Another Way to Make Life Better

Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed with places to go to find good tips, recipes etc. With the internet at my fingertips I am sure to find what I need, but what is the best site for this or that??

I like to go to sites that have products that I use and trust and that is why I would like to let you know about Making Life Better.
This is a Unilever site, and I tend to use a lot of these products already.
Ragu, Lipton, Breyers...the list goes on....and I am sure you use some of these also!

I am excited to have a site to go to for beauty tips as well as recipe like this:


Click picture for recipe of the week!!


You can also find great family tips and ideas.
What about News and special offers??
YEP that too=)

So much good stuff in one great place.


Thanks to Mom Central for allowing me to spread the word and receive some free samples of my already favorite products=)

Ethan's Kindergarten assesment results

Ethan got to meet his teacher and see his classroom for next year (a few months really).
Merci informed me he got the mean one. Oh well, I guess we are staying with the same results, Merci's K teacher was NOT the nicest. I am sure this one is better though.

Ethan scored 54 points out of 70.
Which makes makes him average.
56 point would be above average.

Personal Info: Able to verbally give
1. First name 2. Last name 3. Age 4. Birthdate (month and day)
5. Street and city (He so totally knows this)

Prints Full Name:
1. Prints first name 2. Prints last name (need to work on this I guess)

Shape recognition:
1. Circle 2. Square 3. Triangle 4. Rectangle 5. Diamond
(maybe he mixed them up? But he does fine for me)

Visual Motor Skills: correctly copies
1. Horizontal line 2. Circle 3. Cross 4. Square 5. triangle

Color Recognition:
Blue Red Yellow Orange Green Black Brown Purple Pink White

Picture Vocab: Identifies and names
Dog Cat Tree House Boat Airplane Crayons Lion
Firefighter (not sure why he missed this one??) Butterfly

Body parts: points to or touches
nose ear chin shoulders elbow knee thumbs eyes heel wrist(kinda a tricky one)

Gross Motor Skills
Hops 2 hops on R foot, Hops 2 hops on L foot, stands on R foot for 5 sec, stands on L foot for 5 seconds, skips forward 4 steps (he gets really confused about skipping...we are working on this in parking lots all over the city!)

He did not perform well in speech, speech sound production.
He doesn't pronunciation very well, and still says some sounds babyish, so we do correct him and will continue to do so.

I am proud of my little man!

I was the weakest link

Today consisted of hard work.

Some idiots we know have 2 jet ski's. And these two idiots are procrastinators. So you see they never did winterize their jet ski's. They didn't take the batteries out, they didn't cover the one jet ski they have a cover for. When you don;t put cover's on jet ski's the wells where you put your feet, fill with water, leaves, and other icky stuff. It kind looks like a green swap. and when you dump the water out of the wells, it smells really bad. And because of this power washing and scrubbing with all sorts of chemicals is necessary. Oh and said idiot doesn't wear gloves, and messes up her oh so fake acrylic nails and oh so cute little french manicure.
After scrubbing session, recovering the seat of jet ski purple is in order, because the non covering made the vinyl crack all up. $40 order on e-bay and a promise if easy recovering and WRONG diagram makes said idiot and brother pull out lots of staples thinking they did it wrong, when they really did it correctly. But then brother and said idiot, aren't very good at what they are doing, so said idiot gives up and makes burgers and pasta salad for dinner, and lets other said idiot accompany brother-in-law now.
If it wasn't for running out of staples it be done.


All this for a camping trip this coming weekend, and hopes of riding pain in the butt jet ski's, that cost us way too much $ and space in our driveway.

Maybe we should look for some travel insurance online for this trip;)

A long Summer coming

I am amazed that another school year has flown by, WAY too quick.
I remember wondering what I would do when my little E was in preschool 4 days a week.
(P.S. I have found PLENTY to do...and 2 hours is plenty of a little break)

Now I am on the brink of wondering what to do for like 7 hours a day when he is in Kindergarten.

But before I fret about that....what am I gonna do about SUMMER????

2 kids ALL DAY long, no break....ahhhhh. After school is enough for me, not to mention the weekends.

I better start thinking of activities and finish reading the book
1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for children ages 2-12, and it is kinda magic, E has responded very well today already.

A just as a side note if you need some cattle supplies click on the link and Im sure you can find some.
Maybe I'll buy a cow to keep my kids busy;)

Imagine if....

You glance back into your trunk and you see all of these.....



And you just cleaned out your trunk last night....

Amazing it happens so fast, these beautiful webs and all these babies.

CPR awareness

Do you know CPR??
Do you have kids??

Well then you should probably know CPR.

I know the basics, I was certified many years ago, and my husband has been through EMT Basic class. You never know when there will be a time CPR is needed. And how wonderful would it be if you knew what you were doing.??

The American Heart Association has a CPR anytime kit you can purchase so you can learn CPR on your own in your home, and introduce it to your kids also.
It takes 22 minutes, and although it done not include a certification, you will be well on your way to achieving one or just knowing the basic skills needed in case there was an emergency.

I received ones of theses kits from Mom Central and the American Heart Association and the husband and I will watching this to refresh our skills and will also involve the kids in this learning experience.
It has never been easier!

If you do know CPR , have been saved by CPR or teach CPR. or are a survivor because of CPR
get a badge for your blog HERE!
Can't wait to get mine.

Memories never to forget

Today was my little mans first Tball game!
(We got rained out last week)


Those of you who have been through it know....
It is the funnest most entertaining thing to experience.

Our league doesn't keep, score, not outs, and every kid gets to bat.
Perfect for our 4 and 5 year olds.



I decided I just had to document these memories because E was so incredibly cute today!

They put Ethan in the outfield to start with (picture above).
He was pretty bored.

He first walked off the field to come talk to me through the fence.
E: Mommy
Me: Ethan get back on the field right now, we don't leave the field we HAVE to pay attention
E: Um, mommy, after I'm done (this is like 3 minutes after the start of the game)
can I have a slushy??
Me and all other moms nearby: LOL

His next little charade was that I have to tell.

I guess he got bored in the outfield, so next thing I know, he runs to the front of the field and starts running after every single ball hit.
I am of course cracking up, thinking he is way too cute.
Not sure anyone else noticed.
Picture below shows the face of my sweet little guy after retrieving a ball!

What a fun little boy!
This promises to be a Summer filled with fun bright and early Saturday mornings!




I am looking forward to picture day so I can get some cute pics and some sports gifts for all his loved ones!

Today was a beautiful day

What a beautiful day.
I thought it was going to be a dreary rainy day, but much to my surprise the clouds blew over and it ended up being a decent day.
A friend gave us a blow up trampoline thing, so I got it blown up for the kids and the neighbor girl came over and they were occupied for hours!
I got the beautiful privilege of cleaning all day;)

I just love to see all the neighbors out and about doing yard work, sitting on their porches, kids playing, parents pushing their babies in theirbaby jogger strollers, birds chirping...happiness all around!
Best part is I got stuff done uninterrupted!

Wordless Wednesday ::our pets::

Milo & Otis

Nut & Fluffy
(Ethan & Merci)

The lawn

Oh my!
I mowed our lawn for the first time (this year and the first time at this house) today.
Why did we want a big yard??
For some of you, a 1/4 acre isn't a big yard, but seriously this is like triple the yard we had at the other house. This is the biggest yard I have ever lived in, and actually one of the biggest around here.

The grass was probably about a foot in some areas.
We should have done this a few weeks ago.
Josh and I are both procrastinators, so.....we didn't.

But let me tell you, it took me way over an hour, I had to dump the bag like every minute, so finally I mowed without it, which wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, it might be a mulching blade.
At this rate I won't need any diet pills this Summer, all I will need to do is cut the grass once a week;)

But in all honesty if we do keep up with it and not get lazy it shouldn't be so hard.

Im watching House

I am so excited it is Monday night and I have a show to watch.
House is actually the only show I watch, I don't have any other shows I just have to see.
NCIS is another fav, but we always miss it, and haven't set the DVR up for it, not sure why??

I just think it is funny, that almost every show they bring up the same diseases.
(Mesothelioma treatment, parsites, necrosis, blah, blah, blah).

I love it, even though it is very predictable most of the time!

Next step

Josh hasn't had time to work in the basement in over a week=(
I know work comes first, but the progress was so good, I thought it be done in a few weeks.
Oh well, it will get done!

We decided on a stain for the entertainment unit he built. (And let me tell you, I am so glad he is so handy because all the tv stands we looked at were so expensive and not what we liked). I am so excited to show off my husbands work and brag about hi when it is all done, stained and filled with the TV and video game components etc!!!