Product Review

Recently I've come across a few products that I feel deserve a review. Some good, some bad, some just down right ugly.


First up, CVS brand diapers. These were on sale, and with the ECB's I got back on them, coupled with the ECB's I already had, they ended up being free. How could I not try out free diapers? After a few days of dealing with soaked pants, and changing sheets each morning, I give these diapers 2 thumbs down. Way down. Even for free, I won't be getting these again. Ever. I love free, but I can't skimp when it comes to hygiene. Huggies for me, thankyouverymuch.

Next up, Bali's new bra with modesty petals. Where was this bra when I had to get up to give a speech at Meg's wedding luncheon? I'm sure if they made it in teeny tiny size, Jill and Meg could both use this. Really, though, it is one less thing I have to feel self conscious about, especially when I'm wearing a lightweight T-shirt. After my breast reduction, things have been quite perky, and this bra takes good care of that! 4 Stars, for sure!

Moving on, we try out the Swivel Sweeper. This is a little cordless rechargeable vacuum that looks similar to a Swiffer. It has a little LED light on the front so you can see into those dark corners under the cabinets and whatnot. As far as cleaning up goes, it's about average. I have to empty out the dirt trap often, even if I feel like my floors are clean. I guess that speaks to what kind of housekeeper I am, huh? I do like that my kids love to use it, and will just turn it on and start vacuuming up the kitchen. Whatever help I can get out of them, I'll take it! I give it a 6 out of 10.

Finally, it's Cascade Gelpacs dishwasher detergent. I've always loved Cascade, but I prefer to use some sort of tablet so the kids don't overfill the dishwasher. For the longest time we used Electrasol (now Finish brand) tabs, but I had a coupon for the Cascade Gelpacs, and with them being cheaper than Electrasol, I thought I'd better try them out. I like that you don't have to open them up like you do the Electrasol tabs. You just throw the whole thing in, wrapper and all. The wrapper dissolves in the water, making it easy and mess free. I have noticed a few of the packs being stuck together, like they got a little wet and started prematurely dissolving. They pulled apart just fine, though, and still cleaned wonderfully. I would say the cleaning is equal to Electrasol, but without coupons they are more expensive. I don't think I would pay full price for them. I give them 4 golden goblets out of 5, but the price is an issue.

So there you have it, my product review. I hope you can use these thoughts to make better purchases in the future.

No, I'm not getting paid to do this, either. Are you kidding? Paid to blog? That would be my dream come true!

Motivation

I've had a good couple of days. Actually, it's been about a week and things are still good. But I can feel a change. I can feel the mood sinking. I'm fighting it with everything I've got. I think it will pass, so I have to stay motivated and just work through it.

I think a lot of my mood change is coming from comparisons. I've started comparing my life with the way I perceive the lives of the women around me. I've begun to feel very inadequate. Suddenly I'm doubting my parenting skills, my craftiness, my humor, my home, my car, my clothes, my appearance in general, and whatever else I can find to compare. And I keep coming out on the losing end of it.

Comparisons by nature are not a bad thing. But when it comes to comparing one's self with what is perceived to be another person's self, there is no winning. We always put our best face forward, and hope to win out on the comparisons.

Normally I don't really care about what other people think about me. I really don't. I got past that insecurity long ago, and about 30 pounds ago. I also use my humor to mask any insecurities I may feel. It might not be the healthiest option, but I'm not really known for my healthy choices, now am I? The last few days have really brought out some underlying fears I have of being left behind. I have started feeling like I'm not keeping up with those around me. I don't mean materially, I'm getting over that, I mean humanly. I don't do a lot of what the people around me are doing. I don't see what I'm doing as wrong, or what they're doing as wrong, but I feel out of sync.

I think what I need is a good old fashioned dose of "keep it up, girl". I feel like my family is doing well, my kids are happy and well adjusted, and we have a good schedule going. I try to keep it as low stress at home as possible, and the kids respond well to that.

Then I see some people that give their kids the newest toys, go to the newest restaurants, see the newest movies, and I start to feel lacking. I start to feel that I have to do those things in order to make my family and myself happy.

I know in my heart of hearts that we're happy just as we are. But still the motivation to keep it up is deeply buried, and it's hard to see through the mumbo jumbo of every day life. I think I just need to see my kids thrive in a simple environment, and then I'll feel better. I'll give it a day, and hopefully that will help me feel motivated to keep it up.

A Blur

This last weekend is all a blur. I think the fact that it was preceded by a week of Spring Break for Emma, which means staying up late, eating junk food, and the like, made it seem like a strange weekend. Then Conference came, no church of course, and that only added to the strangeness.



I did love conference, though. Did any of you listen to Saturday's morning session? They sang "Consider The Lillies". We sang that at my mom's funeral. It was a real tear jerker. But I know it sounded better at the funeral, because even the MOTAB can't bring the kind of spirit that was in the chapel that day.

I'm sure it was a little awkward for the rest of you when President Monson said, "Pay attention, Keli, this part is for you." What? You didn't hear that?

I love him. He's such a good man. I met him once. Kind of. I was attending the viewing of my old Bishop, and good friend, Paul Cutler. There was quite a long line leading up to the casket, and as I approached his dear wife, I wanted to sneak a peek at his body. I was craning my neck to see, but there was a tall man standing right in my way. I said in a kind of loud voice, "I wish that big dude would move over a little, he's hogging the view!" I'm sure the "big dude" heard me, because at that moment, he turned around, and sure enough, it was President Monson. Turns out he was a relative of Bishop Cutler. I felt pretty dumb, but man, President Monson is a big dude!

This weekend also brought the Bi-Annual turkey dinner. Yummy as always. No precooked turkey this time, just a good ol' Butterball. Can't go wrong. I think next time I'll just do turkey, potatoes, and green beans, because I'm the only one that eats the yams, and no one else really loves the green bean casserole. Plus, then it's less work, and maybe I won't feel so guilty when I have to throw half the dinner in the disposal.

So that's the weekend. Now Spring Break is over, back to the schedule, and on with life. It feels good to be back.

Fun For Friday

Isn't this a little like building a John Denver Regional Airport, or a Michael Jackson Children's Hospital?

Coming Soon

* To a Craigslist near you. It's going for good.

** And really, people. As if. Can you imagine crazy me being a mother again? I think not.

Emaelstom

Do you think the Lord will judge us for not forwarding in emails that tell us He wants us to? Do you think there is an email reconciliation room in the Spirit World that looks through our history to see how many spiritual emails we received, and just deleted? And then will we be judged accordingly?

Man, I hope not.

Potential

She made it. My kid made the school talent show. I'm thrilled. She has potential, for sure, and I love that someone else recognizes this as well.

And I just booked a ticket to Utah for the middle of April. Just me, myself, and I. No kiddies. I kid you not. (I crack me up.) SugarDaddy is taking a couple of days off to daddysit, and I'm taking a couple of days for myself. I technically won't be in Utah for more than a few hours, since I fly in Friday morning, and leave that afternoon for Vegas. But it's better than nothing. I get to see my family, which has the potential for being a very.good.time.

Plus, I heard my mom's headstone just got finished. I can't wait to see it. I'm sure it's beauty won't do her justice, but if anyone could get it close, it would be my dad and the painstaking hours he spent getting it just right. Potentially wonderful to see a finished area dedicated just to her, and not just a blank spot of grass.

I know I missed our Fun For Friday, and I have a doozy in mind. I might double it up this week, depending on how exciting my life isn't for the next couple of days. But I promise, it will make you laugh. Okay, chuckle. Okay, at the very least, roll your eyes out of courtesy.

Later!

Saucy

Last night for enrichment night we had a real treat. A man in our Ward is a retired chef from several restaurants in Chicago, including some Country Clubs. He's studied under Classic American chefs, German chefs, and Italian chefs, and brings a little of each to the table. He so graciously agreed to host our cooking class, and wow, did we have a great time.

He taught us how to make 3 simple pasta sauces from scratch. Easy stuff for him, but for some of us, me, it was nice to see that making it from scratch is almost easier than opening a bottle of some store brand.

We had a marinara with chunks of peppers, cherry tomatoes, and onion. Yum! Although those of you that know me, know I would forgo the cherry tomatoes in place of perhaps mushrooms or even tofu.

A dreamy easy garlic sauce. Perfect over shrimp or chicken, or just on it's own with some summer veggies on the side.

And last but not least, my absolute favorite, an Alfredo sauce that would knock your socks off. This one I'm making tonight. How easy is this. Heavy cream, simmered, some parmesean cheese melting in it, add a little salt and pepper to taste, pour over pasta with chicken, steak, veggies, husband, whatever, and voila! Perfect dinner.

I'll be sure and take pictures. I did make a yummy shrimp scampi on Sunday. I was in heaven. SugarDaddy was on the fence, he has shrimp issues that go back to the Sunday night visits with my parents and the shrimp had been sitting out all day. The kids, no way in heck were they touching the stuff. You know what that meant for me? Extra leftovers for lunch the next day! Yay!

You might think I'm turning into a Top Chef, and trust me, sometimes I think I am, but then I pull out a frozen pizza or a box of Mac n Cheese, and am humbled again. I'm still just me.

Saucy.

Self Quaratine

I wanted to go out today, I really did. I wanted to take Maggie to speech, and then let her have a play date at Duyah's house while she and I lamented over Organic something or other, and let loose our stresses and medication woes, and the fact that Spring wants to be here, it really does, but there seems to be some giant elastic band holding it back, back, back, readying it for a final release into Chicago.

I really did.

I wanted to take Neighbor Kate over some sour cream in exchange for the beef stock, both of which she has borrowed, cause I'm nice like that, so we could take turns telling her dog to shut up, and be interrupted mid sentence repeatedly by kids needing something now.

I wanted to run over to Emma's school and pick her up and bring her home so I could check her head myself. I wanted to make Maggie sit still for an hour so I could comb through every.single.inch of her hair (which would take forever, thanks, Nunn Bee) and look for nits and bugs.

But instead, I sit here and quarantine my kids into oblivion because I don't want to be that mom. You know, the one where she thinks her kids are immune to the bugs, sends them on their merry way, and sure enough, a week later, lice kids start popping up all over the place. I'm not doing that. I've worked in enough salons, and enough hospitals, to know how fast things can spread. Lice isn't something I want to tango with. Salsa, maybe. Tango, no way.

So tonight, those kids, which so far appear to be nit free, are not leaving the house. I'm vacuuming every inch of everything, and they're all taking baths tonight whether it's been a day or three days. Wash, wash, wash. Scrub scrub scrub.

Pop On Over

I woke up feeling good today. I know! It's a miracle. I think part of it had to do with the fact that I took 3 Klonopin before I went to bed, ahhh, drug induced sleep, and part of it has to do with the fact that Emma has her school talent show try-outs today. I have a little nervous energy by proxy, I guess.

So I needed to keep busy this morning. I wasn't in the mood for a shower yet, so I started on dinner. I have a dentist appointment tonight (again), and knew I needed to get dinner made in advance, so I got the noodles going, and the meat browning.

Then I remembered a recipe I had come across in a book I had been reading. It sounded good at the time, so in the middle of the night, I snuck down to the computer and made a copy of it.

Today seemed like as good a time as any to try it out. So here it is.

Oh, and this has nothing to do with the noodles or meat. Completely different recipe, that one.


Popovers. Basically eggs, milk, flour and salt baked at high temperatures until they look like this. Now, the recipe said to use muffin tins. I have a handy dandy Popover Pan courtesy of Sugar Daddy and his sweet hook ups, so I thought I'd break that bad boy out and see what it could do.

Judging by the height on these things, I'm thinking a muffin tin would have been better. But how cool are they? They taste like a round German pancake.


Here's Gretta enjoying her popover. No, really, she is. I know the look on her face doesn't show it, but she was very concerned about me sitting on the floor and blocking her binky. You know, priorities. Next time I will definitely use a muffin tin. Or maybe just fill the popover pan half full. Or is it half empty?

I finished getting dinner ready in the time they were cooking. How cool do I feel right now? Yeah.


Here's the recipe for you recipephiles.

4 eggs, should be about 1 cup of eggs.
Beat for 1 minute with a whisk, just to incorporate them.

Add 2 cups milk.
Whisk again, just to incorporate.

Add 2 cups flour and 1tsp salt all at once, and mix with a wooden spoon. It will be lumpy, so don't over mix.

Bake in a preheated oven at 450 for 30 mins.

Don't peek, because if you open the oven door, they will fall flat.
When they're done, take them out to cool and pierce with a sharp knife to release the steam.

Serve with butter, mmm, or jam, or honey butter, or cashew butter, or orange marmalade, or road tar. They are that good.

A Poem

Have I mentioned before how I have great friends? Well, I do. And in the midst of the hard times I've been going through, I received a little package. Inside was a bracelet, note and a poem from a sweet friend of mine. She makes and sells these bracelets, all made for special occasions and special purposes. Please visit her site here and let her know how much her words mean to you.

The bracelet and poem she sent for me aren't on the website, so I'll write it out here, I hope she doesn't mind.

My Mother, My Angel

On earth her role was mother
and she fulfilled it well.
She blessed my life in many ways,
more than I can tell.
God took her home to heaven,
she seems so far away.
I miss her and I need her
every single day.
But sometimes when I'm very still,
God whispers to my heart,
"Her role is Angel now,
And you are never far apart.
She's been assigned to comfort you
and help in time of need,
Watch over you and guide you,
a special role indeed.
So when you start to miss her,
and need her every day,
Remember what I told you;
She's never far away.
On earth with you, then here with me,
she's fulfilling her role well,
Still blessing your life in many ways,
more than you can tell."
-Lily-

Happy Anniversary

My sister Troy married his lovely wife, and our now adopted other sister Kelli on this day in 1995. Wow. The 90's. How very 90's.

Good choice, Troy.

Fun for Friday

This week's fun for Friday might not seem fun to you, but it was for me.

Last night was our Temple night. As I sat in the waiting room alone, reading and crying, surprise surprise, a woman walked by the doorway. I vaguely saw her out of the corner of my eye. I did notice, however, that she stopped and backed up to look at me through the doorway.

Of course I looked up, and to my amazement, it was a good friend. Not the kind of good friend you recognize from High School or College, or even from the YMCA, it was a good friend from the blogosphere.

A woman I had never met in person, but whom I feel I know personally. And of all places to meet, at the Temple. I felt it was very appropriate.

She is as sweet and wonderful in person as she is on her blog, a nice surprise indeed.

So that, my friends is what makes today fun.

Happy Friday!

Meat Twinkie

Sugar Daddy loves his meat loaf. And I've learned to make it just the way he likes it. But last time I made it, he was bragging about it at work, and someone told him they stuff theirs with Mozzarella cheese. Of course, Sugar Daddy can't turn down anything cheese-stuffed, so I had to try it.


Behold, the slice of cheese stuffed meat loaf. It really was quite good, although a little cheesy for my taste. But then again, I'm not a loaf of many things lover. Bread, of course, but not of the meat variety.


And the Meat Twinkie in it's natural habitat. Next time I'll probably just cut up chunks of Mozzarella cheese and insert them into the already formed loaf, as it is quite tricky to "stuff" it. It was more like "shove it in there until it stays put". I'm sure Rachael Ray has a better way.

Not The Roofing Kind

People. Can I have your attention please?

Now, we all know that I have been going through an extremely, uh, bumpy patch the last few weeks, right? Right. Okay. Well, it has lightened enough that I can now function semi-normally. I'm sure this has nothing to do with the meds, and everything to do with the fact that my MIL has sworn on her life that she will indeed call me every.single.night until I am better. It's working. Don't take that like I don't like her calling or that I don't like her in general. I love my MIL. I love love love her to death. I think sometimes I married SugarDaddy just so she could be my MIL.

Well, after our trip to the Dells, I started feeling kinda funny. Not "Ha ha" funny like normal, that is still wwwaaaayyy off down the recovery road, but funny like my skin kinda itched and tickled, but I couldn't put my finger on it exactly.

Sunday night, enter the rash of doom. Covered. Head to toe. Itched like a mad hoss too. But then it went away, and all was better in Keliland.

Monday arrives, and arms, owie. Upper arm, left side, major owie. And bumps. And pus. And eeewww! I start popping Benadryl like candy, but no relief. It was then I knew what it was.

So I head to the doc, and then to the pharmacy, wherein they fill my brand new RX for Valtrex.
Go on, click the link. Before I go on, and to make this post that much funnier, click the dang link.

Clicked? Okay.

Turns out there's a new herpes in town. Valtrex treats my kind of herpes as well as the genital kind, so don't go getting no idears or anything.

Shingles. Good for roofing, bad for people.

Gettin' My Green On

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Today I'm getting my green on by making a delish dinner of corned beef and cabbage. Hopefully all will turn out well.

So go get some green on, or don't be surprised when a stranger pinches you on the tushie.

Field Trip

I am the proud new owner of a new nephew. Head over here and check him out. He's a cutie.

Lake Delton-ish

This last weekend we decided we needed a change of scenery. I myself needed a change in a bad way. So at the last minute, we rented a condo and headed up to the Wisconsin Dells. For those of you not in the know, The Dells, as the locals call it, is home to the most and biggest indoor water parks in the world. Or as I like to say, "The Dells, a way to stay pasty white all year 'round!"

Wisconsin is only a 10 minute drive from our house, but The Dells is just over 2 hours. And let me tell you, that extra 1 hour and 50 minutes makes a huge heck of a difference when it comes to the weather. They still had about 2 feet of snow on the ground in places! The lakes were still frozen! But people (us) were walking around in wet clothes to and from the car to get to the water park.



Here is the condo we rented. Literally at the last minute. We were just going to start driving and decide where to stay when we got there, but the nice owner called us back and squeezed us in. She was so embarrassed because there were still dishes washing in the dishwasher. I told her I could live with that, and so she said it was fine. We were expecting something kind of ghetto, especially for the price we paid. But I figured as long as it had a bed and a kitchen, we'd be fine for 2 nights.

As you can see, it was much more than just a bed and a kitchen. It was gorgeous! 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, TV's and DVD players in every room, and most of all 2 balconies, one of which had a hot tub. I always want to sing the Eddie Murphy SNL skit of "Hot Tub" whenever I say that. The hot tub was a hit. The girls, even Maggie, would have been content to sit in there all day. It had a radio, a light show, and even a waterfall! Who needs tickets to a water park when you have a lighted rockin out hot tub all to yourself?

Here is Maggie. I think this shot shows her having the most fun of the day. My Maggie is afraid of everything. And water parks are probably right up there with being picked up, and getting dirty. We did force her on a couple of slides, one of which was a family slide. She screamed her guts out the whole time, but the second time, she didn't scream quite so much. Even the lazy river was a little too much for her to handle.

Here's Gretta intent on finishing her Kool-Aid. This kid is exactly the opposite of Maggie when it comes to adventure. She was going down slides, swimming around the baby pool, and begging to go on the family slide. Even in the lazy river, she didn't want me to hold her on my lap in the tube, she wanted to hang on to the handle and dangle over the side so she could float. No life jacket, no floaties, just good old fashioned water lover in that kid. Like her mother.


Here's Emma in front of one of the kiddie play lands. She was perfectly content to do her own thing most of the day. She climbed the stairs, went down the slides, and put that on repeat. She and I decided we wanted to go down the "toilet bowl" slide. It's the kind where you shoot through a steep dark tunnel, and then it spits you out into a toilet bowl looking thing, wherein you fall out through a hole in the bottom. It was scary, but she said she'd do it if I bought her some watershoes. Deal. She bonked her leg pretty hard, got lots of water up her nose, and vowed never to do it again. I concurred, and we went to the gift shop for the shoes.

One sad thing about where we stayed, is that it used to be lake front property. Last year the dam broke, and the water rushed down the Wisconsin River. They have fixed the damn dam, and Lake Delton is currently filling. I'm sure by next year it will be lake front again. Not that we cared, since it was a frozen piece of dam ice anyway. But I'm thinking next summer, condo rental, kayak in tow, and maybe a far away family member or two. Perfect.

Friday Fun

Friday Fun shows an evolution of a Shih-Tzu when Sugar Daddy gets a hold of clippers and a wild hair up his butt.

Before. Fuzzy, unable to see where she was going, but warm.

Mid-cutting. I could have spun that fur into thread and sewn something from it, I'm sure. Maybe Shih-Tzu's are more practical than Alpaca's.

After. One.Very.Naked.Dog.

She hasn't been able to get warm for three days now. She will burrow under any sort of warm fabric she can find. I even found her lying in the sun that came through a small crack in our front window.

I feel bad for her. But in a couple of weeks she'll look much better, and hopefully we'll consistently be above freezing by then, so she can get warm.


Happy Friday!

Field Trip

If you have a girl in your life, and you want her to look pretty, head over here, and enter the giveaway I have going on in my other shop. Trust me, it's worth it.

And if you don't win, you can still buy some. 4 clippies for $5. $5, people. Even in this crappy economy you have to admit that's a pretty killer deal.

And as a heads up, keep checking often, because we have some wicked cute onesies coming out any day now. We're talking wickedly wicked cute. Boy and girl. I'm just sayin', it's worth a click every day or so.