Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

White Chocolate Blueberry Swirl Cheesecakes!

Broccoli Casserole....YUMMY!


This is what we MUST have at Thanksgiving in order for me to be happy with the food! Of course Turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing are all must haves too...but this stuff...is a yummy, awesome tradition in my family! My mom, God rest her soul, made this every Thanksgiving for the family in place of the yucky (in my opinion!) Green Bean Casserole. Over the years I have updated it. My mom used broccoli, cream of mushroom soup, French Fried Onions, and the golden wonder cheese...VELVETTA. Say what you want about Velvetta...it makes the BEST mac and cheese around and is amazing for casseroles ( not to mention Rotel dip...especially the Queso Blanco variety!) Anyway that was it! I first changed mine when I learned to make a roux...seriously if you don't know how to make a roux yet- LEARN, stat! It will change your life! I'm just sayin'! No, really! You know what goes into your roux and it is not filled with preservatives like the canned soups are! You can build whatever flavor profile you want to! Next I thought Caramazied onions would be a nice touch so I caramalized red onions for the top. WOW! This year I had to go even further and I made my own French Fried Onions! Talk about decadent! It is so good! I made this a few days ago and parked it in the freezer to make today. I, of course, had to try a sample so I put some in my small Rachael Ray casserole dish and tried it out with my Bestie, Jana and my friend Jason when were were crafting the other day. It was a hit!
I am thankful for my family! My baby is home from college for a few days and we have all been blessed with (relativly) good health. I am off now to relax a bit with my Kindle...some more prep to come later when I make my cornbread stuffing and mashed potatoes. Everything else is done (although I may end up making some pumpkin pies too...or better yet, get my son to do it!) Ralph is doing the turkey...which is brining right now! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!



Friday, October 21, 2011

All I wanted to do was order my son a birthday present...



My intentions were good...but so far the results have been far from good! My oldest son is officially 17 now (for a whole 39 minutes!) and he sometimes (often times...) gets the short end of the stick because he is the second oldest and he is such and easy going guy and does not make waves. I wanted to so something really nice for him for his birthday...and I cannot afford a car (although I am hoping to win one in the McDonald's Monopoly game!) for him so I know he has been wanted Rock Band again...Easy, right?!?!

NOT! I mean really not easy at all! I had a $100 Amazon gift card from a market research study I did for General Mills so I chose to use it all for his gift. As soon as the gift card hit my account I ordered a Rock Band bundle and the next day got a shipping confirmation from the seller. Then the next day I got a cancellation notice. WHAT?!?! Of course I had to wait for the credit to hit my account to order another one. So I ordered another one and got shipping confirmation and it arrived a day early today. I got home from subbing at my sons school and on my porch their was the box...totally not wrapped in anything...a ROCK BAND for XBox Box just announcing to anyone who passed by, "Come steal me!" The potential theft of the aforementioned present aside, I brought it in and waited for my son to get home from play rehearsal to open it.

He opened the box and started unpacking the instruments. He started putting the drums (his favorite part...he is a REAL drummer after all!) together first. All of a sudden he exclaims something (probably cannot write it here...lol) and shows me a ziploc baggie filled with a cord...or rather pieces of a cord. REALLY! what the heck. That did NOT happen in transit! So tomorrow I am shipping this one back and waiting on (ANOTHER!!) credit so I can order him (ANOTHER!!) Rock Band. Poor Zach might get to play Rock Band before his 18th birthday, lol!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Playing catch up. . .again!

It seems like I am always playing catch up! Today I am working on getting my coupons in order for shopping this weekend. And of course as always. . .the house is a mess. What else is new, right? Right now I am going to make some baked goods to send to my "baby" at college tomorrow. I miss her a lot! I am so proud though! More later since I am just avoiding doing what I am supposed to be doing by writing here, lol!

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

This is it. . .the last week of "summer" vacation. . .

I am so NOT ready for Summer to be over for a lot of reasons!

The first one being the fact that my baby turns 18 tomorrow and leaves for COLLEGE a week later! How in the world did that happen? She was just learning to walk yesterday! We spent the better part of the day yesterday getting her prepped for leaving which meant a lot of shopping! There is still more shopping and lots of packing that needs to happen.

Secondly, I am not ready for setting the alarm clock. . .I like summer where I can stay up late and sleep in late! (unless I have to take my daughter to the Berry Patch!) Now I will have to not only get myself up early but the kids as well! Most of the older ones do it themselves, but I still need to be up, especially since I am going to be a sub this year. . .

Which brings be to the third (but certainly not the last!) reason I am sad to see summer come to an end. . .I will be working again! While the money will be nice I am very nervous about being a sub! It seems like forever ago that I took the class and I just don't know what to expect!

There are so many other reasons I am sad summer is over. . .but I have kids that need attention right now and errands to run and coupons to clip and laundry to do. .. you get the idea! LOL!

Thursday, August 04, 2011

My favorite time of day. . .

Right now my house is quiet...well all but the bazillion fans I have running to try and keep our house cool in this 100+ degree Missouri Summer heat wave and of course the smoke detector chirping because I forgot (again!) to put a new battery in it!

I love this time of night because my normally chaotic and loud house is calm and quiet. . .something I only experience when everyone is gone or after midnight! Although in summer time it happens less because my kids think summer means they do not have to go to bed at any particular time!

This time of night I can get work done, like finally cleaning off and wiping down the table, loading the dishwasher, clipping coupons, and listing items for sale on Amazon! Sure I could have done these things earlier in the day, but it never seems to work out that way between driving this one here and that one there. Then there is also the phone calls, sick kids, whiny neighbors and hungry husbands to deal with as well!

I don't know what it is about this time of the day. . .but I just seem to get more work done at this time. My best friend and I call it "working well under pressure" when we end up doing out finest work in the wee hours of the morning the day of a deadline or event! What ever it is, I will bask in the glow of the ceiling fan that is missing one light and has a slight wobble for a few more minutes while I check out Facebook one last time, see if Amazon has any new, interesting. . .and free Kindle books for me to download (I found this one the other day and could not pass it up. . .especially with a price tag of FREE!), or see if it is my turn in one of the six Scrabble games I am currently playing (and mostly loosing) on my Evo and then head to bed finally.

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

My coupons



I really should be clipping coupons right now. . .but I am avoiding it by blogging about my coupon organizational system, lol! I used to use the binder method, but my pages kept coming out of rings and while it was awesome to be able to flip right to a coupon when I saw something on clearance, it was a pain to clear our expired coupons. So I wanted something different where I could keep all of my coupons with me every time I shop and I went to a box. It is like a shoe box, but it is actually a Tupperware container that was intended for holding pictures. It fits right in the child seat of a grocery cart...unlike my binder which would not always fit in the carts and would slide around and get messed up. So I will see how this one goes for awhile. . .I will let you know! Right now I guess I need to actually clip and file the coupons that I have been printing this week as well as the 6 copies of 4 inserts I have from this past Sunday's paper...

Has it really been that long. . .WOW!


I cannot believe it has been so long since I last updated my blog. . .what the heck am I saying. . .I can totally believe it! This past year has been like my life always is. . .BUSY, CRAZY, and NEVER a dull moment! Here is a picture my friend took at my Besties daughter's birthday party. It is an awesome picture of my son Robert. . .who has sense gotten his hair trimmed.


There have been two graduations in our house (3 if you count the preschool graduation where I used to work and HAD to not only attend but also help the kids practice for, lol!)! I graduated with an associates degree in Paraprofessional Education from the University of Phoenix in May (finished in March) and my oldest daughter graduated in the top of her class from Belton High School in May! I was working at a preschool in our district but chose to stop working there to be a substitute "full time" within the same district. I want to have more time to be able to volunteer at my children's schools (all 4 of them) more often and when I was working from 10 AM until 6 PM (if the parents were on TIME that is) it was next to impossible for me to volunteer.

One child has their drivers licence and a car and another has a car and will be taking the driving test this week. . .again. My 3 oldest kids all have jobs! Cat still works at Tarjay and Zach and Maeghan work at the Berry Patch (seasonal work, but it helped him get a car and her build up her savings so the rest of us can borrow money)

This coming school year is an "odd" year again. I will have a 5th, 7th, 9th, and 11th grader (all at different schools!!!) as well as a freshman in college (WTF!)! The kids are involved in drama, service learning, choir, A-team, student government, Boy Scouts, and more.

I am working hard at getting my couponing back in full swing since I not only have a family of 7 I also have one in college (and four more right on her heels) and my own student loans to pay off. There is always something going on around here.

I am not on any PTA board this coming year, but I am sure I will still be involved. I am going to be helping with Learning Communities again this year at the 5th and 6th grade center and My BESTEST BESTIE in the whole wide world will be not only volunteering for our 9th graders school occasionally but we have ideas of starting our own business in some sort of way. . .we just have not narrowed down our ideas yet! Right now I have a ton of coupons to catch up with from this week (both printed from the computer and from the papers- there were 4 inserts this week!) before they get too out of hand! I cannot get behind again!