Friday, October 30, 2009

I love Holidays!

I am sooo excited for all that the weekend holds. I am probably just as excited, if not more, than the kids!

Tonight we will start off by going to a Haunted House at the local Fire Dept with a friend and her son. I hope noone gets too scared but I think it will be tame. Its part of the towns festivities, which are for kids, so it should be low key. M has been getting into spookier stuff (thanks daddy) and has asked about going to a Haunted House. I was so excited when my friend mentioned it so I could fulfill her wish of scary stuff.

We will continue on to trick or treating at the town's businesses. They shut down Main Street and most of the businesses give out candy. Its super fun and we have done it for years. Remember I live in Small Town, USA so this is also a chance for M to see her friends all dressed up since most people attend this event. They also have games and a costume contest. Fun!

Dinner tonight will be Mummy Dogs and Halloween Cookies.....lol not sure of what else I am making. I'm currently looking online for a spooky side dish. Dinner will be made and ready to be re-heated when we come home tonight.

All 3 girls should be here by 3pm so we have an hour to get all costumed up.

Tomorrow night will be more trick or treating around our neighborhood. Its kind of alot of ToT but my step daughters don't get to participate in holidays so when we have them we go all out. Last year was the first year they ever dressed up (because it was our weekend).....their mom doesn't allow Halloween or Santa etc. If you know me than you know this is so laughable since I LOVE HOLIDAYS! I already have the Christmas spirit popping through. I strive to make every holiday special and full of spirit!! (if you hadn't noticed by my backgrounds changing with each holiday) Oh and I am dressing up tomorrow night too!!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Monday, October 26, 2009

A little sleep HERE and a little sleep THERE

then repeat.

The night started off going to bed at 10pm. We talked and finally fell asleep closer to 12.

M got up at 3am saying her side hurt and her tummy felt sick. So in my sleep deprived state I took her back to her room and laid in bed with her, rubbing her head and back. Dasher, the cat, usually sleeps with her and apparently I was not going to get in his way. M has a daybed....so I'm snuggled to her, with my legs curled and he lays right at the curl so I couldn't move my legs.

This went on for 2 hrs until 5am when The Husband was getting up. I don't remember hearing his alarm but when I went back to our bed he was getting dressed. I don't think I talked to him but I do remember my legs hurting. lol I get in my bed and stretch out. The Husband comes back to bed for a little snuggle and that's all I remember.

The alarm went off at 7:20 and I only hit it once. Little Miss M was still sound asleep but said she felt fine so I'm not sure what was up with her side/tummy.

I am a bed hopper.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Still not enough hours in the day

When I lost my job, 1 1/2 months ago, I imagined having all the time in the world.......

I was going to have a spotless house
be able to participate in all kinds of bloggy things that I never had time for
work on all kinds of projects around the house
volunteer in M's classroom
keep up with reading blogs and my message boards

you get the point.
Yeah. Still no time.

Here is how my day goes now:

7:30-wake up after hitting snooze 2 times
8:05-walk M into school
8:15- home, back in PJ's, turn on Good Morning America and catch up on FB....maybe make something to eat
9:00- Regis and Kelly while looking around online for jobs
10:00- Dr Phil.....AND a few days this has been my nap time
11:00- get up and do SOMETHING because I feel bad that Ive been on the sofa since I dropped M off.
12:00- oh lunch time while watching the news and on FB to see if anything is new
1:00-maybe do laundry and actually send out the resumes to the jobs I scoped out earlier
2:00- misc
3:00-pick up M from school

this is a very typical day. I am sooooooooo much more disorganized now that I'm not working. I work much better when I have a routine and schedule. I even forgot the other day was a Spirit Day at school. I NEVER forget those kinds of things. I have a calendar with all my junk in it.....I don't even update that anymore.

Next week will be a new week and I will get back on track!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

I miss....

sleeping with my husband. It's 12:30 and he went to bed at 10pm. I am not one bit tired. When I was working we went to bed together and woke up around the same time too.

I realllllly miss that.

Yeah I could get up with him and try to stay up but I know that wont work. I would be back to sleep and miss taking M to school or something.

Need job. Miss my routine.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Yay Me, I won (and a BabyMama vent)

The oh so cute Ashley had a giveaway recently and I WON! Go over to her blog to see my prize.....I picked the Edward one, of course. I may wear it to the midnight showing of New Moon. (I am debating this)

On to the BabyMama. I'm sure you know this is the step kids mom. The oldest came here with a HORRIBLE cough that I knew nothing about. I asked The Husband if he knew and he said yeah. Nice. This kinda changes our weekend plans since we will be sitting out in the 30-40 degree temps tomorrow and had the day planned out around all of us attending the game.
*I* don't want her sitting out in the cold. He didn't think of that. He's a guy though so we will let it pass.

Now her mother, yeah she should know better.......this is the 2nd round of antibiotics because the cough wont go away. No one can tell me what she was diagnosed with just that she has a cough and is on Amoxicillin.

Again, why do I care? Both girls came here in FLIP FLOPS. Its 42 degrees out today. Cold, misty, dreary, cold, and a miserable day. FLIP FLOPS. Maybe she can wear those while she sits outside tomorrow morning. *rolling eyes*

Sometimes its hard being a step mom and dealing with stupidity.
(I will save the story of 4 kids in 1 room for another day......that was a big topic last weekend.)

Monday, October 12, 2009

Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins

these are SOOO yummy. Yummy like I can eat almost all of them myself. Yummy like I made them yesterday at dinner time and they are 1/2 gone by now. (I'm showing restraint or they would be all gone)

On to the recipe.....Oh, can you tell I love fall foods?

Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (I was out so I used cinnamon and ginger..1/2 each)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups peeled, cored and chopped apple

Topping:
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons butter

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 18 muffin cups or use paper liners.
In a large bowl, sift together 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I dont sift), 2 cups sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, pumpkin and oil. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stirring just to moisten. Fold in apples. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons flour, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle topping evenly over muffin batter.
Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

Go visit Tempt my Tummy Tuesday for more yummy food!
recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pumpkin-apple-streusel-muffins/detail.aspx

18 years ago today....

I lost my dad. I was always quite a daddy's girl until my parents started having marital problems and separated. I played the teen role of choosing who will let me party more. The lucky winner was my mom.

On this specific day, 18 yrs ago, I was in my room getting ready to go out. I had just turned 17.... 2 weeks before and thought I was too cool for the world. You know the teen attitude. My dad came to pick my brother up for visitation, he came in my room and tried to talk to me while I was getting ready. We had a little small talk and then he went to leave. He told me he loved me and I didn't say it back. At that time I had no idea that this moment would haunt me for the rest of my life.

He left, I went out, life continued as usual. Until 4am when someone called my mom and said that my dad had died. I can still envision the 15 min ride, going 100mph, to get to my dad because surely we could save him. My mom was a frantic mess.....they married young so she was only 36 and was now dealing with this. At my age now, almost the same age as her then, I just can not imagine having a teen, a tween and her husband dying.

I remember all of it yet at the same time it all seems like a blur. For years, even now sometimes, I couldn't even talk about my dad without crying. I missed him soooo much. It wasn't fair that my brother had to give me away at my (first) wedding. It wasn't fair that he hasn't been able to see his grandchildren. Its still not fair that my brother and I don't have a dad to go to. To talk to, to confide in, to get advise from, to go visit, to call, to love.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea to write.
I was fine until I started typing this and now I am crying.
It just hurts and it sucks.
I know plenty of people have lost their parents but I'm immature and like to stomp my feet and wonder why it had to happen to me.


(disclaimer: I'm not indulging in the whole story but wanted to say my brother was safe and sound when this event happened)

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

WFMW-Cleaning Edition

I am a spreadsheet geek. Gotta have spreadsheets for everything. I don't know what I did before spreadsheets. I use them to track spending, when I coach soccer, for phone lists and for CLEANING. Yep, I said Cleaning.

I have a room tab and in there I list everything that I would like to do to that room and then I enter the date in another row....

Master Bedroom
dust
change sheets
clean ceiling fan and ceiling
purge clothes
file papers
touch up paint

You get the hint. I don't really use this for everyday kind of stuff. Its more for deeper cleaning so that I can keep track of when I last did something. Some of this stuff is done weekly, some is done monthly, etc. It may seem complicated but it works for me!
Go visit We are THAT family for more cleaning tips.

Fall Recipes

Last week I made a delicious fall dinner! Some people on Facebook asked for the recipes so I thought I would share with everyone.

First off I made Spiced Pork Chops. We had never had any meat with cinnamon but thought it sounded interesting.

SPICED PORK STEAKS
6 boneless center loin pork steaks
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (I skipped because I didn't have any)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
Trim and discard all exterior fat from each pork steak. On a piece of wax paper, combine flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Dredge pork in flour mixture.
In large skillet over medium heat, saute pork steaks in butter and oil, turning occasionally until browned and cooked through, about 20 minutes. Makes 6 servings.
found here: http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1827,152162-251197,00.html

Then continuing with the fall-ish theme I made Baked Apples for the first time. I have had them one other time and The Husband said he likes them. Friends of ours own, who own an apple orchard, had just given us a bag of apples so this worked out well. This recipe had a little more of an apple crisp taste due to a little doughyness (made up word) from the flour.

BAKED SLICED APPLES
4 c. sliced apples
1 c. sugar
3/4 c. flour
1 stick butter
1/2 c. water
Pinch of salt
Dash of cinnamon
Place apples in baking dish 9x13. Mix sugar, flour and butter until crumbly; sprinkle over apples. Add water, salt and cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees until done and slightly brown.
Yields: 12 servings.
found here:http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1813,150184-236205,00.html

Then to top it off I made some Pumpkin Muffins for dessert. This is the easiest thing to make and we love them. They are very low in calories too....so plus for moms! I had to search for a recipe to post because its really only 2 ingredients so I just mix and go. You can also use any type of cake mix. This time I used Devils Food.

2 Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins
18 ounces spice cake mix
15 ounces pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
Directions
Simply mix the pumpkin and the spice cake mix together until well combined.
Spoon into paper lined small muffin/cupcake tins, 2/3 full. (The batter is very thick and doesn't "settle", so you may wish to smooth the tops if you care what the finished product looks like!).
Bake at 350* 18-22 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. (130 calories each)
found here: http://www.recipezaar.com/2-Ingredient-Pumpkin-Muffins-260781

Hope you enjoy as much as we did! For other recipes go visit Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

Friday, October 02, 2009

A little happiness.....

surprise, surprise! lol

M did a paper at school that just melts my heart so I thought I would share it with you. I copied it just as she wrote it (except her name, of course) even the punctuation and spelling.

My full name is xxxx
I was born on Sept. 6, 2001
My favorite subject at school is Music
If I could go anyplace in the world it would be Pariss. (lol dont know where that came from)
When I grow up I want to be a vetrinarian
My favorite animal is dog
A hobby I enjoy is Watching T.V.
My favorite meal is Mac&Cheese
The best thing about me is I'm just like my mom!
The next best thing about me is Two cool sister
I think I am really good at writing
I think I need to improve at tieing my shoes

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Writers Workshop-Finding Bliss

This week MamaKat has some great prompts to write about. I could have chose any of them but since I've been mentally exhausted lately I thought we should go with that theme.

My regular readers just clicked the little red X.

The Prompts:
4.) Have you found your bliss? What path did you take to get there? or are you still searching

I am still searching with the help of the greatest husband alive. God bless him and his patience!

I like to have hormonal pity parties and cry about how I don't have this or that. I like to rant and rave about the smallest things. Lately I have turned into a miserable monster.

In the past 3 months I have lost my job, lost a baby and lost my last grandparent. These things really do suck but there isn't anything I can do to bring any of this back. Nothing. If I could I definitely would but its just not possible.

I have to remember that some stuff is out of my control and that's hard for me.
I have to remember that everyone does not have to do things the way that I want them to do it.
I have to remember that everything doesnt have to be perfect.
I have to remember that life does not revolve around me.
I have to remember that I may have been spoiled as a child but real life isn't like that. People don't have to just do things......*I* have to work for it. Just as I work at being a great mom, I need to make that attempt at life.
I also have to remember to keep a positive attitude and squash the negative thoughts. This is such a battle sometimes and it is exhausting but its very important.

There are many things that I want to change about life right now and only I can do it. I like to preach to people that they are the author of their own book......noone else can write it for them. I should really practice what I preach.

Better days are waiting for me.