Living Laughing & Loving

Menu Monday… fun in the sun

Renee — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:30:48 +0000

Oven Tacos via Mommy I’m Hungry

{image via Queens Bee Hive}

Crockpot Lemon Chicken via One Good Thing

Leaving for TN!!

We are leaving Friday for a Waterpark Resort in Tennessee! Woohoo! We went here for a few days when Davis was about 5 months old and had such a good time. Hopefully Wade will be big enough to ride some of the bigger waterslides, and now Davis Man will be able to get in on the fun too!

Last week I sat down and planned out our vacation meals and we went on a BIG shopping trip to get all the necessary supplies. The plan is to prep meals this week to freeze and take with us. That way our time in the kitchen will be limited… which means more time for waterslides. :)

We will still do SOME takeout, but we all know how I feel about eating out with my crazy kids. Thankfully, the mania is getting better but it’s still now my idea of a restful evening.

I am also remembering those famous words of Erin… Have the correct expectations and everyone will have a much better time!

With kids = Family Trip Making Memories!

Without kids = Restful Vacation

Check here for more Monday Menu Inspiration from orgjunkie!

If your recipe was featured today, feel free to grab a button!

What are you eating this week? What are your favorite trips for traveling with the wild offspring?

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Teacher Tool Kit… you know you want one [Free Printable Labels]

Renee — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:59:05 +0000

Isn’t she a beaut?

These wonderful babies were all the rage in teacher blog-land last summer, but I could not manage to work it into my endless list of things to accomplish before school last fall.

That meant THIS summer it was HIGH on my to do list. SO HIGH that it actually got finished in the sacred no-school-work-allowed month of June.

Can you believe it?

{Although, this isn’t the only thing that I’ve been breaking that rule with. Whoops.}

I think mainly teachers use these, but I think they would make a fabulous addition to any crafter’s work space with all their organizational bliss.

So are you ready to know how to get your very own?

Go to Lowes and get one of these.

They are meant to add to the top of a tool box, but hello, this is obviously WAY cooler.

Mine was $16, but you could also get a bigger one for about $19.

Then you need your labels. There are a gazillion out there to pick from. Just download and print, or you can use mine. {below}

The bad thing about using someone else’s premade labels is that you are stuck with the items they picked to put in their toolkit. Ladybug Teacher File has a free customizable set that actually fit on the little handle.

I decided to make things complicated like I always do and just create my own. I started with this template from Fun in Room 4B and went from there.

Then I laminated them and cut them out…

Here are my labels if you’d like them FREE at my Teacher’s Notebook Shop…

And a FREE customizable set that will definitely look odd if you don’t have my fonts downloaded. I used Lavandria and Making Lettering Tall. It looks very wonky when you open it up online, but when you download it and open it in word it should be better. If not, try downloading those free fonts first.

I will say that the trays do not fit markers and pens fully. They have to be put in diagonally, but I think it will work.

I can’t wait to get this baby filled up and ready to go in my new classroom this fall. I love that there will be a place for all those random itty bitty things that can get lost in my desk.

And when my future little cherubs need something like tape or a bandaid, it will be a piece of cake for them to find and get it themselves.

Woohoo for that, I say!

Anyone else already working on things for the fall? It’s hard to turn that darn “teacher brain” off, you know!

We are leaving for vacation next Friday, and I specifically scheduled it for June so I wouldn’t be panicked and consumed with school prep like I always am in July. :)

Yay for getting this big thing checked off my list!

Linking up at Weekend Bloggy Link up, House of Hepworths, Monday Made It with Tara, and Fun in Room 4B.

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Adding Storage to the Kitchen

Renee — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:30:18 +0000

I have an issue with our kitchen. I knew it going in, but I am seriously not sure what this builder was thinking when our cabinets were designed.

We have three drawers.

Three. itty. bitty. drawers.

To make matters worse, the widest of the three was even too narrow to fit our wooden silverware tray. I think I measured the drawer being about 9 inches wide.

One of the drawers is on the far wall with the fridge and the family command center where I attempt to corral all the paper that manages to constantly slither its way into the house and then multiply. That leaves me with TWO drawers on the sink side for silverware and utensils.

You might not have ever thought of it, but there are a LOT of things in the kitchen that just fit better in a drawer! Dish towels, dish rags, potholders, plastic bags and wrap, foil, etc… not to mention the very necessary “miscellaneous” or, ahem, the junk drawer!

We talked about getting an Ikea island with some pretty rad storage drawers, but it totalled $600+! Oh, but those drawers were organizational heaven! We really were considering it, but at the last minute, I reconsidered when I thought about how an island would really break up the flow in the kitchen and make it seem MUCH smaller.

We decided instead to do a long dresser turned buffet that would give us that much needed drawer space. We are waiting to spend that money until we get a renter in the old house. Wah, wah, wah, right?

In the meantime, school ended {woot!} and I brought my little turquoise desk home.

Do you remember that dark and dreary thrift store find that I transformed to bright and cheery?

One day while Chris was at work and I was busy decorating and putting things away, I put the little desk on the landing outside our room and liked it! I was already deciding what decor to put on it, when all of a sudden inspiration struck, and I realized I could put my beloved desk in the kitchen!

I hoisted that baby up and huffed my way down the steps and to the kitchen with no injury to myself OR the desk, believe it or not.

I love it when things actually work out like I see them in my head.

I didn’t have a chair to put under it, but I remembered seeing a desk of Laine’s with a basket underneath instead of a chair and I loved it too! My big white basket was also a thrift store find, woot!

I loaded up the drawers with all our precious necessities and breathed a sigh of relief that all our junk drawer boxes did not have to stay on the kitchen floor until we could afford a dresser.

Do you want to peek in my drawers?? :)

I put all the dish towels, cleaning rags, and pot holders in the big drawer at the bottom.

The next drawer up holds our ridiculous supply of batteries, glue/tape, another ridiculous amount of chapstick, and a random container of various treasures.

Part of being junk drawers is that they are a place for all that random stuff to go, right? It really helps keep things from getting out of control by having things in small containers inside the drawer. That way you are not just looking at three drawers filled with things that were just thrown in anywhere.

And those containers DON’T have to be the fabulous matching kind to really work for you either. Most of mine were a mismash of containers I had… including the disposable rubbermaid containers that come with lids. I just don’t use the lids.

I was able to put a silverware tray in here which also helps define a spot for the randomness.

I love how it looks in the kitchen.

It is definitely a cheery spot with its bright turquoise color. I can’t wait to show you the whole kitchen soon. It has come SUCH a long, long way from the blue cabinets!

This kitchen is so much brighter with its 5 windows… I love it, love it, love it!

As far as the rest of the house goes, we are settling in little by little, though at almost one month in we still have things in boxes or piled in corners. One thing I liked about our not monitored security system that came with the house was that the doors chimed whenever you opened them. This was VERY helpful information when I was upstairs and my precious wild boys were trying to sneak into the front yard.

Recently, the chimes on the door just stopped chiming. It was so odd. And very inconvenient, as I was lying in bed one morning and heard the sound of the front screen door opening the other day. I came downstairs to find Davis coming INSIDE the front door. I said, “Where’s Wade?”

He answered matter of factly and happily, “Outside!”

Wade’s answer was, “Oh, yeeeeah, I forgot you said not to go outside without permission.”

Chris decided to try to mess with the direction-less keypad and see if he could figure out how to get the chimes back.

Well.

SOMEHOW, he actually managed to accidentally TURN THE SYSTEM ON.

Yes, he did activate the security system for which we had no directions or NO CODE.

All of a sudden it flashed… “System Armed.”

And then of course, seconds later when he moved in front of the motion detector the insanely loud wailing commenced.

It’s hard to think clearly about how to problem solve when your brains are turning to mush via an incessant alarm.

Chris googled the name on the box and called them for help. They said they couldn’t send a technician out because we were not paying for the monitoring service! She did give him some vague instructions on finding certain boxes and battery backups that could be hidden anywhere… in closets or under cabinets, etc. and cutting the wires.

We also have friends who knew the sellers, so I texted them and they tried calling the sellers but got their voicemail.

Finally, TWENTY-FIVE or so minutes later, Chris {aka Macguyver} managed to find all the hidden boxes and cut the unmarked wires to make the crazy stop.

And then of course, we later got the follow up text back saying “The code is xxxx.”

Life is always exciting in this house.

But at least now we have a place for our junk drawers. It’s all about perspective, you know.

linking up to… Weekend Bloggy Link up, House of Hepworths, and The Frugal Homemaker.

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Menu Monday

Renee — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 12:30:01 +0000

Lemon Butter Salmon via The Devil’s Punchbowl

Quesadillas via Key Ingredient

Slow Cooked Steak via 5 Dinners in 1 Hour

Isn’t summah-time the best? We are loving our lazy summer days with no pressing schedule and lots of fun playing outside. We are so happy to have this summer fun in our new house and new ‘hood.

We are meeting friends at the pool this morning for our first official play date of the summer. I have a lot I want to get done this summer, but I also want there to be a LOT of doing nothing!

I am teaching the SAME GRADE next year, so I won’t be spending the summer frantically prepping for a new year and new grade. Whew-wee. I do have lots I’m planning to work on tweaking this summer, but tweaking beats revamping every day of the summer-time week.

I have managed to frequent our Goodwill frequently hunting for miscellaneous things we can use in this cavernous house. I’ve found a desk and hutch for Haylee’s room, an old record player bench for the playroom, and a swivel stool with a back for my classroom. Plus a whole lot of other non-furniture stuff. I’m sad that I don’t get to visit my fave thrift store near the old house anymore, but at least this GW nearby isn’t too bad. :)

I have two painting projects in the garage now, so I think my DIY furniture buying is on hold until I get those two out of there. :)

Check here for more Monday Menu Inspiration from orgjunkie!

If your recipe was featured today, feel free to grab a button!

What are you eating this week?

What’s your favorite part of summertime?

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Adding Special Touches to the Kitchen

Renee — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 12:30:22 +0000

I’m still in that honeymoon phase with my house. I have had these moments where the feeling of unbelief washes over me that THIS is OUR house.

Our kitchen has come quite a long way already with transformed cabinets and new/updated hardware. It’s night and day in there, peeps.

I’ve had a couple projects in the works for a few months now that I finally made happen. Does it sound less like procrastinating if I use the expression “project in the works”? Both projects were high on my REALLY NEED TO DO THIS IN THE KITCHEN list. As in, I bought these long ago while we were in the Mt. Holly house.

Project #1…. Make “EAT” Letters.

I bought cardboard letters to spell E-A-T at Hobby Lobby for about $2.50 each. I have a lot of turquoise going on already in the kitchen, so I chose a fun yellow for my letters called Bright Idea by Krylon. I have a turquoise, red, and yellow color scheme. Love those colors together.

I did this project the same time I did project #2 with a different brand and style of spray paint, and the difference was CRAZY! I was pulling my hair out with the Krylon yellow. It just wouldn’t cover and would’t spray evenly… though I fully admit that could be due to user error.

Project #2′s spray paint was Valspar’s paint & primer in one, and it was a dream! It went on amazingly and covered so easily and so well. I will definitely be choosing Valspar again.

The yellow turned out bad. As in not good. A better person probably would have tried a few more coats or just scrapped the letters altogether, but I guess I was lazy. I decided I was going for shabby chic, and “it doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful,” and they would look fiiiiine from a distance way up high on the wall, right???

I had this mirror mounting tape and decided it would work to hold up my letters.

I wouldn’t recommend you make that same choice. :) This stuff is strong. So strong that I couldn’t move the letter after I had placed it. And it leaves a sticky type residue when you try to take it off the wall.

Not good. Command strips would work much better. But, hey. It is what it is, and I’m okay with it!

Here’s a peek back at what this wall looked like before…

We’re making progress! Just need to buy hardware and two more curtain panels from Ikea and we’ll have curtains in here! 99% of the windows in the house have no hardware because the curtains are hung with a 2×4 screwed into the wall with velcro stapled to it. Then the curtains had velcro sewed to them and stuck to the 2×4.

Crazy like nothing I’ve ever seen. Creative or bizarre?

Who can say, but it means not only will we have to be investing in curtains, but also the hardware!

Okay… Project #2! Oversized Spoon & Fork!

I love these babies so much! I found them in a thrift store over spring break for about $3.50 which was a steal! They are made of some sort of metal and they are heavy. In my hurry to finally get these done already, I didn’t take a before picture. Can you believe it?

I searched the wide world of google and managed to find a pic though. You could get your very own set right this very minute on ebay.

I used Valspar’s Exotic Sea and went from blah olive green to bam shiny turquoise!

Did I mention I LOVE THESE?

Two EASY ways to add some special touches to your kitchen… Some sort of Word Art that is food related and Oversized Silverware!

I know that these ideas are not anything unique, but they are two that I’ve seen around bloggy world and loved so much that I had to try.

What are your favorite ways to add some pizzazz to your kitchen?

Linking up to these partays… Weekend Bloggy Link up, House of Hepworths, Home Stories A-Z, and The Frugal Homemaker.

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Menu Monday is baaack!

Renee — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 12:00:57 +0000

Asian Pork Chops, image via The Cooking Husband

Pizza Partay

Honey Mustard Chicken via All Recipes

Believe it or not, I have actually started cooking again, and I even took some time to spruce up my Menu Monday graphic. :) Life has finally sloooowed down enough for us to breathe a bit. We have the old house ready to be rented and school is out for the summer!

I am looking forward to having the time to get some more projects done at home and having lots of fun with my crazy little ones.

Check here for more Monday Menu Inspiration from orgjunkie!

If your recipe was featured today, feel free to grab a button!

What are you eating this week?

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Making Progress & 4K Graduation

Renee — Mon, 27 May 2013 12:30:01 +0000

We are just crazy for deciding to do this little by little moving thing. Every weekend since the move, we have been over at the OLD house trying to load up more of our precious junk and getting things cleaned out and ready to put it up for rent.

Saturday we were at the old house from 11 am to 8 pm. With all three of our treasures.

Chris’s parents came to rescue, er… help us and we totally transformed the place in a day. We touched up the paint everywhere and repainted the kids’ bright green room to a very neutral caramel color.

My mother in law is FAMOUS for her mad cleaning skills… among other things, and I have never seen our bathroom so sparkly. She scrubbed and scrubbed, all the while probably wondering what conditions her poor son lives in on a regular basis.

We are heading over there again today to work our little fingers to the bone. Our goal is to get it finished up today and ready to show to renters!

Despite all our OLD house efforts, we are managing to eek out some NEW house progress as well. I have lots of projects to share with you once school gets out {this Thursday!} and I have more time for blogging. Thursday is also Haylee’s TENTH birthday, believe it or not. I’m so happy that she is finally enjoying her very own room. The girl is in hog heaven, let me tell you.

I was excited to find a Goodwill just minutes from us, and I found a great little desk with a lighted hutch for cheap that works great in her room. I also brought home a pretty yellow bookshelf I had in my classroom for her to use in her new room!

Our Wild Wade graduated on Friday from 4K. He is very excited that he is now in Kindergarten. :) I love this song his class sang …

Click here to view the embedded video.

His teacher told the class that when they walked across the stage, they could wave, blow a kiss, or bow.

Of all three classes, Wade was the only one who gave a bow. :) I was so surprised, because normally he ends up being shy in front of crowds.

After the graduation, we celebrated with pizza and ice cream.

This is Wade and two of his friends from all the way back to the baby room at school. :) I teach with both of their moms. Josiah and Wade were born about 3 days apart and Marissa about 8 weeks later.

So hard to believe that they are now FIVE!!!

This kid keeps life interesting for sure.

Happy Memorial Day!

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Crawling out from the Boxes…

Renee — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:00:53 +0000

We are now one week living in our NEW HOUSE! I still can’t really believe what we are going to do with all this room!

Moving was not without its drama, of course. We decided to go all out Beverly Hillbilly.

We made our first trip a week ago Friday afternoon and spent our first night in the house that night even though we were all sleeping on mattresses or on the floor. :)

All three of our crazy kiddos actually ended up sleeping together in Haylee’s room, believe it or not. Chris and I thought we would be sleeping on our mattress permanently when we could NOT figure out how to get our boxspring up the steps.

It was greatly perplexing all the boys as to how to solve this problem and they tried and tried. They even called the previous owners to see how they did it, but just got their voicemail.

My cousin, Sherri’s handyman hubby, Danny saved the day by offering to go get his tools and remove the bannister and two of the ballisters.

Then they got that baby upstairs and in our room!

I am working little by little getting what I can organized. Our first Sunday afternoon in the house, we went to Ikea and I think I spent 47 hours inside. That place can suck you in and confuse you so badly with beautiful organization bliss, that you wonder if you will ever get out.

I love having an actual real pantry!

Between closing and moving in, we had the necessary painting done… including the kitchen cabinets.

Goodbye blue! This is only a few coats in… it ended up taking 6 coats to really cover up all that blue! I spray painted the knobs ORB and they look fabulous!

We also had the shutters painted black!

We left the door red, so it’s basically the same as our old house just giant sized. :)

Life is SO crazy but we are loving our house where THREE of us can go potty at once.

Yes, we can.

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End of Year Letter to Students

Renee — Wed, 08 May 2013 11:30:24 +0000

Can you believe this school year is almost over???

I can NOT.

I know it always does, but it never ceases to amaze me how fast a year can fly by.

I love doing count downs with my class, and I put up this fun countdown on my door for May.

What’s super cool about this gator is that it’s actually from my almost 37 year old brother’s 5th grade teacher! Somehow my mom wrestled it from her, and somehow I managed to steal it from HER. This 25+ year old gator has history!

I am planning some fun things for the end of the year… one of which is this End of Year Letter to Students. There are several variations of this idea out there, but I decided to redo this particular version.

I thought this would be fun to give to all my precious ones on our last day together… which is rapidly approaching. :)

Click here to download yours from my brand new shop on Teacher’s Notebook! :)

What are your “funnest” end of year activities?

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Lasik Recovery

Renee — Mon, 06 May 2013 11:30:13 +0000

Okay, okay. My hubby was once again annoyingly right. I survived lasik, and I can actually see.

I think there are a lot of you that are big fat scaredy cats like me, so here is my experience for you to take into consideration before you take the plunge.

I think the most important thing to consider is WHERE to get it done. In my opinion, the physical doctor matters much less than the TECHNOLOGY available at their office. I had it done at Christenbury Eye Center in Charlotte, which is supposed to be a premier place or whatever. Supposedly, Tiger Woods went there to do his, if that tells you anything.

I have to say I’m not a big Christenbury Fan. I definitely did not pick them for their bubbly personality and their warm bedside manner. I knew that going in though. You get the feeling they are all about how many cattle they can herd in and out in one day. That is just my experience and opinion, of course, so don’t sue me.

Regardless, I decided I would put up with all of that in order to get the best possible technology. To me, that mattered more than who was a nicer, more genuine person.

One of my biggest fears was from Chris’s experience ten years ago of Dr. Christenbury fussing at him to keep his eyeball still already. I knew there was no way I was going to pay someone to point a powerful laser at my eye and then yell at me for not being still. This kept me from doing Lasik for the past 10 years! That and the fact that they projected his eye up on a TV screen so I got to watch it being cut in zoom.

When my friend, Heather, had hers done in January, she informed me that the new and improved technology meant that the laser follows your eye movement and will actually stop if you move.

That was the biggest factor in finally convincing me to just do it already.

So, bottom line, travel on over to the big city nearest you and make sure you’re getting in on the latest and greatest technology.

Now, I also feel I must inform you that they are all telling the truth when they say that it doesn’t hurt. It really doesn’t.

Your eye is COMPLETELY numb. While in the waiting room before the procedure, a nurse came out and gave me my happy pills, some eye drops, a print out of instructions and a lovely surgical cap. About 20 minutes later, I was called back to a large glassed room and told to lie on a space age looking machine. The 20 minutes was supposed to be ample time for the happy pill to take effect, although I was definitely still quite anxious, unfortunately.

This is where Chris tells me they cut the flap on my eye, though I did not even know it. Yes, that is actually ME up there. The doctor just kept saying look at the light, and I remember a nurse telling me five seconds to go. It was only 17 seconds on that machine. The machine actually talked and said things in a robot voice, like “All clear.”

The doctor put a large piece of sticky tape on my upper and lower eye lid to hold my eye open so I didn’t have to worry about that. It stinks that since they are working on your EYE, you can’t just close your eyes and not watch. It really wan’t too awful though. It just looked like the doctor was sort of gently rubbing my eye was something soft and jelly like.

After that 17 seconds, a nurse ushered me over to machine number 2 to lie on. I think this was the machine that actually did the vision correction. During this one, I was told to look at the light over and over and the doctor kept crooning, “Perrrfect, perrrrfect.”

This was another 17 seconds or so, and I was done.

I was then ushered out of the main surgery room into a small exam room where a different doctor came in to check me over.

My right flap had to be “refloated” whatever that means, and they taped on my eye shields with the longest pieces of tape humanly possible, but before long we were ready to go home.

At this point, my vision was hazy and blurry but still seemed to be improved from my previous “normal.” I was surprised about that.

They gave me 2 sleeping pills to take at home, and I was told no TV, computer, or cell phone all day and night.

I did end up getting nauseous I think from the sleeping pills. I don’t handle heavy meds very well. Right after I took the 2nd sleeping pill later that night, I made my way to my bed and ended up getting sick. Thankfully I missed the bed.

The next day we headed back for my follow up and my vision had drastically improved… from 20/400 to 20/20 in one eye and 20/25 in the other!

I really couldn’t believe that it had actually worked on me.

My biggest complaint has been eye dryness and that initial nausea. I’m hoping that the dryness will get better with time and obsessive eye drop usage.

Since I know some of you are wondering how much did all this cost… we paid $3,400 for both eyes which included a $1,000 discount promotion going on until June. We also used our Health Savings Account to pay for it which made it easier to swing.

I can’t remember how much Chris’s was 10 years ago, but I think it was about the same cost, believe it or not.

I am so glad that I finally mustered up the courage to go through with this and can’t wait for a glasses free summer!

Woohoo!

P.S. Next up on my crazy schedule is mooooooving! The painters are pretty much FINISHED, and it looks amazing! I can hardly believe how much better it looks, people! Can’t wait to show off some before and afters! The blue cabs are finally gone!

Anyone out there considering Lasik? What’s holding YOU back? I completely understand your fears! :)

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