Go Mommy Go! 70lbs Lost!

 This is my mom in 1980, 3 years before my sister Charlotte was born and 4 years before I was born. For as long as I can remember my mom always told me that I was the reason she was fat!

This is 1988ish. As you can see I am just so upset that I made mommy fat!

This is 2009 20 years later mom hadn't lost too much baby weight!

 This is my mom last weekend 70lbs lighter!

How did she do it? gastric bypass, liposuction, diet pills, weight watchers? Nope just old fashioned exercise and eating right!

Not even a Second!

     How Long does it take for a child to get into something dangerous? In my house not even a second! One day last week we woke up to an ant invasion in the pantry. The ants had gotten into everything that was opened. I was especially sad about my organic peanut butter granola that had only been used once! I read somewhere before that lemon scent will break the ant scent trail. We had this bottle of Lysol lemon scent in our home from the previous home owners. This is not something I would usually buy, but you know me if I didn't pay for it might as well get some use out of it =). 

     Well while I was pouring a little bit at a time on each shelf and then wiping I put the bottle on the counter right next to me. The kids were in their room playing with race car tracks. All except Joshua who had taken the bottle off the counter and drank the remainder of the Lysol! I turned around and saw him holding the now empty bottle about a centimeter from his lips and he let out a burp and had a dazed look on his face. Of course I panicked and tried to call the number on the back of the bottle it was just a recording. Then I remembered that you should give milk to drink so I poured a big cup for Joshua and he drank most of it. 

     I didn't have time to load up the computer and google "what to do if your child drinks Lysol." So I dialed 911 and the EMTs came out right away. To my surprise Joshua was fine and didn't need any medical attention. Thank God for His protection! I know as a mother of 3 boys we are so blessed to not have had any major incidents. It is nearly impossible to have my eyes on all 4 of my children at all times and so I am so grateful that God watches over us! I will not be buying any bottles of products like this ever and now I have poison control saved in my phone!

This is Joshua who is a very active and fearless 3 year old!

Thank God for Warranties!

We had 2 really expensive things malfunction in the same week! Our Air Conditioning Unit and our Samsung Dishwasher! I am so thankful that the dishwasher was still under the 1 year manufacturer warranty and the service guy came out and fixed it today free of charge!

Then the air conditioner went haywire and froze over and was leaking inside the utility room!  The previous owners gave us a 1 year home warranty when we purchased the home for them and it only cost us $160 with the deductible and disposal fee! Now everything is back to working order in our home =)....although the toilet in our room has been running and I cannot figure out why?....might be calling the warranty people back again...lol...or I could watch a youtube video on how to fix toilets...lol =)

I didn't even know that part of the AC was inside our home.

Out with the old and in with the new!

Isn't it pretty?

You do remember how ugly the old one was don't you? I know Chris is just as glad as I am that these things were under warranty....although he just might have fixed something with that screwdriver...lol =)

I like Free! Fun things for kids to do for Free in Springfield, Missouri

"Mommy, I want to go to Chuck E Cheese, Can we please go to Chuck E Cheese?"  This is something I have been hearing in my house lately. I love to take my kids fun places. I do not like to spend money just for them to have fun though. I know children just want to spend time with their parents and feel loved and appreciated yet anytime I step foot outside our house it feels like all the fun for kids activities comes with a price tag. My kids are just about tired of the playground down the street and it has been really too hot to spend too much time there anyway.  The last couple days we have been blessed to find some fun things that were free =)

 There was a free train ride running of the 4th of July.

Then the kids posed inside lady liberty.

 There is also a really nice park here in Springfield called the Jordan Valley Park.

 It has running water and water fountains, the kids had so much fun!

 Then we found a really nice Library about 10 minutes from our house. It has a train you can go inside and lots of hands on things for the kids to play with.

Of course Chris came with me to all these places! After all fun things with 4 small kids by yourself can go from fun to frantic in about 30 seconds flat!

American Flag Toast

This flag toast has been circling the internet and I thought we would give it a try =). We put strawberry jelly on first and then added the fruit =)

 Okay the "stars" are on the wrong side must be the camera flip!

The boys loved them =)Where is Joshua in the picture....He is always wondering off with sticky hands.....

Rachel's first Pigtails! :Learning to do bi-racial girls hair

 Our children are just all mixed up and have different hair types.My dad is from Honduras and has a fro if he doesn't keep it super short, I wish I had a pic of it! My mom has super stringy thin hair. My hair is pretty nice I think not too thick not too thin....easily managed. Chris has really nice wavy hair but he has to put lots of oil gel stuff on it and wear a wave cap at night. That is just too much work for me! I was secretly hoping our first girl would have finer hair like Christian but she came out with hardly any hair at all!

Here is Rachel with my dad last year in Virginia.....I almost thought she was born without the DNA for hair....lol =) Just kidding!

 Now that it is growing in it is super tight curls. It was starting to get matted in the back and I didn't want to start dumping chemicals into her hair so I was so excited to find this Organic Olive Oil Smooth-n-Hold Pudding at WalMart =)

 Isn't she just so cute with Pig Tails ?!

and the back is still curly but can be combed though after applying the pudding =)

I am hoping to be an expert hair doer by the time Rachel is 6 or 7 hair twists and all! =)

Not a Good Time to have your AC Break!

Sunny

Hi 99°RealFeel® 105°

Day

• NNE at 7 mph
• Gusts: 13 mph

Sunny, record-tying heat and humid

• Max UV Index: 9 (very high)
• Thunderstorm Probability: 24%
• Amount of Precipitation: 0.00 in
• Amount of Rain: 0.00 in

On Friday afternoon I was feeling a little warm. I walked past our thermostat and saw it at 80. I thought maybe one of the kids touched it. Even though I have never seen any of my kids touch it before.....Then hours later it didn't change the temperature. Chris went outside to check on the unit. One of the cords had frozen over with ice.  First he called a repair company and they were going to charge $50 just to come and look at it. Then I remembered our home came with a one year home warranty. Chris cancelled the first appointment and made one through the HSA warranty company! In the mean time I checked the weather for the weekend since the repair guy couldn't come until Monday. It was going to be really really really hot! 

Chris decided he was going to try and fix something with a screw driver...until he heard a loud voice say, "Put the screw driver down and step away from the Air Conditioner!"

I couldn't stand the thought of sitting in a hot house with 4 kids all weekend! Especially since I promised all the bus riders waffles and bacon after church!  Then I remembered my neighbor across the street told me her hubby used to work for an AC company. She sent her hubby over to save the day and added some freon to cool our house down. Today the repair guy came and found a leak in the system so we are going to get a new one for the cost of the deductible and disposal of old unit a total of $160. That is a whole lot better than $2,600 for a new unit and install without the warranty! Praise the Lord for his provision!