Friday couldn't get here fast enough

So as I posted earlier today, Sawyer is sick. We were off to the pediatrician's office earlier today and they aren't sure if he has strep throat. Poor kids throat has been really raw. He hasn't been able to eat much until about an hour ago. We got some anti-nausea medicine in him and that seems to have helped. He got a small nap in and I think that helped bring his fever down. His temperature almost got to 103 this morning. And we were up at 4 this morning. So, momma is hoping we all get some rest tonight.

My step grandmother apparently had a mild heart attack Tuesday and another Wednesday and was admitted to the hospital. She has hardening of the arteries so they can't do a bypass. Not sure what they will do. And my poor papa is still in the rehab place and was upset when they told him. They only told him she had a mild heart attack. Bless their hearts they've been through so much.

I didn't just want to post about family things even though as you can see, that is foremost in my mind. With my little one being sick, I haven't really been out of the house in a few days, but last night dh showed up with a bunch of goodies from Target. I'm really blessed to be married to a guy who likes to look for deals and finds it a challenge. I thought I'd share a few that he came home with in case you want to check them out at your local store. He bought an outdoor screened in gazebo. I believe he said the original price was $75 and it was marked down to $20. With Sawyer's birthday being in the summer, he knew this would come in handy. Also, they marked down their really nice folding chairs. You know, the ones that come in those nice canvas bags. They were marked down to $3. He also got a great deal on an indoor kids tent and the other thing that I love that he bought is a Coleman lantern. He thought this would be fun for when we go to the beach this summer, but I also told him that if we loose power at home during hurricane season, it is a great thing to have. I don't like using candles with toddlers around, so that is a great thing to have handy.

They are calling for 6 to 10 inches of snow here starting tonight. I'm hoping to get my little guys to bed and work on some knitting. It has been a long week. I can't wait to blog next week. I've got some cool things I've wanted to share and this week was pretty much a wash.

Hope you and yours are healthy, happy, and warm this weekend!

Sick, sick, sick

I hope to post later. Gotta take Sawyer to the doctor. He has a temp of 102. Things are not good here. Found out last night my grandmother had a heart attack and is in the hospital. My papa is upset. We feel like so many things are tumbling down, so all we can do is pray.

Hope you are having a great day. I have some things I want to post and hope to share later today. I miss blogging. :(

American Idol

Wow what a crazy few days it has been. I'm so glad dh got my computer back up and running. I felt like I was missing an arm without having it.

The latest news on my grandfather is better. It has been a big mess with the rehab place and I think they've been put on notice. He is finally able to start working on rehab after being over medicated for the last week. So we are hopeful that will help him. Bless his heart he has been through so much.

So another season of American Idol has started. I've only been half watching because I usually like it after they weed through all of the crazies and bad singers and get to Hollywood with the serious singers. I am looking forward to this year since the dynamics will be so different with Paula Abdul having left the show and this year being Simon's last year. I'm not sure how they will be able to keep going with the two of them gone. Maybe some new "star" judges will emerge this year. I'll be interested to see.

So, are you watching American Idol? Do you have any early favorites?

My computer has taken ill...

My computer got "the vapors" aka a computer virus, so I hope to be back to blogging tomorrow. What a weekend.

Cookin MC's like a Pound of Bacon

Happy Friday everyone. This week has worn me to a frazzle. When I spoke with my mom on Wednesday she said she spoke with my grandfather and he was sounding better on the phone. That made me feel so much better. He is still so sick and I'm sure they are pushing him pretty hard at the rehab place. So, I'm still praying for him and hoping each day he can get stronger. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for him.

I came across this video clip and had to share it. It is an arctic blast from the past aka: Vanilla Ice. Apparently he recently performed with these two guys named Jedward (they are twins) who were recent contestants on Britain's X-Factor. I have to say that must have been one heck of a show to attend. Very entertaining as you'll see from the video clip. You'll go crazy when you hear a cymbal. Enjoy. :)

Hope you are having a great Friday in your neck of the woods.

Grey is the weather and my mood

I have to admit I don't feel like blogging today. I got news last night from my mom that my grandfather isn't eating and it seems like he is giving up. So, that has had me upset and I didn't go to bed until late. I hate being far away and feeling so helpless. So the only thing I can do is pray.

With all the things going on with my family and all of the suffering in Haiti, it seems pointless and useless to blog about anything, but I will blog about one thing that has been annoying me. And that is the whole late night mess at NBC between Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. I feel like both of them have gotten the shaft from NBC and that irks me. I like both of them and think they both should be on. They are very different and I like that. If I had to pick one, I personally like Jay Leno a little bit better. I love his Headlines segments, Jay Walking and some of the other things he has had on the show. Conan has been a little bit more out there, but I feel he has gotten more like able since he took over The Tonight Show. It sounds like NBC needs to be called "No Business Cents" because they will have to pay out the nose for this situation.

So, that is my rant about that because that is just the kind of mood I'm in. I don't like to post things that are grouchy and not fun and I usually refrain, but that is just where I am today.

I hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods. Someone should be having a good day. :)

Yo Baby

Happy Tuesday everyone. Today I thought I'd share about a program I discovered just before the holidays. My kids both eat lots of yogurt. I have mentioned in the past that Yo Baby has a great yogurt that is called Yo Baby 3 in 1 Meals. These have been great because they have vegetable and fruit purees. It is one way I've been able to get more veggies into Sawyer.

So with my kids eating all this yogurt, I was tickled to discover that Stonyfield Farms has a rewards program going on until March 31, 2010. http://www.softcoin.com/p/handler?target=general&action=getHome&sid=3791 If you go to their website and sign up, you can see the list of products that have codes you can collect for rewards. There are a number of their products that have codes.

The thing I like about this rewards program is that if you regularly eat Stonyfield Farms yogurt then it is easy to get enough codes to redeem rewards. I've already been able to redeem rewards to get free 7th Generation Cleaners, Happy Family products, and more free Yo Baby yogurt. I hope that Stonyfield Farms will consider extending this program. I love programs like this. This one is easily achievable when saving up codes, it doesn't require a ton to get to a nice reward. The rewards they have are great products that I like and things I will use. I personally think Coke Rewards could take some pointers from this program. They require so many points and the offers are pretty crummy in my opinion.

Have you discovered this program? If so, I'd love to hear what goodies you've redeemed through the rewards program.

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods.

Cha, Cha, Cha, Chia!

Happy Monday and Martin Luther King Day everyone. What a week last week. I missed blogging. My grandfather got moved to a rehab place on Thursday. Basically they are going to work with him until February 4th and then they will do surgery on him and determine what they will have to amputate. It has been so hard and bless his heart he is just so sick. He is a good patient and is trying so hard. He has so much healing to do. I'm proud of him because he is trying so hard with sitting up and trying to bear weight, etc. If you would keep him in your prayers I'd appreciate it.

Last week my poor sister had to take her bulldog to the vet to find out the dog might have cancer. The dog got a spot on her and when she went to the vet Friday they sent her to a specialist on Saturday. The specialist operated on the dog and they are waiting to hear back from the lab about the results. Hopefully it will be good news.

Ruth's Chia Goodness
A little while ago, I was sent a new cereal to try, Ruth's Chia Goodness. I had the Apple Almond Cinnamon flavor to try. This is a cereal that can be served hot or cold. I ate it cold, but once having it I think it is one that would be good to try hot.

My family doesn't have any gluten issues, but I've noticed recently that there are more products on the market because it must be something more families are facing. If you have that concern, then this is a cereal you may want to give a try because it is gluten free. It is also lactose free if you have that issue.

This cereal is interesting because it has a mix of chia seeds, apples, cinnamon, hemp and other goodies. I have to admit I wasn't a real fan of the texture since the chia seeds are so tiny. And I'm not someone who gets whacked about food textures. Even though I didn't like it that the seeds were so small, the taste of the cereal wasn't bad. If you like cinnamon a lot then this would be a good cereal for you because the cinnamon is the predominate taste when you first take a bite.

With winter here, this would be a good cereal to try since it can be eaten warm. It comes in other flavors including Original, Cranberry Ginger, and Chocolate is on its way.

If you are a yogurt lover, this would be a good cereal to try in yogurt. I plan on giving it a try that way too. I'm trying to eat healthier and finding products like this helps me with that goal. Putting together this with some yogurt would be better than getting the yogurt parfaits at McDonald's.

Right now in the Target dollar spot they've got these cute little containers that are for eating cereal on the go. It has a part you can freeze so your milk will stay cold. It would be a great thing to grab to be able to take your cereal with you. If you've made a New Year's resolution to eat healthy, getting that handy dandy container and some Ruth's Chia goodness can help you along your way.

Nocturnal Visitor

Meet our night time visitor to my backyard. We call him "Old Man Possum". Old Man Possum likes to visit our backyard in the winter time. I have no idea why. We definitely don't leave any food out or anything that should attract him. We never see him in the summer, just in the winter. And the reason we always end up seeing him is because Miss Zoe our boston terrier likes to tree poor Old Man Possum. And Old Man Possum is not a fan of Miss Zoe. In fact, he is the reason I made my husband install huge spotlights on the back of our house a few years ago. That and the fact that I'm scared to death of snakes and didn't want to chance stepping on one at night if we had to go in the backyard.

Miss Zoe treed Old Man Possum Sunday evening. And dh had to go out and get her because he decided to hang out on our fence as you can see and his and cuss at her. Even after we brought her in the house, he wasn't budging off the fence for a while. So dh decided to grab the camera and get a shot of him.

So that is some of our night time excitement here around my house. When we go to let Miss Zoe out we are doing the Old Man Possum scout out.

I spoke with my grandfather last night and he sounded good on the phone. He said they are still waiting to see what will happen. He said they may have to amputate a toe or some toes. It may not be a lot. I think they are still trying to get him prepared mentally. I'll give him a call later this evening to check on him. It is just so worrying to not be close to run and check on him. Also, diabetics don't always heal well, so that is a concern. So if you'd still keep him in your prayers I'd appreciate it. We are grateful that he is still with us. The Lord does still do miracles these days and him even being alive is a miracle in and of itself.

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!

Later

I've got to run the dog to the vet this a.m. and do the preschool run, but I hope to have a post up later today. My grandfather is hanging in there. They haven't done surgery on him yet. I'll post more about it later.

Hope you are having a good day!

Prayer and the Feast

Usually I start every Friday by saying Happy Friday. But I have to admit I'm not feeling very happy today. I got word late yesterday that my grandfather was taken to the hospital and had emergency surgery Wednesday evening. He is diabetic and had a blockage which blocked him from the waist down. They think that the nerves in his left leg may be gone and today they are discussing doing surgery to amputate. I just can't even imagine. I am so upset and feel very helpless because I live 3 hours away. We just saw him a week ago Monday and he wasn't feeling well and then I had called at the beginning of this week. I just haven't had a good feeling about how he has been doing.

So, if you wouldn't mind saying a prayer today for my papa, I'd appreciate it. And for my mom as she tries to be there for him. Here he is with my boys and I am hoping he comes out of this so he can be around to see them a bit longer.


Yesterday I blogged that I was cooking a feast. I have to admit I didn't feel a lot like eating, but we did sit down and have a family dinner. I thought I'd posted some pix of how things turned out. These are the Rhodes yeast rolls that I mentioned. I love bread, so I love it when you can find a good yeast roll.

Here is the roast I made. I seared the outside of it in a frying pan before putting it in the oven to cook. I cut up carrots, potatoes, and onions. I cooked the onions in the frying pan when I seared the meat to give it some of the meat flavor and then put them in my roasting pan. I added a little bit of beat stock to the bottom of the pan and put the top on the roast and cooked it in the oven. The meat was flavorful and tender. DH really liked it.

I like cooking comfort food like this in the winter time. I don't do big meals like this all the time, but I think it might be nice every few weeks to have something like this. Who wouldn't like to have a spread that looks like something Aunt Bee would put on the table for Andy and Opie?

The snow came last night and put a dusting on the ground. Just enough to be pretty and hopefully not cause any problems.

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods.

Feast

I declare today feast day! It's a new year and I'm just bopping through it. Can you believe we are already on day 7 of a new year?

I told dh that today was going to be feast day. They are calling for snow here today, (won't move in until late) but with the weather turning yucky I thought we should have a good meal. So I'll be cooking a roast. I've got yeast rolls out and ready to rise. And I have to say that to me the best yeast rolls in the world are the oens by Rhodes. I buy them in the freezer section of Wal Mart. They have a orange header on them. They take a couple of hours to rise, but are so worth it. If you don't have a nanna who can make you some good home made yeast rolls then you've got to get these.

One of my new year's goals is to do better planning with our meals. We want to get Sawyer eating a better variety of foods besides eating peanut butter for every meal. So I'm trying to plan our meals a little more. Also, I'm having him help me prepare dinner as much as I can. I'm trying to find little ways for him to help. I'm hoping that by helping he may be more excited to try things because he helped make it.

So tonight we will have a roast with some veggies and yeast rolls for the feast. I may try to pull together a dessert variation I saw on the Pioneer Woman's blog. She is my new favorite blog I'm following. http://thepioneerwoman.com/ I'll let y'all know how it turns out.

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!

Alert! Alert! Target has gone 90% off!

Alert! Alert! Target has marked their Christmas stuff down to 90%. I know what you are thinking, what do I need. What is even left? Well, let me show you what I bought and explain why you should get thee to Target!

Both tubes of these shatter proof ornaments were 50 cents. 50 cents people! And that garland was 69 cents. Oh, I threw the gift tags in there because we bought those when they were 75% off. I think the reason we bought the gift tags is self explanatory, but here is why I bought the garland and the ornament balls. The fun garland I bought to decorate my kids wagon. Even though it gets really cold here, there were a few times during the Christmas holiday that we used the wagon. With having two little ones under the age of four, sometimes using a wagon for both of them is easier than a stroller. We do this when we Trick or Treat at Halloween and last Halloween I bought Halloween garland to decorate the wagon. So when I saw this was still left, I decided to go ahead and buy some Christmas garland to jazz up the wagon. Just call it the, "Pimp my Wagon" episode here at the Chic Crafty Chick Blog.

The ornaments I have two ideas for using them. This year I had shatter proof ornaments that I'd purchased after Christmas the year before and I used them on all my outdoor decorations. I wired them into garland with floral wire. I put them on the garland that went around my front door, as well as on some small topiaries we had by the front door and some of the small trees out in the yard. The large homes on Monument Avenue that are decorated by the big time florists do this. So, I decided to steal this idea and do my own "Christmas chic on the cheap". I was so tickled with the results. My garland and topiaries really popped from the street. I chose red and gold because I knew that the gold would especially show up well. I also bought some ribbon after Christmas last year that will match, but the bows didn't get made for this year. So hopefully we can get those done for next Christmas. I'm not a bow maker, so I'll have to enlist the talents of my mom and/or my mother in law. I can't tie a bow to save my life. And I'm ok with that.

So back to the ornaments. These tubes of ornaments are possibly going to be used indoors for me to add to a green garland that I wound around the banister going to our upstairs. I figured with two wild boys, shatterproof ornaments were a good way to go. The other idea I have for them is to wire them into wreaths to go on my windows. I took a picture of the wreaths I made a few years ago that hang in the bay window of my kitchen. I bought those wreath's at Dollar Tree and then dried the fruit in my oven and I bought the ribbon. I probably didn't even spend $15 dollars to make those wreaths. I'm not sure if I'll retire these wreaths that I have pictured below, or if I'll just make wreaths to add to other windows. I haven't decided. But I thought that wiring those ornaments onto a wreath would be good.

Even if you aren't a crafty person, you can easily make a wreath with ornaments. Just get three ornaments and add some floral wire to them and "tie" them onto your wreath in a cluster. I remember a florist telling me a secret that arrangements look best when you put three items together. So, when I was bunching my ornaments on my garland this year that is how I made some of my clusters.

Some of the Target stores had sets of small ornaments left. They would be really nice to grab up to put in a wreath too. With Valentine's Day coming up, you could easily add them to a glass vase for a centerpiece or to glass hurricanes. The sky is the limit. That is if you don't want to wait to use them for next Christmas.

So those are my suggestions for planning for decorating for next Christmas. Buy now, save now and enjoy later!

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!

Guest Post

I was asked to provide a guest post on the ELF Make Up Blog. Be sure to check it out. I hope to have another post here later today after we run our errands. Hope you are having a great day!

http://www.eyeslipsface.com/blog.asp?blog_id=1000568&pagenum=1

Snuggie love

I feel like there is one member of the family who has been neglected lately on my blog and that is our boston terrier, Miss Zoe. She is a sweet pup and the only other female in the house, so we have to stick together. She is my girl.

Bless her heart she got a Snuggie for the holidays. And as you can see, she is less than thrilled. I think if she could talk, in the first picture she'd be saying, "Crap. Why, oh why do you do this to me?" She is not a fan of wearing the Snuggie, but even less a fan of the harness. She wants to run free, the way bostons were meant to be. It is how God intended. But as we always tell her, she has short hair so her nub will get cold. Because boston's don't have a tail, they have a sweet little nub that wags in greeting when they see you. Seriously, if you ever get a boston and live in a cold climate they really do need a coat or sweater because they can get sick if you don't keep them warm. It isn't just for show.

The story behind her getting the Snuggie is that on New Year's Eve we have our family over and some friend's of ours. And for the last few year's we've played that game where everyone brings a wrapped gift, we draw numbers and then the fun begins. Well, I during one of the rounds when I had a gift stolen I went and opened up a gift to find this. It was a good thing that I got it because DH and I are the only ones who own a dog that were playing the game. Hmmm.

There is nothing sweeter than a boston cuddling up with you on a cold night. And we've had plenty of those lately. So here is my girl in all her pink Snuggie glory.

Christmas Lights

So I decided to ease on into today. And I'm so glad I did. I've been working on the house for the last few days and I just needed a break. I think everyone seems inspired with it being a new year. I hate taking down Christmas. It seems depressing. I guess I'll pull out Valentine's decorations soon. If Target can have their stuff out already, I guess I can too.

Even thought the holidays are over, I still wanted to share this video dh took of our musical Christmas lights. He took these the Saturday before Christmas when we got the snow storm. It was like the storm that blew into Christmas town. So glad the weather cleared before Rudolph came through.

Enjoy!

Back in the Saddle Again..

Running out the door for preschool and to get to the grocery store. Hope to get a post up this afternoon. I've missed blogging. Hope you had a great holiday. Happy 2010 y'all!