Thursday, November 26, 2015

Random Tid Bits

  1. Happy Thanksgiving!

    Where do you go for Thanksgiving? This year we're going over to my Aunt Marsha's house. Many of my cousins, their kids, aunts, uncles, siblings, nieces, nephews, and my 1 remained grandparent will be there.

    I'm bringing: Pomegrante Seeds, and a pumpkin cake that is decorated to look like a turkey. Travis is bringing his 2 pies that are more like Quiche. I'll take a picture of the food to post later.

  2. Mica's excited to watch the parades on TV. Last year was the first year he got into them. 

  3. You know how you notice things in your kids - similar traits that you share? Apparently Mica learned about child abuse this week at school. He's like me, in the fact that once he hears about a bad story he can't get it off his mind.

    He's been walking around telling people all about a story that happened in Texas. Small kids were left home alone. One kid put another kid in the oven, and shut the door. Another kid came over, and turned the oven on. You can imagine how that ended.  

  4. Warning Bad Word Alert! There was this store in Japan that decided to use the words, Fuckin Sale. They thought Fuckin only meant really great. Like that's Fuckin Good! When they found out what the word really meant, they were oh so embarrassed. As they should have been.

    They pulled their advertisements down. It had to be expensive! Look at all the banners! Their new design just sucks really bad. I almost wish they would have left that offensive word up. An offensive word, or bad design? What would you have picked?

    Source
  5. I'm still in limbo with what to do with my Christmas card. This is not good folks. Last year, because I had New Years cards instead of Christmas cards, I had 3 or 4 older relatives send me their cards. On them, they said, "I'm looking forward to seeing your card this year. I haven't gotten it yet. I hope you're sending one." Hint Hint!

    I wanted to have it done by now just to get that online discount after Thanksgiving. Oh well!

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Monthly Pepper Box

One thing is for certain, Travis and I love pepper, and spicy foods.

Monthly Pepper Box is a great holiday gift. Readers you can save10% off Gift Membership or Ongoing Subscription signup - Use code: 10HOLIDAY


Your best friend in the pursuit of all things hot sauce, Monthly Pepper Box is like having a miniature hot sauce festival delivered to your door every month. Each month discover savory gems of artisan hot sauces for only $22.


Every box, you'll get 3 bottles of succulent heat ranging from a "Low Burn" to "Call the Fire Department" from hot sauce companies you've never heard of. Get 10% off your membership (Gift & Ongoing) at Monthly Pepper Box. It's the perfect box for the Pepper Head in your life, especially if that Pepper Head is you!

Remember to sign up for 10% off Gift Membership or Ongoing Subscription signup. Use the code: 10HOLIDAY

http://usfamilycoupons.com/coupon.php?regionid=75&bid=12279&dealid=2123 .@usfg

I will be writing a follow up review once I get my 3 month subscription. Do you like monthly box gifts?

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Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free in exchange for a review. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

WW: Overnight and Date Night {Linky}

Last Friday our boys were super excited to have their cousin's Evan and Elijah over. Elijah and Isaak played with balloons. Evan and Mica played with Legos. We ordered Chinese food. I told Elijah that he must be going through a growth spurt. He ate, and ate. They watched The Chronicles of Narnia for the first time. In the morning I made them French Toast.


On Saturday Travis and I got dressed up to go to The Bemis Art Auction. Mica took the photo of us. The photo is totally from his level looking up. Travis sold a sculpture - yay! We're still not sure if it bid up, or not. We had lots of good food, and wine. We talked to many different people. It was fun. We don't go out that often. With two little boys we're generally pretty busy with them.



 

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There's No Place Like Home

It snowed for the first time on Friday. Just enough to coat the grass. It dawned on me that I had not checked to see if the boys had winter boots that fit. As much as I'd love to get them boots for Christmas, I need them to try shoes and boots on. 

Mica's fit just right, and were slightly big for Isaak. We decided to give Isaak Mica's boots, and get Mica new boots.

We went to 4 stores before we landed on boots for Mica. I'm not much of a shopper, so by the 3rd store I was feeling done with shopping. By the 2nd store I was feeling done with little boys.

Isaak has this new thing were he jumps instead of walks. It shouldn't annoy anyone. He's just having fun, but somehow it gets on all the rest of our nerves. After the 10th 20th time of telling Isaak to stop jumping around, and to just walk Mica decided to take Isaak's jumping into his own feet. He kicked him!

I said, "Ok if you're going to kick your brother; you don't get off the hook. You never kick your brother."

I looked around and said, "Here try these shoes on. You kicked him. You have to try these Dorothy shoes on." So instead of loosing a privilege he had to try on red sparkly shoes. For the record he only wore them for a minute.


We did find boots. Our go to place for shoes and clothes (Kohl's) for the first time failed us. They need better in between sizes from boyz to men. I would have had to get Mica neutral girl boots. When I texted Travis a photo of the girl boots on Mica, Travis asked if they were for me? ShopKo has Payless inside it. That's where we found men's boots that were small enough. All the way home I said to myself, "There's no place like home!"


Monday, November 23, 2015

Ripley's Believe It or Not! Eye-Popping Oddities! Book Review

Mica's super into fact books. I know he'll love a book he's getting for Christmas: Ripley's Believe It or Not! Eye-Popping Oddities!


About the book:
  • It has foil on the cover 
  • It's hard bound
  • Book Size: 9 x 11 3/4
  • 256 pages
  • Recommend reading age is 10+
  • Cost: $28.95, and on sale for $14.99.  
We went to a Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum in Wisconsin Dells once. I loved it! Things are disturbing, interesting, and artistically pleasing there.



Ripley's Believe It or Not! Eye-Popping Oddities! is the latest book from Ripley Publishing's wildly popular series that chronicles the most shocking, crazy, incredible and always true stories from around the globe.

I love that the book is for all kinds of ages:
  • Tweens (which would be Mica)
  • Teens  
  • Reluctant readers (which would be Isaak)
To be honest...when I pick out books for my kids I find that I want to like them to. I still read to my kids at times. I want to enjoy what I'm reading. I like this book!

Eye-Popping Oddities is a National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA) Gold award winner. I can see why. The pictures are so eye-popping.

You know a book is good when they keep putting put more to read. This is like a coffee table book. Anyone would gravitate towards it.


What reviewers are saying about “Ripley's Believe It or Not! Eye-Popping Oddities!” –

"Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Eye-Popping Oddities" is sure to entertain children and adults alike. Superbly and profusely illustrated throughout and very highly recommended for personal, community, and school library collections, "Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Eye-Popping Oddities" is perfect for browsing through again and again and again”. – Midwest Book Review

“...if you have a reluctant reader in your household, Eye-Popping Oddities is a great way for him/her to experience the joy of being sucked into a book. Or, if you’re simply curious yourself, this book is definitely
good for both teens and adults as there is plenty here for all to enjoy.” –
Feathered Quill

“The Ripley’s people scour the world for the strangest and most interesting anomalies, and this book will not disappoint any readers interested in this sort of thing. The writing is snappy and fun. The photographs and drawings are absolutely fascinating and there are plenty of them to keep readers satisfied. This is a winner.” – San Francisco Book Review

It's filled with not just weirdness, but art to. 


 

Have you ever read, or looked at a Ripley's Believe It or Not! book or gone to one of their museums?
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Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free in exchange for a review. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Sunsella Pastry Scraper & Chopper Review

Baking season is among us. I tested out a new product that will help with this time. Sunsella Pastry Scraper & Chopper is fabulous. The best thing is that it's not expensive. It was $21.99 and now it's $7.99. A great price for something so helpful in the kitchen. 


I decided to make Empanada Pop-Tarts

Empanada's are not healthy by any means. I made some revisions.

Usually I make Empanada's by rolling the dough out, putting a small round plate on top, cut around it, put pie filling inside it, and roll it up to bake. I wanted to use my Sunsella Pastry Scraper and Chopper, so I rolled out the dough, cut it in rectangles. It was great because the cutter has a ruler right on it.



I changed up the ingredients from my original recipe a bit:
  • Coconut Oil replaced Shortening
  • Coconut Sugar replaced White Sugar
  • 1/4 Cup Coconut Flour replaced some of the All Purpose Flour 

Mica helped me make the dough. I could have used a little more water, to get the dough thinner. It's been years, since I've made Empanada's. Isaak helped me put the blueberry pie filling in the centers, and pushed the edges down with a fork. They were a bit messy with the kids helping, but not bad!


I thought they turned out good!

You can mix up powdered sugar and water to pour on top of them when they are done. I'm not used to a whole bunch of sugar, and I think the filling is enough.


You can also use the Sunsella Pastry Scraper & Chopper Review to help clean up your mess. I scrapped all the excess flour off the counter after rolling out the dough.

It's sharp enough to chop up fruits and veggies. It works great for scraping cut up veggies in to a pan, or cut up fruit into a bowl.


What would you use the Sunsella Pastry Scraper & Chopper for?

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Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free in exchange for a review. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Disclaimer

The opinions on this blog are my personal take on products and topics relating to motherhood. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me.

I am not compensated to provide opinions on a variety of topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are my own. If I claim to show knowledge of certain topic or product I will only endorse products or services that I feel, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement.

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