I haven’t done this in forever but I thought I’d post this week’s menu today…

Sunday: Breakfast for Supper

Monday: Beans & Cornbread

Tuesday: Spaghetti, Salad, Garlic Bread

Wednesday: Chili Dogs

Thursday: Tuna Casserole, Corn, Salad

Friday: BBQ Burgers, Baked Beans, Pea Salad, Potato Salad

Saturday: Spicy Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Rolls

The price of Gas versus Printer Ink

All these examples do NOT imply that gasoline is cheap; it just illustrates
how outrageous some prices are….

You will be really shocked by the last one!
(At least, I was…)

Compared with Gasoline……

Think a gallon of gas is expensive ?

This makes one think, and also puts things in perspective.

Diet Snapple 16 oz $1.29 … $10.32 per gallon

Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz $1.19 ……….$9.52 per gallon

Gatorade 20 oz $1.59 …. $10.17 per gallon

Ocean Spray 16 oz $1.25 ……… $10.0 0 per gallon

Brake Fluid 12 oz $3.15 ……. $33.60 per gallon

Vick’s Nyquil 6 oz $8.35 …. $178.13 per gallon

Pepto Bismol 4 oz $3.85 .. $123.20 per gallon

Whiteout 7 oz $1.39 …….. $25.42 per gallon

Scope 1.5 oz $0.99 ….$84.48 per gallon

And this is the REAL KICKER…

Evian water 9 oz $1.49..$21.19 per gallon! $21.19 for WATER and the buyers
don’t even know the source

(Ev ian spelled backwards is Naive.)

Ever wonder why printers are so cheap?
So they have you hooked for the ink.
Someone calculated the cost of the ink at…………… (you won’t believe
it….but it is true……..)
$5,200 a gal. (five thousand two hundred dollars)

So, the next time you’re at the pump,be glad your car doesn’t run on water,
Scope, or Whiteout, Pepto Bismol, Nyquil or God forbid, Printer Ink!

Just a little humor to help ease the pain of your next trip to the pump…

And - If you don’t pass this along to at least one person, your muffler will
fall off!!

***I read this before I filled up Big Blue’s tank today (that’s what we’ve been calling the Durango lately-don’t ask why because I’m pretty sure I don’t really know.) and it didn’t really ease the pain all that much. I mean I could’ve bought 20 Starbucks lattes or 85 packs of Eclipse Sweet Mint gum for what I paid for one tank of gas….

I like to think of myself as a pretty avid reader. I mean once I get started on a good book, I can finish it a few hours or less. Sometimes it takes me a day or two though because I get interrupted to do things like fold laundry and feed the children.

Back in January I joined a little group on Shelfari and challenged my self to read 100 books this year. At the time, I was reading 2-3 books a week and thought it’d be a piece of cake. Ha-ha. Oh and Ha.

It would have been a lot easier if I’d actually kept track of half the books I read. I did a little back-tracking and pulled up all the old library receipts I could find for the last 6 months and as it turns out, I couldn’t find many of them. 2 to be exact. But the lists of books on those receipts jogged my memory enough to where I could remember a few more books I’d read over the previous months and although I’m no where near where I should be in order to reach my goal, I’m hoping to get in the swing of things and get back on track and actually keep a record of the books I’m reading.

Wish me luck. I know I will need it.

I’m a big fan of Lisa Jackson, I’ve read many of her books, as you can see if you click up there on my books read in ‘08 link. I’ve pretty mcuh read all of her books that my libary has. Along with Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series which I L-O-V-E. I’ve got the latest in the series, Fearless Fourteen reserved and I only have an estimated 23 day wait. Lucky me!

Anyway, the point I was tying to make is I get hooked on one author or genre of books and tend to stick with them as long as I can. But I found a nifty little list while browsing around Shelfari earlier. It’s called 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. I’m thinking I’ll pick 1 or 2 books off this list and pick them up each time I go to the library. Then I’ll be broadening my reading horizons and reading some recommended literature all at once. I’ve glanced over the list a couple of times and I’ve got to say I haven’t read many of the books on it. And it makes me feel like I’ve been missing out on some great reading opportunities..

This is one of my kids’ favorite snacks. We call ‘em mini pizzas because well, they’re mini pizzas. As the title suggests, they are super simple to make.

Ingredients:

• Canned Biscuits (We’ve used every kind from buttermilk to homestyle to layers, and they all work equally well. Although we tend to use buttermilk the most.)
• Pizza Sauce (again, any kind will work. My favorite is Ragu.)
• Pizza toppings (pepperoni, Canadian bacon, crumbled sausage or bacon, etc.)
• Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Preheat your oven to whatever the biscuit directions suggest, usually 375 degrees.

Flatten biscuits into a thin circle or oval, or whatever shape you like. We’ve done letters of the alphabet before. Creative, no?

Next, spread a thin layer of pizza sauce on each biscuit. Or a thick layer, y’know if you’re into lots of sauce on your pizza.

Then add your desired toppings and place on cookie sheet or pizza pan and bake for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with the shredded mozzarella and return to the oven for 3-4 minutes or until cheese melts.

For crispier pizzas, you can place them under the broiler for a minute or so. Not too long though or your cheese will burn. And unless you’re one of my kids, you probably don’t like burnt cheese on your mini pizza.

Serve hot and enjoy!

PS My kids make these almost completely by themselves, all I do is operate the oven and do the hot pan handling.

No, not mine!

One of my best friends, Kimberly, and her husband Jim Bob just had their first baby. His name is Bryce James and he was born on June 20th. He weighed in a whopping 8 pounds and 2 ounces and is 21 inches long! Big Baby!

Isn’t he beautiful?

Congratualtions, Kimberly and Jim Bob!

I know you’re going to be awesome parents!

Ten years ago today my life changed forever. At 1:17pm on June 24, 1998 my daughter Amanda was born, two minutes later, at 1:19pm her fraternal twin Amber was born.

It wasn’t an easy pregnancy. I was young and newly married and didn’t really have much of a clue when it came to babies. Sure, I’d been around babies children a lot, but I was always the babysitter or cousin or next door neighbor, never the Mommy. Until then.

I’d gone in for a regular, routine check-up. I hadn’t been feeling well and after running a few tests, my doctor determined I had a kidney infection and it would be in the best interest of the babies for me to check-in to the hospital and have a cesarean section, immediately. I was told to go home, get my and the babies’ things and return to the hospital by 1:00pm.

I had never been so scared in my life.

After checking into the hospital, Iwas immediately prepped for the surgery and my mom, who accompanied me in the delivery room was scrubbed up and just as nervous and scared as I was.

I was given a spinal tap, which was scary. It hurt, but only for a second. Then I became completely numb from just below my breasts down. I was strapped onto a table/bed and both of my arms were straight out at my sides. They hung a blue paper sheet in front of me and positioned a large silver reflecting dome above me so that I could watch if I was so inclined. I wasn’t.

I could feel tugging and pulling sensations in my abdomen area and within a few minutes, the nurse was dangling my firstborn daughter in front of me before quickly whisking her away to make sure all was well with her. It was. She was perfect. Tiny, at only 5pounds and 9.5 ounces, but perfect nonetheless. I knew immediately upon seeing her that she was Amanda Nicole. The name fit her perfectly.

I had originally planned to name Baby A Amber Marie and Baby B Amanda Nicole, but after seeing them, the names just didn’t fit.

A few minutes after I was shown Amanda, another nurse was holding little Amber up for me to see. She was so tiny and precious, weighing in at 5 pounds and 3.5 ounces. She was paler than Amanda had been and I was worried something wasn’t right with her, but turns out, she is just a fair-skinned, light-haired, freckle-prone beauty.

After being cleaned up, weighed, and swaddled, they were finally mine to hold. I was so overwhelmed and was in tears at just the sight of them. They were beautiful and tiny and precious and they came from me. And y’know, my husband, who had been pacing the floors the whole time, hoping everything was okay. Which it was. It was more than okay. Holding those babies in my arms somehow made everything feel so right. So worth it.

Every morning I’d spent curled up in bed, afraid to move in fear of another nausea attack. Every craving for popcorn and cherry kool-aid that I would devour just to have it come back up minutes later. Every charlie horse, every cramp, every nasty prenatal vitamin that made me sick, it was all worth it. And I’d do it all over again.

It’s been 10 years and a lot of sleepless nights, dirty diapers, potty-training accidents, kissed boo-boos, bedtime stories, pushes in the swing, bad dreams, school days, temper tantrums, and hugs & kisses and I love them more each day. Because not only did I get twice the dirty diapers and temper tantrums, but I got twice the kisses, twice the hugs, and twice the love.

Happy Birthday Girls!

I love you and miss you!

The twins are staying at my mom’s in Missouri for part of the summer. They’ve been gone for 11 days and I miss ‘em like crazy!!

Okay, I’m gonna do a Thankful Thursday and Thursday Three all in one…

Three things I am Thankful for Today:

1. My car’s air conditioning. It’s a dark blue color, with a dark interior and it gets HOT out there in the Oklahoma sun. And since it won’t fit in the garage, I really can’t do anything about it, except park under the trees, which really doesn’t help at all.

2. Self Check-out lanes at the Walmart. So much quicker and easier than waiting in line with 3 girls.

3.  Starbucks vanilla lattes with extra vanilla. My special treat and pick-me up. Yum.

This recipe for potato wedges works great as a side dish for grilled steaks or as a party appetizer. Sometimes, I eat them all by themselves, just for the heck of it.

Couch Potato Wedges

4 whole potatoes, washed and quartered
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1 (8-ounce) package (2 cups) cheddar cheese, shredded
8 slices crisply cooked bacon, crumbled

Bake potato wedges at 350F for 40 minutes, remove from oven
Immediately sprinkle with green onions, cheese and bacon. Continue
baking until cheese is melted (1 to 2 minutes).

Makes 16 wedges.

PS. I apologize for the crummy presentation of this here recipe. If you’re looking for recipes accompanied by fantastic photography and humorous dialogue, you should visit my bloggy-idol Ree’s site.

Father’s day is less than a week away!

The hub’s is giving his crew the day off of work and we will be in Missouri that day.

We don’t have any set plans for celebrating, other than going out to dinner with all the kiddos before leaving the twins with Grandma for a few weeks.

I usually give each of the kids some spending money and take them to the dollar shop to buy gifts for Daddy. They usually get him some cute little cards and fishing lures or some kind of tool. Y’know “dad” stuff.

The big gift he is getting this year is a digital key chain-picture frame thingy. Not too expensive, and won’t take up any room in our already too-small garage. Double points!

Well, I’ve been working on a new design for this here blog of mine and I haven’t quite gotten it the way I want it yet.

My son has been at his Papa’s for almost 2 weeks now. I miss him a lot but I know he is having a great time there. He’s been staying with Papa through the week and with my sister and mom on the weekends. He likes staying at my sister’s because they have this awesome little game called Guitar Hero.  I’m sure you’ve heard of it. If not, I must ask: Where have you been keeping yourself locked away?  My kids have been begging for this game forever, or well, since it came out. I’ve been holding off, but man after spending hours playing it at my sister’s  couple of weeks ago, I have to say I’m about ready to jump on the bandwagon. It’s even kind of educational if you think about it. I mean, it has great music and helps you work on your hand-eye coordination. Which I must admit, my kids are much better at than me. So I’m considering using part of my government stimulus check-thing to purchase this game. I’m not sure how much different it will be on a Wii than on my sis’s PS3. Hmm…

Well, I wanted to revamp this whole blog and move towards a less personal approach when it comes to content, but I just got the urge to start writing again and really the only thing I have to write about is the personal stuff.  Oh well, we’ll see how it goers for a while. Hopefully, my blog-burn-out is over for now.

We’re going to pick up my son this weekend but we’ll only be bringing half of our kids home with us. The twins will be staying at Grandma’s for about a month. I’m really gonna miss them, they’re my 2 biggest buds. They help me clean up and they’ve started helping with the cooking (easy stuff, y’all-they’re only 9- well, 10 in 2 weeks). They really want the summer break though so we’re gonna let them try it out.

We plan to pick them up in July on our way to Branson. We’ve decided to scrap the vacation plans to Colorado and have opted for a much less-expensive Branson, Missouri vacation. We’ll only be staying 3-4 days but we plan to do take in a few shows, go to Silver Dollar city, and ride the ducks. My Nikon is in the shop (kids dropped it and something came loose) and I better have it back by then. If not, the hubs knows he will be buying me a new one just for this trip.

I guess that’s update enough for now. I plan to start posting more often, so I better save something for future posts.

BTW-It cost me 89.00 to fill up my car last week and since then gas has gone up 9 more cents a gallon. I almost have a panic attack thinking about how much it’s gonna cost us to gas up when we take vacation. Which is one reason why I’ve decided I’m renting a minivan (although I detest them) for our trip to Branson. Ok..I’m out…