Spring shopping

Last week, Bear and I visited a nursery down the road. Fortunately for our bank account, they only take cash and checks, and I only had my cards on me. I loved some of their flowers, but decided it's a bit early to plant annuals. We could still have a frost.

I had some time to kill while waiting for our prescription to be filled at the grocery store's pharmacy. They had some pretty spring plants out front. I bought a forsythia bush and 3 lavender carpet phlox, much to hubby's chagrin. The forsythia was at least 30% less expensive than at the nursery. The phlox were reasonable, too... 3 for $10. I tried planting seeds last year, they never took. Hopefully we won't kill these.

Are you looking for tips on cutting your food budget?

Faithful Provisions is a blog dedicated to just that! Kelly spoke at our A Mom's HEART meeting today, and I thought my blogging buddies would like to peruse her site.

happy birthday to... hubby?

Bear's 3rd birthday is tomorrow. I sent hubby out to pick up her gift from us. While he was at it, he found a new car for himself.

My mazda 626 which we bought right after we got married is going bye-bye. It's been an idiot magnet, plus I had one accident that was my fault, so I am only slightly sorry to see it go.... just over 9 years later.

Not looking forward to having a car payment again, but I don't want the transmission to leave either of us stranded, and we were offered a decent trade in value.

He owes me. A new bike and new car all in one year. Yes, he really owes me. ;)

nothin' a little retail therapy can't fix

so, i got to my check-up today. everything was going smoothly.

weight? 165 lbs. check
blood pressure? still great
baby's heartbeat? 145 bpm
progress? 2 cm, 50%
position? head first
size? can't REALLY tell, but no more than 7 1/2 lbs, possibly less
if he doesn't come on his own by 41 weeks, induction will be eminent. we've got a bit to go for that.

and oh, by the way, since i tested + for group b strep, i get to have penicillin iv'd through me. what happened to the phone call with the results? am i sooo laid back that i come across like i don't care? what if i had gone into labor this week and did not know i would need the iv's, took my precious time getting to the hospital, and then not been able to get the meds? i'm sure it would have been fine, but i was a bit irritated.

oh, well. now i have some super cute itsy bitsy newborn socks and caps and a super snuggly blanket and snuggle toy set for my little guy (for bear to give to him), 2 pair of lightweight pants for bear to wear with her plethora of t-shirts, and a present for bear from her little brother. i tried not to let the fact that kohl's doesn't carry nursing tops or bras spoil my therapy session.

mom's day out

my neighbor gina and i got to go out sans kids this afternoon, since our hubbies were off work. we got pedicures and then hit babies r us, which had an extra 20% off the clearance items. little guy made out pretty well, thanks to gina's knack for finding the good deals on the rack. (i typically lack the patience and move on before i come across the $2-$3 items).

Coming Soon: Allybug Bowtique

Do you like hair bows and clippies? Does your dear daughter actually wear them for more than 30 seconds without pulling them out? Are you obsessed with finding the perfect accessory for your child's every outfit? Than you have to check out Allybug Boutique. Our friend Becky (whose hubby was a groomsman in our wedding) is a SAHM mom to two adorable little girls. She's taken her creativity from being a Kindergarten teacher and applied it to making hair bows and clippies for her daughters. Now she is sharing her creations with the public on her photobucket site, and soon she'll have an online store.

Check it out!

Hidden danger of parking close to the garden department

I initially began parking close to the garden center at the superstore last fall or winter, because there were always closer spots available. I would rather walk through the store than across the parking lot, a target for whomever might be looking for a victim.

Well, in addition to a few groceries/household items, tonight I left with 1 white/mauve centered clematis plant for my mailbox, a 6-pack of purple salvia, and 2 pretty pink columbines. Bear played with her bubbles and chased a neighbor's cat (which is going to get picked up by animal control some day if they continue to let it roam. or worse.) A couple of neighbor girls stopped to play with her, and one wanted to help me plant my flowers. I <3 purple flowers, by the way. Who am I kidding? I <3 flowers period. I justify it by convincing myself the flowers would have cost more at a fancy garden center, and that you have to pick the best colors before they get picked over. Anyway, I think it's time for a trip to starbucks to pick up a load of natural fertilizer (coffee grounds). (Some of my previous loads mildewed in their bags the garage, so the garbage can is REALLY heavy this week.)

Still hoping my calla lily plants come back... So far, there is no sign of them. It might be too early. I hope.

random tidbits & news

tidbits:
The Memory Keeper's Daughter is going to be on TV April 12th. Too bad I have no way of watching it at home! If you have not read the book, it is a MUST read.

We are supposed to have 2-3 days break from the Spring rains. While I'm thankful God has been watering my garden for me, I'm looking forward to spending some time outside.

news:
Hubby's new "baby" is here! A work buddy offered to help him transport it with his truck and trailer, and they retrieved it last night. I think I scared Bear a little when I warned her not to touch it unless Daddy sets her on top and holds her, but the last thing I want is a motorcycle crushing my precious daughter. She's pretty perceptive, I think she connects the fact that something that's so loud can also be dangerous. (And it's quieter than a Harley.)

This means it's time for me to shop for the new car seats and stroller, right? I think the Graco Nautilus looks good for Bear and the Joovy Caboose Ultralight Stroller or Baby Trend Elite Sit n' Stand look good for both kiddos.... the Graco Quattro Tour Duo I'm still debating whether the higher price on the Joovy is worth it... we'll have to check them out in person side-by-side, if possible.) And then to find an infant carrier that is compatible with the new stroller. And lightweight. Consumer Reports seems pretty worthless in this shopping research, as they lack variety in their reviews, especially for 2-kid strollers.

The wives of hubby's coworkers are going to want to kill me

We put down a deposit on a new toy for hubby today. And yes, I plan to ride on the back of it.
It looks something like this:
I think it's a very pretty bike. I trust him to choose a bike he can handle, good quality, and all that, but I insisted on going along for the shopping experience. He's been itching to get one of his own for as long as I can remember, especially since his Dad and brother got their bikes a couple of years ago. We looked at another one earlier this week, but the one we are purchasing has not had as rough of a life. Hubby said he likes the contrast of the black with the silver on the one we're getting, too. And his new red helmet looks good with it, too.

It didn't hurt that I really liked the woman we are buying it from. We drove a decent distance to look at it, but it was worth the drive.

Garden Implementation... phase one

Hopefully my garden implementation will be more successful and far less stressful than the system implementations I went through at three of my previous jobs. (Computer Guy was obviously not involved in any of them).

Hubby sprayed round up where the new flower bed will be around the mailbox. We also roped off our vegetable patch using those metal spikes you put into a turkey at Thanksgiving and clothesline from the $1 store. Baby Bear thought the red and white edged rectangle in the yard was pretty cool. He also applied round up there. I really should have tried the natural tricks, and I might still, since it my have been too cool today for the poison to be effective. I made the mistake of planting some things too early last year, only to have to replant after the late frost, so I figure I can wait 3 weeks like Gramma M. does to actually plant in the garden after weed killing... and it will still be earlier than she plants in WI. Anyway, hubby was fertilizing the lawn, anyway.

So far, seeds are only sprouting in one of the pots I started last week... grr... Thankfully I didn't use all my seeds. I'm not giving up hope yet, I've moved the pots inside where it is warmer.

I spied strawberry and asparagus starts at Lowe's, as well as lots of pretty flower bulbs and rose bushes. But I abstained from buying anything else.... for now. See what happens when you shop with your hubby? Bear loved sitting on the big John-Deere lawn mowers and ordering her daddy to sit on and get off each one. And hubby found the replacement part for our toilet and we can now flush without lifting up th tank lid again!!!

the excitement is growing faster than my belly

yesterday, the boys (hubby and grandpa) went out and about to do guy stuff. they test drove vehicles and went for a motorcycle ride.

meanwhile, tech mom, bear and i went out for some girls' shopping. we checked out a couple of baby/kids boutiques here in the memphis area. our favorite was mango street baby.

they had a ring sling i tried on. bear did NOT like having her mommy messed with, and kept yelling "take it off!" i liked the sling a lot, but not the price tag... the brand was something like rock star baby, probably because most of us don't have the rock-star money required to buy it. it was good to compare to the pouch style hotsling, which i liked at another shop but the salesperson was unknowledgable and only knew how to get it back in the package. and i think as a soon-to-be attempting first time sling-wearer, i like the adjustablity however, she LOVED their classic pedal cars and trikes, as well as their toys. we ate lunch near that shop after church today, and hubby even tried on a toddler backpack which would be perfect for hiking with bear. he found it all by himself. somehow, i am nervous about taking her on some of the trails around Fall Creek Falls without some type of restraint, and strollers are so darn awkward. we'll see if we actually get it, but i think it was one that inkling and henry david might even approve of! (if i can find it online i'll get their opinion, as they are our expert outdoorsmen.)

after dream shopping at the expensive shops, we headed on a mission to find fabric. tech mom looked at the $120 sling I tried on and decided she could and would like to try to make one. so after perusing hancock's she found a sweet pattern at hobby lobby which we think is gender neutral enough. we also found a coordinating solid, so she'll make it reversible:

I've been doing some research on line and found the following helpful sites:

www.mammasmilk.com
www.slingrings.com
Jan Andrea (lots of patterns to make your own)
Pretty Momma Sling

Cute Slings

Hot Slings
The Sling Station

They have links to patterns for making your own slings, if you are so inclined or know someone who will do it for you! And lots of good info for us ignorant people who don't know much about baby wearing.

I bought a larger crochet hook... size K/10 1/2-6.50 MM.

I think it's working better for me already. I might actually complete a Christmas gift that is acceptable to give.

I LOVE $4 prescriptions. The big evil superstore is doing something right in that department.

the craft bug bit me again

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the dollar store had fake flowers, ribbon, and cornucopias for autumn. I am not into decorating for Halloween. Though I don't object to trick-or-treating or jack-o-lanterns per se, I don't get into the witches and black cats. Plus, Halloween and Thanksgiving are so close together, it seems silly to decorate for both. I use the term "decorate" loosely. Anyone who knows me or has read this blog for any decent length of time knows that my home decor is fairly minimal. Not many pictures or paintings, knick-knacks restricted to out of reach places, and until today, I used the same wreath on my door for the past 4 years. Season in, season out. I may have put another one up at some point, but if I did, I have no idea where I stored it.

Anyway, I opted to wait to purchase my cornucopia and stuffing supplies until checking out the pre-made things at other places. Just in case I came across any good deals. I didn't. So today I decided to see what I could do with that cornucopia. It is too thick to fit between the storm door and main door, so I hope it doesn't blow away.




Oh, the first thing Bear did when she saw it was say "party hat" and put it on her head. :)

a trip to the mall was worth it!

i received a coupon in the mail for $10 off a $30 purchase at the children's place. it expires tomorrow.

i am so pleased with what i found for baby bear that i am going to show it off on here:

you can't have 2 many t-shirts with a toddler who likes to eat, color with chalk and paint. besides, when all the following items were rung up, they were (barely) less than the $30 min needed to use my $10 off coupon. gotta love the spend more/save more requirements!

we got this shirt with brown velvet trim, not red

bear wanted to wear this hat in the store, and protested when she had to take it off.
until i told her that she would not get to go to the play area if she did not settle down. It is sooo soft.

this adorable sweater coat...
it might even fit her next year. it's long, and i bought it in 3T. it is fleece lined.

All this cost me less than $22.

I love the Dollar Tree.

We're preparing for vacation. We don't have a pool at our house or in our neighborhood, so there's no need to buy tons and tons of fancy pool toys for our week with a pool outside our door and the beach just a couple of minutes away.

I found "bugcatcher kits" for our nieces, who LOVE science. (They just released some monarch butterflies which they raised from caterpillar by feeding milkweed.) They are sure to find some bugs they are unfamiliar with. I bought one for Baby-Bear, too. After all, she is sure to want to copy every thing her older cousins do. The kits came with a binocular-case shaped plastic container with matching net and plastic tweezers.

I also found some fun toys... 2 nets with a water soaker ball for playing "catch" in the pool, and a ring toss set. We'll see if the thing floats or not. I mean, it was a dollar. Both of these can be used in or out of the water. Baby-Bear has tested the nets and approves. (I may have to pick up another set or two so everyone else gets a chance to play.)

In a week, we'll be settling into our home for a week with hubby's side of the family. I wonder if Em & Mad will pick the top or bottom bunks in their room?

p.s. Have I ever mentioned I hate shopping for clothes, and the only reason I must fit into that pair of size 8 shorts is that they've stretched with me? I did end up buying a pair of capris in size 12. The 10's had just a tad too much pooch at the waistline, no room for shrinkage. And don't even get me started on tops...

On Friday, 2 of my girlfriends from college and I went browsing the antique shops in the town just south of here. We realized that we are all very particular (cheap) about how much we think furniture is really worth. Especially the stuff that's not antique. I had to remind myself of the amount of time it took Dad-in-Law to make cabinets for all 3 of us girls, and that time and sweat ARE wroth something. The former Feed Mill had benches and shelves made of barn board which reminded me of Gramma's.

I also found a really cute pair of earrings at a gift shop for $2.99. They are silver made of several small round mother-of-pearl pieces connected into a diamond shaped dangle. Hard to describe. But trust me, they are fun. And light. And cute. And they go really well with one of my Premier bracelets.

shhh.... (hope hubby isn't reading this)

i broke the rules. i bought an adorable mini-rose bush with white buds on it. and 2 geraniums. all 4 cost me less than $5, but i had previously been asked not to spend any more on my flower fetish/ocd/whatever-you-want to call it. so i do feel a bit guilty. yes, over $5. really. but the metal urn begged to have adornment after being abandoned by the chinese lanterns, and i read somehwere that japanese beetles don't like geraniums. i dug some dirt out of my veggie pots. baby bear thought the plants were growing out of "cake" when I pulled them from their plastic pots. i guess we've let her have too much chocolate cake and brownies in the past. :-)

the decorative urn was given to us by my college roommates. it held the birdseed which was later thrown at us as we left our wedding reception... they were thrown mostly indoors because it started raining during the reception. God bless my friend's mom, thewonderful woman who vacuumed up that mess. (she's wonderful in other ways, too.) i saw the white mini-rose bush and had to at least try to get it to survive. i had white roses in my bouquet and the bridesmaids' bouquets.

if he doesn't read this, then i wonder how long it will take him to notice the new additions to my floral family.

Silly, me!

We have plenty of desserts in this house. Left over carrot cake and cherry pie from last night, to be exact. Well, I saw the buy-1-get-1-free sale at Publix on my favorite brownie mixes, and came home and made a batch right away, as part of hubby's Father's Day dinner. I also picked up their prepared Chicken Florentine breasts, some sweet potatoes, and Uncle Ben's Rice, which was also B1G1... making it 65 cents a box for the good varieties. I guess I'll be bringing some brownies to Family Bible Adventure (VBS) setup, because God knows we cannot possibly eat all this dessert. Gina, if you're lurking and home, want some turtle brownies? I should have sent the cherry pie home with my sis, after all. What was I thinking? This weekend is going to be crazy with FBA prep, so I'm making a decent meal for tonight.

I've also made some homemade play-dough, which I am going to TRY to use part of to make a Father's Day gift for hubby to put on his desk at work. We'll see how well Bear cooperates. She doesn't sound very happy right now... she just had a very short nap and is crying for some attention.

it's time for "i told you so" from crt...

hubby and i made the mistake of thinking that because crt doesn't tolerate sesame street, and we do without a problem, she was being a little melodramatic in her opinion of the wiggles.

she wasn't. baby bear seems to love them, but i suspect the only time we'll let baby bear actually watch the darn dvd is when she's upstairs in her pack and play while i'm showering. it's not that there's anything morally wrong with the dvd... it's just the most random collection of songs. annoyingly random collection of songs. seriously, what kind of drugs are these grown men taking? the educational value is.... debatable, to be generous. i need to go check out the reviews on amazon to see what the general public thought. God help us all if it was a hit.

we should have gone with little einsteins, dora, or even blue's clues which bores baby bear half to death.... oh, well. at least baby bear likes it. or should that worry me?