Yummy Brisket!!

So, I have had this yummy brisket recipe for quite some time now that my Aunt Margie gave to me. She gave it to me after she made it for us while we were visiting this past July/August. So, I am making it for dinner tonight and am anxiously awaiting it to be finished so we can chow down. I am also making the cheesy potato casserole thing that she also made with it. I am SO excited and so is John.

I have decided that on Sunday nights, we should always have a "nice" meal regardless of finances. It doesn't have to be expensive or elaborate just a little nicer than what we normally have. SO, this brisket is one of those meals. It's nice to have something other than chicken and potatoes or chicken and rice. Nothing against those meals, its nice to have something different that's all.

We have had a great weekend. Low key and productive. We have been cleaning and such and trying to get some spring cleaning out of the way. We had a wonderful meal of Fried Rice (made by John and I-we actually got a chance to cook together!!) and took it to Alexa & Tim's house. We ate and then watched the movie Rendition. Aidan fell asleep on the way home and then woke up again when we got home and wanted a story. Needless to say it was a LATE night. We all slept in and then started on our day!! Well, gotta get to the Brisket to check on it!! Hope you had a great weekend and had an easy transition with Day light savings time!!

I'm a blogging fool...

OK, I apparently have turned into a blogging fool!! I just had to share that today at MOPS I had the best day!! I won a spray tan and that was this morning at MOPS. I found out about it about 2 weeks ago, so it was something to look forward to. I am tan now and didn't have to do any work other than exfoliate and shave!! How nice huh.

The other great thing was since it was our Spa day we had drawings and I entered my name in all sorts of them such as massage, facial, hair consultation or bang trim, brow wax, and the random giveaways drawing. The random giveaways was like little baskets all put together. So after they gave away all of them they had the GRAND prize drawing. I had no hope of getting it. I just kept gabbing with my girlfriend Jenelle. All of a sudden over the dull noise of everyone talking I heard my name "Megan Parkinson!" I was like cool I won. Not knowing it was the "Grand" prize.

So I walked up and they handed it to me and I asked what it was. They said it was a night at Willow's Lodge in Woodinville (conveniently just down the road from my mom's to like literally 3 minutes). Its SUPER expensive and I have always wanted to go there but it always seems silly to spend money on a place when I could stay at my mom's or in-laws for free. So hooray!!! John and I have somewhere to go for a night off or our anniversary!!! Yippee!!

So I know this isn't that great of a post but i wanted to share with y'all and tell you about my wonderful day so far!! On top of all that, its turning into a nice day!! The sun has come out and the rain has stopped!! Hooray, we'll have to get outside today. Here's the URL for Willow's Lodge if anyone's interested!!

http://www.willowslodge.com/

Potty training....

**NOTE: IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT STUFF THAT PARENTS DON'T THINK ABOUT TWICE BEFORE TYPING/TALKING THEN SKIP THIS POST** =)

OK, so since we got Aidan's "acceptance letter on Friday, he has decided that he wants to wear big boy underwear during the day or whenever we are home. We put pull-ups on for nap time and the nighttime diaper for bedtimes. He runs into the bathroom yelling pee-pee!! We are so proud of him.

He actually gets pretty upset about having an accident. He cries like the world is ending. We reassure him and let him know that it is OK that he has an accident because he is learning. He doesn't seem to understand yet and that will come with time. For the mean time he is trying really hard to get this.

His motivation....PRESCHOOL!! He understands that if he wants to go to preschool in the fall, he has to be going potty in the potty and not wearing a diaper. If he is still in a diaper then he doesn't get to go to school. We are a bit curious how potty-training him to go poopy on the potty will go. He hasn't done that part yet and we will cross the bridge when we get there. Oh well. I am just proud that he is ready and that we didn't push him before he was ready. This was the time he has chosen to learn to go potty in the potty. Way to go buddy!!

Disclaimer....if you are not a parent, I apologize for this post. When you are a parent you talk about the craziest things such as potty-training and more!!

Chuck E Chesse!!

I'm teaching him good roller-coaster habits now.

We went to Chuck E Cheese today and had a blast!! He kept asking for quarters and tokens and wanted to play the game and go on the rides. He sure loved it. I thought I would update with a few of the pictures that I were able to take. We had more fun running around playing games, eating pizza, spending time with Cadence and her 3 friends, Tate, Kavi, & Kimaya. They all had so much fun too. I even played the games. I lost him a lot in the building and then would find him trying to "play" a new game without tokens. One littel boy who looked like he was not more than 5-6 years old gave Aidan a token for a ride and helped him ride the ride. So cute. Anyhow, hope you enjoy the photos!! Love to all!!

He loves fire trucks and such.

He wasn't much of a fan when the truck "went up a hill" and needed to hold my hand...silly boy.

He was climbing in the game before I showed him how to do it....again....

The bicycle flying thingy.

Flying in the bike thingy again. He loved it.

Aidan is officially in Preschool!!

Aidan and his "acceptance letter"

SO....the big news for today is that we got our "acceptance" letter from Best Beginnings Preschool!! It's a good thing because I mentioned that I went on a tour of that school at the end of January and ever since Aidan will say go by my school and "hi ool, bye ool" when we drive by. Ool being school to him. I am so excited for him. I toured 2 preschools BUT this was the one that I got warm fuzzies from. The other preschool, not so much. I never tried to find another one because he was SO set on this school. He is excited too.

The only downfall is that we have to be potty-trained by September 8th, his first day. When I remind him that he can't go to school unless he is in big boy underroo's and going potty all by himself and on the toilet not in his pants, he will run in his room and take the diaper off and put on underroo's!!! My child is brilliant!! He does really well too. We aren't pushing it to hard right now because our week's are so jam packed that we are waiting until May when he will be 3 and when I will only have my nanny job and SO much more time in my day to help remind him and not always on the go. At the rate he is going I will have a potty-trained boy by his 3rd birthday!!! Woo hoo. I couldn't be a prouder mommy right about now!!

There is one other minor downfall, which is he is in afternoon preschool instead of morning. The problem with that is that he is still showing us that he still REALLY needs his nap. I guess we will have to see where he is in September. So far my plan is waking up and having our morning routine (on Tuesday's its working from 6-9am) coming home and having quite time watching a movie and hopefully getting him to nap from 10-11:30am or so. Then get up and eat a quick lunch and go to school!! On Thursday's, (oh yea he goes on Tuesday and Thursday's) we have Guardian's & Angels so we will see if I can go every week this next year. It will depend on Aidan and how he does without naps 2 times a week. I am a MAJOR planner and have to figure these things out now even though I have no control over them. Oh well.

I am so excited for buddy!! Keep your fingers crossed that he makes a smooth transition into preschool and that he is fully potty-trained by then!!

Here he is looking at his "acceptance letter"

Lack of work...

So for the last 2 weeks John has worked 2 days (today being one of them). This is VERY frustrating for him as well as myself. We have been able to spend much more time together as a family that we would typically only get during the weekends or on his vacations (which is AFTER his seniority date in mid-October). I wouldn't care so much except for the fact that he NEEDS to work for us to survive. He knows that and I know that. I pay the bills so I see it on a near daily basis when I sit down to go over our bills and budget.

He technically was "laid off" (UPS terms not mine) for today but then got a call at 8:57am saying that they needed him to work. HOORAY!! Aidan and I were coming home from my nanny job anxious for a yummy breakfast fixed by John when we got home we didn't see his car and he wasn't home. When we called him we found out he WAS working. Thank goodness. Aid and I made pancakes together instead, his with chocolate chips and mine plain, and now we are vegging and watching Finding Nemo hoping that he will crash. He was up at 3:30am this morning and only snoozed lightly until 5:15am this morning when I got up. Boy was he energetic. Silly boy. I hope he snoozes.

So, the week has been BEAUTIFUL and we have been taking full advantage of it. Today is overcast but the sun is trying to peak out. If it stays nice, I am planning to go out and ride his bike or kick the ball around a bit this afternoon. Oh and we had to buy Aidan ANOTHER bike helmet. He outgrew last year's helmet that we bought him. His head keeps growing and he keeps getting smarter!! So, with that being said, I'm going to close and snuggle up with my little man and watch Finding Nemo or better referred to as Nemo. Have a glorious day!

A Wonderful Beautiful week!!!

Wow, what a week this has been. It all started last weekend with a beautiful weekend with the sun out ALL weekend and thus continuing into the week. We are so blessed that the rain decided to hold off for yet another week so that we could get outside and get our wiggles out.

Since the sun has been out and the weather has been warmer, we have decided to take Aid's bike out for the first time since last fall. What a treat!! He now asks to ride it every day all day. He is asking to go outside CONSTANTLY!! We are all in better spirits because we aren't stuck inside our 976 sq foot apartment. How great it is to stretch our legs and to be outside and not HAVE to come in after 10 minutes because it is cold out.

John only worked one day this past week which has been stressful but I just think that it could have been a week that was filled with rain and miserable and ugly out. Instead it was a great week for him to be off to spend with Aidan outside. I have been letting the two of them have daddy and son time all week and Aidan LOVES it. John was wondering why I wasn't playing with Aidan this week, but I told him that he never gets opportunities like this and I do every day all year so I was letting him experience play time and being outdoors with Aidan and such. I think he got it.

Well, today is also beautiful and Aidan is napping so I think I better go finish some chores so that we can either go ride bikes or play out in the courtyard or better yet go to the park when he awakes!! Enjoy this BEAUTIFUL day!!