Current Events. The important ones.

Meatball Problems! 

One of the things I hated most in school was current events. I would always forget and would be trying to swipe a newspaper from the library during break so I could throw one together real quick. If Mr. Sturtevant would have considered the things that I find important as true current events that may have been a much different story.

     A few months ago it was rumored that Snooki was pregnant, but she denied it pretty adamantly. Around the time these rumors surfaced she was a guest on (one of my favorites) Andy Cohen's Watch What Happens Live, which features a drinking game every night, and she was NOT drinking. She said it was because she was on a diet (She did look AMAZING) but, I was suspicious. I just didn't buy Snooks not drinking for that reason. But, now it is being reported that she IS in fact expecting a Mini Snooki! Or Mini Jionni.
     People are already tearing her apart for this, and I think that is SO sad. She is a character from a TV show. Yes, it is "reality tv", but that doesn't mean that it is real. I am SURE that all of those people play a part to make that show entertaining. It is probably based on her actual life, but it is TV, and is edited, and made to entertain people. And even if that is exactly how she acts in real life, who is to say that she will be a terrible mother because of it? I know that there are lots of parents out there that partied, drank, had a good time, and yes, probably acted like a moron before they were parents. If being young and dumb and partying disqualifies you from having kids then I think that the human race would die out pretty quick.

     

 So....... CONGRATS Snooki!!!

Another, extremely important current event, that wouldn't have counted in school, is MTV has given the green light for TEEN MOM 3!! We don't know who will be on it yet, but I am always excited for a new season of Teen mom drama! They say that they will NOT be any of the girls from season 3 of 16 and pregnant. Maybe because half of the baby daddies are in jail, and at least one of them is expected of getting pregnant just for the show. (Teen pregnancy has been way way down since this show started, so even if this one moron, DID get pregnant for the show, it seems that overall this show is having a positive impact, and is not glamorizing teen pregnancy like many people have said it does) Some of the OG Teen Moms, are already jealous about this, and not ready to welcome newbies into their ranks. Teen Mom 2 ended yesterday,  but SOOO much has happened since that follow up show was filmed. So I will do my best to give a quick follow-up, follow-up.

Jenelle- Still being Jenelle. No More Kieffer, I think he is still in jail but not totally 100 percent on that. Her new boyfriend is a Marine, and he should be making an permanence in the next season of Teen Mom 2, which has already been at least halfway filmed. Apparently he failed to get permission from the Marine Corps before he filmed, so he got into some trouble for that

 

                                                          Jenelle and her new boyfriend Gary Head

Kail- She is the Teen Mom that I hear the least about, but I think she has a new boyfriend. She is who actually bailed Jenelle out of jail when she was arrested with Kieffer, but Jenelle has not paid her back and Kail isn't happy about it. 

                          This obviously isn't Kail, but Jo was arrested a while back when he was found with weed..And I thought it was funny.

                                                                

Chelsea- Hopefully she has finally moved on from Adam. She has been spending a lot of time with Daniel from Caged on MTV. She went to Mardi Gras and hung out with him, and he went to South Dakota this past weekend to hangout with her and Aubree. He seems like a nice guy, and they are super cute together, so I hope that that works out. She needs a good country boy. She has also completed her GED and has started beauty school!

 Chelsea and her MMA fighter "Friend" Caged's Golden Boy Daniel Payne

Leah- The follow up special kinda gave viewers hope that Lean and Corey would get back together, but they did not. Leah is now engaged to another guy, Jeremy and they recently had a miscarriage. So sad. :( But she seems to be happy, and Leah's mom really likes him and he is good to the girls, so hopefully that works out, and she doesn't go back and hook up with Robby. She also got jumped at the movie theater a few weeks back by 3 girls who apparently have no life and have to go start stuff with people they don't know. But she is okay, and they found out who the girls who did it were. 

                                                         Leah, the twins, and her new Fiance Jeremy, who I think resembles Cory a lot.

There is supposed to be at least one more season of the original Teen Moms also, but I'm guessing this will be the last one. 

Maci- Has said that she doesn't want to do the show anymore. She just wants Bentley to live a normal life and not be stopped and asked for pictures everywhere he goes. She bought a house with Kyle, and then promptly broke up with him. Ryan has a super cute girlfriend, who is good to Bentley. HottyRyan wrecked his quad over the weekend and messed his back and neck up! But don't fret, he should be just fine.

Caitlin- I think she would do the show forever if they let her. She and Tyler got to see Carly recently, which just thinking about makes me tear up. I watched her 16 and pregnant episode recently and it seems like she thought she would get to see Carly WAY more then she actually gets to. But she goes around speaking abour adoption, and being a birth parent, and has actually been a support system to young girls who have none. She and Ty are getting married this summer! 

Farrah- I don't hear much about her either. Sophia just turned 3! 

Amber- Oh Amber. She got out of jail this week! She had been in there since December, or maybe the end of November. She was found with pills that weren't hers, which violated her probation from her domestic violence charges.  She is supposed to go to rehab, and live in a halfway house for a long time. Like, years. She isn't allowed to film in rehab, or the halfway house, and she is supposed to also get a 9-5 job, (Teen Mom doesn't count) and she isn't allowed to film there either. If she messed up again she will get thrown back into the slammer for 5 years! She had applied to get into a rehab program but was denied, because they feel like she would cause too much of a disturbance to the other people there. So, until she finds a program that will take her, she is at home on house arrest. And technically could be filming, but I don't know if they will do that. Gary has sole custody of Leah. I hope that we will be seeing them next season. As big of a douche as he is, I have always liked him, and I think that he really does care about being a good dad.

That's pretty much all I know about those teen moms. Which I will admit is slightly embarrassing that I do know that much. But whatever, I know that there are other people that secretly care as much as I do. 16 and pregnant will be starting in a few weeks and it looks pretty drama filled. I think that my favorite will be the girl that is upset, and sounds kind of surprised, that she cant do kickboxing anymore. She reminded me of Leah when she "Missed homecomin' week!"

The Leap List- Soaking in So Cal

April will be here before we know it, and we will be leaving beautiful Southern California. Before we go, we want to hit up all of our favorite places one last time before we are gone for a bit (we WILL be back to visit!) Last weekend, we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo. This weekend the Husband and I, along with our Besties Tamara and Brandon went to Universal City Walk, and enjoyed a few cocktails and a super yummy dinner at Buca De Beppo. It was nice to spend an evening with adults! I was really hoping to run into the Bieb, but sadly it didn't happen.
Once we got home, and back to reality, we took the kids to play at the Harbor. We had a super yummy lunch at Andreas,played some games at the arcade, rode on the carousel, and got ice cream at Coastal Cone. It was a fun family day!

It was a beautiful Day!

This coming weekend I want to go to The Museum of Natural History and maybe The California Science Center, and of course find somewhere amazing to eat along the way!

Put me in the Zoo

The Zoo is one of my favorite places. I don't know why, but I always love going to the Zoo. Thing 1 is a HUGE animal lover, so she is a great zoo date. We have a membership to the Santa Barbara Zoo which is a small zoo, but pretty much right on the beach and just beautiful. That was $85 well spent. I think everyone with kids (or even people without kids) should get a zoo membership. It's a great, and cheap thing to do on the weekends or when school is out.

We went on Sunday with our friends, the Benard and Byars families and had a great time. Again, it was a little bittersweet because I know that these trips, with these people are very numbered. I didn't even think about it until right now, but that could have been my last time going to the zoo for quite some time... Im going to have to make sure to go back one more time.

 

Thing 1 and her "boyfriend"

Part of the crew checking out the Gibbons

Cute little monkey

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Once we get to Nashville, I plan on getting us a membership to the Nashville Zoo. I'm not sure if it is a great zoo, or what the locals would say about it. But it has giraffes, which are my favorite, so it can't be that bad right? And there are a few other Zoos and an aquarium that we will have to go visit. There is an "exotic animal petting zoo" that I was kind of excited about, but i'm not sure how exotic this guy is

That looks like a regular old housecat to me. But who knows. Maybe it has some kind of superpowers. We will just have to wait and see I guess.

I just love the redneck-ness of this place. I'm sure it will make for a great day of fun for the King Fam



Sweet Little Carter

I posted a week or so ago, about a baby from my birth board that was fighting cancer. Today Carter lost his battle. My heart, along with every other March Mom's heart, is broken for The Whipple Family. I hope they can find even a morsel of peace in the fact that he isn't sick, and isn't hurting anymore. I am counting my blessings today and encourage you to do the same. Rest in Peace sweet little Carter. <3

March 19th would have been Carter's first birthday. On that day, at 5:36 EST, my family, along with many, many other families around the world will be sending him up some orange balloons, so that he knows that we are thinking about him. I don't think I will ever forget Carter's story. I think it is something that will just stay with me forever. And remind me, that no matter what else is wrong in my life, to be thankful for the things I DO have. Because at the end of the day I am extremely blessed, and the things that I have are the things that matter most in life.

The Hearts for Carter Bracelet Fundraiser is still going on, and will help with anything the family may need at this time.

King Family Update

Today, my baby boy is 11 months old! I can't believe how fast time has gone. It seems like we were JUST bringing him home. Now he is walking, playing, learning and exploring. And he is just about the happiest little guy on earth. Everybody says so.

Here is my sweet little man walking around and playing with the refrigerator magnets. He is growing up so fast!

In other news, we have found an apartment that we like. We are trying to get it! But now, we need to figure out how we are actually going to move. U Hauls cost A LOT more than I would have expected. So, that is the what we need to figure out next. Slightly stressed already. But, we will figure it out!

Reality Roundup: The Truth Comes Out

Dance Moms

So, FINALLY, we know why the Dance Moms don't pull their kids out of Abby Lee's dance studio and run like hell away from that nutcase! And it is even more ridiculous, but not really all that surprising, than I imagined it could be. Upon their children getting on to the Abby Lee Miller Dance Company's competing team, each mom had to sign a contract that stated if they left the studio before the terms of the contract were up they would have to pay ALM $100,000 within 7 days, or she would black ball them in the dance industry. And apparently she has done it before. How crazy is that? Abby Lee is even more gnarly than I suspected.
     I know this is horrible, because we are talking about 10 year olds, but I was happy to see that once again little Mady was not at the top of the pyramid. She's a little too cocky for my liking. Instead her adorable toothless little sister was at the top! Paige better be at the top next week.
     This week the moms were responsible for creating the kids costumes for the competition. It had to be nobody had ever seen before. It couldn't be recycled or even borrowed. Basically the parents had to make their kids costumes, which proved to be an issue for at least one of the moms.

Teen Mom 2

I used to be a Kail fan. I felt bad for her because her mom is a jerkface, and Jo was pretty mean to her too, but the way she treated Jordan after SHE cheated on HIM made me really not like her. I mean seriously, what did she expect? Him to say, "it's ok babe. I know you have a connection. feel free to hook up with your baby daddy whenever." Ummm. No.

Leah had to move her stuff out of Corey's house and send the girls for an overnight visit. I feel bad for her, but really cant believe she cheated on her husband days before their wedding. She probably would have done it again.

Chelsea is a moron. Adam is a douche. And she should wear a helmet, and some kind of shoes other than flip flops when riding a motorcycle.

As for Jenelle, she seemed different after leaving rehab (which looked like a pretty nice vacation to me.) I hope that she keeps it up. Although since this was filmed over a year ago, im pretty sure I already know that she has fallen into her old ways. 

Nashville News

No updates here. Still trying to find a house. I am a planner and and organizer and a little bit of a control freak, and moving across the country to somewhere we have never been before and really know nothing about makes me a little stabby. At least Bryan will be able to check out a place before we commit. But I'm going to have to have a conversation with him, because Brad finds rose wallpaper and hunter green carpeting suitable living conditions. I however, do not.

I should probably learn a little more about the place im going to be living. I do know that The Grand Ole Opry is there, and I am VERY excited about that.

Happy Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's day. And it has been pretty busy day. We had to finish up Mylee's Valentines for all of her friends at school. This is what we made:

Red Velvet cake pops dipped in red and pink chocolate. I am still perfecting that cake balling technique, but these ones were by far the best ones, at least visually, to date.

     I got to go help out in Mylee's class today, help them with a craft, serve them ice cream and watch them pass out all of there cute little valentines. It was a fun time. Kindergarteners are SO cute. (Most of them anyway) One of the valentines Mylee got was a free pass for 2 weeks of karate classes. Since we will be moving soon we cant really commit to classes, but a couple of weeks would be a fun little thing for her to do with Dad. But I thought that was such a fun idea. That kid is Brad's new favorite in the class.

The Kids made themselves into big valentines! SO cute. And I have to give props to all of the Kindergarten teachers out there. That isn't easy! Mylee is lucky to have such an awesome one.

Brad was even able to get off of work early and got to come to the party. Mylee was so excited to have him there.

As for other Valentine's festivites, Brad and I are enjoying some delicious pizza and are going to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I still haven't seen it. I'm a HUGE HP fan, and was so sad that it was the end, that I have put off seeing it. Haha.

AND Teen Mom 2, RHOOC, and Dance Moms are on tonight. Which I am always excited about. So overall, It's been a great day!

Hearts for Carter.

When I was pregnant with Thing 2, I joined an online Birth Club of women who were pregnant, and due in March of 2011. We chatted throughout our pregnancies. From just finding out we were pregnant, through the morning sickness, finding out what we we were having, big bellies, our babies being born, and now almost the first year of out babies lives. One of our "Marchies" has been battling Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Cancer. He was in remission for  while, but now its back. And it's bad. Here is part of the most recent update on Carter's condition from the blog caringforcarter.blogspot.com

Carter has gone into relapse and has a brain tumor. They were able to remove over 50% of it. But there are also other tuners wrapping around his spine that cannot be removed. They will try chemo. But the issue with that is they are afraid he will not survive long enough to get chemo. They have to wait for him to heal from brain surgery in order to do chemo. We have been told that he could pass at any time, or in weeks.

I can't imagine what this family is going though. And even thinking about this little boy, the same age as my son, and everything he has been though brings me to tears. A few of the other "March Moms" have organized  fundraiser to help Carter's family, in whatever little way we can. Bracelets with "Hearts for Carter" are being sold here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/188019044631887/.

The bracelets are $5 and all of the proceeds go to Carter's family. 

Going to snuggle my babies now.

 

Freaking Weirdo!

I have never really watched Ice Loves CoCo, but clearly this chick is a weirdo.

http://starcasm.net/archives/143152

Getting the ball rolling.

I contacted people about 3 different rental homes in Nashville yesterday. We are trying to get the ball rolling and make real plans now. Bryan, softsilence's Singer/Piano Playing/guitar playing extraordinaire arrived in Nashville a couple of days ago, and the rest of the band, Kody and Nathan will be joining him soon. Hopefully in the next few weeks we will lock down our house! It's getting more exciting and terrifying by the day..


Anyway... It's a beautiful day in Ventura! Hope everyone had a great one!

Reality Roundup

I love Reality TV. My husband hates it (even though I do catch him being interested in certain shows AND he admited that Brandi Glanville was his favorite housewife. I know she's not REALLY a housewife, but I wont burst his bubble) The past couple days have been awesome in Reality TV Land, and I have been having a hard time deciding what to watch first on the Dvr. I'm a dork. I know it. But I ALSO know that there are others out there who secretly feel the same way that I do.

Teen Mom 2
 

It was a sad week in Teen Mom 2 land! Leah and Cory split up, Kail cheated on Jordan, Jenelle had to quit smoking weed and go to rehab, and Chelsea cried over douchey Adam. Thanks to the Internet and Facebook I know A LOT about these girls. Probably TOO much, but whatever. What's airing now was shot over a year ago, and whole mess of stuff can happen in a year.

Leah is engaged to another guy. Jeremy somthing or another. She was pregnant, but unfortunatley had a miss carriage a couple weeks ago. 

Kail, I dont really hear much about but Jo is trying to be a rap star

Jenelle go arrested 2 times in one week last month, and Kiefaaahhhh is in the slammer.

Chelsea keeps getting back with Adam.

Well, so maybe not a whole lot has changed. But as for the ladies of OG Teen Mom, Amber spent a considerable amount of time in jail, and must go to rehab and stay out of trouble or she will serve 5 years in the slam slam. And Maci and Kyle broke up. Which i'm hoping means Ryan and Maci will get back together and be adorable. 

Real Housewives of Wherever

Did you know!? 25,000!
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is wrapping up. Most of the drama this season revolved around Taylor and her husband abusing her, and ultimatley taking his life (or was he murdered? hmmmmmm...) There were kids involved, so that makes it sad. I think he did what he did because he knew when the show aired the truth about him would be out. There was also Kim and her crazy drunkeness. Again, just kind of sad! Camille was way less annoying than last season, Kyle still does some weird helicopter hair flip move when she dances, Dana is just ridiculous and trying to make up for, or hide something with her expensive crap, and Brandi, well, I like her too. And I think that her slashing Eddie Cibrian's tires was totally justified.

But, even better than that. The First Ladies of Bravo have returned. The Real Housewives of Orange County! Even though only 1 of them is a TRUE OG, it is the original, and by far the best. I already forsee quite a bit of drama. I don't think that Gretchen and Tamara can EVER be friends. But it will be fun to see them attempt it. Alexis is the one I am excited to see this season. She is the fakest of them all, and I will like to see her try to hang with the real version of what she wants to be.

Dance Moms

Now, this show is just crazy, and makes me terrified that I am the mother of a child who wants to take Ballet lessons. If you haven't seen this show, you need to watch it. Abby Lee Miller is the woman who runs the dance school, and she is just horrendous. The way she treats those kids, and moms, is appalling. I have no idea how those mothers can keep taking their kids back there. One girl, Brooke 13, had a hip injury. Herr doctor told her not to dance on it and let it heal. But Abby Lee Miller (ABL) told her she needed to "grind it back into place." Which is what she did. and tried not to cry until she got off stage.

    Another gem from this show is the pyramid. Each week ABL gets the class together and reveal the pyramid.

The weeks best dancer, usually Mady, ABL's little pet, is at the top, and the worst dancer is at the bottom.

Here is just a little clip of the usual goings on with Dance Moms. This is why i'm scared of being a mother. there be some cray cray Mamas out there!

CVS Trip 2/5/2012

I love coupons. People think it's weird, or pointless, or a waste, or embarassing, or whatever. But I like it. It's like a game to try to get as much stuff for the smallest out of pocket cost as possible... And then trying to beat that next week. And I like being able to help family and friends out wherever possible. CVS is my favorite place to coupon. (and I checked, there IS CVS is Nashville... Thank god!) With sales, and coupons, and reward bucks, I save a TON. If you want to get into couponing, I suggest starting there. I use Iheartcvs.com, raininghotcoupons.com, and Krazycouponlady.com for ideas and matchups. Here is this weeks haul!

 

I split it into 2 transactions so I could use 2 CVS coupons.

Transaction 1

3 Suave Body washes - $2/6

2 Suave Kids- $2/3

1 suave deodorant- $1

1 suave shampoo-$2/4

1 suave Condishiner

1 Zarbee's Cough Medicine $6

Used:

1 $4 off $20 CVS Coupon (I buy these on Ebay)

1 B2G1 Suave Body Wash

.75 off Suave Deodorant

1 off 2 Suave professionals

10 ECBs

Total Out of Pocket $1.41 and earned 10 ECBs 

Transaction 2

4 Nivea Lip Treatments- $2/5

2 Vicks Nature Fusion Fusion-$2/12

Used:

$4 off $20 CVS coupon

4 $1 off Nivea Lip

2 $3 off Nature Fusion

6 ECBs

Total Out of Pocket $3.30 and earned 6 ECBs

For a Grand Total of $4.71 with 16 bucks to use next week!!

So... Now tell me again that coupons are a waste of time..

Superbowl

Yesterday was the Superbowl. I couldn't tell you one thing about the game, other than the Patriots lost. We went to a party at our best friends house and just had a great time hanging out, with them and a few other awesome friends, eating yummy food. (and Jello shots!)
I brought cake pops that I attempted to make look like footballs. They weren't perfect, but not terrible either. and they tasted good, and that's all that REALLY matters, right?

If you are interested in making cake pops, they are SO easy. Just make a cake, I used the boxed stuff, but you could be fancy and make one from scratch. After the cake is done baking and cooling (which is important if you don't want to burn your fingers off) crumble it all up. This is the reason I like these. My cakes NEVER come out looking pretty. With these it doesn't matter. Anyway, crumble the cake and mix it with a can of frosting. (again, you can get fancy here, and make it yourself, but I didn't do that.) Mix the crumbled cake, and frosting together. It will be play-doh-ish. Roll into little balls and pop in the freezer for a while to harden up a little. Once you have done that, you can put in the lollipop sticks, (dip them in melted chocolate first to make them really stick in there) another couple minutes in the freezer, and you can dip them in chocolate and decorate them however you like. And people are always impressed with them!

Any-who.. Ever since we left the party, I've been a little (a lot) sad. I'm really going to miss my friends and family. I don't have a lot of good friends, or a lot of family around here. But the people that I do have, are such great people. I am going to miss them SO much. I don't know what I will do without my Tamara... and my Mommy. :(

The Cost of Living

We are starting to look for rental houses in the Nashville area. Most of the houses listed now, are hoping to be rented by March. So we will probably have to wait a few more weeks before we find our house. But the difference in housing prices between here and there is just insane. Just so you can get an idea of the huge difference, our old crappy 1 bedroom apartment, with a patio the size of a bathtub was a 1,000 dollars a month. The house that i'm in love with right now in Tennessee, is 850 a month for a 3 bedroom house on 6 ACRES of land (And it has a big kitchen which I love/need). Sure, Ventura is beautiful, and has the beach and everything, but I can probably count on my fingers the number of times I have been to the beach in the past 3 years. SOOO.... I think everyone should move with us..

Coming from a girl with about 1 square foot of counter space, this would just be amazing! I could really put my Kitchen Aid into action and make a ton of yummy crap! I already have a list going in my head, and a freakin pinboard on Pinterest. I hope the band is hungry!

This apartment is 825 a month. They are

                         really nice, but we are hoping to get a house with a backyard for the beasts.

This is the one Brad wants. Its a mile from a lake and 795 a month.




I rest my case. All of our family and friends should move with us. It's cheap and I will make you baked goods.

What are we thinking?

I mean, really!? We have 2 kids. Brad has a decent job. We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. But we are turning the page, and starting all over. Over 2000 miles away. To a place that, not only do we not have any family or even friends there, we have never even visited there before. To do what countless number of people have attempted to do, but not been able to achieve. We are throwing everything we have on the chance that Brad, and the band he drums for (softsilence.. Find them on facebook) will make it big. I'm sure that everyone that takes that leap in confidant that they are going to make it and we know that it doesnt work out for many, or most of those people. That being said, when I see Brad play the drums, I KNOW that he can do it. He is an amazing drummer. And he loves it. This is what he has always wanted, and I will do whatever I can do to help him live his dream. Its scary. Terrifiying really. I mean, I didn't even know that Tennessee was on the other side of the Mississippi River for flips sake! But we are going to do it. In about 2 months, we are going to pack up our stuff, and kids, and pets, and (somehow) get them all to Nashville. Where we hope that all of our luck is going to change!

Ventura, California.
Where we come from.
This will always be HOME.

Nashville, Tenneessee
Music City. Our new Home.