Frustrated...

ok I have to vent so this is the place to do it I guess. Excuse me while I whine for a minute lol.

Hubs got laid off today with NO notice! His company is going for cheap labor and is laying off all the people who have been there awhile and are decently paid for the good work they do. They laid off people who had been with the company for 10+ years with no notice too. Even nicer they had someone packing up their desk while they were letting the people know that they had no job. What a great company with attention to loyalty. It is probably not personal in their decision but it is hard not to take it that way. Hubs not only did his job but he wound up doing his supervisors job (while she got and happily took all the credit),plus he did a bunch of other stuff too. His reward for 4 years of loyalty and extra work was to be told...sorry we know you have a wife and 3 kids but oh well your out of a job anyway. Then of course they acted surprised when he told them his thoughts about the decision. Oh well my hubs is a heck of a guy and the hardest worker you will find (and that is really said without any prejudice at all...I have worked with him before) and deserves much better then this anyway. I am trying to be a good christian about this and not have a bunch of negative, sinful feelings about the people who made this decision, but it is not easy...it is stressful when the major breadwinner loses a job with no notice. I mean even when it comes to getting fired you kind of a have a notion it might be coming but this layoff business is for the birds. One thing I have learned though is that God does everything for a reason and while that reason may irritate us or we may not understand it fully...there is a reason and we are supposed to learn from it. So I am going to try and make lemonade out of these lemons we just got and try and be positive and pray that he gets not only another job but a better one at that and a better paying one too! I am also going to pray not only for us but especially for all the tons of people they laid off as well since I know they are probably going through the same frustration and anger , and confusion, and fear we are. I know it will work out but this is when we are tested the most.

ok I feel better now.

till next time
Cheerio Queen.

Easier way to cut kids foods

My tip for works for me wednesday this week involves easy cutting for kids foods. :) I am in love with my pizza wheel! I use it to quickly cut kids spaghetti, sandwhiches, brownies, anything soft. It makes is easier and quicker. If you want to keep things from sticking to it like noodles then spray a little cooking spray on it as well. :) It is just a quick tip this week as I spent too much time reading the other tips lol!

till next time

Cheerio Queen

How can it be??

Ok I apologize I know it has been awhile since my last post...I got busy last week with kids, homeschooling etc. lol

If your eating anything stop for a second. lol

My topic this week I think I speak for many moms when I ask the question "How can it be that a 4 year old can eat a whole box of oreos in one sitting and be totally fine...but when he is asked to take a miniscule bite of pot roast he who is a picky eater can suddenly throw up twice his weight"?

Let me back up a bit here. Sunday was a great day I was teaching Sunday school that day so Daddy took the boys out for "guy time"...mainly because for some reason when I teach in their Sunday school class they forget how to listen or behave and then I wind up out in the hall with one of them for the whole class while they show of their "true charm" boy is it humbling to be in church of all places out in the hall when the childrens program director walks by just as jr. angels spit or throw a temper tantrum. Anyway so Honey Nut and I went to church and she went to her class and I went to mine. Then in the afternoon I had all these grand plans to fold and do laundry before it takes over my hallway but alas I made the mistake of sitting down in the family room to eat a little lunch and catch up on one of my way to many tivo'd shows from the week before and that was all she wrote. I decided it was my duty to "hold down the couch" instead lol. If I do say so myself I did a pretty good job. Besides I had already put the roast in the crockpot. So in the late afternoon I did pick up and the kids played outside most of the afternoon because it was sunshiny and beautiful and for once NOT raining.

Even hubs was in a good mood...he mowed the lawn and did a few things around the house which he made sure I knew about so he could get his praise for the day " yes honey the bathroom COUNTER that you cleaned looks nice...dont worry I will scrub the floor"

So I got dinner ready and we sat down to eat. Sure enough Lucky Charms the 4 year old started his "negotiations" . He is a very picky eater and really does not like meat at all unless it comes in the form of a hot dog, or a dinosaur shaped nugget. It is so sad...we give him like 4 fingernail size pieces and you would think we were making him eat a piece of meat taller then he is. He likes to negotiate and is pretty good he just might be a lawyer, if not an actor you would not believe how hard it is to sit with a straight face while he says "MOM....you cannot make me eat this it is something I don't yike and besides MOM I am your son and I love you so please don't make me eat this" Hubs jumps in and says come on just eat it ...take a smaller bite out of the pieces we gave you and then add in some potatoes and you wont taste it. so he does this and let me tell you we are talking one string of pot roast out of this piece the size of a dime. Hubs and I are trying to be patient but our patience is growing thin. After dinking around with this taking ten minutes to eat one piece of roast, we try letting him wash it down with milk and this is among many many tears because as you know us as parent are so cruel to try and get some actual nutrition in this kid. Finally he works himself up to wear he throws up his one piece of meat because he managed to gag on the teeny tiny microscopic bite, and so we clean him up and sit him down again. He is shocked usually when he does this we freak out and say ok your done but nothing else but tonight hubs is determined his boy is going to get some dinner in him because otherwise he starts whining an hour later how hungry he is and he is so persistent the way he whines...oop I mean asks that you want to puncture your ear drum with a qtip.

Well mean time it is time for Honey Nut to go to leadership team and she has finished and so has Trix (who for all his sensory issues is our best eater and we cannot fill him up at all) so I take them to drop off Honey Nut at the church youth center and Trix and I go to Walmart to get a few things and have some Mommy/Son time. Keep in mind when I left Lucky Charms was crying and whaling and Hubs was looking pretty frazzled so when we got to Walmart I called to see if they were both still speaking to each other or if Lucky Charms was in bed early for the night. Hubs answers totally calmly and says yes he is fine and we are having fun. I said well did he finally eat? He said yes no problem no fighting or whining either....Suspicious I asked...did you have to hog tie him to the chair? He said no I bribed him with ice cream and a banana when he finished.....Whatever works I guess. at least he got some nutrition in him.

till next time

Cheerio Queen

mystery parties and slings...

Yes that is really two things that the Cherrio Family dealt with yesterday lol!

Last night was the teacher appreciation dinner for church. It was fun! I was really excited to see they chose to do one of those mystery dinner parties...I had always wanted to attend one but never had. However they chose to do a star trek the next generation theme which is not my thing. lol I just am not a "trekkie" but it was fun though to go and see who at church is "trekkies" Those were the ones who came in costume etc. The food was great we had pasta and salad and garlic bread. It was decorated beautifully by someone in the church who is very talented at decorating. It was fun to fellowship with the other teachers. One of the most wonderful things about our church is the children's ministry. We have so many dedicated teachers and our two children's ministry directors are the nicest people you will meet and are so dedicated to running a wonderful program. They are AWESOME! Thanks to Tammy and Mike for a wonderful tme last night. That leads me into the second part of our day...last night was supposed to be "date night" for me and Hubs. He would have loved the star trek theme too that is right up his alley. However he messaged me yesterday from work saying he got hurt at work and was in pain. Huh??? He is a credit analyst who sits at a desk all day...not a construction worker, or police officer etc. so what could he possibly have done??

Turns out his work was having an office potluck (they always have potlucks and parties there) and he and a buddy of his had decided to participate in the three legged race. Well his friend started off on the wrong foot and then got going to fast and then tripped bringing down hubs with him. His friend merely fell into a wall no biggie...Hubs on the other hand fell into the table and chairs and wound up scraping up his knee but worse he bruised his shoulder really bad inside and wound up getting xrays and coming home in a sling, ace bandage, and with a prescription for vicodin and anti inflammatories! So for date night I went "stag" another term which just aged me about ten more years haha. He was stuck in Urgent Care till after I had to leave to go to the dinner...my parents were already here to watch the kids so he said go ahead and go. I went and felt bad so I left early and came home and looked at the poor pathetic lump that is normally my hot handsome husband sitting on the couch and being the sympathetic nurterer that I am I simply said " Gee if you wanted out of date night that bad you could have said so you did not have to go to such extremes" lol . He tried to laugh but it hurt poor guy.

So I put the kids to bed, went out to the new Carls Jr. resteraunt that they opened nearby and got him some dinner and then came home and crawled onto the couch next to him so he did not have to sleep alone. The doc says he has to sleep up against the back of the couch and not in a bed for a few days as to support it. Poor guy. I could not sleep so I popped in a movie I had rented awhile ago and had not seen yet. "The Notebook" ok I know every other woman in the world has lol. What a GREAT love story! 5 hankie movie.

till next time
Cheerio Queen

Works for me Wednesday!

Ok I hope this post is ok and not flagged for being "sales" lol. It is really more of a review of something. I have been wanting to post this tip for awhile but have held back a bit because it is a touchy issue that most women don't want to talk about. But I feel it is important. :)

I am going to talk about adding some spice to our romances or heck romance to our romances...and this is intended for monogomus couples. :)

Let's face it...after having kids, and the pressures of daily life we don't often have time or energy to feel into "intamacy" with our spouses. A lot of us can sometimes be bored, some of us don't know a lot of ideas either after being with our significant others for so long you get into routine. It is so hard to look at our spouse after a day of taking care of kids and have cheerios in our hair and spit up on our blouse, and having taking four kids to the doc etc .. to just say "hey honey...how are YOU doin?" lol. In any case I got sucked into attending a "passion party" by a good friend who I trust and she had attended one before so she knew how it works. These parties are often misleading by the name itself. Actually I was pleasantly surprised when I attended. I could not believe how tastefully done it was! Number one it was not tacky, I was really relieved when I found out they promote monogomy and in no way do they have or promote pornography, and I was shocked to find out how knowledgable the consultant was. There was no pressure to buy anything. Basically what I came away with was a better understanding of myself as a woman, and that it is ok to have some "spice" in my Romance even after so many years of marriage. They had a great line of bath crystals, oils, and powder in addition to the "other" stuff. Because this is a family blog I will not go into detail here you will just have to host a party yourself or attend one lol. oh and the parties are free to hold by the way.

The thing I really liked about it was all of us ladies sat around giggling and laughing, but when it came time to order...it was all private. In other words I could laugh with my girlfriends about some of the products and we could ask questions etc. But none of them knew what I or anyone else ordered because you go into a room with the consultant. It totally took the pressure off. I will admit I never really went into "passion stores" because it always seemed to me there was other people around and the cashier always looked like they were about 18 barely and I would never feel comfortable asking them questions about a product. Plus what if my "neighbor" was there? lol I was surprised to learn that most passion party consultants are former or current nurses (most of them for obgyns), a large portion of them are stay at home moms too!, in otherwords most of their consultants are a lot like those of us who dont' want to admit we were ever interested in stepping foot into a "store" in public. There is a lot of christians who are consultants too! I was just very surprised and relieved that this was a tasteful and a non pressured way to see new products and ask questions. Oh and if you have questions that you are concerned about...but dont' want your friends to know...then you can ask the consultant in the private ordering room and it is all confidential. When your order arrives it is in a pretty sealed bag so no one knows except you unless you tell them. The biggest thing I liked was the knowledge I learned. I liked that the consultant seemed to really want to help us not just "sell a product" Oh and there are other parties similar to passion parties but I personally have not atttended any of them, however I know people who have and said that they were not as tasteful as the passion parties. Heck I just assumed I knew all about my body and romance after being married almost ten years and having 3 kids. Apparently I was pretty clueless lol. Don't worry about inviting your friends either...trust me if YOU are curious THEY are curious too. :) Works for me!

The Cheerio Queen

Happy Tuesday?

Here it is 6:30 am but yet it feels like 5:30 am still. The kids are not up yet and the are all asleep so I thought I would take a few minutes and post. :)

I will update you on my weekends on Tuesdays since Monday's is menuplan. Oh and to all who asked...YES the spaghettie pie turned out great! I was pleasently surrpised. Even hubs liked it and he hates stuff that has too much tomato sauce or paste in it. This does not. Thanks to whoever has that recipe it is a new keeper in my family. That is saying a lot too most of my family does not like change in their menus.

This weekend was fun. Trix had his bday party with his friends finally (his actual bday was a couple weeks ago but the first time he was supposed to have it two out of his three friends coming got sick) It was really perfect size party for Trix. Remember with sensory issues it does not take long for too many kids to be overwhelming to him. When asked what kind of cake he wanted for his bday this year (I make the kids cakes every year see above) Trix asked for a racecar cake! Now this has turned out to be the 3rd year in a row that he has asked for it lol. It is quickly becoming a tradition. That is ok I am secretly touched he wants the same cake. I have made many different cakes for him. He has had a fire engine cake, winnie the pooh, and elmo but three years ago he had a racecar birthday and i made him a racecar cake and that is what he likes. Those of you that have seen his racecar cakes before will notice I changed the color on it this year. Trix is the type of kid who is happy with three kids at his part unlike Honey Nut and Lucky Charms who are happy with 300 of their nearest and dearest friends at theirs lol.

We all just had so much fun hanging out with the parents and friends that none of us hardly noticed the fact that our heater was broken and we were cold. The kids definitely did not notice because they were on the trampoline jumping off their sugar rush lol.

On Sunday the miracle happened! ....Hubs went to church with us! Let me explain. Hubs has tried different religions, and none of them seemed to fit the way he wanted them too. He is not really a believe like me and the kids. Due to the fact that I grew up with Dad, Mom, and siblings going to church every Sunday this seemed odd to me. However I did not want Hubs to go to church because I "demanded" he go I wanted it to be because he decided too. So I did what every good Christian wife and mom does...P-R-A-Y. :) I prayed that the good Lord guide his heart to church and also guide me to maybe say something to help him. I never bothered him about it and then this last week he said...well I think I will go to church with you this week! I thought he was kidding but he went! I don't know if it was a one tme thing or not but hey at least he attempted. :) Keep him in your prayers please. After church we went out to a nice lunch with the kids, and then tootled around shopping looking for some stuff to make our bedroom look like a romantic bedroom of a couple married 9 years and not like the kids toy storage warehouse. :)

Well that is pretty much our weekend in a nutshell. I need to finish catching up on Laundry today, and then I am going to hit the store to get some stuff I need to make GAK which is for art and creative time for homeschooling today. :) GAK is like silly putty but different. It is so cool the kids love it. :) oh and I now have to go get some cold medicine because yesterday Trix informed me that he has the "snipples" instead of sniffles. I just love how kids put things. :)

Till next time

Cheerio Queen

Menu Plan Monday

So I decided to jump on board with this. I love this becasue I read everyone else's and it gives me new ideas. :) Ok here is my menu this week!

Monday- Spaghetti Pie (been seeing this one a lot and decided to try it)

garlic peppercorn bread

caesar salad

Tuesday- Enchiladas (it is quick and honeynut has a girlscout site sale that night)

Salad

Wednesday- pot roast

mashed potatoes

green beans

Thursday- whole wheat veggie calzones

pineapple

Friday- bbq beef sandwiches (made from leftover pot roast)

seasoned fries