First Day of Kindergarten

I only have to survive 40 more minutes before I get the oldest child back from her very first day of Kindergarten!!!

Y'all I made it a whole day with her in the care of someone she isn't related to and I didn't even cry once.  I got close like two times, but it was because I was so proud of her and because her teacher added photos to the class Facebook page.  

I talked about this on Facebook and Instagram this morning.  I love watching my kids reach these milestones. I try not to rush things, but I genuinely love watching them them grow and learn and do the things kids are supposed to do.  I don't want my babies to be babies forever.  There are definitely some ages and stages I miss, but I also wouldn't trade them for the stages we're in now.  We've been there, we've done that and now we're going to do this other thing and it too is going to be awesome (and maybe awful all at the same time, idk).  

We tried to do the obligatory first day of school sign photos this morning.  I'm not sure we're cut out for this.  I could have spent more time forcing them into standing still and things, but somehow this one seems to fit the day and the attitudes of the day perfectly.  Plus also of course my kid is the one that managed to bust up her face two days before the first day of school.  I feel like we're being judged already.

I'm so anxious to see if she's as excited this afternoon as she was this morning and I pretty sure I need a hug.  Time to go find my shoes and walk the couple blocks to school.

When Your Home Builder Doesn't Want to Do the Right Thing: Texas Residential Construction Liability Act

Let me preface this entire thing by saying that I'm not a lawyer.  This blog post is not intended to be legal advice.  This blog post is intended to make you aware of the Texas Residential Construction Liability Act (even though your builder probably provided you with a hint of information about it in that packet you probably never looked at) and share my journey to getting reimbursed for failures in my wood floor due to poor installation after the builder denied our original requests to replace it.

I'm going to try to make a really long story short.  From the day we moved into our brand new home, we had issues with our upgraded engineered hardwood floors.  Boards were popping, delaminating, and chipping.  The builder kept sending the contractor out to repair more and more and more and more and finally my husband was just done.  We wanted it all replaced.  These issue were happening because of poor prep and installation and after some research we were convinced the actual product may have also been faulty.  Our builder want to keep polishing a turd and told us they would not be replacing the floor.  They said it was normal to replace 50+ boards in a 900 square ft. area.  

Guess what home builder, not buying it.  We called in a certified wood floor inspector at our expense.  He identified more issues than we originally knew about.  We still had a builder that didn't want to work with use to replace the floor and they made it very clear that they would not be reimbursing me for the cost of the inspector ($300). 

The Texas Residential Contruction Liability Act (RCLA)

I got out my home warranty manual and found this very small and limited section referring to the Texas Residential Construction Liability Act and decided I needed to google it.  It's confusing at first, but what I found out is that if I ever wanted to take them to court, I needed to first send them a certified letter referencing the RCLA.  This is how you say attorney without actually saying attorney.  When they get this letter from you they know you are getting your ducks in a row to take them to court or you're at least thinking about it.  

The RCLA outlines statutory deadlines for responding, inspecting the home, the builder making some sort of offer and you either accepting or denying the offer.  You have to go through this process before you can take them to court.  Hopefully you never make it that far.  The purpose of the RCLA is to resolve issues without a lawsuit.  

In our letter I mentioned the Texas RCLA, gave a quick run down of all of the issues with our floor, and attached the report from the certified wood floor inspector.  I also listed a few scenarios we would be willing to accept for resolution.  

Did we want to sue our builder?  Not really.  I'm not sure anyone wins when that happens, but we were at the point where we would do what we needed to do and we were tired of being taken advantage of.  I totally would have done it purely on principle. 

All of the sudden these folks who had been legit ignoring our phone calls and emails for at least a month, if not two, were quick to respond.  Or at least as quick as they can be because when you send one of these letters, it immediately goes to an attorney working for the builder.  

It still took us months of negotiation to get what we wanted, but we got it.  Referencing the Texas Residential Construction Liability Act was the key to getting our builder to stop pushing us off and actually work with us to come to a resolution that was fair.  They're still going to try to get away with giving as little as possible, but as long as you have a legitimate issue with your home (which we made damn sure of before sending this letter) you have the upper hand.  They don't want to go to court.  They're trying to get out as cheap as possible and writing me a check for the amount it would cost me to replace my floor (including removal and a $300 reimbursement for hiring that wood floor inspector) is still cheaper than going to court.  

I did all of this without hiring an attorney.  You could definitely hire one if you wanted to, but I just want to tell you it's possible to resolve your issues without one.  

Below are some of the resources I found that were helpful when researching the Texas Residential Construction Liability Act.

http://www.jtexconsumerlaw.com/V7N1pdf/V7N1construction.pdf

https://www.krcl.com/news/importance-notice-texas-residential-construction-liability-act/

If you are dealing with this issue, I'm so sorry.  I feel your pain.  I'm sending you all the positive vibes and wishing your the best of luck in getting your issue resolved.  Don't give up.

Galveston 2018

Just sitting here pushing refresh from time to time of the parent portal for your school district.  In just under 20 minutes we find out who Saida's Kindergarten teacher is.  Back to school night is tonight and I'm just hoping I'm not a hot mess of tears for the whole thing.  So to distract me from constantly checking the damn thing for the next 20 minutes or so, I thought I'd share some of my favorite photos from our Galveston beach trip because I still haven't done that.  

The McKenna Children's Museum

So if you keep up with my blog you know that we were supposed to be in Galveston until today, but family issues resulted in us coming home early. This means we're home, Tyler has time off, and with Saida getting ready to start Kindergarten, we want make the most of this little bit of "vacation" time we have/had left.

We really didn't know what we wanted to do with this time though.  We just knew that we wanted to do it together.  After putting out an SOS to a local moms group on Facebook, we had a few suggestions to fill our time.  We chose to head down to New Braunfels (about 35 minutes away) to the McKenna Children's Museum.  We actually have a children's museum in Austin too that's technically closer, but we like to avoid the Austin traffic whenever possible.  

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Why we chose The McKenna Children's Museum for our Day Trip

• 35 minutes is a cinch.  I hear the children's museum in San Antonio is great, but we left later than I would have liked and adding on an extra 30 minutes each way to the trip is just something we didn't have time for today.
• It was cost effective.  We paid $7.50/person to get in.  The Thinkery in Austin would have been $12/person and The Doseum in San Antonio would have been $14/person.  I'm feeling like we definitely got our money's worth.
• It's inside (mostly).  I thought about going to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, but it's hot.  Texas is sitting at a whopping 100 degress today and wasn't about to go spend nearly $60 to hang out in the sun.  Yes you get to drive your car around, but I still have to wonder if the animals would even be out moving.  We'll save that idea for cooler weather.
• Our kids really just seem like the ideal ages for a children's museum.  Saida just turned 5 and Corbin is 2 and a half.  Children's museums are a safe place for them to run and play without limits and we love just watching them do it.
• It gets rave reviews from just about every mom who has ever taken their kids there.

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What we found at the McKenna Children's Museum

The Grocery Store Exhibit

I'm going to be honest, I haven't been to a children's museum since I was a kid and I don't really remember much about it.  Actually the only thing I sort of remember from that experience was the grocery store exhibit.  I remember thinking this is what it feels like to be a grown up when in that exhibit.  Oh to be that naive again.  But anyway, the grocery store exhibit didn't disappoint.  I especially loved seeing the things they picked out on their own shopping experience.  Corbin basically filled his cart with cheese.  If there was ever any doubt he was his mother's child, I think that doubt is gone now.  

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The Wonder Shop Exhibit

The Wonder Shop was something Saida was looking forward to.  I showed her Instagram photos of the museum before we went and she's just always down for a good painting session.  I imagined this exhibit a little more out in the open.  I was happy to find it in a room separate from the chaos of the main space of the children's museum.  

I'm not always that mom that's going to hand Corbin some paints and let him go at it.  He's a two and half year old boy which means things almost never go according to plan and I'm typically not in the mood to clean up after what went wrong.  I love that he got to paint next to his sister.  His sister is still upset that he added green to her paper where she didn't want it, but this moment made me happy.  

Helpful Tip: Do this early enough in your visit to allow more time for your paintings to dry.  We did it about half way through and as liberal as my kids are with paint, they were still wet when we put them in the car.  Fortunatley my cargo space was pretty clear and we had room to set them down flat on the way home.  

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The Great Outdoors Exhibit

The main attraction outside is the water.  It's basically the ultimate water table full of fishing (for toy fish), waterslide racing (for toys), and a bunch of other educational ways to interact with the water.  My kids loved this area and we sat there and watched them while silently thanking the McKenna folks for having this space under cover.  August in Texas is hot.  

Helpful Tip:  Bring a change of clothes just in case.  My kids can be pretty timid so they really didn't get wet, but I could see how it would be easy to leave this area a bit covered in water.  Chances are you know if your kid is one of those fun loving kids who may walk away wet.

Also outside was a music area.  Honestly I felt like the music area could have been a little cooler, but my kids still thought it was pretty cool and I guess that is what matters most.  The xylophone was definitely thier favorite instrument to play.

There are also opportunities to climb and build outside so basically this area has a little bit of something for everyone (including benches for mom and dad).  

I knew this would be one of our favorite spots and I purposely saved it for last in our visit because... water.... and kids.  

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Hill Country Campground Exhibit

This was a suuuuuper cute area.  I'm kind of a sucker for a vintage inspired play camper and tent.  The photographer in me also loved it because it was close to a wall of windows and natural light is kind of like my very best friend.  Also we went and looked at campers after this so this is just where I am in life right now anyway.  This area also included a little cave with bat wings to put on the kiddos.  My kids probably would have taken those bat wings home.  I smell a diy project sometime in the future maybe.  

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Destination Space Exhibit

I hope my kids explore this one a little more next time.  Saida actually really loved walking through the outter space room which is basically a pitch black room with stars.  I couldn't even see the walkway it was so dark.  For a kid who insists on a night light, I was super shocked she loved it so much.  Corbin hated it.  There was so much more in that area though that they never touched so maybe next time.

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Other exhibits not mentioned that they also really enjoyed are the Amazing Airways Exhibit, The Town Square, and The Kids Clinic.

I mean really this whole place is super adorable and so inviting for play.  A steal for $7.50 per person.  The bottom line is that if we lived even 15 minutes closer, we'd have a family membership.  A family of 4 can buy a membership for only $125 a year.  It would pay for itself in about 5 visits.

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So my recommendation is YES, DEFINITELY GO!!!  And if you live close, DEFINITELY PAY FOR A MEMBERSHIP!!!

For more information on the McKenna Children's Museum in New Braunfels, click the button below.

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This is just to add another level of cuteness to the post.  Also yes, he is wearing Tito's Vodka Sunglasses.  They're his favorite.

Wordless Wednesday

Instagram Round Up June 13 - 19, 2018

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Mom Brain: It's a Legit Thing

I feel like there are endless ways I could start this blog post.  For example:

Does anyone spend most of their day doing all the little things they'd never remember?

The term "pregnancy brain" is bullshit.  It insinuates that maybe you'll get your brain back after the baby is born and obviously that couldn't be any farther from the truth.  

Or my personal favorite...

So this one time my husband was late to work after he spent an hour looking for his keys.  Hell, I even helped and it just so happens I was the one who misplaced them.  Any guesses on where we found them?  

That last one was this morning.  

But for real though, please tell me I'm not the only one.  We moms go through our entire day automatically doing so many things without even realizing it.  Just last week I was getting ready to go somewhere (I can't even remember where) and was in my bathroom working on hair and makeup.  Saida was talking to me and periodically Corbin would come into the bathroom needing something.  I looked down and at him on one of these quick visits and he had an applesauce squeezie in his hands.  I remembered giving him a yogurt squeezie at some point, but not an applesauce squeezie.  How did he get this thing open on his own? I looked in front of me and lo and behold, there is the damn cap to the applesauce squeezie on my bathroom counter.  I opened that thing at some point and handed it over and had absolutely no memory of it.  I was in the middle of something and just did it without thinking. No big deal really, but he was totally taking advantage of me and on his third squeezie in like 10 minutes.  I wonder what else he could have gotten away with.  "Yeah sure honey, let me open this bag of flour.  Go ahead now, move along."

Or sometimes people will ask me where a small bruise came from that I don't remember getting.  I walk into furniture, walls, doorways on the regular, but could never even begin to tell you which incident a bruise came from.  Likely I don't even remember the incident ever happening, but I have some sort of vague recollection of saying ow at some point... I think.  Sometimes there just isn't enough time in the day to really take note of these things and my head is already filled with too much other stuff.  

So anyway, when Tyler came to me this morning and asked if I'd seen his keys, obviously I said no.  I asked him twenty questions about what was happening the last time he had his keys and blamed the children for maybe moving them (honestly I still blame the children).  We even looked in their playroom and I texted the neighbor to see if we had lost them there a couple nights before.  In a last ditch effort I checked my purse.  There they were.  For about two seconds I tried to come up with places I could hide them that we hadn't looked yet, but I hadn't had coffee yet and Tyler was 5 feet away so I just handed them over.

Someone please tell me how they got in there.  All I can figure is one of the kids handed them to me yesterday when we were on our way out the door and I just opened my purse and slid them in without thinking and I never really figured it out because we were taking my car with push button start and not Tyler's truck.  I don't really know, but this is at least how I imagine it all going down in my head.  

This is my life.  I really don't know what to say.  Sorry Tyler.  For the record, I still think it's the kids' fault.  Good thing they're cute.

Why We Gave Up On Potty Training After Half a Day

I started wondering if I should be potty training Corbin more than 6 months ago when he started removing his diaper on his own.  This ended up not lasting long and I never did anything.  He wasn’t even two at the time.  

He turned two in January. This is June and next month he’ll be two and half.  Seems like as good a time as any to try to knock this potty training thing out.  I was hoping to get it done before we go to the beach in August anyway.  It was super easy with my daughter and she was basically trained in 2 days when she was barely two.  

Honestly I tried to do all the things other people suggest doing beforehand with Corbin.  We got all excited over a potty seat he now refuses to use (it sits on the big potty), we read a super hero potty book that he has zero interest in, and I keep talking about all the yummy treats he’ll get for peeing in the potty because treats would definitely motivate him on a regular day.

The only problem is we are full on in that stage where you fight about ever last thing or it’s a game. And I'm not talking about the stuff that doesn't matter.  I'm talking about things like diaper changes.  Yes, if you have poop, you do not have a choice, I'm changing you.  Of course he'll kick uncontrollably through the entire thing.  Getting into the car seat is a fight and a game.  He wants to do it himself, but if you give him an inch to do it, he's everywhere except the place he's supposed to be and I literally have to climb through the car after him.  Getting out of the car is also a game.  He wants to go out sister's door which is fine by me except when I get over to sister's door we're all over the car again and now we want to go out this other door.  I've gotten to the point where if he told me he wants to go out a door, that's the one he's coming out one way or another.  Otherwise I'd chase him from door to door for a good 10 minutes before he'd actually get out of the car.  All of it is a fight.  I literally have to man handle the kid to get him to do anything.  

So I’m actually not feeling very confident about this potty training thing, but we’re going to give it a go anyway for the next two days.  If day 2 shows zero progress, I’ll scrap it and try again later.  If we make even the slightest progress, I’ll keep going.

Here we go….

Potty Training Day 1

7:00am: Wrangled Corbin on to the potty after he decided potty training wasn’t part of his plan for today.  Doesn’t care if he gets to wear big boy pants and couldn’t care less about the marshmallows I promised.  If he’s going to wear the big boy pants, he insists on also wearing shorts.  This wasn’t part of my plan, but beggars can’t be choosers so oh well.  I’m planning a load of laundry for the end of the day anyway.

7:50am:  Seems okay with sitting on the potty for .75 seconds assuming I also give him the marshmallow while he’s on the potty. Still no pee so followed this up with a cup of water.  Probably should have done that first thing this morning.

8:30am: Sat on the potty again.  Sat longer, but still no pee.  Stepped up my bribe with chocolate chips for actual pee in the potty.  

8:39am: Accident #1 happens, not even 10 minutes after sitting on the potty. Go figure.  He’s content to just sit in it.

9:05am: Sat on the potty again because he wanted a yogurt squeezie and I was like sure, as long as you go pee in the potty.  He didn’t. No second squeezie was given. He’s drinking more water so we shall see.  In the meantime I’m looking at little potties on Amazon, because I’m not sure we’re going to make any progress today on the big potty, but honestly I’m not sure a little potty would make a difference either.

9:35am:  Sat on the potty again.  He seems to be more excited about chocolate chips than marshmallows. Unfortunately no pee this time either.

10:02am:  Accident #2.  Lord help me.  So if they don’t go in the potty a single time on day one, do you just scrap it completely?  

10:33am:  Sat on the potty again because he really wanted that yogurt squeezie.  He wasn’t able to squeezie anything out though, lol.  

11:00am:  It’s been over an hour since the last accident so I thought now was a good time to go sit on the potty again.  I had to chase Corbin around the house and onto his bed where I was just sure he’d pee.  In my efforts to get him off the bed so we could go potty (or at least not pee on the bed) he fought so hard that I ended up bumping him in the mouth and hurting him. 

For real though

This is a child who is clearly not ready to potty train.  I don’t think it’s healthy to put either one of us through anymore of this at this time.  Who are we kidding?  We didn’t even make it half a day.  After potty training one kid, this is definitely not moving in a promising direction at all.  I think if either of us are going to do this and stay sane, it’s got to come after the fighting and game playing stage is over or at least not as much of a thing.

Send all your boy potty training tips my way, pretty please.  We’ll try this again another day.

Actually, send all your getting over this fighting stage tips my way.  We give him choices when appropriate and I pick my battles with things that don't matter, but how do you get over it with things that matter?  I've taken on a no tolerance policy with the things that matter so I'm confused about why we're still trying it.  He knows he's not getting his way and 9 times out of 10 it ends in tears.  It can't possibly seem fun for him anymore.

P.S. This is not at all where I thought this would end up.  I actually thought we'd make it through the day before we made a decision to continue or give up and I was totally ready to see it though.  Bummer.

Things My Kids Pretended This Weekend

I always find it funny the things kids pretend to be doing.  Sometimes it's something they've seen on TV and sometimes they're totally imitating me, which is generally pretty hilarious and sometimes embarrassing.  This weekend it made me laugh so that's not too bad.

Our tiny trampoline was an American Ninja Warrior course.  

Saida took the task very seriously as she maneuvered around the outside.  Fortunately she let me take a few other photos too and we snuck one in of Corbin.

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Like they were helping... (because we all know they weren't really "helping".)

But it's cute and they think they are so you just let them do it anyway and then document it.  Unfortunately I missed focus on my favorite photo, but I'll include it anyway.

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And my personal favorite which I have no pictures of...

That it was Amazon Delivery Day

Saida kept putting things in boxes and opening them and saying, "Oh Corbin, look at the boots I ordered for you!"  I asked her where she ordered them from and was incredibly proud when she said Amazon.  That's my girl.  Plus isn't Amazon where everything comes from?  She asked me where babies come from the other day.  I'm wondering if Amazon.com would have been a believable answer.  

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Shameless Plus

I have an Amazon Influencer account and if you want to see some of our favorite things on Amazon, click the botton below.

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How Monat Haters are Right, But Oh So Wrong

Let me start by saying that I am technically a Monat Market Partner.  My knowledge of Monat is not as good as others in the company, which is why I chose to go about the situation in the post below the way I did.  I tried to look at this as objectively as possible, but at the same time, I'm a real person. 

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Soooo last week I decided to talk about Monat in a blog post for the first time.  I shared my favorite 4 Monat products based on my personal experience over the last 9 months and the needs of my hair.  What happened afterward was interesting, or awkward, or maybe even a little disappointing.  

I posted to my Instagram stories to promote my post and my salon saw it.  We follow each other.  I love bragging about how awesome everyone there is on Instagram.  Their stylists are so dedicated to their art and I love their passion for what they do.  They truly have an amazing team working for them.  

I've chosen to not show the salon name out of respect for those who work there.  Throwing them under the bus isn't classy.  I really just wanted real answers.

So I was a little surprised when they decided to message me on Instagram regarding my post.  What if I chose to use Redkin or some other salon product?  Would they have still felt the need to reach out to me in this way?  My guess is probably not.  They probably would have let it go, but I posted about Monat, a company that is a threat to the natural products they sell.  The products at the salon I go to (or went to) are great and people love them, but they made me itchy and they just weren't for me.  My hair was happier when I used something cheap from the grocery store so I stopped using their products for that reason. But all of that is beside the point.  

I felt a little offended and sat and thought about how I wanted to respond or if I even wanted to respond.  Several hours went by and I figured my 2018 word is Rise so let's give them the benefit of the doubt.  I messaged them back asking my haircare professionals to give me a little more info.  I never got it.  

I took it upon myself to do a little more research just like they suggested so that I could get the "complete story".

So let's talk about their allegations and how they're right and oh so wrong.

Allegation 1: Monat is not FDA approved

After diving into this a little more turns out Monat isn't FDA approved.  They're right.  You know why?  Because cosmetics aren't regulated in that way by the FDA.  The ingredients however are FDA approved.  Maybe this information below provided on a fact sheet about Monat products will help clear that up a bit. 

• Monat has sold over 14 million units of product in the United States alone. Monat has created unique product formulations, containing ingredients that have been tried, tested, and used in the cosmetics industry and that have been found to be safe for consumer use, in the concentrations Monat uses them, by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as well as the cosmetic and beauty industry world-wide, rely on the safety findings of the CIR, and leading companies use ingredients, in concentrations, determined by CIR to be safe. Other ingredients used by Monat are all known to experts in the industry to be safe for use in cosmetics. All MONAT formulations use ingredients, in concentrations, that CIR, the FDA, Health Canada, and the European Commission consider “safe for their intended cosmetic purpose.” 

Allegation 2: Monat has estrogen

They never told me what those ingredients were after that message back to them, but I did end up figuring it out on my own.

Monat has Capixyl.  This Capixyl is formulated with small amounts of Red Clover Extract.  Red Clover Extract is a phytoestrogen (yes! A plant based estrogen).  What people (stylists and other haters) are saying is that by letting this sit on your skin, that you are absorbing all this extra estrogen that is going to just completely mess with your hormones, which is going to result in cancer and wide variety of other hormonal issues.  

Actual research is telling me anytime you eat broccoli, carrots, legumes, oranges, or drink coffee or tea, you're ingesting phytoestrogens.  Coffee y'all.  I'm done for apparently according to the haters.

But nobody is drinking their shampoo.  If you are, you've got a whole other set of issues you should probably be more worried about and a bottle of wine would be way cheaper.  Just saying.  

So are dangerous levels of phytoestrogen being absorbed through your skin when you use Monat products?  The short answer is no.  Just so happens I had an OB/Gyn annual appointment yesterday and I took it upon myself to just ask my doctor while I was there if that was a possibility.  I explained to her the situation and she kinda just looked at me like it was completely insane.  Her opinion as a medical professional specializing in women's care was that we eat phytoestrogens all the time and if we did happen to absorb any of the phytoestrogens from the shampoo into our skin, that it wouldn't be enough to effect our hormone levels.  I left her office confident in my decision to break up with my now ex hair salon.

Side Note: If you are genuinely concerned about phytoestrogens in your shampoo, talk to your healthcare professional and see what they say.  Don't take my word.  Don't take your stylists word.  

Allegation 3:  There are a slew of lawsuits surrounding this product due to it causing hair loss

This is true.  There are some class action lawsuits that have been filed with this stated as the reason, but the word "slew" seems a little extreme in my opinion.  To my knowledge the outcome hasn't been determined in any of those cases.  I don't personally know anyone that has lost hair due to Monat (or at least not to my knowledge).  Saying anything else about those lawsuits would be pure speculation and unfair so I'll stop there.

Final thoughts

What I will say is that these products work for me and my hair type.  I am someone who is getting the desired results.  I lost a ton of hair with the crazy hormones following each of my children's births and Monat is growing that hair back.  My hair is healthy and strong and growing fast.  Heck, even my ex salon that said I shouldn't use the products was always so impressed with how healthy and fast my hair was growing at each appointment (at least before they knew what I was using).  I actually feel like my hormones are finally getting back on track post children and have noticed nothing negative in that area.  I'm also not drinking my shampoo though and tend to stick to red wine, Topo Chico, and phytoestrogen filled coffee instead (in no particular order).

The number of people who claim issues is so tiny in comparison to the number of people currently loving their hair due to switching to Monat.  If you try it and and don't love it, stop using it, like I did with the salon products I was getting before I started using Monat.  We're all big girls capable of making simple decisions like what shampoo to use.  You do you and if you think Monat might be something you want to try, don't forget to click the links below.

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Interested in Ordering?

The Easiest Chicken Pot Pie Ever

When I said I was going to start blogging I had decided I was going to try to post every Tuesday to start.  You know what today is?  Not Tuesday.  I'm blaming it on my children.  Who's with me? 

Also for anyone who is curious, I haven't cried in yoga since my last blog post.  I definitely look at yoga a little differently than I used to which is pretty cool, but no tears have been shed.

I made chicken pot pie last night.  It wasn't fancy, nothing about it was healthy really, but it was delicious and sometimes that's really the only requirement.  Yeah sure I'd prefer some fresh ingredients and all sorts of time to prepare, but the reality is that is just not where we are some days and thowing this thing together is just too easy and leftovers never sit in the fridge long enough to get thrown away.  

It's so easy in fact, that it's completely possible you already have every single ingredient in your house.  We lived with the in-laws for 6 months in between houses and one evening we all just kind of looked at each other like "what's for dinner?"  Nothing.  Every protien was frozen and it just wasn't going to happen.  I found pie crusts in the freezer and canned chicken, veggies, and cream of chicken in the panty.  That's literally all this thing really needs to make it work.  Like I said, it's not fancy.  

Speaking of fancy, let's all appreciate this chicken pot pie I ordered at a restaurant in Colonial Williamsburg nearly 4 years ago...

Disclaimer: I didn't make this.  I only ate it, which I felt bad about.

It's like a work of art.  I felt guilty sticking a fork in it.  This is not what my chicken pot pie looks like.  

I personally prefer to use rotisserie chicken for basically everything.  Somebody already cooked it, it's a good amount of chicken, and the price is generally right.  I also have a cheese problem so I put cheese in the mixture tonight (totally optional) and then an egg for the egg wash is not pictured below.  Canned chicken can easily be used in place of rotisserie and I've also used a bag of frozen veggies in place of the veg-all.  It's really just whatever you want or whatever you already have.  Heck, you could even use real fresh veggies.

Ingredients:

1 - Rotisserie Chicken (or can of chicken)

1 - Can of Cream of Chicken Soup

1 - Can of Veg-All (or bag of frozen veggies)

1 cup - Cheese (or amount of your liking and just whatever kind you like)(optional)

2 - Pie crusts

1 - egg

Getting started:

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.  I'm generally winging it on this depending on what the pie crust box says.

Drain juice from the rotisserie chicken into whatever mixing bowl you plan to mix the pie filling in and then shred the chicken completely and add it to the bowl.

Drain water from the can of vegetables and add vegetables, cream of chicken and cheese to the mixture.

Mix it well.

Next start getting your bottom pie crust into the pie plate.

Dump the filling

Use your fingers to wet the edges of the pie crust with water to allow the top crust to stick better to the bottom crust.  Unroll and place the top crust on top of the pie, using your fingers to pinch the bottom and top crusts together.  

Cut extra pie crust from the top crust and throw it away.

Cut slits into top crust.

Next up is the egg wash and my daughter's favorite part.  Whisking is one of her favorite activities.  The first time I ever read about an egg wash, I had to google it.  It's just whisking an egg and brushing it on.  

Bake in oven for the first 20 minutes with the edges of the pie covered.  We used foil because we were at my parents' house, but we have these pie crust sheilds at home that I just put over the pie.  You can buy them below or find them later on Monica's Amazon Favorites page. 

Norpro Pie Crust Shield, Blue

Norpro

Buy on Amazon

After the 20 minutes just remove the crust shield (or foil if you went that route) and continue to bake until the crust is a good golden color.  I just keep checking on it from time to time until it's how I want it.  You can tell we went a little heavy on the egg wash.  There's really no wrong way to do this.

Ready to eat.

If you try it, let me know what you think.  I almost didn't think it was blog worthy, but my mom and grandma have been asking to try this for ages and they seemed to completely approve so here it is. 

Also, please excuse the iphone photos. They're breaking my photographer heart, but it is what it is.

Fixer Upper Style For My Windows on the Cheap

Ask me who I'd like to be right now and my asnwer is probably Joanna Gaines minus a few kids because let's be real, two is enough for me.  

An episode of Fixer Upper from season 2 is my inspiration for our latest home improvement project.  I always wanted to do this in our old house, but life never really allowed or rather, we didn't make time.  

See that wood header piece above the window?  I wanted something like that on our otherwise boring windows.

We don't have curtains for a couple of reasons.  1. Tyler hates them and 2. his allergies are terrible.  Curtains are just one more thing that collect dust and as cute as they are, we've just opted not to do them mostly (I actually have a pair in the dining room and Saida's room).  But this means my windows were so not cool and so boring and weren't really contributing anything to our home in terms of style or character.  Not to mention our home is a brand new home void of much in the way of character to begin with.  So I decided to do this simpliest version of this idea that I could think of.  

So this was literally as simple as buying wood, cutting it to size, staining it, and screwing it to the wall.  There really isn't anything special about the wood we bought.  I didn't even poly it.  I was really just thinking how do I do this as cheap as possible with as little work as possible and still get something I think looks really cool.  

Next on the list for this room is a rug and maybe a large house plant. 

Side note:  Why are rugs so expensive?  Where do I find an affordable one that doesn't suck? And how do I know how big of one to buy?  I suck at rugs.

OKAY LET'S BREAK DOWN HOW TO DO THIS

STEP ONE: Measure your windows.

In my personal opinion you have two options here.  One is to have a piece of wood for each window and the other is to do like I did here and have a piece of wood for each set of windows.  I measured window sill edge to window sill edge because I wanted a little bit of overhang and that just made sense to me as a simple way to decide on a measurement.

Once I had all my measurements, I took into account how long the boards are at Lowe's and started figuring out how many window treatments I could get per board.

STEP TWO: Family Trip to Lowe's 

Get however many boards you've determined you need.  I'm pretty sure ours are 1x8s, but really you can just get whatever fits the look you're going for.

Wood Stain.  I used a combo of Minwax Weathered Oak and Early American.  1 part Weathered Oak and 3 parts Early American.  I also found a sponge next to the stain that I used to apply the stain once mixed.

Screws - We used black sheetrock screws just because I like to accent with black and it goes with what's happening in our home.  Make sure you buy something that isn't too long, but is going to go through whatever board you choose and still be able to secure to the wall. 

Drop Cloths - Depending on where you plan to do the staining of the wood, I'd definitely invest in a drop cloth or something to protect the floor of wherever the staining is happening.

Sand paper - we used a pretty fine sand paper

STEP THREE: Cut and sand the wood

The cutting part was Tyler's job.  I gave him measurements and told him which pieces were supposed to come out of each board and he went for it.

The sanding is really just so the wood will take the stain and you can remove any sharp edges.  I sanded off all sharp edges of my boards because that's the look I wanted.  I took a wet cloth to my boards afterwards just to remove some of the dust.  Sanding as many boards as I had took forever so I stopped for the day and came back to stain another day.

STEP FOUR: Stain the wood

Again I mixed one part Weathered Oak to three parts Early American and then generously applied the stain with a sponge to one board at a time going with the grain of the wood.  I let it sit for about 7 minutes and wiped it away with the grain of the wood.  I love how the knots in the wood absorbed more stain and really gave the wood some character.

STEP FIVE: Find a really cute young thing to do the install for you.

Just kidding.  But for real though, this could take a couple people depending on how much space you're covering.  We got ours lined up the way we wanted them, made sure they were level, and that we were screwing into a stud.  We also mounted ours down just enough to cover the mechanical part of the blinds.

And that was it.  Now we have Fixer Upper worthy windows instead of ugly builder windows for way less than traditional window treatments would have ever cost.

Things I Learned in Sedona

The place is beautiful, yes.  I think we probably already knew that, right?  The hostess at the restaurant laughed because I wanted to sit outside for the view.  The view was of a parking lot, but it was still gorgeous.  You can't go anywhere in Sedona without being just completely blown away.  Each time a new formation came into view I was like "Oh man, this is incredible."  I was a freaking broken record, in complete awe of my surroundings.  Places like that really exist, and it's amazing to get to experience them and do it with people you love.

I learned a couple of things while I was there though.  

One is don't trust the trail maps or even that little booklet the hotel gives you that talks about the different hikes and what they entail.  Other than the part about each one being amazing, it's all lies.  Let's take the Devil's Bridge trail for example.  The Forest Service map tells you it's a moderate hike, .8 miles long, and a 600 ft. elevation gain.  Okay, great.  I can handle that.  I mean a 600 ft. elevation gain actually seems pretty legit for .8 miles, but I can probably handle it.  I'm sure it's worth it at the top, right?  What they don't tell you is that the mile long Forest Service road you take to get to the trailhead is not something you can drive your rental car down.  There are jeeps, and ATV legit rock climbing on this dang Forest Service road.  I was hot and tired before we even got to the trailhead and then had to climb 600 ft. over the next .8 miles.  That's like 55 flights of stairs.  This is the point in your vacation where you start asking yourself why you didn't go to the beach.  If you're going to be this hot, you may as well have a margarita in hand and crashing waves nearby.  

And speaking of a alcohol, that brings me to the next thing.

It's true when they say alcohol effects you differently at higher elevations.  I'm going to gloss over the details here, but I can assure you 3 glasses of wine in Central Texas (Elevation 489 ft.) is no big deal and that's not the same experience I had in Sedona (Elevation 4,327 ft.).  Don't say you weren't warned.

Let's talk about mild, medium, and spicy.  We ordered chips and salsa and were asked if we wanted medium, spicy, or one of each.  I almost just ordered the medium thinking this is Arizona and surely they know how to do spicy, but we went for both anyway.  Nope.  Spicy was medium at best.  This seemed to be a common theme everywhere we went in Sedona.  Spice is not their thing.  If you're from Texas and they tell you it's spicy, expect medium.  Obviously they don't measure spiciness on the same scale as level of difficulty for hiking trails.

And lastly, when the timeshare resort invites you to one of their presentations and tells you it's 90-120 minutes depending on your level of interest, they're lying.  Our level of interest was zero.  We were in that presentation for 3 hours.  My prize at the end?  A whopping $100.  So here's the other thing, if you're going to go to one of those presentations ever, negotiate.  Whatever they want to offer you to show up, ask for more.  I'm sure I could have gotten at least more money in gift cards out of the deal and probably an upgraded room.  Work it.  If you have to be subjected to that, make it worth your while.  Believe me, $100 isn't enough.  You're welcome.

But for real, we'd go back.  Sedona is pretty amazing.  A hiker's paradise.  

THINGS I'D RECOMMEND

Miley's Cafe - Casual, Affordable, and just good.  Just make sure you order the "spicy" salsa.  Great for breakfast and lunch.  

Hiking Cathedral Rock- also a .7 mile hike with a 600 ft. elevation gain, but we actually parked at the trailhead and the view from the top was amazing.  Go early.  This one actually required legit climbing and though it's considered moderate by Sedona standards, the Brown Family Scale of Hike Difficulty ranks it more in the area of "But, did you die?"  It was hard.

Rocky RD Ice Cream Co. - Bourbon Pecan Praline & Mexican Coffee with Tequila ice cream. Enough said.

Renting a Jeep - Not the Pink Jeep stuff that you rent in town by the day.  Rent a Jeep from the rental car place at the airport.  ATV's will cost you $500/day in Sedona.  If we ever make it back, a jeep is a must.  We could have avoided having to walk down that mile long forest service road.

Midgley Bridge, Sedona, Arizona

Important side note:  These cacti are real (see pic below).  I never really doubted it I guess, but when you see them in real life for the first time it's just funny.  It's called a Saguaro and they're all over the place just north of Phoenix.  We totally trespassed so we could safely take a photo of these things.  Apparently they average something like 40 feet (I never would have guessed without seeing them in real life) and have an average of 5 side arms.  According to Wikipedia they don't get their first side arm though until they're like 75-100 years old.  There's a fun fact for you.  I'm kind of obsessed now.

Somewhere north of Phoenix on private property