Back to School

It has been crazy busy around here preparing for back to school. Bubba is starting second grade this year, and Keegie is starting preschool. Keegie's preschool is a government funded program and has been postponed so he won't be starting until October 16th. He wasn't happy about this, and I have concerns of my own. I already don't like that he goes all summer with no physical or occupational therapy, but his teachers and therapists assured me that he is fine. I really did not like the idea of him now going an additional 6 weeks without therapy. I have some stretches and things I know to do with him at home, but I'm no therapist. So I called his doctor and got a referall for him to get therapy at a rehab center here in town. He goes for the inital evaluation tomorrow. And the special education coordinator from the school called me, she is also not happy about the delay, and she is going to do weekly home visits with all of her special ed students until school starts. So even though Keegie is still not happy that his brother gets to go to school tomorrow and he doesn't, I am satisfied that he is not going to suffer. I don't really mind having some weeks of time with just Keegie at home with me, without his brother here to terrorize, Keegie can actually be a very enjoyable child. No hitting, screaming, being mean or fighting, lots of cuddles and laughs with my baby who's not so much of a baby anymore. And, with only one child returning to school, I have had much more time to focus on getting everything perfect.

I've done the majority of clothes shopping for both of the boys online over the past few months. The Children's Place and Aeropostale both had some great sales and I loaded up. I've also picked up things I found at Target on clearance, and I made a small Walmart order for a few of the character shirts they love. So I also have not had much shopping I've needed to do. I waited until after meet the teacher night so I could get a list of classroom wishes and what the students are required to bring. This year, I really wanted to do something interesting instead of just sending in donated supplies in the Walmart bag I got them in. I wanted some kind of project. I found a school supplies cake on Pinterest and I thought it was a great idea. But this one said to use empty nesting boxes in the middle, and I wanted to use something that was also beneficial to the classroom. I spent about an hour in the store, using Kleenex boxes and tubes of Clorox wipes and boxes of crayons and tubes of glue to figure out exactly how I wanted this to work. When I got home, this is what I had.

My mission was to turn this pile of supplies into a snazzy cake. I started by using double sided tape to stick the packages of pencils to the tube of Lysol wipes.

I lined the pencils up with the top of the container, leaving a gap at the bottom, but this would be covered by the glue I planned to put around it.

Next, I used more double sided tape to stick the two Kleenex boxes together. Then, I stuck boxes of crayons all the way around the outside of the Kleenex boxes. I used 3 right next to each other on the smaller side, like this:

And yes, I realize those aren't actually "Kleenex" but that's what I call all brands of tissue lol

On the longer ends, I used 3 boxes of crayons also, but I put two gluesticks, taken out of the package, between each box. Then I placed the tub of Lysol wipes in the center of the kleenex boxes. I used LOTS of double sided tape. The blog I had originally gotten this idea from had suggested using hot glue, I didn't want to ruin the crayon or kleenex boxes. I did find towards the end that rubber cement works quite well for all of this attaching, and I wished I had realized it sooner.

The next step was to set up the glue. I put 2-packs of glue sticks all the way around the pencils. I used double sided tape until I ran out, and then I tried rubber cement and it worked great. The plastic that the pencils were in let things stick to it pretty easily. Then I put a bottle of glue between each set of glue sticks, and I threw a vaccuum mount pencil sharpener on top for a topper.

Now, I secured the bottles of glue to the boxes using rubber cement and wrapped ribbon around the bottom and middle tieres. I almost ran out of ribbon, so just a note that one $2 spool of ribbon from Walmart is not enough.

All done!

The other thing on my agenda was treats for the students in his class. I found a few different ideas on Pinterest, asked him which one he liked and he chose these:

Bags of Lucky Charms with a tag stapled to it that says "I'm so Lucky to have you in my class."

He chose the chocolate Lucky Charms, but you can use regular. You can get the free printable for the tag here: http://whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com/2011/08/1st-day-of-school-treat.html

And now, I can finally get to sleep before the busy morning I have ahead of me. I hope everyones back to school is great this year!

Don't Be a Victim!

Today, I feel compelled by some personal events to write about women protecting themselves. The fact is that we are vulnerable to attacks and you should never assume that it won't happen to you. It never hurts to be cautious. But, you also can only be so cautious. Sometimes, these people who do these things are professionals, they know what they're doing so well that despite your best attempts at caution, they can still overwhelm you. Maybe you think your mother's crazy for worrying about her young daughter in a big city all alone. Or a small city. Or whereever you are. But anyone who is robbed, assaulted, raped or targeted in anyway, was just a normal person, who probably never thought it would happen to them. It's the blonde on her way home from the grocery store. The brunette walking to the gym on her lunch break. It could be you, your sister or your friend. Predators choose based on convenience a large majority of the time. If you're in the right place at the right time, you could be prey.

If you google "tips for a woman to stay safe" , "at night" automatically fills in at the end. You don't need to only stay safe at night. A crackhead wakes up at 11AM and is desperate for his next fix so he keeps an eye on the atm, follows the young woman who withdraws money, and snatches her purse down the road. These things can happen anytime, anywhere. Now, I don't feel like you should live your life in fear all the time. Don't think every man that walks by is about to pounce on you, rape you and leave your head hanging in town square. But, walk with confidence, be aware of your surroundings, use common sense. But you can't prevent everything. You can't even depend on being in a busy area in the middle of the day, because you can't always count on someone else to help you. People are very likely to turn their cheek to something they don't want to get involved in.

I think that the most important aspect to keeping yourself safe is to know how to protect yourself. Work out. Be strong. Take a kickboxing class or a tae kwon doe or something. I'm not saying to be Jackie Chan and try to overwhelm a man with a gun or something, but if hes unarmed and just trying to snatch your purse or drive off with your car, know where to hit him and how to make it hurt. Know your states self-defense or stand your ground laws. Find out if it's legal to carry pepper spray or a stun gun, and if so, do it. Wouldn't you rather have pepper spray just sitting in your purse forever without ever getting used, than to need it and not have it?

Why I have a love/hate relationship with being a working mom

Do you ever feel like you're juggling way too much? School starts the 29th for me, the 3rd for Tristan and then in October for Keegan, I work full time, my husband works full time, I have a house to keep clean, laundry to do, meals to cook. It feels overwhelming sometimes. And I'm so crazy that I desperately long to throw a newborn into the mix. Late night feedings, diaper changes, what's one more bath to give? Why not add a few more extra tasks in there, right? I juggle so fast sometimes, it seems I must have some invisible hands. And other days I recline in my chair , browsing Pinterest and trying not to look away from the computer screen because right at that moment I don't want to acknowledge that there are goldfish crackers smushed into the carpet. I get by the best I can.


The last few days have been long, and I've been extremely tired. I worked 12 hour days Saturday and Sunday, and didn't see the boys much all weekend. It was difficult. I don't like to be away from them much, but duty calls. Reality is that we need two incomes to support our family. And honestly, being a stay at home mom is not for me. I have a love/hate relationship with being a working mom.

I hate it for the most obvious reason. I don't like leaving my children. I don't like missing anything at all. Working cuts into the hours in a day that I have to get crap done. Not just stuff with the kids but cleaning, laundry, errands, etc. There are days that I think "If I didn't have to go to work today I'd have plenty of time to finally clean the van out." Finding babysitters sometimes makes me feel like a burden to family and friends. There are certainly times that I feel like working full time is a huge burden to bear.

But all in all, I love it. I love my job. I love helping others. I love knowing I have made a difference in the lives of my clients, and I can't wait to be a nurse. I feel like I am teaching my children that hard work is the key to anything in life. Would it have been ideal if I had waited to have my children until I was finished with school and had an established career? Yes. But now, my boys get to see me working hard and accomplishing something, they get to see the fruits of my labor. Yes, they do ask why I have to go to work. There are times they don't want me to go. But I am proud when I tell them that I have to go so that I can continue to provide for them. They understand. I also believe it shows them that marriage is a partnership, my husband and I equally contribute to the household, both finacially and in other ways. He helps out with chores and with caring for the children. I work and help out with bills, etc. Nothing is the full responsibility of ether of us, we both help with everything. I am a mother, and I am raising my boys, but I get to just be Ashlei at work. I get to have my own identity. That is important to me as well.

If being a stay at home mom is what works for you, awesome! I can definitely see the benefits. But no matter how hard it is, I feel as though me working is what is best for my family, One of the great things about health care is the flexibilty of the schedule. We make it work, together.

Baking and Bathing

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, and we didn't get to see her at all, so today I made her a cake to give her when I dropped the boys off before I went to work. I made a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, but it was from a box. THE HORROR! I know! BUT I do have some little tricks I use to make a boxed came taste more like homemade. I got this on Pinterest awhile back, and I've done it several times. Amazing!

Follow the instructions on the box except for the following alterations:

1. Use milk instead of water.

2. Add an extra egg.

3. Use melted butter instead of vegetable oil, and double the amount. Unsalted real butter works best.

Bake as directed. Frost/decorate/whatever as desired.

Enjoy!!

Now, to buy the time to run the dishwasher and bake this cake, I gave Keegan a bath, with a little something I've been saving for a time when I needed to keep him occupied. Avon bath paints. I picked them up from an Avon dealer at the county fair a couple of weeks ago for $1 each. Blue, orange and red. They are called Avon Natural Kids Bath Time Paints.

I love that Keegie is old enough now, and our new house has a bathroom right off the living room, so I can leave the door open while he takes a bath and get tasks accomplished around the house. Even so though, that still only buys me about 10 minutes. These babies bought me an extra 15 minutes, so 25 minutes total. Score! And Bubba even went into the bathroom to check out his brothers new bath toys (he's too old for baths anymore, he strictly takes showers). He didn't even use half of the bottles, I really like that I could unscrew the cap, pour some on the side of the tub and just let him finger paint, or you could unscrew just the tip of the cap and use the applicator. When he was done, all I did was splash water all over the tub and washed away the paint. It was super easy, took about 30 seconds and it was all clean. No evidence of the color explosion that occured. 

The next two days, I work 12 hour shifts won't see the boys much. I'm not sure what I will post about, or if I will, but I will try.

Have a good weekend all!

Clean Clean Clean

Today was spent around the house, cleaning. It was stormy here for most of the day, so our playdate at the park with some friends of ours was canceled. While on the subject of cleaning, a good friend and I just had a conversation about our go-to cleaning products. She swears she can't find an adequate mop and just does it on her hands and knees. I love my Swiffer Wetjet, and also my magic eraser mop and libman mop for deeper cleaning. She only uses Tide laundry detergent. I only use Cascade Complete dishwasher detergent. I was just curious what some of everyone elses cleaning favorites are? And I thought I would share the recipe I use for making my own laundry detergent. I have NEVER been one who is exceptionally "green" but as I've learned more on the internet, I have became intriqued with a few of these Earth saving ideas. I decided to make my own laundry detergent. And after doing so, I will absolutely never use anything else again. This stuff is AH-mazing! It gets my clothes super clean which is a must with 2 boys and a husband who doesn't give a crap what he gets on his clothes, and also works in a restaurant, and it smells wonderful. I used a big mop bucket to make it in. It isn't dirt cheap to start, but this mop bucket full lasts us about 6 months so it turns out to be about $5 a month.

You will need:

1 (4 lb 12 oz) box of Borax

1 (3 lb 7oz) box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

1 (3 lb) container of OxiClean

6 bars of Ivory soap, shredded. I just use a cheese shredder.

1 (4 lb) box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda

3 bottles of Scentsy Washer Whiffs (you can also use 2 bottles of Purex Crystals fabric softener, but I much prefer the Scentsy. Scentsy raises the overall price though)

I layer the different ingredients in the mop bucket, putting in about a 3rd of each at a time. Then I mix it all up by hand and use a measuring cup to scoop it into my washer with each load. Some prefer to keep a small amount in a smaller container, I don't mind having the whole bucket on a shelf in my laundry toom, it's not in the way.

I haven't yet ventured into making any other cleaning products. Do you have any that you use and swear by?

Keegie's Pirate Party

My 4 year olds most recent obsession is pirates. Not even just the Disney show, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, but anything and everything pirate related. So it made total sense to rent a pavillion at the lake and throw him a pirate party!!

There's my little pirate, wearing one of the pirate hats and eye patches that I picked up at Hobby Lobby.

I got the free printable water bottle labels here: http://howtonestforless.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/pirate-party-water-bottle-labels.jpg

Cannonballs!

Ship Ropes!

Shipwreck Salad! (it was just potato salad)

Ocean Water! (water bottles)

Catch of the day!

We also had pirate dogs (hot dogs) but somehow I didn't get a picture of that. I got these free customisable food labels here: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFu8IiYBHJRinvYeCv5YDv5uUfJA49qOLVJ6mGLoUPTkfrAgqwbWt_f8CDefkHpWMGdSDmdLJCnXj_78MnxXfwXS38QyyRBbd9bIgsmCw1GzUPXxCujWU1KYth5J5vgsPO9c8iaOsWkq0J/s1600/pirate+tags+flat.jpg

The tables were littered with fake gold coins, jewels and jewelry. My 3 year old niece made off with most of that throughout the day though.

Captain Keegan's Tattoo Parlour! This was a major hit with the kids. They all loved getting tatted up!

I thought the banner worked well with the wood table with no tablecloth.

My best friend and I made these maps. We took resume paper, crumpled it up into a ball, smoothed it back out and burned all of the edges. Then we rolled it up and tied it with twine.

Pinata I got at Hobby Lobby. Why are all pinatas these pull string kinds nowadays? I mean come on, most of the fun of a pinata is beating the crap out of it!

Walk the plank! This was also a hit with the kids. I used 2 milk crates, spray painted Walk the Plank across a 2x4 and was supposed to use rope to tie the board to the milk crates for stability, but Keegie hadn't let me get that far yet in this picture.

These were the extra goodie bags I made when I ran out of the better bags.

My grandma found these bags on clearance at TJ Maxx. I love them!

Cannonball water balloons! The kids, and most of the adults, loved these!

And now, the best part of the party, the part I had absolutely nothing to do with except for paying for it, THE CAKE!!

I hope you all enjoyed this post, and maybe got a few ideas from me. All of my ideas came from somewhere on the internet, mostly Pinterest.

Daily Witty Post 8/21

So, sorry, but I never got around to posting yesterday. I was so tired. I do not go to work at 6:30 AM and then function well for the rest of the day. And then I had to be back to work at midnight so I came home, looking forward to relaxing and playing some candy crush and then taking a nice nap. Instead, I found out that the brand new laptop I've had for 2 weeks was not working, after Bubba played on it all morning, even though him and my husband BOTH know he isn't supposed to be on it! So I spent 2 hours trying to figure out why my mouse kept freezing at a particular point during start up, and I figured out nothing except that I despise Windows 8. Decided to just do a system restore, and the damn laptop died in the middle of it, without giving me any notification that the battery was low. So I said screw it and went to bed. I was too tired to deal with it and the laptop was dangerously close to being chucked across the living room.

So I took my nap, and while I was napping my wonderful hubby cooked spaghetti and garlic bread. While it's not one of my favorite meals, it's always a hit with the kids, and I didn't have to make it. So that earned major brownie points for my hubby, and I decided not to bitch about what a mess the house was.

I don't really have much to talk about today. After work this morning I came home and went to bed, woke up and went grocery shopping, and then made frozen pizzas for dinner. I swear, I do cook. Quite wonderfully. I've just been super busy and it's too hot in the summer without central air to slave over the stove for a long period of time. So, to make up for the short boring post, I'm going to make a post about Keegie's Pirate birthday party we threw back in June. Keegie was born the day after Christmas. Becuase that's a seriously crappy birthday, we throw his big party on his half birthday in June. This way he doesn't miss out. I love throwing huge parties and I just wouldn't have the energy, time or finances right at Christmastime. On his real birthday, I bake a cake at home and we have a special dinner and he gets a couple of gifts. But his large gala is in June every year. and that works out well for us. So, I'll end this now so I can get started on that post.