The finished product...

And my first attempt at making completely homemade spaghetti sauce.

Cooking in the pot (I made this after midnight because my tomatoes were ripening too fast: we don't have a/c,either. So, another reason I was up cooking after midnight!):






Early this afternoon, I cooked up some of my husband's first deer (ground, of course) and added the sauce to it. I love ground venison in spaghetti. I'm really hoping he gets a deer this season. I want sausage, though.

Plated up:

With the finishing touch, parmesan:

It was very yummy, but a bit watery. Next time I will add tomato paste to thicken it. I will also add some yucky stuff my kids don't like (onions, green peppers, maybe some shredded carrot).

First Day Back Photo Shoot

And, my 11 year old is now taller than I. At 5'5", I'm not particularly short, either. She is a full inch taller than I am now. Further proof that my kids are growing up too fast. She starts middle school next week. :-(

I have no idea why she has that look on her face:

He's angry with me that I told him to stop playing with the jogging stroller:

The one photo I managed to shoot of all three kids, and Alyssa has her face all screwed up!





My new camera is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. I can't wait! This one is a piece of crap.

Alyssa is BACK!!! YAY!

She's been gone all summer at her dad's house. I picked her up tonight. I missed her bunches. She had fun there. She spent quite a bit of time at with her cousins.

I feel really bad, though. Mia doesn't recognize her. When Alyssa tried to hold her, she started bawling like someone hurt her. :-( I hope they bond again quickly. On our way home (it's fifty miles away from me), we stopped at Wendy's and I let Alyssa feed her baby sis a little bit of my Frosty. Mia gave her such a huge smile for that!

Photo shoot tomorrow!!! Hopefully my new digicam comes. Freaking UPS. It only came from Canada.

The $4.99 Shoes

These ones:

Sold for $26!

We aren't making a whole bunch of money off our Ebay business, but we are making some, learning the ropes, and hopefully building our business for a better (and more profitable) tomorrow. At the very least, it will be a business oriented learning experience for both of us.

Check out our Ebay store.

I Will Not Abuse the Exclamation Point in This Post

Nope. I won't even use one at all.

Even though my baby recently discovered her toes.

And how fun they are to stick in her mouth

And, she fell asleep not on me, for the first time.

Pretty cool, huh?

What's in YOUR reBag?

I went to visit my mom today, and came home with this:

Full of these:

I love tomatoes!
The biggest ones are a slice per sandwich size! Perfect!


Jalapeños courtesy of Erica!
Thanks, they will make my salsa taste extra yummy!

Random Acts of Cuteness....

What a cute little boy you have!

mmm. Chicken McNuggets.

Just a little closer and this processed meat food will be in mah mouth!

Followed by cheez-its

Nutritious and delicious. lol.




*Note: baby did not actually consume food products shown in pictures*

**No babies were harmed in the shooting of these photos**

My Son is Such a Ham!

He models for every picture I take of him. He adores our weekly photo shoots. He is also terribly photogenic. In fact, I don't think I've ever taken a bad picture of my son in the nearly five years he's been alive.

A few I've taken lately:

Another stroller shot:

He is such a beautiful boy.

Thrift Store Find!

One of my best finds of the summer.
We paid $8.99 for it a couple days ago.

As you can see, the boy loves it.

SO Happy to Be Home -- A Reminder :-)

I didn't realize just how much I missed living in the country until driving to my mom's the other day. I drove by a field of sunflowers, which happen to be my favorites. I snapped a few pics.









I'm so glad that I no longer live in a place surrounded by concrete. I do not at all miss the daily sounding of sirens (police, ambulance, fire). I feel better living back home. I will never move to a big city again, no matter how boring this little town may become to me.

Why I love Thrift Stores

I found this cute little outfit at the local Salvation Army this past Saturday. A couple times a month, their tag of the week is on sale for three hours on Saturday for $.49 (clothing items only). So, yeah, I paid less than fifty cents for this!!!

My Best Yard Sale Find of the Summer

My husband LOVES garage/yard/rummage sales. I love thrift stores. Between the two of us, we've found some really cool stuff for the kids for really great prices.

The NordicTrack jogging stroller is my best find of the summer, so far. I probably won't top it. :-p We were out hitting yard sales on half price Saturday (everything at Goodwill is half price the last Sat. of the month). After we hit the Allegan store and spent a little bit of money, we stopped at three yardsales. The third one was right by my brother Casey's house.

They had this jogging stroller for sale for $10. I offered them $8. ;-)

She's Getting Big Way Too Fast!

Monday, I took the boy and the baby to my mom's house. DH stayed home to catch up on Ebay crap. While we were at my mom's, Mia sat up for the first time all by herself:

















The outfit she is wearing in those pics cost us .49 at the Salvation Army on Saturday. It's 6-9 mos, and she makes the buttons in the back bow open. LOL! Well, at least she got to wear it once!

My Goodwill Find of the Week!

I paid $4.99 for a pair of Nike Air Rifts. I only tried on the right foot. Well, it seems that since I fell while pregnant with the Princess, my left foot is permanently swollen. Either that, or I never noticed that it is larger than the right foot.

In other words, I can't wear size 8s anymore. Well, I can on my right foot, but not on the left side. IDK. It seems weird to me, too. lol.

I put them up on my Ebay, if you want a cheap pair of like new ones, go bid on em! Here they are (along with cute baby feet).

I am SO Lame!

I got all teary-eyed while watching what happens in Vegas. I don't even care for Ashton Kutcher as an actor, yet I let a tear or two slip out while watching the end of that dang movie.

Hormones from breastfeeding?

My Redneck Wedding

Copied and pasted from my myspace blog (sorry guys, I'm lazy like that!).


Gary and I got married July 11 by the JOP in downtown Allegan. The whole affair, including marriage license, cost us less than $40. They gave us a cute little wedding cake before the ceremony.


The bride wore black shorts, a mandarin orange nursing tank, her black maya wrap, and a pair of black teva flip-flops. The groom was dashing in his camo Old Navy shorts, orange t-shirt, and brown leather Old Navy flip-flops.


Yeah, we're a little redneck. So what. It works for us.



My biodad, his girlfriend, Ashton, and Anne Marie were all in attendance. Dad and his gf went home after the ceremony. Gary, the kidlets and I walked over to the local pub with our little wedding cake for some celebratin'. We ordered two giant draft beers and drank them while we devoured the cake. It was very yummy. I love cool-whip icing. Anne Marie tasted it and agrees it's the bomb!

After finishing our beers and cake, Gary and the boy went to the computer store next to the bar (that's my hubby, lover of all things computer!). I wore the sleeping baby into the "Rock Store" (yes, they sell ROCKS) and had the lady who owns it make me a really cool nursing necklace with an orange donut shaped polished rock. Anne Marie doesn't care for it, yet. Eh, even if she never uses it, it looks cool and only cost me five bucks.

Did Anybody Notice How Nice Ashton's Hair Looks Lately?

See the post prior to this for evidence of his shiny healthy hair. About a week ago, I bought some solid shampoo from this place, except this particular listing was on Ebay. It is Rosemary mint solid shampoo, made with goat milk. It smells very minty with a hint of herb (must be rosemary, either way it's not familiar to me). I've been washing his hair with the soap, and taking a dab of my conditioner through it afterwards to smooth his hair out (it's getting thick), then we rinse. His hair smells so good! It's also very shiny and healthy looking.

I have also been using it on my hair in an attempt to "go green". (See a previous post for my failed attempt at No 'Poo!) It works alright for me, but I really think my hair is a bit too oily for it, so I bought some different stuff (also solid, handmade, and all natural) but I will save that for another post after I try it (with pics, of course!).

Oh, and we've switched to all natural soap. I've been reading up on how bad body wash and regular shampoo is for one's skin and hair. That crap is chemical laden!!! I don't want to keep putting chemicals on my kids' skin! So, we ditched storebought cack and went all natural. I bought some soap for the baby that smells like Burt's Bees Baby Bee Buttermilk, and won a couple auctions of gourmet cold process soap for my mom (she has allergies and sensitive, dry skin) and I to share (Lemon pound cake, warm vanilla sugar, and sugared walnut; all three are very yummy smelling!). I bought two plus pounds of handmade cold process soap for less than twenty dollars. I lurve Ebay!

Ashton loves using the new soap. In fact, he doesn't complain about the shampoo bar hurting his eyes, even. I can only come to the conclusion that it is much more gentle than even the tear free baby stuff I usually use on him.

One of these days, I am going to attempt to make my own soap. I will likely start with rebatching and work my way up to cold process (after we have a house, so I can lock up my lye).

I just wish I had the money to buy cloth diapers for Princess Mia. The scarf, sadly, didn't sell. I will have to relist it closer to winter. ;-)

A FIL Rant

Now, don't get me wrong. I love my father-in-law dearly; I really do. He's been there for us when my family wasn't (right now, for example, we are living in his livingroom, basically for free and Gary and I fight daily GRRRR -- my family wouldn't put up with that shit).

Anyhow, FIL has his issues, too. Yesterday, Ashton was playing with his new play dough sets (one is McPukes, the other is the Rat, CEC) OUTSIDE because a few days ago grandpa freaked about playdough chunks on the floor (they were dry and had fallen out of the box, we bought the two sets at a yard sale for fifty cents each). Well, for some unknown reason (beyond my comprehension, apparently) FIL thought it was the ultimate sin that Ashton got playdough chunks on the OUTDOOR PATIO! WTF? He was making my four year old pick it up. OUTFUCKINGSIDE. He was on his knees, yelling at ds about how he was going to throw out the playdough, and scraping the cement with a tent stake. Talk about OCD.

That was definitely an over the top batshit crazy response to a kid having a little bit of fun. I seriously felt bad for Gary having to grow up surrounded by that kind of crazy.

For the first time in my life, I chose to keep my mouth shut. I talked to my husband about it instead of going directly for the jugular of the person who was acting ridiculous about a four year old trying to have some fun. Huh. Mayhaps my filter isn't broken! As we walked the Princess around the yard, I explained to him how the main ingredient in playdough is flour, it is non-toxic, biodegradable, and is even relatively easy to clean off of carpet (you must let it dry first!).

So, in an act of extreme bravery, my dh confronted his father. He told him to quit flipping out, and explained to him the physical properties of playdough. He then told him, "IF you want to ruin the patio by scraping playdough off with a metal tent stake, by all means, do it. " LMAO.

I was so proud of my hubby. He stood up to his dad's oddities and kept a level head doing it. I love that man. :-)

Here he is, the evile little demon spawn who dared spill playdough outside:

Looks wicked, doesn't he?

I Can't Believe It!

It seems like just yesterday I was nursing a newborn. Today, Anne Marie (Mia) is five months old! Where has the time gone? She is so big! She weighed 16lb 11oz at her checkup a week ago. The bad part is that she insists on being held all the time. She's too big for that, IMO. I do still sling her, though. She still loves it when I wear her. :-)

Wow. This is Odd!

Mia is getting her first two teeth. Instead of her top or bottom two front teeth, she's getting her canines. Soon enough, she will look like a little vampire baby.

She's chewing on everything in sight and has been on tylenol for a week now. Ugh. Here she is with the monkeys Aunt Erica gave her. She loves to nom them!

I Can't Do It!

I broke down and shampooed my hair this afternoon. I could no longer handle it. My hair is nice and clean now.

Maybe I will switch to all natural shampoo or something mostly natural, like Burt's Bees. All I know is my hair is too oily to go poo free if I have no vehicle to drive and buy the right kind of vinegar (you are supposed to use apple cider vinegar, I used distilled white, which is NOT the same and that's probably why it didn't work).

Eh, I'll admit I'm not the crunchy type.

A pic I took yesterday of the kidlets:

This No 'Poo Thing

Yesterday was day four. I washed my hair with a concoction of baking soda, honey, and water. TBH, I miss the lathery goodness of shampoo. :-( I rinsed with watered down vinegar. My hair is still a bit slimy today, though it wasn't yesterday. The ends are a bit dry, maybe I need to condition longer today.

In all honesty, I am this -----> <------ close to shampooing my hair! lol.

Tomorrow will be better, right?

Cute baby pic: