Old Car Family!

Our family just bought a 1972 Nova. A couple days later Art's dad bought an old 70's truck. G and I went over to the inlaws to check out the new truck. G loved climbing into the bed of the truck using the step on the side. He thinks the back window is great because he can push it open and pop his head inside. 

The car we bought needs to be redone. The engine and transmission are about the only things that are functional. Under the hood works pretty well. It needs a little tune up. The rest of the car pretty much needs an overhaul. We knew that when we bought it. It is going to be a project that is going to take awhile to complete. I told Art he needs to plan on it taking at a minimum 5 years to get it done. 

Art is looking forward to redoing the car. I have mixed emotions on it. I see money bags flying away when I think about it. lol It will be fun to drive once it is redone. The moment G saw it he told me to get his car seat out of my car and put it in the orange car. lol I told him I didn't think the orange car had seat belts that would even hold his car seat right now. 

I will post pictures of the car eventually. Once we have some before and after to post I will put them on the blog. Right now it's like what in the world did you buy and why did you think you wanted this thing? Someone asked Art if he bought it from a junk yard. LOL! He actually got a good deal on it. I did some wheeling and dealing to get him a good price. 

Monday Thrive August 28

1) I have always loved back to school stuff in the stores. I love school supplies. It's been a long time since I have been in school or needed to buy school supplies. When I see school supplies on sale for $.25 for a box of crayons I think I need to buy like 10 of them. lol I do try to avoid that area of the store because honestly how many pens or boxes of crayons does one person need? 

G is now going to preschool, but we don't have to take any supplies. He will be going 2 days for 3 hours a day. All supplies are provided and snacks, so we just send him in play clothes. They do lots of art and play outside a lot. He comes home usually with paint and dirt all over himself. I learned very quickly do not send him in cute good clothes. They won't make it! One of his sweatshirts still has red paint on the sleeve. That will be his school jacket from now on. lol

2) During Nordstroms Anniversary Sale I bought the Barefoot Dreams circle cardigan. I wasn't sure about it, but I had heard so many great reviews about Barefoot Dreams items. I decided to order one. If I hated it I would just return it. OMG! This thing is the softest thing in the world! I wish I had ordered another color. I wear it all the time! I really want the mink one next! 

I also discovered for the first time probably in my entire life I actually need a black cardigan. The black and mink cardigans are going on my wish list! I will be ordering another one of these next year during the sale. 

3) I started listening to Jen Hatmaker podcasts when I was flying back from ND. I LOVE this podcast!!!!!! Her recently one with Brene' Brown is a must listen too! Sometimes I need something uplifting. This podcast is exactly that! I always feel so much better about what is going on in my life after listening to Jen. She makes you feel like you are doing your best and your best is good enough!

4) The hurricane/flooding in Texas is so very sad! Last year Art and I went to the Houston area to look at possibly moving there. Maybe one day we will, but right now we aren't. The area that is flooding is right where we looked at moving. I saw pictures of MD Anderson the medical facility I want to go to. It is terrible! The place that helps thousands of people is flooded. It's really heart breaking to see MD Anderson flooded! I know so many people that go there. They are one of the few places that understand Medullary Thyroid Cancer and actually help people fight this ugly cancer. Lots of thoughts and prayers for everyone dealing with this catastrophe. 

5) I am not sure if I shared these paleo chocolate chip cookies on the blog in the past. Sometimes you just need chocolate chip cookies even when you are eating as healthy as possible. These cookies are amazing! My dad even liked them which says a lot. He thinks I eat the craziest stuff. If you want something healthy, non-dairy and paleo these are your go to cookies! I actually haven't bought the ingredients for them because I can't avoid them. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Monday Thrive - August 21

I am trying to get us back into our routine after a couple months of craziness. G went to school every day for a month, then we were gone for a month and now we are trying to find our new groove. I thought I would share some of my traveling tips with a toddler and eating paleo in today's post. 

1) Last year in September I wrote a post about Traveling with a Toddler. I didn't want to be a traveling Gypsy this year, so I wanted to come up with a different way to bring a car seat. Two days before we left I ordered a luggage cart you can find HERE. I wasn't sure if I was going to use it or if I would use my Bob Stroller. I figured if I decided to use my Bob I would return the luggage cart. It was moments before our shuttle picked us up that I decided to leave the Bob at home and use the cart. Best decision!!!! 

I was traveling alone with G. I needed to have my hands free as much as possible. When we got to San Francisco Airport I told G the cart was too heavy and I needed help pulling it. He was really nervous about riding in it. I threw our carry on bags in there, pulled the luggage cart with car seat and my suitcase. I had him right beside me, so I could grab him if necessary. I had looked at the car seat carts which ran $50-$100. I looked at them numerous times online. I just thought they looked like a luggage cart and the they were marking them up because parents buy all this crap we think we need for kids. I am glad I went with a cheaper version. This will work great for us while we travel. We have 2 more trips coming up this year. I also like to bring our car seat on the plane. 

On our flight home G wasn't scared to ride in the car seat. We had an episode of a tantrum in the Denver Airport. I strapped him in there while he was whaling and got to our gate. 

2) Just buy your kid their own tablet! It's a life saver for traveling. We ended up buying him an Amazon Fire Tablet. I am still not sure I am happy with this purchase. I kind of wish we would have just spent the extra money and bought him an Ipad mini. You can download YouTube Kids on the Fire. G loves YouTube kids. If you are only going to let them use it for traveling this is no big deal then. 

I was able to download shows from Amazon Prime and Netflix. Just a helpful tip download the shows the day before you leave. I downloaded some of them and they expired before he could even watch them. Thankfully we realized this on the 1 hour flight. I had some new toy firemen I was able to pull out and save the day. Rookie mistake for downloading shows. :::eyeroll:::

I downloaded a bunch of podcasts for myself. These saved my sanity for the 3 hour flight. You go through a magazine way too fast! I downloaded a bunch of different ones. Jen Hatmaker has a new podcast I just love! I listened to some Dave Ramsey to help me stay on budget and My Favorite Murder. Those girls on My Favorite Murder are crazy. I can only listen to that podcast a little or become paranoid about being murdered. It's very unlikely I will be murdered on a plane, so I felt it was safe to listen on there. I had to then listen to Jen Hatmaker before I got off the plane. lol

3) Pack lots of snacks for everyone!!!! On the way to ND I packed some paleo pizza. Thankfully I packed 3 pieces. G ate one, I dropped one and I got to eat one. I packed the Kids RX bars. I love these! They are the perfect size! I packed G some of his favorite snacks - crackers, pouches, fruit leather, nuts. I usually pack a big bag of nuts. Both of really like them. 

I always pack a reusable water bottle for both G & me in our carry on bags. Once we are through security I find a place to fill them up. This saves you about $5-10 bucks. It's ridiculous what they charge for water in the airport. I did end up buying us a soda water on the plane to share. G was very excited about the juice. He thinks soda water is juice and I am just going to let him continue thinking that. =)  

You can usually find a salad in the airport. I have gotten a side salad from McDonald's skipping the dressing. Quizno's had a salad that I just had them skip the dressing that seemed to be paleo approved. I do the best I can when I am traveling. If I end up with a little sugar in a dressing I let it go. I can't eat dairy at all, so I always skip anything that might have dairy. 

4) Dress in comfortable clothes and layers! Why is take off so hot and when you are in the sky it is so cold? I am usually sitting in the airplane sweating like crazy before we take off. Then we get in the sky and I am shivering because it is so cold.  I wore some looser fitting boyfriend jeans, tshirt, jacket and converse. I need something that I don't need to be adjusting and tugging on. 

I dress G in usually one of his favorite shirts. It helps getting dressed early in the AM. It also can be a conversation we can have while waiting. What is on your shirt, what color is that, etc? I also put on easy shoes for him. As soon as he is strapped in his seat I take his shoes off and put them in one of the bags. He is known for kicking his shoes off right away. I just take them off, so they don't get lost. 

5) I packed a rollerball with lavender this year! This was a great thing. I would roll some on the bottom of G's feet and the back of my neck. It really helped us stay relaxed. Early mornings, cramped space, and long travel days do not mix well with a toddler. Thankfully he slept for 3 hours on the first flight. Then we had a FOUR hour layover. It was either a four hour layover or an over night layover. I picked the 4 hour one! While I love Frontier's prices I do not like their flying times 90% of the time. We also don't have many options that fly into ND. 

When we would get on the plane I would roll some lavender on us. When we got to Denver I had him run as much as possible. We went up and down the moving walk ways. Up and down the escalators. He walked around looking at different planes. Whatever we could do to get out some energy. Using the tablet is not an option once we have landed. I will give him toys to play with while we watch planes. 

G really did well! He has been on planes often, so he knows the drill. It is getting easier now that is older too. A lot less to pack. No diapers or bottles. Smaller toys. 

I hope everyone has a fabulous Monday! 

Menu August 20

I barely did any cooking while I was at my parents compared to my weekly routine when I am home. I cook 3 meals a day when I am home. We go out to eat maybe 3-4 times a month. I will say it was really nice to have a break from meal planning and cooking, but man is it hard to get back into it. At my parents we ate at least one meal a day at the my mom's restaurant when it was open. She is a seasonal business, so she is only open Wednesday through Sunday. 

I will say I ate more hamburgers in the month I was in ND than I eat in probably a full year. Hamburgers are something that are easy to get that are paleo approved. I just have to ask for a hamburger, no bun, tomato, lettuce and no cheese when I was there. Can you believe they don't bring tomato and lettuce with every burger? I found that so crazy! Hamburgers, steak and some salads I could make a few exceptions for to stick to paleo. The rest of the foods seemed to have some type of breading on them. 

A few days before I came home I ordered some food from Amazon Fresh to be delivered to the house. Art needed some food, so I added extra stuff that I knew I would like when I got home. The first day I was home I made a menu and grocery list. I ate a lot of fried tator tots. My mom had some gluten free ones. They were so yummy and just went so well with hamburgers!!! It was time to get back on track once we were home! I had joked we were going to need to detox once we were home. G ate so much junk. There were some things I would say he couldn't have, but I tried to just take a deep breath and let my family give him some treats. It isn't every day he eats these things. Once in awhile it will be ok. 

Here is the menu I put together for this week. 

Main Dishes:

Cracklin Chicken

Salmon

Zucchini Spaghetti

Beef & Broccoli

Breakfast

Taco Salad

Sausages

We have a TON of tomatoes right now. My mom made this really good tomato salad for her salad bar. I just had to take out the cheese. 

slice cherry tomatoes in 4's

dice an avocado 

drizzle olive oil over the top of them

mince 3 cloves of garlic 

mince fresh basil

mix all together, put in fridge for a few hours and serve cold

My mom added these little mozzarella cheeses to the salad. 

Sides:

Roasted broccoli

Baked potatoes

Coleslaw

BLT salad

Tomato salad - see above

Greek salad

Roasted veggies - zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, onions, peppers

Marvel Universe Live Review

Last week we went to Marvel Universe Live. I am not sure who was more excited Art or G. I honestly think it was Art. G wasn't exactly sure what we were doing other than Captain Mera and Iron Man would be there. We had great seats! 

We are waiting for the show to start here! G loved seeing the other kids dressed in costumes.

G wasn't scared at all during any of the dark parts or fireworks. He would yell WOW wook at that!

They were totally mesmerized by the show for the entire hour and a half. 

G was so excited to see Iron Man. Anytime he left he would ask where is Iron Man?

The show was a total hit! Everyone loved it! 

Brushies Review!

G LOVES to brush his teeth! He will brush his teeth numerous times per day. He doesn't like a lot of help either. I usually can get him to let me do a quick brush to make sure he is getting all his teeth.  At our last dentist appointment they told us to make sure we are brushing his gums and teeth. It's important to get all the food off both. 

I was excited when I got the opportunity to try out Brushies. The book is adorable and the brush is super cute too. I love that they are designed and manufactured in the USA! I love supporting companies who support US! 

The board book is adorable with a really cute story! The little finger puppet brush is super cute! The bristles are very soft. I like they it's a character too. We play little games to brush after G eats. He thinks it's funny to bite my finger. At least with this my finger is protected some lol

Brushies recommends starting to brush babies gums as early as 4 weeks old to start the routine early on! 

Brushies are very affordable and would make a great baby gift or birthday gift! We will be adding these to our next gift ideas! 

This post was generously supported by ihelpmoms.com, a professional resource for mothers!

OOTD August 2

I have been trying to pull out my dresses and wear them more this summer. The weather has been super hot, so it's either a dress or shorts. I bought this green dress from Old Navy a few years back when they had a special on them for $5. It hung in my closet for the past few years. I just took the tag off of it. This dress is a knit material. I have a similar one in the same color, but it is made out of a cotton material. I usually start off with a cardigan, but once the heat starts up off the cardigan comes. 

It is such a comfortable dress! Also a great length for chasing a toddler around. I wish I had it in more colors. 

Dress: Old Navy

Cardigan: NY & Co

Sandals: Tory Burch

I have been wearing some of my cotton shirts with the sleeve rolled up. They can be a great shirt to wear with shorts on days when it's in the 70's. When the temperatures are warmer these shirts don't work. I bought these gray shorts from Old Navy earlier this year. I really love them and wear them a lot. 

Shirt & Shorts: Old Navy

Flip Flops: Havaianas

As you can see the cotton shirts are very versatile. You can wear them with shorts like I did above or you can wear them with jeans and a vest like I did below. The shirt would also look cute with white jeans and a denim jacket when the weather is cooler. 

Shirt & Vest: Old Navy

Jeans: American Eagle

Shoes: gifted

I have a few Lularoe Irma's that are too big on me since I lost some weight. I really love my black & white Irma, so I haven't gotten rid of it. I decided to use a rubberband to tie the side. This helped with the extra material, so it wasn't all baggy on me anymore. 

Shirt: Lularoe

Jeans: American Eagle

Flip Flops: Havaianas

The majority of these clothes are all old, so I can't find links for them.