Finally Friday

I'm really getting behind on my posts this week, but between my back pain and lack of sleep I just haven't been too motivated to do much of anything this week. Nevertheless, I won't hold out my confessions from you, I mean those are the best ones right?!

I confess that since Ryan hasn't been home for supper at all this week, I haven't cooked at all...unless you consider cooking some spaghetti noodles and throwing some butter, garlic & Parmesan cheese on them cooking. One night is was cereal, the other night it was a sandwich & chips, and of course we had to go out one night too! I was really wanting KFC but Keegan wanted pancakes so we went to Denny's instead.

I confess that I'm still popping my neck even though my chiropractor told me not to. BUT....I'm doing much better with it!! I only did it 2 maybe 3 times yesterday and that is really good for me!!

I confess that the ice pack that I was using for my back a couple of days ago was this:

Yep....that is an ice pack for formula that we got when Keegan was born!! But hey...it works for backs too! But after using it I realized that there was a whole and the stuff started oozing out of it....

so I just wiped it off and put it back in the freezer! A little ooze wasn't going to stop me from using it!!

I confess that we let Keegan watch way too much TV. He would literally sit there and watch it all.day.long if we let him and we have even had to unplug it and told him is was broken before! Unfortunately he inherits his love of sitting in front of it from me....I'm a total TV junkie!

I confess that even though we ate out on Tuesday night and I had leftovers for lunch, I still got this for lunch the next day

mmm.....fried rice & bourbon chicken! I just couldn't resist it when I went to the mall on my lunch break to pick up Keegan's Christmas outfit {yes...I bought his Christmas outfit already...well at least one of his outfits. It was on sale & I had a coupon so I had to get it before they ran out of his size...which is what happened on the website, which is why I went to the mall on my lunch break, which then caused be to get Chinese food....}

I confess that I'm completely addicted to Facebook! No seriously...I am. It stays open pretty much all day on my computer {sometimes even during lunch when I'm not at my desk} and I check it constantly on my phone....like at almost every red light that I get stopped at. It's bad, I know and I'm trying to work on it...kinda.

I confess that the empty fish tank that I told you about a couple of weeks ago is still sitting in the same exact spot and it still has the water in it....but no fish because we keep forgetting to get Keegan a new one.

Well I think that is enough from me this week....what are you going to confess up to this week?!?!

Back Pain

I'm going to be completely honest with you...I have nothing to blog about today! Well, it's not so much that I don't have anything, it's more of I'm in too much pain to execute my ideas!

You see, it all started on Saturday. I was doing some major cleaning around the house, everything was going great, I was getting a lot done and then all of a sudden I started to get a sharp pain in my lower back whenever I would bend over or try to pick something up. It hurt pretty bad but the pain was tolerable to I kept cleaning until it was time to get ready for my dinner date with my fabulous hubby.

The pain never went away and throughout the night it just kept getting progressively worse. By Sunday morning I could barely move....literally, I was walking like an 80 year old woman. It hurt like no other to move in any way, especially when it came to the motion of trying to sit down or stand up from the sitting position. Needless to say, after shedding some tears, Ryan helping me get dressed {seriously, he had to help me put my pants on}, taking multiple pills {which none of actually worked with taking the pain away}, and getting a heating pad I was planted on either the couch or the recliner ALL day. I did manage to get up and walk around a little bit but not much.

I woke up Monday morning feeling a little bit better, I managed to get myself ready and out of the house to go to work {which wasn't the best idea in the world but I did it anyways}. I made an appointment with the chiropractor first thing in the morning. I've never been to one before but I was told that I needed to go see him ASAP!

Like an idiot, I took a late afternoon appointment instead of a morning one and the time couldn't of gone by fast enough. I was anxious all day to get to my appointment and hopefully find out what the deal was with my back. Finally, the time had come and I was in the room getting examined. After taking an xray of my back it was clear as to why I was in so much pain and it turns out my thought of it being a pinched nerve was wrong.

My spine looked perfect, nothing wrong with that, but my pelvic bone? That's what the issue is! It turns out that the right side of my pelvic bone is shifted up and pushed forward...hence all the lower back pain that I get all the time. He said that it is something has happened over time and it is finally to the point where I can't take the pain anymore. He did some stretching and popping and said it should get better within a couple of days. God I hope he is right!! This pain is like no other and so far no pain medicine that I've taken has worked to relieve it. Not to mention I would like to sleep in my bed again, I can only get comfortable on the couch so that's where I'm sleeping lately.

Do you know how hard it is to take care of a 3 year old by yourself when you can barely walk and can't bend over or reach for anything? Let me tell you...it ain't easy! And of course this just had to happen during the week that Ryan isn't home all week...you see he is taking a class every night after work and won't be getting home until 9:30 every night. Needless to say, I'm not a happy camper! And poor Keegan...last night he got the pot out of the cabinet for the spaghetti, got my pajama pants out of the dresser, put the detergent in the dishwasher, got a dish cloth out for me to wrap around my ice pack, and picked up a couple of things I dropped on the floor all because I can't bend over!

So here I am...sitting at work {which by the way sitting makes it hurt the worse so I've pretty much been in constant pain all day since all I do is sit in front of a computer} with my ice pack hoping that the pain goes away so I don't have to use a 3 year to do everything for me.

And I'm not even going to get into the issues I found out about with my neck...let's just say it isn't how it is suppose to be. And I was told that I need to stop popping my neck...which I do about 82730 times a day. I have no idea how I'm going to break that habit! But on the brighter side...I now know the reason behind all of my headaches and will now be getting that worked on!

Want to Get Something for FREE?

While going through all of the blogs that I follow this morning, I came across a fantastic giveaway!

What kind of giveaway you ask? Well....it is for some FREE stuff from Scentsy!! I am all about some free Scentsy! I absolutely love Scentsy products...so much so that I just spent a lot of money on some stuff and surprisingly forgot to tell Ryan about it!! LOL {Yes I'm guilty of buying stuff and not telling him, but it's for his own good, he wouldn't understand where I am coming from!}

Anywho...back to the FREE stuff! The blog that is generously giving away some Scentsy stuff to one lucky person is call Envy My Cooking.

Check out their blog and find out how to enter the giveaway!!

Two Months

Can you believe that Christmas is exactly 2 months from today?!?! If you ask me, that is just plain crazy! Where has this year gone? Time has been flying by way too fast and I wouldn't mind if it would just slooow down a little bit! {Yes, I realize that it isn't even Halloween yet and I'm already talking about Christmas....but it's my favorite holiday!}

You know what this means don't you...there is only 8 weeks left to get all of that shopping done! And if you have 92738 people to buy gifts for like we do, then there is a lot to get done in a short period of time!

Luckily for me, I've gotten an early start on my Christmas shopping this year. Usually, I'm one of those typical "wait to the last minute to get everything" type of people but not this year! I usually wait since, as we all know, everything goes on sale right after Thanksgiving but I have to say I've gotten some pretty good deals already! And I'm happy to say that I'm almost done with all of Keegan's shopping already! Usually I don't start on getting his presents until after his birthday...since his birthday is in November it is hard to know what to get since I don't know what he will be getting from all of the 5639 people that get him 93027 presents! But this year if he gets something for his birthday that I've already bought for Christmas, it's going to get returned!

I have to say, I'm getting a little help this year from an awesome app that I found on my phone...it is called "Free Christmas List" or what I like to refer to it as "A Christmas Life Saver"! I don't know about anyone else, but I like to keep all of my Christmas shopping stuff organized. Every year I make a list with everyones name on it that we have to buy a gift for. Sometimes, if I already know what I want to get the person & I go ahead and write what it is next to their name. When I'm all done shopping for that person I simply cross their name off. Well...things have changed this year thanks to my handy dandy Christmas list app! All I do is type the person's name in, add gifts under their name, the amount, and if the gift is bought or not. Then, it keeps track of how much you have spent for each person!! I absolutely LOVE this...it is so much easier then trying to remember where I put my stupid list of names at! And if I have ideas for a certain person I can put those in and mark them as "unpaid" and simply change it once I buy something! Now I have my list with at all times just in case I find something I want to get! If you are able to get this app on your phone, I highly encourage you to do so!

Something else that I've been doing differently this year...taking pictures. There are always so many people asking me for ideas as to what to get Keegan and usually my response is "I have no idea". Then, one day when we were at Target I kept seeing lots of great ideas to tell people but I knew I wouldn't remember any of them so I decided to pull my phone out and start taking pictures of the toys! I might have looked like a crazy lady walking around taking pictures of the toys with my phone but now I can remember all of those great ideas! I have tons of pictures on my phone right now of different gift ideas if anyone ever ask for some & I can show them a picture of it just in case! I know what you're thinking....I'm a genius! :) And yes...feel free to steal this idea!

Have you already started Christmas shopping too? Got any good ideas or tips to share to make it an easier task to get done?

I'm Sorry, Come Again?

AHHH.....it has come again, the day that I look forward to every Monday, Friday! And yes it is true, every Monday I can't wait for Friday to come for three reasons, 1. it is jean day at work and I love wearing jeans, so much more comfortable than dress pants {maybe that is because my dress pants don't fit me properly but we won't get into that subject!}, 2. it is the last day of work and I get two days off until I have to start all over again, and 3. it's confession day!!

I actually like having "Confession Friday" because I can get some stuff off my chest and most of the time at least one person can relate to one of my confessions which makes me feel a little better about myself! Ok...enough rambling, lets get started with the good stuff!

I confess that I'm not going to be using bullets this week because I had a hell of a time trying to get those stupid little dots to cooperate with me and it just isn't worth the trouble to mess with it this week!

I confess that I'm really not that into Halloween. I don't really have a reason as to why, I'm just not. I don't decorate my house for Halloween either, I prefer fall decorations. And if it were for the fact that a good friend is having a Halloween party this year, I wouldn't be dressing up either.

I confess that last night I didn't make dinner. No big deal, this happens at least once a week {sometimes more} but the real confession is what we ended up eating! Keegan wanted some leftover Hamburger Helper and half way through eating it he decided he didn't want it anymore and wanted something else....so he ate a pop tart! Hey, if it's good enough to eat for breakfast then it is good enough to eat for supper....right?! Me, I ended up eating this:

 That would be chocolate lava cake! Yep, I had chocolate cake for supper...oh, and a glass of milk! And...I didn't really feel that bad about it!!

Well....at least not until after I ate it all!! Oh well, we all deserve a night like this every once in a while {at least I think we all do so go ahead and eat some cake for supper tonight}!

I confess that Keegan's puke bucket is actually the Halloween bucket that McDonald's is now using as their happy meal containers!! Seriously, this is not a joke, that is what he really used to puke in when he was sick last weekend! He got the bucket on Saturday and on Sunday morning when he was eating breakfast it was the closest thing we had for him to hurl in so it ultimately became "the bucket". So thank you McDonald's for the bucket, it has come in handy quite a bit!! lol

I confess that I went out and bought a new comforter for our bed after Keegan puked 2 gallons of Sunny D all over our bed at midnight. You see, we have a duvet cover, which I washed in the washing machine even though it is dry clean only {I don't follow directions very well} but since it was 2 gallons of pure liquid it soaked through onto the comforter and since it is a king size it won't fit in our washing machine, which means I have to take it to the laundry mat to wash. Well if you think I was about to take a puking kid to the laundry mat to wash a comforter, you are wrong. The next best solution, just buy a new one, so that's what I did! I needed to anyways, see I had a king size comforter squeezed into a queen size duvet cover! Oh, and the puke covered comforter, still folded up laying on the floor....let me say that it doesn't stink though....which makes it ok!!

I confess that I forgot to put deodorant on one day this week! I know, I know first I forgot to brush my teeth and now no deodorant! At least they weather was cool and I had on long sleeves...no one ever knew!!

I confess that I already know what my next blog is going to be about! However, you are going to have to wait and find out what it is about until Monday! :)

I confess that it drives me absofreakinlutely in.sane. that the spell check for the blogs always highlights "Keegan"!! I know that it isn't that common of a name but I have only used it like 398467 times in my blogs, it should totally know the name by now!

A Night at the Pflueger House...

Terrible Twos? I think I would have to disagree...it seems like the closer Keegan gets to turning three the bigger the attitude gets and the more fits he throws! He has become so whiny and the instant you tell him "no" or something that he doesn't want to hear, like "it's almost time for bed" the whiny voice & pouting starts! 

Last night it was no different. It was bedtime and he didn't like it! He, of course, got his whiny voice out and started complaining, then he stops talking and pouts!

It went something like this:

 giving me the evil eye for taking his picture!

 pouting away

Ha...made you laugh!

Back to pouting...and trying to hide his face!

 Turning away from me because I kept taking his picture...I love picking on him sometimes!

HAHAHA.....finally made it all the way to the floor!

This wasn't a big fit or meltdown by any means but it was still funny!

I'm Caught in a Love Triangle

Not really but I am absolutely in love with one of my favorite things in the whole wide world!! I know what you're thinking...what on earth can you possibly love that much?

Well my friends, let me share it with you! It is.....drum roll please......

my CROCK POT!!

Who ever invented this incredible piece of art {ok that might be exaggerating it a little} is an absolute genius! I mean you put food it, plug it in, turn it on, and voila....dinner is made!! I have no idea who the inventor is but if I had to guess, I would say it was a woman. I mean what kind of guy would of come up with such an incredible solution to easy cooking? Exactly my point, it had to of been a woman! :)

As much as I love my crock pot there is something that I love almost as much...

Meet my crock pot's BFF, Reynolds Slow Cooker Liners!

These things are absolutely amazing and a must have for when you use the crock pot! I have to admit, I use to not enjoy using it because I dreaded having to clean it afterwards {in my pre-dishwasher days}. With these life savers, there is virtually no clean up at all. After you are done with it, you simply take the liner out and throw it in the trash! Don't get me wrong, the crock pot will get a little dirty but no more scrubbing it clean. Sometimes I still throw it in the dishwasher but most of the time I just squirt a little dish soap in it and wipe it out....it's as simple as that!

In one of my previous posts, someone shared a great, easy recipe for the crock pot.  I have to say that this recipe is awesome and it has become a new favorite of mine because 1 it's extremely easy {so easy no one can mess it up} and 2 it tastes amazing! I thought I would share it with you! {how nice of me right?!}

Here it is, chicken tacos:

4 frozen chicken breasts

1 cup of your favorite salsa

1 package of taco seasoning

And that's it...seriously, there is nothing else to this recipe...only three ingredients!

Now for the directions:

Place the frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot {yes you read that correctly, frozen}. Can I just add that the fact that you use frozen chicken breasts amazes me, not sure why but it does! Mix the salsa and package of taco seasoning together. Pour over the chicken breasts.

 It should look something like this.

Turn crock pot on low and let it cook away! When it is done, simply shred up the chicken and it is ready to eat!

It doesn't look too easy on the eyes but let me tell you, your stomach will thank you for it! :) Simply add your favorite taco toppings and stuff your face....I mean enjoy! The first time I made this Keegan ate two tacos!

A couple of side notes:
I use my mix 'n chop from PC to shred the chicken, so if you don't have one I'm not sure how else you would do it but I'm sure you will find a way!

I use a whole jar of salsa, not sure why but I do and it turns out great!

The first time I made this I forgot to add the taco seasoning....oops! No worries though, I just added it when I got home and mixed it all together when I shredded the chicken, you couldn't even tell! :)

I usually let the chicken sit and soak up all the juices after I shred it and turn the crock pot on "Keep Warm". I mostly do this because Ryan gets home an hour after I do so we don't eat it right away but I think it is a good idea to do it anyways....not necessarily for an hour, maybe 20 minutes or so?

Everytime I've made this I have only had 3 chicken breasts so that is the only way I've made it and yes, I still use the whole jar of salsa & the whole packet of seasoning!

Before I forget....I would like to say thank you, thank you, thank you to Cassie for sharing such an awesome recipe!

I have to admit....for as much as I love my crock pot I don't use it nearly as often as I would like. I think it is because of the fact that I don't have a whole lot of recipes to use in it.

So...have any good crock pot recipes you want to share?!?!

School Pictures

While I was trying to think of what I would blog about today, I realized that I never showed you Keegan's "school" pictures!

HA....they are pretty much what I expected...actually they're not quite as bad as I thought they would be. Honestly, I didn't know what the outcome would actually be because with Keegan you just never know! I knew that he wouldn't smile {he even told me he didn't when I picked him up the day of pictures} but I had no idea what facial expression I would see in the pictures! I have to say....I busted up laughing at the front desk of the daycare when I first saw them!

Ok...I'm not going to make you wait any longer....

here they are:

Seriously...could he look any more pitiful?!?! {And I mean that in the nicest way possible!} I'm not shocked or surprised with the outcome and I didn't plan on buying any pictures to begin with so it's really no big deal that he didn't smile! Although, I was looking at his class picture that is hanging up in the classroom and guess who is the ONLY kid NOT smiling......yep, that would be Mr. Pflueger! Oh well! Did you notice that he was doing wierd things with his hands?! LOL

Ok...now on to what bothered me about these pictures! :) {you didn't think I wouldn't find something to complain about did you?! you should know better by now!}

For starters, the background! That is NOT the background that they had on "display" in the hallway for two weeks before picture day. I mean seriously, what is with the leaves wrapped all the way around the chair?! Were they trying to go for the "sitting in a pile of leaves" look? If so, they failed! It looks ridiculous!

And then we have the actual back drop. Is that really the best thing they had for a fall background? If so, pathetic if you ask me! Again, I want to emphasize that what you see in the picture is NOT what I was expecting. Keegan's outfit would have completely matched if they would of had the background I was expecting.

And finally, you can't even see his shoes!!! The sample pictures that they had to show what the background would be showed the kids shoes {then again they didn't have leaves wrapped around them either}. This wouldn't be such a big deal if I wouldn't of had to go to the store at the last minute trying to find brown shoes to match the "fall" background! {Which really he needed the brown shoes anyways & I ended up getting a great deal on them but that is totally besides the point here!}

Of course everything that I'm complaining about doesn't really matter at all considering that I'm not buying any pictures but still....I had to get it off my chest!

Three Day Weekend

I had an unexpected three day weekend this week!

I'm not going to lie, it was nice to be able to have an extra day off work and to actually sleep in on a week day!

What I could have done without however, was a sick kid! The "sickness" came out of nowhere too! He was completely fine ALL day Saturday. He went to the park, played with his toys, helped Daddy and Grandpa lay tile {not sure how much he actually helped though} and acted completely normal. That night we decided to go out to eat, Keegan fell asleep on the way to the restaurant since he didn't take a nap during the day so he was very quiet once we got inside and sat down. We just figured that he was still tired so didn't think anything about it. Our waitress took our order, Keegan got some goldfish out to snack on and that's when it happened....

Yep....he threw up all over the table, himself and grandma....A LOT!! I cleaned up the mess and told Ryan that we were leaving NOW!! The waitress canceled our order and we were on our way out of there!! He was kinda scared about the whole incident but once we got home he was fine again!

That takes us to Sunday morning....this was the day we have been waiting for all week! It was Thomas day!! Since Keegan was acting fine we decided to go ahead and go see Thomas since the tickets were nonrefundable and it would surely put Keegan in a good mood! Keegan sat down to eat his waffle, he was just picking at it so I told him that he didn't have to eat it if he didn't want to. He sat there a little longer, drank some water and sad his tummy hurt. Within seconds of saying those words it happened again....luckily we had a bucket handy and luckily Keegan understands the meaning of the bucket now!! :) That was it....we were no longer going to see Thomas, I just couldn't risk taking him. With our luck he would have thrown up all over the train and I wasn't going to go through that!!

He was fine again all day, didn't eat much and drank lots of water {which is totally not like him but he was keeping it down}. Around midnight he came into our room, not knowing what time it was Ryan put him into our bed. We both got up to go to the bathroom {like you really needed to know that put hey, it's part of the story!} and Keegan started crying....weird. We went in there and he didn't look to good. I asked him if he needed his bucket and he said no. Well.....apparently no meant yes! He puked ALL OVER our bed and my dry clean only duvet cover!! UGH!! I swear every time this kid is sick he pukes on our bed!! Oh I love changing puke covered sheets in the middle of the night!! 

So that takes us to Monday, of course Keegan stayed home from school since he obviously wasn't feeling good, which meant I got to stay home from work!! I had all kinds of plans to get things done that I didn't do over the weekend...guess how many of them got done. NONE!! In my defense, I ended up doing other stuff...like washing my dry clean only duvet cover! Yep, I decided to take the risk and put it in the washing machine. I didn't know when I would every make it to the dry cleaners, so I had to do it. I simply put it on the delicate cycle and it came out just fine!

He must of gotten some kind of stomach bug because he never had a fever and only threw up sporadically...and only a total of 3 times. It is never fun having a sick kid/baby, but I have to admit I love all of the cuddle time and attention I get from him {he is usually a daddy's boy so it was nice to feel "needed"}!

Say What?!

It's Friday, which means it's confession day! I have to admit that I've really been thinking about what I really want to confess to you today and I came up with an endless list of possibilities! Of course I'm not going to share all of them...I've got to save some for next week right?

• I confess that I went to Payless to see if they had any boots in Keegan's size that he can wear with his Halloween costume...they didn't have any boots but I still left with 2 new pairs of shoes!!

AND....both were for me! One pair are these cute silver flats that I only paid...drum roll please.....$2.50 for!!! I just can't resist the BOGO!!

• I confess that I let Keegan eat fruit snacks for breakfast. True story...you know as a parent you are suppose to "pick your battles", well this is one battle I don't want to fight! He takes them to daycare almost every single day & when he doesn't take fruit snacks...he takes 3 powdered donuts, always 3 not more, not less...his rule not mine! :)

• I confess that my house is an ab.so.lute. disaster! No really it is & it drives me insane....I knew this last night & the night before already but I haven't done anything about it. I plan on tackling it all when I get home from work today BUT I have lots of shows I need to catch up on...we shall see what I think is more important! 

• I confess that even though all of Keegan's fish have died {yep...all of them have taken a ride down the toilet} the fish tank is still sitting in the same spot, with all of the water in it still. However, I did unplug the filter so that isn't running anymore...that counts for something right?!

• HAHAHA!! I confess that I do stupid things like this to Keegan and then make him let me take his picture!! Hey...I'm his mom it's my job to do things to embarass him right?!

• I confess that even though I really hate that Keegan isn't potty trained yet & even though I complain about it ALL THE TIME, we aren't really pushing the issue & haven't been very dedicated to doing it. He just isn't ready for it....well he is ready for it but he just won't do it! I know that one day he will officially be potty trained....I just don't know when that day will be! We told him that 3 year olds aren't allowed to wear diapers & that when he turns 3 he has to start going on the potty. He understands this, he told us so, he said "I go on the potty and get underwears on my butt"!! {that is word for word what he said....I love that he said "underwears"!} So in one month we will really push the whole potty training thing! 

• I confess that I have clicked the "preview" button like 100 times while writing this post just to make sure it looks ok!!

Ok...that is enough out of me for this week! But if you want to see some more, check out these confessions...they are pretty funny!

I'm in love....

with Pampered Chef!!

Ok...so this is nothing new but I thought I would share the fact that I absolutely, with out a doubt am in love with their products and have no one except my mom to blame thank for getting me hooked {and for giving me so much of it throughout the years}!! Their products are truly amazing!

If I had to guess, I would say that at least half {if not more} of my kitchen stuff is all PC. Yes, there is stuff that I have that isn't PC {for instance my cookware & my crockpot but PC doesn't sell crockpots so that is a fair exception} but I'll admit that my favorite things that I use are all from PC. I know what some of you might be thinking {and maybe yelling at the computer} "you can buy the same stuff at the store down the road for half the price Meagan!!!} but let me tell you....it's not the same, I can't explain why exactly but it's just not!

For instance....tell me what store you can buy something where you can make a cake in microwave? I'll give you some time to think about it......

times up!

The answer is there is no store....it's PC of course!! Now you're probably thinking "how do you make a cake in the microwave Meagan?" Let me share it with you....

There it is....the amazing Deep Dish Baker!! And with this wonderful piece of art {ok I might be exaggerating a little bit now} you can make a cake in the microwave in only 10 minutes!! My favorite is the chocolate lava cake....I can taste the goodness just thinking about it!! All you do is prepare the cake mix per the box {inside of the baker} and then add icing on top of the batter {a whole container by the spoonful & yes on top of the non-cooked cake batter}. Simply put the lid on place in the microwave for 10 minutes and it's done!! The only word that comes to mind when trying to describe how good it is is heaven....it is pure heaven!!

I have almost all of the other stones that are available and they are all just as good as the deep dish baker. They are the only things I use when I put something in the oven, everything from chicken, pizza, french fries, cinnamon rolls, casserols....you name it I use it on/in the stones. And cleanup is sooo easy, just use hot water & a rag {some times the scrapper too} and it's done!!

Aside from the stoneware, here are a few of my favorite things from PC and things that I use ALL the time:

AHHH....the handy dandy Mix 'n Chop. I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this thing! I don't know what I ever did without it! It is perfect when making hamburger, ground turkey, shredded chicken & so much more! I use this so much that I usually have to take it out of the dishwasher when it is still dirty & wash it by hand so I can use it! It is the only thing I use when I brown hamburger & it makes perfect "Taco Bell" meat!! :)

The Quikut Paring Knives...aka the knife to use for pretty much everything! These are seriously my go-to knives when cutting something, unless I need a bigger knife of course but then I use the either the bigger paring knife or the utility knife from PC! I'm not quite sure how many I have but you can never have too many!

The Quick Stir Pitcher. This thing is in our refrigerator at all times...except for when I'm washing it of course! The handy dandy stirer thing {did I just make up a new word?} is awesome! With this you just pull the handle up and stir it all together...no more trying to find a spoon with a long enough handle to reach the bottom of the container to mix up your favorite drink!!

The Twixit Clips, aka those things that keep any sort of bag closed to help keep food fresh. I honestly have NO idea how many of these things I have but what I do know is that I use them on EVERYTHING. Chip bags, french fry bags, sometimes cereal bags, chocolate chip bags, marshmellow bags, bags of noodles, goldfish bags {the kind you eat not the real ones}....get the point I'm trying to get across?

I really could keep going on and on and on about all of my favorite things from PC but I think I will stop there! So if you don't have any PC products {shame on you....just kidding} go check out their website & find someone close to you that is a consultant so you can purchase something!! Already a PC lover...what is your favorite "toy" to use?

Also....for my fellow bloggers that are local {as in the Red Bud area} St. John's is having a Pampered Chef Quarter Auction on Saturday night!! They will have lots of different products that you can purchase for just quarters....sounds like a fabulous reason to go get some new goodies!!

Wordless Wednesday

A few of my favorite pictures from my New York trip!

Where can I find a money tree?!

There are a lot of things in life that I don't really understand and I can accept that. But there is one thing in particular that just blows my mind....the price of stuff! And it is just that....STUFF! If you are a parent then you definitely know where I'm coming from. There is so much stuff that babies/kids need throughout their life, whether it be the necessities like diapers, clothes, shoes or the other stuff that they need want, like all of those cool toys.

This weekend we treated Keegan to his own special day full of fun. One place in particular that we went to was Toys 'R Us. We knew that he would love to walk around looking at and playing with all of the toys but our main goal was to get some ideas of what he likes so we could get some idea of what to get him for his birthday {and so Santa could get some ideas for Christmas}. Now I know that toys aren't cheap {especially at the above mentioned store} but it seems like the older Keegan gets the more expensive toys get! UGH....I just don't understand why things have to be priced so high!

For example....Keegan is obsessed with Thomas {you know that blue train with lots of friends}. Well Thomas is a pretty popular guy, therefore he is not cheap! One train will set you back about $12-$15 {for the motorized ones}.

Yep....there he is a $15 battery operated Thomas. And you can't have just one train, you have to have multiple trains. And what else do the trains need? Tracks of course...what kind of train can go without tracks silly? And can you believe that these tracks have to be bought separately from the trains? The trains also need some cargo cars to pull around...yep those are extra also! I don't even want to know how much money we have laying around the house in trains, tracks and cargo cars alone!

At the toy store, there is a whole section dedicated to Thomas. They even have a train table set up with trains on it for the kids to play with. Keegan loved it...good gift idea right? HA...it was $199!! He can keep crawling around of the floor playing with his trains! I'm not about to spend $199 on a piece of wood {if it was even real wood} that looks like something I could make!

Well...I found out yesterday that Thomas is in the area! I was so excited {for Keegan of course} when I found this out. He would absolutely LOVE to be able to see Thomas up close & in real life. I did some searching and got all of the information about "A Day Out With Thomas". Not only is Thomas there, but you can take a ride on Thomas {yep...a real train ride on the real Thomas} and they have all sorts of different activities for the kids to do. This is perfect! I find the day and time that I was interested in and clicked on the "find tickets now" button.

I get redirected to the page where I select the number of tickets that I want and there it is....the price of the tickets: $19.50. I'm pretty sure my jaw fell to the floor and I had my "you have got to be getting me" look on my face! {that's definitely what was running through my head} I couldn't believe that they charge $19.50 to take a ride on Thomas, it's not like it goes very far, it is only a 30 minute ride. That would mean it would cost my little family of three $60 to spend a day with Thomas. As if spending $19.50 per ticket wasn't enough, they charge you an extra $10.95 for a service charge? What the?!?! I seriously contemplated not buying the tickets after I saw that. 

Well....I sucked it up and bought the tickets. I know how much it would mean to Keegan to be able to see Thomas and I can't wait to see his face light up when he sees him for the first time. The money spent will be forgotten when I see his big blue eyes light up {hopefully with happiness and not tears of horror} and that smile on his face.

Yes....I know they price things like that because people still pay the money {like me for example} but it still irritates me to no end.

Thanks for listening to me vent...I'm done for the day! 

Keegan's Fish

While I was away in NY, Ryan & Keegan decided that it was the perfect time to get some fish {perfect timing alright, I wasn't there to stop them!}. I was pretty surprised to find this new addition to our household but was happy that it was just a small tank and not a big 10 gallon one that Ryan really wants to get!

Meet Keegan's fish....

They are goldfish but not your normal 30 cent goldfish, they are little more special than that! There is one big one {Elmo} and two smaller ones {Cookie Monster & Grover}. Keegan came up with the names all by himself {bet you didn't figure that one out already huh?}! Cookie Monster got his name because he hogs all the food and the other two I guess just "came" to him! lol

So, of course I laid down some rules....ok just one rule, but it is a very important one!! I told Ryan that I am NOT in charge of the fish & I will NOT be cleaning the tank out....under any circumstances! We did the whole beta fish thing before and guess who was the only one who ever cleaned the tank & fed it....yep, you guessed it, it was me! Although the fish don't bother me and Keegan really does like them, Ryan was the one who bought them so he can be the one to take care of them!

Keegan loves his fish and does pretty good with them. He usually feeds them every night when we get home, except for those days when he is too concerned about getting a snack for himself and playing with his toys!

He likes the fish so much that he decided they needed something to look at:

That's right...after our trip to the pumpkin patch Keegan decided that the fish would like to look at the pumpkins! He grabbed all of the small pumpkins that I got to use as part of a centerpiece and placed them around the fish tank so the fish can look at them! Oh...and my centerpiece....still no pumpkins, I'm not allowed to move them away from the fish tank!

Ok.....if you are having an emotional day, consider this your warning! Apparently one of the fish didn't like his new home! The Tuesday after they came "home" one of them took a visit to fish heaven. We knew it wasn't going to last long because it wasn't very "active" and was moving kinda slow {if you know what I mean}.

When Ryan feed them in the morning he told me he didn't think it would last all day & asked me what we should tell Keegan. I said we aren't going to tell him anything! I did what any good mom would do and went to the store on my way home from work and bought a "replacement" fish! When we got home Keegan went straight to feed the fish. Well...there it was, just laying on the bottom of the tank completely lifeless. Fortunately it was half way under the boat so Keegan just thought it was stuck & thought it was funny! Keegan then got a snack & was playing in the living room....perfect!  That gave me the opportunity to "switch" out the fish without him noticing at all! {other good moms would do this too right?}

Whew....you have no idea how scared I was that I was going to get caught! Fish drama was over and everything was perfect in the fish tank again! Well it was perfect....until today. Ryan feed them before he left for work & told me he thought one was dead. My first thought was "it's 4:50 a.m. I don't care about the stupid fish" and then my second thought was "seriously, another dead fish? I'm NOT buying another one!" Once I got up I went in to check and sure enough....we lost another fish. I really don't want to buy another "replacement". At the rate we are going I would be buying a new fish once a week....yep, that's not going to happen!

Keegan doesn't know about his fish yet and I have no idea what to tell him. Any suggestions on how to tell a 3 year old that his fish died would be greatly appreciated!! :)

Busy Bees

HOLY COW...it has been almost a week since my last blog!! I'm doing some serious slacking around here! Things have been pretty busy around the Pflueger household lately. Now that I say that...it seems like we have been really busy but yet I feel like nothing really got accomplished. Ugh...I hate that feeling!

A little recap of our weekend....

Friday night the boys went to the football game {what else would they do on a Friday night?} while I stayed home and hosted a Margarita Pampered Chef party. We had some really good food and some great homemade Margaritas. Not to mention the oh so wonderful, mouth watering Chocolate Lava Cake {which was made in the microwave} and let me tell you it was just as good for breakfast the next morning! :)

Saturday we helped celebrate little Brody's 1st Birthday! He is such a cutie and although there were some meltdowns {but what birthday party would be complete without those} I think it is safe to say that he really enjoyed digging into is massive cupcake and opening all of his presents! From there we went and got Keegan's Halloween costume. We had different opinions as to what he should be but ultimately Mommy won {like usual}...I'm not going to give it away as to what he will be but I will give you a hint.....he will be wearing a hat!! We also went to my in-laws clubhouse that night because they made turtle soup and Ryan just HAD to go try it. Keegan and I stuck to eating the hot dogs! Since it was so cold out they had a little bonfire also and we had the chance to break out our hoodies....which is probably one of my favorite clothing items! I just LOVE hoodies!!

Check out Keegan's new hoodie!

 HAHA! Isn't it just too cute?!

Here's some more pics from that night.

When we got home Saturday night Keegan wanted to sleep on the couch so we suggested that we pull out the bed...he LOVED that idea! So he decided to grab Mickey and have a little party {which consisted of just sleeping}!

On Sunday we went pumpkin picking at a local pumpkin patch in town. It is smaller {and a lot cheaper} than the other more, popular pumpkin patch that is around here. Don't get me wrong....the bigger, more popular one is really cool and I really want to take Keegan there some day but the small one will do for now! I was hoping to get the rest of the stuff that I want to decorate the front of the house with for fall but that didn't happen {sigh}...maybe by next weekend I will finally be done decorating.

We told him he could pick any pumpkin he wanted but he had to be able to carry it...so this is what he found! And apparently we no longer know how to smile normal anymore! lol

Told you....no more normal smiles for this kid! 

To my surprise he absolutely LOVED going through the corn maze! 

Trying to pull the wagon back to the truck...

then decided it was much easier to just sit back & take a ride!

That pretty much sums up the past weekend!! Things haven't really slowed down at all the last couple of days but we decided that we needed some down time last night so we had "family game night". Which was really just a night of playing the Wii and eating popcorn for supper! Yes...you read that correctly....we ate popcorn for supper and let me tell you, there were no complaints from anyone! :)