French Bread Frenzy

Warning this is a totally fluffy post! Read only if you have excessive time on your hands and nothing to do with it:)

Today I picked up some HUGE beautiful looking loafs of French Bread at Sam's Club. These babies were CHEAP yet so yummy looking I couldn't pass them up...



Yet it posed a dilemma. How do you go about using approximately 5 feet of French bread? Here's what I came up with:
Monday: Potato Soup with fresh hunks of French bread slathered in butter
Tuesday: French Bread Pizzas
Wednesday: Steak Sandwiches on French loaf buns
Thursday: French Toast made with real (but by now slightly stale!) French Bread

According to my calculations I should use about a foot or so of bread a day and end up with very little waste on my $2.48 investment. I was proud of myself for managing to come up with a fairly varied menu that encompassed all three meals on one day or the other!

So there it is my most pointless blog to date. Hope I didn't fry to many of your brain cells:)

It's that time of year...

So I want to be honest and state that Christmas is really not my favorite holiday. However I am learning to appreciate more and more about this over commercialized date. I realized one of the biggest reasons I don't get to excited about Christmas is because I am OCD. I want it all, and I want it all done right! You know pretty and fun with carols in the background while I do it:) But since that is just a dream and not life I am learning to make the most of what I can have. I didn't even want a dumb tree this year how Scrooge McDuck was that! Yet my husband the perpetual postive one was insistent on the whole tree experience right down to chopping it down with hand saw! I know I will look back on the pictures of that day with delight, so why do I fight it going in?

I want my children to have as many happy memories of the holiday as I have to I strive to do all the "fun" things I can think of. One of them being this years "Advent Box". This is a pretty box that I am using to help the kids count down the last two weeks till Christmas. Every morning there is some little activity, craft, or candy in the box to help us stay focused on being a family this season. Yesterday's box held little mugs, hot cocoa packets, christmas shaped marshmallows, and cookies so we could have a hot cocoa party. Today we decorated foam chrismas trees with foam sticker ornaments. I also have dragged out all the Christmas books I have been collecting since before the kids were born, I almost have enough to read a different Christmas story every night till the actual date. We put up what little decor I haven't tossed in my efforts to have as little as possible to move around the country. Overall we aren't doing anything monumental or life changing this season. What we are doing is making the most of a holiday that celebrates the birth of something that was life changing!

T is for Thanksgiving

It is almost Thanksgiving and I have been doing a LOT of complaining. I am sure none of you are shocked by this if you know and love me, however I thought I might try something along the more grateful track. So since I love a list...

T is for:

Thanksgiving!- The one day a year when you are encouraged to eat till you hurt:)

Travel- I love a good road trip and my family and I are headed on one this Saturday.

Time Off- My favorite guy in the whole world has 10 days to devote nothing other than his family.

Turkeys- Some many kinds of turkeys to love! Handprint, Cooked/Basted, Little edible ones made out of Candy/Cookies. I think coming up with a different kind of Turkey might become yearly activity for us.

Traditions-Don't you love repeating something that brings up good memories? I especially love thinking up new ones for my kids to hopefully savor one day:)

Do you have a favorite T word, leave a comment and share it! Happy Turkey Day:)

Funny Family

I just wanted to post to say that I have the best family EVER! You are all so funny and witty and every post made by one of you makes me smile in some way. I love that Clare can make me tear up yet laugh about fries from Jack in the Crack. Katy has got to be the best witty writer ever and if she doesn't get into whatever college she wants that is there loss! And my hilarious Aunt makes me grin often over her daily occurrences and her opinion of them. Please Auntie Dawn take that as a compliment and DO NOT make me eat candy corns!! I love you guys and hope you all forgive me that my blogs aren't as entertaining or amusing, however that is just me. By the way Mom don't think I forgot you or don't appreciate your blogs, I DO. You just haven't posted as recently and yours tend to be more thought provoking that amusing. Plus I just happen to read Clare's, Katy's and then Aunt Dawn's blogs in that order. I thought my views on their blogs was to long to post in a lil ole comment box. Keep 'em coming girls!

All Duh

I am all duh...that would be how my daughter said all done when she was younger. I am tired of the Army get to play games with my emotions. My spouse has been gone to long and I just want him back. He was supposed to be home possibly as early as this past Monday. Well being the pessimist I am I knew better than to expect him home early, so I wasn't surprised when that didn't pan out and we went to the original date of the 15th. Well when they pushed that back to Sunday night, I still wasn't surprised but nor could I laugh as I did the first time. However when he called last night to say we are now looking at Monday I lost it. I have two little people who are desperate to see their dad, I am trying to live a life normal while in limbo, and mostly importantly I am just done! I fought the good fight, I know I CAN do it, I just don't want to! How would you feel if 2 days before Christmas someone said "Hold it, wait, we are actually not going to allow you to have any type of Celebration on the 25th, all celebrating will take place on the 27th." Would you handle that well? Maybe if you are like me and could live with or without Christmas Hoopla, however in that case I beg you to put some date of importance in the example and work with me here! Nonetheless I will keep hoping Monday pans out....

Cookin' with Carson

Since my last post was so dismal, I thought I would post a happy little blurb. You probably all know that I have had the privilege of watching my 4 year old niece (Josie) and my 18 mo nephew (Carson) while their parents are on Vacation. Tonight while the "big" kids were happily engrossed in a movie. Carson and I decided to whip up a batch of brownies. Carson's official jobs were taste testing the chocolate chips and cleaning off the spatula (with his tongue!). He also thought that wearing the batter was as good as eating it. You can see by the following photos he was a very happy little sou chef, and I have to admit this was the most fun I have had in the kitchen in a while! Our brownies turned out well, although Carson and the kitchen were a little worse for the wear. If you want to recreate our master piece cut and paste the following link:
http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=28489
Happy Baking:)

Blah, Blah, Blog

I hope nobody gets to excited that I am blogging again, unfortunately I don't have much to say. However I do LOVE reading everyone's blogs, and feel I shouldn't benefit without contributing.

I wish I had something witty to write about, but I don't.
I wish I could think of a list to share with you but I can't.
I wish I had tried a great new recipe to pass along, but I haven't.

All I can think about is that I am done. I don't know how I got through the last 11 months, yet this last month of deployment is DRAGGING. I just want to feel whole again, I am tired of managing alone. I really do think I have learn alot about myself and my kids this last year. Even Steve and I's relationship has grown, however I am all done learning and growing. I just want to be a family.

I know this is quite a depressing way to come back in to blog land. However just getting this off my chest has helped. I know all things work together for His good, I just wish things would work a little faster:)

Out of the Mouth of Babes

I would love to think I will always remember the endearing things my children say, however I know I am already losing my mental capacities. SO I am putting them here so I can savor them at a later date. Keep in Mind these are the actual words that came out of my sweet children's mouths the last week.
1)
Gideyon "Mom, do water towers actually have water in them?"
Gillyan "Yes! Hence the name WATER tower" in her most condescending six year old voice.
2)
Gillyan "Mom we should go get ice cream to celebrate Grammy's birthday since it's her favorite!"
Bear in mind that we live 2400 miles apart, but the girl will work any angle to get ice cream:)
3)
Gideyon"Mom when I grow up can I not brush my teeth so that they will rot and then I can get gold crowns on them like a pirate?" Do not ask me how that boy's brain works!
4)
Gillyan"My hair is kinda curly and wavy like Grammy's. I like Grammy's hair, it's pretty!" Translation: I can't tell you that I love my own hair that would be vain, so I will just tell you how much I love Grammy's because my hair is just like hers!
5)
Gideyon"Mom if I pay for them can I eat the whole box of PopTarts?" The child has a serious addiction to those frosted things!
6)
Gillyan "Mom when I grow up and have my own house, you can spend the night as much as you want" Let's pray she always feels that way:)

These little quotes and phrases may not mean much to anyone else, but they will definitely remind me of the personalties my little people had at this time.