looming

* the big 3-0 is looming on the horizon. 6 more days in my 20s.

* just finalized my Superbowl menu. links/recipes later.

* had a teenage girl in her pajamas knock on the door and try to sell me Avon yesterday. one, i sell Avon. two, i sell to my whole neighborhood, so back off. and three, don't go door to door in your green plaid jammie pants.

* joey had the nastiest diapers yesterday which, of course, led to a horrifying diaper rash. seems to be better today.

* i love gilmore girls reruns on abcfamily.

* i forgot to eat breakfast.

* my van is not running right, again.

* i need to run a few errands this afternoon. grocery store and grandma's house.

* ethan's report card comes home today. i'm nervous. the last one was not so good.

* i need a whole day with nobody else in this house to get it clean.

* during joey's nap today i need to: treadmill it up, do laundry, wash dishes, clean up lving room toys, vacuum, mop kitchen, clean off dining room table, oh and maybe shower.

* i'm not likely to get half of that done. i'd much rather take a nap myself.

* i have no idea what to make for dinner tonight.

* i need to remember to get more chicken out of the basement freezer. i bought 8 lbs last time the value packs were BOGO.

* i love saying BOGO.

* taxes are done and i'm very impatiently waiting for the direct deposit to hit our account. (not quite as impatiently as the mortgage company)

* how's that for random?

pot pie

I'm in love with the Chicken Pot Pie that Giant makes. Is back in the carryout area, next to the deli counter. They are huge, and have humongous chunks of chicken, not little bitty cubes. Yum!

Ethan has another snow day today. Too bad he's in trouble, again, and can't enjoy it much. It works to my advantage, though, because he's been playing with Joey most of the day. Speaking of Joey, I think he finally have fallen asleep in the crib. I've been waiting for this, so I can nap too. I'm so lazy today.

Everyone is healthy again for a change. Let's hope it stays that way for a while.

We're having a very small Superbowl deal here. By very small I mean us and my parents. I had invited our best friends, Jill and Eric, but they seem to have fallen off the face of the earth, again. If anyone sees them, please return them ASAP. Thanks.

cooties

My house is infested with cooties. Since Wednesday, myself, Josh, Darin and Ethan have all either been throwing up or had diarrhea, or both. It's been fun. I may be high on Lysol fumes. That's all I got tonight. Off to watch X Games in bed.

Yes We Can!

President Obama! I love saying it. Anyone that knows me, knows that I've been excited since I first heard rumors begin to swirl about him running for president. And now he is, and I'm excited and optimistic. I've had CNN on since about 7 am. I really should get to bed soon, but I love watching the bits and pieces of the balls they are showing.

Other tidbits from Casa de Craziness & Clutter:

* Joey got his first split lip this evening on the coffee table

* I kept Ethan home from school to watch the inauguration. Way better than anything he could have learned in school.

* I'm thrilled that the Steelers are going to the superbowl!!!!

* Still not smoking. It's been 15 days.

* Between not smoking and that, um, monthly issue, mini Snickers and I are BFF.

* My feet are still cold.

* Joel's hours are way down at work. The bills are getting waay behind. I'm getting waaay freaked out.

* I loved Michelle's dress and coat this morning. It was gorgeous. I'm not as thrilled about tonight's gown. It's just ok.

* My Avon biz is slipping. I'm getting lazy. Poeple, buy something!!
www.youravon.com/ashoup

And that's all I got.

Oh, except to tell you how in love I am with Anderson Cooper. It's ok. Joel knows.

Night all.

frozen toes

This cold front can seriously leave now. My feet have been cold since I crawled, unwillingly, out of bed this morning. I hate this below zero crap. I cannot handle being cold and I'm getting mighty cranky. My furnace is also not happy. I have the thermostat set at 70. Unfortunately for my frozen toes it's currently 65 in here. I like 70 much better.

In other news, Joey has been danger boy today. I swear, he has hit his head no less than 6 times today. One of them resulted in a nice lump on the side of his forehead. Lovely.

it's looming

I do a bunch of online surveys. Today I was doing one and when I got to the age question, it hit me. I only have a few weeks left in the 25-29 group! Yikes! I'm not really dreading my 30th birthday like I thought I would. My life is pretty good. But still, the reminder that my 20s are about to be over make me nervous. Not that they were all that spectacular. I made some serious mistakes people, but they are going out on a good note. I get to stay home and raise my kids. I have a semi-reliable vehicle that we paid cash for. The bills are almost cought up. We have a house that is starting to look like a home, not just a gigantic storage unit. Joel loves me, even when I'm psychotic and break the keyboard tray and threaten to leave. (it's not pretty when you combine pms with quitting smoking) So, all in all, I have it pretty good. I'm feeling more comfortable about the next decade of my life than I had expected to.

Feel free to start sending gifts now so that they are here by 2/5. *wink wink*

10 days smoke free!

they just sneak up on you

Mondays are sneaky. I'm always surprised when the weekend is over. It just goes way too fast, especially since I've managed to be sick most of the last two. It was a nice, low-key weekend, which is what I love best. Saturday we had all of the kids and about 4-5 inches of new snow. I laid around and watched football most of the day while Joel entertained the kids for the most part. Sunday Joey, Ethan & I went to my parents to watch the games. 3/4 of the teams I wanted to win this weekend did. Damn those Eagles, though.

Not a whole lot going on today. I got an email from one of the girls in my MOMs Club trying to start up a playgroup for Joey's age group. I'm excited about that, especially since she only lives a few minutes away from us. Joey just got up from his nap and we're waiting for Ethan to get home from school. Then we are off and running. My mom's picking us up to run errands, like she usually does on Mondays. We're headed to the bank, my grandmother's house to deliver Avon and to Giant for more groceries. I swear I go grocery shopping every other day! Living in a house full of boys and animals, we're always running out of things. After that, if it's early enough, I have to mail an eBay package. If not, it'll wait until tomorrow.

That's about all that's going on around here. I have a cake in the oven that Ethan requested. It's smelling very chocolaty in here!

Chicken Fajitas are on the menu for tonight. Oh, that last concoction of biscuits, veggies, chicken and gravy was very yummy. Ethan and Joel both loved it and they have very differing food preferences. Score!

And, by the way, I am smoke free for a whole week as of this morning!

messy

Ha, my day was off to an interesting start. But first, I'm still smoke free after 3 whole days! Woohoo!!!

So, I hear Joey laughing in the crib at 9. I go in there and he has no diaper on. Not only is it missing, but there are pieces of it everywhere, including in his hair. Yuck! So as I'm taking all of this in, He stands up and friggin PEES through the slats of the crib! I yelped and jumped back, because he was awfully close to peeing on me. He of course thought this was hysterical. Me? Not so much. So I had to bathe him, change his sheets, move the crib out so I could clean up behind it, clean the floor and wash the bedding.

I knew this would happen one day, which is why I always put him in a sleeper, or something one piece, so he can't get the diaper off. Of course, Joel put him to bed and conveniently forgot that we had previously discussed this.

Anway, I'm doing an experiment for dinner tonight. Joel wanted chicken pot pie, but I don't have all of the ingredients and money's super tight, as usual. So I'm baking a roll of Pillsbury Grands biscuits and topping them with chopped chicken, chicken gravy and a can of mixed veggies. Should be similar enough, I think. We'll see.

Ethan also conned me into baking cookies last night at almost 9pm. I used a bag of Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix, and added some Reeses peanut butter chips and some mini Hershey kisses. They were super yummy. In fact I believe there's only a few left after Joel and Ethan took some for their lunches.

ice day?

Ethan's school is closed today, thanks to the icy roads this morning. Unfortunately, the automated system called to let me know this at 5:03 this morning and I never got back into a good sleep after that. It was especially sucky since I was up until after 12:30 last night. I lazed around watching news and playing Animal Crossing on my Nintendo DS in bed. Now I'm just killing time on Pogo until Joey's nap time in about half an hour. Then I neet to do a quick workout, shower and do some cleaning.

I just finished last night's leftovers for brunch. It's my absolute fave Bisquick recipe! I added my tweaks for you.

Impossibly Easy Cheeseburger Pie

1 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1 large onion, chopped (1 cup) * i also add 1/2 cup of chopped green pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt *i use 1 tsp seasoned salt
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (4 oz)
1/2 cup Original Bisquick® mix
1 cup milk
2 eggs


1. Heat oven to 400°F. Spray 9-inch glass pie plate with cooking spray.

2. In 10-inch skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is brown; drain. Stir in salt. Spread in pie plate. Sprinkle with cheese.

3. In small bowl, stir remaining ingredients with fork or wire whisk until blended. Pour into pie plate.

4. Bake about 25 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean




Oh, and over 49 hours with no smoking! Go me!

26

It's been 26 hours since my last cigarette. I know to some of you, 26 hours is not so long, but I'm thrilled. The crazy energy rush is gone, but I'm still being productive today. I have to wake Joey up soon to run some errands. Ethan's school is dismissing an hour early for the snow and ice that isn't anywhere near here yet. I'm sure he's thrilled and will be praying for a snow day tomorrow. I also need to figure out what I'm making for dinner so I can grab anything I might need at the store while I'm out. Oh, and my mom has to run us around for those errands because my lovely van is making weird grinding noises.

side effects

I think I'm experiencing an unexpected side effect of the nicotine patch. I have an insane amount of energy. In the last 7 hours I've:

* gone grocery shopping
* put away the groceries
* purged all of the old stuff from the fridge
* made lunch
* put away the rest of the Christmas decorations
* cleaned off the dining room table
* organized my coupons
* cleaned the kitchen counters, stove and sink
* done 2 loads of laundry
* reorganized Joel's t-shirt drawer
* made dinner
* cleaned all of Joey's too small clothes out of his dresser
* did the dishes
*cleaned off the top of the TV

I guess it's in my favor that quitting smoking is helping me with my goal of organizing and cleaning.

fingers crossed, people

Guess who's wearing her first nicotine patch. That's right, folks. After 18 years of smoking and many failed attempts at quitting cold turkey, my mom bought me the patch today. I have my first one on now. My last cigarette was at 10:30 this morning. I'm feeling pretty good about this, so cross those fingers and send a little extra love my way. Maybe some calming vibes too.

Manic Monday

You know, Mondays suck for us SAHMs too, or at least they do for me. All weekend I let most of the housework slide and just spend time with Joel and the kids. So, when Monday rolls around, it's time to play catch up. That's no easy task when you're home alone all day with a 15 month old. And we have errands to run on top of that. Her's our agenda for today:

* head over to my mom's at 11 for lunch
* stop by the bank to deposit money
* grocery shopping with mom

then home to:

* do laundry
* do dishes
* start my cleaning and organization plan for 2009

I need to do something to organize and de-clutter this house. We have too much stuff and nowhere to go with it all. I think I'll do one room a week until the massive work is done, then pick a room a day to keep up. I have to be less lazy this year!

Typical Sunday

It's Sunday, so that means cooking and baking here. I'm finally trying out my new, bigger crock pot. It has a 4 lb roast in it as I type, and it smells soooo goog in here! Of course, the apple cake I have in the oven might be helping. This is my very first roast, so we'll see how it turns out. I quarted a few potatos and threw them in as well.

Most Sundays find me making a big meal at home with my best friend Jill. Joel and her fiance Eric are out skating with Jill's brother Louis. I usually have enough food to feed an army ready for when they get back. It works out fine, the boys out playing while Jill & I cook, bake and watch football.

In other news, Joey is a demon child today. He is into everything he can't have. A long nap did nothing but give him more energy to be bad! He's currently trying to climb onto the computer desk.

Anyway, anyone want the apple cake recipe? Here ya' go!

Apple cake:

1 cup sugar
2 cups of chopped apples (about 3 apples)

Cover apples with sugar in large bowl. Let stand 10 minutes.

Then add:

1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix together.

Spread in 8x8 baking dish for 35-40 minute at 350*


It's really easy and so yummy! We serve it slightly warm with vanilla ice cream.

TGIF

And I'm back. I'm killing time waiting for Kim to drop off Josh and Darin. Joey and I just went grocery shopping and I'm trying to decide what to make for dinner. I'm leaning towards pasta because it's easy and feeds us all without having to make a lot of extras.

Anyway, rambling again! The reason I came back was to do a goals post. Is goals the right word? I hate the word resolution. Maybe we'll call it my "I'd like to" list.

In 2009, I'd like to:

* lose 20 pounds
* de-clutter and organize my home, one room at a time
* try at least 1 new recipe a week
* use my fancy new crock pot and Kitchen Aid mixer more
* update my blog every day
* get caught up on bills and stay that way
* spend more quality time as a family, not just sitting in the same room

I think that's about it.

new to this

I'm new to this whole blogging thing. My general plan for this is to have a place to just ramble away. Some days I may post recipes, others might be thinly veiled rants against those that have pissed me off. Overall, I just want a place to get everything out of my head.

About me and mine:

I'm Amanda, about to be 30 in a few weeks, SAHM, love to cook and try out new recipes.

Joel, my fiance, 29, truck driver, skateboarder, tattoo artist

Ethan, mine, 10, video game junkie, tech deck collector, big help to me

Josh, his, 7, also into games and tech decks, budding artist

Darin, his, 5, loves to help clean, cook, decorate for the holidays

Joey, ours, 15 months, cutest baby ever, smiles at you beautifully while destroying everything in his path

We also have a dog (Sheena) 2 cats (Tigerlily and Stormy) and 2 ball pythons (Snake and Number Two)

My house is full and it's messy. For the most part I'm ok with the mess. We live here. It's not a model home, but it's ours.

I think that's enough for an introduction. More later. I need to feed Ethan and Joey lunch, then get Joey down for a nap.