Weekend Recap

It's been a while since I've posted. Sorry about that. So Wednesday I spent the day making a lot of deviled eggs and even more rolls! Dylan didn't have school on Wednesday, so he was in the living room watching movies while I was in the kitchen. Ethan did whatever. He stayed mainly in the kitchen with me and left Dylan alone.
Thursday of course was Thanksgiving. It started out a little rough, because we were late leaving. On the way, the front brake started to stick on the car. It happens from time to time. Luckily we were almost to my Aunt's when it happened. Food was good and I ate way too much. It was a nice day all around and we got to see a lot of family that day. Ethan had a short nap on the way home. Both boys were in bed a little early that night.
Friday morning, I took Dylan to mom's so that he could spend some time with her. He was thrilled of course. He ended up staying 2 nights! The second night after Ryan came home, we ended up going out to eat. I was craving mexican food! Ethan ate well and was pretty good for the most part. Dylan came home on Sunday morning. He said he had fun. I don't think he was ready to come home actually. And you would think that the boys would get a long well after being apart for a whole weekend. Yeah not so much.
Today was back to normal. Dylan had school. Ethan and I got groceries. It has been raining for 2 days now. And I guess we have a whole other day of rain to go. Dylan was so excited to get back to school. We had to get Ethan a new car seat. He has outgrown his current seat with his height. He outgrew that car seat much sooner than Dylan did. I think Ethan is taller up top rather than in his legs. So I ordered one like Dylan has. It should be the last seat we have to boy for him because it will change as he grows. Why do car seats have to be so expensive?!
We don't have plans for the week ahead. I am itching to get the rest of my Christmas shopping behind me. But I am trying to wait until the things I want go on sale. Dylan needs another game for his leapfrog thingy. I know he is getting one for Christmas, so I guess I will get him another. He enjoys that game system, but doesn't play it all the time, which is great. Its nice for quiet time in the afternoons. It gives him the down time that we both need. I still don't know what to get for Ethan.I want to get him something that he will actually like. I just don't know what that is yet!

Giving Thanks

I saw this on another blog as apart of a link up. I'm not linking up, but I thought it was a nice idea, and I'm sure that they wouldn't mind me stealing this idea.

The ABCs of Thanks

A- Animals. We love our pets!
B- Babies ( ok..I stole this answer too..). Human babies, animal babies, all kinds. Look at a picture of a kitten or a puppy, and especially a newborn, and try not to smile, try not to be happy you got to experience that personally.
C-cold weather. I know that sounds weird, but without the colder weather, we wouldn't have a chance of snow on Christmas morning, and we certainly wouldn't be able to appreciate our summer months.
D-Dylan!
E- Ethan!
F-Family!
G-Grandparents. Our boys have awesome Grandparents, and I am so thankful for that.
H-home
I-internet..yes I am thankful I have internet access.
J-job...my old one that is. Without that old job, I wouldnt have met Ryan and all of this would not be happening right now!
K-kids
L-love
M-mom. I have a wonderful mom that I talk to nearly everyday.
N-naptime!
O-oceans. I love the ocean
P- pizza! I love pizza
Q-quietness. I need quietness at some point each day.
R-Ryan!
S-sleep
T-television
U- USA. We live in an awesome country.
V-Veterans. Thank you all for serving our great country.
W-white snow...Its pretty when its not causing traffic problems!
X-xtra leftover pizza. I know, I know, that was a stretch!
Y-yellow sun!
Z-ziplock bags! Oh, you know you are thankful for them too!

Knock Knock!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

I hope you all enjoy your day. I am thankful for so much. Especially my family. All of them!

Dylan

Just a quick post to show Dylan's school picture! I had to take a picture of the picture, so its not a great quality, but you get the point. It turned out a lot better than I thought it would. You never know what you will get with some of these school photos.

Sunday Weekend Review

I have been fighting a headache all weekend. It woke me up very very early on Saturday morning. I sat up for a while after I took some meds because it hurt so bad to lay down. I was so tired on Saturday. We didn't do anything that day. Really. Nothing. It was bad enough that I actually had to make dinner that night.
Today I got back to life. I had to make a batch of rolls to take to Dylan's school tomorrow for their Thanksgiving party. If you have been here on this blog for a while, you know that I have a go-to roll recipe. Here is my post about them if you are interested. They are big fluffy awesome rolls. But I knew that they would be way too big for preschoolers! So today, I made them like I normally do, only instead of 12, I halved that and made 24 (or so...). They still turned out nice and fluffy and bigger than I thought they would, haha! Here they are:

And I think I am going to do that for the Thanksgiving meals that I am making them for. With a big meal like Thanksgiving, we just don't need those big ol rolls. But they turned out so well, that's what I am going to do! The house smells wonderful right now too with that fresh baked bread smell. Makes me hungry for Thanksgiving!!!!

While the bread machine was making my dough, I got some stuff done that I had been neglecting. I haven't felt like doing much all week and things around here have suffered. So I quickly got some things straightened up and laundry going. And then I sat down and addressed my Christmas cards. I know I know, its early. But I wont send them out until December sometime. I just wanted to get that part done, so that I don't forget. I like sending out cards. I like receiving cards. I know that stamps are expensive, and I think that sending Christmas cards are becoming a thing of the past, and that is sad to me. If you send out cards, thank you for keeping up a nice tradition. Lets not lose that.

When I got some of my pictures printed from this month, I finally decided to print a big print of one of my vacation photos. I normally don't print any of my photos big, because I don't think they are good enough. But I went ahead and gave this one a shot. So here it is framed:

I know its not the best picture of the picture, and excuse the flash. But what do you think?

So now the kids are having quiet time. Ethan is sleeping, Dylan is in his room playing. It is cool and very cloudy out. I am going to sit and enjoy my quiet time.

Do you send Christmas cards?

I send them each year. I look forward to sending them and really look forward to receiving them. It is fun to display them and use them as decoration.
If you DO send cards, maybe you could add a couple extra cards to your list. Say to a soldier or 2 (or more)?
Here is an idea. Click to go to the Red Cross website for more information. There are some guidelines. They need to be postmarked by December 9th. That gives the Red Cross time to give a quick security check and then pass them on. Please sign your cards too! If you want to send quite a few cards, you can bundle them in a flat rate envelope or box. You don't need to individually send each card. So if you send out cards, just think about sending one on to a soldier and thanking them. Here is the address to the Red Cross:
Holiday Mail For Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

But please, I do encourage you to go to the Red Cross website to double check the guidelines to ensure that your card is received.

Videos!

Here are a couple videos I wanted to upload yesterday.
This first one is Chloe, playing with the laser pointer. You can't move it very fast or she will lose track of it. She isn't one of those dogs who will chase it all around the room. She cant keep up with it!

And here is a video of Ethan hollering for Dylan. He calls Dylan "Abba" and has for a while. He can say "D" words, but chooses to call Dylan something totally off the wall. No idea why.

I think I maybe getting the kids cold. I can't be sure, but my head hurts and so does my throat. That just started today. I really hope that I am not getting sick. It has also rained the last 2 days. And it has rained quite a bit. Because of all of this rain, there is a good chance that Ryan won't be with us on Thanksgiving, which makes me very sad. This fall has been a lonely season for me around here. There has been so much going on with him, and harvest keep dragging out because of rain off and on. It just plain sucks. I wanted him to be with us for Thanksgiving. And now there is a good chance he wont be able to. I mean, I totally understand that he needs to get it done, but it doesn't mean that I can't be sad about it. It has happened once before since we've been married.

Stupid smartphone

I had a post planned. It involved a couple of short videos that I had taken with my phone. But I can't get them off of my phone. My phone isn't being very smart right now.
So anyway. Here is what's for dinner tonight: Tequilla Lime Chicken. Click to check out the post from a while back! And if you want the recipe, just ask.

Weekend Review

We didn't do much this weekend. But that's fine. I let Dylan watch a couple of movies on Saturday morning to keep the kids from getting on each other's nerves. While he watched movies, I sat in the kitchen and wrote recipes down on recipe cards for my recipe box. I have a habit of printing recipes and then shoving the whole paper into the cabinet. So I got caught up on some of those. I still didn't get it all done. Of course Ethan stayed in the kitchen with me. That was pretty much our Saturday.
Sunday we went up to see what Ryan was doing that morning. We didn't stay out long. So here are some pictures from Sunday.

There wasn't much else going on so like I said, we just came home. It is a very warm day here. Extremely windy too. It has been the last couple of days. We don't have plans for the week I don't believe.

I hope everyone has a nice week!

Cool things to tell you about

First, let me say that I am doing this because I want to. I was not asked to do this post. I am just happy with these things and wanted to tell you about them!
I think that I mentioned in a post not long ago that I have started some Christmas shopping. Well a while back I came across this first thing while on another blog. Here is the website called Calypso Studios. When I saw these bracelets I thought they would be a nice gift for my cousins' little girls. There are 3 of them that are old enough to wear nice things like this. So I finally got around to ordering them. I bought them the Glass Bead Wrap bracelets.

You can see I got pink, light blue and red. Now, a note about the red. I wanted a purple bracelet. On their website they have a color called "merlot" that looks like a darker purple. That's what I wanted. Turns out that "merlot" is red. Even on the tag it does say merlot, so I know that they didn't give me the wrong thing. The colors were just off on that picture on their site. But to me, it was no big deal, so I didn't send it back or email them, because honestly, its fine with me. But if you go to their site and have a question, just fill out their "contact us" form and ask!! That's really why I am telling you about them. They have great customer service. I emailed them asking them if these bracelets would work for kids too. The very same day I got an email back! No waiting! And then once my order came, I also got a hand written "thank you" note on the bottom of my receipt. How cool is that?

Good customer service is hard to come by these days. So yeah, I was a little happy with my experience. Check them out if you get a chance. Calypso Studios

About a week ago I won a giveaway on another blog. It was for this:

A cute camera necklace. I love it! So I wanted to tell you about it and point you in the direction of where it came from. A lovely lady named Ashley has a shop online where you can buy this necklace as well as others and even earrings! Her shop is called After Nine to Five. Click to check it out!

Like I said, these people have no idea that I am posting this. I just wanted to tell you about them, because I like them!

Uneventful. But I could use advice...

I haven't had much to say this week. Ethan still has a cold. The snot just keeps on flowing. How Dylan hasn't had it I will never know. I am just glad that it is only 1 kid though. Only this one kid is whiny enough for 2...or 3. Yesterday was my day to be with Dylan in his class. I left a crying Ethan with Ryan's mom. I always dread that part. The kid needs to learn that it is ok to be unattached from his mother. And that she will come back...eventually! So things went ok in class. It seemed to be a bit chaotic through the day. All of the kids seemed extra hyper and wild. Must have been something in the air. There was a moment during free play when Dylan spazzed out. Just knocked over a container of stuff for no reason and it certainly was NOT an accident. After that incident, one of the teachers told me its been happening from time to time. That during free play he will do something that he knows he shouldn't, but does it anyway. She said that during structured activities he is fine, but during free play it can happen.
He does this here at home. Has for quite sometime. Like a year or two. I just never have been able to figure out how to stop it. Here, he spazzes out when he thinks I'm not watching him or cant see him. He will knock things over, push Ethan, or even kick the dog. He just plain acts out. I catch him every time, but I don't know how to stop it. And now that it is starting at school, I am really at a loss. I feel awful, or feel like I am failing as a parent. I don't know how to make him stop doing things like that when he thinks he can get away with it. He never does get away with it. Here or at school. Does anyone have any ideas???

I will just leave the post at that. If you have some advice, email it or leave a comment. I could use any help you can offer.

Weekend Review

Ethan has a cold. I don't remember exactly when it showed up, but it did. He's been awfully moody, and very snotty. He has a shorter fuse than normal. Its been fun...can you pick up on my sarcasm? Saturday morning, I had mom come over and she went with me and the boys to the city for some errands. We got there early and managed to beat the Saturday crowd. I was worried about how busy things would be, and that's why I didn't want to take both boys alone. So we did our errands, and stopped for lunch before heading home. Ethan didn't eat much, and really didn't want to sit still for the meal. But we managed. It was far from a nice relaxing lunch, but honestly, its expected with Ethan. Afterwards, we dropped Dylan off to spend the day with Ryan and papaw in the fields.
I kept the boys up later that night to prepare for the time change. I had hoped that by keeping them up later, they would then sleep later and not be up so dang early. Ethan blew my plan out of the water. That kid was awake at 5:30 in the morning on Sunday! He totally robbed me of my extra hour! It made for such a long day. He had the cold, then he was tired because he was up so stinking early. So he wasn't in the best of moods. Sunday we did nothing. Nothing at all which was fine.
I don't think people understand how difficult Ethan can be. Maybe difficult is the wrong word. Challenging? Maybe that's better. He whines, and cries quite a bit throughout the day. And really for no reason at all. At least no reason to me or even to Dylan. There are days that I will be busy trying to do things around here, and apparently I am not paying enough attention to him, even though he is always right there, that he will decide enough is enough and just follow me and cry. He hates when I leave him. Whoever gets stuck with him, has to listen to him scream. Only he decides when he is done screaming too. If you do something wrong while he is eating...look out. He will get mad, scream, toss things out of his way and then he will either continue to scream or he will whine until you remove him from the table. He has flipped out on us a few times while eating. He is the way he is and no one is going to change that.
Ok, I'm done with that I guess. I wanted to point out an article that I ran across this morning online. I guess it is from the New York Times. It is called Sleep Medication:Mother's New Little Helper. If you click the title, it will take you to the article so you can read it. It talks about how more and more, Moms are seeking the help of medicines to go to sleep at night. First it starts talking about how Moms have a hard time shutting down their thoughts at night. It quotes a few women basically saying that they can't fall asleep because they can't stop thinking about this or that. Or that they wake up at 3am and can't fall back asleep because they are just thinking.
I know that I have talked about that before. It happens to me all of the time. I have tried an over the counter sleep aid too. Tylenol makes a pill called Simply Sleep that I have tried. For me it didn't really work. I hear all of the time how addicting they can be and that has been what has kept me from trying other brands. I don't want to get into that habit. Anyway, it wanted to mention it, because I could totally relate to it. So if you get a chance, go read it. It is a 2 page article, so make sure you read both. Here is the link again (just making it easy for you): http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/fashion/mothers-and-sleep-medication.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&smid=fb-share

Ciabatta Bread

I have been wanting to make a good crusty bread. I have a french bread recipe that I tend to use when I want a crusty bread. But I wanted to try something different. So I went looking for a Ciabatta Bread. So I found this one. This specific one is written for the bread machine dough cycle. But is easily done without the bread machine. I suggest you go to the website though if you really do want to try it and read some of the reviews for a few suggestions and help.
Here is the recipe though:
1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 1/4 cups bread flour

1 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Put your ingredients into the bread machine in the order that your machine manufacturer suggests. Then select the "dough" cycle.

The dough will be kind of sticky and wet once the dough cycle is done but resist the temptation to add more flour. Place dough on a lightly floured board, cover with a large bowl, and let rest for 15 minutes.

Lightly flour or use parchment lined baking sheets. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, and form each into a 3x14 inch oval. Place loaves on the sheets, and dimple surface. Cover, and let rise in a draft free place for around 45 minutes.   

After rising, preheat oven to 425.

Place in the preheated oven and bake on the middle oven rack for 25 to 30 minutes.

While they are baking, lightly spray the loaves with water every 5 or 10 minutes to create a crispy crust.

I waited about 10 minutes before I sprayed the loaves the first time.

Here is the dough right before resting. I used a flour dusted rubber spatula to get the dough out of the machine's bread pan. Like the recipe says, it is sticky. So I poured it out and then folded on itself to get it all on the board to rest.

Before the rise:

After the rise:

All done!

Now here are shots of the inside of the bread. Light and Airy!

Again, go HERE to view the recipe and read some reviews for extra tips.

Friday Foto Day

Yesterday we headed outside to find "Fall" items for Dylan to collect and take into school. I guess they are going to learn about fall and then make a wreath out of all of the things that the kids bring in. So I handed Dylan a bag and out we went. Pine cones, pine needles and leaves.

And while we were out I snapped a few extra photos. I am going to link up with some other blogs like I usually do.

Cookbooks Anyone?

I was given a chance to pass along an opportunity to get a free E-Cookbook. I checked it out before passing it on. Depending on your email, it may take a bit of time for the confirmation to get to you. Also be sure to check your spam folder in case. It took my email about 15 minutes for it to come through. It is from Chef Jeff. He also has a website located at Dinnerevolution.com If you are interested, once you click on the link, you just enter your name and email. You must also have Adobe reader to view the book. Once you get the confirmation, you will click a link from your email to confirm that you really do want the book. Then he will send you a link to view the free copy. From there, you can click on the book and save it to your computer. It was easy to do, and I saved one to my computer.
Here is the link to where you can enter your name and email and get a free copy:
http://www.dinnerevolution.com/cookbook/nerfree.html

There are over 200 recipes, that have 10 ingredients or less, and can be made in Under 30 minutes. Check it out. No worries, its free. He doesn't ask for a credit card or your address. Just a name and an email!

I just dont know...

I have started a post 3 times now. Each time I have erased it. I am just tired. Tired of the kids fighting, both of them whining. I am not sleeping well at night. I can't shut down my brain at night. I don't know. I'm just struggling with myself. I feel very low right now. Very.
I could go on, but I won't you've heard it all before here.

Trick or Treat!

Yesterday was a long day. Dylan was having his Halloween party at school. They were having a trick or treat for all of the kids in the morning, so anyone who was available was asked to stay and pass out candy. We were supposed to do it outside and sit in our cars, but it rained. So we had to move inside. Mom met me in town to take Ethan for a bit so that I could stay with Dylan. After I did that, I left and got Ethan and did my grocery shopping, and then back to get Dylan.
Ethan was done with being in a car seat at that point. We got home and had a quick lunch. He was so grumpy! Nap for Ethan, rest for Dylan and me! I ended up waking Ethan up at 5 pm from his nap. Poor kid was exhausted. We had a quick dinner and headed out to go Trick or Treating. Ryan met us in town (he is still working in the fields). We only managed one block before Ethan decided that he was done. Ryan carried him and he rested his head on Ryan's shoulder. They had enough candy anyway. So we went up to Ryan's mom and dad so they could give the boys something for Halloween. We stayed for a bit then came home to get the boys in bed. I was so ready for them to be in bed!
Anyway, to the good part, the pictures from the day. I'm not showing pictures from his school trick or treat because there are other people in them.

Yes, I am one of those weird moms who sometimes like to dress their kids alike. Since this was the first year that I had to actually buy costumes, I just bought them both the same. I also get them the same pajamas to wear on Christmas morning. Ryan hates it. I like it. So too bad Ryan, I win. I'm the mommy. Its not like I match them to go grocery shopping!
So now that November is here I am getting anxious for the holiday season. I enjoy buying gifts for the kids and watching them all open up their gifts. Its a nice feeling. While I was at Walmart the other day I did manage to get one stocking stuffer for each boy. Its just a cheapo toy, but its something they saw at a friend's house and liked. They will probably drive me nuts with it or break it within a week, but it was only $2! Can't pass that up. They will be happy for a while at least! I also picked up a gift for one of the little girls on my side of the family. And for the other 3 girls, I know what I am going to get them I just need to order it. Then I will figure out the rest of the family. I am so ready!
Happy November!