Weekend Property Picking

Saturday, the girls and I went picking on our property. By the girls I mean these girls:

Baby is the tan one and Hannah is the brown one. Sorry the picture is sideways, I have hopes to figure that out, but they were too adorable not to share. :) And this was one of my conquests:

This was taken from the doorway of one of our sheds. I have only scratched the surface in getting into everything. I was by myself so I couldn't get the boxes of furniture out of my way, so I just climbed ontop of everything. So, I'm going to put some of my finds on the Garage Sale Page
I'm totally not selling this, but look what I found! It's an amazing weather vane, covered in climbing rose vines. I find rose bushes and vines everywhere! We'll just be walking through a pasture and you have to step over a little rose bush.

Well, actually everything has thorns out there:

It's a great metaphor for our experiences out there. Let me explain a little. I have failed to mention that before Thanksgiving, someone broke into our house and stole everything they could carry. Every tool we owned was in the garage, and some low-life came, backed up to the garage and helped himself. We haven't gotten anything back, but fortunatly, we were able to take advantage of some black friday sales to get the basics for pretty cheap. And our parents got Jared some stuff for Christmas, but we just can't run out and replace an air compressor or a generator at the drop of a hat. So, needless to say, progress had slowed for a while.

Anyways, check out this piece of tractor(?) equipement that the trees have eaten!

Ok, last thing, I would like help identifying this vine I found with these little berries on it.

I would love it if you would leave your suggestions in the comments. And, all these great pictures that I took over the weekend has inspired me to start a Flickr account to store them all! You can find it at http://www.flickr.com/photos/frognotmom/

My MS, your introduction

Ok, so I went to the neurologist yesterday and she confirmed that I am, in fact, in the middle of a MS flare up. (Jared hates that I call it a flare up. I would be interested to know what everyone else calls it) I am almost completely numb from my breast to my hip, but only on my right side. I noticed it on the 1st of the month and it just keeps getting worse, it's very annoying to say the least. I'm also very tired. Like, I'm having tension headaches from keeping myself awake. But that's kind of it. When I was telling my sister about it, she told me, "I'm so sorry, Leslie." and I told her, "Hey, it could be way worse!" It has been way  worse. The last time this happened, I had terrible double vision and had to wear an eye patch just so I could walk! So, she put me on steroids, just pills- thank God. And I hate steroids! They make me feel like crap the entire time I'm on them. I started a twitter hash tag #steroidssuck if you would like to join me. www.twitter.com/FrognotMom Yeah, by the way, I'm still learning with the whole Twitter thing, but so far it's been fun :)

So, anyways, I know that I'm curious about how other people treat their MS. So I will share how I do, in hopes that someone else will share with us how they do. I started taking the drug Avonex in November I think. It's an intramuscular injection that I take once a week. It's supposed to have terrible flu like side effects (I have been lucky to only have mild ones occasionally), so they made me do a titration with these GIANT syringes. My wonderful husband gave me these. I mean, I seriously wouldn't have been able to do those myself. The needle was like 2 inches long. I don't know if he knows how much I appreciate him, but I truly do. Now, I have these pens, that just shoot the meds into me.

This is it, unassembled. The little clear plastic thing in the top right contains the needle, which is only like 1/2 inch long. It's a tiny thing, and most of the time, it doesn't hurt at all. I started out giving these to myself, but I have started having anxiety attacks at the time to take the injection. It's absolutely irrational and ridiculous, and it makes me so mad that it happens. I mean, I have given birth to three children, had a spinal tap among other fun medical tests, and on top of it all, I have rolling veins that nurses just love trying to get blood out of. I'm no stranger to this kind of thing, and I do it all with out complaint. I'm not scared of needles, and have never been. But, these attacks were so bad, I had to call my mother-in-law, a nurse, to come and make me take it. My theory is that the drugs are making me feel this way. Anyways, I told my nuero about this, and she had to prescribe me anti-anxiety pills to take right before my shot. So, ridiculous that I have to be medicated, just to be medicated! But, whatever, I took the pill in preparation for taking the injection last night, and what do you know, it worked! It was so crazy! I could feel the anxiety trigger when it was time to do it, but none of the symptoms presented, and I remained relaxed and calm! Jared was very appreciative, since he's the one that has sat with me, for literally hours, while I threw fits about taking the injection, that I must remind you, doesn't hurt. I'm still mad at myself for having to go about it this way, but I'm so glad I found a solution to my problem. I would love to know if anyone else has had anything similar happen to them. Comment and tell me about it, or you can follow me on Twitter, or Facebook, or if you don't want your story public, feel free to email me at frognotmom@gmail.com

UPDATE: I'm sorry, I failed to explain what titration is, for those that don't know. It's where you build up to a full dose. I started with 1/4 dose, then 1/2 dose, then 3/4 and then the full dose. This is supposed to acclimate your body to the drug to lessen the side effects.

Can you identify this woodpecker?

I really wanted to add some things to my garage sale page today, but I seem to have misplaced my camera cord, so I can't upload pictures yet. But I can tell you a few things that I know I'm willing to get rid of.

really old TVs, including a giant antique cabinet encased one

tons of coke bottles, and Pepsi and 7up. I'm planning on cleaning these up and putting them on eBay, but if you are a collector, just email me at frognotmom@gmail.com. I'm sure we can figure something out. Actually there's a couple of six packs that I'm wondering if they're worth something. One is old glass Mr.Pibb bottles. I've never even seen old Mr. Pibb bottles before these! The other is Cowboys Superbowl Commemorative Coca Cola Bottles. I don't remember which one, I'm sure that's important. If anyone knows anything about any of this, I would really appreciate the info!

Ok, since I'm on the subject of asking for information about my antiques, I have this little guy:

Pretty sure he's a woodpecker. He is completely metal and about 2 inches tall. I've searched all over the internet to find out more about him. I'm coming up with nothing. Again, PLEASE, email me at frognotmom@gmail.com or comment, if you have any kind of info on this little guy. btw: I just took that pic with my phone, that icloud thing is awesome!

Lego Molds!

Oh my goodness, I'm so excited about this! I have a neurologist appointment in a few minutes, I'll probably share that with everyone later today, but I just found this and had to share it right now!



They are ice cube trays that make little Lego men and blocks! The possibilities are endless with these things! We could not only have ice, but we could make chocolates, candy, crayons, soap, and I'm sure some other stuff that I haven't thought of yet. Sorry for all the exclamations, I'm easily excitable :)

UPDATE: Nevermind about the neurologist, June threw up in the van on the way there. Yuck. Anyways, since I'm sure you're wondering, I'm having numbness on the right side of my midsection. I know it's assosiated with my MS, but my Dr. says she wants to see me. I rescheduled for Thursday afternoon, so I will definately let you know what happens then.

I also changed my comment settings, so anyone should be able to comment now.

Plants added to Gardening Page

I fully intend on learning how to garden, and I promise to share it with you. I will be starting some seeds soon! But until then, I want to share with you all some of the amazing plants that are already at our house. I have to learn how to care for these, so if you have any tips (or the real names of some of these), please share them with me!

Peach Tree

Orange Tree

Spider Lilly

Althea

Texas Sage

Rose

Tatertot Casserole

The first time I had this dish, I had just got home from the hospital with my newborn baby Jace (my oldest, who is now 8). One of Jared's cousins, Courtney, brought us this for supper. If you're not from the south, that's what we do when people enter the world and leave it: we bring you food. Anyways, we fell in love with it. I asked her how to make it and over the years, I've tried different variations of it. I've been with this version for quite some time, and it's so easy!

Brown about a pound of ground meat.

 

 





In a bowl, combine a can of cream of mushroom soup, half a can of milk, and 1/4 tsp garlic powder

 

 

 

 

Put a single layer of frozen tatertots in the bottom of a 13x9 casserole dish

 

 

 

  

Spread the ground meat on top of the tatertots

 

 

Pour the soup mixture over the meat. Use a spoon to distribute evenly

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cover it all with your choice of shredded cheese. I like to use a blend

 

 

 





 

 

 

Put it in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 20 min. or until it's bubbly

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take it out when it looks like this. Actually this could've come out a few min earlier, notice how 'done' the cheese is around the edges

 

 

 

This and every subsequent recipe can be found on the Food page.

 

On a related note, after photographing my dish for my first food post, I realized: I want this book so bad! I've had my eye on it for a while, and now that I see how difficult photographing my food is, I might be able to justify the purchase. :)





Arm's Reach Mini Co-Sleeper

My first product review was a no brainer! I know this may not appeal to everyone, but if you know someone that's having a baby, this is a fail-safe option for a gift.


This is a complete life saver to anyone bringing a newborn baby home from the hospital. I had this with my last two kiddos, and I don't think I would've gotten any sleep without it. It's a bassinet that goes right beside your bed. One of the sides drop down, so it's like your baby is in the bed with you, but they're not. The side can go back up, for a stand alone bed also. It's a safe sleeping option for moms that want to keep baby as close as possible. It's worth every penny! Oh yeah, it folds up like a pack n play, so you can take it anywhere (like the living room during nap time, or Grandma's for a night out)!
All my favorite product can always be found on the Reviews page.

Our House with Boys Room Before and After

Ok, so the day after Jared's sister, Joey, got married in mid September, we got this run down house on 40 acres in Frognot, TX. Its ok that you don't know where that is, I don't think it's an actual town. Just a water tower. Every single person that comes out has the same reaction to the place. We walk through the house first, which literally looked like it was falling down until recently,

and we get vague nods and 'what did you get yourself into' looks. Then Jared takes them out to see the property.

By the time they get back to the house, they are enthusiastically suggest wall colors and flooring choices. There are four pastures that are cross fenced and treed in. It's so secluded and quiet here, that you forget that you're only an hour from Dallas. We have a giant pecan tree and two ponds. Don't let me fool you, it hasn't rained here all year. So, there's not much water in the ponds, but the banks make for good target practice at the Chaney Gun Range.

Oh yeah, that's the biggest appeal to everyone; they don't have to pay to shoot their guns. Our brother in law comes out every weekend to shoot guns and drive his remote control car. (That shall be the subject of another post. He he)

So far, to fix the house, we've fixed three water leaks just to get the water to the house.

We dug holes under the house, and jacked up the foundation to help level the house some. It's a cinderblock house, and when we got the house, there were some cracks in the wall that you could stick your arm all the way through- from inside to outside. So we got the floors as level as we could, and then used cement patcher to mend the cracks.

We've pretty much completed our boys' room, and that's where we stay on the weekends. We've painted and installed flooring in there.

So here's what the boys room looked like when we got the house:

And here's what it looks like now:

Well, actually we've put a bed in there since, but I'll update again when I have the room completed for my boys.

Welcome!

Welcome to Frognot Mom! If you're wondering what a Frognot is, it's a town in Texas. Don't worry if you've never heard of it, I don't think it's an actual town. It's just a watertower you pass by on the county road. Join me and my family as we experience the highs and lows of home remodeling, country life, adjusting to my newly diagnosed Multiple Sclerosis, my Mom-musings, and anything else I choose to tell you about. I love crafting, home decor, cooking, couponing, parties, and writing. I do all of these things spending little or no money and I hope to share as much of that as I can with you! I always try to be eco-friendly and reuse when I can. One of the main plans of our country property is to become more self-sufficient. So, it should be interesting to see the hurdles we will have to jump while learning things like gardening. I tend to write exactly like I talk, so you have been warned.

If you live in my area, or you know me personally, be sure to check out the Garage Sale page, where I'm selling off all of the stuff that was left behind in our house when we got it. There are some pretty great finds...

I also have an Etsy store to sell my jewelry called Opal Dylan. If you're wondering where the name Opal Dylan comes from, let me explain it to you. I wanted to pick a name that would be easy to remember, hold personal meaning to me, and give off a natural yet hip vibe. A lot to ask from a name, I know. As I'm sure you know, an Opal is a white gemstone with an iridescent quality. It is the stone in a beautiful necklace my Mother has had my entire life. For me, it symbolizes the woman that made me. Dylan is my daughter's middle name. I think that one is self-explanatory.