Hopping on

See this?  This is my soapbox.  Actually, it's a picture of a soapbox I found via google image from wvbr.com, but I'm going to get on this soapbox anyway.  I have a way more important soapbox mounting to share later, but this is just ticking me off, and I think Hubs is sick of hearing me complain about it, so my lucky 7 followers get to hear about it :-)

I love corn.  I think corn is great.  Butter it and eat it off the cob, pop it, cream it, it's just fantastic.  High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) on the other hand?  Not so much.  I've never been a big advocate of HFCS, but let's face it, who doesn't love a handful of m&m's every once in a while?  So I wasn't going to bad mouth it.

Then, I saw this:

http://www.sweetsurprise.com/videos/two-bites

I'm sure you've all seen it.  Really?!  An add promoting HFCS?  That's like an add from McDonald's say, "Baa dah bop bah bah, I'm lovin' it!  And it's not THAT bad for you every once in a while (even though it's not really good for you either!)."

So corn was on my list of allergies, causing me to abandon the "sweet surprise" for good.  And yes, there was more pulled out of my diet, but since avoiding the naughty things, I've dropped a good 17 lbs.  Avoiding HFCS has made it imperative to read every label twice.  I was shocked when I realized just how much HFCS was in our house, even though we eat/snack fairly healthy things.  So I just had to giggle when I saw this ad:

The Corn people's big thing is all about moderation, but I ask you, what is moderation?  For most people, I'm sure thinking one pack of fruit snacks or a juice pop a day=moderation.  But I dare you, I double dog dare you to run to your pantry and fridge and look for "HFCS" on your labels.  Seriously.  Pick up crap that you wouldn't dream contained any part of corn and be prepared to be shocked.  Unless you do the majority of your shopping at Whole Foods and buy all organic, I bet you'll be a wee bit shocked.  

It's.in.EVERYTHING.  Gum, drinks, salad dressings, marinades, soup (yes, people, Campbell's tomato soup), candy, even cough drops contain this "sweet surprise."  So even if you're like me and live in the "every thing's ok in moderation camp," you probably aren't ingesting this in moderation.  Kinda like if you think drinking is ok in moderation, then take a shot of tequila with every meal, drink and snack.  Not so moderate.  

Ok, hopping off the box, but don't worry, it won't get too dusty!  I'll be back up in a day or so :-)

You get what you pay for!

I LOVE the $1 aisle at Target. LOVE it. It's great to stock up on disposable toys, stickers, surcees, and freezer packs for the kids' lunch boxes. So I was SUPER excited when I came upon puzzles during my last stop at the $1 bins. One puzzle was of the USA and I thought, "What a wonderful way for Strip to learn the states, where they are, and where we live in comparison to everyone else (although I've already cleared up the fact that our friends in Alaska do NOT live near Hawaii. That's just for ease of the puzzle, not really where Alaska is)."

So here's the puzzle:

Adorable, right? Bright colors, easy to recognize each state, capitals marked, what could go wrong with this?

Unfortunately, the Target $1 puzzle makers share a machine with McDonald's chicken nuggets, making it impossible to create more than 4 shapes, so when a 4 year-old who can't read puts a puzzle together using the, "Does it fit? Yay!" method, you end up with this:



Whoops! At least the border pieces are in the right place! Sorry mid-west, you are just a jumble. We'll work on it.

He's still trying to kill me.

But he disguises it so sweetly. Just like last time, hubs did something nice for me, but I really think he's trying to get rid of me. He went to our Wal-Martish store to pick up some stuff for the 4th of July cookout, and noticed I was running low on chocolate syrup. Lovingly, he picked up a bottle of the Wal-martish brand. For the past couple of weeks, I've been popping clairitin like candy, but just figured it was from being outside or dog hair.

Until today.

Hubs lovingly woke me up this morning at 6:15 to say, "QUICK! I forgot to take the kitchen bag of trash out and I cleaned out the fridge. Can you run it down to the curb?" I stumble out of the house and stumble back up the drive where I plop down on the couch to catch 15 more minutes of sleep. Hubs leaves, and the kids are up, so I pull myself over to the fridge to grab some milk. Awesome. No mocha for mommy chick. I call my neighbor to see if I can give her a diet coke for 8 oz of milk, but she's not there. I feed the kids breakfast, get everyone dressed and head out the door for a gallon of milk.

When we get home, I grab the chocolate from the fridge, and since I'm a little more cohearant, I glance down and see the back of the bottle with the ingredient list:

• High fructose corn syrup
• water
• corn syrup

Yup. Those were the first three ingredients. Awesome! I called Hubs to let him know I was on to him.

Oh, but I think he really does love me, because yesterday, these popped up in the front yard:

My favorites! He and Strip planted some while they were having their gardening day a few weeks ago, but didn't tell me. Love them!

My kid is a closet binkie sucker.

He must take after his mom when it comes to breaking habits.  

Nugget dropped his wubanub MONTHS ago, and hasn't had problems since.  Neighbors have a little baby, and when we're over there, I'll catch him finding a binkie and taking a couple of hits off of it before offering it to the baby.  Not a big deal.

A week or so ago, Nugget was in his room with me, helping me make his bed.  He walked to his little side table and pulled open the drawer.  He reached his hand in and said, "Momma!  Look!" and pulled out Strip's original binkie they gave her in the hospital (bigger and uglier than a soothie).  I laughed and said, "Oh yeah!  That's Strip's old binkie!  Let's put it back!"  And tucked it back in.  Nugget promptly opened the drawer and said, "Mamma.  Look.  Sue's key-bee.  No touch." and shut the drawer.  I thought that was the last of it.

Until a few days ago.  We were hanging out with our neighbors and Hubs went in to check on the kiddos.  Nugget has been getting up to turn his light on so he can read, so Hubs wasn't shocked when he could see the light pouring in from the door.  He was shocked to see him (still awake) with the big, ugly binkie in his mouth!  We laughed and I tucked it back into the drawer the next morning.

So tonight, Hubs comes in late from work and goes up to check on the kids.  Sure enough, Nugget's light was on, and when he peeked in, Nugget was happily sleeping with the big ugly binkie in his mouth.  I'm thinking he's been getting it ever night and then putting it back in the mornings before he calls out that he's up.  Guess we need to find a twelve-step wubanub program for him.

Deep thoughts, by Strip.

Maybe it was because I was totally exhausted, but I got the silly giggles last night during Strip's story time.  She request I read stories first and Hubs finish reading when he finished dinner (he ate late because he was doing yard work).

Anyway, Strip requested to read Snow White.  Then when Hubs came up, she requested it again, and wanted me to stay.  When she's really tired and fighting sleep, she will start making comments, asking questions, insisting on counting things in an otherwise short story.  So we get to the page that says, "The cottage belonged to seven dwarfs, Dopey, Sneezey, Bashful, Sleepy, Happy, Grumpy and Doc," with this picture:

After naming all the Dwarfs, Strip said, "You know.  If they all held hands and walked this way, they would fall right off of that stick."

Deep thoughts.

Watch out, Martha.

I now sew.  And the outfits didn't take that long to make.  I know I posted a while ago that I was cutting fabric and I had the outfits whipped out within a few days, but the true test was to see if they made it through a day of play, the washer and dryer.  I am happy to report that all three outfits passed the test!

I had to giggle though while we were at the museum (aka day one of outfit testing).  Although we don't live there now, I'm a southern girl at heart -- I dress my boy like a girl and monogram as much as possible.  Nugget has an odd family name, but we call him by a nickname that is fairly common.  So say for example, his name were Tony.  You'd expect that his monogram would have an "A" somewhere in it for Anthony, but his real, formal name would be Franthony, so there would be an F.  Follow?  Meanwhile, Nugget has given Strip the nickname "Sue" which has NOTHING do do with her actual name.  So we are at the museum, and Nugget has his little monogrammed outfit on and we are calling him by his name which shares no letters of his monogram.  Strip is wearing one of her outfits with a giant "M" on the front, and we're calling her Sue.  I'm sure people think I just shop at a fancy Goodwill, since I dress my kids in monogrammed clothes that have nothing to do with their names.

So the big reveal!  Here are 2 of the outfits I made:

And because I had leftover fabric, and I girl's gotta match, I appliqued some frilly panties for Strip:

So be on the look out Martha.  I can bake bread and sew.  If I could just improve my handwriting, I could take over the world!

It was bound to happen.

We were putting the kiddos to bed last night, Hubs with Nugget, me with Strip.  As Strip and I were diving into another chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I hear Hubs clomping up the steps.

"Look who wandered down stairs," said Hubs.  "HI MOM!" said Nugget.  I told Hubs it was fine and I would be in charge of putting him back in bed.  We went down stairs and I did a couple of loads of laundry, made an applique to put on a pair of frilly panties to match Strip's dress and finished up Nugget's outfit.  As I was putting laundry away, I stopped to listen, and all was quiet.

Until this morning.  At about 6am, Hubs woke me from a beautifully deep sleep with those five sweet words, "Come look at your son."  I stumbled into the hallway and noticed lights on downstairs, but Hubs directed me into Strip's room.  There, I found Nugget happily playing with all of her toys.  When he saw me, he grinned and said, "Mamma!  LOOK!  Ice cream!"  Awesome.  We had a chat, cleaned up the toys, then he went back to his room for 10 min.  We came downstairs, and obviously, he'd already been down there, too.  Two chairs were missing from their little table -- one positioned under the light switch (now on), the othere pulled up to a counter (maybe he was looking for food?

I made him clean everything up, and we had another chat about staying in your room until mommy or daddy come get him, then he was off and running.  Ugh.  It was only a matter of time, but I still feel like we need to put bells on his door and an alarm on all the doors and windows!