Jewelry in my Etsy shop!

Jewelry added to my Etsy shop! Check it out!!

Mega-sized mommy adrenaline

My kids were trapped in a hot car!!!!!

I put my purse and diaper back down in the car and since Aiden was fussy, I did what I normally don't do and put my keys down in the car too so he would stop pulling at them and I can just get the kids in the car quick and get on my way to the grocery. I let Hailey climb into her seat as I buckled Aiden into his. Then I went over to buckle Hailey in her seat. All the doors closed now, I walked around the back of the car, as I do every time I put the kids in the car and I heard the doors lock. I stopped in my tracks. No. No, no, no, no, nooooooo!! This can't be! I ran to all of the doors and pulled on them but the car is locked. The hatchback is locked. Everything is locked. My keys are in the car. My phone is in the car. I don't have a house phone. I don't have spare keys.

I tried to get Hailey to unlock her door but she couldn't. I found a neighbor across the street that came out of her garage as I was standing on the sidewalk wondering who to ask for help but still be in sight of my car. I didn't like being so far away from my kids, especially when they needed me. My neighbor let me use her phone to call my husband but since he was working and didn't recognize the phone number, he didn't answer. Okay... my car has OnStar. We don't have the service enabled right now but I figured with some $$ they could turn it on and unlock my car so I called them. They said no. They said to activate my account I would have to be inside the car and push a button. Oh my gosh.

OnStar said they will connect me to 911. What??! Is this really happening? OnStar told me to leave the phone with my neighbor and go comfort my kids. I played peek-a-boo with them like I do when getting gas to try and calm them down. I still tried to see if Hailey could unlock her door but she couldn't. My neighbor came over with 911 on the phone and they said that they were sending out the closest available help. He kept asking me if the kids were in distress and I said no. Eventually I could see through the tinted windows that Aiden's face was completely sweaty and he looked red. I asked 911 when help was going to be here and he said they were on their way but when I told him how Aiden looked, he said I need to break a window now. He sounded really serious and figuring that he is experienced at this, I needed to get more serious about the situation so I did what he said. I broke the front windshield under his direction and a neighbor with long arms came and reached through the glass to unlock the car door.

I got Hailey out of the car first since I was by her door. She seemed a little sweaty/hot but okay. I got Aiden out and he was completely red, screaming, and totally soaked as if I dunked him in hot water. He was very hot to touch. I know all the crying he did definitely worked up his body heat too. I immediately took his soaked onesie off and took Aiden and Hailey inside to cool them off. I put Aiden in the kitchen sink putting water on him and a wet hand towel. I was asking 911 when they are coming and he was still saying soon. Now keep in mind, it took several minutes to break the windshield. At this point I wasn't so calm anymore. It was taking what felt awfully long and I felt that I had been through a lot all by myself that I shouldn't have been. Finally after about 5 more minutes, the firetruck came. By that time everyone had cooled down well and calmed down. They were very nice and checked the kids out and we agreed that all was okay. Hailey even got a pink fire-man hat. :)

All in all, my kids were in the car over 20 minutes and 911 took minimum of 15 minutes to get here from the time that OnStar contacted them. I think the big problem with 911 was the transferring from OnStar took time and there is confusion as to who services our neighborhood. We live in Ocoee but Winter Garden is who came. Yet when my sister was leaving our neighborhood the other day, she saw a firetruck from an Apopka fire station here. (A very nice cop showed up 5 minutes after the firetruck left and said that he came as soon as he could, that he had to come from downtown). When I had to call 911 a few weeks ago for something, it took them a few minutes of transferring before they could put in the call to send someone out.

I praise God that my kids are safe and healthy, for my neighbors across the street, for the helpful man on 911 and the firemen and policeman that came to help. Everyone is well and my insurance fully covered the cost since it was my windshield that I broke.

The facts:
My kids were buckled in their seats with my keys in the front of the car so, they couldn't have hit the lock button.
There is absolutely NO lock all doors button in the back of the car. Only the manual lock on the door that locks only that door.
I have ran the scenario over and over and cannot get my car to automatically lock the way it did. Even acting as my daughter if she locked her door with her foot.

Lesson learned: Keep my keys with me and keep a spare key somewhere!!

Cute braided scart 100% recycled material

At my Etsy store OohLaChic I added a cute scarf I made out of 100% recycled jersey material.

OohLaChic - My Etsy store!

I recently started creating flowers out of material and putting them on gator clips, pins, headbands, etc. I am having so much fun with it I decided to sell them on Etsy is - a site for handmade items.

Click on the link below to see my store! :)

OohLaChic

One brown widow is too many!

The other day I went outside and took quite a bit of basil from my herb garden (it was getting so big!) Then the next day I went to water my herbs and I noticed something in my basil. A nasty spider web with something in it. I pulled it out with a utensil and then I noticed the HUGE spider next to my hand crawling away. Then I noticed the orange hour glass on the belly. Uh oh. A brown widow! Then I noticed more brown widows flowing from my herbs. UH OH! Later that night I took my husband outside to show him where I saw the brown widow and we found the entire back patio completely infested with them. We easily saw 20 but probably more. I couldn't believe my eyes. I have never ever seen anything like it.

Here's only a few of them...






Needless to say, after much toil and debate, I had to let go of my herbs and let my husband spray them down with poison to kill the spiders. My husband will be working for the next few weeks to kill the spiders and clean up our toddler's toys (they spiders found them as homes) to keep in the garage. Our back patio will be useless. :/ We just can't risk it with kids.

What did we ever do without Google?

What did moms ever do without Google? I think so many times a day "Oh, I'll just Google it!" (It is oh so accessible on my iPhone now too)

I am reminded that even though the internet has a ton of helpful information, some of the best advice can be from our own moms, friends at a play date or a phone call to a sister. There is nothing like real, first-hand advice from people who have experienced the gum in hair emergencies or a child taking a clonk on the head.

If mom is upset, everyone is upset

Have you ever felt down? Just plain old yucky and negative and that you just can't do anything right? I am struggling with that right now. :/ The saying is "If mom is upset, everyone is upset". I do not want that to be so in my household. As wives and moms, the truth is we do set the tone. As I was thinking about this I was reminded of the following Scripture...

2 Timothy 1:6&7
For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

The dictionary says kindle means to start, to excite or to stir up/set going. What is kindling in me? Am I stirring up lies and negativity? Am I meditating on yuck and therefore yuck comes out? This week I am challenged to stir up what I know God has implanted in me... a spirit of power, love and discipline. Yes, this means I have to discipline my mind!

The world says if I have a reason to be upset, then be upset and let everyone know it {FB official?}. And let's just get down to it... a woman's hormones say the same thing! It is hard to meditate on the Word AND meditate on yuck at the same time. The world says we have a right to act the way we feel. The Scripture says to be disciplined and have self-control. What happens when we make that tough first step to follow the Lord? Most would say we get a ball and chain. But o'contrair! We begin to find freedom! There isn't any freedom in feeling the way we want to feel and doing whatever we want to do (sin). In fact, Jesus came to break the bond of sin. Romans 6:5-7 says For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

So, if we are born again, believing Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and only because of His death on the cross and resurrection we are freed from the bondage of sin, we may then die to our flesh (aka doing whatever we want, whatever feels good or feels right in the moment) and find life in Christ. John 11:25 says this - Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die."

For most people, it is easier to work in small steps so maybe ask this question... Am I showing the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Start with the first, love, and work on that. Then move on to joy and so on.

Is it herb or herb?

I like buying plants at Lowe's because if my green thumb is broken, I can return a dead plant that I bought there (with a receipt that you have to copy so it doesn't fade) for up to a year! With that in mind, and the fact that I was constantly buying herbs at the grocery store, I bought some herbs for home. I have a tomato plant, a cucumber plant and some flowers of Hailey's mixed in there too. So far, so good!

Balls of cake on a lolly pop stick = cake pops!

So, this was my first attempt at making cake balls. (Recipe here. I was really determined to have my cake balls round and not flattened on one side from sitting on a flat surface. So, I took a coupon to JoAnne Fabrics and bought a long block of styrofoam. Then I took a metal measuring spoon and scooped out the styrofoam to make places for the cake balls to sit.



I then covered the styrofoam with Glad Wrap Press'n Seal (I love that stuff!!) I then cut the styrofoam into four blocks so that they would fit in my freezer.




I got so into my project, I didn't take any more pictures until I was done. But this is the final project. How did I make the board the pops were sticking out of? I found a shallow thick cardboard box in the pantry. I covered it with Christmas wrapping paper but exposing the back side which was white, and then took a screw driver to make the holes for the cake pops to sit in. It held up so well that I can use it again! :)

My family rules! And we have rules too...

I love the blog Jones Design Company. She created a Family Rules art print that I would have loved to buy to support her but instead I had to be inspired to make my own. I liked the rules that she had...

Be kind
Creativity is always encouraged
forgive, forgive, forgive
Make good choices
Have Fun
give (lots of) hugs
Say your prayers
Love One Another

So I took scrapbooking paper that I already had, typed the rules in Microsoft Word in the fonts that liked. I put one rule on each page at the top. Then one page at a time, I printed the rules out on the scrapbooking paper, making each page/rule on a different scrapbook paper pattern and this is what I got...




Then I cut the paper that said "...Family Rules..." on it to the size of the frame I would use. This would be the paper that I would glue the rules onto. I cut the rules into strips of paper and glued them in order onto the Family Rules paper. Then I put it in a picture frame that I already had and this is what I got...



So, please go check out Jones Design Company's blog and all the prints she has for purchase. They are adorable! But, in case you are like me and must be crafty with the things you already have and like what she did, you now know how I did it! :)

A baby shower!

It was so much fun hosting my sister's baby shower. The little guy is going to be here so soon! We call him "Yoda" since he doesn't have an official name yet. :) My sister's invitations had a baby in a pea pod on it so I decided to stick with that theme. You could say the food theme was chocolate. Chocolate cake and cupcakes, brownies, chewy chocolate chip cookies. Yummm!!!

Re-purposing a cake stand

I love to make desserts and put them in my beautiful glass cake stand. But when I don't have desserts, I wanted to still use the cake stand as a display. I bought this bird at JoAnn's on clearance. I had the next tucked away in a box somewhere and painted wooden knobs an ivory color. Then I put them in my cake stand. How cute!!





What do you have that you could display in your cake stand?

The perfect meal for your special someone!

The sweetness of the honey combined with the earthiness of rosemary and zing of shallots, lemon and garlic will send your taste buds into a whirl with this recipe!

Personally, I think one of the best dates is cooking together. The kitchen is always a great place for conversation, you learn more about each other when you are interacting (instead of watching a movie), etc. And of course then you end up with a yummy meal!

This meal is also a great one to impress the one you love. So simple yet scrumptious!

Ingredients

* 2 tablespoons EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive Oil, divided
* Salt and black pepper
* 4 6-ounce pieces boneless, skinless chicken breast
* 1 large shallot, finely chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
* 3 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped
* 1/2 cup honey
* 1 rounded tablespoon Dijon mustard
* Juice of 1 lemon

Preparation

Heat 1 tablespoon EVOO, a turn of the pan, in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper. When oil smokes, add chicken to the pan and cook 6 minutes on each side. Remove from pan and cover with foil.

Reduce heat under pan to medium and add another tablespoon EVOO, a turn of the pan. Add shallots, garlic and rosemary to pan and cook 2-3 minutes. Add honey, stir in Dijon and lemon juice. Add chicken back to the pan and coat on all sides with the bubbling glaze. Turn off heat.

Serve with some brown or white rice and steamed green beans. Yummo!

All credits for this recipe go to Rachael Ray Show. See the full recipe and picture here!

Enjoy!

Put pizza and burgers together and what do ya get?

PIZZA BURGERS!!

Kids will eat it up, it is affordable, daddy likes it because there's meat and mommy likes it because it is easy! A win win for the family!

Ingredients...



1 lb. ground beef 1/3 c. chopped onion
1 tsp. oregano leaves 8 oz. shredded mozzarella (if I have extra I put more in)
4 oz. can sliced mushrooms, drained
14.5 oz. can of pizza sauce
8 hamburger buns

In a large skillet, brown ground beef & onions then drain. Put beef and onions in a mixing bowl. Add mushrooms & oregano. Heat oven to 400 degrees and refrigerate mixture.



Once oven is pre-heated, take mixture out of refrigerator. Stir cheese into hamburger mixture. Separate sliced buns onto cookie sheet face up. Spoon mixture onto sliced buns and place on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.



TIPS:
Have your dishwasher empty and instead of putting your dirty utensils and pans in the sink, rinse them and put straight into dishwasher.
Cover cookie sheet with foil... then you don't have to wash it. :)

Flowers for my little girl

I am always looking for inexpensive projects for my 2 year old and I to do. Nana gave us these two plans to pot and some soil. She had a blast planting them and the fun continues when we go outside every few days to water the plants. I have plans in the next couple weeks to get some herbs and vegetable plants to pot as well!

Etsy

Etsy is a website devoted to home-made crafts being sold by their makers online. I always have fun window shopping on the site and get ideas for things I want to make myself. You could even put a request of something you want made on Etsy!

I am considering putting a few things that I make on Etsy.

These would be to start...



What do you think? The flowers could be on a gator hair clip, headband or a pin to put on a jacket, blouse, purse, etc.

What do I clean first??

One of my dear friends was visiting and we were talking about babies, cooking, house cleaning and the like. Of course the conversation consisted of how difficult it is to do "everything" while having a toddler and a baby and our attempts (or at least mine cause she is so awesome!) to create routines and stick with them. For me, the master bedroom/bathroom tends to be the last thing touched in my house cleaning because it seems the least important... or is it?

I was challenged years ago by a very respectable woman in our church who said that if anything is clean and orderly in the house, it should be the master bedroom. As women and moms, our bedroom is our retreat. As husband and wife, it is our place of intimacy. But do I use the space that way? Or do I use it to place laundry loads, collect important papers, scattered books, etc. Though I don't spend a ton of time in my bedroom or bathroom, the time that I DO spend needs to be high quality and I need to enjoy the space.

So, my challenge to myself and maybe to you... for the next couple weeks, let's spend fifteen minutes (because we can all find 15 minutes!) a day transforming our master bedroom and bathroom.

Here's our steps:

1. Put items away (laundry, papers, etc.)

2. De-clutter. What do we really need? What clothes can we give away?

3. Dust. This includes the fan!

4. Organize. My jewelry is a hot mess and my shoes could use some help!

5. Re-decorate. Shop the rest of your house for decorations. What can you swap
from room to room or make a new use for?

6. Enjoy!!

Take some before and after pics! :)

A recipe from way back when...

Many of the moms I know, including myself, are looking for dinner meals to make that are are easy on the budget and not time consuming. Sometimes I revert back to meals I ate growing up. They give me the warmness feeling of home and as a mom, I understand why my mom made it. :) Kids love the potato chip and cheese topping...

Rigatoni and Ham Bake

Ingredients:
2 quarts of water 2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. oil 3 1/2 c. rigatoni pasta
2 c. diced cooked ham 4 oz. (1 c.) shredded cheddar cheese
2 tbsp. butter 1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. dry mustard
2 1/2 c. milk 2 oz. (1/2 c.) shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 c. crushed potato chips paprika, if desired


(This picture from my phone does not do it justice)

Instructions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Boil water in large deep pot with 2 tsp salt and the oil. Add rigatoni and stir. Cook uncovered after water returns to a full rolling boil for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Drain and rinse under hot water. In a large bowl, combine cooked rigatoni, ham and 1 cup of cheese. In medium sauce pan, melt butter. Blend in flour, 1/2 tsp. salt and mustard. Add milk all at once. Cook on medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Combine sauce with rigatoni mixture. Turn into 2 quart casserole dish. Toss 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese with potato chips; sprinkle over top of casserole. Sprinkle with paprika, if desired. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 to 30 minutes.

*You could easily add in some peas to this meal for the veggies.

Big, chewy and chocolatey means you can't go wrong!

I thought baking some cookies with my two year old daughter would be some fun quality time. I got this *chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe and we got to work!

I pre-measured out the ingredients and put it into bowls. It would give me a few more bowls to clean but Hailey can participate more by pouring the contents of one bowl into another than cracking egg shells and using measuring cups. (Though I do look forward to teaching her how to cook and bake in the coming years!!)





The cookies were delish!! Big, chocolatey and chewy! The recipe is definitely a keeper. :)



*We refrigerated the cookie dough for about 45 minutes before we baked the cookies.

My sneaky sneaky project!!

Yay! I can finally share my sneaky plans I have had the past few weeks. :) I have been planning to make a replica of my parent's wedding cake for their 30 year anniversary (which is today). Before I go into how I made the cake, I must tell you how perfectly my cake idea fitted into their celebratory plans. I already had the idea of making a cake for my parents when my dad called and said he wanted to surprise my mom with a little mini ceremony or vow renewal on their anniversary. He wanted to make sure the family would be there and we could do it at a park. I suggested Crane's Roost, a beautiful park in Altamonte Springs and plans were set! Little did he know that his plans fit perfectly with my desire surprise them with a replica of their wedding cake! Hehe! I ended up asking my dad for their wedding album and lead him to think I was making a creative moments album for them. All I really needed was a picture of their original wedding cake. Muahahaha!




My sister Stephanie and I got together a few days ago for a craft store trip and I spent the weekend prepping the cake (baking and dirty ice it) so we could decorate on Sunday.

First I baked the pound cake. I let it cool, cut off the rounded tops of the cake (and ate it... yum!!), stacked it on the trays and did a thin layer of buttercream icing (I will share the recipe on another day) to keep crumbs from getting in the way when we decorate the cake. Then I put the cake in the fridge overnight. This is what they looked like in the fridge...



Then I made some royal icing to make the hearts, the "30" and the monogram for the top of the cake. To make the arched hearts I put parchment paper on a rolling pin, drew the hearts with royal icing onto the parchment paper and let it dry overnight. Royal icing dries hard (though fragile) and I was able to pick it up after it drying and place it on the cake (using more royal icing as glue).

After the cake sat in the fridge overnight, Stephanie and I made buttercream icing to cover the cake and royal icing for decorating. The decorating part surprised me at how fast it went. It actually took longer to bake the cake and set it up for decorating than it did to decorate it!

Here it is....







The top cake was butter pound cake with chocolate filling and the lower cake was butter pound cake with whipped icing for the filling. Yummo!!

Easy to peel?

My mom’s deviled egg recipe is a popular request amongst my friends and family. One day soon (with my mom’s permission) I will post it for you. :) My problem has always been peeling the darn eggs. I found the following to be extremely helpful and hopefully it will be for you too!

Easy To Peel Hard Boiled Eggs
If you’ve ever struggled to peel a hard boiled egg or ended up with a greenish yolk, try this… Start with eggs that have been refrigerated for several days because new eggs will not peel easily. Usually any egg you buy at the store will fall into this category!



1. Place the eggs in a pot of COLD water. Be sure there is at least an inch of water above the top of each egg. Our well water is icy cold and roughly the same temperature as an egg taken from the refrigerator, but if your cold tap water is not as cold, let the eggs sit in the cold water for about five minutes, then replace that water with more cold water. The idea is to equalize the temperatures of the eggs and water so that both the water temperature and the egg temperature start out the same. (If you just put refrigerator-cold eggs in water warmer than they are, the water will heat up faster than the eggs and the eggs may crack. Some people add a teaspoon of salt or vinegar to the water when they are cooking eggs. This supposedly helps keep the inside of the egg from oozing out if an egg shell cracks. I do not use either salt or vinegar, because I have found that starting with the eggs and water at the same temperature prevents the eggs from cracking as they cook.)

2. Place the pot with the eggs and water over high heat until the water comes to a full boil. IMMEDIATELY take the pot off the heat and cover with a tightly-fitting lid. The eggs will cook from the heat of the water. The eggs do not need to be, and should not be, boiled. Overcooking eggs causes the iron in the yolk and the sulfur in the white to combine, and this is what makes that ugly greenish color around the yolk.

3. Let the eggs sit in the pan in the hot water for 12 minutes for medium eggs, 15 minutes for large eggs and 18 minutes for extra large eggs. This timing is very important.

4. Drain the eggs and fill the pot with cold water. I like to empty and re-fill the pot several times to make sure the heat of the eggs doesn’t heat the water back up again. You can also put ice cubes in the water. The water should be very cold. Letting the eggs sit in the cold water until the eggs are completely cooled helps the papery membrane stick to the shell, instead of to the egg, and makes the egg easier to peel.

5. Let the eggs cool completely. To peel the eggs, gently tap the large end of the egg against a hard surface like your kitchen counter. This should crack the shell. Turn the egg and crack the other end. The shell should peel off very easily.

6. Hard boiled eggs in the shell can be refrigerated up to one week. Hard boiled eggs out of the shell should be used right away.

Recipe written by Shirley

For all nursing moms out there...

I have found something that tastes fabulous and increases your milk supply.... Chewy FiberOne Bars!!! I prefer the oats and chocolate flavor. :) I had just discovered the yumminess of the chocolatey oaty bars that remind me much of a candy bar when a Lactation Consultant said I should eat them to increase my milk supply. It is something about the oats. (Oatmeal increases milk supply as well).

I buy my bars at Costco. Best price I have found so far!

My new fav app!

With a busy husband, a two year old and a 5 month old, I need a little help in setting a routine to get things done around the house. I came across this Home Routines app for the iPhone and I love it!!




You can edit the routines in the app to fit your needs. I also like FlyLady I still receive email reminders from FlyLady and have put some of their routines into my Home Routines app.

A knitting venture

A few years ago I learned how to knit scarves. I have knitted 6 scarves and have attempted to knit a baby blanket (that project sits undone in a closet somewhere). This time I decided to venture out a little more and make a baby hat for my 13 week old little man. I had some yarn left over so I made him a small matching scarf. Aiden wasn’t as proud of the results as I was…





This is the instructional video I watched to make Aiden’s hat…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB3-Qf4w870 (cut & paste)