Love this idea!

I recently came across this tutorial online and love the idea. I plan to make one for both my grandma and grandpa for christmas. Yes it is a little early to be thinking about Christmas gifts but I would love it if all of the grandkids and great grandkids could write a fond memory they had with them. With some of us in other states it's hard to see one another, but maybe once a year.

I think this idea would also be great for a new baby with cards, little sayings you hear, words of wisdom, sympathy cards for a loved one, birthday cards & bows, wedding & baby showers... list could go on. I plan to make my own, but you can purchase one for $25 at this website.

The Bachelor

I've been tuning in every Monday night to the Bachelor. Usually I don't watch these kind of shows but this season has me hooked. I am really hoping that Tenley ends up being his fiance in the end. She seems the most genuine and down to heart even though she just went through a divorce this past year. Last night I was blown away by Ali, she was my other choice to win. Her work forced her into an unbareable decision between work and love. Which is a hard choice to make in this economy and with a 4 to 1 chance at winning in this rose ceremony. I believe she would of made it to the final two.

The previews for next week shows Jake getting a phone from none other than..... ALI! So this had me stumped on what was to happen next. I always want the scoop even if that means spoiling the end so I did some snooping online and well I found out who gets the final rose. I won't spoil it for everyone!

Weekend Recap

Friday I stayed home since the roads were horrible! Mom, Dad and I went to eat at Randy's Road Kill BBQ & Grill. I had a pull pork sandwich and fries. It was very good and tender. Here is a small ad I did for our paper.

The owner of Randy's Roadkill used to have a small log cabin on a trailer where he cooked BBQ in Kroger's parking lot in Rolla. Afterwards we watched Sherlock Holmes, overall it was a good movie just not as good as I thought it would be.

Saturday we watched Nathan while his mommy and daddy took Blake to see Monster Jams in St. Louis. That evening I did laundry and got my house clean before Mike came over. Once again with the weather we decided to just stay at my house and play with the baby.

Sunday Mom had gone to church early to attend Sunday School so Mike and I took Nathan to church. Needless to say I couldn't tell you one thing the sermon was about. Nathan was very good in church, a little restless, a little or well a lot of gibber gabber... overall a happy baby. After church we headed to my grandma's for dinner where she made meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy and for dessert she made blackberry cobbler! I'm glad my grandma is feeling better and able to do her tradition of cooking a sunday dinner after church. Mike and I watched the Super Bowl at my house, we're very disappointed with the commercials and the Colts not giving it their all. Mom had fixed Ham & Beans with cornbread and fried potatoes for supper.

Go Vote!!

Y107 is currently in first place for winning America's Most Caring Radio Station. Every vote counts!
Head to https://radiocares.childrensmiraclenetwork.org/Login.aspx to vote for y107 so we can win $50,000 to be donated to our MU Children's Hospital. Voting ends at 11:59 p.m. Friday, you can vote up to 10 times a day.

My New Obsession

My new food obsession is Campbell's Chunky Chicken Corn Chowder.

I had brought some home for mom to try and she hated it. I love soup and love eating it at work especially on a cold day like today.

Weekend Recap

Friday
Mike came over after work to help me with my basement. Took us the whole evening getting everything back to where it was, good feeling to have a nice clean house again despite the musty smell.

Saturday
Mike headed back to St. Elizabeth to get ready for his bowling tournament. I was bored and feeling a little ambitious so I decide to help my dad and cousin Zach stack brush. Dad has been cutting the bottom of our cedar trees along the highway. I couldn't believe how much they have grown, we made about 3-4 huge brush piles just from 5 cedars. I will have to post pictures of our progress soon. Afterwards I got ready to head to St. Elizabeth to watch Mike bowl.

Sunday
Headed home to eat dinner at my grandma and grandpa Feeler's. Had meatloaf, baked potatoes and all the other fixings. I'm glad my grandma is feeling a lot better to start up our Sunday traditions like we used to have. Came home to do some laundry then took a nap while Mike watched the game. That evening Dad, Todd, Mike & I played liver pool rummy while mom fixed supper. Mom had fixed roast, mashed potatoes & gravy, cooked cauliflower, corn and custard pie for dessert.

Water Busted My Weekend

Work has been super hectic getting special projects done and our Newcomer's magazine published leaving me very little time to blog lately. I'm so glad it's Friday and have the weekend away from work or so I thought...

Last night I came home to find my dad using the shop vac on my basement, the floors completely soaked!! Literally every room was covered in water. Luckily I've been doing some pre-spring cleaning earlier this week so almost everything was put away and not on the floor to get soaked. Looking at the brighter side, I guess things could be a lot worse! At least it was rain water and not sewer water, which has happened in the past! Very gross! Thankfully with my dad laid off work he was able to stay downstairs using the shop vac until most of the water was gone. To top things off my cell phone decided to die on me today. So hopefully the weekend gets better and not worse.

Hope everyone has a safe "dry" weekend!

White Chili

I came across this recipe from the Pioneer Woman's blog last week and decided to try it for our Sunday family meal. It's a spicy white chili that I served with melted cheese in corn tortilla shells. Recipe below.

Some of the ingredients used. Note: I used the chicken granules instead of the broth. Was a cheaper route!

Boiling the chicken

Sauteing the onions, I had forgot to add the green chilli's to this step

The end result!

Ingredients
1 whole Fryer Chicken, Cut Up (or 3 Cups Cooked Chicken)
1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
4 cloves Garlic, Minced
2 whole Cans Green Chilies, Chopped
1 pound Dried Great Northern Beans, Rinsed
8 cups Chicken Broth
1 whole Jalapeno, Sliced
1-½ Tablespoon Ground Cumin
½ teaspoons Paprika
½ teaspoons Cayenne Pepper
Salt To Taste
White Pepper, To Taste
1 cup Whole Milk
2 Tablespoons Masa (corn Flour) OR Cornmeal

Preparation Instructions
Cover chicken and cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until done. Remove meat from bones. Set aside.
In a dutch oven over medium-high heat, saute onions and garlic for 2 minutes. Add chopped green chilies, then rinsed beans. Pour chicken broth into the pan. Add sliced jalapenos. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin. Place lid on pot and reduce heat to low.
Cook for 2 hours or until beans are done. Halfway through the cooking process, add 3 cups of cooked chicken.
When beans are tender, mix milk with masa (or cornmeal) and pour into the chili. Cook for an additional ten minutes to thicken. Check seasoning and adjust, adding cayenne pepper and paprika if desired.
Add some Monterey Jack cheese to the pot and stir to melt.

New Year's Weekend

New Year's Eve
After babysitting the Allen boys all day I got ready to head to St. Elizabeth. Mike and I celebrated our New Year's at their local bar. It was good to see everyone that we haven't seen in a long time.

New Year's Day
A typical day at the Holtmeyer house never ends up in me sleeping late! Got up at 7:30 and started playing the Wii with Mike and his brother Randy until it was time to eat dinner. After dinner Mike and I headed back downstairs to play the Wii again. As you can tell it is very addicting especially trying to beat your score or Wii age. I managed to go from being 80 to 67 in Wii years, hopefully I can get that number down before too long. Pretty sad in my opinion!! :o)

Later that evening we headed to Mike's aunt Delores' house for a mini Christmas / New Year's dinner since not everyone was able to make it on Christmas Day. For dinner we had lasagna, roast beef, mashed potatoes, salad and green beans. Once everyone was done eating and cleaning up we watched Shay and Kylie open up their Christmas presents before heading back to my house.

Saturday
Got the opportunity to sleep in and loved it! That afternoon Mike and I headed to St. Anthony to the tavern where his dad was frying fish. Ended up staying there until 10 by playing pool, watching the Mizzou game, playing pitch and of course eating fish! Afterwards we headed to Mandy & Lonnie's house to play cards. On our way there Mike and I decided to switch our bibs and surprise them. We had fun and they all got a kick out of it especially since Mike was wearing my pink bibs. Ended up playing pitch there also but this time it was very different, they were playing four point pitch. It was hard to get the hang of it at first and didn't finish our last game until 2 in the morning. Needless to say, we were all ready for that last game to end so we could hit the sack!

Mike and I

New Year's Eve DAY

Spent the day babysitting Blake and Nathan while their mom and dad had to work. They were such a joy to watch!

Nathan and Blake

Dad tickling Nathan, he loves to smile a lot!

Blake trying to wait patiently while "his" Dwayne fixed his chocolate milk and hotdog

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone has a safe New Year's!!

Christmas Weekend

Christmas Eve
Had the day off and decided to take full advantage to sleep in since I rarely get to do that anymore. Mike and I decided to be lazy until is was time for my grandma and grandpa Feeler's Christmas. To kill some time we watched the Hangover and an oldie, Home Alone. Hangover was very funny and a movie even my mom liked, which those type of movies usually aren't her thing!

This year our Feeler Christmas was quite small of about 20 of us considering there is 5 kids, 13 grandkids and 16 great grandkids (and yes I did just have to recount that, still not sure if I got everyone). Which is not including their husbands, wives, girlfriends or boyfriends! Whether our gatherings are too big or small we always manage to make the most of it! After grandma's we headed back to mom and dad's house to have our immediate family Christmas. Made for a long evening, but well worth it! Here is a few pictures from Christmas Eve. I was disappointed in myself this is the only pictures I have from Christmas!

Mike with his corn picker John Deere tractor from Mom & Dad



Sipping on strawberry wine.


Christmas Day
Mike and I woke up early to go to his church for their Christmas Mass. Afterwards his mom fixed pancakes, eggs and bacon. Just ended up being his mom, dad, Steve, Mike and I there to eat. Once again to kill some time until his grandma's Christmas I caught up on my facebook, watched Bad Santa and slept for about 2 hours. Life is just so rough! :o)

Once everyone arrived at Mike's grandmas, we had supper which consisted of smoked sausage, turkey, cheesy potatoes, mashed potatoes and corn. Had a good time visited and exchanging gifts. Afterwards we went back to Mike's house for his immediate family Christmas to open up presents. We spent the rest of the evening bowling on the Wii they got for Christmas.

Saturday
I headed back home to get ready for my Aunt Judy's Christmas while Mike had to help move their cows. Had a nice dinner and visit. Played "Elephant Christmas" with exchanging gifts, it was very entertaining as presents were being passed/stole back and forth. Afterwards Mom, Dad and I watched Bride Wars I got as a gift from Todd. Later that evening I went back to St. Elizabeth to meet up with Mike since I had his truck and to head to his neighbor's house to play cards. After we were done the night was still early so we all headed back to Mike's house to play the Wii.

Sunday
Mike and I headed back early so I could help get the house ready for our Elrod Christmas since both Dad and Chad were sick with the flu. Even though it wasn't actually Christmas on Sunday it felt like it since it was snowing. Played liver pool rummy after we ate and the little ones open their gifts. For anyone who knows how to play liver pool the last hand LASTS forever since you can't lay down without discarding. Usually we barely end up using the third deck but this time we had to break out a forth deck. Mom, Mike and Andy decided to play Skip-Bo afterwards so I decided to "skip out" and clean the kitchen up for mom since I knew she would be going to see my grandpa in the hospital that evening. He is also sick with the flu and may have to have surgery since he was having problems with his bowel.

I am blessed to have such a close family to spend Christmas with each year. We may not always be able to get together all at once, but we make due and cherish each moment spent. I am very grateful to have my grandparents still alive on my mom's side and able to have Christmas each year at their house. Hope everyone had a safe and joyous Christmas!!