I finally found it!

This will make my life SO much easier, at least one portion of it. I have two car seats and a booster seat stuffed into an Xterra and my son has such a hard time buckling his seat belt. Can you imagine going thru the carpool line and your child not being able to buckle his seat belt??? And he is on the right side so I cannot reach over the car seat in the middle to .... this . Thanks to Arnold Girls.net.

REPOST: Keep the spark HOT

I just loved this blog about keeping the spark HOT in your marriage. Most of these things we all know is needed to keep our marriages HOT and enjoyable, however at times we just need a reminder...

So take a few minutes to visit the "How Does She" blog and read the blog post on "Keep the Spark HOT"

OMG!! If only I could sew!!!

This woman just amazes me!! Now only does she make the cutest clothes out of the clothing her daughter outgrows, stains or otherwise just can no longer wear, but she puts together the CUTEST little outfits that she AMAZINGLY gets her daughter to model!! Each and every outfit is modeled by her cute little girl1!! Just amazing!!!

Recap: She can sew, coordinate outfits, get the daughter to wear them, get her to pose for pics, AND she's a great photographer!!! And that's just from ONE post!!!

I just LOVE, LOVE these ideas. I am going to have to find a place to stash a box of damaged/outgrown clothes just so I can attempt some of these ideas. Of course someone is going to have to teach me how to sEW!!!! please!?

Colorbok Chipboard Albums

I LOVE, LOVE these albums. I have bought several in the past-the oval, star, scalloped, square, heart, etc, etc. On my last trip to Michael's I found these great albums in Christmas shapes!!! A santa hat, ornament shape, snowman, tree, star, gingerbread man, and an angel. So I bought more than one of each pack. Thought they'd not only make great albums, but also embellishments to a page, or even ornaments for the tree!! So here is my first attempt at an ornament-or maybe a page to an album-not sure yet.
The original chipboard is of course on the left. These albums come with 5 pieces and are connected with a metal ring. What a deal at just $1!!!

Domesticated

This morning the in laws called and wanted to take the older kids on a little outing-so I gladly got them dressed, fed and a bag packed and sent them on their way. I still had baby boy with me but I did get a few things done. I started out the day by making cupcakes for Jacob's class as Monday is his birthday. There is a boy in his class allergic to milk so I made Weight Watcher's cupcakes. Mixed a diet soda with a box of cake mix. I then used a little gadget-an icing dispenser- to swirl on the icing. I've had the gadget about eight years and have never used it. They turned out really cute.

Later while blogging I found a recipe for chicken strips/nuggets. Using Ritz crackers, mayo and mustard. I am not much for the mustard and mayo but I figured I'd give it a try. They turned out good-although I can taste the mustard and mayo-I will have to use something else next time.

I am also trying out a new roast recipe tonight. I usually put the roast in the crock pot and pour diet soda over it. But today I had beef broth on hand so I used it. It did come out tender but had no flavor. So I found this new recipe online and will have to see how it tastes tonight.

Adobe Photoshop CS3

BEFORE

AFTER
Love it!! I took a course on Photoshop last year but I just cannot afford the full program right now. So today I found a 30 day trial version. Maybe in the next month I can fool around with it enough to make some decent photos, book some shoots, and maybe make enough money to buy the full version!! I can dream can't I?! Anyway, I haven't had much of a chance to play around with it yet, but did try a few things out today. Not sure exactly what I did but I like the results so far.

Winning Starts with Beginning

WINNING STARTS WITH BEGINNING
...It's impossible to win the race unless you venture to run.
Your only true failure will be in your failure to start.
It's been said that eighty per cent of success is showing up.
Create a definite plan for carrying out your desires and begin at once.
Put your plan into action, whether you are ready or not.
You must take the first step as soon as possible.
The first step will take some effort, perhaps pain.
But after that, everything that has to be done is real - life movement.
If you can get up the courage to begin,
you have the courage to succeed.
To win, you must begin.................

-Unknown author

Easy Dinner

Well tonight was such a quick and easy dinner I thought I'd share it with my Menu Plan Monday bloggers (some of them post pictures of their dinners and include recipes-I've never taken the time to do this myself).



We had garlic roasted chicken with steamed broccoli and red potatoes. It was so very very easy. I bought whole chickens on sale a couple of weeks ago and boiled them and split the chicken up into ziplock freezer bags. So the chicken was already cooked. I defrosted it in the fridge over night and then sprinkled the roasted garlic seasoning into the freezer bag and shook it. Then I placed the chicken into a tinfoil pouch and placed in the oven for 30 minutes at 425 degrees. While the chicken was cooking I sliced red potatoes and broccoli and placed in a Ziplock steam bag. I then sprinkled powdered butter seasoning (intended for popcorn) and basil into the bag. I placed this in the microwave for seven minutes just before the chicken was ready. Everything turned out great...except the broccoli. The broccoli was cooked too long and ended up too soft and it soaked up way too much of the basil seasoning. So next time I'll just put the vegetables in individual steamer bags.

This dinner was super easy and quick and no clean up! You just toss the tin foil and steamer bag when you are done cooking!!

I got this "Tone's" roasted garlic seasoning at Sam's years ago and just LOVE it! It is super easy, especially since I have "texture issues" with sliced peppers and onions (I like the flavor just don't care for the texture).

Creative Blogs

I love visiting this site: Creative Blogs. This site lists several blogs of crafty and interesting people. It is full of so many ideas for decorating, scrapbooking, any just about anything you can think of! I love visiting this site-it give me such great inspiration! I only wish I could be half as creative as some of the bloggers showcased.

ziplock zip n' steam bags

I saw the commercial for these bags and thought I'd give them a try. Since trying to eat healthy I have been adding broccoli and cauliflower to my diet and I know boiling tends to take away some of the "nutrients" in the vegetables-or so I am told. I bought a box of them this week and gave them a try. They are wonderful! The vegetables come out wonderful. I prefer my veggies to be a little on the soft side so I steam them a bit more than the recommended amount of time. But it is so easy and quick and no clean up!! I highly recommend these bags.

Menu Plan Monday 9/17

OK I am a day late but I did have the menu planned just didn't get it online yesterday. Also while visiting my parents this weekend I borrowed a WW cookbook "5 Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook" and I have found some great recipes!! Every recipe has five ingredients or less and takes about fifteen minutes to prepare. So I went through the book and tagged my favorites-ended up with a months worth of new recipes!!! I cannot wait to try them. But since I was out of town this weekend and had already done my grocery shopping for this weeks menu I'll have to wait until next week.

I weighed in this morning-not pretty. I did so great the first week losing six pounds-now I am up one. Maybe it's just too early in the morning to weigh-I'm sure if I waited until after I nursed a few times I may be down one pound-but that still means I didn't lose any weight last week. How frustrating is that!?!?! I am still staying under 2000 calories and still didn't lose any weight last week...argh! I am definately not going to meet my first goal of losing that baby weight before September 19th. I am still ten pounds away. Oh well. Here is to stepping it up and trying to add exercise into my daily routine.

I made some low-fat brownies this weekend and brought them home. I could see a potential problem: I was cleaning yesterday after we got home (you know leaving DH home alone for 4 days can get really messy)each time I went into the kitchen I had to grab a piece of brownie. So I took some advice from the WW book. I bagged each brownie into individual snack sized ziplock bags and placed them in the freezer. That way I have to set them out to defrost before I eat them.

Monday: Usually salads but we opted to eat out-Corky's BBQ!
Tuesday: Shredded beef tacos (freezer meal), salad, chili beans
Wednesday: Broccoli Soup (frozen)
Thursday: Lemon-Lime Chicken, cauliflower, corn
Friday: Roast, carrots, salad

Living on a Dime

Ok so for the month of July I have really kept up with our grocery budget. My DH told me we were going way over budget every month and I just didn't see how that was possible. So I have kept every receipt this month. Actually I do my grocery shopping on Friday for the week ahead so I actually bought the first week of groceries in June-so I cheated a bit there and we STILL went over budget. So I have been checking out a lot of websites about frugal grocery shopping and cooking. I've also found a few coupon sites-however in the past coupons haven't really helped much since I buy all off brand stuff anyway.

Anyway, I wanted to share a website I found tonight that has a lot of helpful hints. This site is packed full of great money saving tips, organizing tips, cleaning tips etc.