Scary Weather!

When the tornado sirens all went off at once we jumped to action! I am proud of how quickly we got the cat carriers, threw the cats in them and secured them in our innermost downstairs room! Within a minute everyone had shoes on and the animals were secure, I was ready to batten down the hatches and ride out the tornado. It didn't hit thankfully, but what a scary ten minutes - seeing nothing but white outdoors because the rain and wind were so severe, hearing all the sirens going off and knowing what that means!!! The twins had no clue, they were so happy that we gave them flashlights and turned the lights off, it was simply a new game to them. Big Kid was a tad worried, but we made it through just fine :) Severe weather is scary no matter where you live!!! We were still "at school" when my mom called and told me to pay attention, thank you Mom!!!

Out front our mulch got spattered out of the garden, glad I didn't put down the new mulch I just bought today! Makes me think I might want to put something in to prevent the mulch from washing away... I just hate the idea of putting large "rocks" right in front of our windows!!

No Candy in our Easter Baskets!!

Thing One and Thing Two don't eat candy. Thing One won't even eat a vitamin because he thinks it's candy! This is not my doing, I love candy. It's just them! The dentist says it's great, their teeth are absolutely perfect (it helps Big Kid wants to be a dentist so everyone is all about brushing). This does make it "different" for the bunny to fill their baskets for Easter!!

Big Kid will get a basket with some of his fave candies and a few toys, maybe a few new star wars little lego sets. I found matching pinwheels for the twins' baskets, and little bug magnifiers to throw in there. I'm trying to figure out what else to put in. Hot Wheels, bouncy balls, maybe a little stuffed bunny or duck? They have so many boxes of crayons and big and little coloring books from their birthdays, and TONS of books... do I need to put anything else in? I'll hide eggs for them to find, but I don't know what to put in them other than a few new cars and bouncy balls. I guess I need to go to the dollar store and Target to see what's popular? I hate that so many holidays have become so commercial!!

On a brighter note I finally ordered the twins' Christmas present for this year. They are so into geotrax trains it's silly, love them even more than thomas trains at this point. Once they discovered geotrax thomas sort of faded into the background! Toys R Us had a Christmas geotrax toy town set for $130, and I just couldn't justify paying that much but wow was it awesome!! We bought three track sets on craigs list and at second hand shops, paid $20 a set so it's quite a jump in price for new. I have been watching and the set dropped to $77 and I grabbed it. I'll put it up until winter, and it'll be the first present for them under the tree!!!

Yes, I am a deal hound. I almost never pay full price for things, and that means I shop early. I have never started Christmas shopping in February tho! HA! Is that bad?

Stomach Virus

Yep, our twins have officially suffered through their first stomach bug. Daddy has been home from work since Monday, and is the only one who didn't get sick. Cross your fingers on that one! First Thing Two was sick every fifteen minutes all night long Monday, then Thing One, myself, and Big Kid all got it Tuesday night. Thing One got sick again this morning for seemingly no reason, had to call Daddy back home from his way to work. I tried to eat a gluten free bagel last night - got a quarter of the way through and got really sick. Oh yeah, and we all have diarrhea (except Daddy, who apparently has an awesome immune system). The worst part is this is exactly what happened to me every three to four months when I had celiac disease and didn't know it, so I know exactly what to do... zofran liquid for the kids, BRAT diet, etc. but it doesn't make it feel any better.

The phrase "shoot me now" keeps drifting through my head...

Thankfully we have some wonderful friends, one phone call yesterday and we had a box of pull ups and two 6 pks of gatorade. Today another friend offered to bring more bananas and gatorade, which is really appreciated. It's so nice to have friends, especially when you need them most!

*Update* well here we are a week later and Thing Two got sick at bedtime last night. We had to go to the doc to get a script for little kiddo immodium for the twins' diarrhea, so I'm guessing we picked up something again. I HATE PEDIATRICIAN OFFICES!!!!

I LOVE Haflinger Shoes!

Let me first say I NEVER spend much money on myself, and I NEVER pay full price for anything.

My feet have been hurting for a long time... I have very high arches and narrow feet, and a stupid metatarsal arch that no one else in the world seems to have. Hence I have sore feet a lot.

I decided to buy myself a really nice supportive pair of shoes. I went to DSW (lots of expensive shoes, no supportive nice looking ones tho). Then I went to Abba Dabba's, which had lots of supportive expensive shoes but most of them either were WAY not my style (I am only 32) or they were too wide for me. I fell in love with a pair of Dansko sandals, but they didn't have my size. I went home depressed and empty handed, and slipped into my 14 year old wool clogs. Yep, I have had two pairs of Haflinger clogs for 14 years and they are still my only truly supportive comfortable shoes. It suddenly hit me, I should order a new pair! So I did - and how cool are they?! My old pairs are grizzly gray and brown plaid, the new swirly pair is so fun!

I don't have a clue why I don't think twice about spending $100 on a pr of clogs yet I sit for hours being as frugal as possible with our grocery list, I will comparison shop for days for gifts even! Maybe it's because I know they will last another 14 years?

Seriously if anyone reading this needs a really good supportive, last forever pair of shoes try out Haflinger clogs. Not slippers, clogs. I gave a pair to a good friend years ago to help her back, and she raved about them. I couldn't recommend a shoe more!

Can we live without a microwave?

I'm not superstitious but do bad things happen in threes? Does Monday's doctor mess count as two? This morning I popped a frozen waffle into the microwave as I do every morning for thing two, and put it on for 25 seconds. Unlike every other morning the microwave started sparking and sounding like a diesel starting up. I opened the door as arcs were flying in the microwave to stop it, and it smelled like burnt hair. There was nothing else in the microwave but the waffle, which by the way was still frozen solid. Yep, the microwave is broken.

So can we live without a microwave? Hubby's coworkers don't think so, but I have hope! I would much rather install a non-vented hood over our stove, compared to replacing our hulking "range over" microwave with another one! The thing is so low food actually spatters on the front of the microwave, it's a cleaning nightmare. I don't want another one in the same spot, and am wondering if we need one at all! Counter space is a joke in my kitchen, and a freestanding microwave would take up a lot of space...

Not having a microwave will also alleviate the issue I have with Big Kid carrying cat food from the fridge over the dinner we are cooking to warm it up. I don't want cat food in our dinner, not to even bring up it's gluten. Oh yeah, how ARE we going to heat up the cat food now?

Don't go to the pediatrician on Mondays!

So I have to ask, did every other mom in the world know this but me? We scheduled Big Kid for a check up for his knee Monday at 10am, and oh my were we surprised. We ended up waiting in the "well child area" for an HOUR for his appointment. First, let me say thank you for the separation of well and sick waiting areas... because every child that came in had to put on a mask, meaning they had flu symptoms. Thing One had to go #2, he's trying out the pottying outside our house. Parents kept banging the door down while the poor kid was sitting on the toilet so their kids could throw up! Seriously? I know they had sick children but come on, it happened to us three times at the pediatricians. The poor kid had to poo, and talk about making him upset!!! We went through five pull ups before we were finally seen by a doctor we didn't know.

He didn't even introduce himself, threw a few incomprehensible names at me of what could be wrong with Big Kid's knee, ordered an xray, then left. He didn't listen at all when we both said he hit his knee on his basketball hoop six weeks ago, he even went so far as to wonder out loud why the something schlatter's wasn't presenting in both knees. Um, because he hurt just the one? I have been going to this office for two years, and have been super happy with everyone until him. Guess I'll just ask who the appt is when we call to make one from now on :(

THEN we headed to the hospital for the xray, to find out the doctor never wrote what xray he wanted us to have. Thing One STILL had to poo. We walk the three miles from radiology to the restroom only to be bumped out of the way by a pregnant woman going into the one stall in the restroom. Thing One used pull up number 6 of the day. Then Thing Two went as well, and we were out of pull ups!! Have you ever just wanted to sit on the floor and cry? Needless to say we just left for home, and called radiology to reschedule.

I called the pediatrician's office to ask the doctor's name that we saw, so we could make sure we didn't see him again, and mentioned how awful our morning had gone. The receptionist told us Mondays are always awful especially during flu season, and we should try to avoid Mondays if we are healthy. Ok, so then why did the receptionist offer us a Monday morning appt when we called the week before to make it?!!

I sat at home last night feeling awful about our day, and about how many sick children I had seen in the office that morning. Do people skip flu shots for their kids because of the autism farce? Are they just too busy? I don't understand. It costs us $125 for flu shots, and every fall we pay it. I don't care how much it costs, it prevents the heartache of watching your children suffer like that, and it prevents them the pain and suffering.

I hugged my kids goodnight and wondered what happened to my generation. We are now parents, and have allowed almost eradicated diseases to re-enter our worlds, the school system is falling apart (we are responsible as parents and as teachers), and someday one of us will run this country. Did our parents worry about the same things? They are baby boomers, and they were the children of the 60s... are they to fix this mess or will we find ourselves and take responsibility?

Free housecleaning for women undergoing chemo?

Someone in our homeschool community forwarded this to me, I felt I had to share it!! I love hearing about good deeds like this.

If you know any woman currently undergoing chemotherapy, please pass the word to her that there is a cleaning service that provides FREE housecleaning - once per month for 4 months while she is in treatment. All she has to do is sign up and have her doctor fax a note confirming the treatment. Cleaning for a Reason will have a participating maid service in her zip code area arrange for the service. This organization serves the entire USA and currently has 547 partners to help these women. It's our job to pass the word and let them know that there are people out there that care.

http://www.cleaningforareason.org/

Our Anniversary

Hubby surprised me by coming home early, and thanks to our state tax return coming almost immediately back we went out to dinner at PF Chang's to celebrate! Oh, and he brought home a beautiful bouquet of flowers :) I love flowers! Dinner was awesome, kids were great and food was amazing. I didn't even get sick! Last two times I went to PF Chang I got "glutened" somehow, sucks but it's the roll of the dice when you go out to eat!

Strawberry Cream Cheese is frosting!!

I bought Udi's gluten free bagels today, and popped one right into my toaster once our groceries were put away. I wanted to try flavored cream cheese, so I got strawberry flavored. It tastes like frosting, and would be great on a brownie but was TERRIBLE on a bagel! Just thought I would spread that bit of news around so someone else doesn't ruin an expensive bagel like I did!!

Paying it forward

Remember I posted a few weeks ago about that great second pantry I built, using the shelves from a friend's mom's house that was getting repossessed? Well we went back to the house over the weekend to pick up the brand new mattress and boxspring, and for one last "go over" before the bank changes the locks. I was only looking for things my family could use, when I realized there were piles of clothes everywhere that still had tags on them - Macy's, Kohl's, at least a thousand dollars worth of clothing just laying there! I realized I should do SOMETHING with them, a woman's shelter or something of that nature would love them! I don't know of any elderly centers that take donations, or of a shelter nearby to where we were... but I knew I could give them to the assistance league that was on our way home! So I found trash bags and took seven or eight bags of either new or almost new clothes and shoes to the assistance league. I didn't document it or ask for a receipt, I don't want the tax write off, I just wanted them to go to someplace good! The assistance leagues in major cities do so much good with the money they make selling clothes just like that, and the clothes they sell for such a cheap price that alone helps so many!

I feel good having done a good thing. I don't get the opportunity to donate often, we don't have extra money, but this feels good to have helped at least someone somewhere :)

*UPDATE* The assistance league only takes clean sellable clothing, and even though most of this had tags on it they all had a bit of cat hair so they said no thanks over the phone. I called a local women's shelter, which turned out to say no as well because of the cat hair. I got so frustrated! None of it needed to be washed, just brushed off and I explained that, didn't matter!!! So I opened all the bags, shook the clothing off outside and put them back in the bags. I called Goodwill and they said they will happily take the clothing, and thanks for shaking it off but they would have happily done it. They seemed so happy to be getting a donation of so much clothes, totally opposite of the others I called. So I documented it all and took the tax write off, after using the Goodwill's site for figuring donations it added up to over $1400 in donations! I am happy that we helped, but I am sure the tax receipt will help ;)

Bragging Rights!

As a mother I have to brag about this one. Big Kid has wanted to be a dentist since he was five years old, and last week the twins had their first dental cleaning. While at the pediatric dentist's office Big Kid asked how long our dentist had to be in college to get his degree, and he said 8 yrs for general dentistry, 10 for pediatrics. He said if Big Kid ever wanted to he could come shadow him for a few hours. You would have thought he offered him a new video game he was so excited!

We scheduled a two hour block this afternoon for Big Kid to shadow the dentist. When I came to pick him up he looked like he was leaving a theme park he was so happy! The dentist came and jumped into the chair next to me and told me what a great afternoon they had, Big Kid was proud to tell me he asked lots of questions and witnessed a crown being put on! He asked if he could come back sometime to see a tooth being pulled, and the dentist asked him if he wanted to make it a monthly event - so the first Monday of every month Big Kid is going to be shadowing a pediatric dentist! WOW!! Our dentist is awesome, sort of reminds me of a clean version of Dane Cook. Very personable and seems very comfortable with himself - a happy person. I am just so impressed that he cares enough about my child to want to do this! I think he's pretty impressed, the office staff said they have never had a single child interested in shadowing anyone there - ever! Big Kid was jumping up and down tonight, saying "I want to do it again I want to do it again!".

Hubby and I are so proud that he already knows exactly what career path he plans to walk, and that he is going out there and getting such an early start!! How many almost 12 yr olds are already shadowing a professional in the field they want to work in?! Yep, this is me wearing my proud mama face :)

Zpizza for my birthday!

Hubby brought home a hawaiian Zpizza and the new donkey kong game for the wii for my birthday! WOOHOO!!! I'm eating the second half of the pizza now, yumm, and plan to play the game after our library class today. GOOD BIRTHDAY!!

if any gluten free goers haven't tried Zpizza and live near one, I highly recommend them. It's not pizza hut pizza, it's a really tasty healthier version. They have tons of toppings available, really! And hubby and big kid say the gluteny version is awesome as well. BONUS!

Field Trip!!!

Today was our first homeschool field trip - and it was awesome!! We went to a museum to see a great exhibit that was about what we had been studying lately in social studies, and big kid was so attentive and even asked questions!!! I was so proud! The docent was awesome, answered all of his questions and then some. She even took the time after the tour to tell him the story of Romulus and Remus when he asked what the greek carving was with the kids and the wolf! Excellent day. I see many more field trips in our future :)

Egg, Dairy and Gluten free Chocolate Cake... and no, it's not taste free!

Ok I have to admit I look at most things that are "free of" more than two ingredients and cringe, thinking it will taste like, well cardboard! This tastes surprisingly good! The trick is the cook time - it varies so make darn sure yours cooks through the middle!

I want to mention first that when I call for "flour" in any recipe, I have made the recipe using both "normal" all purpose flour and The Gluten Free Pantry's All Purpose Flour. I don't mess with other gf flours, they are all awful in my opinion.

1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour
3 Tbs cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
5 Tbs vegetable oil (or canola, whatever you use)
1 C sugar
1 Tbs vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Cup water

Mix flour, cocoa, soda, and sugar in a large bowl. Add oil, vanilla, water and vinegar, and slowly stir until well combined. Once completely mixed pour into an 8x8 or 9x9 baking pan.

Bake for between a half an hour to 45 minutes, depending on your oven's mood and the time of year, moisture content in the air, who the heck knows I just know my bake time always varies a tad! Do the toothpick test in the middle of the cake to ensure you don't have any uncooked batter left.

The best present ever!

My mother gave me these for Christmas, and wow am I using them! I have a somewhat small kitchen, and the way the builders used the space is just silly - I have four tiny drawers and barely any counterspace. Notice even in this photo you can see the sink on the left and the stove on the right! Someday when we win the lotto we'll remodel...

In the meantime I'm using these stackable cooling racks! How genius are these? They click into each other making the stack very sturdy, I may go for another level! And yes, those are my gluten free peanut butter cookies. I have mastered those, my entire family loves peanut butter!

The twins turned three!

Big deal for us, they are growing up so quickly! Because their birthdays follow Christmas so closely, we didn't give them a ton of presents. I am so glad we didn't because it took them two hours to open the four we gave them at our little family party! They had to take time to play with each gift before unwrapping the next box, and when it was time for bed they slept with their "real" Buzz Lightyear and Woody dolls! Course we heard Buzz's laser going off everytime thing two rolled over...

It was sort of fun leaking presents to them, Nahnah was here Sunday so she gave them her presents Sunday afternoon to open, then Monday morning I gave them the big Buzz Lightyear spaceship tent (scored that on clearance at Target 75% off) and they played in it most of the day. Our good friends came for dinner and gave them all three Toy Story movies (whoa!) and then we had cake. I tried my hand at a egg, dairy and gluten free chocolate cake, was honestly really good! Course I used real icing that had milk in it, that helped, but the cake itself was pretty darn good... and moist! I'll post the recipe in a bit once homeschooling is finished today :)

Birthdays for your kids can be so much fun as long as you don't stress about them! We have the twins' party this weekend, invited six other kids around their age, then the grown ups celebrate - my birthday and our anniversary. March brings big kid's birthday, Dad's birthday, and Nahnah's birthday! When I typed that I ran the chorus from beastie boys "fight for your right to party" in my head HA! I love parties, and I love seeing my family members smile at their parties! I can't wait!!!!

Homeschooling

I have to say things with Big Kid are going amazingly well. When we started schooling at home in July he hated reading, I could barely read his writing, his grammar and language arts skills in general were awful... and he had a general distaste for anything that could be considered "educational". Six months later he now asks for more new books, and when he gets them he dives right into them. His writing is improving greatly, or at least his printing is. We haven't even attempted to start handwriting yet, the public school just sort of ignored it...

He is amazing with math, logical problems are his forte. He enjoys science as long as I can insert hands on projects here and there. We decided to go with life science this year, and it's a rather dry book, but it's secular and that's what I wanted. I have started him doing a "word quiz" every day out of a reader's digest collection of their quizzes, and it's teaching him how to use a dictionary and broadening his vocabulary like crazy!!

Social studies is just amazing as well - I truly don't understand what the huge difference is between me and school. Is it the one on one? The interest I take in what he is learning? Whatever it is the gap is huge. He talks about how beautiful Russia is when we read a book about it, how he never knew there were so many beautiful places in the world. We have studied the US, South America and Russia so far... can you imagine what he will think once we have studied all the continents?! I love that he is soaking in so many facts about so many things, in all subjects. He was excited to learn in our Russia book that bears aren't just carnivores, they are also herbivores. I love watching my son learn so much so quickly! He now has me record specials on tv about this animal or Pearl Harbor (yep, asked me to record Tora Tora Tora, I was floored), or about how our galaxy was formed.

Education is a beautiful thing!

New Pantry?

Yesterday mom and I sort of went spelunking, to a friend's mom's house that has been repossessed. No power, no heat, no room to move! She doesn't want anything she left in the house, and boy did she leave a lot! So I grabbed a number of shelving units and closetmaid shelves, and plan to make a new pantry! We have two coat closets in our hallway, and one TEENY and I mean tiny pantry in our kitchen. With the way I coupon and follow our local sales, everything goes on sale every six weeks or so, and so when something is on sale and I have good coupons for it I buy six weeks worth... yes, now you are understanding why I need a bigger pantry with a family of five to feed!!

I can't wait to start, but homeschooling comes first... after school I will begin!! Mwahahaha!

*update* The new pantry ROCKS!! I used plastic shelving that was 3 ft wide (closet is 3ft 1in wide!) to make three sturdy shelves, and then hung a nice little wire shelf system on the back of the door. I did buy a clear over the door shoe rack initially to help organize packets of koolaid, mixes and such, but I instead put that in our coat closet, to organize our hats, gloves and scarves. Worked SO well!! I am so happy to finally have some room to buy a few extra boxes of cereal! YAY!

Family Game Night

We decided last week that we are going to have a family game night every week. The twins aren't quite old enough to participate yet, but will be soon!! Last week we played Clue, which was fun for everyone! Hubby liked it because it's a logical game, not one where by total chance you can utterly lose like Sorry or Life. Every time we play Life he loses his job and lands on every pay space possible! This week I think we'll try Wii Sports Resort - however hubby and big kid have played numerous times, I'll have the handicap tonight as I have never played. They better be nice, I'm the only "girl" in the house!!!

I think it's so nice to have a night where we just play and spend time together - every week! I realized we were going through the motions of every day... and not really spending any "quality time" together! Granted homeschooling I spend a lot more time with big kid than I ever have, and I love that, but hubby misses out on all of that. I think this is going to be a great tradition in our house, we will all benefit from spending time together :)

Mmmmm pizza

I used to run a pizza shop years ago, before I had to go gluten free. As lots of people understand if you work in a restaurant you really don't want to eat what they serve. I didn't until I was pregnant while working there, and then I wanted to inhale half of the shop! I had two favorites, and I still crave them today and now I want to make them when I have the ingredients - I made french fries topped with mozz cheese and bacon bits - it's fried, fattening and omg so good. I also made buffalo chicken pizza (I'll now have to make the dough from scratch), layering buffalo sauce, then buffalo chicken, then mozzarella and bleu cheeses... yep, I have been in the house for too long now!

*Buffalo Sauce Recipe*
super easy - for every 1/2 cup of Frank's Red Hot Sauce use 1/3 cup melted butter or margerine, and voila, buffalo sauce! You can spice it up with more tobasco sauce, or habanero sauce, this makes a basic mild wing sauce.

Having been snowed in for three days now, I'm feeling a bit "stuck". I'm painting our master bathroom cabinets, which were a horrid yellow, and I think I have decided to paint the walls a nice antique blue... maybe. We have painted every other room in our house, we just ignored our bedroom and master bath! No one ever goes in there anyway!!! It's time!!!