Ch-ch-ch-changes . . .

On Wednesday, December 16 I was driving to work and getting ready to make my daily stop at the gas station to pick up my 44oz fountain soda and I decided it would be the day I stopped drinking soda. The first few days were rough. Truthfully, as corny as it may sound it was facebook that got me through. so many of my friends were encouraging and kind when I would whine and moan that I wanted a soda more than life. And, to be honest, I really didn't want to go on facebook and admit I gave in and drank a soda. As of today, it has been 12 days and I am done with the wicked headaches from withdrawl and I don't think about drinking Coke every waking moment. It is not easy, but it is much easier than it was.

I didn't really give up soda because of the caffeine, and I am currently drinking a peppermint coffee. Soda is just so terribly bad for you. I had a really, really bad habit and it cost a LOT of money. I decided enough was enough. This ad is what did it for me . . .



I have also decided to eat healthier. After reading Cindy and Christine's blogs I really want to make an effort to change the way we all eat. It seems so terribly overwhelming, but after reading Christine's post it confirmed that what I was thinking about doing would work. I am slowly substituting bad things for better things. I have nearly given up my wonderful smooshy white bread that I adore for wheat or oat. I have substituted regular flour for wheat. We have not been to a fast food restaurant in well over a month. I am going to try doing a meatless meal at least once a week. I am going to try simple things like making dumplings without the chicken (not necessarily vegetarian, as I am using chicken broth, but they don't really miss the chicken and Robert actually prefers it) I figured we can do tomato soup and grilled cheese at least once a week also.

Today for lunch I did something that I have read about on Cindy's blog. I grilled up some whole wheat tortillas and made burritos with beans, brown rice, and hot pepper cheese. Harrison LOVED them and I could definitely eat them all day. I think this summer with tomatoes from our garden they would be fabulous!

Truly, I feel tons better just not drinking soda. My body doesn't have nearly as many aches and I am certain it is due to less sugar in my body. I am digesting food better and I have only had heart-burn once this week as opposed to daily before!

We shall see what other changes this year has for us and our diet!

Night all . . .

Hope you all have a fabulous Christmas with your families. . . .much love to you all! The deed is done around these parts and I am heading to bed. Can't wait to see their faces tomorrow.

Finishing up . . .

As it gets closer to Christmas I have been finishing some crafty things I have been working on. Want a peek?

Washer Necklaces

I started these a few months ago. You take a washer and modge podge some scrapbooking paper on them. Filing off the edges with a fingernail filing block. Then you apply several coats of modge podge to make them shiny. I abandoned them because I COULD NOT get them smooth and they were irritating me. I found something called Triple Thick diamond finish for jewelry and decided to give it a try. They are drying right now and it does seem to be self leveling and they look good as of right now. We shall see.



Photo Blocks

I saw these on Little Birdie Secrets recently and thought they are fabulous! I tried them tonight and I really like how it turned out.



You start with a plain wood block. It was $1.47 at Hob Lob. I think if I do them again, I will go get a board at Lowes and cut it myself. I think I would like it a little more rustic and chunky. I painted mine green and them dry brushed cream over it and wiped it off.


Then you add some scrapbooking paper and a picture printed on regular paer with modge podge. When that was dry I antiqued the paper a bit and filled the edges with a nail file block to crust it up a little.


Close your eyes mom! Then I added some ribbon and a cute sparkly thing from Hob Lob. Cute!

My beauties . . .

Holy Mmmmmm Batman . . .

Frozen Strawberry Cake. Enough said.

Teacher and co-worker's gifts . . .

I am so tired of giving the same crap. I am pretty anti-gift card because I am cheap and I think a $5 gift card is kinda tacky. Maybe you will think that my gifts are kinda tacky, but here they are.

The kids and I made "Santa's Belly Buttons" (Harrison calls them Santa's Nipples . . . I am Mother of the Year) last night for their teachers. You just simply lay out circle pretzels on some parchment paper and fill the centers with Kisses (we did peppermint) and place them on a cookie sheet in a 200 degree oven for 2 minutes (they are not melted, just shiny and soft) When you take them out of the oven you press an M&M in the center of the Kiss. Fun and simple. The kids were really focused on unwrapping all the Kisses, laying out the pretzels, then pressing the M&M on the top. Kept them busy for well over and hour. Bonus.


I kept some candle jars and washed them a couple times. They have been airing out in a bag in the laundry room for a week or so in order to obliterate the candle smell. I made a little label, put it on with packing tape and tied a cute ribbon. I avoided doing a Christmas label so that they might be able to use the jar for their desk or something. Or they could just gorge themselves on the candy and then toss it in the can. That's okay too! I think they are cute!


I am super nervous about my co-worker's gifts. I have 5 people who work in the office with me. I have been there for almost 20 years so originality is difficult. I saw a cute idea on a blog a month or so ago and for the life of me I cannot find it to link to it. If you know where it was, let me know. I made an Eco-Friendly Cleaning Kit. If you have been reading here for awhile you will know that I have been making my own cleaning products for awhile now. So, when I saw this idea, I knew it was for me!

The baskets include an All Purpose Spray, a shaker container (from Kosher salt I bought at the dollar store) of my favorite Arm and Hammer's Super Washing Soda, a scrub brush, a few T-shirt rags rolled up, a scrubber, a baggie of denture tablets for toilets, and a laminated "recipe" card to re-make the solutions and ideas for usage. I think I wanna put some shredded brown bags in the basket for filler and I am going to add a couple lemons since you cannot Eco-Clean without lemons!

So what do you think? Should I have stayed with a cheap-o gift cards and the "Greatest Teacher apple ornament?

Boring . . .

Boring and busy here. Dustin is acting same ol' same ol'. Thank God we have not had any episodes of running out as of late. I suppose that is a combination of several things. It's freezing here for one. I don't let him wear shoes in the house, and he usually has pajama pants on. Those 3 things individually may not hinder him, but all three together is working for now. We also had a police officer come to the house a couple different times to talk to Dustin. He was firm and helpful. He has also put Dustin in a local program that is typically used for people with Alzheimer's that will help identify him if we have to make a call to the police, or if he "escapes" and we are unaware (like in the night).

His other behaviors have been pretty crappy. He is emotional and volatile. But I suppose it is par for the course during the holidays so we are keeping our heads above water. We did get some respite recently. (a whole 4 hours!) A friend of mine (a co-worker) is a youth pastor's wife. They do a babysitting thing for the holidays so parents can shop. She begged me to trust her and let the kids come. It wasn't that I didn't trust her, but I didn't trust Dustin's behavior. She paired him up with a teen to shadow him all night. Do you know what else she did? So he wouldn't feel badly, she paired everyone else with a teen. How cool is that? The kids had a great time, the church is still standing and we are still friends. Win Win Win.

The other two kids? Oy! They are definitely developing their own personalities and refining them. McCartney is still throwing tantrums, but we are working on it. Typically ignoring them will squelch them in 30 minutes now, where it used to take hours! Harrison is thriving in school and craves knowledge. He is singing a solo part in church this Sunday and he is thrilled. He has always sworn he is going to be a rock star! He has some anger issues, but he is working on them and finding some other ways to handle himself.

I did make one BIG mistake this weekend. I convinced Harrison to get a haircut. He is growing his hair out and I am okay with that. The problem is it has begun looking shaggy and I don't mean good, hip shaggy. If I didn't wash, blowdry and hot iron his hair daily it looked like poop. I don't spend that much time on my own hair so I am certainly not jeopardizing my sleep for his head! I decided if he had some nice texturizing that it would take the weight off and help. LORD HAVE MERCY was I wrong. He pretty much left with a mullet and I left stressing out. We are now starting over. I cut his hair tonight and we are starting the growing out again. Ugh! I cannot believe I made him get it cut and the kicker is he didn't want to do it and I bribed him. So not only did I pay for a bad cut, we ended up with a mullet, 2 days of stressing and it cost me a Bakugan!

I am starting on my Christmas baking. I hate teacher gifts because truly how many apples things does one teacher need? We are making Santa's nipples and putting them in cute jars. I will take pics. McCartney has also helped me make some really cool gifts for the office staff at work. I am super excited about them so I will do a post about that soon too. I have broken out the bread maker and am making all kinds of goodies. I am also making dipped pretzels, cookies, peppermint bark, fudge and who knows what else.

The best thing going on around here is that I think we may have found a church that we like. I had been attending a local church that I really liked and I became privy to some information that made it impossible to return there. I really stressed out about it. I had supported the church, given to the ministries and even helped to equip the nurseries. It made me sad to leave, but I could not bring myself to stay knowing what I know. I decided to try another local church and I really like it. We have been attending for about 6 weeks and the best part is that the kids LOVE it. That is so nice!

Happy Holidays . . .

These were taken at the daycare, so Dustin was not included. I plan on doing some this weekend.

Cute Wreath . . .

I have seen these everywhere in the blog-o-sphere. They are made from plastic bulbs. I did heed all the warnings and took all the tops off and hot glued them back on. I read too many horror stories of them seeming okay just to have the pop off when the wreath was assembled. All you do is glue the tops back on and string the bulbs on a wire coat hanger. Easy Peasy lemon squeazy. Mine is made with 60 bulbs . . . $5 at the dollar store.

And Cute!

Too True Tuesday (10) . . .

Brought to you by Essie . . . Today she says "tell us what you are getting yourself for Christmas (or holidays in general). If you are not a holiday celebrator, go buy yourself something and tell us about that!"

I am cheap when it comes to heating my house. When you live in a 100+ year old house with original windows, you tend to lose heat. I will not let anyone turn the heat past about 68. I catch myself sounding like my father . . . "Your cold? Put on more clothes" or "If you hands are that cold, you've got gloves in the drawer". I am a cheapskate.

Because of this we are a family of blanket hoarders. I LURVE "The Big One" fleecy-velour blankets from Kohls. They are TO DIE FOR. I was given one as a gift a couple years ago. We fought over it. Over the past couple winters I have bought more. Last week I bought another and I selfishly hoard it because it is SOFTER and FLUFFIER than the "old" ones. No one can use mommy's new blanket under penalty of a blanket-less time out. Seriously, you MUST go buy yourself one of these lovely, soft and fleecy blankets. . . they are $40, but you can get them on sale for under $10 if you watch closely, because if you are Kohl's shopper you know that you NEVER buy anything at full price because it will be on sale soon enough.

While we are being honest, do you know what else will raise the temperature in your home without turning up the heat? Candles. When someone complains about being cold I tell them to tell daddy to light a couple candles. I buy jar candles from Menards after Thanksgiving for under $2 and use them all year to keep the house warmer. This year I bought 30. Oh man I am cheap!

Camera Dump . . .

Night before Thanksgiving, our city lights a giant Santa that adorns a downtown building. It is a fun night where tons of locals some down and drink hot chocolate and break out the Christmas cheer. Usually we are headed to Kentucky for the holiday, but this year we did not head south so mom and I and the littles went downtown. Good times.






We spent Thanksgiving with my step-dad's family. We had a good time. Dustin was a little over-stimulated but he and Robert went home early. Another blessing to staying close to home.


Saturday after Thanksgiving I brought out the tree and we decorated the house. Thankfully the kids are getting old enough that they can hang ornaments and I don't care what it looks like so I let them. I only moved a couple.

Too True Tuesday (9) . . .

Essie's Blog Carnival is happening again. Join us!

Today's assignment, "So the subject of this weeks TTT is, your least favorite holiday and why. And just for fun and balance, your favorite holiday and why."

I hate holidays. I think I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after adopting Dustin. Holidays throw him for a loop. That in turn makes our whole world turn upside down. I truly cannot recall a holiday that went swimmingly or even randomly well. I don't blame him. I don't even expect good behavior from him on these holidays. We take what we get and we do the best we can and we attempt enjoy what we have. I suppose some of my hatred of holidays came before Dustin, so I can't blame it all on him. And perhaps it is my own OCD that causes me to not want to upset the law and order of things with a celebratory day for some random reason.

Let's see, I don't like Valentine's Day because I think it is manufactured for people to spend money, I don't get the idea of Easter baskets and egg hunts when we should be celebrating the resurrection of my Lord, Independence Day bores me as I don't much care for fireworks, Thanksgiving is probably the least irritating except for the fact that I have to chase Dustin constantly because he plays inappropriately with all the cousins and throws major tantrums, and Christmas gives me hives. Dustin is so HARD to buy for and I stress out terribly making everything seem fair and balanced and it is impossible.

Man, I sound like an ogre.

I suppose if I have to pick one favorite it would be Christmas Eve. I enjoy the kids anticipation and their wonder at waiting for Santa. My mom, step-dad and brother ONLY come over to our house and we eat a low key self-serve meal with all of our traditional favorites. The kids are in their own house and can act up and there is no embarassment. I don't have to put on shoes and I don't even have to put on make-up if I don't want to. The kids open a few presents and get new jammies. Everyone is happy and pleasant. I can't really stress out about the presents, because by now there is no other options. Everything is done and it will all be over soon. Family and love . . . isn't that what it should all be about?

This year we are going to attempt to try to do he Christmas Eve service at the church we have been checking out. It is early and it shouldn't interfere with our low key celebration. I hope maybe this can be a new tradition and it goes well.

A weekend project . . .

I have been thinking about painting my kitchen recently. We painted it when we moved in nearly 9 years ago and I decided it was more than time for a new coat of paint. I had toyed with the idea of painting it robin's egg blue and dark chocolate. The remainder of the downstairs is some shade of brown or another, with the exception of the dining room which is a creamy butterscotch. We live in a really OLD house. Our kitchen is likely original. It is OLD. I truly need an overhaul, but that is not in the cards. This is the only bank of cabinets before the paint job.


I have shown great restraint in not running out and buying paint. I really wanted to, but spending $60 on 2 gallons of paint was not frugal with Christmas coming up. Last week I was at Lowes picking up a thing of water for our water cooler and I checked the mis-tint paint stash as I always do. (because seriously who an pass up $30 paint for $7.00?!) I came across a gallon of dark chocolate eggshell paint. I thought I would set it back and get the robin's egg blue after the holidays.

Since I am not too patient, I decided I would go ahead and paint the cabinets and then just live with it as is until I got the other paint. Only my immediate family comes over from the holidays, so I decided I didn't really care if it was half done. I started about 8:00 pm Friday. I quickly regretted starting the project. I usually get about 45 minutes into a project and then think . . .

What am I doing this for????!!!

So I finished the backsplash and the cabinets and it looked fabulous! I had finished by about 11:00 and I was excited that it looked so good. I decided to check out the basement steps and my mistint paint collection to see if I had anything that would work. I did find a really nice sage green gallon that I forgot I had. It was labeled $4.00 so I must have bought it a while ago. I was up until about 2:30 in the morning, but man, my kitchen looks awesome. There is nothing better than fresh paint.


You really cannot see the green walls because if the lighting, but this is the chimney that runs through the kitchen. I found this awesome plate at Goodwill this weekend and looks FAB with the new colors in there.

Sunday I came home from church and decided I needed to add some turquoise after all. I added this scrolling doo hickey on the front of these four cabinets by hand. I am not sure they will stay there, but for now I can live with them.

And because I didn't seem to do quite enough this weekend, I got a really cool strand of glass bead garland at Goodwill for a dollar that I cut apart and made a tassel for the ceiling fan in the living room. Cute huh?

What did you do this weekend?

Struggling . . .

I am struggling. I don't feel the mojo to blog after all the marlarky about the lock. I feel violated. Odd huh? We put it all out there, then we freak out when we are on the receiving end of back-handed crap. I will admit it seems a little hypocritical.

Part of it might just be melancoly. I had the viewing and funeral right after the "day of tears" which is what I am calling the day I found out about the lock). Dustin came home from school that day right in the middle of one of the weepy, explanatory phone calls. He saw how terribly upset I was. I was honest with him about my fears. I am wondering if it made a difference in his recent behavior. I am not sure. If so, it will likely not hold over the impulsivity, but I will take any respite from the running we can get. We have also slightly tweaked his medication schedule and it may be making a difference in the nighttime behavior. Only time will tell. But for now, things have been kinda mellow at home.

Nothing much else is happening. We are not traveling to Kentucky for the holiday. It is simply too hard with the kids routines changing and the animals left at home for a 16 hours visit. Robert's mom and sister are meeting us in Indianapolis after the holiday for lunch so that will be a nice change of pace. I am looking forward to Black Friday. My mom and have been going for a few years. We do not stand in too long lines and we have a routine, so I am looking forward to that. Mostly a day shopping without ANY kids will be good!

Nothing else is too exciting in the Rouse House. We got a cool new couch of Craiglist to replace the loveseat for the "kid area". (maybe the kids will stop fighting over who gets to lay down) The dog has allergies and is itching like crazy. (Yay vet bills! UGH) I am working on putting together a really cool gift idea for my co-workers this year. I am really excited about it. Let's hope that the finished project turns out as cute as I hope it does. (unlike the black apple dolls I tried to make!)

A Veteran's funeral . . .

Rest well gramps . . .

My grandfather lost his battle with cancer today. How fitting that a veteran passed on veteran's day. He was not in pain and his passing was very peaceful with loved ones around. He joins my grandmother who left us many years before.

Too True Tuesday (8) . . .

Essie's Too True Tuesday topic is... a funny or embarrassing story where your kids have been the funny and you were the embarrassed.

This one didn't involve my kids, but funny nonetheless . . .

The set up:
I had a girl in my class whose parents raised Great Danes. Her father who had never been at our daycare brought one in one time for show - n- share. A boy from my co-workers class named Cameron was quite an ornery thing. This is the child that likes to pee on the toilet paper roll just to see it grow, and pee in the easel tray to fill it up. His father was quite concerned about his behavior, and dad was quite intimidating even to us as teachers. Nice man, but large and commanding. Here's how the show -n-share instance went.

The instance:
Haley's dog was LARGE. This back was about eye level with the children. Some smaller children were shorter than the dogs back. Cameron walked around the dog, stopping just in the rear of the dog. He bent over and looked under the dogs tail which was cropped. He moved to the side and looked under the dog. He then moved to the other side and looked once again under the dog.

The kicker:
He pops his head up, points at the dogs hoo-hoos and says . . .
"Hey! My dad's gots them!"

(wait for it. . . . )

"But they aren't that big!"

My co-worker and I lost it! We could never look at Cameron's dad again without thinking about the family jewels and their size relative to the dog. The dad who brought in the dog pretended like he didn't hear anything, but he was visibly embarrassed and so were we!

Mondays suck . . .

Even though I hate Mondays, I must remember to be thankful that I actually have a job to go to. I am blessed to be working and doing a job I love. . .

This weekend was a jumble of craziness. Friday I decided to undertake a big project and it kicked my butt. Apparently I am getting too old and my body is letting me know. My dog, Cayenne, has decided that she must escape the backyard. Over the past few months she has began to eat her way through the gates of our 6 foot privacy fence. Initially I put plastic lattice over the bottom of the gates. That lasted about a month until she began to eat through the lattice. At the end of the summer I resorted to chicken wire. Our three gates now have layers of chewed fencing, lattice and chicken wire. It looks like hillbilly central. On Thruday she decimated one of the fence bottoms. There was nothing left to tack something on to. I decided Friday that I needed to get some new fence panels and simply fence over the worst gates and do away with them.

Once I get an idea in my head, I cannot let it go. I decided that not only did I need to do this, but it needed to be done right now. I refused to wait to hunt down someone with a truck and I headed over to Lowes. I bought 3 6x8 foot fence panels and strapped them down on the roof of my van. I love OCD! Now I really looked like the Clampets! I made my mom come over from work to help me strap them down since Lowes employees will help you get them on top, but will not help you strap them down for obvious reasons. We nearly pee-d our pants laughing at how ridiculous we must have looked! Hilarious!

I drove like 20 mph home and called Robert along the way informing him of the project that laid ahead! He was not amused. I only needed him to help me get them off the van, I could do the rest. He acquiesed and I began working at about 4:00pm Friday night. I got one panel down and a gate removed and the new fence put on before I ran out of light and my saw ran out of battery. The remaining gate waited until Saturday. Of course the remainder of the backyard had to be cleaned for winter and the patio stuff put away. I worked about 8 hours on Saturday. Dustin was super helpful and the weather was gorgeous! The kids got to play outside while I worked and Robert got some quiet time in the house for a project. It was win-win!

When I got done I collapsed in the chair and watched some tv. When I got up from the chair I realized I had overdone it. I could hardly walk! I am getting too old! Every joint in my body ached and my head was pounding! I did nothing for the rest of the day.

Sunday I got up and took the littles to a church I have been wanting to visit. The kids loved it and I did too. The pastor was real. The music was good and the people were super friendly. I think we are going to check it out for a few more weeks to see if this can be a new church home. I thought I had found a new church home last fall, but alas I was not comfortable there due to some information I was privvy too. I really wish I had not found out this information, but I did and it ruined it for me. I hope it is nothing and the church will be fine, but I just couldn't put myself there anymore. It is a good place, the pastor is a good man, and I hope this situation will not be it's downfall. Enough said.

After church my mom took the littles to her house for some playtime. Dustin and I laid around and watched football. He is hysterical. He knows nothing about football, but is learning. he calls allthe teams by the icons on their helmets. And any team that is blue must be the Colts. Cracks me up. I think he is doing so well because we took the FLIGHT out of the equation when we got the double keyed deadbolts. He knows running is no longer an option so he is working through his anger and his impulses. Either that or we have reached a new phase. . . whatever. I'll take the peace I get when I get it!

My love . . .

Look what I found at Sam's Club . . . 12 ounces bottles! Mmmmmm!

Can you tell me . . .

Holy crap! I got hollered at in the school drop off line this morning. They have 3 lines and the lines alternate to move into 1 single file line to drop kid at the sidewalk next to the school door. Every morning it is a crap shoot which direction the line is alternating . . . is it line 1 then line 2 then line 3 or is it line 3 then line 2 then line 1. Who knows? You just have to watch.

So today it was line 3, line 2 and then line 1. I was in line 3. I waited my turn then inched my van forward into the single line. The woman next to me lost her shit. She started screaming at me that it was her turn, that I was apparently crazy, and didn't I know how this worked? She was hollering and cursing and wildly waving her arms at me. Of course I let the crazy bat go first. If she really wanted to get there that much quicker than I did, she could have at it.

Seriously.

We have a saying at daycare. . . if you cut me in line you will only get there 1 second before me. Does it really matter? This woman looked like a total fool to her daughter who as sitting in the seat next to her. My kids looked at me to see how I was going to react. I burst out laughing. That did not make her happy. She revved her engine and began shaking her hands again.

Seriously.

In line at the elementary school.

While we giggled our way to the drop off door.

By the way, my kids got out of the car and got to the door before her child. And they had smiles on their faces. Her daughter looked mortified!