Potty Training…..

Oh my goodness.  So far…. Cooper has had a few accidents, but nothing that I cannot handle.He’s had one #2 and a couple #1s. 

I literally take him to the potty every 20 minutes.  I set an alarm on my phone, and when he hears it, he knows it’s time to go.  We’ve been rushing to the  potty and sitting him right there.  He’s been such a good boy. 

Let me tell you, I planned to get my workout in while he was sleeping, but I was exhausted.  So what did I do?  Shopped on eBay, looked at blogs, caught up on some DVR’d shows, and now, writing this. 

I did do something productive, which is washing a load of laundry.  I bought 14 pairs of undies for the little one, and he’s gone through 3 of them.  So I washed those along with more of our dirty laundry.  I feel good about that productivity.  It’s probably the only thing I’ll get done all day, ha. 

So wish me luck, I’ve got several more hours by myself today and another day alone to attack this potty training tomorrow.  Day 2 starts tomorrow.  I’ll update you then.  Have a great Thursday!

Slacker & Potty Training

I definitely think I need to be going 24 hours to get anything accomplished......

Yup that's what I said.   Slacker.  That's what I feel like most days.  I get up, get dressed, haul my tired self downstairs to pack my lunch, get my gym bag, my work bag, my lunch and my purse and load up the car.  Back into the house to wake up the sleeping child.  Most days he's ok with getting up.  Some days he's not.  Others, he's so darn funny I could just skip it all and stay home with him.  Like yesterday.  But back to that in a minute.  I get him all ready and we head downstairs to grab his breakfast and his daddy and we get in the car and head to work.


We drop him off, go to the fitness center at work, do our fitness thing, get ready then go to work.  Do the work thing, head home, get dinner, play with Cooper, get him to bed and then I've got to get back on that treadmill and finish out the night.  Then I'm pooped.  Absolutely spent.  Ready for some r&r.  So, the slacking comes into play on my house.  My bills.  My preparing dinner for the next day.  My laundry.  Anything and everything except the things you've read.  I just plop down on the couch and do nothing until bedtime.  I need that time to wind down, but there are other things in my life that need attention too.  How do people do it all???  There are only 24 hours in a day and I need more!!!  That's my slacker story and I'm sticking to it.


Back to yesterday's story now.


Yesterday the boy got up ok when Tim went in to get him, and I promptly went upstairs to start our routine of going potty in the big boy potty, and when he was finished, we'd get a quarter for his piggy bank.  This kid has really started to fill that bank, it's exciting.  Well, just as he's about to "feed his piggy" he starts peeing.  All.Over.The.Floor.  He had just gone pee!!!  Why oh why did he feel the need to pee again?  And on his carpet???  Goodness.  So, like any good mommy would do, we had a little talk about not peeing on the floor, we cleaned up the mess and hurried to get him ready as this made us more than a little late.


Tomorrow and Friday I am off work.  We are going to work on Potty Training 101 this weekend.  I'm staying home the first two days, we'll be home together this weekend, then Tim's got Monday's and Tuesday's shifts to get the boy on that potty regularly.  I'm hoping this will do it, but if not, if he cannot figure it out, we'll simply give him a few more months then try again.  Anyone have any helpful tips for me???


Stick a fork in me, I'm done with the random post for today.  Have a great Wednesday, I know I will, it's my FRIDAY :)

Meal Plan Monday

Well, another Monday and that means another meal plan.  I must admit, I’m getting tired of it.  I’m 10 or 11 weeks into this, and it’s getting really boring.  I even posted about it on Facebook.  Look how desperate I was!  Hopefully I’ll get some feedback and have something new and excited next week.  (here’s to hoping anyway)

Well, lets wrap up last week then I’ll get onto this week.

Meal Plan 3/19 – 3/23:

• Southwest Chicken Chili Mac from Picky Palate – I made it, it was okay, but nothing we’ll make again.  We weighed the recipe when I was finished making it, and it had 1 point per ounce.  So, it was really low in points, but still not good enough for me to make again.  Just my two cents.

• Chicken and Black Bean Green Enchilada Rice Bake from Picky Palate (I substituted two 12 oz cans of chicken for the 2 1/2 cups chicken breast) I REALLY liked this.  It had 7 points for 1/8 of the recipe.  We’ll definitely do this one again.

• Pork stir fry – We didn’t do this one, so it’s moving on to this week.

• Lasagna Roll ups by Dashing Dish – these were in the freezer ready for us, so that was the easiest meal all week, and we still love them!

• Tuna Salad Sandwiches (tuna, light miracle whip, dill pickles, boiled eggs) we had these on Saturday afternoon.  I couldn’t calculate points exactly, but I estimate 2 points for 1/3 cup.  I used 6 cans of tuna, and 10 tablespoons for mayo, 4 boiled eggs and lots of dill pickles that are 0 WW points.

• Grilled Chicken with parmesan broccoli risotto We didn’t have this either.  But I really want to try the risotto, so it’s moving on to this week.

The night that we didn’t eat our meal we had pizza.  it’s our downfall.  The NCAA games were on and we just decided pizza sounded good.  

Now, this week.  I haven’t grocery shopped yet, but I’ve got the meal plan all figured out anyway.  Here we go.
Meal Plan 3/26 -  3/31

• Grilled Chicken Salads – Easy Peasy!   Just the way I like it.
• Pork Stir Fry
• Mama Laughlin’s Chicken Pot Pie
• Chili – McCormick’s chili packet with ground turkey instead of ground beef
• Mama Laughlin’s Skinny Dorito Bake
• Pork Chops with parmesan broccoli risotto

I haven’t tried Mama Laughlin’s recipes before, but they look delicious and they are low in points from what I’ve calculated.  I’ll tell more about the points next week after I’ve made them.
Have a wonderful week and happy meal planning!!!

PW Fail..... =(

Well, I didn't get to meet her, the line was longer than I ever could have imagined.  I was in the very last line, at the beginning of it, but still, there were probably a thousand people in front of me, and I just couldn't do it. 

I do love me some Pioneer Woman, but I just don't love her enough to sacrifice 5+ hours of my life or an entire evening with my hubby and my son.  When I got there, I thought I had a pretty good place in line, there were three lines outside, and I was in the third, but at the beginning.  THEN someome told me there were just as many people inside as there were outside.  Except, they didn't tell me this until I had already stood in line for an hour and a half.  I hadn't moved.  Not one inch...... So that made me feel like I only had one thing to do, and that was high tail it out of there and head home to my boys.

I did go into the store to look at her, watch her sign a couple of books for other people.  I was jealous, but I got over it quickly.  I figured it just wasn't meant to be.  I took some crappy iPhone pictures. 

One thing might have been able to make me stand in that line longer - a buddy.  Then we could have taken turns standing if one of us had to go to the restroom or if someone needed a break, and I would have had someone to share the experience with and talk to throughout the line standing.  I only have a couple of IRL friends who actually know who the PW is, and they couldn't make it yesterday.  One co-worker went, but he got there 20-25 min ahead of me and so he was up closer in line.  He also bailed when I told him about the line inside the store...  I am disappointed, but I'm getting over it quickly, at least I got to see her, right?

And that's as close as I got....  Oh well, maybe some time in the future, and if not, that'll be ok too. 

Happy Friday!  Have a great weekend!!!

PW Day! & Weigh In Results & My Cooper James

Hey People!  Today is the day, I'm going to *try* to meet the Pioneer Woman and get my cookbooks signed!!!  Yippie!

Ree, now isn't she pretty?  How in the world does she stay so thin with her awesome recipes???

Weigh in results..... I lost 2.4 lbs this week!  I am 34% toward my weight loss goal!  I don't know why, but I like to calculate that each week.  It is encouaging to know that I'm 34% of the way there, but that I've still got a long road ahead.  I know that with time and effort, I can make it to 100% :)

Now, onto my favorite subject in the entire world.  My kid, my sweet little boy, My Cooper.  I've been really bad about sharing pictures of him lately, or even telling stories about our family.  I hope to do a family recap soon, but until then I'm going to give you a Cooper recap via some photos from my iPhone.  Why do I have a DSLR when most of the time the phone is what I use for my camera?  ARGH!  Oh well, here we go.

This is my big boy trying on Andrew's hat.  Cooper loves hats.  I need to find a baseball cap in his size and get it ordered.  Doesn't he just look so cute?

 He just loves to drive with Mommy or Daddy, so on this night, Daddy let him "drive" to park the cars after Cooper had finished playing in the driveway.

 Since the weather has been so wonderful, we've been spending a LOT of time outside lately.  On this particular night, we got the sidewalk chalk out and he scribbled, but I wanted to get his picture with his name.  We had to make happy faces inside each letter because that is what Nana does with Cooper. 

This was last Friday night. We went to play putt putt with our friends Erica and Mel for Erica's birthday.  Cooper had a great time.  He did just about everything that you can do with a putter that was not golf related. It was a bat and a stick and whatever else you can imagine, but he never quite got t hang of hitting the golf balls.  We all had a great time.

These two pictures were taken at an outlet mall that sits halfway between our house in Indianapolis and my Mom's house in Southern Indiana.  We don't often stop, but this Mama needed a few new shirts, so Cooper and I made a short stop in Eddie Bauer and then he saw the firetruck.  Cooper loves to sit on these rides, but insert that quarter and he gets scared to death.  So, I let him sit, for nearly 10 minutes while he played with Snoopy and drove that truck.  I love this kid.

Like I said, he looooooooooves sitting atop these rides, but we don't dare insert the change to make them start running.  This time it was when we were grocery shopping this week at Meijer.  He was so excited to ride the horsey! :)

Last, but not least, my little guy enjoying a treat last night while we shopped at Target.  I cannot tell you how much easier a lemonade and a bag of popcorn can make a shopping trip!  It's amazing!  For $1.99, it's worth every penny plus more. 

I think that's a wrap from me, hope you enjoyed the random reading, have a wonderful Thursday! :)

Tomorrow.

Let me just start by saying how excited I am about this week.  Nothing particularly awesome has happened, but I find myself in a happier place lately.  Could it be the weight loss?  Maybe.  I'm not sure, but whatever it is, I'm loving life. 

So..... tomorrow. Two things.

One.....  It's weigh in day.  Like I said, not particularly exciting, but for some odd reason I get nervously excited every week.  I'm really hoping I haven't hit that plateau, or even worse, gained weight.  UGH.  Anyhow, I will inevitibly have that nervous excited feeling tomorow morning until the big weigh in time.

And two, the one I'm excited about.... I'm going to *try* to meet The Pioneer Woman!!  Yep, that's right, she's coming to Indianapolis tomorrow!  I've been looking forward to this and I finally made the decision to skip out of work a couple of hours early to try to meet her.  I don't really want to stand in line for hours, but how many opportunities in this lifetime will I get to meet such a celebrity?  And yes, Ree is about as big a celebrity as possible in my life. The PW and Carrie Underwood that is. 

What's going on in your lives?  I've barely got time to do anything lately, taking that hour out of my life to get on the treadmill everyday is really making me less able to waste time on the web.  I miss it, I miss reading blogs and commenting.  Hopefully I'll figure out a way to fit it all in again.  For now, I'm happy that the treadmill is what has taken over my life.  My clothes are starting to get big and I like this feeling!

Have a great evening!

Meal Plan Monday

Happy Monday folks!  How was your weekend?  Did you do anything fun?  Cooper and I visited my family in Southern Indiana, and we had a great time.  We celebrated my grandma’s birthday on Sunday and it was so good to see all of my family and celebrate another year with my grandma.  I am so blessed to have her in my life!

I did some meal planning over the last week/weekend.  I was fortunate enough to read through Picky Palate’s website last week and decided to try not one, but two new recipes for next week.  If I haven’t mentioned it before, it is my goal to add in one new recipe every week so that we can discover new favorites to add to our normal list of go to meals.

Here’s our wrap up of last week.  

Last week’s meal plan: 3/12/2012 – 3/16/2012

• Noodleables (I made it vegetarian)
• Biggest Loser Individual Sausage-Rigatoni Bake (I took this recipe for 1 serving and multiplied by 6 and came up with an 11x13 pan of this delicious casserole.  I did make a few substitutions.  I used ground turkey instead of pork, and I only used 16 oz instead of the called for 18.  I didn’t use parmesan, I spread two cups of mozzarella on top before I baked.  This made 8 large servings at 9 weight watchers points plus per serving, Husband LOVED this, he really thought that it tasted like Italian sausage and not turkey)
• Spaghetti (Ground turkey with a jar of spaghetti sauce and some spices & thin spaghetti noodles)
• Pizza (Papa John’s cheese)
• Individual Chicken Pot Pies

We did awesome. Only thing we didn’t do was the Pizza. We had fish sandwiches from a local restaurant instead.
And now, the plan for next week 3/19 – 3/23:

• Southwest Chicken Chili Mac from Picky Palate (I will substitute I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Light for the olive oil, a 12 oz can of chicken breast for the 2 cups of shredded chicken, I’ll have to calc points when I make it)

• Chicken and Black Bean Green Enchilada Rice Bake from Picky Palate (I’ll substitute another 12 oz can of chicken for the 2 1/2 cups chicken breast, we won’t include olives because I don’t like them, and I’ll use low fat cheddar cheese)

• Pork stir fry – same stir fry package as before from Sam’s club with 12-16 oz of pork loin sliced into small slices.

• Lasagna Roll ups by Dashing Dish  I just love Katie’s recipes.  She is one of my all time favorite skinny recipe creators.  AND, she’s about to go full time!  Congrats Katie!  Ok.  These bad boys have 6 points plus per roll and are absolutely delicious.  I use ground turkey instead of ground chicken.

• Tuna Salad Sandwiches (tuna, light miracle whip, dill pickles, boiled eggs)with homemade potato chips and salad (I haven’t made tuna since starting weight watchers, so I’ll have to get back with you on points for this also.

• Grilled Chicken with parmesan broccoli risotto (I will skinny the broccoli risotto recipe up somehow, I’ve never made it before, but it sounds yummy to me!)

I’ll be sure to add the weight watcher points next week after I’ve calculate them!

Happy meal planning and have a great week!

A plateau? I hope no!

I realize, it is too soon to tell, but I am hoping and praying that it’s not here.  I was in denial that it might happen.  I know Mama Laughlin has talked about plateau time, and I want to avoid them like the plague.  By the way, It’s Mama Laughlin and Holly who really keep me inspired to keep going and to lose this weight.  Mama Laughlin has been an inspiration to me since Cooper was born two months after Big T, but I couldn’t get enough motivation to get off the couch that is until 2012, when I decided enough was enough.  And Holly, well, that girl keeps me going.  We talk a few times a week and try to keep one another going.  We lost our first 20 lbs about the same time and I am so thankful for a friend like her!  Thanks Holly!!

Ok, back to the possible plateau.  This week I was only down 0.8 lbs.  Now, before you think *man she’s still lost weight, she should be happy* note: I AM HAPPY that I lost weight this week  BUT, it is not what I’m used to, and I always want more. 

I realize, I have lost 24 lbs in 11 weeks and that that in self is awesome.  It’s coming off at a good rate so that it hopefully won’t come back on.  Still though, I’ve gotta say, I’m thinking it should have been more loss this week.  I was sooooo good about counting my points, earning my activity points and doing everything right.  I earned 39 activity points this week.  I walked an hour every day except Sunday when I only walked 30 minutes. 

I mixed up my dinners and my lunches so my body didn’t become too comfortable with the same things.  So, why only 0.8 lbs down this week?  I don’t know, but I’m not quitting, I’m not giving up, and I won’t back down or get weak.  I was still down, if only 0.8 lbs, right?  Any weight loss is better than none.  And no gain is better than a gain, so if next week, that scale doesn’t move much or not at all, I am going to pick myself up and get back to it.

A goal.  I want to run a 5k.  I have never been a runner.  I remember running in junior high and hating it.  We had to run for 20 minutes straight and we did work up to it over time, but it was enough to make me want to die.  I just cannot stand running, but, I want to overcome this hatred and accomplish this.  I honestly don’t even know how many miles a 5k is without looking it up, I think it is 3.something, but I’m not even sure.  It doesn’t scare me though. 

I think now that I’ve been walking 60 minutes per day for the last few weeks, my body is working up towards being able to run.  I did intervals last night for 10 minutes after my first 2o minutes of walking, and I didn’t die.  That is a plus, a major plus.  I was dripping with sweat, but I didn’t die.  60 seconds running, 90 seconds walking, and I repeated this 4 times for a total of 10 minutes.  AND, I could have kept going.   I know this sounds like pie to you runners, but for me, this is a huge accomplishment.

So then I walked another 10 minutes and called it a night.  I had an IU game to watch and I wasn’t going to miss it.  This is what I looked like when I was done:

So then it was shower time, and boy did that feel good.  Then, IU Basketball game time.  9:45 on a Thursday night, ugh, but I’ve got to watch my Hoosiers. 

Have a great weekend everyone!  I’ll have Meal Plan Monday coming up for you bright and early, with weight watcher points and a couple of new to me recipes! =)

POTW - Bose IE Headphones

I'm linking up with Aly today to tell you all about one of my favorite products!

Bose In Ear Headphones

I got mine on Mothers day 2010.  They rock my socks off to this day.  They aren't specifically "noise cancelling" but boy oh boy do they cancel noise for me.  Daily.  I keep these in my purse at all times.  (Thank goodness they give you a case with them to keep them safe.)  I wear these headphones when I walk, work at my desk and just about anytime I listen to my iPod. 

Since I got mine, Bose has updated these pretty ladies to include the ability to talk on the phone with them too.  Score.  Wish I had them, but I'm happy as a lark with these.  The sound quality is A-MAZING!  If you haven't heard Bose before, don't delay, go right now, and try one of their products out at your local Best Buy.  I'm telling you the sound is awesome.  My hubby also has a pair of these as well as an over the ear kind too.  We have a Bose home theater system and one of those battery operated you can take anywhere docking stations by Bose.  I'm telling you, Hubby has gotten me hooked on this brand and I'm a life time buyer from now on! 

I think I sound like a commercial, so I'll stop now, but seriously ladies, try these out, they are awesome.

Have a great Thursday!

Tornado Damage

I've finally got for you the pictures that I took on March 3, 2012, just one day after the terrible tornadoes went through my hometown of Henryville, IN.  I am so blessed that my family was safe through this tragedy.  Henryville, IN is a tiny town about 20 miles north of Louisville, KY. 

I lived there until I went off to college, attended elementary school there and it sucks that the reason they made national news was because of this disaster.  There were many folks who lost everything, and this tiny town is pulling together day in and day out to put things back together, to build the town back up and to be there for one another.  The outpouring of donations from across the state of Indiana, along with nationwide has been amazing.  The Ellen Degeneres show and the Jay Leno show are even doing a contest to see how much they can donate to the relief efforts. 

My cousin Jared, who is a meterologist with a Louisville KY news station, was on television and told his hometown to go into their basements or somewhere safe, because he knew how bad it was and what was coming.  If you'd like, watch this, it's a video the news station did of Jared back in our hometown recapping the damage. 

The pictures below really do not do justice to what we saw - but you'll get an idea.

This one is of my uncle's barn.  Jared's dad's barn as a matter of fact.

This next picture is down a little bit from there, but you can still see the barn in the distance.



The next few are just a bit of what we saw...



 Now the next couple of photos are prime examples of what a tornado can do.  I'm not sure if you' read anything about Stephanie Decker.  If not, please go here and read, as I cannot tell the story as well as they did.  Her husband was a teacher at my high school in Sellersburg, IN when I went there, he was our baseball coach and he is a good guy.  Below are photos of what their house used to look like - and what it looks like now.

The house was over 8,000 sqare feet.  It was gorgeous.  I remember driving by it and thinking how much I'd love to live there.  Out in the middle of nothing with privacy and an awesome house.  Now it's compy flattened.  We didn't even see one brick when we drove past.  Tragedy.  

The pictures tell a story.  But the future pictures of this town rebuilding will tell another.  And they should be what this town is known for, not for the tornado, but for the community of folks who live there who are pulling together with help from neighbors far and wide. 

Meal Plan Monday

Happy Monday Everyone!  Another meal planning Monday here at The Johnson Five.  I am already having a hard time coming up with new and interesting things to eat.  Weight Watchers is not easy in that aspect, but I am thankful that I am able to come up with our meals ahead of time and know that our week will be mostly healthy eating (weight watcher wise).

So let’s wrap up last week.  Here is last week’s plan:  3/5/2012 – 3/9/2012:

• Grilled chicken with sautéed broccoli and mac and cheese
• Rosamarina Chicken (Chicken in the Wok) or here
• Hamburgers/French Fries & green beans
• Chili (McCormick's seasoning packets and follow the directions exactly)
• Pork chops, sautéed brussels sprouts and corn
• White Chicken Chili (I buy the McCormick's white chicken chili seasoning packets and follow the directions exactly then add a can of rotel)

We did the broccoli and mac and cheese with pork chops and had the grilled chicken with spinach salad last night instead of with sautéed brussels sprouts and corn.  We didn’t have hamburgers and french fries either.  Other than that we did it all.  We went out to eat on both Wednesday night and Friday night, leaving us not having to eat all of these meals.  I’m hoping we don’t eat out as much this coming week, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do though, right?
And now onto this week’s meal plan: 3/12/2012 – 3/16/2012

• Noodleables (I made it vegetarian)
• Biggest Loser Individual Sausage-Rigatoni Bake (subbing ground turkey for the sausage/lean ground beef.  I’ll calc ww points for this and get back to you)
• Spaghetti (Ground turkey with a jar of spaghetti sauce and some spices & thin spaghetti noodles)
• Pizza (Papa John’s cheese)
• Individual Chicken Pot Pies

Now, I only have 5 meals planned this week, and I’m not sure we’ll do the pizza one.  We are pretty sure we are eating out on Friday night, as we’ll be celebrating my friend’s birthday that night and that usually leads to bad for us food…… Next weekend Cooper and I are visiting my family down in southern Indiana, so I’m not planning weekend meals.  Tim can get his own food figured out. 
I haven’t ever tried the Biggest Loser Individual Sausage Rigatoni Bakes, but I’m up for a challenge.  They sound good.  My family is OBSESSED with red sauce (hence the spaghetti and rigatoni both in one week. husband almost died last week when I didn’t have one red sauce meal in the plan!!)
Ok Peeps, I’m out for today, Have a great week!  Happy Meal Planning!

20.9 lbs Weight Loss

I've done it, the first 20 lbs are gone, and hopefully for good!  I realized after I was looking back through the pictures I took for my original photo down to the latest photos that I've taken, that I didn't give myself (or you) the best view of me, a full body shot.  I regret this.  I also regret not taking measurements before I started this journey to weight loss and better health.  I cannot turn back the clock, nor do I want to, so this is what you'll get for now.  I will *try* to take measurements this weekend so that I can know how I do going forward. 

I weigh in on Thursdays, right before lunch.  My employer has a fitness center and a scale down there that gets calibrated every few days by NIFS experts, (we have two NIFS experts in the building) and I trust this scale more than the one I have at home.  So, when I went in to weigh last week, I was anxiously hoping that I had hit the 20 lb mark.  I was nervous to get on that scale, but once I did it, I was thrilled!  I had hit 20, plus almost another full pound!  YAY!

Yesterday as an FYI, I hit 23.2 lbs weight loss total.  If you want to track my progress, look in the top right hand corner of my blog and I update this weekly.  So as to not waste anymore of your precious time, here is the January 5th picture and the March 5th picture. 

I cannot really tell much of a difference in the pictures here, but I feel it in my clothing.  My pants are getting way too big and I can finally fit into some of the pants that I wore before I got pregnant with Cooper.  That in itself is a victory! :)

I am continuing weight watchers and I now have a points plus allowance of 31 per day.  I walk an hour per day and I am thinking of starting some upper body exercises soon.  I plan on beginning some sort of running program in the near future as well.  We'll see how that goes.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! 

Happy Anniversary to US!

Today is our anniversary, Happy Fourth Anniversary to my Honey!  On our wedding day (a day early), we totaled my car, got married in a snow storm and Tim drove with white knuckles all the way to Lexington KY through the "blizzard of 2008."

Despite all of this, it was a wonderful day and one that I will never forget. 

Tim, I love you more every day.  You were right about that fire.  It does get better. =)

I thought I'd share a few photos of our big day.  Note: we had 10 people at our wedding, including us and the minister..... (just the way we wanted it)



Tim and me, our wedding photo :)




my Mom, me, Tim and my Dad




"The Johnson Four"  Me, Andrew, Tim & Stephanie



Have a great Wednesday!

Tornadoes..... and Meal Plan Monday

This weekend was heartbreaking.  I'll tell the entire story some day later this week, but if you've heard the news this weekend, you've most likely heard about my hometown.  Henryville, IN.  It is where I was raised and was hit by at least two tornadoes on my Mom's birthday, one of them an F4.  The tornado hit within 50 feet of my grandma's house (where we were supposed to have my mom's party) so we didn't have the party.  I did get to be with my family on Saturday and we did celebrate my mom's birthday then - and I am thanking God every minute that my entire family made it through these tornadoes with their lives.  The destruction in and around the town of Henryville is awful.  I took a few pictures that I'll share later this week. 

 

Meal plan Monday is going to be short today, I don't have many links or pictures for you, because I've been pre-occupied with many other more important things.  But I did write out our meal plan last Friday and wanted to share.

We followed our meal plan pretty well last week, but as it happens, I planned too many meals!  So we’re going to incorporate a couple of those meals into this week, so I apologize for the duplicates, and where there are duplicates, please substitute something else in your plans.  Let’s take a look back at last week’s plan and I’ll explain.

Last week’s meal plan: 2/27-2012 – 3/02-2012

• Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake  - Monday night.  This was pretty good.  Tim and I both enjoyed it.  It will go into our rotation, probably a monthly item, but not more often than that.
• Sloppy Joes – Tim had this on Tuesday even though I didn’t end up having to be gone.  I had an omelet.
• Stir Fry – Yummo, we had this on Wednesday.
• 2x4 – This was Thursday night.  It’s a frequent meal for us and always a success.
• Tacos – we didn’t end up having these, but we’re kind of tired of them, so we’re skipping them next week too.
• Rosamarina Chicken (Chicken in the Wok) – Skipped this one and adding it to next week.
• Grilled chicken with sautéed broccoli and mac and cheese – We didn’t have this either, it’s also being added to next week.

The problem with last week is that we went out of town on Friday after work.  I had forgotten we were going to do this when meal planning.  My Mom’s birthday was Friday, so we went to visit her on Friday night (finally got to see her after the waiting and re-routing) and came back Saturday night.  So that took at least two dinner meals off of our need list, and possibly all 3 if I had made lunch on Saturday…...

Here is next week’s plan:  3/5/2012 – 3/9/2012

·         Grilled chicken with sautéed broccoli and mac and cheese

·         Rosamarina Chicken (Chicken in the Wok) or here

·         Hamburgers/French Fries & green beans

·         Chili (McCormick's seasoning packets and follow the directions exactly)

·         Pork chops, sautéed brussels sprouts and corn

·         White Chicken Chili (I buy the McCormick's white chicken chili seasoning packets and follow the directions exactly then add a can of rotel)

It’s a pretty easy week, nothing complicated here, and that’s the way I like it!  We won’t be home on Wednesday, we have plans already so at least one of the meals above will probably be scratched from the list come next week.  Oh well, at least we’ve got choices, right??? 

Enjoy your week!

Happy Birthday Mama! & Tagged by Holly

First, I want to wish My Mama a Happy Birthday!  She is 29 again today!  I love you Mom, you are THE BEST!!!

Awhile ago, my friend Holly, tagged me in a blog post to answer a few questions for you, and tell you some random tidbits about my life.  I'm a pretty open book in this blog, so I hope I'm sharing new things with you.  If not, I'll try harder next time.

Random Facts/Crap about me:

1)  I love Peanut Butter.  On Bananas, Ice Cream, Apples, Bread, etc.  BUT, I don't like peanut butter cookies.  WEIRD?  I think so.

2)  I am OCD about personal finance.  I'm seriously obsessed.  I check our bank account daily, I know what goes in and out at all times. Watch out when something comes up that I haven't planned for, this Mama gets a little bit cray cray.  I think it's a good thing.  I like us to keep on track and my type A personality (about finances especially) helps us do it.  We have goals.  They cost money.  I help us reach those goals even if it means being OCD. :)

3)  If I could, I would quit my job today and I'd open up a bakery/cafe.  Hubby and I have talked about it, but I am so risk adverse, that I just cannot take the plunge. 

4)  I looooooooove bags.  Purses, gym bags, beach bags, totes, lunch bags, etc.  I just cannot stop shopping for them, and buying them.  Bags are great.  Speaking of bags, there is the cutest tote bag on Groupon right now.  I'm trying so hard to resist.

5)  I read One for the Money and just picked up Two for the Dough the other day.  I cannot wait to read it.  I really love reading, but lately, I've been slacking, too many shows on the DVR to catch up on and for some reason, it has been given priority over my books.  hmmmm..

Now, onto Holly's questions.

If you could change your first name, what would you be called?

First off, I wouldn't change my name.  If I had to, like a gun pointed to my head, I would change my name to Lilly.  I've always loved that name, and wanted to name my daughter that (if we had one), but Tim is allergic to lillies, so I don't think I could quite do that to him.

What are you doing for Valentine's Day?

We didn't do anything.  We usually don't.  I have never been a big Valentine's Day kind of gal.  I don't guess I would mind celebating, but it's just not a big deal to me.  I did pick up the hubby some roses and had them "delievered" to work, just to surprise him.  ("delivered" because I faked it and delivered them myself, and made them look like the florist did it)

What's your favorite thing to order at Cracker Barrel?

The Apple Dumplin with vanilla bean ice cream!  Is there anything else?  I think not.

Share a blog that we might not know about...

Nine-Ninety-One, written by my friend Amy.  She's such a funny southern gal, with two kiddos who are adorable.  Check her out! :)

And post a funny high school picture :) 

Ok, this isn't really a funny picture, but it's the only one I had with me and actually scanned into the computer.  Senior prom, Oh the days.

Here's to the weekend!  Have a great one!