Allergies!

Have been suffering from allergies.. yesterday was horrible, today I'm at least able to get out of bed.. I will try to post again later.. sending prayers my way would be awesome. I've never had allergies before and I'm a big baby. Thanks.

Sigh

I've lost 2.2 pounds this week. :) YAY!

I got my first "3" rating on swap-bot. I'm very disappointed, seeing as I put a LOT of hard work into the swap.. I was the swap organizer and it took a lot of time to put the journal together. I'm no artist, and I even said that in the swap guidelines.. not to rate someone a 3 just because they aren't great at drawing or whatever. But the person I sent mine to said she couldn't see how any work at ALL went into it. :/ Very sad about that. I'm going to start taking pictures of those types of swaps, I guess. I started to at first but it's so time consuming and I thought it was pointless. I have so much other stuff to do that it's a task to even get the swaps out much less take pics of them. But now I have a 3 which bans me from almost every swap. Just because she wasn't happy with it. She didn't try to contact me or anything. I think we just had different tastes in things and she didn't like the answers to my journal questions. Oh well, hopefully she will get hers.

Played a little on the wii fit today. I need to do some more in a few minutes.

Sold a set of crayons on etsy!! Exciting! :) I listed them last night and woke up to them being sold this morning. I priced them at $4.99 for a set of 3 (they're BIG crayons) and am offering free shipping. I think it's a much better deal than the other ones I've seen on there.

Well, I have a swap to send out! Gotta go mail it before Rach goes to work.

April issue of ALL YOU

I always buy this magazine, because it's full of useful stuff. :) Recipes, coupons, and more.

My favorite things about this issue:

Online Freebies

1. Test Preparation -- Get your kids ready for the SAT, AT, or GRE with prep courses, vocab builders, tutorials, and more.

2. Business Classes -- I like How to Prepare a Business Plan and Marketing 101.

3. Language Courses -- I checked this one out today and I really like it. You can practice conversational skills in other language with others, and you can help others learn English as well.

4. Text Messaging -- I have unlimited texts, so I haven't used this, but you can sign up for an online account here and then enter your friend's mobile number and carrier so you can text each other. It won't cost you a thing. If you don't know your friend's carrier, you can use gizmosms.com

5. Books -- You can access more than 5,000 full classis online, just scroll to the bottom of the home page and click "Free Books".

6. Medical Advice

7. Legal Advice

You can enter at allyou.com/giveaways for a chance to win a year's worth of veggies and Hidden Valley salad dressings, a portable iPod dock with LCD monitor, and an HP TouchSmart 600 PC.

Some more freebie links (I haven't checked these out yet):

freebies4mom.com -- A stay-at-home-mom started this blog to share giveaways and sweepstakes she finds.

heyitsfree.net -- This site promises that no listed free sample will require the purchase of something else first, meaning these are actually FREE samples.

freestufftimes.com -- No-cost items from across the Web provides user feedback, to help gauge an offer's value.

Teach Kids Money Smarts (p.85-90) was probably the best read in this issue. I liked the money lessons because they are divided between age groups.

Coupons
Weight Watcher's
$5 off any $10 NYC purchase (makeup) - combine this with a local sales ad and save $$
$2 off any La Cross Beauty tool purchase of $4 or more
$2 off Lubriderm
$3 off Neutrogena Cosmetics
and more

smartsource.com
redplum.com
afullcup.com
coupontom.com
consumerqueen.com
dealseekingmom.com

There's also an article titled "Becoming a couponing pro" that gives a few good ideas. Nothing absolutely amazing, but somewhat helpful at least. :)

Quiz -- Assess your risk for diabetes. You choose the answer to each question and it tells you if your risk is low, medium, or high. It also includes a spread "Eat to beat Diabetes". Helps you choose "this not that". I love that type of thing! :)

There are a pair of boots featured from zappos.com that go up to size 13! :) That is very rare. I wear a size 13 and cannot ever find women's shoes! They're $75, so I wouldn't actually buy them.. haha, but they were cute to look at.

6 Degrees of Blogging

I discovered 6 Degrees of Blogging at Heather's Place.

1. Sadie (always start with your own .. I didn't type this up right the first time so there are 7 degrees to my blog LOL)

1. MisplacedMidwesterner
2. CrazyWorkingMom
3. AreWeThereYet
4. ComedyPlus
5. Ann
6. My2LDL

A little about My 2 LDL:

"An ordinary wife,a mother-to-be to a baby boy, a blogger, a woman who has an optimistic views in life, with broad understanding of everything that surrounds her, love life and consume her time well."

Please stop by HER BLOG and show her some love. :)

She has the cutest little baby ever. :)





Here are the rules:
*Start on your own blog
*Click on a link to another blog. On that blog, click a link to another blog, that leads to another and another til you get to 6 clicks.
*Once you arrive on your "six degrees" blog, leave a comment saying "Hey! Found you through six degrees of blogging. Your are featured on my blog! (Leave your blog URL so they can find you.)
*THEN, on your own blog, write a super quick post that includes the Six Degrees Button and a quick blurb saying who you found and something nice about them and/or their blog.
*Encourage your readers to stop by their blog as well and leave some comment love!

Hershey's Easter Basket Blog Hop

This Easter season, Hershey is celebrating it’s new Easter products sold exclusively at Walmart and their legacy of making a difference. Hershey’s will donate up to a total of $5,000 to the Children’s Miracle Network. For each blog that participates in the blog hop by sending virtual Easter Baskets, Hershey's is donating $10 to the Children’s Miracle Network.



I received this fantastic virtual Easter basket from Heather




^^ This is the virtual Easter Basket I'm passing on to my friends:

Confessions of an Overworked Mom

Family Treasures

The Muse Factory

Kate and Oli

Life Requires More Chocolate

Cute Girl Hairstyles

Thompson Bugs


HERSHEY’S BETTER BASKET BLOG HOP RULES

* Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.
* Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.
* Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket.
* Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.
* Leave your link at BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section. You can also find the official rules of this #betterbasket blog hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.
* Hershey’s is donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to total of $5,000 by blog posts written by April 4th, 2010).
* Please note that only one blog post by each blog url will count towards the donation.

For more information about the Blog Hop, visit Hershey's Better Basket.

Learn more about The Childrens Miracle Network.

Blogger Award :)

Erika, one of my very favorite bloggers (no, I'm not just saying that LOL), gave me an award. :)



Here are the rules:

1. Every winner of the Prolific Blogger Award has to pass on this award to at least seven other deserving prolific bloggers. Include links to their blogs.

2. Each Prolific Blogger must link to the blog from which he/she received the award. (That would be me.)

3. Every Prolific Blogger must link back to this post, which explains the origins and motivation for the award

4. Every Prolific Blogger must visit this post and add the links of those they awarded, so that we can get to know the other winners.

And here are the winners!

TheOrganicSister -- I'm very jealous of this blogger! She packed her (unschooling) family up into an old RV (ran on veggie oil) and is traveling across the country. I finally talked Rachel into agreeing to do something similar, but for now it's just a dream and I shall live vicariously through her.

RaisingOlives -- I found this blog by just randomly blog hopping and fell in love right away. They're a large homeschooling family and just an inspiration to anyone who has a family. She's also doing a Bisquick Prize Pack Giveaway.

Journal into Unschooling -- another one of the "elite" few that made it to my blog list over there.. I love watching their experiments! :)

OurWorldwideClassroom -- This blog is so cute. :) I find myself visiting frequently, hoping for a brand new post I haven't read yet. I have no idea how she finds time to blog!

CurlyQsHairdos -- I admire her for starting a hair blog when there are already a ton out there! Her little girl is so cute and I check her blog out for hairstyles frequently. I want to know how she keeps her little one so still.. every time I try to take pictures OR fix hair, they wiggle way too much lol.

XannasJewelryBox -- Xanna is an awesome lady. I love chatting with her from time to time, and I really enjoy looking at her newest jewelry creations. Aside from being a jewelry maker, she's a dance instructor. I am designing 18 tutus for her as we speak! :)

MommyOf1AndCounting -- I really dislike review blogs but Heather blogs about "life", too, which keeps me coming back for more. I met her on Cafemom and she did a review for me when I was first starting to make tutus. She's a great lady and an awesome mom, I have NO idea how she finds time to blog either lol.

I have about 5 other blogs I'd love to link, but I don't have time. I might come back and edit this later!

It's cram time. :/

Okay, so I've always done better under pressure. I admit it, I love to procrastinate. I love the rush of getting EVERYTHING done right before the deadline. :) I know that probably sounds horrible, seeing as I'm a MOM and I run a business, but so far it's worked well for me.

However, I now have 7 swaps to complete by April 9th - half of them by the end of the month, and half of the 7 swaps are in depth swaps. Like, one is a journal that I haven't even started on.. and one is a Book Log that I've half-assed for a few months. Eek. Now, I can make the Book Log perfect seeing as the books I read I really remember (which is rare), but it's going to take some time management on my part! I'm bad at that.

I got like 6 or 7 custom orders at the party last night, and promised them all within the week. One of them needs to be done tonight, as it's a rush order for "Spirit Day" on Tuesday! Again, I shall now say eek lol.

What else what else..... hmmm.

OH, I really loved making those crayons with the girls, so I bought some molds and some crayons. SOoooo this week will be spent making tutus and peeling crayons. I think I might use some child labor for that last one!

A friend needs me to make some soaps for her, too. Ummmmmmmm yeah. LOL I have a lot going on.

I still need to blog again tonight. An awesome blogger gave me an award and the thing that she said about me is SO true - she said I have my hand in so many cookie jars! LOL I do, I do. But I truly do function well this way! I promise.

I'm not having a meltdown.. just had to type out my little "to do" list. I will let you know when I get everything caught up. It will be soon, I'm sure. ;)

Quick blog

So, I missed blogging yesterday. I have two things I really need to post but haven't quite had the time or organization to do so! Hopefully tonight.

I've been working on the website. My mother and I are no longer speaking, SOOOOO I had to remove the patchwork scarves from the website because it was her sewing machine that was making them. :/ Long story. But I won't be talking to her any time soon, so I just took them all down. Blah.

I went to a party last night and it was fun. There was a Party Lite lady, a Pampered Chef, someone selling fake designer handbags, and my friend (who invited me) was selling her awesome jewelry. I bought some. I'll take pics today if I can. When she finally gets on etsy, I will be posting about her a LOT! :)

We hired a new babysitter last night. Well, when I say new, I mean we haven't had a babysitter other than our moms for over a year. My mom took the girls once a month and her mom took them once every few months. We would usually just sit at home and make tutus LOL but it was "our" time. Last night, Rach had to work and I had the party to attend, so we asked the new neighbor if she'd watch the girls. She agreed, and they had a good time. When Rach got home, the kids were asleep and the house was SPOTLESS! The girls each got a bath/shower and everything. INSANE! I want her as my NANNY lol. She is only 14, so I was worried, but she did better than anyone I've ever let watch the kids. Plus, her parents were right next door, and she had a cell phone, so it made us both feel safer. Definitely the best $25 I've EVER spent.

We are babysitting a friend's kids today. I have to go to the mall and pick them up pretty soon. She doesn't have a car so she rides the bus, with her kids, to work. We pick them up from there. Honestly, it is a pain in the ass to drive out there, but I need to check on our shop (in the mall) anyway.. so it's a good excuse for me to go.

OH and before I forget, this is what my table looked like last night. I didn't get a picture of the tutus hanging up :( but it was because I was SO busy! I got 7 custom orders I believe. :)



And I need pictures of dogs in tutus -- if you have a small dog and would be able to get him/her (preferably her lol) to model, I'll send you a tutu for free! Just get with me ASAP.

P.S. ... Does anyone know why I'd go from 175 followers to 174? My feelings are hurt lol.

Kinda tired

We will be up late tonight again, making tutus. I have a party to attend tomorrow night and need to have 10 tutus ready. I think we have like 4 or 5 done. WEEEEEEEE! I'll get some rest this weekend. Seems like we go full force all week! I try to get things done during the day but when I'm online I feel like I'm going in circles! I go from Facebook, to Etsy, to Cafemom, to blogs, and back to Facebook to start all over LOL. I am going to start making a schedule for myself. 9AM wake up.. computer time until 10, then work on something.. whether it's tutus, crafts, wii, whatever. Something other than the black hole of the internet.

So Jenelle's dad sent a text tonight: "Sunday still cool?". Um, no Chris.. Sunday is NOT "still cool". You were supposed to text BY Wednesday at 8pm to CONFIRM you were getting her Sunday. He has had visitation since January I believe.. and has missed over half of his visits. That doesn't sound that bad, except his visits are TWO times a month for FOUR hours. Yet he has still managed to miss over half of them. Really? Ugh. I want to move to another state, but can't because of the visitation. I'm going to be making a log of when he shows up, when he doesn't, and all of the lame ass excuses he uses (your car can only "not start" so many times.. you can only "oversleep" so many times.. come on), and hopefully we can petition the court to be able to move. *Fingers crossed*

I am really disappointed in the photo shoot from Saturday. I got about 10 pictures from her on Monday, like she had promised, but they weren't that great. I can use MAYBE three of them for the website, after I do some editing of my own. Luckily I didn't pay much for them but still.. just really let down. I used to work with the photographer at my old job, and she's good people, but she sucks at taking pictures. The day was perfect.. sun was perfect.. models did GREAT.. but the pictures stink. Luckily, I brought Jenelle's digital camera and got a few cute shots. I am using them for the tutu party tomorrow. EEK I still need to make up a price list and order form. Crap.

My picture



Her picture



A random collage of pictures I had before



Well, Jenelle challenged me to a wii competition, so I have to go now... I might blog later, but for the sake of my sanity I should probably just wait until tomorrow morning. :) I have a long blog planned. And an award to pass on!

OH and this is the outfit I'm wearing to the party tomorrow night.

Zoo trip

We were sitting at the stop light and I snapped a few pictures of the Arch. Cool, huh?

Rachel was getting some tattoo work done downtown, so we headed to the zoo for a while. We walked around for about two hours. The kids and I rode the train alllll around the zoo after we were done walking. Sapphire and Jenelle tried cotton candy for the first time ever. They loved it. Sapphire tried rubbing it on her cheeks, like the mermaid does in her favorite movie (Aquamarine). It really was too darn cute. I got a video of the giraffes, as well as a video of us in the tunnel. Sapphire kept laughing hysterically. It was great! The weather was absolutely perfect. It was a little too windy for tutu pics (I tried), but everything else was still okay!

Sapphire was creeped out by the snakes, but Jenelle loved them. Saff just shook her head when I asked if she liked them, and then she hid in her stroller. She seemed to like the birds and giraffes the most. Giraffes are my favorite, so I was pleased. :) Oh, and she was super excited about the monkeys.. but we didn't get any good pictures of those. Jenelle had a blast. I think Sapphire was in a bad mood today. She was really clingy, not wanting to take pictures much (with the exception of the park, she allowed them then lol), and was overall pretty whiny after the zoo visit was over. Usually she is playful, but when we teased her today - which is a common occurrence around here - she just cried. And cried. :(











She played for a little while and I got a few pictures.





When I got home, I found THIS in my mailbox. How I wish I would've had it this morning when we were at the zoo! It's a little too short - I'm fat and tall, plus Sapphire is 3 so she's a little bigger than babies that are usually wrapped in these things - but I sent BabyEtte a message and she said she would replace it.. which I did NOT expect! I absolutely love the wrap and really don't want to send it back, because I don't want to wait another day to use it! :/ But, overall, I guess it's best since I will be using it ALL summer!

When I put Sapphire in the wrap, she was beaming! Even though she had a whiny/rough afternoon, this made her so happy. She didn't want to get out of it. I even did some work on the computer with her in it!

Is it sad that I kept picturing the zebras and giraffes (and any other animal) in tutus?? LOL

Jenelle wanted me to share her blog with you today because she has a few pictures. She got a haircut! Stop by and tell her how cute she is, please. :)

I almost forgot, one of my 100 goals is to visit the zoo 5 times! WOOT! I worked on a goal today and didn't even know it!

Check in with Weight Loss Bloggers

Today was supposed to be the last edition of Touring Tuesday, but my bedroom is a disaster (I have about 400 yards of tulle cut, and laying on the bed.. plus 3 boxes of bows and scarves randomly placed throughout)... so we are going to catch up with the weight loss bloggers.

Crystal from Bye Bye Fat pants needs some encouragement. :) Her weigh in on March 13th showed a .8lbs loss, but her post on Sunday shows she is still struggling. Struggling with things that all of us do from time to time. Ignoring and avoiding the scale, so you don't feel more depressed.. because if you feel more depressed, you will just eat. *Sigh* I feel ya, Crystal. Really, I do.

Krystal (with a K) from Family Treasures weighed in on Wednesday and this is what she said in her blog post:

My Previous Weight: Didnt know was just guessing Over 325 pounds

My Weight as of this morning: A depressing 344 (ouch!) This made me want to cry when I saw the actual number. I weighed myself on the clinic's scale when I took the little ones to their well child checks today.

Pounds lost: None!!

Pounds still to lose: 30 (short goal) on the path to a 100 lb goal.

We are here for you, Krystal! Can't wait to see that 30lbs come off!

And last but not least.. Arya is doing well on her journey, according to her most recent weigh in.
So here is my progress for the week:


Current Weight: 299.5 pounds

Weight loss: - 2 pounds

Total Weight loss: 5.5 pounds

Weight still to lose: 65.5 pounds to go

Congrats, Arya!

Please visit Crystal's, Krystal's, and Arya's pages to give them some encouragement.

As for me, I've lost 3 pounds according to the bathroom scale and gained 2 pounds according to the wii. I have no clue how that can happen. The wii said to weigh in at the same time every day. I think the first time I picked that I had heavy clothes and the second time I picked "other" which put my clothes at 0lbs. So I am going to stick with the "heavy clothes" option since I wear the same thing every time. That will keep my weight loss accurate, at least.

On a side note, it was funny when Jenelle stepped on the wii yesterday. My mom had used her profile the one time she came over to try it out, so she put in that she weighed like 270lbs. Jenelle got on it, and it told her she lost 210lbs! hahaha The wii was freaking out. It was cute. :)

Next Tuesday will be the final edition of Touring Tuesdays... my bedroom.. wee!!!

Sharing some linky love

I started a swap with a few Etsians where we traded business cards and are sending them off with our orders, hopefully expanding our circle of customers. Hopefully being the keyword hehe. I have had a lot of orders this month, so I've sent off quite a few cards! But I recently received more and wanted to share some linky love because I adore their cards! They rock and I'm a litttttle jealous.

First, though, I have to share my newest Etsy listing... click here to see it. The lovely JANE let Melly model for me. Thank you, Jane. (Those links mean.. go visit her lol)

I also am offering F R E E shipping on all orders in my etsy shop through the end of April. You will see that the prices are marked up more than on the website, but all prices are going to be that price soon. Unfortunately, my expenses have gone up. So I am hoping everyone will take advantage of the free shipping on Etsy to offset the raise in prices. :/ Hopefully my customers understand that running a website and business can get really expensive, and I am barely breaking even.. so I'm hoping to make a profit by raising the prices a bit. I'd love to hear comments/suggestions on this issue.

First up, Kimminita. You can check out her Etsy shop here. I'm loving her vintage memo boards.



Next, Tres Renee Studio. This woman is SO nice.. SO talented.. and just all around awesomeness. She does portraits painted on canvas (or paper!) in oil or acrylic from your favorite photos. She paints them with archival materials, and frames them as well. Check her out on etsy by clicking here. An 8"x10" image framed to 11"x14" and 12"x12" canvas portraits start at $175.00. You can contact Renee for more pricing info. This would be a great graduation gift.



Last but not least, La Cravate Du Chien... I think I've talked about this shop before. Etsy is so saturated with jewelry makers that it's hard to even figure out where to start. I suggest here! :)



Later tonight, I will try to post an update on the weight loss bloggers as well as a weigh in from yours truly.

BEFORE pictures

BMI 33.5 according to this calculator

6'2"

261 pounds

BOO YAH!

My weight is 252! (I know the board, when put on carpet, can weigh you like 7 pounds light.. but whatever.. it's the push I need right now!)

And my wii fit plus age is 24!!! WOOOOTTTTT! :)



Sorry, I know it's weird to be SO excited, but I was weighing in at 261, and my fitness age on the regular was 40something.

The wii fit plus has like 15 extra games and they are SO FUN! We are having a blast with this system.

Definitely worth the investment! It's the ONLY thing that has gotten me off my butt! In 8 years! I've had gym memberships, countless DVDs, heck I even bought an $80 set of "Slim in 6" DVDs and didn't stick with it for more than a day.

I'm SO proud of myself!! :)

Oh, and we had another fun day at the park! Rach even modeled a bow for us. hehe

So

Sharing LOTS of pictures today.. I tried to pick just two or three... so not happening.












Today was busy. I didn't feel like blogging, but my headache finally went away (at 10:55PM), so I figured what the heck.

I got a text message late last night asking if we could babysit an 18 month old that we babysat once (on New Year's Eve, a friend of a friend referred her to us). We said sure, of course. :) We love babysitting! Plus, this little girl is so funny and cute! We picked her up at 10:30 at the mall, then we took her and Sapphire to the play place. They played for about a half an hour before a bunch of brats showed up and started jumping off things, running like crazy, and just being bad. We decided to leave at that point. On our way out, we stopped at the Children's Place and got some shirts for Sapphire. It's the first time I've ever bought anything there. The shirts were $5, so not too bad and they are super cute. We then stopped at Target to get a rolling garment rack for the tutu party next week. It was only $9.99. Score!

On our way out of Target, I saw a wii Fit Plus on the shelf. WHAT?! They have been sold out of them off and on for 7 months. Last time I asked an employee what my chances were of getting one, he said slim to none. They get FOUR in a month and they always fly off the shelf. Apparently the truck came in this MORNING and we got there right after they got put on the shelf. We honestly didn't have the extra cash to spend, but it was something Rachel really wanted so I stuck it in the cart. We got a leotard and a shirt for Sapphire - they were $1.79 each on clearance.

Got home, ate lunch, and put Sapphire down for a nap. I laid down with Delilah and she screamed. So I sang to her. And she screamed some more. Finally, I just gave up wasting my breath and turned the fan on high. We both fell asleep immediately. I woke up to drool all over my cleavage... nice.

Brought Delilah back to her mom and then we went to the park. Jenelle had a movie night at school so we had time to kill until 5 when it was time to pick her up. We put Sapphire in a tutu at the park and people were just ooohing and ahhhing like crazy! Rach was ready with business cards, of course!





The tutu swallowed her when she was in the swing LOL one lady was like "Oh man you HAVE to put that one on your website!".



Please, God.. make them stop taking pictures. They keep saying "just one more"...



Then we picked Jenelle up, and came home to make tutus. We decided to do a last minute photo shoot tomorrow, so we have 6 tutus to make tonight. Two down, four to go. That is what I'm off to do now!

wiiiiiii

So, I finally got the time/energy/motivation to do the Biggest Loser again. (For those thinking about buying the game, go to Game Stop or EB Games and get a used one.. I paid $26.99 instead of $49.99).

Anyway, I did the "Hangwire" challenge. For the first 3 rounds, I was in first place. You have to do these crazy standing arm pull things (I know, I'm really technical). Then you have to do wood chops (my favorites!).

Round four, I fell into second place.

The second to last round, I was in third place and got eliminated. BOOOOOOOOO!!

I will beat them later. I will not go to bed until I get first place LOL.

Again, DEFINITELY recommending the Biggest Loser game for the WII! And I didn't cuss at Jillian this time. :)

Called CPS, again..

For the third time since we have lived here (since August), I've called Child Protective Services on the same family. We first saw the little girl wandering around shortly after we moved in. She was 2, and still in diapers (in fact, she had a t-shirt and diaper on, in October, and that's all). We called to report it, anonymously. Nothing was done. I called to follow-up, and even the supervisor couldn't find the report. Interesting.

We called again in January. She was out, wandering around by herself, yet again. I left my name and number. They called before they went to her house to investigate, to get directions. I called to follow up, and they couldn't locate the report. Again? Really?

Today, I saw the little girl (who is 3 now) standing by the edge of the hill we live on, looking over into the creek. She was about 5 feet from the very edge, and it's muddy so she easily could've slid down the hill and fallen into the creek. I was looking out the window and saw her, thank God, so I ran out there to get her. Her brother (he is in kindergarten) was there and said he'd bring her home - they live 4 buildings down from us - so I said okay. I watched them walk towards their house. I walked back inside my apartment, and sat down by the window.

Not even five minutes later, I saw the same little girl halfway down the hill by the dumpster, laying in mud, surrounded by glass. Yes, glass. Someone ran into the dumpster last week and their back glass busted everywhere. Her brother? Nowhere around.

I picked her up, she never said a word. I asked her where she lived and she just stared at me. A neighbor was outside and showed me where she lived. I walked her down there and knocked on the door. A man screamed (at something? someone?), ran to open the door and then shut it behind him really fast. House was disgusting. He didn't grab her and embrace her, scared to death that she was by the creek.. he just said "Mmhmm" when I told him both accounts of what happened. He then turned to the little boy (who followed me over there) and said he was going to "beat his ass" for not watching his sister.

Then he proceeded to yell at her for being outside without her brother, and told her she was a "very bad girl" and he would "deal with her later". He then almost threw her inside, and slammed the door in my face. Didn't say thank you for saving her life... saving her from falling in the creek.. for getting her out of the mud.. nothing. Just threw her inside.

I came home and called the child abuse hotline. After being on hold for 10 minutes, I was told to call another number. I did, and told my story, and they said they would send someone out. The last two times, they had no record of my report. Wonder if they will this time?

I realize now, in hindsight, that I should've called 911. My mistake. Let's hope it doesn't cost her her life. I feel like a horrible mom right now, but I was trying to get her back home so she could be safe.. stupid me, "home" and "safe" aren't synonymous for all children.

Next time I see her outside, even if she is RIGHT by her house, I'm calling 911. No doubt about it.

A few wii game reviews, and other ramblings

We rented a few wii games to see if they'd be worth buying. We rented Just Dance, and it was awesome... the first five times we played it. Deal or No Deal.. big dud. Too much animation, not enough playing, just dull. We haven't played the other parts of the game just the regular (there are others like challenges, mini games, etc)... so my opinion might change. We also rented Hasbro Family Game Night. Haven't played it yet, but Jenelle has and she loved it. Biggest Loser is still my favorite, but I've only had the time to play it twice. I am going to play it again this evening.

I started on my big (18) tutu order. Got two of them done and am naming it Caribbean Dreamsicle. Cool, huh? You can look at the picture on my other blog. I had it named Sherbert Dreams at first, but I didn't want people to think I didn't know how to spell Sorbet or Sherbet (that's not why I spelled it that way), so I'm changing it when I put it up on the website.

I think it's been 2+ months since I started the no poo thing. My hair is pretty dried out right now. Rachel's friend is a beautician and is going to take me to the beauty supply place to get an all natural rinse. Soon, I hope.

My face is extremely broken out, can't figure why, and I don't know what kind of cleanser to use. I haven't had pimples like this since middle school. Gross. They're alllll over my chin/lower face. Not on my forehead or nose or anything. Strange.

Sapphire is bugging me to play the wii, so that is what we will do now. We just took a 2 hour nap, and I'm feeling energized. A little. lol

Touring Tuesdays

Well, the bathroom is so small I couldn't even stand in it and take pictures LOL so they aren't that great. Our bathroom wasn't clean, either. But I am SO tired that I didn't care. Sad, right?









Did you notice the "Chicks Rule" shower curtain? My mom got it for us. She thought it was fitting, considering there are 5 girls in this apartment. :) I will post some linky love later if I get a chance. I need a nap.. I skipped mine to play the wii and now I'm exhausted!

Menu Monday?

So I have a menu planned but didn't look any recipes up, so I don't have any links. :/ I do, however, have a recipe that I just kind of threw together and I have some pictures, too. :)

Cook the chicken a little, then cut it up...


Cook the rice... (I used CHEESY Rice-A-Roni..it was on sale)


Add mushrooms, broccoli, and whatever else you like then stuff it all into a big Cheesy Jalapeno tortilla (that can't be healthy..haha). I tucked both ends in and then cut it in half.. this was taken before I finished rolling it.


The girls had one without the tortilla.


Tuesday: Home made pizza

Wednesday: Turkey burgers

Thursday: Chili

Friday: Tacos

Saturday: Kids will be gone and we will probably just veg out on whatever

Tomorrow is Touring Tuesday and my bathroom AND bedroom are a mess. Wonder which one we should tour? LOL

And I leave you with this cute picture.. the ROCK CANDY collection (not up on the website yet, my friends get a sneak peek hehe).


Oh, and I almost forgot.. Congrats to the winners of the scarf giveaway: Diane and Cheryl! They both picked similar custom patchwork scarves. Can't wait to see how they turn out! I will definitely be posting pictures, and hopefully they will, too!

Didn't feel like blogging today

Today was a busy day. With the stupid time change, and me staying up late to play with the wii, I didn't get enough sleep. Rach and I discovered we could box each other! For the record, I kicked her butt. :) Then Jenelle asked if she could go to her visit with her dad early (he gets her 4 hours 2 times a month). I said sure.. so we get to our meeting place at 10, and he's not there. He said he'd be there by 10:15. Nope, he didn't show up til 10:30. I almost left. He makes me SO mad. You see your daughter TWO times each MONTH and you can't EVER be on time. Usually he sees her once a month and has an excuse for the other visit actually. Plus, he's always late to pick her up but on time to bring her back. So it's not even 4 hours. *Sigh* She doesn't even like going over there. Today she said, "I don't even like him but he said he'd take me to the races so I'll go". He is bribing her to want to visit. Pathetic.

That pretty much leaves our whole day in limbo because sometimes he wants to bring her back early. We went to drop some tulle off at my mom's house because she volunteered to help cut some. With 20+ tutus to make, I took her up on that offer. :) So we dropped off the tulle and she offered to keep Sapphire for a few hours. We came home with intentions to clean, but we played the wii and took a nap! Well, Rach did a little speed cleaning on the kitchen before we left to get Sapphire. We picked Sapphire up and then I got a text asking if Jenelle could stay later. Um, we are on our way, are you serious? But, I said yes... and we met at 6pm after driving around doing nothing much for over an hour. We went to Toys R Us and got Sapphire her first set of legos. She was ecstatic.

Jenelle said she had a decent time. She said she smacked her lips while she was eating just because it gets on her dad's nerves. :/ I didn't know what to say about that really. I just told her she needed to behave and not be gross. I'm sure I could've said something more, but I didn't.

We ate at Denny's and I ate way too much. The food was gross and not cooked right but we were starving from skipping lunch so we ate it anyway. They actually offered to give it all to us for free because we told them it wasn't very good, but stupid me I said I would feel bad because we all ate for free.. so I offered to pay for half of it just to make it "fair". Psh. Whatever. Yes, I'm a dummy sometimes.

I played the wii a little more this evening, made 3 tutus, and am getting ready to play the wii some then go to bed. I'm tired. Tomorrow, I have to mail the 3 tutus, make at least 4 more (starting on my big order!), go to Hobby Lobby first thing (tulle is on sale!), and return library books. Other than that, I'm hoping to get a craft together to keep Sapphire busy this week. She keeps asking to do a project but I've been too busy. Any ideas??

Biggest Loser WII Edition: Day One (Profanity)

Warning: There will be profanity in this post LOL



So, we got a wii today. At first, I bought some EA Active game but it didn't come with everything needed to play it, so I took it back to Target and went to Game Stop instead and got a used Biggest Loser game for $27. Sure beats the new price of $50 that I almost paid this morning at Target.

Anyway, Rach went to drop Jenelle off at a birthday party (which I'm still nervous about.. it's her first time at one alone..gasp) and I stayed home to figure out the wii. I popped in the Biggest Loser, with Sapphire at my side, and was like Bring it on!

Input weight (had to run to the bathroom scale): 261. I think that is UP quite a bit from before.. but I don't remember. I choose not to. Oh well, whatever, gotta start somewhere. The avatar I picked was Amy, who weighed 260lbs to start.

Warm Up: 6 minutes I got this...

Light Bulb Challenge: Round 1 I love football steps! They rock!

Round 2, 3, 4 Oh yeah bitches! I'm winning! WHAT?! Oh yeah, oh yeah! 1st place baby!

My neighbor (downstairs) texts me: What are you doing up there????
Me: Biggest Loser. Wii.
Neighbor: Hahaha sounds funny!
Me: Sorry, I know I'm shaking the whole building.. it won't shake as much when I lose weight

Round 5 Is it almost over? Jillian, SHUT UP.. stop telling me to have a "positive attitude". You're animated. My fat ASS is jiggling all over the place! It hurrrtssss, Jillian!

Sapphire (3) sees me sweating and goes, EWWW YOU SWEATY GROSS MOM! Do you want me to get you some water or someping? Lukewarm water in a bug juice bottle never tasted so good.

Round 6 I hate football steps...BUT I WON!!

In my excitement, I accidentally hit "YES" when they asked if I wanted to do a cool down (8 minutes). NO NO NO.. I do not want to do the cool down, Jillian.

I did it anyway. It was a nice stretch. Not bad. I thought I could cheat when she did a leg stretch (because the controller is in my hand) and Jillian says "Are you quitting on me?" Crap. So, I finished the damn cool down.

When I was getting ready to log off the wii, I saw "Skate or Splash". That looks fun, I thought. Yeah, right.. you have to do these side steps slow, then fast, then skate steps slow, then fast.. and it's just confusing, so my fat ass avatar fell into the water.

More tomorrow, if I can move.

Saturday..ahh..

Customer just picked up 10 tutus.. what a relief to get those out of our apartment! LOL

We went to a craft show this morning. Had about 100 booths (maybe not even that many) and had 4 tutu vendors as well as 2 bow vendors. SO glad I didn't set up there. They looked pretty miserable haha. But I did get an idea for a tutu dress thing.. can't wait to try it out. Some of the prices were RIDICULOUS, though. Like one of the ladies sold their tutus for $35. $35?!? Are you nuts? You can't be greedy in the tutu business LOL. I do it because I love making little girls happy! One lady had plain alligator clips with a flower hot glued on.. they were $7.50. I was like wow. My girls wore their tutus and everyone asked about them, asked which booth I got them from, etc. Grace was more than happy to hand out the business cards to them hehe.

Then we went to Target, and I got an impulse, and bought a wii. We have been trying to buy one for months now, but they've been sold out everywhere. I saw them in the display and just couldn't help myself. Luckily, 10 tutus = $200, wii=$200. haha. I'm honestly hoping it will help me get off my butt and lose weight. The gym is not convenient.. though we are still going to try and make it til our contract runs out. If nothing else, it'll provide a little entertainment for the kids while I'm tutu-ing.

I think we might go out to eat tonight instead of fixing dinner. My stomach hurts and I just don't feel like it. I'm going to set a goal for myself and if I get two tutus made by dinner time, we will go out. If I don't, I'll make myself cook. Blah. Better get tutu-ing!

Hope everyone is having a GREAT weekend and I hope your weather is better than ours has been!

Weight loss bloggers

I am happy to announce the third and final winner of the Weight Loss Blogger Contest is Arya. Visit her at the button below.

This was her entry email:

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be apart of the weight loss bloggers. I used to love my body. I never thought I was skinny but I was happy.

After I got married we started trying for our first child. shortly after I got pregnant & I gained about 35 lbs. after having my first I lost all of the gained weight and got back down to my pre-pregnancy weight (234 lbs) and kept it all off.

I got pregnant again with my 2nd child and gained another 35 lbs but after having him I lost the weight again and kept it off. Within about a month or so of having my second I was pregnant again, but when my husband was called to Iraq 22 weeks into my pregnancy I lost the baby & had to have a D&C. When my husband came home on R&R leave I got pregnant again but lost that one too, but I had 2 small boys and didn't have time to worry about things I couldn't change and focused on them and I managed during the almost 2 years hubby was gone, to keep off my weight and stay at my pre-pregnancy weight.

I got pregnant with my 3rd child right after he got back (with in days). I gained 30lbs with that pregnancy & shortly after having her I went on the Mirana birth control and gained another 30lbs on top of the baby weight I never lost. Found out that Mirana has the same hormones as the Depo shot and if I had known that I would never EVER have gone on it.

Fast forward to now, I am no longer on the mirana, my youngest is 4 and I have had 3 miscarriages in the past 7 months while trying to conceive our 4th child. I am still carrying the 60lbs of extra weight from my last baby and excess weight mirana packed on and due to stress of not being able to keep a baby inside me I gained another 11 lbs, bringing my actual weight to 305 pounds.

This is the heaviest I have ever been and I want to lose 71 lbs to get back to 234 pounds, the weight I was the happiest at. I would love to have a support network to share my success and failures as I try to lose this mound of weight. I hope that I get chosen but if not I will still continue to try to lose the weight and keep my self accountable. Although it would be much easier to be accountable if I had others that were watching...lol

I know life is a hard road and with this extra weight it's even harder. I want to be able to play with my kids like I used to be able to & I want to be happier with my body and be healthier and it's my goal this year to achieve weight loss & be the best me possible.





We hope to be able to encourage (and kick your butt, if need be) you along your journey! Let me know what I can do to help. Can't wait to get a prize package on its way to you! Stay in touch.

Don't forget to check in with our other weight loss bloggers. I will be doing a post once a week to let you know how they're doing. If for some reason they don't email me an update, I will just link to their blog post for that week.

Krystal

Crystal

Let's help keep them accountable!

How to Succeed on ETSY

I just made my first Etsy sale today. I will admit that, after seeing all of the amazing tutus on the website, I almost didn't join Etsy. However, after countless hours of looking over all of their tutus, I realized mine weren't the same.. so why not jump in?? I jumped in half-heartedly and that was my mistake. However, I plan on improving my shop 100% before summer starts. My tutus are unique in many ways, but my favorite difference is the ribbon waistbands. I know I really need to talk that up and let everyone know how awesome they are. That will be my first goal, to make everyone realize why ribbon is better! :) When making tutus with an elastic waistband, only about half the amount of tulle is used. I learned that when I started making them. I hated how UNfluffy they were, so I figured out a different way. :) So, my super fluffy, sturdy tutus, are worthy of etsy. It took me a while to realize that (especially after seeing the AMAZING photos some of these tutu women take).

I have been reading articles a LOT lately, and wanted to pass them on. I know a lot of my blogger friends are fellow Etsians, so I'm hoping these will help. Many of you may have seen these already, but like I said I'm just getting into Etsy so please be patient. :D

Making the most of Etsy

WikiEtsy article

Very thorough helpful article

Newbie Tips

Selling FAQ

More newbie tips

Selling Tips from dyno

Writing Store Policies

Tips from an accountant

Small Businesses and Taxes

Etsy forum discussion, newbie tips

Selling checklist

Dos and Don'ts of self promotion

GREAT post

Reasons I'm not buying from you

Why haven't I sold anything?

Etsy Team Resources and How Tos

Also, I joined Link Referral today, and have already discovered a few great blogs. The few that come to mind that I'm now following are:

1 - SAHM of 3.. has a good coupon organizing post that hooked me!

2 - Thrifty is Nifty - has lots of coupons, freebies, etc. Not usually my cup of tea as far as blogs go, but I'm giving it a shot because I like the last few posts she's made. :)

and last but not least

3 - Six Flower Mom, a homeschooling, going green, babywearing, co-sleeping momma. I love reading blogs like this. Jealousy.

Plus,

Free Printable Child ID Kit here -- I'm sure there are more, but I found this one today and I think everyone should have one of these -- though I don't have any current ones. Maybe this weekend.

And if you don't feel like visiting allllllll of those links up there for Etsy tips, this ONE link will tell you everything you need to know. ETSY TIPS

Fan NELLIE BUG'S on Facebook

I have a friend page, but we recently started a FAN PAGE. Please suggest it to all your friends! :) We want to stay busy year round.. all this hard work has to pay off, right?

Will be back tomorrow to blog.

I'mma chill out for a while, Mom...

LOL My 3 year old inspired the title of this post.. she said it earlier. :)

I almost skipped blogging all together today, but then I remembered the blog challenge I accepted, and realized I couldn't skip! I can't find the button to the blog challenge.. ugh. It's been one of those days.... Anyway, the blog challenge was basically a group of bloggers promising to blog at least once daily!

But, like I said, it's been one of those days! I got an order about two weeks ago for 8 tutus. SO exciting, my biggest order yet! Then, a few days later, I got an order for 18 tutus. WHAT?! lol YES! 18! I'm so excited! I finally got the supplies in today, I'm almost done with the 8 tuts and can start on the 18. Then, I got an order for 2 tutus earlier this morning... 3 more late in the morning.. and 2 more this evening. As amazing as this is, I am not organized enough for it! LOL. I have a big white board that keeps things organized, but I can't find my marker. Rach is bringing me one when she comes home tonight. But y'all know me, I'm a list type person.. and I'm going crazy without these orders up on the board! I printed them all off and am keeping track, ordering supplies, etc.. I'm just all anal about it and am having a fit hehe.

I wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who is passing my business cards out.. spreading the word.. buying my tutus.. I appreciate it more than y'all could EVER know!! Every time I get a new order, I literally jump up and down! The rush of making all these tutus and seeing how happy it makes all these little girls.. it's just nothing short of SUPER awesome. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Later tonight, if I get some time, I will revisit my 100 goals and let you know which ones I'm working on (if any!). I don't know if I can cross any more off yet. I guess you'll have to check back to find out! Tomorrow, I plan on checking in with byebyefatpants.com to see if she has lost any weight this week. And I will be introducing the third weight loss blogger winner!

Touring Tuesdays

I didn't realize it was Tuesday until about 9PM, sorry! So, here it is.. Touring Tuesdays: Girls' Bedroom Edition! We just cleaned their room earlier.. downsized A LOT..

List of things we got rid of:

5 trash bags full of clothes (donated)
2 trash bags full of toys (donated)
1 trash bag full of books (donated)
1 trash bag full of.. trash (trashed lol)

Them going through the clothes



Whew! So, I figured their room should be next before they destroy it. Actually, they each only have about 15 pieces of clothing (with the exception of Jenelle, I let her keep more because she goes to school), plus a drawer full of socks and underwear between the three. And we only kept one bucket of toys and books. There are probably 5 stuffed animals, 3 baby dolls, 15 books, and a few educational toys.. that's it!

I just got rid of about 50 outfits myself, so I figured there's really no reason for them to have that many either. Just more laundry, which means more water and electric used. Ick.

View of most of the room



Their room is really big. Our apartment is only 800 square feet but the bedrooms are both good sizes. Also, we gave them the big bedroom and took the small one. The reason there are only 2 beds? We got rid of Jenelle's tonight because she always sleeps on the couch or floor. She hates the bed. So we figured it'd be fine to get rid of it - Grace has a full size bed she can share if by some miracle Jenelle wanted to sleep in a bed one night. :)

The chalkboard table that took FIVE flippin' coats to paint.. lol. Their favorite thing to do all day, though, is to draw pictures.. erase them.. and draw more..



Corner of the room by Gracelynn's bed.. their fish (2 betas, Katie and Doctor) and frogs (I can't for the life of me remember their names and Jenelle is not awake right now). The mosaic monkey Jenelle made at an art camp I took her to a few summers ago..



Grace's bed, with a fold out poster with facts about the 50 states. The poster above her bed and the "S" are from when Sapphire's bed was there. They each have their own wall that they can design however they want (with the exception of paint). Guess we will rearrange it all if they mention it... :)



Look familiar? Same sign that is in the living room..





One side of their closet, Jenelle's clothes will be on the white hangers - the other hangers are for when I deliver tutus.. I give them a hanger to keep it from getting crushed during transit.



Other side of their closet.. all the clothes on top on this side are Saff's, folded neatly and up high so she can't get into them. The big blue bucket is their toys and books. The top drawer of the dresser has socks and undies. The other two drawers will hold homeschooling stuff.



Hope you enjoyed! Can't wait to see yours.. leave a link! :)

EDIT: Yes, that's a blanket hanging up over their window.. curtains didn't keep the cold out so we hung a fuzzy/heavy blanket up and it's helped a lot. We can't put plastic over them because sometimes it gets really warm and we have to open them.