Bunch of Random Things

I must be looking a little frazzled today. An older gentleman in the grocery store asked me if I was ok... twice. I assured him I was fine.

It's day 2 of my husband working 16 hour shifts and I'm a little on edge, but ok.

Last night Reece ate bar cheese by the fistful, right out of the tub. By the time I was able to get to him, it was all over his clothes, face, the carpet, Sophie's shoes (what the heck?) their toy horse, and his Sit & Spin. This is where mommy wanted to Shit and Spaz.

Tomorrow is grocery shopping. Alone. Never thought I would see the day when grocery shopping alone was a treat!

In other news, Jake is coming home soon. I miss him. A lot. I snapped this picture on Easter, the first weekend of "GS" weather.

Oh yeah baby:

Woodshop. Go there. Seriously.

This is the 3rd time I've been to this restaurant in 2 months. The food is to die for. But don't go unless you like meat, bbq or pizza.

I like to order the beef brisket. With the Tenn. bbq sauce, green bean casserole (yes, you can order that at a restaurant) and the cheesey potatoes. O.M.G.

And those are mile high homemade onion chrunchies.

But the best part.

I got to go with these fine people...

And obvisouly, my dad was there too. Thanks for always keepin it real, Dad.

Living weekend to weekend

Google isn't letting me upload pictures. So until I can figure that out, no pictures :(


We've been living weekend to weekend. Sophie's party to the funeral for my grandfather. Phew. Looking forward to some down time and hanging out with my sister and her family.

Tomorrow is Woodshop. Last time I had the brisket and it was goooood. I just might have it tomorrow night too. And I'm definitely trying the apple cobbler for dessert. Typical. I've got my menu all planned out.

The rest of this week is grocery shopping, cookie baking and preparing for Sophie's kindergarten round-up.

Pray for me and my mommy's heart. My baby turned big girl is going to start school. She'll be graduating before I know it!

Despite my best efforts

All that coupon trouble to save some big bucks on the things we need..... The six dollar hair gel, hunted it down for 50 cents..... he's ALLERGIC to it now. My poor husband and his sensitive skin. He looked like he had raging sun burn, in Michigan in the middle of March. I don't have a picture of it to share. Besides, he would KILL me. Gotta run!

But I have a coupon!!!!

We had this project/ field trip in 4 th grade to make a list and shop for a Thanksgiving turkey dinner. We could use sales and coupons to try and come up with the cheapest meal in the class.

The class took a trip to the local grocery store to shop and pretend purchase the items for our dinners. Now, I can barely manage to take my 2 kids to the grocery store let alone a WHOLE 4th GRADE CLASS. That's 30 nine year olds!

I remember one kid in our class kept wanting to buy whatever he had a coupons for. "We don't need that, it's not on our list."

"But! I have a coupon!" His team lost.

I recently started couponing. And I'm super excited for Extreme Couponing on TLC to air next week.

I have been reading and printing and organizing and calculating. I feel like I am starting to get the hang of it. I haven't saved hundreds or have a massive stash.

But here's my latest round-up. Over $33 retail value for $6.

12 items. That's only 50 cents an item! In case you can't see everything (I'm also new to blogging and documenting my coupon scores), here's the run- down:

3 boxes of Nature Valley granola bars

2 Axe shower gels

1 Axe hair gel- that thing is normally $6 on its own!

2 Ajax dish soaps

1 tube of A&D ointment

1 Suave Kid's shampoo

2 loaves of Aunt Millie's Heathy Goodness bread

I just want to cut my grocery bill by atleast $100 a month. Something to build our savings up faster. Because car repairs, dental bills and Consumer's Energy are NOT our friends. Ever.

Anyone have any good tips? Here are my favorite sites...

www.hip2save.com

www.sundaycouponpreview.com

www.iheartthemart.com

Hello there new friend....

Chai Tea.

Half Tazo Cahi Tea and half Silk Vanilla Soy. Froth the top with a "frother". Put your kids to bed, send your husband off to work. Enjoy.

The name sake

I should probably talk a little bit about where the name of the blog came from. I'm not a vain person, at least I don't think I am. So I'm not trying to define myself in the blog world as some super model. Let's get real. I was a size 8 when I got married and that was almost 7 years ago. Two kids later, one weighing in at a hefty 9 lbs 14 ozs, my metabolism (and hip structure for that matter) have never been the same since. I am NOT what I used to be. Where that skinny chick is I have no clue- just some general idea about what sent her running crazy mad out of my life. Smile Jess. ( 2007: A look my husband is accustomed to seeing, I'm sure.) Around Christmas one year, we decided to go to the Ladie's Christmas Tea at the church. And by we, I mean my mom and sister and I. My mother was seated next to her friends across the room. So much for Bucinski girl time, or for sitting with SOMEONE you know time. Atleast my sister and I had each other. What is born next is probably one of the funniest inside jokes of all time. The sweet, loopy old woman next to me tried to make conversation. She wanted to know if I had children, where I lived and what my husband did for a living. Although sweet and innocent, I couldn't help but notice her inability to keep her dentures in her mouth. And I knew why. They were too big. Like serveral sizes too big. Completely prepared that these horse teeth just might end up on my plate, I waited to answer her next question. "What do you do? Do you work?" Ahhhh, the million dollar question for every mother. "Yes I ansered, I have a catering business. " Her response is pricless. Dentures bulging and spit spraying, "Well, you're not very fat for a caterer!". Oh really?!

Reece a.k.a. Turd Bomb

Case and point.

Peanut Butter Genius

I saw this commercial on TV for the new Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Minis. These babies come unwrapped and ready to eat! Seriously. They just upped the bar here.

I grabbed one at Meijer. They aren't in the baking aisle like I was thinking. These were right next to the other mini candies. Duh.



My plan was to bake with them. Believe it or not, I was a little baked out the last few days. So they sat in my pantry. And yes, I did have to call my family off them. "These are not a snack!"

Today after lunch, it was time.

I dug out my go-to family peanut butter cookie recipe. But no Crisco! I know. How do we survive? On butter, baby. Paula Deen: EAT YOUR HEART OUT.

But what's even better? After you're done adding all the fat and peanut butter, you add more SUGAR. Yup, these puppies are rolled in sugar and THEN baked.

Best part of homemade baked goods: there isn't a wrapper with a calorie count to stare you in the face.

What would you do with these? Not even buy a bag? Bake with them? Eat them by the handful?

Beat of our own drum

I recently laughed with friends about how raising a young family can be so unpredictable. At the drop of a hat- all hell breaks loose, leaving you surround by chaos, wondering- what just happened? Did I miss the freak out memo?

Yup. We laughed about it. It's not really all that funny, most of the time.

So this past week, all hell broke loose at my house. But it was the good kind. Birthday party, business was busy, meeting for kid's camp this summer, snuggling a cute new baby...






YES. I HELD A BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (My entire family just fell from their chairs.)

Other than my own and my niece, this is the only other newborn I have ever held. It took courage I tell you. I started to get sweaty and the chills as I we got closer to their house.

But he is so darn CUTE!



And cuddly! He really does like to cuddle. And he looks just like his Mommy.





My husband started snapping pictures immediately. But I didn't think to take a single one of him. Sorry, Dan.

I really enjoyed our visit. So happy for our friends to finally have their baby boy in their arms.

Guess what's in my living room...

Need a clue? No, it's not a giant ovary.



Nina (what the kids call my mom) picked this beauty up at Costco today. It's one and half times bigger than Sophie and consumes my living room. Yup. That's my not so tiny couch in the background looking not so biggy.



They love it. Reece likes to bounce on top of it. And I love it. They are totally occupied.



The "Jumbo Fun Ball".

Happy Valentine's Day!

I decided that I would let the kids have their own cookies to make and decorate. I have been feeling guilty about not letting S help me with the nice cookies. So... I committed myself to let go and let them have fun learning how to be creative with food.

I'm pretty sure that all S thinks you can buy sugar and flour in are 25 lb bags. Some people buy 25 lb bags of dog food, we buy 25 lb bags of sugar and flour. Along with the 5 lb bag of chocolate chips. I. love. Costco.



S is really coming along. She likes to roll the dough out herself and now cut and place the cookies onto the cookie sheet. I was very impressed. This is a huge change from her days of mounding the dough together and calling it her "best cookie ever".



Can you SEE the concentration? She's just like her momma.

And that cute "assistant" in the corner.... he's dangerous. A hazard to all things organized... like cookie making.



The Assistant... he assisted in eating.



All around it was a good time. S really enjoyed doing it "all myself." Mommy got to relax and enjoy sharing something she loves with her kids.

And the recipe... ahhh. That's top secret. Like get me ex-communicated from 'The Fam' top secret.


jess

About dang time....

My sister has been begging me to start a blog, like seriously begging me. And I have been too scared. I love to read other blogs. I am obsessed. But I really doubted that anyone would want to read what I have to say, even find it interesting enough to KEEP reading it.

I give in.

And I'm kind of excited.

I think my facebook friends will be relieved. She finally got a blog to put all of those status updates in!

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Tomorrow Dan and I are having dinner at Woodshop in Clarkston. My parents are taking us there in celebration of both wedding anniversaries. I'm super excited. Kid Rock uses their catering. And I'm all about catering. Well, I'm all about food.

I promise to have pictures and our experience tomorrow.

jess