My Daughter's Hero

I already knew my husband was awesome. He provides for us, he is here to support us mentally and physically, he entertains us, and he loves us unconditionally. But this past Monday he showed his true colors... super hero dad!

Jordan got a 24 hour bug, not too long after I picked Dave up from work for lunch time. As I tried to clean Jordan up, I felt myself about to barf, so Dave cleaned her up and I drew her a bath. From that moment on, Dave took over puke cleaning up duties. He held her hair, comforted her with words and hugs, changed her clothes, etc. It was amazing. When she fell asleep on our living room floor at 7pm, Dave agreed he should be the one to sleep on the couch and help her if she threw up at night.

He was completely there for her in her time of need. How many dads would do that? Boy, did I win the husband jackpot with that wonderful man of mine!!

Self Punishment

Why do we do things to ourselves we know we will regret? Especially when it comes to food, I know what choices are the good ones and what are the bad, but I ignore myself. Then I am surprised when the numbers on the scale aren't going down. Insanity, I tell you!!

Tonight my husband was working. So I made Jordan a pb&j sandwich and myself some tuna helper. I got myself a serving and felt fine. I got another, felt a little yucky. And another... and another, until it was ALL GONE. 5 servings of tuna helper are currently in my tummy. I feel disgusting. Of course, I have no one to blame but myself.

I know better. I have been doing weight watchers since 2005. I know how to judge what is right and when to back off. Yet I still ate it ALL. I am hating myself (and how I feel) right now. One would think I have learned my lesson...but I doubt it. I suspect tuna helper will NOT be in my shopping cart for the next few weeks!

Tomorrow is another day....right?

Wordless Wednesday

Baby On The Move!

Mr. Ben has finally figured out crawling. Here he is doing one of his favorite things, chasing after the vacuum.

12 Step Program

I think I need to find the nearest 12 step program... for STARBUCKS. Seriously... I am addicted. It is so bad that sometimes I pay on my credit card so my husband doesn't know. Unfortunately, our budget will not allow for me to get Starbucks for about a month. How will I survive? What will happen to my body when I go cold turkey tomorrow? Who will be my sponsor and get me through this rough time???

Or better yet... who will send me a starbucks gift card ;)

Sugar Cookies

The entire family is having an off day today, so I thought sugar cookies were in order. I'm not a huge fan of sugar cookies, but we just acquired quite a few cookie cutters, and I wanted to try one of them out. Jordan is into piggies at the moment, so I thought it was a perfect idea. Plus we only have pastel food coloring... I'm not sure the dinosaurs want to be pink or light blue =)

I used this recipe and they turned out pretty good. Definitely a keeper. here is the icing recipe. We got halloween pumpkin and kitty cookie cutters, so I think I need to get some orange and black food coloring. I could have been more creative, like melting chocolate to put on the feet to make them "messy piggies" or make eyes... but that would have required much more energy than I had today.

Edit to add.... since making the piggies we have made T-Rexs, Stegosauruses, black cats, and pumpkins! i'm all sugar cookied out!!!

Prayers Please

Even if you are not a prayer sort of person, please keep the Lerner family in your thoughts. For some unknown to us reason, they lost their precious daughter Brooke. I cannot imagine what they are going through. My heart goes out to this family and I pray that they get through this very difficult time in their lives.

Peanut butter cups

I got this recipe from my dear friend Sarah, I hope she doesn't mind me sharing. You are all going to get fat right along with me!! Thank you (and curse you) Sarah for this awesome recipe!!!

Peanut Butter Cups

12 mini cake liners
3/4 cup of chocolate chips or chunks
1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter + 2 tbsp to add to the melted chocolate
1/4 of powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

Melt the chocolate. When smooth and fully melted, remove from the heat and stir in the 2 tbsp of peanut butter. Allow to cool until still liquid but not too hot. Place a heaping teaspoon in each cake liner, and swirl around a little to get some chocolate up the sides, making sure the bottom is completely coated (but not too thick, unless you like it that way). Place the chocolate covered liners in the fridge. (You should have a fair amount of chocolate left still, around half).

Meanwhile, stir together the peanut butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and salt. It should form a paste dry enough to handle and make into balls. Form twelve balls from the peanut butter paste (use it all), and flatten the balls into discs just smaller in diameter than the chocolate liners. The liners should be ready by now (it only takes 5 minutes for the chocolate to harden up enough), so take them out and place one peanut butter disc in each liner, making sure there is just enough space all around the disc for chocolate to cover it. Take the remaining chocolate (re-heat if necessary) and share between the 12 liners. Ensure no peanut butter is showing. Refrigerate the cups for at least 1 hour, then try not to eat all 12 at once, you'll regret it. =)

Summary Of Grandma Sandee's Visit

Grandma Sandee came to visit all the way from Pittsburgh. We were so excited to see her!

First we went to Lamb's Farm. We've been meaning to go since we moved here in March. Jordan got to pet goats, ride a train, go on a carousel.

She still talks about the BIG COW.

We went into Chicago the next day to see the dinosaur bones! Sue was very impressive.

Ben liked the water taxi the best.

Alice knew that Grandma was missing her own kitty cats, so she gave her some loving.

Grandma loves to go shopping when she visits, and who could resist matching jammies???

Jordan helped mommy make awesome 4 grain pancakes! Couldn't have done it without her.

Ben hanging out after a bath. We do bathe our kids occasionally.

We went apple picking one day. At first Jordan didn't think she could pick apples and kept telling us the trees were too high. But she loved to help daddy, and we did find some trees just the right height for her. She made sure Ben wasn't feeling left out.



We treated Grandma to an early birthday lunch.

We are so glad that grandma got to visit, but it was hard to say goodbye. Miss you!