Wednesday ramblings

Has anyone watched fireproof, the movie yet? I rented it last night and even got my hubby to watch it with me. It was good. I t defiantly makes you think about things. I was really happy that he watched it with me because when I told him about it he said it sounded "like a dumb drama"...........I told him it would really mean a lot if he would give a try and he did. Once it got over it was time for him to leave for work so we didn't get to talk about it much but before he left he gave me a hug and told me he loved me then asked if I really thought our marriage was that bad.... I said no not at all and then he was happy. i think he was scared I wanted to watch the movie because our marriage was in the same spot as the couples on the movie. Heavens no, but I do think it wouldn't hurt either one of us to try a little harder sometimes. Every marriage has room for improvement right? Later he text me from work and said he really enjoyed the movie and would do anything to stay with me forever! :) He can be so sweet sometimes.

Monday I took Emma to the doctor for her 1 year check up. Everything went well. She weighs 28 pounds and is 31 inches long. She was perfect accept for her crazy sensitive skin. Shes always getting these little rashes and things. Poor thing hopefully she will grow out of that.

The kids are home from school today. Snow day,,,,, they will be going all summer if it keeps this up. Today I am taking dinner over to my neighbor, she had a baby a few days ago. I am going to take her cavatini and garlic bread! She and her husband are great neighbors so I want to do anything I can to help her out. Plus I will get to see the new baby...so exciting. Its hard to believe it was just a little over a year ago I was in that same situation.

Everyone make a great day!

Class #2

Yesterdays belly dancing class went well,, we practiced the stuff from last week and learned some new things. I did start getting discouraged though,,,,, the instructor makes it look so easy,, and her body moves so smoothly. I want mine to look like that and it aggravates me when I'm not getting something right,,, and then I start to feel lost but she keeps on going. I'm sure there are others in the class that feel the same way. But then she moves on to something else and I get that right and feel better. Bennie says that she's been doing this for a long time and she probably felt the same way when she started. The instructor has a group that preforms and they are going to have a show sometime in the beginning of March,, we are going to go watch,, I'm excited. So I will keep practicing and hopefully next week I wont feel so out of it!

Menu

So here's whats happening in my kitchen this week.


Sunday:cereal
leftover burritos
pork and noodles, mashed potatoes

Weekday meals:
*fish, mushrooms, peas, homemade bread
*bean taco bake
*roasted chicken, rice, corn
*Parmesan garlic noodles, with leftover chicken, salad, garlic bread
*pizza

Saturday:
pancakes,
goulash

Moving and organizing

Well yesterday I decided to go ahead and start moving Emmas things into the back bedroom! What a job! It was fun though. I moved everything accept for her crib, because I don't think we can get that in there without taking it apart so we will wait on that until we put the new carpet in so we only have to move it once. Its nice having everything in there. She loves playing back there so we will go and sit and play, along with the babysitting kids,, they all like being back there. I'm still very excited for when we paint and carpet it but for now, this will work. I also organized a little in the laundry room,, thats a ongoing job. Its to easy for everyone to just cram things in there so its always a mess :( I really have caught the organizing bug lately,, thats a good thing though!!

Tuesday

I've kept pretty busy today. Got quiet a few things accomplished! I dusted and quick mopped. Reorganized a few things. Did 45 minutes on the wii fit! Ate a salad for lunch!!(proud of myself there:) ). Got laundry done. I keep debating on if I should go ahead and move Emma and her things into her room that is currently the playroom/junk room. Her things are slowly starting to take over my room and the living room. I had wanted to paint and lay new carpet before we moved her over but to to lack of funds,, it doesn't look like that will be happening anytime soon. There isn't anything terribly wrong with the carpet, it just has a lot of stains and things on it. So I don't know,,, I have a hard time making decisions!!
I watched the inauguration of our new president today. I am not a big political person but for some reason I got very emotional watching it. Maybe cause of it being such a big deal,,, history in the making. IN some ways we have came so far as a country,, but in others we are still so far behind,,, in my opinion, but that's all I'm going to say about that. Here's hoping for better days for the USA!

1st class!

Well I just got home a little while ago from belly dancing class! And guess what? I really enjoyed it! It was fun! The music is great, the instructor is really nice, and she's not a stick size wise,,, she even has a little belly, so I didn't feel so self conscious.
There are lots of mirrors in the room so I could see myself as I was doing things, which I actually think is a plus because then you can see if your doing it wrong or right. I defiantly worked some muscles cause I can already feel them. Its not to bad doing the movements by themselves, but when you start adding everything together is when it gets hard,, but I'm sure with practice I can get it.. But the best part was it was fun, and I cant wait til next Sunday!! Hooray!

Menu plan week of Jan 18, 2009

I'm keeping it simple this week,,, I'm really trying to utilize what I already have on hand in my cupboards and freezer!


Sunday;
-broccoli, soup
-pork chops, green beans, salad

Weekday meals:
-spaghetti, garlic bread, salad
-blueberry pancakes, sausage
-taco soup
-eggs, bacon, toast
-bean burritos, tortilla chips

Saturday
-leftovers for lunch
-lasagna, salad, garlic bread(companies coming! Yay! and they are bringing the dinner:))

For some more great recipie ideas head on over to http://orgjunkie.com/

Updated belly dancing

My mom called today with bad news :( Our bellydancing class has been canceled due to there not being enough people signed up. WWAAHHHH...

When I heard the news it was depressing and a relief at the same time. I was counting down the days and getting excited and nearvous at the same time... Oh well, she said there is another class in March so as long as the it doesnt interfere with the kids soccer schedule maybe we will try that one.

I know you are all dissapointed cause you wanted to hear of my experiance:) Hopefully the March one will work out.... The good new is I have lost 7 pounds! Yay me:)


Update;;;;;


Okay, well mom called back 20 minutes later and said someone at work told her one of the local dance schools in town has a belly dancing class that starts this Sunday. So guess who is now going to that one.....so we are back on,,,, this is soo crazy!!

Do you budget?

My husband and I have lived together for 10 1/2 years now. And up until about 5 or 6 years ago I was absolutely awful with the money. So was my husband,,, he might still be I don't know because one day I just decided we needed to get with the program and took it on myself! 6 or 7 years ago we filed bankruptcy ( yes it was that bad) WE just had crazy bills, bills from Dr's, he had bills from before we were together,,, I used to just throw bills away when they came because I knew we couldn't pay them. My parents bailed us out numerous times,,, and finally we decided with their pushing us a little that bankruptcy was our only option if we were gonna ever get anywhere with our credit. We decided that it was better to file and then just build our credit up from the bottom and ya know what it worked! I didn't want to screw anything up so every since I have worked very hard to make sure every thing is payed on time. I have tried out numerous ways of managing the money and within the past year have stuck with the same thing. Its the most simple thing. And the more I think about it I have figured out that anything will work, you just have to know what is coming in and know what is going out and you need to make sure that whats coming in is more than what needs to go out! Whala,,, budgeting made simple:) Now I'm sure I could make it more complicated and one day I will but for now this is what works for me.

I have a note book and at the top of the page I write the month,, hubby gets paid every two weeks, so I break up the bills into being paid twice a month. I list the bills and then write how much his check is at the top,,,, then the bill that has to be paid,,, then what is left after paying,,, for example


January 2009

$$$$$$-this is how much his check is
van ----- $$how much the bill is /money left after bill
truck---- $$$$$$/$$$$$$
water-----$$$$/$$$$$$


After all the bills are paid, then I factor in groceries and all that because then I know what I have to work with....

Eventually once we get doctor bills paid and some stuff we are paying on there will be new coloms made up for a vacation fund and more savings,, things like that. For now though the focus is on getting the payment plans I made for the hospital bills paid.

So you can see how simple it is. nothing special but I know where the money is going and how much I have to work with when i need things..



the problem right now is because of the little work problem that happened with my husband, is there wont be enough money to even pay the main bills for the next two months,,,, so I'm trying to figure out how to make money appear from nowhere :)lol

Anyone figured that one out yet! :)

Rabbit

Well I made rabbit last night for the first time ever. I really wish there was another word for the meat. You know like deer is called venison,, but I don't know of another for rabbit... anyways I put it in the crock pot yesterday morning with two cans of roasted garlic cream of mushroom soup and some seasonings, and just cooked it on low all day til about 5:30pm. Believe it or not if I didn't know what I was eating I would have just thought I was having chicken,,, no kidding,,, I know everyone kids and says all weird meat taste like chicken but this really did. Everyone liked it accept for Jess, but Ireally think its just cause she knew what she was eating. So we had some leftover and I picked all the meat off the bone and today for lunch I threw it in a pot with BBQ sauce and simmered that for a little bit.... YUMMO....... JUST LIKE CHICKEN BBQ... It was so good,,,, I gave the 3 year old that I babysit some and she asked what it was before she took a bite,, I just told her it was BBQ.....she tasted it and said Yuuummmmm taste like chicken,,,, and she gobbled it all down! So next time I will probably boil it, remove it from bone and throw it in the crock with BBQ sauce. My hillbilly ancestors would be proud!

Happy Birthday little man!

Today is Gary's birthday. I dont have a scanner so I can't go way back with my pictures but these are over the last year(last Christmas is when I got my camera). It amazes me the way his features have changed just over this past year. He doesnt have that baby face any more :( He really is growing up. He had a rough start with his speech, when he was 3 years old I was still the only one who could understand him,, and it was hard for me. We had him tested and he has been going to speech classes every since,, he still does go to class twice a week, but my how he has improved. He is easy to understand now. He truly is a smart little boy, he loves Pokemon, video games, hunting, fishing,, and he is also a real artist! If you give the boy some blank pages and pencils and crayons, he can make just about anything. He love to make books. He has a great imagination. Its different for me because I grew up with 2 sisters at home and no brothers, accept for my step-brother but I didn't see a whole lot of him. So I really knew nothing about raising a boy,, its been a learning process,, and I cant imagine life without him.

Here is last Christmas(2007), with his parrot he got!
And this is his birthday last year,, poor thing, we had to have his party at the hospital because I was still in there because I had just had Emma the day before!

This is him at my dads house with the bb gun that he got him,,, dont ask me why he has that evil face,,, he musta been trying to look mean:)

This was at the lake over the summer. He love to fish, he has been able to cast his own pole since he was at least 3!

And here is an extreme close up from a couple weeks ago.

Happy birthday Gary, I love you!

Happy Birthday my sweet Emma

Today my baby is 1 year old. I cannot believe it. There are so many emotions. I am so happy of all of her accomplishments so far, yet at the same time I am so sad she is growing so fast. I will never be able put into words my love for her. Here are some pictures of this last year. This is the day she was born,,, so sweet and precious! And here is probably within that first week,, we had her home but she had to wear a light for jaundice,,,thats the blue glow you see behind her. It was awful and I was so scared for her. she had to get her little heal pricked with a needle everyday to check her blood. But within a few days she was better and we didn't need the light any more.

And here she is so sweet. We were out working in the garden at my grandmas house

this was her first bitter biscuit,, so fun and messy!

And this was her first cupcake.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA. I LOVE YOU!

chicken noodle soup

Tonight I made homemade chicken noodle soup for my sickies...and myself. It was soooo good!
First I put 2 split chicken breast(bone in)( I got these on sale for 98cents a pound a while back) into a big pot of water to boil, along with some chopped up leftover carrots(from the party yesterday), an onion, some chopped garlic, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, and a couple of bay leaves. I let that boil until the chicken looked done then removed the chicken onto a cutting board. And this is where I used this tool for the first time and fell in love with it.

It came with a knife set that I got for Christmas,, its not kitchen shears, I think its called poultry shears or something like that,, anyways it made removing the chicken from the bone so easy! I didn't even have to burn my fingers!

After I removed the chicken from the bone I put the meat back into the pot and I let that simmer a while longer and then I tasted the broth and it wasn't strong enough for me so I added this stuff that I got from Sam's club called chicken base.. it comes in a jar, its kinda like chicken bouillon cubes, but its not a powder, its kinda jelly,,, I'm probably the only one in the world that didn't know about this. Anyways it is way cheaper than chicken stock already made. Then i added some home style noodles, also something I had gotten from Sam's, so I have a big bag of them... they are the yummiest noodles in my opinion. I let them cook then we ate. All the sickies kept it down, so they must be on the road to recovery. I let Emma have some to she LOVED it! As did I. And the coolest thing is I just kinda made the recipe up as I went along. It was very good and something we will defiantly be having again,,, whether we are sick or not! :) For some more kitchen tips, visit tammysrecipies.com

Mondays post & my menu plan

Last night first my oldest daughter woke me up to tell me she was throwing up,, then an hour later my son came in and informed me he too was vomiting. So needless to say it was a long night, so this morning I text my husband to tell him to pick up some Gatorade and 7up on his way home and the text me back and said he to had been vomiting all night at work! Don't ask me why he stayed. So 3 outta 5 of us are sick,, I"m praying that me and the baby don't get it. So here is the menu plan for this week:
-chicken noodle soup-due to illness

-rabbit, rice, and peas-----I know, I know, I cant believe I will be cooking this, but my husband shot his first one over the weekend, I'm not sure I've tried it before, but you know what...its free!!

-potato soup

-meatloaf, corn, homemade rice a roni

-black bean and chicken taco & re fried beans

-cream of broccoli soup & cheddar biscuits

Cake anyone?

We had Emma's and Gary's birthday parties on Sunday afternoon. It was fun! Emma got some cute presents
Gary got some good ones too. The big one for him was a 410 gun. Its just the right size for him, so now he can go hunting with dad! It comes apart and has 2 different things,,, I know nothing about guns so bear with me,, but I think the barrel is changeable,, I know it can be a 22 or a 410 shot gun. Something like that.

We had our cupcakes then. Plus I made a homemade ice cream cake! It was awesome. The recipe came from the Duggar's book. Here are some pictures of Emma with her first cake ever,, she dug right into it. It was so cute.

Did you notice the big boo boo under her eye? 10 minutes before the party started she fell into the bottom of the table I had set up in the living room for the party. Poor thing, she cried for like ten minutes.. I felt awful,, so now she has a bad eye in all her birthday pics....

Bad news

My husband came home late from work this morning. He had to stay over for a meeting, I knew from the moment he walked in the door news was not good. He just kept sighing and then not talking. I started becoming very scared! I am not going to go into detail but the news was not good.... he still has his job, so I'm thankful for that,,, but things are not looking good for us.
I don't know what we are going to do.

I just don't understand,, every time we start to get ahead in life we get knocked back down! WHY!!! I know everything happens for a reason but man..... I am just rambling so I wont go on. Without me going into detail its to hard for everyone to understand, just bear with me for the next couple of months, there will probably be a lot of frugal talk around here.

Just another random post

I have nothing imparticular to say but I feel like writing anyways so excuse me if this is random and scattered.

I've been so pumped up lately with moving my body and watching what I'm eating,,,,, Finally I'm into it again!! Alls it took was for me to start seeing numbers dropping on the scale and I want them to keep going in the downward motion! Plus I want to be in good enough shape to keep up in belly dancing class! Which believe it or not I'm getting excited about! I rented a video from the library, it was a belly dancing workout and I tried it Tuesday night,, it was fun, but my sides were cramping up by the end!! Then the next day I was doing the hula hoop on the wii fit and my sides cramped up so bad I wanted to quit,, but didn't!! So I must be working some muscles!! Maybe I can lose that roll around my middle!

Emma is walking now. She walks just as much as she crawls if not more!! Plus she can stand herself up from the floor without pulling herself up on anything! Thats amazing to me! She wont be 1 until next Tuesday! We are going to have a small party for her and Gary on Sunday afternoon. There are so many people I want to invite but I dont want my house to be overly crowed so its just close family and I'm letting Gary have a couple friends over. That will be a first, cause none of his school friend have ever came over before! 4 boys 7 and 8 years old,, that should be interesting!! Anyways I'm excited about the party,,, a little stressed to but more excited than stressed. I wish it was not winter so we could have it outside and invite everyone that I wanted but I guess we should of thought about that as we were conceiving because there is nothing to be done about it now! :)

I suppose I should get off here now. I am so happy and loving life right now,, SMILES !!!

OOwwchhh

The last week my body has felt like I'm 102 year old! For those that don't know I got a wii fit for Christmas from my awesome hubby, and I love it! It's great and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a little encouragement in moving your body. Seriously, I am not all that into video games but this and rock band are awesome. I've been wanting to get started exercising for a while now and this has given me the encouragement to get started and the best thing is it's fun! It weighs you and tells you your bmi, and if your overweight and all that not fun stuff, but then you can make goals and there are all these exercises and games that you can do and it tracks your progress. There is yoga, strength training, aerobics, and balance games. It really is cool and it has got me moving. Also it knows when you've done it and if you don't do it for a couple of days it lets you know you are being lazy:) I don't want to be called that so it motivates me to get on there. I've been doing 25 minutes everyday pretty much, the time flies,, i always want to to more but I've usually got to deal with Emma or something. But the problem is I was so out of shape that my body muscles are killing me,, i am so sore. I sure hope the soreness goes away, there is something with my lower back, it hurts so bad and makes me want to hunch over. I'm sure its just cause I'm doing things I"m not accustomed to doing.
I've lost a couple of pounds now, so now I'm getting motivated to watch my eating. Its exciting. Who knew a video game could encourage someone to get back on track. Hopefully by the time the belly dancing class starts I wont be so sore!!!

Belly dancing

Guess what I will be doing starting January 19 and then for the next 8 weeks on Monday nights.......Belly dancing class :) No kidding, I'm dead serious! My mom asked me Friday night if I would take the class with her and I immediately said no way!! But then she kept bugging me and showed me the description of the class..... My main problem is my belly looks nothing like the pics at the top of this post,, but you don't have to show you belly or wear any special clothing for the class... it says its a great stress reliever, its good exercise and it will get me out of the house for 2 hours once a week. Hubby said its fine with him... so I decided what the heck,, its a new year,, a new me,,,, I need to come out of my shell and not worry about being the biggest one in the class. so I finally gave in and said I would do it... oh also she even offered to pay for the class which cost 69.00!!

Now everyone that knows me can stop laughing!!! I know (Andy) that you are picturing this and probably laughing your butt off right now,,, but I don't care... Who knows maybe this will be my specialty in life,, lol !! Just joking,,

I will be sure to let you all know how it goes and keep ya posted!

Menu plan 1-4-2009

so here is our plan for this week. Last week we didn't do to well following the plan but I can guarantee that for the next few weeks we will be pretty strict on following my menus due to my limited grocery budget. The kiddos are back to school so I'm going back to just listing dinners, for breakfast its usually cereal, oatmeal, eggs,,, or something fairly simple like that.

*Beef cubed steak, mashed potatoes, creamed corn
*pork chops, rice, peas
*spaghetti and garlic bread
*stir fry and rice
*chili mac with cornbread
*homemade peperoni pizza
*leftovers and our last Christmas for the season!!

Anyone have any tried and to meal/recipes for a tight budget? Something tried and true... I'd love to hear somethings other people do! :)

HAPPY 2009

Well I sure hope everyones new years went well! For new years eve during the day we took our kids up to the dentist,, we went to a new one,, its an hour drive but it is a pediatric dentist and even with brushing everyday my sons teeth are not the greatest, plus its a different atmosphere there than at a regular dentist. Anyways we did that and found out that both kids need some work done which is not cheap! So guess whose money will be tight again,,,, I'm trying to figure out how we are going to juggle it with 2 birthdays coming up in less than 2 weeks plus just coming right out of Christmas. We will figure it out,,, and manage, we always do:)

Then we went home and just celebrated the new year with our own little family. We played games the kids got for Christmas and then we played Rock Band 2 until 2 in the morning... it was fun! The kids just love getting to stay up late.

New years day we went to my moms for lunch then Ben went hunting and I came home to make cabbage roll soup! Very yummy! We always eat cabbage new years day,, I think its supposed to bring a wealthy new year or something,,,I don't know,, we are not rich by any means but I'd hate to see what happened if we didn't eat our cabbage!!

So... as far as resolutions for 2009, ..............
*get down to pre baby weight
*exercise at least 3x per week
*stop yelling so much
*pay off credit cards


And my motto for this year will be less is more! I have to much stuff and to little space I have decided. So Goodwill is gonna love me:)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!