Get the led out

So, as anyone who knows me well knows, I am a HUGE Green Bay fan. I mean huge, my biggest concern when getting admitted while in labor with our first was if I was going to be able to watch the Green Bay game the next day. The nurses thought I was crazy. Both of the kid's first outfits were Green Bay outfits.

The problem (especially when living overseas) is that NFL merchandise is SO expensive! Plus a lot of places won't ship to APO, or charge just as much as the item for shipping. I don't have nearly enough Packers gear (and neither do the kids for that matter). While browsing on Pinterest I came across a really awesome shirt that I really wanted. I clicked on it, and the link lead nowhere (don't you HATE that!?!?). Best I can tell it was from Target but is no longer available. In my determination to find a shirt similiar I came across this :

It's not exactly the same as the original shirt I was looking for, but still great. I clicked and the link actually worked!! WHAT!?!? Get The Led Out is the website where you can find this shirt (and other Wisconsin apparel). To my surprise not only did the link lead somewhere, the shirts are very decently priced. This shirt was $15.99 plus I think $5 shipping (which is is not bad at all). The best part was that they shipped super quickly (normally any site that isn't Amazon takes a month or more to ship here). I got this shirt less than 2 weeks after ordering. The best part was that there were 2 shirts! I only ordered 1! Inside was a note saying "Thank you for serving our country. As a special thank you I sent you another shirt with your order. Thank you."

Never have I received such quick service and awesome costumer service before. I want every Wisconsin fan to know that they should check out the merchandise on this site. They can also make custom orders, as they are a small tee shirt printing company. They will definitely be getting more service from me in the future!

Chipotle pork burrito bowls

Crock pot meals...who doesn't love them?!? If you say you don't, you must crazy, or maybe you are just single and have no need for crock pot meals. I LOVE them because for the most part, you just toss everything in and leave it. Great for moms who are sleep deprived, or moms who just have a crazy hectic life and are always out and about. I really don't know what I would do without my crock pot (and I haven't even been able to utilize the best feature yet because of the hertz difference here-it's the timed feature. I can set it to turn off or turn to warm after a certain number of hours, how awesome is that!? So if my meal only needs to cook for 6 hours, but I'm not home right at the 6 hour mark, I don't need to worry about it over cooking!!!). I get to test that feature out soon enough though, 6 months and counting!!

Today I tried a new meal: chipotle pork burrito bowls. Super easy recipe, and yummy! You just throw a 3-4 lb pork lion roast in the crock pot with 1/2 cup of chipotle bbq sauce, and 8 oz of tomato sauce and leave it for 8 hours on low (only 3-4 hours if on high). I made my own chipotle bbq sauce using Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, some seasonings, and a can of green chilis (I would have used other chilis if they didn't cost so dang much here). I didn't really measure out the seasonings, it is basically by preference (you can always taste test and add more if needed, or more bbq if it's too much). I used a pinch of chili powder, cayenne pepper, a pinch of salt, ancho chile powder, and adobo seasoning, mixed it, and added a small can of green chilis.

Once the pork is done cooking shred it, and serve or cilantro lime rice (or any rice you prefer) with your choice of toppings. We used homemade guacamole, sour cream, cheese. You could use pico de gallo or taco sauce as well.

**Disclaimer, next time I will add more spice. It didn't have the kick I was looking for today. Tastes great, just not enough spice.

First Day

Well, today was Sophie's first day of school. It went smoothly, other than the ridiculous rain. The kids did really well with waking up early, I was actually impressed. We were even able to talk Sophie out of changing her first day outfit with no tears (she wanted to wear a my little pony dress, but it was pouring and not very warm). Bret even did ok with being woken up early today.

She was so excited about starting school, she went right in and sat on a shape, she wasn't even interested in giving hugs until we waited and asked her to give us some hugs before we left. She was just ready. At first Bret was sad about Sophie being gone all day, saying he missed her. After a bit, and some fun; we had coffee/snack time with some friends while making some diaper cakes (Bret played). Today is the first day in a long time that Bret hasn't had a complete freak out moment. We came home, danced a little, he colored, then read a book before lunch. 

He was not impressed when it was time to pick her up from school, he wanted her to stay there. She had a blast. They got yummy snacks, and a special treat (a ring pop). She made a lot of new friends (though she didn't think to ask anyone's name), they had lunch, and played. She is already begging to go back, and is sad that she has to wait until tomorrow. 

*Her first day of school pictures didn't turn out how I would have liked. I wanted to do them outside, but it was raining, and the lightning in our house is awful. I just had to make due with it though if I wanted the pictures. I made a little sign for her pictures using PicMonkey (our printer kind of messed up so it looks a little off).

Busy

Today is the day before Sophie starts preschool. OMG!!She is super excited. She had her student orientation and picture day yesterday. They did their school pictures and then they got tour the class room, and do a little playing. She was super sad to leave, when it was time to go she said, "Are you leaving now?" When I told her we were both leaving she got upset.

After nap time yesterday Sophie and I went to Showa Park and did part of her  5 year photo shoot (I did it a little early so I could take advantage of the perfect weather). We did a Cinderella shoot and it was so much fun! Sophie had a blast, Mommy had a blast, everyone at the park thought she was the most adorable thing ever. She has such personality, I maybe posed her myself a handful of times, and the other 90% was just me capturing her being 110% herself. I started editing those pictures today in between baking 64 cakes for the upcoming festival. (Did you know mixing up batter for 64 cakes takes FOREVER?!? Seriously, I was mixing cake for about 3 hours.) All the counter tops/tables/my desk are covered in cake, whether it be cooked or waiting to go in the oven. The kids were super upset that they don't get to eat all this cake (it would be cake for days up in here).

They were happy, Mommy opened the windows and blasted some music BakeFest 2015 (at least until nap time). Mommy took advantage of Daddy being at work and decided it was Christmas music time! (He has a rule about starting Christmas stuff too soon, but he's not home, so I don't have to follow his rule!) Now I'm enjoying some Christmas movies while the kids sleep and waiting to switch out cakes. I still have a lot of pictures to edit too. (I will say after editing a large amount of photos I totally understand why photographers charge as much as they do. Last night I only edited about 4 and it took me about 2 hours!) It's worth it though, they turned out so well. The second half of her 5 year photos is going to be a glitter photo shoot, but that will be closer to her birthday. I needed a nice day so that she wouldn't freeze/get wet in her Cinderella dress.

Turkey sloppy joes

We have had some pretty rainy days lately. I don't know about you, but when it's chilly and rainy I want things like chili, soup, and stew for dinner. They are nice and warming and make up for the gloomy rainy weather outside. I also love to bake when the weather is like this, but I'm on a 30 day eating challenge, so cupcakes and cookies are a no go for me. 

I don't think there is anything better than being in the kitchen cooking/baking while dancing to and belting out some good music. It's probably one of my favorite things to do, I put my playlist on iTunes on the computer, crank it up, and get busy. Plus, on days like that, dancing warms you up. Also, it's perfectly OK to use your mixing spoon as a microphone during a power ballad. 

Last night I was busy in the kitchen. I was mixing up some healthy sloppy joes for the family for dinner, and mixing up some pumpkin cupcakes for my husband to take to work this morning, along with some homemade frosting. 

Today I am going to share with you the delicious sloppy joe recipe from last night. These are made with ground turkey and are delicious! My husband is not a fan of sloppy joes but he liked these (he just said smaller chunks of pepper next time). It says to use red pepper, I used a green one because I cut my red one open and it was all rotten inside. This recipe is pretty quick and easy (easy enough that I was mixing up cupcakes while cooking it). 

Football Season

Football season is finally here!! Week 1 is only days away (for those that aren't aware, football season is probably my favorite season). I'm super excited! I am a huge Packers fan and our season opener is against the Bears (football rivalry at it's best). I am that fan that wakes up at 2 am so that I can watch the game (one of the joys of living overseas). 

Even though the Packers will always by my #1 team. Green and Gold until I'm dead and cold! I just like watching football in general. I watch even when they aren't playing, because I like knowing how other player's stats are and where the other teams are in the standing. I like to scout out the other teams to see how we will do against them. 

My husband I started a football card last year and it is honestly HUGE now, I like just going through our binders of football cards and reading stats (really, I could spend hours doing it). I also like just organizing them in general (not sure why, but I do). We have a few kick ass cards including a signed Brett Favre, a gold Aaron Rodgers and a gold Brett Favre. Other signatures we have from the Packers are: Jeff Janis, Jonathon Franklin, Davante Adams, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, and Richard Rodgers. We also have Dion Jordan's auto from the Dolphins. We have a few awesome jersey cards (means they contain a piece cut from an Authentic jersey personally worn by the player in an official game). These cards are usually numbered because they are rare. The Donald Driver jersey card we have is 9/25, meaning there are only 25 in existence and we own the 9th made (the lower the number the more rare the card). We have a Bart Starr jersey card numbered 11/25. We also have jersey cards for James Jones, and Greg Jennings, and Jordy Nelson. We have a Superbowl patch card for Aaron Rodgers. A card we just got today is an old Jets card: Joe Namath numbered 28/99.  We have a lot more numbered cards, but this post would never end if I listed them all. 

I just joined a fantasy football league with a few other Packers fans (my first time playing fantasy football, but I'm pretty excited about it). While I didn't get all of my first choice (obviously Aaron Rodgers was gone in the blink of an eye),  I got a decent team. My QB's are Andrew Luck and Johnny Manziel (bench). My WR's are Dez Bryant, DeSean Jackson, and Brandon LaFell (bench). Running backs are Frank Gore (didn't get any of my top choices for this position), Rashad Jennings, and Ameer Abdullah (bench). Tight ends are Dwayne Allen and Charles Clay (bench). Kicker is Sean Gostkowski (this was my number 1 pick for a kicker). My main defense is the Bills with the Colts as back up. I am still waiting for my waiver for Anquan Boldin and Andre Williams to be approved for my 2 open slots. While this might not be the best line up, now I know what to expect and I will be better prepared for next season and fantasy football. 

YAY football!! My daughter will be playing flag football this year. They start in October and I am so excited for her! The teams are NFL teams, so fingers crossed she gets placed on the Packers!! I might die if she ends up with a Bears or Vikings jersey for flag football. 

Simple at home lesson plan

My last post was about wanting to start working with Bret one-on-one once his sister starts school next week. I've started working on a fairly simple (nothing too detailed) lesson plan to follow starting that next week (since she starts school on a Thursday), and we are going to need to get used to getting up and ready for the day much earlier than we currently do.

I want to somewhat get him on the new schedule before actually starting with jumping into at home learning. He doesn't really do well with change so I am sure the first few weeks are going to be a challenge. He normally wakes up between 7:30-8 and doesn't want to do anything until after 9. We will need to be at the bus stop at 7:30, which means leaving our house by 7:15 (fully dressed and ready). I also wanted to keep the lesson plan fairly simple so that if something comes up, it's not a huge deal. Both myself and my husband will be volunteering at the school on his days off, so it needs to be something that both of us can do with him (if it falls on a day where I'm at the school and Daddy is home with him). 

I didn't want it too detailed because I learned from experience that if you try to plan every second down the T, things usually don't work out the way you want. One the things you will see for every day is the letter of the day. We learned with Sophie (who had a very hard time learning her letters) that focusing on one letter each day, and just doing a quick review of the others is much more helpful. You will also see things like yoga, "movement", and sports in there; that goes back to the article I referenced the other day about physical activity helping with cognition. There are also life skills in there for him to work on. I also repeat a lot of the things instead of doing something brand new each time, that way it really sticks. I also have things like deep breathing in there, that is for teaching him how to calm himself down.

I decided to just focus on 4 things a day, that way I'm asking him to focus for an extended amount of time. I know that expecting him to focus for 1-2 hours at a time is just setting myself up for failure. Also why I add a lot of physical activity and things like music in there; because I know those are things he really enjoys, and I can use that to help him learn. You will also see one week I don't have Monday on there; that is a day that Sophie doesn't have school, and I figured we would do something all together as a family.