I’m participating in a scrapping challenge were we go from web site to web site.  Each site issues a different challenge to the team.  Of course, Tina is my partner! So the first challenge was to scrap anything about a museum. I chose to scrap this one because I really enjoyed this exhibit at Iowa Children’s Museum in Corraville, IA. It’s a great place to visit even if this exhibit is no longer there.  But there is now an official Grant Wood Museum in Eldon, Iowa and you can see the outside of the house that is the backdrop for the famous painting. I never knew that this house was so close to my DH’s childhood home.

So now onto my layout! I used a bunch of random stuff:  Smart Start Template & DJB Mandy Font by Darcy Baldwin at The Digi Chick; Papers, felt flower, glitter swirls & sequince by Amanda Rockwell; other papers by Jennifer Howland at Elemental Scraps; Rule this out Alpha by Karah Fredricks at The Digi Chick; Glitter by Grace Bennette at Elemental Scraps; Ric Rak by Toni Berman at My Digital Muse; Stitching by Christine Nash.

That’s it for today!

Thirteen things I need to get done today:

1. Clean my kitchen
2. Clean the living room
3. at least 2 loads of laundry washed
4. Fold and put away clean laundry
5. take a nap (LOL)
6. Clean my room
7. Clean kid’s rooms
8. Clean the bathroom (ick!)
9. Edit a video to put up on this blog
10. Digi project 1 (no specifics)
12. Amazing Digi Scrap Race Layouts
13. Come up with a breakfast to take to children’s admin tomorrow, which probably will mean a trip to wal-mart(Farmers Casserole)

Wish me luck! I’m tired today!!!

Sometimes it really is a good thing! My kids have been TV junkies. I ask them a question and they “huh?”  So I made them turn it off and help me with the chores. That wasn’t working out as well as I hoped.  They are professional dawdlers. So I came up with an idea.  I told them to count the number of things they pick up and the one who picks up the most would get 50 cents. I never saw them move so fast (well, except when that one time that they saw an ice cream truck drive by LOL). I was a bit surprised because Aiden won but I gave them both the money since they worked so fast. I’m sitting in a clean living room!  And Lauren is doing the dishes right now. Lauren wants to earn money to “sink the boat” at VBS. (whatever that means, LOL)

I’m really excited because I think I figured out the online video thing.  I’ve got a few that are really cute! 

My kids love to rock-out in the car.  I think it is so funny how they “dance” to certain songs.  This is Jars of Clay’s “Flood”

WOW! I’m so blessed! Between Angel Food Ministries and Freezer Chicks, my freezer is stuffed so full I had to use two sheets to do an inventory. I sorted the freezer today.  I have 3 freezers; 2 fridge/freezers & one small deep freeze. One of my struggles has been that I can NEVER find anything.  I have tried organizing to make it easier but stuff still gets all mixed up and I can’t remember what’s in what freezer.  So when I did the inventory, I color-coded it, so I know what freezer it is in. (ok so I’m uber-geeky LOL)

I have a goal for the rest of the month to NOT eat out and to try to just eat out of our panty or freezer. I think I can do this with just 15 days left to go.

Monday: Inside-out burgers & french fries

Tuesday: Sweet ‘n Sour Chicken, Veggies, Rice

Wednesday: Mexican Meatloaf, Mashed potatoes, Salad

Thursday: Tuna Helper, peas, fruit

Friday: Sweet ‘n Sour Kielbasa, rice, veggies

Saturday: Calzones, Salad

Sunday: Bruschetta Chicken, Salad, green beans

Visit http://orgjunkie.blogspot.com for more information on menu plan Monday.

I had my meeting with The Freezer Chicks last night.  We had a great exchange and I’m really excited about this month’s food! We thought it would be fun to put together a blog for us to stay in touch and post group recipes, etc. But what’s even better is that you can go read it too to find out all you ever wanted to know about a Freezer (OAMC) co-op experience. Set-up your bloglines subscription to start following along!

Freezer Chicks Blog

I’m loving this Live Writer a little too much. LOL

My plan:

Monday: Cranberry Meat Balls, Rice, Mixed Veggies

Tuesday: Pork Tenderloin with Pear Sauce, Salad, Canned Tomatoes, Sweet Potato Fries

Wednesday: Chicken Chili, Baked Corn Chips, Cantaloupe

Thursday: Pizza Night! (might have calzones or make homemade pizza)

Friday: Picnic Sandwiches, chips, carrots

Saturday: Fajitas, fried rice, refried beans

Sunday: Honey Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, Corn, Salad

http://orgjunkie.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-to-menu-plan-theres-really-nothing.html

(ps, comments aren’t working right now, feel free to use the c-box)

First, I want to thank Connie at DigiscrapInfo for her article on Windows Live Writer.  I can’t wait for blogging to be easier.  It might help me actually write something and add pics if it is less complicated! Go check out her article!  She also has the fix for my spam problem but I need to wait for some updates that are out of my control. And look at the snazzy pictures! It frames them and wraps text for me.

Anyway, today’s been a very rough day.   The phone rings at 7:30 (yes, I’m still in bed, LOL). Turns out it was the AC guy. Our AC’s been acting a little strange for long time, so I thought I would call and have it checked out before it actually breaks. I called last week and the company I wanted hadn’t returned my call. So, I answer and they say they can come at 10 a.m. today. Sounded good to me. I get up and start tidying the house, especially the laundry room so the guy could get to the AC. (hehe) He gets here in the middle of a poopy diaper change. Aiden lets him in and I take him downstairs to look at the AC. Oh my, there was a filter stuck up in our coils???? It was all bunched up.  Not sure how that happened but that probably had a lot to do with how loud the stupid thing was. So, then he says he has to go outside and check some stuff out there.  He came in and asked for a hose to clean off our unit.  I was on the phone with DH and he said that the spicket outside isn’t working right. It will leak into the basement bathroom.  But he told me to go ahead and let him use it.  LEAK was an understatement. Water was EVERYWHERE! I called DH and told him to get home NOW before the we have another water crisis. (those that know me well, know that we have been dealing with fixing up our basement because of a multitude of water issue. )  Anyway, we also ended up with a new thermostat because ours was pretty much not working well. Now it’s hot in here because the AC has been off all morning.

OK, so onto the Calzones.YUMMY! Yesterday we did our freezer cooking session for my co-op exchange this upcoming Wednesday night. I made Ziplock Chicken, Italian Mac ‘n Cheese, & Italian Sausage Calzones. The Calzones were supposed to be “mini” but they are pretty hearty sized.  There are 4 people in our group and we each get 16!!! I can’t wait because these will be great for lunches or even snacks.  I bought a 30 pound box of dough balls at Sam’s Club fairly cheap.  I had more dough than I needed but I’m sure I’ll use it up.  20 balls that will make 16″ size pizzas! That’s a lot of dough. I used 8 of them to make the calzones.

above, the kids are helping chop mushrooms for the Italian Mac ‘N Cheese.

E’s just playing with the cans.

DH browning the 16 pounds of turkey sausage,

The doughballs & 64 finished calzones. It was a lot of work but it will be so worth it! The calzones took awhile to put together so the session wasn’t our usual 2-3 hours.

I hope to be back later with a menu plan Monday. I need to get back to planning what we are going to eat. I’ve been fbtsomp for too long.

Someone said I need to add this to my blog. I’ll try to do it whenever something weird comes out of my mouth. It happens a lot, LOL!!!!

“No, you may not take your light saber into the restaurant.”

(me to my 4-year-old son who is even more obsessed with Star Wars than my husband. I never thought that could be possible.)

Misti, I’ll get to that tag soon, I promise.