Hello all I am still alive!!!

Hope you all are doing well. I am still fairly tired compared to my usual unpregnant. I had to stop taking the pills for nausea because of the side effects so I am bungling through best I can. I have been sewing the boys summer shorts and hoping to be done by the weekend and will take pics. We have been getting the garden area cleaned up and are going to till tomorrow and get my poor plants in the ground. They are screaming at me to get them in the ground and get some sunshine all day!!!! I cannot waittttt until they are all set up. I am hoping to have it all ready and done by once again the weekend and I will take pics of that too. I so hope everything goes better this year. I have decided to put my tomatoes in pots and put them on the front porch and cover those with fencing to try and keep the squirrels out this year since I did get one tomato last year due to them little buggers...atleast someone liked my tomatoes hahaha. Again hope everyone is doing well and I won't stay away so long next time. Good wishes to all, Michelle

Family Fun magazine rainbow cupcakes

I received my first issue of Disney's Family Fun magazine. I got a one year subscription for $3.21 or close to that. I saw it posted on www.pinchingyourpennies.com then go to their pyp blog and follow them and get their great deals they find. Anyway my twins instantly spotted the rainbow cupcakes recipe they had in the magazine and wanted to make them today. So we did. It was a snowy cold day perfect for cupcakes. These came out really cute but next time I will use less batter in each cupcake since ours spilled over.
Rainbow cupcakes in their Treat of the month section in the back of the magazine March 2010 issue

Rainbow cupcakes
Prepare your favorite white cake mix ( we used a homemade cake mix)
Divide the batter into six small container or bowls.
In bowl #1 add 18 drops of red food color
In bowl #2 add 12 yellow drops and 4 red drops of food color
In bowl #3 add 12 drops of yellow food color
In bowl #4 add 12 drops of green food color
In bowl #5 add 12 drops of blue food color
In bowl #6 add 9 drops of red and 6 drops of blue food color
Mix well until you have all the colors of the rainbow

Line 16 muffin pan wells with baking cups
We started with the red first but you could go backwards and start with purple.
We added the red, then the orange, yellow, green, blue, then purple until the muffin tins were full.

Bake at 350 until toothpick comes out clean. You will have rainbow cupcakes. Then top with Whipped topping and serve. The Boys really loved doing this and It helped them with learning their colors. And about adding colors together to get different colors. Happy baking with the kids, Michelle

Mad mad mad and a correction

First a correction. I will not be using RR ties in the garden. I never even knew or thought about wether they were poison to use them. So many people around here use them, I did not think there was anything wrong with them. Found out different thanks to a commenter. I am going to go another route.
Now to my mad mad mad. I was at our public library yesterday around closing time. I was sitting in the car and I looked up to see one of the employee's taking down the flag, the American flag. Now I am not going to get into my political views. But I can tell you I feel very strongly about the flag. It represents so much to me. Everything that has happened, our independence, not to mention the blood of all the servicemen everyday that lose their lives. I looked up to see the person lowering the flag then letting it lay on the ground while he unhooked it. While he was unhooking it he stepped on it and when he went to grab it he noticed he was stepping on it, he took his foot off it dragged it a bit on the ground and then threw it over his shoulder and then rolled his eyes and chuckled a bit to a passer by. Know some who were in the car with me had to hold be back from jumping out of the car. They thought I was overreacting. Really??? Does that flag mean anything anymore. I have not been able to get this off my mind. Still this morning I am thinking about it. It still upsets me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, Michelle

Goings on

Whew I think I am finally feeling closer to myself the last few days!!!!! Thank God!!!!! I did some internet research last week about vitamins to take for feeling run down and sluggish and came up with a regimen. I was taking vitamin c, D3, E, Echinaccea and a probiotic. I added to that Folic acid, B12, magnesium and Iron. The poor pharmacist spent almost an hour with me helping me pick out the best. Since I was so sluggish he suggested I take the liquid B12, Downfall it tastes fairly icky but is absorbed quicker. The iron is the one I have problems with and have had problems with in the past. But we came up with a lower dose one that is time released. And since I am anemic this hopefully will help. So far so good. I am down to taking only 1 of the nausea pills each day, Right smack in the middle of the day. I am hoping to be off those by the end of next week. YEAHHHH. I completley believe in Vitamins, They work.
I have been cleaning like mad lately, This house has gone to heck over the last month and I am feeling the crunch of spring cleaning and organizing hitting me hard. I organized the boys dressers yesterday, getting out all the too small clothes or too stained up and worn ones out. Next week I am hoping to get all the spring/summer stuff washed up and ready to go. We are hoping to get the house in order by end of next week and get the back yard ready for the raised beds by weekend after next. We had a little trouble finding railroad ties, But then last minute found someone who has around 80 of them and wants them gone....SCORE!!!!! We are going to go and dump the trailer that day and head straight over and get the ties and get them set up. Then next day get the soil done and get all my plants in the ground. My beans and peas are already a foot high. I am really excited to get them planted and growing and producing this year. I have high expectations this year and want to yeild enough to can and make baby food in preparation for the baby.
My 5 year old twins have been so cute, Every morning they want to know if the baby is here yet? I say no the baby has to grow lots more and will be here when halloween gets here. So today Joshua says to me, Can we go out to the pumpkin patch and see if they are open yet? Toooooo cute. I got a magazine from the Dr. office that shows a baby in each month inside the mother. So I think that I am going to cut out the pictures and post it up each month so they know where we are at and how far we have to go. Something to help them understand best they can. I have been thinking of names, I really like Jeremiah David or Noah for a boy. I really like Joyanna or Hannah for a girl. But that might change. I usually blurt out something completely different as soon as they are born bahahaha. I hear them cry and bammm it comes to me. A few here want to name it Luke John if it is a boy. We have Matthew Mark and they think it would be cute to say and here are Matthew Mark and Luke John, The first 4 books of the new testament. I am thinking on that one.
Have a blessed Thursday all, Michelle

No spend month update

It is hardddddddddddd bahhahahaha. I am really ashamed of myself at how much money we have wasted. I have noticed how much STUFF we have since not spending. When I think I am out of something or don't have something, a little search has yeilded the item or something similiar. I have been cleaning out bins, drawers, and stored boxes. I still have an entire sunroom and the laundry room to go through yet. I am really quite shocked at what is in this house. I am learning a big thing about organization. I am the biggest disorganized organized person I know!!! That is going to be my biggest project this month. organizing all this stuff and realizing and tracking everything we have. For example. I use sharpie pens alot for marking everything. An older kid takes one for something, leaves it somewhere else or it gets thrown in a drawer, I can't find it and go buy another pack. I found 17 sharpie pens yesterday, 17!!!!!!!! This is going to take me awhile with all the stuff we have, But it is going to be worth it. Knowing what I have down to the last sharpie marker is going to go a long way to save money I think. At around $2.97 a 2pk for the sharpies that alone was about $25.00!!! I did a little reading yesterday and I see one big thing that we need to start doing also....Track our spending. We are starting next paycheck. I found a ledger that was never used (of course) yesterday while cleaning and have designated that for this use. We are going to write down every little tiny thing we spend money on every day, every month. From what I read this is really going to help us visually see what we are spending money on also. We will never get out of debt without knowing this. Michelle

Mom is happy-Kids are dissapointed

I was very happy that their was only 1 baby. The kids and hubby are a bit disappointed.
Don't get me wrong I love my twins. They are fun and interesting to watch grow and develop. I think everyone should have a set just to experience it. But I am not gonna lie and say it was easy and that I am ready to jump in and do it again. These twins I have are only 5 and are still a handful. It was extremely nerveracking when they were little. #1 they were so tiny and getting them to eat was a full time job. It is sometimes challenging to console a single baby let along two crying with colic at the same time. I never felt like I got to enjoy much of their 1st year because there was so much packed into it. Yes of course it was fun alot of the time, It was new!!! Newness wears off though. The first year felt like a blurr of feedings bathings diaper changes and crying. The youngest baby was so much fun after that, Just tending to him and his needs. After the twins I realized how I was able to enjoy each day with him without all the chaos.
I would not have been upset at all if I was having twins again. But I am not displeased at all that it is 1. The kids and hubby seemed a little let down that it was only 1 though and I can understand since they got the enjoying playing part of the twins while I worked my butt off. hahaha. They will come around and get real excited just like with the last baby. The girls are hoping of course for a girl. I don't mind a girl or a boy. The kids have decided I am not allowed to tell them what I think it is. I have not been wrong yet, even when the Dr. told me she was 150% sure last time that now Matthew was a girl and I told her she was wrong that it was a boy. So I am keeping my mouth shut on this one, But I already have my suspicions. I tend to know the sex for some reason I don't know what it is around the 5th month. It is just a really strong feeling I get either way.
I have often wondered how many other mothers get this feeling and were right when the Dr. says the opposite. I won't falter this time like last time. I gave into the Dr. and gathered all girl stuff and picked out her name Maddelynn to only hear in the operating room from the Dr. ummmmm Michelle, did you get all girl stuff??? HUH??? I said, as she showed me my son and admitted I was right. She said I really did not seem shocked at all!!!!! I wasn't really but was worrying about what I had gathered for a girl. Well ladies gotta run, I have decided to suprise my family tonight with a big dinner and it isn't even Sunday!!! bahahaha Have a great day, Michelle

Just got back from Dr.

Just got back from Dr. apt. and everything looks good he said. He said it appeared that there was just 1 baby, But that my uterus was tilted up so he would check again in a few months!!! 1 is good, 1 is easy hahahahaah. I am exhausted from the trip so gonna go lay down for a few before fixing dinner. I will post more soon. Michelle