Baby Sleeping Sign

It never fails, every time my son goes down for a nap someone comes to the door! As soon as they ring the door bell our dogs start barking like crazy and of course the noise wakes my son up and its near impossible to get him back to sleep, if he doesn't get his nap he is a grouch the rest of the day. Pretty fed up with this happening I got the idea to make a sign to hang on the outside of our door, I now put it up when it is time for my son to lay down. Here is what I did:

I looked up corner design clip art in Google Images and found this design to frame my message. I saved it to my desktop then copied it onto my Paint document rotating the design each time I copied it onto the document so it fit in each corner.

I then typed my message in the middle of the page and printed it out on a 4x6 piece of photo paper.

I used a thick plastic frame that I bought from Walmart for a little under $3.00, ribbon from Walmart for under $1.00 and a box cutter.

I cut small slits in the top of the plastic frame and slid the ends of the ribbon into the slits and knotted them. I then put the 4x6 photo I had printed out into the frame and my sign was finished.

Easy Grilled Cheesy Pigs In A Blanket

My son loves hot dogs so this is one of his favorite things to eat. It takes no time at all, which is great when dealing with a hungry toddler, and very few ingredients. All you will need is:

Butter, a slice of cheese, a slice of bread and a hot dog

After buttering one side of the bread and heating the hot dog up in the pan for a bit I place the bread, buttered side down, in the pan then put the cheese on the bread the the hot dog on the cheese

After the cheese has melted a bit I fold the bread over the hot dog and hold it down until the bread stays in this position. Then I flip it and brown the other side of the bread

Its so easy, cheesy and yummy

Colorful Crayons For The Kiddos

I was hanging out at my neighbors house not to long ago and I noticed the cool crayons her son was coloring with, they were very multicolored and in the shape of a heart. I asked her where she got them from and she told me she had made them using her sons old crayons and a rubber ice cube tray. So of course I had to give it a try!

I used a box of my sons Crayola Crayons, most of which were already broken, and a rubber ice tray that I got from Goodwill but you can find them at most stores.

I cut the crayons into small pieces

I then filled the ice tray with the crayon pieces, making sure each star was pretty full

I put them in the oven which was preheated to 250 degrees. After 10 minutes I took them out and let them set in the tray until they were hard when I pushed on them. Then I flipped the tray over and pushed all the crayons out

My son loves to color with them, he likes how the colors change as he is drawing

Family Favorite Chicken Salad

When my husband and I first stated dating he told me that I needed to learn how to make one of his favorite dishes, chicken salad. His mom would make this for his family all the time when he was younger. So when we were over at his families house one day I asked her how she did it and was surprised at how easy it was and how little you needed to make it. Now I try and make it for my family at least once a month because its now one of our favorites. Here is what you will need:

Two cans of dark red kidney beans, celery, Miracle Whip (I used an off brand), two rotisserie chickens, salt, pepper and garlic powder. I know that there are people out there like me that really don't like Miracle Whip but in this salad its delicious so don't be put off by it!

Pull all the meat off the chickens then shred it with your hands, chop up the celery and drain the kidney beans

Throw everything into a large bowl, add about 12oz of Miracle Whip (you can add more if the salad is to dry for your taste). Also add the salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. Mix it up really well and your done. This makes a lot of salad so refrigerate any left overs. 

My Tribute To A Tragedy

Two nights ago a horrible senseless tragedy accord in Aurora Colorado, a town not to far from where I live. My heart is very heavy and all the victims and their family and friends are in my thoughts. To show my support I painted a black ribbon on my ring finger, a tribute to the lives lost and all the lives affected by this horrific crime.

I used SinfulColors Black On Black, Sally Hansen White Out, Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black and Sally Hansen No Chip Top Coat

I painted 2 coats of Black On Black on all my nails except my ring finger which I painted with two coats of White Out

Then using the Nail Art Pen I drew a small black ribbon then painted all my nails with the top coat

"If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them." ~The Crow

Final Weight Loss #

I weighed myself this morning and I have lost another pound making my total weight loss from this plateau four day diet 5 pounds! I fell great, my pants aren't as tight and I have more motivation to keep up with my every day diet and I have more motivation to start exercising again. I wanted to share this diet because I know what its like to feel stuck and discouraged and just want to say screw it and give up because before I was told about this diet I felt this way every time I hit a plateau. This diet has changed my way of thinking about weight loss, it has given me hope!

Plateau Breaker Day 4 - Final Day

I weighed myself again this morning and I have lost another two pounds, just like I hoped to in my last blog post! So in three days I have lost four pounds, talk about a confidence booster! Today was my final day on this diet, I'm going back to my regular diet tomorrow, so I will weigh myself tomorrow morning and post exactly how much I have lost on this plateau breaker diet tomorrow afternoon. Here is what I ate today:

For breakfast I had two hard boiled eggs and as usual a cup of coffee

We were out and about running errands at lunch time so we grabbed something to bring home. I had McDonald's Premium Southwest Salad with grilled chicken and a Xing Green Tea

And for dinner I had honey dijon chicken, a mix of broccoli and peas and a huge bottle of water

Puppy Play Time

We have three crazy dogs that like to chew on pretty much everything! To try and keep them from chewing on things they aren't allowed to chew on I would buy them each a rope chew toy but after a couple days of them chewing on them there would be annoying little pieces of string all over our carpets. So now I make them chew toys out of our old shirts that are either stained and ripped and are about to be thrown out. Here is how I do it.

All you need is a couple old T-shirts and some scissors. I chose 4 different color shirts, I used white in each toy then one color for each dog

Using the back of the shirt I cut 4 long strips out of the colored shirts and 6 out of the white shirt

All the strips I cut out

I doubled up each strip to make the strips thicker then tied them together with a big tight knot

Then I tightly braided the strips together and knotted the end with another tight knot

Our dogs love them!

Plateau Breaker Day 3

Another pound down! So in two days I have lost two pounds....lets shoot for two more! Here is what I ate today:

For breakfast I had a couple eggs scrambled and cooked in the microwave and a much needed large cup of coffee

We went to the zoo today so for lunch I had a yummy teriyaki chicken lettuce wrap bowl from one of their restaurants and a water

After walking around the zoo all day I was a little peckish when I got home so for a snack I had some cucumber slices with a bit of salt on them and a Xing Green Tea

For dinner I had a large salad with some buffalo chicken on it that was amazing and went on my "must make again" list right away. I topped the salad with some fat free Ranch dressing and washed it down with a glass of ice water

And for dessert I had a glass of Lipton's White Tea in Island Mango and Peach flavor...so good!

Satisfying Summer Snack

My son loves popsicles, especially on a hot day, but he can never finish the whole thing before it melts and they aren't really the healthiest so I made him some frozen yogurt bites, or yobites as I like to call them. They are really cheap, cheaper then a box of popsicles, and really easy to make....they are also really good! Give it a try!

All you need is a container of yogurt (I used Yoplait's strawberry banana but you can use whatever flavor you want), a spoon and a baking sheet

Put a bit of yogurt on the spoon then drop the yogurt onto the baking sheet, you can make the bites as big or as small as you want

After all the yogurt is dotted on the baking sheet put it into the freezer for an hour and presto chango you have yourself some yobites! Yum Yum!

Plateau Breaker Day 2

I weighed myself this morning and I have already lost a pound which is very exciting and gives me more motivation to keep going! So here is what I ate today:

For breakfast I had a couple eggs scrambled with some green onions and coffee in one of my favorite holiday mugs

For lunch I had a large salad using spinach and romaine lettuce, celery, cucumber, some hard boiled eggs and some fat free Ranch dressing with a water to drink

For dinner I had a steak and a small salad with fat free dressing and a water with a splash of Mio Lemonade in it

My Plateau Breaker

Awhile ago one of my brother-in-laws friends told me about the diet she does to jump start her metabolism when she has hit a plateau and when she wants to lose about 5 pounds fast, since she is a bikini model I figured I would give it a try. So for 4 days all I ate was protein and green vegetables....low and behold I lost 4 pounds. Now when I hit a plateau and cant seem to lose any more weight on my regular diet I do this for a couple days and my weight loss starts up again. I also do this diet before a big night out like a date night with my hubby, a girls night out or a work benefit....pretty much when I want to feel my best! I have hit another plateau and have been stuck at the same weight for about a month now so I thought it was time to start the diet once again. For the next 4 days I will be posting every meal I eat so if you would like to give this diet a try maybe you can get some ideas from me. Bon Appetit!

For breakfast I had a couple scrambled eggs and a nice big cup of coffee

For lunch I had tuna mixed with a dollop of lite mayo and a little bit of mustard, a few stalks of celery cut into bite sizes ( I used them like a spoon to eat the tuna) and a bottle of water with a little bit of Mio Lemonade in it

For dinner I had a chicken breast that I chopped up into small pieces then cooked in a pan until browned then I poured a little bit of my favorite BBQ sauce over the chicken in the pan and cooked it for a second. I also had a small salad with my favorite fat free dressing on it and a glass of ice water

And for "dessert" I had a nice warm glass of green and white tea

Show Your Support

My brother-in-law and nephew ride motocross so we are at their races every week cheering them on. I thought it would be a cute idea to make my son a shirt with their numbers on it to show our support.

I got the stencils and the Fashion Graffiti Big Fat Markers from Michael's, they were all $4.99 except the red marker which was on sale for $1.99. I then bought a 5 pack of Hane's white undershirts from Target for $7.99

I found this motocross design on www.clipart.com, I traced it from my Ipad onto a white piece of computer paper then went over it with a black marker

I then placed it inside of the shirt and moved it around until it was right where I wanted it. I also put a few pieces of paper behind the design inside of the shirt so the marker didn't bleed through ruining the back of the shirt

Then I started to trace the design onto the shirt with the Graffiti Marker

The outline

Filled in

Using the large letter stencils I stenciled his last name onto the back of the shirt

Then using the small number stencils and the red marker I stenciled his uncles number on one sleeve and his cousins on the other

The finished look on the front of the shirt after it was washed

The back of the shirt after it was washed