Welcome to the Island of Sodor!!

Well, our version of it anyway!!  Paxton got a new playset for Xmas, so I did the VERY cool Momma thing and did a pretty big track set up and used several of the buildings that they have (yes, there are more that we DIDN'T use!)  The boys usually play on their train table, but it's not nearly big enough to handle something like this.  Parker does a lot of layouts for them and even he was impressed by this one--HA!

Menu Planning Monday

In my attempt to follow through on my getting organized/menu planning resolution, I'm trying something new. Each week http://http//orgjunkie.com/ hosts this McLinkey blog hop devoted solely to this topic. And let me tell you, try clicking on some of the links you'll find on this list--more than a few of these ladies are hardcore with the $$ saving ideas!! Hopefully I get this all figured out correctly and they won't kick me out my very first week participating! Here goes:

Monday: To Die For beef roast in the crockpot with taters and carrots

Tuesday: Crock Pot potato soup & grilled ham and cheese sammies

Wednesday: Pepsi chicken, rice & a veggie

Thursday: Scalloped potatoes and ham with rolls

Friday: Beef-Mac Italiano (with leftover roast) & corn

Saturday: Ravioli Bake, salad, garlic bread

Sunday: Ground Beef & Cornbread casserole, coleslaw

I don't plan meals for Breakfast--it's usually just cereal or bagels, nor do I plan lunches--Kurt & Beckett tend to work on leftovers!

Movie Date!

OK, date with a couple of off-spring along for the ride--but that was obvious by the choice of flick, right? For the second movie in a row, we got a later start than we intended (bundling up takes TIME people, even with Paxton helping Beckett along!!) and got "great" seats (smell the sarcasm) right down in the front row. The boys don't mind, but Kurt and I prefer a view that doesn't include counting the nasal hairs of the characters on the screen! Beckett hardly talked at all (that's huge) and instead munched steadily on his popcorn--just check that lap, HA!

Happy Anniversary--a couple of days late

This WAS really taken ON our anniversary, but I just now got the picture downloaded--sorry! We were married on New Years Eve (Kurt says it's so he'd never forget the date, but maybe it was so we could combine 2 nights out for dinner into one--HA!) in Galena and we tend to go back there each year to celebrate. We mix up where we actually go to eat though. This year we tried a new restaurant and it was OK not great, but the company was FAB!! And then it turned out that my parents and family friends were eating about a block and a half away at one of our favorite places, so we walked up there in the FREEZING cold weather for an after-dinner drink and that's where we finally had our picture taken. I have a million reasons as to why I look so bad in it too, but won't bore you with those =)

MANY thanks for all of the sweet anniversary wishes we received!!!

What's for Supper Saturday

OK, technically I made this on Friday because I was told it's good luck to start the new year with pork and sauerkraut (please tell me if you've heard of this--and a little history would be good too), but I'm posting it on Saturday, so it counts, right?! SUPER easy and DELISH on top of it. OH, and it was all prepared in my new cookware that Kurt's aunt got me for Xmas =)

The pork was basically this: take a pork tenderloin, rub it with sage and garlic salt and place in a baking dish. Drain a can of sauerkraut, place half of it on the pork. Then cut an onion into chunks, place on the sauerkraut. Do the same with an apple then place the remaining sauerkraut over this. Finally sprinkle brown sugar over all. Put lid on the dish and bake at 325 degrees for 2-3 hours. With an hour left I slid in some potatoes to roast along side of the pork. I cut up some red potatoes into chunks and tossed with olive oil, minced garlic, salt and pepper.

Give this one a try!!

New Year's Resolutions...

I admit it, I make em'. And, have been known to break em'. Last year was a much better year for me so I'm going to give it another go! A year ago I said I wanted to "lose weight", well---who doesn't, right?! I ended up shedding 35 of those bad boys!!!!! I do have to confess that a few of them found their way back over the holidays, so I need to chase them away and I'd like to send about 15 more packing. Along with that goal I want to add in some (more) physical activity. I have a fun pink exercise ball that I plan to become a whole lot more familiar with!!

I'd also like to improve my spending habits--I made good strides last year and want to compound on that. My goal is to not pay full price for anything--this means waiting for a sale and/or using coupons--double score if I can do both, HA! I want to be better about meal planning, I already loosely do this by checking out the local grocery store flyer, but think I can do better =)

A couple of years ago I resolved to be better about sending out Birthday cards--I love making them, should be sending them, right? Well, that goal was met, now I want to be better about sending "just because" cards!

DE-CLUTTERING is another continuing project--I've taken 3 big bags of "stuff" to the thrift store since Xmas and know there's more to go. Either list it on ebay, send it along to others, take it to consignment or donate it to the thrift store--if we're not using it, I want it out of here!!

One final resolutions (besides inner personal growth that I need to work on) is getting my pictures developed!!!! This doesn't seem like such a hard thing to do, but somehow it is for me! I snap away and download like crazy, but I like to flip through actual photo albums.

I'm actually off to a great start: I went to Walgreens this morning and got a bunch of photos ordered (with a coupon, $.09 a print!), bought cleaning supplies at Target (every item was on sale), stopped at the grocery store (meat for the week and beyond + more, $60 spent) and now am about to do some eBay listing (75% off of listing fees through tomorrow!) I may be too busy to slip in some exercise time...

Flashback Friday!

It was a whopping 0 degrees this morning when I woke up--what a way to begin a new year =( I needed to see a little something from a warmer time in today's blog post---enjoy!!