Sunday Boring Day

It's been a fun week at the Duggan house. First off, I had my birthday. The boys got me a BluRay player and  the Lord of the Rings movie. We had hamburgers, hot dogs and enjoyed some pie from Village Inn while watching the movie. (78//////////////////////////////////////////////////gtfvnhvcszvxd3z$a --Apparently, Viktard likes to blog too).

Wednesday night I made a new recipe, from here. I first mixed up the "cream of" stuff in a container. I think I figured out the recipe will make something like 9 "cans" of soup and I had almost everything on hand that I needed.
My Adapted version:

1 cup non-fat dried milk
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup Chicken Boullion
4 Tablespoons freeze dried minced onions
1 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon pepper
(For the equivalent of one can of condensed cream soup, mix 1/3 cup dry mix with 1 1/4 cup water. Cook until thick)


For the casserole, I ended up using:
1 cooked chicken breast (I cut it in chunks instead of shredding),
a few slices of bacon (I cut it up using my kitchen shears prior to frying, so much easier that way and they seem to cook more evenly).
Equivalent to one can of soup (about 1/3 cup mixed with 1 1/4 cup water, cooked until thick).
2 cups of macaroni, cooked
Cheese (I used a handful of mozarella mixed in with the noodles etc, then sprinkled some cheese on top while it was baking).

I baked it in the oven just until the cheese was melted since everything was hot when I put it together, and it was so yummy. The left overs were good too, I had some for lunch the next day. My vegan friend said it looked/smelled good, and he recommended putting some buttered breadcrumbs on top next time (Hey, he wasn't always vegan!)


Our friends, Aaron and Julia had their baby on Tuesday as well, after something like 30 hours of labor, Theo Maximus Bazal is here.

Theo Maximus Bazal 8 lbs 14 oz and 22 inches long. Beautiful baby boy!

We got to visit with them on Thursday night for a couple hours, eat dinner and snuggle with the little guy. He is beautiful and I can't wait to see him grow up! He even let me take a couple pictures of him with his eyes open! Julia and Aaron are taking on their new roles as parents like champs.

The rest of the week was pretty low key, Friday night we just hung around the house, Saturday J and Spenny went and had lunch and got a haircut for J while E and I hung out at home, at lunch and took naps. When Daddy and Spenny got home, I went and ran some errands before we went to see Papa Dave's church band play at Ankeny's Summer Fest. We got to hang out with our friends Baby Liam and Stacey, Nana and Papa, as well as Carrie, Tim and Nolan. Good weather for it, it was hot, but there was a breeze and we all came prepared with snacks and juice boxes to keep everyone entertained. Today we just hung out at home, I organized the laundry area some, cleaned a bit and made some dry laundry detergent. I read a short book I got on my Kindle that talks about ways to declutter and organize, and one of the goals is get rid of 10 items a day from your life. Sounds like a lot, but really, when you start the process, 10 items goes pretty quickly. IE: I went through my "Mail" pile, which is really just a bunch of coupons, mailers and a couple odd bills that I need to sort and never want to. I did that first thing this morning though and ended up getting rid of about 15 items, just like that. When I cleaned up the laundry closet I was able to get rid of even more items, so it sounds like a big, daunting task, it's really not. And also, the 10 items isn't necessarily to throw away, but can also be to donate, recycle, sell, etc.

This week should be another busy one, we are in the process of figuring out what Spenny wants for his birthday, and what he wants to DO for his birthday. I'm thinking either Incredible Pizza or the Zoo, we'll see what the weather is like before we decide likely. Then, Saturday morning bright dark and early, I am flying off to Colorado to spend a long weekend with my cousin Kim, so excited! We're going to see Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw in concern and I have no idea what else will be in store for us!

last day of 27

It seems weird that I'm turning 28 this year. It doesn't seem like it's that big of a deal, but it's really only TWO years from 30. Not that excited about 30, but looking forward to see what 28 brings me. And really excited to go to Colorado in a couple weeks, hopefully losing some more weight over the next year and trying new things. 

Last year on my birthday, I lost my Grandpa Fran. He was a huge part of me growing up and he lived a wonderful, long life. Even when he was dying of cancer, he was the most positive person I knew. I remember one time we were talking and I said I was sorry he had cancer. His response? "Why? If it's not me, it would just be someone else; might as well make the best of it!" Before going into surgery, he was all grins, during his treatments, he would call me from the center where he was staying to tell me about how great the nurses were, the people he was meeting and how he felt so lucky to have the experience. (Really? LUCKY to have cancer Grandpa?!) I remember at his funeral we were talking to all of the people that knew him from all different aspects, neighbors, co-workers from the YMCA, church friends, horse people, everyone had a happy story to share, and I honestly don't think there was a person that knew him that didn't like him. I would like to think that Grandpa Fran and Grandma Sharon are up there singing their songs, and maybe he'll visit Grandpa Emory at an auction.  I also hope they are growing a garden, for fresh green beans so his whiskers keep growing and he is riding one of his horses. Grandpa, you were a wonderful man and I miss you so much. I wish I would have taken more advantage of spending time with you when I had the chance, but thank you for helping me be who I am today. I know I got my (mostly) positive outlook from you, and I appreciate it. 

Happy birthday to me, hopefully this year I'll have someone to share it with :) More news on that tomorrow, I hope!

Bucket List

I'm turning 30 in 2 years and 6 days. A while back I decided I was going to do a bucket list of 30 things to do before I'm 30 and started writing the list. Some of these I'm working on (I only have a few sodas a week now, since I've been drinking tea, I have my plane tickets already for my trip to Colorado, I've been doing the RAoK on a regular basis, I'm almost done with Season 1 of SATC...) and some will be harder to cross off, but I'm hoping that I get get at least the vast majority crossed off :)

 1. Go vegetarian for 6 weeks. (Can't go vegan...I'd miss my cheese!)
 2. Quit Soda
 3. Lose 15-20 pounds
 4. Go to Ikea
 5. Run a 10K
 6. Sing Karaoke
 7. Learn to Sew (With my new silhouette, that should be fun!)
 8. Travel more.
 9. Get my passport
10. Meet my newest niece.
11. Start College Savings funds for the boys
12. Get another Tattoo
13. and another.
14. Pay off all of our non-mortgage related debt/student loans
15. Go back to school
16. Do a Random Act of Kindness a week
17. Make photo books for the boys, one for each year
18. Get Married <3
19. Read 50 books (3 down!)
20. Hang pictures on our walls. (Don't laugh, we've lived here 18 months and have like 5 things hanging on our walls. In the whole house. And one of them is a clock.)
21. Re-Watch all of the Sex and the City episodes
22. Get my filing at work caught up (I haven't been caught up since before I went on maternity leave with Emerson....don't judge.)
23. Finish various projects that I have started up but not finished for various reasons, most of which aren't good ones
24. Hit at least 50 of the Top 100 in Des Moines Restaurants
25. Have drinks on a patio with my friends
26. Do more things as a family
27. Start doing my hair and makeup
28. Start wearing sunscreen on my face every day
29. Take a class for fun (Yoga, sewing, etc)
30. Be overall happy :)

Happy 4th of July!

The Fourth of July is probably my favorite holiday. I say probably, because it's hard to decide which excuse to dress up, decorate, etc is truly my favorite, but I've always loved it because it is A) in the summer B) My hometown made a big deal out of it C) It means my birthday is less than a week away D) Fireworks...ok, I could probably go on and on but I'll stop. :)

Today we headed over to Newton, J's hometown, to watch their parade. It's a long parade, but it's usually a lot of fun even if it is hotter than Hades. They start it off at 9:30 and I think today we left at 11ish, just as it was finishing. We hang out with J's mom's side of the family and just have fun. The kids love the candy and the little flags that Grandma brings for them to wave. It starts off with a tribute to the veterans. Every year it makes me a little misty eyed. I personally know a lot of veterans and I just don't think they always get the recognition they deserve. When they march through the town though, every stands and claps. The pride on the veterans' faces gets me. It's hot, the parade is long and they just keep marching. They even have floats for the ones that can't/don't want to walk. Some have what war they were a part of on the floats, others just march together, but, goosebumps and tears every time. This year I could blame it on my contacts ;) Anyway, the boys got some candy and they each ended up with a die cast car from the speedway and overall, had a great time. 

The rest of the day has been kinda lazy, the heat wore us out. While the boys were napping I spent a little time sunbathing (like 15 minutes...it was too hot!) and then took a nap. After that, I took a shower and decided to make a DIY workout shirt that I found on pinterest from here. Turned out pretty cute, not too bad for a first timer! 

I think we're going to find something to fix for dinner and then maybe early to bed for all of us. Feels weird to be off in the middle of the week, but back to the grind tomorrow.

Hope everyone else has had a happy and safe 4th!

Oh, for the love of...vinegar?

Lately I have been OBSESSED with using vinegar for so many things.

First, it started with cleaning the dishwasher. It seemed to help make it run better, dry faster and even degrease it some. (You know, the filter in the bottom gets "gunky" it helps clean it).

Then I read it works great in the laundry. First thing I did was use it to clean my washer. Our fabric softener thing in the middle was kinda gunky as well. I poured some in the softener hole and ran an empty load. It was still kinda gross, so I figured out how to tear it apart,  scrub it and put it back together. Now every load I wash, I pour a bunch in the fabric softener holder. I don't actually measure, I just pour until its full, and sometimes, I even pour until it's overflowing. Doesn't hurt anything, in fact, it's pretty good for the laundry! I know some people wonder, does it stink afterwards? Because face it, vinegar doesn't smell the best. Well, when you first open the washer, there's a very good chance you will smell it. HOWEVER, by the time the laundry is dry, either in the dryer OR hung to dry, there is no trace of vinegar smell. I will say the first couple times I used it on my towels, they seemed more scratchy than normal. I did some research (ok fine, I just googled it) and apparently that is very very normal. It's because it's breaking down the softener residue that's been left over from the other softeners and dryer sheets. A couple runs thru and they stopped, or you can keep using the dryer sheets with it. (I use them for the static stuff more than anything).

I recently have determined what a wonderful stain remover it is! Of course you would believe me better if I had before and after pictures, but I don't have any so you'll have to wait until next time I get a good stain. HOWEVER. For father's day, J got a light gray shirt with Darth Vader on it. Then for dinner we had ribs. and Emerson had red jello cake. Emerson's Jello cake ended up all over J's gray shirt. I thought for sure it was ruined after one wear, and I think that J believed it as well. But I made him take it off as soon as we got in the house. I took it upstairs to the laundry area (Seriously, I hope to never have to have my laundry anywhere but on the same floor as the bedrooms again...sorry, side tracked...) and poured a tiny bit of laundry detergent on it and scrubbed. All that it was doing was making a bigger mess so I kinda panicked.  I then put a towel under the shirt and poured some vinegar on as a last ditch effort and tossed it in the washer with some towels. Because honestly, if that Jello is gonna end up all over everything, it better be my towels and not my clothes!!!  But...low and behold, I pulled it out of the washer and it's GONE! I even hung it up to dry because I was worried it would magically reappear, but it did not. I also got some mystery grease stain on my favorite t shirt (it's my 5k shirt the Court to Court...It's American Apparel, so super soft). It had most likely been washed and dried on there so I was bummed, but thought, well, you never know, it might get rid of it. I put a little laundry detergent on again, just in case, then poured vinegar over then washed it. Also hung to dry and sure enough, no more mystery stains! I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities to try it out with two little boys, so I'll see if I can find some pictures for us.

It also works great as an air fresher, and I include it in all of my homemade cleaners, like the Shower Magic, Homemade 409 and the magical shower head cleaner. You can also use it to clean your garbage disposal (freeze it in ice cubes then chop them up) and all kinds of other things. Recently, I even used it on the kitchen floor, by the door was pretty dingy, so thought I'd try it. Sprayed it on straight from the bottle and let it sit and it is VISIBLY cleaner with only a small amount of scrubbing. Overall, it's my new miracle product. The best part is, it's super cheap, and no harsh chemicals, so I feel safe using it around the pets and children.

What do you use vinegar for?

Busy Busy!

Summer is in full swing here at the Duggan household. Boys have been enjoying their time with Daddy. So far they've been to a few parks, visited Papa Leo, Grandma Jean, Nana and Papa, gone bowling, fishing, learning some school stuff, played with lots of toys, frisbee...the list goes on and on.

Last weekend Grandma Rory (Lori) and Aunt Sissy came to visit. We went to the farmer's market, the sculpture park and just spent time together. We also made supercool "acid" washed shirts using my Silhouette and some bleach. I found a couple links from Pinterest and they were super easy.

 I think overall we had a great time. I know the boys enjoyed spending time with them. They were pretty bummed out when they woke up from their nap on Sunday and they were gone. Daddy was at a card tournament and got 2nd place and had a lot of fun hanging out with his Iowa City friends he doesn't get to see very often.

Last week pretty much flew by and we spent the weekend being pretty low key. Farmer's Market on Saturday, followed by lunch. The boys then took a nap and I ran and got groceries and some last minute purchases for the father's day gifts for Daddy. We spent the evening playing, watching tv and then after the boys went to bed I went for a run and then played with my Silhouette some more. Really digging it!

I read a lot of reviews about what interfacing to get and decided to go with HeatNBond. My first cuts turned out great!! Unfortunately, I haven't put the pictures on my computer yet, but they are on my facebook if you are interested. I can't wait to actually work on a project I'm making for Kim.

I need to get off of here and get some stuff done around the house and get some actual work-work done, but hope everything is well for the rest of you :)

Sunday Evening

Busy weekend here in Dugganville.

Quick Recap:

 

Friday night I picked up the boys from their last day at daycare. They've been going there this time since January, however before J took last summer off, they had been there for years. Emerson since he was 6 weeks old and Spenny since he was about 8 months old. It was bittersweet, as the boys love their friends and it's always hard to say goodbye, but overall, it's the right decision for our family right now.  Afterwards we ran some errands, got some groceries and did a swing through Dollar Tree to see if they had anything worth crafting (I didn't see much, but of course left with two bags of stuff...funny how that works!)

Saturday we got up and around early enough to head to the farmer's market downtown. We love it...lots of people watching, food and just time out of the house and around a different atmosphere, music, food, smells...you know, typical farmer's market stuff. Unfortunately, we didn't actually make it. The Dam to Dam was winding down when we got there and we literally spent 30 minutes just trying to turn around to come back home. I had checked the roads the day before and everything to my ramp was supposed to be open, buuuuuut....it wasn't. Oh well. We ended up at the baseball fields and the park instead, followed by a trip to Dahl's and home for an early lunch. After the boys napped, we got around to go to Nana's surprise birthday party. She will be 50 next week, and Carrie did a wonderful job at the party. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins and we got to visit with some people we don't see often. 

Today we went to my dad's for an impromptu birthday party for my younger brother. We were going to try to get with my dad last weekend, but we all ended up with different plans and it didn't work out so we rescheduled for today. My brother had also made plans with Dad and needed to resched, so it worked out best for all of us to be there at the same time. My brother brought along his girlfriend Ashley and our Grandpa Larry, who we don't see very often at all. The boys had a great time running around in the yard, playing Frisbee and kickball and just being crazy maniacs. Emerson learned he doesn't like flies and tries to scare them off with a Super Sonic Screech (It doesn't work, but it seems to make him feel better.) Spenny enjoyed spending time with Uncle Cody, climbing on him, playing with him and just overall having a great time. We got home a couple hours ago and have just been relaxing.

I started working on a new craft project and left it outside to dry while we were gone, however when we got home, it was gone. If anyone sees a Gum Drop colored cookie sheet around, lemme know as it probably came from here! I don't know if it blew away or if a neighbor kid now has a lavender shield, but the Diet Coke box I used as my drop cloth was still where I left it, so who knows. 

I'm going to fix a light dinner for the kids and then bath time. Tonight is the AGOT season finale, so hopefully the boys will be ready for a decent bed time so we can enjoy it without having to pause a million times to break up fights and lay them back down. 

Have a good week!