Poor mans meal and green onions

I thought I would take a picture of my poor man's meal I am making tonight. It is colorful with some green onions in there, and instead of regular hot dogs we used smoked sausages.

Grandma had given us some green onions from her garden and I got them out to put into there. Little did I know that my kids were gonna go crazy for them. All three of them were munching on those things like crazy! Green onions won't hurt them right?

Menu plan for the week of May 31

Sunday--oatmeal for breakfast, leftovers for lunch, and poor mans meal for dinner

Weekday meals:
-pork roast, garlic potatoes, salad
-broccoli chicken casserole
-crock pot roasted chicken, potatoes, corn,
-BBQ chicken pizza
-chicken sandwich, french fries, fruit

Saturday:? Something on the grill probably

The kids last day of school is Tuesday! That means we will be going through more food around here. :) I'm gonna have to be creative and make more homemade goodies again. And hopefully granny's garden will do well this year, and we can have some fresh veggies to eat!

For more great menu plans visit orgjunkie.com

Back to reality

We were going through our finances and realized its time to tighten up the budget belts again...
I know, I know,,, its the story of my life! Bennie asked yesterday how much was in savings,,,, I've been kinda dreading that question. Not that I'm hiding anything from him, its just he doesn't always realize whats going on with things,,, he just asks for money and assumes its there and every things fine. Don't get me wrong,, we have some money,, just not as much as he thought.

Then he asks me,,, "well, what if I get layed off again?",,,, okay,, now how is that possibly my fault? Or how can I control that? Things just arnt going as planned because of getting the new car, We had planned on not having a car payment, and soon getting the truck payed off, but then WHAM,,,,,,, we are back to 2 car payments again... Plus since I thought we werent going to have car payments I went out and got the Y membership. Now I have ended up with more money going out than I had in the first place!! The truck will be payed off soon though.

I feel like a failure sometimes when it comes to money. He said I should run another ad for babysitting in the paper but,, I really do not like doing that.... Sometimes you get scary people coming to interview you and you never know what they are going to be like, or if you can trust them to pay you... I much rather have word of mouth people. Ugh..... Sometimes I wish I had a fancy degree and could go out and get a really good paying job,,, but then that would mean I would have to leave my babies with someone else and I don't like doing that. I am doing what I always want be doing,, its just not enough income sometimes.

I am going to sit down today and re figure out the budget. See what kinda shape we are in and how long it will take to build back up the savings to where we would like it to be.

Indy trip (pic heavy)

Well we made it back from our trip to Indy, and it was great! I feel refreshed, I was having a hard time last week and I really think I just needed to get away and have a change of scenery and it worked! The kids had a great time, and so did Ben and I! Emma loved the pool in the hotel! We swam both nights we were there. Ben wouldn't get in the first night, but the second he got in the hot tub with me and then swam in the pool with the kids!!

Here they are in the hotel bed with there jammies on. This was my kids first time in a hotel so it was all a new experience for them,, they liked it. Emma didn't like the room all that much, there was to much for her to get into( defiantly not child proof) and she kept going to the door trying to open it,, wanting to leave. But that was the only time we had trouble with her,,,, for everything else she was a little angel! We seriously couldn't have asked our kids to be any better than they were,,, it was great!

This is at the Children's Museum,, the Dino exhibit!

Here is us with some star wars creature behind us.

This is the kids and they crawled under this thing and were able to get inside of it. I thought it looked cool!

Gary digging for dinosaur bones.

Then we went to the zoo there. That was very fun to, it was a great day for it sunny and warm. I fed these giraffes! IT was so cool, but Ben didn't get the pic of me doing it :(

We watched these walruses forever.. They were huge! It was so neat.

We got to this exhibit just in time.. The zookeeper was feeding them so they all came up real close and we got to watch them eat.

It was a great trip!

Birds

We've had a pretty neat view from our window this spring so far. We watched these birds build a nest in our feeder, then we noticed the one sitting in it, then there was the eggs, and now baby birdies! We have watched them grow,here is the mama sitting on them(that can't be very comfy) Here you can see one poking his head out

Up close. I tell the kids not to get to close and to never touch them. Its been such a good learning experience for all of us! Its neat to watch her feed them, and the kids cant wait to see them learn to fly! Everyone have a great holiday weekend, and I'll be back with pics and hopefully some good stories to tell!

Just checking in

Thought I'd just check in and say hello while its nap time. I haven't blogged much this week, mainly due to business with babies, kids,, packing. Tomorrow is when I will probably get the most of it done,(I hope), I've had my sisters baby the last few day and have her tomorrow so that makes it pretty difficult to get extra things done during the day. I love her to death, but it really can wear a girl out chasing after 2 babies, 16 and 18 month olds!! Plus a 3 year old on top of that. And they ALL have attitudes :) There is constant drama! :) lol I love them all to death though, and I hope that I am shaping them into lovely little ladies, who one day wont kick and scream and try to bite each other, knock each other down, hit... oh the list goes on and on.... Its like WWF here some days :) I am the referee! Like I said,, I do love them though,, here are some cute pics of them. It is so hard to get them to actually look at the camera. I swear Emma sees me with it and automatically turns away!

Emma found it easier to push it to make it go. She sure is strong!

My sweet baby,, I love her!

Menu plan

Weekday meals;
*steak, baked potatoes, green beans
*chicken cacciatore over spaghetti
*homemade pizza
*broccoli chicken bake
*hamburgers, pasta salad, chips

Saturday-cereal
*hot dogs

Garage saleing

I just got back from going to some garage sales. I found some good stuff, I got Jess a really nice black pin striped suit, with a jacket pants and skirt, plus she got 2 other pairs of pants.... Emma got a couple outfits and I found her a little people farm set!!! OH and some little books, Gary got a little jacket vest type thing. I found Ben a pair of sandals, and I got a couple Americana decorative things. I was happy with my finds. Then when I got home we found out the soccer games are canceled. I think I'm headed over to the library and then gonna come home and do some cleaning. The kids have friends coming over tonight to spend the night,, whew... 2 weekend in a row now there have been extra kids here,, I'm getting weak I guess. :) Have a great Saturday!!

I'm so excited!!

Red lettering equals singing voice!

Were going on a trip! Were going on a trip! I'm so excited were going on trip!!!!!
I know, I know, I'm such a dork, but I'm so happy because we are going on a little mini vacation in a couple weeks! The hotel has been booked and tickets have been bought!! So I know its really gonna happen, usually we talk and things never happen, but Its really gonna happen! Yay! WE never go any where so this is huge for us!!

The Deal

I made a deal with my husband last night. See he smokes and has forever , actually I used to also until I got pregnant with my last child, and then I just never started again. Thank God!! But, he hasn't had so much luck with his attempts at quitting so last night I made a proposition with him. I told him if he quit smoking that I would let him buy the mussel loader (gun)that he has been wanting forever!!! Of course, this would also be his birthday present,, but he doesn't get it unless he quits. deer season starts sometime in November, so I figure if he has quit by June that gives me time to make sure he doesn't start back up again, and we can buy the gun at the beginning of November.

I think he is going to take me up on it. I know how hard it is to quit because I had tried many times before I succeeded, I also know you really have to have the want in you to do it. So my thinking is maybe this will give him the extra incentive to do it!! Here's hoping!!!!

The zoo

We went to the zoo on Mothers Day! It was fun,, my mom, step-dad, sister and her fiance, and his mom, plus the 5 of us all went! In this pic is my sister and niece, then Gary, Emma and Jess. We soon realized that Emma is very scared of a lot of things. You will see that in these pictures. She did have fun believe it or not, but she liked to stay close to me and just wasn't to sure about a lot of things. Here she is riding the pony

In the tree house,, she actually enjoyed that one.

IN the kangaroo pouch :)

And on the pretend lizard. lol,,,, I'm not sure what the problem was,,,

I promise we arnt mean to her!! :) Maybe next year she will enjoy it more. :)

Menu plan

Sunday(Mother's Day): eggs and toast, Olive Garden, leftover ice cream cake

Weekday meals:
Mexican chicken casserole
smokey mountain chicken, asparagus, baked potatoes
cavatini(from freezer), garlic bread
chicken sandwiches, chips, green beans
Friday we have a grad/bday party to attend

Saturday-b=eggs and toast, l=grilled cheese, d=taco salad

Even though it was Jessie's slumber party, Emma just had to join in on the fun too! She followed those girls around everywhere and luckily they didn't seem to mind. I think the friends liked having her around. Here is Jess and Emma in her new bean bag chair! And they gave Emma her first slumber party makeover.

I really cant believe she let them do this and then she left it in for a long time.

But this one is by far the best. Jess got some new "undergarments" for her birthday and I think she was a little embarrassed, so to take the attention off of her, she put it on Emma.

Whew Whew,,,,, look at that girl! lol..............Gotta love them:)

Jess birthday pics

Our little birthday slumber party went well! There were presents, Cake,

The making of "fun balls", which were very sticky and messy by the way!!

And of course the birthday girl pizza!

All in all it was a great night! NO one woke up Emma, which is really what I was most afraid of. They giggled and talked about boys, ate junk, watched movies, you know... all the fun slumber party goodies!

Sleepover menu

Well the menu is finally decided for the birthday slumber party ,,, good thing since its happening tonight right?....hahhah....We will be having birthday girl pizza (Igot the idea from someone else), its just a regular homemade pizza with the number 10 spelled out in pepperonis. I was pleasantly surprised that she chose this because I gave her the option of ordering pizza from somewhere or having homemade and that little sweety chose my cooking over ordering out,, can you believe it? It sure made me feel special. We are also going to make fun balls, which are like big ricekrispy treat lollipops dipped in sprinkles. I am going to let them help with making that one. And of course the ice cream cake.....hhmmmm,, I think they will be a little sugared up,, oh well that's what sleepovers are for right? And if they are possibly still hungry after all that, we can pop some popcorn! I might take some pics tonight of our creations.

Update on pillow

The coveted green fuzzy pillow has been found!! lol........Thank you Dawn!

Green fuzzy pillow

What a morning!! I rarely leave the house when I have babysitting kids, but Jessie's birthday is Sunday, and we are having her party this Friday!! That's when we are giving her the presents.,,, and guess what..... I didn't have any yet! Tonight Ben will be gone all evening, and tomorrow is soccer, so off to the store we went. Emma was grouchy and the other one I had with me did pretty well. I had specific things that I wanted to get and guess what,,, the main one she really really wants wasn't there:( I got some things from her list but she really wants a green fuzzy pillow and they didn't have any,, we got her bed set from Walmart and this matches it. They don't have the bed set anymore either, so I don't know if they will get more in,,, they had a purple one,, just not the neon green one that she longs for. So after like an hour in Walmart I knew I couldn't go home without the pillow so I went across town to Kmart and they had no such pillow either:( I NEED THAT PILLOW!! I don't want her to be sad :(

When we got home the child care kid that I took with us musta been worn out cause after lunch she just wasn't happy, and cried about everything imaginable!! So guess what,,,, nap time it was :)_ So now my house is quiet,,,,, a lovely sound! I need to go through the stuff I got and figure out what I'm gonna do about that darn pillow. Any family member(or anyone for that matter) that might read this if you are in Col. City area and stop into Walmart, look for a neon green fuzzy pillow and if they have it GRAB IT!!! I'll pay ya back.

Menu plan

Here it is the first full week in May already!! How time flies. I feel like we've been running around like crazy people lately, defiantly out of my comfort zone(I'm the one that likes to just exist at home normally). Everything has been fun though. Working out is paying off. The kids are enjoying the soccer games. We had a garage sale on Sat.,, it was a pretty good success. My mom, grandma, and both sisters, plus me all put stuff in the garage sale. My youngest sister came to help after everything was set up and said it looked more like a flea market than a garage sale, lol :) It did to, we had at ton of stuff! We sold a lot, but still ended up with a lot left, so off to goodwill we went! Well, all except for the baby stuff, there is another sale that I will try and sell that stuff in. So here is the menu plan for this week, this coming Sun, is mothers day and Jess's birthday. We are gonna let her gave some friends over on Friday night so she is picking the food for that night, but she hasn't decided yet.

Sunday-B-bagels, L-hamburgers, baked beans, tortilla chips, D-Richards restaurant

Weekday meals:
leftover BBQ and hamburgers
spaghetti, garlic bread
tacos
baked steak, baked potatoes, green beans
Jess' choice

Saturday-eggs and toast L-subway, D-poor man's meal