Weekend Plans

This weekend I have my nephews on the loan, Blake and Nathan. I swear they are not spoiled, but then again I guess they are. I canceled the Royal Wedding last night that was scheduled to run this morning so I could record the new Toy Story movie for the boys to watch tonight. So yep I guess I can now admit I spoil them LOTS!

Tomorrow I'm not sure whats in store. Maybe venturing to the turkey house, to the farm to see the tows (cows) and possibly a small 4-wheeler ride. Hope the rain decides to hold off. Then that evening mom and dad are coming to get them for their "visitation" time. lol

Sunday is my great Aunt Carol's auction. I'm looking forward to it and again I hope the rain holds off for the day, but I'm not so sure it will. Weather permitting, I plan to make a trip to Lowes after the auction to pick up some flowers for my flower box. Getting very anxious to get this done and to possibly make a flower bed in the back of the house.

Have a great weekend!!!

Tongue-tied Thursday

Meatloaf

Since my mom has been fixing her meatloaf with horseradish in it, I don't think I could ever go back to the regular recipe. I love this recipe. I can't say that out loud around my grandma, so to her, hers is the BEST! ;) I've been meaning to make this recipe since we got the house, but kept forgetting about it. So last night I made it and well there was only one piece left after Mike ate several helpings. So that was a success for a meat and taters kind-of-guy.

All American Meatloaf
Meatloaf:
2 lbs. ground beef
¾ cup oatmeal
Mix together in large bowl.

Glaze:
½ cup ketchup
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. prepared horseradish
2 tsp. spicy mustard

Add:
1 large chopped onion
½ cup chopped green pepper optional
½ cup ketchup
¼ cup milk
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. prepared horseradish I didn't have any plain horseradish sauce, so I just used a tbsp. of the spicy horseradish mustard I had.
2 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
(may mix all together in blender before adding to meat mixture)
Shape loaf in pan and spread about ½ glaze over top.
Place in 375 degree oven for approx. 45 minutes.
Spread with the remaining glaze and bake 10 more minutes.

Wednesday Ramblings

...It's royal wedding week. Are you going to watch the wedding of the year on Friday? lol Sad to say, I have it ready to record. :)

...I'm addicted to watching Cupcake Wars on Food Network. Love to watch the competition and see all the different ingredients they put in a cupcake along with their creativity.

...Yesterday Ree Drummond's book came out. Yay! I'm sure it's a great children's book. I'm a child at heart and anxious to see what it's all about!

...Speaking of being a child at heart, I have the Allen boys this weekend. I wish the weather was VERY warm so we could test out the octopus sprinkler I bought a few weeks ago at Dollar General. I may have to save that for another day. I repeat, I DO NOT spoil them what so ever! Okay, maybe just a wee little bit. :o)

Easter Basket

Here is Mike and I's Easter basket from my mom and dad.


Along with a homemade card made by mom.


Thanks a bunch! Now my yard will have some more color added to it. :)

Spinach Bars

Ingredients
• 3 tablespoons butter
* Next time I make this I will leave out the butter and just use cooking spray. Since I drained a lot of butter off after baking.
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
* I left out the mushrooms since I'm not a big fan of them.
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Melt butter in a 9x13 inch baking dish while the oven preheats.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, flour, salt, pepper, baking powder and garlic until well blended. Add the mushrooms, spinach and cheese, and stir to blend evenly. Tip the baking dish to coat with melted butter, then pour the spinach mixture into the pan.
3. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm and golden. Cut into bars, and serve warm.

Weekend Recap

Friday was a nice quiet evening at home.

Saturday I started baking as soon as I woke up. Took a short break to eat dinner at Mike's mom and dads. Finished baking the rest of my desserts then headed with Mike to cruise the country in search for something to do since the rain had stopped. Had supper at the local restaurant then headed to a friends house to play cards the rest of the evening.

Sunday was yet another morning of baking. Headed my mom and dads for Easter. I was starting to think maybe we had too much food, but to my surprise there was NOTHING left! My aunt made cake balls as well. They tasted like chocolate covered cherry's. She used cherry chip cake with dark chocolate coating. I only had about six cake balls, do to me not paying close attention and scorching the chocolate. Oops! lol Oh well, it's probably a good thing since she made some as well. My spinach bars turned out good, recipe to come. That evening we headed to Mike's aunt house for his families' Easter. All in all it was a great Easter day spent with family.

Spring

Spring is right up my alley along with Fall, on favorite seasons that I adore. Here is a few things I LOVE about Spring.

Red Bud Trees.


Dogwood Trees.


Spring Rain. As long it's not severe storms and flooding. I love looking out at the wet green grass after a nice rain.


And BEST of all, MOREL MUSHROOMS. This photo was taken last Friday of mushrooms my dad had fried up. YUM! This is the only kind of mushrooms I will eat, otherwise I hate them!

See anything wrong with this picture?

No driver? I followed this car on the way to work a few weeks ago. I never did see any gesture as to if anyone was in the drivers seat. Guess this is how my mom feels when people are behind her and say they can't see her head. lol Quality isn't the greatest since it came off my phone, but you get the gist of it.

Well so much for being tongue-tied today with just a picture! :) My grandma Dodie always said, if you got something to say then say it, otherwise you'll forget. So true!

Couponing

Has anyone watched the show Extreme Couponing on TLC? I've been seeing commercials for it and thought these people were crazy. Well after watching it last night, I beg to differ. Before watching it, I thought why in the world would you buy in bulk especially items that you don't use just because it was on sale. After watching the show I realized that they were actually getting all this for FREE, yep I said free! I couldn't believe my eyes and I can see how it can become addicting. One lady's total was going to be over $1,000 and after using her coupons her total was $1 something. Talk about crazy! I don't foresee myself dedicating that much time and work into extreme couponing, but I do try to use them when I can.

Decisions Decisions...

I'm asking for your help. I am so undecided on what to do with my hair. I'm leaning more towards the settle highlights since it will be easier to keep up with. Here is some pictures for examples.

Option 1. My hair with a lot of highlights in it. I'm sure this would be the pick from my mom since she loves my hair blond. Ignore the roots at the top, this was the closest picture I could find in a jiffy.


Option 2. This is a lot darker than I like it. I like my hair to be a light brown, but in order to get it like that it goes to an auburn color at first. Plus with this hair color it's so much cheaper to maintain. I love my makeup in this picture, thanks to a local hair stylist, Michelle. :)


Option 3. I've been seriously considering a look similar to this with settle highlights.


What do you think?

Tongue-Tied Thursday

Sad day...

Keep the family members for a Rolla family in your thoughts and prayers. I felt like I needed to tell someone about this, but knew I shouldn't on facebook. Especially since we don't have a for sure confirmation on the deceased. So sad knowing there was contact with the trapped victims, they just couldn't reach them since they were trapped in a basement with no outer doors. It's most likely a mother and two kids, but don't quote me on that. Very very sad either way. I'm sure it will be on all the news channels.

Wednesday Ramblings

...It's hard to believe it's already Easter time and in just a few weeks it will be May. Where has this year gone already?

...I don't know what I got myself into, but I plan to fix a lot of food for Sunday. At least they are all simple, easy recipes. Dorito salad, spinach bars, carrot cake, cake balls and confetti sugar cookies. Looks like I know what my Saturday afternoon is going to consist of.

...Well I said last week I loved rain! Looks like a rainy week.
Happy Wednesday!! :)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Weekend Recap

Friday I went to my friend's house for a Tupperware/Scentsy party. Had a nice evening with everyone and continued it at the local pub.

Saturday Mike and I headed to Jeff. Had lunch at Pizza Hut and the service was horrible. I wasn't wanting pizza since I had it twice already last week so I ordered the Chicken Alredo. Well the waitress never acted like more food was coming out or told us anything about my food. She quickly hurried back to doing nothing! So after desperation of trying to get her attention, Mike went to ask her and she said it was only half way done! I didn't get it until after Mike was done eating half of his medium pizza. I should have just canceled the order. I doubt we go back to that location. Headed to Target and got a TV! Now if we can just figure out how to program our second remote so we can have DishTV on it. Came home and I made dorito salad for Todd's 30th birthday BBQ at my mom and dads. Spent the rest of the evening at the BBQ. Food was good and had way too many leftovers. I think there was enough pork chops to last two or three more rounds!

Sunday we headed to my grandma and grandpa Feeler's for Sunday dinner. Had homemade chicken and dumplings, corn, green beans, salad, rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy with tons of dessert. Mike and I took gravel roads back to the house. Such a nice day for a Sunday drive.

Ree-Haw!

Not like I don't have enough shows I DVR. Looks like I'll be adding another to the list!

Food Network announced Thursday a new daytime show for the 2011-2012 season featuring Pawhuska resident Ree Drummond, better known as "The Pioneer Woman." Drummond said she is excited to confirm that she will be doing a Food Network show straight from the ranch. The Food Network says Pioneer Woman will air during the daytime. The network is also working with Owasso resident and country singer Trisha Yearwood on an yet untitled cooking series. Yearwood is married to country music superstar Garth Brooks.

Prayers to be sent out...

Keep the family of the Community Christian Church, here in Rolla in your thoughts and prayers. It's sad to see a house of God go up in flames and even more so to know someone is actually responsible for this. A 14 year old in fact. I'm sure he will need lots of prayers as well. Thank goodness no one was hurt.


It happened late Wednesday afternoon.

Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na...Batman!

The batmobile visited Rolla this week. I'm sure it's just a replica, but I would like to think it's the real deal! :)

Tongue-Tied Thursday

Wednesday Ramblings

...Here lately I've been having "work" fever. I really need to get out of this mode and get to work! Blah.

...NOT looking forward to when the pollen is going to be out and about.

...I'm attending a Tupperware/Scentsy party this Friday. Ready to catch up with my Vienna girls again!

...I could really go for a fattening Jay-Burger from the local Eagles! Oh its been far too long since one has quenched my taste buds.

...Call me crazy, but I love RAIN! As long as I have no plans outdoors, it can rain all it wants. :)

...Online banking spoiled me so much that I completely lost track of writing down my check amounts, etc. Since buying the house I took an oath to myself to start writing them down since I will be writing twice as much checks. So far so good...

...I love LOVE our water at the house. It's so yummy and tastes so much better than what I was used to at mom and dads.

...I've been staying at least one night a week at my parents house to cut down on gas. It's not like I don't have the money. I just don't like the feeling that I spend $400+ a month on gas. Almost makes me sick to my stomach. I will be glad when they go back down. Which may be for awhile... darn economy! Just frustrates me how we can spend millions of dollars to help everyone else outside our country when in reality our country is struggling just as much.

Have a great Wednesday! We're one day closer to FRIDAY!!

Flip-Flop Mop

Not exactly sure what the name of my new mope is, but flip-flop mop seems to fit. I had bought this mop last weekend at Target. So glad I did, I love it! I had cleaned the floors the week before and Mike and I are both really good about taking our shoes off. I was so surprised when I used the mop that it was almost BLACK with all the dust/dirt it collected! It was under $10 and best of all the micro pad is washable! I couldn't find an actual photo of the mop I have. The pad is a bright orange microfiber with the rest of the mop being blue.

Weekend Recap

Friday I stayed home while Mike went to bowl the late shift. Did some cleaning and tried out my new flip flop mop I recently bought. More on that later today. After cleaning I went to bed early. Felt great after a long work day. I hate that my busiest days are on Fridays.

Saturday Mike and I took the four wheeler out and made a huge circle on the gravel roads. It was a good day to enjoy the scenery while catching a breeze. I had left the windows open all day since it was too early to turn the air on. Well when we came back home the house was 92˚, so the air came on! Darn it! Pretty bad when it's 80 something outside and it feels like a heat wave. lol Got ready and we headed with another couple to a benefit. They had a great turn out and the weather was so perfect that evening for it.

Sunday we headed to Mike's mom and dads for dinner. After ward Mike had to go help take down the tent that was at the benefit. So I stayed home and did some major cleaning. It felt so good to finally touch up paint in the spare bedroom and to get the carpet shampooed. Not to mention I still have TONS of paint touching up to do around the house. At least one room is completely done. Took an hour nap which I regretted, only made me feel crappy and more tired. That evening we met my mom, dad and my brother Todd and went to Randy's Roadkill & BBQ for supper. Before heading back we all stopped in at my grandma and grandpas to visit with them. You would have thought my grandpa hadn't seen me in years. He stood up and made me give him a big hug and told me how much he missed me. I'm not spoiled at all! ;)

A little much??

I know the most watched and talked about wedding of the year is that of Prince William and Kate Middleton. I recently came across these "royal press-on nails" online. An engagement photo of William and Kate to go on each one of your fingernails. This is quite possibly the cheesiest thing I've seen in awhile. Am I wrong? I do plan to DVR the wedding just because I've always admired Princess Diana and it is the wedding of the year, heck maybe even century. Don't get yourself in too much of a jiffy if your a fan of these. You can only buy these nails in London. Apparently they're already sold out online. Wow. Sorry ladies!

Tongue-Tied Thursday

Wednesday Ramblings

...Finally after 25.5 years of dealing with my curls, I have learned to just accepted them. Through the week it's so much easier to just gel it for work and much healthier for my hair. I hate how it looks both curly and straight. Oh well... life must go on. Frizzy, split ends, breakage and all.

...I miss my coffee drinkers and their random chats. It's been about 4-5 years since I've been a waitress and I can still remember orders of food each one had and the way they preferred it. Speaking of Connie's Restaurant food, homemade biscuits and gravy sounds really good right about now!!!!!

...It amazes me how our local sheriff feels the need to report every cough to the media. It's good to get these drugs off the streets, but come on how many times do you have to keep running this town to the ground... just sayin'

...DISH has decided to play a game with me and not record the Young and the Restless about 2/5 days of the week. Of course it records all the other shows when it should.

...This weekend we're attending a benefit on Saturday at Red Oak Inn in Tuscumbia to help cover medical costs for a friend who recently lost her mother.

...Work has finally slowed down and this week I really wish I was busy since the "big wigs" are here the next two days. It's boring trying to venture into work mode with no access to facebook or the blog world. What's a gal to do? I guess I will have to find something work productive!

Have a nice Wednesday!

Perfume

I was glad my mom decided to get a pedicure while we were at the mall on Sunday, otherwise I wouldn't have bought this spray mist at Victoria's Secret. I went in the store once and refused to let myself buy anything. Well sure enough while I was killing time waiting on her to get done, I wandered back into the store to browse and smell the different perfumes they have and came across this spray mist, Noir Tease. I love it!!

Weekend Recap

Friday I stayed home and pretty well did nothing. Which I loved!

Saturday morning Mike and I worked in the yard. Felt so good to get everything on my list done and before 11! Left the rest of the day to play and enjoy the beautiful weather. Went to his mom and dads for lunch then headed down to the creek behind their house where Randy, Elizabeth and his dad were fishing. Caught tons of suckers. Looked for mushrooms and had no luck, which I figured it was probably still too early. Maybe this week they will be out and about. That evening we all went to Kitty's to eat supper then headed home early. Had a long relaxing day outside and was very sun burnt to prove it. Even my lips are burnt! Guess next time I will learn to bring sunscreen!

Sunday I got up early and headed to pick up mom. We spent the day in Springfield doing some minor shopping. I wish we had a Gordman's closer, love love their home decor! We ate at Applebees then headed home.

Monday I had the day off due to a doctor's appointment. It was so nice to sleep in especially with it raining. :) Spent most of the morning have "me time". For supper I fixed baked chicken, stuffing, cooked cabbage, peas (for Mike, yuck!), mashed potatoes and gravy. It was all very good and luck have it, I forgot my lunch with all those fixings at home today. Darn!

Favorite Spring-Time Meals

This time of the year marks the start of warmth, constant sunshine and to enjoy the outdoors. That's not been the case with our Missouri weather here lately, but with my cooking it would beg to differ. Since we don't have a grill just yet...our oven has been filling in to make these wonderful foil packets. The taste is so much better and I am hooked on them like always. It's just so easy to throw in food such as hamburgers, onions, green peppers and potatoes in a packet, add a little butter, seasoning to taste and pop it in the oven while you can sit back and enjoy the beautiful evening. Plus clean up is a breeze!

Note: picture is a random photo from google.