Just call me Suzy Homemaker!

What a great weekend so far and it's only Saturday!

Friday is the beginning of my week for counting points so for me it is very important to have a solid Friday and Saturday to set my eating tone for the week. For some reason if I use too many of my weekly points on Friday or Saturday I have a hard time staying on track the whole week. Yesterday early morning I went to the grocery store with my meal plan and list and got all my healthy must haves. 

We are in a trade show this weekend with Nutrie and I knew I was going to be there all day -- right across from a cotton candy machine and popcorn booth none the less. So, I planned ahead and packed some of my favorite foods for lunch. This was my food for the day:

We had a lot of fun at the show talking to people and I think the best part was seeing the look of surprise on all of their faces when they tried the protein shake because it actually tastes good! I also had a great time with our other distributors. Check out our booth:

Before I left this morning I put a roast in the crock pot with some veggies then when I got home all I had to do was mix up some gravy and we had a very yummy healthy dinner. So not only did I stay 100% on track yesterday but I also stayed 100% on track today. I think for a treat tonight I will have my fuel heated up like rich hot chocolate. So yummy. 

Tonight we were going to go to a service at our church but Sean's parents just got home from Florida so they are coming over for a visit. Then we are just going to relax before we do it all again tomorrow!

At the trade show we are in there are tables set up by moms selling their used stuff. I went right over there first thing and got Rylee 5 new sleepers for $10, a large story book for $1, and a DVD for $2. Then when we walked around the place I bought her two owl hats that are just too stinking cute to pass up! I will post a picture of them soon! 

Florida

Sorry for being MIA the past week or so but I was running around trying to get stuff done and didn't think to post. I have a few updates:

1. I found an add on Kijiji and went to see the guys baby stuff. I got a jolly jumper exersauser, baby swing, leap frog play table and little computer thing for Rylee all for $80. Super score! We borrowed the exact same jolly jumper from a friend and she LOVES it so I had to get it when I saw it. It was all REALLY dirty though and took me about an hour to clean and sanitize but it all looks brand new now! 

2. My sister, Tara, and I spent all Sunday afternoon making apple crisp with fresh apples and it was very yummy!

3. Rylee had blueberries on Saturday night and did a big blueberry poop on Sunday. She poops every morning like clock work but Monday...nothing...Tuesday...nothing. All the way until today! I have her a few jars of prunes and that got things going for her! You know your life has changed ALOT when you become very enthrawled with baby poop. 

4. We made it safely to Florida! We got here yesterday afternoon and went for a swim and got unpacked and settled in. Then we went to the wedding "kick off" event which was a kick ball game followed up by dinner on a patio. 

I was SO happy when it was time to go to bed because I was sleeping on an air mattress again. I love sleeping on air mattresses even more than my own bed at home. 

Today we went and got groceries (lots of healthy stuff to ensure I will stay on track) and then went for a swim again and had a hot shower. It feels nice to just kick back and relax. Plus it helps having so many extra hands to play with Rylee -- perhaps I might even take a nap one day! 

Tomorrow is the wedding and we will probably get our hair and nails done just for fun -- I can't wait to see how Kari has decorated everything! Not to mention how cute Rylee will look in her pink dress! 

I'll leave you with this photo of Rylee in the pool:

My birthday weekend

It's already Sunday night, and that means back to work on tomorrow...

Friday night I did not have a good night. I didn't eat the lunch I brought to work and didn't want to spend the money to buy one, so I ate my snacks instead. Right after work I went to my training session, and since I got there early I was put on the step master for 15 minutes - which totally made my legs burned before we even started our hour long session. After the session I had to go grocery shopping and since I also needed a rubbermaid bin for Levi's food I decided just to get groceries at Wal-Mart. But since I don't usually do groceries at Wal-Mart and since I was trying to compare all of the prices, it took a really long time.

After that I headed to Remark to get all of my fruits/veggies, and a treat. By the time I got home and made dinner it was 8:30 and I was starving (since I hadn't really eatten much since breakfast). Not to mention I was in a really bad mood.

Saturday there was a women's breakfast at the church and I had to go early to set up. Everything went really well and there was TONS of good food to eat. I was very proud of myself because I took small amounts of everything, and then if I took a bite of something and didn't love it, I didn't finish it. But I did go back up for another cinnamon bun because they were oh so good. Usually I would have eatten everything on my plate because I took it. But by only eatting what I really liked and wanted, I felt much more satisfied.

Because I had the second cinnamon bun and was pretty full still, I did not eat lunch. I did a few loads of laundry in the afternoon and then Sean and I went out to celebrate my birthday. We went to Subway (my choice) and my sub was amazing. I ate really slow and actually enjoyed it. We were going to go see a movie but I had an awful headache and really just wanted to go to bed. So instead we went to Metro, bought some popcorn, then went to my parents place to borrow a movie, and just went home and watched a movie in bed. It had been a long day and my headache would not go away so sitting in a theatre for a few hours just did not seem like a good time.

Tonight I had my family birthday at my parents place. I made my own dough and we had panzerotti. My mom bought lots of goodies to put in them and I was very excited.

I forgot to take a picture before we started eatting - so here is half of Tara's:

And mine: 

Afterwards we opened presents and played Balderdash. I was laughing pretty hard at some of our answers - always funny with you have a creative family! For gifts tonight I got - a labeller from Sean, a date night gift basket from Tara, and my parents gave me a re-gift that I gave them for Christmas (how original). Now let me just state for the record: I cleaned out my closet just before Christmas and put it in a gift bag and gave it to my dad for Christmas...used soap, candles that had been on my table for a year, a shower curtain, coconut body lotion ect. So, being funny...they gave it back to me for my birthday.

Just wait until they see that I put the bag in their shed as I was leaving haha - jokes on them. But the gift that they actually got me was a sweater that I wanted. We ordered it online and my dad is going to pick it up sometime this week (we had it shipped to the US because the shipping was much cheaper). So in the meantime my mom made some money into a sweater for me.

Then the best part happened...dessert. We had cupcakes (courtsey of Tara) from Razzle Dazzle and they were sooo yummy. Mine was blueberry and worth every bite!

So my birthday is over for another yet - but this year is going to be fun with my list of things I want to accomplish and then next year the big 2-5.

Our long weekend...a few days late

Well that was good long weekend! Saturday night we took our very long
grocery list and went to the states to do some shopping. It did take a
bit longer than expected because we were not familiar with where
everything was, and didn’t know what some of the items looked like,
but we made it out alive and without spending too much money.

The following is $88 worth of groceries:

And a few things we couldn’t find we picked up at No Frills on Sunday
for about $20:

On Sunday I decided to get started on the baking part and made 4 banana
bread loaves, 50 muffins, and 80 cookies. Sean had to do the banana part
of the banana bread for me to prevent a migraine – but once it was
poured into the tins and baking it was fine. I also made a large pot of
vegetable soup to get that out of the way as well. 

We turned in early Sunday night in preparation for a long day on
Monday. I had planned to get up around 8:30 , but managed to drag my
butt out of bed at 10 and got started right away. I made a large crock
pot of risotto, a crock pot of sloppy joe mix, 60 meatballs, and 4
meatloaves. 

It doesn’t sound like much but it amounted to this:

I had also planned to make homemade tortilla shells, but I was tired
from standing all day, so I plan on making them later this week.
Hopefully, this will last us a while. I say hopefully because my husband
likes to eat, and when he sees that there is a lot of food he just eats
more.  

Yesterday I had pancakes for breakfast and for dinner because it was
just that kind of day! I like putting a thin layer of peanut butter and
jam on top of them, almost like toast but fluffier. We took Levi to the
dog park for some exercise, came home and bathed him since he was SO
muddy, and then watched a movie in the evening and went to bed early
again.

We had no internet all weekend, and it almost killed us! Sean wasn’t
able to watch TV and I had to check e-mail on my phone (which makes it
very tough to respond).  Hopefully that will be back up and running
sometime today. I can’t believe how much we rely on technology for
everything! What did people do before TV, internet, and cell phones? 
 

Last night we had our last dog class. Of course, at PetSmart, they understand that pets are like family
and they go all out on graduation night. Levi doesn’t like anything on
his head which is perfect for us because he sits so still and we can get
a really great picture! That is it for his training; he has completed
all of the levels! 

Such a good little boy he is, and I can’t say enough nice things
about PetSmart. Their training program is excellent and they are ALWAYS
there if you have any questions. Our trainer spent so much time with us
outside of lessons when we were going through a 5 month rough patch with
Levi, and we have a very well behaved little dog because of it. She was
a wealth of knowledge and had many ideas for us to try when something
didn’t work for us. They were great with the dogs too; you could
really tell how much they loved each and every one of them. 
 
Now that Levi is well behaved we are going to start working on some
tricks with him. He can do a few, but we spent so much time on his
behaviour, that we didn’t have much time to teach him tricks. 

A long weekend

Since the last post was from the past few days, luck you, get a second post!

It's a long weekend here in Canada and both Sean and I get Monday off. I decided that the best way to spend that extra day would be to cook ahead a bunch of meals to stock up our freezer, that and do my taxes.

I worked on my taxes last night and this morning, and they are mostly done (just have to go over them and double check my numbers.

The rest of the day today I have spent figuring out what I am going to make to stock the freezer and put together a grocery list. I am going to make the following:

- 2 loaves of banana bread
- 2 loaves of meatloaf
- cranberry oat muffins
- veggie soup
- hamburger patties
- sloppy joe mix
- hamburger surprise
- meatballs
- zucchini risotto (I'm going to try this in the slow cooker since it does take a long time to make normally).
- homemade tortilla shells
- burritos
- ginger cookies

I was only planning on using Monday to cook, but I am making more than I thought I was going to, so I am going to start on Sunday afternoon.

This morning we had our usual weekend breakfast of pancakes. Sean went to mix the batter and realized that we didn't have enough pancake mix, so we got dressed and went to the grocery store. While we were there we decided to get some bacon too. When at my parents house earlier in the week I had tried bacon that had been cooked in the oven, and it was so good, so naturally I wanted to try it.

It was an epic fail, but at the same time a great success...

This part was the fail - it was on the top rack:

This part was the tasty part - it was on the bottom rack:

I think next time I will switch the top and bottom rack cookie sheets half way through to make it a little more even. But I still consider breakfast a big success. * Side tip - if you have left over pancakes put them in the fridge, then when you are ready to eat them put them in the toaster to heat them up, and they won't be soggy!

Tonight we are going to be going to the states since we need a bunch of items that we can only get there, so we might as well do all of our groceries at the same time. The list is quite long since I'm going to be doing all of the extra baking but it will cut down on cost and time over the next little bit.

Anyways, my laundry is done, so it's time to fold it and then take a short rest with Levi who is sound asleep and Patches who is snoring away (we are watching her this weekend while my parents are away - and of course using their washing machine!)

Until next time...