We got a dog

Hey guys! Yep the title of this post pretty much sums it up, WE GOT A DOG! Well actually we are on the foster to adopt program through our human society. But here is our foster baby

Isn't he cute? He really is a good boy except for 1 little thing...he is a chewer!! He has chewed up everything he comes in contact with. Pillows, stuffed animals, toys, blankets, EVERYTHING!! I really don't want to take him back to the human society but what do I do? I can't just keep replacing the kids stuff and ours. Luckily he hasn't tried to chew my shoes (I might not be so nice if he did!)

If anyone has any ideas on this PLEASE let me know!!

On an up note it is getting the kids to realize they need to put their toys and stuff away! And to eat at the table not on the floor watching TV!!

But please HELP!

Shaklee Webinar 11-6-12

Another Webinar, another opportunity to learn why I love this company!!

Tonight at 9pm central time we are having a webinar for you to learn more about Shaklee! This is a great webinar and you will learn a lot.

Register here: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/693637398

I learn so much every time I watch it!

It is a great company with great earning potential and you can do it all from your home! No worries about leaving your kids or missing their events. You work Shaklee around your schedule! Believe me if I can, you can!

Contact me if you have any questions.

Shaklee Webinar

Another Webinar, another opportunity to learn why I love this company!!

Tonight at 9pm central time we are having a webinar for you to learn more about Shaklee! This is a great webinar and you will learn a lot.

Register here: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/693637398

 I learn so much every time I watch it! 

It is a great company with great earning potential and you can do it all from your home! No worries about leaving your kids or missing their events. You work Shaklee around your schedule! Believe me if I can, you can! 

Contact me if you have any questions.

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins!

Hey everyone! So we carved pumpkins last night. Well actually I carved 3 and my hubby spent the entire night carving his own! LOL

But in any event this is more of just a here is how they turned out post not a how to post. I forgot to take pics first of all and I am by no means a carving master as you will see, so I have no business telling you how to do it!

But anyway my oldest wanted a witch and we printed out the template from www.marthastewart.com and then she just taped it on the pumpkins and traced it out. Then I cut it for her. The boys both wanted their initials. We drew those on the pumpkins free hand and then I cut those out too.

So this is how Isabel's and the boy's turned out

And then we had the perfectionist of a hubby's. He seriously spent forever on this! But it did come out awesome!!

Can you tell he is a deer hunter? And the deer kind of looks spooky so it is very halloweenish!!

Do you carve pumpkins? Have you done it yet this year?

Sorry this was so late today but hope you had a great Wednesday!!

No more Bullies!

Hey everyone!! How are ya? I am great, no real reason other than I just am happy today! Well today is my daddies birthday!! But other than that its just a good Tuesday!!.

So by now any of you have seen or heard about this lady...

If not this is Jennifer Livingston. She is my most favorite morning news lady! I love to wake up and turn on the TV and watch her and her co anchor Bill Graul, in the morning. They just make it fun! 

But if you don't already know she is not in the news lately for her Emmy winning anchoring abilities (which are awesome) but for her taking a stand against a bully email she received about her weight. An email that was sent to her work email. Nope not one word on how she did her job but on the fact that she is overweight! Now I understand that our country is overweight and obese. And I fully know that it is not a healthy lifestyle. People I market healthy, clean products so I KNOW!! But this bullying issue is near and dear to me and I thought it was awful for someone who does not know Jennifer personally to remind her of this fact. Like she said in her on air response to the email, "do you think I don't know this?" And for those of you out there saying well she is overweight, she is due to a thyroid problem that makes it hard for her to lose weight, she is also a triathlete, and a runner. She actually just did the Muddy Run in La Crosse this past weekend. How cool is that! 

We have already had our share of bullying with my daughter and she is only in the 5th grade. And sadly to say 1 of the instances was by a teacher! I was appalled at her (the teacher) behavior! I am by no means saying all or even most teachers are like this, I don't believe they are! But this one was. I say this to tell you to stand up for your children. We are their advocates and if we don't stand up for them no one else will!

If you would like to read more on Jennifer's story you can go HERE. She will also be on Ellen today!! It is pretty cool to me that she had the courage to stand up to her bully and that it is bringing this issue to the nation. Although most of us did know this is a problem its cool that a small town news anchor could bring more attention to it!!

She has received TONS and TONS of emails since about how amazing she is. I think it is sad that instead of lifting our kids we are pushing them to be skinny. I don't want my kids to be skinny I want them to be healthy! I love how Jennifer said it about listening to the bullies. "To all of the children out there who feel lost, who are struggling with your weight, with the color of your skin, your sexual preference, your disability, even the acne on your face, listen to me right now. do not let your self-worth be defined by bullies. Learn from my experience — that the cruel words of one are nothing compared to the shouts of many.”

So hold your kids close and teach them to stand up to the bullies. Teach them to stand up for others who may not be able to stand up for them selves. If we stand together against this bullying behavior I truly believe we can combat this epidemic that is currently plaguing our kids, and even adults. Lets work together to shut the bullies up!!

Have a great Tuesday!

Facebook Fans!!

Hey guys so I have to apologize my 31 days of post kind of got interrupted with Dr appointments and a 7 volleyball games in 1 night!! So I apologize but I am back!! Happy Monday to ya!! How are you? I am kind of tired today but hoping that is just a Monday!! 

So today I wanted say I am super excited that we are up to 50 fans on Facebook!!! I want to ask you to come on over and like our page. You can click HERE and it will take you right to us. Once I get to 100 fans I will do a give away!! So go quick right now and like us!! You might win!!!

See you all tomorrow!!

Under my sink

Hey guys I am back for day 2 of our 31 days of getting stuff done!

So today I am going to show you the inside of the cabinet under my sink... please don't judge but it was a bit of a catch all before.

As you can see I just had a foot tub of sorts that was holding everything. I had to take the entire thing out every time I wanted to find something. Talk about a mess and taking forever!!

So this weekend I went to town on organizing this spot.

I LOVE how it came out.

As you can see in the 1st picture I was really only utilizing 1 side of the cabinet. Now I have things separated out. On the left side I got a cheap basket from the Dollar Tree and put the supplies I really only use once in a while. We only use the bottle brush once in a while now because we got a dish washer and this girl is no longer washing all the dishes!!! I LOVE that too!!!! Then in the grey caddy that I picked up at Good Will I put the cleaning supplies that I use in every room. These are most of my Shaklee supplies. I have the spray bottle of all purpose cleaner, the spray bottle of window cleaner and the bottle of Basic H. Then you can see I do also have our dish washer detergent in this one too just cause the spot for it was perfect it just fits right in there and I don't have to worry about knocking something else over this bag is all that goes in that spot. Then there are just some misc little brushes for getting in those nooks and cranny's that a rag just won't do.

Then on the right side I have our garbage bags. The kitchen ones on top because we use those more often and then our big trash bags we put out to the curb. We don't pay for our trash pickup through our property taxes so we pay by the bag. Then in the little tote to the right of that I have all our batteries. This is just for ease of use. I know where all the batteries are and if someone says we don't have any C batteries in here I know there are just none in the house and I need to pick some up. I am not looking all over for where I might have stored them. Then we have some light bulbs on top which by the way we now keep in the basement. And then behind that we have the fire extinguisher. I have never had to use it but just in case I know right where it is and I don't have to fight with a bunch of crap to get it out.

So here is a side by side of the before and after.

Much better huh? I love that I can now find things and everything down there has a spot to be put back and not just being left on the counter until I can put it back. The kids and the hubs know right where it goes now.

Do you organize under your sink?

Have a great Tuesday!!

Stephanie

31 Days

Hi Everyone-

So we are marking today with the 1 day of a new series, we are linking up to the nester's site. Where she is having a linky party of other 31 days blogs. 

So what is our 31 days series going to be about you ask?? Well in short its going to be 31 posts!! If you are subscribed to this blog you have probably noticed that my posts are here and there. Some weeks we post all the time and other weeks well, yeah we don't. But it is I think lack of habit and lack of discipline frankly! So for the next 31 days you will see me every day! (I hope you are still here on day 31! :) ) If you are not a subscriber please subscribe now and follow along with us. But I have a goal this next month and its to get a LOT of stuff done around my house so hopefully that will give us a few great posts and the others we will fill in with what else has been going on in our crazy lives! 

So please come along on this ride with me!

The cleaner that just doesn't stop!!

Hey! Hope everyone is having an amazing week! Did you do anything exciting this week? I have felt like I was just running and running the past few weeks but this week was much better for me, I think I am finally getting into my school year groove! I love a schedule and so do my kids actually. We are all much happier knowing what is going on thru the week.

But that is for another post, today I have to tell you about my magic cleaner again! Yes the same stuff I told you about on my oven has been put to the test again and knocked out the mess too.

Last night I made dinner in the crock pot, and it was amazing! (again another post soon to come!) But do you guys get that burnt on mess on the bottom of your crock pot too? Please tell me you do! I am a very clean person and I don't want to be the only one!

But after I took out the inside of the pot to wash it, that mess was starring me in the face!

 

So I got out my Scour Off and went to work on in.

 

It took about 5 minutes before I was left with this...

Yep that's right I said 5!! To take it from this, to this!

I don't really know why I am so stunned when my Shaklee products work so great, maybe it because I have never found anything that does work so good! 5 Minutes and I was back playing games and having time with my family! Not cleaning up my mess from dinner, I am able to get other things done around the house when I don't have to take as much time doing the cleaning and my house is CLEAN not just wiped off but CLEAN!!

So I hope you have a great weekend and we will see you back here soon! Do you have plans for the weekend? We are going to the apple orchard and probably baking something with those apples!

Thanks for stopping! Have a great Friday!

Steph

Shaklee Webinar

Tonight at 9pm central time we are having a webinar for you to learn more about Shaklee! This is a great webinar and you will learn a lot.

Register here: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/693637398

 I learn so much every time I watch it! 

It is a great company with great earning potential and you can do it all from your home! No worries about leaving your kids or missing their events. You work Shaklee around your schedule! Believe me if I can, you can! 

Contact me if you have any questions.

Lasagna Roll Ups

My family LOVES lasagna! However we are also like everyone else and will eat a ton of lasagna because we don't know (or don't want to know) were to stop for a serving size! So I saw this recipe on Pinterest  for Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups and thought that would be great to easily know a serving size! So here is how I currently make them I modified the recipe a bit as when I made them the 1st time they were a little bland for our taste. If you click on the link above you can go to the original recipe.  I put the tips I have found while making this in ( ) below.


 Ingredients:

• 9 lasagna noodles, cooked
• 1/2 of a 10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and completely drained
• 15 oz fat free ricotta cheese/ Cottage Cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• salt and fresh pepper
• 32 oz tomato sauce
• 9 tbsp (about 3 oz) part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 2 tsp Basil
• 2 tsp Oregano

The way I make them is to preheat the oven to 350 degrees,  take 9 lasagna noodles, boil them until they are the correct consistency for your taste, drain and let cool a bit.

While those are boiling you can get some of the other things ready to go. In a bowl combine spinach (although the original recipe calls for the entire 15oz package of spinach, that was a little much for our family, that is why I only use about 1/2 the package), ricotta (I used Cottage Cheese as that was what I had on hand and my kids don't like ricotta), Parmesan (we use real Parmesan cheese not the grated stuff), egg, salt and pepper, Basil, Oregano (you could also use just the Italian seasoning if you have that on hand) mix together until well combined.

Then I took my tomato sauce pored it into a bowl and added  a smidge more of the seasonings. just for some added flavor. Then take about 1 cup of the sauce and poor into your 9x13 baking dish, cover the bottom of the dish, this will help the noodles not to stick to the dish.

On a piece of was paper lay out your 9 noodles, and evenly distribute the cheese mixture. I used a 1/3 measuring cup and came out just perfect with the amount of mixture!

 

 Spread evenly over entire noodle.

Then roll up the noodles and place in the baking dish. 

Then poor the remaining sauce over noodles I did it in a line down the middle of each row of noodles.

 Then spread your shredded mozzarella cheese evenly over the noodles and sauce.

Then cover with tin foil

and bake about 40 mins. or until cheese is melted.

Now the fun part...ENJOY!!

There ya go, super easy, and lasagna without being the really heavy saucy lasagna.

I hope you like this version! Have a great Friday!

Stephanie

Chalk painted cabinets

 So I am sure everyone has either heard or seen all the great things you can do with Chalkboard paint. This is a really simple way to use it to write down those items you use up but don't necessarily need to go to the store right now and get. (but if you are like me and if I don't write it down I will forget it!) So I painted the inside of my pantry doors with it and now if someone uses the last of lets say peanut butter, they write it down and then when I am going to the store or making the grocery list for the week I know to get peanut butter. So far it works great for our family.

I took my pantry door from boring and not useful to helpful!

I will give you the steps with pics to show anyone that this can be done by anyone. Believe me I am not the most crafty person alive (NOT AT ALL), so if I can do this by myself anyone can do this!

First you will need to gather the supplies needed for the project, you will need:
1. Door
2. Chalk board paint
3. Paint brush
4. Painters tape

So once you have all your supplies you will need to pick your door inside, unless you want the outside, now that I think about it, the outside of a door might be cute.

But in any event I chose the inside of both sides of my pantry doors as you can see here

Then I took some painters tape and just taped off the part I wanted to paint so I didn't get paint all over the rest of the door.

 I just used blue painters tape, that's what I had on hand, you could use whatever kind of painters tape you chose (blue, green,etc).

 Then take you paint, and brush

 and paint away. I painted in a downward motion, starting at the top and when down, seems to show less lines that way. (personal preference).

Here is the door after the 1st coat,

 You will definitely need to do at least 2 coats of paint, I think I did 3 actually just to be safe.

Here is after the 2nd coat,

Let dry between coats completely just so you know how it looks. If after your 2nd coat has dried to are sure there are no light spots take the tape off and you are done!

Here is my finished door...

 It was seriously just that simple! Honestly if I can do this, anyone can do this!! I did mention before that I did it by myself, well that's not entirely true I did have 2 helper for this project, this cutie came to inspect the work...

What a good looking little foreman!

So there ya go folks, simple way to keep track of whats in your pantry. By the way the cost for this project was $0 for me, I had the brush, the painters tape and the chalk board paint from previous projects. Chalk board paint I swear lasts forever, we have done at least 3 projects with our can and it is still more than 1/2 full.

Did you do any projects this weekend? I would love to hear about them.

Hope you enjoyed this one and we will talk to you tomorrow! Happy Thursday!

Stephanie

Mighty cleaner!!

HI everyone! So yesterday I got home and had a package waiting for me! From Shaklee of course! I had ordered the Scour off paste and let me tell you this stuff was awesome!!! I cleaned my stove and oven and am so happy with the way it turned out!! (as you can tell will all the exclamation points)

So first off, friends meet Scour off...

 

Isn't it cute! Ok so the 1st thing I did was to try it out on my stove top. I had burnt on something on the top and have not been able to get it off! 

 

Here is a before and after, you can see the burnt on crap on the left and the clean shinny after using Scour Off!! I LOVE THAT!!!!!! Our kitchen is the 1st thing you see when you come in our house so I like that to be as clean as can be most of the time. 

Then I moved on to the oven door, I was amazed at how easily it cleaned the junk off there,

.

Here is a before and after of part of my oven door, again before on the left and after on the right. 

 Here is a close up of the before you can see the junk on the door better, kinda gross! Sorry for the reflection again, but the sun shines into the kitchen and there was reflection any direction I tried to shoot it. 

 And here is a whole door shot of an after. I swear it litterally took only about 3 mins to get the dirty door clean (not including the window)! 

Then I started the window, can I just say oven windows are the worst!!  But you can see in the above pic a I had cleaned 1/2 the window with the same Scour Off and half was not, Pretty big difference, if you ask this gal!

 Here is another one 1/2 was through the window (again sorry for the reflection of me!) I love that this paste even got off the black splattered burnt on spots! Yes it does take some (quite a bit) of elbow grease for the window but I totally think it was worth it!!

So obviously all that is left is the inside of the oven, in my excitement over the window I forgot to take a before of the inside of the oven so just picture the window and the door all over the oven,OK? Thanks!

(I will try to get better at taking before pics, I just get so happy!)

But here is the inside of the oven when I was done...

Not bad huh? I was very happy with the end result.

I will be tackling the grout lines in our kitchen next and will post about those soon.

So yes it does take some elbow grease but the paste made it A LOT easier! I have tried other cleaners and the self cleaning operation on the oven and both of them I hate! I hate the cleaners because they stink and make me sick to my stomach and give me a head ache, the self cleaning operation is just horrible to smell, and it takes so long! I hate having my kids around either of those. The Sour Off paste is are ya ready for this, made of cherry pits!! That's right folks I just cleaned my oven and stove with cherry pits! And it smells good too! At least I liked it.

So do you clean your oven and stove? Is it a pain in the butt? You can click on any of the Scour off's in this post and it will take you to my website for you to get your own Cherry pit cleaning goodness! You can always try the products if you are not happy with the way they clean Shaklee has a 100% money back guarantee! So there is really no risk!

Have a great Wednesday see you soon!

Sunday with us

So Sunday, my girls and myself participated in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk for a Cure. This is a great cause as many are out there. It was a great walk to do with the family and kids. It was only about 2 miles and you did it at your own pace.

Our team raised over $1200.00 for continuing research!! Thats a lot of money for 5 families! We were very proud! You can donate to this cause at anytime by clicking this link.

This is a very close to our heart cause as last March my BFF's 2 year old at the time was in the hospital very sick when they found out she was diabetic! It was a very scary few days but obviously it go a lot better after they found out what the problem was. It is still an ongoing always there thought for them I am sure but Nikki takes it like no one else I know could! She is an amazing mom and I am so proud to say she is my BFF!

Here are a few pics of my girls and I before the walk.

I love Madi's expression here like why are you taking my picture? I just woke up! 

 And this is me and my oldest! She is the best big sister we could have ever asked for to the younger ones! She is such a huge help and the most caring little girl I know! I love you Isabel!!

Hope you all had a great weekend, did you do anything exciting?

School days

So my babies started school today! Well 2 of my babies anyway. They were both so excited to start and this mama was excited for them to start too! Now I still got a bit emotional today. Realizing they are growing up way too fast! I swear it was just last year that this girl started kindergarten!!

But today she started get ready for this...the 5th grade!!!!! Can you believe it? I can't!!

And then this little one that I remember bringing home from the hospital, well going to the hospital for that matter like it was just yesterday and now he is starting kindergarten!!

But they were ready like I said before, and I was ready. Not necessarily for them to be gone all day (yes i work full time but i have been able to bring these 2 with me a lot since i work for my parents and work at their house) but more just to get back into a routine! I must say I love a routine! I love knowing what is going on each day, I love having a to do list and being able to cross things off!

So as the kids go back to school and we return to life with some order all be it crazy order it's still some sort or order, I am cherishing those days of having them with me and spending the time I have been able to spend with them!

Here is another shot I took before they walked into school, look at those faces, are they not 2 of the cutest kids ever!!

I hope you all have been able to send your kids off to school with great mornings! I will be posting more about our morning routine later.

Have a great Tuesday!!!

Shaklee Webinars

Hi everyone!! There will be a webinar tonight about the Shaklee opportunity!!! This is a great way to learn about what we do and how we do it! We have a great company with amazing leaders. I love that I can work my business from home, around my kid's schedules which are crazy busy by the way!! I can't say enough about the opportunity Shaklee give us! The chance to win trips, car payments, and just money in general! How would you like to earn $100,000 in 15 months? Sounds good right, well it can be done with Shaklee. Now I want to stress that this is NOT a get rich quick trick! It is a job, you are going to have to put the time into it and you will get it back! Contact me if you are interested in joining us tonight at 9pm CST. and I will send you a link to get you registered for the webinar. Hope to talk to you soon!

Stephanie

Mean People...Bite Me!!

OK so I had every intention today of posting something else, but had to get this off my chest! So the other day I was delivering something and as I was talking to a person she made this nice comment to me (heavy sarcasm)... "Are you pregnant again?" OK you want to know something to say to really get into a person's head... THAT!! Yes I realize that it has been 9 months since Madi was born! Yes I realize that the baby weight is not gone! And yes the exercise has been sporadic at best!  But really??

People if you can't say anything nice DON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL!!!!!

Can I just ask what would posses someone to ask that, I have never asked anyone that for fear that maybe they are not.

I am the first to admit I am not the healiest person on the planet, that being said I am also not the worst either! I eat my fruits and veggies, I cook a good meal for the family (most nights). Yes I know I need to stop drinking the soda that I do. And I am in the clothes I was in before I was pregnant (with baby 4 not baby 1!) Yes I want to lose the weight too but sometimes its just not that easy.

 Please be nice to people! I love the Will Smith comment below I think he puts it perfectly!

OK So sorry for my rant but needed to get that out! 
Have a great Wednesday!!!