So... I Quit Smoking.

I wanted to stop for a long time now. My smoking got more and more. Finally after an entire pack on Sunday I decided this is it!
I have smoked since I was 15. I quit once when I was 27 then my Grandpa passed and I was just so upset I bought a pack... It was all down hill from there.
I was only at a few a day and never smoked at work. Then it was 3 on my 25 min car ride to and from work. Then ok all the kids are in school I will sit out and enjoy a few while I am alone. Never smoked at night really once I was home I was home, that turned into OK Louise time for a walk smoke two at night. I quickly escalated to almost a pack a day.
Here in Mass a pack of cigs are $8 at the least. So I was spending at the least $50 a week. At $3,69 a gallon that would fill my tank! I was wasting gas money! My weekly food bill is $50 I was wasting real Oreos for store brand! I was wasting $2,400 a year! I could have my new van paid off 3 years sooner! That is crazy!
So come Monday morning I decided I am not stopping to buy them. Tuesday I had to drive by "my gas station" and see Bill wave at me. My lungs could taste the flavor the feeling everything, I broke down and cried.
It has been almost a week and I am starting to feel better. I just wanted to share with you because well I think I needed to do that today as I am feeling a whole lot better but still need a little push so I am writing about it.
So here is what I learned.


In 20 minutes, your blood pressure and pulse rate decrease, and the body temperature of your hands and feet increase.

Carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke reduces the blood’s ability to carry oxygen. At 8 hours, the carbon monoxide level in your blood decreases to normal. With the decrease in carbon monoxide, your blood oxygen level increases to normal.

At 24 hours, your risk of having a heart attack decreases.

At 48 hours, nerve endings start to regrow and the ability to smell and taste is enhanced.

Between 2 weeks and 3 months, your circulation improves, walking becomes easier and you don’t cough or wheeze as often. Phlegm production decreases. Within several months, you have significant improvement in lung function.

In 1 to 9 months, coughs, sinus congestion, fatigue and shortness of breath decrease as you continue to see significant improvement in lung function. Cilia, tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs, regain normal function.

In 1 year, risk of coronary heart disease and heart attack is reduced to half that of a smoker.
Between 5 and 15 years after quitting, your risk of having a stroke returns to that of a non-smoker.

In 10 years, your risk of lung cancer drops. Additionally, your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas decrease. Even after a decade of not smoking however, your risk of lung cancer remains higher than in people who have never smoked. Your risk of ulcer also decreases.

In 15 years, your risk of coronary heart disease and heart attack in similar to that of people who have never smoked. The risk of death returns to nearly the level of a non-smoker.

I found all this information on different medical websites. This is amazing stuff! If you need any help to quit smoking I am here :) Although I might need a little help too! Have an awesome weekend!

OH AND PLEASE DO NOT WORRY! I will not become one of "those" people who are a anti smoking freak! I know how it feels :)

Much Thoughts For All Denise <3

Not Sure If This Is True But Cute All The Same!

Where did “piss poor” come from ?
Us older people need to learn something new every day..
Just to keep the grey matter tuned up.

Where did "Piss Poor" come from?
Interesting History.
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot
And then once a day it was taken and sold to the tannery...
if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor".
But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot...
They "didn't have a pot to piss in" and were the lowest of the low.
The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature
Isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be.

Here are some facts about the 1500s

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May,
And they still smelled pretty good by June. However, since they were starting to smell,
Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.
The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water,
Then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children.
Last of all the babies.
By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.
Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!"

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath.
It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals
(mice, bugs) lived in the roof.
When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof.
Hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.
This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings
Could mess up your nice clean bed.
Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection.
That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt.
Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery
In the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing.
As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door,
It would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way.
Hence: a thresh hold.

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.
Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables
And did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers
In the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day.
Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while.
Hence the rhyme:
“Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old”.
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.
When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off.
It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon."
They would cut off a little to share with guests
And would all sit around and chew the fat.

Those with money had plates made of pewter.
Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food,
causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes,
so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status.
Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle,
and guests got the top, or the upper crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky.
The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days.
Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.
They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around
and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up.
Hence the custom; “of holding a wake”.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people.
So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave.
When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks
on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive.
So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin
and up through the ground and tie it to a bell.
Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.)
to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be,
“saved by the bell” or was “considered a dead ringer”.

And that's the truth.
Now, whoever said History was boring!!!
So get out there and educate someone! ~~~
Share these facts with a friend.
Inside every older person is a younger person wondering,
'What the heck happened?'

We'll be friends until we are old and senile.
Then we'll be new friends.
“Smile”,
it gives your face something to do!



Much Thoughts For All Denise <3

Inchbug Orbit Labels Review and Giveaway

I have the great pleasure of reviewing and giving away a set of personalized Orbit Labels from InchBug!

I love Inchbug and all of their products their customer service is amazing! Personalization beautiful and shipping, boy was it fast.
We recieved a pack of Orbit Labels with "Alora-Sara" personalized on them. Orbit Labels are awesome! The Perks to them are.
*Dishwasher Safe
*Microwaveable
*Can be boiled/sterilized
*Constructed with FDA compliant non-toxic material
*Fits snug around containers - young children can't remove
*Help small hands with a non-slick grip
*Easy to transfer to different cups,bottles,etc
*Braille matches name on pre-printed labels. Braille on custom labels reads "InchBug"
*Will never peel, fade or wash away!

We took our first label to the beach. What better way to test the durability of the label then at a sandy beach with a very hyper 4 year old? Alora-Sara and Robert both drink yellow Gatorade and they are constantly mixing each others up. With Alora-Sara being very sick 2 days before with the fever I was so worried, if Robert gets the fever it is a 5 day hospital stay. So I was very excited to say the least to use the label.

It held up to the sand, stretching over the Gatorade, even a dip in the ocean a few times!
When I got home I put it in the dishwasher and it looked exactly the same!
We are BIG fans of the Orbit Labels and I am ordering some for Robert come school time!

InchBug has generously offered one lucky reader a custom set of Orbit Labels! How awesome!? The only mandatory entery is you MUST like InchBug on Facebook here.





***Please note that I received no form of monetary compensation for this post. I did receive a sample of the product to try in order to write a fair and honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own and were not influenced in any way. ***

Much Thoughts For All Denise <3

A Day At The Beach.

I love living south of Boston. We have awesome beaches just 30 mins away on the Cape. We also have a so so beach just 15 mins from my house which is huge has nice sand but also a lot of teenagers who like to swear smoke butts and be annoying. So if you go on a Monday in the morning you tend to not have to worry about them!
So 8:30am I packed up my kids, the sun screen, beach towels and snacks and headed out. We picked up Kristen and then set off to Hull for the beach. We got their around 10am after coffee runs and breakfast runs (have to feed the kids and pregnant lady.)
The beach had maybe a dozen people where we parked and we scored free parking! If you know Hull at all that is nearly impossible! So yes we were excited. We unloaded the car kids, cooler, pregnant woman and towel bags and went to find the perfect spot on the beach to put our beach bums.
First thing we did was run right for the water! OMG way to cold but alas I dived in head first anyway! Hey I have new ears now! I can finally swim!
We came out and I decided that I wanted to build sand creators. So first I made a Octopus.

Alora made the lips and eyes with rocks!
Then I made a sea turtle. Which is funny because when the Octo was done Robert was so excited yelling make me a turtle that this skinny 20something girl with her perfect tanned boyfriend was like "Oh my gosh like she can even make a turtle that octo was easy." So she set off to make her bucket size turtle and mine well was as big as Alora....

SO after we put the skinny girl in a giraffe print bikini to shame we decided to make a crab. Off we went...

We were so sandy but had a great time just Mommy Robert and Alora! I think we did pretty good!

Then when we were packing up to go this nice man walked over to Alora and handed her a giant clam! Which we hummed at, made him open his shell, and he spit on us! It was great!

I forgot how much I loved the smell and taste of the ocean and how great a day at the beach is! We topped it off with cheese fries and hot dogs. Went to Mom's pool after that, then after the bellies settled from the big lunch we had ice cream for dinner! Hey it never hurts to have ice cream for dinner sometimes :)

Much Thoughts For All Denise <3

A Happy Day in Denise Land

Robert and I of course went to the midnight premier of Harry Potter. Let me say this first, it was a beautiful, emotional, a great ending to an amazing series. The night spent with my son was even more wonderful.
So before that all started, I wanted to share what we spent the day doing. We made Harry Potter cookies and Chocolate frogs. I have mastered the art of chocolate frog making. All 5 children and I had a wonderful time of baking, decorating and frog making for 8 hours! I really enjoyed sharing something so awesome with the little ones since they could not attended the midnight premier.

The cookies were just box cookies. I am an amazing baker. I usually make everything from scratch but I just wanted to bake and start decorating and have fun. Anyway we used the dry mix and added the butter and eggs. I always bake my cookies 15 degrees lower then the directions say and shave about 4 mins off so they stay gooey!
I got white frosting and the colored writing frosting (black, red and green.) I bought a sheet of this awesome sugar frosting that you can cut (not fondant.) We just had fun. I made Harry, Voldemort, Bellatrix and Ron. The kids made blobs that were suppose to be the same.
While making the cookies I was slowing pouring and freezing chocolate frogs.

Everyone loves my chocolate frogs, and they were a HUGE hit this year with all the kids and people sitting with us in the theater (there were about 15 of us in our section that were there early.) Usually we do not share our chocolate frogs but I made 6 dozen so Robert wanted to! He is such a caring kid.
These are SUPER easy to make and very cheap! The molds are around $2 at the craft store. I already had these from previous midnight premiers. I buy the melting chocolate at the craft store as well, we love the dark mint, then a jar of Nutella (that is the secret!) So you take the wafers of chocolate melt them (follow their directions) then take a spoonful of Nutella and mix it in with the hot melted chocolate. Pour in the molds, put in the freezer for 5 mins and BAM you have awesome little frogs! YUMMY ones too!
So that was our fun day! Then the real fun came! I tried to sleep after getting home at 5pm, of course Alora-Sara wanted me to stay awake. So between Alora and Louise climbing all over me I think I maybe had a 45 min nap (thanks mail man for the help.) So I got out of bed around 8pm farted around then got Robert ready and we headed out around 930ish and got to the theater at 945. Last year we had to wait in line outside the theater for 2 hours! This year they let us in. Anywho while waiting I made Robert plank.

Planking is our new guilty pleasure! (Post on planking coming soon.)

At one point waiting for the movie to start (we were in our seats for two and a half hours waiting) I caught myself looking at Robert and I realized, though he maybe 11 years old his face is still so baby looking, to me at the very least. He is so beautiful to me. So wonderful no matter what he does, and is just perfect in every way. His brown eyes were so wide waiting for HP to start. His smile was infectious! It is a prefect day and night.

Much Thoughts For All Denise <3

WWE Wrestling. Yes I Love It.

I decided last minuet yesterday that I thought Mail Man husband and I needed a date night. Now Hmmm we have $15 in our checking account CRAP (yup I am that poor.) So when all else fails you ask the MIL. Of course she offered as long as I post dated her a check (Hey we will have a load of monies when we are paid lol.) I got online and got an amazing deal on GREAT seats. Now when I say great seats I mean we were on national television the ENTIRE time, and well if you could not see my face you could totally see my boobs. Thank you god for DDD's ugh. (Sorry for the bad picture quality I stole them from Youtube)

So as most of you know I live right outside of Boston. So getting in to the "GAHDEN" is no problem. The $30 parking is ridicules but worth it so you don't have to sit on the nasty hot red line. We picked up our tickets and met up with a friend at the Fours which is just an amazing bar and restaurant in Boston. Then we headed on over to the show.
We walked in and walked to our section then we started walking down, down, closer to the floor, down and down some more. Um Mail Man husband we are 6 rows from the friggen ring! I was so excited! Like couldn't breath excited!
They had a "Dark Match" which was no one I heard of then a Super Star Match with Santino Marella who I love when he does his little duck hand (yea not sure what WWE world calls it.) It was awesome! I must say they are much larger on TV but must faster and way more loud in person!
I am hard of hearing we all know that and oh my gosh three times I jumped 10 feet and almost peed with how loud the pyrotechnics were!
Then all of a sudden they went LIVE. First out was CM Punk. Oh man he is way cuter in person! They all were cuter in person! I saw all my favorites.
CM Punk
The Miz
Evan Bourn
And THE BIG SHOW!
It was the most amazing date night I have ever had with Mail Man. We needed it as we have both been on edge.
So just a little advice since I guess I am cool like that and think people like to listen to me :) Even if it seems impossible try and have some sort of date night with your husband. Even if it is setting up a tent in the living room and watching a game (yup we did that once heehee)
Now it is 95 degrees with 73% humidity I am going to go with the central air and sit in front of a fan.

Much Thoughts For All Denise <3

Fevers Fevers EVERYWHERE.

As most of you know (if you read the about me section) I was a EMT before I became a nanny. I know many tips and tricks for sick babies, children and adults. Usually when one of the 5 get sick, all 5 end up having it as well as usually the parents lol. Now when Robert gets sick it is a trip to our hospital and a week long stay. We try to keep him away from the bad germs and so far knock on wood it is just the girls suffering from this round.
On Tuesday the girls and I were having a normal morning. Breakfast and then headed out to spend the day in the pool. All is fine and dandy we head in for lunch and BAM. Bean (the youngest of the group)is weird. She does not want to eat which is terrible for her! She eats loads and loads. She says she is tired and wants to sleep. I feel her and well she is BURNING. Ok check temp. 104.3! Yes that high! Give her Motrin throw her in the tub and got it down to 102. Ok bean sleeps we battle it all day keeping up with meds and naps.
Wednesday morning Bean is feeling a little better. Go about our day as normal because she is ok. Lunch hits and BAM Laylay (oldest girl middle child) is hit HARDER then Bean. Check her temp. Oh my Goddess she is 105.1! Ok well before I call 911 I am going to try and kill this. Ok Laylay meds, check, tub for 30 mins, check. Ok we have you down after 2 hours to 104.8 not good. On the sofa she goes, under big blanket, cold wet face cloths and 5 packs of frozen veggies around her body. Temp got down to 103. Few.
Friday. Everyone is better running around we do fun things eat ice cream have pizza for lunch its a great day. Mailman comes and picks up Alora-Sara and goes home. I get home at 5ish and I said "Mailman husband why is Alora passed out on our bed?" "Oh I don't know?" Mailman Says.
REALLY HER FEVER IS 103!
Ugh round 3 we go! Needless to say she is STILL on the bed falling in and out of sleep. Temp is at the least down to 101. We are happy though that if we have to be stuck inside on this beautiful day at least there is a Harry Potter Marathon on ABC Family!
What do you do when your children suffer like this? Does is spread around your house like wild fire?

Much Thoughts For All Denise <3