I haven't posted in a week or so because life got the best of me.
Friday we picked up the girls and weekends with 4 kids in this little apartment can get hectic especially when my sisters come upstairs too. Someones always touching, hitting or annoying some one else, the kitchen is a 24hr diner and I am the only one working along with all the usual craziness around here.
Saturday I made 8 homemade pizzas then had to set up the kitchen for breakfast prep the next morning. Pack up all the bags for Sundays trip and pack a picnic lunch for 6 picky eaters! Then I couldn't sleep at all so Sunday morning I was a mess.
Sunday we packed into the van and headed to New Rochelle and attended service at The Masters Hand. We were supposed to have a picnic lunch but ended up having lunch in the van in the church parking lot because it got chilly. We headed back to CT and dropped off the girls. By the time we got home it was pretty late but I still had to pack the kids up to go to memaws and Owen and I to go to New York.
Monday- Dropped kids off with memaw and did some last minute grocery shopping for her. Then had to stop at the bank because someone hacked my paypal account and spent $100! Got that taken car of and we were in the road AGAIN!! We got to the church for the John Bevere Under Cover series the Pastor is hosting. This series has really opened my eyes to alot of things dealing with authority as well as with myself. I highly recommend this series. We went to The Diner afterwards and had a late dinner. By the time we got back to where we were staying it was after midnight. I was so exhausted and the bed was so comfy I thought I'd be out in an instant but no I couldnt sleep a wink AGAIN.
Tuesday morning we were back at The Diner for breakfast when we got the call that the food pantry truck was at the church already when it wasnt supposed to be there till the afternoon. So we hurried up and ate and went to the church. We brought in all the food and put up what we could. Then had prayer since we usually do prayer in the morning. We looked into some apartments but nothing panned out. On our way back to CT we decided to stop at Pizza 2000 which is my absolute fav place to eat in New York and ran into our Pastor who was there. We sat and talked for a while and then were on the road again. We got home about 8:30 and brought the kids upstairs. I laid down with them and we zonked out.
Now its wednesday and I spent the day unpacking, washing and stripping diapers. The house is a disaster and Ill be taking care of that when I get up tomorrow.
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Thursday, March 24, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Same Day Surgery
Yesterday I had same day surgery at Backus hospital to remove a cyst and a skin tag from my under arm and a skin tag from my neck. I was totally stressed out the night before and couldn't sleep at all so 6 a.m. came really early. I had no idea what to expect since I have only had surgery once before and it was emergency surgery so I had no time to plan anything.
We got to the hospital at 7:15, while checking in I was given a card to give to Owen. The card explained that in the waiting lounge is a t.v. that you can keep track of the person you are waiting for. Everyone gets assigned a code number which is the first letter of your last name with 4 numbers for privacy purposes. And then there is a color coded system to where they are at in the process. They also include a free beverage coupon for the hospital cafe.
My nurse, Lessa, was great! She had a very similar personality to my husband. I felt like a was stuck in between two comedy club rejects the while time I was preparing for surgery! The anaesthesiologist must have had the days mixed up! It was very apparent he thought it was St.Patrick's Day with his extremely tight bright green scrubs. He is the last thing I remember seeing before the surgery and I pray I didn't say anything that would embarrass him as I went out. I woke up back in the recovery room where I was hoping to catch a quick nap but instead I was given some ginger ale and toast and sent on my way. All in all it was alot better then I expected and the pain has been very minimal.
Today I stayed home with the kids while Owen got the van fixed. I am glad we got the extended warranty on the van but I am not thrilled that we have had to bring it to the shop 4 times in the last month and a half that we had it. We have only had to spend $200 out of pocket and the van now has a new water pump and something in the wheel is fixed so I guess its better them paying full price to have the repairs done.
We got to the hospital at 7:15, while checking in I was given a card to give to Owen. The card explained that in the waiting lounge is a t.v. that you can keep track of the person you are waiting for. Everyone gets assigned a code number which is the first letter of your last name with 4 numbers for privacy purposes. And then there is a color coded system to where they are at in the process. They also include a free beverage coupon for the hospital cafe.
My nurse, Lessa, was great! She had a very similar personality to my husband. I felt like a was stuck in between two comedy club rejects the while time I was preparing for surgery! The anaesthesiologist must have had the days mixed up! It was very apparent he thought it was St.Patrick's Day with his extremely tight bright green scrubs. He is the last thing I remember seeing before the surgery and I pray I didn't say anything that would embarrass him as I went out. I woke up back in the recovery room where I was hoping to catch a quick nap but instead I was given some ginger ale and toast and sent on my way. All in all it was alot better then I expected and the pain has been very minimal.
Today I stayed home with the kids while Owen got the van fixed. I am glad we got the extended warranty on the van but I am not thrilled that we have had to bring it to the shop 4 times in the last month and a half that we had it. We have only had to spend $200 out of pocket and the van now has a new water pump and something in the wheel is fixed so I guess its better them paying full price to have the repairs done.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Yesterday
Yesterday was a crazy day! We got in late Sunday night so we slept in because we knew it was going to be a really late night again. We got to bed around 3 a.m. and I got up about noon. I needed to make a quick meal before we headed out the door so I cut up the chicken breast I had in the fridge and browned them up. I got inspired by the new Philadelphia Cooking Creme I picked up for next to nothing at Big Y. So after cooking the chicken breast I drained it and put it back in the pan with 3/4 of the container of Italian Four Cheese cooking creme. I served mine with penne pasta and hubby's with white rice since he isn't a big fan of pasta. We both loved it!
Check out Philladelphia Cream Cheese's new Cooking Cremes here:
http://www.kraftbrands.com/philly/Pages/default.aspx
Then we packed up the kids and brought them downstairs to Memaw. We got in the van and as we drove down the road we heard this crazy crunchy noise from the rear tire. We headed straight to the shop we got it at since they were about to close. They had nothing open till Thursday but said it should be fine till then. So we prayed about it and decided we were going to chance the drive to New York and back. I am glad we didn't allow the enemy to steal what was a blessed night for us! We went to The Master's Hand Christian Fellowship in New Rochelle where Pastor Theresea Noschese is taking us through the Under Cover series by John Bevere. We have been doing this series for the last 3 Monday nights and it has truly been a blessing to my life and has brought about great understanding of God appointed authority. I would recommend this series to every Christian.
Check out The Master's Hand Christian Fellowship here:
http://www.the-mastershand.org/
Check out John Bevere's Under Cover Series here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ado5UBjJvpM
Check out Philladelphia Cream Cheese's new Cooking Cremes here:
http://www.kraftbrands.com/philly/Pages/default.aspx
Then we packed up the kids and brought them downstairs to Memaw. We got in the van and as we drove down the road we heard this crazy crunchy noise from the rear tire. We headed straight to the shop we got it at since they were about to close. They had nothing open till Thursday but said it should be fine till then. So we prayed about it and decided we were going to chance the drive to New York and back. I am glad we didn't allow the enemy to steal what was a blessed night for us! We went to The Master's Hand Christian Fellowship in New Rochelle where Pastor Theresea Noschese is taking us through the Under Cover series by John Bevere. We have been doing this series for the last 3 Monday nights and it has truly been a blessing to my life and has brought about great understanding of God appointed authority. I would recommend this series to every Christian.
Check out The Master's Hand Christian Fellowship here:
http://www.the-mastershand.org/
Check out John Bevere's Under Cover Series here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ado5UBjJvpM
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
The Dr. Today Didn't Keep The Fever Away
Well, today was a busy day. It started early with a trip to Dr.Galan, our pediatrician, with Jahvarisaurus. Last Saturday he broke out with these little raised bumps on his belly. The weren't red or pussy and he said they didn't itch so I thought it might be from a recent body wash change. Monday came and it spread down his belly and on to his leg. I called the nurse and she suggested benadryl, which did nothing. So, yesterday I called and talked to Dr. Galan who had us come in. Apparently, its topical and isn't contagious. He gave him some prescription hydrocortazone and he should be fine. Below is a link to information on Dr. Galan. He is an amazing doctor and I have and would again recommend him to anyone with small children.
Then we went on a shopping trip with Memaw to Jahvari's favorite store, Big Y. My son LOVES Big Y, it's a little weird how much he loves that grocery store. He loves picking out his truck cart and he loves there pizza. But, today was extra special! As we walked into the store I was talking to my Mom when I heard Jahvar hell, "STOP THE TRUCK." Of course, my heart drops thinking he got his foot stuck or something but when I look into the truck he is fine. I look up and realize the dire emergency that stopped several shoppers in their tracks was a Nabisco Basketball Hoop game set up in the middle of the store! If there is one thing my son loves more then Big Y it's basketball! He got out and I let him play for a while. He was in his glory! As we were leaving he said, "Mommy I really love this store."
We ran a few more errands and he became a little cranky. I thought it might be because he got up pretty early. So we headed home. As son as we got there he climbed up on the couch with Daddy and Lilleebean and zonked out. I went to wake him up about an hour later and noticed he was burning up. I gave him some Tylenol and he's been sleeping ever sense. I hope we don't have to make another trip to Dr. Galan even though we love him dearly.
Then we went on a shopping trip with Memaw to Jahvari's favorite store, Big Y. My son LOVES Big Y, it's a little weird how much he loves that grocery store. He loves picking out his truck cart and he loves there pizza. But, today was extra special! As we walked into the store I was talking to my Mom when I heard Jahvar hell, "STOP THE TRUCK." Of course, my heart drops thinking he got his foot stuck or something but when I look into the truck he is fine. I look up and realize the dire emergency that stopped several shoppers in their tracks was a Nabisco Basketball Hoop game set up in the middle of the store! If there is one thing my son loves more then Big Y it's basketball! He got out and I let him play for a while. He was in his glory! As we were leaving he said, "Mommy I really love this store."
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Birhday Surprise!
Sunday is hubby's birthday and I had this $25 gift certificate I got at http://www.restaurant.com/ for only $3 so I decided to treat him to dinner. It was a surprise, I told him I had to pick up some stuff from someone on http://www.freecycle.org/ and I wanted him to go with me.
The gift certificate was to Eli's Steakhouse in Plainfield, CT. It used to be a run down pizza place and switched over a year or so ago. We had never been there since it had turned over so I was surprised when I walked in and saw how nice it looked. We had a great waitress, Nicole but the rest of the employees seemed to be riled up about something. I ordered a White Pizza with Grilled Chicken and Pineapple and a side salad while my husband had a NY Strip with mashed potatoes and veg du jour.
Our salads and complimentary bread came out first. The bread looked like a bread bowl and was very thick and bland. The side salad which cost $2.50 came with about a half a cup of ripped up iceberg lettuce, 2 small cherry tomatoes cut in half, a thin slice of red onion and a touch of shredded red cabbage on top. No cucumber, no croutons, and no cheese. Our food came in a timely manor, but Owen's $21 steak was rare when it was supposed to be medium-well. The veg du jour happened to be about a cup and a half of sliced carrots with one green bean sticking out he top. There was no seasoning to them what so ever. It was as if they sliced a few carrots and boiled them. The potatoes were a red mashed potato with some of the skin still in them. These were the only thing that was seasoned and they were overly seasoned and the gravy tasted like flour.
Then, there was my Specialty $11 small white pizza. Usually, when you order a white pizza the sauce is made up of some specially seasoned ricotta cheese and a few places I have been to even add a tiny bit of an alfredo-like sauce with it. But, this white pizza was just alot of plain ricotta. There was a decent amount of chicken on the pizza but it too had no seasoning and was very bland. The pineapple chunks were very large and made a slimy mess of the pizza. Needless to say we did not enjoy our meal. I will probably be heating up that meatloaf from last night in a little while.
http://www.elissteakhouse.com/
The gift certificate was to Eli's Steakhouse in Plainfield, CT. It used to be a run down pizza place and switched over a year or so ago. We had never been there since it had turned over so I was surprised when I walked in and saw how nice it looked. We had a great waitress, Nicole but the rest of the employees seemed to be riled up about something. I ordered a White Pizza with Grilled Chicken and Pineapple and a side salad while my husband had a NY Strip with mashed potatoes and veg du jour.
Our salads and complimentary bread came out first. The bread looked like a bread bowl and was very thick and bland. The side salad which cost $2.50 came with about a half a cup of ripped up iceberg lettuce, 2 small cherry tomatoes cut in half, a thin slice of red onion and a touch of shredded red cabbage on top. No cucumber, no croutons, and no cheese. Our food came in a timely manor, but Owen's $21 steak was rare when it was supposed to be medium-well. The veg du jour happened to be about a cup and a half of sliced carrots with one green bean sticking out he top. There was no seasoning to them what so ever. It was as if they sliced a few carrots and boiled them. The potatoes were a red mashed potato with some of the skin still in them. These were the only thing that was seasoned and they were overly seasoned and the gravy tasted like flour.
Then, there was my Specialty $11 small white pizza. Usually, when you order a white pizza the sauce is made up of some specially seasoned ricotta cheese and a few places I have been to even add a tiny bit of an alfredo-like sauce with it. But, this white pizza was just alot of plain ricotta. There was a decent amount of chicken on the pizza but it too had no seasoning and was very bland. The pineapple chunks were very large and made a slimy mess of the pizza. Needless to say we did not enjoy our meal. I will probably be heating up that meatloaf from last night in a little while.
http://www.elissteakhouse.com/
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
A Blast of Energy
After my last post I got a blast of energy! I strapped the baby to my back using our favorite carrier, The Ergo Baby Carrier, and we got to work picking up the kitchen. Then we went to make a meatloaf when I realized I was out of eggs. So I remebered using mayo once when I ran out of eggs for a cake and I figured I'd try it in the meatloaf. I was a bit nervous but it came out great! Of course my little monkey feel asleep, as she often does while in her Ergo, so I put her down for a nap. If you would like to learn more about Ergo Baby Carriers you can check them out here http://www.ergobabycarriers.com/.
I then decided it was time to take an inventory of my kitchen. I counted both freezers, the pantry and the cabinets where we keep th baby's food. Looking at my jotted down mess on scrap paper I was inspired to find a better way of keeping track of what I had on hand. That is when I found this great website http://www.organizedhome.com/! I downloaded and printed a freezer, pantry and larder inventory sheets as well as a shoppng list template. Plus, they have an assortment of different templates you can print to create a Household Binder including a Cover and Binding Label for the binder you create!
Here is my Recipe for:
I then decided it was time to take an inventory of my kitchen. I counted both freezers, the pantry and the cabinets where we keep th baby's food. Looking at my jotted down mess on scrap paper I was inspired to find a better way of keeping track of what I had on hand. That is when I found this great website http://www.organizedhome.com/! I downloaded and printed a freezer, pantry and larder inventory sheets as well as a shoppng list template. Plus, they have an assortment of different templates you can print to create a Household Binder including a Cover and Binding Label for the binder you create!
Here is my Recipe for:
Mommy's Meatloaf- A Kid-friendly Meatloaf
Ingrediants:
2lbs of Ground Beef
1/2 cup of Italian style bread crumbs
3tbsp of Hellmann's Mayonaise
1 tsp of celery salt
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup ketchup
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degress. Mix ground beef with all
ingrediants except for the ketchup. Form into your
standard meatloaf form and bake in a 9x13 pan for
25 minutes. Spread ketchup on top of meatloaf and
return to oven for another 10 minutes.
When all the kids are home I choose to make the meatloaf in cupcake pans and top with ketchup. This way everyoe gets their own meatloaf cupcake!
Im storing mine til tomorrow because I forgot my mom was making dinner for us tonight!
A Day @ Home
Well, today was supposed to start out with an early arrival at the hospital to have same day surgery. Nothing spectacular, just removal of a swollen lymph node but I got a call late yesterday afternoon that my insurance company still hasn't approved the procedure! So, that will have to wait for another day.
So now I am faced with an unexpected day at home with the family. I love days like this because it is not often that we get to be home lately. There are several things around the house that are on my list of things to do including cleaning out the pantry which has become a sort of catch all for all the over flow, my kitchen cabinets need to be reorganized and decluttered, my fridge is ready for a clean out and scrub down, I want to create Inventory sheets for my deep freezer and pantry which will make creating a meal menu and shopping lists so much easier, I want to look into some freezer recipes for days when I simply do not have the time to prepare and cook a meal and I need to finish up my Pull Ups Potty Dance Party Gift Bags.
Now to muster up the energy to get some of these things accomplished since I was up till 2 a.m. figuring out all this blog stuff! Maybe I'll start on the easy stuff like freezer recipes and inventory sheets!
So now I am faced with an unexpected day at home with the family. I love days like this because it is not often that we get to be home lately. There are several things around the house that are on my list of things to do including cleaning out the pantry which has become a sort of catch all for all the over flow, my kitchen cabinets need to be reorganized and decluttered, my fridge is ready for a clean out and scrub down, I want to create Inventory sheets for my deep freezer and pantry which will make creating a meal menu and shopping lists so much easier, I want to look into some freezer recipes for days when I simply do not have the time to prepare and cook a meal and I need to finish up my Pull Ups Potty Dance Party Gift Bags.
Now to muster up the energy to get some of these things accomplished since I was up till 2 a.m. figuring out all this blog stuff! Maybe I'll start on the easy stuff like freezer recipes and inventory sheets!
Introductions To The Family
I guess I should start this out with introducing you to the members of my family since this is a family based blog. My husband and I have been married for five years in August. This is my husbands 2nd marriage and when I married him I was blessed with 4 wonderful step children. Shaquan is 17, he is the All-American athlete. He plays football and basketball but has big dreams of huge success outside of sports. I look at him and I know he has what it takes to achieve those goals if he keeps his eyes on his goals. Next is Jermaine, he always has a way to make you laugh and plans on going to school for culinary arts. I can so see him on Food Network one day with one of those cooking shows, cracking jokes as he prepares a meal. Then there is Atiya who is blooming into a beautiful young women, which is scary for me. I look at her and I want the best for her. I can already see the "I know everything" attitude starting to rear it's ugly head. I wish she could learn through my mistakes but I know she will have to make her own. Then there is Taijana, our little firecracker. Taijana thrives on her daddy's attention and loves to help me bake. She's as tough as nails but as delicate as a flower. Together my husband and I have 2 kids a 4 year old boy, Jahvar-Zion, who is a bundle of energy. He loves sports- any and all sports! But his favorite by far is basketball. He loves going to his big brothers games and watching him play. Then there is our latest addition, Lillee-Anna Grace, who is named after my late grandma Grace Lillian and the spelling of her name is to tie in all the other important women in her life. She is the apple of her daddy's eye and honestly the cutest kid I have ever seen with her jet black hair and big round eyes, I always tell her God but in over time on her because she is so adorable! There is another child that belongs in our family but has been separated from her father for a very long time. Her entire family including her father and I have been searching for her for years but even despite today's technology all leads have come to a dead end. We pray that one day God will bring her into our lives.
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