In Absentia

Will probably be offline most of this week ... our schedule is nuts around here. Surprise houseguests coming in tomorrow, my blood-sugar appointment expected to eat up most of Tuesday's morning, and it could go on. :-) Need to prioritize!

Today's News

It's freezing outside today. Right now it's 23 degrees.

I love cold weather.

But I also need to run an errand and I don't want to get the girls out in said cold weather.

I have GOT to buy a wedding shower gift.

I'm making cinnamon rolls for lunch.

It's that kind of day.

The littlest munchkin is feeling poorly. Fever, sniffles, the works. I'm really hoping that her recent ear infection is NOT returning.

So I really don't want to get her out in this cold.

Off to pop the rolls in the over. I leave you with a few recent scrappin' pages I did.



This is the first picture that I have scrapped from my 1998 mission trip to Split, Croatia. I'm almost feeling the urge to work on the album. Almost.

And the answer is...

“Pooter car” = “computer mouse”

Totally see the connection now, but not when it was lost! And kudos to AmyJo who was the only one to guess it spot-on. (Others guessed it had to do with the computer, but not as close as AmyJo!) :-)

Coincidence?

You Are Olive Green

You are the most real of all the green shades. You're always true to yourself. For you, authenticity and honesty are very important... both in others and yourself. You are grounded and secure. It takes a lot to shake you. People see you as dependable, probably the most dependable person they know.

http://www.blogthings.com/whatcolorgreenareyouquiz/">What Color Green Are You?

Huh?

If your daughter can't find her "pooter car", what would you need looking for? Any guesses?

And it took me sometime to decifer this one... :-)

Flying By...

One crazy day around here. The littlest munchkin is down for her morning nap, hopefully to shake the massive case of the crabbies out of her system. She apparently woke up on the wrong side of her crib this morning. And unfortunately, while this is one of those days where I would LOVE to hole up at home and just cuddle and play, we have to get out and run several errands. Groceries are a pressing need around here, I have a half-dozen ebay packages to drop off at the post office, and we're having last minute company for dinner tonight ... so the new recipe that I was going to try out on my unsuspecting family needs to be substituted for a tried and true that I can get ready on a busy day. :-)

I also have a huge Punkin' Press order to finish for tomorrow. The youngest son of one of my favorite families in the whole world is getting married. (Lexie, this is the folks we have the couple shower to go to on Saturday!) I guess that means I need to get a gift this week for sure. Add that to my list for this week, too!

I'll leave you with a newly discovered Good Thing - coffee (specifically Folgers Breakfast Blend) with a splash of chocolate milk in it. Seriously, Starbucks could sell it and call it some fancy-schmancy name and it would be a winner. Off to pour another cup and get some schtuff done whilst N2 naps and N1 plays on the computer.

I Have Something to Confess

A while back I did another album class by Shimelle - this one was a free class and so much fun. I was able to compete it in a weekend. I realized today that while I put the pictures up on my Flickr, I don't know that they ever made it over here. :-)

This is my cover. It's a picture of my from several years ago, but it worked. On all the pictures, I painted the edges with a dash of white paint, giving them all a small border. I had seen this done in someone's idea book and I'm addicted to this. Now I just need more white paint!

Menu Plan Monday - 2/4

My menu for this week as I have it planned thus far. (Always contigent on what grocery money I end up being allowed to spend). :-) And, a clarification for several that asked last week ... the Saving Dinner recipes that I am using are NOT from one of those places that you go to and make bulk meals. The ones where they provide all the ingredients, and you just go and mix it up and take home the containers. These are just recipes from the Saving Dinner website - they provide the recipe, I provide the ingredients and the kitchen to assemble in. :-) Just didn't want to be misleading. And the meatloaf and BBQ chicken that I tried last week?? Very very good.

Monday: Leftover Chili Blanco from last night ... sooooo good! With cornbread.

Tuesday: Ginger chicken breasts with chinese coleslaw (another new recipe Saving Dinner, freezer meals)

Wednesday: Breakfast Cassarole, fruit salad (I have to take food to Bible study today so I'm just going to double the breakfast cassarole and make one for Bible study and one for dinner.)

Thursday: Ground beef gyros, salad (new recipe from Saving Dinner, freezer meals)

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Continental Chicken (crockpot) ... may or may not make this. We have a couples wedding shower that night, and depending on time, a real dinner may or may not happen.

More menus and inspiration can be found at Org Junkies!

More Good Things

Snow coming down as we left for church this morning.

Getting to sing special music with an old friend that was in town this weekend.

Lunch with GOOD friends.

Lunch with good friends at McDonalds. (You know they are good friends if they are up for Sunday lunch at McDs!)

Watching our respective six kids play together at McD ... and watching my N1 play hard with my friend's 5 year old.

Catching up with a friend that doesn't ask the wrong questions ... "where are you going to PUT this baby?", "are you done now?" Those kinds of questions.

Being with kids that I would never hesitate my girls playing with and looking up too (even though they aren't that much older than my own munchkins).

Big Macs. Haven't had one of those in forever.

Home early on a Sunday afternoon. (Normally we spend Sundays at the grandparents and not that we don't love to go over there, it is fabulous to be home and the girls to both get Sunday afternoon naps).

The smell of soup simmering on the stove. Unbelieveable.

Plans to watch the Superbowl with my guy tonight.

And eat veggies and dip.

Probably curled up under the blankets on the couch.

Drinking diet root beer. Totally craving root beer right now.

We are so blessed.

Good Things

Milk & double chocolate chip cookies. It doesn't get much better.

Pretty Pitiful

The weather I mean. Schools are closed here today because of the snowfall. While I would love to show you the weather that has stopped our fair city, by the time I had fed the girls, made DH's lunch and sent him on his way to work, put N2 down for a nap, and paid some attention to N1, it had all melted. For one who learned to drive in the winter in Canada and a husband from Ohio, this is quite the disappointment. Maybe EVENTUALLY we will get some of that real winter weather that everyone else is enjoying? :-)

In other news, I had a couple requests for my Cheddar Chicken Spaghetti recipe so here goes. Credit for this recipe goes to Menus for Moms:

1 package (8 oz) spaghetti, broken in half (I used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 regular spaghetti)
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup milk
1 T diced pimientos (optional)
1 can green chilis (optional)
1 Tbsp. tarragon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the chicken, 1 cup cheese, soup, milk, pimientos, green chilis, tarragon, salt and pepper. Drain spaghetti, add to the chicken mixture and toss to coat.

Transfer to a greased 13 x 9 x 2 baking dish. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until heated through.

Lastly, I have found a new cool website for my preschooler. (I think credit should go to Cheryl ... it was mentioned on the education threads at the Women at Home boards). It's the childcareland.com site ... it seems (from what I could tell) that the site is geared to those that run a daycare for preschoolers. There are some great little learning activities and lots of freebies to print out. Last night I printed several templates for months of the year and days of the week so that I can start to work on that with N1.



Today's craft: super easy and I had everything I needed. Card stock heart (they supply the template even), squares of pink vellum (they used tissue paper which I didn't have, but I have LOADS of pink vellum from baby shower invites I made someone), and glue sticks. Totally fun. :-)