while he was "supposed" to be sleeping or when he woke up and was waiting to get up, he would yank the stuffing out of the hole and toss it all over the floor aroudn his crib. Oh, the bunny massacres we saw. Last week I finally put more stuffing in and stitched him up. Perfect timing.

Isaac wants the bunny to go EVERYWHERE. He shows me "bun-neee" every morning when I get him up. He cuddles him immediately when he lays down. The pillow in his crib is pointless. He only wants to lay on the blue bunny. And more often than not, bunny has to follow us to breakfast and sits ontop of another chair to watch mickey mouse with him while I get ready. He drags bunny around by his long ears or holds him tight around the middle and toddles around haphazardly because the bunny is still about as long as he is.

Sweetly, sometimes "bun-nee" comes out as "bud-deee." This led us to refer to blue bunny as Bunny Buddy.

It all comes back to "Frien.ds"

Do you remember the episode of "Fri'ends" in which Rachel has just brought Emma home from the hospital and is watching her sleep with Phoebe and Monica? She says "I can't believe how much I love her. Like right now, I miss her. I actually miss her." Phoebe says "You know that's her, right?" Then Rachel picks her up and Emma proceeds to scream and cry for the rest of the episode.

Before Isaac was born, I was Phoebe. I didn't get it. I knew parents loved their babies, but I just did really GET it. And now....now, I am Rachel.

Yes, there are times and have been times that my baby is right next to me, but I miss him. I miss holding him, cuddling him, talking to him, kissing him, playing with him. He's right there. But I miss him.

Last night after Isaac went to sleep, I went in to tuck him in and make sure he was cozy and warm. After his was snug under his blanket, I just stood there, staring at him. And man, oh man, did I miss that kid. I was absolutely aching to pick him up and hold him.

I am not going to lie. Sometimes I do pick him up. I wait until he is in a deep sleep and then I pick him up, and we go to the recliner and cuddle in the light of the TV screen. I learned the hard way to at least wait until he is truly out before picking him up. 9 times out of 10, I let him sleep. I know how important his sleep routine is, and I don't want to even risk waking him up.

But sometimes I just miss him too much.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love the Holiday season. I love Thanksgiving, because I love to cook and bake. But I love Christmas more.

I love everything about Christmas. I love the music on the radio. I love buying and wrapping gifts. I have a serious addiction to Christmas ornaments.

I am making Isaac his own stocking.

We are far away from our family, and we aren't able to go back east for the holidays. This has happened before. It's expensive. It's cold. And it is hard on a baby. We aren't able to be around alot of our family for Christmas.

It is important to me that we have our own traditions as a family. I want Isaac to enjoy the holiday season as much as I do. I want him to recognize it as a happy time, full of joy and love and giving.

Something I have always loved is baking Christmas cookies and giving them to friends and family. It started the first year I was out here. I love giving gifts and we had no money. It seemed like a cost effective way to give something to all the people we worked with and friends. It just grew from there. I started making more and more kinds. My record is 21 kinds of cookies.

Seriously.

Christmas Cookie weekend has become a tradition for me. I didn't get to do it last year because we had just moved, and I was preggers and went to Ohio for my baby shower over the only weekend possible to do it properly (I didn't have a tree either. :( )

This year, I am going to start it up again. Not in such grand scale, but I will make a few easy kinds. And I will let Isaac help. He loves dishes. He loves to bang on my pots and pans with spoons. He loves to bite on my rubber spatulas.

It is a tradition I can't wait to share with my son. :)

Baby Tres.sel

Isaac had two Halloween costumes. By day, he was the OS.U foot.ball co.ach, Ji.m Tre.ssel. He looked adorable. :) He just hated the headset and glasses that we fashioned, so I had to hold his arms down for pictures. He kept trying to rip them off. And the cats kept playing with them.

My husband is determined to try this costume again next year, when Isaac may not be so fidgety....ha. :) I just don't see that happening.

The Many Hats of Isaac Lahman

He wears many hats, mainly because I make him. Or at least make him try them on at Tar.get. :) He likes it. He hams it up most times. MOST times. Sometimes he is just plain mad or annoyed. I think I am into the hats because they are really the only accessory that you can get away with on a baby boy. Well, that and shoes. But baby shoes are expensive. And in my opinion a waste of money until they are walking.

Anyway, the point is I put lots of hats on my baby. :) He's a hat wearing boy. The hospital started it, when he was born and they put the little yellow knit hat on him. He just looked so darn cute. I simply continued it. And he has tons that are just coming up in size.

And we don't always buy all the hats. We just have lots of fun trying them on...the ones we do buy, I wash the heck out of them. :) I am sure other people do what I do.

And incidently, the first picture was taken the day he was born. The last one was taken yesterday night.

RiteAid Doesn't Sell Lotto Tickets

I know, right? Who'da thunk?


Well apparently my husband did. Or still DOES. He swears that he's seen them there before. Maybe. Who knows. I checked and trust me, the closest form of gambling I could find was the child's Bingo game for 14.99. True Story.


Let me backtrack for a second.


Monday night was HORRIBLE. It started out great. We (meaning hubs and Isaac and I) took a walk, which ended up shorter than intended because a certain baby is teething and when he is miserable he will be damned if everyone around him is not miserable too. Another True Story. Anyway, we walked and chatted which was nice because we don't get to do alot as a family of three. Any time is precious time. Then we got Mexican take out. Our plan was to let me feed Isaac while Ben ate his burrito, then he would bathe little man while I ate my chicken taco salad. And everything went smoothly. Everything got ready for the next day and I was satisfied that I could go to sleep. Isaac went to sleep after his nightly dose of teething remedies, and I curled up on the couch to watch the SATC movie on HBO for the umpteenth time.

And then...I don't know. It just went south. I got hit with a wave of black. Seriously in that moment, I hated myself, my house, my life...and I just started crying. Nothing triggered it. I swear it was just a rapid fire mood swing that made me want to cut off my feet because I could see them and I thought they were ugly. I sank deeper and deeper into the couch, and finally dragged myself off to bed. And of course I was no longer tired. In the slightest.


My hubs and BIL were outside playing on the internet on their $600 Pa.lm P.re phones and laptops. And no joke, CHAIN SMOKING. I HATE THE SMELL AND FEEL AND EVERYTHING ABOUT SMOKING. And the screen door was open. My house was starting to smell like a cheap bar. Why my husband has increased this filthy disgusting and life shortening habit, I don't know. Trust me, I complain and hound him RELENTLESSLY. He hears about it everytime one of his filter-tipped little buddies visits. Yet, he refuses to stop. I know it is hard and all that hooey and hoopla. I won't get into that. The point is that the smoke was not helping my state.


I encouraged him to finish that cigarette and then come inside and watch TV. He didn't. Whatever. He's a grown man, husband, and father. Who acts like a 20 year old.

At this point I need to say that I schedule a massage for late Thursday morning, my day off and arranged for Isaac to go to daycare for a half day. I finally got my husband to agree to take Isaac for a half day today, to even out the time and money for daycare. I need my time. And it was not an easy job to convince a certain dad to do this because apparently "someone needs a day off to catch up on his sleep." I won't say anything more about that except that someone almost got his face clawed off.


So anyway, I managed to fall asleep. And then woke up about 45 minutes later, no because of the baby (who was still sleeping soundly) but because California decided that it was time to actually be summer and it should be HOT. And the house wasn't cooling down. I got up to turning on the fan and change my sweatsoaked pjs. It was then that I noticed the guest room light blazing away.


Turns out the $600 phone my husband just bought last week, less than 6 days ago actually, had "somehow been dropped on the patio and had a ginormous crack in the screen." This phone is Spr.int's version of the iP.hone. Meaning a cracked touch screen doesn't function. AT ALL. And dear hubs was digging for the receipt.


Sigh. Long story short, I finally put out all the fires from this what I can only assume was a drunken mishap and was able to crawl back into bed. And once I finally fell back asleep (because I was laying there stewing over the damn broken phone), I was shortly awakened to someone's "OH MY GOD THERE ARE SHARP POINTY WHITE THINGS TEARING THROUGH MY JAWBONE MOMMY WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU I WANT TO TEAR YOUR NIPPLE OFF BECAUSE IT MAKES ME FEEL BETTER" cries. After that was taken care of, my alarm went off.

I was beat all day, barely functioning. My husband took care of his phone and work stuff and then melted my heart with a text message that said he was picking Isaac up from daycare even though it was only 2 hours early. Because the time he gets to spend with him is precious.

And then I got another text message asking me to pick up a lotto ticket for the Mega Millions.

My husband is CONVINCED that we are going to win. And he is also convinced that the one time we don't actually purchase a ticket will be the time our numbers come up. And we will kick ourselves for years to come at our "lost millions."

I said no. Honestly, I don't want to waste the 5 dollars (Sidenote: it used to be $10 but now he has to play twice a week with the same lotto allowance). And I didn't want to stop on my way home. I didn't want to go into the little liqour store with cheap lighting and dirty magazines. Mostly, I already had to stop at RiteAid to get Isaac's flouride prescription and I didn't want to haul myself out of the car. I WAS TIRED. I just wanted to go home. After some banter, I said that I would only get one if RiteAid sold them. And he was sure they did.

God Bless you RiteAid. You may sell many of the deadly sins in your store, but gambling is not one of them.

Isaac In the Pool

This holiday weekend was big for my little man! Check him out in his swimmie raft in Friend A's pool! :)

He was a little skeptical at first, but her pool is nice and warm. He was a little too small for the raft, so I had to hold him. Not that I wouldn't anyway, but still. He LOVED it. He kicked his little legs and was shrieking in delight. We had to get out when he started to lick his raft. Bad chlorine.

And he LOVED the fireworks we watched at BIL's house in So.noma. :) He slept through the first half...swimming and partying tires him out. He woke up and was so excited and just stared. Then he'd look over at Daddy and smile, kick his feet, and then watch again.

I love all these firsts. Each one is such a blessing. I love learning what my baby likes and dislikes.

Busy week for us. We are getting ready to head to Oh.io for K's wedding. I have so much to do its insane.

I know this seems a little stupid, but I am worried about Isaac eating jar food. :( We have been making all ours (not the cereal...I am not that dedicated), and I don't know if the taste or consistency will throw him off. I spent a good chunk of time looking at the different kinds in the store yesterday, and to my dismay, I don't think that the kind I am most drawn to is carried in Oh.io, land of the limited organic. We have done green beans, carrots, and golden beets. Sigh. I know I am just being hyper but I can't help it. I am trying to pack light, and I don't know how well the baby food will travel, or how much he will need. He eats between 3-4 ounces a day of his veggies, plus about 4-5 of cereal. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Again, sigh.

And fyi: 9 days left for My Mary Kay for Maddie! :)

Baby Crack

Someone needs to alert the police to Satan's minyons at work down at the Fish.er Pri.ce HQ....they are known distributors of baby crack...or should I say Mommy crack?

Our drug of choice? Precious Planet. Had I known that this collection would arrive soon after my newborn arrival, I would have held off on several purchases to acquire this collection. And my husband informs me that I am not, under any means, to buy an additional swing, play pen, bouncer, jumperoo....etc. I think he threw in the words "baby spending allowance" and "therapy."

Seriously, I can't stop buying the stuff. While I am forbidden on the larger scale items, I have snuck in quite a few of the smaller ones. And like a typical addict, the receipts and goods are well hidden. So far we have scored some kick butt dope in the form of hooded towels, wash clothes, a monkey bank, 2 blankets, a slew of bibs...and this:

And I am totally blaming this gal for enabling my addiction because she tweeted this link and being the twittering fool I am, I fell right into her drug ring. (Note: I don't know if this was the EXACT link, but it's pretty darn close...I followed it from my blackberry and the internet is sometimes not so hot in that form.)

Yep, this adorable little piano that Isaac can play with his feet gave me my next buzz. And I think him, too. He loves it! He's like a little Moza.rt. And see how entranced Sophie is with his masterpieces?

Ah, but the high only lasts so long and I am already looking to score my next buzz. And soon...I'm starting to shake like a dope fiend. I am thinking it's the bath toys. Those are small and seem easy enough to hide. What I really want is the booster chair. If I get really bold in my habit, it might end up in my house sooner than later. Perhaps I can distract the hubs with something from his Daddy crack habit (Ahem! Oh.io Sta.te).....

DISCLAIMER: If I have enabled any fellow FPPP baby crack addicts, I am not sorry. If I'm going down, I am taking y'all with me! Also note, if you purchase any of said FPPP baby crack and post pictures on your blog, or even mention it, you best have an alarm system because my habit might force me to score my next buzz at your house. Or least I will be insanely jealous. :)

DISCLAMER #2: If you work for FP, I realize and fully admit that you don't ACTUALLY sell crack to babies or mothers for that matter. All in good fun, my friends. Don't call the FP peeps if you really are looking for crack.

Christmas in April....

So I do not consider myself to be a crafty type person. I made Isaac's baby shower trains, and I just finished painting a picture frame for his room, but compared to certain godmothers who shall remain nameless ( he he :) ), my craftiness could fit on the head of a pin. However, I have this burning desire to make my son a Christmas stocking. I did some browsing today via internet and I found this one that I really like from Buc.illa:

I love Christmas. I love decorating, baking cookies (which may be an understatement given Christmas cookie weekend), buying and wrapping gifts, Christmas music....you name it and I love it. I am thinking that making this stocking will take me quite a bit of time given my new distractions and what seems to be A.D.D....seriously, right now I am supposed to be making a mexican meatloaf for dinner. And what am I doing? Shopping for a stocking that I should not buy yet and won't be able to start for about a month or so. I guess it is just my new compulsive nature or OCD to have everything done and done right now....except the meatloaf. :)

Oh! and I got my first insurance statement for my labor and delivery. The hospital billed them over 13k. My insurance believes that they only need about 4k, of which I only have to pay about $800. Whew. I was expecting way more. The Dr.'s contracted rate for labor and delivery and post partum care is covered 100% so I don't have to worry about that. Whew again. (Ps. his rate was over 5k....and he was seriously in my room for 20 minutes.) The only thing that I haven't seen yet is the anesthesiologist (sp?) bill for the happy meds. EPIDURAL = LOVE. However, I do not believe that will make up the balance of my OP max which is $2500 per year. And of that amount I had already used about 200 I think. We kept notes on every pill, pad, and napkin we used in the hospital. Everytime I asked for something or they brought me anything, we wrote it down (by we I mean my husband....I was otherwise occupied with pushing a baby from my loins). Thankfully, my madre is an insurance coder and biller, so she will go over everything before we pay a cent.

And I will close with an Isaac update and picture: the cry it out method...not working so well. I did get him to nap though (still sleeping in fact) on my bed by doing the side nurse. Another skill he has mastered at least somewhat is that when I go to change his diaper, he pulls his legs up for me once the diaper is off. :) However, he refuses to put them down when the new diaper is in place and ready to be fastened. We are working on it. He also LOVES the alphabet song. Someone gave him a leap frog toy that sings it and he laughs and laughs. I took a video but haven't figured out the software for the video camera yet.

The picture was taken by the aforementioned disgustingly talented godmother...but we love her anyway. :)

I Heart Christmas

I know it is only August, but alot of things have me thinking about Christmas already. I love Christmas. I love decorating, I buying and wrapping gifts. I love the smells of pine and cinnamon. I love baking cookies (as evidenced by the 18 different kinds I make each year). I just love everything about it.

My baby shower in Ohio is just before Christmas, and I am pretty excited about it. What I am most excited about is that my mom and I decided to do Christmas ornaments as favors. I have scouted lots of ideas, and have found several ones to be made depending on the gender of Peanut. I love decorating my tree. All my ornaments have meaning to me in some way. I collect ornaments from the different places my husband and I visit, and I have some from my great grandmother and other family. I even have special ornaments for the kitties to play with at the bottom of the tree (which they are pretty good about sticking too). Giving ornaments as favors is a very special idea to me because of my obsession with my ornaments. :)

And thinking about the shower, so close to Christmas, makes me excited for the first Christmas with the baby and all those after. Ben wants to dress up like Santa for our kids. I keep imagining how much fun it will be to go shopping with and for the baby, hanging stockings, putting out cookies for Santa, looking at light displays...I am so happy, I could cry.

Walk This Way

After the last Gui.tar Hero was released, I have to admit that I became a fanatic. Although I am not that good, there is something very fun about pretending to be a rockstar. :) And of course, my husband, his twin, and their twin cousins are big fans as well. We reserved our copy of G.uitar Hero: Aer.osmith in like, March or something ridiculous. And on Sunday, we finally go to pick it up. I tried to play it for a while on Sunday, but I was feeling the side effects of pregnancy. Ben, however, played it for about 4 hours, in order to beat the easy mode. Last night we were playing again, and it is soooo much fun. I, of course, play on easy and struggle through some of the harder songs. Ben is now playing on medium. Any Aero.smith fans out there know that Joe Pe.rry is a beast on the guitar and even in an easy mode, it can be pretty challenging. We went to see Aer.osmith in concert a few years back, and the makers of this game did a very good job in capturing the essence of Stev.en Tyler and his mic stand twirling, among other things. It is pretty cool, and I am not a big video game fanatic (except for that old game "Pitf.all" on Ata.ri. :) )Tomorrow we are having our 4th of July cookout and I am sure I will be hearing Aerosmith all day long.

I also forgot to mention that I did, in fact, get my bloodwork done on Saturday. It was not so bad. The whole process only took about 30 minutes, so I was pretty happy with that. I hardly felt the needle go into my arm, however; I did feel the warm blood running out of my arm through that little tube into the 7 vials that needed filled. Apparently my doctor wanted a lot of testing done. The tech that took my blood was fairly nice and he tried to make small talk with me. I stared at pictures of hospital personnel pets the whole time, which were plastered to the wall next to testing station. He kept asking how I was doing, and I kept saying "fine, how many more do you have?" He chose to respond to this with "Aw, this is nothing. You are going to have to give birth to your baby!" Nice. Crap Weasel. I do not appreciate it when men say this because honestly, how the hell would you know what it is like to give birth? And for the record, at this point I am planning on having as close to a natural childbirth as I can, but we will see as time goes on. I don't like to think about the pain, because I am a big wuss. I will worry more about this in about....6 or 7 months. K, thanks.

I am seriously craving BK chicken fries today. I think it may be time to take an early lunch. Hmmmm...with a frozen coke....yummmmm. Can you tell my appetite is back? :)