New ideas...for dinner!

Recently I have fallen in love again....with my crockpot!  I found a page on facebook with lots of easy, delicious recipes for dinners in the crockpot.  What I love is that there are no strange ingredients that I have no idea what it is and all seem pretty simple to make.  So far everyone has enjoyed what I have been making.  I use my crockpot at least 2 times a week due to the fact we have leftovers and sometimes the kiddos just want grilled cheese or chicken nuggets instead of big meals (Lord bless them!).  I will start posting recipes I make on here to share and also add any tips on making them taste even better! 

Last night I made a very easy chicken dish with just a few ingredients and I could put the chicken in frozen!  Here is the recipe:

4-6 boneless chicken breasts
1 can cream of chicken/mushroom soup
1 bag frozen corn
1 container pico de gallo (from produce section)
1 container Cooking Creme Santa Fe variety
1 envelope ranch dressing
Season to taste. (I did not add anything but next time may add some season salt on chicken and thaw it next time...kind of blah)

Put everything in crockpot. It doesn't matter if the chicken is frozen. Simply adjust cooking time. Cook on low for 5-6 hours, stirring occasionally. Serve over rice or pasta. Yum!!!

This was really good...smelled like con quesa dip all day!  Very easy and my kiddos liked it, well Zach and Maddie ate just a little bit but I think the little bit of spice may have been a bit much for their taste buds.  I would say this dish cost about $5 to make and we have leftovers for lunch for the next two days.

I have been tagged to bring a small turkey to her Thanksgiving dinner tuesday and plan on using the crockpot for that as well.  LOVE IT!!!  I forgot how easy things can be using the crockpot.  This saves me so much time in the afternoon and let's me not stress about dinnertime.  With school, therapy sessions, gymnastics and choir we are a very busy family! 

I am a college graduate!!!

I received my diploma saturday and I am so excited!  I am not done with my schooling but I am thrilled to finally have a degree to show for it!  I won't "walk" till December but I can enjoy looking at it now!  Woo Hoo!!

Tonight was my first night back to school and it was chemistry.  Not my fave and really not looking forward to the lab on saturday either.  Oh well....it is getting me closer to my BA so I can teach! 

Good night all....

Are we sure about this??????????

Ok, this post is probably going to be silly for some but is serious for us......I am cancelling our Direct TV.  Yes we are getting rid of cable.  I am sure I will miss some of my shows but am hoping it will bring our family closer.  I can dream right?  LOL!!!  Right now we only have two tv's and usually both are on!  We are getting an antenna and roku box and plan on streaming the heck out of them!  We already have netflix and will use amazon as well to watch tv and movies.  I know Larry will not be happy about losing his dear sports channels but in the end I hope we will save money! 

     The plan is to make family nights and do more things together and way from the house!  Maybe get us more active and in shape.  That is my wish...lol!  We will start the family nights soon and may even have family cooking nights....that sounds like fun!  Those are my goals of getting rid of cable...now to see if they come true!  Keep ya posted on that one.....

Registration Day!

   

     Ah glorious thursday!  Today we get Emily all registered for her last year of middle school....wow how it is flown by!  I have a feeling I will have to argue my way through this process since the school says we owe money for her ugly, blue, too small, too short choir dress.  I have emailed the teacher and gone in and spoke to the vice principal throughout the summer but have gotten nowhere.  I was told if I don't pay it she can't register.  We'll see about that today.  I am pmsing so they may not want to start with me today.  I will try my hardest to not embarrass my children since I have to take all three of them with me today but I make no promises...well I promise not to use any bad language, ok?  I promise to only use my bad language while working on Emily's IEP for her bipolar diagnosis....I am sure they will think she got that from me! 

    Madison starts kindergarten this year which will make me a one kid Mom during the day.  How will Zach handle that I am not sure.  He will have Maddie withdrawls I am sure but since I will be in Georgia on my vacation from my life, hubby will have to deal with it!  Hee hee....I timed that well.  I will be here for Maddie's first day but the next day I will be on a plane to visit my sisters and brother.  I can't wait...for both Maddie to start school and vacation!  Zach will be fine I am sure and maybe will learn to do things himself instead of using Maddie to do his dirty work! 

     Wow that made me sound bad!  This trip is also a graduation gift to myself since I will finally have my AA degree done!  Woo Hoo!!!  I can finally check that box that says college graduate!  Next I will start working towards my BA in education so I can teach kindergarten to all those eager little minds!  I do love kids, especially those that don't live in my home!  LOL!!!  I am hoping I will be ready to work when Zach can go to preschool....fingers crossed.  This next term I am taking chemistry (my 2nd attempt, first one I dropped) and spanish.  I figured I can use spanish since you hear it so much around here.  I am hoping I remember all that I knew back in my high school days...we'll see! 

     On a serious note I have really looked at our finances and decided that we need to get rid of cable among other things.  There I said it....we NEED to cut back on spending.  I will soooooooo miss it but if we can get all these shows using a roku or the wii WHY am I spending almost $80 a month for direct tv?  It is a big step for us since we love our TV but I am hoping it will also make us all be more active and do things together as a family.  We will get an antenna so we can get local TV....I remember saying how ghetto houses looked with those big ole' antennas.  I am sure to eat those words!  I hope it will help us save our money for a trip to Disney World sometime next year.  THAT excites me! 

     On that note of saving money, I need to go through my coupons and find some great deals on clothes and food to feed these growing children.  Still trying to decided to make lunches or have them eat at school.  My lazy self says "have them eat that crap at school" but the Mommy in me says "make them something semi-healthy to eat".  We'll see who wins this after a week or so or getting up at 5:30 with Emily so she can beautified every morning!  Ah the thrills of back to school! 

Summer is almost over!!!!

I cannot believe that it is almost back to school time!  I am soooo excited!  Don't get me wrong...I love my kids and doing things with them but it is hard to keep a 2, 5 and 14 year old happy! We go to the pool and zoo, go for bike rides, play at the park and numerous other things but I still hear the "Mom I am bored" 10 minutes after we get home!  The teen is the hardest....she sleeps most of the day away and then is mad when I tell her it is too late or hot to do anything.  I wish I could sleep the day away!

I am still going to school fulltime and will graduate the end of summer with my AA in Integrated Studies.  It isn't my goal but at least I will have a college degree!  I will still plug away at all my electives for my BA in Elementary Education and transfer to a four year college once I am ready to work on the meat and potatoes of my degree.  I am hoping to be ready to teach when my 2 year old is ready for school.  Hubby is only six classes away from his BA in Business then he can retire from the Air Force if he chooses.  We are excited about a life out of the military!  

The kids are growing by leaps and bounds.  This summer all three have taken swimming lessons and have enjoyed them.  Madison also takes gymnsatics and is going wonderfully.  She is about to moe up a level which she is so happy about.  Emily is a typical teen, playing with her hair and makeup and acting a fool over boys.  She drives me nuts but I am sure I did the same things at that age but don't tell her!  Zach is my little man.  He is such a MaMa's boy which I love.  He is talking all the time and getting into anything and everything.  

Lately I have been back to couponing and saving money.  We want to take a big trip to DisneyWorld next year and have been saving money.  It just seems every time we get money saved, something comes up where we have to spend it.  Just this morning I was getting ready to run my dishwasher and it would not turn on.  Oh well back to having Emily be my dishwasher I guess!  You know, when it rains it pours!  

All in all, life is very good....

    

Thank goodness....kids back to school

Last week was horendous.  No school for 4 days....yes 4 DAYS!!!  First was due to snow and ice, then the next excuse was too cold (I don't think -10 is that bad..lol) and the final excuse was to save natural gas due to the fact some counties HAD NONE!!!!  Thankfully we did not lose our heat but we did cut back to do our part.  Let's just say I am glad to have that week behind me!

This week is filled with appointments for both girls and the cat, plenty of MOMS group activities, an appointment to talk to the DA handling our case and getting my next observation done!  I did not expect to already be observing children with these being my first classes but it has been very educational.  I am enjoying this much more than algebra and chemistry!  

Tonight is the preview for the Financial Peace University at my church.  I have been reading but I think hearing and seeing the information will be much better for me and hopefully hubby will go with me instead of me telling him how much money he can spend!  

This weel is going to be a very busy week and I am sure it will fly by.  Hope you all have a good one!

Been a while...

And boy have we been busy!  The beginning of a new year is always busy in this house.  Emily celebrated her 14th birthday on the 2nd and today is our 16 yr anniversary!  Can't believe I have been married that long and have 3 kids!  Thought that would never happen! 

Well I did the big change...I am back to school full time to get my degree in Elementary Education.  This week started it all up and have been busy doing fingerprinting and background checks to go and observe classrooms.  I really feel this is a good fit for myself and my family.  I do love kids, especially young ones and thing I have alot to offer.  Let's hope these next 15 weeks don't wear me down but keep me motivated to my ultimate goal of being a kindergarten teacher! 

It looks like gymnastics is in our future as Maddie and Zach want to take lessons.  Lord knows they are rolling , jumping and bending themselves into pretzels at home!  We go saturday morning to try it out and see how we like it.  Fingers crossed we do!  Emily will be starting an after school program at the pool  next week that teaches them how to be junior lifeguards.  She loves swimming and hopefully she will have an interest in being a lifeguard since she will soon be a teen that can work!  What a perfect fit! 

Larry is back to refereeing volleyball every weekend.  He will be busy till May but it allows us to let the kids do some programs they love and pay down bills.  Our goal for this year is to pay off ALL credit cards, my student loan and take a good chunk out of the truck loan.  If all goes well we will only have the truck and house payments in 2012.  Wouldn't that be a blessing!!  We also plan on doing some upgrades in the house but nothing too pricey...just enough to make it a bit more sellable if we do get orders in the next year or so. 

I am also staying with cooking more and trying new things.  I am also joining a gym and really working on losing weight and getting healthier.  Some of the ladies in my MOMS group have joined the gym so I have others to keep me motivated!  I am also now on the board of my MOMS group as the Membership Vice President.  My hope is to make our group the best one it can be and triple our membership.  There was some drama and we lost some members but sometimes you need a shakeup to make things better, right?  I ran for board member for our property association but unfortunately did not get it.  I am still on committees and plan on making my neighborhood a better one!

Welcome 2011

A new year means new beginnings and we plan on making the most of this year!  Stay tuned for all of our ups and downs on our journey through 2011....

My plans for this year are to cook something new at least once a week, take more pictures of my children, lose weight and get healthy, do more in my community, be more active in my MOMS group, join the board of our homeowners association, work on my teaching degree, pay off our debt and be able to yell "We are debt free" in the next couple years, help my children grow closer to God as well as Larry and myself and just be happy and drama free!  I am sure there will be more but for now that is quite enough!  And one prayer request...that justice prevail for my daughter who has gone through alot this year. 

My plan for cooking something new starts right now.  I am making crockpot brown sugar chicken and hope the kids love it!  I made butternut squash soup with cinnamon a couple days ago and everyone liked it so it inspired me to expand my cooking skills! 

I hope everyone had a great holiday and wish you all a Happy New Year!