Public Opinion Poll

Josh and I had a huge fight yesterday morning over Captain Crunch Berry Cereal. So I am asking any one who reads this blog to please answer these two Questions. 1)Where does Captain crunch rate on the Junk Food/Health Food scale? and 2) How often is it OK to feed your kids cereal for breakfast?

Thanks for your help!

Hide your Thin Mints and your Tagalongs!

So, my kids have officially taken away everything that I once considered "mine". Let me back up a couple of days...on Sunday, we got our Girl Scout cookies from Grace, and we have been snacking on them all week. This afternoon, Nate asked for some Girl Scout cookies, and I told him to help himself while I finished unloading the car. I have been rationing out the Trefoils 3 or 4 at a time to them when they've asked for cookies, so I figured that's what he would go for. I came back into the kitchen and found both of the little cookie monsters sitting at the table with a nearly empty box of Samoas! They ate all but 2 of my Samoas!

Now, I know that there are not very many in the box (and I won't even mention the box I put in the freezer), but I had always considered the Samoas to be "mine". After all, Jeff hates coconut, so he would never touch them. Oh well, I guess I didn't need the calories anyway. But I might just sneak the frozen stash out when they aren't looking!

Flat Brandon

We got a package in the mail last week with a note and paper cut-out of a boy named Flat Brandon. It was from Brandon for a school project based around the book Flat Stanley. We were supposed to take him around town and mail him back this week. Just in case Flat Brandon doesn't make it back to Ft. Myers by Friday, here are the pictures we took of him in LR:

At the capitol

At the LR Zoo

Rock climbing at Lewis and Clark

Nathan now wants to make a Flat Nathan. So be on the lookout for Flat Nathan in a mailbox near you!

That's got to be a fire hazard!

Can you believe that mom still has my Easy Bake Oven? I knew that she had one, but I didn't realize it was my old one circa 1980s. I realize that light bulb-operated design is rather low-tech, but I was surprised that it still worked. Nathan (in pirate costume) baked us a cake in it Friday night.

Just 20 minutes later, here's the finished product...a 4" chewy, yellow cake. Yum!

Girls Night Out

Nathan spent the night with Fisch and Papa on Thursday, so Ashley and I had a girls night out. She told me that she wanted a piggy bank for her birthday, so I took her to a paint-your-own-pottery place where we painted a piggy and a plate. She had a great time, and she was so good! She's usually very good when she gets some one-on-one time. I think that's what the second child misses out on the most. Afterward, we met up with Jeff at Pei Wei. Ashley loves rice, so she had chicken fried rice for dinner and took her leftovers to school the next day.

Fine lines and wrinkles

Jeff hates it when I blog about him, but I'm going to do it anyway. My husband is well known as a great (if extravagant) gift-giver. Really, he puts his other husband friends to shame on a regular basis. That being said, I thought I would share what I got for Valentine's Day.

First, he sent me flowers at work on Friday (red tulips in a really cute vase). Then on Saturday morning, he gave me a card, candy, some new underwear and makeup. Here's the weird part. My makeup including not only the little Clinique bonus bag, but also the large bonus tote. I'm thinking, "How much make-up did he buy? I only told him one thing I wanted." Well, it was just 2 things - the powder that I was nearly out of and some high dollar wrinkle cream. Okay, so it wasn't called wrinkle cream, but it was.

Don't get me wrong, I was very happy to get it. I've never bought anything like that for myself, even though I have been noticing a few "fine lines" in the last year or so. I just can't believe that the salesperson would convince a husband to buy wrinkle cream for his wife for Valentine's Day. That could be a very touchy subject.

So if you see me in 7 to 14 days, I should be looking much more youthful and radiant. Now I'm wondering what to expect for my birthday. Botox? Liposuction? We'll see!

The Manners Pig #2

I was thrilled to see the manners pigs cousin on the blog and had to show off the Stacy family version. A few years back I found this metal pig at Marva's (the best-and by best I mean cheapest- resale shop in the world) for a quarter! I immediately thought of the manners pig and so I had to have it (after all, it was only a quarter).

When I brought it home and told the kids about it they loved the idea so we put it on the table. The kids thought it was great fun to cause the manners pig to face them and so instead of encouraging good manners it was having the opposite effect. I decided to put the manners pig away and although we would pull it out every once it awhile it never really became a permanent fixture on our table. Fast forward to June 2008.

We were packing to move 1160 miles away and we planed to take only what would fit on a 6x10 foot trailer. We got rid of stuff most people would think of a essentials (the couch, table, washer/dryer). We moved with pretty much NO furniture and my theory when it came to smaller items (kitchen utensils, shower caddies, bath toys) was if we can replace it at Dollar Tree then it does not go on the trailer. I was pretty ruthless but some how I could not seem to part with the manners pig that we never used.

But wouldn't you know that when we unpacked in SW FL one of the kids put the manners pig on the plastic folding table we were using and we have pretty much used him every day. Also since the kids are older now they think it is much more fun to catch whoever is across the table from their sibling using bad manners so that his butt is facing his/her brother or sister! Also whoever the manners pig is facing at the end of the meal has to clear the table. So their manners are actually getting a little better.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I dropped by Nathan's class for the Valentine's Day party this afternoon. I know that I was not created to be a teacher. The sheer volume of 20 kids talking all at once would be enough to put me over the edge if I had to hear it all the time.

Nathan doesn't claim to have any girlfriends, but they all want to talk to him, sit by him, and in this case, have their pictures made with him. He's quite the ladies man!

Random Things On My Table

The first random thing on my table that I took a picture of is this adorable little pig that Jennifer gave me for Christmas. (No, it's not the Manners Pig.) I named him Pigby and have already used him to make my semi-famous spinach artichoke dip a couple of times and this casserole.

While I'm on the subject, I guess I should explain what I mean by "Manners Pig". We had a wooden pig on our table growing up called the Manners Pig. If you used bad manners at the table, the MP would be turned toward you. In theory, whoever ended up with the MP facing them would have to wash the dishes. While I definitely think that my family could use a MP, I don't think a blazing hot piece of stoneware would make a good choice!

Random thing #2 that you might find on my table: Nestle Pure Life bottled water labels...lots of them! They are collecting them at Nate's school, and we have already turned in over 300! We drink some bottle water around here, and Jeff's cousin Cindy has sent us a few dozen, but the real jackpot has been from Jeff's students. He mentioned to them that he was collecting, and they just keep turing them in. (I guess that's one way to suck up to your instructor.)

6 More Weeks of Winter?

The groundhog might have been wrong about the 6 more weeks of winter. The weather has been absolutely perfect here this weekend! I don't know how many degrees it got up to, but I would estimate high 60s, maybe 70. For me, that is the ideal temperature for February. We (along with half the other people in central Arkansas) decided to hike Pinnacle Mountain yesterday. Ashley and I only made it about halfway up, but Jeff took Nathan to the top for the first time. He loved it and is already asking when we can go back.

25 Random Things about Renee

1. My first name is Jessica.
2. My ideal daily schedule would be to sleep in until 10 a.m. and stay up until midnight.
3. I love to give people nicknames-especially when they don't know about it. Some of my favorites are: Weesie,Womer, Rattler, our next door neighbors in college were affectionately known as Hacker and The Fornicators.
4. I can sing (or should I say rap) every word to "Busta Move" which is by the way my all time favorite rap song.
5. I like the show "House"
6. I love Mike Huckabee (sorry Dad) and find myself watching his show on Fox News quite often.
7. I like to take personality tests for fun. BTW I'm an I.S.F.J/golden retriever/beaver/introvert just to name a few)
8. I know how to empty anal glands on a dog.
9. I like hip-hop and R & B. (I miss Power 92 Da People Station-I would like to send a shout out to the Broadway Jo Morning Show)
10. Right now one of my favorite artists is Chris Brown.
11. I took piano lessons from 5th grade through college (on and off) and I love music.
12. I love to harmonize.
13. I hate to cook-such a waste of time and energy!
14. I like to be efficient. I like to find better, faster, cheaper ways to do just about anything.
15. I don't like sports, but I did watch the Super Bowl this year (kind of had to).
16. My favorite Steeler is Hines Ward
17. My favorite all time country song is Islands in the Stream by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. (according to a poll taken at Thanksgiving Eve is pretty popular with most of our blog viewers)
18. I like to count ceiling tiles anytime I'm in a new room or just bored.
19. My love language is Gifts.
20. I like to watch golf (Go Tiger!) and would love to play when my kids are grown.
21. I had a wonderful childhood and parents. I wouldn't change anything about my childhood! The older I get and the more people I meet I realize what a huge gift they were to me.
22. The person I miss the most is my grandma.
23. I hate Facebook-but if you read this blog you probably already knew that!
24. My favorite color is red.
25. I love to be by myself in absolute silence.
26. This post wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, it was actually fun!!

Just Die Already!!!

Let me start by saying that I hate my appliances...almost all of them and some of our electronics, too. We (read me and Jeff by coercion ) try not to replace things just because we want to upgrade but because we really need them. We drive cars that are collectively 16 years old, and I have had the same toaster since before we got married. But whenever I go to Home Depot or Sam's or anywhere that sells appliances, I drool over the new refrigerators, washers, dryers, and more.

So now every time I hear my refrigerator running just a little too loudly, I wish that it would just die already. Jeff does the same thing over the television. The other day, I tried to turn it off, and it changed channels. I told this to Jeff, and we were both excited that it may be nearing it's demise.

I am going to have to break down and replace my dishwasher. It has been intermittently drying for over a year. I have lived with that, but now it is only intermittently washing, so what is the point of having it? As is my luck, they will probably all die at the same time, and I will have to spend $$$ to replace them. Oh well!

100th Day of School Celebration...Really?

When I grew up in public schools, we celebrated all major holidays. (Except for the poor Jehovah's Witness kids who had to leave the room every time.) We even called Christmas "Christmas". I know times have changed so you can't celebrate any religious holidays, but I didn't know that the public school system would make up things to celebrate in place of them!

Yesterday was the 100th Day of School celebration. You would not believe the hoopla that went on. They sent home a list the first week of school to record reading "100 Books in 100 Days", so we had to frantically finish filling that out this week and turn it in. Plus, we had more assignments: make a T-shirt with 100 items painted/glued to it (see above), bring a collection of 100 things to count in class, etc. It was really out of control!

To change the subject completely, Jeff's mom is back in the hospital. She had a second emergency surgery yesterday to repair some post-surgical complications. Please pray for all of them.

To change the subject completely again, Nathan was planning his future tonight (as he often does) and was talking about his "wife". I asked him if he knew who his wife was going to be yet. He said, "No, but I think she will look like Renee". Just thought I would share. Love ya, Nay-Nay!

25 things about Amanda

1. I love to sleep in footie pajamas.
2. I think uggs are very ugly and should not be worn except maybe if you are an Eskimo.
3. Both Mikayla and I own uggs.
4. I would love to go down into the Grand Canyon on a Donkey.
5. I hate ALL sports.
6. In the two years (so far) that my kids have played organized sports, I have yet to watch an entire game. We are talking about really cute little kids playing 45 min. games. I hope they don't go pro.
7. I give my kids, my husband, and myself an allowance each week.
8. I consider grocery shopping a fun outing because a) I love a good bargain b) I get to go by myself and c) I'm a pretty boring person.
9. I love to tell people that my dad is a trapper (most people have no idea that there still is such a thing)
10. I don't like ice in my tea even if it is hot.
11. I can sing every word of the country song "Fancy."
12. I am a terrible housekeeper, however;
13. When I stay in a hotel, I keep the room freakishly neat.
14. My favorite song is "Circle of Friends"
15. I learned how to swim underwater without holding my nose at age 26.
16. I make the best Ding-Dong cake in the world.
17. I don't believe the earth is millions of years old.
18. In less than 9 years of marriage Josh and I have lived in 10 different houses.
19. I read magazines back to front.
20. I could not function in life without spellcheck.
21. Josh and I were on our honeymoon on the one year anniversary of the day we met.
22. I love peel and stick wallpaper boarder.
23. I hate to type.
24. I have one of the worst proposal stories in the world. (Josh says "You said yes so it must not have been THAT bad.")
25.I WAS UNDER THAT SINK! (if you don't know, don't ask)