My husband’s blog!

Jason has been talking about starting a blog for a long time now.  I finally decided it was time and designed a blog for him!  As you can imagine, the majority of his content is about video games :)  Check it out, I know he would love some more followers!

Easter Countdown

We started our Easter countdown yesterday, with a clever idea from a Family Fun magazine.  All you  need is an empty egg container (we used an 18-egg container, but you can wait a few more days and use a 12-egg container) some tissue paper, and some small goodies or candies. 

1. Trim off the top of the egg carton until it is completely flat. 
2. Turn the carton over onto a piece of tissue paper and trace it.
3. Fill the compartment with small treats.
4. Cut out the tissue paper and glue it over the carton.
5. Cover each section with a sticker or piece of paper (so there is no peaking through the tissue paper!)

And here is what we came up with:

I take terrible photos, so I apologize for the quality.

I filled ours with mini peanut butter cups, small Reese's Pieces eggs, stickers, and money.  You have to be careful when shopping for these things though, because you really can't fit much in there.  A mini peanut butter cup pretty much fills it up.  If you have more then one kid, you would probably need to make more then one, or use smaller candies.  My daughter LOVES poking through the paper every morning to see what she gets.

Also, if you have never seen the Family Fun magazine, I highly recommend it.  I received a subscription as a Christmas gift and I have gotten so many ideas from it, and fun recipes.

The good, the bad, and the hideous

The good: Weigh in day today! This is my fifth week on weight watchers and today I reached my first mini-goal of losing 5% of my total body weight! Total weight loss so far.....13.5 pounds!  This also puts me about 2 weeks ahead of the long term plan that I have.  Which is a good thing because there are always weeks/months where I won't lose what I planned and this will help to make up for it.

The bad: I still have a ton to lose, and the bloodwork results and my Dr. appointment Friday confirm the reason why I NEED to lose the weight. It no longer falls under the "I want to look better" category. It's now in the "I want to live longer" category. My Dr. is sending my results to the lab to confirm the numbers (that's how bad they were) but if they come back the same, I will be put on medication. The worse part is that I was there to see him for something completely different!

The hideous: I'm pretty sure that I got the worst haircut in the history of time yesterday. She got a little carried away with her scissors. I can't even go somewhere to have it fixed because it's too short now. She cut off 7 inches. This is what I look like now (minus the bangs and minus a couple inches in the back)

Welcome Spring!

It's not officially spring yet, but for the first time in many months, we can see the grass in our yard! And our driveway! And the street (and all the lovely potholes from the winter!) Ms wheat grass plants are starting to show green and my cheap Dollar Store herb garden has started to grow.
Also, today marks the beginning of spring break. Teacher conferences start tonight and the kids don't go back to school until the 22nd of March. Am I the only grown-up that doesn't remember getting 11 days off for spring break?? Sadly we have nothing planned for these 11 days, our main goal right now is to kick all of the germs out of our house.

I haven't written about it lately but my diet is still going well. So far I am down 10.5 pounds and just as many inches!!

Best video game this year!

Jason introduced me to a new video game this month and I have to say it is one of the most exciting games I've ever played.  It's called Heavy Rain for the Playstation 3.  If you have a PS3, I highly encourage you to rent this game, or at least download the demo.  Remember when you were younger and read the "choose your own adventure" books?? That's how this game works.  You control what your characters do (you play multiple people throughout the game) and what you do or say decides how the game is played out.  You are trying to solve the case of a killer.....so right there should tell you that it is not for kids.  It has language, fighting (nothing too graphic) and just a little bit of nudity.  It's a game to play after the kids go to bed, but it's so worth it.  Jason and I have both played it, and while it ultimately ends up the same way with the same killer revealed, we got there in different ways.  There are some scenes where you have to act really quickly to save your life, or someone else's...but the cool part is that if you get yourself killed, the story still goes on with the other characters.  And that also changes the way the game is played.  You can play it multiple times and discover new scenes.  There were times that we were on the edge of our seats, and when it was over I felt like we had just watched a movie, not played a game.
You are in control of most everything the character does...and when your character is stressed, you feel it. Your controls are harder to hit, the control rumbles, and it becomes harder just to walk. Plus, if you like getting PS3 trophies, this game has a ton of them for various scenarios, so you have to play the game multiple times to get all of them.
There are parts of the game that can be emotionally draining though...you are trying to save a child after all. There are some intense scenes, but that's what makes it so great. You actually feel like you are there and you feel what your character is feeling. If you have a PS3, do yourself a favor and check this game out!

(I tried posting a video trailer but then realized that some idiot posted comments under the video saying who the killer is. Some people just really know how to ruin the fun for other people.)

Scratch that...

I THOUGHT she was feeling better, when in fact she has actually gotten worse.  Poor kid.  She was back at school Wednesday-Friday, but came out of school on Friday dragging.  She looked like she had been hit by a bus.  And worse of all, her temperature was over 103.  (To all the parents of her classmates, I SWEAR she was fine when she went to school, I would have kept her home if I knew!!)  She has been a mess all weekend.  She wakes up every morning crying, saying her nose hurts, I think it's just really dry and that is what she is feeling.  She is terrified of nose drops, but they are the only thing that will help her.  Thankfully she takes the medicine for her fever without complaining.  I hope she is feeling better soon, because she's not exactly the best patient! :)  I love her, but she is over-the-top emotional when she is sick.  Maybe she'll be an actress some day...

Back to normal

We had a fantastic time this weekend at M's bowling party! She had a lot of fun and looked adorable in her Cutie Pa Tutu!

 

 

She came down with some sort of illness Sunday night.  Not really sure what to call it, sore throat, low-grade fever, and a stuff nose.  Nothing serious, just annoying.  And she missed school for the first time, she was devastated.  Especially since Monday was a popcorn/M&M party that they had earned by being the best-behaved class in her entire school.  We had our own popcorn/M&M party last night to make it up to her.

On a completely other note, I had to buy a new laptop, since mine seems to have issues connecting to the internet lately.  But I can't really complain, my Dell laptop has lasted me 6 years without any issues.  I am getting another Dell, because they are inexpensive and I don't need anything fancy.  I am excited to learn Windows 7 though!  Plus, I get 1,000 swagbucks for going through their link.  Woohoo!  So far I've earned 2,350 Swagbucks, just for searching and entering codes.  I'm hanging on to them all for Christmas next year.  Between Swagbucks, Opinion Outpost, and Ipsos-Isay I have $80 towards Christmas next year.  At this rate I should have another $400 by Christmas time.

Another think that we have started at our house is putting more money aside for savings.  I went to ING.com and set up a few checking accounts.  You can set up as many as you want, for free, and have money pulled automatically from your checking account.  They also have a pretty good interest rate, it was 1.15% when I signed up.  We now have a general savings account, a savings account for each of the four of us, and two separate savings for our charities and holiday shopping.  I've always said that when we have money automatically taken out of our checking account, we hardly notice it, especially since it was already in our budget anyway.  If you're interested in starting an account there, let me know and you can get money for signing up and I can get money for referring you.