Happy Samhain & Happy Halloween

CRAZY Day!

My plan for the day was to run some errands with my mom and Nate this morning. Go home and give him time to crawl all over the place and burn off some energy before we took clothes down to Jon at work, so he could change before the Phillies game to which he had tickets.

Nate and I left the house early, picked up my mom and made it to the Christmas Tree shop without incident. I was able to find dryer balls to replace the ones the dog ate for $1.99, a cute doodad to hang on kitchen door (it was marked $5.99 but rang up at $3.99), and Jessica Seinfield's Deceptively Delicious for $6.99. It was a good trip.''

We went to Target next. I couldn't find half of the things I was looking for and Nate was fussy, so it was a semi-successful trip.

Nate was hungry so mom and I went to lunch so that we could eat and I could feed him. He was starving so lunch was crazy! I was trying to feed him and eat myself, he didn't want to sit, he kept grabbing thingg off the table... I was a little frazzeled... so we finished lunch and headed off to Carters. Nate fell asleep in the car, which he needed to do, so my mom waited with him and I ran in. I guess I was a little too frazzeled from lunch because half way home from Carters I stopped at a MAC machine and realized that I had left my credit card there. Now I live in PA and Carters is in Wilmington DE, so I had to turn around and drive all the way back down there to get my card, which they had, thank god!

After picking up the card, I headed home again only it was coming closer and closer to the time when I needed to go downtown. Poor Nate had spent the whole day in his car seat or a shopping cart!

My mom came to my rescue and took Nate for me so I could drive home, and then downtown to give Jon his clothes. This was a very good thing becuase there was construction and traffic and it took my almost 2 hours to get downtown and back!

All total I put what appears to be 150-200 miles on my car and spent 5 hours in the drivers seat!

Go Phils!

Although I am completely NOT a baseball person, I do root for the home team... especially when they are in the world series. So, to that I say...

Go PHILS!

Goodwill Finds

I stopped at Goodwill the other day on my lunch hour and was SHOCKED to see how picked over evreything was. There was literally nothing in the way of children's clothing or shoes and the housewares department which is usually overflowing with things was sparse to say the least. This is my indicator on how crappy our economy is. When Goodwill is full the economy is good, when Goodwill is empty the economy is in the crapper.

Anyway, I was able to scrounge up a few good deals for myself...


-- 1 pack of assorted greeting cards
-- 1 glass trifle dish
-- 3 2-packs of wooden hangers with monkey faces for children's clothes

My total was under $5.00.

Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins

I have actually been able to do a little baking recently. I don't know how it happened, but I have learned not to ask such questions. I made a German Chocolate Cake for Goodie day at work, I made Amy's Peanut Butter Cookies, I made waffles for breakfast yesterday, and I made these super easy yummy chocolate pumpkin muffins.

1 box devils food (or any chocolate) cake mix
1 15oz. can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

-- Combine the above two ingredients.

-- Spoon mixture into greased muffin tin

-- Bake at 350 for 30 minutes

These muffins are wonderfully moist and dense and I guarantee you cannot taste the pumpkin.

Help Ratchet (and Others) Come Home

Help a soldier who rescued a puppy in Iraq bring the little guy home with her. You can read the whole story here:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/14/iraq.puppy.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

And get more information here: http://www.baghdadpups.com/

Baby Bargains

Yesterday was Yom Kippur which usually means a day of fasting and atoning for one's sins. Since I am breastfeeding I do not fast, and instead on atoning for my sins, I decided to fix some of them.

I spent yesterday at the salon getting my hair colored and cut and my eyebrows waxed. it was my way of atoning for the sin of "letting one's appearance slip." (It's a sin, go look it up ;))

On the way home from the salon I stopped at Kid to Kid and found some great baby bargains. Why is it so much easier to spend money on your kids then it is to spend money on yourself?

Anyway I found this Build and Spill Turtle (retail $30, resale $12.00) for grandma's house:

This Melissa & Doug toy I had my eye on (retail $20, resale $7.50):

The cutest Robeez winter boots (retail $39.00, resale $9):


A new book (retail $7, resale $1):



And finally, Mini Boden pants to grow into (BNWT) (retail $30, resale $7):


What I would have spent (without tax): $ 126.00

What I actually spent (without tax): $36.50

Better than Baking Soda

As we all know, baking soda can do just about anything. I keep it in the house for baking, for cleaning, and of course there are boxes in my fridge and freezer for deodorizing.

That was until I saw Ted Allen's new show of the Food Network, Food Detectives. Ted was testing whether or not baking soda was the best deodorizer for the fridge. It turns out that although baking soda will absorb some odor, the best deodorizer out there is activated charcoal or activated carbon. Now, you can buy little balls of activated carbon to put in the freezer, but I thought I could make my own .

So, I thought I would do my own test. I bought some of this:


Activated charcoal/carbon can be found in pet stores, or the pet section of department stores because it is used in fish tank filters. it is a little more expensive than baking soda, but it works better for longer, and you only need a little bit so you get a lot of uses out of one container.


and found some old knee highs (I used black, but color really doesn't matter):

and proceeded to make my own deodorizing carbon balls.

Step 1: Cut the knee high in half

Step 2: Spoon approximately 3 Tbs. of activated charcoal into the toe of the knee high. (If you are using the non-toe end of the knee high, tie it off first before spooning in the charcoal)

Step 3: Tie off knee high

Step 4: Toss carbon ball in the fridge, freezer, diaper pail, trash can etc.


So far, so good. I threw one in the kitchen trash can and one in the trash can/diaper pail in the baby's room. Neither can has been very odoriferous of late, so I think they are working. I still have to make one for the fridge and one for the freezer.

Nursing Bras on the Cheap

I don't know if I will actually try this or not, but here are instructions on how to turn a regular bar into a nursing bra: http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/braconvert.html

Happy Anniversary, Baby!

Love You!