Trash or Treasure???

If my mom would have EVER told me I would one day drive by someone's house and take trash from their curb to I would have called her a liar! LOL

Holly and I were driving in my neighborhood and saw this little plastic picnic table out on the curb. It had been there for a couple of days and I wanted to take it, but I didn't have the nerve. Holly did! She went up to their door and asked to make sure it really was trash, then we loaded it in the back of the car.

It didn't look pretty, but I knew I could paint it with plastic spray paint and it would be all good. Here are a few before and after pics. I think it looks great and I saved a couple of bucks!

Emily loves eating lunch or dinner at the table outside.

Out of the mouths of babes...

I never know what's going to come out of Emily's mouth and sometimes I have no idea where she gets the things she says (sometimes I do, oops!). She has such an imagination and loves pretending with dolls, stuffed animals, spiders and squid...you name it she can have a conversation with it (REALLY don't know where she gets that, LOL!!) Here are a few of her latest...

"Oh, I'm so sorry"

Yesterday she said, "my daddy, he's so strong"

After asking her a question she answers with, "Sure, please"

Her "th" words are "b" words so for the word "there" she says, "bear"

"It's SO cute"

Always asks "where are we going next" no matter if we're in the car or the bathtub!

"I wanna go play with my friends"

"This is my favorite _______" Everything is her favorite

"I get a surprise" (in a very high pitched tone) This is after she pee pees on the potty. The other day at Target I had to go to the restroom and she told me I got a surprise! YAY! :)

"I'm a super princess" This was after a neighbor boy said he was a super hero, she said "well, I'm a super princess"

She is very expressive when she speaks, raises her eyebrows, opens her eyes wide...very dramatic! And, I love every minute of the drama!

Where A Kid Can Be A Kid!

The 3 of us went out for a late lunch at my most favorite Italian place here in the ATL area. It's called Ippolitos. I always get the same thing, the grilled chicken and spinach cannelloni. And, their rolls are to die for! The meals are so big that I bring home 1/2 to eat the next day, and they give you rolls to take home too! YUMMY!

After lunch we went to Chuck E Cheese. Aunt Lala and Uncle Mikey took Emily there months ago and she asks practically every day to go back! So, we gave in! I was hoping that since we went at an odd time it wouldn't be crowded. It wasn't bad, but I don't know if there is ever a time that place isn't busy! But, she had a BLAST and that's all that matters!

Here are the prizes my little GIRL picked out. And, she asked for them when we put her to bed tonight...Where's my spider, and my frog and my squid, she said! She loves stuff like this, but then she is such a girly girl at times, I think the perfect mix!

After that we went to Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt. We love this place. Emily had a mixture of passion fruit and pomegranate yogurt. She wanted to top it with a maraschino cherry, which she's never had. I only gave her one because I didn't know if she would like them (I don't like them at at all), she loved them and kept on saying I want another.

It was a great day with just the 3 of us!

Cake Mix Cookies...where have you been all my life?!!!

I found this recipe on a blog I read. The options are endless as to what kind of cake mix and morsels you can use. I had a milk chocolate cake mix that I've had forever, so I used it and white chocolate chips. Oh my, these things just melt in your mouth! Yumminess!

Don't worry, she didn't eat it!

Homemade Laundry Detergent!

I've been wanting to make this for a while, but I wanted to wait until we ran out of the Tide we had. It was actually a lot easier than I expected. For about $7.50 I made 7.5 gallons of liquid detergent. That comes out to $1.00 a gallon! That's an AWESOME deal!

We have a HE washer and from all the websites I've seen they all say they think it's safe, but hasn't officially been tested for HE compatibility. The only thing that's special about HE detergent is that it's low sudsing. Because so little water is used in the washing and rinsing cycles it can't have all the bubbles. I personally tested this detergent by sitting in front of the washer, ha! It is VERY low sudsing, so I think it's fine AND 2 out of the 3 ingredients say HE safe on the box.

Here's the recipe I used...

Hot water

1 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax
1 Soap bar (I used Fels-Naptha, found at Kroger)

Grate the bar soap and add to a large saucepan with hot water. Stir over

medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

I filled a 5 gallon bucket 3/4 full of hot water. Add the melted soap, Borax and Washing soda, stir well until all powder is dissolved. Top the bucket off with more hot water. I then took a 2.5 gallon bucket and filled it full of the complete mixture from the 5 gallon bucket. I then added more water to fill the 5 gallon bucket full. This sounds very confusing, but what I came out with was 7.5 gallons of laundry detergent. This recipe originally makes 10 gallons, but I decided to make it a little more potent for any stains on Emily's clothes.

Let the mixture sit for several hours to congeal and it will turn to a lumpy gel. This is what it's suppose to look like.

Use 1 cup per load, stirring soap before each use (will gel).

I filled my old laundry detergent container with the new homemade detergent so I didn't have to lug the 5 gallon bucket upstairs and it would be easier and less messy when I used it.

Happy 40th Daddy!

Today is Steve 40th! Holly came over and we had grilled salmon, chicken, veggies, foil potatoes, garlic bread and some yummy cheesecake for dinner. Tomorrow was suppose to be his surprise party, but he found out when he was setting up his Dad's iPhone to receive emails and my email that I had send to him popped up!!

I LOVE this booty...

Especially since it has PANTIES on it!! I think we have turned the corner of potty training! She is doing really well. We have no more diapers and only 1/2 a box of pullups (will only use those at night). The scariest thing to me is going out in public with no diaper or Pullup on, but so far we haven't had an accident! She does has to touch everything in sight, yes including the toilet seat, YUCK! It's a good thing this girl loves to wash her hands and sometimes I think just wants to go potty to be able to wash her hands!