Yaaaaawn

Tonight's MOPS meeting was a much needed (and I do mean MUCH needed) dose of awesomeness. January was a long month. I see a light at the end of the tunnel (no thanks to Punxsutawney Phil) but still, being cooped up inside with two little kids for what seems like AGES (okay, 3.5 months) is starting to take it's toll on ALL of us. It seems like just about the time that the MOPS meeting comes around I start to get a weeeee bit cranky. Thank GOD for MOPS. (and I mean that quite literally. Pun intended.)

Tonight we had an awesome meal. SOMEONE (and no I don't know who but I would really like to) made some seriously delicious salads. I had one that was Blueberries and toasted almond slivers with lettuce and some type of (poppy seed?) vinigrette dressing... and it was to DIE for and I must have the recipe. MUST. The soups were great and the bread and spaghetti and DESSERTS! Wow. We did relaxation techniques and got mini-facials, then I got my eyebrows waxed (professionally!!! Whoot!) and then we made patchouli and lavender bath salts (my two VERY favorite bath scents that I use all the time from my essential oils) and then I gave myself a pedicure complete with topcoat (that never happens at home. Never. In fact I still had toenail polish on from Christmas- although there was barely any left.) we did hand scrubs and moisturizer from Beauty Control, and some of the ladies clipped coupons and cleaned their jewelry, although I didn't get to that. Not to mention that we had a bunch of good mamma girly time, had new moms attend, AND learned new songs and things to teach our little ones. Fun was had by all.

I was so happy to be recharged. I am super excited to be attending the Hearts at Home Conference this year, and we have decided to make it a nice weekend and Evan and Ardyn will meet me there and stay in the hotel with me, and the next day we will take Ardyn to the Children's Discovery Museum. I can't wait for that. It will be so much fun! We have wanted to take her to a Children's museum for a long time, and this is something we are looking forward to. I can't wait to hear back which conference sessions I am going to be attending. I sent in my list of top 10 and wonder what they will pick for me?!

I had to run to Walmart after the meeting tonight, I had a few things to return and exchange. I am hosting a St Patrick's Playdate and was previously planning on hosting a V-day one, so I took back the V-day stuff in exchange for green plates and napkins, and exchanged my broken laminator for a new booster seat (high chair) for Marek. When I was pregnant with Ardyn, I registered for the Fisher Price Space Saver high chair. My reasoning was that I didn't want a free-standing high chair when we already had a TON of dining room chairs butt not much extra space. Well, then I discovered that (poor design!) the arms of the chair wouldn't allow you to push it under the table, but didn't worry much about that. Well, After owning it for a while, I also discovered that not only did the dishwasher safe tray BARELY fit into a dishwasher (it took up an entire rack and had to be put in horizontally, so it held about 6 cups of water in it after the wash cycle and kept the whole dishwasher from drying properly) but it was really a pain to clean with all the folds in the plastic covered cushioned seat, and the arms were just one more thing for sticky fingers to touch. It was nice that the back came off for when Ardyn became older, but by then I wanted her eating at the table and not with the tray, and the darn thing wouldn't push up to the table, so GRRR. So we just dropped like $12 on a cheap simple booster seat for Ardyn and Marek came right along and took over the high chair. Now that he's almost 1, the tray thing and the arm thing are REALLY bugging me, and my mom got the Fisher Price Deluxe Booster Seat and it is AWESOME. So, $26 and a broken laminator exchange later.... the high chair is headed for the attic and the booster seat is here to stay! I was debating between that one and the Fisher Price Precious Planet Booster Seat, because it had a play tray included... but it was also $35, and the seat didn't adjust up and down (which is a huge issue for Ardyn already because her knees barely fit under the table, and she is always getting banged and scraped.) and the tray didn't come with a removeable insert OR with a cover, which is nice for traveling... so I opted for the one that I KNEW I liked and that I had used and approved of. Now I plan on calling Fisher Price and seeing if I can get an extra insert for the tray.... because the high chair has to be used for three meals a day, and if you put it in the dishwasher, it's not likely that you are going to run the dishwasher three times a day, and so I would at least like to have a spare. If I could do it over again, I would buy two of them, one for each kid, and use the spare tray for the "big kid's" seat for the baby. Duh. Oh well. It takes a few tries to learn these things!

So. When I come home, I am all relaxed and happy from the spa night, and then I just see all these THINGS that should be done, so I forced myself to take a Tylenol PM and then just get into bed to blog. I made myself a note of things to do tomorrow. I pulled bread dough out of the freezer to defrost as we only have two pieces of homemade bread left. Luckily the last time I made dough, I decided to double the recipe and freeze 3 of the 4 loaves before the second rise. I have decided that this is the way to go. Only problem is that the kitchen aid mixer doesn't have the capacity to hold that much dough, and now I have a bunch of dough crusted all over it. I need to get myself a second mixing bowl so I can measure and mix up two batches at a time, but in two different bowls, and then let them rise and freeze them. I always wanted a second bowl, but assumed that they wouldn't be cheap. This is now something that I will consider a necessity. I figure if I make all our bread, I am bound to be saving enough money that I can justify a second mixing bowl. But oh, where will I store it? I guess I should check Amazon because I have enough swagbucks to probably get one for free right now. Or maybe to get a second booster seat for free? Whoooot!

HOLY CRAP. Those bowls are like $40! What a rip-off! Grrr. Time to search eBay. Maybe I will have to ask for one for Mother's Day.