Ummm...

This is embarrassing. I've decided to use wordpress, not tumblr. Ha. See you there.

www.healeyfamily.wordpress.com

We've moved!

I'm moving the blog to tumblr because it's easier for me to use. Hope to see you there!

www.healeyfamily.tumblr.com

What We've Been Up To

1. Watching Lucy to see if she will crawl. She hasn't. At least not forwards.


2. Catching squirrels. Rick, not me.


3. Making salsa. So good.


4. Going to Terrain for inspiration. Not purchasing.


5. Getting excited for baseball season.


6. And being crazy in general.

Random

Does anyone else think it's weird that Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for playing a person who is real and living now? So what does that lady get? Because it's her real life.

I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense. I just felt the need to get that out there.

Yummy Goodness

Fat. That's what I am. But who can resist all this yummy goodness? Here are a few meals that we've enjoyed recently.

Chicken, Lemon and Dill with Orzo


Balsamic Chicken Noodle Bowl (This is Rick's current favorite.)


Coconut Curry Chicken (I add pineapples to this one.)


Beef Stew


And a very happy dessert.
Hot Fudge Pudding Cake


Okay. I have to go exercise.

This is for Rick

Rick told me that he missed my blog updates so here is one. I was thinking of stopping it altogether but I will continue for my one fan.

Since Christmas, Lucy:
-got her two bottom teeth.
-said both dada and mama (not that she knows what they mean).
-sits up all on her own.
-tried many new foods and has grown to like (tolerate) green ones. I think her favorites are peaches and sweet potatoes.

I've started making homemade baby food. It's way easier than it sounds! Buying frozen fruits and veggies have made it pretty easy on prep. The only thing I haven't made successfully is any meat. The chicken was horrible. Any suggestions?

Rick is keeping busy helping his dad finish work on a condo so that they can sell it. He's putting in 2 nights and most of the day on Saturday. I am so proud of him and thankful for him and the way that he provides for Lucy and me. He is a hard worker.

I am still adjusting to being a mom. It has it's challenges for sure. Yesterday was a rough day... one that led me to eat a few too many carbs and chocolate. But when I put Lucy to bed that night I remembered, "God has been faithful and He will be again." He has not brought me this far to leave me now.

A few pics:

Christmas Traditions: Food

Surprisingly we don't have too many Christmas traditions surrounding food. I will have to work on that. Our first Christmas together (all of one year ago), I knew I wanted to have something particularly yummy and amazing. So my dear friend Reenie helped me to find a good recipe for monkey bread. You can find all sorts of recipes out there but as long as it has sugar, pudding, cinnamon and butter, you are good to go. I do not put raisins in mine but you can if it floats your boat.

Monkey Bread
20 dinner rolls (I use the Rhoades kind in the freezer section)
1 cup brown sugar
1 pkg. of vanilla pudding (the cook and serve)
2 T cinnamon
1 stick of butter

Place the rolls in a greased bundt pan (or a 9x13 if you don't have a bundt, Meghan). Sprinkle the sugar, pudding and cinnamon over the rolls. Pour the melted butter over the top. Cover with a cloth or plastic wrap and go to sleep for 8 hours.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Christmas Traditions: Movie

Another post! I'm a blogging maniac nowadays. Hopefully this week I will post about the Christmas traditions that Rick and I are (hopefully) starting as a family. I had many grand plans for an advent calendar, but as Rick said the other day, it was too "ambitious." So instead, we are doing a little at a time. I am glad that we still have a year or two until Lucy understands what's going on (in life in general). It gives me time to get my act together.

Anyways. I love watching movies that center around Christmas. Or at least have a scene that makes a big deal about Christmas. I'm not hard to please. Some of my favorites are:

White Christmas
It's A Wonderful Life
Elf!
The Holiday (I watch it for Jack Black)
Little Women
Sleepless in Seattle
Home Alone (a good one to watch with Rick)
Home Alone 2

How about you? Anything you would add to the list?
And just to make you smile:

Julie and Julia

Last week I watched Julie and Julia three times in two days. I loved it. Meryl Streep was brilliant. Julia Child must have been one amazing lady. After I watched it I went to the library and checked out "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" (see Sarah, this is the kind of stuff you get at the library). I glanced through it but I hope to try at least one recipe before returning it (probably late).

The movie inspired me to do many things:
1. Buy colored lights... accomplished (on sale at Target). My plan is to put them up in our house for birthdays.
2. Stop being so dramatic... Julie drove me a little nuts. I'm still working on this one.
3. Go to Paris.
4. Make something from the cookbook.
5. Buy "A Bushel and A Peck" by Doris Day.
6. Have more dinner parties like this...

Good Deals (Thanks mom!)

Today was a long day of errand-running. Lucy again cried at the Giant, but the old ladies still loved her. Her favorite place was Acme. I only had to get 2 things so I took her out of her car seat and held her (she needed a break from the car seat). The way that she was smiling and looking around you would think she was the Queen of Acme.

Mom tipped me off to this good deal. If you buy $20 worth of Proctor & Gamble products at Acme then you get $5 off your next purchase and 5 free redbox codes! Major deal. I use Tide detergent so I bought 2 of those and I had a $1 off coupon.

At Giant this week there are $1 Doublers but you can only use 4 of them per purchase. Using all my coupons and the bonus card savings, I save about $30.

Shop Rite has 1.99 bacon!! Must buy.

And finally, the best find of all. There are all sorts of bloggers who put the best deals at grocery stores. To find the grocery store near you go to Be Centsable. You can search by state and then grocery store. This has helped me to match the deals with my coupons. Hope it works for you too!

Lucy Happenings

Sorry that I haven't been around recently. I'm sure that you've been able to get through life without my blog updates. I will try and be better since everyone loves Lucy.

Lucy in her Bumbo for the first time. She was very proud of herself. Note: Rick dressed her on this day.




Halloween Banana Costume.


With her cow from her favorite place on earth.


Eating food for the first time.

Mo Knows Best

Yes or No?

Dear Giant

I sent an email to Giant going something like this:

Dear Giant,
I heart you. But the ShopRite and Genuardi's have a sweet coupon deal. Do you think you could do that?
Love,
Traci

They emailed me back:

Dear Mrs. Traci Healey

Thank you for sharing your comments with us. I appreciate that you took the time to give us your feedback.

We are in the process making this available to our customers as we speak.

Again, thank you for contacting us. If I can be of any more assistance, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Sincerely,

SuAnn

Steals and Deals

I've been trying my best to save money, especially at the grocery store. I clip my coupons and go through the ads each week. Here's a few deals that I'm taking advantage of this week. Meat is always the most expensive thing for me to buy...

ShopRite
Bacon (Oscar Meyer) is only $1.99! This made my day.

Genuardi's
Chicken is 1.68 per lb.
Boneless beef round roast is 1.99 lb. (I'm making some beef stew this week!)
On Fri, Sat and Sun only... Ken's Salad Dressings are 99 cents.

Giant
There is a coupon in the ad for extra points for a free turkey. You have to spend $50 though.

I've discovered some good deals recently. You can print out a ton of coupons on the internet. But a few stores (Genuardi's, ShopRite and Superfresh) have a program where you can load coupons onto your club card. A good coupon resource is www.afullcup.com. You can find Target specific coupons, as well as others. There are also threads that you can read to find the best deals in your area. It always helps to have someone else do the work.

Let me know if you find any good deals!
p.s. has anyone ever shopped at Superfresh? It seems cheap, but I've never been to one.

2 months.

Happy birthday Lu.
I love you.

Shout Out

To the peeps at the Route 3 and Exton Giants for helping me out. A special thanks to the young woman who helped me out to the car and unloaded my groceries.

What was I doing? I'll give you a hint.

Life with Lucy

It's been 4 weeks since our Lucy was born, and what a month it's been! Even now I can't believe she's my daughter, and that I'm responsible for her little life. Right now she mostly sleeps, eats, poops (a lot) and cries (somedays more than others) but there are times when she's very awake and interacts with us. Her smiles are big and very cute. Last week Rick put on his hard hat that he wears to power plants, said "Hi Lucy," and she gave him the biggest smile. I think our girl has a sense of humor. Last night I was singing a song to her before bedtime and she looked right at me, paid attention to me and smiled. I melted. She also loves to take showers and feel the water. Other than that, she is just like her daddy. Seriously.

I love her more and more each day. The first few weeks were tough, but they were worth it. Here are a few pictures. (Note: I am not a photographer nor do I have a fancy camera.)

Lucy Caroline Healey!

7 lbs 12 ounces
20.5" long

Pushing

This could be a while though.

Sent from my iPhone

9cm

Sent from my iPhone