Today we leave for another vacation at Lake Martin. I’ve mentioned before how marrying into a family with a lake house is a pretty sweet deal. While visiting family is always at the top of our list, visiting them while relaxing next to a lake (or boating on the lake, or swimming in the lake) makes it special. And since going over July 4th is a family tradition close to Damon’s heart, it gives me a little heart swell as well, knowing our sons are gaining childhood memories similar to their father’s.

Which leads me to what I have been pondering/ excited about for a few days… this will be Tebow’s first 4th of July at Lake Martin! And not only that, but this vacation will be his official meet and greet with the rest of Damon’s extended family. How exciting to show off our new addition and all his awesomeness.

Damon has some fun (and secret, shhhh!) plans for the older kiddos this visit, so I guess I better get packing so the memories can be made and the fun can be had. Watch out Lake Martin, the Chattanooga Crumleys are coming. And this year, we’re bringing one more for the fun.

Technorati Tags: family vacation, family trip, Lake Martin

Learn.com is essentially a website devoted to giving people basic courses they need for job skills training or accreditation in a variety of jobs in the business or marketing fields.

When I used to work outside the home, one of my duties was helping people sign into this type of learning management system. It was only available to people who were employed there, unlike Learn.com which is available to anyone with internet access.

I was able to create an account and look over the different areas under Job Profiles. This lead to two learning tracks- business and marketing. I was asked to specifically look under business and pick a job profile from the list. It was helpful to see the different job profiles, what the salary range could be, and what courses I would need to take to obtain a skill score useful in job searches.

I chose “First-Line Supervisors/Managers of Retail Sales Workers: Entry Level,” used the coupon code I was given and then launched into taking the skill assessment of a grammar course. It was rather intuitive in how to take the test, giving me instant feedback of right and wrong answers. While I think the test needed more multiple choice instead of fill-in the blank (I mis keyed an answer and it was counted wrong), it was still pretty simple.

Once finished, I was able to directly go to the section I did not master (a score of 70% is considered mastered) and review the material there. I retook the skill assessment. The questions were not the same as before, and covered all the material, not just the material I had not mastered yet. In the second test I did not score 70% on areas I had before, but the assessment takes the best score out of all the times you take the test. So in my second try I had completed the course, complete with printable certificate.

I poked around other courses- Math (percentages) and Word 2007. This was good for me to see not all the courses are laid out exactly the same. Math was similar to grammar, but Word 2007 utilized a course player I had to download. It had written and spoken instructions with interactive menus to demonstrate Word 2007’s features.

I would recommend Learn.com to anyone looking to master skills needed to enter the job market. It would probably be useful to anyone who had been out of the job market for quite some time. The cost ranges from $20 to under $100 and gives you access to many resources to brush up on your grammar and/or math and give you the most recent information on Office products like Word and Excel. That price range and the availability to use the site at any time makes me think I will be highly recommending this site to anyone who is asking.

We had a packed morning planned- free movie at the Rave and then playing at Esther’s house. Because the movie is at 10 a.m. and can be pretty crowded, we try to head out by 9ish (closer to 9 than ish). We were meeting Esther (and her kids) there to see Surf’s Up, but our plans were thwarted by lack of electricity at the theater this morning. So, we skipped ahead to the next activity- heading out to play at Esther’s!

Being at Esther’s in the summer usually means cooling off in the pool and today was no exception. The water was good, Fuller tolerated it well, and Tebow had his first experience in it!

All the fun in the sun lead to good naps in the afternoon, which made this Momma very happy. And in all, I think it was a perfect summer day.

Today we have the first cookie I think of when I think “no bake.” However, you must note that this is a no bake treat, but we do have to use some heat. In this case, the stove. So, before we even get into how to make these treats (really easy!) I’ll just go ahead and apologize.

I’m sorry you have to turn on the stove and maybe get a little warm while making these treats. If you forgive me, then please leave a comment and I’ll do another drawing for a Little Debbie 100 Calorie Snack Sampler Gift Pack. The winner will be posted tomorrow evening, after 9 p.m. EST. And, like last time, this is open to US residents only.

Whew, glad I got that off my chest.

So, no bake cookies.

Ingredients:
4 ounces butter (I think you can use margarine, but Anthony Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential said to always use butter, so I do)
1/2 cup milk
2 cups sugar
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 to 4 tablespoons peanut butter, optional (but really, when it is peanut butter and chocolate, peanut butter isn’t optional)
3 cups oats, quick or old-fashioned
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place chocolate chips, peanut butter (if used), oats, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Combine the margarine, milk, and sugar in a saucepan; bring to a rolling boil. Boil for 1 minute (very important, or else it all crumbles). Combine the hot mixture with the oatmeal and chocolate chip mixture; stir well. Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper.

I have this picture saved to my desktop where I can easily gaze upon my little family and see how absolutely good looking they are. I see two boys my heart is bursting with love for and their father who also has a heart bursting with love for them.

This morning, before Damon was awake, I reminded Fuller today was Father’s Day. We had read a book about Father’s Day recently, so he was familiar with the concept. In the book the children all wrote stories about why their dads were great dads. We talked about things that made Damon great. Fuller named things like playing football, Wii (one player or two), and costumes Damon makes him.

I guided Fuller through signing a card, which he was thrilled about since the card included a picture of Batman. When Damon woke up, Fuller jumped out to surprise him and happily handed over the envelope.

When we were going to church, Fuller launched into an impromptu monologue of why he loved Damon. I could only think he was reminded of the book we read. His speech was a bit laborious on his part, since he stumbled over the reasons, trying to come up with the words that matched his feelings. It was then that I knew… it didn’t matter the things Fuller listed, he just wanted Damon to know, his heart was bursting for love of his Daddy too.

Happy Father’s Day, Damon.

First: Snack Mix

This is pretty easy because all you do is mix together sweet and salty items in a bag.

We used fruit flavored marshmallows, Joe’s O’s, raisins, and peanuts.

Some people might add chocolate chips, M&M’s, dried fruit, or pretzels. It is really up to you. And it is a great treat to have on hand because it meets both the sweet and the salty requirements.

Second: Puffed Rice Treats (you might know it as something that rhymes with Vice Brispies)

Now, thank you for all the comments from yesterday. I used random.org and the number came back 4, which means the winner is Carrie!

If you didn’t win tonight, don’t worry. We will have two other chances during this series. Thank you, Little Debbie!

Technorati Tags: no-bake treats, Little Debbie, Rice Crispies

I don’t know exactly what thought process led me to this, but I started thinking about no-bake treats. I was able to list more than five, so I thought I would share them here. One recipe a day!

Today, it is Ready to Go Sundaes. This is inspired by the Ben and Jerry Flipped Outs. I figured I could make the same thing in muffin tins and have ready made sundaes to pop out when the fancy struck.

Now, since it is sooooo hot out, I want to help you out and not let you lift a finger to make treats for your family. The nice folks at Little Debbie (she’s a hometown girl!) sent our family a gift pack of Little Debbie 100 Calorie Packs. Six boxes of treats (chocolate, yellow, and new flavors lemon and cookies & creme) were all ours for consumption. Fuller was thrilled.

Little Debbie sent them to me with no strings attached (I didn’t even have to blog about it), but they did offer to help me give away the same sampler boxes to lucky readers. If you leave a comment on this blog post (with a valid email address) you will automatically be entered to win your own sampler box. One comment per reader, and unfortunately, this is for readers in the United States only.

I’ll do the drawing via random.org and announce the winner tomorrow when I post a new no-bake treat recipe.

Technorati Tags: little debbie, no-bake treat, ice cream sundae

We went inside and straight upstairs to check out the new exhibit. We were not disappointed in the Curious George themed exhibit. The pulleys, the lights, the dress-up costumes, even the wind machines- it was as if Fuller had stepped right into the monkey’s world. And Fuller was so excited.

The big draw of the morning was the photo op with Curious George. We waited in line for a while and once we got it, we were happy to say, “We’ll be back!” and took off for home.

Today, we returned. We spent most of our two hour visit in the exhibit where Fuller had a blast checking out the overhead projector and conveyor belts.

I have a feeling visiting the museum is going to be a frequent summer activity. And I’m very happy about it.

Pictures from Saturday are here and from today are here.

I know I blogged about it before Tebow made his arrival- I wanted to make the switch from disposables to cloth diapers. For me, it isn’t about being green, it’s about saving the green. I would get a knot in my stomach every time we bought disposable diapers. It just seemed like such a waste.

But making the switch completely was going to take some green that we just didn’t have. Plus, a friend of mine gave me the advice to not worry about cloth diapering (and all the decisions that went with it) until after we got to know our new kid. It totally took some stress off, but finally it came down to it- I didn’t want to keep buying disposables.

So, Damon and I hashed it out and decided to look at some different cloth diapering options. We bought a few, borrowed others, and I decided I really, really like the All-in-ones, one sized cloth diapers.

You might be thinking, what? In fact when I say cloth diaper, this is probably what you see:

And yes, this kind of diapers (known as prefolds), are still used by many cloth diapering parents. But cloth diapering has evolved into some easier and waaaaay cuter methods of cloth diapering. I tried the prefolds and it was ok, but not that easy. The all-in-ones are diaper covers where you stuff a pocket with an absorbent insert, which pulls away wetness, similar to disposables. When dirty, you just remove the diaper and wash it all later (every other day). If they are one sized, it means the diaper can be used from birth to potty training (usually).

They look like this:

We own four of these Bumgenius brand diapers- two we bought and two were gifts. So far, these are my favorites- easy to put on and no leaks ever.

We have four Smartipants- three were my Mother’s Day gift and one I won from @thesmartipants on twitter. I like these because the insert comes out on its own in the wash. I’m not used to the snaps yet, so I have had some leaks around the waist.

We have two of these Fuzzi Bunz that I won from @diapershops on twitter. Again, the snaps I’m still getting used to. Also, the gussets on the leg openings are adjustable and I am still trying to figure out which setting they should be on. But these diapers are so soft!

So far, our cloth diaper stash is up to ten (and five were “free!”). I use them all and then throw them in the wash. While they wash, I use disposables. I would really like to have eight more, which would keep us from using disposables at all! We are a cloth diapering family now, and I now think changing diapers is fun! (Of course Tebow is still just nursing, so that attitude might change. But right now, it is fun. I promise!)

Technorati Tags: cloth diapers, bumgenius, smartipants, kelly’s closet, diaper shops, fuzzi bunz