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Literal Little strikes again:)

Since we've changed our budget around to better accommodate our lifestyle (so far, budget's better but I have less play money!), it always encourages me to be a little more frugal and creative--for the moment. So this past weekend, we were in the garage with my hunny while he wired in some new plugs for his new workbench him and Garry will be building next weekend. A while back there was a puppet theater in the Family Fun magazine. Scrounging around, we found most everything needed except for knobs and hinges. And so our theater began. Began 2 wks ago, it's still not in it's finished stage, it is completely usable for fun and games. I found some cardboard props that a friend had given me for the kids to play with that were great for placing on the theater, but we didn't know exactly how we could stick them up and take them down without damaging anything. Well, good ole Google came up with the answer with magnetic paint ($20 a qt, so much for frugality!).
Today was a fairly nice day, the first we've been able to enjoy outside for the past couple of weeks. So I got out my supplies (spilled half the can before I even got the project started!) and began to paint. Note to self, READ ALL DIRECTIONS! As you can imagine, I did not read all the directions. Only the box that the can of paint came in. So after 3 coats, and still not much magnet capabilities, I finally read the can also, and it said if I didn't get it shaken at the paint store, to shake for 10 min (10 min?!?) Apparently, all the little metal pieces sink to the bottom, which is what happened with me. The 4th layer worked much better (shaken for 10 LONG min), and hopefully one more will finish it off. I said all that for this: as I am checking the paint to see if it was magnet friendly, the kids came up to see what was going on. Shelby asked why it wasn't working and I explained that it (the paint) needed shaken more for it to work. The Literal Little?? --- Bryce promptly comes up and shakes the theater...

Cookin' Day

So in an effort to reduce food spending (the weekends when hubby is home is the worse!) around here, I pulled out my menu planner and pencil for some serious planning. Our current budget is $440 a month for groceries and since I usually don't go shopping until the weekends he is home, it's chaos and daily (aka expensive) shopping which blows budget big time. So yesterday I got the bright idea to do my shopping on the weekends he works. Oh, my gosh! What a difference! (Did I mention I didn't have to bring anybody with me??) I spent a little over 200 this week (I went over by $18). Although I had cash, I swiped that old debit card when I went over. There were some things I could have done without until next shopping day, so next time I won't bring card.
Here's my dinners for the next two weeks:
Mini burgers/ potatoes / baked beans
baked spinach mostocolli/salad
pork loin/spinach marie/carrots
beans and cornbread (2)
chili
chicken and rice/salad
lasagna/mixed veggies
bbq/sweet potatoes/green beans
taco salad / yellow rice
sloppy joes / sweet potatoes
creamy chicken and broccoli
Shepard's pie

Most meals will make enough for leftovers for lunch, so that helped quite a bit toward the other meals. About $4o of it went to diapers, paper towels, etc.
Then came the fun part--I think:)
Today I made chili, sloppy joes, cooked up the hamburger and chicken for the other meals, made chicken broth, tomato soup for Shepard's pie ( I was out, it came out ok!) In all it took about 4 1/2 hrs....and I had extra hamburger and chicken for future meal or two. I felt like they must have with the loaves and fishies! I have to admit I found myself fretting over what seemed to be a small amount of food after shopping. The verse that says not to worry about what you will eat or wear came to mind. So I quickly found the thankful side of it and as always, I'm taken care of:)
BTW--my feet hurt!!

Shelbyism #210

As we were sitting at the breakfast table, Shelby was repeating to me some memories of last year. "Wow, Mom", she said. "I must have a big brain to have so many memories!"

Sunny days are here again (temp)

So this past weekend we dropped off the kids at Gmas down south and headed to the Bahamas aboard the Monarch of the Seas. Leaving black skies and tornado warnings, we headed into somewhat beautiful (it was warmer!) weather. Since we've been to the Bahamas so many times in the past, one of our companions scoured the web in search of something new. Well, we got it! We took a walking tour of the island. As we were heading from the Queen's staircase to one of the state buildings, the area where we were walking thru looked really rough. If you've been to the Bahamas you might find that hard to believe as all of Nassau looks bad. But this was worse:) We made our way to several state buildings (all state are painted pink) and discovered they were all closed (weekend), so we headed to an art gallery of a local Bahamian of whom I cannot remember his name, which was interesting, although his works were fairly dark. As we're leaving, one of our companions spoke to one of the locals who informed us we had been walking thru the "bottoms". She said it was the worst part on the island and even she did not go there unless on her way to work. Thanks to Clint for showing us the "real island" (not to mention the 5 mile walk)!
Overall we had a great time hanging out, eating (lots) and sleeping. It was so nice to be able to head to our cabin and take a snoozer anytime, night or day.
The kids I think missed us some? When we pulled up, at least 3 came out to see us. That 4th little people (Bryce) I had to find as I think he wrote us off for being away too long:)

On our way into NassauThe infamous towel animal (we had never seen the bat before)Slightly sunburned leaving Cocoa CayWe got lost some:)Of course, no trip is complete without a visit to the local PDOn the way up the staircase
64 steps and a history lesson later!

Playin' at Disney with Jillibeth!

So Uncle Jerry brought his special girl, Jillibeth to Disney this past week. Jillibeth, 4 is his only granddaughter and is obviously the first on his list. So it was no suprise so see him and her traipsing around the park for 3 days (oh, yeah, he brought mom and wife along too). So the kids and I headed on a VERY cold day to hang out at Magic Kingdom with them. Of course all know my kids don't usually meet a stranger, and in spite of probably not remembering who anybody was, it did not stop them from hugging, climbing on, and punching (Jerry's belly was too much for Aidan to resist!). Unfortunately, Jillibeth did not appreciate this. Who were we to come between her Maw and Paw?? She wouldn't even speak to Maw when Maw and Shelby held hands in line! However, after about an hour, she warmed up to the little people. Her and Shelby got some autographs from some very special characters. By mid afternoon, as we're heading to a ride, Jillibeth looks around and asks, "where's Cutie Boy?" Cutie Boy, aka Garry, from then on became her best bud:) By about 5:30 their gang had to head out for dinner reservations. My goal was to head for the gate and home, but "just one more ride" had us at the park until it closed. In spite of the cold, we had a great day.

Jillibeth had not really warmed up to us yet!

Super Paw (see the pink cape?)!

Riding the train!

Garry heard me and slowed down to take a pic, Shelby was too busy to hear me!
Poor Unca Jerry braved the one long cold line (30 min) of the day with the kids, so Shelby could chauffeur him around the track while we adults (along with Bryce and Aidan) went for warmth and hot chocolate!


Shelby really took to Cheryl:)

One last shot with Jillibeth and her "cutie boy"!

My own "Monsters of Comedy"

No trip is complete without a picture of the castle (still decorated for Christmas)

Eating our last meal of the day while waiting for the fireworks to go off. We were freezing!! Did I mention I don't own any sweatshirts nor heavy jacket???!! It was the night many parts of the Sunshine state was expecting snow. The sky was so cloudy that Disney only shot of a portion of the fireworks and what little could be seen was not that impressive.

I'm back!

Hey all, sorry for the lack of postings. We're back up and at it! Hope all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!