New Addiction...

I have a new addiction. A friend introduced me to a website with great recipes and the author of the website is hilarious! Plus there are TONS of pictures of the process and final product of each recipe - really over the top, but you can always scroll down to the bottom of the page for the direct recipe and skip looking at every step by step picture.

The author is a crack up, she has some personal things on her site as well.
Anyway - thanks Jen for the great new find...I'm sure I will be entertained for hours, days, weeks...I'm lovin' it!

So check out The Pioneer Woman for some great recipes and a good laugh - she's a hoot!

New Recipe

Can't sleep, so I am blogging. :)
I am starting to feel better though, I think the fact that I just got 4 hours of sleep in a row w/o a coughing fit or a potty break has something to do with the fact that I am totally awake at 4:30am. Oh well.

So, this spring we bought half a side of beef. This has been great to have so much meat on hand, especially with the rising cost of groceries. The problem is I have brisket and roast and quite a bit of it and I don't really cook either of those very often. Yesterday I decided I should hunt down a recipe to experiment with.

I decided to try and cook the brisket and found a recipe from the food network website for
BBQ Texas Beef Brisket....why not.
I thawed the meat and rubbed it down with the dry rub before we went to bed. I'm going to cook it today and see how it goes. My brisket isn't as big as what the recipe calls for so I may have to adjust the cooking time...hope I don't have dry brisket - that will make me so mad!

Anyway, I think this recipe is promising...I'll keep you posted.

Update

I did get medicine the other day - the nurse called me at noon and said they had called in a prescription for me. I am thankful.
However, I wish the meds would kick in faster.
I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Still praying for healing and for rest. I can breathe better but still have a lot of drainage in both of my ears - hearing is difficult and Adam is not loving the volume of the TV - sadly I still can't hear it perfectly and I know it's loud. I have been using the closed captioning to help keep up with the Olympics. hee hee

Baby continues to be sweet and wait for mommy to get better before making her entrance into the world - Praise the Lord!

Stalking the doctor...

Seriously, I have been having cold symptoms since Wednesday night. I haven't had a fever but I've had a sore throat, ear ache, stuffy nose, sinus pressure, cough, etc. either isolated or a few symptoms at a time or all of the above at the same time.
Saturday morning I went to immediate care - they said, Keep taking sudafed, I don't have strep or infection. Sleep, drink water and good luck.
Saturday night I was bawling my ears hurt so bad. I called and had my dr. paged. He called back and said, keep taking Tylenol, chew some gum, try nasal spray, call him if my ears weren't better on Sunday.
Ears better on Sunday, just stuffy - slept lots. Had a great birthday dinner. Got more stuffy nose, drainage in ears again - I can't hear, throat hurting again. Sudafed not working anymore.
And my drainage is no longer clear, it's yellow and green and yucky! I feel like crap, although I am SO SO SO glad that my ears aren't hurting like the did the other night - I thought my ear drum was going to explode!
Monday morning left a message for the nurse at 8:30. Called again to talk to receptionist at 10am....it is almost Noon and I haven't heard anything. I want to talk to someone - I want an appointment or drugs or something, I need to kick this, seriously!

So I'm almost 38 weeks pregnant and have some kind of cold/infection something and I am getting very impatient and wondering how many times is too many times to call the doctor - I really want to just show up at his office and sit around there waiting to be seen, however I don't want to catch anyone else's germs while I wait, so I keep waiting at home.

Stupid insurance won't let me go to immediate care until my doctor either refers me there or until his office is closed for the day and it becomes my only option.

ARGH! I want some answers and healing before I go into labor and can't breathe to relax and push this baby out.

Down to the wire...

A week ago our basement was a few outlets, a shower, a gas fireplace and wood studs that framed out the walls. We got 2 quotes from some dry wall guys - chose the best guy for the job, hoping possibly he could start hanging sheet rock to form real walls and a ceiling before our baby arrives.
Two guys hung all the sheet rock last Friday - they worked non-stop from 7:30 am to 4:30pm - it was amazing! This week they have done all the mudding/sanding, and today they sprayed the ceiling - ALL DONE!
Adam can hang the lights back up tomorrow when the ceiling is completely dry, and get started on painting the primer on the walls. Currently all the things we had stored in the basement are crammed in our laundry room - there is a small path going to the washer and dryer. Our house messy right now, piles of things everywhere, dust everywhere - but now clean up and organizing can begin.
Now to pick out flooring and paint colors - we are going to double our living space - so exciting!
Mostly I am excited that the messiest, most dusty part is over before the baby gets here.

Speaking of things coming down to the wire, the baby could be here any day but in less than 3 weeks for sure - CRAZY!

Exciting times. :)

Free Stuff...I LOVE IT!

So today I rented my first FREE Redbox movies! FREE!
Go to...http://www.insideredbox.com/codes/
scroll down and you will see a list of codes and they will be color-coded to let you know what codes work and which ones aren't working so great.
I wrote down about 4 green codes (green = good code)
then I went to McDonalds.
The main screen on the redbox has a square at the bottom left that says "rent w/ a promo code" or something like that.
Push that, enter the code, swipe your debit or credit card (so they can charge you if you return the movie late), confirm your email address (the redbox walks you through all of these steps). Movie will spit out!
I got 2 free movies today - I love it!!!
Now I am going to rest, relax and chill with my movies.

I LOVE FREE STUFF - good free stuff anyway.

New Pictures - Nursery & A Seat belt for a Dog

I couldn't figure out how to get the slide show of picture in this individual post so the slide show is to your right in the margin.

We are continuing to prepare for Baby Kaiya. The nursery is done w/ the exception of hanging a mirror, a picture frame and her name (some painted wooden letters hanging from ribbon).

The pictures I took came out blurry and now we have some other things stored in her room while the basement is being sheet rocked so I will have to take better pictures when her nursery doesn't look like a storage room.

There are also a few pictures I took of our dog Justice today. She loves to go for rides in the car and I really like to take her along. She has never been restrained in a car before, but with a baby on the way I figure it is time for all of us to be safe and for the safety of the baby Justice needs a seat belt too. She still doesn't know what to think about this whole seat belt thing, but she is still able to sit up or lay down with her belt on so I think she will get use to it pretty fast. I need to take her for some more rides before Baby gets here so she doesn't blame the baby for her loss of freedom in the car. :)

Need Help...

I want to prepare some freezer meals. I am having trouble committing to preparing some because Adam and I neither one are big fans of leftovers and somehow I think freezer meals will taste like leftovers and not a fresh cooked meal.

Have you made freezer meals? Do you have a recipe you think re-heats really well and will satisfy picky leftover eaters?

I would love suggestions.

Maybe after baby comes we'll be so tired anything will taste good - who knows.

Wild

The Safest Place on Earth

click above to read why this is the safest place on earth

While flipping through channels on the TV this morning I stopped at Animal Planet. The show was about crocodiles and how a mama croc has babies. What I learned is SO wild, I had no idea!

Here is what I learned. The mama goes on shore, digs a hole, lays eggs in the nest (the hole) covers the nest with dirt. It looks like nothing was ever there.
Three months later the eggs will hatch, the mother will know the eggs have hatched b/c she can hear the squeaking noises of her young. She will gently dig the hole again revealing the nest. Some of the babies have hatched the others will hatch very soon, all the babies are squeaking, even the ones still in the eggs.

Here is where it get really wild - she scoops each hatched baby croc into her mouth, where she holds them in a pouch to keep them protected until they are bigger. She can hold up to 15 babies in her mouth.

The narrator said, "The same mouth that can rip a zebra to shreds is capable to being very gentle and caring for very small babies."

Anyway, the mama will take the babies to a save cove until they are bigger, they have swimming lessons and spend time in mom's mouth while she swims the river, she opens her mouth just enough so the babies can see out. It was so weird to see all these babies peering out from the teeth of a croc! The babies are all squirmy and trying to walk off or swim off, they are very adventurous and the mom has to be careful to keep them together, which is hard for her b/c once she has several crocs in her mouth it becomes more difficult to keep those crocs in and pick up other crocs to put in her mouth. She has not her hands full but her mouth full :).
She has to do this for a couple of months until they are bigger.

I am sure there is some spiritual analogy here. Right now I am just amazed at God's creativity in creation. Amazing!

Annoying!

Between being 36 weeks pregnant, the heat and the fact that we have workmen hanging sheet rock in our basement - I am confined to our home. This leaves me with a lot of time to play on the Internet, bake, clean and watch TV.

While watching TV today I had to turn the volume down multiple times during a certain commercial on the food network. Each time this commercial came on I had to turn the volume way down and then my show would come on and I couldn't hear a word they were saying.

Why is it that companies keep casting this LOUD SCREAMING guy to promote their products.

Now he does commercials for KaBOOM - Oxy Clean - super absorbent towels - and some kind of Hamburger cooking contraption! For some reason he must not believe that he has a microphone or maybe he was first a trained demonstrator for state fairs where he needed to yell - I have no idea. All I know is that the man likes to YELL EVERYTHING HE SAYS!!!!!!

He drives me CRAZY! SHUT UP DUDE! Bring it down a notch - seriously!

I know you know who I'm talking about....

Before and After...

Changing Table Before
(This picture from the seller, I forgot to take a before picture I was so excited to jump into project mode)


Changing Table After

I have been looking for a changing table for the baby room. I wanted something small and simple. I had been stalking Craig's List for baby items and garage sale listings to see if I could find just the thing for just the right price.

Last Thursday I saw just the thing on Craig's List, emailed the owner and picked it up.

This week I painted it, bought new pull knobs to match the other furniture, bought a piece of 2" foam for the changing pad (b/c the size is not standard and I couldn't find a pad to buy - dang it!) and made a cover for the pad.

It looks really good. Could not go better with the other furniture and the major plus....it gave me something to do inside on those HOT August days.

Do you like to rent movies?

Adam and I are Netflix users we pay for an account with some friends, so we share the cost and pass the movies around. It works great.

Yesterday I wanted to rent a couple of movies to watch. I hate it when you go to Blockbuster only to find that the movie you really wanted to get is all rented and you have to choose something different. Then you wander around the store trying to find a suitable back up, if you're lucky you find one. Then you pay about $4 to rent the movie.

A friend of mine suggested trying the Redbox DVD rental box at McDonalds. Rentals are $1 and they have new releases. Because of the heat yesterday I didn't want to stand outside at a box trying to navigate a new machine and choose a movie so I thought - maybe you can see online what movies are in the box so I can have my choices ready.

I FOUND A GREAT THING!!!
Go to http://www.redbox.com/
you can type in your zip code and it will bring up the nearest redbox. The site will then tell you what movies are available in that box, you can reserve the movie(s) you want and enter your debit or credit info. You have until 9pm the following night to pick up the movie. Then you have 24 hours to watch it - or you are charged for a 2nd day.

They had the movies I wanted to rent. I reserved them, drove to McDonalds, there is an option on the redbox screen to "pick up online order" I pushed that, then swiped my card and it spit out my movies! I was seriously at McDonalds less than 2 min. Amazing! The movies cost me $1.06 per movie. Much less than Blockbuster.

I'm still glad for netflix, but if you are waiting for a movie and want some entertainment the redbox is my new movie friend.

Target Clerance Item...Check this OUT!

Super Target in Wichita (and I'm sure other cities too) has this travel system on sale.
Regularly $189.99
Today $47.48 - I am TOTALLY not Kidding!

For whatever reason this deal made me really excited! I think it was a combination of the obvious deal but also b/c Target and I have not been getting along lately and I was majorly losing faith that it was even worth it to keep shopping there. Well even though their customer service can be lacking at times, they still know how to offer a great deal. They also had Post Raisin Bran Family Size 3 boxes for $7 pretty good.

Here is the picture of the travel system that is on sale. It is the Dot and Swirl Pattern.
If you know any pregnant people who need a stroller/car seat, you should call them - this pattern is very unisex and the price can't be beat - even at garage sales and Craig's list - I know, I've been looking.

How to Recycle in Wichita

Walmart & Dillons (at least Tallgrass Dillons) will recycle plastic grocery bags - you go there at least once a week - take your left over bags from the week before and drop them off as you pick up your cart.

Walmart sells these awesome black tote bags available for $1 at the check out line - buy them once use them to go shopping w/ each week. No plastic bags to waste - they hold more stuff and the straps allow you to hang the bag on your shoulder so it is Much easier to bring your things in from the car - I LOVE THEM and I take them to Dillons, they don't care.

Miller's - http://www.recyclewichita.org/ check out this website for the recycle drop off place I go to, you can take almost anything there to be recycled - their hours and what they take is on their homepage. I just went last week so we'll probably go again in October - let me know if you want to come along. I like taking things to Miller's b/c they take pretty much anything you can imagine - all kinds of plastic - even junk plastic, books, magazines, batteries, cardboard, glass, tin, aluminum, junk mail, all kinds of paper, etc. Check their website for a complete listing.

If you want I can give you some tips on sorting and storing until you go to the drop off place. I haven't perfected my strategy yet - but what we do now seems to be working.

Follow Thru

In my very long previous post I was sharing about an issue I had with our bank.
Then I thought, why should I just rant on my blog...maybe I should actually do something about my small frustration.

So I got on the bank website and went the the "Contact Us" menu and decided to send them a comment. I wrote only a few short sentences and was polite and kind but pointed out the irony of the paper waste vs. the point of the Green Account. I did not expect my little comment to matter or to even get a response from the bank whatsoever. At the very least I had made them aware of my thoughts and felt that rather than just complaining I had actually brought some attention to the issue. What they do with it was their business.

Anyway, after spending a few hours with a friend this afternoon, I returned home and found I had received a response from the bank.
Here it is...
"Thank you for your email!
Your concerns are valid and correct---the Green Account advertising will be removed in the next quarter when the ATM paper is changed.
Thank you again for your email. Have a great day!

Jamie Varbel
Vice President of Marketing
BWCU"

So I made someone think today. Quite possibly they were going to change the ad when they change the paper anyway - but that wasn't really the point. The point is hopefully in the future they will be more aware of what they are communicating and hopefully waste less paper. Or maybe the VP of marketing will start recycling if she doesn't already. :)

Thanks BWCU for a quick reply and for hearing your customer.

I may officially have too much time on my hands. :)

Going "Green"

Because of my responsible and earth friendly husband I have been learning over the past 20 months of our marriage to be an active recycler. It is not convenient to recycle in Wichita - oh no! We save up our recyclable goods for a couple of months - pack our SUV full of them and then drive about 30 min away to drop them off - where we then fill up old grocery carts and roll around to different bins to sort out what we have already sorted once. There are volunteers there to help out and it does go rather quickly. If I lived near the recycling drop off I would love it even more - it's just that it is so far away and not on our way to anywhere else we are going - loving the earth takes effort.

So I am kind of promoting recycling and kind of complaining about it. :) But honestly I am glad Adam leads us to do it, because it has given me an awareness of how much we could be throwing away, I know because we cram it all into the back of my vehicle every couple of months and because of how little trash we have to put out at the road each week. Wish we could pay 1/2 of the trash bill and only put it out every other week - that would suit us just fine.

I must have become more aware of being earth friendly without really knowing it because I am on a rant today...something that I saw on Sunday has been rolling around in my head and I am finally to the point I must say something.

Sunday afternoon we stopped by our bank to get some cash from the ATM. Our Bank has a new checking account they are trying to get people to sign up for called the "Green Account." They have been promoting this account for a few months now, there are advertisements all over TV and the community. Here is a little about the account, directly from their website...

Plant some green in your wallet
Earth Day comes just once a year, but BWCU wants to encourage everyone to do their part to help the environment all year long. So what’s the Green Account all about? First, you help save trees by eliminating paper waste, and second, you earn cash back on your account while reveling in that karmic sensation of doing something good for the planet.
Check out how lean going green can be with a paperless Green Account:
Free transparent green VISA debit and credit cards with your photo
Free online bill pay
Support the Greensburg Tree Project*
Free online banking
Earn cash back on your account by using your debit card*
E-statements to eliminate paper waste
Purchase recycled checks**
we’ll also make a donation to the Greensburg Tree Project to replenish trees. We strongly recommend recycled checks.

Ok, so back to my story. We're at the ATM, getting our cash and the machine prints off our receipt. The receipt is longer than usual, Adam says, "That's weird."
I look at it and see that the information we need from the receipt is at the top, not taking up much room at all. About half of the receipt is an advertisement "enticing" us to sign up for the Green Account.
This is what has been bothering me...Isn't the whole POINT of the green account to be saving paper and waste? Why are they waisting extra paper to promote the account, and why to people who have to drive by 2-3 advertisements about it anyway just to use their ATM machine - there is a sign in the drive up window, a sign for the account on top of the ATM machine, a sign on the lobby door - now you can have a sign to take home w/ you on your receipt - that you are going to THROW AWAY! This makes no sense to me at all.

Being good to the earth is a good thing no matter what motivates you to do it - that being said and the knowledge that what I am about to type is judgemental, I would like to say -
I wonder, does the bank really care about being earth friendly or are they just using this as a way to get earth friendly people to change over to their bank?

Anyway...recycle something today - or just get water in a paper cup instead of the water bottle that will lay in a landfill forever.

2 Great Finds and 2 Great New Recipes

2 Great Finds:
1) The Green Bags I blogged about last month (see entry "A New Fav") are available at Walgreens for $10 (Actually $9 and some odd cents) Great Deal! I saw them there yesterday.
2) Scrapblog.com - I am loving this! A great free creative resource for making digital scrapbook pages, or invitations or announcements.

2 Great New Recipes:
BBQ Chicken Pizza - I threw this together so I'm not sure about portions for the ingredients.
Pillsbury refrigerated Pizza Crust
Cooked chicken, shredded (1 1lb)
BBQ Sauce (1 cup divided)
Red Onion (1/4 c ish)
4-6 slices of cooked thick bacon, diced
Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese (as desired)

Depending on time, cook chicken one of the following ways:
a)Buy a cooked Rotisery Chicken from the store, shred what you need.
b)grill chicken on a george forman grill
c)place chicken in a crock pot with 1/2 c or so of BBQ Sauce

After cooking chicken, shred and toss with BBQ Sauce just to lightly coat, do this even if you cooked the chicken in the crock w/ sauce.
Follow directions on Pizza Crust package.
Assemble: 1/2 c sauce spred on crust. Add chicken, red onion, bacon, and cheese.
Bake as directed on Pizza Crust Package.

Chicken Wraps (Buffalo Style) - Yield 2-3 servings, I made this up from a salad I love, this is what fed Adam and I for dinner last night
1 lb boneless skinless chicken
4-5 flour tortillas (soft taco size)
1-2 cups shredded lettuce
1 tomato diced
1/4-1/3c diced cucumber
1/4 c red onion, thinly sliced
shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
Ranch Dressing
Frank's Hot Sauce

I cooked the chicken on the George Forman Grill with a little salt and pepper.
While the chicken was cooking I cut the veggies.
Cut the cooked chicken into strips, toss strips in a bowl w/ hot sauce to taste. (if you don't like Buffalo hot sauce, try BBQ sauce or leave "naked" - I think adding avocado slices to the naked chicken wrap would be yummy).
Put a few slices of chicken in a tortilla with some lettuce, tomato, cucumber, cheese & ranch. Wrap up and eat up!
Makes about 5 wraps, depending on how full you fill each wrap you may get more or less.

We had Buffalo Wraps & fruit salad for dinner last night and it was AWESOME! It took me less than 20 min to cook, little clean up, healthy and tasty!

Stuck in a Chair

My Knee hurts today and I am confined to the recliner with an ice pack.
Not sure what is going on, just swelling I guess.
My Chiropractor doesn't work on Friday's so I am praying God brings some healing or relief before Monday. Tylenol isn't working one bit - I may as well be taking PEZ. So, it's ice and rest and hoping I don't have to go to the bathroom too many times.

I am going to post a couple of recipe finds and probably spend an insane amount of time playing around on Scrapblog.com

Ta Da! Amazing Peanut Butter Pie!

I promise to stop posting about Peanut Butter Pie after this. :)

I served this pie to 6 of our friends last night, plus Adam and I were judges. Eight votes later - The verdict is in...YUMMY YUMMY RICH SO SO RICH & YUMMY!!! Our friend Bob requested a PB Pie for his going away dinner (sad), I had never made one but gave it a shot. Bob had 2 pieces (how? I have NO IDEA, I could barely finish my piece it was so rich) - he loved it. The Recipe Passed the test!

I found a great recipe on Jif.com for Peanut Butter Pie. I actually found several on that site, also my favorite site Allrecipes.com, and a couple of other sites. It was hard to choose which one I wanted to try but I figure Jif probably has a good idea of how to make yummy things with peanut butter since PB is their thing.

I made my own crust b/c the tin pans the store bought crusts come in drive me batty, pet peeve I guess, anyway I really don't like them.

To make your own crust - 1 1/2 cups crushed oreos (or chocolate cookie of choice) and 6 Tbs. melted butter. Mix together and press into a 9 inch pie plate. Place in fridge while mixing pie filling. Fill & chill as directed in recipe. No baking required. Nice.

I also cut up 4 Reese's cups into tiny pieces and sprinkled them on the top after the pie was all done. It made it look SO pretty. :)

I did use creamy Jif for the PB. I think if I make it again I will try using Skippy Natural Creamy PB, I don't like natural PB (it needs more sugar!) but I used skippy natural for some cookies and they did have a more Peanutty taste to them. This pie is So RICH that I think the change in PB might make a yummy difference. We'll see.

Ok enough of my blabbing....
here is the recipe, ENJOY!

Decadent Peanut Butter Pie
Ingredients:
•1 cup Jif® Creamy Peanut Butter, plus 2 tablespoons, divided
•1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
•1/2 cup sugar
•1 (12 oz.) container (4 1/2 cups) frozen whipped topping, thawed and divided
•1 prepared chocolate pie crust
•1 (11.75 oz.) jar Smucker's® Hot Fudge Spoonable Ice Cream Topping, divided

Directions:
1.BEAT together 1 cup peanut butter, cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with an electric mixer on medium, until well combined. Gently mix in 3 cups whipped topping until thoroughly combined. Spoon mixture into pie shell. Using a spatula, smooth mixture to edges of pie.

2.RESERVE 2 tablespoons of hot fudge topping into the corner of a resealable food storage bag; set aside. Microwave remaining topping on HIGH (100% power) for 1 minute. Stir. Spread topping over pie, covering entire peanut butter layer. Refrigerate until set. Spread remaining whipped topping (1 1/2 cups), over hot fudge layer, being careful not to mix the two layers.

3.CUT a small corner from bag containing topping. Squeeze bag to drizzle topping over pie. Place remaining 2 tablespoons peanut butter in a resealable food storage bag; cut bag corner and squeeze to drizzle in opposite direction from topping. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Yield: 1 pie (6-8 servings)

Closed!

Today was closing day. We are offically not the owners of this house any more. It is bitter sweet to say a final goodbye - but mostly SWEET! We are thankful that God allowed us to sell the house quickly and for a good price. Now when we go to Manhattan we can just visit and play with friends without the "duties" of checking in on a house.

Goodbye House.