Allison Update

We had our first visit to the ER with a child on Wednesday. It was quite the experience, for me anyway, Daddy was awesome and Allison was spectacular.

It started with Alli throwing up everything she was eating at each of her feedings since Tuesday afternoon. Finally Wednesday afternoon I was scared enough to call the doctor. She told me to bring her in right away and so I did. When they weighed her they found she had lost weight since her 1 month appointment which was last Friday (she had weighed 9 lbs 11 oz and now weighed 9 lbs 7 oz) so they decided to send her to the ER to have some tests run to rule out all the big issues that could crop up by the 1 month point. So they drew blood and left the port in just in case they had to give her meds or fluids via the IV. Now the only experience I have with having blood drawn from a little one is when they drew blood for Cassie's 12 month which to say the least was absolutely no fun. So I left it to Daddy to have that awesome experience this time. However, the nurse gave Alli her pacifier dipped in some sugar water and she just sucked happily away on it, didn't move when she was pricked, no flinching no crying, not even a wince! She took it like a pro. They then sent us off to get an ultrasound of her belly. All tests came back normal so they let us take her home.

Last night and Thursday she was still throwing up but it wasn't everything she ate and now she is coughing and sneezing and is really congested. Sooooo what does it mean? I have no idea, all I know is we had a follow up appointment yesterday and she was back up to 9 lbs 12 oz so she is keeping something down and putting weight back on. So now we are just paying attention making sure that a) she keeps keeping down some if not all of her food, b) she doesn't get a fever and c) her cold doesn't get much worse. Hopefully the throwing up was just caused by some random stomach bug that she picked up and/or her coughing triggering her gag reflex. Otherwise it will mean more tests, and that's just not cool!

Also yesterday morning we had to go back to the hospital to get an ultrasound done of her hip which keeps clicking at her checkups. Again we gave her her pacifier and she slept through the whole thing. Such a good girl!!! Well since our (new) Pediatrician is very well liked at the Hospital we got the results yesterday afternoon! Turns out that her one hip is borderline, which means that its not in its joint properly (?) and we need to go back to have another one done in 6-8 weeks to see if it popped into place or if we need to follow up with an ortho...

Today so far so good as far as the throwing up goes. She is still really congested and sneezing and weezing and coughing like crazy but she seems better so far we shall see how the day progresses!

Never a Dull moment huh??

Top Ten Best Things of a Staycation

We are having a staycation this memorial weekend, partially because we aren't quite sure how the girls are going to adjust to sleeping in such close proximity in the Camper, mostly because I completely forgot it was a holiday weekend...

So I figured I would compile a list of the reasons staycations are just as great as vacations...

1. The price of $0.00 per night fits right into our budget

2. Little or no gas needed to get where we are going since we are parking in the yard

3. Day trips consist of discovering new places right where we live

4. Always close to the restroom (no getting lost in the dark in the wee hours of the morning!) and there is always a free shower with hot water

5. "Free" electric hook up

6. Plan B available in case one or more of the girlies don't take to well to the sleeping

7. Completely Pet friendly

8. No need to miss classes/lessons/practices which you have paid for and haven't been canceled due to the holiday

9.(although this is technically cheating) no need to worry if we forgot anything since everything we own is right here.

10. You aren't looking out the window at the closed up sad looking camper thinking "man I really wish we were getting to go camping this weekend".

I'm kind of excited to see our little camper all popped up in the yard and to get out there again. We never got to winterize it last winter thanks to the fiasco with the bank and the house so who knows what we will find out there, but it just adds to the adventure :)

And can't wait for the first S'more of the season, even if we have to cook the marshmallows over the grill :)

Family Movie Night

For the last couple weeks we have been having a family movie night, hopefully we will be able to keep up the tradition it's been lots of fun!

Last Friday the movie was the Princess and the Frog. A pretty fun movie!

The Little Miss even watched some of it!

Our menu consisted of english muffin pizzas which we all ate on the floor. Daddy and I got to drink out of the sippy cups since even we are prone to spill, especially with the dogs, cats and toddlers milling about on the floor :)

Since the little miss is still a bit young for popcorn yet, we *settled* for some black raspberry ice cream...

Which apparently the little miss found to be no fun at all.

Even Sirius got some :)

And the littlest Miss? She was content just sleeping the whole time :)

It was an excellent time for all!

Oh so exciting

Yep in our little life its the little things that are exciting :)

First thing...Last night I purchased the supplies are we are set to attmept our green/frugal cleaning! Going to start out with the simple stuff today to clean the Windows, Living room, Kitchen and Bathroom. This weekend I am going to attempt making some laundry detergent.

And next up... I ordered a table yesterday for Cassie to craft on :) so far I have just been putting down a huge blanket on the living room floor and letting her have at it, but I think now we need to start having her contained a bit more to a creative space. I didn't want to put her in her high chair or at the kitchen table simply because that's where we eat...or TRY to get her to eat anyway, don't want to confuse her by trying to teach her to NOT eat the art supplies :)

So I ordered her this table. . .

We will set it up in the living room sans umbrella and make a little crafting center for her. Can't wait to get it! (though will have to wait a bit, I ordered it on Walmart.com and had it shipped to the store for free to save the $10 shipping fee...)

But anyway... during my grocery shopping excursion last night I bought some crafting supplies :) bought the supplies to make some playdough (Kool Aid and Creme of Tar Tar!) and to make a dry erase coloring book. And bought some water colors, can't wait to see what she does with the paints!

Also over the weekend we finally bought the rocker/recliner and dresser for Alli's room! We don't have room for it yet, but it should be getting here early next week (around the same time the craft table will get here). We should have the recliner in time for me to start taking Alli's monthly pics!!! (yes, yes I know, I seriously need to update the monthly pics for Cassie still, I'll get to it lol)

Reader Mommy

1. Awakened (House of Night book 8) ~ PC and Kristen Cast

2. Storm Front (The Dresden Files Book 1) ~ Jim Butcher

3. My Fair Lazy: One Reality Television Addict's Attempt to Discover if Not Being a Dumb Ass is the New Black, or, a Culture-Up Manifesto ~ Jen Lancaster

4. Songs of Love and Death - Various Short Stories

5. A Game of Thrones (A song of Ice and Fire Book 1) ~ George R. R. Martin

6. Queen of Babble - Meg Cabbot - Very cute book excellent choice for book club! It's kinda like the Shopaholic series but better :)

7. Bloodfever - Karen Marie Moning

8. Faefever - Karen Marie Moning

9. Black Heels to Tractor Wheels - Ree Drummund (excellent book!! I never read her story online so I'm not sure if its the same or not but I loved this! and now I must get her cook book...)

10. The Twilight Saga (counting all 4 as 1 since I read them so many times :) and it was all considered one book borrowed...)

11. Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr - Book was okay...everything was very nicely tied up at the end so I'm not totally sure how there are 4 (I think?) more books in the series. I'll wait for the library to get the 2nd in the series (they have the 3rd...) before reading any more, definitely wont buy any of the series though.

12. Dreamfeaver - Karen Marie Moning

13. The Host - Stephenie Myer

14. My Horizontal Life - Chelsea Handler

15. Shadowfever - Karen Marie Moning

16. I am America and So Can You - Stephen Colbert

Currently Reading

13 Little Blue Envelopes - Maureen Johnson (gotta love Nook's Free Fridays! excellent for my reading budget)

Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen (Never thought I would get off my library's waiting list for this one...came soooooo close to breaking down and buying it. Glad I held off!)

Let's get a routine down...

All right, I seriously need to get a routine down...this randomness (and all the mess) is pretty much killing me so here we go...

Sunday ~ Menu Plan and Coupon Clipping

Monday ~ Laundry, Grocery Shopping and Budget/Bill Paying

Tuesday ~ General Cleaning - Kitchen, Bathroom and Living Room

Wednesday ~ General Cleaning - Bedrooms

Thursday ~ Clean/Wash floors

Friday ~ Touch ups, Errands out and Lunch with Daddy

Saturday ~ Free Day

Of course it is going to take me a while to catch up with everything cleaning and budget wise but at least I have a course of action. I feel so much better having a game plan!

I wonder now if I should put up a calendar and give myself a gold star for each task completed LOL...

Now I just need to get back on track with the activities and crafting and general learning with Cassie!

An Attempt at Frugality

I went to Walmart the other day just to get some diapers, wipes and bottles...I ended up getting a frozen dinner in there too but regardless the total came to $88. EIGHTY EIGHT flippin dollars ~ just not cool in my book. Especially when we have 3.75 people, 2 dogs and 3 cats in this house living off of one income.

Back a few years ago, maybe 7 or 8, Matt and I had a weekly grocery budget of $50 and that suited us just fine. Not even any need to clip coupons. Granted we were only two people back then and let's face it groceries cost less...AND we could get away with bread, cheese and Ramen Noodles, but still...

So that got me thinking...we REALLY need to find a way (or few) to cut costs around here.

Plans so far include

~ Find "recipes" for Laundry detergent (at the rate we have been doing laundry lately we are going through it like water)

~ Purchase some wool dryer balls

~ Put up (and use!) a clothes line outside

~ Find recipes for cleaning supplies. works on three levels...better for environment, better on the budget and they wont be toxic so if one of the girls somehow gets into the cabinet we wont have to worry about them getting into the cleaning stuff.

~ Clip AND use coupons

~ Get in the habit of checking Groupon, Living Social and Seize the Deal on a daily basis.

~ Make reusable cloth wipes. We would go with cloth diapers as well, but we just don't have the start up for it...

~ Shop at Farmers markets over the summer, we have a couple near us so we will have to see if it is actually less expensive to get our produce from them. It would be awesome to be able to get everything local, but we are going to have to do what is best for the budget! Plus our CSA starts up next month (? I think as long as the growing has been going good!) so that will help a little (can't wait to see what we start getting!)

So I think that's a good start, we will see how it goes!