TV Show Appearance!!

I am so excited!!  I am going to be on TV!!  I never thought that I would be on TV, especially for doing the things I do everyday, but I am!!

This is a picture of Kat Cosley (L) and me (R)!!

 So, just to get you all up to speed, I watch a wonderful show called Deals  with Kat Cosley on the Live Well Network, obsessively.  I love, love, love it, the premise of the show is basically having a high quality life without spending excessively to get it, which is totally up my alley!!  The show tapes in the Houston area and it's nice to see the kind of deals you can actually get in your own hometown.  Even if you don't live in the area, the show also gives you ideas that can apply to anywhere that you live.  

I liked the show on Facebook and sent Kat a note letting her know how our family saves money...  Buying clearance items!!  This was so random and I don't really know why I sent her that note, but I just sent it to her never expecting to hear back, especially from someone who is on TV.

But she wrote me back and she was so nice and yada, yada, yada, we taped a segment in early December!!  The show is going to air on January 25, 2014 nationally on the Live Well Network and the following Saturday, February 1st locally on KTRK TV ABC13.  You can find the times and stations in your area here.

We have since taped another show about crafting with wood at the end of December and I don't know, yet, when that show will air, but I will keep you up to date!

Kat, her producer Tiffany and their team have been great to work with!  It's a lot of fun doing the show and such a new experience for me!  Sometimes it gets so easy living in the day to day and one little thing (like sending a note to Kat Cosley) can enrich your life in new ways!  Anywho, I am over the moon excited and hope you watch the show, love it and let me know what you think!



Take care,
Morgan

Swim Team Ribbon Holder

So, we had our first experience with swim team this summer..  And experience it was!!  Imagine five days a week beginning at 9 AM till almost 1 PM keeping 3 little bodies sunscreened up, hydrated, fed and content in the hot and humid Texas sun...  I had to get up super early to pack the swim goggles, sunscreen, towels, swim toys when not practicing, swim trunks, cooler full of snacks, drinks, second breakfast and first lunch!  It's a GREAT experience for the kids, but not so much fun for me!  :)

Don't know why the wall showed up so yellow, it's a beige wall.

Anywho, my oldest really took to swim team!!  He couldn't even swim across the pool at the first practice!  In fact, I told my husband not to remove the tags from the already bought swim team uniforms and practice suits and I kept the receipts handy!!  Well, he wasn't really into the first practices other than having the joy of being in a pool, which was fine with us, but if he couldn't swim across, he wouldn't make the team, making the already bought suits unnecessary...   Well, this was the pace until the first swim meet...

Once he realized that you can receive a ribbon for swimming across the pool and that the different colors mean different places, then all bets were off!  He took to the water like a fish!!  It is amazing how some people are really visual with their rewards and when he saw the ribbons, that's what really motivated him!

Well we didn't really have a good place to put these ribbons and I didn't know where we could find a ribbon holder, not that I wanted to pay for one...  This was his first year and I didn't want to make a huge or even small investment if it turned out to be a one shot experience, so the handy girl came out in me...  Also, the late, overextended mom came out too, since I finished this in December!!

Now of course, I don't have any before pics, but imagine a plain piece of wood and the tute explains the rest.

Materials:

Craft wood from hardware store
Leftover spray paint
Computer/copy paper/pencil
Paint Pens
Tacks/Hammer/Paper Towel
Picture Hangars

Instructions:

1. Spray paint the wood a couple of coats of your favorite paint color.
2. Find an image online for your team.
3. Using your copy paper and pencil, lightly trace the image onto your paper from your computer screen.
4. Shade all over the BACK of your image with your pencil. 
5. Turn your image over and trace it onto your wood.
6. Color in the image with your paint pens.  My image took two coats of paint pen because the background color was so dark.
7. Affix the picture hangers to the back of your wood.
8. Hammer in the tacks to the front of your wood.  I placed a paper towel over my tacks, so the hammer wouldn't scratch them up.
9. Hang your ribbons.
10. Hang on the wall for your guppy to see how he progressed with the effort he put forth on swim team.
11. Enjoy the fruits of your efforts!

Steps 3 and 5

Step 4

Anyone can do this, because if you can trace and color, you can do it.  You probably have all of the items already in your craft stash.   The piece of wood was a couple of bucks and I had everything else.   This was really done in less than an afternoon and that includes drying time.  This was a lot of fun and if we do this again in 2014, I can whip up another in no time!

Take care,
Morgan

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Making Memories with Your Kids

How much does a memory cost?  How much more does a really, good memory cost?  I am not sure why we remember the things we do, whether it's from our childhood or adulthood...  Some people say that a scent of perfume or food can bring back a flood of memories, not so much for me...  I do know that I have made the cheapest ever memory with my kids and we all loved it!!

The hubs was going out for dinner with a friend and it was just going to be me and the boys...  Since we had just received a new movie for Christmas, I thought it would be fun to have some popcorn and watch a movie.  It would be even more fun to put on our pajamas and eat the popcorn IN FRONT OF THE TV, upstairs in the gameroom!!!  What?  Is this me who is saying this?  Won't they get popcorn on the couch?  Nope, we ate it on the floor (because momma anticipated a popcorn spill, which happened) and the crumbs could be easily vacuumed up.

My kids LOVE popcorn, not like, but LOVE popcorn.  All three of them... They are crazy for it.  Now we usually air pop it with our machine and don't add anything to it, but not this time.  Recently, I was told that I am called the Queen of Clearance, and I guess that is true because I found some clearance popcorn at the store and bought it up like crazy.  It is pretty healthy with no butter for my boys and a touch of salt, you know because that's the way we roll!  :)  Plus, it's 3 minutes and 10 seconds in the microwave and then it's perfectly done, no more, no less...  Plus, the smell of popcorn seems to put all of them in the best mood!

When I mentioned the idea of eating popcorn upstairs to my oldest son, he went straight to daddy and said it's ok, you can leave now (they never kick him out early!)   The boys had the best time!!  The littlest one was put to bed during the middle of the movie and the two other boys ate two bags of popcorn!!

So, for thirty three cents, a third of a dollar, my boys ate popcorn, in the game room till 8:15 PM (15 minutes past their normal bedtime.)  When the movie ended, I asked them what they wanted to do next and the oldest said, let's just go to bed, I am tired...  When I was brushing my middle ones teeth, my oldest already fell asleep in his bed!

It's times like this, after the flush of Christmas and presents, that the simple things are the ones that really mean the most.  Last night, they got unadulterated freedom eating a snack in the gameroom and could stay up as late as they wanted!  We got to spend that time together watching a movie, they have seen many, MANY times since Christmas, with the added conversation and impersonations they do throughout the movie, all with popcorn falling out of their open, chewing mouths!  I didn't go crazy, even though that's what I would do in anticipation of having to clean up, yet another mess, but I enjoyed it!

These times are going by so fast, it doesn't take much (effort, time or money) to have a fun evening with the kids.  I am not sure if they will look back on last night as a memory for them, but I know that I will remember it for many years to come!  Seeing them and me enjoy the evening for such different reasons (them with the freedom of relishing their favorite snack and movie and me for being slightly lax about eating somewhere other than the dinner table and not freaking out at all when the popcorn was spilled.)  We are all coming along, aren't we?  :)

How do you like to make memories with your kids?

Take care,
Morgan

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