Monday Weigh-in and Chili!

Today is my little girls 9th birthday. I can't believe 9 years ago she was just a tiny little thing wrapped up in a pink blanket! She has grown SO much, in more ways than one! She's super smart, she's in all advanced classes in school, she is a helper at our church, and everywhere we go, she always knows someone, and if it's an adult they always tell me what a sweet girl she is. Makes my heart smile. :-)

Anyways! My weigh in! I lost! WOOHOO! I'm at 204.6 as of this morning. According to my Sparkpeople.com goal tracker, I SHOULD be at 201, but, that's okay! I'm slightly behind, but, not enough to be a big deal. I will figure out how to lose that "extra" at some point in time.

Yesterday I put chili in the crock pot before we went to church, and when we got home, the entire house smelled so good I wanted to eat the air! It was REALLY good! Tho, if you have or have people in your family that have sensitive mouthes, scale back on the chili powder a tiny bit. :-D

Crock Pot Chili
Serves 10-15

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 28oz can diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 8oz can marinara (or regular tomato sauce)
• 1 small diced red pepper
• 1 small diced green pepper
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced small
• 3 medium carrots, cleaned and shredded
• 4-5 TABLESPOONS chili powder (I used 5, kids said it was a bit spicy)
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 15oz can of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 15 oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed.

1. In a large non-stick skillet, crumble ground turkey and brown, turning often until pink is gone, 6-7 minutes. Transfer to 6-quart slow cooker
2. Add remaining ingredients and gently mix
3. cover and cook for 8 hours on low, or4 hours on high.

Monday Weigh-in and a Recipe!

So, my husband left last night to go to Quantico Virginia for 3 weeks, so these past few days has been "celebration time!" For those of you that don't know, my birthday is tomorrow (12June) and my daughters birthday is next week (18June). We ate out a few times. I didn't get exercise in as much as I would have liked.  Wednesday night Bug came home from school and was crying saying her throat, head, and stomach hurt. I took her to the doctors and she had strep AND the flu. Then Monk started throwing up later that night. They both missed the last 2 days of school. :-/

Anyways! No excuses! I weighed in this morning, and I'm back to 207. GAH! It's okay tho. I didn't go any higher, and I'm getting back on the Turbo Jam wagon, back on the healthy eating wagon, and we'll be fine! :-) Sam is gone for the next 3 weeks, so it gives me time to work out a new routine with the kids being home for exercise and everything else.

Last night we had some REALLY good nachos!! (I LOVE NACHOS!!) I thought I would share the recipe with y'all!

Cheesy Chili Nachos (adapted from Eat More of what you Love)
Serves: 4

• 8 oz lean ground turkey
• 3/4 cup diced onion
• 1 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup diced tomatoes
• 1/2 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 3 oz whole grain tortilla chips
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• pinch of garlic
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Add ground turkey and onion to medium skillet at medium high heat. Cook until meat is browned and onion is soft, about 10 minutes
2. Stir in chili powder, cumin, and cayenne peper. Stir in tomatoes and 1/2 cup water. Reduce hit to low, cover, and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in beans and heat until warm.
3. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt butter and add flour, whisk until smooth. Add chicken broth and garlic and bring to boil, stir continuously until thick. Remove from heat and whisk in 1/2 cup of cheese at a time. 
4. Spread chips out over plate (or platter). Spoon meat mixture evenly over chips, and drizzle cheese over chili. Top with favorite garnish, and serve!

It really  filled you up with all of the whole grain chips, and it was lower in calories!! (around 200)

We watched Secret Millionaire and Extreme Makeover: Weightloss Edition last night. I really like Sunday night "feel good TV." Secret Millionaire makes me happy that there are still people out there willing to help. Gives me hope for the human race. EM:WE makes me REALLY happy! I absolutely LOVE Chris Powell! During the program, he challenged everyone to do his "commercial exercise" which was 15 sit-ups, 15 push-ups, and 15 squats. He said that doing that during the commercials was something easy to do and it gave you quite the workout. I did that for about an hour.. maybe a little longer. I can say that my abs and arms are a bit sore today! I guess that means that I need to do that every night while we watch our TV shows.

Anyways! Busy day today! I thought I would share with you a little video about the program that I'm currently doing. It's called Turbo Jam, and it's REALLY fun!! If you have any questions about this, or would like to order a copy of this AMAZING workout, let me know!!

So, here's the truth...

I'm fat.

Yes... I said it. I'm a fatty. Oh I know... you look at my nice little banner up there at the top and say "There's no WAY that she's fat!" Well.. that picture was taken more than 4 years ago by a great friend of mine. He was trying to build his photography portfolio and I agreed to help him out. I used to LOVE to have my picture taken... but not so much any more.

This morning I stepped on the scale at exactly 207 pounds. Egad. My scale has a weight tracker option where it gives you 4, 8, and 12 week past weights. 12 weeks ago I weighed 27 pounds less. Holy CRAP! That's gaining a little over 2 pounds a week for 3 months!

Today is the day that I'm going to change that.

So, today until June 15th, I'm going to do Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. I've had luck with that one before. It's a 20 minute work out, 27 if you could warm up and cool down. I can do that between getting Austin off to school and waking Jillian up to get ready. I'm going to cut out all soda and juice. Water (and milk) only! I'm not going to add sugar to things. (Unless the recipe calls for it... like bread) No more sweets!!!!! After my initial 30 days, I'll be moving on to TurboJam. After that, hopefully I will be able to afford TurboFire! I REALLY like TurboJam, but, until I can get myself back into a routine of eating right, working out, and housework, I need the short, sweet, bust your chops workouts.

I'm not a big fan of "Lets cut out fat!" and all that stuff. I would rather lose weight eating better, than replacing my foods with chemicals. I'll still drink my whole fat milk, because that's what I like, that's what my children like, and even tho Sam buys reduced fat milk, I can't stand to drink it because it has no flavor.

As soon as we get our bills under control with Sam just starting his new job... I'll be getting back on Shakeology as well.

We have a book called Eat More of What You Love and it has some really good recipes in it. Altho we haven't cooked any, I can tell by the recipes that they will be good. I'll update more when I've cooked some of them.

I don't have any good recent photos of me.. because I hate having my picture taken since I've gotten so big. There is no excuse for me to have gotten this big other than I'm too lazy to work out and eat right. I've let Sam slide under the radar one too many times when I've spotted him putting cakes, candies, and chips in the grocery cart. No more!!

I guess that's maybe why I haven't done so well in my Beachbody biz. I feel too much like a hypocrite telling people that they can lose weight and be healthy when I can't do it myself. As my Pastor always says, let your test be your testimony! My testimony starts today. :-)

Parker House Rolls... or not!

So, I've made these rolls for a couple of years. They are FANTASTIC!! I found the recipe online somewhere and it said "Parker House rolls" so I believed it!

{via}

For those of you that don't know, The Parker House is a beautiful hotel in Boston. They have a gorgeous restaurant inside and they serve these fantastic little rolls. Obviously I've never been there, but some day I WILL go!

So, like I said, I found this recipe online, and who was I to say "No way! That's not the recipe!" considering I've never even BEEN to the Parker House. These rolls are seriously phenomenal, and well worth the work that it takes to make them. I halved this recipe this time and it still made 50 rolls, tho I did roll them a little thinner than 1/2" thick. Just keep that in mind! ;-)

{via}

Parker House rolls

Ingredients

• 4 cups whole milk
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)'
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 1/2 teaspoons active yeast
• 8 cups all purpose flour
• 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
• 1 scant teaspoon baking soda
• 1 heaping Tablespoon salt
• 1 cup (additional) flour

Instructions

1. Combine 4 cups milk, butter, and sugar in a large pot. Bring to simmer. When mixture is hot, (but not boiling) turn off heat & cool to lukewarm (~30 minutes)
2. Sprinkle in yeast & 8 cups flour. Stir to combine then cover and allow to rise 1 hour.
3. After 1 hour, add baking powder, baking soda, salt & 1 cup flour. Stir top combine. Divide dough in half. Turn out on floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes, form a ball & cover for 30-45 minutes
4. Preheat oven 400. Also melt a small amount of butter in a bowl.
5. Roll dough to 1/2" thickness and cut circles with 2 1/2" cutter. Dip 2 edges in butter and fold together. Place on cookie sheet, flat side down. Press lightly to encourage sealing. Cover and allow rolls 30-45 minutes to rest
6. Bake 15 minutes or until golden.

Now... if you want the REAL recipe for the Parker House rolls, they have offered it online here. There are some serious differences in these 2 recipes! I'm not sure how MY recipe was labeled as Parker House rolls, but, they are good none the less!! 

I do have 1 more blog post between now and Christmas, so hopefully I will actually get to it!! :-P 

3 bean turkey chili

So, I forgot to take a picture because this was SO good and it was made in the crock pot so I smelled it cooking all day and I just couldn't wait any more. Sorry. :-/
This is a low calorie dinner, but it doesn't short on taste! It's VERY tasty!

• 1.3 lb fat free turkey
• 1 small onion
• 1 28oz can diced tomatoes 
• 16 oz tomato sauce
• 1 4.5oz copped chilies, drained
• 1 25oz can  chickepeas, undrained
• 1 15.5oz can black beans, undrained
• 1 15.5oz can small red beans, undrained
• 1 Tbspn chili powder

Brown turkey and onion. Discard fat and add to crock pot. Add remaining ingredients and cook on low for 6-8 hours

EVERYONE loved this! There were very few leftovers, just enough for Sam and I to have for lunch today. I didn't think that it would be very good because of the chickpeas, but it was AWESOME! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Pizza Casserole

So, I know I ddnt post this yesterday, and I'm very sorry, but I was so very tired, and then I started getting a headache and felt sick, so I spent most of my day watching a marathon of Storage Wars and drinking Chai.

So, I made Pizza Casserole on Wednesday night, and invited our friend JD over as well. The kids love him to death! I made the same Olive Garden breadsticks as the other night. As always, JD brought wine for the occasion. A bottle of red by the name of Glory Days and another bottle of Australian red by the name of Layer Cake. Both were excellent! I also made a small side salad as well. I THOUGHT I had 2 hearts of romaine lettuce, but it turns out I only had one.

The Spread!

Sam and JD being the "rustic" men that they are.

JD and the kids.

This was a REALLY easy recipe to throw together.

• Wide egg noodles
• 1 1/2 pound ground beef
• 3 cups grated mozzerella cheese (more or less depending on how much you like cheese!)
• bottle of spaghetti sauce
• pepperoni

1. In a pan, brown meat and in a pot boil water for noodles and add when water is boiling, cook until tender and drain water.
2. In the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish, put a thin layer of sauce. Layer with noodles, meat, cheese twice.
3. Add pepperoni to top and cover with foil
4. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes and remove foil, bake for additional 15 minutes uncovered.
5. Let settle for 5 minutes, dish out, and eat!!

JD and the kids decided that they liked theirs with a generous helping of Parmesan cheese, but Sam and I decided not to.

Final thoughts? Everyone loved it!! If we could all agree on toppings, I would have loved to add onions, and possibly green olives to the top, but I know that would never fly!!

Tonight is Pasta Tacos, which were leftover from another time I made them. All I need to do is boil the shells, stuff them, and shove them in the oven! Gotta love easy meal night! :-)

Cane's Sauce!

While we were in Texas visiting Momma, dear ol' Step-dad was trying to win a new guitar from a place called Raising Cane's. I'd never even heard of it before, but, that didn't stop Kevin from having us all eat there one night in the hope that they would draw his ticket when the time came. (I don't think he won, btw)

Raising Cane's is a chicken joint. In the one that we visited, they had all kinds of movie memorabilia where there was a yellow labs' head in the place of one of the actor or actresses faces. That yellow lab is Cane. It was a pretty neat place, and their chicken was pretty awesome, and I really liked their fries! 

The one thing that I really liked about Raising Cane's was this AMAZING sauce that they had. I knew it was mostly katsup, mayo, and pepper, but the other things I just couldn't put my finger on. 

Until today. 

Cane's Sauce

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup katsup
• 1/2 Tablespoon garlic powder
• 1/2 Tablespoon Worcestershire 
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• LOTS of black pepper (and then some more)

1. Put all ingredients in bowl
2. Mix
3. Refrigerate several hours before using

This recipe makes enough for 2-3 people. It's SO good! It's REALLY high in calories tho, so, just be careful if you're on a diet! ;-)

 

Welcome back!

So, I kinda really suck at blogging lately. Sorry about that...
I decided that I would come back with a recipe. A couple of people asked me for this on my facebook page, so, I thought I would share it.

We had Hamburger Soup and homemade Olive Garden bread sticks. They were DELISH!! I don't follow the recipes exactly, because I just cut stuff up and go "Yup... that looks about right" and toss it in for most things (like onions carrots and celery in this recipe)

Hamburger Soup

Ingredients

• 1-1 1/2 lb ground beef (we used ground chicken)
• 2 cups diced onions 
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 cup diced celery
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 (14.5 oz) cans of chicken broth (I used beef) OR 5 1/6 cup (same measurement)
• 1 (15 oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1 stick (or 1/4 cup) butter
• 1/2 cup flour

1. In a large saucepan or soup kettle, cook the beef, onions, carrots, celery, and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink and the veggies are tender; drain fat. Stir in broth, tomatoes, Worcestershire, and hot pepper. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
2. In another saucepan combine flour and butter on low hear. Cook for 6-8 minutes until golden brown. Be careful not to burn! Carefully stir into soup. Cover and simmer for an additional 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

This yields a fairly thick soup. I added salt and pepper and we still have quite a few left overs. The kids LOVED it and we ate it again for lunch on Sunday. 

Olive Garden Bread Sticks

Ingredients

Dough

1. 1 1/2 cup hot water
2. 2 Tablespoons sugar
3. 1 Tablespoon yeast
4. 1 Tablespoon salt
5. 2 Tablespoon butter, softened
6. 4-5 cups flour

Topping

1. 3 Tablespoon melted butter
2. sea salt
3. 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Stand mixer directions (for those luck enough to have a stand mixer!)

Pour the water into the bowl with the sugar and yeast, let sit for 5 minutes. Add salt, butter, and 2 cups flour. Mix dough on low, adding the rest of the flour half a cup at a time until the dough scrapes the sides of the bowl clean. Mix the dough about 5 minutes on medium speed, until soft and easy to work with. (see below)

By hand directions (for the rest of us.)

Pour the water into the a large mixing bowl with the sugar and yeast, let sit for 5 minutes. Add salt, butter, and 2 cups flour. Mix dough, adding the rest of the flour half a cup until unable to incorporate using spoon. Mix the dough on well floured surface until soft and easy to work with.

Roll the dough out into a log, spray knife with cooking spray and cut dough into 12-14 pieces. Roll those into smaller logs. Spray 2 large cookies sheets with spray and lay the bread sticks out, leaving an1-2 inches between each. Place them in the oven with the temp on about 170. Let them rise for 15 minutes or until doubled in size and remove from oven. turn oven to 400 and let heat. Brush with 1 1/2 Tablespoon of the melted butter and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake in 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Combine remainder of butter with 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder and brush the tops of baked bread sticks when they come out of the oven. Serve immediately. 

Sam and Bug both said that they needed more butter, but Monkey and I thought that they were just perfect. These really do taste a lot like the Olive Garden breadsticks! They're very light, and it's REALLY easy to eat the entire batch way too many!! I'm going to try my hand at taking better pictures, and maybe even having some more pictures for a tutorial or something. 

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

So, for Thanksgiving we made a GIANT decision. It was, again, going to be just us 4 for Thanksgiving, so while doing our grocery shopping, I ask Sam if we should invite our friends Bob, Keona, and kiddos over for Thanksgiving if they're not having one of their own. So, I make a quick call and they were just going to go to the USO for dinner, so, I tell them they're coming over to our house. Next comings selecting the bird. I'd never cooked Thanksgiving dinner for anyone! Last year I wouldn't really call it a "feast" but more of a larger than average meal with a turkey breast, not a turkey. So, since I had never selected a turkey to cook, I asked the other women that were gathered at the floor freezer that had all the frozen turkeys. One of the women asks how many people I'm cooking for, I tell her 4 adults and 4 children. She then says to me "OH! I would go with AT LEAST 20 pounds!" So, I, being the naive Thanksgiving dinner maker, select a 22.8 pound turkey for 8 people. We then get 2 boxes of stuffing, green beans, and potatoes to round out the dinner. I tell Keona she's in charge of dessert.

This past Saturday, I check the turkey to see how long it needs to be in the fridge to thaw. It was a good thing that I did! It needed to go in THAT DAY! Shew!! Glad I checked!! I then made sure I had all of my supplies and put them all in my roasting pan on top of the fridge, save the produce that I was going to put in the stuffing.

Wednesday I spent the day cleaning my kitchen, making it a mess, and cleaning it again. (Multiple times might I add!) I made the deviled eggs, and Bug and I made the Parker House Rolls from scratch. She used some of the left over dough and made "Bug Truffles"  I only used half of the dough for rolls, I had an entire sheet of rolls and still lots of dough! So what do I do? Make Cinnamon rolls for breakfast!! Hooray!!

Thanksgiving morning I wake up and get everything ready to put in the oven. Man oh man was it a process!! I brought the turkey out to soak for just a few minutes and rest from being in the fridge. Of course, but this time I'm freaking out because.... well... I have no idea what I'm doing! I'm just sort of winging it!! I mix the onions, mushrooms, carrots, and garlic into the stuffing and toss it into the bird. I would have added celery as well, but Sam ate it all... LOL I stuff the bird and I say "What am I supposed to put on the OUTSIDE of the bird?" A few frantic, unanswered, phone call to my Momma, I decided that I would just put some Olive oil on the skin and then cover it in Garlic and Herb mix and throw it in the oven at 325. After some more frantic cleaning and Monkey brushing the dog and both the kids making a few last minute touches to the bathroom and us running the sweeper (Len is allergic to dogs, so we try to make sure there is as little dog hair as possible for her).

Unfortunately, I COMPLETELY forgot to take a picture of the food, or any of us enjoying the food, but, everyone chowed down. The turkey came out beautifully! When Sam went to carve it, he couldn't, simply because every time I put the knife to the bird it started to flake off! Here are a few pictures

Sam and Bob enjoying a pre-dinner movie

Bug and Len cheesing for the camera!

Monkey and D rolling on the ground

Bug and D waiting for food

A little after dinner game of Monopoly Deal

The baby is tired!!

She wasn't exactly happy to have her picture taken

Keona twisted my arm really hard to go with her for some Black Friday shopping. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to purchase much of anything, if at all because we don't have much money in the bank, and we're trying to pay off our credit cards. It was okay tho. I wasn't exactly doing anything and Sam does tell me that I need to get out more often! So, I took a 2 hour power nap and Keona came and picked me up at 10:30 and off we went to WalMart to catch a few sales. It was CRAZY!

 But not near as crazy as waiting 4 hours outside of Target!! When we got there at about 12:30 there were about 50 people outside waiting in front of us. That number kept getting bigger, and bigger! Around 1:30, a fight broke out towards the front of the line and the cops were called. A short woman was apparently using some foul language and a very large man asked her to contain herself and I guess she wasn't willing to accept his request. It was a bit crazy. I think my favorite quote of the night came from the Target security worker. Right before 4, a BUNCH of people started to congregate directly across from the doors, and of course, the people that had been there since the beginning of time (at least it felt like it at times... LOL) were getting a bit testy! While we were walking in he's screaming to the people that are inching ever closer to the ONE entrance they have open and roped off "If you line cut, you will be banned from Target!" This made me laugh. It's not that serious!! It's only shopping! I only went because I didn't have anything else to do and my friend asked me to go with her. I wasn't buying anything. 

Apparently it was much worse at Toys R Us, which opened at 10PM. When we drove by at 11, the line to get in the door was wrapped almost completely around the parking lot!! It was CRAZY! I guess they were actually doing it in a pseudo-rational manner. They were letting 50 people in the door at a time. I can COMPLETELY understand their thinking behind this. After seeing a woman at WalMart almost attack another woman because she thought that she was trying to cut in the check out line (she was really just trying to get thru!) and women at Target threaten physical harm to another woman for bumping into her with a cart, I can totally understand! I was rather upset when we found the $3 sandwich makers! A woman loaded her cart with about 10 of them! I understand wanting to get a great deal, but, let others take advantage of the deal as well!! I was tempted to take one from her cart while she was picking up the last one from the floor. 

I made it back home around 5:30, told Sam about all of the funny things that had happened over the night (including cat calling the 2 very handsome police officers that were there), and fell asleep about 6. Sam let me sleep in, took care of the kiddos, made them breakfast, and cleaned the kitchen! SHEW!! What a good day it's been so far!! :-D

Maple Chicken

So, Friday night I made a new recipe. I like to make new recipes. I'm just always worried that they're going to turn out WRONG and my family will hate it and then we will have to order pizza or something. It's a terrible feeling. I know that more often than not, everyone LOVES what I cook and I'm just self conscious.

So, I make this new recipe on Friday night called Maple Chicken. The menu actually had oven baked chicken, but I thought I would switch it up with this recipe. Oh my GOODNESS it was SO good! I wish I would have made more just so I could have HAD more! Alas... I only made enough for the 4 of us. *tear*

Anyways! Here is the recipe. They only thing I modified was the amount of chicken I used, didn't have any tarragon (I don't even know what it is! :-O) and I didn't have a lil brush thing so I just used the Jacque patented pour method. ;-)

Maple Chicken

Ingredients

• 6 chicken breasts (About 6oz each)
• 1 Tbsn vegetable oil
• 1tspn paprika
• 1 tspn salt
• 1/2 tspn cinnamon
• 1/2 tspn ground cumin
• 1/2 tspn tarragon
• 1/2 tspn ground black pepper
• 2 Tbsn maple syrup
• 1Tbsn melted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 400. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray (I used a dab of vegetable oil spread with a paper towel.. hehe) place the chicken on the baking sheet and brush with the vegetable oil.
2. Combine paprika, salt, cinnamon, cumin, tarragon, and pepper in a small bowl and mix well. Coat the top of the chicken evenly with the mixture and bake for approximately 15 minutes
3. Combine the maple syrup and the butter in a small bowl. Brush with the mixture and return to the oven for another 10 minutes or until the chicken is done and juices run clear when pierced.

Simple and tasty!! Trust me, you will want to make enough for leftovers! While it was baking Monkey came in the kitchen and said "I thought you were making chicken?" I said that I was and then he said "Well why does it smell like pancakes then?!" 

I served this with mashed potatoes and green beans, but, I would have rather have had rice. Blame Sam, he was the one that said make the mashed potatoes! ;-)

This would have been very good with the remainder of the spice mix sprinkled over some potatoes and baked with the chicken! Obviously not on the same baking sheet tho. I'm not so sure how roasted potatoes would taste with maple syrup! 

I'm also making a roast today in the crock pot for dinner. It's also a new recipe. It called for 2 cups of coffee to be blended with some cream of mushroom soup. (Later you make it into gravy...) Well, we don't drink coffee that much in this house, and I knew there was some coffee in the freezer (probably left over from the last time Momma was here) and I decided that I wasn't going to buy any more because we just simply don't drink it. Well, this morning I get the roast out, slice holes for the garlic, get it all ready to put in the crock pot, slice my onion up, then I go to get the coffee to brew it. Wouldn't you know it, it's FRENCH VANILLA FLAVORED! *sigh* Oh well. I guess it will give it a bit of a twist! :-D I'll let you all know how THAT went on Monday with my giveaways!! LOL

Stress-- It's A Killer!

So, last month we sort of went over our budget by a lot a smidge.  And so September is going to be a bit tight for us. We will be able to make it, but, the first half of September is going to be really really tight! I hate hate HATE being low on funds. I don't like how it seems to fuel Sam and I getting into arguments. I don't like it when something comes up and we have to try and move things around so we can make things work. I don't like thinking that I'm going to miss on something really big. I don't like living paycheck to paycheck. It's terrible!

I know I shouldn't complain because we have a lot. I guess that's why we're in the mess we're in. Bad choices made in the past. I got so comfortable when I was younger always having this or that or the other. Always being able to say "Hey Mom! Can I have $5 for gas?" and three days later ask for more. Now, mind you, $5 in gas back then was like half a tank or more! *I have come to terms with the fact that I am now considered an Antique* I got used to driving new cars. I got used to always having my Momma there to bail me out when things got rough. (And by rough, I mean I spent my money on other things that I more than likely should have never bought in the first place.) In the past few years, I've done a lot of growing up. Things most people learned when they were much younger, like, how to manage your money while living on your own, I never learned. I went straight from living with my Mom, to being married. From there, you would think that I would spread my wings and learn to fly. Well, I did, kinda sorta. I learned that living away from my family isn't all that fun. I learned that having a car with no heat in Colorado just doesn't work that well. I also learned that being married to a man you really don't like doesn't make for a very successful relationship. Don't get me wrong. I loved my ex-husband, but, I think the parts of him that I loved the most were my 18 year old imagination making him into more than he really was. I can honestly say that the only thing I learned about life while married to my ex was how to stand up for myself in a fight, not back down, and that I shouldn't let people get too close to my heart. Momma was there to help me pick up the pieces. She's a great Mom. She's more of a Mom than I probably deserve.

When I moved to North Carolina, I was full of hopes and dreams that I could start over, get a fresh new life and prove to everyone that I wasn't the person that I was before. I wasn't the 26 year old little girl that my whole family knew. I can take care of myself! I'm an ADULT! Yeah. It turns out that I really was a 26 year old little girl, just like my family told me I was. But, I have learned SO MUCH from being down here. I've learned to take care of my bills first, because they really do come back to haunt you if you don't take care of them. (Even if that means eating ramen and PB sandwiches for 2 weeks.) I've learned that I am strong enough to do things on my own. (Thanks for always telling me that Momma!) And just recently, I learned, just because I want something, doesn't mean I need it. (I really don't like that one!)

I'm still learning to manage money better. Sam and I are still learning life lessons together. But what really matters is that we are a family. We're learning this together. We try to teach the kids about money, that way they don't have to take the hard road like I did. I thought the world OWED me all the nice things that my mom provided for me. I mean, I shouldn't have to work for them because I'd had them my whole life, why should it stop just because I moved out of my Mommas house?! How DARE the world not give me what I want. Yeah, I was pretty selfish. Now, when we go to WalMart or the commissary, or anywhere else really, instead of saying "Oh Mom! I want THIS!" and then begging for it until I get mad and throw it in the cart just to shut them up, they comment on things. They will say "Oh wow! Wouldn't that be nice to have?" I'll admit, they still have their weak moments where they see something that they REALLY want and will beg, but after I tell them no a time or two, they usually drop it.

As I said in one of my previous posts, I'm now an Independent Beachbody Coach. When I started this I was so gung-ho! I thought EVERYONE should be using these products and I had no qualms about telling you why and what you should be doing and where you could go to get them, to my website, of course! I still think everyone should use these products, but I'm not quite as in your face about it as I used to be. It's finally starting to pay off. I've got 2 people that are signing up to be coaches with me, and one of those already has a coach prospect! It makes me really happy that I can share the nutritional value of Shakeology, that I can tell someone about which exercise program I would suggest for them, that I can help others lose weight and be in better shape! I still have that passion about it like I did when I first started, because I know that it works. I've seen it working in me! But, I can't make everyone motivated like me. Some day they will see what wonders it's done for me, and they will want what I have, but I can't force it down their throats.

I know I've done a random, ranting post about seemingly nothing, but, it helps me to get things off my chest. That's the ultimate goal of a blog, isn't it? One of these days, I'll be able to have a blog about how great life is, about how I can devote time to sewing, and crafting, and be able to go buy Sam and the kids gifts at random times "just because." That day isn't today tho. Today, I'm cleaning the house, doing the laundry, and making the kids clean their rooms as well. I think tomorrow I'm going to sit down and make a list of things that need done on a daily basis and start a "checklist" that I can print out and hang up so I can just check things off as I do them. Some day, I'll be able to tell you guys how great life is, but right now, life is just life. A little bit stressful, a little bit not, a little bit fun, and a lot of love!

Until next time, dear reader(s), I'm going to try and see what I can do about cheaply filling my fridge on the 1st!

Not having a good day!

My day started out fantastic. It really did! I got up, I got the kids off to school with no hitches. Everything was going fantastic! I worked out to my new workout video Turbo Jam (which is FANTASTICALLY fun btw!). Things were still good. Still doin my thing. Still be-boppin along being my happy go lucky self! I ask my work out partner if she still wants to work out this morning. Yup! She sure does! Things start going down-hill from here.

I call the DMV to make sure they have transfered my plates from my old car, to my new car. The car that I've had for going on 3 weeks now. The car that I've fallen completely, madly, deeply in love with. (It has a CD player!) Wouldn't you know it, my plates are still registered to old car. So I ask the lady if I get pulled over, I'm in big trouble, yes? She says, "Yup!" My next move is to call the dealership we got it from. I ask them if they've done anything to get my tags switched over because I needed the new registration to get my base sticker. I REALLY didn't feel like getting a new little slip of paper all the time because they were too lazy to do their job. They tell me that it will be fine, that a cop isn't going to give me a ticket because I have 30 days to get the tags changed over, blah blah blah. Well, I'm not sure how things work where we bought the car from, but here, cops can be real jerks. The fact of the matter is, my tags say they belong to a '05 Hyundai Elantra, but they are ON an '09 Kia Sportage. It's illegal, and they CAN write me a ticket for it, even if I have the papers showing them that I just bought the car less than a month ago. I then tell them that I didn't mean to be a #$)&^#( but if I got a ticket, I was sending all the paperwork and whatnot straight to their office and they were going to pay all of it, and get me a lawyer. It probably meant nothing to them, but in that moment I felt very powerful.

While on the way to my w.o.p.'s house, I'm on the phone with my Momma. Momma is always fun to talk to! Well, I keep feeling like I need to itch my leg, so I scratch, still itches, so I look down (yes, I'm driving, yes I know it was bad...) at my knee area to see if something was under my steering wheel scratching me or something. Wouldn't you know it... it's a tiny little brown TICK!!!! Yes. A tick. I'm not normally a person that freaks out about bugs, or snakes, or "creepy crawlies" in general, but, there are a couple that freak me out beyond belief.

One is the June Bug (or June beetle... whatever). I think that the reason I hate them so much was because I was staying at my Dads one summer, and he had one of those electric bug zappers, (Yes... I'm old... thanks for reminding me!!) and one of them caught a June bug. OMG! It took it FOREVER to zap that lil thing! And it was smokin and and zapping and making all that noise and light. It was terrible. So, from then on, I always thought of them as these extremely tough  bugs. Bugs that take forever to kill. And the FLY!!!! (We'll go into that another day...) How could you NOT get creeped out by them. LOOK AT 'EM! EEEEEEW! (Okay... I'm done...)

The other is the tick. Not just any tick tho. I can handle them when they're on other people or on animals, but it was ON ME!! ON ME!!!!!!!!!!! Oh God. I'm so lucky it was just a tiny little thing. I'm so lucky that it wasn't sucking the life blood out of me because I would have put my brand new car into another car trying to get it off of me. I'm SO lucky that I picked it off, rolled down my automatic window (if it woulda been a crank, I woulda died!!) and flicked it out. UGH! *shiver* Now, every time I have an itch, I'm expecting there to be a tiny tick there. *shudder* 

Work out goes well. Her cat scratches my leg, not a huge deal. I get back into my car (after checking for ticks...) and drive back home.  I take my shower, which kinda sucked because I got this FANTASTIC shower head that has several different sprays and a massage spray... man... it's fantastic, BUT!! Now when I go to wash my hair, I can't move it to spray on the back wall of my TINY stand up shower stall! How am I supposed to put conditioner in my hair? Or shave my legs? STINKS!

The last thing that happened to me today (so far.....) is that hubs calls and tells me that he thinks I need to get a part time job. *sigh* Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against having a job. A job pays you with money. Money is good. I like money. Money can buy me new socks! (Oh how I love new socks!) But I also love being able to stay home, and make bread, and exercise, and work on prospecting for my Beachbody business, and be here when the kids get home and help them with their homework. If I'm working outside the home, I can't do those things. Oh yes... I know... millions of people do it all the time... blah blah blah. I just don't want to. *very sad face* I was getting used to being able to take a nap at 11:30 if I wanted to. Not that I ever did... okay maybe once or twice... but! The point is, if I WANTED to..... I COULD! 

Why can't I just win the Powerball and never have to worry about working again? Why must it be so difficult to be comfortable these days?? Maybe I should just sell a kidney or something.....

It's been a while

Okay, so, I've been a bad blogger! Sorry about that.

I've been pretty busy since we came home from vacation!
Lets see, there was getting the kids ready to go back to school, which went pretty well! Monkey started 6th grade, and has 6 classes that he has to "commute" to. He even has a locker this year. It's not that big of a deal, he had one when he was in 4th grade as well when he went to school in Ohio. He really isn't too fond of going to school, but, he always says he's had a good day when he comes home. He's usually not all that excited about doing homework, but, he can usually get it done pretty quickly, at least for now. Bug loves school. She's in 2nd grade this year. She loves her teacher and classmates already. She's also found a little girl that rides the bus with her that she really likes. Most days she comes home, does her 15 minutes of reading and what little homework she has, and hops right on the phone to call her friend and stays on there for most of the evening. It seems like it has started already!

I recently became a Beachbody Coach. If you don't know who (or what) that is, it's the same company that does P90X. It's really a fantastic company. Their products are excellent! I've been using the Shakeology for not quite a month, and I've lost almost 10 pounds! I'll admit that I've not been working out as much as I should be, but I'm still losing weight! Soon, I think I'm going to get Slim In 6, which is a home workout that helps you reshape your body in 6 weeks! I'm really excited about this company! They give so much back as well! The company recently hit 30,000 coaches, and they donated $150,000 to Raincatcher for providing rain catching systems to 10 schools in Kenya & Uganda! That will provide clean drinking water to over 100,000 people!! That's not all though! Beachbody will also be donating $5 for every active coach the company has on December 31, 2010! This company really cares about people! I'm so proud to be a part of this company!

I'm going to start another blog soon to recount my weight loss journey and business as well! I'll let you all know when I think of a good name for the blog! You guys can make some suggestions as well. :-)

Day 18: Whatever tickles your fancy

Ahhhhhhh!! I'm so glad that I get a free day today! To be honest, the 30 Days of Me is starting to get a bit much!  I start looking forward to these days! I get to talk about all the things that I have been going "Oh! I should blog about that!!" There have been contests that I couldn't exactly enter because I didn't really want to stray TOO far from this! It's okay tho. There will be more contests to enter at other dates. :-)

For my "fancy" today, I want to talk about some GREAT blogs that I follow! I read a lot of blogs. I used to not! I used to read only my Moms blog. She was the only one that I cared enough to read. Then it branched out to some random ones I found by hitting "Next blog" on the top of my blog. I've lost touch with most of those people, but I still read my Moms blog when she actually gets around to writing.

Lately, I've been reading a bevy of military blogs. I'm not going to play favorites, so I'm just going to name a couple that are closest to me by distance. Nicole over at Flip Flops and Combat Boots is such a sweetheart! She just recently got married. She does some giveaways, some recipes, and she did a Summer Essentials Swap! I signed up for it, and my partner is from Lexington! Lexington is one of my 3 favorite places in Kentucky. The Kentucky Horse Park is there! That is like my heaven right there! I have some ideas of what I want to send to my swap partner, but nothing concrete yet. Another local lady that I have grown to love is Katie! Now, she has TWO blogs! She just recently got engaged, so, she started another blog to keep up with all of the wedding prep. She is also another awesome local blogger! I hope to get an invite to Katies' wedding, just so I can blow bubbles as they walk out of the church. Does it matter if I'm the only one blowing bubbles? No! I just want to blow bubbles! *giggle* (Just kidding Katie!! ;-) )

I also have a bit of a crafty streak in me. So, I like to read about different crafts. I especially like the ones that give DIY home crafts. I think my favorite of all of the crafty blogs is Design*Sponge! They have some of the MOST awesome things on their blogs. Be warned though. Do NOT click the link if you don't have an hour to burn just reading through all of the awesome projects and whatnot! Another one that I just recently found that I fell IN LOVE (like head over heels!) with is Positively Splendid. Oh my GOSH! I love this site! If I could marry it, I would give it my wedding ring right now! On my Google Reader, I have a tag for Recipes, Stuff I want, and Stuff to make. Just about every single post at PS has the Stuff to make tag on it! (Yes, I'm serious!) She makes me wish that I could be more creative and that I knew more creative bloggers so I could come up with the awesomeness that's on her site. My favorite sewing blog is by leaps and bounds LittleBlueBoo! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LBB! She makes the absolute cutest clothes!!! They make my heart do little flutters and then it sort of sinks a little bit because I know that I'm not as creative as her. That doesn't mean that I don't love her blog any less!! She does sell her creations and patterns, and one of these days, I will get enough gumption to actually buy one and try to do something awesome like she does!

Another group that I want to talk about are the "combo" blogs and cooking blogs. On the advice of a fellow Military Blogger and Twitter friend Bethany for the tip on this one: ThePioneerWoman is hands down an AWESOME website! Yet another blog that you need to make sure that you have some time to waste spend checking out all of her awesomeness! She's got recipes, photographs, funny stories, giveaways, home decorating, you name it, it's there!! I'm always happy when I see her pop up on the Google Reader. I've entered another one of her contests and I'm anxiously awaiting to see if I've won an 8 piece dinning set of Fiestaware plates! Oh, I would be that happiest girl in the world! *happily looking slightly upwards and to the left with a smile* A girl can dream right?! My favorite cooking blog is A Year of Slow Cooking. Now, anybody that knows me, knows that I can be a bit on the lazy side. I don't always like to cook or clean, but, if I don't have a zillion pots and pans to worry about after dinner is done, I'm more likely to clean up. There are more than 365 recipes to make in your crock pot on this blog. That's my kind of cooking!!

The last set of blogs that I'm going to talk about are my miscellaneous blogs. They don't exactly fit into any of the above categories, but for some odd reason, I love them just as much! The first one I was turned on to when I used to work at the book store. Cake Wrecks is one of the most awesome sites! Some of the cakes they put on there are just... wow! How can they even display or offer them for sale to the general public?! You will just have to check it out to know what I mean! From the same "author" comes EPBOT. It's a sort of hodge-podge of geeky goodness. I can't exactly pin point an exact reason why I love EPBOT so much, other than the geekiness! The last blog I'm going to post about tonight is one that makes me giggle with glee. AwkwardFamilyPhotos is just about the most hilarious, safe for families, websites on the net.

Bugs tooth!!

So, Bug had a couple of her adult teeth come in behind her teeth on the bottom because she absolutely refuses to wiggle, or try to pull her teeth at all. When we were at the Dentist a few weeks ago, they told her that she needed to pull them out and that if she hadn't pulled them by the next time she came in that they were going to have to pull them out for her. This sort of scared her a bit. It just so happened that she had Poison Ivy at that time and they weren't able to do her cleaning. So, we went back on Wednesday for her cleaning and she was SO worried that they were going to pull her teeth! I told her that they weren't going to pull them and that they would give her a little more time. She was still a bit worried though. Well yesterday Sam picked the kids up from school because I had a little more running around to do, and when I got home she runs up to me with a little baggy and says "Mom! I pulled my tooth at school today!" We then had dinner while we watched The Tooth Fairy with Dwayne Johnson in it. It was a really cute movie! Then the Tooth Fairy gave her $2 for her tooth and she was very happy that he didn't just leave $1 like in the movie!

Yesterday was an okay day. I went to Sams therapist with him. He gave us some good ideas for communicating better and whatnot. We, of course, started talking while we were in bed, and I told him that I didn't completely trust him yet. I KNOW that he's not going to do anything, but, to have been treated the same way that I was in just about every previous relationship really has me flummoxed. I never thought that my wonderful husband would be capable of anything like that. He has such strong ethics and values, which is one of the things that I love so much about him, and to just blatantly disregard them is just mind boggling! He ended up pretty upset because I can't completely trust him right now. I told him that it would take some time and effort on his part to regain that trust. He completely disagreed. He thinks trust is something that I have to work towards on my own, like forgiveness. I told him that wasn't the case. He was the one that did the damage, and he needed to make efforts to repair it. I guess maybe I should have asked him if I set a wooden bridge on fire, but put it out voluntarily, if I should expect it to repair itself. Sam ended up sleeping on the couch last night because he was upset. We didn't fight, or argue, he was just upset that I told him that I couldn't trust him completely yet.

Today, I'm watching my friend Keonas' lil boy! He's such a little cutie!! Every time he sees me he gets all excited and squishes up his little face. Keona is going to her little girls class tea party. Who was I to come in between a mother-daughter tea party?! Besides, I really like watching lil man. It gives me enough "baby time" to not want another one, which is something I'm sure my mother is thankful for!  I've started to think that I'm just getting to "old" to have more kids. Monkey is 11, and Bug is almost 7. They're both in school all day, can feed themselves, no bottles or dirty diapers to deal with. I don't think I want to start all over again! I'll be 30 in just over a month. I really didn't want kids in the first place, but I'm glad that I do have them and I'm glad that I had them young. I don't know how my Dad stayed sane when he found out Mom was having me. He was getting ready to turn 50 when I was born! Sheesh!

Today is also Military Spouse Appreciation Day! I can still claim this title for that time being. If you are a Military Spouse I want to thank you for "standing by your man (or woman)", and if you know one, make sure they know that you appreciate them today.

My Momma

So, we had a good visit with Momma and Kevin. Their flight landed right on time at our tiny airport, though it took off late from Atlanta. Bug and I were driving to the airport and seen their plane coming in for a landing, so we drove a little faster and got there right before they stepped off the plane. Bug was really excited to see "Garmmy and Pampa Punkin-head!" I had asked Monkey if he would pick up the living room and sweep, since sweeping is one of his most favorite things to do on the planet. Well, he did a really good job of picking up the living room, but when we came back from the airport he was picking Lilly fur off the floor. I asked him why he didn't vacuum and Sam said that when we walked out of the bedroom, he had picked up the living room, but had gone right back to playing his Star Wars game! LOL Poor guy. That night we had Beef Burgundy and homemade apple pie with vanilla ice cream. It was the first time I'd actually made apple pie, and it turned out FANTASTIC! Sam also made Frybread and we had Frybread tacos one night as well!

Bug got over her rash from the allergic reaction, but we didn't get to go to the beach because she was still a little bit splotchy. We got to go to base and look for a patch for my step-dads brother. They had initially wanted to get him a hat that said Navy Veteran. You would think in a town that is full of Navy and Marines you would be able to find that. NOPE! We settled for a patch that said it instead. Then came the daunting task of finding a plain blue hat to put it on. Do you know how hard it is to find just a plain navy blue ball cap?! We had to go to the mall and find a (not so inexpensive) one at a little vendor called Lids. Of course Kevin couldn't help but get Bug a cute little plaid fedora hat. She looks really cute in it too!! She said she looks like Michael Jackson.

We also discovered how great the NetFlix streaming to the Wii is as well!! My parents, being the intelligent people that they are, introduced us to a series call Torchwood. It's kinda sorta like a spin off of Doctor Who, which is the other show they got us watching! We watched some really good shows, the kids don't particularly like either show, they think they're both scary. I mean, if you think about it from a kids point of view, I guess aliens that come to Earth in the for of mannequins is sort of scary! I think if I seen a real mannequin pop down it's fingers and expose a gun I would be pretty freaked out!! Monkey got a new East Carolina University hat. He LOVES it! He tried to wear it to school yesterday, but I wouldn't let him. He was quite saddened by this.

It turns out that his therapist went to school at ECU and is very excited that he's thinking about going there. Mt best friend J, she will also be going there starting the Spring Semester. (At least that's what I think she said!) Monkey wants to be an Architect. We've talked to him, at length, about how math and reading are important in Architecture, and he has agreed to buckle down this summer and work hard to get up to speed. He's doing pretty well though, in spite of everything that has been thrown his way. He works pretty hard to try and keep up.

Bug had a Dentist appointment today as well. All was well with that. She has 2 teeth that have grown in on the bottom behind her other teeth. The Dentist told her that she needed to pull them out, and also said that if she ate an apple that one of them would probably come right out. She eats all the time, trouble is, she never tries to actually take a bite out of an apple the way most people would. She will try to take it off with the SIDE of her teeth!! Strange kid, but, look who her Momma is!! LOL

New friends!

So, as some of you know (mom), I have blogged for a very very long time. THIS blog only started recently, but I've been keeping blogs since Bug was just a wee little thing. My Mommy got me started back in 2004. That blog is long gone now, tho I still have it archived for my personal entertainment. Recently, I decided that I needed to reach out, and get to know, more military spouses blogs. Some of them I've been following for a while, some I just found. I've added a lot of people to my blog roll. I think the best thing about my blog roll is that all I need to do is look at it and I can see who's posted a new blog! Of course, that means that I have to come to my own blog to see who's posted a new one, but that's fine! :-)

Some of these women are braver and stronger than I could ever imagine being. My hats off to you, and I commend you for your strength. I cannot imagine what these women are going through, but my heart aches for you none the less.

I've found more things to do in my quest to make the house look mom-ready! All 3 dogs need baths, and Lilly needs her nails trimmed!! *She's got Velociraptor talons, I swear it!* That will get done later in the week (dogs seem to get dirty quickly,especially the white one!), except for Lilly's talons nails, they need done ASAP. She HATES to have her nails trimmed. Of course, I think that sort of stems from the fact that ONE time, I accidentally quicked her. (Sorry puppy!) Sam wants to get a picture of the 3 dogs all together, just them, to put on our mantle. His thinking is "They're part of the family too!" which is true. I just have NO idea how we are going to get 2 Greyhounds and an American Eskimo to all sit still and stay in the same place long enough to get a good picture of them for the mantle! I do have one picture of them that is really cute tho. Our dogs, just like us, are very strange characters. They LOVE fruits and veggies! They will all sit in front of Sam and patiently wait for him to drop some apple or banana their way. While I'm making dinner, they're always waiting for me to throw an errant potato or slice of celery at them. Well, one day, Sam was eating and apple with PB. They were all standing right in front of him just staring. You know the kind of staring that makes you feel like you've got a pork chop tied around your neck, that was it. Well, I stood on a chair and took a picture of them, and it's actually a very cute shot.

Okay. I've got laundry in, waiting for it to dry so I can fold it and put MORE laundry in. Sam's still sleeping (I wanna sleep like him! *pout*) so I have to wait until he gets up to run the vacuum and carpet cleaner. I guess that means that I can make a complete bit of a mess of my kitchen and throw some Amish bread in the bread machine and clean the fish tank as well. Man oh MAN! Today is going to be busy busy busy!

Julie and Julia

So, as of late, I have become a little bit of a Domestic Diva. I've learned how to make Amish bread (partly in the bread machine, of course), I've learned to cook more than roasts and soup beans in my crock pot, and I've (sorta) learned how to sew. I've kept the house fairly clean, been shopping and recipe swapping, and have even gone out to brunch! I've learned the best way to get stains out of clothes, and the quickest ways to iron a shirt, and which fabric softner works, and smells, the best!

Tonight we watched Julie & Julia. It was a pretty good movie. I love food, and apparently it really loves me, it likes to stick around. (Bah duh duh!) I did some laundry while watching it as well. Monkey had an accident again, despite going to the bathroom right before he went to bed. It happens every now and again, but I try not to dwell on it and just wash the sheets. I never ridicule or make fun of him. It's not his fault that the muscle just hasn't developed yet and there's honestly nothing that the doctors can do about it. (We've been to one... said it's normal.) Monkey and I made his bed, I grabbed him a comforter since his hadn't made it's journey through the washer and dryer yet. Both of the kiddos are now sleeping peacefully in their beds while visions of sugar-plums dance through their heads. *Yes, I know it's not Christmas* While all of this is wonderful, I have a rather busy week ahead of me.

First on the agenda, deep cleaning the dinning room carpets! You guessed it! I never got to it on Friday with all of the commotion of going to appointments and whatnot. So, I said I wanted it done by Monday, so it will be done by tomorrow! Then, I need to finish up the laundry. I've also got to go to the grocery store and figure out something for dinner, and make another loaf of bread. I think that will keep me busy for the majority of the day. I've also got to slip in a workout as well!

Tuesday brings another day of busy-ness. I want to wash all of the windows, at least on the inside and clean the curtains. (What curtains that we do have!) Then I want to clean out the cabinets and rearrange every thing, and also clean the cabinet doors as well. (That means upper AND lower cabinets.) Also fit in a work-out and made dinner as well.

Wednesday, I believe I will wash the sheets (for my parents), and the blankets in the dogs crates as well. (No, not together Mom...) More than likely the blankets that go in the living room as well. I will more than likely vacuum and dust as well. (Hopefully) Also, clean both bathrooms, sweep and mop. Did I mention work out in there at all? Oh... and Girl Scouts!

Thursday, I and going to sweep and mop the kitchen. Since the kitchen gets used so much, the floor can get rather icky, and even with mopping it, sometimes there is still some gunk left on the floor, so I'm going to scrub it with a scrubby sponge. I haven't done that in a while! (Oh yeah... and work out!)

Friday is pay day! (Hooray!!) So, I would like to pick up some sheer material and a curtain rod for the dinning room and make a curtain for the sliding glass door, get Bug a new set of blinds, and maybe even make some curtains for her room as well. Also, I will more than likely pre-make the apple pie that I want to have for dessert for Saturday, which is when my parents will be here! Shew!!

Saturday morning, I'll throw the beef Burgundy in the crock pot for dinner, and relax a bit before I have to pick up my parents at the local airport at 11! Shew!!! I have a VERY busy week ahead of me! Here's to accomplishing it all! Now it's off to bed to read a bit and slip off to Never-Never Land in the arms of my wonderful husband!

By the way, I forgot to mention that Friday was my FANTASTIC step-dads' (That's you Kevin) birthday! Hope you had a good one, and glad you liked the cards! :-D*

Chilly morning

So, today started off not so good. I couldn't fall asleep last night, so I ended up reading The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson until almost midnight. I was then riddled with a recurring dream that I just cannot seem to remember. I woke up dazed and a bit confused, and 5 minutes after I should have already been up. I get out of bed to find BOTH of my children in Monkeys bed. For anyone that knows me, my kids, or knows a 11 year old brother and 6 year old sister, knows that these two get along about as well as gas and fire. I was sort of shocked that they were both in there giggling and playing at 7:05am. I hurried them both out of there and on with medications. Bug has Poison Ivy (again) and this time we had to give her antibiotics to calm the rash. It seems that there was a touch of infection and the Cortisone shot that they had given her, which worked last time she had it, made the infection explode all over her upper torso. Monkey takes his usual morning medications, tho he is slowly being weened from the Risperidone. It's a good thing.

I went with Sam to his cognitive therapy this morning. It went well. I have realized from the few times that I am a cornucopia of knowledge that I never thought I knew. Sam and his therapist were talking about proverbs. Everyone  knows at least one proverb. One of the most common ones is: Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Well, Sam had to break them down and tell his therapist what they meant. Of course, I knew what this meant, and where it actually came from. I explained it came from the actual horses mouth, that if you look in a horses mouth you can find out all kinds of information on it. It's approximate age, and some heath issues also stem from the mouth, and how well the horse had been treated. So, looking at a horse's mouth, that was a gift, would be just like telling someone that has just given you a baby grand piano that it has a scratch on the top. Going to these things with Sam is always good for me, because I learn about what he's learning, where he is struggling, and how I can help, or at least try. Sam got a headache while he was in therapy, so she stopped and told him that he did a good job. I'm really proud of Sam for everything that he has been doing, to try and regain some memory, some shred of his former life.

Today on the agenda is, again, cleaning the living room, and the kitchen. I'm HOPING that I can get the dinning room carpet cleaned today, but by the latest Monday. It's not that it's overly dirty, but, I'm sure it could use some TLC. I've already got the kitchen clean, but will be doing it again next Friday right before Mom and Kevin come for their visit. Also, I'm going to start the laundry today. Most of the time it takes me a couple of days to actually get all of the laundry done, and I would like for it all to be completed by Saturday. Next Friday, not only will I have to do ALL of the normal laundry, but I want to wash the sheets and comforter that my parents will be using on the blow up mattress that we will set up for them. They've been in storage since the last time they came for a visit! All in all, not a horribly busy day, but enough to keep me busy for the day, and part of the weekend.

I think next Saturday, I will put some beef burgundy in the crock pot for the family. It's one of our new favorite meals, and we normally serve it with mashed potatoes and corn. Kevin normally isn't the real potato type of guy. Sam and I have been trying to make most everything we can from scratch to try and cut down on the processed food that our family eats. (Thanks Jamie Oliver!) So I'm hoping that he doesn't much mind that for one night, he has to eat potatoes that were in the ground. We also normally eat corn from a can, but I think next Saturday, we'll have corn on the cob. I will probably make a fresh loaf of bread as well. Maybe I'll even make an apple pie for dessert and have some vanilla ice cream! *Don't I just sound like the little domestic Goddess!* I think that would beat my sister and her grilled tenderloin steaks any day of the week! ;-)

On that note, I think I should go have some lunch. All the food talk really made me hungry, and I forgot to eat breakfast with all of the hustle and bustle of getting the kids around to go to school and going to therapy with Sam!

Random Rant Saturday

So, I know this will blow over, but, I'm just REALLY tired of feeling like I'm the only person who does a freakin thing in this house! I cook, I clean, I do laundry, I get the kids off to school, I'm a taxi, I do the shopping, and it is all wearing me a bit thin! The kids help me more than Sam does. For the past 3 or 4 days, Sam has spent more time in bed, than he has awake. I know that he has PTSD, DVT, and TBI. I know that while you are doing therapy for TBI, you can be very mentally drained and just want to sleep more, but, and it is a very big but, I don't see why he would need to sleep for about 16 hours in one day, when he's not had therapy for more than 3 days! He's been saying since Thursday that he was going to mow the lawn. It is now 6:40 and he is in bed again. The lawn is still now mowed. I'm more than likely going to have to mow it tomorrow because it's getting too long, and I don't want to have the lawn mower die every 4 steps because there's too much junk stuck in there! Yesterday I cleaned the entire kitchen, did some laundry, took Monkey to get new shoes, did some grocery shopping, made pizza from scratch, cleaned the kitchen again, put dinner away, folded laundry, and Sam finally got out of bed around 7 or so. Last night, Sam was making comments to the dogs like "oh, mommy starves you!" and "You poor thing, I know you must be hungry!", so I told him to go feed the dogs then. He actually says to me "It's your turn, I did it this morning." SERIOUSLY?! Well, it's your turn to clean the kitchen, your turn to do the dishes and put them away, your turn to do laundry, fold it, and make sure it gets put up, your turn to vacuum, your turn to trim the hedges and trees, it's your turn to get the kids up, feed them breakfast, and get them to school on time! I seriously want to SCREAM at him!I just feel like I have SO much to do, and not enough time to do it. Every time I get one section of the house cleaned, they ALL destroy another section. I'm not just talking about the kids either. I'm talking about Sam as well. Sam brings home all this CRAP from all over the place and sets it on the table. I get dinner done, and want the table cleaned off, it goes to the bar. I want to clean the bar off and Sam yells at me because he hasn't read a newspaper he got in the mail 2 weeks ago and I want to throw it away. I forgot to remind Sam to take out the trash to the curb and the recycling, so, we have 2 weeks of recycling in the kitchen now, and probably 2 weeks of trash in the bin. We don't generate alot of trash these days, but the recycling REALLY needed to go out this week. When I said "Oh, we forgot to take the recycling out last night" he blew up saying that it could wait another week and that there was nothing he could do about it now anyways.
All I want is to get a little help around here. The kids clean their rooms, and their bathroom, and will help me with the dishes when I ask. But I ask my husband, and it's like I'm asking him to undergo surgery with no pain meds for him to give me his kidney or liver! Seriously, it should not be this hard! I know that I stay home and I shouldn't complain as much as I do, but I work hard to try to keep the house clean and the yard presentable, and it's not too much to ask to help out with a few things here and there.
I seriously sometimes feel like I'm alone in this marriage. I love my husband more than just about anything in the world, but, I can feel the tension rising every day. I can feel this mountain on my back. I can feel that I'm almost at a breaking point and nothing that I do or say to him will come out like I'm just asking him to help. He thinks that I'm bitching at him, or that I just want to yell at him, or start a fight. He thinks that I just don't understand anything about TBI or PTSD or DVT. That's not true. I do understand. I just don't think that 16 hours of sleep in a day has ANYTHING to do with any of those issues. He tells me that he has trouble sleeping at night and that's the reason that he sleeps so much during the day. Well, if you didn't sleep so much during the day, you might be tired enough to sleep at night! But if I say that, I'm being a bitch. I just don't know what to do any more!