Busy Weekend

This past weekend we were asked to watch Cousin P while K&L went away for the weekend. KFC was super excited! At the last minute, I got invited to a girls weekend in Charlotte to visit Ikea! I had never been there before and have ALWAYS wanted to go. And to go with some of my favorite people was the best part! We left around lunchtime Saturday. Itty Bitty LH was driving her parents gigantic 17 passenger van! They were planning on getting some bigger items and that van was awesome to ride in. Felt slightly invincible!

Our family had been nicely invited to go ice skating Saturday afternoon. KFC had never been and I really wanted her to go. Since we did have cousin P and I was going to be gone, I asked Chessy is she would fill in. So happy she said Yes!!! Hubby said the experience was terrible! :( KFC cried the entire time, both girls didn't want to try, it was packed, and cold. SOOO glad I missed that one! Chessy was nice enough to go and ask if they could get a refund since the girls didn't do any skating, and they gave us some lame vouchers for a free skate! If they hated it the first time, probably would hate it the second time. I am going to try and see if they will allow us to exchange them for free swimming!

Hubby even got the girls dressed and ready for the meeting Sunday! So proud! But KFC's hair is looking kinda crazy! Oh well, I think most people knew he was the one in charge of that :) Hubby said KFC ate so good with cousin P there! Love peer pressure!

The girls did great together and played a lot! Hubby even got a few things done around the house. I truly expected to come home to a completely trashed house. Less work I had to complete on Monday!

Back to my trip... We got to Charlotte around 2:30pm and went to check into our hotel. The hotel was Super nice! After some quick relaxing, we decided on food for dinner and went. Finally making it to the Ikea store around 6ish. Saturday was basically our "looking" day. They showed me how Ikea worked and I just walked around in ahhh of the place! I could have taken it ALL home! It was an endless maze of everything you could ever want! I was mostly shocked at the end to see an enormous stockroom filled with whatever you were buying.

The kitchens were ridiculously awesome!!!

I have already started a list of things I want to go back and get for the house! Right now we are about to redo our master closet and that will follow with completing our bedroom. I decided several months back that I wanted our bedroom to be gray and yellow. I found a duvet cover there I want to get. It goes perfect with what I was envisioning. 

I saw these awesome chairs and it even had a child's chair to match! I SOOO want!

This is what the van looked like after everything loaded up! Yes, us 3 girls had to load all those heaving boxes off the store shelves, maneuver it out the store and into the van! We had to work off our carb filled breakfast from that morning.

This is how much I loved this hotel! They had this long super comfy couch in there. This is me after breakfast. The hotel provided an endless buffet of  yummy breakfast food! Everything bad for you, but hey, we're on vacation! We came back to our room and I crashed. While this was one of the comfiest couches I have ever laid on, my hips were hurting by morning.

Between the two days were we there, I think we spent around 7 total hours inside Ikea! By the end of Sunday, my feet were Killing me, my neck was all tense, and I had a headache. I wasn't thinking and brought the wrong kind of shoes for all that. Definitively know for next time. All the pain was well worth it!

So glad I got to join the girls for this trip, totally been needing something like this!

Baby Goats

KFC's teacher asked the kids what they wanted to learn and one of the things was farm animals. She arranged for one of the moms to bring in 2 baby goats! I hung around that morning because I really wanted to see them! I have always wanted a goat! My dream would be to fence in our wooded area in the back yard and have a couple goats. I really think I need to live on a few acres and make more money. Every year when we go to the pumpkin patch, they have an area where their goats and chickens reside together and I always think, 'that can be us!!!'. 

KFC and her best bud. Every day when we get there, she runs over to KFC and gives her a hug! So cute!

The baby goats. The black and white was was named 'cow' and the brown didn't have a name yet- he also still had his umbilical cord still attached, very young :)

They made like a barricade with the children and chairs to keep the goats contained. Forgetting that they are good climbers and jumpers, Cow didn't stay put long! He also started eating KFC's buds shirt. I pulled the shirt out of his mouth and she was gripping my arm the whole time! I think the kids were unsure of them, but I loved them!!!

Family Beach Trip '11

I guess this year starts back up the December Catlin family yearly beach trip. Pregnancies and hard times prevented the family from all getting together in the past several years. As the family has grown so has the need for more space and less people that can go down. This year went pretty well. Everyone, besides us were down by that Thursday and we came down Friday. There was lots of staying up too late, adults and kids, playing on the beach, crafts and cooking. In the back room which has 2 full beds, Hubby and I had one, while KFC shared her bed with Aunt Chessy and her dog Riley! So wish I had remembered to snap a picture of them sleeping. I have always said the KFC is an exact replica of her Aunt, and one of the mornings they both slept really late together, later than everyone else! It makes me mad when I am so tired during the day because my body won't let me sleep in, especially when my child sleeps way later than me! Chessy said when she woke up, KFC was just staring at her! Creepy... haha

The weather was super nice the whole weekend!!! I didn't bring enough warm weather clothes for us but we managed. Nice to enjoy such warm weather at the beach at the end of December!

Feeding the ducks. KFC had jumped down on a brand new loaf of bread I just bought and completely squished it!!! We had lots of bread to feed the ducks with!

KFC and her Daddy

Cousin Pipes with Riley

Beach time.

Shadow Faces

Aunt Chessy and her 'baby'!

Mrs. Grumpy Pants! She had had it by the end of that day! Up way to late the night before and constantly playing with the cousins leads to a very moody little girl!

Grandma had bought/made the kids presents. They were AWESOME! All 3 got this board thing that you can use to balance, play in the snow (if we ever get any), slide down a grassy hill, etc. They all loved it! Then the girls got handmade crocheted front pouch baby carriers, baby doll dresses, booties, hats, and blankets! {will make a separate blog post of these later}

Sunday, before LA and the kids headed back home, we made our way to the beach to see the "Penguin Plunge". Not sure what to expect, but we quickly found out. We got there right as they hit the buzzer to go. A hundred or so people in swimsuits and even costumes ran to 'plunge' into the freezing water! It was definitively a sight to see. KFC wanted in on the action too. She stripped off her pants and into the water she went. The water was cold but that day the temps were at 70 deg.!

Oatmeal

I have found a pretty good oatmeal! And its all under 300 calories!!!

I am semi trying to diet. Nothing to strict, but subconsciously keeping track of what I am eating or need to be eating. I went on a strict diet a couple months ago and lost 5lbs and since then I have just been maintaining it. On my diet then, my breakfast consisted on 1 packet of Quaker Lower Sugar oatmeal and combo of 1 whole egg with 1/4 egg whites scrambled. While I almost hate eating eggs that have nothing in them, like cheese!, I knew each meal needed protein in it. I sucked it up and just ate them as fast as I could!

I came across a recipe on Pinterest last night that I knew I had to try! It incorporated my favorite thing - oatmeal, with the protein I didn't want to eat! I was kinda scared of the idea of adding eggs into my oatmeal but thought I would at least give it one try. It was actually good!, and it made enough for 2 servings. There was a slightly odd taste that I wasn't used to, so not sure if it was the eggs or vanilla extract. The original recipe calls for 4 egg whites. Next time, I think I am going to cut it back to 3 egg whites and cut out the vanilla extract completely. The part I loved about this recipe is the creaminess of the oatmeal. I don't like seeing whole oats in there.

Calorie count for the whole pot comes to 569 calories. Divide that by 2 = 284.5 cal per serving

Here is the recipe:

                                 2/3 cup old fashioned oats              Add Ins not in recipe:

                                 4 egg whites                                   3 Tbsp light brown sugar

                                 1/2 Tbsp salted butter                     lots and lots of Cinnamon

                                 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

~Combine oats with 1 1/3 cup water (I had to add a little more water in the process). Heat uncovered on med-high heat until simmer (4 min.). Stir and reduce to med-low. Cook 5 min. more. Stir frequently.

~Pour in egg whites and vanilla. Whip vigorously with fork until blended. Turn heat up to medium. Stir in butter

~Cook 4 more min, bringing oats back to simmer and stirring frequently. Add in brown sugar and cinnamon.

~Once absorbed, cover pot and remove from heat. Let sit 5 minutes.

Cost of Living

Lately we have had one bad luck after another. For some reason every time we get a little extra money it is GONE quickly for unnecessary reasons! Hubby got his end of the year bonus, that we were going to put in savings and not touch! Its now all gone! :(

{1.} It started off with Maggie going in heat. After a dog tearing up our fence and possibly have gotten Maggie pregnant, we had to get her fixed. Which an umbilical hernia repair was thrown in also.

{2.} Our internet modem is on the fritz and reboots itself every couple of minutes. Meaning I can't accomplish anything on the internet while getting interrupted frequently and having to wait until it finishes rebooting.

{3.} Our microwave died! I was in the middle of cooking a soup in my pampered chef baker. I cooked the meat and all I had to do was finish cooking the noodles with the broth and tomatoes. Put it all in for 12 minutes, took it out to feel it was as cold as it started!!! We bought this microwave new in December 2009 and it died December 2011! It was only 2 years old! Ahhhhh! Hubby took the part to work and found out the part that is the heart of the microwave, the one that creates the heat, was the culprit and it was going to be $100 to $150 to replace. Nope, just getting a new one. I LOVED my old one and did not WANT a new one. After a couple weeks of not having the convenience of quick cooking, we broke down and bought one. Its okay so far, its bigger and bulkier but it does heat and its alot quieter than the old one.

{4.} That same stray dog kept coming back to our house even though our dogs hadn't been out there is almost 2 weeks. After all these weeks of dealing with him, he had made such a big hole in the fence that he could basically just walking in and out of our fence. New fence it is!

{5.} Since it gets dark so early Hubby couldn't work on the fence during the week, so it all had to be accomplished this weekend. We sent our dogs to my dad's to stay while we got it fixed. While there, Maggie drug all the sticks out of his woods into the yard, tore up a plastic bucket, and Elle chewed up his crawl space door! Then as we were cleaning and fixing, the neighbor came to talk to us. Basically he said Maggie was threatening his dog, growling, and trying to jump the fence. I told him that no, she was trying to play with your dog through the fence and that she is a very sweet dog. After talking to my dad, he told me the neighbors dog would chase after him when he's on the lawnmower and growl and show his teeth! Obviously its not My dog that is the problem. The main reason for the neighbor coming to talk to us was to tell us that the next time we bring her over we needed to let them know a day or two in advance because they "can't use their yard for what it's intended for"! Definitively had to bit my tongue!

{1.} Maggie spayed and hernia fix-- $200

{2.} New modem-- $100

{3.} New microwave-- $200

{4.} New fence-- $100

{5.} Manual work and getting chewed out by neighbor-- $Headache

Equals = BROKE!

Chick Update

Today the chicks are 8 weeks old! I feel like they aren't growing as fast as our first chicks did. Maybe its because I can see these chicks beside full grown chickens??? After being at the beach for almost a week, looking at the chicks today I could definitively tell they look different than last week. 

Chicks around 4 weeks

Now at 8 weeks. 

The chicks are almost in the same position in the 4week as in the 8 week: Red one is the top middle, Black one at bottom, the chicks on left and right switched places in above picture compared to picture bellow.

This is my favorite chick now! She is a Silkie mix. My original silkie got eaten by a fox, so I'm happy to have another one again, even if she is a mix! Silkies are usually smaller chickens, but this one is keeping up with the rest. I think I am going to name her Oreo.

The Red one (no name yet)

White/Red (no name yet)

And Michael Knight

He is just so pretty right now

All the chicks come up and around me when I am feeding them or giving them more water, but they are all pretty much scared to let me hold them. I was able to hold 3 of them last week while they were drinking water. M.K. lets me get the closest without flipping out. I was able to hold him today but he wasn't happy about it! haha

'In Heat'

2 Fridays ago, I noticed our German Shepherd Maggie was in heat again. Later that day I noticed a black mutt hanging around our house and also the neighbors, for the neighbors dog is also in heat, AGAIN. This is the one that just had puppies earlier this year! This stray dog  wasn't a bother to me since my dogs are in a fence. So I thought!!! This stupid dog found a small hole in the other neighbors fence that we share a side with and ripped a bigger hole with his teeth to make his way into our fence! (1) We DO NOT want puppies and if we did it would be with another German Shepherd and not a mutt! and (2) We were not financially prepared right now to get our dog fixed. But we had no choice, we were not going to let our dog risk carrying puppies and having to find homes for them. We made an appointment for this past Tuesday for her to get spayed. 

From last Monday till Thursday, both me and my neighbor called animal control to get this dog taken. The dog was constantly in and out of our fence, Elle had now discovered that she could get out the same way as the mutt could, and the dog was camping out on the neighbors porch 24/7! Finally I called and demanded that animal control come right then Thursday afternoon. Literally, 20 minutes before the officer showed up, the dog ran away down the neighborhood!!! Really! The dog was literally at our houses everyday, ALL DAY and now it runs away!

We bathed both dogs Monday night since we were going to keep them in the house for Maggie's surgery. In the middle of the night our dogs start flipping out. Hubby gets up to find the dog once again in our backyard looking for our dogs! Fortunately we have not seen the dog since Monday night. Hopefully it is gone for good! I really wish I knew where he belonged so I could send the owners a bill for the fence repair in 3 places and for having to get Maggie fixed!

Maggie getting her bath. She was not fond of this. And she took up our ENTIRE length of our bathtub!

Hubby dropped her off at the vet Tuesday morning. She weighed in at 74 lbs!!! Vet called around lunch time to let us know that Maggie also had an umbilical hernia and it would be an additional $45 to fix. {sign}

She was all sluggish when she got home. We have her locked up in the laundry room.

Today, she is feeling much better! She's alert and wanting desperately to go outside! I put Elle in there with her to keep her company. Elle was snoring in no time. They love each other!

The vet also told us that Maggie had not been impregnated!! Yay, for no doggie abortion!