Grocery shopping...

Since we have moved I've been slacking on grocery shopping. I think it's because it's still summer. The kids do not have homework and what not. (Or it's just because I have come to dread it).

Well, I do a few things. I head to my cabinate that has all my recipes. 

The best thing I ever did was subscribe to The Food Network Magazine. I have been a subscriber since 2010. I have a few missing issues when we have moved and what not, but other than that I have all of them.  The books next to my magazines are the most used. (I know I should purge the others bet some were gifts)

The black binder has the recipes I've typed/printed off. Some are friends' recipes, most are from family and the rest are ones I've gotten off the internet. (Yes I have them in sections: main dishes, sides, breads, breakfast, deserts) 

Then I grab my current calendar 

I use pencil when writing the meals down. Just in case they get vetoed by other family members. 

Then once we've made the dish (I am not so anal we have to eat the dish on the night I've wrote it down) I use a high lighter to mark it off. 

That way we know essentially what we still have to eat. The picture above is a month from last year. If we do not eat it in the two weeks we put it down it will carry over. Something's come up like BBQs or just times we are tired of cooking and go out. 

Now if you zoom in the above pictures (or check out the picture below) you can see short hand. 

So the 22nd I've written down Orecchiette with Ham and Leeks pg 151

FNM~Apr14 which mean Food Network Magazine ~ April 2014 (I've had to start to write the year because I have 4 years of these magazines). My poor husband has had to get used to this short hand as he and I share cooking duties. 

Once I've filled in the two weeks that we need of meals. I use the recipes and compile my list. 

As that is finished I put the recipes and calendar , whether they are magazine, loose or in books in a magazine holder that sits on our counter. That way we are not searching for them through out the week. Helps with making cooking a little easier. (It used stress me out, but now I love it). 

Sorry for the long winded post. Hope it helps just a little. 

Hope you are having a wonderful day!!!

Starts!!

Here's a new start! It's Halloween Rules by Lizzie Kate. Started this last Thursday, while my kids swam in the pool.

I've never done a project like this. It's a new experience also have never used Hand Over Dyed Fibers. I am using 32 ct. chestnut like she did and let me tell you these colors pop! 

It seems to be working up fast for as much time as I was able to give to it. 

Hope all you lovelies are having a wonderful weekend. 

Sorry for the blurry picture. This is a test post as I just added Blogger to my phone. Maybe this way I can/will post more often. 

Moving....

Can be incredibly stressful. You would think I would have this down. This is my sixth move with the Army (well with the hubby being in the Army).  In the past we have gotten our orders six months out so we can get on the housing list and start preparing that far in advance. I'm hoping it was just the last post we were at that made it incredibly hard to leave. We didn't receive our orders until May with a report date of July 10th that is crazy.  Not impossible but dang there were some harry moments. 

Like not knowing if the movers were going to be able to come at the exact dates we needed. Even getting on the housing list in May didn't guarantee us a house on this end. 

So we've been living in a hotel for the last 9 days. Two adults, two kids, and two cats. It hasn't been easy. Wish those two room suites were under per diem. Bed time has been rough, specially when one kid will fight with all his power to stay awake. "He's not tired." 

We did find a house and have submitted an application on it. Crossing my fingers it all works out. The hubs has to sign in tomorrow to start in-processing. Here's to hearing back that we are a go for the house and we can move in this weekend and work on get our stuff delivered next week. 

Hope you lovelies are having a wonderful week!!!

So long.....

I can't believe it's been so long since I have posted. 

May was kind of a blur and I pretty much volunteered the whole at my daughter's school. Help the Librarian inventory the books and collect all the technology from the teachers that are leaving or that administration wanted turned in. 

My parents also came out for a visit the last week in May. They came for my daughter's birthday and to get good Mexican food (my mom's words) one last time before we move. 

Honestly I am really going to miss the food here. Not to mention some of the people. 

June has been pretty quick too. We have had to get stuff ready for the movers. If you have flour or sugar in canisters on your counters you have to have them washed out before they can even be packed.  They weren't going to take our coffee grinder because I didn't even think to toss that in the dishwasher. You can believe I spent a good long time this morning getting that cleaned. 

This has probably been the hardest move we've had to date. Not getting calls from the moving company or the driver. Having our dates moved back. I am so thankful we have the benefit of contracting a moving company. 

No I should be off cleaning... I'm going, really I am. 

Hope you all have a wonderful day!!! 

Home Alone... Sort of!

It's 10:00 or 2200 for those associated with the military.

The hubs is on a night watch or some other. So I am all alone, well the kids upstairs in bed and the cats. 

I can't say I can't sleep without my husband there by my side. I just don't track the clock and I will end up finding its 1:30 am. He is my clock watcher. 

Ever have those days that diner just isn't going to be anything healthy, exactly?

Ya, that so happened tonight. I was suppose to make stuffed pork chops. Which will be our dinner for tomorrow night. We ended up scrounging around the fridge for whatever was easy and edible. 

I won't go into our bad eating habits. I do have to say I did put my foot down, to ice cream. Was tempted but it was a no go.

Have you had those days? What are your go to eats if you have them in the house?

Hope all is well!!!

The Blahs....

Ever just have the blahs?? 

I have a bad case of them. Haven't picked up one of my crochet projects or cross-stitch ones. 

I did catch up on the In Death series by J.D. Robb. I just can't not read those books in a couple days. I love them. I read Thankless and Concealed In Death.  

I absolutely loved Thankless. Roarke and Eve were awarded medals and Sumerset (Roarke's father of sorts) arranges Roarke's family to be in town for the ceremony. Then the whole scene between Nixie and Eve was beyond anything I could imagine. 

As I read that scene, I wondered if there was any book that J.D. Robb or Nora Roberts has had a hard time writing. I could not imagine writing Nixie's story. She is a survivor of her whole family's murder along with her friend. 

We may or may not be heading to Albuquerque to sell my husbands truck this weekend. If we do will have a post on what exactly what we did to fill the day. 

Laters.....

Weekend fun!

The plan was go through the section of the garage we stuck stuff we are getting rid of.

I really thought it was going to take a lot longer than it did. 

I put my husband on getting us some tunes. We have an extra tuner and speakers, by the time he had that done. I just needed help with the awkward pieces.

We put the boxes we have leftover on the shelves my husband built. I can announce I can actually park my car in the garage. It's the little things really. It will come in handy when it starts getting hot in  the next couple weeks. 

We hit the dump and then took the kids to the pool. Patrick has only been begging to go to the pool for the last month. Well, maybe two weeks, so we picked up his buddy Connor and hit the water. 

I actually didn't have to get in the pool, so I took along my latest project and worked up some on Eagles Majesty.  I am working it up for my father-in-law. 

It has worked up pretty quick, but then Dimensions use a lot of half stitches. I will get some pictures of the progress so far.  

Hope yow lovelies had a wonderful weekend!

Bad thing...

Today as I drove back from the Volunteer recognition luncheon I just had to stop by Hobby Lobby. 

I mean I just did!!!

Well, I was going to price check some linen for another cross-stitch project I want to start. I bet your thinking wait, what start another? Did you finish your daughter's name pillow yet?

Nope haven't finished that one, yet. I do need to take some pictures to update on that project and show you the project I started for my father-in-law. 

Well, I always check out the clearance section near yarn, fabric and stitching year. There a couple clearance sections if you know where to look. Well, I found this gem on clearance. 

I loved it when I fist spotted it, even showed the hubs, but didn't want to spend the $29.99. I don't have a kiddo that would like this or a reason to have it. So it is going in my stash for maybe a future nephew or a just because project.  I was lucky and bought it for $19.19 but you can find it on here for $25.99. 

Now I have to confess to my husband that I bought it. To save money for vacations and build our emergency savings fund, we put ourselves on a $40.00 allowance every 2 weeks. So $160 a month for both of us. That means my craft supplies or his tobacco products or misc buys come out of that and not our bank account. We've done really well, except for today.

 We have stopped transferring out of savings just because. Stuck to our food budget and gas budget. What also makes me happy is my husband isn't as stressed over the fact that we have no savings. We aren't to the 6 month of bills stash, but we are getting there. 

Prepping...

So it's begun, the prepping for moving. 

Well, we've tried to do a little each weekend, but with last weekend sickness that didn't happen. 

One of the things we start to do is eat from our freezer. I know you are thinking, we always do this but we always have an extra pound of hamburger or a few steaks, and a couple of breast of chicken. 

So we took stock when we were meal planning this past pay day. We usually buy syrup in a big jug so we can refill our bottle. Saves money and then we don't end up with a bunch of sticky bottles at different levels of fullness (trust me it has happened before).

Are there tips that you do that would be great to try. I am up for anything to make this move smooth!!! 

Have a great day!!!

Survived!!!

We barely survived!!!

Let's just say, it was gross. Patrick came down with the pukes and diarrhea first. 

I was hit next. We definitely didn't have it as bad as Patrick. Who surprisingly bounced back yesterday. Oh to be young and have a quick immune system.

Abbie and I pretty much laid around all day. We each took a nap, she woke up thinking it was Monday. All I have to say is I wished my nap was that good.

My husband has a stomach of iron and he came home from his chapel work today saying his stomach was off. Crossing fingers it doesn't progress to what the rest of us had. 

Hope you had a MUCH better weekend than we did. 

Puke...

It's a great start to the weekend. 

I got a call from my son's nurse, that he had a terrible runny nose and one pink eye.  Never said anything about his stomach hurting. 

Well, I started the process of signing him out. Had to fill out a paper because I had never signed him out before. That's right he started school last July and April is the first time I signed him out.

I say GO ME!!! Right?!?!?!

Except my poor guy started puking right then and there. The poor father that was also picking up his son got some splatter on his shoes. 

Now you'd think, Oh he's puking here have a trash can! Nope I had to ask for one. They were more worried about getting napkins and the custodian up to the front. While he was actively puking. 

I can say, we will most likely not make it to zoo or movies like I wanted to do this weekend. 

Poor guy hasn't held anything done since 11:00. 

Please Pray for me, I don't do well with puke. So far I haven't succumbed so far, but the night is young.

April

I can't believe its April already. 

Tomorrow we have a relator coming to the house, so we can list it. 

I'm kind of sad about that. It means one chapter is closing. So we can start on our next adventure.

 It also means we need to clean house. We got a good start on the garage. It's just the rest of the house we need to get through. 

Mainly the kids closets and toys. We did have two boxes of boys clothes and one bag of girls clothes, that I will be delivering to my friend that has a couple of girls and a little guy that can put them to good use, hopefully. 

Any of you starting a new adventure? I'd love to hear about it.

MOVING SUCKS!!!

OK, OK, OK..... This is my rant and normally do not have this outlook. 

I love to move.

 Finding out where we are going. Things we can do there. 

All the new people we will meet. 

I hate the part of figuring out what we are going to do about out house. 

Rent it, sell it?

So many decisions. 

Live on post, or off post. 

So we are on the we need to trim the fat. 

Aka: clean out the garage and get rid of the junk we traveled here with. 

I'm finding it really hard. 

I have a tub of clothes from our first son that I am having a hard time getting rid of.

Also a tub of his toys. I feel guilty for keeping his and not the other kids. 

So many mixed emotions on this move. 

So I am in the moving sucks part of the move at the moment. 

Spring Break Extended!!!

So we were suppose to be head back today but the one thing having the hubs take leave for a week and a half is being able to change things up, when you need to.

We have been super busy....busy probably isn't even the word for it. We will be recuperating for days once we get back. Thursday we walked the Strip. I will get in more details and pictures. Friday we were back at the strip and did Vegas, The Show! (It was awesome!!) Saturday we did Hoover Dam in the morning. Then my sister in law's son watch our kiddos, so we could take in Freemont St and surprise my hubby with our long time friend coming up from Phoenix. Sunday we swam and napped at the hotel ended it with pizza as a family. Pretty funny story on that one and will definitely post it in a later post.  Monday we checked out of the hotel, got half our party to the airport and on their way home. The rest that stayed we bought 3 attractions for $57 at the MGM. It is the best deal you can make to do certain attractions. Will definitely post more about that. We did the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. Tuesday the Bodies exhibit at the Luxor and today we did the Adventure Dome at Circus Circus. 

Tomorrow we are headed to the Grand Canyon and then down to Phoenix to stay with our buddy. Then the hubs has to be back to base on friday to link up with a soldier to give them a key to a chapel. 

Will definitely post more later lovelies! Hope you are having a wonderful spring break!! 

Quiet!!!

  I may be quiet for a few weeks. We are on Spring Break and are traveling but will definitely have pictures and fun stories to tell. 

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!!!

Spring Break!!!

SPRING BREAK!!!!!!

Could not have come fast enough! 

Mainly, I had volunteered all week at my daughter's school's book fair. 

Book fairs are brutal. Here in Texas, the charge tax. Surprise, surprise, not really but its so hard to remind little Kindergarteners that you need 1.07 if you want to get that .99 eraser. Trust me for your sanity you just start telling them you need, $0.54, $1.07, $2.15, $3.24, you get where I'm headed with this. 

My favorite is what can I get for.... and then they do not like the answer and will ask 4 or 5 times. Another favorite is the Mom comes in with their child's receipt and states, "My son bought two books but only came home with one!" So then, I had to ask was one of the books Minecraft? That's a pre-order as scholastic didn't send any of these out and no I do not know when they will be here. 

 I do have to say, I love volunteering at her library. I'm usually doing something different every day or every other day. Sometimes is shelving books, checking them in or out to students, or helping the Liberian with GT (Gifted and Talented). She has to test students twice a year to see if they qualify. You or your child's teacher can nominate your student. 

We are going to be traveling this Spring Break to Las Vegas!!! My sister-in-law moved there last summer and I have been begging my husband to go for years!!! Now, we can hit two birds with one trip!! Ha! 

Can't wait to update you with photos and all the fun things we will have done. Hope you are enjoying your spring break, that is if you are on spring break. Or thawing out as its 12 days until the first day of Spring. 

Where's you favorite place to volunteer? Where's your favorite place to go/thing to do on Spring Break?

Frogging...

 You would think I'd learn to stop stitching late into the night. Thursday night, working on the B for Abbie's name project. Thought I was doing pretty well. I was trying to get all the leaves to the flowers done so I could knock out all the flowers and then just fill in the B and what not. 

So I started friday with frogging... aka ripping out, aka rip it, rip it, rip it. Like it!!!

So with fresh eyes, I looked at it again and figured out where I went wrong and only had to rip 10 stitches instead of a whole bunch of them. 

I didn't get much work done yesterday as I committed to help setting up the Book Fair at my daughter's school. That was an experience and really can't wait for the fair to be over so we can get to spring break!!!!

From the school yesterday we went shoe shopping... you would think that I was super excited about that one. Yeah, not so much, but found a pair of black pumps to go with a dress for a cocktail attire event with Operation Homefront. It was such a great night and so glad I decided to go. 

Spent most of today running errands and go shoe shopping for the kids. Talk about fun times there. After a quick nap, hit the publish button, I will get back to the grind stone. 

Happy cross-stitching, crocheting or whatever your hobby is!!!!

Working....

I bet your thinking that I have got a job. Nope! Not me, but I have been working on my daughter's cross-stitch name project. 

It took me forever to find a letter alphabet that I liked. Well, I found Mary Engelbreit: Alphabets with Personality at Hobby Lobby originally but I linked to Amazon if you'd like to purchase the book yourself.

I originally fell in LOVE with her M which has a mermaid incorporated into the letter. So of course I JUST have to do both Abigail Marie. So I bought a piece of Linen (which I've never worked with before) and subsequently threw out the package so I'm not ever sure of the size or count. I've been using DMC as that's the only floss I can find at Michaels, Hobby Lobby or even Walmart. 

I have made some significant progress since I took these photos on my husbands phone. I do have to say his phone takes some good ones. 

Here is the G A. I do have to say I REALLY REALLY love A's and I's when I'm done. 

Up close of the A.

I have completed the I on the left and started the B. Sorry for the shadow of me while taking the picture. I was just taking on for my mom. The I have a white quill that will have back stitching with I words. I haven't gotten to the back stitching because I want to make sure I have all the floss to complete the letters and then will get what I need for back stitching. 

I can't wait to get to her middle name to have a few more other letters than A and I. 

Of course I ended up asking her if she'd like me to hang it or make into a pillow and she jump at a pillow. Now I have to figure in sewing (not my speciality) and stuff and probably lining. 

My son is watching the progress and thinks it's so cool. I would use the same letters but P is Princess and I'm not sure that would be to cool. 

Valentines...

Normally we do not celebrate V-day. In the years past we really didn't have the extra money. My husband made a comment that I don't want to celebrate making you special on one specific day. So I asked when was the last time you have done that? Stopped got me a candy or just got me flowers just because?  He stepped back and was like oh.... 

I didn't want him to feel bad. I really didn't, want him to feel he had to go out and get chocolates. I would like it if he would just surprise me every once and awhile. I did get to spend the day with him, he got a 4-day because of President's Day on Monday. Thank you Pres. Washington (not sure if you are the cause but I thank you anyways)!!! Sadly he has Chapel duty this weekend, so he did work Friday night and Sunday, but we ended friday night with our usual, cheese, crackers, salami, and wine! 

I hope all you lovelies had a wonderful Valentine's day! 

Sorry for the quiet!!

It's been a quiet couple of weeks.  The first reason one of our cats who shall remain nameless (Princess) loves to chew on power cords and yes she got my computer cord. It truly was my fault, as I didn't hide as well as I should have.

Another reason two YES two weeks ago I ended up with chest tightness is the best I can explain it. Really any one with asthma, who know when I mean I could actually feel my lungs restrict. Well, I was hoping it was just going to be a chest cold. Nope it turned out to be a full blown chest and move up to my sinus'. Man was I hurting. One point I thought my head was going to explode! I would wake up with a headache and cough, the pain was intense. I did take my mother-in-law's advice and eat a spoonful of local honey (great allergy benefits) to coat my throat at night. I think also, my twice daily showers helped out too. I was really, really clean.

It couldn't have been the worse time to get sick, the hubs came back from his school last Thursday and the house looked like a bomb went off. I tried to get it picked up, but I had only so much energy.

I do have to say my girl Abbie was a life saver. She made dinner for her and her brother and even sometimes me. Can't say I had much of an appetite but she made sure I ate something. I can't look at another cup of water. I was constantly drinking, which was good to get the phlegm and what not loose but I am sick of it.

Good Stuff!!!

So... today started out like any other day... Yeah right, we have all come down with colds, so we are a hot mess to put it lightly. 

So much so, instead of writing a note to the teacher stating we left Patrick's name tag at home and he would have to go without it. I just slipped $4.00 into an envelope and bought a replacement. 

Today, was going to go something like...

1. Drop Abbie off at school. 

2. Make pancakes for Patrick. It's his comfort food.

3. Get him in his uniform and drop him off at the bus stop.

4. Go home soak in the tub, because who doesn't when they don't feel well.

5. Take a nap. Rest is always good when you don't feel well right?

So we made it through the first three right on schedule and then came time for drop off at the bus. And you could tell my bus mom, my battle buddy was not having a good day. It's her birthday and at 10:20 am she was at the end of her rope. 

Might have been because her son woke her up at 7:00 to wish her happy birthday.

Could be she really wanted her hubby to text her a happy birthday. (He's currently out in the field prepping for Gunnery or another field exercise). Could have been the notice she received from the school notifying her son's account was negative and would need money put in. (When she knows she budgeted the right amount and sent it in with him). 

So right then,  I was thinking no one deserved to spend their morning of their birthday in a crappy mood. I do believe your attitude is everything and will make or break you day.  If some way, somehow,  I could do just one thing to brighten her day, I was going to do it. 

So I suggested lunch, well suggested implies I gave her an option. I really said, lets go to lunch. My treat, its your birthday. So, now to decide where we are going. I just started aimlessly, and then I remembered a conversation about Chinese food. Bullseye we are going to Mama Fu's. They have a pretty decent lunch deal. Entrée noodles or rice with your choice of meat, an appetizer and a drink around $10.00.  So we get there and they are still in kitchen prep. Offered to let us sit, get our drinks and peruse the menu. (If I didn't already love this place today would have done it). 

We sit, discuss what we were I've decided Thai Cashew Stir Fry my biggest dilemma

choosing chicken or beef. Another one was to order the large potstickers or small to split. 

My friend ended up ordering Teriyaki with chicken. We also got a  large Edamame, also to split.

We were set. 

We ended up chatting for a couple hours, didn't get her back to her car until 12:30 or so, just enough time to for me to get home and soak in the tub. I found out later she ended up with my nap, so all in all it turned out to be an okay day. 

Vikings...

So last year I made my hubby who is a Green Bay Packers fan a blanket. Well, my friend who is a Vikings fan asked if I could make her a blanket. I figure sure why not, it didn't take me that long to make my hubby's so it shouldn't be too hard. Her birthday was in April, I had 4 months to get it done.

Ohhh... boy did I under estimate the work and the amount of time I was going to need to complete this project. I did learn some valuable things when I did this graphghan.

1. Bobbins were my best friend. Not sure you can see them in the first pictures but I just cut cardboard up and wrapped an amount of yarn of the color I needed at the time. 

 

What really kicked my butt was the braid. I was constantly picking up and dropping colors. So if I wasn't on my A-game I'd end up ripping up a row. Only did that once until I just so what, my friend won't know. 

2. I rolled as I went so when I got to the end I just had to unroll and continue on. 

Here's the beginning of the V in Vikings. It's probably the best picture that depicts the way I work a graph. 

Completed yes almost 12 months after I started it. I put it down for 4 months I was so stressed about the braid and honestly it turned out so well. I am so glad we do not have any Viking lovers in our family. I will NOT complete another one. Well, I might if the right person asked. 

It's been awhile...

So... It's been awhile....

1. We went camping in White Sands National Monument. Will definitely post about that later. 

2. Patrick turned FIVE!!! A whole hand!!! 

3. Went to see the Grandparents in Colorado at my Aunt's house and have lots to post from then. 

4. Hubs signed Indefinite Papers and we received orders. 

5. Completed a Vikings blanket in just in time for a friend. Will definitely post that up here. 

6.Traveled home for Christmas this year and they were so accommodating to have snow waiting and more to come. (Even though we know we really should say thanks to Mother Nature).

7. Made Birthday pancakes for the hubs. 

I am going to get better at this posting business.