A Snow Storm

Current outlook (professionally gotten by looking out the window) light snow and light wind.

What have we heard

4-6 inches...

and...

6-8 inches...

and...

7-10 inches...

and...

10-12 inches.

Wind...

and...

no wind...

Do you get the idea. No one has any idea what is going to happen. We are going to get snow, possibly a decent amount, there may or may not be wind, temperatures are going to drop.

The roads suck. They are 100 percent covered in snow...and ice...I'm glad to be home and off the roads.

The morons are out in droves. I know, I know this is common any time there is a winter storm. A semi about ran me off the interstate because they can't see the red van. Watched a car decide to cut across traffic, lose control and spin into the ditch.

I'll be happy when my sister gets home. I'll be even happier if school and work is canceled tomorro, or they super clean the roads. Either one is good for me.

Happy Birthday Bubba

Today was my little brother's birthday. He turned 15. Wow....

He was born when I was 10 years old. I was in the little mommy phase and I loved playing with him. We lived in Missouri at the time (and we do have to show him the proof before he'll believe anything).

The summer he was 1 1\2 I watched him while he played outside. I would generally be reading while he played.

When I was 14 I was going through the phase of life sucks. I was alone on Valentine's day and all my girl friends were dating people. They had gotten cookies (our drill team sells cookies on valentines day) and I hadn't gotten any. I came home, curled up on the couch and turned on a sappy love movie (stupid, right?). He came up to me, asked me what was wrong in his cute 5 year old way, and I told him that I was sad, he asked why, I said because I didn't have a boyfriend (oh how I yearn for the simplicity of those days). He curled up on the couch with me and said Don't be sad, I'll be your boyfriend. He was always such a sweetheart.

Now he is 15. I can't lie, I'm glad he's growing up. But at the same time I miss those times. He's moody sometimes, I swear boys pms just like girls. I hate knowing he has a girlfriend even while I'm happy for him. I am terrified of him learning to drive. But he is growing up to be a great guy. And I am so proud of him.

I love you bubba boy.

Busy Monday (and a recipe)

I started work today. It was fun but I am definitely tired. I got very use to sleeping until 7 and then being lazy until 9. That doesn't work anymore. My alarm goes off at 515 and I have to be out the door by 630. I start work at 8. And so because I am tired, cleaning is taking more effort than it should.

And because of this, I am going to assign myself chores for the rest of the week, allowing myself to slack off on some things while still, hopefully, keeping the house from falling apart.

Tonight I didn't do a whole lot. I found a home for all my new benefit information. I gathered the documents and information that I need for work tomorrow. I did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. I picked up the living room, with the help of Alexis.

Tuesday - Dining room - this will include folding any baskets of clothes, sweeping, decluttering the table.

Wednesday - Living room - this will include putting away the toys that Alexis pushes
to the side of the floor instead of picking up, vacuuming, sweeping.

Thursday - Kitchen/bathroom - clean the clutter from the counters, transfer leftovers to the freezer if necessary, gather dirty clothes

Friday - clean sweep - just do a runthrough of the entire downstairs to get everything for...

Saturday - sweep all rooms, vacuum, clean fridge, gather laundry from bedrooms, grocery shop


That is my week in a nutshell. Should be busy, but kind of fun.

Oh and just a side note...I found a super easy, super yummy way to make a quick supper.

Meatball  Open Faced Sandwiches

Servings 2

4 pieces of bread (any type will work. I used sandwich bread because that's what I had)
16 meatballs
Spaghetti sauce
Garlic salt, to taste
Parmesan cheese, for sprinkling
Mozzarella cheese, for sprinkling

Toast 2 pieces of bread per family member. (I did not butter my toast)

Cook meatballs (do you have meatballs that you've prepared on a weekend and put in the freezer for later use. This is what I was using. If not you can buy them or make them from scratch, just makes it take a little longer) in spaghetti sauce.

When heated place meatballs on the toast. Sprinkle with garlic salt, mozzarella and parmesan. Serve with steamed veggies or a salad.


Just a quick idea for dinner that I found delicious tonight.

Menu Plan Monday...On a Sunday

I am participating in Menu Plan Monday from I'm an Organizing Junkie. As I explained last week every other two weeks I don't have to make dinner, my mom does. And so I will plan my breakfasts and lunches for those two weeks. Here we go...

Monday - Breakfast - yogurt with granola
Lunch - provided by work (orientation)

Tuesday - Breakfast - Special K cereal bar
Lunch - provided by work

Wednesday - Breakfast - Toast with strawberry jam
Lunch - provided by work

Thursday - Breakfast - yogurt with granola
Lunch - leftover lasagna, spinach salad

Friday - Breakfast - Special K cereal bar
Lunch - soup, turkey sandwich, apple slices

Saturday - Breakfast - french toast
Lunch - homemade spaghettios, garlic cheese bread

Sunday - Breakfast - cereal
Lunch - macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, applesasuce


I also wanted to share a link for a giveaway. I'm an organizing junkie is giving away an awesome magnetic menu planning board. I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to enter, these look awesome. I may buy one even if I don't win! I've become addicted to menu planning and let me tell you why...

1. I know at the beginning of the week what meals I am having, allowing me to plan when I am taking leftovers for lunch and when I need to have easy stuff on hand for lunch. It also makes it simple to plan a meal so I can have leftovers for the family on dance night.

2. I can make 1 grocery stop a week, maximum. I don't have to stop Monday and Wednesday and Thursday for 1 or 2 little things. I also use my coupon book for menu planning.

3. I always know the answer to the often asked question ''What's for dinner?''

4. I can build meals from leftovers throughout the week (like leftover roast) and ensure it gets ate before it gets bad. I also know what the weeks meal plan looks like so if I need to just put it in the freezer right away it doesn't go bad.

Those are just my top 4 reasons. I'm sure I could honestly go on and on about why I love meal planning but I'll leave it at that.

Funday

It's Saturday. That means we should do something fun right? I thought so too.

I'm going to take Alexis to the library. This is one of our favorite weekly activities that we do. I am going to see if Jaime wants to come along, but who knows.

I'm going to pick up my engagement ring. I had to take it in to be resized and they called to let me know it was done today. $50 for an engagement ring, including sizing. Heck yeah! (Oops, I shouldn't know that should I? Oh well, no secrets between us)

Then I think we are going to spend the night at his house, with his mom. She has been wanting us to come stay the night so she can play with Alexis and I just need to get out of the house. So we'll go over there, she said something about ordering pizza and playing dominoes. I have never played dominoes but they say you learn something new every day, right.

Tomorrow my older sister and her 3 kids are coming down and we are all going sledding. I'm not big on it anymore, I've had really bad motion sickness ever since I had Alexis. This apparently includes sledding, amusement park rides and riding in the backseat of the car. Who would've thunk it.

And then it's back to reality for me. I'm not a stay at home mom, even though the idea has a definite appeal to me, and I might be able to swing it when we have another kid. And I have to go back to work. Don't really wanna, but such is life, right. Gotta do what you gotta do.

I am looking forward to a new challenge. And feeling like I'm doing something good for the community. I'm working in the county dental office. They accept any and all insurance and also patients without insurance. The people who come in are generally in pain and I feel good when they leave and I know they are going to feel better. The group of girls that I work with are awesome. (How do I know all this when I start work on Monday? I did my externship there during school and fell in love) We get along great and they like to have fun. Plus we have dental students from the local university do there rotations here. It's fun to help them learn how to use an assistant and watch how they grow.

So all is good in my universe today. And I'm loving it.

A Wedding

In 5 months and 5 days I am getting married.

*Does a happy dance and squeel*

Now it's time to focus on the nitty gritty. What do I have figured out? This...

1. My half of the wedding party. It will be my daughter and youngest two nieces as flower girls, my little sister as my maid of honor, my best friend as my bridesmaid and my oldest niece as my usher\junior bridesmaid.

2. The wardrobe -- Flower girls - white sundresses
Ring bearers - black jeans, white button up shirt, red bow tie
Bridesmaid\Maid of Honor\Junior Bridesmaid - black dress, mid calf length, maybe a red sash...maybe
Groomsmen\etc - black jeans, red button up shirt
Groom - Black jeans, white button up shirt, red tie
Father of the bride - black jeans, white button up shirt (what's your opinion - tie or no tie?)
Bride - gorgeous wedding dress...still need to buy the veil and the slip so the picture will come, just not quite yet

3. The flowers - calla lilies and red roses

This is what I want for my bouquet. The guys will have a calla lily for their boutinerre, except the groom, fathers, and ring bearers. They will have a red rose. The mothers will have red rose corsages and the flower girls will throw red rose petals. The bridesmaids will carry this



4. The reception dinner - hamburgers and hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, potato chips, pasta salad

5. The cake

Where this shows green, it will be red to match my colors. A very dear friend of mine (and my dd's uncle's gf on her father's side) works at Hyvee in the bakery and loves to decorate cakes as much as I do. She has agreed to do this cake for me.

6. The venue
-The wedding is going to be held in a small church in Nevada. Jaime has lived in Nevada all of her life. I have grown up aroudn this area and this is the same church my older sister was married in some 12 years ago. It is a sentimental choice for me, Jaime likes the smaller area and it has gorgeous stain glass windows. Plus it has a fellowship hall that we can use to have the rehearsal dinner (taking out the time of driving somewhere else after the rehearsal. And with small children, that is GREAT)
-The reception is going to be held at a company hall. My mother and brother-in-law both work at a factory in ames that has a rec building. I can get this FOR FREE. I have to pay a $25 deposit that I get back afterwards as long as I clean up after the reception. I can have my best friend's hubby bring his grill (a tailgating grill that can hold 100 hamburgers) and, if the weather cooperates, we can spend the time outside. Plus there is a basketball court and baseball diamond that the guests can amuse themselves (or the males can get themselves into trouble for not dancing with their significant others lol)

7. Photography - Currently I am going to have my sister, my daughter's nana (again on the other side) and other family members take pictures with their digital cameras. I will then have them email me ALL of the pictures (or I will give them CDs to send to me) and pick out my favorite. On top of that my older sister has a friend who will turn a photo into a canvas art for me. I'm thinking I definitely need a picture of Jaime, Alexis and myself.

8. Invitations. I made my invitations completely by myself. I am sending them to Staples to print them for me. My total budget at this point, including deposits is looking like this

$25 deposit for reception venue
$100 for the pianist (this is still not decided for sure)
$100 for the use of the church
$200 for the fee for the pastor
$150 for the use of the fellowship hall and kitchen
$45 for my wedding dress (and yes I've paid this already)
$83 for invitations (printing and mailing)

This comes to a total of $703

I still will have to pay for flowers, my daughters dress, my slip, my veil, food for the rehearsal dinner (my dad is paying for the reception dinner), the cake, and decorations. My goal had been to stay under $1000...I don't think it's going to happen. But I have a plan. And this plan includes sites such as Craigslist and Ebay. And hopefully this will help!

If you have any ideas on how to help keep the costs down, PLEASE PLEASE leave a comment below.

Preschool

Here in the good old state of Iowa this topic is getting discussed by everyone from parents to politicians.

Our governor wants to cut the amount spent on preschool program...This is where a good portion of people seem to stop listening. They hear this part of what he is saying and proposing and getting up in arms. But what they aren't hearing is the rest...and have the parents who CAN afford to help pay, help pay.

Now this is one of my soap boxes. And so, unfortunately, you are going to get kind of a rant.

People put their children into public school systems. They want to drop them off or put them on the bus, and not worry about them for the rest of the day. They don't want to pay anymore in taxes to help fund it, they don't want to pay more in enrollment and book fees, they don't want to write out a check to the local school district to help fund improvements. They want to be able to pay the same amount in taxes and be done.

On the flip side of the coin, these parents want their children to have the best education possible. They want state-of-the-art technology, a broad spectrum of courses available, and top notch teachers. They want their children to have small class sizes and every advantage possible given to them.

Time out. We want them to spend more on new books, new computers, new technology, more training for the teachers, new classrooms, and more teachers to teach the newer subjects, but we don't want to have to help foot the bill? This seems a little contradictory to me.

What better way is there to invest in our future than in our children? Why do we expect the state to pick up the majority of the bill? Why do parents not understand that to be state-of-the-art, to have the best, it costs MORE money?

I know that if I want a new computer with all the new capabilities, I am going to have to pay more to get it. The school doesn't get brand new computers with state-of-the-art technology donated. Definitely not enough to cover the whole school.

I wish parents would either put up or shut up honestly. If you have enough money to go out and buy yourself that brand new 52'' flat screen HDTV then you probably can donate some money to the school. Or better yet, start a fundraiser (or offer to donate if someone with more time can start it, since that seems to always be the excuse) to help raise money to go to the specific issue you want addressed (new computers, new textbooks). Or even just stand up at that next school board meeting (you do go, right) and say ''I think our school district needs to have ****. I am willing to help with finding the funding, what would we need to do'' Too many times the school administrators are hesitant to ask for more, because they don't want to get turned down, or told they ask for too much, etc. Stand up for them.

And more important, stand up for our kids. If we don't, who will? And if no one stands up for these children so they can get the best education that we can provide, who is to blame when they flounder later in life? It's not all on the parents in that case, but why not give them every advantage? School should be fun, but sometimes, the schools don't have the tools they need to teach and have fun.

My point is this. Don't complain because the school system needs funding. Don't assume the money is going to grow on the money tree in their back yard. If it won't grow for you, I promise it isn't growing for them either (and if it is growing for you, send a seed to your school, my school and one for me too please). Help out. It's still cheaper than a private school