In The Depths of South Carolina...

I am currently in South Carolina visiting family and have no internet at my father in law's house. That means no posts until we get home...

Eating in the Sun Room

Sitting outside on my laptop in our sun room is the perfect way to spend lunch. The kids are happily eating scores of fruit with their respective grilled cheese and crackers, and the birds are chirping outside while a gentle breeze brings a whiff of the outdoors as Pandora serenades us from the living room. Missy Higgins radio is the way to go on this lazy San Diego day, the tunes of artists I've never heard of playing the soundtrack to a relaxed lunch. A relaxed afternoon is most likely in our future seeing as I'm the last of us to come down with a cold and I'm not wanting to do much in the form of structured play.

In this post, I told you about turning my sun room into a functioning room. Unfortunately I haven't utilized it since that post... Until yesterday when I moved the round table back out here and added some chairs we had laying around the house/garage. We ate dinner out here last night, and now lunch today. Its nice to be outside, we are in the shade and bug-free in this great unutilized space. The last surviving plants that still cling to life are out here which helps bring a homey feel to the space.

Now to just start working on the back yard...

$8 Sunday

Today at 9am I was washing my face, getting ready for the day. We're usually out the door by 9am if we're going somewhere that day, so it surprised me that we ended up going to a park, the beach and ended with daddy getting a hair cut. We were home by 2pm, and now the kids are playing instead of resting.... *sigh* I guess we will have an early bed time tonight.

I made the majority of our lunch, and by make I mean I put items in a lunch box. The only thing we bought were burgers from In And Out ($8).

We parked in the free parking by the beach, and made our way down towards the waters edge. There's a playground when you first get down there, but it was pretty packed, so we walked down to the next one, which was next to a nice large grassy area and happened to have a large population of squirrels that made it a fun lunch.

After lunch, we played on the play structure for a while, then went down to the beach. I broke out our new sand toys that I bought at a store that shall remain nameless [because of it's undesirable clientele and bad business ethics] and we had a blast playing in the sand. Baby Glenn was a sand crab with his foot-hand crawling, and I had to grab him several times to keep him from going out to sea. Daddy tried making a sand castle, but alas, the children knocked down every attempt.

There you have it. Oceanside for $8. Hope you all had a happy weekend!

Mudoku Detox Foot Pads

I'm not crazy. I know that items purchased at the dollar store are watered-down versions of the original. But it was fate. And when fate calls, you answer.

One of the times I was living in Japan I worked at a daycare. Some of the women would come in with those detox pads on their feet, claiming they did wonders. Then the other day my neighbor Kate and I were talking about wanting to do a cleanse, but we're nursing, so can't yet. I mentioned the detox foot pads, she asked if they worked, I told her what the Japanese girls told me. Granted, there are plenty of things that American friends of mine swear by and I think are silly. But there's always a good chance I'll try it before I decide for myself.

Cut to Saturday. We had our pictures taken and had promised a certain little girl ice cream for cooperating, so we decided to go to Top This (a great frozen yogart place). Alas, they were closed for another fifteen minutes, but a dollar store loomed in the horizon, begging us to come in. As is any trip to the dollar store, we came out with about ten items we didn't need, including Mudoku foot pads that my loving husband brought to my attention because he had heard the conversation between Kate and I.

Last night I slapped those puppies on, and took two to Kate for her to try. As of this posting, I'm awaiting a reply from her as to how they worked. Here's a run-down of how they worked for me:

~When opening the package the tea-bag-esque foot pad rips super easily. Which means that you end up getting some of the powder on your foot. It just means that you need to wash your feet in the morning when you take it off.

~You have to wear them for 8-10 hours. The package suggests wearing them overnight, but like I said earlier, the girls I knew would wear them to work.

~It claims to help join pain, even showing pictures on the package of people wearing them other places (belly, elbow, knee, etc). I didn't feel any difference in my joints, but it did cross my mind to put the pad on my right ankle (which has a chipped bone currently).

~The pads smell like beef bullion. No joke.

~That's it. I don't feel different, but as you will see below, I did get some black stuff on the pads. My right foot had more black on it than the left, which makes me wonder again about my right ankle injury. Who knows!


Pre-detox

Post-detox

Family Pics Sneak Peak

We had family pictures taken on Saturday, and Stephanie from Joie de Vivre Photography posted a sneak peak on her blog which you can find here Check it out, I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures!! (you need to scroll down in the blog to see the sneak peak)

Moist Bags

Moist bags. Oh, moist bags. I love thee and appreciate thy's help in a significant reduction in plastic baggy usage.

Yup. I love 'em. I just need to make MORE. Many, many more. My latest design that I've been working on is a wipes bag. I use a plastic bag to keep my wipes in while I'm out and about, but wanted to fashion something that I could keep the wipes in that would keep me from using plastic throw-away bags.

This was my first attempt at the wipes bag. Opening at the top, a good idea for a snack bag, but a wipes bag could be better.

This is my attempt at a snack bag for my sister. (Yup Christine, you will be seeing this in the future when it arrives at your house) The zipper in the center of the material is more in keeping with the wipes bag that works the best.

This is the wipes bag I decided works the best. The only thing that could make it better would be if it kept the moisture in a little better. Short of buying expensive water resistant zippers, I can't think of any other way to make them hold in the moisture better.

I love how they let the wipes pop up so they work like a dispenser.

Entertainment Center

We've been talking about getting a new entertainment center for quite a while. It's been in the column of 'want' as opposed to 'need' over the years. Recently we decided to move it up on the list. We found a great deal and decided to get it. It's only been less than twenty four hours, so I still look at it in awe, thinking, gosh that's beautiful.

We chose it from Ashley furniture. Thomas found two he liked and we decided from the two which we liked best. We still have it gated off (so the kids don't break the glass in the center bottom) but it's still impressive.

Slowly but surly we're getting good furniture that will last us the rest of our lives. Good quality furniture instead of the cheap easy fixes we bought because we needed something now instead of being able to wait and save. *sigh* I love my new entertainment center.



I took a picture with and with out flash so you could get the full effect.

WHP

I started planning Thomas's Welcome Home Party way before he came home. I had visions of everyone we know gathering to welcome him home, kids playing in the yard, adults laughing and congregating in the garage. I wanted to have a table for each holiday he missed; a way for him to experience each holiday.

Thomas came home on a Friday. That would have been too late notice to have a party that weekend, not to mention my grandmother passed away that day so we flew to IN to attend her funeral. The weekend after that our next door neighbors were having a party, so we didn't want to encroach on their festivities. So two weeks after he got home, we had his WHP. I knew the date I would hold it for about two weeks, but the stress of my grandmother's passing, as well as getting used to Thomas being home again left me quite tired and unmotivated to plan a party. I didn't end up inviting everyone until a few days prior, which makes for small attendance.

The party was small, but it didn't matter because the goal of the party was for Thomas to experience the holidays he missed. I had a printed out synopsis of each holiday including pictures of us so he and everyone else could see how we spent our holidays with out him. I think the best part of the day was the Thanksgiving food and the Christmas cookies. In the end, it's always good to throw a party because it forces you to clean! :)

Thomas put effort into his cookies he decorated, then was miffed when he saw how I decorated mine.

Thomas's cookies:

Christmas

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Valentines Day

The banner I hung up at the entrance of the base for Thomas.

Michelle and I

Oh Dillon, you are sooooo adorable!

This was the best picture I could get of my husband.