The better to eat corn with, my dear!

Well, the big chunky molars that gave us grief for a couple weeks seem like they're almost all the way in. Yay!. She didn't get the matching top ones in at the same time, so I guess those are next. Drat.

Here's the best shot I've ever gotten of Scout's teeth. I have no clue what she was doing here. LOL :)



As you can see, she REALLY enjoys corn on the cob. She ate 2 whole ears all by herself yesterday afternoon. I wasn't sure how much is too much corn for a little belly like hers. I kept wondering if I should cut her off at some point. I guess it was alright because she didn't seem to get a belly ache. I'm sure it'll all just go right through her and look exactly the same coming out as when it went in. (Isn't it weird how corn does that?)



On today's agenda:

• Mail some record albums that I sold on eBay this weekend. (We made $31 on one of our Talking Heads records! Woot!)

• Organize the closet in the laundry room and box up things for our eventual garage sale

• Dye my hair. The little red streaks that looked so cute in my hair a couple months ago are completely faded and and look oh-so trashy. If I don't use a straightening iron on my hair and put yucky hair product in it, I look like a freakin' meth addict (Okay, a meth addict who is 30 lbs overweight. LOL :) I desperately need another haircut, but I keep putting it off because we don't have a ton of money to be tossing around on silly frivolous things like haircuts.
  

Labels: food, lists, pics of scout

We're going to pick up the ingredients for Scout's smash cake today while we're out and about. Ever since I started planning Scout's party in my head, I have been giving much consideration to that fun and messy tradition of letting baby tear into her very own cake while friends and family gawk and giggle. I couldn't wrap my head around letting her dive into a sugary cake frosted with grocery store buttercream icing (which mainly consists of partially hydrogenated oils and other nasty things....not to mention the mass amounts of artificial colorings), and just had to come up with an alternative. I wanted a cake that would be a sweet and tasty treat....still indulgent, without being a total shock to her system. Scout doesn't get much in the way of refined sugar in her daily diet and I can't in good conscience let her devour something that will probably end up giving her a tummy ache. I mean, it would be different if I thought she would just play in it like many babies do, but we have a GOOD eater on our hands. She pretty much shovels anything we put in front of her into her mouth frantically like we've never fed her before.

Here is the recipe I plan on using for her very own cake:

Baby's First Birthday Cake (Carrot Cake)
(Makes 1 double-layer 9-inch square cake adapted from "What to Expect")

~ 2 1/2 cups thinly sliced carrots
~ 2 1/2 cups apple juice concentrate (you may use slightly less)
~ 1 1/2 cups raisins
~ Vegetable Spray/Shortening
~ 2 cups whole-wheat flour
~ 1/2 cup vegetable oil
~ 2 whole eggs
~ 4 egg whites
~ 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
~ 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
~ 1/2 cup wheat germ
~ 2 Tbsp low sodium baking powder
~ 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

Prep: Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two 9 inch square cake pans with waxed paper and spray the paper with vegetable spray/shortening.

1. Combine the carrots with 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of the juice concentrate in a medium size saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, covered, until carrots are tender, 15 to 20 mins. Puree in a blender of food processor until smooth.
3. Add the raisins and process until finely chopped. Let mixture cool.
4. Combine the flour, wheat germ, baking powder, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Add 1 1/4 cups juice concentrate, the oil, eggs, egg whites, and vanilla; beat just until well mixed. Fold in the carrot puree and applesauce. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans.
5. Bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 mins. Cool briefly in the pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely. When cool, frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.

I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to make the frosting yet, but I know it will involve cream cheese, yogurt, fruit purees, and a small amount of sugar. We recently went to our friends' son's first birthday party and those are the ingredients that were used to make the frosting on his cake (which was delicious, by the way). We're going to have a separate fancily decorated "normal" cake for the guests that will match the party decorations. I may make a few cupcakes with the "healthy" cake batter just in case there are some other parents there that don't want their toddlers eating tons of sugar. You know, other cake Nazis like me.

Labels: birthdays, firsts, food, special occasions

DH had to work about 2.5 hrs from home yesterday, so Scout and I just hung out by ourselves. I called 2 different friends to see if anyone wanted to hang out with me, but they were busy. I was REALLY needing some adult conversation. REALLY. Oh well.

After Scout's nap, I loaded the stroller into the trunk and we went to the mall to walk around. It was rainy and cold and I was tired of being couped up inside, so I had to do something. Well, when we got there and I pulled the stroller out of the trunk, I realized that I had forgotten to bring the detachable tray that fits in front. Without the tray, the stroller is next to useless because Scout is scared of riding in it without it. I think she feels all vulnerable, like she'll fall right out or something. If she has the little tray in front of her, I think she feels more like she is sitting in her highchair at home or in a shopping cart (which she loves).

Well, I did get her to ride in the stroller for a while, but not without telling her I'd buy her a pony when she's 8 years old...and even then, it was very short-lived. The tray would've also been nice to have when we went to the food court and had lunch. I could've just kept her in the stroller and put her little chunks o' food on the tray....instead of lugging a dirty mall high chair over to the table while trying to push the stroller at the same time. Public high chairs give me the heebie jeebies. And these particular high chairs were way too short for the food court tables, so poor Scout had to reach for her food and made an even bigger mess than she normally would have.

We left right after we ate because as soon as I tried to put her back in the stroller, she started screaming bloody murder. I did have the Ergo carrier with us, but frankly, I was too lazy and tired to wear her around the mall while pushing our giant stroller.

(Scout looking less than enthused at the mall food court)

We then went to Wa1-Mart to grab some ingredients for the Asian noodle salad I made for lunch today. The recipe is from The Pioneer Woman, adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe. I chopped all the ingredients, made the dressing, and cooked the noodles last night. All I needed to do when we got home from church is toss it all together. We had some friends and their sweet kiddos over this afternoon. They seemed to really enjoy the salad. I made some orange glazed chicken in the crockpot to go with it. Oh, and I also made some banana bread, which we enjoyed with the vanilla ice cream our guests brought. I guess I was feeling particularly Betty-Crocker-ish for a change.

Oh yeah. And DH got a mullet today. Yep. A mullet. You know, like business in front, party in the back? That's right. A real mullet. More on that later.

Labels: dh, food, general complaining, outings, pics of scout

We love our coffee 'round here. After we watched an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats in which he uses a pour-through coffee maker to make the perfect cup of coffee, we were intrigued. It was a coffee contraption that we didn't have and suddenly just had to own! We bought a Bodum Bistro Double Wall Pour-Over Drip Coffee Maker shortly after. (Pay no mind to the crappy reviews on Amazon. They're all just pissed because their carafes came broken. Ours did too, but Amazon happily replaces things that are damaged in shipment. No biggie. They really should consider packing them a lot better if there are that many people receiving broken ones. Duh.)

Here's our fail-safe recipe for some yummy coffee made with the pour-through coffee maker:

Put 5 cups filtered water on the stove to boil. Grind 3 level scoops (we use a standard 1/8 C coffee scoop) of good beans that have been stored in an opaque air-tight container. We use a paper filter in addition to the gold filter. It just reduces sediment and allows the water to drip through for just the right amount of time. When the water has come to a boil, turn off the fire and count to 20. Pour the water over the grounds. Halfway through, stir the grounds and pour in the rest of the water. Wait for all of the water to drip through to the bottom. Enjoy!

Labels: coffee, food

For some odd reason, Scout turned her nose up at this crazy neon purple oatmeal I tried to feed her earlier. Since she liked whole blueberries so well, I thought she'd like them mixed in her cereal. I didn't know it would end up looking like Barney had diarrhea in a bowl.



Hey, you there!! Help me! Mommy is trying to feed me some radioactive-looking goo!

Labels: food, pics of scout

Scout was enjoying some whole peas and unsweetened frozen blueberries (what a combination!) earlier and I thought I'd capture the messiness. Mmmmm.

Don't ya just love the disheavled non-matching hair bow? Today, it's purely functional and not for decoration. Her hair gets in her eyes something terrible. Gee, I could've done a better job clipping it back though, huh?

Labels: food, pics of scout

Scout has been eating more and more finger foods, but she still loves her purees. Baby food is freaking expensive now that my little darling is eating sometimes 2 whole jars per meal. (in addition to her many handfuls of puffed brown rice and the bits of food I give her off of my plate) Oink, oink!

So, I decided to make some baby food this evening. I made sweet potatoes, acorn squash, carrots, and rotini w/ marinara and chicken. I'm going to make some green vegetables tomorrow. I also plan on making chicken and brown rice w/ chunks of carrot. I froze the food in ice trays, then popped the cubes into freezer baggies.

I think she'll really like the rotini. I put some organic spaghetti sauce and chunks of all-natural chicken into the food processor and pulsed it a few times to make the chicken chunks a little smaller. Then, I added some cooked whole wheat rotini and pulsed it a couple more times. The noodles are big enough for her to pick up w/ her fingers, but not so big that they'd be a choking hazard.

She's got 6 teeth now (wow!) and is very good at chewing, so I'm getting a lot less paranoid about choking. (but I'm still very careful about what I give her)

Labels: food

Just waking up in the morning gotta thank God
I dont know but today seems kinda odd
No barking from the dogs, no smog
And momma cooked a breakfast with no hog


....ahem..I mean, today was a good day for me and my Scout. She did wake up at 4:30 in the morning because she had pooped and then couldn't go back to sleep after I changed her (I wish that would quit happening). But then she went back to sleep at 7:00 and so did I and we both got up at 10:00 nice and refreshed. We played until she tuckered out at around 1:30 in the afternoon and she slept until 4:00! That was very convenient for me because the kitchen was a wreck and I needed to make some dinner preparations for the company we had over later on. I made a chicken casserole, like my mom always made when we had leftover roasted chicken to use up:

1 bag Pepperidge Farm Herbed Stuffing (one of the only brands of stuffing mix you can find that does not have MSG)
1/2 roasted chicken, de-boned and pulled into small bite-size pieces
1 cup frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and drained well
1 can Campbell's Healthy Request Cream of Chicken Soup (one of the only cream soups that does not contain MSG)
1 soup can full of skim milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9" x 13" glass baking dish w/ cooking spray or grease lightly with olive oil. Prepare the stuffing mix as directed on package and spread a layer over the bottom of the baking dish, pressing it up onto the sides with a spoon. This forms the crust. Spread the chicken evenly on top of the stuffing. Then, spread the chopped broccoli evenly over the chicken. Spread the rest of the stuffing on top. Mix the condensed soup with one can of milk and pour evenly over the entire casserole. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about 30 to 45 minutes (or 45 minutes to an hour if the casserole had been refrigerated prior to baking). Cut into 8 servings. This dish is really yummy served with cranberry sauce and corn on the side. An 8th of the casserole is 9 points, in case any of you WW peeps were wondering.

After I whipped up the casserole, I put it in the fridge for later and made a salad. I cleaned up my mess in the kitchen and straightened up around the house.

Scout finally woke up and we played some more and I got dressed. I popped the casserole in the oven around 4:15. Company arrived at 5:30. DH's ex-coworker and his wife and baby came over so DH could work on some computer stuff for him. I have gotten to hang out with his wife several times before and I think she is super nice. Their little boy is almost exactly the same age as Scout, so we all had fun playing in the floor and chasing our mobile little creatures. Scout was so content the whole time and seemed to have tons of fun.

After company left, Scout got her nightly bath and went right to bed. Aaahh.

I have found that I really enjoy entertaining and it's been refreshing to cook more often lately.

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot the icing on the cake: I found the missing piece to my bluetooth earpiece. I thought I had lost it, but after putting Scout to bed, I cozied up in my favorite hoodie and stuck my hand in the pocket. Lo and behold, there it was. I thought it was gone for good. Without it, my bluetooth earpiece is not functional. I had gotten so used to using it because Scout always tries to grab my phone when I am holding it to my ear, so it was a big inconvenience not to have that luxury anymore.

Here are a few pics of Scout from this morning. I don't know why I didn't think to get the camera out when she was having fun with her little playmate.

Aawwww....mommy lets Scout play with plastic packing material (supervised, of course)



Good thing our dog doesn't mind being used as a jungle gym.





Scout entertained herself for about a half hour by pulling a bunch of books and CD's off the shelf. She was playing so intently and having a grand time.

Labels: food, pics of scout, playing, recipes

I lost 2.8 lbs this week. Woot! I went to the weigh-in, but didn't feel like staying for the meeting. Today was another rough day (nap wise) for Scout, so I just wanted to sit alone in a coffee shop doing nothing during the time that I would've been at the meeting.

I feel like I've not been myself lately...like that sort of bitchiness and weirdness that happens post-partum. I'm just gonna go ahead and blame it on hormones or something. That's the only explanation I can think of. When I couldn't get Scout to nap today, I sat and cried and belly-ached to DH. I'm a blithering idiot. I have the best baby in the world. I love staying at home with her and I am extremely blessed. But I guess I've just reached some sort of breaking point. I need to take more time for myself. I need to somehow find the time to exercise and to actually put on something other than my pajamas....oh yeah, and to bathe. When I was having my little breakdown this afternoon, DH suggested I call Pretend Grandma to come relieve me. (DH was working, or I'm sure he would've offered...erm...maybe) I ALMOST called her, but I talked myself back down to normal and didn't feel like I needed to bug Pretend Grandma just because I was being mental. Plus, I think she's going to come over and watch Scout for us on Saturday, so I don't want to take advantage of her generosity.

Anyway, I'm better now. The weigh-in sure did help too!

I wish I knew a way to just post a screen shot of my Weight Watchers e-tools points tracker dealie so I didn't have to type this all out. Here is everything I ate today:

BREAKFAST
++++++++++
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 tsp pure maple syrup
1/2 cup fat free plain yogurt
1/2 large banana
2 eggs

Points total: 9.5

LUNCH
++++++
1 La Tortilla Smart & Delicious Olive Oil Soft Wrap
1 handful spinach
1/4 avocado
5 squirts French Flair Wishbone Salad Spritzers dressing
1/4 yellow bell pepper
2 slices Natural Choice smoked turkey
1 slice Natural Choice ham

Points Total: 4.5


DINNER
+++++++
Multigrain tortilla wrap
3 oz chicken breast
handful green and red peppers
handful romaine lettuce
1/8 cup sliced olives
1 dill pickle spear
2 tbsp Italian Dressing (not light)

Points Total: 9.5

SNACKS
++++++

2 apples
1/2 banana
1/2 oz mixed nuts
bowl steamed veggies
6 medium baby carrots
1 La Tortilla Smart & Delicious Olive Oil Soft Wrap

Points Total: 6.5


************
GRAND TOTAL
************
30 points (so I went 2 points over. Oops!)

Labels: baby sleep, food, food journal, health, weight loss

I have the sweetest blog readers ever. I really do. Thanks for all the hugs and support. Wendy and Jen, thanks for offering to keep me accountable. That means a lot to me. I've barely had a moment to sit down and breathe today, so I haven't gotten a chance to email either of you yet, but believe me - I will :)

Oh, and thanks Annika and defeist for your reassuring words about breastfeeding. That makes me feel so much better. I bought some fenugreek yesterday, thinking it wouldn't hurt to atleast try to increase my supply enough to (hopefully) be able to pump some more milk to leave for when Pretend Grandma comes over to watch Scout again.

I have a weigh-in tonight. I'm hoping that the scales are good to me because I feel like I did a lot better this week. From Sunday on, I've been on a 28 point allowance, rather than my 38 point allowance. I've goofed a couple times, but nothing serious. Honestly, yesterday, I had a sort of epiphany. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I started thinking in terms of HEALTH and not weight loss. Mumamarie, you were instrumental in pushing my brain in that direction, so I THANK YOU for that! The healthiest I've ever felt was when DH and I were eating more whole foods and less processed stuff and refined sugar. As I've mentioned before, I think the 100 calorie packs and all the other sugary, processed, preservative-laden diet treats have really had a hold on me. I mean, if one 100 calorie pack of Chips Ahoy cookies is good, then two is even better, right? Ha! Ummm, no, Unkempt Mommy. That is not how that works.

So, I have purposed NOT TO BUY things like Smart Ones Key Lime Pie and Weight Watchers little carrot cake thingies ANYMORE! Things like that were tripping me up big time. Plus, that stuff just is not healthy. That's one thing I don't like about Weight Watchers meetings - all the junky snack crap that they peddle there. I mean, I know that kind of stuff might help some people stay on track, but it's truly just glorified junk food.

Well, I have to go now, but I have more to write. (gee, aren't you excited?)
I'll be back later.

Labels: food, health, weight loss

I haven't mentioned a whole lot about my weight loss journey thus far because I guess there's just not much to report. I joined Weight Watchers back in October and I've lost 12.6 lbs to date. As you can see by the chart, my weight's sort of been bobbing up and down lately. I haven't been working the plan like I should. Sometimes I'm lazy about getting all of the required servings of vegetables and water and sometimes I spend my points on some really stupid crap. I rarely just go nuts and go way over my points, but I've also been lazy about measuring all of my food and journaling every little thing that goes into my mouth. Like I said, not working the plan....but I'm certainly not totally blowing either. When I started, I had 41 points to spend per day. After losing a little weight, my points went down to 38 per day. Most people don't get that many points, but nursing mothers get an extra 10points.

This morning as I was squeezing my fat ass (please excuse my language - I'm just a bit disgusted with my weight right now) into some pants that used to practically hang off of me, it occurred to me that I need to do something drastically different if I want to get this weight off. It also occurred to me that Scout is not nursing nearly as much as she used to now that she has a newfound love for solid foods. So, I decided that I am going to lop off that 10 point nursing mother allowance and stick to consuming just 28 points a day instead.

I admit that I have an addictive personality and if there is a "loophole" in a diet, I will find it. That is why it has been so easy for me to spend too many of my daily points on things like 100 calorie packs of oreo crisps and 1 point Weight Watchers dessert cakes, while neglecting my daily veggie requirements. I used to be very commited to not buying a ton of processed foods and cooking as naturally as I can, but when I'm on a "diet", suddenly I don't care and I look at those stupid low-cal snack cakes as the only things that are helping me not feel deprived.

I most definitely need to change the way I view food.

I have been an overeater for as long as I can remember. I suppose it's tough to correct a lifetime of unhealthy attitudes toward food within a matter of a couple months. (Not that I should use that as an excuse) Sometimes I feel powerless over food. For example, when DH was out of town for a few days this past week, I actually found myself soaking a large hunk of bundt cake with water before chucking it in the trash because I knew I couldn't trust myself not to eat it. Throwing it in the trash wouldn't have have been enough to deter me. Like a nicotine addict who digs a half-smoked cigarette out a of a public butt can, I would not put myself above pulling a George Costanza and grabbing a food item out of the trash in a moment of desperation. (We know, George, it was "on top")

I know, it's sad. I need help.

Labels: doh, food, goals, health, household chores, weight loss

My baby gal turned 9 months old today! It's hard to believe that she's been outside my belly for as long as she was inside. She has become quite the little character. She is crawling at the speed of light and is very good at pulling herself up to stand and cruise while holding onto the furniture. We're *pretty sure* she is waving bye-bye now. She's done it quite a few times and it is usually accompanied with "ba-ba", but I'm still not sure if I should count this as her first real word. She also says mama and dada, but never in the correct context. Pointing is something she enjoys doing as well. This morning, it seemed like she was pointing at things just so I would describe them to her. She would point at the dog, pictures on the wall, the microwave...and then promptly look at me so I could tell her what they are.

Her appetite for solid foods is insatiable. That happened overnight! Up until the last couple weeks, she has been content to skip solids some days and live on breastmilk alone. Now, she is eating 2 big meals of solid food a day and she's not happy unless she gets it. After she has nursed in the morning, she has some fruit and oatmeal. She nurses throughout the day and then at dinnertime, she has some organic chicken & wild rice baby food and some sort of fruit or vegetable. I usually put about half a teaspoon of probiotic powder in her food a day. It seems to keep her bowels nice and healthy - I've noticed less gas and tummy aches since we started doing that. She also snacks frequently on organic puffed brown rice. She loves that stuff!

It makes me a little sad that she is not satisfied with my breastmilk alone anymore, but it also evokes a sense of pride and gladness when I watch how happy she is as she is shovelling bite after bite of food in her mouth. She has never let me spoon-feed her. I have to hand her the spoon and she puts it in her own mouth. She looks like such a big girl when she's feeding herself and she's so good at it! After she spoons the food in, she hands (or throws) the spoon back to me and looks at me as if to say, "Okay, mom... reload!" She eats little bite-size pieces of food sometimes as well and her pincer grasp is great. Such a big girl!

She has 2 bottom teeth and one top front tooth just poked through last weekend. The one right beside it is just under the surface. That explains the rough nights she was having there for a while.

Scout has never really been all that fond of baths, but for the last few nights I have bathed her as part of a bedtime routine. She seems to enjoy it and it does wonders for relaxing her and helping her wind down. She doesn't like to have her hair washed, so my plan is to keep bathing her every night, but only use soap and wash her hair once a week or as needed. I just wet a washcloth and wiped her hair down instead of dumping water on her head, which seems to get it plenty clean and allowed her to actually enjoy the bath and relax. I put olive oil in the water and then rubbed her down with lotion before getting her dressed, so her skin will not dry out. I know that I thrived on consistency and routine as a child, so I'd like to start putting a little bit of structure into Scout's daily life.

She recently started doing this thing where she shakes her head as if she's saying "no", but I'm sure she doesn't know its meaning yet. If we shake our head at her, she usually mimicks us. It's so cute!

She hates diaper changes and having her clothes changed. I have to work hard at keeping her entertained and occupied long enough for me to get a diaper on her. Just the other day, she had a super messy poopy diaper and I didn't know it and she stuck her hands in it as soon as I unfastened her diaper! Ick! She was flailing all around and screaming and when it was all said and done, she had gotten poo on her hands, feet, thigh, and onesie. It was awful. I needed about 8 arms at that moment.

She's showing her attachment to DH a bit more lately. She's constantly making a bee-line for his office and when she gets there, she looks up at his computer chair for him. It's so adorable. When I'm holding her in his presence, she just about leaps out of my arms reaching for him too. It's no wonder. He is much more fun to play with than mommy!

Car rides are getting a bit better. She still fusses some, but she will normally go to sleep after just a little bout of crying. I'm very excited about this because for so long, I have found myself avoiding the 25-30 minute ride into "town" just so I don't have to put her (or myself) through that. Her happiness in the car still depends largely on how we time our outings, though. Tonight, we went to our friends' house, out to eat, and then shopping. She screamed for 20 minutes straight on the way home. Poor thing. It was all just too much for her.

I guess that's all I can think of for now. Scout is such a joy to be around. She has her cranky moments, but for the most part she is a happy little girl.

Labels: baby sleep, being sappy, birthdays, firsts, food, scout talking

DH is the kind of person who loves to arrive 36 hours early to a concert venue just so he can end up in the front row and maybe catch the band for a few pics and autographs. And when the holidays are here, DH often jumps at the chance to join the desperate soccer moms and nerdy teenagers in line at Best Buy, waiting (and freezing) for a shot at the latest gaming system.

So, it was only natural for him to want to camp out at the recent grand opening of a local Chic-Fi1-@ so he could be one of the first 100 customers to walk through their doors and receive 1 free combo meal per week for a year. He got there about 20 hours before the doors opened and was number 60-something in line. With cardboard nugget-box full of 52 free combo meal cards in hand, he arrived home triumphantly and with a heightened taste for fried chicken.

Like an addict looking for a new place to score, he put his radar out for another grand opening....and found one. He spent all day Monday gathering up his camping gear and other essentials. That night, our kitchen became Mission Control, with grocery sacks full of granola bars, propane tanks, gloves, bottles of Naked juice drinks, and H0tHand packs all piled up by the back door. This time, the Chic-Fi1-@ opening was this morning at 6:00 AM, in a town about 3.5 hours away. And (get this) DH left the house at about noon on TUESDAY to head over there. He is hard core.

It all paid off. We are now the proud owners of a grand total of 104 free Chic-Fi1-@ meals. The great thing is, we can use the free meal cards whenever and however often we want - they don't necessarilly have to be used in the form of one free meal per week. Also, the cards say "Please use by 01/09", but DH was told that is not a set-in-stone expiration date and they will take the cards after that day. Out of all the fast food franchises, I'm glad our free meals are from a place that is somewhat Weight Watchers friendly. Although the cards are not good for the salads, I could easily get a grilled chicken sandwich combo and substitute a fruit cup for the fries (might have to pay a few cents extra).

He's on his way home now. Since he was the first person in line, he also got a back pack, a book, a water bottle, a t-shirt and a stuffed cow. You know you're all jealous. You wish you had a Chic-Fi1-@ back pack.

Now, if only the collections office for the hospital where I delivered Scout would take Chic-Fi1-@ coupons as payment. (sigh)

Labels: dh, food, holy crap, trips

Happy Anniversary to us!! The date went swimmingly and Scout did great with the babysitter. We went to a sushi bar and then just goofed around at a few stores on the way home. We went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, looking for a coffee pot like this one (to no avail) and then next door to Old Navy. They were having a big sale, (50% off the clearance sticker price! woot!) so we ended up getting 2 pairs of pants and a shirt for Scout; 2 hoodies for me; and a pair of pants, a hoodie, a fleece pull-over, and 8 pairs of socks for DH, all for $50. I know, I know, who goes clearance shopping at Old Navy for their anniversary? We do. Shut up.

Here are some poor quality pics from the sushi bar, taken with DH's cell phone. Dang, they're crappy.





Surprisingly, Scout went down for a nap at precisely the right time - just as the babysitter got here - and stayed asleep for 2.5 hours. After that, she drank about 5 oz of expressed breast milk, had a little bit of apple juice, ate a bunch of puffed brown rice, and played happily until we got home. The babysitter said that she didn't even fuss once. Yay! She also said that she would love to babysit for us again and anytime we want a night out to call her. You don't even know how pleased I am about that. Rather than calling her "the babysitter", I will go ahead and give her an official Making a Person blogging alias because I have a feeling we will take her up on her offer and she may be mentioned here a lot in the future. I hereby deem her "Pretend Grandma".

Labels: anniversaries, food, outings, pretend grandma

Scout had some organic puffed brown rice for the first time today and really enjoyed it. I wish I would've gotten a pic of the grains of rice sticking to her face, creating a puffed rice goatee, but she was able to shove them into her mouth before I managed to turn on the camera. Shoot.







She also managed to get a little bit of watered-down apple juice out of a sippy cup. She could grasp the concept of holding the handles and sucking on the spout, but couldn't quite figure out that she had to keep tipping the cup as well. Better luck next time.

Labels: firsts, food, pics of scout

I just wanted to brag on myself. At my Weight Watchers weigh-in on Thursday, I had lost 4.8 lbs in one week! So, I am down 17.2 lbs since starting the plan 8 weeks ago. Woot.

I'm still eating a TON because I have so many points at my disposal, but it's still working. Crazy.

I don't want to totally blow it when we're on our trip visiting my family up North for Christmas, but it's going to be so hard. Of course, every event will be centered around food. I need to come up with a plan and put it in writing, so I can keep myself in check without totally depriving myself. Like, maybe something like...no second helpings at dinner and only have X number of desserts, which are approx 1/4 c each while at a special event. I dunno. I don't really want to count points during that week, but I don't want to lose control. I need to figure something out.

Labels: food, weight loss

We have an unholy love for cranberry sauce around here. I made 2 big bowls of it for Thanksgiving. Since those are long gone, it was time to make some more. The one on the left is my blind attempt at orange cranberry sauce. I didn't even bother to look up a recipe. I just figured adding oranges to the ingredients of original cranberry sauce would be sufficient. We'll see.



We have a bunch of peanut oil leftover from our fry-fest on Thanksgiving, so we are getting together with some friends tomorrow and having fry-fest, the sequel. We bought some frozen chicken pot pies and sweet potato cakes to fry. Not sure what else DH will find to emerse in the oil, but surely there will be more.

Other than a little bit of cranberry sauce, I will not be partaking, as I am back on the Weight Watchers wagon after falling off on Thanksgiving Day. At last night's weigh-in, I had gained 0.8 lbs. Shoot. But the woman that weighed me said that was actually very good for a post-holiday weigh-in. The way everyone was talking at the meeting, I don't think many people actually lost weight. The leader said that a good goal to have for this time of year is to just maintain your current weight and not worry about losing. I am going to be REALLY good these next few weeks between now and Christmas because I know that my visit with my family the week of Christmas will not be very Weight Watchers friendly.

Oh, by the way, I started out at 238.6 lbs when I started Weight Watchers 6 weeks ago and am at 226.2 as of yesterday.

Labels: family, food, weight loss

Lookie what I got today!



My MIL bought it for me. She knows I've been wanting a new serger to replace my old crappy broken one for a long time. She made sure it has all the features I need and then ordered it the day before yesterday. Sure, many people think that Wal-Mart is evil, but dang they're fast with their online orders! I am really grateful. It was so sweet of my MIL to do that for me!

I haven't sat down to piddle with it yet. I've been organizing my sewing space and taking inventory of my fabric so I can figure out what my first project should be. The machine comes pre-threaded, but got all wonky and tangled during shipment. That's just as well, because I need to learn how to thread it on my own anyway.

Something else I received in the mail the other day:



It's a Bummi's Super Whisper Wrap diaper cover in the Flower print. I have a couple used plain white BSWW's that fit Scout really well, so I just couldn't resist this cute print. Scout seems happy about it. (don't ask me what she's wearing)



I am starting to get over my fear of Scout feeding herself. Since we started giving her solids at 6 months, we've been spoon-feeding purees and putting pieces of fruit in her mesh feeders. I do believe that there are a lot of benefits to letting babies feed themselves and wanted to go that route with Scout...but I just have not been able to get over the fear of choking. I know that proponents of baby-led feeding say that infants are much more likely to choke on purees than pieces of food that they bring to their own mouths and bite off (because "the action used to suck food off a spoon tends to take the food straight to the back of the mouth, causing the baby to gag"), but I just have a hard time wrapping my mind around that.

I recently steamed a butternut squash and gave Scout some chunks that she could easily fist and bring to her mouth. She probably only managed to get one or two bites in her mouth, but had fun playing in it and examining the texture. Tonight, DH and I watched as she brought chunk after chunk of squash up to her mouth to lick and take tiny bites. It was cute. She would poke the pieces on the table with her index finger, enjoying the squishiness. A few times, she got some big pieces in her mouth that made me a little nervous, but she spit them right out. We video taped part of it. Maybe I'll post that later.

Labels: cloth diapering, family, firsts, food, pics of scout, sewing, tough parenting decisions

Still tweaking my site. Please excuse the mess. I am thinking about trying to figure out a way to get my blog switched over to WordPress because DH is really familiar with it now that he's had to do a bunch of work-related WordPress stuff and could help me get my blog exactly the way I want it.
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It's a little late, but I thought I'd fill you in on our Thanksgiving. It was pretty nice. We went way overboard and deep fried 2 huge turkeys....and there were only 4 adults at our little get-together. Silly, I know. But now we have a bunch of delicious leftovers. Since we had the fryer going and all of that expensive peanut oil, we (I mean, the guys) decided to fry everything in sight. We fried Twinkies, candy bars, oreos, chicken pot pies, and even black licorice. All coated in a crispy funnel cake batter. Totally disgusting...yet somehow yummy. (Well, the black licorice was not yummy. I didn't try any, but DH did and he spit it out...and he's usually a fan of black licorice)

Of all the random fried things, I enjoyed the Oreos the most. Here is a pic of an Oreo and a Snickers:



Sweet potato fries:



Simmering turkey necks for the gravy:



It was difficult for me to fully relax and have a good time. We were over at some friends' house and I knew that Scout would not nap well while there. She is not the kind of baby that can just sleep anywhere. Sometimes I wish I could just lay her down in a Pack-n-Play and she would drift to sleep peacefully while sucking a pacifier. But that is not how she operates. The bedroom where I tried to lay her down for a nap was close to the kitchen, (small house - the other bedroom would've been just as noisy) and the sun was shining through the curtains, making the entire room glow. On top of that, was pretty warm in there. Scout is used to a cool, quiet, dark room when she goes to sleep. When I finally got her down, she stayed asleep for maybe 15 minutes....just long enough for me to fix my plate and sit down. (sigh) Needless to say, she was pretty cranky for the rest of our visit. We went home earlier than our friends really wanted us to, but Scout needed a nap so bad. When we got home, she only slept for 45 minutes. I don't know what her deal was.

Believe it or not, this pic was taken on the way to the festivities, BEFORE she got cranky:

Labels: food, general complaining, holidays, pics of scout

Scout ate from a bottle for the first time this evening! DH was home with Scout while I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting. I left him with a bottle of a little bit (and I do mean LITTLE bit) of expressed breast milk just in case she got hungry. I was only gone for 2 hours, but she nurses A LOT and her schedule is unpredictable. DH also had a jar of baby food handy. Unfortunately, my boobies were not cooperating with me today and I was only able to get a few ounces of milk even though I pumped 3 times. Uugh. I usually don't have a need to pump, but when I do (if I'm too full or something), I normally don't have that tough of a time. I don't know what was up today. The milk I had in the freezer was expired (so sad to pour that liquid gold down the drain!), so I thought I'd just provide some fresh milk.

DH said that she sucked all of it down and was not happy when it was gone. He also fed her some sweet potato baby food, which he said she enjoyed. I feel bad that I was not able to leave more milk for her.

Those of you mommas who give/have given their babies bottles of breastmilk - How many ounces does a 6-month-old usually take at one feeding? I'm new to the world of bottle-feeding and have no clue.

I think it's neat that DH will get to feed Scout when he watches her now. (IF I can get back to pumping larger quantities) I've decided that I'd like to refrain from doing any bottle-feeding myself, because I want Scout to associate mommy with boobie-feeding. I guess I have a fear of Scout preferring the bottle over the boob and refusing to nurse or something. This way, she'll know that she only gets a bottle with daddy.

She's getting to the age when we could probably start introducing breastmilk in a sippy cup anyway. But I have been putting a little bit of water into a sippy cup every now and then and handing it to her to see if she can figure it out, and she just yells at it playfully and shakes it :)

Labels: dh, firsts, food

Scout had her first "solid" food while my sis and her family were here. Organic pureed sweet potatoes. She only had a few bites and then lost interest. DH recorded it w/ the video camera, but I forgot to take pics. Oops! I gave her a few more bites today and then decided to just pour it on the table in front of her to see what she would do. I think you can tell by the pics that she had a good time....







I think a tiny bit of the sweet potatoes may have actually made it into her mouth. Mostly, she just played, but I saw her lick her fingers a few times too. I also put a couple chunks of fresh apple into a mesh feeder and let her chomp on it and suck the juice. She seemed more interested in tasting the apple than eating the sweet potatoes.

Labels: firsts, food, pics of scout

Here's a pic of me and my little girl. As you can see, she totally soaks her clothes in drool. After it dawned on me that I've been changing her out of her sopping-wet clothes like 6 times a day, I decided that it's time for her to wear a bib on a full time basis. Duh, mom. Why didn't you think of that before??



Unlike her mommy, Scout loves to get her picture taken.



Well, we thought long and hard about giving her solids and decided to just feed her plastic dishes instead.



Actually, my sister, her husband, and their 3 kids are coming to visit in a week and my little 6 -year-old niece wants to feed Scout sooooo bad. I thought it would be okay if I pureed a little bit of sweet potato and let my niece spoon a tiny bit into her mouth, just to make her feel special. If we keep offering her solids after that cute little ceremonial Scout's-first-solids-fed-to-her-by-her-cousin bit, we will go more towards the self-feeding route.

I'm very excited about my sis and her family coming to visit. She is a little less than 2 years younger than me and we've always been extremely close. We shared a room until I was 13 years old. We were in all of the same extracurricular activities through school and often hung out with the same friends. She is my only biological sibling. I have lots of step brothers and sisters, but they all came into my life when they were already adults and I was in my late teens. I moved 900 miles away from my entire family when I was 19, so I guess I never really had a chance to get close to any of my step siblings.

My sister and I had always dreamed about growing up and having kids and living next door to each other. Our kids would be the best of friends and have sleep-overs and we'd all get together and cook hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill on the weekends. It didn't work out that way, which makes me a little sad. But that just makes the time I do get to spend with my sister even more fun. We talk on the phone almost every day and we get to see eachother "in real life" about twice a year. It's just not enough.

They get to stay for 2 weeks, but I know it'll just fly by.

Labels: family, firsts, food, pics of scout

Breastfeeding seems to be getting much easier. My nipples are still a little sore, but I can tell that they are healing from the rough start we had. Our little girl is getting plenty. I love it when she is done eating and there is milk dripping from the corners of her tiny mouth. I love it when she drifts off to sleep in my arms with a full belly. It seems like all I do is nurse her, but that in itself is so satisfying.

We haven't started using cloth diapers yet, although I am looking forward to making that transition. I just figure that my mom and grandma have enough to do around here without me asking them to wash poopy diapers in addition to our other laundry. I want to start using cloth soon, though....plus, we're running out of disposable diapers and we are in somewhat of a tight financial spot right now.

Speaking of which, we have no insurance and now we have an unexpected hospital bill to pay for. I try not to think about that too much. I know it will get taken care of, even if we just chip away at it with small payments over a long period of time. The safe arrival of our sweet daughter is certainly worth a hospital bill, no matter how expensive.

I have put a lot of thought into how I will refer to our little girl in blog-land. I've decided that there is no harm in using her real first name. I Googled it to see how easy it would be for friends and family to find this page if they did a search for her name, and there are so many other pages that come up in the search results - I doubt that they would ever stumble across this one.

Her name is Scout.

One of the things I included in our birth plan was that we would celebrate the arrival of our new baby with a carrot cake from our local natural foods store (yum! my favorite!) Here is a picture of Scout with the cake her daddy ordered for her. Sure, we ate it a couple days after her actual birthday....but it was still special...and really delicious.



Oh yeah, and here is a pic of the very first time I met Scout:



I LOVE this picture. It makes me want to cry.

Labels: cloth diapering, finances, food, labor/birth

Did some stuff in the baby's room.....

We bought a dresser, so now there's a place for the tiny little undershirts and socks. I had fun folding things and putting them away. I hung the wall decorations and fixed/cleaned up the vintage lamp (the dog's ears and the balloon strings were missing). I hung the crib mobile....although, I'll probably be moving that to the co-sleeper bassinet in our room since the baby will be in there. I kind of suspect that the crib will not get used at all. We'll see. It won't bother me if it doesn't get used, since we didn't buy it - it's my old crib from when I was a baby, so I just love it being in the baby's room for sentimental reasons.

DH says the baby's room is looking like a boy's room. I have to agree. I didn't mean for it to end up that way, but it really is a little on the masculine side. Oh well. If we have a girl, I doubt she'll mind (or even notice).

The jack-in-the-box on the dresser isn't going to stay there. I just thought it was eerily fun to look at it next to the lamp w/ all the other lights off. I have a weird thing for creepy circus stuff. I kind of like spooky vintage clowns and demented carnival music. I know, I'm strange. I don't want my kid to have a scary room, so I'll put the evil-looking jack-in-the-box away before he/she has a chance to get freaked out by it.



Total tangent here: There used to be a pizza parlor in Toronto, Canada called The Organ Grinder. This place was weird. It was all dark and creepy in there....had the feel of an old fun house that hadn't been updated in years. There was a giant Wurlitzer organ in the dining room and the guy who played the organ would take song requests from guests. It was funny to hear modern pop music played on a huge organ. When the organ was playing, a disco ball would spin and colorful stage lights would flash all around the dark restaurant. The place had ski-ball and video games, if I remember correctly...it was definitely geared toward kids.....but oh-so creepy! I loved it. It has since been closed, which makes me sad.....not that I get as far north as Toronto very often. LOL.

I'm a nerd. I searched the web for pics or articles on this place, but didn't find much. Oddly enough, I found a few restaurant guides that still included reviews of The Organ Grinder....but I know for a fact that it is long gone. Rest in peace, scary pizza place.

A restaurant in Madison, WI that DH and I visited once has a similar, albeit not-so-dark, feel. Ella's Deli is a fun place to eat if you're ever in that area. All kinds of toys and figurines have been made into weird mechanical monstrosities and do acrobatics all along the restaurant ceiling. Lots of vintage circus/carnival signs and memorabilia clutter the atmosphere. Tables contain strange interactive scenery like Legos, trains, and Wooly Willy magnetic hair characters under thick pieces of glass. (I dig the Wooly Willy table 'cause there are actual magnetic pens strapped to the table so you can "draw" mustaches and mohawks on the bald heads while you eat your reuben and ice cream sundae.

Labels: baby gear, food

Here I am at 34w3d. I figured I should post a halfway decent pic of myself to balance out the horrific shot I subjected you guys to a couple days ago. I'm still having some yucky allergy/sinus issues, but I atleast felt motivated enough to put on a little make-up and get dressed.....mostly because I actually have to leave the house today. LOL :) Tonight is our birth class and I have to meet up w/ DH in a little bit.

It is super nice outside today. Mid-60's. I love opening up the windows to get a breeze through here. In fact, if I didn't open up the windows, it would easily climb up to 75-80 degrees in here.....even on a 50 degree day. I think our house is very well insulated (which is good!), so when DH cranks the heat up to 73 degrees in the morning when he's getting ready for work, it seems like the heat just gets trapped in here, even after I turn it down. Then, the sun beats on the front of the house and produces a greenhouse effect. By 10:00am, I am ready to rip my clothes off and take a cool shower. Last night I got up to pee (well, one of the many times I got up to pee) and I was sweating. I didn't have a single stitch of clothes on (sorry for the TMI :) and I was SWEATING! DH either needs to get some meat on his bones or put some cozy pajamas on before going to bed. I've got a furnace in my belly that I can't adjust!

Lately, I have been horribly hungry, but nothing sounds good!!!! Well, occasionally, something sounds good, but it's usually an item that is not to be found within at least 20 miles of here. I end up being lazy and just choking down a piece of bread with peanutbutter on it and chugging a glass of milk. I FORCED myself to eat a spinach salad yesterday and let me tell ya - it was NOT yummy.

Labels: belly pics, childbirth classes, food, pregnancy whining

I'm making a ring sling for the baby today. I found some $1-a-yard fabric at Wal-Mart that would work perfectly, and bought some 2" metal rings from the hardware store. (I wanted 3" rings, but they were way too thick and heavy. My fabric is relatively thin, so I think 2" will work just fine) I have a pattern for a padded sling, but I decided that I'm going to make a simple unpadded one instead. I'll post a pic when I'm finished.

I'm starving and nothing in my kitchen sounds good. I think this cold or allergy junk (or whatever it is) is throwing my taste all out of whack. What sounds REALLY good is a gigantic sub sandwich with all those delicious sodium nitrite-ridden italian meats, like salami, peperoni, prosciutto, and ham. YUM!.....and provolone cheese, onions, lettuce, peperoncinis, and italian dressing. I'm not talking about a wimpy Subway sandwich.....I mean a gigantic monstrosity from some place like Lenny's Sub Shop. Oh gees. I shouldn't have started thinking about it.

***ETA***
Well, I sort of satisfied my craving for a gigantic sandwich by eating some (all natural) ham w/ cheddar and honey mustard dressing on whole wheat bread. I admit, it was sort of a let down after day dreaming about the best sub in the world....but I was hungry and it was in the fridge.

Twolinesonastick, thanks for offering to help with the measurements on the sling. I really appreciate it! I ended up sort of combining the pattern I already had with the instructions on the MayaWrap website. I'm hoping it'll turn out alright. The sling is done, all except for attaching the rings. Turns out that the rings I have are a little too small. I could've made them work, but then I think the sling would've been super difficult to adjust. I just ordered some large rings from SlingRings.com. When it's all said and done, I will have made 2 slings for a grand total of $14.50. Not bad! Gotta love discount fabric.

Speaking of fabric, I recently bought a Moses basket that has really cheap crappy (not to mention, frilly) padding. My mom has a pattern to make the bumper pads and bedding, so she is going to make them out of this fabric:



I'm thinking that the back of the padding and any trim could be red or yellow. I love baby stuff that isn't baby stuff, ya know?

Labels: baby gear, food

I had a Quarterpounder w/ cheese with fries and an orange drink tonight. It was yummy. At first, I felt guilty because I had just gone grocery shopping and spent a lot of time and effort label-reading and choosing healthy foods. But then, I convinced myself that DH and I have a pretty good system going here. We hardly ever keep junk food in the house. There are rarely any cookies, candy, ice cream, etc. to be had under this roof. So when we do have a hankerin' for sweet junk and fatty foods, they're not easily accessible. I think it's alright to indulge in scrumptiously naughty fare every now and again while we're out and about, as long as it's not all the time.

But now that I'm home again, in the land of no dessert, I'm wishing I would've gotten one of those greasy little boxed apple pies while we were at McD's.

Labels: food, health

Man-o-man, have I eaten loads of junk over the past few days! Cookies....fudge....chocolate fondue w/ pound cake, candy, egg rolls, deep fried squash....french toast and grilled cheese made with (gasp!) white bread....biscuits and sausage gravy....the list goes on. All these things wouldn't be so bad, if I hadn't eaten such large quantities of them and had at least intermingled them with some fresh vegetables.

I want to sink back into my normal, relatively healthy eating habits today. So far, so good. I've had a bowl of cereal and a protein smoothie made w/ eggwhite protein powder, super green food supplement, echinacea, frozen fruit, and orange juice. Now, I think I'm going to eat some celery and carrots w/ natural peanutbutter and maybe some french toast....with NO maple syrup (even though we have all-natural 100% maple syrup, I need to wean myself off of this holiday sugar binge). Then, maybe I'll have a spinach salad w/ sunflower seeds and cheddar cheese.

I'd also like to do better with the quantity of water I drink. I still drink a lot of water, but I've slacked off with measuring and knowing FOR SURE that I'm getting at least 100 oz of water in a day.

I just called my midwife to get the phone number of the Bradley childbirth class instructor that we are going to use. I believe it is a 12 week course, so we probably need to get started as soon as we can. She's really good about returning my calls right away, so I'm sure I'll hear something from her soon.

Labels: food, health

I think I'm going to try and make an interesting dessert that uses apricot baby food as one of the ingredients. My aunt often made it and brought it to various family gatherings when I was little. It's one of my favorite desserts and I haven't had it in forever!

2 packages apricot Jell-o
⅔ cup water
1 can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 ½ cup chopped nuts
⅔ cup sugar
2 jars apricot baby food
1 can sweetened condensed milk, chilled
1 package cream cheese (8 oz.)

Combine jello, sugar and water, bring to a boil and dissolve jello. Remove from heat, stir in fruit; set aside to cool. Combine milk and cream cheese, beat until smooth. Stir in jello mixture, add nuts. Pour into mold or bowl and refrigerate.

I was going to call my aunt to ask her for the recipe, but then I figured it might be somewhere on the net. Low and behold, it is. If all goes well, it should end up as a big bowl full of cold and fluffy, fruity, cream-cheesey yumminess.

**EDIT**
I ended up adding 4 cups of Cool Whip to the cream cheese mixture, only using 1/2 can of the sweetened condensed milk, and using 2 cups of water to dissolve jello instead of just 2/3 cups. I found another recipe on the web with these modifications, and decided to try it out. I'm pretty sure it'll end up more like my aunt's recipe - hers was set like jello, yet light and fluffy.
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My friend invited us to her Christmas Eve family get-together and I wanted to take a dish that is simple, inexpensive, and unusual. Plus, I almost ALWAYS make some sort of Jell-O concoction when bringing a dish to a potluck. We are also invited to another friend's house for Christmas Day. Maybe I'll make 2 batches and take one to each party.

We are still planning on celebrating "Festivus" on Saturday. (See previous post) We even bought a Festivus pole! But it is not as cool as the poles that this company makes. Thanks, Gladiator's Mommy for sending me that link! That company charges $38 for a 6' Festivus pole with a colapsible aluminum base, not including shipping. We bought a 7' pole at Lowe's for approx. $15, which is actually a metal composite electrical conduit pipe, not pure aluminum. It's much heavier than what I imagine Frank Costanza's original "High strength-to-weight ratio" pole being......but all in all, it looks just like a Festivus pole. The only problem is, we don't currently have a way to stand it up. It's leaning up against our dining room wall for now. I thought about getting a big plastic flower pot or a galvanized metal bucket, standing the pole up in it, and filling it w/ concrete....but I suppose it's getting a little late for a project like that, with Festivus being tomorrow and all. Oh well. Maybe next year. Next year, we'll be able to take a picture of our adorable 8-month-old baby all dressed up in his (or her) Festivus best (whatever that may be) sitting next to the glorious Festivus Pole.

**EDIT**
I went to Lowe's and bought some concrete and a piece of PCV pipe that the Festivus Pole would fit into. But instead of buying a plastic flower pot, I ended up getting a Christmas tree stand from Wal-Mart. When I got it all home, I found out that the concrete and piece of PVC pipe was not necessary at all. The pole itself fits securely into the tree stand and proves to be very sturdy. It is proudly displayed in our living room with a plain white sheet hiding the ugly tree stand. Hooray!
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Labels: food, holidays