BROKEN TOE NAILS, BLOOD AND A CRYING 4 YR OLD

My poor little son tripped and broke his teeny tiny pinky toe nail. He thought it was the end of the world. Crying and freaking out. He kept saying "it's gonna make me blood all over".

It was bleeding, but not terribly. It stopped just shortly after it started. I am not saying that it didn't hurt, I'm sure it did. But the way he was crying you'd thing someone was beating him.

I had to close up the windows so someone didn't send the cops over. Eventually, we got it bandaged up. During the night last night, he pulled the bandage off and it was bleeding again.

Not sure what to do, the nail is still attached and I can't get close enough to it to clip the part that was broken. He really broke it all the way down too.

Guess it's time for ^ to handle things :)

POP SECRET POPCORN (extra butter)

~ PRODUCT REVIEW ~

I bought a box of pop secret popcorn (extra butter) for my families movie night. Got home, popped the first bag, opened it, and to my surprise there was less than a quarter bag of popped popcorn! I shook the bag around to see just how much was left un popped and saw the "extra butter" sloshing around in the bottom of the bag with tons of popcorn kernels.

I thought to myself "this must be a bad bag", so I popped another one...and another one....until I had poipped all six bags of popcorn. The end result was one full bag of popped popcorn out of all six bags that I had popped.

Very disappointed the product, I emailed the company expaining what had happened. I recieved an email back about an hour later stating 

" Dear Ms.             :

Thank you for your recent e-mail to Diamond Foods.

We were sorry to learn of your disappointment with Pop Secret Extra Butter Popcorn.  I will be sending you a letter and refund by US Postal
Mail.

We appreciate your interest in our products.

                   
         

It was nice to get an email back so quickly, but they didn't even seem surprised that I thought so poorly of their product. I guess they get many of these types of emails a day. Why else would you immediately offer a refund and end the email? 

I DO NOT recommend this product at all. It is not worth the five dollars they charge for a box of six. I say, make your own. It's better quality and cheaper.

out for now ~ CALLIE

PINEAPPLE COCONUT CREAM PIE!

Pineapple Coconut Cream Pie – adapted from Kitchen Daily News

3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 can (20 oz) crushed pineapple, in its own juice, well drained, reserve juice
1 can (14 oz) coconut milk (not cream of coconut)
5 egg yolks
2 tbs butter, cut into pieces
2 tbs. coconut rum (optional, but highly recommended)
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut, chopped
1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
2 Tbsp sugar
1 prebaked 9″ pie shell crust of your choice

Mix sugar and cornstarch in a 2-qt saucepan. Add enough pineapple juice to coconut milk to make 21⁄2 cups. Stir into sugar mixture, then bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring slowly but constantly. Boil 1 minute, again whisking slowly but constantly. Remove pan from the heat. Whisk yolks to mix, and gradually whisk in about half the hot mixture; return yolk mixture to saucepan. Stir over low heat 2 minutes. Remove from heat, add coconut rum and butter, and stir gently until butter is melted. Stir in pineapple and coconut. Pour into prepared crust. Cover surface with plastic wrap; refrigerate at least 3 hours.

Right before you are ready to serve the pie, beat together cream and sugar with mixer until stiff peaks form, and spread over the pie.

BRILLIANT S'MORES!

~ RECIPE BORROWED FROM A FELLOW BLOGGER ~

No fires needed for this one :)

 

Here it is...everything you need to create s'mores in a jar...

Crush a package of grahams crackers...

Mix the grahams with a couple tablespoons butter and pack into the bottom of jam jars, use the end of a kitchen tool to pack it down. Mix the batter as the box directs and pour evenly into 8 8oz jars.

Put the jars in a cake pan with about an inch of water in the bottom, so the jars don't break from the heat. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. It will take a while since the brownie is so thick, mine took about an hour.

 Stuff the mallows on top. Just stuff 'em in.

Put jars back in the oven until mallows are melted. Keep an eye on them, this step only took a few minutes. Even better, I would advise you to broil them for a genuine roasted mallow top, OR throw on some mini chocolate chips to make it look cute. (I drizzled mine with chocolate syrup)

Screw on the tops and head to the party. VIOLA, we have perfect s'mores.

PIGAGEDDON ~ SAVE THE PIGS!

Recently, I heard a snippet on a radio show talking about how the price of pork will begin to sky rocket. Why, you may ask? Well let me tell you. ~ SAVE THE PIGS

Pig farmers are beginning to complain that the price of grain is going up and they can't afford to feed the pigs. At this rate, all our beloved pigs are going to starve. That won't make a good bacon sandwich!! ~ SAVE THE PIGS

Some people would ask, why not feed the pigs something else? They could do that, but the price would still go up. I don't mind paying a bit more for better raised, healthier pork. ~ SAVE THE PIGS


The truth of the matter is, the cheaper the food is, the lower the quality. You really do get what you paid for when it comes to groceries. If you want a better quality food, then you have to pay a bigger price. I don't mind doing this, I prefer better quality, cleaner, healthier food.

You can either pay more or raise the pig yourself and have someone butcher it. This way, you get better quality food which is healthier for you and your family.

My conclusion is ~ quit bitching about the cost of food. I figure soon enough we'll all be paying out the ass for crap food, because the better quality will be so darned expensive, we wouldn't be able to afford it anyways.

MESSED UP PARENTS

I am writing this blog on behalf of my children. I kept them in an abusive relationship with their father for 7 years. Now my 10 yr old is out of control. I realize that this is partly my fault, but I need to figure out how to change this or just make it better.

BACKGROUND ~ My EX husband was an abusive jerk. He was physically, emotionally, verbally, and mentally abusive. He would scream constantly, yet require constant attention like he was an infant. He did not know how to show affection, yet wanted to feel loved by everyone, even those he was constantly hurting. He only beat up on people who was smaller than him (women and children). I lost a baby due to his violent fits of rage. I left him just before my 3rd child was born. Just so you know, I did not want kids. I tried every type of birth control out there, nothing worked. We literally only had sex like twice a year when he harassed me so much that I would give in just to get him to leave me alone. I was scared, terrified of what he would do if I tried to leave. He told me several times that he would kill me if I tried to leave.

NOW ~ divorced for 4 years, and in a new relationship with a wonderful man, and my 10 year old has taken on the role of her father. She acts just like him. hitting, screaming and abusing her younger siblings. She also yells and screams at me. She is totally disrespectful and constantly angry. She only acts this way at home. When she is at school or a friends house, she's fine. 

I have her in an intensive therapy group, but she seems to be getting worse. Please, I need advice, help. I don't know what to do with her anymore. I feel like I am a prisoner in my own home. I am finding it hard to even have her here. It's not right to feel this way about my child. I don't know how or what to do in order to make things better in my home.

~ struggling mom of 3 ~

<a href="http://www.hypersmash.com">HyperSmash</a>

MOBS, FIRES, SEX, AND STUPID BLONDE GIRLS

Like the title? Ha Ha. This title explains my camping weekend to a tee. I'll explain further below, but it all doesn't involve me.

This weekend, as many of you already know, I took my children on their first camping trip. It was unusually cold that Saturday evening, so we thought that the camp sites would be relatively empty. I was wrong. Big Time.

We got there about mid afternoon, picked out our spot, set everything up and it was going well. The kids were playing and we had the fire going. Then one by one, the other sites started to fill up. We had a teenage couple on one side of us, and a family on the other. We were all pretty close, so close in fact, that we could hear what they were saying and the extracurricular activities they were partaking in at that moment. I'll explain this further later in the post.

First order of business - MOBS

Not long after we got settled in we heard singing in a different language. It was getting closer and close. At first, we thought it was boy scout troop or something. As they got closer, we realized they were not singing in English. I couldn't tell what language it was, but it was middle eastern. Anyways, as the sound was right around the corner, we saw a whole MOB of middle eastern campers, singing. This wasn't a problem, but it plays a role in the rest of my day. It was unusual, I had never seen anything like this. I thought camping was supposed to be quiet?!

On we go to the STUPID BLONDE GIRLS

My friend brought her two little boys with us camping. The kids all decided to go for a hike, so my friend Emma went with them. About 45 minutes later, the kids and Emma return carrying a childs coat, notebook, and CD that did not belong to them. When asked where they got it, they replied "We were out hiking in the woods and saw a baby stroller pushed into the brush. We thought there might be a baby in there, so we looked." Good Job for the kids to be so caring. So where did they get the stuff? "Emma told us that we could take the stuff in the stroller cause there wasn't anyone around." WHAT??? This woman let my children STEAL  from a childs stroller that did not belong to them?! My DH and I took the items and returned them to the stroller. Just as we had gotten back to camp, the MOB from earlier came back through singing their little songs, and carrying the STROLLER that my "friend" let my children STEAL from!! We must have just missed them when returning the items. My children know better than to take items that aren't theirs. I seriously thought that Emma wasn't STUPID enough to steal or allow children to steal! AGAIN, I was wrong.

Next - FIRES

The teenage couple that was on the right side of us seemed nice. They needed some help to pitch their tent, so me my DH helped get it set up for them. As night fell, the two were just starting their fire. They were kids, so I didn't expect them to know how to keep a fire going steady. I did, however, expect them to know NOT to empty the entire bottle of lighter fluid onto the fire. This still didn't keep their fire going. As the night went on, we heard them trying to keep the fire going. They were emptying beer into the fire because "it has alcohol in it" and over heard them saying "we have oil and cardboard in the car." Ha Ha. They had burned through all of their wood, and started to use oil and gasoline from their car to keep warm. Silly teenagers.

Up Next - SEX

The same teenage couple from above finally gave up on the fire about 3 AM and turned to "cuddling" in their tent to keep warm. We could literally hear EVERY word (and sound) they were saying. Trust me, it didn't last very long. The guy talked too much and the girl was making these over the top noises like she was in a porno or something. It was kind of funny. After the Sex, they were arguing because apparently the boy grabbed the phone and was going to get a picture where he "emptied his ugly" all over her. They argued about that for a while and went back to the over the top sex noises. Then all of a sudden we hear "what? what's wrong, where'd it go" the two came out of the tent immediately and headed out in their car not returning for a long while. My guess is, the items they were playing with either got lost inside or stuck inside the girl.

So all in all, it was an interesting camping trip that included tons of not needed information about teenage sex, stupid blonde girls, mobs, and fires.

My DH did fall a few times running through the wood chasing the kids. That was kind of funny too :) Hope you enjoyed reading. Will blog later if I can think of something I forgot to add in here.

out for now ~ CALLIE

DAY OF ADVENTURES

Hey there, It's me again. Yes, I am up at 3 AM! My DH has to get to work pretty early, So I get up too. Seems like the only time we can talk without the little ones running around.

Today I have planned the kids very FIRST camping trip! I hope they have fun. We are just going down by the creek and setting up a couple of tents. They've never stayed outdoors in a tent before, so this should be an experience. Well, let me take that back, they stayed on the deck until it got dark, then came inside :)

A friend of mine is also coming and bringing her 2 little boys. I plan on doing some hiking, sitting around the fire making s'moreeses, as my oldest daughter calls them. She likes to make s'mores with reese's cups instead of using the plain Hershey bars. They are actually quite tasty. Try them, you'll like them. 

What kills me is the amount of stuff you have to pack to go camping. Since I have three little ones, that means blankets, favorite animals, extra clothes, pullups, paper towels, TOILET PAPER, tents, food, drinks, the list goes on for about another 10 items. So much for minimalists. Ha Ha. If it were just me and DH, we'd go with our water bottle, camping bowl/cup, and anything else we could fit into a small hiking pack. Certainly will be carrying my 9mm today, as well as my knife. Never can be too careful in an area that you've never been in before.

Well, that's it for now. Keep checking back, I like to blog often.

Out for now ~ CALLIE

A LITTLE ABOUT ME AND MY FAMILY

Hey there, my name is Callie,
I have three amazing children ages 11, 7, and 4. I am married and live in a tiny community in Bee Cave TX. 

I recently just moved here due to job promotion and such. I am from North Carolina originally. I loved it there, just as I do here.

This is my first year homeschooling my kids. They seem to like it, although I am finding it a bit challenging. Since they demand so much attention, my free time has gone down to a big fat ole ZERO minutes a day. Ha Ha.

A few of my favorite things are photography, painting, reading, writing, singing, playing with my kids, playing with my husband ETC. My husband and I are kids at heart. We love to laugh and joke around, as well as just chilling out to watch some SYFY.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to make this a lengthy post or not. I wanted to introduce myself and my family. I hope to be seeing some viewers soon.

I get a lot of product tests and such to do reviews on, so be on the look out for those.

***and please comment and introduce yourself as well. I'd love to hear your stories ****

Out for now ~ CALLIE

NEW PAGE NEW DAY

I had a previous Blog that I closed down due to unwanted visitors and stalkers.

I want this page to get all of the attention. It is going to have lots of reviews, advice, questions, adventures etc.

Please come back soon and check out the latest post :)

Out for now ~ CALLIE