Let It Be Known

Dear Earwigs,

              I feel that I should make it known to you, you are not welcome in my house.  I'm fine with seeing you outside, on my back porch, even in my garden and on my flowers.  I have tried to be as kind as I could be about this whole situation, but yesterday was the end.  You are MOST definitely NOT allowed in my bed, and thanks to my husband who only just informed me, in my MILK!  I hate to hurt your feelings but frankly, thanks to the story my sister Laura told me when I was little about the possible origin of your name (think something brown with bulgy eyes and yucky little antenna crawling into your ear) well, my relationship with you has never really recovered.  Let it be known among all your kind, my house is no longer a refuge for your little families.  Inside or outside.

                                                                                 Sincerely,

                                                                                          A Violated Homeowner

Bronwyn!

Some of Aftyn's Favorite Parts of Our Weekend

One of My Favorite Summertime Treats!

We have some awesome neighbors who love that we help them eat their zucchini.  And we think they are awesome for sharing! Here's one of my favorite things to do with zucchini:

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

2 1/2 c. flour                                                           2 c. sugar 

1/2 c. cocoa                                                       3 eggs

2 1/2 tsp baking powder                                    2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp baking soda                       2 tsp grated orange peel

                1 tsp salt                                            (I use orange flavoring)

1 tsp cinnamon                                               2 c. shredded zucchini

3/4 cup soft margarine                                                1/2 c. milk

                                                                                  1 c. nuts (optional)

                                                                           instead of nuts, I like to use chocolate chips!

C ombine flour, cococa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Set aside. Blend sugar, egg and margarine until evenly blended.  Add vanilla, orange peel and zucchini. Add dry ingredients and milk.  Bake in greased and floured Bundt pan (I just use a regular cake pan) at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Cool in pan 15 minutes.  Drizzle with this glaze:

2 c. powdered sugar                           

1 tsp vanilla

3 Tbsp milk

Beat until smooth.

Fortunately, Unfortunately

Today, both girls got to go see the Dr.

Fortunately, Aftyn didn't need any shots.

Unfortunately Bronwyn did.

Fortunately, the nurse was QUICK about administering them.
(I was a little concerned she would be slow at it.)

Unfortunately, quick or not, Bronwyn YELLED and held her breath and then yelled some more about the whole thing.

Fortunately, both girls went down for a nap as soon as we got home.

Unfortunately, Bronwyn woke up in a big puddle of poop.  No joke.  Sorry, but it's true.  Leaked clear through diaper, clothes and blanket.

Fortunately, someone invented laundry detergent, washers and stain spray.  :)

Unfortunately, Reed's not home to tell all this to.  Yet.

Also, Fortunately, and totally off topic, I fixed our long broken vacuum today

                                    The End




                                      

Some Product Reviews

Here are my favorite things:

 Halo Sleepsacks

I had been wanting to try something along these lines since Aftyn was born, but was much too afraid of their price and luckily my hospital gave us a newborn size Halo Sleepsack for free as part of a program they had just started.  I love it! It's so much easier than trying to wrestle your baby into a tight swaddle with a blanket.  With this, you just lay your child into the sack part and put their arms through the arm holes, zip them up and then velcro those little arms nice and tight to their bodies. Bronwyn sleeps so well in it, and even Reed can manage to put her in it.  He was a little wary at first because he's not so good at swaddling, but I've seen some of his swaddling jobs and comparatively you really can't go wrong with the Halo Sleepsack because you can't do it wrong.  I give it a 10 out of 10. Ours is nice and lightweight too so I can throw a light blanket on top for our little girl who likes blankets by her face.  By the way, I understand that right now Target has some of these on clearance, and frankly I'm tempted to go and buy one in the next size!

I stumbled across this product because of the possible free coupon you could get when you play this game on their website. After watching all of their videos and being really super surprised at how well their products really appeared to work, this was my first purchase with my free product coupon.  I LOVE this stuff! As a mom to a semi-newborn, I am still trying to cash in on as much sleep as I can, and I don't always get to shower as often as I would like.  That's where this stuff comes in for me.  I just spray it into my hair and it helps eliminate any grease on my scalp by absorbing it, it contains some sort of cornstarch-y stuff to do this, and the smell is fabulous! I have also tried the anti-frizz smoothing creme and the mousse.  I have REALLY been impressed by all of the professional line styling products I have tried, and I don't even mind the price for when I run out of my free products! At Walmart currently, they are running about $2.70 per item.  I generally have to pay much more for other brands for the same kind of thing. Also, I love the fragrance of all the products I have tried.  Yum!

These are my next favorites.  I tried them because of some coupons I had.  Wow.  No joke. Even more awesome is that they have flaxseed in them.  It's your basic pre-packaged oatmeal, except the flavor is SO much better and the little paper package they come in is also how you measure how much water or milk you add to them!! I can't begin to tell you how awesome that is unless you have made a whole lot of other prepackaged oatmeal.  It is such a hassle to always have to get a measuring cup out because if you don't measure out the exact amount of liquid to go in, your oatmeal comes out of the microwave too wet or too dry.  Also, the price is right for me.  Under $1 for 5 awesomely flavored oatmeal packets.  These are the two flavors I have tried. The strawberry one is my fave.

Here is one of my current UN-favorites.  It's hard for me to really not like something.  I generally always give things 2 or 3 tries until I really decide I don't like them, so trust me on this one.

Sorry, this was the only picture I could find, and no, you can't print the coupon from my page.
FiberOne 80 cereal.  Yuck.  Something ickily sweet about them, and the texture of the little cereal pieces is just not so appealing.  Reed commented to me this morning, his second morning of eating them, that there was just something not right with this cereal.  So, please, do yourself a favor. Unless you are desperate for cereal and this is on sale for $.50, don't waste your money.  Really.

That's it for now! If I remember anything else I need to pass along, I'll just add it to this post.

Pictures of Our Backyard!!

Before mowing, all the weeds that grew with our grass are really tall

The man with the plan to make this backyard beautiful

More before

After! Woohoo!!