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Monday, July 28, 2014

No more getting out of bed to fetch lost binkies!!

Welp folks I hope you will still read my blog once I become a Millionaire!! Because I have come up with such a solution that only the Zombie-like parents can appreciate oh so much!

I was sooo sick of getting out of bed to retrieve my sons' lost binky when he realized in the middle of the night that it was gone. I have tried a few methods, hiding some other ones around his bed, putting them on the top rail, etc and nothing was working, he was straight up too lazy to look that far for it!

Then POW I had an idea, what if I could somehow attach the binkies at his level in the crib and show him where they were being held a few times so maybe he would be able to get them himself in the middle of the night.

Well I can't believe it fricken worked! I made a prototype of the idea in my head, attached it to his crib, showed him a few times where it was and just like clock-work in the middle of the night I caught him on the nanny cam going over to the strip with the binkies, taking one off and putting it into his mouth and going back to sleep!

ANYTHING to make one less trip to his room is worth the world to me! I have since then taken pictures and submitted my idea on Quirky where "inventors" go to submit ideas and hopefully end up with a sell-able product that you created! I am in stage one which means there isn't anything like it on the market and it's a "good" idea...I need as many votes or likes as possible. 

Here's some pics to show you what I made:



And that's an actual picture of Drew getting the binkies off the strip! Oh happy day, even if I am not famous at least I don't have to get out of bed for a stupid binky!

You can also go to Quirky's site to view and give me a thumbs up! Click Here to Vote

Pin me if you think this is a good idea, I appreciate it!

~Candace
#binkyfinder #Quirky


My Invention is Live on Quirky! #BinkyFinder

Hi Fans! I came up with something that every mom can appreciate, something that would stop your trips to your little ones room in the middle of the night for lost binkies...YES Check it out, any feedback is appreciated, I only have 7 days to make it to the next round! Check it out here

~Candace

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

1st year-Post Baby: My Weightloss Journey

Whew this past year has been a doozy! Along with being utterly exhausting about 85% of the time it has been the most fun, the most exciting, the most stressful time of my life and I have loved (almost) every minute of it.
Now let's talk about the fun stuff...weightloss. You know it really sucks to be a new mom and have to worry about what we look like in an outfit, or about buying new clothes to accomodate that "new" body we have been granted all while taking care of a little person who needs your attention pretty much 90% of the day.

I have always tried to be "active" whether that is walking the dogs when I get home from work, walking on my lunch break, bike rides, or playing soccer (in my younger days). And popping out a baby didn't have any effect on my wishes to fit into my clothes by 4 weeks but did have an effect on the physical ability of fitting into my clothes. And to cut to the chase I did not.

I gained a little more than 45lbs during my pregnancy (I quit looking at the scale the last few weeks in disgust) and especially because at the end you just can't help the weight coming on, even eating carrot sticks for every meal (which I don't recommend) that weight is coming on, so hold on tight!

After having Drewbear I dropped 20lbs at the hospital and was dancing in my gown..Just kidding there was no dancing for awhile due to the aftermath.

I came home to a ripe old number of 180. Jesus, that's ALMOST 200! That's still 35lbs more than I want to be and 30lbs MORE than my highest weight before getting pregnant. Jimminey Christmas kill me now. As all of us do I was busy googling "Post-baby body workouts" pretty much on the way home from the hospital...What am I going to do, I can't see anyone like this, I still had a belly for god sakes!

Hey Listen up all you ladies who haven't gotten pregnant yet. You WILL still have a belly when you leave the hospital, you WILL still look pregnant 2 MONTHS AFTER giving birth. That is totally normal! Even if you drop weight faster than me dropping Drew off at the nanny's (just kidding, love you!) your skin and all your insides take awhile to return to their normal positions. And if I read one more headline that says "breastfeeding burns 500 calories a day" I will go ballistic, yea go ahead and tell that to someone who cannot breastfeed, assholes!

So for the first few months I tried desperately to lose weight and it was easy not to eat since I was busy with someone who needed my attention 100% of the time, but nothing was doing it. Still by the time he was 7mo old I was only down to 172 and was feeling very sorry myself, I mean what's a girl got to do?! I was going on bike rides with him, stroller jogs, started eating better because he grew more independant ETC!

I decided to join my friends on a Dietbet which is fun if you haven't tried it; put money, betting and weightloss together and you know you got a good time! I ended up getting past my 170lb threshold and getting down to 168lbs. I was ecstatic, the 160s! YES I AM CLOSE.

Over the last 4 months I have lost another 5lbs and am down to 163 which is only 3lbs away from my heaviest weight before getting pregnant and 8lbs away from my normal weight!!

This has been a very long journey for me since I am not used to having to shed a massive amount of weight, normally when I go a little crazy on the icecream I chill it out to bring me back down and that is it. I am the first one to say if your body isn't ready it isn't going to happen, and for me my body wasn't really ready to lose weight until about 8months after giving birth.

Don't give up, and when you feel bad for yourself ask your husband how you look and he better say "you look FANTASTIC, KEEP GOING!" and if he doesn't give me his damn number so I can bitch-slap him, because that is what kept me going this whole time. Get a support group, if you don't have one contact me and I'll support you because I know how hard it is. It WILL happen!




Tuesday, July 15, 2014

1st Birthday Parrrrrtayy!

Welp the craziness has ensued and we are finally getting back to our normal, boring routine post-party.

I think I did a pretty good job if I don't say so myself! And my parents helped out tremendously by hosting it at their house so we could have more room.

We went with Mickey Mouse theme since that's the only show Drew really will watch for longer than 1 minute. I ordered balloons (because babies/kids love balloons DUH) and set up a bunch of toddler stuff since we were expecting about 10! And happy kids=happy parents. Well and alcohol of course.

Here's some of the ideas I used thanks to Pinterest.
We did a sensory pool complete w/ spaghetti and noodles that I dyed red..the kids were like "what is this!" That's the point!
Also did some DIY Chalk paint and put it in Restaurant squeeze bottles (less mess).
I also had some construction paper and big fatty crayons.

At each "station" I put down a big quilt so the kids could sit down and play with the items. I also filled up Drews old bathtub which was a huge rubber ducky where I put some juiceboxes in it so they could reach it. And Drew ended up getting in that by the end of the party because he thought it was bath time?

Along with the "adult" food I put in squeeze packets of applesauce and bags of goldfish crackers for the kiddies.
I made these little dudes for the centerpieces which hopefully I can sell now since I have no use for them, and I glued actual buttons on the pots because it looked nicer :)
I was so proud of Drew since he was up from 11:15am until 5:30pm without a nap! You go Drew! He had the best time ever seeing everyone and all the kids, it was a HIT!

Next year won't be this elaborate but you have to go big for the 1st birthday...because Yah he is still alive!!



Monday, July 14, 2014

My Generation: Shit for Free

The wonderful bonuses of the Internets...Posting stuff you need or want to sell at the drop of a hat, no longer having to wait for that yearly garage sale where you have to go through and price all your shit, wait for a nice day, set up all your shit, sit outside w/ your shit all day, and odds are; pack up most of your shit that didn't sell. Man I'm tired just thinking about it.

Well we all know I am in for a bargain, especially when it comes to children's stuff because they grow out of it so quickly, use it a few times and get bored with it and to top it all off anything that is tied to a kid in any way is always like 20% more $$...just because the world is an evil place.

I am frugal, I am a minimalist, Matt is always getting mad at me for throwing stuff out or selling stuff..I HATE STUFF. Not to mention going from a 2500 sq. ft. house to a 1400 sq. ft. house you have to give up some shit that you haven't even touched in years!

I am ITCHING to sell baby stuff, but I need to hold my horses. Even if I think I don't need 20 Newborn onesies I probably will curse myself if I sell any and the next baby ends up having 20 diaper blowouts.

So I joined a few Facebook sale pages that cater to kids stuff so at least I can get some toys for maybe half the price since he is just going to get sick of them any way or even worse not even like it! Also I can prepare for the future (Toddler bed in the garage) haha!

The thing that I am most noticing about these pages is people In Search Of (ISO) stuff. It always starts off like "ISO cake decorator to make a Frozen cake for my daughters blah blah birthday" And ALWAYS ends in "for a reasonable price". This is the problem with my Generation, we have Walmarts, we have Dollar Stores, we have so many people/companies doing the same thing that they are willing to low-ball each other to get the job. And then we have the "customers" who don't really care about quality, they only care about price.

Yes you can buy decorations at the Dollar Store..they will also end up almost immediately in a Landfill since they are so crappy and cheap they might not even MAKE it to the party, or you open it up and it's like the smallest thing ever; you wonder why the HELL did you pay any amount of money for it!

I understand people don't have money, but that's not it, people don't want to SPEND money. We sort of have been programmed that why should we spend this amount of money when I can go here and get something for half that price, no one really thinks twice about what they are getting for their money. That's my problem, you have all this money and you want to spend $20 on a fondant Frozen cake...Like Really?! And whoever is making this $20 Fondant cake...are they really going to do the job that you want them to do or are you going to be pissed when you pick it up and they spelled Frozen wrong?!

People, you can't expect something for nothing, you can't expect a quality product to have a cheap price tag, the cheap price tags are for the cheap shit! If you only have $20 bucks to spend on a cake go to Walmart, and stop begging people on the Sale pages to do it for nothing. Or don't expect you can get something grand for your $20.

I am trying to be better about this, I have always despised Walmart but having Drew 95% of the time I need to get shopping done I am sometimes forced to go there so I don't have to go to 3 other places. Especially for his bday party which I will try to post about this week. This summer has been crazy with vacations, parties, friends, families, babies...I apologize! Feel free to contact me on topics you want me to write about, sometimes I get writers block and then I am in the shower going through my Master List of all I need to do that day and think " I should blog about that!"  haha

Here's little man w/ his new haircut, I will not show you the back ;)