Living in a Box

I was on MSN today and they had this article A builder is taking the used containers used to ship items on boats and turning them into homes. The builder is based out of California where a stick built house can cost $200 to $250 per square foot. This builder can build you a container house that will cost anywhere from $100 to $200 per square foot.

The only thing I don’t love about the container home is that it is very contemporary in style instead of the log cabin homes that I love. But you are using recycled materials to build your home.

Take a look at the article and let me know what you think.

Yummy!!

On Sunday I decided to do a chicken in my crockpot. I have never done this before but I have done roasts. I figured changed the meat and change the seasonings and it should work.

Here is what I used:
1 chicken - it only costs $4.00 for a whole bird!
Carrots
onions
garlic
sweet potatoes (I figured it would add a different taste and be more exciting than regular potatoes)
1 can of cream of chicken
1 can of cream of celery
salt, pepper, Italian seasoning

That is all!

I put it all together Sunday night and stuck it in the fridge. I put it into the crockpot Monday morning about 7:30am and left it on low until we were ready to eat at 6:30. Let me tell you the chicken was so tender, it was falling off of the bones left and right. I tried to pull the chicken out of the crockpot but it just fell apart. It was so yummy and sooo easy.

Tenants

In order to save money Joe and I rented our house out and moved into a smaller and cheaper house in town. The tenants that moved into our home are under a lease option and they just moved in on Saturday. Well we are already having problems with them. They are treating the house like they own it and so they have moved light fixtures around, the husband is upset at how old the wiring is. They are also trying to use a bathtub that we have never used before and found that the drain is rusted out. They called us and instead of waiting for us to get a plumber into get it fixed the tenant attempted to fix it himself and caused the well pump to become un-primed. This is Joe’s biggest fear and he HATES dealing with it. You know these people have not bought the house and I really wish they had not started messing with it and causing all of these problems. Joe’s worst fears about renting our house out are happening.

If everyone could send happy thoughts and prayers that we will make it through this, the tenants will settle down, and everyone will be happy. We need the tenants to stay in the house because we have signed a lease on another. Joe is also worried that if these tenants move out then he will not be able to get it rented for what they are paying. Joe is the main one dealing with the tenants not me so he is much more stressed out than I am.

Babes and the Things They Say

I was reading Mikayla a book last night about a dinosaur exhibit that was closed and the boy wanted to visit it. Mikayla kept correcting me saying it was not closed because there was no door!

Tonight at dinner I was telling Joe how at work I hit a tree branch really hard with my head. Mikayla asked what I was talking about. I told her that I was walking under a tree and the branch reached out and hit my head. She said, "Mama, you are suppose to bend down!"

Lily and Sleeping ** edited**

Lily is not a consistent baby when it comes to her attitude or sleeping. Even as a newborn she would have a bad night or two and then a good night or two. Around three months Lily was going to bed around 8 or 8:30pm and she would sleep until 5am - not consistently but 3 or 4 nights out of 7. Then at four months I moved up Lily’s bedtime to 7pm and now it is at 6:30. Well, ever since then she stopped sleeping through the night and waking multiple times.

I also never know when she is going to wake up, 12:30, 1:30, 3:30 - who knows - and if she woke up at 12:30 there was a good chance we were going to up be at 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30. Ugh I am sick of this.

Now for the last 2 weeks she started waking around 2 or 3am and then up again around 5am. Last night she finally slept through the night!!! It was wonderful and I feel well rested. I know that tonight she will probably wake up at least once and I will be back to 6 hours to sleep a night but maybe, just maybe there is hope.

One thing Lily has stopped needing to sleep in the swing or her car seat. Lily was going to sleep just fine in her crib but if she woke up after 3am, I knew I would be up with her again in 30minutes or an hour if I put her back to sleep in her crib, so I would put her to sleep in the swing or car seat so I could get another 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Now I am able to swaddle her loosely in a blanket and put her back to sleep in her crib - yea!!

I believe I wrote this blog entry Wednesday early morning. (This week I have been horrible at remembering what day it is!) Well I think she slept through the night because she was not feeling well because on Wednesday daycare called me to come get Lily because she had a high fever. She does not have as high of a fever today but she is still not feeling well.

Terrible 3's

Mikayla has always been a very good kid, we have not had to deal with a lot from her. If you ask my husband he would say otherwise but I think he demands too much out of her and he also needs to spend time with other 3 year old. But lately she is a little brat and she is really testing us.

She has been really pushing buttons, rude, mean and not listening at all to us. Last night Joe was giving Lily a bath and Mikayla wanted to get into the tub. Joe told her no. Mikayla refused to listen, took off her pants and started to get into the tub. Joe told her no again and made her leave the bathroom. She came out crying. I found out what had happened and told Mikayla that this is her warning for the evening and if she misbehaves again I was going to take something away from her. (We had a talk the night before that her behavior is not acceptable and time outs were not working so we are going to start taking a toy away from her.)

Back to the story - later in the evening I wanted her to come inside and help me clean up her room. I told her to leave the clothes pins outside on the step and she can come back to them in a few minutes. She threw them into her sandbox in a sassy way. I told her I did not like her behavior and she said, well "take a toy away." I could not believe this was coming from a 3 year old. I totally expect this type of behavior but not at age 3! I ended up not taking a toy away and we sat down and talked about her attitude.

A little bit later Mikayla and I went for a walk, just her and I. I am thinking she might be wanting more Mom time she since she is not the only kid anymore. We had a great walk together, we played outside and had fun. During dinner, I don’t remember what provoked her but she pushed her sippy cup away very rudely. So I took the cup and placed it in the sink, told her this behavior is not acceptable and I said that I was taking her tent away for 2 days (sorry mom). She was not upset at all over this. But she got upset when she asked for her juice. I told her no, she pushed it away and if she was thirsty she could drink water from my glass. This finally made her start crying.

Later when she was getting ready to take her bath Mikayla told me to take away her kitchen. I told her no, I decided what toy get taken away and I am removing her tent. She had trouble understanding that Mom gets to decided the punishment not her, but she finally got it.

Here is my question for you - is a 3 year old suppose to act like this??? I am not ready to deal with this yet - I though we were safe from this type of behavior for another couple of years. I was talking with a friend of mine that has a 6 year old and she said this behavior is normal and she also said that Mikayla being such a good kid is actually not very normal!