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Post by beaglemom on Jan 6, 2016 6:33:45 GMT
Dh weighs himself almost every morning. Normally I weigh myself a couple times a week. But at the moment I'm 28 weeks pregnant and only weighing myself maybe once a week and then at my doctors appointments. I wasn't as sick at the beginning of this pregnancy as I was with my other two, so I gained more at the beginning with this one than the others which freaked me out a little bit. But it looks like i haven't gained any in the last 10 weeks so I'm closer to being were I wanted to be. Being overweight I would probably be find not gaining anymore this pregnancy. So trying to eat healthy and to keep moving.
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 6, 2016 5:58:29 GMT
With my grandpa it was when he got physical with my grandma. We had been trying to convince her for a couple of months, but it wasn't until he tried to restrain her when she tried to get help that she realized he needed more care than she could give. They were fortunate in that they lived in a retirement community that has fully independent living (that they had lived in for 14 years at that point) all the way to hospice care and also a memory unit. So he moved into a room in the memory unit and she downsized to a studio (from their 2 bedroom, two bath unit). I think we moved him late August, he passed away early October. My grandmother has a new lease on life. The burden of caring for him had been dragging her down, she couldn't leave him at all. He would even get upset when she tried to close the door to have privacy in the bathroom. It was just over a year ago that he passed and she has come to visit us (my dad picks her up and brings her up from Santa Barbara) more in that time that she had in the 3 years leading up to it. She is much more social and even though she gets confused at times I swear she seems 5 years younger than she did in the year leading up to his death.
Hugs!
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 6, 2016 5:25:43 GMT
Where should we eat? any place I can actually see the price of menu items? I looked at menus on DL site, but there are no prices. I'd really like to have an idea of the cost.At the nicer restaurants stuff is pricey. But everything we have had is tasty. I would go right now to the website and book all your reservations. You can cancel them up to the day before, but we forgot to book ahead this last time and it was hard to get places and times that we wanted. Stuff books up early for good times and locations. We really, really enjoyed Carthay Circle in California Adventure, pricey, but oh so good and amazing drinks too. There is no alcohol in Disneyland, but there is in California Adventure. They have a great wine tasting place in CA and all the drinks we had places were good. In Disneyland we really like Blue Bayou, Pirates of the Caribbean goes through/by the restaurant which is fun. Wine country Trattoria in CA is also great. Disneyland - Jungle Cruise, train, Haunted Mansion, Autotopia, and depending on when you are going Small world and Splash mountain are the major stuff that are closed or closing in the next week or two. My kids are super bummed about Autotopia, it is one of their favorites. Oddly enough the Tikki room is one of my favorites, there is a special line if you are waiting for it in the waiting area where you can get Dole Whips - rather than standing in the other line. I believe that is the only place you can get them at DL. Wear good walking shoes! California Adventure - the Radiator Springs Cars ride is awesome, go early and/or get a fast pass. We had magic morning and went right when they opened to skip the lines, I think on that one you can also go as a single rider to make the line time go faster. There are some great rides that are more roller coaster than the traditional Disneyland rides. The Toy Story midway is fun, but is another one that can have a really long line. Prices we are going in two weeks, I'll try to remember to take pictures of some of the menus if that is before you are going. but I would say the nicer sit downs are $30-50 per person after food and drink. NVM I just checked by googling Disneyland restaurant prices and was able to get at least the Blue Bayou menu with prices. My guess is that you should be able to google the ones you want to find the prices. Downtown disney there are some fun shops and restaurants. One of my favorite necklaces came from the jewelry place there - non disney necklace. Also there is a store that has some really awesome Disney art for sale, we love looking around in there. If you scrapbook I would really, really recommend taking advantage of the photo pass option. Google it (I was just working on our photos from a couple weeks ago so it keeps pulling up mine when I try to get you a link). They have photographers all over the park and if you download the Disneyland App it has all the locations where there are photographers. They take great pictures and for $69.99 you can get all the digital files from the photos you have taken. We were there at the beginning of December and we were there 2 days and had over 80 pictures. You can add and save extra versions of the pictures with special borders and elements for no additional charge. The first person that takes your picture will give you a photo pass card and then every time after that after someone take your picture you hand them the card and they scan the qr code on your card and it adds your pictures to the account. I took a picture of the back of the card as soon as they gave it to me, that way if I lost it I still had the number to put in online. You can add multiple card numbers to the same order, so one day we forgot our card the first time we went and I just got another and added both to the account and was able to get all the pictures. I was really impressed with the quality of the pictures! Also they have the photographers at the character meet and great locations too, which I really liked so we could all be in the pictures! They will also take pictures on your camera or phone for you, but sometimes it is nice to not have to worry about it! My kids are 2 and 4 so we haven't done any of the sit down shows. They both liked World of Color, but I think that will be shut down while you are there. We did a dining package with it that gave us priority seating, nice bonus! We are going the 16-19th and dh is running the Star Wars halfmarathon that is on the 17th. My parents are coming this time with us and it has been at least 20 years since they have been, so I'm super excited for them to experience it with the kids. Have fun!
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 5, 2016 22:42:18 GMT
We started talking about it before we even had kids. Both sets of parents were out. Dh's because they are older, very different parenting style, and there is just no way in hell. My parents would raise them religiously different than we would want. Both of dh's sisters are out. They both have 3 kids each, live a couple states away and we aren't done having kids. Also older sil and her dh work way too much. Other sil and her dh are horrible with money and we don't agree with their parenting choices either. We thought we would go with some friends that have twins a year older than dd and they are now our number 2 choice. But once my sister started dating her now dh and we watched them both fall head over heels in love with our kids we decided they would go with them. They would have the option to keep our house or sell it as needed. Originally the plan was to have someone in dh's family be in charge of the finances to make sure that both sides get to see the kids. But my bil is in finance and to be honest I trust him way more than any of dh's family to manage the funds for the kids. Plus I know that they would make sure the kids saw dh's side as well.
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 5, 2016 22:24:33 GMT
Pay off our house. Pay off my parents house. Pay for the remodeling that needs to be done on both. Buy a house in "town," but also keep our current home in the woods. Set up trusts for our kids. Buy a house in the area for my sister and her dh. Travel.
There would be issues with one of dh's sisters and her dh. They spend money they don't have and keep trying to come up with ideas on how to get others to help them out - ie that bil should be the project manager for my inlaws remodel (so he can earn some money). Never mind that they live 3 states away and come here at most once every 2-3 years.
Really the paying off our house, trusts for our kids, remodeling our house, and travel are all doable in our current financial situation. But we are looking at the big picture and doing things slowly to be fiscally responsible.
Travel wise dh has put $10 million as the amount we have to have in the bank to start always flying first class. I get that, but man traveling with kids would be so much easier in first class!
There are a number of charities that would be getting some very large checks from us. We would also probably buy in trust some land near us to keep it undeveloped. I would also love to start a school.
It would be nice to be able to help out my parents and my sister. But we are very fortunate that life is good and our want list isn't too long.
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 5, 2016 22:07:02 GMT
I used to be really good about it. We even sent thank you for attending our wedding postcards to all our guests from our honeymoon, we were going to be gone for 2 months and didn't have a chance to write the wedding gift ones that we got right before the wedding since we left 2 days later. I did have a friend of my mil complain that I hadn't sent her one. At that point I had already mailed it, but the gift didn't arrive till 6 months after the wedding and she asked just a couple days later where her thank you card was.
My family was always big on thank you cards. Dh's family not so much. The first 5 or so years I would write them, but 14 years later having gotten only 1 or 2 total from his family it is no longer on my to do list.
That being said I bought my dd (4.5) a pack of thank you cards that she helped pick out and we talked about writing them. We just got home last night from being out for town for the holidays so it is on the to do list for this weekend.
I know I really appreciate when someone sends me one, but I do feel like it is a dying art!
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 5, 2016 6:03:24 GMT
Thank you for posting this. So important for us all to know and remember.
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 4, 2016 6:14:51 GMT
1) Sign up for the daily emails They are totally worth the $14.99. You get a daily email with tips, explanations of what your body is going through, support. Great to see the days countdown in your inbox, also there is an option at the end of each email to start your Whole 30 over again if you screwed up. This continues to work....I have used the emails to get me through multiple Whole30s, only paying that first time. 2) The Nourishing Home has a ton of free resources and she is starting a Whole30 group any day now. She also has a great facebook group. She sends out free weekly meal plans with links to recipes. 3) Check everything!!! You would be surprised all the places sugar lurks - spaghetti sauce, bacon.... 4) You can do this!!! I would love to do one again asap....but my current pregnancy is making eating veggies hard and I am just going to wait till I get through it to do another one. The difference in sleep was the hugest thing for me and was amazing. You will also find that your tastebuds change and you will discover lots of new foods! Zoodles are also amazing!
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 3, 2016 6:30:11 GMT
OMG...who else is watching the TCU/Oregon game. This is UNREAL I was there. It was amazing!!! We are at the team hotel right now, hoping to see the team come back. What a game!! Riff Ram Bah Zoo!!! I'm jealous! My feed has been full of photos of friends at the game.
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 3, 2016 0:38:31 GMT
Yeah just looked it up a bunch of places it is vegan and gluten free. So no dairy!
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 3, 2016 0:33:41 GMT
I don't know. But I am 99% sure that there is no dairy in the Disneyland version.
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 2, 2016 23:57:18 GMT
Wow I thought my inlaws were bad! I'm glad you got to head home!
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Post by beaglemom on Jan 1, 2016 0:08:45 GMT
I guess I don't understand the point of going on a *family* vacation if you feel that way. To me the purpose of going on a family vacation is to spend time with family. Kids are part of the family. When 90% of the waking hours on family vacations are spent in kid-friendly and kid-focused activities, it seems COMPLETELY reasonable to have an 'after 9 is adults only' policy. Thank you! We have been spending all day every day doing kids stuff. Yesterday everyone other than the inlaws, me and my 2 year old skied and then we all had dinner together and then 5 of the adults took her by herself to see the new Star Wars movie. The other kids were asleep when they got home, 9:45ish. She insisted in joining in the game and didn't leave until 11. Today we spent the whole day together, we will all be going to dinner together and then of course since it is NYE spending the evening together. Tomorrow is another full day of skiing and then dinner for my fil's birthday. This is the only time we get to see some of these adults. I would have no problem hiring a sitter. However since I don't live in the area I don't know anyone and they don't have anyone they use up in the mountains and even down at their houses they rarely use them. When we were out at Thanksgiving I asked my sil a number of times to call their sitter and find a night when they were available so the adults could go out together. Never happened.
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 31, 2015 16:52:19 GMT
i personally see no reason to send an 11yo to bed at 9pm on NYE. That's the age when you start desperately trying to stay awake to watch the countdown and usually fall asleep on the couch in the process. If you want all adult time, get a babysitter and do that. But when you're just all in someone's house hanging out? I see no reason older kids should be sent to bed early just so that the adults can drink and swear. The littler kids can watch one of the Netflix countdowns at an earlier and hour and go to bed. Then I would set up a bunch of kid snacks and a Netflix double feature after dinner, and designate one space as kid space and one space as grownup space. That should give you three hours of CAH time and the kids get a mini party of their own and it's still fun for them. But generally speaking I always find it kind of odd when people have these big families with a dozen kids among them and then act like the kids are cramping their style. It kind of comes with the territory. I can deal with the New Year's Eve thing, I get that it's special. It's the her wanting to stay up till 10/11 every other night too. She has a kindle and can go read, but she likes being the "big" kid. Also my inlaws have already been out here staying with them for two weeks, babysitting while the parents worked and the kids were out of school, so it's not like they haven't had time with her. I guess the the test will be the night of the first!
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 31, 2015 7:44:08 GMT
Grr..board ate my reply. Other house usually isn't an option. In cabo we stay in a large villa and right now we are at the family mountain house - 15 of us - her dad comes up tomorrow.
She is the favorite grandchild to mil and fil don't seem to care. It's dh, sil, sil's dh, and myself that take issue.
Tonight Bil and I "got" to hang out the the other seven kids while they took my niece to see Star Wars for her birthday. We made a comment about putting the kids to bed early and her 8 year old started whining and she tried to tell us that he never goes to bed before 9:30. last night he was complaining of growing pains and kept coming out to where we were playing till he finally fell asleep on the couch behind us around midnight, mom never "made" him go to bed. He was out by 8:30 with the rest of the kids without a complaint tonight with her gone.
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 31, 2015 7:16:11 GMT
***Since my other reply seems to have been missed. I said my issues isn't really with New Year's Eve, I get that New Year's Eve is a special occasion. my issue is that she is expecting to stay up after 10 on the other nights as well. ***
Family tree. Mil and fil mid-70's. Oldest sil mid 40's, kids 11dd (as of tonight), 8ds, 5dd. Middle sil early 40's, kids 8ds, 6ds, 3dd. Dh late 30's, 4dd, 2ds, #3 due in March.
Sil's live 5 min from each other a 3 or so hour flight away from us. We live 15 min from fil & mil. Every other year we go to cabo for Christmas and New Years. Other than that we have to travel to them to see them. Oldest sil came out for the first time with her whole family in 5 years in October, it's been almost 3 years since the other sil has been out. We are out for the 4th time this year, my inlaws for their 5th or 6th time. They say it's too expensive or they can't get the time off so it's better if we just come visit them.
My issue is with how my oldest niece is treated. She gets away with a good amount of attitude and the like. But what drives me nuts is that for the last three years my sil has been letting her act as an "adult." We have always been a big game playing group and she wants to stay up after all the other kids have gone to bed to play. Which means we can't play stuff like cards against humanity -which we love playing - and some other non child games. It started three years ago when they let her stay up till midnight for New Year's Eve, but now if she doesn't have school she thinks she should get to stay up.
Tonight the game we were going to play at least four of the seven adults said they didn't think it was appropriate for her to play and since she was staying up tomorrow night that she should go to bed. (Also she was at this point up an hour and a half later than the other kids because she got to go to Star Wars with sil, sil, dh, mil, fil) Her mom ignored all of us and dh had to try to find a more appropriate version so she could play.
I have little kids, we get so little time to just spend as adults with them and I would like to get an hour or so break from the kids in the evening. My middle sil's dh is very frustrated and has been very blunt about it and she just ignores it. Granted he has to deal with it more often, but I still feel like we aren't asking a lot for some time just as adults to hang out. And most of this is happening after 9:30/10 at night, so it's not like I'm suggesting she go to bed at 8.
So what say the peas?
Also the boys will be the age she was the first New Year's Eve she got to stay up this year and there has been no talk about letting them do it.
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 31, 2015 4:52:57 GMT
I have done it twice and plan to do it again after having this baby in march. I would HIGHLY suggest spending the $14.99 to sign up for the daily emails. They are hugely helpful. Also at the end of each day you can choose to click I made it or I messed up and have it start your count over again. Seeing the days tick down in your inbox is so nice. And the emails are great at explaining what you are going through and what to expect. I lost 10 pounds each time I did it, but for me sleep was the biggest difference and actually what made me do it in the first place. After reading the book and understanding how your body works its very convincing on why to do it.
Also having someone doing it with you makes a huge difference too.
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 31, 2015 4:38:06 GMT
I hate scented stuff and perfumes. I always had "issues," sneezing and the like. But since having kids the smell of most makes me nauseous. I hate that after my kids have seen my mil I know just by hugging them because they stink of whatever it is that she wears.
We use unscented laundry soap, fabric softener, cleaning products. All the scented stuff just makes me feel sick. Yuck!
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 28, 2015 0:45:48 GMT
Got my order! Thank you! Love the mickey ears!!
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 27, 2015 1:39:02 GMT
Delicious Library as far as I know it is only available for Macs. but it is awesome. I used it 5 years ago when I taught to keep track of all of my classroom books and also did our home books. I had a couple thousand books in it and it also works on ipad, iphone, ipods.
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 26, 2015 22:48:14 GMT
I knew I was on the verge when this thread made me tear up yesterday. Now I'm about to lose it. I do 99% of the Christmas stuff. The kids and I have all had colds and not felt great since thanksgiving, we've been to the doctor - no fevers so just told to rest. I have 13 stockings and a mermaid tail that I am trying to get finished before christmas. My kids, 2 & 4, just worked themselves up into coughing fits and both threw up in their beds. Both refused to take Tylenol, both spitting it back out when we tried to get them to take it. We have a bunch planned tomorrow, my best friend is in town from DC and it's been a year since I last saw her, she is staying at my parents to try to avoid the kid germs (she is 18 weeks pregnant). I just want everyone well and to have a couple hours to finish stuff, but dh still has to go his shopping to I probably won't get that time unless it is when everyone is sleeping. Also forgot to mention that I'm 26 weeks pregnant and killer heart burn has arrived, no fun. Have your kids been checked for pertussis or sinus infections? My 2 year old was on meds for a possible sinus infection back in early November, took the full course and was better for a week or two and then it came back. They were both checked recently and their lungs were clear and without a fever they said that pertussis wasn't likely. The little one woke up on Christmas complaining that his ear hurt. We are supposed to fly to Colorado to visit dh's family on Monday. One of my bil's is a pediatrician so I have an email to him with all the symptoms to see if he thinks we should try to go to urgent care before we fly out. Thankfully the stockings and mermaid tail got finished and the kids really enjoyed Christmas.
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 23, 2015 6:38:22 GMT
I knew I was on the verge when this thread made me tear up yesterday. Now I'm about to lose it. I do 99% of the Christmas stuff. The kids and I have all had colds and not felt great since thanksgiving, we've been to the doctor - no fevers so just told to rest. I have 13 stockings and a mermaid tail that I am trying to get finished before christmas. My kids, 2 & 4, just worked themselves up into coughing fits and both threw up in their beds. Both refused to take Tylenol, both spitting it back out when we tried to get them to take it. We have a bunch planned tomorrow, my best friend is in town from DC and it's been a year since I last saw her, she is staying at my parents to try to avoid the kid germs (she is 18 weeks pregnant). I just want everyone well and to have a couple hours to finish stuff, but dh still has to go his shopping to I probably won't get that time unless it is when everyone is sleeping. Also forgot to mention that I'm 26 weeks pregnant and killer heart burn has arrived, no fun.
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 23, 2015 4:48:06 GMT
Thank you. I shall now now appear infinitely cooler - or should I say groovier, daddy-o - when I go in search of. Target? Yes, Target, Kohl's, Penney's should all have them. Costco has them too.
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 23, 2015 4:34:57 GMT
I hated it at the time, but my parents rule was that a boy had to come over for dinner before I could go any where or do anything with them. Sure weeded out a good number of boys!
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 23, 2015 1:32:50 GMT
Voted!
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 20, 2015 20:40:14 GMT
Wow, lot's of great ideas. This will have to be made two days ahead and will need to travel 3 hrs. I might make a Choc cake with peppermint white Choc frosting. And decorate with crushed peppermint. I made it for an event on a day that we had to drive to party one (an hour) we were there for 3 hours then drove another hour to the next party and the cake didn't get eaten for another 2 hours after we got there. I made it and then froze the whole thing. Put it frozen in my cake carrier and it was perfect by the time to serve it.
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 20, 2015 19:54:52 GMT
If they are the nestle ones from the grocery store the oatmeal cookie recipe on the back of the bag is fabulous!
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 20, 2015 17:16:37 GMT
So sad, thank you for posting.
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 20, 2015 17:14:34 GMT
Deep chocolate cheesecake I have made this one a couple times now and always get rave reviews. Ginger snap cake I made this for the first time for our annual book club holiday party and it was a huge hit. I didn't slice the layers in half (to make four instead of two, dude have time) and made 2/3 of the frosting and it was perfect. This is my go to Chocolate cake recipe . It is amazing. The key is to freeze the layers after they have started to cool until you frost them. Since it is super moist if you try to frost right away it will make a mess. It is the most amazing chocolate cake, dh generally dislikes cake and loves this one. I usually use her peanut butter frosting, which is Devine, in between the layers and the frost the outside with this Chocolate frostingThese Mini chocolate peanut butter cheesecakes were delicious, everyone had more than one, so good. I made this Chocolate peppermint cheesecake cake using the chocolate cake recipe above for the cake part. I also added 8oz cream cheese to the frosting to cut the sweetness.
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Post by beaglemom on Dec 20, 2015 6:30:59 GMT
8. Thou shall not stop at the exit to go over your receipt. Once given your receipt and all 300 extra pieces of paper that get pumped out of the printer with it, do not stop and read the receipt like it’s a treasure map. There is nothing on that paper that is so important that you need to throw on the brakes and cause a backup. Move it along. I had no idea people did this. Until I got stuck grocery shopping Thanksgiving Eve with my mil. She got charged $0.50 extra for her avocados. So we then had to wait for another 20 minutes for her to get her $0.50 back at the customer service line. While we had 14 other people waiting on us for dinner.
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