Now that Christmas is over...

My friend Michele surprised me with this gift. I put it on the breakfast bar with my Christmas cactus and Callie the cat thinks this is where she's to lay.

This is my favorite gift of all!LOL If you would have told me I would have been excited over a tool kit I would have told you - you are crazy. My dad got this for me and I have used it like crazy this week. I called him once and said, "Guess what I'm doing?" and when I told him I was using the tool box he just laughed and laughed. I have had a hammer and a screwdriver since April when I moved in - so I really could have used the tools!
This is my bedroom with it's new paint. Yes since Wednesday, I have been painting this room. My parents and my brother gave me gift cards to Lowe's and they were spent in paint. I found the bedding at Walmart the day after Christmas and bought if for $68. It's a quilted coverlet oversized with the bedskirt and the shams. I just love this. I had blue in the room but I just didn't like it - it wasn't me. These are warm colors and so much more like me. The wall behind the bed - that color will be painted in my bathroom when I get a couple of walls patched up.
This is the wall between my kitchen and living room. The bar is attached to it. It's just been sitting there waiting for me to do something with it. I've had the shelf but hadn't hung it yet. There was a telephone jack in the wall that I had taken down but was needing to repair the hole. I found the stars at Walmart the day after Christmas and knew they would be perfect for that wall - and they were 50% off. So two for the price of one. Yes, poor mister fish is back in the tank. We had the Jesse tree here and so the betta had been moved into Erynn's bathroom in a little tank until after Christmas. He's staying at the bottom of the tank - I hope he's ok - we will probably be shopping for a new fish soon.

Christmas was a great this year. Different but great. It rained here in Ar and we all hoped that it would get cold enough to turn to snow but it didn't. No white stuff here in Central AR. Christmas eve my family came over and we exchanged gifts and snacked and played a few card games. Christmas morning Erynn and I opened gifts and she got me a lovely orange bowl for the living room and a beautiful book that I will cherish always. She hooked up her playstation 2 and played until we went to my mom's at noon. We ate lunch there and then we went to visit a couple of my mom's six sisters. It was different but a good day.

Erynn and I had planned on being up at 5 am and hitting the stores the day after Christmas. Erynn wanted lights for outside. The alarm went off and she asked if we could just go later and we slept in. We went later and got some white lights and have decided that if it stays still next year it will have lights on it!

Hope everyone else has had a great holiday and a great week. I have the week off until the 3rd of January and I'm telling you the days are going too fast. I've been counting how many I have left each day - not enough time off.

Here comes Christmas!

Here are some rum balls that I made last night. I packaged up these for a co-worker that was nice enough to bring me some rum to make them. I thought I would share my recipe with you:

Rum Balls
60 Nilla wafers, finely crushed
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup pecans, finely chopped
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 T light corn syrup
2 T unsweetened cocoa
1 t instant coffee
1/4 cup rum
1 cup chocolate sprinkles

Mix wafer crumbs, sugar, pecans, butter, corn syrup and cocoa in large bowl. Add coffee granules to rum; stir until coffee granules are dissolved. Add to crumb mixture. Shape mixture into 1" balls; roll in sprinkles. Place in air tight container with sheet of wax paper between layers. Store at room temperature.

Christmas Eve will be at my house this year. Erynn and I are so excited about that. We are having appetizers with Jezbel Meatballs, deviled eggs, cheese dip, hot homemade salsa, cheese ball and lots of cookies and candies. We have a few games that we might play like "Pass the pig" and "Chicken Foot" if we have enough dominoes for that. There are always card games too. Erynn loves to play Rummy with me or uno.

I'm applying for a scholarship for single parents that are going back to school. Please keep good thoughts for me. My work pays for 80% but I could really use some help with the 20% and would love to be able to take a few on-line classes too. I have 13 classes left until my associates is finished and then it's working towards my bachelors for a Business/Accounting degree.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Happy Birthday Erynn!

First I want to wish my darling daughter a very Happy 13th Birthday. We celebrated with a couple of her friends and her nana and papa yesterday.
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As you can tell her papa was trying to take her birthday money from her. This is my dad and he has aggrevated her from the day she was born. He used to call her Nicki when she was little (her middle name is Nicole) and she would get so mad at him and tell him what her name was.



Erynn also worked on her gingerbread house last night. Let me tell you my patience just wasn't that great last night. My hand mixer broke on making the royal icing for the house and we had to finish mixing what we could by hand. I think the only time I sat down yesterday was at church. It was a great day for Erynn and she thanked me for a great day. The last photo is a picture of the gift album that I'm giving Erynn tonight. Each year she gets an album from me either on her birthday or Christmas that's been made especially of her. This year it's her cross country running. Last year it was an album that fit in a large 64 count crayola box and it was of her first 6 yrs of school. The year before that was a quarter album for all the state quarters that we add to each year.

Monday Menu
Sunday: Vegetable soup with family - the potatoes weren't done and the corn casserole I tried to make wouldn't finish cooking either - but hey we had cake and ice cream.

Monday: Red Lobster for Erynn's Birthday

Tuesday: Chicken strips with roasted potatoes

Wednesday: Church

Thursday: Chili Dogs

Friday: Homemade Pizza

Saturday: Cheeseburger Soup

Sunday: Appetizers - we are just going to snack all day

For more menus check out Laura's blog.

Monday Menu December 11, 2006

Well, I have been bad this past week and have not been to blog land much this past week. And honestly, I can say we haven't eaten very good meals for us either. I past my college history class and I have a break until the 8Thu of January so I have no excuse not to cook each night. Joy!LOL

Sunday: Roast, potatoes, carrots in the crock pot with bisquick biscuits and gravy

Monday: Quick Chicken thing - this is one of my favorite quick recipes.
Take however many boneless chicken breast you need to feed your house and season the chicken with salt, lemon pepper and cavendars.In a pan large enough to put your chicken in add 1/2 a stick to a 1 stick of butter(depending on how much chicken you are cooking) and a package of fresh mushrooms with some fresh minced garlic. Place your chicken on top of this and bake in the oven covered at 350 for about 20-30 minutes until your chicken is done. Then take out of the oven and put shredded Monterrey jack cheese over the chicken and pour a can of durkee onions over the top of the cheese. Put back in the oven uncovered for about 5 min or until cheese is melted.

Tuesday: Spaghetti, green beans

Wednesday: Church

Thursday: Mac n cheese

Friday: Homemade pizza

Saturday: Singles group's Christmas get together at church

If you crochet or knit please check out http://www.savethechildren.org/publications/reports/kit11.pdf on how we can help. It's unbelievable that by just taking an hour of my time could save the life of another less fortunate. Hope everyone has a great week! Check out Laura's blog for more menus.

My Nativity Set

This is my nativity puzzle set that my dad helped me make about 6 years ago. It's been hidden in a lost Christmas box and with the move this year it's been found. I found the pattern years ago in a book and my dad cut it out for me and I painted it. I have another nativity set that's a Boyd's bear set but I think I'll use this one because of it being something my dad helped me make.

2006 Ornament Exchange

Here is the ornament that Sombra Knight made for me. He handpainted these and they are just gorgeous. The picture really doesn't do it justice. Check out his blog Shadowlight for more of his great work.

November 27, Monday Menu

Sunday - Grilled cheese sandwiches

Monday - I have class so Erynn will eat at Nana's

Tuesday - Homemade chicken strips, roasted potatoes, green beans

Wednesday - Class

Thursday - Beef Stroganoff

Friday - homemade pizza and start baking my cookies for a cookie exchange I'm in

Saturday - Slow cooked Chicken Cordon Blue

Not a very exciting week of food but after all the food from last week - I'm ready for bland!LOL
Hope every one has a great week. Check out Laura's blog for more menus.

Here is the recipe for the Slow Cooker Chicken Cordon Bleu:
4 chicken breasts halves
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz sour cream
1 T flour
bacon slices

Wrap the bacon around the chicken breasts and secure with a toothpick. Place chicken in the slow cooker. In a medium bowl, mix soup, sour cream and flour. Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 6-7 hours.

I got this recipe from someone that does the monday menu's but I forgot to write down who. Sorry! I haven't tried it yet but will this week. I will probably use cream of mushroom instead of cream of chicken - just not a fan of cream of chicken soup!

What a weekend!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh christmas Tree! Ok, so I can't sing a note but I wished I could. We got the Christmas tree up Friday night. It was a chore but I just love all the Christmas decorations. Erynn said our house was to small for all of them and she's right so lots of them were left in our storage building. Last year I changed my Christmas tree from victorian to the Santa tree to make a new beginning when I had remarried. That marriage didn't stick but Erynn and I both love this tree. I sewed the robe and fought very hard for the santa head on ebay last year. Don't ask what I spent for the head - it still makes me sick to my stomach - but it's perfect for the tree.

Here is the start of our lights outside. One of the guys from work came last week and put up the strands of multi-colored icicle lights. I was short one strand and need to finish them over the carport. I bought the two white light trees Friday when Michele and I went shopping. Yes, we were crazy and went shopping. The only store that was really bad was Kohl's and we both had our arms loaded down with stuff and when we saw the checkout line went around the store we decided we didn't need the stuff that bad.

Here is the hat I sewed this weekend for my nephew who will turn 2 next month. It went really quick and was lots of fun to sew!
I made six of these scarves for Erynn and her friends for Christmas. You take 3 strips of fleece (6"x60") and sew them on top of each other down the middle. Then you cut the fringe and they look like boa's. My hands are sore from cutting the fringe! Oh, I also finished the hats and mittens for my nieces. I put big white buttons on them.

Pumpkin, the new puppy is doing really good. Callie, the cat at first was being really mean to the Pumpkin but now they wrestle and have a grand time. I'll try to get a pic of them.

Now for this week. I must work really hard on my Jesse ornaments since Advent starts December 3rd.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As usual during Thanksgiving, it's the one time that I don't take pictures and I have no idea why. I took my camera to my mom and dad's and still didn't take pics.

This year there are so many things to be thankful for. Of course Erynn is very thankful for the new puppy!LOL We are truly blessed with our wonderful family, our new home, all the friends we have (even the new ones in bloggerville), and a wonderful God that watches over us.

We spent the day at my parent's house (Hi Brooklyn and Mom! They told us they have been visiting the blog). It's the first time in 5 yrs that Mom has had all her grandkids and kids (my brother and myself) together for Thanksgiving. We had Mr. and Mrs. Maul (my parent's neighbors) there too. There was wonderful food and conversation to be had. The weather was beautiful so the kids got to play outside in the leaves. Erynn even got to take Pumpkin with her. Afterwards we came home and I took a nap (too much turkey) and then off to the movies we went. Erynn and I saw Deck the Halls and it was a cute Christmas movie to get you in the mood. This has been our tradition for the last six years to go and see a movie on the night of Thanksgiving.

Michele, my best friend, has changed her mind. We are not leaving in the morning at 4:30 but now 5:00am. So this means that I don't have to sleep in what I'm going to wear but can maybe actually get up and be ready by 5:00am. Ok, so I'm not a morning person - I just need a little caffeine and quiet and then I'm ok. Don't ask me to make major decision early in the morning - it makes me grumpy. Erynn and I stay on our own ends of the house in the morning and then when we get ready to leave we meet in the middle!LOL So just remember - I will be out there with all the other crazy shoppers and I hope none of us make the news!

Hoping all of you had a Great Turkey and you have lots of leftovers!

Our newest member of the family

I know I really didn't need to add a new member to our household but I just couldn't resist that face or that puppy breath!

Maria (one of the ladies I work with) has a part time job at the shelter and some one brought this little one in last week. Maria, thought she had it given away last Friday when she showed it to me. I fell in love with her but was glad she had a home. The home fell through and then another one fell through. I just couldn't stand it anymore - so the baby came home with me tonight. Erynn had no idea. She is on cloud 9! I think out of the whole deal I've got her back in her bed now and I can hog my own bed! Who would have thought a puppy could do that for you!

Pumpkin is her name. Erynn had officially stated this. Puppy our older dog is ok, but not happy about it. I've been having to give her extra lovings and the cat - well she's slapped him a few times but nothing scares the cat. Pumpkin has been going around barking at the cat and puppy - so think she can hold her own! I'm in a house full of hormonal females!

Stay tune for more adventures!LOL

Monday Menu November 20, 2006

With this week being Thanksgiving, some of us will be doing more cooking than we normally do in a month. This year, I can say I'm not hosting Thanksgiving at my house. In some ways this makes me sad but in other ways it takes a load off of me. I will enjoy Thanksgiving with my parents and it will be the first time in 4 years that she will have my brother and myself there with his three (under the age of 6) and my daughter. It's been a wild year, but there is so much to be thankful for.

Sunday - My mom cooked for us.

Monday - I have a final but will be home early to cook Stove Top Mac n Cheese

Tuesday - Pancake and eggs - we didn't eat this last week

Wednesday - Tacos

Thursday - Two dishes that I'll make to take to Mom's
Senator Russell Potatoes
Makes 8 servings
3 c cooked, mashed sweet potatoes 1 c sugar 2 eggs 1 tbs vanilla extract 1/2 c melted butter Topping: 1 c packed brown sugar 1/2 c flour 1 c chopped pecans 1/3 c butter Miniature marshmallows
Mix sweet potatoes, sugar, eggs, vanilla and butter thoroughly. Pour into buttered 1 qt. casserole. Mix all topping ingredients EXCEPT marshmallows, together with fork. Sprinkle the crumbs on top of the casserole. Place marshmallows on top, covering casserole. Bake for 30 minutes at 350°_________________Thanks Susan for this wonderful recipe.

Pineapple Casserole
20 oz pineapple tidbits 1/2 c sugar 3 tbs flour 1 c shredded cheddar cheese 1/2 - 1 stick butter 1 c ritz cracker crumbs
Drain pineapple, reserving 3 tablespoons of juice. Combine sugar and flour. Stir in reserved juice. Add cheese and pineapple. Combine butter and crumbs. Sprnkle over mixture. Bake uncovered at 350° for 20 - 30 minutes. Thanks for this recipe too Susan!

These are two recipes that just make Thanksgiving for me!

Friday - fried rice with left over ham

Saturday - Potato soup - freezer

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week and a wonderful Thanksgiving. Check out Laura's blog for more menus!

Things to do this weekend!

I thought that if I made a list maybe it would propell me to get them done!
My single's group from Church is having their Thanksgiving dinner Saturday night so I have some cooking to do for that but other than that outing that's really all that is going on this weekend. So here's my to do list:

1. Purchase another box of icicle lights and get those finished.
2. Bake pumpkin cake tonight for the pumpkin roll cake for tomorrow night.
3. Print cross country photos of Erynn so I can get started on her album.
4. Work in my scrapbook room - cleaning, finish organizing.
5. Finish hats/mittens for my niece and nephew for their Christmas presents.
6. Laundry!LOL
7. Work on my Jesse ornaments!
8. Let Erynn and her friends make applesauce/cinnamon ornaments.

That's all I can remember for now but I'm sure I forgot a couple! Hope everyone has a great weekend and don't eat too much - remember turkey day is just around the corner!

Ok - Sunday night - I admit that I only got 4 of these done. So I didn't get as much as I wanted to get done - done. I'll have some late nights this week trying to get things done!

New Projects!

As usual I added more stress and another project to my plate this weekend. YIKES! My friend Michele's husband went to the deer woods and she wanted me to come over and sew with her Friday night. I got this hat done for my niece, I just need to add buttons to it and the mittons. I have a purple one cut out for my other niece and a dinosaur one cut out for my nephew. I really shouldn't complain because she had all the fleece she had purchased on clearance last year - so it's just costing me time. Now if you could see my scrapbook table. It was pretty nice and clean but now it's stacked up again with jesse ornaments, my advent wreath (I can't get the cat to leave alone the greenery!), and now the sewing machine and the patterns that have been cut out! I didn't get anything done on my list for the scrapbook room clean up this week but I did get my canna's planted, weeded all of my flower beds but one (my veggie garden is awful)and I got my new recipes that I haven't tried all organized in a binder.

So this week, I need to finish my sewing, work on the scrapbook room projects and work on my jesse ornaments.

On top of all of this, I'm trying to start my Weight Watcher's again and loose this 10 pounds that keeps hanging around my middle and hips! Exercise is my big problem and sodas. I love my Dr. Peppers. So if you see me with a soda in my hand get after me! Weight Watcher's is so hard to do with my daughter because she won't eat anything mixed together. So if you have any ideas I would love to hear them. I'm going to try to eat lots of salads and watch my portion sizes!

November 13, 2006 Monday Menu

As usual Erynn requested Autumn Chowder for our Sunday meal and I must confess that I'm getting tired of it, but we ate it. For my daughter to eat anything mixed together is unbelievable. I tried a new recipe of cookies yesterday called Fudge Crinkles. Oh wow. They are awesome and I will defintely be using them for my cookie exchange this year.

Ok here's the rest of the menu:

Monday: Class - so Erynn will eat at Mom's

Tuesday: Chili Dogs and fries

Wednesday: Class

Thursday: Pancake and eggs

Friday: Pepperoni and cheese crescents - I still haven't fixed these yet

Saturday: Slow cooker chicken cordon blue - this one keeps getting moved too

Sunday: Pizza

I honestly sat down last night and worked on my menu for December and trying to plan all my baking for the holidays too. Check Laura's blog for more great menus.

The Start of my Jesse Ornaments

Yesterday was a great mail day. I got my advent wreath and I got the felt that Patti was so nice to send to me.

Here is a little about a Jesse tree:
The Jesse Tree is named from Isaiah 11:1: "A shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots." It is a vehicle to tell the Story of God in the Old Testament, and to connect the Advent Season with the faithfulness of God across 4,000 years of history. The Branch is a biblical sign of newness out of discouragement, which became a way to talk about the expected messiah (e.g., Jer 23:5). It is therefore an appropriate symbol of Jesus the Christ, who is the revelation of the grace and faithfulness of God.
You can check out the web for more information or look at http://www.crivoice.org/jesse.html.

I still have to embellish them with beads and thread, but I am very excited about these. Hopefully I will have these finished and more to share with you after this weekend.

Oh, Thanks ladies for the encouraging words yesterday. I'm feeling better and I exercised last night. Gosh does that make a difference. I feel so great today. Thanks again!

Ever have one of those blahh days?

I'm having one of those weeks and at first I really wasn't sure what was going on but I think I have figured it out. It's the holidays coming up. At first I was worried about the money part of it but my daughter and I have talked about it and she agrees with me that the presents aren't what the whole holiday are supposed to be about. I still don't want to let her down though - know what I mean. I've been thinking about it and I'm feeling better about all of that. No, this is the first time in two years that I won't be hosting Thanksgiving. I won't have the house full of my ex's family, and I won't be doing all the cooking and cleaning. I know it sounds silly but I feel a little lost. My mom is having Thanksgiving this year and it's the first time in about 4 yrs that she will have my brother and his kids and me with her. So it will be a great Thanksgiving but a different one. Three of the eight will be under the age of 6!LOL

I visited Barb's site at http://anewchelseamorning.blogspot.com/ and she had things she was thankful for. It really hit me this morning that I too have much to be thankful for to be mopping around.

1. I have a beautiful daughter who is my world. She is truly a gift from God. I was told that the longer I waited to have children the harder it would be for me to conceive. I not only had that problem but then she was born a month early. She is my lovey, huggy girl and I truely love her and thank God for her every day.

2. I have a roof over my head and it's my very own home. I know that many single parents are not as fortunate as I am.

3. I have the most wonderful parents that anyone could ever ask for. They have been my rock in my life. They are always there.

4. I have a job and it's honestly a pretty good job. They are paying for 80% of my college education - so I can't complain very loud.

5. My car is still running. Pray with me on that one. It's not paid for yet and I would really like to get a year or two out of it after it's paid for.

6. I have my health. In 2001, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. I had just gotten divorced from my daughter's dad in 2000 and then was slammed with this. This April was my five year check up and I'm cancer free. What a wonderful feeling that is!

So off the top of my head this morning I can think of 6 things that I'm very thankful for.

Next Step in Organizing my Scrapbook Room

Here is my table looking much better. I took all the paper that I had laying around and will organize it in an idea binder below.


This is a clock that was given to me two years ago and I still haven't put it up. So the plan tonight is to find some photos and get them in the clock and get it hung up in my scrapbook room.


I have unmounted all my stamp sets and have them in clear cd cases. I am lacking a few so cd cases are on my list for walmart. The little red book is how I keep up with what ones I have and these that are piled around the book still need to be stamped into the little red book. I have it broken up into sections such as: Christmas, thanksgiving, Easter, Fall, Valentines, Birthday, Sayings, etc. So one set of stamps could be stamped into several different sections. It's easier to look through the book to get ideas of what I can use.


This is my birthday card lunch box that still needs to be decorated. So that's on my list to do this week. Hopefully after it's done it will help me to remember people's birthdays and get cards sent out to them on time!


This is my idea binder that I'm going to put all my loose pieces of paper in. I love paper and constantly am printing things from the computer. I see a card I like and I print it out and so I'll make dividers for cards - birthday/Christmas/Father's day, etc and projects that I want to do.


These are the Becky Fleck Page Maps that I print out once a month. I plan to cut these out and glue them onto the index cards and then file them away with my other layout maps.

So that's my plan of attack for this week. Check back and see what I get accomplished! Thanks Laura for this challenge!

Last week I posted about my Christmas Traditions since growing up. Today, I thought I would tell a little bit about how they were growing up.
Thanksgiving
As a child, we always rotated going to my grandmothers' houses. My mom is one of 9 children and her parent's house was tiny. There was always a table for the food and then a table for the desserts. There was never enough room at the table to eat so you just ate where you could find a spot. Then the kids would go outside and play and as we got older they would take us to Hill Top to climb - a small hill in the area and we would climb it and work off some of the food so we could go and eat more. Most of the men would go hunting early Thanksgiving morning and early evening. My Dad's family was quite smaller. He is one of 4 with there being a 12 yr age difference between he and his oldest sister(who passed away this August). My dad is the only living survivor of his immediate family and is having a very hard time with it. The holidays mean more to him than ever this year. We would go to my Granny Snead's and she would have everything cooked and it was always so good. We would play Rummy and marbles and just have a great time.

For the last two years, I cooked Thanksgiving and my exhusband's family would come in from Illinois and we would have a feast. His house was big enough that we could all fit around the dining room table. This year is going to be odd, but for once my mom will have my brother and I both home for Thanksgiving. My brother and I have both went through divorces this year and he's back home from Oklahoma. My mom is going to have all 4 of her grandchildren at her house for Thanksgiving and I'm sure it will be a lot of fun with the little ones around.

My daughter and I always try to find a new game to play for Thanksgiving and this year we have two - chicken foot with dominoes and pass the pig. We are excited about getting everyone to play it with us. We also go and see a movie every Thanksgiving night. We have done this for the last 7 yrs and it's a great way to end the day.

Christmas
Christmas was the same at my mom's family as Thanksgiving. It was crazy and crowded but so much fun. Sometimes we went late Christmas eve night and sometimes we went early Christmas morning. When I was little, I always had a pretty Christmas dress for Christmas. We spent Christmas eve with Granny Snead and the Snead family. My Granny Snead would always have a ham cooked and dressing and all the fixing with it. It was just always a great relaxing time. Now on my dad's side of the family we have a dinner at a local restaurant and all get together before Christmas. When we would be leaving my Granny's house we would stop by some friends of my parents (Buster and Opal) and visit with them. They would always have the news on for me so that I could see where Santa was at.

We will probably spend Christmas at my parent's house this year, but my mom's family is hoping to find a place that is big enough for all of them to get together for Christmas next year.

Monday Menu November 6, 2006

Sunday : Black Angus Potato Soup

Monday: Homemade Mac n cheese - didn't get to it last week

Tuesday: Dinner with Single group from church

Wednesday: Class

Thursday: Slow Cooker Tai Chicken

Friday: Tacos

Saturday: Enchiladas

Sorry that I don't have links to my recipes this week but I will post any that you may want - just let me know. Hope everybody has a great week. Check Laura's blog for more great menus.

Black Angus Baked Potato Soup
4 lg baking potato
2/3 c butter
2/3 c flour
6 c milk
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp white pepper
4 green onions
8 ozs sour cream
12 slice bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 1/4 c cheddar cheese

Wash, dry and prick potatoes with fork. Bake in 400 oven for 1 hour or until done. Let cool. Cut into half lengthwise and scoop out pulp; set aside. Melt butter in heavy saucepan over low heat; add flour, stirring until smooth. Add milk, potatoes, salt, peppers, green onions (half) and back (half) and half of cheese. Stir until heated through. Add rest of cheese and sour cream. Stir until mixed well. Pour into bowls and top with onions and bacon.

The Clean up!

Well, it's Saturday and I got one or two things done on my list. Want to see?


I got the Halloween stuff put up and I got some of the papers off the table.

Today, I worked on finishing my afghan that I have been working on for over a year.

So I still have lots to do but I got something done at least. Of course, the more I'm in the room the more I see that needs to be done. I need some shelves to display some of my crafts better - they are just piled up. Hopefully, I can get one soon.
Check back later and see what's been done!

Help! I'm drowning

Here is my messy scrapbook room. I'm posting it because I thought if I put up my list of need to do's maybe I would hold myself accountable and get them done.
1. Orange halloween tote to be put away.
2. Finish afghan - it's in the floor.
3. Start Jesse Ornaments - may not get them finished by Dec 3 but get a good start on them for advent
4. Make Advent wreath. - I ordered a very simple one off of ebay and will dress it up with some greenery.
5. Finish birthday lunchbox (on the corner of the table)
6. I have a year's worth if not more of catching up on scrapbooking:
Erynn's Washington DC trip
Erynn's Summer in Germany
Erynn's sports!
7. Pictures that need to be framed - three of them.
8. Becky Flecks' maps - get them cut out and into index card binder
9. I'm sure there is a 9 but I can't think of it.

Help me get these done!

Family traditions

I'm so excited to read everyone's holiday traditions. We have a few but I can't wait to incorporate more this year. This year will be our first Christmas on our very own in our own house. It's a very scary and exciting year for us and I'm sure it will be a very special one. I have been divorced from my daughter's dad since 2000 but we lived with my parents until 2005 and I'm very thankful that they had the space for us. In 2005 I remarried which was a huge mistake and lasted less than a year - hence my dd and I having our very own house this year on our own.

I asked my daughter a couple of years ago what she liked most about our Christmas and she told me when we drove around looking at the Christmas lights. There is a house not far from my parent's "The Brockington House" and each year by Thanksgiving they have everything lit up. You can drive down their driveway and they have Christmas carols playing and you circle around their driveway slowly and then come back out. It's magical and I'm afraid it won't happen this year because they have the house up for sale. So we will have to find another special Christmas place to go.

My favorite is the Live Nativity that one of the small local churches does each year. It's neat because we don't know the kids but we have watched them grow up through the Nativity. They always put a sign up announcing that it will be that weekend and you drive through it with your head lights turned off. They do such a great job of it.

Christmas eve we always watch "The Christmas Story". I know it's a corny movie but I love it. We usually have snacks at my parent's house and I usually have a small present (book) for my daughter to open. Since she is old enough she reads me "Twas the Night Before Christmas". It's a special pop up book that I got her when she was a baby. Then we put out the plate of cookies and Coke (This santa doesn't like milk!LOL) and we go to bed.

Christmas morning we do our stockings and then see what Santa brought (usually one gift) and then the rest are from Mom. Then the day is spent at my parent's house. My daughter's dad is in Germany so these last few years I have had her all to myself. It's hard for her but she's doing pretty well with it.

I want to incorporate the Jesse tree this year. We are getting ready to start making our ornaments for it. I love the spoons game that Laura told about - we may have to try that this year.

Anyway, I can't wait to hear what all you guys do and the many more ways I can make Christ a bigger part of Christmas than Santa.

Wishing you all the best this holiday season.

Check out Sandra's blog for more ideas!

What a Weekend!

This is me and Erynn at her first Razorback game! It took some getting there - long line of traffic having to leave home three hours before the game and sitting around waiting on the game to start. Erynn was ready to go home before the game started but when it started and the crowds really get into it - she was having a ball! We yelled, "WOOOO SOOOO Pig" so many times, along with "Arkansas Razorbacks". She did the wave and she laughed and laughed at the drunk in front of us. I told her it was a life lesson on why not to get drunk because she would act like the guy in front of us!

We left the game during the third quarter because of where we parked at. I parked on the golf course which was a total mess - learned by that mistake. We had to do a little 4 wheeling to get out and almost got stuck on a hill but "I am woman - hear me roar!" we made it out!

Sunday was a beautiful day weather-wise and otherwise. We had the Lord's Supper at church and it was beautfully done. I can honestly say this was my first time participating in it and Erynn's too. They did it by family. They had these tables set up throughout the church and each family could take a turn going. Bonnie, one of the ladies from my single's group invited us to go with her. It was just such an emotional, touching time. I can not put it into words other than I wil never forget the powerful feelings that came over me. Even Erynn was all huggy and touchy during the service. Just beautiful!

Our church also had their fall festival Sunday evening. Erynn and I participated at the number toss booth. It was so much fun to see the little ones in their costumes and how excited they got over the games and candy! It was just the best ending to a great weekend!

Monday Menu October 30, 2006

This week I only have class on Wednesday! Yeah! So I can get a little bit more done this week and hopefully get caught up on some things!

Sunday - Autumn Chowder - this was such a hit last week with dd and myself that I made it again.

Monday - Chicken Parmesan

Tuesday - Chicken Cordon Blue

Wednesday - class

Thursday - Pepperoni and Cheese Crescents

Friday - Homemade Mac n Cheese

Saturday - Potluck dinner with Singles group - we are working on our Christmas shoeboxes.

Check out Laura's website for more great menus!

Hectic Thursday

First thing this morning, I thought it was Friday, boy was that wishful thinking! It's Thursday and that means a very busy day/night at work getting ready for our vendor appreciation shrimp boil and trying to get everything finished for the end of the period, too! Why do they always pick the last week of the period to do this dinner!

I'm letting Erynn have two girls spend the night Friday night for a small Halloween party. Last year it was a total of six girls but then in my ex's house we had lots of room and money wasn't an issue. I told her we were going to have to down-size the party. She seemed ok with it but now that it's Thursday she's telling all this stuff that she would like to have. She wanted to make invitations last night at 9pm after I had got home from school. I explained to her it was too late for that and then she was showing me things she had found online and they were really cute. She is a procrastinator - very bad procrastinator!LOL. We carved the pumpkin last night and have it done and I got the big jars I needed from my mom's house. So tonight after the dinner at work, I get to go home and start setting up. I need to bake a pan of brownies so that will be done and then to start setting the table. I have a witches cauldron that we put a smaller bowl inside of it for punch(sprite with green food coloring - that's what my dd calls punch) with dry ice around it. I also have a glow stick to put in it too! The bar will have purple lights on it with spider web covering them and then we'll have a brain(cauliflower) in green water in a big glass cookie jar, and then blood (red gelatin with some blue food coloring mixed it - it'll look almost black) and guts (spaghetti with red food coloring) in another jar. The light fixture in the kitchen will have black light bulbs in it with spider web and bats hanging in it. Oh yeah, the table will have rats on it too! I have Halloween plates and Halloween goblets for them and the ice will have plastic flies in it!LOL Before the dinner we will go to a hay maze and I have glow necklaces for them so I can keep up with them and then we'll come home and have a haunted menu.

Haunted Menu

Ghost tales (napkin)

Witches Fingers ( green beans)

Goblin Pie (pizza)

Devil's tail (fork)

They'll each have a menu and they will get to pick two things and they'll have no idea what they are getting. It's a lot of fun but this year I'm cheating and not cooking other than the green beans!LOL They will have little name plates of who's sitting where and lots of candy.

Two guys are coming from work and are going to scare them! I told them no mask! Just to scratch on the window and then to knock really loud on the door! I've warned my neighbor's too! I have a ghost story to tell them: "Where's my golden arm". That's the one that used to always get me.

So as you can tell I will probably get very little sleep Friday night and then Saturday evening we have the Razorback game! But it will be so much fun! I'll post pics when I get them!

2006 Ornament Exchange

If you are interest in an ornament exchange Kathleen is hosting one. Check out her blog at http://strandedinthemountains.blogspot.com. She has some beautiful photos on there!

Tackle it Tuesday

Ok, so I have been procrastinating just a little - ok a lot lately. I just haven't been able to get myself to do what I need to do. With working full time and then classes two nights a week - well when I'm at home I just want to veg! So last week I did this "Tackle it Tuesday" and I got my car cleaned up and some of my scrapbook table cleaned up so I thought maybe if I write it here it will make me do it. So here's what I need to do tonight:
1. Rake leaves in front yard and cut dead plants down in flower beds.
2. Weed my little garden area out back - it's full of grass again. Once I get it weeded I have plastic now to put down until I'm ready to plant this spring.

So let's see what I get done this evening!

Updated:
I got the leaves raked and the dead plants out of the flower beds but I didn't have time to get to the weeding in my little garden. One down 100 more to go!

Homemade with love

I always make jelly to give to the ladies I work with and teachers, etc. This year I made Mock Strawberry Preserves out of figs.
Mock Strawberry Preserves
6 cups figs, mashed
4 small strawberry jello pkgs
6 cups sugar
Cook mashed figs and sugar for about 10 minutes. Then add jello and bring to a hard boil - cooking 10 min longer after to comes to hard boil - stirring constantly. Put in jars and seal - invert jars for 5 minutes

I also normally make small gift albums for my mom and sil but I'm not sure that I will do that this year.

My dd is wanting scarves made out of fleece for her friends at school. I am going to buy three colos and then sew the strips on top of each other and then cut fringe on each side and then purchase small gloves at walmart to give with them.

This is hosted by Gibee at kisses of sunshine.

Monday's Menu Oct 23, 2006

Sunday: Autumn Chowder Which my dd loved and she's a very picky eater.

Monday: Leftovers of chowder since I have class tonight.

Tuesday: Easy Beef Stroganoff

Wednesday: I have class so it'll be fend for yourself - usually dd goes to my parents house

Thursday: Work is having a Vendor Appreciation Dinner so I'll eat there and bring dd some shrimp home

Friday: Fall party at our house so well have pizza and lots of sugar!

Saturday: Razorback Game - eat dinner at the game

It's a busy week for my family this week. Not much cooking going on at my house! Hope everyone has a great week.

Check out Laura's blog for more menus!

Tackle it Tuesday

One of the ladies sponsors a Tackle it Tuesday and you take before and after pics of what you tackled. I'm not quite that organized but I have two things I would really like to tackle or get started on:

1. Clean the inside of my car - it's just diry and really needs to be vacuumed and dusted and the trunk needs to be cleaned out. It's not junkie on the inside but just dirty!
2. Spend 30 minutes tonight in my scrapbook room trying to clean off and organize my table some.

Stay tuned to see if I accomplish these!LOL

Accomplishments of our children

There is nothing better than seeing your child accomplish something big. Saturday, Erynn was one of two 7th graders that was invited from her school to go to the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival in Fayetteville, AR. We have just started cross country this year and had no idea what this was and I'm thankful we didn't know until after we got there. Erynn was nervous because this was a 5k - which meant 3 miles instead of the two she is used to.

Chile Pepper Festival is the largest cross country meet in the nation. We had colleges from all over the US there - Duke, Texas, Mississippi, New Mexico. It was huge and unbelieveable. Erynn was a nervous wreck. She kept saying she didn't want to do it - not to make her do it. But she was so excited when she found out from school that she was invited - so I knew she really wanted to do it. I finally hid from her right before the race started - so that maybe she wouldn't be so nervous.

At the starting line, the older girls put the 7th graders up front because they knew they were faster runners. Erynn came in 74th out of 243 girls. It was so awesome, and I was so excited I couldn't get a picture taken. Luckily someone else got a few for me. After the race, Erynn apologized for being ugly and upset about racing. She was so excited that she had done the three miles and finished the race. What a build up of self confidence and we all need that! Life is great isn't it!

Monday and Wednesday I have college classes at night. So Sunday evenings I usually cook something that will tide us over a few days.

Monday - homemade vegetable soup I made Sunday

Tuesday - country style ribs that were cooked in the crockpot with bbq sauce

Wednesday - left overs

Thursday - grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup

Friday - Pancakes, bacon and eggs

Saturday - Singles group at church is getting together

Sunday - frozen lasagna, corn and french bread

My vegetable soup is very easy and my daughter loves it which is very funny since she won't eat things mixed together.

Homemade Vegetable Soup

1 lb hamburger meat cooked and drained
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 bag of frozen mixed vegetables
minced garlic
black pepper and salt
1/2 onion chopped
dash of tabasco sauce
16 oz of tomato juice
water
cooked macaroni

Mix all together except macaroni and tomato juice and cook until potatoes are tender. Add macaroni at the end with tomato juice.

School Championship Race

Here are the top five junior high girls!
Finish line photo!

Today was the big race at school. It was the north vs. south! As you know that's a big deal in the south! But the north ruled again! Erynn came in 5th place in the junior high meet and was the 2nd 7th grader to come in. The first place winner was also a 7th grader from North Junior High! Go Panthers!

Guess where we are going Saturday! Fayetteville, AR here we come! She got invited to go! I have camera and will travel!LOL

Race for the cure!

So this is my fourth year for the race. As usual brings tears to my eyes. For me it's a celebration of life - though I didn't have breast cancer, but thyroid cancer - this is always my special time of year to celebrate beating cancer and being able to be a mom to my daughter. Erynn got to go with me this year and of course my best friend Michele went too. The crowd was unbelieveable - we had over 43,000 this year! Such a great cause and makes you feel so good to be walking in the race with all these other women. One of the policemen was noted saying that he hated to work the race because there would be so many women in one place there was bound to be wrecks!LOL WE ARE WOMEN HEAR US ROAR!

We had some excitement. I lost Erynn. She wanted to run it and see what time she could make on it. So off she went with my cell phone and left us with Michele's. You have the option to do a 2k or a 5k and she forgot and took the right for the 2k and we didn't show up. She found someone working the race and we got ahold of her on the phone and met up with her after the race! I don't know which one of us cried more - the lady that had her, Michele, Erynn or myself. We all hugged and cried. Very emotional day but one none of us will forget ever!

PS. Erynn turned down a cross country track meet to go with me to the race. She said she knew this meant a lot to me and she wanted to be there with me. Talk about make you want to cry!

Russellville Cross Country Invitation

Saturday morning we got up bright and early for Erynn's cross country meet. She had to be at the school by 7am. This was her first meet away from school riding the bus like the big kids. It's so hard to believe she's in Junior High. I drove on and met her in Russellville. There was kids from all over the state competing.

Erynn ran the junior 2 mile and did it in 16:38. She fell at the very beginning of the race and we thought she was in the top 20. After church on Sunday, she saw her coach and he told her she was 27th. She really wanted that trophy but she did real well with the news. We have a few more meets before the season ends and I think 27th was really good for all the kids she ran against.

I messed up on the photos = she came in faster than I thought she would and I was so excited I couldn't hold the camera still and so I got blurry shots. I'm going to have her put on her uniform and take some photos of her.

We're going to the meet!

Erynn is getting to go to the Russellville meet this Saturday. She's more nervous than excited right now, but hopefully by Saturday morning she will be excited. I'll have lots of pics to share!

I had a proud mommy moment today. Erynn got 8th place out of 50 girls today in her cross country meet. She moved up 5 places from last week. She ran her little heart out. I really liked this picture of her - it makes me think of bionic woman with the shadows and stuff - gosh I always wanted to bionic woman - ok back on the subject. Erynn is meeting lots of new girls and making some new friendships and well it's just an exciting moment of her growing up. Right now she still wants me around and allows the camera at times.

We have a big meet coming up next weekend and Erynn's still waiting to find out if she is going to get to go since she's only a 7th grader. So keep your fingers crossed for us!

Eiffel Tower Lamp

My best friend Michele found me this lamp for $3 at a garage sale a few weeks ago. My scrapbook room is in eiffel towers and purses. The only creative thing I have done lately is hot glue trim to it and stamp eiffel towers on it. The stamping part went ok but not as well as I would have liked for it to, but hey it's better than it was to start out with.

Maybe someday soon this will be my scrapbook room that has scrapbook creativity coming out of it rather than everything just sitting there collecting dust and pictures just laying around waiting to be put creatively in an album with dates and all the information about that day.

Being the mom of a teen

Wow! This past week has really been an eye opener for me. I can not believe that my daughter is in the 7th grade and will be an official teenager this December. Everything keeps pounding that message to me loud and clear. Saturday, she had her first soccer game on the "big" soccer field with all the players (don't ask me how many) and as I was walking across the field - it felt like a mile across - I kept thinking, "She's too little for this field. This can't be the right field". I looked back at her and said, "Are you sure you're on the right field?" "Yes, mom!" I'm not old enough to have a teenager - yes I am but I don't feel like enough time has went by for her to be a teenager.

Today we had our first cross country track meet. I have never been so proud. All the girls ran together (all the 7th-9th of two junior highs) and Erynn came in 13th out of all but 2nd of the 7th graders. I have sent pictures to everyone and have posted it on SBA. I have just hugged and hugged her and told her how proud I am of her. I have already printed out the pics from today and guess what - everyone at work will have to see them tomorrow. Where did my baby go? Sometimes I wished I would have hugged her and kissed her more when she was little. I did those things but well it just went by too fast. I feel like this is getting me ready for all the bigger things coming and I'm not ready at all.

Funny thing happened when we were at the meet. I ran into friends from a previous life ( I have been married twice and feel like I'm on my third life because both marriages were way different and well I feel like my life is completely different than it's ever been). I ran into Scott and Kara that were stationed with us at Eaker AFB, Blytheville, AR in the early 90's. I knew they were in AR but it was such a shock to see them after all these years. Back then we all had just gotten married and now we have teenagers. It was great to see them again and how much our lives have changed.