A cute craft *Updated link

I received my February 2009 issue of Family Fun yesterday. As I was flipping through it the Quadropus caught my eye. It's on page 24 for those that want to see. I haven't found it on their site yet but will link it later if they put it up. The link is now up.


I'm planning on making several of these. I want to make one for each of my two consumers. I also want to make some for the POHI classrooms at Samantha's former elementary school. I will be sewing everything rather than using hot glue in order to make them sturdier.


I will take and post pictures as I make them. I'm off work tomorrow so I plan on getting the supplies I need to make them.

What's For Dinner?

Here's what is planned for our table this week:


1/25 - Chicken thighs, Broccoli cheese rice, pears


1/26 - Biscuits & gravy


1/27 - Fettucini Alfredo with turkey


1/28 - Breakfast for dinner (probably eggs, sausage links and HM hashbrowns)


1/29 - Tuna Helper


1/30 - Hamburgers, chips


1/31 - Pasta w/sauce, Texas Toast garlic bread


2/01 - Up in the air but might be pork chops

My ears have finally.....

stopped ringing. I hinted the other day that Samantha and I would be doing something last night.

Our destination last night was Joe Louis Arena. It was the venue for a concert by The Jonas Brothers. I do believe that the crowd that was there last night was louder than any crowd I've heard there for a hockey game. (Joe Louis Arena is where the Detroit Red Wings play)

Several times I picked Samantha up out of her chair and held her so that she could see the stage better. They did have 3 huge projection screens showing the boys close up. I think Samantha was surprised that I was able to recognize most of the songs within the opening notes.

It was a great show and was enjoyed by all. It was Samantha's first concert. She talked to Grandma (Shawn's mom) on the drive home and was commenting that she didn't think she would be able to go to sleep.

I can't believe my "Samzilla" is getting this old.

Who put me in the freezer?

I'm ready to be finished with our frigid weather. I only went outside yesterday when I absolutely had to. I'm off work for the weekend. I'm starting to enjoy the fact that I have the weekends off now. I've only had a Monday-Friday job one other time in my employment history. I've almost always worked retail which has some of the craziest hours.


Samantha and I have plans for Sunday evening which include her mother, Samantha's friend and her mother. I'll will post details on Monday about it.


We're waiting to hear from our mechanic today about Shawn's car. The radiator blew on him yesterday. Samantha and I had to go back out last night and pick him up from the mechanic's work. Hopefully it won't be too major of a bill. Our mechanic (Nicholas' best friend's dad) will let us know whether it can be repaired or if it would be better/less expensive to replace it. We are dealing with a 1973 Plymouth Satellite Regent. Think Brady Bunch station wagon. The Bradys drove a 1971 model.


Well, they just stated on the news that no more sub zero temps for a few days. We are expecting to get 3-4" of new snow by sunset though with another 1-2" overnight. I'm really beginning to hate winter. (Sorry Shirla. I know you love it).

BRRRRRRRRRRR.....

Well, we are currently at -7F. Our wind chill is -22F. Our high is expected to be 7F. I will be working a longer day today as most of the area schools are closing.

Speaking of school closings, our local FOX station has a cool feature. I was signed up via our NBC station to receive e-mail alerts when the kids' schools are closed. Our FOX station does the same thing but also offers text messages. I signed up for the text messages this morning for each of the kids' schools, districts and transportation districts. Samantha is transported by two different districts. I got up at 4:30 am to check on closings. I then signed up for and verified the text messages. As I was getting ready, I received a text that Samantha's district was closed. She originally had a 1/2 day today. I called Shawn's ex to let her know telling her that I was getting ready to head out the door to come to her house. While I was letting my car warm up and getting the ice off the windshield I received the text that Nicholas' district was closed. With that text I knew that I would be working longer hours today and would not be able to help out Shawn's ex. My best friend is Samantha's caregiver but she is currently unable to do her job due to a medical emergency. We will have Samantha this weekend and Nicholas will be going to his aunt's. The visit to his aunt was already in the plans for this weekend as it was not our scheduled weekend.

Menu Plan 1/12 - 1/18

Monday: Beef roast with veggies in crockpot


Tuesday: Turkey a la king with peas


Wednesday: Stroganoff using l/o roast from Monday


Thursday: Soup & sandwiches (turkey most likely)


Friday: Chicken Helper Fettucini Alfredo made with turkey


Saturday: Pork ribs, Broccoli rice, Fruit cocktail


Sunday: ?????? Shawn suggested doing a CORN night but we usually don't have too many leftovers as most are sent with him for lunches. I'll come up with something. It might be soup and sandwiches again as we have a decent amount of canned soup and I'd like to get rid of it.


We'll see how this week goes with starting my new job.

Stayed pretty close.....

to the original menu plan for last week. I didn't get pictures of all the meals though.

Sunday's dinner: pork ribs, peas, garlic italiano rice a roni
Monday's meal: We started with salad.....

and finished with pasta with sauce and texas toast garlic bread.

Tuesday started with another salad. Meal was sliced turkey served over sliced french bread, peas and garlic mashed taters.

Wednesday we ate at Big Boy on the way home from Shawn's work. I had the Big Boy & fries special that came with a drink. Shawn had the soup & salad bar.

Thursday's dinner was pork steak that I coated with potato chips left from Christmas that I crushed up. We also had green beans and pierogies.

Friday's dinner I didn't get a picture of but we had breakfast for dinner. We had "dunker" eggs, bacon and toast.

Saturday I cooked a whole turkey and then stripped it. I have two good size bowls of meat. I separated white and dark meat. I also have two bowls of homemade stock. For dinner we had: turkey, cranberry stuffing, peas and cranberry sauce.

We mainly ate off what we had this week and I know it helped having a plan.

This coming week was a bit harder to plan as I'm starting a new job. I'll be working in the afternoon/early evening so I have to come up with different meal ideas.

A small step to help

What's for dinner?

Part of my plans for the new year include planning a menu for the week since we are trying to eat healthier. I'm also trying to trim our grocery budget some. I made my menu yesterday after rearranging the kitchen cabinets to determine exactly what we had. We have almost everything on hand for this week's menu. I do have to pick up a few items but should be able to keep it under $20. Our Saturday dinner will look like a holiday meal. We didn't cook big meals for Thanksgiving or Christmas. We got a turkey for 84 cents/lb. I know it's not a great price but I'm interested in seeing how far I can make it stretch. I got 4 meals and 64 oz of HM stock from a whole chicken I cooked on NYE.

This week's menu:

1/4 - Pork ribs, roasted garlic rice a roni, peas
1/5 - Pasta w/sauce, salad, pudding
1/6 - OnCor Frozen Turkey Meal, mashed taters, peas
1/7 - Pork Steak, Pierogies, green beans
1/8 - Breakfast for dinner
1/9 - CORN
1/10 - Turkey, stuffing, mashed taters, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce

1/11 - Turkey a la king (or similar creation)

I hope to post pictures of dinner each night. We'll see how that goes. Shawn thinks I'm weird to take pictures of our food. He has asked me before when I was taking pictures, "Does everyone need to see everything we eat?".

A New Year

First, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I hope that everyone's 2009 is better than 2008.

I've been absent for a few weeks. I recently received some medical news that put me into a funk. I'm coming out of it now. I'll know more about the situation in about 6 weeks.

In just under 3 months, I'll be having to get my Vitamin D levels rechecked. Normal levels are 25-30. I'm at 9. I'm currently taking 50000 units of Vitamin D once a week for 12 weeks. They will then check my levels and see where it is.

Other than the Vitamin D issue and the other issue my physical came out pretty good. I do need to lower my total cholesterol as I'm at the very top of normal. I also need to bring my HDL (good) up some and bring the LDL (bad) down although my levels are not horrible.

I have a family history on both sides with high blood pressure but my reading in the office was 110/80. Granted, I rarely cook with salt and try not to eat high amounts of sodium.

Diabetes also runs on both sides of my family especially my mother's. My fasting blood sugar though was 82.

All other tests came out fine. My weight is high but I knew that going in. We did get a Wii as a family gift from Shawn's parents. We then got the Wii Fit. I've been doing my best to do 20-30 minutes on the Wii Fit total for the day.