Does anyone know of a website that will suggest recipes to you for meals during the week? I saw one with Blue Cross Blue Shield but I haven't been able to find it again and I can't find anything else like it (for free!). Its possible that nothing like that exists for free, but I thought I'd see if anyone had some insight for me. I would settle for a site that let me input a recipe and then make a list of ingredients for the week of recipes that I chose. Does that make sense? Anyone know of a site like that?
I'm on my way to being hyper-organized again!
Thanks for any input!
Monday, September 14, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
September Update
Its way past time for an update! Its been quite a month! About two months ago, Brandon and I decided it was time to see about getting me a full time 'regular' job. Peyton was so bored at home and was clearly ready to do something different during the day and the wedding business in OKC has finally succumbed to the weak economy. I looked at a lot of different resources for job hunting and I didn't even realize I had applied with the University of Oklahoma! But I got an interview with the medical campus and ended up getting the job. I've been here for about a month and I love my job!! I am the payroll coordinator for the maintenance department which is about as far from anything I figured I'd ever do but its a fantastic job and I am actually enjoying it! The hours will be really flexible and the benefits are great. I also really enjoy the people I work with.
Peyton is staying with Kathy while Im at work and on Tuesdays and Thursdays they go to Mothers Day Out. She teaches there but not his class. He has a very nice teacher and seems to thoroughly enjoy school! When he is just a little older, we'll probably put him in full time preschool before he goes to kindergarden. We keep our weekends busy. Last weekend Peyton and I checked out the train museum and had a blast! It is a working train yard but some of the trains are stationery exhibits. He couldnt have cared less about the exhibits- except the one with the tv! But we got to ride a real train! Oh my! He was so excited! He is really into trains right now. We'll go back again soon when Brandon can join us.
Brandon is working a lot again. Its fall and, at least for Earls, fall is a busy time. We have the fair- which Brandon will be helping with again this year. (Thank goodness not running it, though!) And there always seems to be a festival of some kind that they are involved with. Football season officially started in our house on Sunday and Brandon upgraded his satellite reciever just in time! His garage is a never ending project and it looks really nice! Ryan and Brandon put in carpet and a screen door while Peyton and I were in TN! It is by far the most comfortable garage I've ever been in!
Well my lunch time is about over, I better get back to work. Just wanted to update everyone on our big changes! I'll send out pictures soon.
Peyton is staying with Kathy while Im at work and on Tuesdays and Thursdays they go to Mothers Day Out. She teaches there but not his class. He has a very nice teacher and seems to thoroughly enjoy school! When he is just a little older, we'll probably put him in full time preschool before he goes to kindergarden. We keep our weekends busy. Last weekend Peyton and I checked out the train museum and had a blast! It is a working train yard but some of the trains are stationery exhibits. He couldnt have cared less about the exhibits- except the one with the tv! But we got to ride a real train! Oh my! He was so excited! He is really into trains right now. We'll go back again soon when Brandon can join us.
Brandon is working a lot again. Its fall and, at least for Earls, fall is a busy time. We have the fair- which Brandon will be helping with again this year. (Thank goodness not running it, though!) And there always seems to be a festival of some kind that they are involved with. Football season officially started in our house on Sunday and Brandon upgraded his satellite reciever just in time! His garage is a never ending project and it looks really nice! Ryan and Brandon put in carpet and a screen door while Peyton and I were in TN! It is by far the most comfortable garage I've ever been in!
Well my lunch time is about over, I better get back to work. Just wanted to update everyone on our big changes! I'll send out pictures soon.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The Big Bag of Popcorn
Its pretty common knowledge that I enjoy a good bowl of popcorn every night. Or at least I would LIKE to enjoy a good bowl of popcorn every night. I have a very nice popcorn popper now, thanks to Dad and a backup air popper, just in case. (Again, thanks to Dad!) I had been buying my popcorn kernels at the grocery store where 1 1/2 lbs costs about $1. One day when I was at Sams, I saw that a 50lb bag of kernels costs $15. I couldnt believe it! I was really throwing my money away on that one!! I didn't buy it that day but I definitely added it to the list for the next time. Well next time was this week! Brandon didnt know it was on the list and he about died when I said that we were definitely getting it! He looked really hard for a smaller bag but there wasn't one. I had already looked. He did make sure that I understood how much popcorn that would make before he loaded it into the basket.
So far no one believes that I can eat 50lbs of unpopped kernels in a year. We'll see. Even if I dont eat it all, I just have to eat half the bag to make it worth buying. Plus I'm pretty excited about the virtually unlimited supply of popcorn. (I did have to push the basket after that... we had 55 lbs of dog food, 50 lbs of popcorn kernels and two cases of water among all of the other smaller stuff. I got my workout that night!)
So far no one believes that I can eat 50lbs of unpopped kernels in a year. We'll see. Even if I dont eat it all, I just have to eat half the bag to make it worth buying. Plus I'm pretty excited about the virtually unlimited supply of popcorn. (I did have to push the basket after that... we had 55 lbs of dog food, 50 lbs of popcorn kernels and two cases of water among all of the other smaller stuff. I got my workout that night!)
Monday, August 10, 2009
Summer is coming to an end
It occured to me last night that it might be time to think about closing the pool for the summer. I'll be working during the week and we'd have the weekends but we only have one weekend until Peyton and I go to TN and by the time we get back the weather will be winding down to fall. It will take A LONG time to drain so I figured I'd better start today. I learned a cool trick that drains it even slower than just pulling the plug but I get to direct the water and not flood one area of the backyard all at once. I learned how to use the water hose to siphon it out. So far its been draining a little over an hour and you can hardly notice a change. But I figure that's exactly how we filled it so it'll eventually work! Except that I plan to use a few days to drain it so that we don't flood the backyard. It holds a little less than 4,500 gallons.
... update ... another cool thing about draining the pool this way- it doesnt flood the backyard anyway! It drains out so slowly that the water is pretty much soaked up instead of pooling! I do have to move the hose around a little but its not nearly as bad as I expected. Just very slow! It took 2 whole days to fill the pool and I would expect that it will take that long or longer to drain.
I know you were all riveted by this.
... update ... another cool thing about draining the pool this way- it doesnt flood the backyard anyway! It drains out so slowly that the water is pretty much soaked up instead of pooling! I do have to move the hose around a little but its not nearly as bad as I expected. Just very slow! It took 2 whole days to fill the pool and I would expect that it will take that long or longer to drain.
I know you were all riveted by this.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
2 Things
Earlier I got so caught up in the time machine metaphor that I forgot to mention 2 things. First of all, as an update to a previous post... I am NOT an Aldi shopper. Its a little sad, I was hoping to save $3 a month on groceries but the $3 is not worth the change in taste. Call us spoiled, call us picky, call us Walmart shoppers.
The second thing was Peytons super cute thing today. Today Peyton and I were cleaning the house and he picked up a 'wipee' and tried to clean Atlas' mouth! It was so cute! Atlas didn't appreciate it much. He was laying down and just raised his head and kind of looked at Peyton like 'what do you think you're doing?'. I laughed. Its still Atlas' turn to tolerate Peyton. He lets him sit on his back to watch TV and, of course, he is always blocking whatever walkway Peyton wants to use so Peyton just puts one leg over and then the other. The only time Atlas even seems bothered is when Peyton gets too close to his ears and even then he just looks around for me to rescue him.
OK now that I've unloaded my brain I can fold the laundry and go to bed. :)
The second thing was Peytons super cute thing today. Today Peyton and I were cleaning the house and he picked up a 'wipee' and tried to clean Atlas' mouth! It was so cute! Atlas didn't appreciate it much. He was laying down and just raised his head and kind of looked at Peyton like 'what do you think you're doing?'. I laughed. Its still Atlas' turn to tolerate Peyton. He lets him sit on his back to watch TV and, of course, he is always blocking whatever walkway Peyton wants to use so Peyton just puts one leg over and then the other. The only time Atlas even seems bothered is when Peyton gets too close to his ears and even then he just looks around for me to rescue him.
OK now that I've unloaded my brain I can fold the laundry and go to bed. :)
The Land Line aka The Time Machine
Its 2:12pm on August 8, 2009 and I feel like it might as well be August 8, 1999. Ok maybe not. I really can't remember much about that date. I was probably about to start school again; I might have cleaned my room like I did today. Who knows! But right now I'm sitting in my pseudo-cleaned house listening to veggie tales and feeling nostalgic about at time when I didn't have a 2 1/2 x 4 inch appendage notifying me about the last email I received, a text about the latest weather changes or a week-old voicemail. My cell phone died a tragic death last night- if I plugged it in right now it would try in vain to sputter back to life. It kind of has seizures when it's plugged in.
So I unplugged the fax machine (so I can receive calls on the land line) and have now entered a cell-phone-free time warp. Its been kind of nice! When Peyton and I were sitting having our snack I did glance to the side of my plate to see if I might have missed a call or text while I was vacuuming. Instead I saw the tablecloth. But that was okay. I'd have to open the door and go outside if I want to know what the weather is like. I'd have to come to the computer (which I did) to see if I had an email. And its very strange not to know who is on the other end of the phone when I answer. (the land line is a fax/emergency line that does not have caller ID) The most disorienting thing about no cell phone is leaving the house. I actually decided not to go to the train museum (peyton didnt know I was planning on it or we would have had to go anyway) because I didnt want to drive to south OKC without a cell phone. Plus no one else knew I was planning on going. We could have been lost forever down there!
Do you realize that I had to go back 10 yrs to find a time when I didnt have a cell phone? Actually I used mom's giant black phone when I drove and I got my very own phone in 2003 so 10 yrs isnt quite right but its close. But to find a time when cell phones actually weren't around, I'd have to go back more than 15 yrs (1994)! When did dad get his car phone? Maybe it wasnt quite that long ago but it was close!
Well I guess the bottom line here is: call me on the house phone until further notice. We haven't decided whether we'll replace my phone or get a new plan/phones altogether. The house phone number is (405) 513-5109 and is not connected to the fax anymore but also doesn't have voicemail- I don't think.
So I unplugged the fax machine (so I can receive calls on the land line) and have now entered a cell-phone-free time warp. Its been kind of nice! When Peyton and I were sitting having our snack I did glance to the side of my plate to see if I might have missed a call or text while I was vacuuming. Instead I saw the tablecloth. But that was okay. I'd have to open the door and go outside if I want to know what the weather is like. I'd have to come to the computer (which I did) to see if I had an email. And its very strange not to know who is on the other end of the phone when I answer. (the land line is a fax/emergency line that does not have caller ID) The most disorienting thing about no cell phone is leaving the house. I actually decided not to go to the train museum (peyton didnt know I was planning on it or we would have had to go anyway) because I didnt want to drive to south OKC without a cell phone. Plus no one else knew I was planning on going. We could have been lost forever down there!
Do you realize that I had to go back 10 yrs to find a time when I didnt have a cell phone? Actually I used mom's giant black phone when I drove and I got my very own phone in 2003 so 10 yrs isnt quite right but its close. But to find a time when cell phones actually weren't around, I'd have to go back more than 15 yrs (1994)! When did dad get his car phone? Maybe it wasnt quite that long ago but it was close!
Well I guess the bottom line here is: call me on the house phone until further notice. We haven't decided whether we'll replace my phone or get a new plan/phones altogether. The house phone number is (405) 513-5109 and is not connected to the fax anymore but also doesn't have voicemail- I don't think.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Peyton's History Lesson
Peyton had his first history lesson today. He thought the VCR was very interesting! (the only one that works is in our bedroom and he's never used it) For some reason he thinks tapes should go in upside down. Oh well! Oh and he thought the actual tape part was pretty weird. He kept pulling it out like it was sticky. He successfully uses the DVD player all the time, he's just a little hard on the disks so I thought I'd see if he was interested in using the VCR. He has no idea that you can watch tapes on TV. It isnt hooked up to the TV.
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