6 months of my life

I sit here in my chair and watch 6 months of my life playing in the floor.

6 months of my life is stretching and straining until he reaches his new toy. Stretching and straining until he reaches his daddy's xbox controller. Stretching and straining until he gets to my pant leg.

6 months of my life is looking up at me with the glimpse of a first tooth in his mouth. 6 months of my life is giving me the biggest, most genuine smile I could imagine. 6 months of my life is squealing with excitement of seeing me smile at him.

6 months ago my life changed forever. 6 months ago my husband and I went from a unit, a couple, a pair - to a family.

The year of parties

This year I'm planning parties. Lots of parties. My grandmother turns 85 = party. My friend is getting married = party. My friend is having a baby = party. My baby is turning 1 = PARTY.

I love party planning. I should have made a career of it. I can NOT wait to get started planning. Is February too early to plan summer parties?

Reasons my blog is not up to date

Reason 1: While I sit here and think about writing a post I literally have an almost 6 month old chewing on my blue jeans. So much for that musical farm entertaining him.

Big plans

Big plans to learn to cook. That's right. It's time I bite the bullet and become the housewife I always wanted to be ..... with a job. (That was never part of the grand plan) 

Mark and I need to save money. In order to do that I have big plans to meal plan. If I'm going to meal plan I actually have to cook something, I don't think : Monday - McDonald's; Tuesday - Long John Silver's .... ect. will cut it. So starting January I plan to pull out the crockpot and dust off the pans.

This will be a tricky feat. Mark and I are second shifters. We don't eat dinner together. We seldom eat lunch together since he's getting up as I'm leaving for work. SO the meals I plan must be something that warms up well. I'll be making use of that GIANT Tupperware stash I've collected. (If you want a GIANT Tupperware stash then become a consultant for a few years. Pretty soon you'll have more Tupperware than your cabinets will hold, or your dad's garage :) )

So I'm collecting recipes. Yes I have a whole cookbook collection but I need real recipes. I need  practical, easy recipes that won't cause me to go back on my ppd meds after a week of this plan. I want to use my crockpot. I want them to be semi healthy (I still have 15 pounds of baby weight to shed) and I want my picky eating self to actually eat them. So send me a recipe or a link to your favorite cooking blog. simplynesting@gmail.com

And let the planning begin :)

Congrats! You've made it to the list ...

Steak and Shake, eastside.

That's right, add another restaurant to my 'list'. What did they do to get on it you ask? No they didn't wave about a pee stick (Subway) or over charge me for my hot dog and fries with their 'deal', THEY added ONIONS to my milkshake! That's right: peppermint, chocolate AND ONIONS!!!

The first Friday in December my mother and I like to celebrate by taking the day off work and shopping all day. We end that day with a milkshake. We wanted milkshakes from an establishment that had already closed so we decided to hit up steak and shake instead. BIG mistake.

We ordered two peppermint and chocolate chip milkshakes. So first drink...good, not bad. Second drink....that tastes odd. Third drink....definitely weird and what was that odd chocolate piece? Fourth drink...OMG that tastes like dirty arm pit. OMG is that ....... onion?????? Upon further investigation I fish out a piece of onion.

Now, peppermint, chocolate and ONION is a HORRIBLE combination in your mouth.

Mother promptly turns the car around as I hold said onion on my pointer finger.

In to steak and shake I storm.

I plop the milkshakes down onto the counter. Girl says 'Can I cash you out?' I say 'NO I want my money back. There is ONION in my milkshake.' ::shakes finger with onion on the end at counter girl::

'What !?' How did that happen?' Says counter girl. 'That's weird because the onions are over here and the milkshakes are over there.'

Over walks another girl. Counter girl tells her what happens all while calling the manager. Other girl 'Well bless your heart.' All while I hold out finger with onion and glare.

Manager comes up. 'What's wrong?'

'There is ONION in my milkshake!' ::Angrily shakes finger with onion on the end at him::

Manager: 'Do you want us to make you some more? Me: 'NO I want my money back.'

Manager goes to the back, returns and then says .....'You had a peppermint and .......chocolate?' 'AND ONION,' I add.

So I get my money back and wipe onion off my pointer finger. When I get back into the car my mother confirms I in fact have onion breath. I DON"T EVEN LIKE ONIONS!!!!

So Eastside Steak and Shake, YOU are on my list.

This year I'm thankful

This time last year I was emotionally drained. This time last year I was depressed. This time last year I was angry. This time last year life sucked.

Why you ask? I was on cycle 11 of trying to get pregnant. Mark was ready to give up for awhile and take a break because it was making me crazy. He gave me this last cycle and if we weren't pregnant he wanted to take a break for awhile. After months of waking at 7 a.m. to take my temperature and record it in my fertilityfriend.com account I couldn't imagine putting this on hold.

So here we were in Thanksgiving week, a time to be thankful and all I could be was bitter. I just knew I wasn't pregnant this cycle. I had no 'phantom' symptoms. Those evil little things that lifted my hopes every cycle making me FOR SURE I was pregnant. (One cycle, maybe 6, I had increased salvia. Well upon googling I found many people have increased salvia with pregnancy. First thought: OMG I'm pregnant. Nope, not at all.)

Since I had no 'phantom' symptoms I didn't even want to take a test this cycle. I figured, What's the point. The Sunday after Thanksgiving was the first day I could test. I wasn't going to do it. Mark made me. I written about this before so I won't go back through the dramatics except to say.....it was positive. 

So this year I'm a year out from finding out I was pregnant. I have a beautiful, happy 3-month 0ld. I have SO much to be thankful for. Mark and I are truly blessed and thankful this Thanksgiving. So much has changed for me over the course of a year.

Recycled Crayons

At 1 a.m. the other night I decided to start an art project. I made recycled crayons!! I imagine this being a great project to do with your kids or even a simple Christmas gift, just add a stack of copy paper :)

I used a mini muffin tin and an assortment of crayons. I preheated the oven to 275 degrees. While it was heating, I broke the crayons into pieces and removed the paper. Then I sprayed the tin with vegetable oil and filled them with crayons. Just put whatever colors you like together. Either colors in the same color family or just whatever you think goes together.

Then put the tin in the oven for about 10 minutes or until all the crayons are melted. It may take longer if you use a cupcake pan.

Once the crayons are melted remove them from the oven and let them cool. When they are cool just remove them from the pan. They should just pop out.