Wordful Wednesday - Sayonara, sucker.

I hate to jinx this glorious situation, but I think it's finally safe to say that we've done away with the pacifier for good.

I told Dennis about all the talk of cutting part of the pacifier off with scissors (thanks again for all of your ideas and stories), and the moment we decided to dive in head first and DO THIS THING, he went to the kitchen and just flat out whacked that sucker in half. I was thinking more along the lines of a not-so-obvious cut in the end of it, but I didn't give him precise instructions, so...we just went with it.




She put it in her mouth, scrunched up her little eybrows, took it out and looked at us like, "Dude! WHAT the?!?"

This was followed by a series of putting it in, taking it out, putting it in, taking it out.

And then...oh, then all hell broke loose.

She utters this long string of thoughts, and we began to wonder if we pretty much made the biggest mistake ever...

"It's broke! What happened? Fix it! Daddy?!?! FIX it! What happened! Mommy? Kiss it!"

Because Daddy fixes things, and I kiss her owies. But, Daddy wasn't going to fix this, and no amount of kisses from me would make it all better.

BREAK. my. HEART!

Into a million little pieces.

I think it would be safe to say that Dennis and I were both fighting back tears.

You'd have thought we just told her the Wiggles were checked into rehab and wouldn't be released for 28 more days. She took it that hard.

The kid was devastated with a capital D. And her tears weren't part of a fit or a tantrum - it was pretty much just pure heartbreak.

You better believe we were questioning our decision. I'm freaking out thinking my child is going to end up in therapy someday because I gave her a broken pacifier. Please. Give me a break, right? But her big old alligator tears did that big of a number on me.

Once she calmed down later that night, she'd occasionally pick it up, put it in her mouth once, and then set it down and say, "It's broke." And that was that.

Getting her to bed was nothing short of a miracle, but she eventually went to sleep. And so did we.

And we all woke up the next morning and lived to tell the tale.

Since then, we've left some of the broken ones around the house and she just keeps telling us they're broken, but that's it. No tears. No sadness. As if it's no big thing.

The one significant change is that now, for breakfast each morning, she tells us matter-of-factly, "I need a cookie." Maybe she's dealing with it in her own special way like so many of us girls do. Cookies.

So, one really rough night, and a few days and at least an entire box of Thin Mints (we all remember the depths I'll go to for my Thin Mints, right?) later, we're no worse for the wear.

We've conquered one huge struggle, and now we just wait for the next one that's lurking it's ugly head around the corner, waiting to pounce on us.

But, I've got a box of Thin Mints hidden in the freezer, so we are good to go, people. Good to GO.

(This post is a part of Wordful Wednesdays, hosted by Angie at 7 Clown Circus.)

Holiday How-To #4: Make to-die-for orange cream cookies

It's no secret I love food. Especially food with lots of sugar. And carbs. Sugar and carbs are where it's AT!

So, it shouldn't surprise you at all that one of my very favorite things about the holiday season is all the yummy goodies. Fudge, cookies, warm rolls straight out of the oven, pie, mmmmm...

One of my favorite memories of Christmas as a child was making sugar cookies with white frosting and rainbow colored sprinkles to leave out for Santa. What is that is just so darn fun about rainbow colored sprinkles on white frosting?

So, this past weekend I went to my first ever cookie exchange, which gave me a perfect excuse to bust out some recipes from my new Betty Crocker Christmas cookie cookbook. I'm trying not to have too many sweets in the house, but hello! I had to make 3 dozen cookies for this party, so the cookie making just had to happen.

I fell in love when I saw the words, "Orange Cream Cookies."

Holy toledo, Batman. Orange cream is one of my favorite flavors in the whole entire world. Orange cream soda, orange cream candy, orange cream ice cream treats, and now you're telling me I can have all that delicious goodness in a cookie? I love you, Betty Crocker.

So, here's the skinny on how you can make these rip-roaring tasty cookies. Now, keep in mind that in the picture in the cookbook, these cookies are a very calm, pastel-ish light orange color. That's because the recipe calls for 5 drops of yellow food color and 2 drops of red food color. Well, I decided to be cheap and buy the store brand food coloring. What I didn't realize is that there are no droppers on the store brand food coloring. I'm guessing I was off in my estimations of what the equivalent of 5 drops of yellow and 2 drops of red were.

Hence, the neon cookies that almost make you want to wear sunglasses.

Ingredients:

1 pouch (1 lb 5 oz) Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
3 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted
1 tsp. orange extract
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
5 drops yellow food color
2 drops red food color
1 bag (12 oz) white vanilla baking chips (2 cups) **I think 1.5 cups would be perfect - 2 was a bit much)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350. In a large bowl, stir all ingredients except baking chips until soft dough forms. Stir in baking chips.

2. On ungreased cookie sheets, drop dough with 1 1/2 Tbsp-size cookie scoop or by rounded Tbsp about 2 inches apart.

3. Bake 9 to 10 minutes or just until dough is set (do not overbake). Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks

Nutrition Info: Ahhh, who cares. Seriously.

This post is a part of Wordful Wednesday at 7 Clown Circus and the Holiday How-To's Blog Carnival going on at Le Musings of Moi.

Wordful Wednesday - Gettin' crazy with menu plans - yeah, baby!

I already told you about how we're having to pinch our pennies like crazy this month, and that our grocery budget is a measly $150.

How can a family of three possibly manage on that?

Well, it helps that our child refuses to eat pretty much anything besides goldfish crackers, graham crackers, yogurt, eggs and milk, but that's beside the point. And, eliminating non-essentials like sodas, cookies, etc., helps as well (but, since we stopped buying soda can I just tell you how bad I want a Diet Coke???)

Over a year ago, I started getting into coupons. Yes, I became *that* crazy coupon lady.

I joined a website called Coupon Sense that helps you organize coupons and matches up grocery store sales with coupons to maximize your savings, often resulting in free groceries.

They also teach you the strategy of stocking up on certain items when they're on sale, such as canned goods and anything that can be frozen.

So, I try to keep stockpiles of things like boneless, skinless chicken breast and 93% lean hamburger in my freezer. I also stock up on cereal when it's on sale (like the time I got 15 boxes of name brand cereal for $13.84), as well as things like diapers, baby wipes and personal care items. CVS is one of my favorite places to get those types of things for free.

Anyway, at the end of October when I tirelessly crunched the numbers to attempt to get our budget balanced, I realized our grocery budget needed to be cut - waaaay down. I hadn't been too gung ho with the coupon usage (I tend to go in spurts with it), and I realized I needed to hunker down and get back on the bandwagon.

I started with a menu plan, and I was able to come up with an entire month's worth of meals based on just the ingredients we had in our house (of course, things requiring dairy and other perishables would need the occasional ingredient here or there).

Sure, we don't have much of anything extravagant - you'll see things like bean and cheese burritos, blueberry pancakes, sloppy joes, Hamburger Helper, and spaghetti, but really - those are the kinds of things we like.

When it comes to side dishes, I've got things like Betty Crocker boxed potatoes and frozen veggies that I got for free or nearly free with coupons.

So, looking at that calendar and seeing what I was able to do for our family as a result of using coupons, stockpiling, and planning ahead made me feel really good.

We've got roughly $37.50/week to spend on groceries, and for the rest of this month, I'll be telling you how that goes. So far this week, I've gotten 3 gallons of milk, a carton of eggs and some Egg Beaters.

I love a good challenge, and I'm confident we can do this. When times get tough, we just need to get creative.

Your turn: What are your favorite meals that are cheap to make? Do you do menu plans? How do you save money on food?

*This post is a part of Wordful Wednesday, hosted each week by Angie at 7 Clown Circus.

Wordful Wednesday - Watch out, kids - she bites!

See that kid? That one on the right? She's mine. And she's a biter.

Up until Monday, the worst thing I'd heard whenever I picked her up from someone's house who watched her was, "Yeah. She used a blue crayon to color on the dog."

No big thang, right?

Yesterday one of my best friends, who happens to have a daughter just a couple months younger than Kaylee, watched her for me.

We decided when the girls were just weeks old that they'd be each other's BFF, and now we can say they are well on their way.

I arrived to pick Kaylee up and asked how she did. My friend said she did great, but that there was one little incident. Oh, crap! Not my sweet little child (who is nothing short of a little pistol) - no!

She totally bit Maggie's finger, which made Maggie cry, and then Kaylee started crying. My friend said she didn't even have to scold Kaylee. She just looked at her and said, "Kaylee!!!" and she could tell that Maggie's crying was enough of a lesson.

So that picture above is Kaylee giving Maggie a hug after what we now call "the incident."

The looks on each of their faces just kill me. I love it.

Tuesday's Tribute - To exceptional customer service

Not too long ago, I wrote a post about a great day that I had. I had time to myself, went shopping, ate at one of my favorite restaurants, enjoyed a good book, held a newborn baby. It was a fabulous day.

I happened to mention that there were sneaky little red onion pieces scattered throughout my otherwise delectable Turkey Waldorf Salad that I got at Wildflower Bread Company. It was a small part of my post, but just a few short days after the post went up, I came to realize that my little mention of the onions (of which I had asked to not be included) did not fall upon deaf ears.

I received an email from the founder of Wildflower Bread Company, Louis Basile, who was rather bummed to find out that my salad wasn't prepared just as I ordered it. We've emailed a couple of times about the experience, and I can't tell you how flabbergasted I was to actually receive an email from the founder of the company itself. Each email was personal, and obviously not a canned response to an email.

We've all experienced the checker at the grocery store who didn't give a rip and had no personality, and we've all had experiences with pushy retail people or businesses who don't operate with the customer's best interest in mind.

In a time when people are in such a hurry and so many are all just about making a buck, it was so refreshing for me to have such a positive experience with a restaurant that I love. The Wildflower Bread Company has been a favorite place for me and my girl friends when we have a mom's night out, and just like I talked about in my previous post, it's also a place I love to go even by myself.

A few unwanted red onions wouldn't have stopped me from going back to Wildflower - I realize people make mistakes, so it really wasn't a big deal. But, the fact that this company cares so much about keeping their customers happy has definitely sealed the deal in making me a lifelong customer. And, Mr. Basile is sending a coupon for a complimentary meal for my next visit.

I just wanted to make sure and recognize Mr. Basile and his restaurant for going above and beyond. It's also a nice reminder to all of us that good customer service is still alive and kicking!

This post is a part of Tuesday's Tribute over at Angie's 7 Clown Circus.

Wordful Wednesday - Vacation Recap

It already seems like our vacation was so long ago, even though it was just a couple of weeks. We're already hoping for another trip back here next year. It was fabulous, relaxing, and oh-so-gorgeous.

I took a butt load of pictures, but here are just a few from our little vacay.

This was a gorgeous chapel we visited Santa Fe one day. We ate lunch at the Blue Corn Cafe, and if you love Mexican food, you have GOT to go there if you ever go to Santa Fe. I quite possibly ate the most delectable chicken chimichanga of my life and nearly cried when it was gone. It was that good. And, please - don't get me started on the sopapillas...Ho.Lee.COW. Yum...














So, aside from the couple hours we spent in Santa Fe, the rest of the week was really spent just hanging out, reading, and doing stuff outside.

These are pictures of the Prayer Garden. It was huge - rolling grassy hills, Aspen trees, water falls, a fountain, gazebos, a pond, flowers....man, oh, man...

Can you say "happy place"?






































































There was a small playground outside the apartment where we stayed, and Kaylee proved to us, yet again, that she loves dirt far more than grass - she just couldn't get enough of it.

This post is a part of Wordful Wedensdays with Angie over at 7 Clown Circus.

Plays well with others.

Before Kaylee got to the stage where she could actually interact with babies her age instead of just laying next to them, gurgling, spitting up, and farting, I wondered what her personality would be like when it came to being around kids who weren't a few years older.

She's done well with my good friend's nearly 4 and nearly 2- year- old boys, and she's done well at the mall play land so far - jabbering back and forth with the kids, chasing them through the tunnel at warp speed, patting them gently on the head, and once, hugging a little boy so hard it made him fall over.

But, put her in a one-on-one situation with a baby separated by just a couple months in age? Would she be a brat? Would she get mean and ornery? What would she do?

Well, she'd do what she did with the other kids. She'd play nice. She's such a good little BFF, isn't she? Already sharing accessories with her little friend. I'm so proud.

This post is a part of Wordful Wednesdays, hosted by Angie at 7 Clown Circus.

Hellloooo, Tide to Go Pen

We just tried blueberries, and I have a feeling this is going to be the beginning of a beautiful relationship with a little something I like to call the Tide to Go Pen - for instant stain removal purposes. How I've managed to make it without one in the diaper bag for this long I have no idea...

Thanks to Angie at 7 Clown Circus for hosting another fun Wordful Wednesday. Pop on over and say hello by clicking on the button below.

It Ain't Easy Bein' a Diva

I attempted to have a photo shoot with Kaylee yesterday so we could get our photo greeting cards ordered and printed at Costco. (Yep, I know Christmas is next week - it's just the way I roll this year). We spent a long time taking pictures, and I got some great ones, but our session was cut short when she began to attempt shredding the froofy layer of her dress with her single razor sharp tooth. We promptly ended our time trying to get the "perfect" shot for the Christmas card and high tailed it to the kitchen to fill up on Tylenol, teething tablets and a teething ring from the fridge.

This photo totally captures the essence of Kaylee's diva side. I love it.


Head on over to 7 Clown Circus for more Wordful Wednesday posts from other bloggers. And, while you're bopping all over the blog world, check out one of my favorite bloggers, Jenners, over at Life With a Little One and More. She's giving away at Target gift card. Hello! Who doesn't want a Target gift card right now?

(For any of you out there that regularly follow my blog, this last week has been insane with trips out of town, holiday parties, a stomach bug, and work. I miss my blog and all the happenings of the blog world. I'm back in action, so watch out!)

Wordful Wednesday

This is Kaylee with my sister-in-law's dog, Mindy. Kaylee is obsessed with Mindy and loves her to pieces - possibly even more than she loves me and Dennis (well, maybe not, but she certainly doesn't get so excited when she sees us enter the room). Mindy is extremely patient with Kaylee, through the tail pulling, the rather hard patting, and all the excitement. Mindy knows she's not supposed to lick Kaylee on the face, but occasionally she'll give her a quick lick on the face (see Exhibit A) and then make a run for it. She howls when Kaylee cries and is very protective of her, which is pretty darn cute. Here's a couple bonus pictures to show you what their little friendship is like.

Exhibit A














Kaylee's Bodyguard












Head on over to 7 Clown Circus to check out more Wordful Wednesdays.