Byrum News

2011 Update

2011-11-10T09:16:00.003-05:00

So I guess it's way past time for another update. Things are trucking along for us.

Steve - is still at Platt's Funeral Home, he has had some health issues lately, but is getting them under control.

Sharon - joined the Augusta Choral Society and has already performed her first concert. Things at work are going good.

Nicholas - doing good learning, not playing an instrument any more, bummer! He is really into legos, kinexs and I am sure bacugans (not sure of spelling).

Emilia - doing good at school, she has had trouble doing homework instead of goofing off, but hopefully she will get better.

We are all excited to go down to Orlando, Fl next year to "visit" Uncle Kenney and visit a few special places.

Perhaps I can write a little more later, but it always seems the same-ole-same-ole around here.

Awesome Popsicle Maker

2010-06-04T09:34:00.001-04:00

Jen at http://wholefoodkids.blogspot.com/">Whole Food Kids, http://rtheyallyours.blogspot.com/">11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven, http://tvfreetoddlertime.blogspot.com/">365 Days of TV-Free Toddler Time, http://megafamilies.blogspot.com/">Mega-Family Blogs, and http://lifeinmex.blogspot.com/">life in mexico {and other places} a picture a day, is giving away a Zoku 7-Minute Pop Maker!

And just in case you don't know any awesome Popsicle recipes, she's throwing in THIS book, too!

This entire package is worth over $60! To enter, go

LOS Update w/ Jordan too!!

2010-01-05T09:46:00.004-05:00
I guess I could also update a little on the other important people in our life's out here.

Lucas Oscar Asselin is one tough little kid. He has done well with his appointments. Last month he got his prosthetic eye, which I am grateful I was able to be there for. It was so neat to see her paint his eye - it is amazing how well it looks. Last week he wasn't feeling well so Margaret took him to the doc's poor baby had a double ear infection and a sinus infection, but he's a trooper, you wouldn't know how sick he was from the way he acts. He hasn't had to have more laser for the spots in his left eye for a couple months so for now it's a wait and see period. He can walk so good and is starting to talk. He like to walk around with his toy phone saying Hi to Daddy. He is cute and cuddly.

Jordan has been doing great in Kindergarten this year. She is such a smart little girl. She is getting better every day at sounding out things - she can read quite a bit. She cut her hair to donate to Locks of Love, which made me sad at first because I liked playing with her hair, but it is so cute! Jordan loves doing girly things and is getting really good at picking out the cutest of outfits to wear to school. She is also a big help to Margaret trying to keep Lucas entertained and happy so Margaret can get things done around the house.

Margaret is still being a great stay-at-home Mom, working so hard to keep life in order for her family. Jeff is still on the road for work - they get to communitcate by skyping (phone call on internet, so they can see each other)

Year in Review

2010-01-05T09:44:00.000-05:00
Well 2009 has been and exciting and eventful year. I will go one by one on Updates so that we can get everyone caught up.

Emilia has had a great year, her conduct has improved immensely, she has gotten all A's on her weekly conduct report. This improvement has enabled her to be on the A/B honor roll. She has always been a great academic student, it was just her conduct that was holding her back. She loves her teacher Mrs. Brady and get's along with other in her class. A neighbor a few house's down from us has a son in her class, they enjoy playing together and we take turn's carpooling the kids to school each week. Emilia turned 8 this past July and is eager to get baptized, we are waiting for Spring to come so the Grandpa Leo can come out and perform the ceremony. She is trying so hard to grow up and every once in a while I see a peek of the tween coming out in her, but she still enjoy's her stuffed animals, dolls and dressing up. On November 28th we had a great Mommy/Daughter date. We checked into a fancy hotel in Columbia and got to order room service and watch movies. That night we got to go to a Miley Cyrus concert. I was surprised at the age range of the kids. Little girls from around 4 all the way up to teens. Emilia had a great time singing along to the songs and seeing the show. I thought that the Miley and her team put on a great show - full of enthusiasm, it was great seeing her in person --- even if she was very, very far away.

Nicholas is also doing well in school - his behavior is usually not an issue so much as the academic side. He is too much of a social butterfly trying to keep track of what is going on with his classmates to really pay attention. He is learning to be more independent and helps out Margaret quite a bit. He recently played one of the Mice soldiers for the play his grade did of "Nutcracker", he was very cute. Nicholas keeps sprouting, he is getting so tall and he is finally putting a little meat on him, although he is still a skinny boy. He is very much into bakugan's (they are tiny toys) And as always very much into any kind of media - TV, Video Games & such. It is hard to believe that he will be turning 10 soon. He is having a great time being a big brother to everyone, but especially little Lucas. He played soccer this year and each time he improves. He is not as scared of the ball as he has been in the past. He had a great time going to California and visiting family at Christmas with Margaret and Jeff. I will try to get the clip of him playing Pit, it is quite funny to see him get aggressive on the game, but he is definitely a gamer.

Steve and I are still doing the same jobs....life is pretty much the same for us. I kept meaning to come and post, but life had been so busy.

I hope everyone had a great Holiday Season! Love to your family from ours!

Update

2009-12-03T11:31:00.001-05:00
Well - Life has been crazy this past year I am working on an update that I should be able to post by end of week. My love to everyone!

Menu Plan Monday

2009-02-16T13:02:00.004-05:00
It is time to get back on Track with my Menu planning. So:

Monday: Leftovers - clean out fridge.

Tuesday: Turkey Pot Pie, Fruit Cocktail

Wednesday: Dinner out (Nic's B-day)

Thursday: Honey Pecan Chicken, Taters, veggies

Friday: Waffles, Eggs, Bacon

Hopefully I can get back on track and start writing up menus with recipes.

Over at Orgjunkie.com she is having a give-a-way for a twelve-month subscription to Relish! You should check it out!

LOS Update

2009-01-06T12:30:00.002-05:00
Many of the few people that read this blog are aware that my sister Margaret gave birth to a delightful little boy named Lucas Oscar Asselin on November 19th. He was 8lbs 4 oz and I think 19 inches long. He is a beautiful boy.
Since then there have been some events - He got sick on Dec 30th and was sent to the ER by his pediatricion. After a really long day he was diagnosed with Retnal Blastoma - a tumor in his eye. He has been in the hospital since. He and his parents were transfered to Atlanta on Sunday and they did surgery to remove his eye yesterday (Jan 5). He is doing well and is being released to go home today. Margaret will be glad to get home to her own bed after a week sleeping at a Hospital. They plan on doing further test on his remaining eye and he will have to go in for regular evaluations for years...
Please keep them in your thoughts as they are trying to get their life back on track.

Straight no Chaser

2008-12-15T13:01:00.002-05:00
While I don't care for the name of the group I am so glad that Bethany posted about this wonderful group. I am hoping to pick up their CD after Christmas. Hopefully it will be on sale. Not often do I purchase CD's ....in fact I probably have bought less than 20 over my lifetime. But this will definatly be one that I do purchase.

I can't figure out how to upload something from youtube.com so you will just have to click over to hear their version of 12 days of Christmas.

LOVE IT!!

Update

2008-12-08T12:30:00.005-05:00

Okay - so it's really bad when a whole month goes by and you don't update....Sorry. I was talking with my good friend Amber and she told me it was time. It has been a crazy busy month. Food, shopping, a new nephew....What, didn't you know?

Lucas Oscar Asselin born November 19th at 8:27 a.m.(???I think correct time). He weight 8 lbs 4 oz and was 19 inches long. He is a real cutie patootie. He and Mother are doing great! He is getting bigger everytime I see him...and more adorable too! The kids all love holding him. It was great being able to spend the first day of his life with my sister and her new baby. Helping out when needed. Yea! Margaret's MIL (Jackie) and new FIL (Paul) were in town for the first weeks to help out. Margaret's church friends are also extending a hand. If you know Margaret then you know that things have been planned for months.....she even sent out an excel spreadsheet with who was going to be in town when....crazy, but I greatly admire her organizational skills. With her Jackie and Paul at the helm Thanksgiving was a breeze...I didn't cook one single thing. I was supposed to help with the clean up and somehow manage to get out of that....not intentionally mind you.
I did the Black Friday sales picking up a few things for Margaret since I was out and about. Emilia stayed the night on Thursday night with M&J so Steve and I were free to go out shopping. Walmart was crazy shopping, but the registers went quick. Not so at the other two stores I went to. ToysRUs and Target had crazy lines.
This year is the first year that Emilia has asked for something on her wish list and been consistant about it. She wants a baby alive.....now personally I don't care for it. Don't like it peeing/ don't want her messing with it. And she already had baby dolls....I bought Emilia a toy (not saying what) but now I am wondering whether she is going to be happy about it since it isn't what she wanted. But I guess we will cross our fingers and hope that the excitement doesn't wane on Christmas morning. I have everyone covered except for the hubs. I keep warning if he doesn't come up with something he wants...Santa just might not bring him something. I have already had to stop him from overbuying for us. He tends to do that. Last year -- I gave him a gift certificate for a book....he gave me a camcorder and accesories. He does spoil us!
The kids have both improved in school. Nicholas is getting good grades and Emilia has been bringing home A's in Conduct. So each have improved in their own little areas.
Well that is the update for now.....hopefully I can get better on keeping up with the blogs.

Fit Friday #2

2008-10-31T09:43:00.006-04:00
Okay once again another installment. I have done better about eating breakfast and packing lunches. We made some chili that I could take to work as it is quite cold in my office...I definatly wanted something warm to eat. The bad part of it being cold in I am less inclined to exersice. After this weekend with daylight savings I am hoping to walk Emilia to school. It has been too dark to really consider it safe to walk her. After tonight we don't have plans in the evenings so I am hoping to get a chance to exersise a little more...it is just so hard to pack it into the short time I have in the evenings....

It is also hard because today there are 10 million Halloween parties going on here at work and off course it's all healthy, homemade snacks - NOT!! Step away from the cupcakes!

Well I am hoping that this next week will be the start of a whole new outlook.

Fit Friday #1 (on Tuesday no less)

2008-10-28T13:38:00.003-04:00
Well this first week of Fit Friday was a disaster. I was amazed when I wrote my food down at what I was eating. I have realized that I definately have to start eating breakfast and start packing my lunches. It has turned cooler so I am hoping to stock up on some soups to eat at work. We are also heading into the dreaded Holiday season with all of it's caloric wonderful food.
Here are my goals and what I have actually done in red.
Start walking my daughter to school - it's not far, but I am trying to create layer's of good choices. Haven't started as yet.
Eating a healthy breakfast every morning. Have done this a few times, but when I don't I tend to have really bad eating habits during the day.
Packing my lunch with lots of healthy snack choices. I haven't really done this, I am going to go get some soups and healthy snacks from the store tonight.
Exersice in the evenings at least 3x a week. Haven't started this yet.
Go for a walk or a bike ride on Saturday mornings. Didn't do this one either....I have been booked the last two Saturday's from Morning to night.
Not buying any more junk food. Since I haven't packed my lunch I have eaten out a few times. I did refrain from digging into the bag of candy that I bought for Halloween that was calling my name. Seriously....I heard it.
Quit TWD. (It is a great baking group but I can't have all those goodies in the house anymore) I did quit, and I haven't baked as much as I used to. I did have to bake one chocolate and caramel cake for a lost bet. (Who would of thought gas would go below $3! But I am glad I lost that bet.)
Buy a scale. (My daughter was playing with the last one and it broke) I am going to try to buy one tonight when I pick up the healthy snacks...
Blog HONESTLY about what I eat daily and post it every Friday. I am hoping that it will keep me honest in my food choices. ok....this is a hard one and embarresing....but I said I would do it so....

SATURDAY
Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuit, 1 1/2 pieces of bacon

1 candy corn

hamburger (onion, lettuce, tomatoe, mayo, mustard), sour cream and onion chips, Sprite, Peanut Butter M&Ms,

Biscuit

Dinner out with friends at Tony Roma's
Ribs, Shrimp, Baked potato (loaded), 2 pieces of birthday cake.

SUNDAY
2 Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuits

2 mini sheppard's pies, pork&beans, 2 slices of apple, koolaid

10 pizza bites, gum

MONDAY
Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit

small handful of pretzels
1 chocolate truffle

2 cheesey bean & beef burritos, 1 taco, strawberry fruitista

chickent, mashed taters, cream corn

Tuesday (day with no breakfast and leftover lunch at work from day before)
1/2 chocolate & caramel candy bar

bean&cheese burrito, 1 taco

1 piece of chocolate & caramel cake
1 sm piece of peanut butter pie

mesquite chicken, loaded baked potato, kool-aid

WEDNESDAY
oatmeal w/butter, brown sugar, milk
banana

granola bar

corn on cob, baked potato w/ranch dressing & cheese, mesquite chicken

8" cold cut sub

THURSDAY
banana, pretzels

mesquite chicken & cheese sandwich, apple cinamon muffin, cheese stick, brownie

Snack plate (from Employee awards at work) - grapes, cheese cubes, chips & dip, cake, apples & caramel, sprite.

I forgot to keep track after that...but it doesn't get any better....went to my sister's baby shower on Saturday, went to the fair on Sunday....junk food galore.

I did pack the leftover turkey leg from the fair to shred up for my salad on Monday, but both yesterday and today didn't feel up to a cold lunch. I am taking home the turkey tonight to cut up for soup. I am starting fresh tomorrow......I will conquer this one day....

Fit Friday - The Beginning

2008-10-17T10:25:00.008-04:00
Okay...so I am going to bravely join this Fit Friday that Missy over at It's Almost Naptime has started. Technically they are doing it to get fit for the Holidays...and of those who have joined they are looking to lose 15-20 lbs. Me...I am looking to lose over 100 lbs. Yep you read that right One Hundred. Now before you panic I am not trying to lose that all before the holidays. But I am looking to get a great head start and to also be aware of what I am eating during this Calorie-laden times.

Since puberty I have always been overwieght. We did not have such great eating habits when I was growing up and so I am still in the process of trying to create good habits. When I was little I was skin and bones just like my kids. I am hoping to become healthier so that I can play with my kids longer than 5 minutes without losing my breath.
How I plan to do this:
Start walking my daughter to school - it's not far, but I am trying to create layer's of good choices.
Eating a healthy breakfast every morning.
Packing my lunch with lots of healthy snack choices.
Exersice in the evenings at least 3x a week.
Go for a walk or a bike ride on Saturday mornings.
Not buying any more junk food.
Quit TWD. (It is a great baking group but I can't have all those goodies in the house anymore)
Buy a scale. (My daughter was playing with the last one and it broke)
Blog HONESTLY about what I eat daily and post it every Friday. I am hoping that it will keep me honest in my food choices.
Well...that is all I can think of for now. Will keep you posted.

Zennioptical.com

2008-10-14T12:26:00.003-04:00
Okay, so I am new to this whole wearing glasses thing. I got my eyes checked out about a year or so ago and purchase $200 glasses...yikes. Although not as bad as some peoples prices. Then of course a few months later I misplaced my glasses. I still think they were hijacked by my daughter since we found a lens in her room, but her prescriptions is so close to mine I couldn't be 100% sure since she broke both pairs of glasses that she had gotten.

For the start of the new school year we got her another two pairs of glasses. But since I needed new glasses and she has yet to learn how to properly take care of her glasses I was looking for glasses for the both of us. My sister and her hubs recommended Zennioptical.com. With both of our perscriptions in hand I place an order with them. Since the shipping was the same I figured I would stock up on glasses for the both of us. I ordered two extra pairs for her, two regular glasses for me and a pair of perscription sunglasses for myself. I got all five pairs of glasses for $51.85; yes you read right for around fifty dollars we got five pairs of glasses. They have quite a few pairs of glasses for $8. You pay extra for anti-glare and other options, but for just a basic pair of glasses it can be a pretty inexpensive option.

Now the question everyone has on their minds is...How do I like them? How did the turn out? Well Emilia wasn't thrilled with the glasses that she got....one pair which she picked for the striped earpieces had a round lens that at the ripe old age of 7 she has decided to dislike. I can't remember the reason she didn't like the other pair, but it was based on Cosmetics. At this point she has her original two and won't have to deal with wearing the new ones them unless she breaks or looses the first two.

I really like my sunglasses...they are blue with blue tinted glasses...and they just scream Sharon. At first to be honest I didn't love the shape of my regular pairs. Since I have only tried on glasses one time before I didn't have much experience or a frame of reference. One pair is a little to boxy for me (someone commented on them looking like Palin's) The others are a little taller than the ones I had gotten used to wearing. But after a few days of wearing them you get used to it. I still catch myself pushing my glasses up to the top of my head since I am not used to wearing them. One frame isn't as sturday as the $200 glasses were and I treat them carefully, not that they seem to be fragile, but it is just my mind set.

Overall, I was extremely surprised and happy with my purchases. I don't think we as a family will be buying our glasses anywhere else. And now I have a frame of reference for the lens size I prefer. I don't have pictures yet, but I will post them soon so that you all can have a gander. I would recommend this site to anyone in the market for glasses.

Portable Foods

2008-08-27T15:48:00.002-04:00

Kimberly over at the Nourishing Gourmet had a Portable food chalange to see what creative ideas we can come up with to include in our packed lunches. I always find it difficult to come up with appetizing, inexpensive ideas and I am looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with. I want to utilize this weekend to come up with something new for my daughter's lunches.

My husband and I tend to go the left-over route, after dinner packing up what is left to be lunches for the next day. My daughter is the one that I am looking for ideas for. She tends to not eat much at lunch so her lunches of late have been either lunchables (found a great sale) or half of a peanut butter sandwich, a handful of nuts and a treat. I find that packing a lunch that does not spoil works best, so if she does not eat everything at lunch she can snack on what is left after school. I like to buy canned fruit(in water or light syrup) dice it up and put it in portable containers.

My sister had a great idea of deli roll-ups - a slice of meat and cheese rolled up and harpooned with a toothpick. She also has packed white rice with a packet of soy sauce for the one who loves rice.

Menu Plan Monday

2008-08-18T15:31:00.002-04:00
We are continuing to eat out of our freezer stock:

Monday
Lasagna
Veggies
Garlic Bread

Tuesday
Enchiladas

Wednesday
Creamy Swiss Meatballs
Brown Rice
Veggies

Thursday
Chicken Skillet
w/Green Beans and Potaotes

Friday
Crockpot chicken dumpling/stew

Saturday
Steaks
Mashed taters
Veggie

Sunday
Taco Salad

For Breakfasts: Pancakes from the freezer, Muffins, bagel sandwiches, eggs and bacon. Lunch will be leftovers for the adults, pb&j for Emilia. We are getting back in the routine of packing lunches for everyone in effort to be more responsible and frugal.

Update

2008-08-18T12:11:00.003-04:00
Well, it seems like it has been years since I have posted any kind of news from our household. In actuality it has only been 18 days, but yikes you can really feel behind when it happens.

Summertime has ended in our parts, the kids are back in school. Nicholas (8) started the third grade last week and Emilia (7) started 2nd grade today. I was glad to see a few familiar faces in her classroom from last year. She is in the same room as the son of my boss...so I might get a different viewpoint of my crazy girl.

Jordan started school today, Margaret found a M-W-F program that will give her a taste of school without being away from Mom too long. Little peanut is still on schedule to appear sometime in November and Margaret is looking great. She is definitely showing but as yet hasn't popped out all the way. We are all anxious to meet the new little one.

I have started a few new hobbies; I have decorated a few cakes (pictures to come) and have actually made quite a few pieces of Jewelry. I am toying with the idea of opening a stand at the farmer's market next year. I am looking for a way for me to work out of home...but it is a long way off.

Church is going good. I have been assigned my sister's to visit so I am looking forward to getting to know them a little better. One of the sister's is the RS president - Yikes! Well I guess I better get it done then. The kids were having an issue with a little girl in the ward being unkind, but their family is moving shortly so I am hoping that they will be able to make friends with someone. There are a lot of young families in the ward but there aren't too many their age.

Steve and I have done a lot of cooking and have frozen meals for the month of August. I would not be surprised if it lasted into September. We are trying to eat out of the freezer and cupboards this month so we can save and pay off more debt. We have sent in the final payment on one of our credit cards and it feels so good. Steve and I have talked and we have set an aggressive goal of debt repayment for the end of this year. We have also set up a consequence so that we are more eager to obtain this goal. Through Steve's work we have been saving weekly for Christmas, he and I really would like to get a Wii for the family. However, if we are not on schedule for our debt repayment then we have first use that money to get it done and then the leftover goes towards Christmas. I am hoping that this will deter us from spending frivolously. Wish us luck!

Steve is on schedule to get back into school come fall. He has been thinking about pursuing a computer degree. I have left it up to him. I want him to do something he loves. He is going to be going up to Ohio to visit family in September, because the kids are in school we will be unable to join him. We are hoping that we will be able to all go up next year, it marks my 5th anniversary here at the Chronicle and I get an extra week vacation that I could definitely use.

My family is still proposing to get together next June at the Grand Canyon, it will be so much fun as long as we can get the idea off the ground. There are so many options for lodging and such and we still have to decide on a week to go.....Hopefully after the holidays we will be able to get a better grasp on things going on and get it planned out.

Nic and Emilia are both doing soccer this year. They will have practice on Monday's and games on Tuesday's. Although it will be a strech to travel across town twon nights of the week. I am glad that we will at least have Saturday's to ourselves to plan family events. I would really like to get back into hiking and since Emilia loves it we look forward to that time together.

Well, I hope all is well with everyone! We love and miss you all!

Adventure City 2008

2008-07-31T10:41:00.004-04:00
This has quite a few photos, but I figured it was the best way to show off how much fun we had at Adventure City with Amber and her four girls - Sariah, Kailee, Tysie and Paige. At the end you even see a new little girl with whom Emilia and Kailee made friends with. It was a great little park. And I do mean little. They had a total of 10 rides and one wasn't even working that day. So the kids had fun running from ride to ride. We stopped for a lunch break and walked to a Denny's just a short distance from there and then headed back for more fun. At the end of the day we ended it with ice cream at Dairy Queen. It was so nice being able to see Amber and her girls. It has been two years (I believe) since we saw them last. It just seemed like two old friends picking up where we left off....It was great!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Smilebox

2008-07-23T17:52:00.001-04:00
I discovered Smilebox on someone else's blog...can't remember who right now. But I am very impressed. It may not be a fabulous program yet, but it has awesome potential.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Boston and Concord Photoslide

2008-07-23T09:36:00.000-04:00

Make a Smilebox photobook

Hannah Montana Wanna-be

2008-07-15T12:29:00.006-04:00

Well Emilia is into Hannah Montana big time. In fact she just spent her money to buy a H.M. game for her new DS. Consequently Jordan just loves Hannah Montana.....not that she has ever seen the TV show or heard her songs. But because her cousin, that she adores, likes her it's good enough for her. Last night she requested curlers in her hair and then this morning she wanted to dress like Hannah Montana - and this is what she came up with....pretty good!

It's a Boy!!!

2008-07-15T12:12:00.002-04:00
Margaret is having a Boy! Whoo-hoo. I am so excited for them. I do have a copy of one of the ultrasound photo's with his little profile, but have yet to scan it.....so just the news for now!

Now we have to think of a good first name to go in front of __________ Oscar Asselin! Any suggestions??

Father's Day

2008-07-15T11:51:00.004-04:00

Although Steve was 3,000 miles away we called to say Happy Father's Day to him. We also called Jeff while he was on his way to FL to wish him a Happy Father's Day. Steve got his Father's day present when we got back to GA/SC. A new watch....he was excited. My mom had a T-shirt for the kid's to place hand prints for Grandpa. They had a lot of fun doing this.

Uncle Eric and the Ice Cream Truck

2008-07-15T11:48:00.003-04:00

We have pictures of Uncle Eric with Nichlas and Jordan getting ice cream from a truck, so when I hear the familiar jingle, I told Eric he had one more child to do ice cream "duty" with and grabbed the camera.

Happy Birthday Emilia!

2008-07-15T11:44:00.002-04:00

Last Sunday, July 13th was my daughter's 7th birthday. I can't believe how fast time has gone by and how much my baby has grown. I always tell her that no matter how old she gets she will always be my baby! Muah!

OAMC

2008-07-14T15:33:00.002-04:00
So I am planning to start doing OAMC. What is that you ask? Well it is where you set aside a day cooking up a bunch of food to last an entire month or so. This way you just pull it out of the freezer, bake and eat. You don't waste your precious time cooking every evening. And with these meals you save on the "I am too tired" excuse for ordering pizza or going through the drive-thru. I have done a few meals before and have a few notes to adjust my recipes.....so we are planning ahead for the Month of August. This is when it gets crazy because Emilia will start the 2nd grade and because she goes to school so early, we have to get her into bed asap when we get home. I sometimes felt last year that we never got a chance to spend time together. We will have the menu soon. Thanks!

Menu Plan Monday

2008-07-14T15:27:00.003-04:00

So it has been awhile since I have participated in Menu Plan Monday. Also I am at work so I am doing this out of my head.....

Monday: Grilled Chicken, Brocolli and Cheese Rice, Mixed Veggies
Tuesday:Turkey, Rice and Gravey, Corn/Brocoli
Wednesday: Waffles, Fruit, Homemade Chocolate Pudding
Thursday: Bacon wrapped Filet, potatoes, veggie
Friday: Pancakes and Eggs
Saturday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes & Gravey, Veggies
Sunday: Hamburgers, French Fries, Brocolli Salad, Green Salad

We are going to be making big batches of pancakes and waffles and other baked goods for the early mornings.

Camping June 2008

2008-07-07T13:22:00.002-04:00

During that first week we went camping with my parents and my Aunt Kathy. We went to a really nice "resort" type campground that had a pond for fishing, a pool and a kids area. The kids were so excited about the kids area because they had video games and movies. I let them go for a few hours in the afternoon on Thursday and then again on Friday while we packed up the camp.
My Aunt has a 23' travel trailer and I have to say that is the way to camp. All the fun of the outdoors without having to cook over a fire. And out in California most of the campgrounds now only have a grill for you to use....no open fires; which proposed a little difficulty when making smores. We tried using charcoal, but alas not enough flame, so we ended up stuffing Newspaper into the coals so we could get nice toasty marshmallows. Well we had so much fun camping that we talked about doing it again next year....after chatting back and forth and getting a few more opinions we are having a Honey-Burgin Family Reunion at the Grand Canyon. We are hoping to get everyone to come.

My Daughter

2008-07-07T10:58:00.002-04:00
Just so ya know my daughter has her own blog it is called Princess E Speaks. When you get a chance drop on by.

Margaret's Peanut

2008-07-07T10:54:00.001-04:00
Well, I am so excited. Margaret is going to hopefully find out what she is having tomorrow a.m., and since her hubs is out of town she has invited me to join her.....yea! So, anyone want to venture a guess....I am thinking boy!

Cash System

2008-07-07T10:50:00.004-04:00
Well, even though I haven't as yet read the financial book that everyone raves about by Dave Ramsey. I do know through family and friends some of the things that it talks about. One of the things is to use a cash system. Once you are out of cash....you are out of luck. (kind-of) We have started doing cash this week and already I am realizing that we have forgotten some things. And we really need to have our gas money seperate from the other money. Although I don't think we will make it to the end of the week, it has been a good lesson. And even though we got bucked from the financial horse, we will climb up again....and again.... and again. I know that eventually we will get it down and I figure it is better to at least try than to not do any thing at all.

From The Freezer Thursday

2008-07-03T12:26:00.003-04:00
Okay....so we ate it all before I remembered to take a picture of it. However, this is what we made when I took a gander into our freezer. I pulled out some cut up chicken and veggies that we got from Angel Food Ministries last month. I told my husband that they were for chicken kabob's to grill. Well yesterday, we switched off duties, I went to pick up the kids and he started dinner. When I got in the house I noticed he was cooking on the stove. When I asked him what he was doing he said that the chicken was in little pieces that it would have been an issue on the grill (falling between the cracks I guess) I explained to him that they were supposed to be kabobs...but he said that there wasn't enough veggies......??? Who knows....anyhoo... he made a very excellent chicken stirfry. He used some teryiaki sauce that had been sitting in the fridge. The only thing we had to purchase for this meal was the rice. He had bought it a few days back, but mostly was stuff we had on hand....yeah! Will do better to post pictures next time.

Recipe:
chicken
sauce
veggies
rice

Cook rice separatley. Stir fry the chicken in a little bit of oil, add veggies and sauce. Serve over rice. Enjoy.

For more From the Freezer ideas go to Frugal Homemaker Plus.

Boston and Concord - Part Two

2008-07-01T11:17:00.013-04:00

So technically I don't know if it actually called Boston and Concord.....or if that is just what we called it as kids. I looked around and it had this statue of Paul Revere.

Emilia found this little concrete boat at the edge of the pond.

The kids had fun running around and playing on all the indoor playground equipment.....that is new....I don't remember it from when I was a kid.

They had this two story slide coming out of one of the buildings.

The only big thing that I remember that was missing is they use to have a "stock" there. You know....when they got in trouble it was a wooden thing that they locked their heads and hands into. For those of you with no imagination....

Maybe it will sound weird....but I was really looking forward to taking pictures of my kids in the stocks....lol.

Boston and Concord Park - Part One

2008-07-01T11:07:00.008-04:00
I have previously written about Boston and Concord Park. It was one of my favorite places to go as a kid. Well my mom looked up where it was and we decided to visit right after church on the first full day we were there. There were alot of new features and some old ones. They still had the covered bridge leading to the island playground. This used to be the only entrance/exit onto the island. Now there is a wooden bridge leading off the back of the island to were the restrooms are.

The "pirate ship" that I remembered was actually a colonial ship and was a lot smaller than I remembered. Of course I was around my kid's ages when I was last here.

Summer Vacation 2008

2008-06-30T13:35:00.007-04:00

Well all I can say is that we had a blast. We had an amazing time with our family and friends. The kids and I went out for the first week, since Steve can't be gone too long from work. Before going to the airport we stopped off in a few places in Atlanta that we have been wanting to check out. We went to IKEA, which was really great. We got some ideas for our house and were able to get a better idea of what we both liked.

They had open-faced cabinets, all glass cabinets, half-glass cabinets, but the ones I really liked were these ones:

But I still felt it was too cluttery....then I saw these....

I still like the half glass white bookcases, but I would want them with the frosted glass. That way I don't have to worry about how it looks behind the glass.
Steve really liked these cabinets, although I didn't care for them.....I think they look 70'ish.

We also stopped of at The Container Store, which was totally cool.....I wish we had one closer, because you would really have to have reason to go all the way to Atlanta vs just going there, or at least a very big project.

Then we stopped off at The Cheesecake Factory for a dessert before heading over to the airport.
Everyone got a different cheesecake so I was able to try four new kinds. I am going to make a list and check them off to make sure that I have tried all the ones I want to. I have added to the list:

Original Cheesecake (Nicholas)

Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake (Steve)

Dutch Apple Carmel Strudel Cheesecake(Sharon)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake (Emilia)

I am adding those tastes to the one I tried last time I was out here:

Chocolate Tuxedo Cheesecake (Sharon from a previous visit)

Any reason I go into Atlanta I am planning on going there for dessert, although their food is also excellent.

Back from Vacation!

2008-06-25T09:13:00.001-04:00
I am back from a two+ week of vacation out in Sunny California and AZ. Stay tuned for your regularly scheduled programing.

Crockpoting

2008-06-06T14:48:00.003-04:00
I am in love with crockpotting.....it has been a while since I have used mine, but I am determined to use it more because who really wants to heat up the house during the summer in the South? I have a crockpot cookbook that I am looking forward to exploring. But I have also found a site that I like to check in on every once in a while. It is called http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/. This lady is trying to crockpot every day. I am also inspired to try things out - the easier the better because a good friend of mine is going moving through the military and will be living in a hotel for quite a bit until they get housing. So...that said look for some reviews of my crockpoting experience....past and present at http://butcherbakercandlestickmaker.com

Do you have a favorite recipe?

Angel Food Ministries

2008-05-19T16:49:00.006-04:00

Well we are giving Angel Food Ministries a try. I have heard alot of good things from alot of different places about this program. For $30 we got:

1.5 lb. Bacon Wrapped Beef Filet (4 x 6 oz.)
2.5 lb. Breaded Chicken Breast Filets
1.5 lb. Bone-In Pork Steaks (4 x 6 oz.)
28 oz. Salisbury Steak Dinner Entrée
2.5 lb. Beef and Bean Burritos (10 x 4 oz.)
2 lb. Popcorn Chicken
9.5 oz. Stouffer’s Flat Bread Pizza
16 oz. Cauliflower & Carrot Blend
16 oz. Corn Niblets
16 oz. Green Beans
2 lb. Fresh Onions
29 oz. Pears
32 oz. Borden 2% Reduced Fat Shelf-Stable Milk
9 oz. Breakfast Cereal
8 oz. Corn Muffin Mix
16 oz. Bean Soup Mix
1 Dozen Eggs
1 Dessert Item

That seemed quite the deal to me. We also got all three of the "extra" value meat packages. You can view them here. Last night I grilled up some steaks from one of the meat packages and I have to admit, I thought it was pretty good. Of course it would help if I knew how to grill a steak better....but all in all I was happy. The dessert item was an apple pie....the filling had a thick carmelly kind of flavor to it and was delicious. We are hoping to use this to supplement our regular groceries so we can spend less at the grocery store. We have alot of meat that I am hoping will last us till the end of June. (Considering we will be on vacation it seems quite doable) Well this is what works for me. For more WFMW ideas go here.

A Tragedy in the Family

2008-05-14T15:11:00.008-04:00
Growing up I knew I had a small family. You wouldn't think that if you knew I had 8 brothers and sisters. We are a mixed family of a his/mine/ours variety. My (step)father had five children from a previous marriage, my mom had three and after they married they had one more. However after a brief amount of time (a few year) his children moved out of state and we did not have contact with them for quite a while. We have had brief contact with my father's sister and children a few times over the years, but mainly it was my mother's family with whom we gathered with on Holidays and such. My maternal great-grandmother, grandmother, grandfather, two Aunts with spouse and their 4 children (total combined).

I learned a few days ago that my Aunt's middle son Jason died. She has two sons currently serving in the military. I have already in the last decade lost my Great-Grandmother and my Grandfather, so to lose a cousin in the prime of his life is just yet another devastating blow to my small family. [Not that my families loss is any greater just because we are a smaller family.] I can now truly empathise/sympathize with the families who have lost loved ones.

Although I cannot be with my Aunt and family at this time know that you are thought of, prayed for and loved.

To read More about my cousin go here, my mom has posted her thought and memories of my cousin.

MNO

2008-05-12T22:38:00.003-04:00
I just got back from Mother's Night Out at Logan's with a group of women from my sister's church. I had such a great time. I knew enough people that I was able to join in conversations and not feel like an "outsider" I got to sit next to a great woman who just encourages me, sometimes without even realizing it, to be a better me. I was also able to chat with my sister. Too often our lives seem to be rushing by and we don't get a chance to be sisters because we are so busy being Moms and Wifes.

I am also so grateful for a husband who encouraged me to go out with these ladies and fellowship with them. Although we don't belong to the same church I felt welcomed. But nothing beats coming home, especially when the porch light beckons you to a familiar loving place.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T08:27:00.000-04:00
I have found a really great story called The Invisible Mother. To me it is a great tribute to all the mother's out there in the world!

I know I am truly grateful for my mother and all that she has taught me. Growing up people would comment that I was just like her and I use to hate it. Now I take it as a compliement. She taugth me so much.

Love you Mom!

Employee Appreciation Week

2008-05-02T14:18:00.004-04:00
This week here at the Augusta Chronicle we have been having Employee Appreciation Week.

Monday - Sports theme day. You could wear something for your favorite team.

Tuesday - Dress as a tacky tourist. The prize was a $100 visa card so I thought I would give it a try. Here is a picture of me. Unfortunately you don't get the whole effect. I had on my husband's black calf socks with sandals, knee shorts, the Texas looking button up shirt, a fanny pack, a camera, a video camera, an umbrella, a hat, a map, and a "Need Tickets" sign for the Masters. It was hilarious.

Wednesday - Coffee House day with baked goods and coffee

Thursday - Ice Cream Sundays I am here and here. They had Vanilla and Chocolate Ice Cream from Brusters, with Nuts, Chocolate, Strawberries, Pineapple, Whipped Cream and Cherries. Yum!

Friday - Lunch from Dye's Southern Catering. They provided - Fried Catfish, Fried Trout, Chicken Fingers, Fries, Hushpuppies, Coleslaw, Pink Lemonade, Sweet Tea with Banana Pudding and Peach Cobbler for dessert.

Parent Came and Went

2008-04-21T10:30:00.003-04:00
So my parents flew in two Thursdays ago, well actually.....I guess I could say they were supposed to but ended up coming in on that Friday Morning. You can here all about there adventure here. They stayed just a few days that flew buy and left on Monday morning. It was great to see them, but sad to see them go. Here are a few highlights of their Weekend.......

Friday - Breakfast at Cracker Barrel, where my father, "bless his heart" ordered a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of his strawberry pancakes. Seeing the gleam in my daughter's eye I quickly had to tell my her that only Grandpa can do this....thanks Dad! After that we went home and let the old folks take a nap and I kidnapped my baby brother Kenney (age24, who was also in town for the weekend visiting) to help me manage the three kids, Nicholas, Emilia and my niece Jordan whom we were watching to go to Walmart. Steve and I wanted to do a fish fry that night. On the menu we had:
Catfish
Chicken (for those faint of heart)
Baked Beans
Coleslaw
Corn on the Cob
Hush puppies
Fried Okra
I had originally planned to have Not Yo' Mamma's Pudding by Paula Dean for dessert, but unfortunately we ran out of time and I was unable to make it. We were able to sit around and talk, we also had Jeff and my other brother Roger from out of town over. The only one missing was Margaret....she had already had some work scheduled for that evening.
Saturday - dawned bright and early the five girls (Me, Emilia, Margaret, Jordan and my mom - Debbie) were driving out to Atlanta to attend the "My Little Pony Biggest Tea Party" show. We were hoping to go to a Tea House for Lunch, but alas all restaurants were booked with wedding, so we ended up trying to find a Ruby Tuesday's that was near the venue for the My Little Pony show. We couldn't find it but we did find ----- CHEESECAKE FACTORY! Yippee! I have to give this restaurant a 5 out of 5 stars. The food was excellent, the restaurant was nice, clean, great waitstaff. And there had to have been about 40 cheesecakes to try......I was in heaven. I had a great dish called - STUFFED CHICKEN TORTILLAS [Corn Tortillas Stuffed with Spicy Chicken, Covered with Melted Cheese, Green Onions and Tomatillo Sauce. Served with Grilled Corn Cakes, Black Beans, Salsa and Sour Cream] It was fabulous! For dessert I tried the CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CHEESECAKE [Silky Chocolate Cheesecake Topped with a Layer of Belgian Chocolate Mousse] I have to admit that when I bought tickets for Me and the kids to go out to California in June I definitely had this restaurant in mind when I picked flights. I can't wait to take Nicholas there and see his eyes popping out of his head.
After Lunch we went to the show....I have to admit that this was my first "kids show" that I have gone to and boy it was loud...there were quite a few restless kids.....and they had plenty of "extra" things for you to buy -- balloons, tea sets, posters.....It could definitely get quite expensive, good thing we set the ground rules of not buying and I left my purse in the car, because at one point....I was awwwhh, it's only $10 for the tea set......yeah! Sucker!
We got home and Jeff and Roger made tacos for everyone.
I will tell you about Sunday in my next post.....this is getting long, but it is so much fun to document!! Plus I will add pictures.

WFMW: Disposing of Tampons

2008-04-09T12:36:00.004-04:00

Yes, I know a very gross subject but I have discovered a way to dispose of used tampons in - shall we say a cleaner way. I keep all of my empty toilet paper rolls for the month, then when that time is here I just use an empty toilet paper roll to encase my tampon. It keeps the bathroom trash can cleaner and I have to say smelling a lot better. Well that is what works for me.

For more tips go see what WORKS FOR ME WEDNESDAY!

Note: So I just got off the phone with my husband and he said "we got to talk about your blog" Poor guy, he is an introvert and lead a very sheltered life (until he met me). He just does not understand that people actually do talk about these kind-of things.

Emilia's One and Only Shot

2008-03-27T20:05:00.004-04:00

So it is sideways, but here is a video of Emilia's one and only shot when she was playing basketball earlier this year. They actually lowered the goal to 6 feet instead of the usual 8 feet for one quarter especially for her. She was great at playing defense, you sic her on a kid and that ball was as good as hers. The offense part was much harder she just didn't have the muscles to launch that ball up to the 8 foot mark.
I think she would do much better at soccer, we are patiently waiting for that season to start.
btw: that little wiggle at the end would be me jumping for joy and shouting YES! I am especially proud of her for making it on the first try.

Gift Wish List

2008-03-27T13:20:00.002-04:00
Okay come up with 5 things that would be on your gift wish list. It has to be something totally fun and possibly frivolous. There is no cost limit, but be realistic.

Here are my five thing:
1. Cricut machine for scrapbooking
2. Gift Certificates for Digital Scrapbooking items
3. A day at the spa
4. Nintendo DS (they have a beautiful new crimson model, well at least I haven't seen it before)
5. A romantic weekend away with the hubs.

disclaimer: this is just a muse.....so Steve (my husband who reads this blog) I don't want you running out to get anything.....this is NOT A HINT!

I am going to tag three people. Suzanne, Lauren, My Mom, Kim and Mrs. Mordecai.

Money's Worth on Kitchen Appliances.......

2008-03-27T13:09:00.005-04:00
Right now we are considering buying a deep fryer. Not that we plan on frying alot of food for health reasons. However I love fried fish and the kind you get at the restaurants are usually very greasy. I recently fried up some catfish fingers at the house and loved how they turned out. So for an occasional fish fry is it worth getting a fryer? And then what kind of fryer? The cheap one or one that we can invite friends over and have a party? How do you balance weather or not you get your money back on an appliance?

Here is the cheap-o one. It is $19.99.

Here is the nicer, two basket fryer. It is $64.88

So which one would you get?

Staying Calm

2008-03-20T12:28:00.009-04:00
My friend was in a fender bender the other night. She commented that only after she had gotten home and the kids into bed that she finally broke down. To me that is just the result of being a mom. If she had freaked out at the scene no doubt her kids would have freaked. I think when we become mother's we create an internal mechanism to keep ourselves calm in bad situations.

It reminded me of last summer when we took the kid to an water park called Cedar Point. The have the regular amusement park and a water park called Soak City. We decided that it would be fun to go to the water park side and overall we did have a really fun time.

They have this ride that the whole family could go on called the Zoom Flume. It looked like a lot of fun. What I didn't realize is that this ride starts out about four stories into the air. I looked, but could not find a pic of the tower online (probably why I didn't know it was so high) Since becoming a mother I have developed a fear of heights....well to be more accurate of my children plunging to their deaths from heights. (The summer before I basically had a panic attack at the top of a light house, but that is another story.)

So we get to the park and spend some time in the kid's area then we started to venture out and go on rides. We finally ended up at the Zoom Flume and climbed the tower to get in line. Over the next 20-30 minutes of waiting in line and looking out and down I had plenty of time to build up to a climatic panic attack. The kids were unaware that I was having an issue and Steve was so kind and worried about me he offered to go down with the kids by himself and I could just go back down the steps. However my active imagination had kicked in and I was TRULY worried that my two skinny, lightweight kids would go flying out of the raft and plunge to their deaths so I reluctantly decided that I would be going down this ride. See pictures for visualization.

It is literally this half tube that winds around itself out in the middle of no-where. Now logically I know that if there was any danger that this ride would not be in existence and if my kids did not weigh enough someone would have said so....but still. So we get on the ride and I have Nicholas huddle up Next to Steve. Emilia is right next to me on the opposite side of them. (So in case anyone were to go flying we could catch them...great thinking no?) The person at the top sees me panicking and makes sure that I am okay. I plaster on the biggest fake smile and say sure! Well then she gives us a big ole shove and off we go. Going up from one side of the slide to the other. Not 5 seconds after she set us off, then this primeval scream emanates from my body. This only serves to panic Emilia and she starts to cry. Nothing will change a mother's heart faster then seeing that she is scaring her child. So I tell her it's okay, and keep telling her not to worry for the rest of the ride. (over and over and over....I think that was a way for me to cope with not screaming) so we finally get to the bottom all limbs attached.

And Emilia says "that was fun, let's do it again". Needless to say we did not go on that ride again. I am sure we will be headed out that way sometime in the next few years. It is only a short distance from where Steve's dad lives and it is a lot of fun. But the kids will have to be old enough to go on their own the next time around, ........if I let them. Steve would probably go with them but I will definitely pass.

Well it is a long post, but a funny story. Hope you enjoyed.

Menu Update

2008-03-17T15:52:00.002-04:00
Well we haven't done so great on following our menus for the past couple of week. I have been making up the menu, purchasing the groceries and then we end up either going out or making something else. The menu I did from two weeks ago, we made 3 out of 5 items. We made the pizza calzones, beef stroganoff and the fried fish. This is my review of each of the items.

Pizza Calzones - they were a little frustrating to make to me only because I was making the crust from scratch and I was having a hard time making the dough after a long day at work. I finally found a recipe that said I could stick it into the fridge over night. The crust was pretty good. Not spectacular, but good. When rolling it out it did not seem like a lot of dough so I went a little skimpy on the fillings....well they puffed and baked up pretty well. So, next time I will double the batch, if not triple and then roll it out super flat and fill it to the gills.

Beef Stroganoff - It was an okay recipe, we used beef stew chunks and I don't think I would do that again or I would put in into the crock pot to sit overnight to get tender. The sauce was very different from the usual flavor and I personally did not care for it. It did not make alot of sauce either. I would not make this recipe again.

Fried Fish - This was an intimidating dish to make, not because of complexity but because I am definately not a seafood person. I could probably count on one hand they kinds and ways I eat seafood. (Hmm -- fried catfish, fried shrimp, grilled shrimp, two other kinds of fried white fish, whiting and brim I think they are called....can't think of anything else) It has only been since I have moved to the south that I am even this open. Before, my seafood was square on a bun from McDonalds - sad, but true. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but I have to say that this will become a regular in my house. It was super easy to make and it was not greasy like the kind from the restaurants. My camera wasn't working, but I promise to make it again and take pics to show everyone. (I also loved the hush puppy mix that I made to go with it, YUM!)

On Sunday afternoon when I was trying to find all the ingredients to do the fish I got so frustrated because I couldn't find in in our pantry. So I cleared it out and organized it. We had four boxes of spaghetti, yikes! We also had countless packets of taco seasoning. We are going to try to shop in our pantry first and use up what we have. Our over the fridge freezer and our chest frezzer are slam packed....Guess we better use what we got. We are also trying to organize our laundry/pantry room. Will talk pics to show. Wish us luck.

Parents are coming to town

2008-03-12T12:32:00.003-04:00
Well we are all getting very excited around my house. My parents will be here in just a few weeks. Not only that but my little brother Kenneth is flying down for a visit and most likely my oldest brother Roger will also be coming out for a while. The only thing we have planned so far is that all the girls are going to a "My Little Pony Tea Party" show. We are trying to find a cool-girly place to take the kids to for a luncheon before the show. It is going to be in Atlanta. I don't know what the guys are going to do while we are gone, but I plan to have fun.

They fly out on Thursday and leave Sunday night to catch their Monday a.m. flight. My parents and my little brother are all flying on Skybus with their cheap flights. I think my brother was able to pick up his tickets for $35 each way, plus tax. How cool is that? I am trying to think of other non-expensive things to do, probably play games and hang out...that seems the the best thing, plus we will get to visit so much instead of trying to run around doing activities.

Then in June we fly out for two weeks in June to visit them and all my other family in California. Summer is just around the corner.

New Blog Site

2008-03-11T10:23:00.003-04:00
I have launched a new blog site, specifically for my creative side. Please check in from time to time.
Butcher, Baker and Candlestick Maker

Love ya'll

Menu Plan Monday

2008-03-03T11:40:00.009-05:00

For more menu plan monday ideas visit orgjunkie.com.

I am not sure on who's blog I was on at the time, but they had a link to a wonderful site called menus4mom.com. They have weekly menus, with recipes and a shopping list already prepared for you. It does have some foods that I personally would never think of preparing, but I am looking at that as a good thing. I am hoping that I can be brave enough to try a few new things each month. For those things I don't like I can substitute the next time around. It provides a pretty balanced diet for the week.

This site gives you tips for all sorts of wonderful things. It also helps you think ahead by cooking a little extra and serving it later in the week. I think it is worth a look.

This weeks menu is:

Monday
Italian Pizza Calzones
Salad

Tuesday
Baked Honey Pecan Chicken
Peas
Fruit Salad
Dinner Rolls

Wednesday
Chicken Pesto
Salad
Apple Slices

Thursday
Beef Stroganoff
Buttered Egg Noodles
Sugar Snap Peas

Friday
Fried Catfish
Sauteed Okra
Coleslaw
You can find the recipes here. And the shopping list here. This menu cost around $68, but you may have things in your cupboards that are on the list or you can make substitutions as needed.

Funky Font

2008-03-03T11:37:00.002-05:00
My friend Suzanne asked me how I got that funky font for my header. Well actually in power point on my computer I created the border using scrapbooking items and wrote the text with font from the power point program. I then saved the slide as a jpeg and loaded it into the layout. I have quite a collection of digital scrapbooking elements that I am eager to play around with and utilize.

Arrgghhh

2008-02-25T12:19:00.002-05:00
Okay, somehow I was just trying to fidget with my layout a little and then I totally lost all my stuff. I was able to get back to what you see now. I was thinking that I had lost all my widgets....that would have been a total bummer. I will have to play a little more another time to get my blog back to where I want it.

We have been doing good. We have managed to swap some debt around so that we currently are all on zero percent offers....the key will be to pay them off before we get off the zero percent. Emilia got a B on conduct so we are extremely happy. She has only had one A and maybe two B's most of the time she fluctuates between the C to F stage. Her academic grades are great though. We just got a progress report and she still has all A's. We are trying to encourage her to manage her behavior better....but we will see.

5 more ......

2008-02-22T13:09:00.002-05:00
When Emilia started school last year it was a struggle to get her out of bed. (Still is) We have tried various tactics, including an alarm clock which she just sleeps right through. Currently it is Steve's job to wake her up. He goes in an tickles her, even when she wakes up grumpy she eventually giggles with him. Then I come in and take over helping her to get dressed. At some point last year we taught her to ask for "5 more minutes" and that after the five minutes she would have to get up without any problems and that worked for a while. Well the other morning I was waking her up, trying to let Steve sleep in because he had been called out during the night. Without even opening her eyes I hear her mutter...."5 more weeks" At this point, I figured she didn't even know what she had said, because she was barely awake. When I got her fully awake, I asked her if she remembered what she had said and she did. Then she proceeded to negotiate....if she wasn't allowed 5 more weeks, how about 5 days..... On the way to school that morning, I told her that if she wanted she could stay in bed all weekend long, she was so excited and wanted to do it. Of course then I mentioned that she wouldn't be able to go to the end of the year banquet for her basketball league, Needless to say she quickly changed her mind.

Skybus.com

2008-02-06T15:01:00.000-05:00

Skybus.com is a fairly new Airline based out of Cleveland OH. The offered flights from Cleveland to select cities in the US for as little as $10 for the first ten seat (on select flights). They are able to offer such low rates because they charge for any extra things you need -- checking luggage, blanket, pillow, snacks, priority seating. If you are someone who just takes carry-ons and don't need all the extras then you can really make out. They have recently started to base flight out of Greensboro as well. I have had some good things and bad things in my experience with this airline.

I was able to fly my parents round trip from Los Angeles (Burbank, CA) to Greensboro, NC for under $400. I did not experience any issues when I booked their flight.

I recently purchased tickets for my family of 4 to fly the opposite way to visit them in June. We had to fly seperately because the kids and I are heading out for two weeks and Steve could only take off for one. After I bought the tickets ($120 going out, $120 coming back) for a total of $256.50 each, I went back to buy Steve's ticket and noticed that the day going out for me and the kids was now saying $100. That means that they over-charged by $20 each. When I bought Steve's ticket it was ($100 out and $120 bac) which should have totaled $220, but was totaling $240.

So all in all, it seems like I paid $80 too much. Even with that overcharge I still was way under any prices that were being offered through any other airline. I have emailed their customer service, because they do not have a phone line (one of the ways they are able to save money) so we will have to see what happens about getting a refund.

End of Month Round-up

2008-02-01T08:30:00.000-05:00
Okay so it is the end of the month.....here is the total paid off from Jan 1st to Jan 31st. $1,040.46. Now mind you some of this was money from a balance transfer cash left over from Dec, so in actuality about half of that was from our paychecks. Still it is a great start. Looking forward to February when I have three paychecks and Steve has five. We will be able to really knock down some debt. Meanwhile we are trying as much as we can to lower our interest rates.

Weight Loss

2008-01-29T15:43:00.000-05:00
Just wanted to drop a quick note. Since around Sept. when I realized how much I weighed I have tried to watch what I eat and did attempt to exercise more. I didn't do so good on the exersice issue. I mostly contribute the weight loss to the fact that we have stopped going out to eat so much. I have lost 16.5 lbs. I know about 7-8 have been in the last 5-6 weeks. I am so excited. When I stepped on the scale this morning I had to do a re-weight because I didn't believe it. It has been a few weeks since I had weighed myself. I had to go running out to tell Steve to add some veggies to my lunch and I only ate 1/2 of the pasta he sent for lunch. Now mind you that half was probably more than one serving, but I can usually eat all that he send. And when I wanted a snack.....didn't have anything at work (will bring some in) I choose a bag of peanuts instead of the wonderful donuts, danish, candy bar and other junk that is in the vending machine. Now to stay on track.....

My Awesome Husband

2008-01-28T16:05:00.000-05:00
So last July Steve got one of those 0% credit card transfer offers, which we gladly took and transferred our other cc balances to it. Well, do to error on our part we missed the first payment (yes sad, but true) and this resulted in our interest rate jumping to 32%. Yikes and holy moly….Well we have dutifully paid the amount owed, but let me tell you it hurt. Not because of being unable to afford it, but because seeing that much money go out the window pained me because I knew that the interest amounts that we had transferred from were much lower. It felt like jumping out of the pan and into a volcano, forget the fire. Every “money blog” or article recently has talked about how now is the time to refinance…your home, your car and your credit cards. On their advice I asked Steve to call his CC and to ask for a lower rate. I have called other cards and sometimes it has taken me saying to cancel the card if I can’t have a lower rate. Steve and I figured that if we could not get a lower rate we would pay it off with the tax return and cancel the card. I just got off the phone with him and I am not sure what all took place, if he had to pull out the “we will cancel” or not, but he got us BACK TO 0% until July and then it goes to 11%. Got to love it – He is good.
My goal is to pay off all credit cards and to cancel any that has an interest rate over 13%. I am going to see if they will lower rates, but I have no issue with canceling the cards. I know our credit rating will initially take a hit, but I think it will be better in the long run.

Stories From the Past

2008-01-25T15:49:00.000-05:00
Is it true?? You know what I am talking about, those stories that we grow up with and then wonder how much of it was true, or over the years has it grown. This is a story that I recalled and asked my mother about and here is what she said:

James age 5 yrs.

We moved to Bell Gardens in 1985 from Whittier, CA and James would have just turned 5 years and Kenney would be 6 months old at the time. James started kindergarten that September and I was still home at the time, not having started back to work yet. It was the first day of school for everyone. The first day of school is oatmeal for breakfast, a tradition handed down from my mother. Eric, Sharon and James would all be going to the same school nearby. Although the school was only a few blocks, a major highway was between home and the school. Being Kenney was so small and Sharon & Eric older and more experienced (ha!) everyone ate and was packed off to school. School would have started around 7:45-8:00 am. Around 9:00 am I heard a noise at the front door, and when I came out of the kitchen from cleaning up, there stood James. Alarmed, I asked him if he was okay. He said he was fine, that the teacher had asked everyone in class to write their names and as he didn't know how, he decided to walk home. (I am sure that she asked this to see what level of experience the children had.) I asked him if his school knew he had come home, and he replied he didn't know. I called the school and told them that James had walked home. I packed up Kenney and we took James back to school. I went to the classroom and spoke with the teacher. The teacher indicated that James was in the classroom and I explained that no, he had walked home and I was bringing him back. The teacher wasn't even aware that James was missing.

**What is funny is this is exactly how I remember the story going....yikes, I would not have liked to have been that teacher. Of course mind you this was 25 years ago, but had it been recently....heaven help the school had the media gotten a hold of it.

Month End Report soon to come

2008-01-22T14:12:00.000-05:00
The debt reduction percentage - includes payments that were made to come out of this Friday's paycheck....when it has cleared the bank I will post our monthly payoff total....

Kitchen Tips Tuesday

2008-01-22T09:24:00.000-05:00

Okay....so even though it is not a backward day at Tammy's Kitchen tip...I thought I would still ask a question. I have what I thought was a zester, but when I used it this past weekend I could not get the zest off of it. I don't have a picture of it, but it kind of looks like the holes on the top left of this grater I found on-line.

So my questions are....Is that a zester? How can I get the zest off? Please help.

For Kitchen Tip go to TammysRecipes.com

Menu Plan Monday/And Follow-up

2008-01-21T11:59:00.000-05:00

Well things didn't go according to plan last week. I went to a discount grocery store to do my shopping. (I am hoping to take the reciepts from both stores to do a comparison on the pricing to make sure that I am acually saving money) They were out of brown gravy and there chese was more expensive than Walmart's so I decided to go by Walmart later in the day....well that never happened so I did not have the ingredients to make a few of the items on my menu from last week. (We have decided to shop only one day a week to prevent us from overspending, it has been working so far) We had the missionaries over for dinner on Saturday so we ended up roasting a leg of lamb, which we had been given, in our rotisserie. We served yummy greek potatoes, and greek green beans which didn't turn out so well. Along with Fresh baked bread. For dessert we had Luscious Cream Puff which were excellent.

For this week we have:

(from last week)
Taco Bake
Red Beans and Rice
Sheppards Pie

Adding:
Lamb Gyros - from left overs
Pancakes, Bacon, Eggs
Chicken Pot Pie

Emilia and I had fun "taping" segments of her making Orange-Wheat Scones....as soon as I can edit the video clips I will post them. She is so cute in her pj's, with her apron and her kool-aid mustashe. I was origionally just going to post pictures of us making them together, but she wanted to do a cooking show....and since I was still in my pj...I graciously let her be the Star!!

For more Menu Ideas pleas go here.

Trip to California

2008-01-17T13:42:00.000-05:00
Well this Summer we are flying all the way from the East to the West Coast. We will be going up to Greenesboro, NC which is about 4 hrs away to fly out to Burbank, CA. I am loving skybus.com, I like the fact that if you get there soon enough that you can get a really cheap seat. I am talking $150 each to fly cross-country. That is nothing to sneeze at. The only issue I am having is that they are taking so long to switch over to June Calendar so I can purchase our tickets. I am hoping that they are not discontinuing the flight between the to cities - that would be the pits. If they don't I might be able to fly my family of four for under $700 buckaroos. While out there we have talked about going camping, to Medieval Times among other things. I am so excited. I am hoping that we can get together with some friends of ours that are out on the West Coast. I emailed my mom 14 times yesterday talking back and forth about the trip. I am too excited to see her. I think the last time we saw each other was two March's ago when she was out here for my wedding. Emilia is excited to see her cousin who has a horse. She thinks that is the bomb!!

WFMW Master Baking Mix

2008-01-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

It is Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks In My Dryer. My tip this week is how to make your own homemade Bisquick. I found it somewhere online, and have not been able to find it again. It is great. You can make pancakes, waffles, bisquits, muffins, cornbread, cakes, cookies.....almost anything that you can make with bisquick. If anyone is interested in the recipes you can make I would be more than happy to post them....just give me a shout.

Master Baking Mix

9 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/3 c baking powder

1 tbs salt

2 tsp cream of tarter

4 tbs granulated sugar

2 1/2 c nonfat dry milk

2 c shortening (shelf stable)

Sift together the dry ingredients, except milk, together three times. Add dry milk. Mix well. Cut in shortening with pastry blender or two knives until mixture looks like cornmeal. Store in covered container at room temperature.

Well, this is what works for me. I am on my second batch and I am loving the savings from not buying the Bisquick. For more ideas go here.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday - Allrecipes

2008-01-15T12:58:00.001-05:00

I just love allrecipes.com. It is such a wonderful site. It has a multitude of recipes, but I love that you can read reviews and see what adjustment to make off of the original recipe. One of the key features I like is the ingredient search that it has. If you have a few items on hand but you don't know what to make with them, just type them in, hit search and viola you have recipes to make. For instance my late mil (passed away a few months ago) was a wonderful woman. One of the funny things about her was that she would send us home from a visit (she's in Ohio, we live in SC) with food. I'm talking cans of food, bags of rice and general pantry items. I have a feeling that if we had lived any closer we would have been sent home with perishables too. Well, summer of 06 we went for a visit and she sent home 4 cans of white beans. I have no clue what to do with them, I don't use that particular bean in my cooking. So, if they are still good here are a few recipes that allrecipes.com suggests:

Sausage Minestrone yummy!

Tropical Quake Shake (okay not too sure about a bean/fruit shake, but interesting nonetheless)

White Bean Spread With Garlic & Rosemary (looks kind-of like a hummus)

But say I had a few other ingredients on hand....say chicken and onions. Then I just add those in the ingredients search (it has 4 fields for what you do want, and even has 4 field for things you don't want. You can exclude ingredients like: mushrooms if you don't like it)

So with white beans, chicken and onions in things I do want and mushrooms in the things I do here is what I came up with.

Caribbean White Beans

Caldo Gallega (a yummy looking Puerto Rican soup).

For more Kitchen tip go to TammysRecipes.com

Menu Plan Monday

2008-01-14T11:59:00.000-05:00

It in Menu Plan Monday over on Organizing Junkie once again. We have discovered that a general monthly menu is nice to have all the ingredients for, but we are planning week to week what we want. This week Steve saw alot of recipes that he wants to try in Kraft's recipe magazine that they send out. I want to try all but one. A broccoli and cheese soup (made with Velveeta) Yuck! Not that I have anything against Velveeta, but eating a big bowl of it, in addition to the broccoli makes me want to gag.
Here are the meals that we will be having. In no particular order
Baked Potato Soup
Taco Bake
Red Beans and Rice
Sheppard's Pie
Waffles, Bacon, Eggs.
I am continuing with the breakfast, a soup and a bean heavy dish once a week. I am hoping that this will help cut our food budget. Although, next week I am going straight to my pantry and seeing what I can make out of that and our chest freezer. I know we have plenty to cook with needing only minor ingredients if we just did some planning.

Baking Weekend/Girls Weekend

2008-01-11T14:28:00.000-05:00
Well this weekend it will just be us girls, Steve is working and Nicholas is with Margaret. We are going to do alot of baking. I am hoping to try out some new recipes. Tammy has a great site where she post recipes. I am most interested in trying her Apple Bread. Her husband has a great love for cheesecakes, so I am excited to try a few of those as well. I think I will also try to make some Breakfast Danish's.
Along with all that baking I am going to be making up some meals for our freezer. It's all well and good to have a menu, but we forgot about looking ahead. We came home and were supposed to have pinto beans and cornbread the other night, but kind of forgot to soak them. Well I soaked them all day yesterday and put them in the crockpot. Steve and I also put all the ingredients in the bread machine and set the timer to have the bread done at 6:00 pm. The only thing I realized is that the water (which according to the recipe) was put in at 110 degrees, however when it starts to make the bread at 3:00 this afternoon it will have cooled to room temp. So I am curious to see if the bread turns out or not. If not, I will whip up a batch of homemade cornbread. I am also going to make the shopping list tonight and take it with me when we leave for Emilia's basketball game tomorrow. We will get the shopping done after the game.

Coolest Christmas Gift Ever ......cont.

2008-01-10T09:49:00.000-05:00
Well I just had to leave you hanging didn't I. But the answer that everyone wants to know is a..... Video Camera. I immediatley started filming on Christmas Day. The cooking, the kids playing with the karaoke. I also have had fun shooting little clips of the kids at basketball practice and their first game. I am going to keep filming little clips and I plan on doing a tour of our house. After a while I am going to transfer to a DVD do some editing and will post some short clips of what goes on in the Byrum household. I got alot of other cool gifts.... a great book from my parents which I have read and enjoyed even if it made me bawl like a baby. I got earrings, lotion and body wash, camping dishes, gift cards.....and more. Why is it so hard to remember all the things and from whom you got it from. I think next year, I am going to record it so that the kids can actually send out thank you notes.

This also was the year of the poop. Yep I said it, you heard it poop. From my mother Nicholas got a toy that poops out candy. Vicki Evans gave Emilia the new Barbie with the dog that you feed it it's food and it come out the other end as poop. It also has a poop scooper and garbage bin. At least it is not candy that you eat. Emilia got a Disney vanity which she just loves to death. She will sit in a chair and brush her hair....it is quite cute.

HTML CODE!!! YIKES!!!

2008-01-10T09:48:00.001-05:00
Ok, so I got to brag a little bit. When I changed templates to this Ocean background my widgets on the right column were cut off so I had to move them on to the top of my postings. Well through trial and error I was able to go into the html code on the template and mess around with it until it was wide enough to accept the widgets….how cool is that. I am so proud of myself. I love to learn new things and to play around with them until they are just so. Yipee!

Works for Me Wednesday.

2008-01-09T19:06:00.000-05:00

Over at Rock in My Dryer, Shannon has asked us to post questions, instead of tips. So here is my question: Has anyone tried those Dry clean at home kit. My husband wears a suit to work everyday. We are trying to become a more frugal household and it would be great to cut out the drycleaning cost. So, do those kits work? Is there a homemade solutions to drycleaning.

Also, his t-shirts keep getting this dingy yellow look to them.....how can we get them to stay white? None of our other laundry does this.

Random things about me.

2008-01-09T09:50:00.001-05:00
My friend Suzanne tagged me for a list of Random things about me. Well she came up with 50....we will see if I can get anywhere close.

1. I have 8 bro & sis
2. Most of the people in my family are on their 2nd marriage. (We figure we subconsiously have to have a trial run to get it right)
3. I need glasses (but not bad enough to spend the money)
4. I named my daughter after my step-father and she ended up being born two weeks early on the same day and date as him.
5. When I was growing up I wanted 12 kids.
6. I like to blog, but I love to read blogs.
7. I have a hard time making friends, we haven't had another couple to hang out with since S&J left Augusta.
8. I am trying to convice my mom and dad to move to Augusta.
9. And I want them to actually Live with me.
10. Around 15 years old I mooned another car.
11. I am a few classes away from a two-year degree.
12. I want to become fluent in Spanish.
13. I got into trouble for sneaking out and macking on the boy next door.
14. I love to sing.
15. I get stage-fright. (major)
16. Growing up I thought I wanted a tatoo, until I discovered my fear of needles.
17. My babysitter let me have a puff of her cigarette when I was seven.
18. She got into trouble.
19. She egged and mustard my parents card.
20. The police once literally checked out my rear-end. (A neighbor wrongly accused my parents of abuse)
21. I can have a really hard time finding a good pair of shoes.
22. I have the best pair of jeans I have ever owned.
23. I want to wear calf-lengh boots, but my calfs are too big.
24. I obsessively, secretly dream of winning the lotto, or some amount of cash.
25. I am scared of dying.
26. We are going to DisneyWorld for the first time in Summer '09
27. In high-school I played Jack-in-the beanstalk's mom in a musical.
28. I love to read.
29. I am currently reading Junie B Jones with my daughter.
30. I am trying to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year.
31. I have only made it to 1Nephi Ch5.
32. I took a Greyhound bus from No. Calif down to LA and across the county to Augusta GA.
33. I was 21 but my mom still packed me a goodie bag with snacks, coloring book and crayons.
34. They came in handy with a screaming child on the bus.
35. Thanks Mom!
36. I like the new "Cereal Straws"
37. My favorite soup is "Baked Potato"
38. I wish I knew how to play the piano.
39. I love to cook or bake.
40. I hate to clean up.
41. I used to be a hard sleeper.
42. Now I have to wear ear plugs to be able to sleep.
43. I have a brother and a nephew named Eric.
44. I have two brothers named James. (Combined Marriage, 1 from each)
45. My name was almost Sharon Aaron.
46. I have a recurring dream/nightmare that all of my teeth are falling out. (at the same time)
47. I hate to fly.
48. I want to go to Medieval Times Restaurant when we are in LA in June.
49. The Atlantic Ocean is way warmer than the Pacific.
50. One more...... In June I will have been in GA for a whole decade. Scary.

Well I made it. Never thought I would. I am going to tag Lauren and Erika

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

2008-01-08T12:31:00.000-05:00

It is Kitchen Tip Tuesday once again. The kitchen tip I have is for freezer meals. I have long been interested in freezing meals since both Steve and I work full time. I like to cook freezer meals. Some are all the way cooked or need to be cooked, they are just packaged together. One easy way to be able to do this and not have your pans in the freezer is to put it into silicone pans.

Freeze the meal and you can "peel" the pan right off of it. Then you can put into a gallon sized ziploc. Just be sure to get as much air out as possible. You can then take it out of the freezer - I recommend the morning of the day before you want to eat it. Place it into the pan and defrost in the freezer.

Spending Challenge Week #1 Update

2008-01-07T14:02:00.001-05:00
So instead of doing a daily blog about how we are doing I am going to do a weekly update.

So how did we do?

MENU - we were invited out on Tuesday for a New Year's dinner - so that saved us money and we didn't have to cook - yeah! Wednesday we had the missionaries over for dinner and we had the breakfast dinner with an addition of cinamon rolls left over from Christmas. Thursday we had to change plans because I could not find split peas. I asked a employee at the Walmart and I am not sure if she knew what I was talking about and I couldn't find any other employees near by. We will have to try again another day. And I forgot to soak the beans for Friday so we ended up eating leftover waffles and pancakes from the freezer. So we did really good.

MONEY - Steve forgot about it and bought a coke....I reminded him that our agreement was not to spend any money....that it should cost him his $50 that he was "earning" for the two week period, he sounded so disappointed that I let him slide. A friend of ours offered us his old couch and we have agreed to buy it for $50. We deceided it was worth not getting the $50 we were "earning" for the two week period to get it. And after 29 years a co-worker is leaving at my work so we taking her out to lunch. Overall not too bad.

Menu Plan Monday

2008-01-07T13:47:00.000-05:00

So here is the menu plan for this week:

Monday: Sandwiches, Chips (Basketball practice)

Tueday: Dinner at a Friend's house

Wenesday: Waffles, Sausage, Eggs

Thursday: Soup and Grilled Cheese

Friday: Red Beans and Rice, Cornbread

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: Pot Roast, Carrots, Potatoes, Rolls

For more menu Ideas go here.

2008 Spending Challenge

2008-01-04T13:47:00.000-05:00
I did forget about one thing that helps us keep the budget straight. I use a live checkbook that I created in Excell. My husband is really bad about keeping receipts and I am bad about writing things down at the store so I have found that this really works for me. Here is a picture of what it looks like.

It is kind of hard to see, but it works just like a real checkbook, enter expenditures and deposits. I have bill listed on the right that I check off as they clear the bank. And the best part is that I don't have to worry that I added or subtracted wrong. I have a worksheet for each month and I can plan what week to pay what bill.

2008 Budget Challenge

2008-01-04T13:12:00.000-05:00
Crystal over at Money Saving Mom has posted a Challenge to get into Financial Shape for 2008. She first asks us to post our budget. The following is what I budget for monthly; however alot of times the bills come in a little less.

Monthly Household Bills
Tithing 10% gross
ATT 80
Cable/Internet 60
Power 170
Child Support 210
Child Care 180
Water 60
Garbage 20
Auto Insurance 100
House Insurance 40
Mortgage 625
Car Payment 310
Scholastics 20
Food/Gas 400

Total: $2,275

Credit Card Payments
CitiBank 75
Geico 15
Visa 15
Wamu 28
Nelnet 50 (Student Loan)
Discover 15
Capital One 15
Mastercard 27

Total: $240

While we do have eight active CC debt (Yikes) Most of them are only a few hundred dollars. And the bottom two are at 0%. We are currently snowballing on the Citibank because this has the highest interest rate. After that we will knock out some of the other cards. Any extra money is going to our CC debt and within 4-5 months I expect to only owe on two cards.

Some major steps we are taking is a two month spending freeze on anything not necessary. We are also looking to trade in our vehicle for another that would cut our payments in half. We foolishly got a vehicle that was too expensive and more that I wanted for monthly payments. We can afford it - but it is more than I wanted to. We told the salesman what price range we were looking at - he showed us a van that he was sure was in that price range. We liked it alot and said ok. When the papers were drawn up it was a few thousand more than he told us. Because we wanted it so badly we agreed and walked out. It only took a few weeks for me to kick myself in the hiney. I will not be fooled again. (I hope)

We are hoping to get things set to where one day I might be able to stay home. I keep working out plans but the main thing that kills it is that we would lose the insurance that I have through my work and my husbands workplace it too outragous to even consider. Hopefully an option will present itself when the time is right.

Coolest Christmas Gift Ever

2008-01-04T08:05:00.000-05:00
So this year I kept bugging Steve for what he wanted for Christmas. I kept telling him that if he didn't tell me what he wanted that he was going to get nothing. I told him that all I wanted was a nice set of pajamas. I needed some warmer ones. Well I finally gave up on him telling me so I got him a nice short sleeved button up shirt and a kitchen timer. (And it doesn't even work...we have to see if new batteries will help) Anywho... a few weeks before Christmas I caught a pretty bad cold so Steve gave me my pajamas early. They were nice flannel pjs. White with lt blue and pink snowflakes and I think dots on them. They were so GOOD. It warmed me up. So it gets to Christmas Eve and Steve is in the kitchen wrapping my presents while I am being a good little girl and not peeking and keeping the kids entertained in the living room. And out comes one package, then two, then three, then four, then five. Yikes I was thinking especially since two were oddly shaped. One kind of resembled the sports ball in a box. And one was a square package about two feet long. All I could think was what the heck did he buy? Then this voice came from the kitchen..."Do you want one of your gift now? I can't wrap it." Well what in the world?? Sure I said. I am not shy about getting gifts. He comes around the corner with a blue robe, make that a fabulously soft robe. He said he didn't know how to wrap the robe. Personally, I think he was just tired of wrapping, besides the fact that he admits to being a bad wrapper.

Well Christmas Eve came and I opened pajamas #2, Christmas day and I opened pajamas #3, boy am I set on pajamas now. The next gift I as I was opening I first thought was a lunch bag, but then I realized it was a camera bag. Yes! I have needed a camera bag for quite a while. The next one was....................

Already messed up on the "no spending"

2008-01-03T14:39:00.000-05:00

Only three days into our personal challenge and we spent money, now of course it was for a really good thing. We have needed a couch since we first got married. I had an old run-down falling apart sofa and he had a lumpy-bumpy futon. Well we got rid of the sofa and have had to sit on the futon for almost two years. Steve's friend has a sofa that he was trying to sell for $100. He offered to let Steve have it for $50. The deal was that if we spent any money towards anything except food/gas that we would "lose" our $50 each that we were trying to earn towards our wanted items.

We agreed that it was worth giving up our $50 each to have a nice sofa. Hopefully this no spending will get easier.

Celery going bad

2008-01-02T11:05:00.000-05:00

I am so glad that Tammy is holding a ask a question day. I am looking for tips to deal with celery. Everytime I buy some to use in a recipe, they go bad so fast. What can I do to make them last longer??? Thanks.

Green Onion Leftovers

2008-01-02T10:58:00.001-05:00

I find that when I buy green onions that most of it goes bad before I can use it all. The last time I got some I decided to try to dehydrate them in my oven. I sliced all of the green onions up, chopping the white parts in half to help them seperate. I put them on my silcone mat on a cookie sheet turned my oven on warm (170) and left to door slightly ajar to try to get the temp down to 150 or so. Check on them after a while and stir with a spatula. When dried I stored them in a ziploc bag in the spice cabinet. This is what works for me now for more ideas go check out Rock in my Dryer.

Menu Plan Monday

2007-12-31T13:43:00.001-05:00

December 31 - Jan 7
Monday: Emilia is having her cousin Jordan over and we will be having a "girls night" Emilia is going to pick up snacks at the store.....although her main thing she wants is the new cereal straws for the morning....go figure
Tuesdsay: Roast, Red Potatoes, Carrots, Gravy, Rolls
Wednesday: Pancakes, Bacon, Eggs
Thursday: Split Pea Soup, Rolls
Friday: Pinto Beans, Cornbread
Saturday: Leftovers
Sunday: Sheppard's Pie
To help us become more frugal I actually have the whole month of January planned and have incorporated a breakfast night for Wed, soup for Thursday and a bean dish on Friday. I also am purposely not planing food for Mondays and Saturday because I want us to get better at eating our leftovers. We currently throw out more food because we "forget" about the leftovers.

No Spending Months

2007-12-28T14:04:00.001-05:00
For the months of Jan and Feb my husband are entering a "no spending" freeze. We are not going out to eat, to the movies, no extra shopping. Just bills, groceries and gas. We are hoping to put every single extra cent towards our credit card debt. I am also going to restart our goals on the right side if the blog to pay off cc debt. Currently it is showing the percentage of debt to the credit limit. Now it will show the 100% as the amount owed on the card and we will go down by what we pay.
The only event that we are doing is a snow-weekend trip that we are looking for the frugalist way to go and a present for Nicholas's Birthday. But I am hoping to get a great gift for him with all the Christmas specials still going on.
I have made a menu for the whole month of January and have purchased quite a bit from the shopping list. I plan on updating daily any "extra" spenditures and and "pay-off" that we make for the two months.

Upward Basketball

2007-12-19T10:29:00.000-05:00
Both Nicholas and Emilia are in Upward Basketball for the Next few months. The actually were put on the same team and Margaret is helping to coach the team. We are all so excited. Emilia had fun watching Nicholas when he was doing soccer and she got to play a little on the last day. She choose basketball over cheerleading, so I am glad. I want her to have fun and use her energy for running around. I think this could be a great confidence builder, plus she will get to spend time with Nicholas. Hopefully they will learn to cooperate with each other on the team. We are going to borrow one of Margaret's smaller hoops so she can practice. We have a concrete slab with a real hoop attached in the backyard, but it is way too high for the kids to actually shoot hoops. I am hoping to get her to do a little practice routine, it will also hopefully get the adults out there getting exercise with her. We could use some. If you don't know about Upward it is worth checking out. It is a Christian based team sports for kids.

Holiday Season

2007-12-19T10:21:00.000-05:00
Well it is finally getting close to Christmas. I seemed like it would take forever to get here and yet time flys. I didn't get alot of things done that I wanted to. We got the Christmas Tree up, but none of the other decorations that would sit out. Some I was afraid that the cats would knock over. They have already climbed into the tree and bent a few of the branches down and have knocked a couple of ornaments off the tree. Emilia is getting excited, this morning she sleepily asked me what date it was...I replied that it was Wednesday, "no, the date" I was corrected. I told her it was the 18th....oops. Later when I asked her if she was counting down the days till Christmas, she said no that she was counting down till when Nicholas came over....Awwwhhh! She get so excited to spend time with her brother. I will have both the kids all day Friday, Sat, Sun and Monday. Of course we have some things going on. Not too much thankfully, I want to do some fun stuff with the kids, like making cookies, maybe ice skating. I know we plan on caroling over at Margaret's Neighborhood. It should be a fun time for everyone.

Menu Planning

2007-12-13T17:48:00.000-05:00
Ok so far, we haven't followed the Menu plan. However, it is because both my husband and I work and so Monday and Wednesday he cooked dinner, but he mostly used items from around the pantry. Monday was Hamburger Helper and Wed was Sloppy Joes. He got hamburger buns from the store because he knows I don't like it on plain bread and he picked up sliced cheese because he likes it....and being a cheesy kind of girl I like it too!!
Tonight we are having the Taco's because I forgot about a ladies church event on last Tuesday. I am going to be making homemade tortillas, hopefully they will turn out.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday's w/Tammy

2007-12-11T10:09:00.000-05:00

The ABCs of Flour

What makes a certain flour good for one recipe and bad for another? Gluten! When flour is moistened and mixed for dough or batter, gluten forms from the protein in the flour. Some flours have more protein, some less, forming more or less gluten, which is key to making breads expand and cakes stick together. For the best baking results, learn about these three basic types of flour:

All-purpose flour is a blend of hard and soft wheat. The balance of gluten from these creates the texture you want for quick breads, pie crust, cookies and most everyday uses.

Bread flour has a higher gluten-forming protein content, creating dough that is nice and elastic. This makes it ideal for making kneaded breads.

Cake flour is made with soft wheat, producing less gluten, so your cake will have that perfect delicate and slightly crumbly texture. Note that self-rising cake flour is different.

This tip comes from Whole Foods Market for more tips from bloggers just like you go here.

Menu Plan Monday #1

2007-12-10T15:01:00.000-05:00

So I am trying out posting a weekly menu for the rest of December in hopes of getting in the habit for our "savings month" of Jan and Feb. I am relying on old favorites as well as looking for new frugal recipies.
Monday: Leftovers, clean out fridge
Tuesday: Taco's @ Margaret's
Wednesday: Spaghetti, salad, bread sticks
Thursday: Grilled pork chops, veggie, peach cobbler
Friday: Beans and Cornbread
Saturday: Meatloaf, veggie, rolls
Sunday: Turkey, mashed potatoes, veggie, rolls
Breakfast is: cereal, oatmeal, grits, Orange Muffins
Lunch is: leftovers, sandwiches
snack is: apples w/ caramel dip (already made), carrot sticks w/ranch, various items in the house.
Trial recipe to try to make this weekend: Beef Pepperoni
I get alot of recipes from Pioneer Woman and Tammy.

Credit Card Tally

2007-12-10T14:47:00.001-05:00
So to the right I have posted our Credit Cards and the percentages to pay off. I have listed them in importance of payoff....for instance any extra money right now is going toward the CitiBank card with the 32% interest rate. It is a little misleading, because the amount owed varies from as little as $40 to upwards of $2000+ on some cards. Bear with me as I explore how to best display this. The Visa and Sams are both nominal amounts and I might get those knocked out with any extra money before applying it to the CitiBank, just so that I have less monthly payments. I plan to move money off the CitiBank to the Capital One from 32% to o3.99%.

Total debt:$7,814.16

I don't count car/house in this debt. I am hoping to knock out most of this debt by 2009. I know it is ambitious but here is my thinking:

Tax Returns = $1500 (very conservative)
3rd paycheck me 2x in 2008 = $1600
5th paycheck Steve 4x in 2008 = $1200
Monthly $200 x 12 months = $2400

Total: $6,700

Now this does not include any overtime or extra jobs that Steve gets, plus any number of creative way we come up with to save money to go towards our debt.

Debt Reduction

2007-12-08T16:30:00.001-05:00
Okay, so Steve and I have decided to really get serious about getting ourselves out of debt. We both have a $200 item in mind to get with our tax returns
(Steve wants a dvr recorder and I want to purchase some backpacking gear)
so we have made a deal with each other. For the months of Jan/Feb we are going on a spending fast. Except for needed items we will not be going to the store, out to eat, to the movies .....anything. We will each "earn" $50 toward the item we want for each sucessful pay period "two weeks" that we abstain from spending. I am going to post how far we get in paying off our debt. Feb is a 3 paycheck month for me and a 5 for Steve so I am hoping that we will be able to get alot paid off. I will keep you posted.

Homemade Caramel

2007-12-07T14:31:00.000-05:00
Ok, so I found a recipe for Homemade Caramel on TammysRecipies.com....and since I LOVE caramel I thought I would give it a try. Tammy prefers the dark brown sugar so I made it will the dark. I have to say that next time I think I will try the light brown sugar; it turned out great, but I think I would prefer a lighter tast to it. The recipe makes 4 cups and believe me it is alot....I made the mistake of doubling the recipe and now I have tons of caramel on hand.....yummy! I will just have to get creative and bring treats into work.....lucky them. I think I will make some brownies and top it with the caramel, maybe bring in some apples to slice up. I am looking for some pretty jars and maybe I will make some to give for Christmas Presents. I wonder if it will freeze.....I will have to email her to find out.

Snowball Fight

2007-12-06T09:39:00.001-05:00

Non-Crappy Starring You! eCards on JibJab

The Charleston

2007-12-06T09:27:00.000-05:00

Non-Crappy Starring You! eCards on JibJab

Pampered Chef Cookbook Contest

2007-12-05T10:03:00.000-05:00
So Stay at Home Mommy is having a give away for a Pampered Chef Cookbook. I so want it. I love pampered chef recipes, they are so good. Most are really easy to do, but can be "spiced" up by an experienced cook. And most don't have any funny hard to get ingredients. If you want to try for it, write a post on your blog and post a link in her comment section here.

Crazy 8

2007-12-04T13:20:00.000-05:00

Okay....so I got turned onto an online store called crazy8 that is an off shoot of Limited too. I also like a local store called Justice that has great "cool" clothes for Emilia. Justice is a girls only older girls sizes 6-16, but Crazy 8 has boys and small sizes from birth on up. I don't buy there "expensive" clothes, I look for the items on sale, I just bought pjs for Emilia for $8 for each set and they are really good quality. I have gone back and bought matching jammies for Jordon her cousin and a similar themed jammies for Nicholas. They have them set up as outfits and to purchase separates. Right now there is no shipping cost option, I am not sure if that is a promotion or an all the time thing. I think it is great, because Emilia and I can go online and pick out an outfit together. I am a new customer and have not had to return anything yet, but so far I am extremely happy! Cute Stuff. (They are very similar in prices to Walmart's expensive stuff) I plan to keep my eyes peeled for more deals.

Christmas Party

2007-11-30T16:54:00.001-05:00
Tonight is Steve’s annual Christmas Party for Platt’s. To me the best part is the Filet Minion that they serve. The have all you care to drink alcohol (don’t drink), Salmon appetizers (don’t eat Salmon), salad with Vinaigrette dressing (don’t do vinaigrettes), but love me some steak, good bread. Another great part is the dessert. They have a eatable chocolate box filled with chocolate mouse. Can anyone say yummo?!? It is at the fancy Augusta Country Club so we have to dress up. I bought several months ago this dark red/maroon velvet pants suit. The only problem is the top has one button at the top and is open the rest of the way. I have been meaning to go buy something to go under it, and just have never remembered. The black top that I am going to wear under is not very flattering around the waist, but I am going to be sitting most of the time and hopefully no one will notice. I will post a picture soon. Let me know what you think.

Christmas Tree

2007-11-29T11:37:00.000-05:00
So we put up the Christmas Tree here at work. And although it helps bring a Christmas atmosphere here, I have to admit that it is kind of pathetic looking. The tree is very old...I am talking a couple of decades. The limbs are so far apart space wise you can see the "bones" of the tree. The decorations are also all pretty old. I am thinking that maybe it is time to update the tree a little. If I can get a picture I will add it in.

Storing Ground Beef in the Freezer

2007-11-27T14:53:00.000-05:00
We bulk buy 10 lb tubes of hamberger at Sam's Club so portioning them out is key. We divide the tube up into equal increments and place them into quart size freezer bags. The key to storing them is to flatten the meat to the full width and length of the bag and to squeeze out any air. The meat defrosts quicker than if you store them as a chunk of meat. You can even toss it in a sink of water, or place directly into the pan. To see more kitchen tips go to Kitchen Tips Tuesday by Tammy

NaBloPoMo

2007-11-27T10:24:00.002-05:00
Well it is coming to the end of the NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). I have copied over postings from that site to this. I have found that:
#1 It is hard to try to manage two blogs
#2 I am definitley not a post everyday kind of girl (at least not at this time in my life) I could just stare at the computer with nothing to write about. I have never been a writer, I am more of a reader and I love reading other blogs.

Whew!!

2007-11-27T10:24:00.001-05:00
Well we finally got through Thanksgiving. Now onto Christmas. We are pulling out all the decorations for a friend tonight and we will start putting the basics up tomorrow for our house. We are also going to get a couple of shelves from Lowes to help organize our household a little more. I can't wait til Christmas. I want to see what the kids think of the presents we got them.
Chow!

Thanksgiving Aftermath

2007-11-27T10:23:00.001-05:00
Well, I am proud to say that I did not fall prey to previous habits and consume copious amounts of food. I still ate more than I should have but did not overdue it. Of course it helps that I went to someone's house for dinner and they had plenty of (I am sure quite delicous) vegetables that I just don't eat. They had a sweet potato soufflee that had an camalized nut topping. They had a mess of greens. (I am in the south)
What could have killed me was the desserts.....apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, pineapple upside down cake and strawberry cheesecake. I had a piece of the cheesecake and a sliver (and I do mean a sliver) of pumpkin. Now that isn't to say that I didn't take slices of the other stuff for leftovers.
All in all I am proud of myself. So how did you do???