The Peanut Walker Chronicles

Now that Brandon is getting older he can do more for me. Yesterday, Walker had asked for some ice cream. I was too busy to stop what I was doing so I told him no, not right now. Brandon stepped up to the plate and offered to get it. (I’m sure it had nothing to do with being able to make himself a bowl too)

I heard them in the kitchen and everything was going smoothly. So, I quit paying attention to what they were saying. Never a good idea! I hear Walker start screaming and see he is running to me. He was very upset. Once I could understand what he was saying I couldn’t help but laugh! “Brandon’s brain is freezing!! Oh No! Mom help! His brain! It’s frozen!” HAHAHAHA!! Poor little guy, I guess that’s the first time he had heard that expression.

Brandon had been eating his ice cream and had gotten a brain freeze. He was sitting with his head in his hands. I guess if you are only 4 years old this looks really bad! Once we explained it to him and he saw Brandon move, he was ok. He was still holding his bowl of ice cream. Even at the chance of freezing his own brain, he wasn’t giving up his bowl of ice cream!

Being a mom of 2 boys has been a real eye opener!! The difference between how my sisters and I grew up compared to how my boys are growing up is amazing! Now, that’s not to say I was never gross. I did get dirty and loved to play outside, as did my sisters. But somehow we were always able to walk into our house with our dirty cloths still on. My sisters and I didn’t have dirt trails that led from the back door to the bathroom. My mom didn’t have to vacuum everyday because of the dirt. My boys are just gross!

You’ve seen some of the pictures of the boys playing outside. They play hard and when they stop, they stop in a pile of dirt. They are not allowed to wear their dirty cloths in the house! When they walk you can hear the sand falling off of them. Because of their love for the backyard and the dirt, we’ve had to make a one bath a day rule. AND it has to be enforced! If they go outside they have to finish their playing because they WILL need a bath just to be able to walk into the house. So, once they are in that’s it, they stay in!

They don’t really like or understand this rule. I told them it’s because they are gross. That just made them roar with laughter. In fact, I tell them this often. Last night after telling them again, because of the ick in their bedrooms, I thought maybe I shouldn’t say it anymore. But, there is really no other way to describe it. No, leaving banana peels in your room is not acceptable! No, licking the freezer door at the grocery store is not acceptable! No, hiding dirty laundry under your clean cloths is not acceptable! I could go on and on but I will spare myself the embarrassment!

They are true boys and I do my best to let them have fun and be that way. We have a big yard and I want them to enjoy it.  They have chores that they must do everyday and we practice our table manners. I’m not sure where the grossness comes from though. I’ve heard other mothers say it’s just because they are boys and that their children are the same way. But, I’ve also had some mothers that have said thank God they are yours and I don’t have to deal with that! Hummm….it really makes me wonder.

So, when the boys ask me why I’m upset with a mess or why they have to take another bath (because they left half a bucket of sand in their hair with the first bath), I just look at them, smile and say, “It’s because you’re gross!” Then find a clean spot on their little faces to give them a kiss.

Thrifty Florida Mama is one of my favorite blogs to read. You have got to read about her run in with Dish Network. I am one of those who believes strongly in word of mouth! I take what my friends and family say about a product, doctor, movie, or anything seriously when making my own decision. It makes me angry to see how she was treated by Dish Network. Check it out here and let me know if you feel the same way.

It has been a long time since I have posted anything so I thought I should give an update. Besides trying to recover from the holidays, our house has been hit hard with illnesses. Which is strange because we usually only have allergies to deal with. It seems like once things turned for the bad around here it just got worse! My husband has never been so sick in his life. He even missed work! He has had to take the last 2 weeks off! I don’t think he’s taken a total 2 weeks sick leave in the 22 years he’s been employed. His motto is,”Why do I want to waste a day off by being sick. I’d rather be sick at work and take off when I feel well.” I know, he’s a tuff guy.

Now, our 4 year old has been diagnosed with mono. Lovely. I’m still in shock at this diagnosis. My friends and family say I shouldn’t be because it’s Walker. He’s always into something and when he does something, he does it all the way. He’s full force all the time. Which makes his recovery difficult. His spleen and tonsils are so swollen he requires steroids. But the bad part is I’m suppose to keep him still. How in the world am I going to be able to do that?!?! Ya’ll have read the stories on here. The boy can be crazy! He fears nothing and isn’t happy unless he’s jumping off something or running at top speed. I definitely need prayers for how to handle this. Today he started to perk up. He said he was better and it would be ok for him to go outside and jump and run. I told him no way! He spent most of the day begging to go outside. Poor guy, it’s torture for him to have to stay inside.

So far, Brandon and I have only had to deal with allergies. He’s had to be my helper too. He’s been reading books to Walker and trying to give him his way when he wants something. But, that only lasts so long. I bribed Brandon with a transformer toy and that got me another 2 days out of him. His patience is starting to wear thin now. I can’t say that I blame him.  This past week Walker has painted a bullseye on poor Brandon. I told Brandon just to walk away from him and please don’t take a swing! We don’t need a ruptured spleen! Brandon smiled and told me not to worry. BUT, it’s Walker, he’s very good at getting under his big brother’s skin.

Monday’s have always been my favorite day around here. It’s our best school day of the week.   Monday’s are always calm and productive. But these past 3 Monday’s have been horrible. Something major has happened on each one, including an ER visit! I’ve decided to sleep straight through this coming Monday. No one is allowed out of bed. We are going to pretend it’s not Monday. I can’t have another bad Monday! So, please say a prayer for us! I need my life back!!

It’s time for the Redbox Monday code. And, judging by the weather, it doesn’t matter where in the country you live, today is a good stay indoor movie day. Here’s today’s code  EC22KP.

Remember it’s only good until Mid-night tonight! Enjoy!

I just found this deal, tried it and got my free 8×10 picture. Snapfish.com has a special for a free 8×10 if you use the pick up service. It’s simple! Go to Snapfish.com, choose your 8×10 and add to cart. Then hit the check out button, it will ask you to choose shipping. This is where you click on the pick-up tab. Choose a Wal-greens near you and enter the code WALLFREE. That’s it! You’ll get your free 8×10 and pay no shipping! It will be ready at your nearest Wal-green store. Enjoy!

Doesn’t this look good? I’ve made this before and it is yummy! I forgot about it though until I just saw it in the Kraft foods e-mail. The best part is that it is easy to make. Ya’ll know I don’t like to cook and especially don’t like to make anything with more than 5 ingredients! If you make it let me know how it turns out.

1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained

1 lb. (16 oz.) VELVEETA Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

4oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed

1 can (10 oz.) RO*TEL Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies, undrained

8 slices OSCAR MAYER Bacon, cooked, crumbled

Make It

MICROWAVE all ingredients in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 5 min. or until VELVEETA is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring after 3 min.

SERVE with tortilla chips and cut-up fresh vegetables.

Ro*Tel is a product of ConAgra Foods, Inc.

Not only can you rent free on Monday’s with Redbox, but now you can on Sunday! For the month of December and the first Sunday in January you can get a free movie at the Redbox inside all Wal-marts. They have given us all the codes in advance so make sure to put them in a safe place.

The codes are:

12/07/08 - 11MOMS4US
12/14/08 - 11MOMS4UA
12/21/08 - 11MOMS4UN
12/28/08 - 11MOMS4UT
01/04/09 - 11MOMS4UA

Here’s today’s Monday only code 23MJT7. This one is good at any Redbox kiosks.

Happy Thanksgiving ya’ll!! I wanted to let you know about a sale at Wal-greens. All of their toys that are marked $9.99 are 50%off! I had to go up there for medicine so I thought I’d test it out and sure enough they all rang up half off. The toy aisle isn’t marked so I asked my manager to be sure. I got some great stuff! Transformers at half off, my kinda sale!!

This sale is for today ONLY. It’s worth the trip if you can make it!

It’s no surprise that everyone has been struggling to make ends meet and our family is no exception. The price of everything has double, at least, and my husband hasn’t had a raise in 2 years! It really gets to you after awhile, especially at the holidays.

I have been cutting every corner I can to see how low I can get our bills.  We are cooking and eating what we have. Which is hard…sometimes I don’t like the options…even though I did the grocery shopping! We have unpluged everything we aren’t using, washing our cloths in cold water, using half the recommend amount of detergent, limiting baths/showers to one a day, ( I know that sounds like a weird one, but you’ve read about my 2 boys, their favorite thing to do is lay in the dirt!). I even shut the AC off at the electrical box. I don’t need power running to the thermostat just to tell me what the current temp is in the house. I can tell if I’m hot or cold.

So, this week has been a little depressing. It’s bill time again and I need to get food for Thanksgiving. I spent most of the day figuring how to pay this and when to pay that. It drives me insane. Then, it came time to go to church. I always pick up the mail on the way and today I was really glad I had. My electric bill was in there and it was HALF of what it was last month! I was so excited! Then I saw a letter from my mortgage company and saw that my house payment would be dropping by $40! What a sigh of relief! I tucked all the mail in my bag and headed off to church.

Once we got home I was busy trying to get the boys to bed and was going through the rest of the mail. I started throwing out the junk stuff and then it occurred to me that my mortgage letter was earlier than usual. So, I opened it back up to reread the good news. That’s when I saw it…a refund check was attached to the bottom of the letter!!! We have a surplus in our escrow account, not a lot, but enough to get me through! I just started praising God! He takes care of us and meets our needs. Why wasn’t my faith stronger? Matthew 6:34 Tells us: THEREFORE DO NOT WORRY ABOUT TOMORROW, FOR  TOMORROW WILL WORRY ABOUT ITSELF. EACH DAY HAS ENOUGH TROUBLE OF IT’S OWN.

I gotta quit letting “self”  get in the way! God is in control!