Mommin' It Up!

May 21, 2011

Twist my arm & I’ll try a pot pie

Ok, you don’t really have to twist my arm. Because I loooooves me some pot pies. They are like the dinner equivalent to my love of Cadbury Creme eggs. So when the Motherhood and Marie Callender’s asked me to try and review a Marie Callender’s pot pie, I was like, “let me think about it….YES!” (Seriously, they had me at “free pot pie”.) There’s just something about crust, meat, veggies, sauce…all together…dinner that’s shaped like dessert…I love it!

The reason Marie Callender’s wanted me to try their pie is because recently their pot pies were featured in article called “8 Grocery Store Products that are Better than Homemade (really)“. And they wanted me to try one and see if I thought it was better than homemade.

So I tried it. And since I have previously devoured Marie Callender’s pot pies, I decided to try a flavor I’d never tried before, so I got a Creamy Parmesan Chicken pot pie.

It was scrumptious! I absolutely loved the flavor! And it was definitely better than anything I could have ever made. Maybe some of you crazy Martha Stewart types could try, but I don’t see how anyone could make a pot pie that was any better. It was perfection. Flaky crust, flavorful veggies, tender and well-seasoned meat – I could not have asked for anything more! And yes, I did eat the WHOLE thing. Just to make sure this review was thorough. *Ahem.*

So – that’s my verdict: are they better than homemade? YES! After all, the Marie Callender’s people make them from scratch – so why should I?? 🙂

___________________________________________

I received a coupon for a free Marie Callender’s pot pie and a stipend from the Motherhood and Marie Callender’s for my review of this product. The opinions expressed are solely my own and not edited by the sponsor in any way.

May 20, 2011May 19, 2011

Saved by the belles

So this week has been super-crappy weather-wise AGAIN. Let me just do a little mathematical re-cap of our “spring” for you here in Dayton, OH.

6 weeks of rain

1 week of near-90s hellish humidity

1 more week of rain

I’m abouttofleepingjumpoffaBRIDGE.

Yesterday morning it was NOT raining, and I was all, “oh if it stays like this we are going to the PARK when Joshua gets home.”

Such a fool. Such a little FOOL. It was raining by about 2.

So my suicide prevention scheme was to head to the mall play place as soon as he got home. I packed up those kids, threw ’em in the van, and we headed to the mall.

{Robin Sparkles break. C’mon Jessica, c’mon Tori…let’s go to the mall, you wont. be. soar-y!}

My stir crazy children went crazy at the play place.

Sophie ran up to every kid there saying “Hi, I’m Sophie (or Sophia, she was using alter egos apparently). What’s your name?” and she was STALKING the babies and toddlers in the place. “Mom, I found a BABY!” Um…Sophie you may NOT PICK UP THE BABY! Oy.

Joshua on the other hand, was climbing atop anything climbable and jumping off as FAR as he could, causing me to shout again, “WATCH OUT FOR THE BABIES!” Strrresss. Maybe I should have stayed at home!?

After I got my kiddos away from the little ones (my own baby was safe in his stroller, thank goodness!), who do I see strolling by but my favorite (ok, I only have one but I L-O-V-E her) OB-GYN, Dr. P. So I flagged her down so she could see my big kids since she hasn’t seen them since they were, oh…a few minutes old.

Joshua stared at her mutely while I introduced him while Sophie piped up with “Hi! I’m Sophia!” as snot dripped freeeely from her nose. Look, Dr P., look! Look at these beautiful babies you brought into this world!

*Sigh*. Sophie’s nose, which had been stuffy for days, had all of a sudden became a ginormous runny mess! SO here she is sticking her face in all the toddlers’ faces, while I am trying to talk to my girl crush Dr. P., and of cooouuuurse I have nary a tissue. I start digging frantically through my purse to try and find a tissue before Sophie’s snot reaches her chin, but I just switched purses and all I could come up with was a clean pair of Sophie’s old purple socks.

So I had her blow her nose into the socks. Repeatedly.

I am sure everyone in the play place was regarding me with horror, but then, a Knight in Shining Armor came through to save me.

Or rather, a large tattooed woman in a “I Heart my big Ta-Ta’s” t-shirt strolled into the play place and made me and my snotty socks look not so shabby, after all.

Thanks lady! Or should I say, girls?

You three really did me a solid!

May 18, 2011

Death by Hangnail.

Since I’ve had baby Jonah five months ago (how can he be five months old already?) I’ve had a variety of dumb maladies. My body tends to attack me after I have a baby. So, I had the c-section incision open up, the DeQuervain’s syndrome in my thumb/arm, and some painful “nerve problems” (I don’t know how to explain them, I had them after previous pregnancies also) on top of my left foot, the back of my left knee, an even my right butt cheek.

Yeah.

And now, a new malady, which has nothing to do with having been pregnant but is just one of those DUMB things that happens – I guess.

An infected hangnail. A freaking hangnail! Two weeks or so ago, I picked a hangnail on my right thumb. I’ve picked or clipped about 4 million hangnails in my life and never had one get infected. And I wash my hands about eleventy billion times a day, BUT it should have been eleventy billion and one that day, apparently.

As you may remember, my husband had a little right thumb trouble of his own once upon a time. Which is why I jokingly posted this as my facebook status a few days ago:

Turns out that wasn’t so funny! The infection got so bad the pain was keeping me up at night. THEN my thumbnail started to come off!

So Monday I headed to the doctor in a panic. You know it’s good and infected when the nurse says “Ewww. That looks painful.”

The doc gave me a “high dose” of antibiotics and a pain medicine which turns out to be Vic*din. Who knew you could get Vic*din for a hangnail?

Anyhoo. I’m supposed to soak it in epsom salts and take my antibiotic and keep it wrapped and if that works, then he won’t have to do surgery on it.

Surgery.

It was a HANGNAIL!!!!!!!!!

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion in this medical melodrama. I just *can’t wait* to see what’s gonna happen.

At least I got some Vic*din.

I guess every infected hangnail has a silver lining.