Off He Goes...My Boy Is Growing Up!

It's hard for me to believe that I've had this blog going now since May of 2006!  You all have watched my son go from a 6 year old boy to an 11 year old young man.  This morning he headed out on his very first week long Boy Scout Camp.  It's strange knowing that he'll be gone a whole week (the house is already so quiet).  He had many feelings going on within him this morning.  The main one being that he didn't want to go and that we couldn't make him.  He's right in that we couldn't make him go but when it came time to go he did get into the car willingly and once we got there he wanted nothing to do with his Mom saying goodbye to him.  I know that he'll have a ton of fun once he's there and sees all the fun that he's going to have but there is that part of me as a Mom that wonders how he is doing every second of every day.

I only have the photo of him in front of the house and of the vehicle that he was in as they were pulling out as my camera battery was dying on me.  Below you can also see a video of the camps here in the Texas Longhorn Council.  His camp is at the 2 minute 50 second point.  There is a part of me that wishes I could be there with him as it looks like a ton of fun but this year needs to be about him.  Maybe in one of the years to come I'll go...we'll just have to wait and see.

Prayers...

I'm asking for your prayers right now.  For some reason finding out that we can't buy a house and have to wait another year before doing so along with having to move and rent again has just torn me up.  I'm crying and trying to keep a strong front all at the same time.  I'm a strong person and for some reason this one seems harder than all the rest.  Maybe it's because we have tried so hard and now are punched back down.  Not to mention that I'm also trying to find a part time job and keep getting turned down as everyone is looking for one.  Every time I start to talk about it all the tears come out instead of my voice.

I'd love a miracle right now of someone buying the house we are currently in (as our landlord needs to sell it) and then renting it back to us until we can buy. What a miracle that would be.  That way we wouldn't have to move and take Sam away from his friends.  Yes, we'd just be moving a short distance away but still.  Sam has come so far lately and it's hard to take him away from that.

Crazy Days of Summer ~ Refreshing

Last week Alicia from Project Alicia and Kristi from Live and Love...Out Loud started a weekly photo challenge.  I missed last week and am having to use an old photo for this week.  I promise I'll go out and take a new photo for next week.  I've been getting ready for a craft fair on Saturday and my son is going to be going away for a week starting on Sunday.  So as you can imagine I've been running around with my head cut off trying to get everything done in time.

This weeks theme for the Crazy Days of Summer Weekly Photo Challenge is: Refreshing.  I thought of many photos that I could go out and take but as I stated above...no time.  And since I have had no time to relax lately we are going to take some time tomorrow to sit back, have fun and relax as a family at one of the local water parks here.  This will be my view tomorrow afternoon and evening.  For me, this will be VERY REFRESHING!  During my time there I'm going to refresh myself with some cool water, warm sun, some fun times and possibly read part of a book.  Who knows...I'm just going to go with it.

Wordless and Wordful Wednesday ~ Getting an Autograph

Tuesday morning I took Sam to one of our local Whataburger's and stood out in this wonderful summer weather amazing heat already for June (it was 90 degrees by 9:30 a.m.) so that Sam could meet one of his favorite Texas Rangers players...Mitch Moreland.  He was so thrilled to get his hat signed and I got his rookie card signed.  Here are two photos from the event.  They didn't allow poised photos as he was only going to be there for one hour and I'm so glad that we did get there early!

If you would like to see more Wordless photos head on over to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom, Live and Love...Out Loud, Project Alicia and J. Leigh Designz. Now if you're like me and sometimes you can't stay wordless head on over to see some Wordful Wednesday photos at Parenting by Dummies.  Don't forget to sign the Linky below.

Tasty Tuesday ~ Summertime Drinks

What is your favorite summertime drink??

I actually have several. Besides Ice Cold Sun Tea, Ice Cold Diet Coke, and Ice Water; I really like to make the following drinks listed here.  Sorry I only have one picture and that's from the site where I found the recipe.  But next time I make these I'll have my camera on hand before they are all gone...which is usually what happens.

Cool Melon Water:

2 cups ripe watermelon (you can also use cantaloupe) peeled, seeded and cubed
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 to 1/2 cup cold water
Juice of one lemon

Blend all ingredients together. Transfer to tall ice-filled glasses. Serves 6

Lime Mint Slush:

1 banana, coarsely chopped
6 mint leaves
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 cup milk
1/4 cup ice cubes

Place all ingredients in blender and process until slushy. Serve immediately. Serves 2.


Or there is this version that I found on Babble.com. 

Lime Mint Slush: 

7-8 tablespoons lime juice
1 12 ounce can 100% white grape juice concentrate
5 fresh mint leaves
lots of ice (enough to fill the blender)
cold water, as needed

Blend juice, juice concentrate, mint, and ice. Add small amounts of water to help the mixture blend well. Blend on high until ice is smooth. Serve in glasses with sprigs of fresh mint.

Pineapple Zinger:

2 cups pineapple, coarsely chopped
1 cup orange juice
1 banana, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons honey
2 cups ice cubes

Place all ingredients in blender and process until smooth. Serve immediately. Serves 3.

Citrus Cocktail:

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup grapefruit juice
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup club soda
1/2 cup ice cubes

In a small saucepan, combine sugar and water. Bring to a boil and swirl to dissolve sugar. Allow to cool. In a pitcher, combine all ingredients, mixing well. Serves 3.

I haven't made these in quite some time but I may just do so some time soon. They are all so good on a hot summer day.

So what are your favorite summer drinks? Please so share!

Money Mondays ~ Week 23 in 2011

I've been frantically busy getting ready for a craft fair and business expo that is this coming Saturday.  This time I'll have not only my socks but also fabric flower headbands and hair clips.  I'll also be promoting my new business as a Lindt Chocolate RSVP Independent Consultant.

I'll talk more about my new venture later this week as it's now time to sign up on the blog hop and support each other! Don't forget to promote this blog hop on your blog (if you have a blog as it's not required), facebook, twitter and any other social media out there.

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It's Monday and time to link-up and join in on the Blog Hop for Money Mondays. To read how Money Mondays got started check out my Money Mondays Page.

So here we go! Link Up your Etsy Stores, Shop Websites, Photography Sites, ect. I'm enjoying hosting this blog hop every week and visiting all of yours as well. Grab the button above and place it on your site. Please remember to keep it family friendly. Explicit Sites will be removed.  Remember to grab the Blog Hop Code below to place on your blog so that we all benefit from this hop!  Let's all have some fun, promote our own businesses and check out every one else!

Summer Fun and Last Day of School

Summer is officially here at our house. Sam actually finished his school awhile ago...and he is a straight A student again this semester! We are just sooo proud of him. We've got a lot on our plate for this summer and we are ready to have some fun. One place that we will frequent is Hawaiian Falls Water Park. Thanks to my parents our big Christmas gift this past Christmas was season passes! So we can stay cool in this Texas heat. In fact we've been having summer temperatures since a week before Easter this year. Here is a video about Hawaiian Falls Water park that aired this morning and if you notice the time and temp in the lower right hand corner it really does say 9:25 am and it was already 82 degrees!

Sticking with tradition Sam and I will celebrate the last day of school by staying up all night and watching movies. Thanks to RedBox we rented Gnomeo & Juliet, The Green Hornet and Gulliver's Travels for just over $3! I know...no expense spared here. We'll have pizza, popcorn, popsicles, smores (in the microwave with peanut butter cups...yum!) and Twizzlers.  I'll post pictures soon from tonight as I'm sure we'll have fun. We'll also see how late he/I stay up this year.

Wordless and Wordful Wednesday ~ Kittens

Meet the two newest members of our family.  Isabelle and Spanky.  Sam has been begging us for a kitten of his own for years now.  So this past February before Sam's birthday in March we finally broke down.  He now has two kittens.  This is a current picture of them.  They are not from the same litter but you would think that they were brother and sister.  They do everything together.

Now I have a question for all you photographers out there...is there a way I can take a picture and reduce the noise in my photos when the picture is taken instead of having to reduce it in editing?
  
If you would like to see more Wordless photos head on over to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom, Live and Love...Out Loud, A Beautiful Mess and J. Leigh Designz. Now if you're like me and sometimes you can't stay wordless head on over to see some Wordful Wednesday photos at Parenting by Dummies.  Don't forget to sign the Linky below.

Tasty Tuesday ~ Easter Hunt Pie

It's Tuesday and time to jump on the Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop. If you've never participated before it's a lot of fun. Just head on over to 33 Shades of Green to see what it's all about. You can link up there, here or on anyone that has the blog hop on their post! It's a great way to find new recipes!

This past Easter I made a pie called Easter Hunt Pie.  It was the hit of the party and it was soooo good!  Not to mention EASY!  It's from Eagle Brand's site and is basically a vanilla cream cheese pie.  You could change it up any way you wanted and decorate it for any season.  

Ingredients:

• 1 (6 oz.) prepared graham cracker pie crust
• 1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 3/4 cup cold water
• 1 (4-serving size) package instant vanilla flavor pudding mix
• 1 1/2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed
• Jelly beans, marshmallow candies or other small Easter candy
• Toasted coconut for garnish

Instructions:

• BEAT cream cheese in large bowl until fluffy; gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Add water and pudding mix; on low speed, beat until smooth. Gently fold in whipped topping.
• SPOON filling into pie crust. Chill 3 hours. Garnish top of pie with jelly beans, marshmallow candies and toasted coconut as desired and serve.
• * For young children, use holiday marshmallow candies or soft candies.

Money Mondays ~ Week 21 in 2011

WOW!  Have I ever been busy this past couple of weeks. I have another craft fair coming up on June 11th and this time I'll not only have my socks but also some flower headbands.  Purchased some fabric earlier this week and I've found some great and fast ways to get them made up. YIPPEE!!!  How about you?  Do you have plans coming up soon that you find yourself getting ready for?  I've also started a new adventure.  I'm now an Independent Consultant for Lindt Chocolate R.S.V.P..  It's so much fun and I got to spend the day yesterday at the Dallas Women's Expo signing people up and booking chocolate parties!  If you'd like to sign up to be an independent consultant now is the time!  You can sign up for $49 (plus shipping and local taxes) until May 31st!  Come and join my team!  It's brand new and a ground floor opportunity.

I'll talk more about my new venture later this week as it's now time to sign up on the blog hop and support each other! Don't forget to promote this blog hop on your blog (if you have a blog as it's not required), facebook, twitter and any other social media out there.

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It's Monday and time to link-up and join in on the Blog Hop for Money Mondays. To read how Money Mondays got started check out my Money Mondays Page.

So here we go! Link Up your Etsy Stores, Shop Websites, Photography Sites, ect. I'm enjoying hosting this blog hop every week and visiting all of yours as well. Grab the button above and place it on your site. Please remember to keep it family friendly. Explicit Sites will be removed.  Remember to grab the Blog Hop Code below to place on your blog so that we all benefit from this hop!  Let's all have some fun, promote our own businesses and check out every one else!

Tasty Tuesday ~ Coconut Pie

It's Tuesday and time to jump on the Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop. If you've never participated before it's a lot of fun. Just head on over to 33 Shades of Green to see what it's all about. You can link up there, here or on anyone that has the blog hop on their post! It's a great way to find new recipes!

Coconut Pie

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup shredded coconut
2 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9-inch) unbaked pastry shell

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a large bowl, place milk, sugar, coconut, eggs, flour, butter and vanilla; stir until combined. Pour into pie shell. Bake for 50 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool to room temperature. Refrigerate leftovers.

Money Mondays ~ Week 19 in 2011

It's time to sign up on the blog hop and support each other! Don't forget to promote this blog hop on your blog (if you have a blog as it's not required), facebook, twitter and any other social media out there.

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It's Monday and time to link-up and join in on the Blog Hop for Money Mondays. To read how Money Mondays got started check out my Money Mondays Page.

So here we go! Link Up your Etsy Stores, Shop Websites, Photography Sites, ect. I'm enjoying hosting this blog hop every week and visiting all of yours as well. Grab the button above and place it on your site. Please remember to keep it family friendly. Explicit Sites will be removed.  Remember to grab the Blog Hop Code below to place on your blog so that we all benefit from this hop!  Let's all have some fun, promote our own businesses and check out every one else!

Money Mondays ~ Week 18 in 2011

It's time to sign up on the blog hop and support each other! Don't forget to promote this blog hop on your blog (if you have a blog as it's not required), facebook, twitter and any other social media out there.

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It's Monday and time to link-up and join in on the Blog Hop for Money Mondays. To read how Money Mondays got started check out my Money Mondays Page.

So here we go! Link Up your Etsy Stores, Shop Websites, Photography Sites, ect. I'm enjoying hosting this blog hop every week and visiting all of yours as well. Grab the button above and place it on your site. Please remember to keep it family friendly. Explicit Sites will be removed.  Remember to grab the Blog Hop Code below to place on your blog so that we all benefit from this hop!  Let's all have some fun, promote our own businesses and check out every one else!

Tasty Tuesday ~ Sweet Potatoes and Pears

It's Tuesday and time to jump on the Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop. If you've never participated before it's a lot of fun. Just head on over to 33 Shades of Green to see what it's all about. You can link up there, here or on anyone that has the blog hop on their post! It's a great way to find new recipes!

This past weekend our Sunday School class decided to have Easter dinner together since most of us do not have family close by.  There were 22 of us and I did a lot of baking and cooking.  I'll probably be sharing most of those recipes here in the following weeks.  I have one for you today.  And as usual I adapted the recipe to what I had and I've tried to make it more user friendly.  Let me tell you that these are soooo yummy and they went quickly at our dinner. 

Sweet Potatoes and Pears

Ingredients: 

7-9 sweet potatoes of average size (I used 8)

1 (15 ounce) can pear halves, drained
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened (depending on the amount of sweet potatoes you may use up to 1 stick of butter)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees (F).  Pierce the sweet potatoes with a fork.  Line a baking sheet (or two) with foil and place potatoes on the baking sheet(s).  
2. Bake for 40-60 minutes.  I went for 45 on the smaller ones and 55 on the larger ones.  
3. Remove and let cool to the touch.
4. Remove the skins and put the potatoes into a mixing bowl.
5. Add the remaining ingredients and beat together until combined.
6. Place in a serving bowl and enjoy!

Money Mondays ~ Week 17 in 2011

I hope that everyone had a Happy Easter!  I know that my family did. 

For the next two weeks I'll be getting ready for another craft fair here at a local elementary school.  It's their first and it should be a pretty good turn out so I'm pretty excited about it.

It's time to sign up on the blog hop and let's help support each other! Don't forget to promote this blog hop on your blog (if you have a blog as it's not required), facebook, twitter and any other social media out there.

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It's Monday and time to link-up and join in on the Blog Hop for Money Mondays. To read how Money Mondays got started check out my Money Mondays Page.

So here we go! Link Up your Etsy Stores, Shop Websites, Photography Sites, ect. I'm enjoying hosting this blog hop every week and visiting all of yours as well. Grab the button above and place it on your site. Please remember to keep it family friendly. Explicit Sites will be removed.  Remember to grab the Blog Hop Code below to place on your blog so that we all benefit from this hop!  Let's all have some fun, promote our own businesses and check out every one else!

This and That

What a busy couple of weeks it has been.  I don't think I see the light at the end of the tunnel yet either.  I did my first craft fair and beat my own goal.  Of course that goal was just to break even and I did and then some!  I've also signed up to do two more craft fairs.  One next month at a local Elementary school and the other one is in June at a Business Expo and Craft Fair.  So now I've been busy with keeping the sock making going.  Hopefully I'll get the headbands going soon as well.

Sam is still doing great with school and we've signed him up to attend Connections Academy again next year.  He is still making straight A's and I just got an email from his teacher this week letting me know that he passed both of his Math and Reading TAKS tests!  WOO HOO!  Don't know the actual scores yet but just to know that he passed is fantastic!

Today I've spent the day baking and cooking.  Actually I'm still doing the baking and cooking but decided to take a small break to sit down and relax a bit.  I've made a Coconut Pie, an Easter Hunt Pie, baked some sweet potatoes for a Sweet Potato and Pear dish and I've also cooked some chicken breasts for my Chicken Noodle Casserole and for my Chicken Enchiladas.  WHEW!  It made me even more tired just to type it all out.  If you're wanting recipes keep checking back here as I'll post them soon.  Need to make sure they all come out okay first.

Tomorrow is Easter!!!  LOVE EASTER!  In fact that is why I did most of the above baking/cooking today.  Since a lot of us in my Sunday School class live away from family we decided that we'll all get together tomorrow afternoon for a big Easter dinner.  As of last count there will be 22 of us there!  WOW!  It will be a lot of fun and some great memories will be made.

Break time is over....back to the kitchen for me.

Tasty Tuesday ~ Pasta and Shrimp

It's Tuesday and time to jump on the Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop. If you've never participated before it's a lot of fun. Just head on over to 33 Shades of Green to see what it's all about. You can link up there, here or on anyone that has the blog hop on their post! It's a great way to find new recipes!

Here I am again this week adapting another recipe.  Go figure.  I knew what I had on  hand and didn't want to run to the store.  So I sat down on the computer and found a recipe that was close enough to what I had and that I could, without to much trouble at all, tweek the recipe for my ingredients. And may I say that this is not a good for you recipe....but it sure was good!  We ate it for dinner last week and I must say that the leftovers were soooo good and didn't last long.

Pasta and Shrimp

Ingredients:

1 package of any pasta of your choice
1/2 cub butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese
3/4 teaspoon dried basil (or fresh if  you have it)
2/3 cup boiling water
1/2 pound cooked shrimp (or a full pound should you so desire)

Directions:

1. Boil your pasta according to it's directions. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, melt 1/2 cup butter with the minced garlic.  Stir in the cream cheese, breaking it up with a spoon as it melts.  Stir in the basil.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Mix in boiling water until sauce is smooth.  Stir in cooked shrimp and heat through.
3. Toss pasta with shrimp sauce, serve and enjoy!

Money Mondays ~ Week 16 in 2011

It's time to sign up on the blog hop and let's help support each other! Don't forget to promote this blog hop on your blog (if you have one...it's not required), facebook and twitter.

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It's Monday and time to link-up and join in on the Blog Hop for Money Mondays. To read how Money Mondays got started check out my Money Mondays Page.

So here we go! Link Up your Etsy Stores, Shop Websites, Photography Sites, ect. I'm enjoying hosting this blog hop every week and visiting all of yours as well. Grab the button above and place it on your site. Please remember to keep it family friendly. Explicit Sites will be removed.  Remember to grab the Blog Hop Code below to place on your blog so that we all benefit from this hop!  Let's all have some fun, promote our own businesses and check out every one else!

Tasty Tuesday ~ Chicken Noodle Casserole

It's Tuesday and time to jump on the Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop. If you've never participated before it's a lot of fun. Just head on over to 33 Shades of Green to see what it's all about. You can link up there, here or on anyone that has the blog hop on their post! It's a great way to find new recipes!

I missed joining in last week but I did try a new recipe and I think my family is in love with it. I did find it online but I looked at so many and when I printed it out it didn't print the link. Not to mention that I changed it up some. It's a great base casserole and it has so much potential! We can't wait to have it again around here. In fact the leftovers didn't last long.

Chicken Noodle Casserole

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups chicken, cooked and cubed
2 cups elbow macaroni, not cooked
2 cups milk
2 cans condensed cream of celery soup
1 cup cubed processed cheese
2 cups onions, chopped

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a 9x13 baking dish combine the chicken, macaroni, milk, soup, cheese, and onions.  Mix all together, cover the dish and let it sit over night in the refrigerator.  If not overnight at least 6 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

3. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees F.

MY NOTES:

This may be a basic and simple recipe but don't let that deceive you.  It's AMAZING!  Feel free to change the meat, add veggies or change things up a bit.  But the main key to this recipe is letting it all sit together for at least 6 hours.  If you make this one I implore you to make it as it appears here first before you change it up.  ENJOY!

Money Mondays ~ Week 15 in 2011

This past Saturday I participated in my first craft fair at one of the local farmers market. I LOVED IT! I had a great time and not only did I break even, I made money! How awesome is that! Now it's time to sign up on the blog hop and let's help support each other! Don't forget to promote this blog hop on your blog (if you have one...it's not required), facebook and twitter.

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It's Monday and time to link-up and join in on the Blog Hop for Money Mondays. To read how Money Mondays got started check out my Money Mondays Page.

So here we go! Link Up your Etsy Stores, Shop Websites, Photography Sites, ect. I'm enjoying hosting this blog hop every week and visiting all of yours as well. Grab the button above and place it on your site. Please remember to keep it family friendly. Explicit Sites will be removed.  Remember to grab the Blog Hop Code below to place on your blog so that we all benefit from this hop!  Let's all have some fun, promote our own businesses and check out every one else!

Money Mondays ~ Week 14 in 2011

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It's Monday and time to link-up and join in on the Blog Hop for Money Mondays. To read how Money Mondays got started check out my Money Mondays Page.

So here we go! Link Up your Etsy Stores, Shop Websites, Photography Sites, ect. I'm enjoying hosting this blog hop every week and visiting all of yours as well. Grab the button above and place it on your site. Please remember to keep it family friendly. Explicit Sites will be removed.  Remember to grab the Blog Hop Code below to place on your blog so that we all benefit from this hop!  Let's all have some fun, promote our own businesses and check out every one else!

Wordless & Wordful Wednesday ~ We Were Shot At

 Sorry for the poor picture quality...but all I had with us was a camera on our phone.  

I had planned on another picture for my Wordless/Wordful Wednesday post today.  But life gave me another turn.  Hubby and I needed to make a quick run to the local Wal-Mart (which is about 2 miles away) when we turned off of our street and P.O.W.  Two loud popping/cracking sounds rang in our ears.  We had been shot at!  After pulling over I looked up at where they hit as they were on the passenger side of our van which is where I was sitting and saw that if the first shot had come through it would have hit my head.  The above picture is where the bullet hit the passenger door. You can also see how much the window splintered and was still splintering as we took the picture.  The middle window of our van has a huge hole in it.  After calling 911 and having 4 policemen show up they determined that it was only a bb or pellet gun that hit us but that if it had gone through I would have been injured for sure.  As I type this I still can't stop the internal trembling.  I've had several good cries and might have more.  Don't know for sure.

But I do know one thing....GOD IS BIG ENOUGH!

If you would like to see more Wordless photos head on over to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom, Live and Love...Out Loud, A Beautiful Mess and J. Leigh Designz. Now if you're like me and sometimes you can't stay wordless head on over to see some Wordful Wednesday photos at Parenting by Dummies.  Don't forget to sign the Linky below.

Tasty Tuesday ~ Mini Barbeque Pies

This weeks recipe I tried for the first time last week and it was a hit here and we had enough left over that I was able to freeze them for a future meal! So many possibilities with this little gem of a recipe.

Mini Barbeque Pies

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef (or ground chuck)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (or minced garlic)
1 1/2 cups barbeque sauce
2 cups red beans (or 1 can red beans, drained)
2 10 count packages of refrigerated biscuit dough
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease muffin tins.
2. In a large skillet cook ground beef with onion and garlic powder until evenly browned.  Drain off the grease.  Stir in the barbeque sauce and beans and let simmer.
3. Roll out each biscuit on a floured surface so that each biscuit is about 6 inches across.  Put each biscuit in the muffin tins and fold up the sides to create a cup shape.  Fill each biscuit with the beef mixture until almost to the top.  Top with Cheddar cheese.
4. Bake until the biscuits are baked, cheese is melted and the tops are golden brown...about 15 minutes.

 These would be great made with pulled pork, pulled chicken, or even a breakfast combination!  Give it a try and I promise that you'll be making them again.

Money Mondays ~ Week 13 in 2011

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It's Monday and time to link-up and join in on the Blog Hop for Money Mondays. To read how Money Mondays got started check out my Money Mondays Page.

So here we go! Link Up your Etsy Stores, Shop Websites, Photography Sites, ect. I'm enjoying hosting this blog hop every week and visiting all of yours as well. Grab the button above and place it on your site. Please remember to keep it family friendly. Explicit Sites will be removed.  Remember to grab the Blog Hop Code below to place on your blog so that we all benefit from this hop!  Let's all have some fun, promote our own businesses and check out every one else!

Spring Reading Thing 2011 ~ My List

It's time!  What time you say?  It's time for the Spring Reading Thing 2011!!  Woo Hoo!  I have participated in a lot of these reading challenges and I seem to get a lot of reading accomplished during them as well.  I love to read but there are times where I just don't read as much as I would like to. Which is probably why I like these challenges so much.

Here is my list of books in no particular order:

The Band that Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic  by Steve Turner ~ I'm currently reading this book and will have a review up for this one soon.

You Can Too by Mary C Crowley ~ This book was lent to me by my dear friend Wendy with instructions of...You need to read this! So I will.

The Gift (Witch & Wizard, Book 2) by James Patterson ~ I finished the first book in about two nights.  Had a hard time putting it down and can't wait to get this one from the library!

The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1) by James Patterson ~ Thought I would give another series of his a try. 

An Object of Beauty: A Novel by Steve Martin ~ I will be reading this book to do a review on it. Can't wait to start this one!

Well this is my list for now.  As in past challenges the list will either grow or change....or it could do both!  What are you reading this spring?  Join in on the challenge by clicking the button above!  You don't need a blog to do so.  Have fun with it and get to reading!

Wordless & Wordful Wednesday ~ Where Oh Where Is Spring?

No, it's not snowing here.  No, it's not cold here.  In fact about a week before Spring ever officially started we were up in the 80s!  Andy and I were remembering our first Spring here when we actually had Spring temperatures for most of the Spring season.  Last year we had a few weeks of Spring temperatures.  This year?  Forget Spring...let's go from Winter right into Summer.  Oh yippee....can you just hear the sarcastic tone in my voice? Sigh...wishing for Spring to be here now.

If you would like to see more Wordless photos head on over to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom, Live and Love...Out Loud, A Beautiful Mess and J. Leigh Designz. Now if you're like me and sometimes you can't stay wordless head on over to see some Wordful Wednesday photos at Parenting by Dummies.  Don't forget to sign the Linky below.

Money Monday ~ Week 12 for 2011

Spring Break is officially over (sigh) and it's back to work here (bummer) and now the countdown to Summer is on (YES)! As I said last week I've been creating like crazy and have taken pictures but just haven't gotten them up on my etsy story as of yet. But I will work on that some tomorrow. For now....It's MONEY MONDAY! So link up!

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It's Monday and time to link-up and join in on the Blog Hop for Money Mondays. To read how Money Mondays got started check out my Money Mondays Page.

So here we go! Link Up your Etsy Stores, Websites, Photography Sites, ect. I'm enjoying hosting this blog hop every week and visiting all of yours as well. Grab the button above and place it on your site. Please remember to keep it family friendly. Explicit Sites will be removed.  Remember to grab the Blog Hop Code below to share with others!  Let's all have some fun, promote our own businesses and check out every one else!

Money Mondays ~ Week 11 for 2011

It's Spring Break here and I'm going to spend most of my time creating. I've written down a bunch of ideas and I can't wait to get to working on them. So make sure you come back here next week (or during the week) as I'll be posting them as I get them made. What are you creating?

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It's Monday and time to link-up and join in on the Blog Hop for Money Mondays. To read how Money Mondays got started check out my Money Mondays Page.

So here we go! Link Up your Etsy Stores, Websites, Photography Sites, ect. I'm enjoying hosting this blog hop every week and visiting all of yours as well. Grab the button above and place it on your site. Please remember to keep it family friendly. Explicit Sites will be removed.  Remember to grab the Blog Hop Code below to share with others!  Let's all have some fun, promote our own businesses and check out every one else!

Wordless and Wordful Wednesday ~ Books

I have to admit to you that I've already read most of these books and had this picture in my archives.  I'm sharing it here and being Wordful this Wednesday because...I LOVE TO READ! There is a blog that I follow called Callapidder Days and I'm so happy to find out that she is back and blogging and the fact that she is going to have her Spring Reading Thing 2011!  She has reading challenges twice a year and I look forward to them and was so happy to see that she hadn't disappeared. If you love reading as much as I do and would love to read along with her just head on over and let her know!  She's trying to see if there is enough interest and I thought I would help. You don't even have to be a blogger to participate. Basically you get a list of books that you would like to read throughout the Spring season and you see how many of them that you actually read.  There are no set limits but your own and there are no set books...you choose!  So...what are you waiting for? 

If you would like to see more Wordless photos head on over to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom, Live and Love...Out Loud, A Beautiful Mess and J. Leigh Designz. Now if you're like me and sometimes you can't stay wordless head on over to see some Wordful Wednesday photos at Parenting by Dummies.  Don't forget to sign the Linky below.

Tasty Tuesday ~ Enchilada Sauce

Today is Tuesday so it's time for Tasty Tuesday! Today I'm going to share with you a Mexican Enchilada Sauce. This is a sauce that I found years ago once I realized that I could make it a whole lot cheaper than buying cans of it at the store.

Mexican Enchilada Sauce

Ingredients

3 tablespoons chili powder
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon oregano
3 cups water
1 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce

Directions

1. Combine all dry ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Stirring constantly, slowly add enough of the water to make a thin paste.
3. Pour into pan and add rest of water.
4. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens.
5. Stir in tomato sauce.
6. Use in your favorite enchilada recipe.

The amounts on the ingredients are very flexible.  For instance, if you are feeding those that don't like "spicy" you can halve the chili powder and double the tomato sauce.  Experiment to suit your taste, but DON'T leave out the cocoa.  This recipe made enough for me to use it in a recipe for Chicken Enchiladas and have enough left over to save in this jar for the next time that I want to use it!

ENJOY!

Money Mondays ~ Week 10 for 2011

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It's Monday and time to link-up and join in on the Blog Hop for Money Mondays. To read how Money Mondays got started check out my Money Mondays Page.

So here we go! Link Up your Etsy Stores, Websites, Photography Sites, ect. I'm enjoying hosting this blog hop every week and visiting all of yours as well. Grab the button above and place it on your site. Please remember to keep it family friendly. Explicit Sites will be removed.  Remember to grab the Blog Hop Code below to share with others!  Let's all have some fun, promote our own businesses and check out every one else!

You Capture ~ Technology

This week over at I Should Be Folding Laundry the You Capture theme is Technology. I knew the perfect picture. You see our church has a theme that is going through this whole year and it is "God is big enough". One way I spread this them and remind my friends when they are going through a rough time is by texting it to them. So here is a picture of my phone with those wonderful words on it.

Wordless & Wordful Wednesday ~ Typical Week

Here is a typical week for Sam.  I take what's on his schedule and then re-do it for his week and usually add more lessons from the following week onto the current week.  At the rate he's going he'll be done with school by the first couple of weeks in May! For those of you that may not know he attends a virtual public school through Connections Academy and for the first time every he's a straight A student!  And he has been one all year!  WOO HOO!   

UPDATE:  I should add that he starts school around 9:00am and is usually finished around 1:30pm.

If you would like to see more Wordless photos head on over to Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom, Live and Love...Out Loud, A Beautiful Mess and J. Leigh Designz. Now if you're like me and sometimes you can't stay wordless head on over to see some Wordful Wednesday photos at Parenting by Dummies.  Don't forget to sign the Linky below.

Tasty Tuesday ~ Easy Meatloaf!

For this weeks submission to Tasty Tuesdays I thought I would share a recipe with you that I found a few weeks back. I was looking for a meatloaf recipe that would be quick and easy to do. I have one that takes a lot more prep time than this one but since I was going to be making this one for a friend who had just lost her father I wanted quick. And the bonus? It was AWESOME and it made two loafs!  I found the recipe here.

Easy Meatloaf Recipe with Oatmeal

Meatloaf Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
3/4 cup uncooked oats
3/4 cup ketchup
1 egg
1 envelope onion soup mix

Meatloaf Topping Ingredients
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon prepared mustard

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix all of the meatloaf ingredients (not including the topping) in a large bowl. Mix well, making sure to get the soup mix combined well with the rest of the meatloaf ingredients. Shape ground beef mixture into a loaf shape in a large baking pan. Glass baking pans are better, as the meatloaf doesn't stick as badly and you can see through the dish if the meatloaf is done. Place in oven for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix all of the meatloaf topping ingredients together in a small bowl. Mix well to avoid lumps in the brown sugar. A fork works best to mix up the meatloaf topping. After 30 minutes, remove the meatloaf from the oven. Spread the meatloaf topping evenly over the meatloaf with a spatula or pastry brush. Return the meatloaf to the oven at 350 degrees for approximately another 30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Let meatloaf stand for about five minutes before slicing.

Serves 6
Meatloaf may be stored frozen for 3 months.

*Note: This meatloaf recipe uses more ketchup than most, so the meatloaf may have a reddish tinge. This is why it's important to use a meat thermometer to determine if the meatloaf is fully cooked.

MY NOTES:  I used two disposable loaf pans instead of one bigger glass pan as it said above.  Also...these disposable loaf pans are wonderful to bake these in if you are going to freeze one to use later.  My tip is that you freeze it in the pan you are going to cook it in...but first line the pan with foil before you cook it.  Once the meatloaf is cooled you can put it in your freezer. That way once it is frozen you can lift the meatloaf out of the pan wrap it up securely to put back into the freeze and you can have your pan back.  When you are ready to cook it again just defrost and slip it back into a loaf pan to warm it back up!  EASY!