Weekend Fun

It was a gorgeous weekend here in the good ole Lowcountry. I think saturday and sunday it was in the 70s. Perfect. When we saw the forecast we knew we couldn’t stay inside all weekend!

Saturday, we went to Charlestowne Landing. It’s the location where the first settlers to Charleston lived in back in the 1600s. It also has a cute little “zoo” where they have animals that are indigenous to the area. Brad and I had visited there a few years ago but it was before the big renovation. Wow, it is awesome now. The buildings and museums are awesome and they even re-did the boat. Definitely worth the $5 it cost to get in!

Sunday, it was once again very nice out, so we decided to head to Summerville. They were having their annual “Taste of the Town” in Azalea Park. It’s a festival where all the local restaurants set up booths and have a few items off their menus for people to try. Tickets were only a dollar each and the most expensive items we got were 3 tickets-so not bad at all! We “tasted” some BBQ, Spinach and Artichoke dip, Italian Gelato, and an amazing dessert that tasted like a smore. The festival was also a celebration of Veterans Day so there were ceremonies honoring all the veterans there. There was even live bluegrass music which is always fun.

Here are some pics (just of Charlestown Landing, I forgot my camera on Sunday)

In the museum. Jack enjoyed pushing all the buttons

In the main building. Very cool architecture.

See the alligator?

Pretty view of Charleston and the bridges

Jack and Daddy out on the boat

One of My Hobbies

Yes, I know I have strange hobbies. One of them is cloth diapering. I got into cloth diapering (which I will refer to as CDing or CDs) when Jack was about four months old. I can’t even remember how I initially discovered it. I just remember trying to find websites that explained it. It can beconfusing for a newbie. I will not explain everything in this post (I might someday soon though), but I just wanted to share a few pictures of some CDing stuff I have bought so far for the new baby.

Below: These are my favorite find so far. These types of diapers are called “prefolds”. I have never CD’ed a newborn, but this type is probably the #1 recommended kind by other moms. These particular ones are made by Green Mountain Diapers (a fave CD company of mine) and the size is called “Periwinkle”, which is shown in the stitching on the sides. Periwinkles were made for larger newborns (8 1/2, 9, 10 lbers) so if this baby is anything like Jack, they will fit perfectly. The cool thing about prefolds is that they are super adjustable. Even if I have a smaller newborn, they will still fit. Another cool thing about prefolds is that they are super cheap. I got a dozen of these for $22 shipped.

 

Next picture: This is a picture of a prefold on one of Jack’s teddy bears. It is fastened together using a Snappi. What’s a Snappi? Glad you asked. It’s an awesome little invention made of stretchy rubber with plastic “teeth” on each end. You stretch it out over the diaper sides and the teeth catch on the diaper. The stretchy rubber part holds it together.

The next picture is of an adorable diaper called a “Fitted Diaper”. This particular one is made for newborns all the way up to about 15 lbs. Notice the dip in the top for the umbilical cord stump. Fitteds are very convenient (they either snap or velcro together). Both fitteds and prefolds do require a cover. Sound like a hassle? It’s really not. The cover takes an extra 5 seconds to put on. No big deal really. I am only buying diapers that require a cover because the covers help hold the crazy explosive newborn poops in. We had so many blowouts with Jack in the beginning and from what I have read, we should have zero with CDs. I won’t be buying too many more fitteds though because they are much more expensive than prefolds. This diaper was $10 shipped.

Finally, this last picture is just of everything together. You can also see the bear wearing a cover over one of the prefolds. That particular cover brand is called “Thirsties”. I have used several Thirsties products with Jack and LOVE them. And yes, that’s a pirate bear wearing a cloth diaper.

And that’s it! I am not going to buy anything else until we find out what this baby is (which will hopefully be the week  between Christmas and New Year’s!!! Yay!!) As far as what I’m going to buy…I think I will buy another dozen prefolds and some more cute covers and that will be it. One of the main reasons I CD is to save money so I have to use restraint. We will probably do what we did with Jack though and always just use disposables along with CDs. It keeps things easy and flexible and that is SUPER important with having a new baby in the house!

10 Weeks

Meet Little Bean!

So (obviously) we are expecting again. We found out about 6 weeks ago and can not be any more excited! We waited until about 2 weeks ago to tell our families though. It was fun having a secret, but I am so glad everyone knows now and can be excited with us! My due date is around May 30th, 2010, but will most likely be induced around the 24th or 25th (will explain that later). So we have less than 7 months to go now!

It was so fun to see him/her on the ultrasound screen. It was also a huge relief. The night before the ultrasound, I had some of the signs of miscarriage and I honestly thought I might be losing the baby. I stayed up the whole night crying and praying. When we got to the Dr.’s office, I couldn’t even explain to the ultrasound tech. what had happened without crying. Obviously, the baby was perfectly healthy and measured right on though. Looking back, I am so thankful that God not only took care of our sweet baby but of us by having that appointment planned the morning after all that happened.

Pregnancy Update

How far along? 10 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: Embarrassingly, 5 lbs. already!

Maternity clothes? Nope, hopefully not for a while.

Sleep: Tired in the afternoons, especially after work

Best moment this week: Getting to see our baby for the first time!

Movement: Nope. too early.

Food cravings: Corn dog, which was satisfied at the fair

Gender: I’m hoping for a girl, Brad’s hoping for a boy!

Labor Signs: n/a

Belly Button in or out? Definitely innie, didn’t pop until the end with Jack

What I miss: nothing, i love being pregnant!

What I am looking forward to: hearing the heartbeat

Weekly Wisdom: Being pregnant is not an excuse to eat everything in sight! (this is really just a reminder for me)

Milestones: Seeing the heartbeat. Once this happens your chances of miscarrying are dramatically reduced. What a sweet little heartbeat it was too!

 

Oh, for another update: I started a new job a few weeks ago!! I am so excited. I work at Faith Assembly (an awesome church about 5 minutes away from our house) as a Mother’s Morning Out “teacher” two mornings a week and one to two times a week doing childcare at night for the various church functions. It is perfect for me because I am able to bring Jack. I also love the people I get to work with and of course it’s awesome to be able to bring in a paycheck! I also still feel like a stay at home mom because of the schedule and flexibility. I’m so thankful for it!

Here is a picture of our family at the Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch taken the day we told Brad’s mom and sister.

Just Cute

I have been trying to upload these pictures to facebook for the past few days and it isn’t working for me. ???? So….on the blog they go!

This was Jack’s first time eating spaghetti and meatballs without the help of mommy. I don’t think he liked it at all.

This is his new favorite thing to do. If he goes to bed or down for a nap with a long-sleeve shirt on, he wakes up like this! Actually, in this particular picture, I heard him whining, almost crying so I went in and he was laying flat on his face with his arms behind him all caught up in the sleeves. It was sad, but also hilarious.

Just to note: I have no idea why the vertical pictures are huge. I can’t seem to make them smaller without making them tiny. Darn wordpress.

Couponing Part 2!

Alright y’all. I don’t usually post twice in one week and especially about the same thing, but this was such an awesome week at Publix, I just could not resist!

Total before coupons and sales: $127.32

Total Spent: $47.14

Here are my pictures!

This is of the whole trip.

The pink bag, Healthy Choice Steamer meal, 5 crescent rolls, and 5 Green Giant vegetables were all free after coupon. The bread was a penny. The ground beef was $1.99/lb., which is close to as cheap as it goes, so I stocked up. The cookie dough in the middle picture were $.59 each! LOVE these deals!

Oh, and they were only out of one item I needed! Pillsbury cinnamon rolls were on sale for $1 each and I had 4 $1 off coupons, making them free. Thank goodness for rainchecks!

You can find all these deals at Southern Savers!

Adventures in Couponing

Hello all! We have been super busy lately, which is going to be my excuse for the lack of posts. Sorry to disappoint you readers. (all 5 of you! hehe)

Anyways, I have been still been couponing each week, but this week was a pretty good one, so I decided to snap some photos. Publix was having a huge sale, and I happened to have lots of coupon match ups. Thank you Jenny (@ Southern Savers)!!!

Total Before Coupons and Sales: $102

Total Spent: $38!!!

I saved around $64, which is over 60% savings. I put the pink reusable grocery bag in the picture because it was free with a coupon. And I was still under our weekly grocery budget of $40. Love it!

Here are some more pics from our weekend. We took Jack to Gahagan Park in Summerville.

Stay tuned for more posts soon!

Honey Chicken Nuggets. Yum!!!

I have made these twice now and both times they were a huge hit with our little family, so I thought I would share. These are absolutely delicious and oh so easy to make! I found the recipe on a cooking blog I read called My Happy Meals.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

- 1/2 cup of honey

- 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

- 1 1/2 cups of dried bread crumbs

- About 1 lb. of chicken breast cut into bite-size pieces

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil. Spray foil-lined baking pan large enough to hold all chicken pieces in one layer.
2. In shallow bowl, whisk together honey and vinegar. Set aside.
3. Place bread crumbs in a small saute pan and toast lightly over low heat for about 3-4 minutes until lightly golden brown.
4. Pour bread crumbs a little at a time into separated bowl. Roll chicken pieces in honey mixture, then in bread crumbs; place in pan.
5. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cooked thoroughly.

My Variations:

I did not have any balsamic vinegar but I did have balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing on hand, so I cut up the chicken the day before and let the pieces marinate in the dressing (it was about 36 hours total). I then mixed the marinade with the honey. I also only used about 3/4 lb. of chicken (two large breasts) and it was more than enough for Brad, Jack, and myself.

Serve with your favorite sides and dipping sauces and enjoy! (I serve mine with green beans and applesauce!)

Nothing Could Be Finer

What a wonderful weekend we had! Before church on Saturday night, we packed up a picnic supper and headed to the new Mt. Pleasant Park to spend some time together. Wow, this park is just gorgeous! Jack had so much fun at the playground and we all had a blast walking around the pier. This is definitely a place we will spending a lot of time  at!

Here are some pictures of the day.

We are so blessed to get to live in such a gorgeous area. I really love living here in Charleston. I have no idea where God will take us with Brad being in ministry, but I certainly hope we are able to stay here a while!

Words

“And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.”

James 3: 6 (NLT)

So, I say a lot of stupid things. A lot. Often I stick my foot in my mouth. Sometimes it is things that just embarrass me, but sometimes it is things that hurt others.

This week, during conversation with friends, I allowed some negative words to escape from my mouth which led to some less than flattering things said about something that is incredibly near to my heart. I am so sad that I allowed this to happen.

Why do I do that? For me, it’s a heart problem. If I am not consistently in the Word, and  asking God to renew my mind and create a clean heart, that can be the result. I do struggle with negativity and if I allow my mind to dwell on such things, it certainly affects my heart and the words that I say.  I cannot take back what happened this week, but I have definitely learned a lesson.

This verse is one that I memorized a long time ago, but I am going to write this down and stick it some place where I will see it frequently.

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

Psalm 19:14 (NLT)

House Renovations

So, I know I said I would write a blog about our house renovations a week or two ago, but it just never happened. We also weren’t quite done with everything. Tonight, however, she is ALL DONE!! This project has been almost two years in the making!!!

This is mostly going to be pictures (sorry for the weird formatting, I don’t know how to fix that)….

This is us on closing day. We were just so excited to be homeowners and had NO CLUE what we were in for. 

Kitchen Before Kitchen During Kitchen After (new everything)

Guest Bath Before After  (new vanity, faucet, mirror, flooring)

 Our bathroom before

  After (new sink, faucet, counters, shower fixtures, flooring in toilet/shower room, repainted cabinet)

And that’s it! (well, we also expanded the foyer area and put down new flooring) Brad did almost all the work by himself (I did caulking, painting and provided assistance where I could). We were also blessed to have so many friends and family members come over and help! Thanks to Mike G, Steven R, Jamie C, my dad, Brad’s dad, and my Uncle. 

Through this experience we learned: 

-It is impossible to spend less than $30 at Lowes during any given trip

-You will always forget something and have to make another trip to Lowes

-The people at Lowes and Home Depot are not really as helpful as they look in the commercials

-The internet is your best friend when learning new skills

-It is also important to have friends/family who actually know what they are doing

-ENJOY the process (it is hard though!)