WARNING!!! EXTREME HAZARD! EXPLODING EGG GRENADES!

ggs can explode! I put 3 eggs in a pot to boil and I forgot about them. I went about the rest of my day. It was probably 2 hours later that I started to smell burnt eggs. I came down stairs puzzled at first, but then I suddenly remembered my eggs!

I have forgotten eggs on the stove before. The water evaporates away and the shell burns a little, the whole egg tastes burned and gross. That is what I expected to see this time. When I looked in the pot I saw 2 eggs and a ... yolk? What the heck? I was holding the pot in my hand looking straight into it when I whispered the words... "it exploded?"

It was then that I knew I was doomed. I was looking into a pot of two live egg grenades. I tried to gently pull the pot away from my face, but one of the eggs shifted and POP it exploded! Right in my face! Thank GOD it didn't get in my eyes! Extremely hot egg went everywhere and stuck! It stuck to the wall, to my hair, to the skin on my arms and burned me. Eggs shell went flying across the room like little shards of eggrenade shrapnel.

I screamed which attracted the dogs. They pounced on the little bits of egg on the floor and stuck to the cabinet doors. I stood in shock - dead still - knowing that there was still one live eggrenade in the pot. I managed to set it down on the stove without detonating it. I poured a mug of cold water into the pot and it sizzled and sputteredas it cooled the egg; disarming it.

I have learned a valuable lesson. Use a timer.

Love,

Caleb's Birthday

I'm not even sure how to put all of this into words.

Caleb turned 1 this week. Monday was his first birthday and we mostly spent it at home alone as a little family. We only left home for a little while, and when we got home we spent the rest of the afternoon and night inside. It wasn't very eventful as far as birthdays go. Maybe that is why I didn't feel as if a lot had changed when the day was over.

Shawn had the day off of work and we needed to bring the car back to the dealership for some warranty work. While we were waiting for the work to be done, we walked to a nearby Mexican restaurant for lunch. Caleb managed to charm the few other people in the place with his new found love of waving and saying "hi!" Shawn and I took turns feeding him and, surprisingly, he stayed awake the whole way home from Sandy, Or.

When we got home that afternoon, we let him open some presents and play with them for a while. I let him feed himself dinner, which I don't normally do. He really enjoyed feeding himself and now he wants to do it all the time. He had popcorn chicken that I made and he did a great job of eating it all up. He kept cramming as many as he could into his mouth all at once. Of course, I got it on video! =]

He played after dinner for a bit and then we gave him a little cupcake for dessert. Again, I let him feed himself, and again, he crammed as much into his mouth at one time as possible. He ate almost every little bit of his cake and didn't make a very big mess, either.

Even though we did all kinds of birthday things, it still didn't seem real until I was going to bed. Shawn and I went into Caleb's room to check on him and tuck him in before we went to bed. There was my little baby toddler. He looked like such a big boy lying there in his crib. I gazed at him in amazement and then thought to myself, "it's time to lower the mattress the rest of the way."

Tonight we celebrated his birthday with family and friends. We went to another Mexican restaurant; Caleb's favorite. We have been going there since before he was born, and everyone there loves him to pieces. He is pretty much allowed to do whatever he wants and they always treat us like family.

We had a pretty big turn out, 20 people, and a banquet room all to ourselves (gratis, of course). We passed Caleb around, had a great time talking and laughing, and a fabulous meal. After dinner, Caleb opened his toys and was playing with them when some of the restaurant staff came in to sing him Happy Birthday. They put a little sombrero on his head and they were very careful to take a really cute Polaroid for us. They usually bring a cinnamon & sugar tostada thing with berry syrup for birthdays, but since Caleb is such a favorite, they brought him a huge scoop of fried ice cream!

We cut the cake and fed Caleb his big honkin' corner piece first. He ate it in huge bites and dazzled everyone with how much he could fit into his mouth at once. Then he tug o' warred with Uncey Monkey over a paper plate of frosting, laughing and shrieking with happiness the whole time. After cake, most everyone left, but the other parents stayed to visit and let the kids play. Grandma and Grandpa stuck around to visit and watch the kids.

When we finally got home, we let Cal stay up extra late playing with his new toys. I went upstairs and lowered his mattress all the way. I was remaking his bed when it all became real to me. He is so big. I was picking up some toys in his room listening to him make truck noises downstairs, when I realized, he is too big for most of the toys in his toy basket now. His rattles and dangley car seat toys are no longer interesting to him. He really is growing up.

I lifted the railing of the crib and took comfort in that, it is still a crib. I folded some of his pajamas and put them away... size 18 months ... but they are still measured in months. I refilled the diaper hanger, size 3 diapers; they get much bigger you know, he'll still be in diapers for a while longer.

I went downstairs and watched him push around his new trucks. He plays with them just like a big boy. He puts a hand on top of each of them and pushes them around on his knees, almost using the trucks as roller skates for his hands. He crashes them together and makes car noises as they go. He even makes a screeching tire noise when he turns them.

The whole time I was watching him, it felt so bittersweet. Is he my baby, or my big boy? He plays with trucks and toy computers... big boy... Just before 10:30 he crawled over to my feet on the couch and climbed up my leg. He sat down next to me on the couch and watched a few minutes of a Christmas movie on TV. I remember when he first sat up and how excited I was, now he sits on the couch and watches TV... big boy... After about 5 or so minutes he climbed into my lap and snuggled in my arms. Well, he just goes where he wants to go and does what he wants to do... big boy... Another 2 or 3 minutes and he turned around in my lap, wrapped his arms around my neck, laid his head on my chest, closed his eyes and fell asleep... my baby.

Love,

What's for Dinner?

hanksgiving day has come and gone, and we are all still wearing pants with elastic waistbands. In light of this overstuffed holiday, this weeks frugal Friday tip is about saving money on your grocery bill this week.

These days, the average Thanksgiving dinner costs around $45.00. That's less than the tab if you were to go out an eat at a restaurant, but it's still a big chunk of change. I can sometimes squish my grocery list down to $50.00 for about a week and a half's worth of food, so $45.00 will pretty much blow my budget.

Lucky for Shawn and I, we live close enough to both of our families, that we get to have 2 Thanksgiving dinners and lots of left overs. Once we get home, I am very careful to use everything we get. I don't want a single morsel to go wasted. Even if you only get one dinner, or worse if you're the one footing the bill, the question still remains, "what am I going to do with all of this food?"

My brother is the type of guy who will eat a traditional Thanksgiving meal made of left overs until he slowly runs out of each item. By the end of the week he is toting a plate of cranberry sauce and turkey skin to the sofa. If you pefer a little variety in your left overs, here are some links I found that will give you some great tips on how to use everything you've got without eating the same dinner over and over again.

• Turkey Vegetable Soup, Turkey Waldorf Salad, and Cranberry Carrot-Muffins to name a few.
  
• Paula Dean's Left Over Recipes
  
• Alton Brown's Day After Thanksgiving Breakfast Hash
  

Love,

Christmas TV Schedule

hristmas time is upon us! One of my favorite things about this time of year is... CHRISTMAS TV! I LOVE LOVE LOVE those old Christmas cartoons, Ruldolph, Frosty, and my dear favorite, The Year Without a Santa Claus. Oh! And I just love it when they play A Christmas Story for 24 hours on Christmas eve!



Here I am to share the joy, this is the link to the 2008 Christmas TV Schedule!
Enjoy!

CLICK HERE FOR THE 2008 CHRISTMAS TV SCHEDULE!

Love,

Pack a Snack!

ith Christmas time upon us, we are all going to be spending a lot more time out and about. Whether we are at the mall shopping, walking the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights, or standing in the cold watching the Christmas Ships pass, we are bound to work up an appetite.


I am the ultimate sucker for the food court. After a couple of hours of shopping I get whisked away by the smell of deep fried everything and special sauce.

Things have changed since I've had Caleb. Before I leave somewhere I pack a lunch box for him. I fill it with animal crackers, apple sauce, fruit cups, and sometimes a PB & J sammie if we are going to be gone a long time. I've learned a valuable lesson... it is not illegal to bring a lunch sack to the mall.

Seriously though, I don't know why I never thought of it before, but the important thing is I am doing it now. Pack a food with protien and carbs and fiber so you feel nice and full and get lots of energy. A trail mix, or a package of almonds is perfect, inexpensive, and a lot less dangerous to your jean size than a hamburger or taco.

Another thing you can easily tote along is a water bottle. Water is the new air, everybody is doing it. A refillable water bottle is not just for the gym anymore, and a lot of food vendors will refill it for little or no money.

So, pack a snack to take with you while you Christmas shop. You'll feel a lot better about what you've eaten, and with all the money you save, you can get me a Christmas gift!





Love,

Frugal Friday

ere is another Frugal Friday tip for you! I noticed that when I buy dish soap, the container almost always says 2x's concentrated or something to that effect. I can only assume that this means I am supposed to use half as much of the soap, but since I transfer the soap into a pump dispenser, I am unable to control how much I squish out.

My solution? Brace yourself because it sounds kind of cheap. I dilute it. I mix it 3 parts soap, 1 part water. It works really well.

• My dishes get just as clean
• I use way less soap
• The soap lathers much quicker
• I've been using the same container of soap for over a year!

Trust me when I say that my dishes get just as clean. I am so anal retentive about my dishes. I can't stand it when were are little pieces of food left on dishes after the come out of the washer. One thing I refuse to ever ever ever do, is pick the food off with my fingernail. If for some insane reason I ever have a dish come out of the washer with a piece of anything stuck to it, I soak the dish in hot water and bleach and then rewash it in the next load.

There are a lot of things in life that I am relaxed about. There are a lot of times I will cut corners. Mark my words, I will never ever compromise the cleanliness of my dishes, and so if this dilution works for me, it will probably work for anyone out there who is within the realm of normal.

Love,

November is Almost Over

can't believe my little baby boy is 11 1/2 months old. We are only a little over 2 weeks away from his first birthday! This year has gone by so quickly. It really does seem like just yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital. Everyone told me that the first year goes by lightening fast. It isn't that I doubted anyone, it's just that you can't fully understand how true it is until you live through it.

It's interesting to me when I think that there are friends of mine, even friends living less than 30 minutes away, who have never seen Caleb. It doesn't even feel like it's been a long time since I have seen them. Now I have a child, which is a whole different way to gauge time. Oh my, now that I am thinking about it more closely, there are people I haven't even seen since before I was pregnant!

Kiddos just take up a lot of your time, I guess. I am busy all the time, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

Love,

Blogger Award! Spreading the Love!

ey! It's my first blog award. Thanks to Janell for thinking of me when it came to this one. Here are the rules... I am supposed to list 6 things I value, list 6 things I don't.

So here it goes:

I Value:
1. My God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
2. Shawn, of course.
3. Caleb, obviously.
4. Family
5. New mops
6. Bank Holidays

I Don't Value:
1. Foreign Currency
2. My Own Life (Acts 20:24)
3. The Views of an "ethical" Vegitarian.
4. Abortion proponents' views or anything they have to say on the matter.
5. Psychics
6. Socks With Holes

So there ya have it...
Love,

Frugal Friday

y mom and I are constantly giving each other our tips and tricks for shaving a little off of our everyday expenses. Today she exclaimed, "We should really start sharing this with people!" So, here it is, the first installment of Frugal Fridays.

Each week I will share a frugal living tip with you. These tips will be either something I actually do myself, or a tip that I receive from someone else. I will do my best to try out the advice before I pass it along and I will give you my thoughts on how well it worked.

Today's Frugal Friday tip is something I have been doing for the past year. I told my mom about it last week and she loves it. I tear my dryer sheets in half. It sounds simple because it is! I find that my laundry comes out just as fluffy soft when I use half a dryer sheet compared to when I use a whole sheet.

How much can you save by tearing your dryer sheets in half? My mom and I went to Costco where we bought the Kirkland brand of dryer sheets. The package cost us about $9.00 and came with two boxes. That equals around $4.50 for each of us to have a box of 246 sheets. That's a deal already! By tearing the sheets in half, we will get 492 loads of laundry dried and fluffed. That means we spent $4.50 for over a year's worth of laundry even if we do more than one load on some days!

Give it a try and let me know how you like it! My mom and I didn't even notice a difference in the laundry. Our towels were still fluffy, our sheets were still soft, and our clothes still smell like a fresh breeze!

If you have any tips for Froogle Fridays, email them to me at FrugalFridayTips@gmail.com. I might just try out your tip, and pass it along!

Love,

Blessing upon Blessing

have been doing some thinking this morning about how much the Lord has blessed me. I have sunch a wonderful husband. He is a godly man, a provider, a spiritual leader, and a great father to our son.

Our son, Caleb, is such a good boy. God says He will never give us more than we can handle, and the Good Lord must know I am weak, because Caleb is the easiest baby I have ever heard of. He was so spot on with everything developmentally that I used to tell his doctor that I thought he was a "training baby." I really felt like the Lord was making it easier on me by giving me training wheels or something. He was on a schedule early on and was sleeping 12 hours all night by about 8 1/2 weeks, and I still felt like I was at my wit's end when that time came around.

Now I have a beautiful, healthy baby boy, who is getting too big too fast. Caleb is almost a toddler now. He will be 11 months old in 2 weeks, and with his first birthday creeping up I can't help but think about how fast time is flying by. He has learned so much, and is so healthy and strong. I can truly look at him and know that I had nothing to do with it. The Lord blessed me with everything Caleb is, he is just one big ball of blessings.

Love,

It's a Great Day for an Endoscopy

am at the hospital right now. Shawn has been having horrible stomach pains for over a month and he's getting an endoscopy right now. He wasn't able to eat anything all day long and I didn't want to eat in front of him, so I am starving! I'm in the cafeteria right now listening to elevator music and eating a really expensive salad. They probably have to pay doctors so much so that they can afford to eat lunch. The hospital has free wifi, so I'm able to kill the time on the computer.

Poor Shawn. On top of having pain, being hungry, and having to get a camera shoved down his throat, he was nervous about the procedure. At first he was worried about going under the anethesia. Then, when he found out that he would be awake, he was worried he would gag on the camera. He was especially concerned when he found out the Dr who is doing the endoscopy normally doesn't numb the throats of his patients to stop them from gagging. I hope everything goes alright.

I wonder if he will be able to eat whatever he wants when he gets out. I hope so. I hope his throat isn't sore from the scope. I got him a rice krispy treat from the cafeteria. He really wanted one yesterday and we didn't have any, so I was excited to see that there were some for sale here.

Well he should be getting done right about now. Be back later to update you!

Love,

ANNIVERSARY!

oday is our anniversary! Shawn and I have been married for 4 years as of today! Today is a celebration of our blessed union. It is truly blessed because the Lord called us unto himself -Calvinist alert!- after our engagement, but before our wedding, allowing us to begin our lives as a married couple in Him.

We have been married for 4 years, but in January we will have been a couple for 10 years! The crazy part is that is doesn't really feel like it's been that long at all. On one hand, it feels as though I have known Shawn all my life, on the other finger (inside joke), it feels as though it were only yesterday that we went on our first date.

Shawn and I have both done a lot of changing since we were married 4 years ago. We've grown a lot in Christ, that's for sure. We've strived to take on our God given roles. He has dedicated much of his time to studying the Bible and learning gentleness, as to be a godly leader for our family. I have been putting much practice into keeping my duties at home in order and being Shawn's helper. It's been a challenge for both of us. The desire is there, but the change didn't happen over night.

The great thing is that marriage is pretty easy for us as believers. We've got the same goals, same parenting ideas, same attitude regarding the past, present, and future. All of these things are laid out for us in the Bible. Once we know what God wills for our marriage, we can both press forward, not looking back, and take ourselves in that direction.

Trust me, we spent 5 1/2 years living together as if we were a married couple when we weren't. We shared a bed, bank account, toothpaste tube, and a closet. After we accepted Christ -Armenian alert?- Shawn moved out for 6 months until our wedding. So, I have 6 months in a proper engagement relationship... much more difficult after living together. 4 years of being married, back to sharing the closet... I can definitely say that our relationship as a married Christian couple has been much easier than either of our previous situations.

I think what it boils down to is that sin makes things complicated and miserable. Living in it everyday is bound to bring heartache. No matter how "happy" we were, we were never even aware of what true happiness is. The six months apart was agonizing, but we did it because it was the right thing to do. I think that it has helped us to tell others in our previous living arrangements; "If we can do it, so can you" although no one we have told has tried. =[

Now that we are properly living together (and sharing a closet), life is much easier. I love being married, and I have a lot to compare it with. This is the best!

Love,

The Mundies

oday was so BORING. I worked almost non stop all day. I kept a record of everything I did from the moment I woke up until 5:30 when I nearly collapsed from exhaustion. I did dishes, I did laundry, I cleaned out closets and cupboards. I rearranged, I dusted, I swept, vacuumed, and mopped. I made lunches, I changed diapers, I made bottles, and beat rugs, and hung clothes, and cooked dinner. My simple life.

I had a real case of the mundies earlier. Not the MONDAYS, although it is Monday. The mundies, as in, mundane. I realized that the highlight of my day was when I found a little fish tank decoration in the shape of an alligator and put it in Caleb's fish tank. It is a life like gator that blow bubbles out of it's mouth. It's jaws open and close and bubbles come out. Caleb loves bubbles. I found it cleaning out a cupboard and I put it in his fish tank while he was taking his morning nap. He was quite pleased when he woke up.

Okay, you see? You see what I am saying? Did you see how much I had to say about a fish tank decoration? For some reason that really bothered me earlier today. I was upset about how excited the little alligator made me. When Shawn came home from work, I kept asking him, "Did you look at Caleb's fish tank?" and he kept saying no. It was only then that I realized that it was not very exciting at all. He never did go look at it, even after much prompting. I can't say that I blame him.

Shawn's refusal to acquiesce to my fish tank viewing invitation hurt my feelings. Why? I dunno; it just did. He looked at the cupboards and closets and did a great job of pretending to be interested, nay, impressed; but the fish tank was my grand finale. It was the cherry on top, the icing on the cake, the pinnacle of my day; and it went ignored. How was he supposed to know? He wasn't. I got over the hurt feelings pretty quickly, and then I just felt like a loser.

Love,

Blog Hog

have been doing a lot of thinking about the memory verse that I decided on in last week's post. I had briefly touched on that verse when I was studying the book of Ephesians about a year and a half ago.

I was cleaning out our disastrous hall closet when I stumbled upon my notes. I had a bunch of jumbled up thoughts in my head about the verse, but none of them were anything that I could form into something coherent. After finding the notes, I sat down and focused more on studying the verse and not just memorizing it. I wanted to be able to meditate on it and understand what it really means.

What was the result?

A blog, of course. I put the blog on A Declaration of War because I thought it fit there the best. There is a link on my side bar to the homepage, but you can also click here to go straight to the post. It's a little bittersweet for me. I love contributing to Shawn's blog, but I don't love being the only one who does. I just hate to see such a good idea go to waste.

Love,