Why I May Never Go To Wal-Mart Again

Ok, I will still probably go to Wal-Mart. But, I've just discovered an amazing way to avoid it as much as possible.

I subscribe to www.flylady.net for home/life organization. Today, the post was how planning can save you money. For instance, if you plan your shopping list carefully, you won't forget something and have to make a second trip to the store.

I was scrolling thru the comments (not something I normally do) when I saw a pattern. Several people mentioned www.alice.com. I had to go check this out.

IT IS FREAKING AMAZING!

You sign up for a free account. Choose some categories of items you typically purchase (very much like your Wal-Mart list) and then you can go thru, check the category, look at the items offered and order from them. If there is a coupon for an item available, they will automatically tag it and deduct it from your total.

The prices are around the Wal-Mart price range . . . and, here's the best part . . . SHIPPING IS FREE!!!! No minimum order!

I had started a Wal-Mart list this morning and went ahead and tried www.alice.com with my list. Altho there were a few items not on it, the bulk were on it and it will cost me no more than Wal-Mart would. And, I won't be spending gas money or buying 5 things I saw in the store but really didn't need.

HOW COOL IS THAT?

I figured that shipping would take 2-4 weeks since this was such a good deal, but the checkout showed 1-2 business days.

If this really works like it says it does, I'm in love!!!!

The Start of Something New

I'm always for starting new projects. I just never seem to finish them because of my short attention span.

But, for several days I've been seriously thinking of "going green" in household cleaners. I'm not doing it to save the world. I'm doing it because I have over a dozen different bottles of cleaners in the house. It makes remembering what I need to buy hard to keep track of and it can get expensive.

So, for the last few days I've been researching non-toxic and "green" cleaning products. I pulled out several that I want to try. In the meantime, I'll keep my store bought stuff to finish it up (so as not to waste money) and just in case the green ones don't do the job.

It's always best to take baby steps so I started with just that. Lately, my dishwasher hasn't been cleaning the dishes as well as I would like. And there tends to be a greasy feel to the dishes even when there wasn't anything greasy in the dishwasher.

The proposed solution? Vinegar. Yup, plain white household vinegar. It's a disinfectant and degreaser. So, I gave it a try. I poured about a cup of white vinegar in the bottom of my dishwasher (with no dishes in it) and ran it.

The next load of dishes I had included a greasy pan so I thought this would tell me whether or not the vinegar worked. Not only did the dishes come out completely clean, there was NO greasy feel to them.

The BBC show "How Clean Is Your House?" suggests doing the "vinegar treatment" on your dishwasher once a month. Apparently the trap at the bottom collects bacteria and grease and the vinegar disolves it.

Ok, one experiment down and it was successful!

The REAL 12 Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
The worst cold I ever did have.

On the second day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the third day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the fourth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the fifth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the sixth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Six pleas to grandma
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the seventh day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Seven cups of egg nog
Six pleas to grandma
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the eighth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Eight off-color comments
Seven cups of egg nog
Six pleas to grandma
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the ninth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Nine disagreements
Eight off-color comments
Seven cups of egg nog
Six pleas to grandma
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the tenth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Ten accusations
Nine disagreements
Eight off-color comments
Seven cups of egg nog
Six pleas to grandma
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the eleventh day of Christmas
My true love gave to me Eleven silent curses
Ten accusations
Nine disagreements
Eight off-color comments
Seven cups of egg nog
Six pleas to grandma
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep And the worst cold I ever did have.

On the twelfth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Twelve nasty looks
Eleven silent curses
Ten accusations
Nine disagreements
Eight off-color comments
Seven cups of egg nog
Six pleas to grandma
Five no-show sitters
Four wound-up kids
Three last-minute invites
Two hours of sleep
And the worst cold I ever did have.

(Which is probably why we’re not talking to each other right now.)

Adios Broom!

Along with following Fly Lady to organize my life and get my house clean, I'm working on "downsizing" things. My cholesterol, my weight etc.

So, I've been taking baby steps to improve my general health. Most days I walk between 1.2 miles and 1.5 miles in my 20 minutes of exercise. I eat oatmeal most mornings for breakfast. And, I try to eat smaller portions of healthier food in general.

So, I'm excited about that . . . but I'm more excited to say Adios to my broom! Last week, I looked at the Fly Shop and couldn't resist ordering some of the tools. Of course it took me a while to decide what I wanted because I'm skeptical of new-fangled stuff and indecisive a lot of the time.

But, one of the things I DID order was the Fly Lady's Rubba Sweepa. I got my order in about a week or less even though they said to allow 2 weeks. I immediately assembled it because I was so excited. They have a video on how to assemble it on their website but I found it to be fairly intuitive.

So, today I decide to take this baby out for a spin. I sweep my kitchen, entryway and mud room floors pretty much every day. But, I could not believe the dirt that this thing pulled up! And, the cool thing was that when you "swished" it towards your pile, it didn't go flying everywhere. It was much more controlled. The only downside I saw was that it felt "weird". It felt kind of rickety but that's because of the soft rubber bristles giving way as you sweep. It wasn't anything to do with the construction of it and I'm sure I will be used to it in no time.

At the current price of $9.99 (plus s&H) it's not really that much more expensive than a decent broom. And, it works so much better.

I'm hooked now!

The Journey

Yesterday I did pretty good with my "downsizing".

I had my oatmeal for breakfast. It took a little less time to eat it. It probably took 20 minutes and didn't seem quite as bad as the day before.

For lunch I had an apple with peanut butter.

I did my 20 minute walk. I got to my goal that I had tried the day before and still made it back right at 20 minutes. On the way back from town, I clocked the distance. It was .6 miles. That means round trip I did 1.2 miles. Not bad for starting out. I really enjoyed yesterday's walk even though I almost didn't do it. I really didn't feel motivated. But, once I had done it, I felt fired up!

For dinner I had a hot dog and a little bit of cheese dip and chips. And yes, I had my 4 Oreos. That's ok though. Rome wasn't built in a day. Maybe tonight I will skip the Oreos. We'll just have to wait and see.

I also started reading the book called Body Clutter yesterday. It seems to make some sense. It approaches your weight not just from a physical point of view but from your emotional state and mental state as well.

I must really be open to life changes recently. Not only am I enjoying www.flylady.net and doing my Baby Steps, but I feel ready to start making those small changes in my diet and exercise to help my general health. I have really felt a little better the last few days.

Right now I'm having a detox smoothie to give things a jump start. I thought I would really hate it, but it's actually not too bad.

Here's the one I made:

1 banana
1 handful of frozen berries (I had some in the freezer)
1 small orange (no peel, but with the white stuff on it)
1 small apple with the peel
2 T. of ground flax seed (I obviously had to go buy this the other day)

I put all of that in the blender and added a little bit of water. Blended until it was smoothie consistency.

Then, I added a pinch of sea salt. It's supposed to help detox. You have to add the sea salt AFTER blending or the smoothie will taste really salty.

That's it. It made a nice full glass of smoothie. I think tomorrow I'll add a little baby spinach to it for some extra vitamins.

Why I Fly

In my previous post (and don't worry, I'm not going to post multiple times a day) I mentioned FlyLady. I need to explain it.

FlyLady is a system of life/home organization. The website is www.flylady.net. I looked at this (probably ran across it looking for something else and got sidetracked) several months ago. At the time, I didn't see the beauty of it. But, a few weeks ago,I went back to it prompted by a friend saying something about it on FaceBook. And, I decided to give it a try. I'm now on Day 17 of it and I'm addicted. I feel like I'm in a cult.

FlyLady starts you off with baby steps. For instance, on Day 1, the assignment is to empty your sink and clean and shine it thoroughly. I thought it was kinda dumb, but couldn't hurt anything. You know what? I LOVED my shiny sink. That made me clean the counters and backsplash. . . . and the top of my stove.

Anyway, you can see the baby steps on her website. But, here is what I like about her. She says several things that really got to me.

The first is that we often don't clean or get organized because we feel we don't have enough time to do it "right". So, we do nothing. Her answer for this? It doesn't have to be perfect, just do SOMETHING. And, 15 minutes of cleaning or organization is better than nothing. Right? RIGHT!

The other thing she reminds us is that our house/car/office/life didn't get this way in a day or a week, why should we expect to get it back to perfect in that amount of time?

She also points out how much time we lose in life by being disorganized or worrying about the state of things. It's amazing.

One of the other first suggestions she made was to establish an evening routine that included laying out your clothes the night before and organizing the things you need to get out the door in the morning. She calls the place you put your stuff your "launch pad".

I can tell you that I'm not a morning person. But, since I started following this routine, getting ready in the morning and out the door is a breeze. Everything is where it's supposed to be and I know my clothes (and Wyatt's) are clean, matched and ready to go. and I know where my purse and keys are. That's pretty amazing considering my lack of observation and my short attention span.

So, this lady's attitude is why I FLY. I finally found an organization system that I can follow and that I actually enjoy. It's basic ideas really touch home with me. Maybe it's not for everybody, but I think everybody could take a little something away from it if they tried it. Each morning, I get an email with reminders about where I should be in the routine, what I should be getting done that day and then I go to the website and check to see what "Baby Step" I'm on. She makes it so easy. She just adds a little more each day and so many of the assignments are 15 minutes or less. Sounds too simple, but it REALLY works.

Resolutions

Ok, it's been almost a year since I posted. It's been a hectic year actually.

But, forget that, let's start with now.

So, I went to the "woman" doc earlier this week. I was expecting the normal check under the hood but got SO much more. Apparently, I am completely abusing and neglecting my health. I'm not sure why that's a shock. But, when she listed all the issues, I felt like someone who had taken their car in for a tuneup and found out that $2k worth of repairs needed done.

The first issue is my weight. Yeah, I know. I've put on some weight this year, not counting the weight that I didn't lose after Wyatt came along. So, here I am, just this side of the "normal" weight range. I will admit I am "curvy" in all the right and wrong places right now. We discussed that I have no diet or exercise plan other than planning to have 4 Oreos every night after Wyatt goes to bed. I was aware of this and had done some thinking. But, being a fantastic procrastinator, had put the issue on the back burner.

Yesterday morning began the diet modification. I prefer to call it the downsizing plan. I went to the store (because it was errand day according to FlyLady) and bought some instant oatmeal, Banana Nut Cheerios and some apples along with the other regular groceries. When I got home from the store (I managed to skip my beloved Square Donut from the gas station) I made myself a bowl of the instant oatmeal. I tried blueberry first since it seemed the flavor I would like best. I made it with water, not milk and didn't add anything to it. It took me at least half an hour to eat. I hate oatmeal.

For lunch, I had a handful of baby carrots (nothing to dip them in) and a small apple. I cannot say the last time a raw carrot (or maybe any carrot) passed thru my lips because I hate them. But, I ate them and didn't disguise the taste with anything yummy like ranch dressing. Right before the last few bites of apple, I was craving something sweet. So, I put peanut butter on the last two pieces and it was yummy. It seemed like dessert. I had a brat for dinner, no side dishes and I wasn't hungry afterwards. Oh, but I had my Oreos after Wyatt went to bed. It was my first day and I did good so I gave myself a little treat.

I starting off with a very minor and simple plan for getting a little exercise into my life. I know not to go overboard and to start gradually. Yesterday, I started off with a 20 minute walk. I figured I'd walk 10 minutes down the road and 10 minutes back. I did. And, I got further than I thought I would, but not quite as far as I really wanted to.

I even (gasp!) drank a bottle of water after my walk. I wanted to drink more water but couldn't really get around to it. Besides, I had made some positive steps in my life and didn't want to throw my body into shock.

I have to admit, I sat and stood up straighter after my walk and felt better in general. The exercise, sunshine and fresh air did me some good.

Now I have to continue on with my water drinking, lowering of the cholesterol and exercise as well as taking vitamins. She gave me the things to look for in a vitamin and I bought them. Didn't take one yesterday, but I bought them. Baby steps, right?

Wyatt's Big Boy Bed

So, last week, we decided to ditch the crib and get Wyatt a toddler bed. It sort of struck me and by the end of the day, I had chosen the bed and given the hubby the info to go pick it up at Wal-Mart.

I wasn't so set on the color of the wood (altho I like the natural look) as much as the style. I was sure he would come home with a different color but would be ok as long as it was the right style.

He came home with right color AND style and had it set up and made by the time I got Wyatt home from Nana's.

I wanted to give Wyatt a chance to check out the bed before he actually had to sleep in it. The look of awe on his face when he saw it made my heart warm. He couldn't believe that it was for him.

Naturally, he wanted to know if he could jump in it because he loves to jump in beds. I let him and he spent about an hour before bed doing it.

He even slept in it all night. He is so excited to go sleep in his big boy bed each night.

Top 10 Reasons To Go To Work Naked

Ok, I needed a good giggle this morning and this certainly filled the bills.

So, the Top 10 Reasons To Go To Work Naked are as follows:

1. Your boss is always yelling, "I wanna see your butt in here by 8:00!"

2. Take advantage of computer monitor radiation to work on your tan.

3. Inventive way to finally meet that babe/hunk in Human Resources.

4. I'd love to chip in, but I left my wallet in my pants.

5. To stop those creepy guys in Marketing from looking down your blouse.

6. You want to see if it's like the dream.

7. People stop stealing your pens after they've seen where you keep them.

8. Diverts attention from the fact that you also came to work drunk.

9. Gives "bad hair day" a whole new meaning.

10. No one steals your chair!

I'm a slacker . . . so what?

Yeah, I'm a slacker and haven't been blogging. I could give you a million reasons why but I don't feel the need to make the effort.

But, I'm back.

A few weeks ago I had this awesome thought. I want to take a class in something like soap or candle making. It's not that I think I'll really get into doing it, but it would be stretching my wings a little bit and would shake things up.

Well, even though I live outside the most liberal town in Bloomington, I seem to be having problems finding a class.

Apparently cake decorating is the in thing. I don't think I need a class where I can eat my mistakes and enjoy it.

Anyway, that has put that project on the back burner. So, now, I am out of new things to procrastinate. What does that mean for me? That means I'm actually going to have to get around to doing old projects I've started.

Here's my list (in no particular order):
1. Clean out and organize mud room. This was started a few weeks ago because we kept smelling diesel fuel in it. It turned out that the smell was coming from the garage because the tractor did not have the gas turned off and it was leaking.

2. Work on my scrapbook/photo album of Wyatt. I think I put pictures in from his first bithday and that's ALL that's in there even though I own a whole bunch of the materials I need to do it. I DID order some more pictures today. I need to upload some more to Wal-Greens and order them while they are having a good sale.

3. Pull out all of Wyatt's car seats, swings, walkers, etc. and clean them up. Then, I need to take pictures of them and list them on craigslist.

4. Clean out my closet . . . I don't want to even talk about it.

5. Either have hubby build a doghouse for the new dog or find a home for him. See, this dog showed up on our front porch around Christmas and made himself at home. So, we bought two bowls and some dog food and named him Larry. But, I feel sorry that Larry is an outside dog.

6. Pack up the clothes that Wyatt has outgrown and either put them on craigslist or donate them to a charity.

7. Rearrange the home office. It's still just cram packed from the remodel.

Yeah, yeah, yeah . . . I have more than plenty to do. I will get around to it . . . eventually.

My Desk

Ok, this is my desk this morning when I came in. Yesterday was obviously a rough day.



Nuff said.

As I look at the picture, I wonder when I thought I would have time to read the magazine on my desk?

Apparently, you CAN get it from a toilet seat

I forgot to mention in my previous post the funniest thing about my visit to the doc in the box on Saturday.

As I walk in, there is what I will nicely call an "older rough looking" woman sitting in the waiting room.

As I am signing in, she says loudly to the receptionist at the desk . . . "And they told me you couldn't get it from a toilet seat."

Ok, those of you who know me, know that it was almost impossible for me to not burst out into giggles.

But, I managed to keep it in. I'm sure that my eyes went pretty wide though.

The receptionist told the woman with a very professional smile, "Yes, you CAN get it from a toilet seat."

At that point, I decided that I didn't have to pee as bad as I thought and I tried to busy myself so that I wouldn't become a part of that conversation.

The Birthday Curse

Ok, so since I was 30, I have had what I call the Birthday Curse.

Every year, either the day before, the day of, or the day after my birthday, something goes horribly wrong.

On my 30th birthday, I broke my foot looking for a tiara to wear to an ice hockey game.

One year, I had a miscarriage the day after my birthday.

One year, I was supposed to take Wyatt into surgery the day before my birthday . . . and we got to the hospital and they turned us down for surgery because he had a yeast infection. That's a long story. I think that was the year that the boy waiting on the bus in the Elmer Fudd hat gave me the finger too.

That gives you an idea of what seems to happen. I won't go thru every year.

However, this year was just like the others.

Saturday morning, I got up and I was hurrying to go to Nana's because it was opening day for gun season (deer) and I was taking lunch over for the guys.

I scooped Wyatt up in my arms because I couldn't find his shoes and headed out the door. Unfortunately, it had been raining and our wooden steps were slick . . . very slick.

I managed to cradle him enough that he didn't get hurt when I went down on my back. But, I was in a lot of hurt. I thought I would be ok though, so I went on out to Nana's. It didn't take long to realize that something was really wrong.

So, Nana and Aunt BB watched Wyatt while I ran in to see the doc in the box. When he went to check my knee, I had to explain that I had almost no feeling in the right side of my right knee due to a surgery mishap nearly 10 years ago and that I have a metal rod in my right thigh. Unfortunately, they decided that I needed x-rays. The nurse came in with one of those slimming, fashionable hospital gowns and announced that I needed to change into it for x-rays.

Now, I tend to feel I have a very expressive face. Apparently, at that moment, my face expressed how I felt about changing into the hospital gown. The nurse literally took a step back from me and started explaining why I needed to do it.
I personally feel that if an x-ray machine can see thru a hospital gown, why couldn't it see thru my shirt?

But, after about 30 seconds of awkward conversation by the nurse, I agreed to put the gown on. They let me keep my jeans and socks (if you know me well, you know why the sock thing is important) on.


She asked if I needed help with it and I let her know that I have PLENTY of experience with hospital gowns. As she was shuffling (and that's how I was walking at that point) to the x-ray room, she was trying to make sure my gown back stayed closed. I reminded her that most people would not get excited over seeing my back (remember, I had pants on) and to stop worrying about it. If someone got worked up over seeing a tattoo (or two) that was their problem.

Once in the x-ray room, the nurse handed me this REALLY heavy lead apron and asked if I could just hold it up over my waist with only my left hand while they x-rayed my right shoulder. Oh sure, why not?

As she went to duck out of the room to do the x-ray, she looked back and asked me if I thought I might be pregnant. I think I surprised her with my HELL NO! answer.

So, we got done with that x-ray and they needed to do my knee. She basically tells me to "hop" up on the table. It took some maneuvering, but I got up there with minimal pain.

Unfortunately, when she grabbed my toes to point them outwards, the pain was NOT minimal and I let her know what I thought of it. I also pointed out how stupid it was that they needed me to remove my shirt for a shoulder x-ray but not my denim jeans for a knee x-ray.

So, it came out that I had bruised the bone in my shoulder. My knee is fine. But, I will be sore all over from the fall for several days and it will take a while for the bruse on the bone to heal.

The doctor did tell me after the x-ray that the metal rod in my right thigh was impressive. I thanked him for noticing. I'm not sure he found that as funny as I did.

My directives? Rest. Yeah, the man totally doesn't get it, does he? At least they gave me some Lortab to take the edge off the pain. And, that's all it's doing. It's not getting rid of it.

So, if you need me, I will be in Lortab Land.

Surprise!

So, last night my friends and family threw a small surprise birthday party for me.

I was really floored when it happened.

One of my nephews got THIS for me for my birthday. They actually fit in the envelope of the birthday card.

As if this morning didn't suck enough . . .

So, today I had to rearrange my morning a little bit.

Scott needed to leave our house by 5 this morning. This meant that I either had to shower at 4 am or take Wyatt to Nana's at the usual time and come back to to the house and shower . . . which would make me late for work.

I chose to be late to work.

So, I get Scott up and he gets out of the house on time I assume. Then, Wyatt gets up around 5:15. So, I got him a sippy cup of milk and brought him into our bed and snuggled up with him while he watched cartoons. He was very affectionate and we enjoyed snoozing and snuggling.

I finally got out the door with him and thought that everything was going ok. However, there were some bovine that thought I needed an obstacle course this morning. I came around a corner on Anderson Road and there were cattle standing in the middle of the road. So, I hopped out and herded them over to the correct side of the road. I wasn't sure if they would stay since the fence was open right there, but at least they were out of MY way. I looked over to the other side and there were three cattle still standing there. I caught myself asking the ladies if they cared to join their friends on the other side of the road. That's when I decided that I am alone too much. I left them there and continued on my way.

Once I got to Nana's, Wyatt didn't really want me to leave. I finally untangled his arms from around my neck and headed back. As i was going up Low Gap Hill, a squirrel darted across the road, turned back and went back to the original side. I managed to miss him, but he looked confused.

At the top of the hill, I realized that I had tucked my cell phone into Wyatt's diaper bag and didn't get it out at Nana's. So, I turned around to go back. The squirrel did a little replay . . . honestly I felt like I was in a shooting gallery and I managed to get my phone.

So, I rushed back home and got ready for work. I threw the laundry that was in the dryer into the clean clothes basket. I put the laundry in the washer into the dryer. I started another load in the washer. I unloaded, reloaded and set the dishwasher timer to start for later. I put trash bags in the trash cans and headed out the door.

Now, I realize that I need to go BACK to Wal-Mart (this is at least the third time this week) and get laundry soap.

What's next? A bird shitting on my head?

One of my co-workers has an interesting way of dealing with stress. They find acorns and use a pen and Wite Out to make little heads that look like Jamaican people. I think they are pretty stressed. The tribe keeps getting bigger and bigger.

HALLOWEEN

Ok, so I am a week late . . . but it wasn't that exciting.

Wyatt did NOT want to get into his chicken costume when it came time to trick or treat. I was heartbroken. But, Daddy suggested putting him in some camo and taking him. So, we changed his clothes, gave him a slingshot and his plastic pumpkin bucket and headed over to the neighbor's house.

We got to exactly TWO houses before he informed me that he wanted to go home and stay home.

It was a big disappoinment. AND we didn't have very many trick or treaters.

Like father . .. like son

Nuff said.

Wyatt also has a habit of sticking his hand in my bra when he's tired, nervous or upset. He always tells me that he needs booby.

The other morning I was getting dressed. I don't hide anything from him at this point. When he points out parts on my body I just tell him that everyone has parts but everyone's looks a little different. So, the other morning he told me he needed booby as I was getting dressed. And then he said . . . I need it bad.

I had to laugh.

Meet Moo-Moo

This is Moo-Moo. Trina bought her for Wyatt a few months ago. Ever since he got it, Wyatt has insisted on keeping her in his bed.

Every night, we have to make sure that Bob-Bob (Sponge Bob) and Moo-Moo are where he wants them in his bed.

However, the last several nights, there has been a new twist to the routine. I now have to kiss Moo-Moo goodnight and tell her that I love her. And, he does too. And, he wants to hold Moo-Moo while he's having his milk cup before going to bed.

This morning, he insisted on bringing Moo-Moo into our bed while he watched tv with Daddy so that I could shower. He "shared" his milk cup with Moo-Moo. He would put the cup up to her mouth and then make little drinking noises for her.

A Huge Compliment

My mother-in-law gave me a huge compliment today.

She was talking about how her sisters are coming to visit tomorrow and they wanted homemade yeast rolls.

My mother-in-law asked me to make them. She said that I make the best and that they are so light and fluffy.

I almost cried. This came from a woman who is a FANTASTIC cook.

Raising him up right

So, Wyatt of course has a fascination with the vacuum cleaner . . . and ours was out last night because something was wrong with our furnace (that's the closet where we keep it). Once the furnace was fixed, which was apparently a quick fix, Wyatt wanted to sweep.

I found out he's been spending a little too much time with Nana. He went around the living room, put up his toys, picked up anything on the floor (like shoes) that he didn't want to have to sweep around and went at it.

I'm excited that he's helping, but worried that he's a little obsessive/compulsive about it.