Monday, August 29, 2011

Menu Plan Monday - Week of August 28th



As Summer wanes we're trying to get in as much grilling as possible while the weather is still nice!  All too soon it'll be cold and we'll be craving the heavier comfort foods of Winter.

Sunday:  Ribs, Cheesy Potatoes, Sweet Corn, and Peach Cobbler for dessert

Monday:  Mushroom & Swiss Burgers with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Tuesday:  Grilled Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches with Ranch Potato Wedges

Wednesday:  Veggie Enchiladas with Chips and Salsa

Thursday:  Spinoccoli Pizza

Friday:  Chipotle-inspired Chicken Burritos

Saturday:  Out


I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Cell Phone Shopping is a Joke



I've been due for a cell phone upgrade since... I don't know.  A while.  Maybe February?  Anyway, I was due for a cell phone upgrade a while back and at the time we had very briefly looked at what was available and I decided that I was happier with the phone I had (an enV 2) and therefore elected to just hang on to it until it didn't work anymore.

Of course they seem to be quite sneaky about these things, and being eligible for a discounted phone upgrade every year or two, phones seem manufactured to only last about that long.

Here we are are a few months later and the buttons on my phone started to have problems.  They were wearing out and when I'd hit about half of them it was as if I was hitting them twice, instead of once.  So... for example, my text messages would look like this: Whhenn aaree yyoou coominngg hoome?  Which is annoying.  Not to mention, the "reply" button did the same thing, so if I received a text message and hit "reply" it actually registered it as my hitting it twice, which meant that every time it sent a blank text message that I would have to cancel out, then go through the process to open a new text message to send.  SUPREMELY annoying and ineffective. Can you tell I spend more time texting than calling?  Because the call features were fine :P

So anyway, all things considered I determined that I had reached the point of no longer being happy with my improperly functioning phone (which magically began to malfunction shortly after upgrade time, go figure.) and this weekend we set out to get a new one.

Every other time we've shopped for phones it has totally not been a problem.  We go to the store, play with the phones a bit, I pick one that I like (usually because it's a pretty color...) and we're on our way.  Not so, this time around.

We live near a major shopping area in town and we usually go to the Verizon store there.  It's often really crowded on weekends (how many people could possibly need to shop for new phones at the same time?  A lot, apparently.) so we elected to visit a new location that was just as close, but it was a smaller, independently owned shop that ended up being less crowded (we were the only ones there actually, which was really nice).

We told the salesman what I was looking for (basically just a replacement for what I already had) and he directed us to 3 phones (which they call "feature phones".  I have no idea what that actually refers to, but they're the non-smart phones).  Three.  In the entire store.  The rest of their stock were all smart phones.  And I think one of those three was the only one that even kind of fit with what I was looking for.  Not only were these 3 phones not as nice as the one that I currently had, meaning the "feature phones" didn't have as many features as the phone I purchased 2 1/2 years ago, but they were more expensive than the nicer phones they had, which of course, happened to be smartphones.

So, because I didn't want to pay more for a crappier phone than I already had (of course they probably did have working buttons, so I guess it depends on what you're looking at to determine, which is "nicer") we started to look at the cheaper smartphones they had.

They were obviously really pushing them.  In addition to appearing to actually take a step BACK in the technology of their other phones, the smartphones with all the features I wanted (which, hello, I'm not even asking that much!  I want a QWERTY (full) keyboard for texting as well as picture and video capabilities.  Nothing more than what I had in the phone I purchased 2 1/2 years ago!) would cost either $49 or they'd be absolutely free, PLUS if I upgraded to a smartphone from a "feature phone" I could send the old one in for a $100 rebate.  Sounds like a great deal, right?

WRONG.

Because even though the phone is a great deal upfront, you HAVE to purchase a data package to go with it.  Trust me, I asked.  I don't understand why they have to dictate that you get the data package (which is basically just internet access), but they do.  Wait, no, of course I actually do know why.  They have it set up to where you have very limited options and the "smart" choice is a smartphone from which they make an extra $30 a month off of you.  The data package would increase the bill for just my cell phone from $50 (which I already think is too high) to $80 a month.  EIGHTY DOLLARS A MONTH for a single cell phone!  I think that's crazy!  Yes, you get "more" for that extra $30, but I don't actually NEED internet on my phone, so it's $30 for just something extra, that I don't even necessarily want.  I mean... if it were there, I'd use it, but I definitely don't need it nor to I care to be forced into purchasing something I don't want/need.

Am I the only person who doesn't think it's fair to be forced into increasing my bill by $30 a month, or do people just usually accept this as totally fine?  Because I'm beginning to think I'm alone here.

So, we left the Verizon store we were at and headed over to the more crowded one because we wanted to see if they had a bigger selection and they usually have their display phones activated so you can actually play with them to see what they're like.  They did end up having one more "feature phone" that the other location didn't have, but they didn't have any of the smartphones I was interested in because "they're a corporate store so they only carry the newest phones.  The ones I was looking at were already outdated".  What they were actually telling me was they only carried overly expensive phones that I wasn't interested in and I'd have to go back to the smaller, independent retailer if I wanted a better deal.

After we returned home, me with a sour taste in my mouth from the idea of being forced into a higher cell phone bill, I researched the two phones I was interested in and neither received reassuring reviews.

I was left with the following decision: Choose a "feature phone" that didn't have the features I was used to and pay more for it ($79), but keep my same monthly bill, OR choose the smartphone (which was free), and get a $100 rebate for trading in my old phone, but be forced into paying a higher monthly bill for something I didn't even want.

I wasn't impressed with either phone after reading the reviews and either way I went I felt like I was getting a bad deal and didn't have much choice about it.  I really hate being put in that position and I was not happy, to say the least. 

Mark and I discussed it further and he remembered seeing a commercial for Virgin Mobile advertising their new Beyond Talk plan, which starts at $35 a month.  Because we weren't happy with what was happening at Verizon (who we've always been with) and I'm the only phone involved now (Mark's is paid for by his work), we decided to look into switching carriers.  We checked things out online and liked what we saw, so while Jack was napping I ran up to Best Buy to look into it further.  They carry phones and plans for Sprint, Virgin Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T.

I talked to a really helpful salesman, chose a phone that I liked (that got awesome reviews online), and purchased my plan.  With Virgin, the phones are a little more expensive upfront (the one I picked was one of the nicer options at $149.99), but the monthly bill is WAY more affordable, which made me feel okay about investing a little more upfront in the phone.  I'm on a plan with unlimited web, data, messaging, and email and 300 talk minutes a month for $35.  It's the lowest plan available, but it should be fine for me as the most talk minutes I've used in a month is right around 150.  I text way more than I talk.  But, if I need more minutes, I can pay $45 for the same plan, but with 1200 minutes instead of 300.  Still less than what I was paying for JUST talk and text with Verizon, and much less than the $80 I would have been paying for a comparable plan with them.

And, the other great thing is there is no contract, it's month-to-month, so if I try it for a month and decide I don't like it because of lack of coverage or something (it's on the Sprint network, so I'm hoping it'll be okay...) I can just return the phone (I have 30 days to return the phone to Best Buy with no restocking fee, compared to the $35 restocking fee I would have had to pay with Verizon if I had returned the phone within 14 days) and look into other options.  We're out nothing for trying something new and we certainly don't have any reason for staying with Verizon.  We used to have unlimited text messaging grandfathered in with them for $5 a month, but when our contract was up in February they said they could no longer offer that option at that price.  Nice, Verizon.  Nice.  So, again, absolutely no reason to remain loyal to them.  They certainly haven't remained loyal to us as customers. And the helpful salesman at Best Buy was even able to set up my Virgin Mobile account so that I was able to keep my same phone number!  So nice.  Oh, and they will transfer your contacts for free at Best Buy.  If you want Verizon to do it (you can do it through their website, but if you want them to handle it for you in-store) they charge $10 even though it takes them about two minutes to do.  Lame. 

Also, if anyone is interested in switching to Virgin Mobile, they are offering a deal right now where if you purchase a phone through their website before Labor Day and activate a Beyond Talk plan by October 4th they'll credit your account in the amount of $25 as a bonus for being a new customer.  I'm kind of bummed that I missed out on the $25 credit (okay... a lot bummed), BUT I needed to purchase through Best Buy because I was able to get insurance on the phone through them ($19.99 for 2 years, if you purchase the insurance through Virgin it's $5 every month, so I'm saving money in the long run) and hai, I have a toddler.  I can't have a phone without insurance coverage because if he gets a hold of the thing, I can't guarantee it's going to work afterwards :-/

So... in conclusion.  Verizon sucks.  I'm wholly underwhelmed with their business practices right now.  Virgin Mobile has an awesome alternative with their new Beyond Talk plan and I hope it works out for me.  If it does, I'm going to be saving money in the long run.  I'm going to be calling Mark from various points around the area for the next month to make sure I have adequate coverage :D

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

We're back!


We're back from vacation and I can honestly say, I think this is the first time that I've ever been more tired upon return than when I left!  Vacationing with a baby is definitely a whole different experience than as an adult couple.  We did have LOTS of fun though, and I'm so glad we did it!

We visited Myrtle Beach, SC which is over 600 miles away from us.  We drove and it's just shy of 11 hours one way.  Mark and I have made this trip and stayed in this location a few times before, and I visited as a child with my family, but this was Jack's very first trip!  It was also his very first time sleeping away from home, which we were pretty nervous about.

We left really early Friday morning.  Our plan was to get the car packed, sleep for a few hours, and then leave.  Of course reality laughed at our plans as usual and with the crunch of everything we needed to get accomplished before leaving we were packing the car at about 10pm.  Mark finally called it a night and demanded sleep shortly after 11pm.  While he slept I continued packing and getting things ready to go.  He was doing the driving so I knew I would be able to sleep in the car and I don't do well with "power naps" anyway.  A little amount of sleep just makes my body crave sleep more!  

When planning the trip we had talked about leaving at Jack's bedtime and driving all night to get there for optimum chances of Jack sleeping through the ride.  We had concerns about how he'd do being stuck in a car for so long as we've never attempted a trip like this before.  We decided against this option for two reasons: one, we'd arrive much earlier than our scheduled check in time, but also, Mark didn't feel comfortable driving all night with no sleep.  It's kind of funny now because he obviously didn't get much sleep on our compromise plan either! 

So anyway, Mark slept from about 11pm-1am and then I woke him up as planned.  We finished packing the last minute things that I had been working on, scooped Jack out of bed and gathered the essential things from his room that we weren't able to pack until last minute and we were on our way at 1.45am!

When we got in the car Jack was so confused!  He was looking at all the stuff packed in the car and pointing and saying "Huh.  Huh?".  We found out that while traveling with a little one you basically have to bring your whole house.  Mark's truck filled up quickly.  Last time we made this trip (right before I got pregnant actually!) I think we brought two suitcases and a cooler, total.




We were hoping he'd go right back to sleep since it was the middle of the night, but that wasn't the case.  He was up for a while before he conked out again.  Basically, he kind of napped on and off the whole car ride.  He was awake for much more of the time than we were hoping, but it ended up being totally fine because he hardly made a peep the whole ride!  Although... around 4.30am he did start signing "all done" to me (I assume with being in the car!) and I had to unfortunately tell him that we still had a long way to go!

Jack and I caught a few winks of sleep (he more than I...) and we stopped for breakfast around 8am.  We changed his diaper, his clothes (we put him in the car in his PJs), ate, and refueled and then we were back on the road.  Jack spent the rest of the time looking out the window (he's still rear-facing and did just fine), playing with the books and toys I brought to give him in the car, and napping periodically.  He was doing so well that when we were able 3-4 hours out from our destination we decided to forgo stopping for lunch as we had planned and continue on.  I fed him lunch in the car and when we were about 1 1/2-2 hours away he ended up falling asleep for another little nap so it worked out really well!

Overall, the drive down went beautifully and way better than we were expecting!

When we arrived at the hotel, Jack immediately found his favorite location in the room: the balcony.




This kid was in-out-in-out-in-out the whole time!  He must have gone between the room and the balcony 100 times a day!  He loved it out there and thankfully he only threw one toy overboard that Daddy had to go retrieve.  Oops!

We did plenty of eating (as usual)

Jack's first hushpuppy

He didn't seem overwhelmingly impressed.

We spent a lot of time at the beach.  More than we ever have before, actually.  When we went by ourselves we visited the beach, but spent most of the time at the pool, lounging and reading and napping in the sun.  Those days are surely gone!

Jack loved the sand and loved to walk all over the beach visiting with people and making friends.  I was mildly worried he'd be scared of the ocean (it's kind of big and loud for little people!), but that wasn't a problem.  It wasn't his favorite thing, but he didn't seem to dislike it.

Periodically he'd run up to the very edge and let the water get his toes.  The funny thing was that he'd watch the surf as it came and went and he'd lean into it so much so that he'd fall over so if he got any closer than the very, very edge, one of us had to make sure to hold him up so he didn't accidentally fall and get a mouthful of water!
 
Jack's first visit to the ocean!

Standing in the surf with Daddy.

And he did a lot of running.  Maybe he has a future on the remake of Baywatch?

Back to the surf.



At least we're all in the picture so you can see we were all there... :-/

Playing in the sand!



Sunglasses!

My biggest worry going in was sleep!  I feared that none of us would sleep for the whole week and we were very pleasantly surprised to find that it really wasn't an issue.  He slept in his pack-n-play in his own room.  We kept to the same pre-sleep routine as much as possible and brought his white noise machine along.

The first night he did cry for about 10 minutes.  I hatehatehate to hear him cry, but I knew that he needed to get settled on his own.  After 10 minutes he went to sleep.  I thought maybe he'd wake up overnight and get upset again, but we were again pleasantly surprised when he slept clear through!

The next day, we laid him down for a nap at his usual time and he cried for about 10 minutes then went to sleep.  He slept for a bit, but was back awake again very quickly.  We finally gave up on the nap and went to get him to discover that he had a dirty diaper.  Parenting fail.  We had no idea that's why he wasn't sleeping as he's never had a dirty diaper in bed before!  It was a common theme though as he often woke up on vacation with a dirty diaper.  Weird.  

The second night, he cried for about 5 minutes before falling asleep, and did the same at nap.  By the third day and night he didn't cry at all, he just laid right down and went to sleep.  It was a much easier transition than we were expecting and we were very happy that it went so well!  He didn't get quite as much sleep as usual, he was up a little earlier and didn't take quite as long naps, but overall we all got enough sleep, it went smoothly, so I'm certainly not going to complain!

The one hiccup that we did have was on the 4th day of our trip.  We woke up and had breakfast and Jack played in the room for a short time, then we got ready to head to the beach as usual.  We got to the beach and Jack was unhappy, kind of fussy, and didn't seem to want to be there.  He was sitting with Mark and laid his head on Mark's chest and looked like he was getting sleepy, which we thought odd as we had only been up a short time.  We were just discussing whether we should just let him chill out like that for a while, or if we should head back up to the room to let him rest and then he threw up all over the place!  Well... all over Mark really.  Not fun.

So, we headed back up to the room, popped him in the shower, and then he sat with me wrapped in a towel out on the balcony.  All he wanted to do was snuggle, which is very unlike him these days.  We knew he was feeling badly, and very shortly after he got out of the shower it was clear that he had a low-grade fever going on.  ::cue panic::

Of course Mark and I were worried that he was getting sick.  We were worried how sick he would be, how the rest of our trip was going to go, how the drive home would go with a sick kid, what we were going to do with a sick kid in a hotel room half a day away from home.

So we did the only thing that we could do, we snuggled and eventually we moved inside to our bed.  Jack laid with us for a bit just watching TV and then he fell asleep on the bed.  Again, very unlike him as of late.  He's at an age where he's so excitable there's no way he'll just fall asleep with stuff going on around him, but sleep he did.  We took it easy that day and stayed in.  He just snuggled and slept on and off all day long.  Late afternoon he woke up and threw up again (on Mark... again.  Somehow I came away unscathed, good boy!) and then he went back to sleep.  His low-grade fever persisted.  Early evening he woke up and seemed to be feeling better.  He didn't feel as hot and got down from the bed to play for a bit.  Despite sleeping all day, he was ready to go to bed at the same time as usual.

We were worried he'd be up overnight feeling sick again, but he woke up the next morning and seemed totally fine!  It was like it had never happened at all.  It was really strange, but we sure were thankful!  So we took it easy a second day and instead of going to the beach, we popped him in the stroller to walk around and do some casual shopping.  He was totally fine the rest of trip!  Phew!

The trip home was uneventful.  He was a little more agitated than when we were heading down.  He was still really great and managed the trip well, but we did stop for both breakfast and lunch to give him a break from being in the car.

We're SO glad to be home (Jack included.  I know he missed his bed!) and although we made some great memories we really could use a vacation from vacation! 

Monday, August 22, 2011

Menu Plan Monday - Week of August 21st




We're back from vacation and more than ready for some yummy home cooked meals!  As nice as it is to not have to worry about cooking dinner or cleaning up afterwards or emptying the dishwasher everyday (sometimes twice!), restaurant meals get old quickly!


Sunday:  Panini with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Monday:  BLTs with Crispy Baked Zucchini Fries

Tuesday:  Beer-marinated Grilled Chicken with PW's Crash Hot Potatoes and Sweet Corn

Wednesday:  Fish Tacos with Mango Slaw and Restaurant Style Salsa with Chips

Thursday:  Hawaiian Chicken Sandwiches with leftover Mango Slaw and Salsa

Friday:  Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Saturday:  Out


I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Monday, August 8, 2011

Menu Plan Monday - Week of August 7th




Sunday:  Burgers with Baked Sweet Potato Fries and Sweet Corn - carried over from last week

Monday:  Pollo Loco - Mexican Chicken and Rice with 'Refried' Beans (from freezer)

Tuesday:  Panini with Baked Potato

Wednesday:  Shrimp Tacos with Corn Salsa

Thursday:  Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Friday:  OUT!

Saturday:  OUT!


I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Friday, August 5, 2011

::vacation dance::




Woohoo!  We're leaving for our very first family vacation soon and I'm SO excited!  I've been looking forward to this for a long time and it's definitely a much needed break away from real life!  Wheee! 

Okay, BUT for the very first time, I'm not just blissfully excited about vacation... I'm also just a little bit nervous about this whole thing.  Because it's our first family vacation.  Read: this is Jack's first vacation and additionally his first time sleeping away from home.  See why I'm a leeeetle nervous?

And on top of that, we're going to the beach (WATER!  Lot's of water to keep an exploring toddler from falling into or... jumping into when we aren't ready for it), which also happen to be about a 12 hour (!!!) drive away (12 hours!  In a car.  With a baby!) from our home.

Well, if nothing else, you certainly can't accuse us of not just jumping right in and doing things 100%... right?

So, we'll be gone for a week (with a baby who possibly won't sleep for any of those 7 days) with 2, count them, TWO(!), 12 hour car trips in the span of that week.

For what it's worth we'll be doing the drives mostly overnight (hopefully Jack sticks to his usual sleep schedule ::pleasepleaseplease::). 

Are we crazy?  Will anyone be sleeping or enjoying this vacation?  Please say yes.

I think my *biggest* fear, surprisingly enough, is what will happen when we return home?  Jack's back to having an awesome sleep schedule and I just don't see him sticking with it while we're on vacation (at least I don't expect him to).  When we return home can we expect that he'll get back to his sleep schedule in a reasonable amount of time?  Or will he punish us by never sleeping again nevereverforever?  Because that doesn't seem like much fun for anyone.

Anyone with experience vacationing with a toddler want to weigh in and share your experience?  Any tips for keeping our sanity? 

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

17 Months!


What's Jack up to this month?

He has started to show interest in feeding himself with a fork so he's been practicing that.  He does pretty well with it, but of course, as with anything else in the life of a toddler, he only wants to do it when he wants to do it.  That's okay though.

Eating Waffles of Insane Greatness, which really are great.  Fork in one hand, and telling Daddy "all done" {with pictures} with the other.  This kid is serious about his waffles and wasn't amused with getting his picture taken.


Speaking of food, he's still doing pretty well.  He's still on a serious berry kick and will literally eat half a pint of blueberries in a sitting before we have to cut him off because a) how many blueberries are too many for a 17 month old?  I don't want him turning into a blueberry a la Violet Beauregarde, and 2) blueberries ain't cheap and this kid kills them in 2 sittings. 

Jack hasn't added any new words to his repertoire, but I have noticed that his passive language skills are improving by leaps and bounds.  He understand A LOT of what we say now.  He's knows the names of a lot of things, and can do things if you ask him to.  Well... IF he wants to.  He's still a toddler so often he'll act like I'm not talking to him when I'm well aware that not only can he hear me, but he understands exactly what I'm saying.  Ah well.  He can point to his mouth and nose when asked (when he feels like it), and will kick if you ask him to.  He likes to point out different things like Mr. Monkey, which hangs above his changing table.  Asking him to point it out entertains him for about .02 seconds while getting his diaper changed :-/

He looooves to dance.  He will stop whatever he's doing and dance if you ask him to.  He also dances at really random things like a commercial jingle, and OF COURSE if I sing a song he loves it.  Because, what can I say, I'm just a fabulous singer.  He usually claps afterwards as well!  Or... sometimes halfway through the song.  I'm SURE he's not trying to nicely tell me I should stop singing ;)  I usually turn music videos on in the mornings while he's playing so he can intermittently dance along.  He really likes it and has his favorite songs.  And of course, I turn Sesame Street on for him in the afternoons and he just loves that show!  He loves Elmo's World, which I think is probably the favorite part for every toddler, yes?  But he dances along to all the songs and gets up close to the TV to point things out and yesterday he even giggled at something that happened, which was cute.  

Sleep is good.  He's been sleeping about 8.30pm to 9am overnight and still naps from 1 to 4pm in the afternoons. 

Oh, here's something we struggle with all day, everyday.  ::tears hair out::


Dumping his "spill proof" (Ha.ha.ha.) sippy cup is one of Jack's favorite past times.  Why?!  All day we go back and forth with this.  Jack wants his cup so I give it to him.  He drinks it for a minute then he immediately flips it over and starts shaking or tapping the water out and looks right at me waiting for a reaction.  I've tried telling him "no", which of course does nothing, and then taking it.  And I've also tried having no reaction except for to calmly walk over and take it from him.  He used to cry if we had to take it, now it doesn't even seem to phase him.  Any suggestions on how to handle this and get him to STOP spilling the contents of his cup everywhere?  Because it's really frustrating.  I can't keep the cup from him because he needs to drink, but every time I give it to him it ends with the game of him spilling it and getting it taken away.

Grrr...

Moving on...

I'm sure the biggest accomplishment of this month, according to Jack, is finally being able to climb on the furniture.  He's been trying for a while off and on and obviously we haven't encouraged it because I don't particularly enjoy him having this ability, but a few days ago he finally got it and he's been up, down, up, down, up, down, ever since.

Yep.  He's obviously very proud of himself.

And it took him about 2 seconds to realize he can now reach the stuff we hide on the back of the furniture.

This puts us in quite a quandary because the final frontier has now been conquered.  There has been an evolution of where we keep things that Jack can't play with like our drinks, computers, camera, the aforementioned sippy cup that he can't help but spill everywhere, etc.  First, we were still able to keep this stuff laying around anywhere.  And then he became a little mobile and we had to make sure the stuff was sitting in the center of the coffee table so he couldn't reach it.  And then he started pulling up on things and we had to move stuff to the furthest corner of the side table to keep his fingers from reaching it.  And then he could reach that so we started putting stuff up on the back of the furniture.  And now... he can reach that.  So.  Yeah, we're kind of out of places to put things.  I need like a 5 foot high shelf that goes around my entire family room.  It'll be a while until he can reach things that high, right?  Probably not. 

So now he spends a lot of time in Daddy's chair:

Just chillaxin' with my Woo Woo {Firetruck}

What's back here?

Oooh, yes...

Victory is MINE!

I'll just sit here and ponder my plunder.

And now I will JUMP!

What?  I might fall off?  Nonsense, woman.  Does this face look like it believes you? 

Other fun activities:

Stacking blocks.  He can stack 5 block tall towers!  And he can also throw his blocks all around the room :-/

Riding his rocking horse that Grandma A.J. gave him.

He recently discovered the rocking horse.  It was being stored in our office next to the dog's cage.  He saw it one day and started waving at it and making the sound that he makes when he sees an animal.  perhaps he thought it was another dog since it was in the same room where Belle "lives"?  So, I brought it out and he didn't really know what to think at first, but then he decided it was pretty darn cool!  And even though he's still a touch small for it he loves to ride {with assistance}.

And playing on the iPad with Daddy.  Maybe Angry Birds? 

He has also discovered that spinning in circles is entertaining:

Monday, August 1, 2011

Menu Plan Monday - Week of July 31st




Sunday:  Ribs with Classic Mac & Cheese and Sweet Corn - carried over from last week

Monday:  Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries and Broccoli Salad

Tuesday:  Leftovers/Out

Wednesday:  Shredded Buffalo Chicken Wraps with leftover Broccoli Salad

Thursday:  Cobb Salad

Friday:  BBQ Chicken Pizza 


I'm linked at OrgJunkie.com

Saturday:  Leftovers/Out