Revamping our Habits: July's Menu

The month of June went well and as soon as June officially ends I will post about that in more detail. I have planned out July's menu. July is tough as we needed to go to Costco. We don't have to go to Costco every month it is more like 2 months and with this trip, hopefully more like every 3 months. We save in the long run a lot of money shopping at Costco but it is a lot of money up front.

So without further delay, the menu:

Friday, July 1^st: Chicken Paprikas and oven rice, use thighs

Saturday, July 2^nd: Out

Sunday, July 3^rd: Fend, RAH @ Carolines

Monday, July 4^th: Chicken Parmesan, use breasts

Tuesday, July 5^th: Mom's Penne Rigate, double Mom's tomato sauce recipe and freeze half

Wednesday, July 6^th: Fend

Thursday, July 7^th: Garlic Lemon Mahi Mahi

Friday, July 8^th: Curry Chicken Pot Pie, use breasts

Saturday, July 9^th: Out

Sunday, July 10^th: Fend, RAH @ Carolines

Monday, July 11^th: Oven Honey Chicken, use breasts

Tuesday, July 12^th: Mom's Chicken Sausage Tortellini, use breasts

Wednesday, July 13^th: Fend

Thursday, July 14^th: Mom's Mac and Cheese, buy real milk

Friday, July 15^th: Garlic Roast Chicken with Rosemary and lemon, use thighs

Saturday, July 16^th: Out

Sunday, July 17^th:Fend, RAH @ Carolines

Monday, July 18^th: Slow Cooker, upside down chicken pot pie, use thighs

Tuesday, July 19^th: Ravioli with creamy tomato sauce

Wednesday, July 20^th: Fend

Thursday, July 21^st: BMC's Curry Chicken, use breasts

Friday, July 22^nd: Chicken Bog, use breasts

Saturday, July 23^rd: Out

Sunday, July 24^th:Fend, RAH @ Carolines

Monday, July 25^th: Roasted Chicken with Balsamic Vinaigrette (use thighs)

Tuesday, July 26^th: BMC's Mahi Mahi recipe

Wednesday, July 27^th: Fend

Thursday, July 28^th: Mom's Tetrazzini

Friday, July 29^th: BMC Pizza

Saturday, July 30^th: Out

Sunday, July 31^st:Fend, RAH @ Carolines

We eat a lot of chicken....

Our grocery list:

Produce:

6 onions

Celery

Garlic

Lemon

Carrots

Mushrooms

Aisles:

Lemon Juice

Curry for curry chicken

White rice

Dijon Mustard

Spices:

Dried Basil

Rosemary

Paprika

Yeast

Canned:

4 28 oz cans of diced tomatoes

1 jar chicken gravy

Spaghetti Sauce

Baking:

Canola oil

Breadcrumbs

2 8 inch cake pans

Flour

Dairy:

Sour Cream

Butter

4 cups Mozzarella

Parmesan Cheese

2 cups cheddar cheese

2 ½ cups milk

Ricotta cheese

Whipping Cream

Frozen:

Puff Pastry

Tortellini

Spinach Ravioli

We spent about $178 at Costco already. We went in with 5 things on the menu and ended up with more but the "extra's" are things we could use and give us more variety. 

Costco list:

1 package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Each package has 6 pouches with 2 breasts per pouch. (planned)

1 package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Each package has 6 pouches with 5 thighs per pouch. (planned)

Tide-180 wash box (planned)

1 package of ground turkey. Each package has 4 2lb containers of ground turkey. (planned)

1 package of paper towels. Each package has 12 paper towels. (planned)

1 package of Mahi Mahi. It has 3 lbs of fish..we are hoping that it is an even number of fillets.

1 package of sausage. Each package has 3 sleeves of 8 sausages.

1 package of Nutri Grain Bars. Each package has 1 box of each: Blueberry, strawberry and apple

1 package of pasta. a total of 6 boxes, 2 boxes each of Penne, Shells, and Rotini

1 package of rolls. These rolls usually come in a pan and you have to make a whole pan to eat 2, these come in a bag where you can pull out as many as you want and put the rest back.

1 package of my breakfast sandwiches. This includes 12 sandwiches

1 package of Lipton tea. This includes 3 large boxes of tea. We use this for sweet tea.

It will be interesting on when we will need to go to Costco again and what we will need to buy again. I know we wont need Tide, tea or pasta for awhile. Depending on when we go to Costco we may not need paper towels. We will go back to Costco when we run out of meat and at that time refill what wont last another month. I will also update how much the grocery list will cost. This month I have about $13 cash to go towards it from cab rides and we found a $25 Visa gift card so that will help lower the "out of checking account" expense since we had to hit Costco this month.

The Change

It is about time I filled you all in about the "change" I was waiting on. I want to go into great detail but I shouldn't and so I won't.

Friday was my last day at the hotel. I have really enjoyed working there and have made some good friends over my 3 years there. They completely shocked me by throwing me a pizza party with cake and I even got some presents. I got so overwhelmed with the surprise that I shed some tears. Everyone was so sweet to me. This won't be good bye as my parents will still stay there when they come down/up to visit and my wedding party will more then likely stay there when Brian actually proposes. If anyone ever needs a hotel that are staying in my area it will be the only place I recommend. Also some of my coworkers have plans to try and go out and do trivia night/karaoke which I am excited about!

I have given out my "good bye" presents as a "thank you" for the people I worked with. I had won a massage by "selling" (the word selling is used very loosely) the most massage appointments for a set period of time. I had never used it. I love massages but the process leading up to them make me feel self conscious and insecure and anxious so I avoid them. I gave that to Ms. Micki who helped me learn what to do during first shift and who is always there to help me if I need help with a guest. She really enjoys massages so I new she would love it. She did, she was so thankful and surprised! She kept asking me if I was sure I wanted to give it away. I am glad I was able to do something nice for her. I gave Chris (Carley's Dad) and Jenn (Xavier's Mom) a baby book of their respective babies. The theme for each book was "Baby's First Internship" as all the pictures were of them at work. Everyone loved it! It was great seeing Chris and Jenn smile like that. I kept getting so many compliments on the books. I didn't think I did anything all that special as I make photo books of EVERYTHING but based on people's reactions I created a master piece. I need to get my boss one too but I haven't figured out what to do. His world turned upside down during my notice so I feel like I should do something. I had gotten him a "Thing 1" golf ball from Universal Studios when Brian and I went to Florida several years ago and it is still sitting on his desk front and center. It makes me feel good that not only did he keep it but it is displayed prominently on his desk. It is going to have to be small  but I know he would appreciate it and I feel like I should do something.

So what am I going to be doing? I am going to work for one of the major health insurance companies under a special division (I do not know if this division is only in my health insurance company or if all health insurance companies have this division so it will be referred to as a "special division" so I don't give away my health insurance company).  I had to get a government clearance to get the job and a lot of it is confidential but from what I know and what I have seen publicized (If they publish it to the open I figure I can too) I will be helping fix/adjusts invoices. I have fixed a lot of bills for my current company and it is customer service so I will be good with that. It is going to be weird as I won't be multi-tasking as much and I am going to feel like I am doing everything I am supposed to be doing. I have go through 6-8 months training for this position; 4 hours of classroom training and 4 hours out on the phones doing what I just learned. I am excited that they are willing to spend all that time training me. During training I am working 8-5 but after I could work any hours between 7a-7pm. Hours are Monday through Friday, some overtime Saturdays if need be, and a set schedule. I would prefer my shift to end no later then 6pm so I can go to the gym (they have a fitness center) after work but I am just excited about it being M-F set schedule. They also have a cafeteria so I am hoping that will be a good way to meet people. The pay and benefits are also better as it is more of a corporate setting which is why Brian and I are able to afford the house.

Anyway, I am going to miss my coworkers and most of the guests at the hotel but I am excited about my new adventure coming up. I start Monday so I am becoming a bit nervous as I hate change and I so want to do well at this. I know I will it is just weird for the first day while you figure everything out.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home~ Rhoda Janzen

This was June's book. My mom very generously sent this book to me.

I have always been fascinated with the Amish and the Mennonites. I went to college in Pennsylvania surrounded by Amish/Mennonite farms which was a lot of fun for me. My best girl friend in college literally grew up surrounded by them and she always brought back the best food and stories.

Because of this, I thought I would really enjoy this book. The book was okay. I definitely could have stopped reading it half way through (or any way through) and not thought about picking it back up. I did learn a few things. One being that the Mennonites came first and the Amish broke off from the Mennonites. I always thought the Amish came first and it was the Mennonites that "rebelled".


This book is Rhoda Janzen's memoir about her life and how it has changed since she left the Mennonite church. At the beginning of the book it talks about how she moved back home after her husband left her for another man. Once being at home she started to remember and appreciate her life. Apparently she got the idea for the book because her friends kept asking questions and once hearing the answers, suggested that she (Rhoda) make her email correspondences into the book. I think she could have, while remaining true to the stories and events, made it a lot funnier and cuter. Based on this book I would have been bored and uninterested in her emails if she had been emailing me.

Anyway, because of this book two good things happened: I got inspired to look up Amish/Mennonite books on Amazon.com and I succeeded in my New Years Eve Resolution for another month.

My new friend

I have a new friend named Sean. He is so sweet and always makes me laugh. He is actually younger then my brother but we don't really notice the age difference. I am going to see if I can get Sean and his beautiful girlfriend, Daniella, over for dinner. While I am sad that he got moved to evening shift, I am pleased that he is one of the main people to replace me. No one can put a bigger smile on my face except for Brian and my parents. He gets a kick out of my reactions as well. He is so cute!

Sean has the best hair.

It is wonderfully curly. If my little boy or girl could have curls like this I would be in heaven. They are so fun to play with. Sean thinks it is hilarious.

I dress everything up. My parents can vouch for that. I dressed up the dogs in my school uniform, my brother in long white gloves and a pink feather boa and even the guinea pig. So what do you do when you have a great friend with awesome curls?

He is a bit embarrassed to show his face on the internet but he is a good sport. It is half way between the Pebbles from the Flintstones and a sumo wrestler look.

Sean also has a fantastic singing voice and is an actor. I remember, a while ago, he and Todd (one of my maintenance guys who also sings well) kept singing to us at the Front Desk. Sean has a bass voice and Todd has more of a Baritone/Tenor and it sounded beautifully. I was so excited! It was awesome.

Sean is also good with babies. You may have remembered seeing him here:

With baby Carley. I can't wait till he and Daniella get old enough to marry (when he finishes college) and have babies! He is going to make such a great Dad!

I hope to keep Sean in my life for a long time.

Speaking of babies...

Guess who is 9 months old? (Very late....)

He had just gotten some shots so he was a little grumpy but we did get him to smile :). He loved Brittney's bracelet! And I have already told both parents that I am crashing the 1 year old birthday parties whether they like it or not ;)

The question you should never ask a woman....

Today I got asked one of the questions you just do not ask a woman.

"How far along are you?"

The guest had recognized my outfit while we were in the bathroom. She had seen someone in a very similar outfit that is very pregnant (8 months or so) so when we she came out of the stall she just asked "how far along are you". She apologized, explained and I laughed it off. When I told the story to my co-workers they laughed at the ridiculousness of the question.

My mom had a really cute response: "Why would someone even ask that if they aren't married". I had to remind her that babies out of wedlock really aren't hidden down here like they are up North and often those pregnancy's are planned to be out of wedlock. This is a huge cultural difference for us. It is crazy how many pregnant teenagers I see and hear about down here! People are shocked with my parents ages because in their eyes..they could/should be grandparents by now. (I still often get asked what I am waiting for and in reality I am only 26). My parents did not have their children late. They were, sometimes, even one of the youngest parents in my group of classmates. They had their children at the time that it was..socially acceptable to have kids...not young or late..on time with the Northern ideas. Down here....the timing is completely different. People seem to think that the proper process is you get married at 22/23, have kids 24/25 and go from there. When you have kids at age 26 and up, you are having kids late. It is really interesting to me but it is honestly making not being married or having kids that much harder for me. I am right on "track" with my northern friends but way "behind" with my southern :-\. There are definitely differences between the North and South. Not necessarily good or bad but there are differences.

Anyway, my mom wanted to know what I was wearing. I was wearing this. What do you think? Should this outfit go into the trash because it does make me look pregnant or was the lady nuts?

Front view

From the side

Trying to tighten the shirt as it is a bit big and billowy

Maybe putting my hand on my belly like pregnant Moms do will make it clear...

Paint Colors

Caroline offered to walk through the house with me on Wednesday so I am going to bring our extra set of paint chips (Brian was a genius and picked up another set) and show her and see what she thinks.

What do you guys think?

This house is going to be a 4 bedroom house. The fourth bedroom will be used as an office. We will be painting all 4 bedrooms and the dining room.

Guest Bedrooms:

Icy Teal: Guest room #2 or #3

Softest Juniper: Guest room #2 or #3?

Sweet Baby Boy: Bedroom #2 or 3

For the guest rooms so far Sweet Baby Boy and Softest Juniper are our favorites

Master Bedroom:

French Country Blue: Master

Whatever we don't decide for the guest rooms could be used for the master if we decide we like it that way as well.

Dining Room:

Forest Khaki

Barely Jade

Barely Jade is almost white....so I am leaning against it. It first started out as a bedroom color but quickly got moved to the dining room

Office:

Sea Glass Green

Antique Silver

Pacific Khaki

Frosted Pine

Sea Glass, surprisingly, and Frosted Pine are our top two favorites so far for the office. The antique silver is third. Pacific Khaki is just too light...maybe for the dining room but I am not sure.

Yes Brian and I like Blues and Greens. Brian hates bright yellow and the rest of the house will be painted a light yellow. A pastel red/orange is pink/peach-ish and we don't have a baby girl yet...and even if we did have a baby girl I don't know if I want such a gender specific paint color. Yes I know one of the guest room paint colors is "Sweet Baby Boy" but I know I can still make the color work for either boys or girls. It is easy to make some blues feminine while next to impossible to make any pink/peach suitable for a boy. Also, we feel like the bedrooms should be warm inviting colors and the brown spectrum just feels so cold and formal hence why we are liking it for the Dining Room.

I know we are testing these colors out in the apartment and that the apartment is not the new house but we don't think that will make that much of a difference. We both will either like or dislike a color regardless of the location and the lighting is very similar in both properties. Also, regardless of where we are the blinds will be drawn and the house kept dark because of Brian's eyes so while yes you want to make sure the paint looks good with the blinds open, a dark room looks like a dark room. What we are hoping to do is eliminate a few colors and then see where the new house takes us. Also, Caroline also has a great eye for color so I am hoping she can lead us in the right direction.

What do you think of the colors?

My weekend...

We have had a pretty low key yet successful weekend.

Friday night was game night where I made the yummy Spaghetti Carbonara with Josh and Vicki. The boys cheated and won. I almost won but I believe Josh put a stop at that. Vicki and I will beat them next time though we are playing a new game so who knows.

Saturday we:

• Went to Walmart to get new pots for my avocado trees as they out grew their current pots. I should not have to transplant them for a very long time. They look a bit ridiculous now but I am hoping it works.
• While at Walmart, and the only reason we went to that particular store, we picked up paint chips of the colors we are thinking of using to paint the inside of the house if we buy it. We even picked up a couple more I didn't see on the website. My friend Marc, who does the wine glasses, also paints houses and is able to do it for us very cheaply which we are excited about because the only painting company to get back in touch after we asked for quotes A) tried to rip us off we believe and B) cost about the same as the builder which is ridiculous. So now we have paint chips around the house. The dining room colors in the dining room, all the bedroom colors in the master (if we put the others in the other guest room we would never see it to tell), and the "office" colors are in the bedroom we currently use as an office. So far Brian and I are agreeing on colors.
• We watched more seasons from "Studio 60" which is my new favorite show. It is by Aaron Sorkin who did Sports Night (love that show) and stars Matthew Perry (Friends) and Amanda Peet (can't think of what else she is in). Unfortunately this show got cancelled after the first season so we only have 5 more episodes to watch :(
• Behaved and only ate out once 

Sunday:

• I went to work
• Brian playing his game
• When I got home from work I updated my blog and finished my current book. Caroline had to cancel so it is a low key night

Spaghetti Carbonara

This has got to be the simplest recipe ever and it tastes SO good. Brian and I have made this once ourselves and liked it but we made it for our friends (and one of them is a picky eater) on Friday and the four of us ate the whole thing!

Ingredients:

1 lb spaghetti (one of the RARE times we actually use spaghetti)
8 slices (or more) bacon sliced into bite sized pieces
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
3 large eggs
3/4 cups grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cups half and half

1) Set a large pot of water to boil for pasta.
2) Salt water generously so it tastes like the sea, add olive oil so the pasta doesn't stick together
3) In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat stirring occasionally, until crisp, and transfer to a paper towel lined plate
4) Add pasta and cook until al dente
5) Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together eggs, Parmesan and half and half
6) Set aside until needed
7) Drain pasta leaving some water clinging to it
8) Working quickly, add hot pasta to egg mixture
9) Add bacon, season with salt and pepper and toss to combine (the heat from pasta will cook the eggs)
10) Serve immediately, sprinkled with additional Parmesan cheese

Yum!

The hardest part of the recipe for us is having half and half and bacon on hand. This past Friday we also cooked some chicken to go into it as well. We also used 4 eggs so I used 1 cup of cheese and 3/4 cup of half and half which worked out really well. Not very healthy but sooooo good!

Update on Meal Plan experiment

It hasn't been long enough to know whether we are saving any money but I am noticing a few new things.

1) I am a lot less stressed about dinner. It gets a little wobbly when we have friends come over all of a sudden and I have either planned a meal for 2 people (i.e. no leftovers) or a meal that our guests may not like. Brian and I tend to be a bit more..adventurous? Fancy? in our cooking and our friends not so much (which is totally fine). I can find out that a friend is coming over for dinner that day so a tweak and move around in the meals can be a bit tough in that sense.

However, that situation is a lot better then what we were facing. We were facing, at first, not knowing what we were going to do for dinner. We would start asking "what are we doing for dinner" at about 4 pm or so, start looking for what we could put together with what we had and all of a sudden it is 8pm and we have come up with nothing. We weren't being all that smart with how we decided what we were going to get at the grocery store. We started out in the beginning just writing a list of things as we ran out. That was fine except that lead to us having some of the ingredients for one meal but not everything. It also lead to us not having enough food with left overs or eating the same thing over and over again.

We finally got sick of that and so I tried to create weekly menu's. That worked..and it didn't work. Towards the beginning of that experiment I was picking recipes that we had been collecting but never tried. That was really yummy but got expensive depending on the recipe. I won't call that a failure as some of our favorite repeat recipes are from that time frame. I then figured out that the issue wasn't trying new recipes but that the recipes were of things where we had nothing already in the house to make them except for maybe spices. So we started trying to pick recipes by what we had in the house so that when we did go to the grocery store we were getting the small things rather then EVERYTHING for 5 recipes. We would still find a random recipe that included ingredients we didn't have and make it but it wasn't an every recipe or even once a week thing. Another struggle with this technique is that, at the time, Brian's and my schedules kept changing so recipes kept getting bumped. And at the very end I was making recipes that made too many leftovers. I say this worked because we did find some great recipes and figured out we were on the right path and it didn't work because we couldn't stick to it and our process needed tweaking some more.

Now we are trying this. So far so good. We are still having to tweak what meal gets eaten when but so far everything is evening itself out. I don't have to wonder what we are doing for dinner or if we even have enough ingredients to make a meal for that night with enough for left overs.

2) Because that stress is not there, I am enjoying cooking more. Because I enjoy cooking more, Brian is not doing much cooking. The dishes are being done a lot faster and easier. And we are so far, having just the right amount of left overs. It is no longer a chore which is very nice.

Hopefully this system makes sense monetarily wise as well. I am realizing that in terms of produce, we will need to do that every 2 weeks. The first shopping trip with include the meats, dry items, dairy and half the produce and then 2 weeks later I will get the rest of the produce for the month. My zucchini got wet and so two of them were so bad that I couldn't save them. Oh well, live and learn right? :)

Extreme Couponing

There is a new show called Extreme Couponing on TLC. Caroline and I have a sick obsession with it and sometimes Brian will watch it. I won't watch it when it first airs or even record it but I do find myself watching it when I am off.

That being said, I am not a fan of the show. I think couponing can be a useful tool when shopping. I am not against couponing at all. I grew up with my mom couponing but the extremes these people go to is just wrong. Most of the stories start out like "My husband/wife lost his job and now we can't afford our lifestyle, what are we going to do?". I get that feeling and don't fault them for going to couponing but they have made a healthy, smart way to stretch a dollar into something that I find is just wrong on every level.

Why?

1) They have become hoarders. Their beloved stockpile becomes SO large that they have to turn their garage into a grocery store while storing the rest under kids beds, in bathroom closets, any space they can.  That is not healthy

2) They are obsessed with their stockpile. Their stockpile seems to become SO important that nothing else matters...not the husband or kids.

3) They are greedy. They don't need ALL that stuff! One person got 75 mustards when NO ONE in her family liked mustard just because she got such a good deal. One person had a stockpile of Diapers and Cat food when she didnt have a cat or baby. They also get rain checks when the store only has 50 of a product when they wanted 75.

4) I believe you should pay for what you purchase. Sure getting something for free is a nice treat and I don't believe you should ever pay more then you should for something but ringing up a grocery bill for $2000+ and only paying $180 is just wrong. The grocery store should and deserves to make a profit. The manufacturers do not Double/Triple coupons. The store does that out of their pocket books. They can afford to lose a dollar or two, not $1000+. If they don't make a profit they will close and people lose their jobs. The proper tax isn't being collected which isnt good for the current economy and governments are going to have to raise taxes elsewhere because they are not getting it here and no one likes taxes going up.

5) They never get anything healthy and I never see them getting anything to actually make a meal outside of spaghetti with jarred sauce. They get 75 jars of mustard, 100 packs of Ramen type noodles, 100 cans of dog food, 50 candy bars, 50 boxes of fake cereal, 50 boxes of pasta, 50 boxes of Ragu/Prego, 50 things of toiletries, etc. My numbers are just examples and I guessed low for a lot of the families. Where are the meals? What are they actually eating? Sure they saved 98% of the bill but if they only have $50 a week to spend on groceries and you've spent it with your couponing, how are they eating? Where is the meat? The vegetables? Heck, the lunchables? The Hamburger helpers? I do not get it.

6) These people are selfish on multiple levels. They go grocery shopping at 6am and empty the shelves so if anyone else wanted that product, oh well. They get mad at the store because the registers can only scan 1000 items in one transaction because no one dreamed people would "buy" like they are. They get mad at a store because a store has policies in place that are made clear so if the couponers had really done their homework like they say they do, they would know that.

7) Couponing is not as cheap as they try to make it seem like. There is overhead. Your time is worth money. Some people spend between 50-70 hours a week planning, clipping, organizing and prepping for the next trip to the store. Some of these people are Stay at Home Parents but others are working a full time out of home job on top of this. Your children deserve your time. If you are waiting for them to be in bed, you need your sleep too! Plus coupon mailers intend for one mailer per household. If you buy more newspapers you get more mailers but you are spending $X more to get the extra papers which lowers your savings. Plus if you use online coupons, you have to print them out. Paper and ink, especially ink, gets expensive. Those expenses get taken out of your savings. Some people use clipping services as a way to cut down on time, that costs money which lessens their savings. Some people go dumpster diving (literally) for them or beg hotels for extra Sunday papers. Yes technically you are not spending money doing that, but again your time and dignity is worth something as well. People have actually gotten separate home insurance policies to cover their stockpile and that takes money away from their savings. I think if these people really looked at the cost of everything they would find that they really weren't saving that much for all the the time and trouble it takes.

8) You create a stockpile of a certain item so you don't have to buy that item for X long. Like you buy enough shampoo to last six months and you don't shop for that item again for maybe 5 1/2 months (so you don't technically run out). These people make a stockpile and keep buying the items in their stockpile. Some people have enough toiletries to last them 10 years and they keep buying! I think I might feel A LOT better about the show if they got everything for almost free but then never went back for more until they actually got close to running out. 

I would also feel better if they were giving the majority, heck any, of it to a charity. I have seen one person on the show do this. I can definitely understand the obsession/addiction they have and if they used it to help others in need like giving it to soup kitchens, sending it over to the Military personnel in care packages, donating to schools to help feed the kids who come to school without food, it would make some more sense to me.

This show makes Caroline, Brian and I sick though it has been a good source tension release for Brian and I as we vent about how wrong this is. I am fascinated by it but horrified that this is going to cause more people to go to that extreme and I am worried about the side affects. I have already noticed updated fine print policies highlighted in red on coupons.

Someone is 9 months old...

She is finally growing a *little* hair in the back and is still a pretty petite little girl. She gets that from her Mommy.

Still too busy to pose...she really likes Jenn talking. Each time Jenn opened her mouth Carley's head turned. SO cute!

My boss's chair is still the best toy in the office. Though now she doesn't slide down as much though she is doing better then I am with that. His chair slants forward and I can't sit on it without sitting Indian style without sliding.

Of to Jersey Shore with Daddy! Little does Daddy know that he is about to get a present when he returns :)

I'd like you to meet...

the one person who was able to put a smile on my face today...

Meet Robby. He is the 5th baby to be born this year to the hotel. He is the youngest being around 6 months but is already 20lbs (he is bigger then Xavier). He has the prettiest eyes and the cutest chin. SUCH a sweet baby. He is also definitely his fathers baby.

Today we got some more bad news about our dear friend Judy otherwise known as Gamma Judy. She helped train me and has become like a Grandma to me. She was diagnosed with Lung Cancer a little over a year ago and was back at the hospital this past week as they think the cancer has spread to her brain. I went to the hospital on Friday to see her. It does not look good. Her personality is still there but it does not look good.

We found out today that she has been moved to home under hospice care and it will be any time now. The doctor's say she has less then 6 weeks. All I wanted to do was cry but right as I hung up the phone, my coworker brought in this cutie and how can you cry when your playing with this sweetie pie?

I am so thankful my co-worker brought him in. Robby was just the diversion I needed. We had a blast playing on that chair. He is almost standing up on his own! He even started "talking" with me! We played airplane and went pffffffft like a motor and played patty cake. I was oblivious to the world except for this guy which was just what I needed. Robby has met me once and never whimpered or anything when I scooped him up, took him a few feet from his Dad and played with him. He was full of smiles. I am SO impressed...his parents are doing SUCH a good job! Plus this little man is a Giants fan and it isn't because of me!

Mexcan Lasagna, Part 2

Don't  skip the rice. It still taste good but it is very soupy and not very lasagna-ey. Adding the diced tomatoes was a good idea :)

Mexican Lasagna

This is Brian's famous Mexican Lasagna recipe. It is also, however, a dish that doesn't really have a recipe.

What you will need:

An Old El Paso Gordita Dinner Kit
1 can Hunt's Manwich Bold Sloppy Joe sauce
1 can Hormel chili with NO beans
1 lb either ground beef or ground turkey
2 lbs of shredded cheese (Chedder, mexican blend, taco blend, etc)
9X13 pyrex baking pan
Mexican Spices (garlic powder, paprika, etc)
1 box of Spanish rice mix cooked
Ranch dressing

1) Cook ground beef/turkey in a large pot with Mexican spices that you have lying around the house
2) While that is cooking, cut the tortillas from the box kit into triangles and line the bottom of the 9X13 pan with half of them so that you cant see the bottom glass
3) Spread half of the ranch sauce on top
4) Cover ranch sauce and tortillas with half the cheese
5) After turkey/beef is cooked, drain and put back in the pot
6) Mix in the rice, Hormel and Manwhich and keep on the stove until hot
7) After it is hot, pour on top of the tortillas, ranch and cheese in the pan
8) Pour some more of the ranch sauce on top of the meat sauce
9) Cover the top of the ranch/meat sauce with the rest tortillas so you can not see the meat below
10) Pour the rest of the ranch (if you don't have enough use the ranch salad dressing) over the top of the tortillas
11) Cover that with the rest of the cheese.
12) Bake in an oven at 350 for about 30 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned and bubbly

This is not a meal for side dishes...it is very filling. I would make a salad and that is probably about it. I also wouldn't serve it in large portions. We first cut 9 slices out of it and then cut each slice in half and we are fine. Sometimes we do go back for more later. When we were each eating 1/9th of it we were eating WAY too much. It makes a LOT!

Right now we have substituted the rice for 15 ounces of drained diced tomatoes so we will see how that is. Also if you have some cheese you haven't used, feel free to dump it in this dish. We used 1 full bag of Mexican blend but had 1/4 bag of Cheddar that we used as well to use it up. We also had Brian's chili sauce left over from taco night last week which we layered in as well. This is definitely a recipe that can be tweaked and added to based on what you have on hand.

Buying the Gordita Box so far is the cheapest way of getting all the ingredients. Technically you can buy all the ingredients separately but so far it is cheaper to just buy the Gordita box. Also, the Gordita Box's are kind of hard to find so we buy three at a time and always keep 3 Hormel Chili cans and 3 Manwich cans so we can make this in a pinch if need be. All we are ever missing is cheese and the turkey.

Sausage and Zucchini Skillet Lasagna

Apparently people can't leave comments...I am not sure why it is not working but I did catch wind that I should post the Sausage and Zucchini Skillet Lasagna and the Mexican Lasagna recipes :). The Mexican Lasagna is one of Brian's recipes so I have to wait till he makes it to write that one down. In the mean time here is the Sausage and Zucchini Skillet Lasagna

Ingredients:

3/4 lbs Italian pork sausage (casings removed)
2 (8 ounce) zucchini sliced into "chip" form
1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb part-skim ricotta cheese
White from 1 large egg
8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese
1/2 cups grated parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
3 cups jarred tomato sauce
8 no boil lasagna noodles
1/3 cups fresh basil leaves

Directions

1) Heat oven to 400F
2) Saute sausage and zucchini in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat 5 to 7 minutes or until sausage is lightly browned and zucchini tender
3) Remove skillet from heat, cool slightly
4) Combine ricotta, egg white, mozzarella, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan, salt, and pepper
5) Spread 3/4 cup of the tomato sauce on bottom of a 10 inch oven proof skillet, preferably cast iron or nonstick (I use my red enamel "pot" I would use for Mac and Cheese or Turkey Tetrazzini)
6) Top with 2 noodles, long sides touching
7) Spoon 1/3 each of sausage mixture, cheese mixture and basil leaves over noodles
8) Assemble 2 more layers, beginning with 2 noodles, then 3/4 of sauce, 1/3 of the sausage mixture, 1/3 of the cheese mixture, and 1/3 of the basil leaves, ending top layer with the last 2 noodles
9) Spread the remaining 3/4 cup sauce over top and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
10) Cover tightly with foil
11) Bake 35 minutes
12) Let rest 10 minutes before cutting into wedges

Serves: 6
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 42 minutes
Total time: 1 hr 2 minutes

Calories: 535
Total fat: 29
Total carbs: 40
Protein: 29

First grocery trip under new Food Plan

I had a lot of toiletry/pantry items I needed to add to my list but I did have a fair amount of coupons. Don't worry...I am not going to go to "Extreme Couponing" extreme (I actually believe that you should pay for things you buy and that it is more wasteful to have a stock pile that extreme) but I could be a bit better about it.

This is what we ended up buying (I have pointed out which things I had coupons for):

Meat:
5 lbs beef brisket
2 packages Ball Park hot dogs-coupon
Produce:
6 large onions
Garlic
Limes
2 green peppers
1 Jalepeno pepper
4 zucchini
Frozen Peas
Carrots
Potatoes
Red Onions
Acorn Squash
Dairy:
Butter
Ricotta cheese-Sorrento (coupon)
Fresh Mozzarrella-Sorrento (coupon)
Sour cream
Half and Half
Provolone
Feta Cheese
Parm Cheese
1 package Breakstone cottage cheese-coupon
4 yogurts
Dried:
Lasagna noodles
Hamburger buns- Ballpark (coupon)
1 box Fiber One-coupon
Ritz crackers
1 box of Couscous
Baking:

Brown sugar

Duncan Hines Brownies-see coupon

Canned:

Tomato soup

Prego

Toiletries:

Neosporin-coupon

Bandaid brand-coupon

Energizer batteries-coupon

Venus Razor-coupon

Venus refills- coupon

2 Oral B toothbrushes-see coupon

Charmin toilet paper-coupon

2 Head and Shoulders-coupon

2 Pantene shampoo-coupon

Q-tips-coupon

Condiments:

Gulden's mustard-coupon

Juice:

2 V8 Splash- coupon

If you follow VERY closely you will notice I took out tomatoes and crusty bread. I also need to pick up a can of cream of chicken soup for one of my recipes. I thought I had enough but when I was putting the food away this morning I realized I didn't. We didn't get the crusty bread or tomatoes because Brian didn't think they would last long enough. So we will need to go back to the store for those 3 three things. We did get a lot of produce so I may be moving dishes around in case some of the produce doesn't look like it will last as long as expected. 

Our total was $178.83. I saved $31.91 in coupons and $11.97 with my Food Lion MVP card. I was very excited because some of the stuff I was going to buy with my coupons happened to be on sale with Food Lion! I know real couponers plan that out...but I don't have time for that so it was a nice surprise. So in total I saved $43.94!! And as I said before, a lot of what was on our list that wasn't produce/dairy/meet was pantry/toiletry items that we don't buy all the time so for the next few months we will not need to purchase those items. 

I can't wait until we start seeing results on whether this system is working or not...I believe it should.

Revamping our habits: June's menu

Regardless of what we do with the house Brian and I should try to get better with our grocery shopping and restaurant activities. We are definitely better then when I last spoke of revamping it and I do believe we are better at it then a lot of people....but we could do better.

Last time we revamped it we were going to plan meals for the week and my schedule and Brian's schedule was not the same which made it hard. The change I have been waiting for (I can/will go into more details in a week or so) has come through and a side effect is that Brian's and my schedule aren't so drastically different anymore. Because of this I am going to try planning meals a month in advance. I think another issue we have is there are very few meals we make again. There are meals that we love but just get lost in our list of recipes. I am going to try and rotate recipes more often.

I am going to start with June as we are still in the beginning months and almost use it as a practice round. I think this will also help us keep track of everything we spend on groceries as well. My current goal is to eat out once a week and see how that goes. We can always cut back but I don't want to make life hell by counting dollars if we don't need to. Also, if I can keep up with this and it works some months I can just copy another month's menu which will save time.

June's Meal List

Thursday, June 9^th: BLT's

Friday, June 10^th: Mom's Chicken Dijon

Saturday, June 11^th: Out for dinner

Sunday, June 12^th: RAH @ Carolines, BMC fend

Monday, June 13^th: Mexican Lasagna

Tuesday, June 14^th: Sausage and zucchini lasagna

Wednesday, June 15^th: Fend

Thursday, June 16^th: Chicken w/Gnocchi

Friday, June 17^th: Tuna w/ lime pepper crust

Saturday, June 18^th: Out

Sunday, June 19^th: RAH @ Carolines, BMC fend

Monday, June 20^th: Spaghetti Carbonara

Tuesday, June 21^st: Greek Style Chicken Skillet Recipe

Wednesday, June 22^nd: Fend

Thursday, June 23^rd: Emeril's tuna melts

Friday, June 24^th: Shephards Pie

Saturday, June 25^th: Out

Sunday, June 26^th: RAH @ Caroline's, BMC fend

Monday, June 27^th: Poppy seed chicken

Tuesday, June 28^th: Slow-cooked Brisket in Onion Gravy

Wednesday, June 29^th: Fend

Thursday, June 30^th: Brisket sloppy joes

So this months grocery list based on those recipes is:

5 lbs beef brisket
6 large onions
Garlic
Butter
4 zucchini
Ricotta cheese
Fresh Mozzarrella
Lasagna noodles
Prego
Limes
2 green pepper
1 jalepeno pepper
Brown sugar
Hamburger buns
Sour cream
ritz crackers
Frozen peas
Carrots
Potatoes
Red onion
Tomatoes
Provalone
Crusty bread
Tomato soup
1 box of couscous
Feta cheese
Half and half
Parmesan cheese
Acorn squash

Now I just have to get my coupons organized. Let me know if there are any recipes you want me to post :)

Caroline's House and Frog (the movie)

One of my favorite movies when I was growing up was "Frog". It is about this nerdy boy named Arlow who has a string of reptiles that he studies. He finds a frog that talks to him and teaches him how to get a girl to kiss him. There are lots of fun adventures including going to the movies, being brought to school, and digging through a lake kissing frogs. I have to get this movie not only for myself...but for Caroline.

Caroline has a much cooler son then Arlow. Her son, like Arlow, is obsessed with reptiles and the like. They have a snake, 4 turtles, 1 frog, a cat, a dog, cockroaches at one point, a dragon lizard and a sugar glider. One of her son's favorite activities is going out in the wild and catching these animals and keeping them for a bit. It is not uncommon for Caroline to come home and find frogs in the sink, a lizard in the tub or a snake in the shower.

I swear, Caroline is like Shelly Duval who plays the mother. Take this scene...she will relate totally:

I have never met their frog before. I finally met him this past Sunday. I thought Caroline was talking about Jack (the dog's) favorite toy which is a frog. It is only when I look down I see this as she is cutting up hot dogs.

Meet Pugsley

Pugsley is a weird frog who has to face one certain direction and will move if you try to turn him around

Well one of my favorite scenes of the movie is at the end. Arlow is with the girl he was crushing on eating at an Italian restaurant when they hear a familiar voice break out into song....

Youtube is failing me here so this is the best I can do....

The Muppet Show is helping me out showing you who played "Gus" the frog:

But he was singing this song:

So for the rest of the night I was singing "when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie thats amore" with Caroline looking at me weird. She HAS to see this movie!

The current debate: Brighton house

Brian and I are confused about what to do with the house.

His Uncle called the other day to chat and repeated a lot of what we already knew and what a lot of people are advising us to do. Ever since that conversation and the fact that the builders may/may not increase the rate…we have been hesitant. Papers were signed as we can back out at any time and that gives us time to think. We will find out today about the price and we will go from there. If they don’t change the price on us I believe we are moving ahead, cautiously, while waiting for the items in the provisional contract to happen. Neither of us are sure of anything…

I thought writing out a list of pros/cons of reasons to buy or not to buy will help us sort things out…

1)      We aren’t married. Brian and I have no plans of separating or anything like that but legally we should be married. We are, technically, common law married thanks to SC laws but that doesn’t/shouldn’t count for this. Both of us recognize this but are torn.

2)      We both like the house and location. Neither of us had to compromise like a lot, if not most, of people do. It is in the perfect location and has everything we are/were looking for on the best lot we have seen. Sure there are other houses but I have a sinking feeling that if we don’t get this one, we will be comparing everything to this one and be disappointed in ways with another choice/option. We don’t really want to regret our first home purchase. We have no plans to buy another after this one so it’s not like we can live with the disappointment because next time we will get what we want. We plan on living in the house we buy for a very long time.

3)      There are talks that the FHA loan program (first time buyer) will be eliminated. Unless Brian and I both somehow double both of our salaries, we won’t be able to buy a house for a very long, long time.

4)      The time to buy is now. Prices are still low, may get a little lower, but it is expected/projected to start rising within a year. If we don’t buy this house, the plan is to wait a year and save up some more and hope that the FHA loan program is still around and that prices haven’t gone up. I am not sure we can count on both of those happening at this point. We almost hope prices don’t go up but that means the economy won’t get better which we of course want to happen.

5)      We need to wait for a few things to fall into place and we should probably wait and let things settle before we make such a big change. I agree with that but with the provisional contract, as it stands right now, we have until September for everything to fall into place and the item that we should wait on will happen way before that so we will have time to let the dust settle from that while being able to back out if the dust doesn’t settle like it is expected too.

6)      Buying a house is a risk under any circumstance. Without taking risks you never get anywhere. I hate risks…I hate change…I hate making decisions based on unknowns. However, sometimes you have to bite your lip, take the plunge and hope for the best. If everything goes to plan, and it really should it is really just a matter of when, we can afford the house. It will be tight for the first year or two but I have been told it is tight for everyone the first few years unless you are Bill Gates. Plus Brian and I are willing to sacrifice a bit of our social life to own a home that we want. Plus, with the current interest rates, it is the best investment out there.

7)      People think we are rushing into it. I can see how they believe that but we have been asking all the right questions, people have just been getting back to us really quickly. Plus our “rush” was because we didn’t want them to sell the only lot we wanted/would work. We have definitely been doing our homework and my mom tells us we have been looking into this a lot more seriously then she was when they bought their first condo. If this house was not as perfect as it is we wouldn’t have given it a second thought and honestly didn’t think seriously about buying it until they lowered the price by a little over 15k. Plus, obviously, we still aren’t sure about it and have till September, basically, to make a decision.

We wish someone would/could just tell us what to do and what the right decision is but no one can. I am getting a bit ahead of ourselves as we don’t even know if the house will stay at the right price but we have to plan/think about as much as we can so we can make the best decision we can. If the price gets increased and they wont work with us we are bailing so this is a mute point. If not….this is where we currently stand. It just stinks. On Saturday we were both pretty gung ho about it…now we are not sure.

ETA: The sales lady just emailed and the price was approved

The Lot at Brighton Lakes Part 2

We went and spoke with the sales lady this morning. The meeting went well but apparently the company decided to raise their rates affective Tuesday at 10am so if we have any hope of getting the house at the price we want we need to get the papers back to her by Monday morning. She said her immediate boss is fairly confident he can get his boss to agree to the price we have been talking about. We were walking into the meeting wanting the contracts so we could look them over and have them back to them either Monday or Tuesday evening. This just has put a rush on it which I don't like too much. Fortunately we do have a provisional contract due to the changes in our lives and that provisional contract states very clearly that we can back out for any reason and get our earnest money back. We have signed the paperwork and my Dad has generously offered to go over it and we will wait and see. If the prices don't increase that is great and we move forward based on the contract. If the price goes up by a lot we bail. If the price goes up by 3-4k  we try and get them to include more upgrades as standard, if not bail. If it goes up by less then 3k we need to sit down and decide what to do. Meanwhile, if we find something in the contract that we don't like we can talk about it or just bail.

While we were there we took pictures of the lot.

Looking straight into it

Looking across from the left side

Diagonally from left side

What we think is the property line

The "dreaded" easement....

The part of the land that we can mow even though we don't own it...

The river as I call it

An attempt to get a clear shot of where our land ends and Easment begins

In the above picture you see the big trees on the left right? Then right below that there are shrubs and then a clearing right? On the left of the picture are the shrubs before the "river". Well our property line would end where the small shrubs are.

So there you have it...