No menu plan monday

This week I have two lovely ladies bringing us dinner Monday and Tuesday and then the rest of the week my even lovlier mother-in-love (isn't that a cute way of saying it?! Hope I used it right;) will be here and will most likely be making us tasty food. Yay for us! By next Wed, I will be back on the meal planning bandwagon, but probably for my parents when we are staying with them for a few weeks.

Scenes from the beach

We are moved out of our apartment, minus a few long hours of cleaning Daniel is going to finish up right now. We are housesitting in the meantime, which will last a few weeks and our earthly possessions are scattered between 4 locations until we can move into our new house. We plan on the house renovation taking at least another month, so the girls and I will go to stay with my parents for awhile later this month. So we're little nomads right now, but its good to have the BIG move behind us for now.





Oh and what I meant to say with these pictures (nice pics dad!) was that these were taken at the beach after a long day of moving/packing/cleaning/toddler & infant caring. We ate ice cream bars and watched the sunset. A nice change of pace after frantic frantic frantic:)

Moving and having babies in the same week is a bad idea

Just in case you were wondering...;)

And yes, I have some mad multitasking skilz that I never knew I had before this week (changing poopy diapers while nursing, changing two poopy diapers at the same time, etc.)

Well, after the move is somewhat complete(our stuff but not us) I will be posting more. Right now we're just surviving life by God's grace:)

Snoozing in a swing with no batteries:)

We are all still doing well--this would have been such a nice week had it not been that we were also moving this weekend! Put a couple of stressful, time consuming events in the same week and life kind of gets nuts for awhile. Anyway, I will post pictures soon-we've been taking them, just no time to upload. We've switched to disposable plates, diapers and using the dryer to save time but there is still not enough!

So enough venting--we have O's first well baby check today so it will be good to see how she's doing with all that sleeping. She has an odd rash that will need to get checked out-but at birth they said it looked like a newborn rash that would go away on its own. M loves her new sister but is needing more time to adjust. She has been more tempermental and jealous than usual but I think with us packing and new sister its just a lot for a little person to handle at once.

Menu Plan for first week with new baby girl:)

Menu Plan Monday is hosted at Orgjunkie!

First week with new baby girl...most of our meals are coming to us--yay! My mom is here too, so I won't be doing all the cooking anyway.

Breakfasts: TBD (this morning big sis and I made brown sugar oatmeal pancakes!)

Lunches/Snacks: leftovers, whole wheat Ritz crackers and cheese, fruit,

Dinners:

M: Crockpot Chicken with bbq sauce, baked potatoes (in the crockpot too), steamed broccoli, cheese sauce, and corn on the cob

Tue: Meal provided by a friend

Wed: Fettucini Alfredo(jarred) with Shrimp, green salad, garlic french bread (homemade with my precious)

Th: Meal provided by a friend

F: Hot Dogs, Pork N Beans, Spicy Fries and more steamed broccoli

Sat: Meal provided by friend and pizza or fast food for the moving dudes

Sun: meal provided by friend and lunch will be sandwiches, chips, etc.

What's on your menu this week?

More scenes from Capitol Hill

First day outside the womb for O girl

Baby O!

I have been trying unsuccessfully to upload any pictures of sweet baby O since yesterday afternoon-so sorry for taking so long! I guess something with the hospital Wi-fi and our computer aren't making it work. But I tried just one pic this time and it took! Here she is:

Welcome baby O!

This past night (a little before 1am) baby O came into this world after a successful VBAC! She arrived after over 44 hours of labor and it was quite the roller coaster with many times we thought it wasn't going to happen without a C-section. She weighed an unexpected 9lbs 13oz (over a lb and a half bigger than her sister!) and 20 inches long. She has black hair like her daddy and is beautiful! I am doing well, just tired and sore:) We'll have a birth story and pictures as soon as we can-probably in a few hours.

Guess I knew it was my last shot...

Yesterday I had the urge to cook in bulk and use my last catalina coupons at Safeway. Good thing I did since it looks like I get to hang out in bed until baby comes! Here are the fruits of yesterday's labor-my shopping trip and then my cooking/baking efforts!

Here is my shopping trip-I used a ton of coupons including several that got me some free stuff! I was planning on just using the $22 in catalina coupons from the living well promo and calling it good, but I realized the $10/$50 coupon I got in the mail said nothing about the $50 being after coupons! So I quickly dug out as many coupons as possible to use with my catalina and brought my total down to $7 after coupons and catalinas! Not only that but I got $5 in catalinas back-from the marked down brownie packages and the yoplait yogurts (suprise-didn't know that promo was still on!)


The cashier looked a little annoyed until the end when my total went from $113 to $7! He said good job/nice trip several times:) I was excited to get some things we needed and not just items that had a sale and we already had a ton of it. Such as: brown rice, whole wheat flour, applesauce, lunchmeat (for easy lunches when I can't do much!). The yogurt, hotdogs, tortillaz chips, glade thingy, cheerios were all pretty much free after coupons/discounts! I also now have a $0.10 gas reward to use:)

My baking/cooking efforts:

I made a huge pot of turkey/hamburger/bean chili, 3 pans of turkey/beef meatballs (to make teriyaki meatballs over rice or over pasta), 5 hamburger patties, 1 pan of cornbread and 1 cornbread mix for later and one pan of brownies from the markdowns above.

Happy Due Date to us!

Today is probably my last day out of the house for awhile-so I am trying to make it a fun one! With baby's due date here, she'll be here any day now (or any week?) and I will probably have midwife orders to do that fun bedrest thing again by this afternoon.

So... I am going to get a pedicure at the local beauty college and the three of us are going out to dinner tonight! Of course I'd be okay if those plans were interrupted by labor at any time:)

It also sounds like my mom will be able to come spend the long weekend here to take care of the little (and the big one;) girlie etc. while I concentrate on keeping my BP down.

High BP again...

Updated to add: I checked my lab results online last night and they came back clean! I will be talking with the midwife this afternoon to find out next steps (most likely partial/most bed rest again)-but thankfully I don't think we'll be discussing immediately plans for a c-section or early induction! Thank you for all your kind words and prayers! Hopefully it won't even be a consideration because I will go into labor soon;)

My apt at the midwife did not go well today. I had a BP of 136/88- so they started the red flags for possible pre-eclampsia/PIH again. Please pray that the blood/urine tests will come back clean tomorrow! I am not sure what will happen next if they do not, other than likely discussions of how to get the baby out asap.

I was thankful that a friend from church, Sue, was there with M during the ordeal and she took us out to dinner afterward and listened to me cry:) The midwife and nurse also got some tears-but after all is said and done God is sovereign in whatever ends up happening.

Besides praying that the tests come back clean please in all seriousness pray for baby to come soon! The sooner she comes the more likely my BP will not get higher and that she will be able to make her way naturally. Plus we want to meet her! Thank you!!

Loves me some grocery bargains (but loves me some giving birth better) 5/18/09

I'm just a wee bit preoccupied with the fact that I am almost to my due date (tomorrow!), can anyone tell?;)

Here's to hoping this is my last shopping trip post for a long time--but ah, I've said that before, haven't I( for like 4 weeks!)?!

So Albertson's has been awesome lately and has been workin' those doubles. I can hardly believe I live near a store that does this!

Here's a trip to Albies with doubles and coupons along with $4 in catalinas from the Kraft BBQ sauce deal last week. My out of pocket total was $1.81, I believe. I used 2 BBQ sauce coupons, a $2 off any meat purchase when you buy Kraft products coupons (on the Ball Park Franks), in ad coupons for the Ritz and Cheese, 2 $1/2 coupons for the juice and one $1/2 for the Bar S Franks along with 3 doublers.

Another Albies trip using doublers and the El Paso Cat. Deal. Spent $6 oop and not pictured are the newspaper I had to buy to get the doublers (lame!) and Nalley Pickles I got for $0.89 after doubles. Also pictured are the hot dog buns which were free after I got a catalina for $3 off meat cat from this which I used on the next transaction which is also pictured. For the turkey, 2 cans cream soup I spent $0.78 out of pocket.

I ran to Safeway to use up an expiring catalina for $2 and found that we had some "welcome to the neighborhood coupons at our new house. $2 off rancher's reserve beef and $2 off seafood when you spend $10 were two of them. Ialso used $1/1 coupons for the cornflakes to get them free, along with a free strawberries when you spend $10 coupons. I got all that shrimp for $3 after coupons! The skinless boneless chicken was $1.69/lb for 4 lbs. My total was just over $9 in the end.

Fred Meyer was my last stop, with the Kashi Waffles $0.29 after sale/coupon, Lay's kettle chips about $1.15 each after coupon/sale, bagged salad for 2/$1, Tillimook icecream $2.50 (so good...can't buy this often or I will eat it all!), pineapple was $1.98 and hunts marinara was $0.69 on special. Oh and ground beef was $1.49/lb. Not sure of my total, but I believe it was around $20 here. And the cutie in the picture was my big bargain helper:)

Visit Grocery Cart Challenge and Money Saving Mom for more sweet deals!

Worn Out

This is how I feel all the time now. But she looks oh so much cuter than I do while sleeping these days:)


We took my poofy cankles out on a walk to the park this morning and on the way back I was pointing and telling M about the garbage truck and ...no response! Passed out cold. M doesn't usually fall asleep in her stroller and it was way too early for nap time when I took this! So cute, but it oh so messed up my plans for the day. Kids!

She ended up needing a second nap, but always has a hard time falling asleep a second time in the same day. Cried for so long- and her poor mommy wanted a nap so bad too! But she's in bed for the night now so all is good.

Menu Plan Monday 5/18/09 (the my feet are sausages I'm almost 40 weeks preggo edition)

Menu Plan Monday is hosted at Orgjunkie!

If I thought I couldn't get any more swollen, a 2 hour trip to Lowes Hardware and Garden last night (to look at flooring, bathroom vanities etc., paint and countertops) and a trip to Costco and Albertson's today proved me wrong. A little pin in my right foot would make it explode I think:) Oh well, I am still here with no baby so a menu-plannin' I go!

Breakfasts: Kashi Waffles ($0.29/box at Fred Meyer last week after coupon!), pancakes with strawberries, more Super Power Muffins (because um, they're super...;)

Lunches/Snacks: leftovers, whole wheat Ritz crackers and cheese, raisin bran cookies, green smoothies (spinach, celery, oranges, bananas, flax seed and juice go in mine this week)

Dinners:

M: Steak (almost free with moving coupon we got at our new house), Mashed Potatoes (instant), steamed broccoli, leftover homemade bread

Tue: Fettucini Alfredo(jarred) with Shrimp, green salad, garlic french bread (homemade with my precious)

Wed: this is my DUE DATE! If no baby by now, we're going out to Olive Garden with my "My points" gift card and coupons!

Th: Crockpot Brown Sugar Chicken over Orzo and buttered broccoli

F: Homemade Pizza! and carrots

Sat: I think by this point I will be very non-inspired to cook since my due date will have long past--so Macaroni and cheese with hot dogs and carrots will be in order

Sun: Another uninspired menu...probably Grilled Cheese and tomato soup. Honestly I get depressed thinking I might still be pregnant at this point! I want to hold that baby and get rid of sausage feet!!

What's on your menu this week?

Pretty Girl(s)

I apologize for the redundance pics if you already saw these on my facebook, but I wanted to share here too before I forgot. And before this blog got overwhelmed by pictures of new baby O, who will be here in 2 1/2 weeks or less!





In the meantime I am cranky, swollen, tired and generally feel like I'm in the beginning stages of labor at all times! Just thought I'd share for sympathy purposes:)

Twice the Value coupons at Albies again!

Thanks to Jane for the heads up that Albertson's is going to double our coupons up to $1 again for the next three days! Now to find some...

Here is the link at Hot Coupon world where they are talking about which items are free or super cheap with the doublers.

The Kraft coupons plus in-ad store coupons make for some free/almost free cheese! I am also going to get cream soup for a casserole tonight (yes I know -not so healthy:) and the most healthy of all....lots of poptarts to get a free movie ticket! With the doubles it will be a couple bucks for like 10 boxes and a free movie ticket! Not bad at all:) (well unless I eat all those poptarts-now that would be BAD;)

Rite Aid paid me to get baby stuff

By the way, this is post #600! Obviously I need to find something better to do with my time:)

The first week of May Rite Aid had a Johnson and Johnson deal where you spend $25 on selected baby products and get a rebate for $10 back. I realized I not only had coupons for all the products, but the $5/$25 coupon was still in effect. So although I did not get the cheap chocolate I was SO hoping for, it was even better.

When I got to Rite Aid a very nice clerk was clearancing out a bunch of the J & J baby products, so instead of the $1.99 sale items, many where marked down to $1.07! I was in a hurry so I ended up buy more than I needed to hit the $25 before coupons, but my oop was a little over $7 in the end and I just submitted my $10 rebate! Rite Aid is paying me almost $3 to bring home almost 20 baby care items! What a deal! I won't need all of them so many will be used in baby shower gifts in the future. The only thing better than free stuff for me is free stuff for other people:)


For more frugal friday, visit life as a mom!

Maxin' and Relaxin' with daddy

Daniel was stretching his poor sore back the other day and being the daddy's girl M is, she tried to copy what he was doing. Dolly apparently wanted to join in too;). She also loves to try out our shoes, carry my purse and wear my sunglasses.

My precious: the bread machine

A couple weeks ago I got a bread machine at a garage sale. Risky business, but it was $8 and I knew the lady selling it a little bit. The first 5 loaves were perfect and then poof, a loaf crashed. It was like a huge cracker/hockey puck. I thought it was done for, but I am trying another loaf as we speak and it looks like its working again! No clue what happened, but I hope it continues to give me more good loaves.

Daniel was resistant to the idea of getting one for a long time, but I bought it with birthday money and now that he's getting fresh bread every other day he's changed his mind:)


Do you use a bread machine? Does it seem worth the space it takes up for the convenience/$ savings it gives back?

39 weeks pregnant...the home stretch

No matter what I will hold baby O in my arms in three weeks or less at this point! Obviously I hope its sooner, but its encouraging to know we're almost there.

I had another midwife visit today and I am 1 cm dilated and the baby is very very low. She said from her estimated I had a very good chance at a successful VBAC if labor started on its own. So please pray!

My biggest fears are: that I will be too exhausted to cope with pain well during labor because of my current lack of sleep, that baby will be overdue and I will need a c-section for that reason alone (they won't induce me except using a dilation bulb-which I am willing to try!). Other than that I am just excited for labor to begin.

Rhubarb Coffee Cake

Since I was a little one I have disliked rhubarb. Its still not my favorite, but when I was given a bunch of organic rhubarb by my doula, I decided it was time to try again!

I made a yummy rhubarb cake that I used whole wheat flour and apple juice for some of the sugar and it served as a not-super-healthy breakfast when my parents visited:) Oh and I used yogurt for some of the sour cream.

Here is the recipe I used- easy and tasty! Rhubarb Stir Cake:)

Loves me some bargains 5/10/09

Finally finally finally I am caught up with posting pictures of shopping trips. Here is one that is actually current...yay! So the deals I got, are still in effect which I think is more helpful to see:)

I only shopped Albertson's and Walgreens this week with a trip to Safeway to get lettuce and icecream while my parents were here. My total spent for all stores was $33, $4 of that being the expensive dumb iceberg lettuce I needed at the last minute! Reinforces why I menu plan in the first place...no last minute trips for things that aren't on sale!

Some of my trips are all about getting the bargains, or all about getting things I am out of. This trip was a nice mix of both with some really great deals using store coupons, doubles and sales. We could've done with out the watermelon, but it was a 38 1/2 week pregnant splurge. It sounds so good....

So I spent $27 at Albertson's and got a ton of ground turkey, 4 lbs of cheese$2/lb) a watermelon ($3.50), 10 bottles of BBQ sauce (free plus $3 back!), 5lbs apples ($2.99), a cucumber, whole wheat flour, 4 boxes whole wheat ritz crackers($1.88 each), and 2 packages of hot dogs ($0.29 after doubles!).

Walgreens was paid for with RR and gift card $$ so $0 oop. I got the root moisturizer, fish oil capsules and some clearanced decaff green tea. I got $14 in RR back too!

For more shopping trips visit Grocery Cart Challege and Money Saving Mom!

Monday To-Do list for 5/11/09

Recovering from a busy weekend is something I dread a little bit. The house is particularly disaster-ful today, so my to-do list is going to be a little out of control. Is it bad for me to hope to go into labor so I don't have to finish my list?!;)

And before the list, here are some pictures from this weekend (from my camera--more to come from gramie and grampie's camera later).

New (to her) dolly stroller from garage sale. Absolute favorite toy right now.

M decided Daddy needed a baby to sleep with him--and he really did fall asleep. He's been working SO hard on the house (and everything) lately.

Sharing her first homemade popsicle (o.j. and yogurt) with dolly.


1) Dishes and kitchen clean up (once this morning, once in early evening when I make dinner)

2) Put bread fixings into bread machine

3) Sweep downstairs and spot mop the nasties on the vinyl/pergo

4) 2 loads laundry and put away existing laundry (1 needs to be bed sheets)

5) clutter patrol (downstairs only...upstairs must wait)

6) put new family picture and unedited info on newsletter start for May

7) menu plan (done)

8) take a nap...I really need to do this one but its hard when there is no time!!

Menu Plan Monday 5/11/09

Menu Plan Monday is hosted at Orgjunkie!

Now 38 1/2 weeks pregnant...not much longer now, right?! Instead of the last few menu items from last week we ended up having taco salad (packed as a picnic and taken to our new house to eat with the hard working boys), ham and cheese sandwiches, chips, pasta salad, carrots and cookies in to-go containers and then we ate out at a great fish/chips/beer (no beer for me;) place on the waterfront and Coldstone icecream for mother's day! So there will be a few repeats this week.

Breakfasts: leftover waffles, toast, muffins

Lunches/Snacks: leftovers, watermelon, homemade bread & butter, rice cake snacks, cold cereal, carrot sticks and ranch dip.

Dinners:

M: BBQ Chili Pasta (to use up some of the 20 bottles of free BBQ sauce I got!:) and green salad

Tue: Crockpot Seafood/Potato Chowder (my creation...half canned, half homemade:) and Whole Wheat bread from the bread machine and leftover salad

Wed: Make Ahead Wraps (and I will make and freeze extra for later) and veggie sticks

Th: Beefy Lentils (More with Less), green beans-all from last (last) week's menu now:)

F: Homemade Pizza! and carrots

Sat: Hamburger Gravy over Mashed Potatoes, peas (another repeat...didn't get to this)

Sun: Hot Dogs & Chips or fries, veggie sticks

What's on your menu this week?

Happy Mother's Day!

From Daniel, Rachael, M and baby O to you mommies, grandmommies and great-grandmommies!

Great Sales this week!

Safeway's Living Well, Feeling Great Promo is over for this year, but what fun it was! We have enough pasta, bottled water and yogurt to last us for a long time. Bottled water is coming in super handy with our home renovation "crew".


I did several more trips than this one, but I guess I didn't take pictures?! Just picture lots more water and about 40 more yogurt cups! We love yogurt, so this has been a real treat. Each time I have spent between $4 and $15, and have "rolled" the catalina into a new bunch of stuff. I am all done now but have $24 in catalinas to spend on whatever at Safeway next week!

Ladybug

M held her first ladybug with daddy's help a few days ago. Fascinating! If she's going to be ready to face all the crazy animals/insects overseas she'll need a "no fear" attitude about all of God's creatures!

Pregnancy Update 38 weeks!

Even though I wish I'd already had baby O, its still early, right?! 38 weeks today! I had a check up with the midwife group yesterday and everything is still looking good. I didn't do the internal check just because I didn't want the "false hope" that labor would start soon like last week:)

Baby is still very low and I feel every bit of her head as I walk! Hopefully it is productive discomfort...getting everything ready and in line down there:) My only complaints are my constant heartburn-acid-fire raging in the afternoon evenings that keeps me from sleeping and a cold that is compounding the no-sleep issue. My memory is pretty much non-existent now...I find myself forgetting mid-sentence what I was talking about. Now at least I have an excuse!

This week I am trying to get some more things sold on craigslist and just make it to all my appointments without losing my mind or locking my keys in the car. Its a big job:) I have lots more on my to-do list, but I some days are just about keeping M alive, food on the table and the laundry caught up at this point. Every twinge is a reason for me to think I am in labor at this point so time is passing much more slowly.

And because I have no other relevant pictures, here is a picture of M, eating yogurt and grape nuts. She is getting quite proficient at feeding herself...what a big girl!