The playground stretches across 3 acres. The structure, obviously, is not 3 acres, but it is by far the biggest one I have ever seen.

I took the munchkins over today.

Nothing is better for kids than exercise in the sunshine.

Tater agrees.

Tater was in heaven.

Even outdoor-hating Spud was in heaven.

Side note:

Tater is fearless. Completely fearless. And, he inherited Morgan’s mountain goat ability. Morgan can walk, climb, and/or skip his way across the roughest terrain you have ever seen with the gracefulness of a ballerina. Tater has been blessed with his Dad’s goat-genes. He climbed and ran across every surface at this playground, while the other kids his age watched him in awe.

Side, side note:

Logan inherited my ability for balance and grace.

Which is to say he has none.

Walking across a flat surface void of any obstacles whatsoever requires immense concentration or we bust our teeth on the ground.

True story.

Also…..

My three-year-old son slid down a firehouse style pole that was 10 feet off the ground. A good 5 years was taken off my life when I saw him dangling in the air about 8 feet from the ground.

I very calmly explained to him that he would never ever go down that pole again.

I will have nightmares about this later.

The child has no fear.

This scares me.

So, anyhoo, we had a picnic lunch there, and the boys played for about 3 hours. We consumed a 3 pound bag of grapes. (I felt that was important to mention.)

Here’s a slideshow of pics.

Let me just say……Whenever I write a blog post, and I insert a large number of photos into that post all at once, my blog-writing program automatically puts them into this slideshow format. And I HATE it. But, I have no desire to insert the pics a few at time, and the end result be a blog post that is really long, and takes forever to load in a browser. So, If you hate the slideshow format too, I understand and I apologize.

All of these pics were taken with my sisters old point-and-shoot camera, which I happened to have on me at the time.

		Funtastic Island VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Seriously……. doesn’t he just LOOK like a kid that is named Tater?

So last month, my daily makeup routine was all about long-wearing. As I have mentioned six billion times, I recently started working and I needed my makeup to last all day, through some heavy-duty wear and tear too. I was very active last month AND I was sick the entire month (i.e. constant nose-blowing).

Important notes:

1.  I’m going to try really hard to mention different products every month, but let’s be real here……sometimes, you’re going to see the same products more than once.

2. If I blogged about it last month, chances are that I’m still using it and loving it this month…. whether I mention it or not.

3.. You won’t see much in the way of eyeshadow and lip products, because I wear something different in both categories every single day.

March 2013:

First up….

Covergirl Outlast 3-in-1 Foundation. This is a relatively new item. This foundation is Ah-mazing.

I used it every single day last month (with exception to some weekends) and it served me very well. It dries quickly, lasts ALL day, and has impressive coverage. I use it with a moistened beauty blender and the result is like magic.

Youngblood Mineral Primer. I’ve had this for a long time and I really like it. You apply it to your face before foundation, and it creates a smooth, pore-less canvas for your makeup and increases the longevity of your foundation and powder. It’s enriched with good-for-skin vitamins….which I’m all about.

Eyelid primer by The Balm. Same story as the above primer. Eye primer keeps your eye-makeup on longer and without creasing. I use my eye primers on my lids and on my under-eye area to keep everything in place all day. This is REALLY GOOD and I love it, but I can’t decide how it stacks up to Urban Decays Primer Potion. This one by The Balm is a runnier texture, and I prefer the thickness of the Primer Potion. But, regardless of the texture, this product works really well and is worth the money if you’re looking for a good primer.

They’re Real by Benefit. Basically, this is the end-all-be-all of mascara. Really.

It’s not advertised as waterproof, but it might as well be because this stuff will last through damn near anything and look good doing it.

Covergirl’s Lash Blast Mascara in Waterproof. A good, non-smudging, long-wearing mascara at a much cheaper price than the above option. I used this on days when I just didn’t want the cement that is They’re Real on my eyes.

Last month, I was appalled when I realized I had forgotten to mention a highlighter in my favorites post. For my March post, I’m making up for that by mentioning the TWO that I have primarily been using.

My most favorite highlighter that I own right now is this Wet N Wild Fergie “bronzer”. It’s advertised as a bronzer (which is stupid), but it’s actually a very shimmery highlighter that looks amazing. This is in the color Rose Champagne Glow.

The other is a baked blush by Hard Candy in the color “Honeymoon”.  Maybe a little too pink in color for some to use as a highlight, but it all depends on personal taste.

Physicans Formula Healthy Wear powder foundation. A really good powder all around, but the thing I like about it most is that it has SPF 50. If I’m going to be outside for any length of time, I always wear this. This is my second compact. Even if I don’t wear it all over my face (like when I’m wearing a good sunscreen), I will wear this all around my eye area to give that sensitive skin some protection from the sun. (Note: the little sponge that comes with this compact is stupid and worthless. )

A while back, I woke up one day, and for no reason whatsoever, I suddenly wanted to make a Tater Tot Casserole for my kids.

I had heard of these tater tot casseroles, but I had never seen or touched a real life one before. What made them tick? How did I make one tick?

The internet search commenced.

I looked up lots of recipes, and I just wasn’t understanding the hype. Ground beef, mixed with cream of mushroom soup, and topped with tater tots????

Freaking ew.

I wasn’t impressed.

I decided to wing it and do my own thing. And I had a really good idea.

The end result was a recipe that I’m rather proud of and I considered not sharing it.

My kids love it, especially Spudman. I have made 4 of these casseroles thus far and he has primarily eaten all of them by himself.

Downside…….

Clearly, this isn’t the most healthy thing to feed my kids. I hate that, BUT…….

Upside……

It’s cheap, it’s super fast, and super easy. Since I’ve started working, these are big pros.

I’ve gotten into the habit of cooking this casserole in the afternoon before work, and in the evening when I get home, dinner is already done for my kids. Dude. Can’t put a price on that.

So here’s what I did to wing the casserole and make it tick:

I brown 2 pounds of lean ground turkey. Once cooked through, I add a package of taco seasoning, 1/4 cup of water, and a generous dousing of creole seasoning. I put creole seasoning in everything. As should you. Unless you have gallstones and are prone to gallbladder attacks. Creole seasoning is not your friend if you have gallstones.

Anyhoo.

Mix this all up. Then add in one can of Campbells Cheddar Cheese condensed processed-soup-type-stuff. Mix it all up again.

Spread this in the bottom of a 13x9x2. Like so……

Now, have your kids wash their hands really REALLY well, and put them to work layering on the frozen tater tots.

Then throw that bad boy in the oven and cook it at whatever temperature would make you feel happiest. Continue cooking it at your happy temperature until the ground turkey mixture is a boiling, bubbly, molten bed of lava, and the tater tots are a little crispy on top.

Now, add about 2 cups of shredded cheese. I like to go with the taco/fiesta/mexican/fajita blend. Just pick one of these styles.

Then pop her back in the oven until the ol’ girl is done to your liking.

Watch your kids devour it.

It tastes good, and they love it, but because they helped prepare it, they like it even more.

Explanation:

It’s been a good long while since I’ve had a job. About 4 years now. When a person has a regular job, meaning Monday through Friday, daytime hours, one absolutely cherishes the weekend. To not be obligated by commitments is a beautiful, glorious thing. And, we’ve been blessed with pretty good weather the past few weekends.

It’s all pretty awesome.

Basically, the pattern is that I really enjoy the weekends and I’m probably going to feel the need to blog about my rather uneventful life every single weekend.

This morning, me and the Potatoes got up at the BUTT CRACK of dawn to go to some yard sales with my sister. Afterwards, we did my favorite thing ever and went to Ulta.

Makeup shopping with my sister is my favorite.

I mean really…..it’s my favorite.

Once we got back home, I told Spud that I was forcing him to play outside with his brother. He whined.

I told him that if he could give me one, JUST ONE, really good reason as to why he shouldn’t have to play outside, I wouldn’t make him go. I even gave him about 5 minutes to think of a good excuse.

He had nothing. He gave a good effort, but his excuses were lame and he knew it. So out they went.

Aforementioned sister recently bought Spud a pair of stilts, so this is what he attempted during his mandatory outside time.

The Spudman has inherited my ability for balance and coordination so I expect him to break a number of bones anytime now.

Here comes a metric ton of pics of us enjoying the weather.

And yes, once Spud gets outside, he does have fun.

When I ask Tater to smile for the camera, THIS is the face I get.

In case you’re fooled by the pictures, Spud struggles to stay upright on the stilts for more than 2 seconds.

And then, THIS HAPPENED:

DO YOU WEEP WITH ALL THE LONGING??!?!?!

I told Spud when I busted out the s’more stuff that we were only having ONE each. I try to keep our diets under control. But, DAMN, I bit down on that bad boy and my eyes dilated and my knees locked into place and something kind of scary happened. We went a little s’more crazy after that.

And now, Tater is sleeping like he hasn’t slept in days. Spud has returned to his beloved TV. And I have grand plans on cleaning, doing laundry, writing more blog posts, and reading a book that is clearly going to take me 5 years to finish. Somewhere in the midst of all that I need to work on a training course for work.

Later, I’m taking Spud to an event at his school.

I can’t promise you that we won’t make more s’mores this weekend.

So I haven’t been blogging because I got a job and my brain has been mush so I can’t think and therefore I haven’t been writing things.

That was a nice sentence, eh?

However, I took some cute pics of the Potatoes today and I thought I’d tell you what we’ve been up to the last few days.

1. The weather has been freaking outstanding, so I have been forcing Spud to play outside with his little brother. Spud has always hated playing outside. Even when he was super little (2 years old). He views it as a form of torture. I’m not entirely sure what this means, but Morgan and I don’t like it. Tater, on the other hand, lives for the outdoors. He likes to run and get dirty. Yesterday they were supplied with bubbles to blow, and today we busted out the water guns.

Get ready for an excessive amount of pictures of my children.

2. I’ve been teaching Spudman how to play Solitaire, and that got us all hooked, so many hands of Solitaire have been played by all. Except by Tater. Obviously.

3. Tater got a much needed haircut.

4. Yesterday, Morgan grilled himself and the boys some steak. (Dead Norman) I made baked potatoes and a metric ton of the most amazing salad in the history of the world. We have been eating salad by the boatloads.

5. I have become obsessed with this show, and we have been watching this in total fascination.

6. Laundry. (Here’s an interesting and weird Penny fun fact: I like to do laundry. I like it a lot.)

7. Eating chocolate.

8. Working on an online training course for my new job.

And here’s what on the agenda for the rest of the day:

9. Morgan is going to grill cheeseburgers.

10. Watch the season 3 finale of THE WALKING DEAD. This is the big important event of the day.

There will be no new episodes for 6 months. So, basically, my life will lose all meaning until somewhere around September.

11. Laundry.

12. More outside playtime for the Potatoes.

13. Most likely more Solitaire will be played.

14. More working on the training course mentioned in item number 8.

15. The reading of this book:

16. And tomorrow, a high-end cosmetics company that I love is having a site-wide 50% off sale. I’m pathetically excited about this and I’m counting down the hours.

And that is all.

Updated to add:

Guess what????

I got a job.

That’s why I’ve been bye-bye for so long.

My first week I worked full-time.

Me no likey the full-time. My kids didn’t like full time either.

But now I’m part-time and me likey the part-time.

And guess what else???

That’s all. I’m have nothing else to say right now.

I have recently been sucked into the big abyss of CHANGE and I’m not running on all cylinders. But things are leveling out and I’ll have more to say soon. Promise.

Shazam.

I have had the myfitnesspal app on my phone for months (and months) but had never used it. While I was still lying in bed, I registered with the app and the website.

For the past 5 days, I have been very strictly watching my calorie intake, and inputting all my information into the app like an obsessed person.

I’ve lost 4.4 pounds in 5 days.

I mean just dang.

I’m in love with the app and the website.

I log my calorie intake, any exercise I’ve done, and my weight. They even give me little graphs and charts to monitor my progress.

AND IT’S ALL FREE.

So, I have this free program, I’ve lost 4.4 pounds, and I’ve been eating donuts for breakfast for the last 3 days.

I’m so happy right now.

That is all.

MyFitnessPal.com

I was in full-fledged panic mode for about 4 hours. It was BAD. I got to a point where I was trying to tell myself that the total and complete loss of my blog was not a big deal. It’s just a blog. Not a big deal. *deep breath*

I was stressing. Everybody in my house thought I was becoming a demonic psychopath.

I was on the phone with someone from Bluehost for 45 minutes and I was so completely lost and confused when I got off the phone with that person. She was super sweet and I really liked her, but whoa. I WAS SO CONFUSED. And I don’t get confused very often. She gave me a list of steps to complete that I’m pretty sure were more complicated than launching a rocket into space. Seriously. No….SERIOUSLY.

I was certain my blog was starting to decompose past the point of any possible life-saving attempts. I was sad.

And then I got someone named Ryan on a live chat technical support. Ryan was my hero. He was my white knight riding in on the noble steed.

I copied and pasted our chat because Ryan was awesome. Like whoa and dang. He fixed my blog after it died and decomposed and became all rotten and nasty. Ryan is my favorite.

MY BLOG IS ALIVE NOW.

The initial part of the chat is filled with mega-boring technical info. Sorry bouts that, but it’s necessary.

(I blacked out important information)

Chat ID: 399820. Question: Provider: Bluehost – My Domain is: “www.whimsicalarchives.com” Today, for no apparent reason, I could not log into my blog. My password wasn’t being accepted. I tried numerous things to get myself logged in, but nothing worked. I called Bluehost. I spoke with a nice woman who immediately identified that I was not able to log in. However, she was able to log into my account and view my dashboard, though I was still not able to log in. She decided to take care of a few matters in order to resolve the situation. One of which….she noticed that my domain was listed on my c-panel twice. She backed up all my info, and then had me uninstall the duplicate link. once we did this, she wanted me to upgrade the remaining link. I went to wordpress and downloaded the latest version to my computer. She then had me download filezilla, and she told me to watch some tutorials on the helpdesk site in order to instruct me in getting the wordpress upgrade transferred to the filezilla, and then transferred to my site. Long story short, my blog is totally and completely gone right now. It can’t be pulled up at all and i’m having a slight panic attack. I’m very lost and confused. I’m hoping somebody can take complete control of the situation and get my blog running again.

(9:34:48pm)Ryan P.:Thank you for connecting to our real-time Technical Support chat! We value your feedback and would really appreciate if you’d leave a rating on the survey when the chat is over.
For security validation, I need to make sure you are an authorized user on the account. I need you to provide me with the either the last 4 characters of the cPanel password OR the last four digits of the credit card on the account. If you paid with PayPal, I will need the original Unique Invoice # number from your purchase. Alternatively, we can accept the PIN you may have established from cPanel -> Profile/Billing tab. This chat is secure and encrypted.

(9:35:32pm)Penny:the 4 digits of my cpanel password is             <—– see Ryan? I fixed it.

(9:35:55pm)Ryan P.:She should of not had you run an uninstall. Thats what caused the issue. Let me see if I can restore the files that were uninstalled from our backups.

(9:36:15pm)Penny h thank you so much

(9:37:02pm)Ryan P.:Restoring right now, will just take a few minutes.

(9:37:46pm)Ryan P.:Ok, do you see the site now if you go to it?

(9:38:20pm)Penny:YES!!!!!!! THANK YOU! I was stressing out.

(9:38:45pm)Ryan P.:Reading Warm Bodies? I know they are coming out with a movie I’m guessing from that book. It looks hilarious.

(9:39:35pm)Ryan P.:I think.. isn’t that where a zombie falls in love with a living girl? Or am I confused.

(9:39:37pm)Penny:Hahaha! Yes. The book is okay. But I like my zombies not to have any conscious thought processes. —- Let me see if I can log into my blog. One sec.

(9:40:04pm)Ryan P.:Yes! So I was right Yeah.. zombies with a conscious kind of defeats the reason they are zombies.

(9:40:35pm)Ryan P.:However, it won’t stop me from watching the movie when it comes out, it looks good.

(9:41:06pm)Penny:I like my zombies to be mindless eating machines. Not lovesick puppies. lol!!!! —– I’ll totally watch the movie regardless too. —–I still can’t log in. Any solutions???

(9:41:50pm)Ryan P.:Your homemade body scrub.. ummm.. yeah, don’t think I’d ever use that, I think something is alive in there! Ok, what password are you using to get try to get into the admin panel?

(9:42:24pm)Penny:lmao!! You are freaking awesome. password: 

(9:42:42pm)Penny:It looks scary, but my skin is soft as butter. You should try it.

(9:42:47pm)Ryan P.:I’ll try manually forcing your password to that one and see if that fixes it.

(9:43:11pm)Penny:Awesome. Thanks.

(9:43:19pm)Ryan P.:Are you using the user 

(9:43:23pm)Penny:

(9:43:45pm)Ryan P.:Bam, try that now.

(9:44:32pm)Penny:I swear on everything good in this world that I would kiss the crap outta you right now if I could. I’m in!!!!! Thank you!!!!!

(9:44:42pm)Ryan P.:And I would not stop you!

(9:45:19pm)Ryan P.:Alright Penny, it’s been fun! Anything else I can help you with?

(9:45:38pm)Penny:lol!!!! I’ve been freaked out and stressin for 4 hours and you fix everything in 5 minutes. I’m a little in love with you. And you like zombies. —–thanks so much ryan!!!!!

(9:46:13pm)Ryan P.:Of course I like zombies! Seen all the movies and read a lot of books!

(9:46:29pm)Penny:the walking dead?????

(9:46:38pm)Ryan P.:Of course

(9:46:56pm)Ryan P.:Actually last night just caught up on the last episode.

(9:47:10pm)Penny:Dude. I like you.

(9:47:31pm)Ryan P.:I like myself too

(9:48:13pm)Penny:lmao! You should. It’s been fun ryan. Leave me a comment on my blog sometime with links to where you live on the internet. We’ll be internet buddies.

Dear Bluehost,

You are not paying Ryan P enough money.

Other bloggers do this. YouTubers do this. Instagramers do this. (Including myself on occasion.)

I love seeing other peoples monthly makeup favorites. It occurred to me about a week ago that this is something I NEED to be doing on my blog. Like bigtime whoa.

You can officially expect a blog post like this at the end of every month. Unless I forget. Which I won’t.

Important notes:

1. You may see a few identical items every month, because there are certain products I use religiously.

2. You won’t see much in the way of eyeshadow and lip products, because I wear something different in both categories every single day.

First up:

Eye products.

Urban Decay Primer Potion.  Can never be without this stuff.

(mine got swiped out of my makeup drawers by my 3-year-old, and then the dog found it and gave the end a little nibble. It wasn’t punctured, so it’s still good to go.)

Marbella Permanent Eyeliner. Great for lining under my lower lashline. No smudging will happen whatsoever. (This can be difficult to find.)

The Body Builder mascara by The Balm. Long full lashes, zero smudging or clumping. Stays on as long as you need it to, with no touchups, and it melts off like butter when you take your makeup off. It’s genius.

Eyeko Skinny Mini Liquid Eyeliner.  For lining my upper lash line. Easy to use. Great pigmentation. No smudging or fading.

Elf Mineral Eyeliner. I use this to line my upper and lower waterlines. I love this.

For years (and years) I avoided Covergirl products like they were an infectious disease. I HATED Covergirl. I viewed it as cheap, crappy makeup. However, I recently tried a few of their products, and now I’m totally and completely obsessed. The Covergirl products I have are some of my most favorite items.

This foundation has good coverage, long staying power, and it is moisturizing on my dry skin. I love the way it looks.

The concealer is the best undereye concealer in the world. The End.

The Beauty Blender. The Beauty Blender is the most wonderful makeup tool a girl could ever have. It’s expensive, but totally and completely worth every penny. Cheaper substitutes do not compare. I know this from experience.

I can not live my life without the ELF HD powder. That is all.

I have been using the Neutrogena Powder Foundation for somewhere in the vicinity of 8 years. I having been switching up powder here and there, but I always, always, come back to this.

The new Flower blush/bronzer duos. Great, long-wearing color. Adorable packaging.

I found the Neutrogena bronzer and the blush/bronzer duos on clearance at Walgreens. And I’m SOOOOO happy I did because I never would have purchased these otherwise. They are stinkin’ AMAZING and I love them. I have four different shades in the duos and I love every single one of them. I can not rave about these enough. Please…..go buy one.

The new Flower lip butters.  Again….go buy one. Or six.

Beautiful color, moisturizing, long-wearing (at least they are for me), ADORABLE packaging.

I know I said I wouldn’t talk about lip products, but this was an exception. I‘ve been using these pretty obsessively.

And…….

This is ever so slightly unrelated, but I’m totally obsessed with my homemade body scrub. I use it every single day and I can’t imagine NOT using it.

And that’s it for this month.

That was fun.

I liked this.

I’m excited.

I can’t wait to do March.

Okay.

Bye now.

The older I get, the more I HATE cooking. Everything I make is generally really really simple.

I looked up a few recipes, but I was feeling far too cooking-lazy to follow a stupid recipe.

Because I was being lazy, I threw together my own thing at random.

And guess what?

It be flippin amazing like whoa.  <——– Pennyese

And….it has FOUR ingredients. As in 1-2-3-4. That’s it.

*pats self on back*

So here’s what you need to be a lazy cook like me:

• 1 can cream of broccoli cheese condensed soup
• I box of Rice A Roni (the San Francisco treat!)
• 2 heaping cups of frozen broccoli florets (partially thawed)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Cook the Rice A Roni (the San Francisco treat! —- Yes, I will do this every time) according to package directions.

Chop up the frozen but partially thawed broccoli florets into bit size pieces. Get a big bowl. Put the broccoli inside the big bowl. (As opposed to putting it on the outside.)

Dump in the soup.

This is starting to get really complicated. Please try to keep up. <——-sarcasm

Next, add 1 cup of cheddar cheese.

Once the Rice A Roni (the San Francisco treat!) is finished cooking, dump that in too.

Mix.

Put in a baking dish.

Top with another cup of cheese.

Cook it until it’s done.

Salivate.

Get a spoon.

Head on over to pig city. <—–  Pennyese

Uh huh. You want to swim in it, don’t you?

I made this once before, only I didn’t chop the broccoli florets. I left them whole.

See?….

This is equally as good, but I prefer the broccoli pieces to be a bit more manageable. The also absorb more flavor if chopped up. It’s a extra step, but I recommend doin’ the choppin’.

And guess what??!!!???!

I’ve been watching my calories the last few days, so I did some calculations. Assuming this casserole made 4 servings (those are big servings) each serving would be 400 calories. And that’s an over-estimation. (Over-estimation <—- good grammar <—– sarcasm.) 

And that’s it. Tell your friends. 

*This recipe has been kid-approved by two children that are named after potatoes. You need no more recommendation than that.