Poppin' Tags

One of our favorite things to do is go to Goodwill. Levi refers to it as "poppin' tags" ever since the song Thrift Shop by Macklemore became a hit. He loves it so much that he prefers to go thrift shopping instead of other old favorites like the local indoor jungle gym or the children's museum. We're lucky to have 3 locations within 15 minutes of us so it takes a little gambling to decide which one we feel we have the best odds of finding a great deal at. Someday I'd like to go to all 3 in a row. That would probably make the guys in my life pretty content for the afternoon!

Here are some of our latest and/or greatest finds:

Build your ship (lego) Battleship game

All for under $30!

$270 jersey for $10!

Shot glass with shot measurements

Making Alien guts

I feel that even if we were filthy rich we'd still go and enjoy our trips to the thrift shop!

What are some great finds you've had while thrift shopping?

Thanking God I don't (and won't) have a daughter

I have never wanted a daughter for many reasons. I have enough mood swings and if there were another girl under this roof things would probably get ugly.. real ugly. Also, it would be just my luck that if I had a girl she would act like a little princess. Yeah, I'm a hairstylist but I am not girly. I couldn't deal with a girl wanting to wear nothing but dresses and sitting in front of the mirror for hours applying make up. And what about when she would start having sleepovers with her friends? The loud boy band music blaring and the squealing/shrieking/screaming that girls do?! It would drive me insane.. Not to mention one day she would probably get married, plan this huge elaborate wedding and I would feel obligated to pay for it. No thank you. (Did I really just go there? Oh well.)

I am glad though that I have a sister and a cousin close to my sisters age. We can go get our nails done, I can go with them when they shop for their prom dresses and wedding dress and I already style their hair whenever we're together. I can get my girl fix whenever I want and don't have to put up with all of the other stuff! It's perfect!

I had dreams years and years and years ago of having 3 boys. All hockey players. Once I had Levi though the number of children I wanted changed from 3 down to 2 in a hurry. The thought of being outnumbered terrifies me. My mom had three more kids starting when I was 12 and I see how difficult/tiring it can be juggling all of their activities now that they're older. Plus, the more kids you have the more fighting there will probably be. Can't forget about the expense of having kids too. I am really looking forward to when we start taking family vacations and would much rather pay for 4 plane tickets than 5.. and 4 dinners instead of 5, etc. etc. And that hockey I mentioned? Yeah.. I don't want them into that. Too expensive.

Life is really great having two boys. What Levi is done with can be used for Rex which is saving us a ton of money! In the future when they have sleepovers with their friends they'll be playing video games and/or running around outside getting dirty. I can definitely put up with that! Having boys means I won't have to deal with PMS from them or complaints of bad hair days (hopefully). I can already see the amazing bond that they have and how much they enjoy having each other around. I can only hope that it will last their lifetime.

Silver Slide : The best spur of the moment decision

Levi has been asking for a cat lately. I don't do cats. But I'd be willing to get one if he agreed to take care of it and there were ground rules in place.

I'm an animals-in-cages person. It's been in the back of my head ever since our snake Frankenstein escaped (story for some other time?) to get a hamster. A couple weeks ago though Levi captured a baby Frog that we took in and made a home for in Frankenstein's old cage. We couldn't get it to eat and it passed away a few days ago. I found myself enjoying having that frog to check up on and entertain us. I was bummed he didn't make it.

Andy was working from home yesterday so I decided to find some "errands" to run to get us out of the apartment for a while so it would be easier for him to work. First stop: Petsmart! The plan was to look. Just look. And to also price things out because I knew I wanted us to have a hamster sometime in the near future. I went there thinking it would cost around $100. Once we were there and checked out all of the things we would need for one I discovered we could get everything (including the hamster) for almost half of what I thought!

I gave Andy a call and he said "Do whatever you want. It's up to you." I talked it over with Levi and made a deal. I told him that I know he wants a cat so if we get this hamster and he helps me clean the cage, feed, water and play with him then once the hamster is no longer with us we can talk seriously about getting a cat. That is if he proves that he can help take care of one. Levi loved that idea!

We looked over all the different types of hamsters they had. All but two of them were sleeping. Levi fell in love with the most active one. This hamster was filling his mouth up with bedding and bringing it into his house. He thought this was absolutely hilarious! It was then that I was completely sold on the idea of taking home a hamster today. Seeing Levi light up like that was the best!

It was so fun picking out the different things we needed for our hamster, getting home and setting it all up. Once he was in his cage Levi sat watching him for the longest time and found everything that this hamster did incredibly funny! When I asked Levi what we should name him he said "Silver Slide". Who knows where it came from or how he came up with it!

I see many great memories ahead with Silver Slide and I'm sure Levi will remember him for the rest of his life like I remember my first hamster at his age, "Elmo".

Big Vegan Fail

Remember back when I posted about going vegan for a week? Well, that lasted a whole 6 hours or so. I was at the Twin's game with a veggie burger in my lap (that I researched and was told via a blog that it was vegan) and realized that it had cheese in it. I couldn't eat cheese! The burger wasn't vegan! I was not happy. But then it hit me. I had an ice cream sandwich earlier in the day. I ate ice cream and didn't even realize until HOURS later that I had eaten an animal product and failed miserably at being vegan for a week. So, damage was done and I scarfed down that deliciously cheesy veggie burger and decided to go for being vegetarian instead.

Easy!

I lasted two weeks without meat. I missed my turkey sandwiches and the bacon at the cabin was quite tempting but other than that it was an easy feat. Until Andy brought home a chicken wild rice pizza he made at work for a pizza competition. I couldn't pass that up. Man it was good! After that I eased into things and meat is now back into my life like it once was.

I thought that not having meat for two weeks would make me feel different but it didn't. The best thing it probably did for me was save me money!

I wouldn't be surprised if I was an on again off again vegetarian but I couldn't not eat meat for the rest of my life. I think the most important thing is just being healthy overall with your food choices.

We were given these sharp teeth for a reason right?!

Hating on Housewives

I hate the term housewife. To me it screams cooking, cleaning and making home life as easy as possible for your husband. I'm going to be upfront and say that I don't agree with said housewives. I don't think that just because I'm a woman I should be the one responsible for all of the cooking and the cleaning. I feel that men should contribute around the house just as much by doing laundry, dishes, vacuuming, cooking, scrubbing toilets, etc.

Gender stereotypes drive me nuts.

I hope to raise my boys so that they don't once think of mopping the floor as a "woman's job" or fixing a rickety chair a "man's job", for example. If I have it my way they will be an equal contributor to their household no matter what the chore.

I love that my man holds his own around the house and in doing so is a wonderful role model for the boys. Yeah I might have to ask him to help me every now and then but he has no problem helping when asked. It's also great that he's a dang good cook because I'm awful in the kitchen (I just melted a plastic bowl on a burner yesterday..).

Even though I don't agree with the woman doing everything around the house I have to admit that it feels great when I have the place put together, dinner on the table and he can come home and put his feet up for the night.

Just as long as it isn't an every day thing ;-)

Are you a housewife? What's your opinion on this matter? I'd love to hear it!

Rex is 11 Months Old!

This last month has completely flown by! How can it be that in one month my baby will be a YEAR old?! I'm going to soak it up these next 30+ days because I'm dreading having a toddler and not a baby anymore.

It's official: Rex is walking! He took his first real step (as in he didn't fall right afterward) on June 26th which is his uncle Chase's birthday and his late grandpa Steve's birthday. It was so sweet that it happened on their special day! We were at Chase's birthday party at my moms and my grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins were also there so he was surrounded by family (and a bunch of hooray's) when it happened. Surprisingly I didn't shed any tears though. He had been attempting his first step for about a week before so it didn't come as a shock. Now 3 weeks later he is up to 15 steps in a row before falling and has gone about 5-6 feet across the room. Crawling is still his main cruise mode but it won't be long and he'll be found upright more often than on the ground!

He's also started standing from a sitting position on the floor without help from anything for leverage. Now that was a shock when he did it for the first time!

We went to his first parade yesterday in my hometown and it was there that he finally picked up waving. I guess all it took for him to get it was hundreds of people going past us in the parade while waving for 2 hours!

After a lot of time outside he has gotten used to the grass. A month ago he hated it and how he'll cruise right through it.

His favorite food is meat. You give him any type of meat and it's the first thing gone off of his highchair tray.

We're still breastfeeding! My goal was 12 months but I don't see an end in sight. I'm totally okay with that and we will wean when he's ready. No people, he will not go to school still nursing. I might send it in a straw cup for him though ;-) (totally kidding..)

His top teeth have really come in now giving him a total of 6 clearly visible teeth. No more gummy smiles from Rexy!

We have noticed lately that Rex sure doesn't like it when he doesn't get his way. He'll arch his back, throw back his head and cry when something is taken from him or he's prevented from going somewhere (like the bathroom). I see some tough tantrums in our future if he's got this down already before he's one! I just keep thinking to myself "this is my last child.. I don't have to go through this again" and it helps me feel better when times are tough.

He has also started crying when strangers talk to him and is found to be a total mama's boy.. but he sure does love his dada!

Happy 11 months, Rexy! You're such an amazing little guy!