The Menu

Last night we ended up with hot dogs and beans. Oh joy! NOT!

Tonight we'll be having boneless breast of chicken, rice and Pioneer Woman's Corn Casserole.

Tomorrow will be ... I dunno. I haven't gotten that far yet.

**edited to add** that corn casserole is yummy!

What's For Dinner?

Have you ever heard this phrase and cringed? What's for dinner? It's 4:00, you just walked in the door totally exhausted and you're assaulted with "What's for dinner?" You'd love to say, "Who knows?" or "Who Cares?" but instead you say "Food".

I need to be more prepared. I need to be more organized. I need a menu! Yeah! A menu would be awesome. It would help me be more organized and more prepared.

I tried having a menu once and for one reason or another it didn't work out. Either my darling hubby decided he didn't want what was on the menu (he's a tad bit spoiled) or I ran out of something to complete the planned dinner or (and this is usually the case) someone came over and I didn't have enough of what was planned so I had to wing it and use things I planned for other dinners or I was interrupted or we ended up being invited someplace and had to bring something which took away from other planned dinners.

I think I'll give the old "menu" another try and work on being more flexible.

Let's see ... tonight we could have .... OOps there's the phone ... I'll have to finish this later.

My Babies

A photo of my two babies back in 2000

(The boy is sporting a "cap" not a strange hair style).

Don't they look sweet?

A photo of my babies in 2008.

Don't they look like brats? No, not really, they're good kids.

Starting a New Blog

I've started working on a new blog. It's slow going. This one is called Tempting Tummies Motivating Minds. I'd like to share with other caregivers some ideas and tips for feeding and keeping active elderly clients, patients or family members ... especially those who are confused, have dementia or Alzheimer's. This will be an ongoing project.

DH said he thought it was an awesome idea. My kids think I'm nuts (I am). I have a lot of experience and a ton of ideas, it's just putting it all down on paper ... well, on keyboard actually. I have to wonder though, am I really doing this to help others or to avoid the neverending piles of housework?

I'm thinking that doing something creative, to help others, will definitely off-set my guilt in not tackling the task of my extremely messy house. HA! I'll keep telling myself that too. Maybe I'll have a warning sign made up for the entrance ... "Creativity at Work; Enter at Your Own Risk" ... or .... "A Messy House is a Sign of a Creative Mind". If you can think of something better please leave it in a comment.

FIRST MONTH FREE - The Grocery Game - Woo Hoo!

Teri has taken out the one month trial fee and has made the first month FREE so everyone can try the Grocery Game! I'm so excited!

Here's a story I just posted on the boards over there and ... guess what ?? ... Teri herself posted on it!!! I was so excited! In my eyes she's the Queen and deserves to be bowed down to. DH says she's pretty cute too. LOL.

"The lady behind me in line patted me on the back after picking her jaw up off the floor, lol.While I was in line unloading my groceries onto the belt (only one cashier open along with the self checkouts) two guys got behind me in line. Both only had a couple things but the cashier had already started ringing me so I couldn't wave them ahead of me. So, I tell them they may want to go to the "self check outs" because I had a coupon for every single thing in my cart (which was overflowing). They thanked me and hi-tailed it to the self checkouts. At the same time a lady gets in line and says "Are you closed? Why did they walk away?" So I told her and suggested she do the same thing. She had a box of Rice Krispies, a carton of juice, a loaf of bread and something else. She said she was intrigued and wanted to watch. So, my stuff is rung through, a couple other ladies are in line now. They're shifting from one foot to the other, rolling their eyes, making those faces (we all know what faces). So the lady behind me says to them .. she's using coupons, this is interesting, lets see how much she saves. The grand total ... $201 and change. She scans my card and puts in my coupons ... my OOP $60 and change. The lady is standing there catching flies in her open mouth! She patted me on the back, said "well done, amazing, I can't believe it ...etc." then she turns to the two ladies behind her and lets them know how well I did. They stopped shifting around and squirming. They knew I would be gone in a second. LOL. So I whip out a Grocery Game card and hand it to her along with a $1 off coupon for the cereal she had. I told her she should put the cereal back because it was on sale for half that price at the store across the street and the buck off would practically make it free. She giggled then handed the cashier her coupon and said, "Miss, I have a coupon!" LOL!"

Isn't that an awesome story? The Grocery Game is awesome. I love it. I don't shop without my GG list. I don't know if I can! You just can't beat getting 4 loaves of Nature's Pride 100% Natural 12 Grain Bread for only $1.24 a loaf, two bags of Wacky Pasta Free, BBQ sauce for 30 cents, Hellmann's Mayo for $1.49 (we're talking the medium size mayo, not the tiny one) and much, much more ....

If you want more info email me. I think there's a way to contact me someplace around here ... or leave a comment.

One thing though, save your coupons and use me as a referral ... please? Thanks!

I'm the Mom of a 17 yr. Old! YIKES!

Where did the time go? I remember holding his little roly poly, squirming, naked, sweet smelling body in my two hands like it was yesterday. I used to kiss his soft chubby little feet and nibble his tiny piggy toes until he giggled and chortled in glee. My once 8.5 lb. bouncing baby boy is now almost 6 ft. tall, wears a size 13 shoe and has all kinds of odors coming off of him. What happened to my sweet little baby boy?

He grew up!

They say, although I don't know who "they" are, but they say kids grow up so fast and before you know it they'll be all grown up and you'll be wishing they were babies again. I have to be honest and say I've loved every age my kids have experienced. I've never said "Oh I wish he or she were a certain age again". I do miss the ages they've been, the innocence, the obedience, the adoring and trusting looks, the complete devotion to their stuffed animals, the sticky hugs and kisses. Although the girl gave me a whopper of a kiss the other day and smooshed jelly all over my cheek because I was teasing her about something and she said something about payback being sticky. That was definitely sticky.

Honestly though, I don't wish they were little again. I'm glad they are who they are and I've enjoyed watching them grow and learn and become who they are becoming.

I love my boy to pieces. I worry about his future but I know we've brought him up right. Next year will be his last year in high school and then he'll be off to college or commuting to college or working and going to Jr. college or working for a year then going to college or ... we'll guide him the best we can but the decisions will be up to him. He's growing up so fast.

I'm lucky he's a "family boy" and enjoys kisses and hugs, pats on the back, snuggling on the couch with the girl or myself. He loves to sit with his dad and watch "car/motor/racing stuff then go out to the garage and do garage stuff. It's guy stuff. It's Tim Allen Grunting, burping and farting stuff. It's a place no normal woman would want to be. What's done is the garage stays in the garage. I love seeing them together. Father and son. My husband and my boy. I'm glad they do the garage stuff in the garage, away from me and my somewhat clean house.

I'm lucky he still enjoys going places with his mom ... me ... mumma. He's a good boy. Few teenagers even want to be seen with their parents. It's sad really. We have our children all to ourselves for such a short time before we have to let them go ...

So my boy is 17 today. I went out early and bought him a Burger King breakfast with cheesy tots. This was a special treat. Usually I don't make or get breakfast or lunch for that matter and expect him to forage for himself. He's a great forager. At least I taught him some type of meaningful skill. It will serve him well. Actually starting around age 12 I've provided all the means for them to make their own breakfasts and lunches and have expected them to start doing it for themselves. I don't want either of them as helpless as their dad, whom I love very much most days. Oops, did I say that out loud? That's another topic all together for another day.

We don't have plans for today because as a 17 yr. old with his very first job he has to learn that life just isn't fair. He has to work on his birthday. With age comes the harsh reality that not everyone cares when it's your birthday. We'll most likely stop by with a cake and embarrass him. After all, it's the small embarrassments in life that give mom's the most pleasure.

Hey, the boy is 17!

Another Gray Drippy Day

This June has been a record-setter for gray, dreary, drippy, murky, ugly days.

I think we had sun for a total of 30 minutes this month. Of course I'm exagerating but not much.

Today it was overcast. It rained. We had a thunderstorm. It rained again. Now it's just dark and drippy.

Now my keyboard is drippy. I just spilled a bottle of water on it.