Monday, March 29, 2010

My taste in shoes,




So I sent Brad an email today with 3 different pairs of shoes that I just love. Okay 2 I love 1 I just like and really would have no where to wear them, but considering that I live in flip flops/slippers and tennis shoes, I'd like to expand my shoe collection! Besides shoes are something you can wear almost an weight so you have more opportunity to wear when your weight fluctuates as much as mine does! Good thinking Elise, I wish I had thought of that argument for my hubby! No prob take it use it and enjoy, just hand me down all those shoes!

Those of you that know me know that I have ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE OF STYLE! ( you can nominate me for what not to wear, I might be offended but I won't stay upset long!

So I warn you that this is a very odd selection of shoes! Let me remind you I sent pictures only of these shoes to my hubby with the subject of "I likee!)

Brad: yes, I got your email.
yes, I think you're funny

me: why i didnt say anything about silly i just said I likee

Brad: so we're going to a buddhist temple, then going hiking, then going dancing?
is that the theme>?

me: lol! I just like those! 1 is for outwear 1 is for chasing kiddos this summer, 1 is for everyday out wear like
church girls nights etc
Sent at 12:09 PM on
Monday

Brad: where are you going to wear the japanese girl?
me: that one will be good with skirts and jeans and jeans and jeans
Brad: okey dokey




Friday, March 26, 2010

Quiche how I love the!

I'm a food network junkie! If I had it my way I would just live with all those fun cooks. This is probably why I am so fat, but who cares! I LOVE LOVE LOVE food!

Upon watching food network this afternoon, I decided that I no longer wanted the healthy chicken pot pie I make, (okay so it more like a stew with a pie crust on top, but boy is it delicious!) and decided that I wanted to make fried chicken, which I haven't had in at least a year. I saw a recipe that made the chicken so very very crunchy, which is my favorite way. Yeah I know its gross but I love just the coating, its very much my favorite! So I decided to make it, that is until Brad got home and told me no! He didn't even want to think of the mess we would have to clean up. Which made sense, I don't have a deep fryer and am not worried about getting one anytime soon, eventually maybe, when I have a kitchen the size of a bedroom, hahahahahahaha, its a nice dream!

Never the less I had to change my plan, and decided to make a quiche instead. One of my favorite meals growing up was spinach quiche, so thats what I made. IT WAS JUST AS GOOD AS I REMEMBERED, and I didn't have a recipe!

So here's how I did it!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

defrost and drain 10-16oz of frozen spinach, depending on how you like your quiche, I like mine with more veggies so I prefer 16oz
make sure that you squeeze as much of the water out as you can, you can put it in a clean dish towel and ring it out.

cut 6 pieces of bacon/salami/prosciutto into small pieces then cook and drain. ( if you are going to use more than one of these, then make sure to adjust your amounts)

in a large bowl mix the following
5 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup milk
5 oz of goat or feta cheese which ever you prefer broken into small pieces
drained spinach
bacon

Stir together and mix thoroughly

In a 9 inch cake pan spray with pam and place 1 refrigerated pie crust. make sure that you fit the crust to the pan.

Pour all ingredients into the crust and sprinkle with cheese, 1/2 cup total
1/4 cup cheddar
1/4 parmesan


Bake at 350 for 45 minutes until golden brown and cooked through!

ENJOY!!!!!!!

Everyone should like this after all both my hubby and daughter had seconds!

Sleeping habits of the munchkins!


So we are bad parents (okay not really), but we started Tyler off in his crib and he stayed there until he was almost 5 months old. Then it started, he started sleeping in our bed and has been ever since, partially because I'm a mommy and I can't stand to hear him cry for no good reason, but also because until now he has been small enough that we got more sleep with him in our bed than in the crib!

So Tyler has gotten too big and every time either Brad or I move at night it would wake Tyler up so he would decide that he would need to nurse and lets just say this last month has been extremely long and tiring! Needless to say I finally decided after a great deal of aggravation that it was time to just get over my feelings and to do the better thing for all of us, and listen to his heart wrenching cries!

We put him in his bed and the first night it only took 45 minutes of screaming for him to fall asleep. I was so excited, but the poor little guy fell asleep with his left leg hanging out of the crib along with his right arm. His Right leg tucked completely under his 25 lb body and his noggin buried in the corner of the crib! Brad went in and laid him down, which in turn woke him up and the whole process started again, but this time when he fell asleep he was sitting on his calves and swaying back and forth. Every time he would sway backwards his arms would shoot up in the air like a mummy! Talk about trying not to laugh and wake him up again.

Last night was so much better than night number 1, it only took about 10 minutes of screaming before he just sat there until he fell asleep, yet again upright and swaying. We did this maybe 2 more times last night before Brad was able to just lay him down and sneak out. Then again at nap time today. I will try to get some pictures tonight, but we will see! It is just so darn cute! I just want to scoop him up and eat him up!

I guess I should expect this since when he was younger I put him in his bed and he fell asleep standing up holding on to the rail, head bouncing like one of those bobble dolls! I just wonder how long this is going to occur, or if he will one day be normal and just lay down to sleep! I guess who cares he's adorable and I LOVE HIM!!!!!!!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

My poor van!

Oh yes, it is stuck in the mud, in the back of my yard! Thank you Brad and Abby! Good thing that Brad has the day off tomorrow!


I love him!

Monday, March 22, 2010

One of those days!

Today is one of those days! It is rainy, cold, and cranky at least in my house! I think that Abby woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. From the moment she saw any of us, she has done absolutely nothing but fuss! I mean tantrum throwing to the 8th degree! First it was because I asked her to get 2 paper plates so we could eat breakfast, because she was "sooooooooo hungry." Then she threw another fit because I made eggs (which she told me she wanted when I asked her), "I didn't want eggs, I shook my head when she asked me, I don't want eggs, I wanted grits!" So both Brad and I told her that she could eat eggs or nothing at all, and that started the "I don't want eggs" all over again, this time included with the flailing of arms and legs, (this mind you is a HUGE HUGE no no in my house, luckily I did not see it, as I was making said eggs!) Needless to say we started the morning out with a spanking and timeout! What a great start!
By the way, she loved the eggs, such a fight over nothing! Life is hard as a 4 year old!

Then, Tyler my little man, who is into everything, pulled the computer off the table. It hit him smack on top of the head, the corner of the computer! Luckily I think it upset me more than him, he barely whined for umm maybe 5 seconds! He does have a small knot on the top side of his noggin, but he seems to be fine. Of course I flipped out and tried calling my mommy, and after not being able to get a hold of her I called my mother in law, to see what I should do. We both kid of agreed that he was more than likely okay and not to worry about it, unless he acting funny. He is fine! My sweet little man!

Brad has the worlds longest day today, he has to go to memphis at 4:30 this afternoon, and who knows when he will actually get to come home. He is tired and trying to get everything done before that, as well as make sure we are doing ok. I love him dearly, but I hate that he tries to fix our world all by himself. He holds all his stress to himself until he just can't handle it anymore.I know he is trying not to worry us, and I appreciate that, but we decided to do this together!

At church yesterday we met this woman, who was very sweet, but didn't help my uncertainty about home schooling. Apparently she despises the Abeka program, that I was going to use with Abby. That is the program that Faith Tutorial uses. I have done some research and I thought this was the program that I wanted to use, but now I'm not so sure! I guess that I will have to do more research. I need to see what program they use in Nashville, as we eventually plan on making it that way! Im just so confused! I'm not sure what to do or where to start!


;lkjasdfjdf;ladf;lkjafo;iwuertlkafdkljfa

Thats how I feel today! Just confused and unsure of much of anything today.


Friday, March 19, 2010

Today is all about the little girl in my life!

So as you know my big girl is full of funny things to say. This week has been something else and VERY VERY entertaining. The only thing I can say is that I LOVE HER, Love her dearly!

This week started off, on monday with a warning, and not just any warning a "DAD!!! THIS IS YOUR WARNING!" finger shaking and all. Not like this was in the afternoon, this accusation took place at 7:30 IN THE MORNING! She had literally just gotten out of bed, not even made the trip to the bathroom yet. This went on for the 45 minutes it took Brad to get out of our house. Not to mention the next 3 days. When asked why daddy was getting a warning she would respond "DAD, This is Warning number 2, next time is time out!" I then asked yesterday and the response was that he was forgetting to give her hugs and kisses. I could do nothing else but laugh.

Then she decided that Elvis needed to be alive because "he sings and stuff." Well and dad dad (Her granddad) really likes him, do you think he has ever met elvis?"
Me: no baby I don't think he has
Abby: well where does he live?
Brad: well honey he died

after a few minutes, she asks why did he die?
Brad: he got sick
Abby:why
Brad:he just did, baby, What time music did elvis sing,
Abby:elvisish music, you know like elvis! he sings elvis songs!

Then today we were watching a movie that has to do with ballet, Im not sure what it is called but she has decided she wants to do ballet as well. I asked her why and she says she wants to dance different then gymnastics. I told her that she would have to talk to her daddy about that and possibly not do soccer if that is what she wants to do and of course that is definitely not kosher. So I told her she would have to talk to her dad and see what he thinks, so she called him and very insistently told Brad that she would do all of it gymnastics, ballet and soccer.

It started out very sweetly, "please daddy I will try to do ballet, if you pay for it I will do ballet" apparently he said no and then she started pushing it "come on dad you can pay for it!" then after what I'm sure was more "I'm not sure about that" she proceeded AT the top of her lungs "dad please come on pay for both ballet and soccer, they are different then gymnastics, your an animal!"

YOUR AN ANIMAL DAD AN ANIMAL!!!!

Rainbow song



I strongly recommend that you check out this sweet little song! This is Abby Kabie, practicing her song for her preschool graduation. Brad added the background music and made a cd for her! She loves it! We hope this makes your day/weekend! Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

We Don't Do No Stinking Orange!


Yes we live in TN, however, we don't do no stinking orange! Sorry! Its just how it is!

GO WILDCATS!!!!!

I HATE technology!

I hate Technology! Actually I hate that I can not seem to understand anything that explains to you how it works.

I was trying to add some things to my blog, and it literally took me like 3 hours. I could not understand how to get to where the instructions were telling me. Then I could not understand what I was doing wrong to not get the intended result expected by said instructions. Then I just don't know what some things are.

Why do they have to give everything a really weird name? Actually, it seems to be all done in an acronym which doubles the confusion. I mean how am I supposed to know what that silly acronym is supposed to mean when you don't give me an idea what it is supposed to mean so that I can google for a definition?

I would like things to be more people friendly, not just computer junky friendly! NORMAL PEOPLE USE THIS TOO! This means that there would be an explanation that is not full of other words that I have to google to figure out what I'm supposed to do. I guess that I feel like I'v been in the hospital with some doctor telling me I have lymphoniagitisalksdfjoiuhwkljoiru so that I only understand the lymph part! I mean really!

But I did finally get it so that the rest of my family can read this blog! And I hope that you all enjoy!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Any Ideas for dinner tonight?

Well I got one!

As we all know I have a list of foods that could send me to heaven at any moment! They include in no particular order:
- goat cheese, I love how creamy and tangy it is and that it melts in your mouth!
-chocolate
-sauteed mushrooms
- nice piece of ribeye
-butter
-butter
-butter
-and yes more butter
-almond flavoring ( don't ask me why but oh man!!!!!)
-oreos but only the double stuffed (I will finally eat the cookie, but that is just a recent thing, since Abby started throwing her cookie part away I gave in, I mean I could easily make the filling I know how but I am just too lazy!)
- I think I could also put cumin in any recipe ever! (I have like 3 jars in m cabinet)
-sour cream
-well any soft cheese almost
-reeses peanut butter EGGS! I like the peanut butter its different than real pb!

But anyway getting back to my dinner plan for you!
Beef Stroganoff
I have done this with a roast as well as a skirt steak as well as with button mushrooms and portabella. I prefer the skirt steak and portabella but either will work!

I will give you both recipes one is done in a crock pot while the other is done on the stove using a broiler for the meat!
Both of these feed approx 4-6
Crockpot version

2lb chuck roast
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup beef broth (you can also use 2 cups hot water and 2 beef bullion cubes)
8 oz sour cream
8 oz button mushrooms
2 tbs butter
1 tbs flour
1 tbs onion powder

In your crockpot mix together your broth, mushroom soup and onion powder.
Place the roast in the crockpot with the liquid mixture and set to cook on low for 6-8 hours.
When meat is done I took it out to mix remaining ingredients.

I sauteed the mushrooms, I like he salty flavor that they obtain (not to mention that I can just eat them on their own) but you don't have too. You can just put them into the liquid mixture until they are tender.

I also found that my "gravy" was a little thin so I made a rue and thickened it up. To do this in a sauce pan melt the 2 tbs of butter and then add the 1 tbs of flour, after you have mixed these together add some of the liquid from the crockpot to thin out the flour mixture (I mixed about 1.5-2 cups of liquid) then pour it back into the crockpot. Add the mushrooms and the sour cream.

I shredded the roast before putting it back in the crockpot, but you do not have to. Then pour over "tickle noodles" as Abby calls them really egg noodles. I serve mine with peas!

Ok the better of the two ways!
1.5-2 lb skirt steak
2 portabella caps
8 oz sour cream
2 cups of beef broth (or bullion)

Preheat your oven to broil, Make sure that your top rack is about 5 inches from the top. On a cookie sheet, season the skirt steak with salt and pepper (don't forget to do this to both sides).

While the oven is preheating is the perfect time to cut your portabella mushrooms. I cut them in half and then cut them into strips, so that they would match the skirt steak.

Sautee the mushrooms and add 2 cups of chicken broth and simmer for 20 minutes.

After the oven is preheated, place your steak under the broiler for 10 minutes, flipping in the middle! (I prefer mine more done so I cook mine about 15 minutes)
When steak is done allow to rest for another 10 minutes.

When you take the steak out, it is time to add the sour cream to your mushroom/broth mixture. Make sure to mix if well. Just trust me! This is my favorite part!

After the steak has rested cut it in maybe .25 inch thick strips AGAINST the grain, meaning the grain goes this way ====== and you will cut this way ////. Then put the meat in the sauce and serve over tickle noodles!

I hope that you enjoy!

What is it about cheetos?

Tyler is addicted to cheetos! He will eat as many as you will give him (I think, I've stopped at 3!) I mean he knows what the bag looks like, but not like its hard since it is so brightly colored and aimed at kids.

I don't know it if is a texture thing, or whether he likes that it fits in his hand, but I know that I have to figure out how to make them! The point being I can't get him to eat anything but cheetos at the moment. Now normally this would be a huge thing and I really don't agree with this, but he has to eat something! I mean he wont eat yogurt, baby food, or real food, he usually will eat whatever I am eating, but he won't even do that. So I've done what I refuse to do for my daughter and give him several options to see if he will eat it. It was a no-go!

Ok I got to go he just tore my phone to pieces!

Monday, March 15, 2010

Full of fun!

This week is going to be full of fun.

Tyler has gone from crawling all the time, to walking ALL THE TIME! This is all great and all, but means 2 things, 1 I no longer have a baby but a toddler, this really saddens me as Brad is very against having another baby, that I so desperately want! 2 NOTHING and I do mean NOTHING is safe from my toddling man! I am going to really have to be on my A game. However the good news, is that he is completely ADORABLE! When he gets tired he just lays down on the floor to rest for a minute and then gets up and toddles across the room. He is also starting to be more entertained by himself and the surroundings, he still wants me in the same room so he can see me but doesn't have to be within arms reach. YAY!!!!! WE ARE MAKING PROGRESS, now if I could only get him out of our bed!

The next truly awesome thing, is that one of my dearest friends is on spring break this week! I can't wait to see her and spend a little time with her with or without the kiddos. She makes me happy! (not to mention she loves to bake as well, she has a cooking blog with some of her girl friends check it out threepeasinthekitchen.blogspot.com)

Then Brad and I may actually get to go out on a date with out kids. Well Maybe, but we are definitely going bowling on friday night, not sure about the child care situation. Brads' co-workers are all getting together outside of the office to have a fun night of mingling, bowling! This should be fun, all the guys seem like a good group of guys. (yes mostly men, as it is a military job) Tyler is as I type tearing apart my hubby's ACU's, he loves the velcro!

Then on thursday morning I am getting my hair did! I'm so excited! Livi has a new color that she thinks that I will love, but has never used, so she needs a guinea pig! Of course I'll do it, after all if I don't like it I can always dye it again! No biggie!

In other news! We have decided to homeschool! We have done lots and lots of research, praying, and thinking about it and have decided this is the best thing for us! I will not be doing this on my own, There is a great program in this area that I can send her to 2 days a week to help me with this. We have a webinar this week and are going to look at the curriculum at an open trunk show, kind of thing on the 24th. I am actually getting really excited about this whole idea! Which is strange because I never thought I would ever be able (or want) to home school!

Next best thing! The Weather is starting to turn around! I'm loving it! Rainy, but at least it is mostly warm!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Sometimes...

Sometimes I wonder how capable I am?

I know I can cook,
I know I'm a relatively good mom,
I know that I love my family,
I know that I used to be really good at my job,
I know that I am a good soldier,
I know that I can cook,
I know that I am a good baker,


Things I don't know,

If I can return to the sound stable person I once was and really want to be again,
If I can homeschool my kids, which I really think I want to do,
If I can ever loose this nasty 40 lbs that seems to be hanging on for dear life,
If I can successfully go back to school and obtain some sort of degree, even if I never go back to work,
If I can regain the friendships that I messed up so many years ago, I miss them terribly
If my body will ever allow itself to fix the problems it has,
If we will ever be able to move to Nashville,
If I will ever be out of debt, Im so very tired of not being able to buy the things I want whenever I want!


If you can't tell, I ran out of diet coke last night, and am 1 going through withdraw, 2 having a very down day, and lastly have a very very fussy clingy child!

Thanks for your time on the Elise Rant site! Please join us again soon!

Friday, March 5, 2010

My poor baby!


I feel so bad for Abby, my beautiful, precious, little girl! She complained of her tummy itching on wednesday, and after looking I noticed that she had a rash. So I proceeded to call her school to make sure that nothing was going around her school that she could of caught. There wasn't, so I took her to the doctor, to see what was causing the rash.

Upon getting to the doctor, they looked at her and immediately ruled out chicken pox and a few other rashes. After looking in the dermatology book, she could not find anything that looked like the rash that she had, and decided that Abby was having a reaction from the shots she received two weeks ago and sent us on our way.

Upon returning home, we just continued on with our normal activities, including school since we were told it was nothing contagious. Thursday when she woke up I took her temp, to make sure she had not developed one, which she hadn't and checked her rash, which actually looked better. After school I checked her again and the rash continued to improve, so I stopped worrying about it, until I checked at dinner time. The rash had gone from steadily improving to being worse than the first time I had looked at it. Luckily for Abby she was in no pain, and it only itched a little, but not enough to bug her. I called her doctor since she had told me to call if it got worse, and talked to the ding bat secretary, and she couldn't help, nor have the time to pay attention to my concerns, so I rudely hung up on her and called my mom, who(m) is a nurse practitioner. Mom proceeded to tell me that "there is no rash that is fatal, calm down" so I did

Friday morning the rash had also started to go down (in a weird way it seemed to do this after sleep) so I thought nothing about it until after lunch when it once again had progressed. So we went yet again to the doctor. (FYI its bad when a walk-in-clinic knows you by name! ) Where they had 3 different people look at her, 2 nurse practitioners and 1 doctor. They finally decided that Abby did not have a reaction from her shots, she as a condition called Pityriasis Rosea.

So the research that I have done says that this is a skin condition that is harmless, both to Abby and in not contagious! Apparently they don't know what causes it, there is no medicine to make it go away, and it lasts 4-8 weeks. The rash stays on mostly the chest and back, may go up the neck and down the arms and legs, although with Abby it stops at her bottom, chin and elbows. So basically it just looks horrid! (and itches a bit)

Thursday, March 4, 2010

The many faces!

So, my son has more facial expressions than I can tell you, here are just a few of them! I hope you enjoy these pictures!

Tyler " SHE'S GONNA DROP ME!!!!!!"




"MOMMY what is it and why is it bigger than me?"

"Those mean men are trying to dress me up! MAKE IT STOP!"
(if you look close above his eyebrows you will see the devil horns on his forehead)

This is just so sweet, those FAT cheeks! I just want to squeeze and eat them up!


"HAHAHAHA you have no idea where all that skebbi went, he he he"



This is one of my favorites
"I got my eye on you!"



I had to put this one in here, my two boys! I just love em!

"I will pout at you"
Tyler has perfected the art of pouting, I mean he can turn it off and on like a light switch.



"YOU DON'T LOVE ME!"


"Mommy is so comfy"


"Proper use of a pappy"


"I be good boy mommy, I pomise!"




" I told you NO MORE PICTURES, WHO CARES IF YOU ARE PRACTICING!"

"I'm not up to anything, I'm no rascal."



Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Being an Adult SUCKS!!!!



My hubby told me that I could buy a dutch oven. I've been asking for one for a while. After doing a bunch of research, I finally settled on a Le Creuset 7.25 qt cobalt blue one. I showed it to Brad who then proceeded to say, " are you sure that is big enough?"
me: it should be, why
Brad : I mean there are bigger ones.
me: but they cost more than this one by $50.
Brad: But I want you to have what you need.
me: are you sure
Brad: yes
me: Okay.
So, I did some more research and decided that I would get a 9 qt round one. After narrowing down the ro
und or oval. Which was
more difficult than you would think. An oval one would be good for large roasts, chickens, turkeys, etc. But then I got to thinking "I've been cooking 6-7lb chickens in a 5 qt round crockpot, so I'm sure that a 9 qt round dutch oven will be fine.

Once again asking Brad to make sure that it was okay. I got really excited, and was determined
to get this item, along with a baking dish that was on sale! I eventually wanted the whole collection. After all cobalt blue is my absolute favorite color, although the dijon color is pretty cool too.



I decided that it was time to order my items, and went ahead and set up my cart with said items to be ordered. Then I decided although we just paid off 1 card we have probably 3 more and a medical bill to pay, so I decided that money I was going to buy all this lovely dream with I would pay off some debt. So now I am sad and feeling lonely and depressed (okay not really about the depressed part but the sad part yes) but in the end I know I made the right decision