Another Great Give Away!

This would be a great one for me to win! With Ella on the way, we could totally use these postcards for her birth announcements! Keep your fingers crossed for me folks!

http://yourfunfamily.blogspot.com/2009/12/giveaway-100-postcards.html

Of course.. I guess you could enter for yourself too :P

For all those new and not so new mommies out there...

I am really looking into finding out what products are great and not so great and in my research I cam across this other blog. "Deal"ectible Mommies. I really liked it and so I thought I would share it with you!

Today I entered this http://www.dealectiblemommies.com/2009/12/patient-style-review-giveaway.html giveaway. It looks like they have a pretty good amount of giveaways and I for one plan to try and win me some free swag! Woohoo!

Good luck!

Do you think my left ankle looks swollen??

So, most of the writings about swelling when pregnant tell a woman to watch for more swelling in one leg/ankle/foot over the other. What do you think??

Yeah... that bit of advice is kind of useless for me huh? I can't WAIT for this to be over. Ramen Noodles for lunch probably didn't help...

Completed Recipe #2

From The Kitchen of: Calloway Deegan

Recipe For: Chocolate Peppermint Bark

 

Ingredients 
 

1 lb chocolate almond bark

Crushed up peppermint (as much as you want i guess..i used candy canes)

White chocolate chips (just enough for drizzling on top)

Vegetable oil

 

Wax Paper

 

 Directions

 

1. Melt chocolate bark in microwave according to directions on back of package

 

2.Mix in the crushed up peppermint

 

3. Spead onto wax paper on a baking sheet

 

4. Melt white chocolate chips in microwave, 45 seconds at med power then stir, add a small amount of vegetable oil to this to thin and heat for another 20 seconds if necessary. (add more oil if necessary to thin it enough to drizzle)

 

5. Sprinkle a small amount of additional crushed peppermint over the spead out bark and drizzle with white chocolate.

 

6. Place in freezer until hard.

 

Yields ALOT! lol

 

Completed Recipe #1

From The Kitchen of: Calloway Deegan

Recipe For: No Bake Ritz Chocolate Peanut-butter Cookies

 

Ingredients 
 

48 Ritz Crackers
 

24 tsp-tbs P'nut Butter (depending on how much you like p'nut butter)
 

1 bag milk chocolate chips

 

Sprinkle

 

Wax Paper

 

 Directions

 

1. Using 2 crackers and your desired amount of p'nut butter make 

24 p'nut butter cracker sandwiches

 

2. Melt chocolate chips in microwave

 

3. Coat the cracker sandwiches completly in the chocolate and place on wax paper

 

4. Top with sprinkles and allow to cool

Yields 24 cookies

And the baking begins...

STAGE 1: Ingredients... minus the eggs which are still in the fridge and the zucchini which Sean is going to the store to get for me because I forgot it. :)

Merry Christmas from me and the bump!

 Just a quick self portrait taken with the 10 second delay...and almost as quick of a Photoshop edit :)

Our baby girl...10 weeks-32 weeks

Well, I thought I would take this time to post some of the ultrasound pictures that have been taken through out this pregnancy. I am so excited for the time when I will be posting pictures of her outside of me, but until then...

She was soooo tiny :) Her whole body fit in the picture

She kind of looks like and alien in the one on the left. She is facing down and looking to the left.The one on the right I debated about posting but here it is...  The day we were to find out if our baby was a girl or a boy Sean had to work. I asked the ultrasound tech not to tell me but instead to please write it down and place it in an envelope. She was great and I drove straight to see Sean after my appointment. We actually met up in a Wendy's parking lot and when we opened the envelope he didn't even see the text but knew it was a girl beacuse I started jumping up and down and sqealing in delight. I was so happy that it was a girl! We called our parents and a few others and then had lunch. Sean lauged at me for telling all of the Wendy's workers that we were going to have a baby girl...hmmm... maybe we should have named her Wendy??

This one really excites me. She no longer looks like an alien AND you can see her cute litte nose and mouth. She was opening and closing her mouth and at one point it looked like she was blowing bubbles. :)

Who do you think she looks like? Her chubby cheeks make me smile.

She's getting so big that you can't see her as well. That is kind of odd to me. Ultrasounds are harder to read at the beginning and the end. During the middle you can see a lot and it's pretty easy to figure out what you are looking at. Even without my handy-dandy  labels.

See what I mean....

I have a few that I haven't scanned in yet and I will do that later.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the growth of our little Ella up to this point. I can't wait to share her with everyone in the future!

ok.. i know pretty pathetic...

I know this has been pathetic. Last time I posted I was upset that it had been a month between posts and now, it's been, oh... I don't know...6 months! Wow. Well alot has happened in that time.

We found out we were pregnant the day after my last post. I started my new job. I lost my new job. And now we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our little girl Ella Grace. Yeah... I know that's pretty short for everything. But really, how am I supposed to recap 6 months???

Ella Grace is due to arrive February 8th but I'm thinking and hoping she comes a little early. My most recent ultrasound put her at 4 pounds 7 ounces. She is very active and likes to really tumble at night when I am trying to chill.

We can't wait to meet her. I am really going to try and update this on a regular basis so that our friends and family will be able to see more of Ella once she is here. So, if you haven't seen an update in a while... tell me to update!

Night for now!

eeek... 1 month!

I can't believe I haven't updated in almost a month! A during a month that I really didn't do much. Maybe that's the problem. I had nothing to blog about. :)

Quick rundown on what I've done since May 12th:

May 12-22 was crammed with wrapping up the year with my afternoon kids. They had bookreports to complete and end of year jitters made this take a lot longer than it should have! But they turned out pretty good if I do say so.


I found out during that time that the family I had planned to work with for the summer was not going to be able to keep me on as the mother lost her job. So I spent the last month applying to every nanny job I could find. I had several interviews and finally found the perfect fit. I start my new job tomorrow with a family in Decatur. 4 kids ages 6 1/2, 5, and 3 1/2 yr old twins. It's looking more daunting at the day approaches but I am really excited.

If you are looking for a sitter or a job as a sitter check out: www.sittercity.com

May 17th we celebrated David McKinley's Graduation from Ga Southern! Woo Hoo! Way to go David! We had a fun chatting with friends and basically being goof balls...the night wrapped up with a trip to WaHo and it was great!

May 23rd was a Saturday and like most Saturday's was spent with my girls Megan, Beth, and Kate. Beth's teacher (who is awesome!) had organized a trip for the class to go fishing at a cat fish pond and all siblings and family were invited. So after iceskating lessons (they are tooo cute (: ) we had lunch, packed a snack, picked up Sean to help and went to fish! We had a blast! Sean didn't want to leave. LOL

May 28th was a crazy night. Odhin, Jimmy's dog (my brother in law) went after our Honey Dew
and also bit Sean in the process. 9pm-1am was spent trying to clean up Honey and then in the doggy er. She ended up with 4 staples in her ear and we thought we were done with her for the time being. Sean fought not going, but the vet and a friend who is a vet tech told him he needed to go right away. So 1am-6am was spent in the human er. Sean was lucky not to have had his toe broken by the bite and they cleaned it up, put him on antibioitics and sent him home.

June 4th was my b-day and it was really nice. I slept in and didn't really do anything during the day. Sean and I went to my parent's house around 3 and then hungout until going to play trivia at Hudson Grille. We came in 3rd and would have won if we'd wagered the 7 points I said to wager on the final instead of the full 15 like everyone else decided. Oh well. It was nice. Kim Landers (my hs art teacher) happened to be getting her nails done next door and came over and played with us. It was really nice to see her and fun was had by all. When we got home and Sean took his shoe off I noticed his toe where Odhin bit him was really red, swollen, and warm. Three signs of infection. Off to the ER we go again! The er docs said it was infection from the bite and that the antibiotics that he was put on to start were not working. The cleaned it up again, change the Rx and sent us home (5 hours later).

June 5th we went to see No Doubt at Lakewood. Needless to say the show was awsome and we had a ton of fun. Thanks to Eileen and David for getting everybody to go!

June 8th... back to the er. Yeah I know... crazy... The inflimation was way worse and the antibioitcs apparently still weren't working. The doc was much more thorough this time around. Taking a full panel of blood work and taking blood for 4 differnt cultures, we left after Sean had a good dose of IV antibiotics in him and with a promise from the doc that he would call Tuesday night. Sure enough he did. Sean's foot was still pretty messed up but the doc said so far so good. The white blood cell count was a little elevated but not crazy high so the antibiotics are at least fighting whatever it is. We're waiting to hear from him again tonight 48 hrs after the cultures were taken.

Yesterday- June 9th- fun with the Kaleigh Bug! We spent the entire day with Ashely V's little one and it was wonderful. We love that girl so much!

Today- my last day of freedom... I did nothing! Nothing but cruise the net and watch tv. I figure I won't be doing much more of this after today for a while at least.


Sorry this was soo long and crazy! But I had to get it all done before the new job tomorrow!

PAMPERED CHEF!

Hello everyone! I am hosting a Pampered Chef Cooking Party next week... I have sent out invites to lots of you, but might have missed you on accident. If you would like to come or can't come but would still like to place and order check out
http://www.pamperedchef.biz/mindymussell
select option 1 and enter my name.

This month Pampered Chef is going PINK! In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month part of the sales from my party will go to cancer research, so lets help "WHIP CANCER!"

Give me a call if you would like to attend the party. The party is Thursday May 21st at 6:45 pm. If you arrive on time you will be entered in a drawing for a free gift. If you bring another guest with you, you will both recieve a pampered chef cook book. If you bring two guests you will receive free shipping in addition to your cook book. If you bring three guests you will receive 10% off your order! Some come! And bring friends!

Happy Mommies Day!

On this day of loving mommy I have been thinking about how great a mom I have. I work with children on an almost daily basis, and by no means am I saying that their mom's don't love them, it just makes me realize how great my mom is.

I have wonderful memories of growing up. Adventuring through the GA mountains, pink milk and cookies on Valentine's Day, snuggles watching Little House on the Prairie, singing out loud in the car with the windows down on hot summer days, bed time songs that I love to this very day...

I never knew things were financially hard growing up. I never knew because my mom made life rich with love and creativity. One of my favorite Christmas memories is of my brother and I begging to open a present on Christmas Eve. We each had a present that said it was from "Special K" and we were clueless as to what it could be or who it was from. We were so anxious that we both opened our "Special K" presents and starting laughing when we saw what was inside. Each beautiful wrapped package contained a box of Pop-tarts! It's a memory and a present I will never forget.

My mom is one of the most deeply caring people I know. She cares for people to the point of pain to herself. Her love is genuine and passionate and even when I'm mad as hell at her I know that she does everything with love.

I love you mommy. Happy Mothers Day! Here is toasting almost 24 years of motherhood and many more to go...

I love you little. I love you lots. My love for you could fill 10 pots. 14 tea kettles. 12 huge bags. And one big bath tub filled with precious metals.

Fire! Fire! Fire!

Saturday was spent with the girls again. We had a daisy trip to the fire station. The firemen were so great. They gave the girls a very thorough tour of the station and answered every question they had. My only complaint is that there was never a fire fighter as hot as the ones that took the girls up in the truck when I was single. I mean.... woohooo. If I was single I would have been asking him to put my fire out. However, the girls were quick to say I wasn't their mommy and that Mr.Sean and I didn't have kids yet but that when they were bigger they were going to babysit my kids like I babysit them. It was a good day.

this is Mr.Hot Fireman :)

A normal Friday night.... (By Callie)

I love my girls. My girls being 5 year old triplets Megan, Beth, and Kate. These girls were my date tonight. We colored and played dress-up, then watched a movie... snuggles on the couch are the best with these three. No need for a blanket they are my personal lap and foot warmers! Notice the orange mouths... last Saturday we made our first at home popsicles. You know the kind with the container to put juice in and the tops with the sticks attached? Pour in juice, put on top, place in freezer... orange mouths to follow. :) They LOVE them. So now I just have to remember to make more everytime we eat them! Lol.... I love my job.... tonight :)

Dragged... kicking and screaming... (by, Sean)

So...

Somehow, now, after resisting any attempt at blogging... here I am. And my mind is a-blank. I'm not so sure what to blog about. Apparently, this reluctant blogger is now blogging about nothing. Surely, this is nothing new in the great amusement park known as Blogger World, complete with trimmed bushes, funny characters, and secret tunnels. And, bad grammar. So, what I am saying, what it comes down too, is that I'll give this here blog thing a try.

But....

I'm not holding my breath on producing anything interesting.... just lots of absurdity.

Poppin' the Cherry (By Callie)

So since we are both considered to be somewhat computer savvy folks, I figured it was about time we jumped on the bloggin' wagon. I have a blog for my photos (which if you have looked at I'm not so hot at updating.), but wanted something that will be more personal and basically a look at what we do and what we like and a way to stay in touch with our friends all over the country.

Things haven't been the easiest for us, but love is a great support system. Our love for each other and the love given us by our friends and family are what get us through. I hope you enjoy following us on our journey into the bloggin' world.