I don't know why I bother trying to keep the peace. It seems like they WANT to fight and whine and yell at each other. I'm tired of trying to get them to stop hitting, throwing, knocking down each other's towers, stealing toys, chasing, sending them to time out, making them apologize. I'm just gonna throw in the towel and let them have at each other. Who cares if I raise whiny little brats?:banghead: (Ok I'm really not going to let them be whiny brats)

Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series by Brandon Sanderson

Our gas and electric company now charge a processing fee for online payments. So we pay those with a check. 44 cent stamp (or whatever it's at now) is saves us $2-3. I'm leery enough to always copy the transaction code when I pay online though. DH thinks it's silly bc it's never been a problem. I'm not about to trust computers to always get things right.

On Monday we woke at 6 and did some leg lifts, crunches, hand weights. Tuesday we didn't because baby girl was up 4 times in 6 hours:glare:. That was pretty much how I looked the rest of the day: :glare: Today we woke up at 625 and did a few exercises again. Our goal at this point is to get in the habit of getting up so early.

I have the Mirena. I got it put in 6 weeks postpartum. Compared to natural childbirth, it didn't hurt at all. There was a little cramping, a little spotting. Then it was fine. It got rid of my period for awhile, but this last month I actually had one. Lighter than usual, cramping not as bad, but heavier than just spotting. I was wondering why I was wanting to bite everyone's head off for no reason. The next day, I figured it out.

We use ours almost every day. We do a lot of green smoothies. We also do peanut and almond butter. These are so easy. I was very nervous about doing the peanut butter because there's a warning in the book about overheating the machine. It's not really a problem because if you do overheat the machine, it will automatically shut off. I needn't have worried at all though. I smashed the peanuts down with the tamper while Pigby worked the controls. Yes, a five year old (with supervision) can work the controls. It was the easiest thing in the world. We just ran out of our store bought mayo, so making some in the Vitamix is next on my list. I'm so excited because it'll be easy and free of HFCS and other preservatives. We love the tortilla soup. What we do is use (fairly small amounts of each) cabbage, zucchini, onion, a clove of garlic, two carrots, three roma tomatoes and puree it with three cups of water on high. I also add a tablespoon of an MSG free chicken base. For my taco seasoning, I just add some chili powder, paprikia, salt, pepper and pinch of oregano. Supposedly you can take cold water and after 8 minutes on high the water will boil. This is supposedly from the high amount of friction. I say supposedly because they say it, but I've never seen it happen. After pureeing all the vegetables for about five minutes, I turn the machine down to a three and add a can of black beans and a can of corn and a cooked chicken breast. You can do the tortilla chips in at this time, but we usually wait because we can't eat an entire container of soup at once and they get soggy and gross. We usually just break the chips up into our individual bowl. It's so yummy. DH likes to make an orange/carrot juice. He peels three oranges and sticks them in. The Vitamix will turn them into juice and then he adds a carrot and some frozen fruit. I'm not as big a fan, but it's pretty good. We love the Vitamix and now I can't imagine living without it.

Believe me, it's a "grass is always greener" type thing. I'll switch you if you want ;) KidsHappen, I'm glad you got a good cut. (it is hard with curly hair) Please post some pictures, I would like to see it :001_smile:

Whoa, the first book is free on Kindle (at least for now). How awesome is that?!:thumbup1:

That'll do it, thank you! Reading some Amazon reviews...now I want to get it from the library :001_smile:

Ok, I swear you all are better than Google. I'm writing another article on the best YA book of 2011. It doesn't have to have been published in 2011, it just needs to be popular right now. All the lists I've been finding are pretty "meh". Anyone have any good recommendations? I've already done Hunger Games and Heroes of Olympus.:bigear:

Why am I not surprised? We were having bacon yesterday for the first time in FOREVER and I jokingly told DH that we should deep fry it (yeah right, I don't deep fry ANYTHING). And DH reminded me of an episode of Diners, Drive Ins and Dives where they deep fried bacon and used that between two grilled cheese sandwiches. :confused: I told him we all might as just start drinking oil by the bucket load.

I'm so tired too. We woke up at 6 this morning so we could exercise. When we got downstairs the clock said 515. Apparently we forgot that if his old cell phone doesn't have service, it's not going to get an update about Daylight Savings. :glare: So we went back to bed for 45 minutes and I woke up tireder (hmmm spell check actually says there's a word called "tireder". It looks wonky to me) than I was at 515. But the morning went so smoothly, I got a shower, DH actually left on time for work with a packed lunch AND having eaten breakfast. Apparently we should have been doing this for awhile now. We had egg sandwiches for breakfast. Now idea what to do about lunch, we're out of bread. Might have to do pasta again. I haven't put anything on my Christmas list. I can't think of anything that I want. However, I started going through what I'll be doing for everyone else's Christmas list and starting to get nervous. There's a lot of homemade gifts to be made and they take a bit of time.

I'm crocheting a bunch of stuff. Stuffed toys for the kids, a Jayne Cobb hat for my brother and maybe my sister, a beret for my SIL, homemade lip balm if I get around to it. Hopefully some homemade soaps, but I'm pushing it really close since it has to cure for 4-6 weeks.

For lunch we have spinach/bean dip. The recipe is as follows: 1 cup salsa, 1 package frozen creamed spinach (thawed), 1 cup cheddar, 1 can black beans drained. Microwave until cheese is melted. For dinner we have Turkey, stuffing, broccoli cheese cornbread, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes (not that I think they're necessary, but DH thinks they are essential :001_rolleyes:) and stuffed mushrooms. For dessert I do pumpkin cheesecake. I get all the side dishes mixed up the night before so then I can bake them when the turkey is done. Cheesecake is also done the night before. oh whoops, forgot to add, we're usually on our own for Thanksgiving. We used to have people over, but they moved away. Now our friends that are here usually travel and we're all by ourselves.

If you think the holidays are stressful, what do you do that makes them stressful? I'm wondering about specifics I guess. I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just wondering why everyone says the holidays are so stressful when to me, they aren't anymore stressful than usual. Apparently, I need more work to do. :D

Hard to say. When I first saw Pigby, I thought, "No newborn is that beautiful." Even the nurse said, "I never say this, but he is such a beautiful baby." Maybe she was lying, but I think she was telling the truth. ;) And people were always fawning over him, stopping me in the grocery store to comment on how cute he was while their poor child was neglected. I even had a friend tell another friend, "My baby is cute, but seriously Megan's baby is gorgeous." When I first saw Digby, I thought, "Yeah that's what a regular newborn looks like." His cuteness took a day to grow on me. He just looked so different than Pigby, it took me awhile to find it:D. About that time, Pigby was outgrowing his toddler cuteness and Digby was such a cute baby. His cuteness sure saved him several times because sleep deprivation made me crazy. Since he's still a toddler, he still has that toddler cuteness. He's such a little mischief maker and gives the funniest looks to get out of trouble. And then there's baby girl. She came out looking exactly like Digby, so I had already found her cuteness. Then she morphed into the spitting image of Pigby and remained cute. Now she wears hairbows and pink clothes and has the most beautiful face and chubby cheeks and sweet little ears that stick out. So yes, one of my children is always cuter than the other; it just so happens to be whichever one is the baby.:D

Same situation here. Same tears:crying: LuvingLife, I'm glad the police caught even a few. I'm glad for everyone's sake that no one was injured. A tragedy like that will bring people together for awhile, but will wreak havoc in the long run. :grouphug:

Yes, that seems to be the story of my life. My to do list is a mile long, yet I'm forced to put it all on hold because I decided to take 12 articles this weekend. I am only down two, still have 10 more to write. :banghead: Even when I'm done with this, I'll still be a failure at balancing school, finances, work, cleaning, taking care of the kids, cooking, etc. Whenever I get really good at taking care of one aspect, one of the others comes crashing and burning. I'm just tired of the stress. I was telling DH that it seemed like my parents had it together when I was growing up.

Thanks everyone! I had totally forgotten I started this thread until just now. :blushing: And to all you sassmasters: :boxing_smiley: that's all I have to say. :tongue_smilie:;)

DH showed me a tshirt with it on. That was one of the 12 things I wanted, because let's face it, I am the one in charge here:D WTMCassandra, how do you know?:tongue_smilie:

:lol: He's wishing his parents had ordered him something from there for his birthday. I might have found a thing or twelve that would be useful ;) Now he wants us both to register for the $1000 gift certificate. But he doesn't want me to tell you all for fear you'll register too!:tongue_smilie:

:grouphug: Praying for your father.

never, ever, under any circumstances let him find this website. :001_huh: If you see him stumble across it, pull the power cord, throw the monitor, have his mother call, do SOMETHING to keep him from being sucked in. Because he will be sucked in and you'll be hearing things like, "A chain mail shirt; how awesome is that?" or "Wow, REAL infrared night vision binoculars. They tested them by urin*ting. True story. Hey! I could wear the chain mail shirt AND the night vision binoculars" or "Darth Vader imprinting toaster, we could use that" or "Titanium straw-beats all other straws with its hands tied behind its back." And if he starts saying all these things, your kids will wander over to see what he's looking at and then they will be sucked into the geekdom!! Nooooooo........ Of course, if none of this bothers you because you are a geek as well, enjoy the site; it's pretty funny.:lol:

I would recommend Princess Academy and Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale. They have a little magic in them, but it's pretty minor. It's more about the relationships.

Ok, I'm so not in the loop for "green" things. But I'm writing another article and need suggestions. If you were going to be either receiving or giving a green gift, what would you most want? :D Thanks!