Emma 15 months

So we have some of Emma's tricks on Video and also her LOVE of corn on the cob! She is a blast and always is doing something new! I shortened the one I posted on You Tube...Enjoy!

Attention all Penny Pinchers!

So the hubby has been back to work now going on his third week. After being off for a little over 14 months he is thrilled to be working and getting out of the house, let alone having a paycheck coming in. We have been pinching penny's for almost the last 2 years, since finding out we were having Emma, when he was laid off right after she was born, and then again when my pay was cut 20%. I love finding new ways to save money, and don't think we will ever go back to the way were living before, it seems we were throwing money out the window at times.

Most of this stuff is common sense, but the biggest savings I found yet I saw on the today show. I just made my 3rd batch of this yesterday, and have spent around $11 on laundry soap in the past 5 months! plus I have given 2 jugs to my Mom and Dad! Its very easy to whip up and smells great. I even made up a load of our regular soap and then the homemade stuff and had a "smell test" for Justin and Erica and neither one of them could say which was which!
Homemade Laundry soap:
4 cups of water.
• 1/3 bar of Fels Napda laundry BAR soap, grated, or chopped up into small pieces.
• 1/2 cup washing soda (not baking soda).
• 1/2 cup of Borax (20 Mule Team).
• 5-gallon bucket for mixing.
• 3 gallons of water

Put chopped up Fels Napda and 4 cups of water in pan on stove until melted (add old reg body soap slivers for extra scents )
Put 3 gallons of water in bucket
Add washing soda and Borax
Add bar soap once melted
Put lid on 5 gallon bucket and shake up a bit
Let sit for 12 hours to get GEL consistency

All of these supplies are found at Meijer
Fels Napda is with the bar body soap $1.39
Borax (in aisle with laundry soap) $2.99
Washing soda (with Laundry soap) $2.99
5 gallon bucket with lid $3.99

some easier every day ideas...
Shampoo and Conditioner pumps
buy pumps for your hair care (or just get the ones with pumps on them) so you don't waste any (especially useful with kids who dump a handful every time)
Tooth paste
buy those neat squeezing gadget to get every drop out of your toothpaste

Paper products
I have only bought paper plates for Emma's Birthday party and a pack to take when we are camping. We do dishes anyways...whats a couple plates matter? plus we have considerably lightened our garbage load:)

Not Eating out is always the easiest way to save a bunch of money. But that doesn't mean you have to give up going out for special occasions...a lot of places around us have birthday specials when you sign up for Email updates. So check your favorite places and see if they participate.
These are the ones I am signed up for:
Texas Roadhouse is good for free appetizers a couple times a year along with a Birthday entree when you sign up for their email club:)
Red Robin....Free Burger, fries and small dessert
Baily's...in Troy and Livonia Free Entree when you buy one
Bagger Dave's...in Berkley... Free Burger and fries
Fuddruckers...Free 1/3 lb Burger with fries
Buffalo Wings Wings...Free Dessert and they have FANTASTIC chocolate cake:)

I'm always on the lookout for more money saving ideas, so if you have any, let me know!
Have fun pinching those penny's!!

14 months

Time truly flies...I can't believe I haven't written a blog in over a month, and I can't believe my littlest girl is 14 months this week. She is doing some amazing things. She is learning new and exciting things everyday, and is always craking us up. She is such a fun and happy little toddler.

She is bottle free the last 6 days, she dances like crazy, and is RUNNING around here like a little speedster! She throws her hands up when we say how big is Emma, sooooo big!!!! When we ask her if she is stinky...she waves her hand past her nose and heads towards the bedroom to get changed, and today...she was sooooo tired and crabby, and I said wanna go nite nite Em? and she walks to her bedroom, I put her in crib and she falls to sleep. She's pretty darn cool:)

Erica is the proudest big sister there is too. We had her end of the year party for softball and Erica picks her up and shows her off to the team and then goes through all of Emma's tricks with her in front of the team. it was so adorable...her saying hey look at my little sister!! isn't she neat!!?!

Its been a busy month, lots of stuff going on at work for me. Erica's softball wrapping up, my softball just starting last week. I'v been working some shifts in the stores to cover for a manager who has been off sick, and Justin starts a new job next week. I'm hoping this last month of summer goes slow for Erica, she starts 8th grade in September and that just blows my mind.

Here are some of our fun summer pics:

Camping trip-Outdoor Adventure

We took advantage of our 21 free days of camping at Outdoor Adventures this past week. When we went through the entire sales pitch back in March sounded like a good thing to look into purchasing when Justin returned to the work force. In April when we went camping, we camped for a weekend, we loved it, we were close to everything, the only downer was the indoor pool was closed. This trip was a little different. We arrived Friday around noon, and there were only about 5 camp sites to pick from, and they were kinda crappy sites. Ours was, far in the back, not close to anything, no trees, small, rocky and not alot of grass for Emma to play on.
So we snagged up the best we could, and set up camp and ventured out. We had friends arrive who are members, and were camping around the corner, so it was fun spending time with them. We took the girls to the beach, swam at the pool, Erica and I went Kayaking, Bike riding and we played some Skippo. Erica got up early to go fishing EVERY single day! We were cracking up...she was so into going fishing, and talking to the old guys, and learning more about catching fish. Emma learned how to drink from a straw and is just getting into EVERYTHING now! she keeps up busy and she just loves being outside. Our girls are just so much fun.

Some of the Likes and Dislikes about Outdoor Adventures
Likes:(
Indoor pool
Outdoor pool
clean beach
fishing
Kayaks/paddle boats
Putt Putt
clean bathroom/showers
alot of sites
close to home (1 hour away)
nice snack bar/grill
Nice store with cheap items

Dislikes:(
Very crowded swimming areas all weekend. (pool and beach)
The place is HUGE over 700 sites/cabins
Lots of concrete, not so many trees
Commercialized a little too much
Huge line to get in park on the weekend (at least 20 minutes in car, in line) very unorganized
Not a good selection of sites, the regulars told us if you want to get a good site people drop off their campers on Wednesdays, otherwise you get stuck in the waaaay back and have to drive to beach, pool, and everywhere
no coin machines in the laundry room...had to drive to store to get change, DUH!
neighbors next to us on our site were not at their camper at all for the first 4 days in a row...then came someone for a day trip to the beach with some kids, then some other older ladies came later in the week and finally spent the night. so a site wasted on people not using it.
I would rather reserve a site I like versus this type of set up...its kind of a roll of the dice getting a site that is close to everything.



Right now, the plan is to use up the rest of our free nights of camping here and maybe try out some of the other parks up north a bit and see if we like them any better. I'm not sold on this style of camping at all, and would rather camp at state parks or KOA's as we have before with the pay as we go. Plus all the holiday weekends we spend with Family and Friends up in Grindstone, for free! This place just isn't in the budget and not really my cup of tea right now.

Happy Camping:)

Emma turns ONE!

Its so true how time just flies...I cannot believe my baby turned one yesterday. that has to be the fastest year of my life. She is such a fun little girl to have and we are truly enjoying every minute with her and having a blast. She is walking really good now. Getting into just about everything she can. She chases the cats and dogs around the house daily and all of them are putting up with her great when she pulls tails and ears, and jumps on their belly's! She eats just about everything we give her and if we are too slow feeding her she shrieks like a pterodactyl! its so funny...but can be embarrassing in a restaurant! She sleeps fantastic, no complaints there...she does give out high fives now, smiles big like a big ham, and dances like a pro!she plays pee-a-boo around the laptop with who ever is on it at the time, and laughs out loud if we are laughing at something. she also does something we call Psycho baby...she holds her breath and shakes and turns red...yea, its hilarious...she did this when she got mad, and Erica used to do this also. it is so funny to watch!

So her Birthday party was awesome. We had it at Grandma's house (Justin's Mom) She was hamming it up pretty much all day, and had a bunch of kids there to celebrate with. When we opened the gifts, Erica helped out and Emma and I opened the cards. it was so funny when she looked at the cards, when there was an animal or cartoon on it, she would grab it and kiss it! it was so cute!
she did a good job with her cake Grandma made her, and made a good mess with it:) She looked like she was in a chocolate coma afterwards.

Erica made a beautiful sign for Emma, and worked on it for 2 hours last week! she used a ton of glitter and it turned out awesome. She is so great with Emma and really had a good time planning, decorating and helping out with the party.

Emma had a blast and thanks to all our family and friends for celebrating with us! We truly appreciate it!

Photo collage!

Pooped out party girl!

awesome sign from big sis!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend was a good one. We went up north to spend the weekend with family and it was fantastic. The weather was great, it was so nice to relax and spend time together. I read an entire book this weekend and finally got some sun on my pasty white arms and legs.

We celebrated Emma's birthday with the family since all of Justin's mom's side was there, (except his mom) and Emma totally LOVED her cake:) it was fun to watch her devour it. We went and checked out a softball tourney Jeff was playing in, and of coarse had some ice cream, but not at our regular spot. I love hanging out late by the fire and Emma stayed up pretty late Saturday night with us. but we tired her out pretty good the other 2 nights and she went to sleep pretty easy for us. She loved playing with her walker and pushing it back in forth in the grass and enjoyed having alot of room to play. Erica was scarce most of the weekend. We usually only see her when she is hungry or thirsty. She is out riding bikes and catching frogs and having fun with her friends up there she sees every camping trip.

I got some good pictures this weekend, here are a couple of my fav's!

Movies!!!

So I took a little break from Netflix the past three months. We just weren't using it, and there was a lull in movies I wanted to see, so I put my account on a 90 day hold. When I reinstated it this week...they were promoting watching movies through the Nintendo Wii. So I signed up for it since it's part of my monthly plan, and it was worth checking out. So after some quick set up, on Justin's part, we are now able to watch movies instantly:)Not all new titles are available through this, but alot of the TV series, Children series and just regular classic favorites are. It's pretty darn cool! We just insert a Netflix disc into the Wii, plug in a code online, and watch away.

So this happy camper is glad to have her movies back! I'm looking forward to keeping my Queue updated!

Camping trip #2..2010

So we spent a nice 3 day weekend camping at Algonac state park. I love this campground, it is along the river and we sit around and watch the frieghters pass by. We raced out Thursday night trying to beat the storms out there and sure enough, we pull in our site and I get out to guide Justin back, and down comes the rain! We got the camper parked and we sit in the truck for a couple minutes waiting for the rain to calm down a bit. It finally does so we go into set up camp mode:)

Thursday night we headed into Port Huron and Walmart to pick up a couple things I always forget! lol Friday's weather was fantastic and we all got a little sun. After dinner Erica and I headed up to the Dairy Queen for dessert and on the way out, I saw a truck with a familiar face in it. When we got back, I went walking and found my cousins on my Dad's side of the family camping just a couple sites away. It was a nice surprise and great to catch up with them over the weekend. The weather was nice Saturday too, and Emma loved being outside. Erica caught a big frog sometime Saturday, and she loved walking along the river finding cool rocks and sticks.

Emma slept fantastic all weekend, and had her first Oreo cookie! We had a lot of fun! 2 more weeks until Memorial Day! yeaaaaaa!!! Its camping season!

Book Club, April

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So it was my turn to pick the book and restaurant this month for book club. The book I picked was Darker than Night: The True Story of a Brutal Double Homicide and an 18-Year Long Quest for Justice by Tom Henderson.

I chose this book, because I heard about this crazy story around a campfire in Mio, when we used to go camping/tubing/canoeing every year with friends of ours. It was such a crazy story, it was hard to believe. Until I heard about it later when the trial was going on, talk about creepy. This happened 185 miles north of me. The two hunters that were murdered lived in cities less than 15 miles from me. Its pretty close to home.

The beginning of the story was really hard to get into, there were so many people, witnesses, friends of friends, and family members, interviewed and talked to, it was really hard to keep it all straight. plus since it took 18 years to bring these murderers to trial, there were a bunch of different detectives on the case throughout the years. There were a ton of information to process, leads to follow, dead ends and dead witnesses.

The amount of fear these people went through I can only imagine. The Families of the victims, not knowing for so long what really happened to their sons, husband, boyfriend, brother...it was just so agonizing at times to read, and know these guys could have been my neighbor, someone I could have seen at a mall...its just creeps me out even more. Also the lone witness, who kept her secret for so long, the threats against her, and anyone else who saw something, or heard something, or heard from a friend details of what happened.

Overall it was one of the most interesting books I have read in a long time, and I'm glad I picked it. I also got to pick the restaurant, and picked PRONTO! in Royal Oak. I had never been there, and heard such great things about it, and the fantastic desserts, I had to give it a try! good night, great company, fantastic Chocolate/Peanut Butter Bumpy cake!!!

10 months

Lil miss Emma turned 10 months last week...She is getting into everything and has such personality! She just cracks us up everyday! She is just about walking, can push her walker toy thing around, and is standing up on her own. She is quick little thing and as soon as we undo the gate to the kitchen, or move the play pen to unblock her area she is there, trying to BREAK OUT! Its funny though that when we are on the floor with her trying to get her to walk she will stand in front of us and then dive into our arms instead of walking. She is pointing to things and grunting...giving us KISSES!! oh that's my favorite!! I could kiss her forever!! She is a little dancing fool, and just makes us laugh so hard. She stands up and shakes her butt, and when she is sitting she bounces. If she gets crabby we put the radio on the TV and she just starts dancing and everything is OK in the world! Today when we were out looking around for a wash machine...she heard the music and was bobbing her head in the stroller and Justin and I just start cracking up at her.


She had a couple issues sleeping the last 2 weeks, mostly I think because of her 5 top teeth coming in. but she has been doing better the last couple days. plus we have starting sticking to a schedule more, so she gets enough sleep, and that always helps. She had fun camping this past weekend, slept good, had the run of the entire camper and loved being outside playing when it warmed up enough to be out.

Book Club review

This months book club meeting was held at Detroits Traffic Jam and Snug, the book we read is The Guernsy Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer, and Annie Barrows.
I loved this book, it was set during WWI, and was really interesting. This is a short discription I found online:

"I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways"

I really like the way the book was written, its alot of small letters back in forth from a bunch of different people. It kept me interested and was a quick read. I like that some of it was predictable and some was not.

I loved the book, loved the Restaurant, love the girls I get to go out with on a monthly basis! fun times!

Bon Jovi Concert---St Patty's day!

The BEST view in the house:)

Me and my girls from work!

Wow I have been slacking...I didn't realize I haven't done a post in almost 3 weeks! I've been meaning to post my fun pics of the Bon Jovi concert, so here they are:)

First of all...I have never had so much fun at a concert! The concert itself was just OK, but the people I went with were FANTASTIC! I have seen Bon Jovi...7 times now, and I was really surprised with the set list this time. They usually play ALL of their old hits, and mix the newest album in here and there. but this time, they played the entire new album, and mostly slow songs. I have to say, I don't really care for their new album, its a lot of slower songs, and I was expecting the normal upbeat, fun, foot tapping stuff they always turn out. The only song I really like on the new album is "Born To Follow" so the concert was just OK to me. We had seats rear stage, first row, that were fantastic for the $60 price tag. Jon even sang a song...I was so excited I can't even remember which one, 10 feet from us and I thought I was going to pee my pants. That made everything worth it. Kid Rock also showed up and sang "Dead or Alive" which was pretty cool.

We got to the concert pretty early and tailgated for a good 2 hours. We had so much fun, we tailgated for a bit after too since the parking lot was...well, a parking lot. We dance, sang, and had a blast! I'm so lucky to have friends to go with. Thanks Alicia, Cathy, Jenny, and Erik for such a great time!!

Oh Jon BABY!!!

The Best Concert People EVER:)

9 Months!

As usual, time is flying! Emma turned 9 months yesterday. She now can stand hanging on to things, rocks back in forth on all fours, waves Hi and Bye, and cries whenever Erica leaves the room, and for school! She also has started screeching like a maniac, not sure why, but it mostly happens when she is eating and we don't feed her fast enough or if we leave her in a room alone. She's like HELLO... I NEED ATTENTION HERE!

2 weeks ago Emma started Formula once a day:( I still nurse her in the morning and before bed, but we felt she was hungry during the day, so we started her on one bottle a day. I am actually pretty shocked I lasted as long as I did. I planned on nursing for 8 weeks, (until I went back to work) but it went so smooth I kept it up as long as I could. 8 1/2 months isn't too shabby!

Erica takes a certified sitter class this coming up week through the hospital. I came across the class online and thought it would be a good idea. She is turning 13 this year, and is really fantastic with Emma, and will make a great baby sitter. She also likes the idea of making some money down the road, when she is able to baby sit for people:) We'll see how that develops. But the class will be good, because there is stuff she will learn that is common sense for adults that she might not think of on her own.

here's some more pics of our lil miss

Girls night out!

Last June, around the time I had Emma, I received an email from a friend from High School inviting me to her book club. I wasn't able to go that first month, but went in July. I am so glad I did. I didn't get out much with the girls. I am a home body and enjoy relaxing at home with my family, making dinner, watching TV, or playing the Wii. But the book club was alot of fun, and I was hooked! I got in a slump of not reading unless I was on vacation, and then I would read an entire book in a day or so. So being a assigned a book to read, by a certain time was refreshing, and made me take time to myself to get it read. I love that the girls are all so different. Married, divorced, with kids, without kids, its a very diverse group, and always interesting.

There is a great group of girls in the book club, and I invited a couple more friends that I know to join us also. From there things snowballed a little bit. We liked to talk and catch up so much we now meet once a month also, to get together, have dinner and chat for hours:) its fantastic! and I've realized what I have been missing the last couple years of not going out with my friends.

A month ago, I was invited by another friend to join her Girls night out. This one is themed events that change monthly, and the growing list sounds like a lot of fun. Our first get together is this week and we are going to a self defense class. I can't wait! Its great to have girls to hang out with, and talk about, well, all things we talk about:)

Vacation???!?!!

So I took a week a week of vacation this week, and stayed home and got my house in order. Since I have been with my job for so long, I have 5 weeks of vacation. Its hard to use that many weeks, believe it or not, so I figured I would take advantage of Erica having a couple days off of school and get things done at home. My house is driving me crazy right now, its 1000 square feet, and every inch of it is used up by something. All of Emma's stuff takes up so much room, its like one of those puzzle toys where you have to move something to get to something else. Its been a challenge. So I have been organizing and getting caught up on cleaning the last couple days. I was able to do all the closets, dressers and get the basement organized, and got a bunch of things put out for donation. I feel so accomplished.

I also took Erica to the local hill so she could snow board and sled. She did alot better on the snowboard than I thought she would. She could make it down the small hill no problem. She's no Shaun White, but hey, she had a blast:)


I also enjoyed the Olympics this week, Erica is at a good age to really get into them and know who is who, and she loved the opening ceremonies. We watched all the snowboarding, all of the downhills, and had alot of fun rooting for our athletes. The wipe outs on the downhills were crazy to watch, And one of the girls was obviously pissed when she fell and threw her Ski or something when the camera was on her, and Erica said "wow, she is really mad, she needs to calm down" and I laughed and said, "Well when you train for an event for 4 years or more, and you fall and miss your chance for another 4 years, you would be mad at yourself too." and her mouth just fell...FOUR YEARS?!?! yea she is really realizing how hard those athletes have to work to get there. I think its pretty cool.

We went to the camper show last Saturday, and got an upgraded! The deals they have were too good to pass up. The one we bought 3 years ago doesn't have a slide out, so we found a camper that is same length wise as our old one, but has a Dinette and couch slide out. There is such a big difference in room, its totally worth a little bit more in the payment. We use our camper alot and with all of Emma's stuff, it would be difficult to squeeze it all and the 2 dogs in the old one. So we are excited to get camping this summer, and have a weekend planned for late April.

My work phone has been nice and quiet this week. I only answered a couple texts, an email and one call. It's been a good week:)

8 Months

So the lil sweetie turned 8 months 10 days ago. She is getting so big, and really starting to get a personality. I think we are going to be in trouble. She has the most mischievous looks to her sometimes. She is doing good with Grandma when she visits and doesn't give her much trouble, and getting more social able. She loves her jumper toy and jumps like a crazy baby when she is in it, and shrieks at the top of her lungs..its so funny! She is sitting up by herself, and plays patty cake, is rolling all over the place, waving hi and bye, and looks like she is going to crawl at any time. She had a little bit of some sleeping issues last week, where she wouldn't go in her bed and would wake up and cry every time we laid her down in there. If she went to bed ok then she would get up at 3 or 4 and couldn't go back to sleep. So that was a rough week last week. The last 3 nights have been good though and I am less crabby getting in 6 hours of sleep in a row:)

My stress reliefs

Well of coarse my first stress relief is this lil cutie...When she wakes up in the morning 90% of the time she is laughing or smiling, what a great way to start a day! Also when I come home from work, and see her smiling face, and she is happy to see me and goes crazy when I walk in the door, there is no way I could be in a bad mood. She is so much fun and so loved, and such a great stress relief!


Growing up I think my gaming started with Atari, we had Pac man of coarse, and even got my Mom playing. She quickly got addicted and eventually flipped the board (a huge feat back in the day) We played games like Space Invaders, Pitfall, Centipede, and Asteroids. The graphics sucked, and once you beat the game it got pretty boring, but it was a good time.

Next came Nintendo, and Super Mario Brothers. As a kid we would play this for hours, and I would go to sleep overs and play all night with my friends. It was a blast to try to figure out secret places to find free guys, trying to perfect getting the unlimited 99 guys on level 3 and warping to higher levels to beat the game and save the Princess. I also loved to play Contra, Donkey Kong, Kung Fu, Sonic the Hedgehog and Knock out.

As an adult we had PlayStation, and played a lot of Hockey and football and racing games, but then one day my Brother in Law Jeff brought over Tony Hawk Pro skater. I was instantly hooked, and went out and bought one as soon as I could. I eventually beat the game, and then waited for the next version was out. By the time Tony Hawk 4 came out, I was able to beat that game in 24 hours. Which really pissed me off. (and Justin) I gave up after that, not wanting to spend the money on something too easy to play.

Then came along Guitar Hero, we went through 3 or 4 of those and beat them all. The fun thing about it was I could play alone or add Justin or Erica, and I liked that after the game was beat, we can go back and try to get better scores on each song, so its still fun and playable.

Now we have Mario. We have had it for 3 weeks and I beat the other night. Justin "accidently" deleted my saved file, so I get start all over again. But I love that a lot of the same secrets from the original are in the newest version, you can get 99 guys, and beating the bad guys at each castle you do the same too. Bonk him 3 times on the head. Its alot of fun. Though playing with someone at the same time is annoying as ever! You can push each other off things and kill them, or eat them and spit them out (when your a dinasaur) its a lot of fun, but crazy at the same time. Erica and I drive Justin nuts when we play on the same team...we yell at each other like crazy!

So I think the games keep my mind off of the stress at work, and paying bills and trying to raise 2 good kids...it takes me away into another world for an hour or more, clears my mind and lets me PLAY:O)

Sick shoot out goals!

Pavdel Datsyuk & Todd Bertuzzi had some pretty impressive shoot out goals the other night against Chicago. I have never like Todd Bertuzzi, but damn the guy keeps scoring! How can you not get excited. Hopefully the Wings step it up a bit, they have been on a losing streak. We lost this game, but check these out. Fantastic!

Book club review

This months book choice was "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen. and I LOVED this book. I am not a book worm, I LOVE to read but before this book club only read when I was on vacation and could relax and read and entire book in 2 days. I am loving this book club because it is making me read more on a regular basis, and it relaxes me, and also of coarse the fantastic girls in the club are a lot of fun to hang out with.

But anyway, back to the book. It was an easy read for me, it kept me captivated from the first page. There was a lot going on right away and I couldn't put it down. I read this book in three days. Which is rare for me. I am a slow reader.

This is the summary that is on the book:
"As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie.

It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival."

At the end of the book it also had some True Stories of some of the things that were in the book, that happened in real life. I really enjoyed that extra tidbit.

Us Girls had dinner at Camp Ticonderoga, there was 10 of us, and as we finished up our dinners, the waitress brought out a gigantic plate of these HUGE, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. They were fantastic, thin and a little it crispy. MMMmmmmm goodness! One of the girls got a pic! check out the cookies by clicking here! Nice huh?!?!!

Can't wait until the next book/dinner/gals night!!!!

Day 15 of Wii Fit plus

So we got a Wii for Christmas and also the Wii Fit Plus. The "games" on it are so much fun, Erica and I play just about every night. We see who can Hula hoop the fastest, fly like a bird, slalom snowboarding, skiing, aerobics and yoga. There is so much to do on it, I hope I never get bored.

So far I have lost 7 pounds. I know some of that was because of getting my wisdom teeth out, but I stayed the same this week, and its been 3 weeks now since I had my teeth out. I like that I can do step aerobics, and have the Wii remote talk to me while I am watching TV and it still tracks my steps. I have done that a couple times, doing 800 or 1600 steps before I even leave the house. I like that I can customize my workout for how much time I have, and with such a huge selection of things to do each time. I also like that if I do the same exercises, I unlock harder versions of them to give me a challenge. The only thing I don't like about it, is Justin is too big for it by 20 pounds. I think its kinda crazy that a fitness item for a game has a weight limit. He is doing well at the gym though so far this year, so I am sure we will have him Hula hooping with us in no time! trust me when I say this is a site to see, someone hula hooping to the Wii is HILARIUS!

I know working out is only half the issue with me. So we have replaced some of our favorite fried dinners that I usually make (Fried Chicken and Fried Pork chops) with a baked healthier version of both. I am still surprised how similar these recipes taste compared to my unhealthy versions. I saw a segment on the Today show about Eat this, not that! and they made baked Chicken Fingers dipping them in egg beaters, then plain bread crumbs, and baked in the oven for 1/2 hour. We did this with boneless/skinless chicken breasts and everyone LOVED it! The chicken "skin" was still crispy and the chicken itself was soft, and juicy, it was a pleasant surprise. So then we tried the pork chops and same thing. So I am excited with replacing these unhealthy dishes with something we all still like, and are better for us to eat.