We Got It!

We got our country home!! I'm so excited. We'll be able to move in probably mid-September! It's going to be complete craziness around here for the next couple of weeks!

Twinkletoes is going to be one on September 7th and her birthday party is September 9th. We're going to have it at this house. I'm hoping it'll be nice because I really need to have everyone outside since inside will be filled with boxes ready to move.

My mom saw the new house yesterday(just driving by) and she loved it! Punk keeps calling it "the white farm" and is thrilled to get to "live with the cows"!! This is going to be so fun!

I think I'm most excited about having a big kitchen. It's not huge, but it's MUCH bigger than what I have now, and I really need that since I cook all the time! I just can't wait to get moved!!!

Just Crown Me the Winner!

Yesterday I was not feeling well. At. All. My husband called me late in the afternoon to tell me not to worry about dinner, he'd make something when he got home. I already had a meal planned so I thanked him, but told him I had it under control. I made pork fried rice (just click on the link, follow the recipe and add some chunks of cooked pork loin(I fried it before starting the rice) and voila...dinner!)

We were all sitting together eating dinner (W, his son 19, Punk, Twinkletoes and myself) and everyone was scarfing down their food. Even Miss Twinkletoes couldn't get it in her mouth fast enough! My husband, who truly appreciates my culinary talent, said to 19, "We sure dont eat anything boring around here do we?" 19 agreed and went on to talk about how much he loves Chinese food and how he'll always get the fried rice when he goes out to eat it. I jumped in to share how cheap it had been to make since I found a great pack of thick pork loin for only $5 at Kroger.

19 looked at me and said, "So you cooked the pork yourself? Its not just packaged?"

W answered and said, "No, she made this totally from scratch, everything from the veggies to the fresh ginger she chopped up herself!"

19said, "Wow, you said she was sick, so I just figured this was one of those frozen packaged meals! This is GREAT!"

Every last grain of rice was eaten last night. I was filled with homemaker pride!! My husband knows I can cook, and usually when I'm sick I dont. But I had this recipe planned and decided just to stick with it. I'm so glad I did.

See, I never say anything about my husband's ex. But she's not a very motherly type of person. She doesn't cook. She doesn't clean. At all. They go to her mother's house every night for dinner. And her mother is not a very good cook either. W thought he hit the jackpot with me. Not only did he get him a hot, young wife. But (shock!) a wife who enjoys cooking and is actually GOOD at it!!

Because my stepkids aren't around that much they dont really know what I'm like day in and day out. I think 19's impressed. And that makes me happy because, although he's accepting of me being his dad's wife, I dont think he every really got what a good wife I was to him. And now he knows.

So tonight, after the laundry, vacuuming, baking a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies....it's Cuban for dinner!!

Did I mention that I LOVE that my husband thinks I'm WAY better than his ex-wife!?

Should I let it go and stop making it a one-sided competition in my head? Probably.

Will I? Uhhh, NO!

Keeping Our Options Open

We decided that we'd still keep looking for a house while we were waiting on our old one to open up. Just because its so far out of town and moving twice would be miserable we just thought we'd keep our options open.

Well last night we went and looked at the perfect house for us! It's a farmhouse, but completely remodeled so it's absolutely charming! It's got 3 bedrooms, but there are two extra rooms that could be used as bedrooms so essentially it's a 5 bedroom house. In fact the two rooms that their not considering bedrooms we'll be using as bedrooms(if we get it).

I can not wait to find out!! They should be calling today or tomorrow. It seems pretty promising that we'll get it. We were there for 45 minutes, and only 10 of those minutes was us looking at the house. The rest of the time we stood out on the deck and talked to the owners.

It's their farm that this house is on and they live in a larger house on the same property. There's cows all around and I thought Punk was going to pass out from all that excitment!!

I always wanted to live on a farm, but not have to do the farming!! I guess that little dream may be coming true!! Oh I can't wait to find out!!

Why Waste So Much Money!?

It makes no sense to me why so many families eat out at sit down restaurants multiple times per week. It's such a huge expense!! While we were in Texas we at out every night and our bill was always over $40! And that was just with my husband, Punk and me eating. And Punk eats off the kids menu!!

Now I dont cook every single night. Most nights, yes. But every week or two we'll order pizza. We dont go out to restaurants as a family. Sometimes W and I will go on a date night. But other than that, it's primarily just for special occasions. Like birthday's.

I love to cook. I used to not, but when I started going through cookbooks and searching online for recipes I realized just how much was out there and fell in love with cooking! Lately I've fallen behind. I got into a slump. Mainly because it's been so hot!! But I think I'm coming out of it. I discovered a website that I just fell in love with. It's been around for awhile so many of you may have already seen it...but it's just wonderful.

I planned meals for the next seven nights...I'm so excited!! We just got home from the grocery store and I only spend $130 and that included things for breakfast, lunch, snacks for my stepson and stamps!!! SEVEN MEALS!! Why you'd want to throw away money on eating out all the time is beyond me!

Here's the link to my new favorite website, Recipe Zaar!

Defending My Honor

I was reading Cosmo and it reminded me of something and I thought I'd share...

Let's set the scene..

When: December 2003

Where: A local bar, following my husband's Christmas party at another bar.

Who: Me, 7 months pregnant. My husband, 7 tequila shots too many!

Why: Because after the Christmas party my husband decided he hadn't had enough to drink and convinced me to take him to our favorite bar...not so much a favorite when you're preggo!

The story..

It was close to 2am and at 7 months pregnant I was exhausted! All I wanted to do was go home so I finally convinced Will to get out of there. He was hem-hawing about leaving so I just put on my coat(which didn't zip because my belly was too big!) and headed towards the door.

As I walked passed the bar this guy who was leaning against the wall stuck out his foot to trip me! I about fell because of the lack of balance us pregnant woman have, but managed to recover.

I swung around and slammed the guy against the wall by his shoulders. I did. I still can't believe it!

To picture how funny that had to have looked, I'm only 5'1" and this guy was easily 6'. Oh, and here is a picture of me pregnant(I was pregnant with Punk at the time of this story, but this is pic of me pregnant with Twinkletoes).




Anyway, the guy then noticed that I was pregnant and was visibly horrified that not only had he 1)almost wiped out a pregnant woman, but 2) his judgment was so fogged by beer that he was hitting on a fat cow!

I went back and grabbed W and told him that this asshole had tried to trip me and "COULD HAVE HURT OUR BABY!!!" I was a total mess over the whole thing. W went up to him and I was so convinced that he was going to beat the shit out of him and I did not want to get hurt in the scuffel so I went outside.

I stood out there for a few minutes and W never came out. I got a little worried about him and went in to see what he was doing. That's when I saw my manly husband(boyfriend at the time) defending my honor by......standing there with jerko numero uno, arm around him like they were long lost buds laughing and getting ready to go buy another beer.

I walked up, ignored the man's rambling apologies, grabbed W by the coat sleeve and drug his ass out of there!!

Needless to say...it was a LONG time before I let him live that story down...apparently I still haven't!

Show Me Yours...

And I'll Show You Mine!!!


Jess from O Mama Mia and Laura from The Noodle Incident have started a really cool Monday picture meme called Show Me Yours & I’ll Show You Mine.

This weeks? Show Me Your (Inner) Domestic Goddess. Are you in suburban bliss? Do you get lost in your kitchen, flouring the hours away, baking? Do you love your home? Or maybe you’re in suburban turmoil & you live amongst desperate housewives?

That'd be me. Last Thanksgiving. I was making the gravy. Actually I made the whole meal. Pumpkin pies and all!! I'd show you a picture of the feast...but we were all so hungry we forgot to take a picture of the table!! And it was my FIRST time making any large holiday meal!!

Now...I want to see yours!!

Family of Four, no...FIVE!

Well my stepson has "moved in". He's 19, graduated from high school in June and is now working for my husband. So since he lives an hour away he's staying with us for the time being.

I like my stepson. He's responsible, picks up after himself, helps with the little ones, and is very polite. Plus he cracks my shit up! I know you're not supposed to play favorites with your kids....but I have three stepkids, and he's my favorite! I think since they're stepchildren, it's okay...isn't it? I dont tell them that he's my favorite, it's just my own personal secret..and I guess everyone else's now too! At least those that read this blog.

Here's my only dilema. He stayed with us for a week last winter while he was helping W out at work. It was fine at first, but by the middle of the week. I swear I was totally ignored by W. He had his son here to buddy around with and they'd watch what they wanted on tv. They'd talk all evening. I was totally left on my own. It was lonely. And sad.

So now, my stepson is here for who knows how long. And I'm really worried I'm going to have those same feelings again. I tried telling W about it last winter, but he laughed at me. Really, he did. He thought I was being silly. Already I can't sit in my spot in the living room. W's let his son have the couch and him and I have to sit on the loveseat. So not comfy!

I dont know. I'm happy my stepson is here. I'm glad he's not staying with his mom and stepdad anymore(they're horrible people). But I will look forward for him to save up enough money to get his own place.

I am going to have to talk to my husband though and make sure that he doesn't ignore me comepletely, like last time. I dont want to interfere with father/son bonding. But, it's not fair to me either, when it gets to the point where our relationship is sacraficed...

Opinions...Everyone's Got One!

You know, I've always been a "nice" blogger. I try not to go to other people's blogs and stir up trouble. Even when I dont agree, I usually wont post, I just let it go.

In fact my McEvil? post was the most controversial thing I think I've ever done since I've been blogging. But you know what, I liked how I felt after that post. I felt like I had shown something a little more about myself than I had before. Some of you agreed with me(which I LOVED) and some of you didn't. But did I email you and harrass you about it? No. Did I email the people who made the original posts and harrass them because I disagreed? No.

It's not a personal attack when you disagree with someone's blog entry, it's a matter of opinion. They're like assholes, everyone's got one. (I hope!) I love blogging so much because I get to be me. And I started this new blog identity so I could REALLY be me. The me who I am inside. On the outside a lot of people see me as mommy to Hayden and Tara, and yes that's a HUGE part of who I am, but it's not all that's in there.

Okay, so back to my point. I've always been a "nice" blogger. I never leave negative feedback. Ever. But that was the insecurity in me. Thinking that I wanted everyone to like me and why cause waves? Well. With this new identity. I want to be me. I want to tell people I dont agree with them. And if they dont like it. THAT'S OKAY. But dont go emailing me privately and blasting me.

I left a comment on another mommy blog about the fact that I disagreed with her post. I will not go into all the details, but I thought what she did was wrong, and I told her.

I did not think I was being rude..just stating my opinion. We all need to remember that when we post stories about our lives out in cyber-world, not every person who reads your stories will a)like them and b)agree with them. Remember, it's all a matter of opinion. But instead of her taking my comment as what it was, my opinion...she then sent me a PERSONAL email that ended with this paragraph:


I would encourage you not to leave rude comments on people's blogs
that you've never even been to before. My blog is open for all kinds
of discussion....but I will not be repremanded on it! I've gone to
many blogs and read many posts that I didn't agree with, I did not
however leave rude comments...you wanna know why??? Because it's not
my place.

Thank you.

She then proceeded to go to another website and personally attack me. Saying I was crying because she emailed me. Um...no, not crying, again, just having my own opinion.

So maybe you'll all read this post and think, well she is crying or she wouldn't have bothered to make a post out of it! But I hope not. I'm just doing my thang. Blogging about what I want. You can agree with me or not. But I promise you, I will not send you a personal email attacking you because you dont agree with me. I dont want a bunch of Stepford Bloggers reading my little blog.

Dont kiss my ass. Dont flatter me to get me to put you on my blogroll. Be real. Be raw!! Let me have it if you hate a post. I want to hear it!

And We'll Call Her Ted Nugent

My baby girl has had a high fever for the last three days. I thought it was just from teething, but three days later, no new teeth and still no relief I decided to call the pediatritian. They got us in as soon as I called and I was shocked at what we found out.

My little princess has...

CAT SCRATCH FEVER!

What!? I thought that was just a song!

See, our cat had kittens. Our cat keeps going outside. Our cat brought fleas into the house. Our cat gave those fleas to her kittens.

Apparently, Cat Scratch Fever is in a cats saliva and when they clean themselves, particularly their paws and then if they scratch you you can get the disease. Well it's not that common, and usually only among young cats or kittens, particularly who have fleas.

Tara plays with our cat a lot. Not so much with the kittens, but our cat is not even a year old, so she probably was carrying the disease if her kittens had it. Tara doesn't have any scratches on her, but the doctor said she could have already healed or it could have just been a faint surface scratch that I wouldn't have even noticed.

Only my kid would get something like Cat Scratch Fever!!

How could something this cute...



Get this baby so sick?

Say Thank You!

I read about this on Bloggy Gossip. I hope that everyone reading this blog will click the link below and send a message to our solidiers. They need to know that we're behind them 100%!!!!

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!

Home Sweet Home

Well I had a cute post all ready for today...pics of the kids included. But of course Blogger is sucking and I can't upload my pictures! Those of you out there who blog under anything but Blogger, leave a comment, tell me about the system you use and the benefits/drawbacks. I'm so sick of Blogger. Of course I just got this great new template and would not want to lose it by switching!!

Okay, so now I have to blog about something else...here goes..

If you dont know already we're planning on moving soon. Rentals are hard to come by in this town. Either you pay an arm and a leg for a nice house in town, or you pay what you can afford and get a crapper on the bad end of town. Now we're looking to pay no more than $700/mo. That is a lot of money for a rental, and to pay that and live in a house that sucks, is so not worth it. Right now we have a fairly nice house on a good end of town...but because our rent is average, we pay out the butt for utilities!! Our gas bill through the winter was higher than our rent.

Well, we looked at a house this weekend in an area that's about 15 minutes from town. It's a private community with a lake. To live there you pay member dues and get access to all three beaches, the indoor and outdoor pool and the golf course and club house. Now if you rent out there the dues are included in your rent. The nice part about living there is all the homes are nice and fairy affordable rent-wise. But the drawback is that you're 15 minutes from town(and that's just if you live near the front of the lake). It's more like 25 minutes if you live near the back side.

Okay, so we looked at a home there. It was nice, but too small for a family of 4. Turned out though, that the landlord was someone who W and I rented off of before Punk was born. He called last night to see what we thought of the house and W was honest and told him it was just too small. But he surprised us by offering us our old house back.

Now we loved that house, but it was even further than the lake from town. But we LOVED that house!!! I dont even remember why we moved...I think we were tired of the drive. After that surprise he double surprised us. Later in the year(we dont know when yet, he's calling Will later today) he will allow us to move into a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 3 car garage, on 3 corner lots house at the lake. Now we wouldn't be ON the lake, but in that community. We're taking it!! W's going to find out later today how long it'll be until that house comes available. If it's only going to be a couple of months we'll just stay here, but if it isn't until spring then we'll move to our old house and then into the lake house.

Moving twice will suck. But to get an affordable NICE house with all the perks of living in that private lake community...that would be too cool!

Funny how things work out. I'm going to start packing this week. Theres a lot of stuff in this house that we dont need on a daily basis and to get a head start on the packing would be so nice!

Having a Husband Does Not Mean Having a Helper!

I know that this is probably something that every stay-at-home mom encounters, but I'm starting to get really pissed off by it! My husband thinks that when he's home, he does not have to do anything. Seriously. Nothing. He even made the comment the other day there there was no way that I could do his job, and that he could do mine very easily and would never complain.

I think he has a death wish. Especially since for some reason my body is all screwed up and I'm having my second period in three weeks!! Our house is being overtaken by my PMS hormones!! Even my kids have learned to back off, but my husband...not so smart!

Now, back to the comment that I couldn't do his job. He may be right there, but only for the fact that I haven't had the proper training or 15 years experience like he has. But if I had, then your damn straight I could do his job. But here's what gets me. Yes he works all day, but when he gets home, he gets to sit down and be waited on.

He does nothing around here. I'm not going to go into the details of what my day with the kids is like. It's pretty self-explanitory. But as soon as my husband is home in the evening or the weekends, my job is even harder. There's one more person to pick up after. There's one more person asking where their things are that I've picked up and put in it's rightful place, but how would he know because he just lets stuff lie where it lands. And when I'm trying to make dinner, I still have to keep my eye on the kids, he wont even look after them for me! He used to.

He does so little that when the kids want or need something, they only come to me. Even last night, Twinkletoes had something in her mouth. I was actually sitting down for a minute and W says. "What's she got now?" And just sat there and let me get up to go check. WTF?

He makes a big deal when I mention any of this to him. He gets all pissed and says that he hates how I make it out like he's lazy. But he is, when it comes to things around the house. He used to get the kids changed and put in bed every night so I could kick back after making dinner. But he doesn't even do that anymore.

Oh, and one more complaint before I go. I made the comment last night that our house got trashed over the weekend. He proceeded to tell me that most of it was mine and the kids. And because of that I was to assume that it was my responsibility to clean up(no surprise there). But it's now Monday, he's at work, and his things are still lying where they were last night.

I guess that's my cue to get cleaning!

But first there's lunch to be made, diapers to be changed, doctor's appointments to be scheduled(one of those being for my husband!), birthday party invitations to be filled out and mailed, and Ebay items to be listed. Oh, and fight my kids to take their naps.

Oh no, I do nothing around here. My job is so easy.

McEvil?

I came across these two posts today.

Life in Forsyth: Get Up Stand Up

The Queen of Spain: McEvil Teams Up With McEvil-er

Seriously, read them then come back and tell me what you think. I just dont get it.

Seriously. Dont. Get. It.

Just yesterday we had that playdate at McDonalds. Punk got one of the Hummer toys. He played with it, Twinkletoes played with it. Every other kid in the room who had received a Hummer were playing with them. I didn't notice any of the mother's upset by that. Not a one.

I dont know what it is. No one has a problem with Hot Wheels selling their tiny real-life car models. I dont think that McDonalds has tried to scheme parents into buying a Hummer. I really dont. Maybe I'm ignorant, I dont know. I just think it was a way to get more kids to want a Happy Meal because of the "cool truck".

Hell, I thought it was so cute that I want to take Punk back next week and see which one we get next!! We had fun playing with his H1 and it's retractable winch! But I'm not going to go buy a Hummer. And I am not going to boycott McDonald's.

Now, check out this picture of the McDonald's we saw in North Dallas, as we were leaving to go home. It was freaking awesome!! We didn't go in but through the glass could see the chandeliers and fancy decor. Plus they had a McCafe, with AWESOME vanilla lattes!! (I've been dying to blog this pic, but never had the right moment(and yesterday I was too tired!)

Swimming In Texas!

Here It Is...

Here it is!! I'd have put it up earlier...but as you saw from my post last night, I needed a little recovery time this morning!! Plus, I had planned a playdate with my kids and their little friends at McDonald's for 11am. Oh that was a dumb move!! 30 screaming kids was not a fun way to deal with my hangover! I dont know why I drank so much, well, yeah I do. My husband and I got in a huge fight, it was such a stupid thing, but it just made me so mad and I stormed out of the house and over to my friend's house(we share a yard). So about 100 beers later, I decided to come in and blog! LOL!! Thank god I didn't write more than I did!!!

Anyway, how do you like my template!? I know that it needs to be centered, but there's a issue of finding the code for that....so if you know anything about HTML and want to look and see if you know what will fix that, I'd appreciate it. Otherwise, its going to stay this way for awhile. I am just THRILLED with it!! It's so pretty and so ME!!!

Welcome to Mamaritaville!!!

I need to pass out

I am drunk...drunkity drunk drunk drunk.....tune in tomorrow for the new template!! WOO HOO!!!

Sorry!

Just wanted you all to know that I haven't abandoned my blog! I've been busy! I've got someone working on the new template and I just have been kind of waiting until that's set up before I get back to blogging regularly.

Here's why I've been busy though:

We've decided we need to move. We rent our house and last winter for three months straight our gas bill was higher than our rent. And we only kept our furnace on 68. Plus we had our windows covered in plastic and we were still chilly! I know that with older homes, you'll have that, but still, it was ridiculous! The landlady had promised some new windows before the start of winter last year..and we're still waiting! GRR! So we need to find a new place before the snow flies again. I think we're going to look at a place this evening. I want a good insulated home with a large kitchen and carpet! This house has hardwood floors and their in desperate need for a refinishing!

Second, I've joined the world of Ebay! I'm slowly going to start selling on there! I've never even thought about doing it before, but now that I have, I'm SO addicted!! Check it out and tell me what you think!

That's all for now. I promise as soon as the template is up I'll be back to normal. I want to work on building my blog visitors too! Man, the internet is addicting!!!

Your Opinion

I have a few ideas for a caption for this blog...tell me which one you like:

Mamaritaville...

1. Looking for my bottle of "happy pills"!

2. Some people say that there's ba-by to blame...

3. It's my own damn fault!



And one more question for you before you leave...

Would you like the posts(when they get back to normal...later today?) to be full sized or just a teaser of it and then you click to read on?

Let me know!

Welcome!

Hello!! Welcome to Mamaritaville! I'll be your hostess! I'm Jen, a 24 y/o SAHM. I've been married to my husband W for a year and a half, but we've been together for over 4 years. We have two children. Punk, our son, is 2 1/2 and smart as can be!! (Just as ornary too!) Then there's Twinkletoes, our daughter, she's 11 months old.

I'm not a new blogger, just changing my image! I needed something more "me"? Does that make any sense? If you are new to the blog, I promise if I mention things that may lose you, I'll link back to previous posts. And if you're a previous reader, well then you'll notice a few changes, but not much.

Well. For now this is it. I have to work on the look and I'll blog tomorrow!