Turkey, parentals, cousins and Denny's!

12-3-14 

Thanksgiving flew by! Deep fried turkey was awesome and I also tried some new sides. Sadly, got so caught up with visiting with my parentals, forgot to take pics of our feast! J and J brought mister O over in the am and we had cheesy egg scramble breakfast and visited with them for awhile. Then my mom and I spent a few hours putting together our dinner. Did most of my prep work on Wednesday while they were driving. Made life much easier! Tried a new recipe for sweet potatoes that involved orange juice, maple syrup and bacon. Also, took the family traditional sausage dressing and added apples and craisins! My other new dish was roasted cauliflower with a ricotta and parm sauce, needs some tweaking but a definite keeper. Getting hungry just thinking about how yummy everything was. Totally forgot to do green beans and the cranberry relish never even made it out of the fridge...

O definitely cleared his plate!

After we finished up dinner, H and M brought B over for an evening snack. Horrible grandma that I am, never made a pie and they were stuck with danish, cookies and ice cream. B loves ice cream thanks to Grandpa Joe! Only one that seemed to mind the missing pie was my daughter. She did let me off the hook though after finding an after the holiday pumpkin pie on sale at the bakery! I have a giant can of whip cream to use up by next Friday so there will be some type of pie in the next few days. I'm thinking apple blueberry!

Meanwhile, the folks and Joe and I had an awesome time. My handsome O came back to see us Friday for a quick lunch. Tried out quesadillas with turkey, dressing and cheese on the inside, cranberry and hot sauce on the outside. A definite hit! The kids headed for home after lunch and we took my parents over to see H and M's house and then all of us along with M's sister and very adorable nieces had dinner at a new (to us) restaurant, Japan Inn. Quite tasty and all of the kids behaved so everyone had an enjoyable time! 

Got home and spent an hour looking at tv and my folks got a taste of the cabinet spirit, check the page for the story!

Cabinet update

Saturday was long lost cousin reunion with the added bonus of two more cousins! My aunt and uncle had all of their kids along with their three grand kids, my local crowd along with us and the folks. Total ended up at 20 of us. Must say, had the best time ever! We caught up on all the good things going on in each others lives, shared a fantastic brunch, a group of the guys managed to get some football in and the little guys made it to the park! Kudos and thanks to our host cousins. Hoping this is the first of many family get togethers in the future! 

Headed out around 4:30 to show off J and J's house before driving back! My son made an awesome goat cheese dip which along with a glass of wine was our hold over until we made it back to town. Believe it or not we ended up at Denny's! Made me realize how much I miss having my folks to hang out with.

Sunday morning the parentals took off and I spent the day recuperating, cleaning, doing some laundry and making plans for the future of a refrigerator full of leftovers! Started off with a pot of turkey bones and veggies, with that stock I think we'll start off with soup at the beginning of the week. Have some leftover sausage scrambled and some onions ready to go! The obligatory turkey salad for lunch was made and I foresee several bags of diced turkey in the freezer for future use! Loving these pint size Ziploc freezer bags!

Hope everyone had as wonderful a holiday as we did! 

BRRR! Teething, Bubble Guppies and my take on the 7 layer burrito.

11-19-14

Wow, can't believe how cold it has been these last few days! Bought myself a batch of cold weather flowers and redid the porch, need those bursts of color! I am sad, no more fresh herbs until the spring, I fear the kids and the little black fruit flies equally! Luckily, my new spicy shelf has helped make it easier to find things in the cabinet and I have plenty of dried spices to experiment with over the winter. I have always been a lover of creating soups and stews and Joe loves to take them in his lunches during the cold weather so it is a win-win for me. Rachael Ray introduced me to the "Stoup" the other day and I am looking forward to trying some of those recipes as well. 

On the grandma front, B has been suffering from extreme teething the last few days. Poor little guy! Everything in my house is covered in drool and he isn't eating well. What he does eat is rather unpleasant later on and his little bottom is getting raw. Hoping these teeth break through quickly and give him some relief, I'm missing my smiling little garbage disposal.

We also made the decision to finally upgrade the cable Tivo to the new mini. Our box was beginning to misbehave and it was getting frustrating so off to the cable office I went. The upside is we now have Tivo in the bedroom and we have four tuners instead of two. This makes Joe very happy. Not too thrilled with the cable company but in too good a mood to rant on them, hope they know how lucky they are! 

The downside, no more Bubble Guppies. We lost the recorded episodes and since Suddenlink no longer has Viacom that means no Nickelodeon, I'm sure you can see where this is going. I do have Amazon Prime which has Season 1 available. They must have figured out that everyone was turning to them because the previously free season 2 now has a price tag. Luckily for me, B doesn't care what episode he watches! The problem is the amount of time it takes to get the TV to the Prime site, download the show and then just have to pray that the internet doesn't blip and kick us out of the show. Hoping the new internet upgrade will help with that problem, keep your fingers crossed for me. 

Have a feeling that some Bubble Guppies videos will soon be making a permanent home at my house...

Delicious concoction for dinner last night! Take one Backyard Produce box, mix well and YUM!

Decided to use avocado, roasted corn, onion, radishes, and some tomato and created a "salsa", indoor grilled some Denver steak rubbed with my Mexican dry rub and sliced fajita style, then made rice with chopped chilis and western style beans. Layer in tortillas with sour cream and cheddar cheese, drizzle with lime, wrap and eat. 

Recipe

Looking forward to next week, Thanksgiving! My parentals are scheduled to arrive mid week and plans include one deep fried turkey, visiting my long lost cousins (my aunt & uncle will be there too), and of course grandson time. I can't think of a better way to spend the holiday! 

My baby turns 25, Semper Fi, turkey breast or turkey roast? and of course B!

11-10-14

There has been so much going on this past week I am not even sure where to begin! First off, happy birthday to my baby girl. She turned 25 on Thursday. I am not sure where the time has gone but all of sudden my babies are gone and these grown people have taken their place. Granted they are all wonderful in their own right but some small part of me still misses those sticky fingers and noses that needed help getting wiped! Luckily, they have given me four gorgeous grand kids to help ease the pain!  

I love you Sweetpea and I hope you had the happiest birthday ever! 

Of course I can't forget to mention that today is Happy Birthday to the USMC! Semper Fi to all of the many friends I have that are service connected. Joe may have retired in 1998 but our Marine Corps family friendships are just as strong as ever.  

Also, please don't forget that tomorrow is Veteran's Day! Take time to remember all of the Veteran's of the past as well as to thank all the wonderful service members out there now. Never take for granted the freedoms that we continue to have - thanks to their dedication, sacrifices and service!

Turkey what? This is a true story. Saw a recipe on Rachael Ray for a turkey roulade that just sounded so yummy I immediately printed out the recipe and invited B's folks to dinner. Off to the grocery store I go. It's November, turkey should be easy to come by. Recipe calls for 2 turkey breasts, 1 1/2 pounds each. After wandering the meat aisle for awhile, I give in and find the meat manager. Believe it or not, no fresh turkey in the store. He does have a frozen turkey breast, 3 pounder!  Thaw it out, cut it in half and you'll be good to go... 

What it was supposed to look like...

Imagine my surprise when I unwrap said breast and find out it is actually several pieces of breast meat tied together to form one large breast. Needless to say this does not make it easy to pound out two squares of turkey to fill with stuffing, roll up and wrap in bacon. I make it work but this recipe will have to be remade in order to post nice pictures of the completed dish. Even though it was falling apart, it did still get two thumbs up from my son-in-law and between the four of us and B there were only crumbs left! 

Rachael Ray's recipe

Speaking of B, he has been a very busy boy these last few weeks. Had his first big boy haircut, has learned the word NO, and is asserting his independence every chance he gets! He is also going through severe pacifier withdrawals! His Momma told him to throw away his paci so off to the garbage he went... Sadly, once you throw it away it doesn't come back. Nap time was very sad but after a few hugs and some pats on the back he gave in and went to sleep without it. Not sure if it went that well over the weekend at his own house but I'm sure hoping he'll be over it by next week when it is Grandma's turn to have him again!

Please note that in the above photo there are very few toys out of the toy box and covering the floor. Seems that B has finally grown enough to take the toys in and out of the box himself! This works as follows: take a toy out, inspect it, decide if it is worthy of staying out or if it needs to go back in. Repeat as often as B deems necessary.

         

               
The food basket is another story, dump it out, ignore all of it and play with the four shapes and shape sorter in the fridge door instead. He does like the Nestle Quik bunny mug that I found in the cupboard. The baby that turned 25, this was hers when she was a little girl. I'm thinking that if I find a few more full size containers and dishes maybe then he'll want to play with the food too. He likes to sort and the little pots just don't hold enough!

Cuisinart, online shopping, the lottery and the creepy crud!

10/31/14

Hope everyone has a safe, fun, candy filled Halloween!

First off, I should report that after six days of torturing the poor girl, I have officially run out of the necessary strength to try to trap her and force a pill down her throat. I figure she'll heal better without the stress and my creepy crud has me so out of energy, I know I'll feel better. Miss Thing is eating and drinking again so hopefully, I'm in the clear! Now, I just have to convince her to let me start brushing her again.

Not feeling too well usually equals an inability to concentrate on any one thing without getting a headache so tend to find myself on Amazon looking up random things that catch my attention... I would like to say that I just look but that would be a baldfaced lie. My big challenge was given to me by my oldest daughter! We both want a food processor and her idea was for me to find a buy one get one free deal (BOGO).

For those of you who have not yet discovered Ebates or SavingsStar, they make things more fun by offering cash rebates at many stores and other sites when you shop online. You have to research what you are going to buy and then figure out who has the best rebate. Sign in to the store through the link on rebate page, shop and then just sit back and wait for your money to be credited to your account. Ebates sends out checks every so often. SavingsStar gives you a choice of ways to collect: cash or gift cards. 

I looked on sites like Amazon, Overstock, Wayfair, Bed, Bath & Beyond and JCPenney researching to see who had the best deal.  I found a better than BOGO deal at JCPenney. Regular price $180 on sale for $99, 25% off online coupon code with free shipping, 6% Ebate and paid for it with a 1.5% cash back card. Guess who now has a new toy for herself and one Christmas gift checked off her list! Nothing makes you feel better faster than using a coupon, getting an Ebate and then paying for it with your cash back card!

Ebates referral link

If you decide to sign up, use my link and I get rewarded when you redeem your first rebate...

New toy equals new recipes to try out. Wasn't exactly perfect but wasn't an epic fail either! 

Tried making dough to bake this veggie tart. Supposed to take out of food processor, roll it out, fill it, then pull dough up the sides. I think using the food processor is going to take some practice. Unfortunately, my dough was so thin it was more like I scooped it up and "painted it" on the sides... A bit more work and then I'll post it to the recipe blog! FYI, filling is butternut squash, apples and leeks. Bottom of tart is covered with an herb and garlic cream cheese along with some crumbled bacon. Tastes a million times better than it looks.

Recipe blog

Spent last weekend celebrating my son's birthday at their annual oyster roast. Made some delicious eats and took them, the turkey fryer and Joe to his house for the day. Best part was having my two handsome grandsons together! Had a total blast, weather was perfect and we spent the majority of the day out in the yard.  

Not sure if this is good or not but I finally won more than a dollar in the lottery! Matched three numbers and that is a whopping $4 win! Only time will tell what the price for that win will be. Today, I'll just enjoy the win.

Gardening, giraffes, recipe blog, B helps Grandma and CT time

10-22-14

Busy weekend! Spent the day Saturday with one of my favorite guys! B and I helped out his folks with some yard work! Translation, I did my best to keep him busy so they could do some yard work... Must admit, this grandma was very tired when she got home. End result, the yard looks great and since my poor hubby had to work all weekend, it kept me from being bored!

Sunday, spent the day recuperating and researching recipes. Joe got home around 4, clocked in a whopping 73 hours for the week. Decided to hit the Empire Buffet (one of his favorites) and then Food Lion. Watched a few of our recorded shows and went to bed early. Hoping that the weekend work eases up a bit! Joe has worked every weekend this month. Have a feeling he is ready for a break from it too. 

Spent Monday with my handsome grandson. These days, he only has eyes for Geoffrey giraffe. Not sure what started this new love affair but it is way too cute for words. After hugging Geoffrey, he moves on to kissing Geoffrey. He walks the giraffe around the house and insists that the kids and I pay homage to the long necked beast! He sticks the giraffe's nose into my lips and goes MMMMWAAAA. Then it is Sam's turn, by the time he gets to Isobel, she is already running down the hall. I'm fairly confident that this is not something I should be laughing hysterically at however, I can't lie, I did make and save a recording. Someday, this kid is going to hate me for having documented all of his cuteness.

Since my daughter decided to share her son with me both Saturday and Monday, I decided to reward her with dinner. Had a ton of Backyard Produce and all of that research on Sunday was begging to be tried out. The end result did receive two thumbs up!

For recipes, follow the link to my recipe blog:

judisrecipes.blogspot.com

BTW, a big thanks to Backyard Produce, they made my day by posting a link to my blog on their Facebook page. You can go to their page and see if for yourself: 

BYP page

FYI, anyone who lives in an area that they serve, you can't go wrong with their delivery service! NC, SC, VA, and DC area. This is the box that inspired the above dinner! The leftovers I made into a delicious salad for dinner last night! 

Back to the cooking, B decided to give me a hand. He helped by taking all of the Tupperware out of the cupboard and handing it to me one piece at a time. Once he emptied the cupboard, he sat down on the stepping stool with a pot and spoon from his kitchen and proceeded to feed Geoffrey! Of course, my phone was in the living room and I didn't get a picture so you'll just have to trust me when I say it was adorable! He also taste tested everything as I went along. Not many 16 month olds with a taste for green beans with sesame, garlic and soy sauce. Couldn't shove them in fast enough! His momma said he ate more when they got home. Is it any wonder why I love this child so much?

Final note, yesterday was CT and doctor day. All good for another six months! Lazy afternoon on the sofa and early night and woke up today raring to go! Thanks H for taking me out to lunch in between appointments and sorry I wasn't up to hanging out and shopping in the afternoon, I owe you one  :)

Purging, selling the Kirby, next chapters, and turning ten.

10-16-14

Original box...can anyone say anal! In that box, yep, original paperwork and VHS demo tape.

Posted this pic a couple of weeks ago on the yard sale site for $75. Cue crickets chirping... My daughter called and asked if I'd sold it yet seems her vac needed some repair and this would be a great temp. No problem. Off the site it came and over to her house. 

Monday, re-posted the newly returned vac for $60. Drum rolls this time! 3 people wanted to buy it in the first five minutes. Marked it ppu (pending pick up) after messaging the first commenter. Set time and place to meet and updated my post with info. Did not deter the masses. The wants kept coming and right up until we met yesterday people were still asking if it was available. I had a grand total of 17 wants! Go figure.

Joe and I bought the Kirby in 1996 for $1000. At that time we splurged to add all the bells and whistles figuring we would be keeping it for awhile. Doing the math that works out to $55.50 per year and after I apply the $60 I sold it for that drops it to only $52.22 per year. Math teachers feel free to use this as a word problem... 

How times have changed, the Shark? $198... Will it last for 18 years, now that is the question!

Of course, getting rid of the Kirby is just a small step in the great purge that has been going on. Have to confess that I found several old handbags that had not been used in more years than I care to admit too. They all made their way to the donation box after being emptied. I have receipts dating back to 2002, $2.50 in quarters, a pair of scissors, and tons of business cards and membership cards from three states. I kept the quarters and the scissors and tossed the rest. 

I did find my favorite key chain! Those that know me will appreciate seeing this again. Still me, haven't changed!

Speaking of change, my parentals have run away from home and are starting on what they are calling the next chapter! Haven't heard a peep from them in two weeks and if my brother hadn't posted proof of life pics (he went to help unpack and re-connect) I would be wondering... Anyhow, mom when you read this, I love you and miss you and hope you guys are settled in! 

Will say, they took the purging to a whole new level! They gave away, sold, donated, and trashed about two thirds of their belongings. They even downsized to one car. I love that my siblings, grand kids, nieces, nephews and myself all now have pieces of family history in our homes. Way to go parentals! Kept the essentials and most treasured items and plan to visit the rest on visits to all of us. Well planned.

As for nieces, Happy Birthday to my sweet baby girl Alacazam! I attended her birth, I am pretty sure it was yesterday but then I blinked and now she turns ten on Sunday. Double digits. No way!

 Love that smile! 

We pause for this brief announcement from Smiley360

10-15-14

As many of you know, I belong to Smiley360. I answer surveys and based on the answers I am matched with missions for different products. I love to do missions for Smiley360. This is a great way to get to try out stuff and talk about if you liked or didn't like whatever it was. They send out the products for free and all you have to do is talk about them! One of the missions I did I earned a gift for visiting a business, and one mission was reading a book! They sent out an email and asked us bloggers to help spread the word that they are looking for more members! Here is the link:

http://h5.sml360.com/-/1w2v

Here's the email:

New Missions… Spread The Word!

New Missions are available on Smiley360.com for big brands of cold sore treatment and children’s cold medicine… and we’re looking for new members to try these products for free just in time for winter. Help get the word out to your followers! 

B's back! Recipe blog, Tumblr and bat cat.

10-11-14

First and foremost of course is that my grandson is home and spent yesterday with me. Big smile, a hug and off to inspect the toys! Did a quick circuit, made sure that I hadn't given away any of his treasures, a few trips up and down the slide and a quick wave goodbye to his dad and we were back in business! I think he turned on, listened to and looked at every toy and book, he even patted a few and kissed his stuffed giraffe twice. Took him a full half hour to want his breakfast. Anyone who knows B, knows that this is not part of his normal routine. This child takes his mealtimes very seriously!! Not sure it was me he missed...

Please note how fluffy the carpet looks, loving my Shark!

Needless to say, we had an action packed day. I found out that he is a genius. The child has an obsession with a show called Bubble Guppies. Our normal day involves Pandora. I am not a huge fan of the tv running all day so I have set up several channels on Pandora and depending on our mood, we choose which channel to listen to. Now B seems to have decided that he no longer loves anything but "Bubbles" and he will sit in front of the tv with a look of pure rapture when the show is turned on. I went into the kitchen to fix lunch and when I came back out this was on my tv screen instead of Pandora:

I'm convinced the child is a genius, his mother texted back to say it was a fluke. We will see. Awful lot of button pushing to get from Pandora to My Shows, and please note what show is highlighted...

We watched his show after lunch and my little genius cuddled up on my lap for fifteen minutes. Score!

For those of you who follow my food antics I have news. I have had several requests for the actual recipes that I have been creating and a few who have made disparaging remarks at being subjected to pictures of said creations. That being said, I spent several days researching blogs of every shape, size and subject. Checked into some blogging communities and even checked out some blog pins! End result, new blog! 

judisrecipes.blogspot.com


Started adding recipes to it based on some previous posts and last night's dinner. 

My biggest realization is that I need to document the steps as well as the final creation. Many of my recipes feature Backyard Produce items. Some of these are lesser known and used veggies so I'm going to try and include information on how to clean, cut, store, and cook with items that were new to me. As always, I'm open to any and all feedback and suggestions! I don't promise that I won't still post the occasional culinary comment here. I will try to remember to post links.

As for Tumblr, kept seeing this site mentioned as I was doing my research so I started an account with them as well. Seems I can post items here and have them posted automatically to my Facebook blog page. I also set up a new Pinterest board for the recipe blog only. I had to do something to pass the time while B was gone. I only have one nephew in college to send cookies to!

New audience? We'll see. Links:

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/judisthoughtfortheday

https://www.facebook.com/judisthoughtfortheday?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

http://www.pinterest.com/judiradnerbrown/recipe-blog/

Lastly, the kids. These two have been really pushing the envelope lately. Way too much energy has been expended on cleaning up after them and their new found desire to ignore the inside of the box... Enough said. Yelled at Sam the other day after he looked right at me, raised his tail, hit the floor and then walked to the box and finished... Guess he decided hiding out would be a good way to remain among the living. Wise choice.

Truthfully, while not thrilled at his location choice, all I could think was "da na na na BATCAT"! Probably saved his life.

Birthday, Pelee mums, autumn, mythology, pomegranates and baking cookies!

10-4-14

Sure did feel the love yesterday! Started off with a card and a Pelee mum, had one of the prettiest flower arrangements I've ever seen delivered (thanks sis), all of my kids called me and Joe and I had dinner out and then he went with me to the grocery store! I'm a lucky girl.

Being me, I looked up what exactly a Pelee mum is. Turns out, there's an interesting story behind them. Fun facts:

1. the first mum bred specifically to be sold in grocery stores during the fall
2. intended to last for one season only
3. indoor plants
4. hate fertilizer
5. require very little water
6. Drum roll here, the first mum to have it's own UPC code 

You may thank me later for this useless info that you will someday be shouting at the tv because it is the winning answer on Jeopardy or Millionaire!!

My brother emailed me this:

I love my brother.

Autumn is slowly making itself known, plants are dying off, mornings are cooler and my anole and frogs are making themselves scarce. Sadly, today I realized that I needed to bring in the hummingbird feeders. Haven't seen any of my little friends for over a week. For all of you, this means cold weather will soon be here and another winter of my whining will commence.

Upside is that it is time to start making soups and stews again. Tried out a great new recipe for potato, leek and ham soup. Backyard Produce came through again with another great box! I am looking forward to a winter of deliciousness!

Trying out some recipes with pomegranate over the weekend, one for pork tacos and one for quinoa and avocado salad. Never cooked with them before so this could be a good thing or it could be a complete disaster... 

Why pomegranate you may ask? Who was Ceres was the correct question on Jeopardy (which I am not ashamed to admit that I knew), this was followed by a yummy sounding recipe on Beat Bobby Flay the same night...

For those that didn't know, in Roman mythology the seasons were determined by Persephone the daughter of Ceres who was abducted by Pluto and taken to Haides. Her mother was not happy about this and as she controlled agriculture (the growing seasons) she turned everything cold. In order to appease her and have warm crop growing weather again a deal was struck to return Persephone to her mother however, while she is in Haides she ate six pomegranate seeds and was thus doomed to spend half a year below ground in Haides (autumn and winter) and the other half above ground (spring and summer). 

In Greek mythology, same story, change names to Prosperina and Demeter. 

And that boys and girls is how cooking with a pomegranate comes about!

In between times I plan on baking cookies (waiting on butter to soften as I type)! Baking is therapy for me, a way to pass time when I am extremely bored. My daughter kidnapped my grandson and off they went to visit my gorgeous grand daughters up north. Joe is working and the kids have been misbehaving so they are avoiding me. Those two are living on borrowed time! 

Cousin time is a good thing but I'm feeling left out and lonely so my nephew will be getting cookies next week... May save a few for Joe, he did carry in my groceries for me yesterday and buy me that gorgeous mum  :)

And the end result is:

Who needs grandma? We have a petting zoo and each other!

Your welcome Ant

Pumpkin Pie, Shark, Sleep Number, a cute little redhead and Kraft cheese!

9-30-14

Wow! What a great week this has been.

Backyard Produce sent me an absolutely fantastic box complete with a pumpkin. I am no fan of pumpkin anything, I have an electric felt covered, light up pumpkin for the neighbors to see as they drive by. With no kids at home and no kids out here trick or treating in the boonies, that is all I need. Everything that belonged to Halloween was given away to my sister and her Halloween crazy family. I will confess to missing my mechanical skeleton. "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out...through my stomach and out my mouth". As he sang, he creaked and his arms and legs moved. My favorite part of the ritual was to turn him on when older kids came to the door and then watch them freak out. (Left him off for the little guys, even I'm not that warped)!

That being said, Joe of course wanted to know why I didn't want to make a pumpkin pie. My answer was truthful and two part. Part one being I don't like pumpkin pie. Part two being that I used to buy it, he would eat one or two pieces, the rest would go rancid and I would throw it out. 

Made the mistake of telling this to my daughter who immediately said, "We love pumpkin pie and so does B". 

Grandma made a pumpkin pie. 

Sleep Number. This is very exciting. Many of you will remember that as part of Smiley360 I did a mission to check out the store and the DualTemp Layer.

The reward was a very awesome pillow. 

Sleep Number Coolfit Foam Pillow to be exact. 

I am in love! It is like sleeping on a fresh pillowcase all night long but you don't have to keep turning the pillow over. Huge plus (not sure if this pertains to all cats or just mine) the kids hate it! They have no desire to lay their furry bodies on my pillow at any time. It has been eight years since I slept on a pillow all by myself at home...

Sleep Number sweepstakes

Sending out some love to Kraft! Bought a bag of shredded cheese, brought it home, opened it Friday and it was not in top form. Looked high and low for the grocery store receipt and couldn't find it so figured I'd just shoot an email to Kraft and at least let them know in case it was more than just my bag. 

Email reply yesterday with a thanks for letting us know blurb, explanation for what could of happened and then a link for some coupons to use as a sorry this happened and we want to reimburse you for your $2.50 bag of cheese. I buy a good amount of cheese so some coupons will definitely be a good thing. Follow link and I now have 2 - $3.00 coupons for new cheese. Way to provide outstanding customer service!

#Kraftcheeserocks

This is the recipe I needed the cheese for, a take on chicken enchiladas. Made it yesterday (yes, I used a different bag of cheese)! Not sure I'm in love with the recipe as is, but definitely worth tweaking. The chicken chili the other night was a much bigger hit. Silver lining? I did find yet another reason to love Rachael Ray. I forgot to spray the pan before I baked the enchiladas, thought I was going to have a mess on my hands - turns out her stoneware is naturally non-stick!

Lucky me. Spent part of my weekend with the cute and adorable Mister O. This little man has to be one of the smartest kids I have ever hung out with. I am not just saying that because I am his Grandma! He catches on to things in a flash. He has no fear, he climbs, jumps, runs, chases cats, zooms cars, reads books, eats, (pretty much all at the same time) and is always smiling and laughing. Remember the old commercials for the Energizer bunny, he keeps going and going and going.

His folks like him to stay up until 8 so when he started rubbing his eyes at 7, had to get a bit creative. Put him in the bed at 8:01 and by the time I got to the door he was out! Slept straight through to 7 am. Had a total blast keeping up with him and hopefully his mom is going to forgive me for all of those new sounds he brought home...

Finally, to my pals at Sam's Club. Last laughs on you! My new Shark arrived and it is beyond awesome! They even threw in a few attachments that you didn't even offer. All that and free shipping too...

For those of you who told me to buy the Shark, I owe you!! As I messaged to my youngest, for the last few years, I feel like I was just pretend vacuuming. I cleaned all of the floors with the old vacuum yesterday so my oldest could borrow it while hers was in the shop. Today, I spent way too many hours cleaning floors repeatedly before the dust container stopped filling up. 

This was the first pass on the area in front of the sofa only...

Six hours later, Joe came in from work and not only could he tell the difference on the carpet, we could both smell the difference. Craziest of all, the sofa is a different color! I cleaned blinds, window sills, the outside of cupboards, dusted furniture and I even have an attachment for cleaning under appliances. I'm sure the novelty will wear off but for today, it was impressive.