Meal Plan Sunday

Monday: Corn Dog Muffins
Tuesday: Six-Layer Dip (didn't get to it last week)
Wednesday: Ginger Maple Pancakes with scrambled eggs on the side. In addition I'll make up some of the dry mixes to have on hand for later breakfasts.
Thursday: Spicy Bean and Cheese Tacos (or burritos or tostadas), rice, finger veggies I'm going to double this recipe to put extras in the freezer in the form of burritos.
Friday: French bread pizza

Curly hair came into my family by marriage

I come from a straight-haired family. The only wavy hair came from perms that both my grandmas had, as well as a well-intentioned one my brother Mike got in college. (Sure wish I had a picture of that.)

So marrying a curly-haired guy and having two curly-haired daughters is a bit of a surprise to me. I'm still kind of in awe at how hair that any sensible person knows *should* be straight can take those wild twists and turns and come out in such a gorgeous display.

Last night after E's shower I combed her hair out and sent her to bed. This is how her hair looked this morning:
I love that my family genetics now have curly hair amongst them.

Meal Plan Sunday

Monday: Ham and Cheese calzones. I'm using this recipe as inspiration although I'll probably use fresh yeast dough.
Tuesday: Chicken pattie sandwiches
Wednesday: Quiche with mashed potato crust (Enchanted Broccoli Forest cookbook)
Thursday: Six-Layer Dip
Friday: Fresh Veggie Pizza

Date night with dh

Twice a year our church has a "Stake Conference" which is the parent organization of about 8-10 "wards" or congregations. We meet at a different church building than our own because it is bigger and can accomodate the large crowd that comes on Sunday morning. The highlight for me is the Saturday evening session that is for just adults. It is smaller and more personal. The bad part is there is no babysitting available, so dh and I have not attended it together since C & E were born more than nine years ago. I usually go, or in the past year I have taken my mom.

Imagine my delight when my mom told me she'd watch the girls so dh and I could go together!

So this is how our evening went:

*Adult session of stake conference
*Auto show at a local diner--classic and/or cool autos--come park your car if you want to participate
*Ice cream at Culver's. It's new in town. I had a chocolate custard with brownie bits and Reese's Peanut Butter cups in mine. It was the size in the picture below and I almost couldn't finish it. I'll be back. Very occasionally. And it reminds me Wayne owes my girls and me a frozen custard in Nauvoo. ;-)

Dh and I had almost forgotten how much we like to go out together. I'm going to hit Mom up more often for her babysitting services so we can do it often.

The week went well

We had a busy week. You'd think the week a stay-at-home mom's children go back to school would be the week of ease and luxury, but that would be someone else, not me.

I have one part time job that I do five days a week year 'round. I have another part time job I do as needed for them and as it fits my schedule. They are both ESL related. During the summer I worked only about three times for the second company--just enough to keep up with what was going on and enough so they didn't forget about me.

However! When I filled out my proposed schedule last month, I told them I'd work every Monday-Thursday for four hours in the morning. They picked me up for almost every shift I volunteered for which is nice that they still remember me and nice when the paycheck comes. However, it gave me 8.5 hour work days, which I realize most people have, but in addition to that, I am also a full-time mother and homemaker and am responsible for all the breakfasts, dinners, laundry, cleaning (not that I did much of that, but I did do some :-) ), shopping, taking my mom to her appointments and children to dental appointments, filling out all the school paperwork, and taking myself to the doctor. That was just this week.

Why do I work at a paying job? Retirement fund. New windows. Ceiling insulation. Hearing aids so the hubs can hear me (he might be sorry about that one). Mission clothes for ds.

I am very, very lucky to have two jobs that allow me to work from home in my pajamas. A lot of people want a "work from home" job and there are a lot of scam ones out there, but mine are legitimate and often enjoyable.

Next week's goal: ALL homework completed and ALL piano practicing completed!

We survived the summer!

In case you are wondering how it is that I have both bus pictures AND school pictures, it's because dh and I followed the bus in the car. Hehe.

Meal Plan Sunday

Monday: Lloyd's BBQ beef sandwiches
Tuesday: Burrito casserole from the freezer
Wednesday: Taco Soup + some for a new mom I know
Thursday: Slow cooker roast with veggies
Friday: Pizza

Dessert: Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars

Nutrisystem

Today is the first day of a new diet. Or am I supposed to say "way of life"? I REALLY have to lose some weight and I'll be honest that although my initial goal is 10% of my body weight, I need to lose more than that.

I started on the No S Diet about a month ago and I guess I manipulated it so much that I gained two pounds in three weeks. Bad me.

This time I finally decided to spend $$$ and buy a prepackaged diet system. I'm hoping the $ investment will encourage me to stick with it.

The A family women are starting a little support group because there are about six of us that want to slim down a little and feel better able to chase our children/grandchildren around. Let the fun begin!!

Chickens and cars

Last night we thought we closed all three doors to the hen house and run, but we missed one. I was met at the back door early this morning by Spot, the gold one in the middle. Today for some reason they are really mellow, hanging out by the sliding glass door, even lying down, which is rare for these girls.

I drove the car down an alley this morning and picked up a small branch which scraped on the ground all the way home and sounded really weird. When we got home I told the girls to hop out and look under the car to see exactly what was there. They said, Oh! There is a branch and there's a bunch of liquid coming out of the car. :O ???

I kneeled down to see what was going on and I saw it too. It was dripping mid-car, not from the radiator. I backed up the car so I could examine the puddle. It looked like water so I dipped my finger in and tasted it. Water.

Then I did the smartest thing I could and called dh at work to see what he thought. His first thought was that it was condensation from the air conditioner. Duh on me! I looked at the concrete floor of the carport and I could see repeated water rings in the same location from previous drips. It's just that usually I don't have any reason to squat down and look under the car after a trip, so hadn't noticed.

Phew! Dripping condensation I can live with!

Meal Plan Sunday

Monday: Simple Bean Tostadas, rice
Tuesday: Pizza Pasta Salad
Wednesday: Frittata
Thursday:
Friday:

Weekend dessert (because that's the only time I get to eat any): Raspberry Cream Cups with Pretzels

It was a take-out day

One of the ways I keep our food budget down is to cook at home, mostly from scratch. Today wasn't one of those days.

I took Mom for an appointment and on the way home she offered to treat us to a quick lunch, so I suggested Boston Market. I pass it once or twice a week, but in two years of living here, I've never gone in.

We got the rotisserie chicken, three sides which were creamed spinach (all right--wouldn't have been my choice), mashed potatoes and gravy (waaaaaaaaaaay better than KFC's), and hot cinnamon apple slices, with three little (very sweet) corn bread cakes. It was all really good!

Before we got home I stopped at Papa Murphy's take 'n' bake pizza because I had invited the LDS missionaries over for dinner and didn't feel like making our usual homemade pizza.
I got a pepperoni, a double cheese, and a Canadian bacon, then added cheesy bread and a cinnamon wheel. Everything cost $20. At home I added pineapple to the Canadian bacon one to make a Hawaiian pizza. Although now that I think of it, a Hawaiian pizza really should have Spam and pineapple on it.

Our guests arrived right on time. After we made our introductions to each other, I told my mom that when I saw the guys at church on Sunday, one of them reminded me of someone . . . who? She took a look and said, "well, he reminds me of Kevin." Bingo. That is who I thought of too. I'm not saying he looks exactly like Kevin, because he doesn't, but he did remind both of us of him.

Can you see it?

Anyway, here are C and me with the missionaries too:
I sent the two pictures to the missionaries' mothers. I know I really appreciated when I'd receive the occasional email from mothers in San Diego with pictures of David in them, and I'm hoping for some karma when Kevin goes on his mission in a couple of months.

"Heterosexual Pride Day" in São Paulo?

Who would think someone would think there would even be a need for such a thing?

Mr. Apolinário, who has the support of Brazil’s powerful Protestant church lobby, said, “The creation of Heterosexual Day does not symbolize a struggle against gays but against what I believe are excesses and privileges.”

Opponents shot back saying the move was nothing short of divisive homophobia.

This reminds me of when I was in high school and all the teens recognized that when you did't have any real answer, you just called names. "Divisive homophobia"?? Mr. Apolinário probably "hates" homosexuals too, or is it just in the United States that if you don't embrace the homosexual lifestyle, you "hate" homosexuals?

I think it is fine to have different groups of people--gays, whites, Catholics, immigrants, straights, Republicans, poor people, you name it. I don't think we have to have special days to "celebrate" their differences. I don't think they all have to mix and mingle either, unless they want to.

How about "live and let live"?

Extreme couponing?

In the United States there is (was?) a reality show on TV called Extreme Couponing. Each show follows two shoppers as they use sales and coupons to buy their groceries for very low prices. The show has come under a lot of criticism because many of the people on the show keep HUGE stockpiles of food in their basements, garages, or stored in various places around the house. Of course anyone has the right to store any amount of food she wants, but a lot of people have wondered if someone really needs 67 bottles of yellow mustard or 1,000 packages of Yakisoba Noodles. Then there is the problem of some of the couponers' using the wrong coupon for the wrong product, i.e. using a high-value coupon meant for a particular higher cost item on a lower-cost product from the same company. For a good explanation of this, see Jill Cataldo's blog post.

Anyway, I'm an "avid" couponer, but I don't commit fraud and I shop in quantities my family can use or can easily share with others.

All that said, here is what I bought last night for $9.69:

*4 boxes of cereal and 2 gallons of milk (a special deal at Fry's)= $10 minus 4 coupons that doubled to a total of $4 = $6

*2 dozen eggs (Target-"come see our new grocery store" special) = FREE

*3 one-pound boxes of strawberries = $.77/each

*1.79 lb of grapes = $1.38

TOTAL $9.69