Ha!

I'm not dead, just still working full time! =)

I am finding myself with less and less time to devote to blogging (obviously!). However, I just entered a giveaway on someone else's blog and did not want to list my email in my entry post. So, if I'm lucky enough to win Deidre's giveaway, she needs a way to get in touch with me. Hopefully I'll be receiving a post from her here on my blog notifying me I've won an awesome book!

I've come to realize over the last year and a half that I'm just not built to work full time, but for this season of my life, that's the way it must be. There are things around my home that are neglected...and people sometimes, too...but I'm doing the best I can. There's a lot of praying going on, trust me. If God hadn't been carrying me around for the last seven months or so, I just don't think I could've done it. I'm typically very organized with my calendars, meal lists, shopping lists, lists, lists, lists...but there are days that I just don't even care what we eat or if the laundry gets done. Thankfully, I'm married to a VERY understanding man!

Well, I'd love to say that I'll post again real soon, but I'm afraid it'd be a lie! LOL! Let's just say that I'll try my best. Deal???

Whoa...

I laughed when I read the title of my last post. "MIA". Well, ditto for this past month. I just haven't taken the time to post. I haven't planned meals. I haven't gotten groceries on a regular schedule. blah...

But, you know what? We survived!

It's been a busy June for sure. Jake went on a school trip to Washtington DC, had his first week of 8th grade football camp, started lifting weights at school 3 mornings a week at 6am. Now for July...my laptop crashed (fun, fun), I'm taking on more responsibilities at work, and we just bought a new freezer to fill up with food.

I was almost physically sick when my laptop crashed. See, I have OVER 23,000 pictures organized in my Adobe Photoshop Elements. Correction - I HAD over 23,000 pics organized. Thankfully a couple weeks before the crash, I registered with Carbonite.com and got everything backed up. It backed up my pictures, but they are no longer organized and tagged in Photoshop. Ugh... So, once the laptop is back from HP getting the recall problem fixed, I get to re-organize the pictures. How fun, huh?!?!? Oh well, I just thank God that the pics didn't just completely disappear.

I'm being forced to be creative now, though. With my laptop out of commission, I can't print off pics to prepare for my July crop with the church girls. So, I've begun going through OLD pictures. Today I cleaned out about 4 or 5 of those old "sticky" albums from my childhood. Oh what funny things I saw in there. The laughs ranged from coke-bottle glasses to braces to first-thing-in-the-morning pics taken of me by my mom when I was about 13 or 14. I also found those prom pics with the boy I thought I'd love "forever", as well as TONS of pics of me in my ever-fashionable band uniform.

There's no telling what kind of scrapbook layouts I'll come up with before my July crop. All I know is that the girls at the crop will definitely meet their laughing quota that day!

MIA and little Menu Plan Monday

Sorry to have been MIA again for a few weeks. I've missed posting as regularly as I have in the past, but I've just not made the time to creat a post and actually post the post. My apologies...

Let's see...since my last post I have become the mother of a teenager. Yep - that's right! My "baby" is now 13. Where has the time gone??? He's a lucky boy, too...he got to celebrate for about 3 days. The Saturday before his bday we treated him and about 9 others to a day of paintball play. That evening his "girlfriend" came over for dinner and some Wii playing. Sunday we gave him the gifts from us. Then on his actual bday we had a special dinner requested by him and watched the 24 season finale.






Now we're two days away from school being out for the summer. Jake's got big plans for this summer, too. He has a weightlifting "class" almost every weekday for the whole summer, two weeks of football camp, and a 5-day trip to Washington DC. Fair warning to everyone who sees or talks to me frequently...I may be slightly frazzled the week he's in DC. My baby...on a plane...many states away...in the city with the highest crime rate...um, yep, frazzled. But - I'll get in LOTS of praying, trust me!

Work is still going good. I'm still not liking being gone 40 hours a week, but we're making it work. I missed my first week of meal planning last week. It felt odd, too. So, this afternoon I sat down and planned out the next three weeks' worth of meals. I'll give them to you a week at a time, though, so I'll feel more compelled to write a post next week. =)

Here's what's up for the rest of this week:

Monday: leftovers from the feast we had yesterday at my SIL's
Tuesday: Jim has a dinner meeting for work, so Jake and I will have leftovers again
Wednesday: turkey breast tenderloin in the crockpot, broccoli, stuffing
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: cube steak in the crockpot with brown gravy mix, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Saturday: baked marinated chicken breasts, green beans, salad
Sunday: beef roast and potatoes in the crockpot, green beans or broccoli, salad

Yesterday was my monthly scrapbooking day with the girls from church. Since it was the holiday weekend, they weren't expecting too many of us to show up. Turned out to be a great day with about 15 of us there to scrap, scrap, scrap!

Speaking of scrapping...I got the majority of my housework completed last night after we returned from my SIL's, so today I'm free to scrap all afternoon! Yeah me!!!

Hope everyone enjoys a wonderful day off today. Have a great week!

Thoughts from the week...

Welcome back...to me! =)

It feels like forever since I've posted here, but it's really only been a couple weeks. Sorry for the absence. Guess I really am still getting adjusted to working 40 hours a week.

I've noticed there are a lot of things I'm letting slip lately. I'd gotten into a "groove" while I was part time and then off work completely. Laundry was on Monday and Friday. Bathrooms were usually Friday. I mopped once a week. Etc. Etc. Etc. WELLLL...not so much anymore. I cherish my weekends, so hate to take up time with housecleaning. But I'm so tired when I get home at 5:30 I don't want to do it then either! I am managing, but the house looks like I'm BARELY managing! LOL! So, PLEASE...call before you come by...give me at least 30 minutes to straighten up. Thank you. =)

Jake had his very first band concert Monday night. He just started playing his bassoon last July, but he has made great improvements since then. I was very unsure how much the other band members had improved, though. However, I was pleasantly surprised by 7:03 Monday evening! They'd only been together to practice as a whole band ONCE. Yes, ONCE! You would have never known. They were terrific.

One highlight of the evening was being able to snap a picture of Jake and his girlfriend, Hannah. It turned out sooo cute!



The event was very sly...the first pic I took they were just standing side by side. But...when I got ready for pic #2, little mister put his arm around her. Of course, she was grinning from ear to ear (as you can see). Oh my...

It's still hard to believe my little boy is growing up.

Another week down...

Wow! Another week has flown by. It's hard to believe I'll be beginning my 5th week at my new job tomorrow, but it's true.

I found out last week that the only other job I'd been holding out for was in the process of being filled...and I didn't get a letter for an interview for it. It would have been awesome, too. It was a state job that paid DOUBLE what I make now. But, obviously, that's not where God wanted me. I believe I'm in the spot He prepared for me for this season. I don't know how long this season will last, but while I'm at this job I'll be doing the best I can.

Last week's meals kind of got all out of whack. The main reason???...my husband bought a new gas BBQ grill. While it's great that he does all the grilling, it messed up my meal plan because it's kinda difficult to prepare sloppy joes or kettle beef on a grill! =)

He grilled again yesterday, so we had leftovers today, and will probably have them tomorrow, too. I still planned for each day as though I were cooking, so that means some of this week's meals will get pushed back, too.

So, here's what's on the menu:
Mon: canned beef, mashed potatoes, salad
Tue: boston butt roast, stuffing, green beans
Wed: leftovers
Thu: sloppy joes, mac and cheese, green beans
Fri: leftovers
Sat: eating out
Sun: beef stroganoff, green beans, salad
Mon: leftovers
Tue: hot dogs, broccoli, french fries
Wed: marinated chicken breasts, baked potatoes, broccoli
Thu: grilled porksteaks, stuffing, salad, green beans
Fri: salisbury steaks, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Sat: breakfast (eggs, hashbrowns, sausage gravy, biscuits:
Sun: lunch - leftovers, supper - turkey pot pie

Having the grill also means that if I've had a hard or tiring day and don't want to be in the kitchen, then I can have Jim pick up some meat on his way home and throw it on the grill. I like this!

Menu Plan Monday

I'm ready for week #3 at work and have another two week's worth of meals planned. I missed almost two whole days at work this week for being sick. When it began I thought it was the stomach flu, but looks like it was a round of flared up sinuses getting started. Yeah me! This will be a much better week, I'm sure!

Needless to say, some of last week's meals didn't get eaten thanks to me being sick and there being lots of meatloaf leftovers! =)

So here's what's up for this week and next:

Mon: chicken a la king over baked potatoes, salad
Tue: roundsteak and gravy in the crock pot, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Wed: baked chicken breasts, baked potatoes, salad
Thu: beef roast and potatoes in the crock pot, green beans
Fri: tacos
Sat: turkey pot pie, salad
Sun: Easter lunch at the in-laws, if we have room for supper it'll be ham and cheese quiche
Mon: chopped sirloin in the crock pot with brown gravy (like salisbury steak), baked potatoes, salad
Tue: sloppy joes, corn, green beans
Wed: canned beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad
Thu: marinated chicken breasts in the crock pot, stuffing, green beans
Fri: boston butt roast, stuffing, salad
Sat: breakfast (eggs, hash browns, sausage gravy, biscuits)
Sun: hot dogs, baked beans, salad for lunch, week's leftovers for supper

I've been really surprised at how quickly I'm able to get supper ready in the evenings. I mean, I knew I was saving time by pre-cooking lots of things and by using my crock pot, but WOW! I get home by 5:20 or 5:25, and we're usually eating by 5:45! I think that's awesome because I was afraid it'd still be 6:15 or later. That all means that by 6:30 I've got supper over and my kitchen cleaned up...and the rest of the evening to do whatever strikes my fancy! I like that!!!

Do you have any time-saving ideas? Not just for the kitchen, but for anywhere around the house or in your daily routine? I'd love to hear them, so leave a comment or two!

Have an awesome week!!!

aaaah....Sunday

Well, I'm about to embark on my second week back at full time work. I believe I am ready...emotionally and in every other way. I've gotten the clothes picked out for each day, and ironed all this afternoon. I'm looking forward to making some headway on the old accounts list I've been working on at the office. I'm also looking forward to dropping a few more pounds this week!

The weight loss has been an added benefit of going to work some place new. Here's why...nervous stomach. See...there's only two bathrooms in the whole place. And - one of those is for the "guys". Apparently it's pretty gross. It's in the back of the building and rarely, if ever, used by the office girls. So, that leaves the one bathroom by the front desk to be used by patients and everyone else. Well, I don't want to be running to the bathroom all day, so I have been VERY cautious about what I eat each day and evening. Pepto was my friend for a couple days last week.

I know, I know...probably too much info for those few of you reading this. But, hey, I'm just trying to keep it real! =)

Anyway, I've been eating about 1/2 a sandwich for lunch and munch on honey wheat pretzels before and after. I haven't been eating breakfast, but eating some crackers or the pretzels at work. For dinner, I've been eating about half of a normal meal and being very cautions of grease/fat intake. I can't live on Immodium and Pepto, so I have to make the adjustments to my diet. It's paid off on the scales. I dropped 3 or 4 pounds last week. Yeah!

My new workplace is right in front of our local mall, so my plan is to eventually walk there on my lunch break. However, I was so beat last week I never had enough energy to go walk. We'll see how this week goes.

I've got no new post for Menu Plan Monday since I posted two week's worth of meals last week. Although, there will probably be at least one change to the plan. I found out that Jim will be working late Friday and a lot of Saturday. So, looks like Jake and I will get to indulge in some fast food Friday night. (I've decided that Friday night and part of Saturday can be my "pig out" times.) I'm hoping he picks McD's, BK, or Sonic. Hhhmmm...guess since I'm driving AND paying I can say where we go, huh? =)

Have an awesome week!