Total Momsense

This is so funny how she put this together! I would love to see one of her videos. Here's the link to her site: Anita Renfroe

Giveaways!

Who doesn't love giveaways?! Head on over to 5 Minutes for Mom and pick and choose (or choose them all) which giveaways you'd like to win. Good Luck!

Menu Plan Monday

Been quite a while since I've posted my menu, so I'm going to try to get in the swing of it!

Monday ~ Chicken Club Wreath, flavored rice, cottage cheese

Tuesday ~ Pork patties, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn

Wednesday ~ Lasagna, salad, garlic bread

Thursday ~ Macaroni & Cheese casserole, homemade breadsticks

Friday ~ Breakfast bowls (potatoes, sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, cheese, mushrooms, & onions)

Saturday ~ Sloppy joe, Doritos, buttered noodles

My mil makes the world's best sloppy joes, but I could never get mine to taste like hers. She'd always say, "there's nothing to it - it's very simple". I FINALLY got close!! All it is is 2 pounds of ground turkey and a 10 3/4 oz can of tomato soup! Yep, that's all that you need! I was always using WAY too much soup. For more menu ideas, head on over to Organizing Junkie's blog.

Clock

I seen the pendulum clock on Beth's blog and fell in love with it.

Today's much better than yesterday

Last Tuesday, we went to my sil's house for a cook-out for Grampa P's (Jim's Dad) 69th birthday. I'm not sure if someone was carrying a virus or what was happening, but everyone except for Ryan, Gramma (who was on antibiotics), and I ended up sicker than a dog! The girls were taking turns throwing up and Jim came home early from work for the same reason! Jim and Jodi are completely over it today, but EVERY time Megan gets sick and is throwing up she ends up dehydrated and we usually spend hours in the ER getting IV fluids. Thankfully the last time we were there they gave her a prescription for the nausea and vomiting and it has already saved us 2 trips (counting today) back there! She seems to be doing fine now. Praise the Lord! I'm not sure why Ryan or I neither one ended up sick, I am just so very thankful!

Distant relative?

I'm sure everyone has seen this video before - but I still crack up every time I watch it. I swear he must be related, Hubby and both daughters dance around the house all the time. Sometimes they look just like the man in the video!! I think that's really why I laugh so hard, thinking of them doing their 'dances'!! I have a video of my hubby doing one - but he FORBID me to put it on here ~ it is SO funny that the camera is shaking pretty much the whole time because I was laughing so hard!! Maybe some day he will give in and let me post it.

Works For Me

Shannon over at Rocks In My Dryer hosts Works For Me Wednesday and while I was cutting my brownies (see previous post), I thought someone might be able to use my idea.

When baking brownies, I line my cake pan with aluminum foil and spray with Pam. When the brownies have cooled, just lift out of the pan, pull foil from sides, and slice with a pizza cutter! It gives nice, smooth edges! Works for me! :o)

WOO HOO

Yeah - my new oven works!! Correctly even!! LOL









Notice the pan in the oven? I'm baking brownies - the true test! I made sure my burners worked too, wanna see??









I know it looks like only 3 were lit up - it got soo hot in here I had to turn those 3 off and wait for the other one to turn red - and it did!! I am so stoked!! Bet you didn't think a properly working oven could make someone soo happy! :o) I just love baking for my family, and now I can again!! By the way - the brownies turned out great! The only thing that doesnt work on this oven is the light - but I've never had one before anyhow (I'm a peeker).

I'm back :o)

We've been staying kind of busy around these here parts, and I wanted to update all the work we've been doing. First off, Jim has been trimming up our little forest (aka - our backyard hehe). Man, I don't think the people before us ever pruned those trees! The pine tree Jim worked on last Saturday was dead, so it needed to come down. It wasn't nearly as tall as the other trees, and it's branches took up the whole left corner of the yard! There were a ton of vines tangled all around it (which Ryan and I didn't know), so when he notched it and then cut through it, it just stood there! He gave it a little nudge and it slid onto the ground next to the trunk - but still standing up!! I wish I would've gotten a picture of it, it was really funny to Ryan and I. Jim just shot us the look that means, "What is so funny?" and said "This is SO not good!", as all of our neighbor's park in their back yards. So I went over and we pushed on it until it finally came down. So, for Father's Day, I made him a card (we prefer homemade here) with a pic of the tree 'standing' next to the trunk and wrote "You forgot to yell "TIMBER" so it didn't know to fall over" on it. The kids and I thought it was hilarious, Jim just grinned. I did however get a picture of the trunk afterwards - Jim says this is definitely why the tree is dead. I don't know if it was ants or termites (hoping it was ants), but something has carved out the inside of the trunk.









Really neat to look at, not so neat when you think about what they're eating now!! Jim sprayed the whole area good, so hopefully that's the end of that problem!

~NEXT~

When we bought this house they left the stove. It was disgusting, but since we didn't have one, or the money to go buy one, we threw in a bunch of elbow grease and cleaned it up. It cleaned up really nice too I might add. The oven doesn't work right!! Every time we'd bake something it was any one's guess as to whether it would come out burnt, or still gooey - but never right! I bought an oven thermometer to watch it and when I'd put something in the oven the thermometer would say 350*, but as I'd check it throughout the baking period, it would range from 350* to 450*! UGH! Anyways, I decided we'd do as little baking as possible. Yesterday morning, Jim called and said he passed a yard sale in a ritzy subdivision that had a stove! Needless to say, we were on our way!! It was SOO gross and disgusting (even worse than the one we had already cleaned), I wanted to ask the man if I could meet his wife, (just because I was curious as to what kind of person would feed their family from a stove like this), then I thought I was probably better off not knowing. What made it even worse is this is a self-cleaning oven! Anyhow, after thinking how clean we got the other stove, I bought it for $35! I thought that was a GREAT deal, but it is costing us big in time and effort. I just hope it works right and that will make it all worth it!! I scrubbed it all day yesterday, Jim came home from work and scrubbed on it last night, I was out there first thing this morning scrubbing on it, and Jim is heading out there now to hopefully finish it up. Everyone keep your fingers crossed!

Lazy Days of Summer

That's exactly how I'm feeling - Lazy. It seems like all I've been doing is laying around the house all day, every day. Before I didn't have time to just sit around. I feel soo tired all the time, like I can barely even keep my eyes open. I've been told in the past I have low iron (been refused to give blood because of it) it must be even lower now. Anyone have any suggestions on how to correct this? Like which vitamin or supplements would help - I've already been doing the green, leafy vegetables. Thanks so much in advance.

Cinnamon Rolls

I made homemade cinnamon rolls the other day and thought someone may like the recipe. They taste just like Cinnabon - even the icing. I took some pics, hope someone out there tries this recipe!

Dough
1 c warm water
2 pkg active dry yeast
2/3 plus 1 tsp granulated sugar, divided
1 c warmed milk
2/3 c butter, melted
2 tsp salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
7-8 c all-purpose flour (or more if needed)

Filling
1 c melted butter, divided
1 3/4 c granulated sugar, divided
3 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 c chopped walnuts, optional
1 1/2 c raisins, optional

In a small bowl, mix together warm water, yeast, and 1 tsp sugar and set aside. In a large bowl, mix milk, remaining 2/3 c sugar, melted butter, salt, and eggs; stir well and add yeast mixture. Add half the flour and beat until smooth. Stir in enough of the remaining flour until dough is slightly stiff (dough will be sticky).

Turn out onto a well-floured board: knead 5-10 minutes. Place in a well-buttered glass or plastic bowl, cover and let rise in warm place, free from drafts, until doubled in bulk, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

When doubled, punch down dough and let rest 5 minutes. Roll out on floured surface into a 15X20" rectangle.

To prepare filling: spread dough with 1/2 cup melted butter. Mix together 1 1/2 cups sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over buttered dough. Sprinkle with walnuts and/or raisins, if desired.

Roll up jellyroll fashion and pinch edge together to seal. Cut into 12-15 slices (I use my electric knife).

Coat bottom of a 9X13" baking pan AND an 8" square pan with remaining 1/2 cup melted butter, then sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Place cinnamon roll slices close together in pans. Let rise in warm place until dough is doubled in bulk - about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350*. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until rolls are nicely browned. Cool rolls slightly.

Frosting

The key to this is whipping it up for at LEAST 12 minutes.
8 oz butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 lb powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla extract

Beat butter and cream cheese together. Slowly add in all powdered sugar. once all of the sugar is in the bowl, mix for at least 12 minutes. When almost done, add the lemon juice and vanilla extract.

Cookie Recipe

Here is the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe:

5 cups oatmeal
2 cups butter, softened
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
24 oz chocolate chips
8 oz Hershey bar, grated

Blend oatmeal to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. In separate bowl, mix together flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Combine both mixtures thoroughly. Add chocolate chips and grated Hershey bar. Roll into balls and place 2" apart on a cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes at 375*. Enjoy

Funny Videos

My kids and I love to watch funny videos - especially the ones with cats and dogs in them. I found a couple on youtube so I thought I'd share the laughes. Hope you enjoy! :o)

Funny Cats


Funny dogs

Neiman Marcus Cookies

Last night, Ryan made us some cookies from scratch. The recipe is the one that has made it's way around the internet like a bazillion times - but they are soooo good! The recipe makes about 12 dozen (yep, that's 144 cookies!), you could half it, but we make it all, then scoop it into balls and pop them in the freezer. Then you can always have homemade cookies in a flash! They still never last very long - Papaw really likes them. Hehe Here is a picture of my chef and his masterpiece!And a close-up (can't you just smell 'em?)

Raining

It's Raining!! Finally! This is only the 2nd time it has rained since we moved into our new home - man o man did we need it! It has just been coming in spurts, but heavy when it comes. I'm sure our grass is loving it as much as I am (probably even a little more). Mom called a little bit ago to say the tree in their side yard split and landed in Dad's truck! Hope it didn't mess it up!