My New Addiction

I've recently found a website that in my opinion is highly addictive!  Granted it has amazing things on the site, but it will eat away hours and hours without you even knowing!  It got to the point that I was so anxious for Pete to leave (M was already at a friends house) so I could spend uninterrupted time on the site I asked if he wanted to leave early for his softball game.  He looked at me like I was crazy and left! :)

The website is Pinterest

I strongly suggest you do not register on the site unless you have hours and hours to waste as it will immediately suck you in.

The essence of the site is for people to post anything and everything that they created, found online or heard of for others to search through.  I've mainly stuck to food and drink and DIY, but they have oodles and oodles of other items. 

The upside of finding this site is I've found some amazing recipes to make!  For those that really know me, its shocking isn't it!!!!!

The first recipe I tried was French Toast Muffins. 

They were very good, my only complaint is they didn't taste like french toast.  It was more of a cinnamon sugar muffin.

Here is the link to the recipe.

French Toast Muffins



This morning I tried another recipe for breakfast and this one was a Homerun!  For those of you who have had Monkey Bread, this is another (much easier) version of them.  They are mini servings of monkey bread.  The 3 of us managed to polish off all 12.

They were delicious and SO easy!  The only thing I changed from the recipe was that I cut the biscuits in quarters but still put 3 pieces in each muffin tin.  A few got 4 if they were small pieces.  I tried adding vanilla to a few, Pete loved it but M and I were not a fan of the vanilla.

Here is the recipe.
Monkey Bread Muffins


If you have the time, give it a try.  The site is definitely worth it.

The $40 fish

What started as a simple trip to the Eagan 4th of July carnival....ended with a trip to PetSmart to purchase Clarence "Claire" Thelen. Yes, you read that correctly, PetSmart, more on that in a minute.

(This expands on the 4th of July post)

Later in the afternoon we stopped by the carnival for a few rides, games and to check out the festivities and scope out a good spot for fireworks. After Madison tried a few overpaid and rusty rides she saw the Carnies and their rigged games. We agreed to let her try a couple games, and of course the one game that caught every kids eye was the one that had a goldfish as a prize. To win you had to toss a ping-pong ball into a little dish a few feet away. We spent a few dollars, Madison gave it a go, but we left empty handed.

After cooling off at home again we met Nana and Papa for dinner, so they could see Madison one more time before they headed on their road trip to see Justin and Mimi, then they joined us for fireworks. We made our way back to the carnival around 8 and set-up camp for the fireworks. Madison worked her magic and talked Nana and Papa in to walking around the carnival and trying a few more games. No more than 15 minutes later they come walking back, Madison smiling ear to ear, and Papa laughs and says "we brought dinner!" Madison landed a ping-pong ball in the dish and won a gold fish, welcome Claire #1 to the family. We got home from the fireworks and put Claire in a Tupperware bowl in the sink for the night and planned on going to the pet store in the morning for a bowl and food. The next morning Pete got up for work and there was Claire #1, she went for the great escape and landed on the bottom of the kitchen sink. Pete got her back in the bowl and somehow she started breathing again, and every once in a while would swim a little bit. We ran to Walmart and picked up a proper container and food, a small $10 investment for Madison's first pet in a while. The next morning Pete and I had an informal flushing ceremony for Claire #1 after we found her floating belly-up. Madison was obviously disappointed, but after explaining that Claire #1 was a feeder fish, and more or less bait, she understood and asked if she could get a new fish. This time we went to PetSmart and picked out Clarence, a blue/green/silver Beta fish. Of course, there is a Beta started kit you purchase with the Beta fish, now we are up to $40 thanks to this carnival game.

Four days in and Clarence "Claire" is alive and well. Madison won't feed him/her yet though, the food does not smell the best and it has visible bloodworms in it, which are supposed to help accentuate the color of the fish. We will see how long this one lasts......

4th of July Fun

This year we had a very low key 4th, which I suppose isn't any different from every other year!! 

We got home late Sunday night from a day filled with sun, swimming, and family so we didn't "plan ahead" for Monday.  At 8:30am Madison asked if Eagan had a parade.  Pete found the flier they sent out detailing ALL of the events at EaganFest and yes, it started at 10am!  Needless to say it was a mad house here as we all had to shower and get dressed.  We left TOTALLY unprepared.  The only thing my half functioning brain thought of was for Madison to put sunscreen on. 

So we hopped in the car and make the 1 mile drive over to Central Park.  Once we parked and started walking, it dawned on me "It's hot out, we should have brought something to drink as we will be in the sun the whole time".  After about 10 minutes of walking (with "pregnant lady" as Pete calls me trying to keep up with them) we found a spot on a corner near the end of the parade route.  Once we got our blanket situated, we sent Pete to the BP to get drinks!  He wasn't too thrilled to be walking more, but we needed something.

The Parade was great but the only downfall of being at the end is almost every float was out of candy.  Madison still brought home a decent amount of stuff. 

Pink, White, and Blue

After a few hours of cooling off at home, we headed back over to the carnival.  My favorite ride of all time is the Tilt-A-Whirl so it was hard to sit and watch as Pete and Madison went on!  :(

We ended the night with The Dweebs concert and some fireworks.

Madison got her glo bracelet and glasses from Claire one of the lead singers of The Dweebs.  She was pretty excited about that.

The fireworks lasted for a full 30 minutes and they did not disappoint! 

ITS A GIRL!!

We went in for our 20 week ultrasound and were told that they could not determine the gender of the baby because he/she would NOT open the legs!  I'm not sure who was more bummed, me or "the mother's" who desperately wanted to go shopping

Luckily we were able to go back in for another ultrasound this week and got a little better odds!  The ultrasound tech (who was awesome by the way!!) gave us 90% girl.  During the ultrasound the baby would NOT sit still, but again moved everything but her legs!! 

The picture is blurry because she wouldn't stop moving!

We are SUPER excited!  Now we just need to get everything ready.  Madison is moving into the basement and the bedroom upstairs will become the nursery.  I will post pictures as we get it all completed.