Thursday, April 30, 2009

Sauted Spaghetti Squash

I made this the other night and it was a huge hit with everyone! I got the recipe here and changed it just a little.



  • 1 spaghetti squash, halved and seeded
  • 1/4 cup butter or margarine
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray, and place squash halves cut-side down on the sheet. Bake until squash is tender but still crunchy, about 40 minutes. Set aside to cool.

2. Once cool enough to handle, shred squash flesh from rind using a fork. Set aside.

3. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Cook onion and garlic in butter until soft. Add mushrooms until softened. Add squash to the skillet, and cook until hot. Season with salt and pepper.


Wedding Bells

I have been a bit MIA lately because my sister-in-law got married last weekend. It has been a super busy weekend, and we have spent this last week just trying to recover. It started Friday afternoon, with a luncheon for the bridesmaids, moms, and us sister-in-laws. It was really nice to have a good meal without kids, and to be dressed nice for a change. Then Friday night was the rehearsal dinner, Adam was an usher so we needed to be there. Great food once again! Saturday morning, the moms group did the March of dimes walk. 4 miles, 4 water stations, and no pottys! And on our way back to the car, the rain came. Got home just in time to have lunch and get ready to go. Get to the church and then the reception. D met one of the other kids at the wedding. When it came time to dance they "slow" danced. It was super cute, they held hands, and spun in a circle. D was leading! I guess we know who wears the pants already! We had to leave a little early because L came down with a fever and was sluggish. Sunday morning was a brunch. Sunday evening we had company for dinner. By Sunday night we had to take L to the ER. Adam took him and 5 hours later we find out that it was nothing. Well it turns out it was seasonal allergies. Wow, I'm tired all over again just writing everything down.

I forgot to mention that when we left D told us that the boy was her boyfriend and that she was going to marry him. Great! What is going to happen when she gets a little older.


D with her flowers


The wedding cake

Brunch the next morning. They had pictures of all the parents and grandparents at their weddings.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

My bucket list

Here is a fun list to do either on your blog or facebook or whatever. Just bold the items that you have done!




1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more to charity than you can afford.
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29 Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33 Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41 Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45 Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60 Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64 Donated blood, platelets, or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66 Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67 Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone- 2 toes this week!
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
7
9 Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Invented a javelin trolley


Wow, 38 out of 100. That's actually not as bad as I thought it would be.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Happy Earth Day!


Now we typically celebrate the Earth everyday, but today is a day to sit back and think of all the things we do to help Mother Nature. I know that there are more things that we can be doing, but I am proud of all that we do already. If we owned our own home, we would do much more, but it's kinda hard to do some of those things when you have a landlord.

So here are some of the things that we do around our house:

-take reusable bags almost everywhere we go
-recycle 90% of our garbage
-go to the library to get our books, movies, and music
-hand wash using an environmentally friendly dish soap
-make our own cleaners (I'm just starting to do this more)
-use local produce to cook our meals every day
-Adam rides his bike to work everyday that the weather will allow
(we do live in Indiana, where the weather is nice every once in awhile!)
-we walk to the grocery store, library, park, zoo, and farmers market when the weather permits
-i have held a clothing, toy, and this week a used book swap
-we have planted veggies in our own garden
-we use ceramic plates instead of paper
-most of our furniture is reused from someone else
-i save glass jars and plastic containers to reuse again
-we donate our unwanted goods to a local charity
-i use to make our baby food when D was little
-i occasionally make our wet wipes (the only time I really don't is when mom buys wipes for us)
-we keep the furnace turned down to 66 during the day and 63 at night

Things that we would like to do:
-we had a compost pile at our old house, but like I said before, with renting you can't really do that easily.
-Adam would love the rain barrels!
-We would love to have a bigger garden, but with moving soon, not really likely.
-Would love to walk or ride bikes everywhere all the time (but with the weather we get here, and little public transportation not easy)
-Adam would love to save the bath water to flush the toilet, but not really safe with 2 little ones.
-we would love to eat all organic produce, but with making only $29,000 before taxes that's not really do able.


What do you do? What would you like to do? I know that there are probably more things that I can't think of right now (I'm beat!) so share your inspiration!

Monday, April 20, 2009

12 layer Jello

My sister in law is getting married this up coming Saturday and her shower was just a few weeks ago. At her shower my aunt (in law?) had this amazing looking jello. There were all these little layers upon layers. It was beautiful! I knew immediately that I needed to try to make it. It was kind of a joke around the room that I would be the one to try and I said that I was going to try to make it for Easter dinner. Well, I did it! I found many recipes online but this is really the one that I used. I got it on this blog, but I changed it a little.

12 Layer Jello

6 boxes sugar free/fat free jello (grape, blue raspberry, lime, lemon, orange, and cherry)
2 cans of sweetened condensed milk.

Dissolve 1 box jello with 1 cup boiling water. Reserve 1/2 cup mixture. Pour 1/2 cup into 9x13 inch pan, then chill to set. Mix 1/3 cup milk with 1/2 cup jello mixture. Pour on top. Chill and repeat. (Begin with yogurt mixture on bottom of pan.)

Next time I wont use 1/3 cup, I will probably use 1/4 cup. It made the layers a little too thick compared to the other layers.


It was yummy, and easier to make then I thought it would be. Each layer chilled for about 20 min, and the whole process took about 3 hours. Yes, that seems like a long time, but remember that you don't have to stand next to the fridge the entire time.

Everyone seemed to like it. One brother in law actually thought it tasted like Fruit stripe gum. The kids and I ate all the leftovers! Yum!



Sunday, April 19, 2009

Happy Birthday!

Today is Adam's 30th birthday! I have been teasing him that he is my old man now since I won't be 30 until November. I asked him what he wanted for his birthday, whether that was a party, going out, presents, special cooked dinner, and he said that he just wanted to stay home with his family. Now I don't know about you, but I want a party (hint, hint Adam ;-). What I did do was put together a huge crossword puzzle with the help of his family and friends for him. They sent me the clues and answers and I put it all together. I will be posting the answers to that puzzle for some of our friends that live far away later on in the week. But for today we got him a water bottle from Walgreens, a bag of nice loose leaf tea, and a pumpkin pie. He asked for the pumpkin pie and he wanted it from a bakery. Now at first I felt insulted, mainly because he didn't want me to make the pie, and then I was relieved. I wanted to make him a fun cool cake instead. By the way, he is determined to eat the entire pie himself throughout the day. Stay tuned for how that goes!


I found this really neat cake online and just knew that I had to make that for him! When we started dating we were too poor to actually go anywhere (gee, somethings never change!), and we would go to the arcade and mini golf. He LOVED Ms. Pac-man and would play that all day. It has kinda become a joke in our house that I think he loves her more than me. So when I saw a Pac-man cake I had to try it. Now keep in mind that I have not taken any cake decorating classes nor have I really done any piping at all.




Here it is! The ghosts, cherries, and Ms. Pac-Man are all rolled out Starburst or Jolly Rancher chewy candies. The dots are peanut m&m's and skittles!




I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I really feel that with my knowledge it is darn good!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Cool Rainbow cake

A friend of mine on Facebook made this totally awesome rainbow cake with her girls last week. Well as soon as I saw the picture I just knew that I needed to make it. I was asked to bring something to the party on Saturday, so I made this.


All it takes is 2 cake mixes, the ingredients the mix calls for, and the gel food coloring.



Mix up the cake mixes and split into 6 bowls. I used the leftover pie plates from this.


Color the 6 bowls red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Remember roygbiv?

The first pan I started with red and layered up to purple, and the second pan was the opposite.

I frosted the outside with a nice sky blue, while in between the layers was white. Looks pretty neat when cut into!
I did have some batter left over so we made some 2 layered cupcakes and frosted them with the leftover white frosting. Yummy!!

A rundown on our week

It all started on Friday night. We had a grilled cheese party for my mom's group and one of the little boys started having a really hard time breathing. I kept the younger one while the mom took the other to the ER. It turns out that he had asthma and the beginning of pneumonia. Thank goodness they caught it in time. I was up until 12:30 working on a giant crossword puzzle for the hubby for his birthday. I had all his friends and family send in clues and answers for it. It rocked! I'll have to take a picture of the big one hanging up on the wall. Then at 2:30 am I woke up after hearing a crash. The cat had knocked the fish bowl off the top of the hutch and it shattered. There was water, glass, and rocks everywhere. So Adam and I worked quickly to clean it all up. RIP Dorothy #5 and 6!

Saturday, Adam went with a friend for a 10 mile run. They are training for a half marathon in a few weeks. While they were gone, the kids and I had to run to the store to buy more Easter eggs since the cat destroyed them with fish water. Let me tell you, it's not easy to find cheap eggs the day before Easter! Got home and made everyone yummy lunch. Off to nap time, I was the only one not sleeping. I got the eggs ready, baskets ready, and our bags for the day ready while they all took a nap. Get in the car and head out for our trip. We had a friend having a birthday party, but it turned into a birthday party for 3 of the guys. It was a blast! All the friends were there, with all the kids, and tons of yummy food. I made a rainbow cake that I will blog about later. It turned out super cool!

On the way home at 1am our time, the car dies on the toll road about an hour away from home. Luckily it was not too far from our friends house, and they were just leaving the party we were at. They have a 3rd car and had offered to let us borrow it when we were having trouble in the past. They came and got me, took me to their house, where they gassed up their CRV, we called the tow truck, and I headed out to get Adam and the kids. I was really freaking out the whole time. I was scared, it was cold out, and luckily the kids slept through the entire thing. Our friends helped us out too by paying for the towing. We called and found out that you only have 2 hours before they will impound your car on the toll road. NICE! We were able to tow it to their house too. At that time we didn't know what was wrong with it yet. Adam got the kids, still strapped in the car seats, into the new car without waking them up. We gathered everything that we needed that night, and just then, the tow truck got there. Once we had a plan, everything moved very smoothly. We were off back home! I was exhausted so when we got to the rest stop, Adam took over driving. We got to the corner right by our house and the gas station there is packed. Now this is very strange since it 4 am! There were 50 cars in the gas station and on the roads around it. There were also cops everywhere. Still not sure what happened since it hasn't been in any papers or on any news.

Sunday, the bunny was tired! We hid eggs and had the baskets all ready. The kids loved it. The kicker was that we left our camera at the friends house that had the party, so no pictures! Urgh!!! We got everyone ready and headed off to Adam's parents house. We had a wonderful lunch with all his brothers and his sister. We had an egg hunt there too. The only problem was that the kids didn't get a nap that day, and after being super tired from the crazy night before, they were zonked in the car coming home. That meant that when we got home at 7pm (normal bed time), they were wide awake. So another late night. In the mean time, Adam has come down with an awful cold. But the plus side is that we think it was the timing belt on the car that came off.

Monday, try to figure out what to do with the car. We don't have any money to fix it, no credit cards, and pay day is the 15th. Adam took the day off from work to get better and figure out what to do. We took money out of our bank and started a new account with the bank we have wanted to switch to because we hear that we can get a line of credit. So we wait to hear back. 5:30pm we hear that no we didn't get it. Okay, now what! Our great friends Brian and Emily call and tell us that they can loan us the money, and we can pay it back whenever we can. How awesome is that!

Tuesday, after naps (Adam took the day off again), we head into Valpo to check the car out. We get there and empty it out because who knows how long we aren't going to have it. Call the garage, and set up to have another tow truck come and get it. We wait for them, and follow them to the garage. They will take a look at it and let us know tomorrow. We head over to Brian's house and meet him for dinner so he can give us the money. We stop at my dad's house since we were right there. And another late night.

Wednesday, I head over to my mom's house with the kids, and Adam goes back to work. All is going great except that I haven't heard back from the garage. Now I'm worried. It turns out it was the timing belt, and they changed the water pump all for less then the other garage was going to do it for. Great! Get home and Adam tells me that the landlord tells him that they are coming tomorrow with a real estate agent to take pictures of the house. You see, they are going to sell it! So now I have to clean the house like a mad person! Because I already feel like I can't get anything done for almost a week, now I have to do it in a night! Thanks!

Thursday, thankfully everything is getting better! The car is fixed and we will be picking it up on Saturday. I think they came and took pictures (don't know because they never told me a time and I was gone for 2 hours this morning), and the house is clean!

The moral of the story is that we have amazing friends that will help us out with anything!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Crazy Weekend!

We have had the most crazy weekend! And not all good stuff either. I will play catch up later, but here it is in short. Friday 2:30 am the cat knocks the fish bowl off the top of the hutch, shattering it. Saturday night 1 am, the car dies on the toll road an hour away from home. Sunday was a great Easter dinner with Adam's family. There is more (good, and bad), but I am too tired, and too worried to think about it now. Thankfully our friends that lived near where we were stuck have a spare car for us to borrow!

So Tiffany, I know that I said I would mail out your prize today, but it looks like it will happen later this week if that's alright.


I'm going to take a nap!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

The May Calendar

Here is our calendar for the month of May so far:


1-may day basket play date
2-Sesame street live
Dad's night in poker
3-mom and daughter tea party
Scrapbook night
4-pet play date
organizer meeting at Barnes and Noble
5-Dr. appointment for Kelly
cinco de mayo dinner
6-family dinner night at Between the Buns
7-
8-
9-mom's spa day
10-mother's day
11-curious George play date
12-
13-park play date
14-story time at Barnes and Noble
15-may birthday party and bake sale drop off
16-river park parade and great American bake sale
17-my dad's birthday
18-play-doh play date
book club?
19-music play date at Rum Village Park
20-mall play date
21-recipe swap
book club
22-mom's night out
23-ice cream social
24-
25- memorial day
26-Dr. appointment for Kelly
27-zoo
28-Barnes and noble story time
29-
30-
31-


Thankfully there aren't things on every day of the calendar this month. Much more wiggle room, but lots of fun things to do!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Indoor fun!

We went to a play date at my friend Sarah's house this morning. She had a large bowl of play-doh and play-doh paraphernalia sitting on her kitchen table. Some of the kids saw this and climbed up to the table to explore. Right there were my kids. They have gotten to play with the stuff in the past but it always ends with them eating it. But today was different! They loved it and had a blast. So it was time to pull out the stuff I bought. I had gotten this really great organic brand from our health food store, which unfortunately went out of business, on sale. It's called Over the Rain Dough and I love it! We took it out right after naps and I think it went well. I got out some of my easier to use cookie cutters and plastic knives. They worked fantastic!


D playing with a gingerbread man we made.

L working what looks like a pile of poop

My shapes. I had a blast!


Over the Rain Dough, this was mint, peach, and cinnamon scent


What fun!


Hurray, a project that wasn't a huge mess!

Mini Applesauce muffins

Yesterday afternoon I made mini applesauce muffins. I have been meaning to do this for a little while and thought it was the perfect day to make them. They turned out fantastic, the only problem was that I ended up with over 48 muffins. I guess I didn't realize how many the recipe would make. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com. Check out that site if you haven't already! It has tons of great tasting recipes, it also has a search feature where you can look for certain ingredients! Awesome!

Here is the recipe and I will show my alterations:

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon ground allspice ( I just used cinnamon for both)
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 cup butter or margarine, softened (I only used 1 stick since there was the applesauce)
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups applesauce
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup raisins (I left these out because I don't like them.)

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, allspice and baking soda; set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, applesauce and vanilla; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in raisins. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove to a wire rack.
They were super yummy, everyone liked them and they were a hit at the play date this morning. If you make this and get a large batch like I did you can always freeze half the batch for another morning.

Some organizing help for you out there.

I have found some really useful sites out there when trying to better organize my coupons, menu plan, and grocery list.

This is a great one for the grocery list.

It is super easy to use, you can add your own things, and prints out nicely.


This is a pretty good coupon site, it is sometimes hit or miss, but over all a good one to use.


And here is where I get a print out calendar for my menu's once I figure them out. They have either 1 or 2 week plans, and I find them very useful!

This one is great too because they have some great meal plans for super cheap. I have made a few and they always turn out fantastic!

Hope this helps out a little, I know they have helped me!

And the winner is.....

TIFFANY!!!! Check out her blog here, it is always very funny, and full of things that a mom can relate to!

And your prize is a set of handmade recipe cards just for you and a fun new book to read. It's called The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble.


You need to send me a message within the next 2 days with your address. Mail me at Kelly Heet at aol dot com.


Congrats, and thank you to all my followers that entered. Stay tuned, there may be another give away soon!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

The aftermath



This is what happens after visiting with Grammy for the day. We head out to her house at 9 am our time and drive the hour and a half drive there. We change time zones, get to her house and the kids just snack all day (at least they are mostly healthy snacks these days). They don't take naps, and never have over at Grammy's house. By 4 pm our time, they are spent. Getting them into the car at the end of the day is atrocious! Tears, screaming, fights, swinging, and more. And just a measly 5 min down the road I always look back to see this! It's so nice and quiet, the only problem is that I'm beat myself and we have another hour and a half drive home. I make sure that I have my toll money out, the car full of gas, and a drink and snack for the long ride home. We do this once a week.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Free Giveaway!!!

Just a reminder, to enter in the contest please leave a comment on that post telling me what your favorite post has been and please do it before April 4 at midnight eastern time! Good luck, and I'm getting some ideas on what the prize may be!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Amazing New Product!


How is this for an amazing new idea!

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