Sitting in the parkin lot

The title isn't just figurative. I'm siting in the parking lot waiting for my MRI. (So forgive me if there are any typos! :-P)

I going to get a little poor pitiful me here for a bit, just a warning.

I feel like my life is sitting in a parking lot right now. My husband is on terminal leave from the Marine Corps, his last day being the day after our 3rd wedding anniversary, the day before Monks 13th birthday. I have no idea where we will get enough money to pay all our bills and keep our household rolling. He keeps saying that his disability will cover most of it, but what about the rest?

He has plans for us to move to Raleigh and him to go to NC State, but he's not thinking about about the house we have to sell before we can buy another one. He's not thinking of the TWO houses on our steet that have sat for a year and not sold yet. He's only thinking of where he wants to be, not how to get there. Its like trying to get to a city on the other side of the river, but no plan on how to cross it.

I feel like I have failed here lately. That I've missed a very important step somewhere. Have you ever built anyting from IKEA? I feel like my life is an IKEA desk and I've forgotten to put a screw in somewhere. I look okay, but really I'm only a telephone book way from falling apart.

*********

So, my MRI wet okay. I was dehydrated so they had to stick me 4 times to even get a vein to put the contrast in. I'm hoping that they can pin point more accurately what is going on. I have an appointment with another doctor tomorrow, so I hope they get him the scans by then, tho it is for somthing different, I don't think they would mind getting the results back sooner than later.

Monk should be home any tim now, and then Bug, and then we can start a 4 day weekend! Wooo!

Learning Simish

Sorry guys! I've been super duper busy here lately!

Okay... that's a lie. I've been addicted to Sim Medieval.

I've played The Sims since it first came out. I know its just about the silliest game you could play, but for some reason I just love my little Sims.

In other news, Thanksgiving is this week. We're not doing anything special. I know we sould, but we're not. I think we're just going to do chicken, green beans, mashed taters, and then I'll make pumpkin pudding pie for dessert. Monkey LOVES pumpkin anything. We found pumpkin pudding at the store and he's been chomping at the bit to eat it ever since!

Does that make me unAmerican to not have a huge dinner on Thanksgiving? Sam and I are both trying to trim down our middles, so having a giant dinner where I know I will continue to shove food in my mouth until I have to put on sweats because my pants don't fit any more just doesn't appeal to me right now.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on right now! So, I guess I'm back to my Sims! One just got thrown in the stocks, so I'm off to throw eggs at them! Hooray!

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! :-)

Going Away

So, last night was Sams' going away party.

Sam has been in the Marine Corps for 8.5 years, on a 5 year contract. Right before we met, he was injured, and he has been on a medical hold ever since then. Sam has been with the same Battalion since we met.

Since we have a very interesting last name, it's really easy to make nicknames from it. Which is what they did on his plaque. And there were stories to match every nickname. I think my favorite story was behind "The Honorable Mr. Charwood," but there is also Char-Wizzle, Char-Deezy, Char Char Binks, Char-izard, and Charmeleon. They also got him a REALLY nice pen that I will steal I'm sure he will get lots of use out of!

I got to meet more of the guys, some of them I knew already. JD was there as well. Bug LOVES JD. All the guys were calling him "Uncle" because of Bug and Monkey! LOL

We all left with full bellies from the Mongolian House here in Jacksonville. Sorry I didn't get many pictures of the actual event, but, I was too busy eating, then listening to all the guys stories of Sam.

Tonight, JD is coming over for dinner. So, that means I need to go and get Monkey working on his homework! 

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! ;-)

 

Red beans and rice

So, tonight I made red beans and rice. Don't get too excited, it came from a box. ;-)
Sam and Monkey spent the day on base. I called them at lunch time and apparently they had decided to have lunch at the bowling alley. About 3 hours later, Monkey calls me and tellsme he doesn't feel well. They finally got home a little less than 2 hours later, and Monkey sat on the front porch and got sick in my flower bed. :-\ Poor fella! After he got sick,he said he felt much better. I guess we will see how he feels in the morning.
Bug came rushing in the door and said he was goin to the neighbors because it was her birthday. Way to let me know ahead of time so we could get a card. Frustrating!
Tomorrow is Sams going away party. We're going to his FAVORITE place in all of Jacksonville, Mongolian BBQ. I'm not quite sure if we've ever taken the kids here or not. If not, I guess it will be a new experience for them. Let's hope they don't throw a fit and actually eat!
I'll try and get some pictures from the Going Away/Retirement party tomorrow and post them! :-)

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.