Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!!

My gracious, I've been a busy bee this weekend!!  Lance keeps coming up to me and checking for a fever... he swears I must be ill.  I've been making freeze ahead meals for when the boys come home.  I got into the IDEA of it a long time ago, but since my middle name is "procrastination" nothing ever really happened.  In the past, I've bought and tossed about 75 pounds of ground beef and chicken, all in the name of throwing some recipes together to freeze.

This weekend, however, I came through in a major way.  I've made and frozen three shepherd's pies, three meat loaves with sauce, two packages of Honeyed pork chops and an Italian sausage casserole.  YUM!!  I actually took some photos to share, but then thought about how sad it was that I was photographing food.  I got all excited because I sprinkled paprika on the shepherd's pie... all of a sudden I felt like I was on the Food Network!  Pitiful, I am just pitiful.  Clearly I am amused by a small amount of spice.

We figured out the car seat scenario... it cost a little money, but it was worth it in the long run.  We've been griping and complaining that our current compliment of car seats and boosters wouldn't fit in our Highlander.  Several of you suggested the Sunshine Radian Kids line of car seats.  Of course, being a relative cheapskate (unless it comes to keeping my roots done) I balked at the price.  $299 for a car seat!!  Did it buckle the child in by itself?  Was it platinum plated?  Dear God!  

I read a nice little article in which someone was asked the million dollar question... would you rather pay XXX amount of dollars for new car seats, or $30,000 for a new vehicle to put your old ones in?  Ahem.  I was a bit embarrassed by the revelation.  Long story short,  I started looking at the Sunshine Kids seats with a less jaundiced eye.  I called around and found a store that actually had three in stock and would let me take them out to my car to attempt to squeeze them in.  

They fit beautifully.  It was liking watching the pieces of a puzzle click together.  Three little soldiers lined up in a row... oh, my.  There are THREE car seats in my car!!  Now I'm standing in the parking lot starting to hyperventilate and the man from the store starts offering me money off the seats in an effort to calm me down.  Three children... I'm going to have three children.  It's one of those random little thoughts that crops up during the course of a normal day.  I'll be putzing along and see three little boys with their parents, or I'll be thinking about getting something for Jack and realize that I'll have three to buy for soon.  I feel like Aunt Pitty in Gone With the Wind... has anyone got my smelling salts?

Anyway, back to the carseats.  After we found out how well they fit, I wandered back to the "outlet" part of the store to see if they had any bargains.  Lo and behold... there's one of the seats I want for $30 cheaper because it's an open box return.  I look furtively around, then my sister and I pop the tape on the box to check out the contents.  Well.... it was a final sale... I had to make sure all the bits were there, didn't I?  It was all in there, along with the manuals, so I bought it.

With that one in the middle, our other two seats fit.  We're still trying to decide if we're going to keep the older seats.  Isn't there an expiration on car seats?  I thought I read they were "good" for six years after manufacture.  Does anyone know?  If we buy new ones, I found them online cheaper with no tax and free shipping.  That'll save us about $75 off the price in the store.  Every penny counts, man.

I think that's all the news that is news around here today.  Tomorrow marks a month since we met them. It seems like time is moving quickly, but still like we have forever to go... you know what I mean?  We'll be able to sign our court petition in five weeks, then things will start flying.

Have a great week, we're wishing the best to all the other waiting families!!