Just keep Mxing

I am loving my new Mixer!!! I have made two batches of Banana Bread (both from my Betty Crocker cookbook but one I added chocolate and white chocolate chips) and Caribbean Lime Cooler Cookies. Since hubster is on night shifts (oh how I do not like this shift) I am looking through cookbooks, organizing recipes, and need to find my first ice cream recipe to follow. Yep I want to make homemade icecream with Gabe this weekend. Here is the recipe for the cookies that I made this week...sweet but not to sweet, fresh, and close your eyes to let yourself be taken away to a remote island somewhere. Enjoy!

Caribbean Lime Coolers

Ingredients:
1 pouch Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
1/2 cup coconut
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 Tablespoon grated lime zest (about 1 lime)
3 Tablespoons lime juice
6 Tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1 egg
1/4 cup powdered sugar, for dusting

Directions:
Heat oven to 350. In a large bowl, stir cookie mix, coconut, lime zest, lime juice, chocolate chips, butter and egg until soft dough forms.

Drop dough by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 9 to 13 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute and remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.

With a small strainer, sift powdered sugar over cooled cookies. Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday but for a Recipe

So I turned on my camera last night to see if I had any photos to download....here are three that I found....

This one I remember taking

Believe Gabriel trying out his photo skills

This one Nathan must have took

When I have had really low day or just sad it is amazing how looking at this little guy makes me feel better!!!! He reminds me that our life is very amazing right now - we are all healthy, roof over our head, food on the table, and he gives out as many kisses as you want for free!!!!

Now for Dinner:

So I am not a fan of Sloppy Joes but my dear friend Lina made these and wow they are really good!!

Sloppy Joes:

5 lbs ground beef

3 cans tomato soup undiluted

3 tablespoons mayo

3 tablespoons mustard

1 cup brown sugardab/teaspoon/tablespoon (or just, "to taste") hot chili powder

Brown off 5 lbs ground beef, drain fat. Put ingredients over and mix. Serve. (Freeze half of it)

I plan to serve it Twiced Baked Potatoe Casserole with them....Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Greenville, Ohio...home of KITCHENAID

That started my weekend addiction to a MEGA sale. We will start with one picture first.....

Our loot from Trip #1 - yes I made two trips

So less than two years ago my fabulous hubby bought me a Kitchen aid Stand Mixer. It sat in the box at the back of the closet for almost a year!!! Between having Gabriel, losing my love to bake all things yummy, and having no counter space, I never got it out. Then I met my Goddess of Baking friend, Jen Pack, and I just had to get my mixer out and start baking again. Well that didn't happen till this past May when she moved to Alaska and I knew I had to learn how to make yummy bread, cinnamon rolls (there needs to be a reward for her cinnamon rolls), and get back to baking.

Artisan 4.5 qt Empire Red Stand Mixer

(Still for sale for $168 - used 5 times exactly $299 brand new)

Then my friend Jen M. invited me to go to Greenville to do the Kitchenaid Plant Tour. After a 45 minute drive through rural Ohio and seeing corn field after corn field, we were told the plant was closed every year after the 4th of July for repairs and cleaning. However the lady told us to go into town, eat at Maid-Rite and go to the Kitchenaid Store. So off we went.

Yep this is the place we were told to eat....

a drive through place with

wait what is that on the walls?!?!?!

Why yes that is gum with pennies stuck in the middle....

No Jen M. and I were not brave enough to stop here for lunch.

So got brave with Nathan and Lina...

I was thinking I was getting a hamburger not a Sloppy Joe

Needless to say I'm not a fan....

KitchenAid store is FABULOUS!!! Small store that sells new and refurb KitchenAid products. The new products only seem to be a few dollars or so less than regular department store prices. Refurbished are cheaper but still not that great of a buy.....until we were told about the KitchenAid MEGA Sale!!!!! See this fabulous helper (my little blue bird) told us about how during the Annie Oakley Days Festival, KitchenAid does a 4 day Mega Sale. I had my heart set on the Ice Cream attachment and was told to come back during the sale.

Well, after talking with Jen M. I decided that I would go back and check out this sale. Jen M. went on vacation but gave me instructions to call her if I do go and if they have this beautiful yellow stand mixer on sale. So a couple days before I headed up to Greenville my fabulous hubby decided to join me. So we turned our trip into a road trip to visit Greenville, KitchenAid Store, and Bear's Mill. I found this wonderful blogger who listed what all was going on the sale and what each day's sale was....yes check out this site so I don't have to blog all about the sale ;)

http://mainstreetgreenville.blogspot.com/2010/07/legendary-annie-oakley-sidewalk-sales.html

Thursday came, we loaded up the car with picnic lunch, made a pit stop to pick Birthday girl Elena and her mom Lina, had yummy breakfast at Tim Horton's, drove 45 minutes with laughter, talking, singing, and the fabulous song "Corn, Corn, Corn, What's That Smell??" To finally arrive at the sale. People this sale is AMAZING!!!! As posted in the Blog link above, each day they add to the sale. Lina bought herself a 6qt mixer in this sexy bluish/grey color....

Lina and Birthday Girl about to get their shopping on


Wait you thought I said bluish/grey???

I did!!! This one is my new baby ;)

I bought a new 5 qt Mixer for Jen M., Blender, and Coffee Pot, which resulted in some FREE amazing gifts!!!!! We left the store because it was getting packed and Gabriel wasn't having the stroller anymore. So off to Bear's Mill we went. This is a working Mill and not what I expected. The lady inside was very rude, wouldn't offer up any information about the Mill, brushed Nathan off when he was buying coffee, and in the end I am glad I didn't make a special trip just for the Mill. That being said, Lina got some great service from the lady and she explained there are some walking trails around the Mill. Other than that, I will do more research on the place...like why is this thing hung from the Mill???

Yep that is a noose.....umm why?!?

After a quick trip at Bear's Mill we loaded back into the car and home we went. We did such a great job that I was bitten by the Greenville KitchenAid Fevahhh...the fevah spilled over onto my friend Catherine. Saturday off we went to Greenville. Which resulted in my beautiful new mixer above, a 6qt mixer for Catherine, a 6qt mixer for my Goddess of Baking Jen P (which KitchenAid mailed her her loot), a couple new kitchen small gadgets for each of Catherine and I and some GREAT free stuff again!!!!!

In the end, if you are in Ohio plan to go to the sale next year!! Not in Ohio....call the store and place your order! If your order is over 50bucks they will ship for free...yes people FREE. Next year we won't be here in Ohio so I will be placing a phone order for this double waffle iron I have my eye on!

So to recap on our Loot (Me, Lina, Jen M., Jen P., and Catherine)-

1-Coffee Maker

2-5 Mixers

3-Blender

4-Coffee grinder (free)

5-3 ice cream attachments (free)

6-2 stand covers (free)

7-2 meat grinders (free)

7-2 5qt glass mixing bowl (free)

8-5 kitchen timers (free)

9-2 prep bowls (free)

10-I know I am missing two more things but can't remember right now.

Under Construction...

Blog will be undergoing some changes this next week....will resume to blogging soon!! Especially my story about the MEGA Kitchenaid Sale!!!! Bare with me as I make myself learn how to jazz up my blog.

Cowboy kinda mood...

Two years ago my fabulous hubby bought me a Kitchenaid mixer. I finally broke it out of the box and have used it four times now - this thing is AMAZING!!!!!! Anywho, so I have this recipe from my Madison St. Mom called Cowboy cookies. Everything you can think of are in these cookies - peanut butter, chocolate chips, oatmeal, and coconut....ohhh how I LOVE coconut. So here are the cookies that I made followed by Nachos - NACHOS!!!!!!!

Cowboy Cookie Recipe
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup brown sugar 2 cups regular oatmeal
2 eggs 1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla 12 oz. pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups all-purpose flour 7 oz. coconut
1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup peanut butter, optional

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter in a large mixing bowl: add sugars mixing well. Add eggs, vanilla and peanut butter.
Combine flour, soda and salt: add to creamed mixture, mixing well. Stir in oats and remaining ingredients.
Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto lightly greased cookie sheet. bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet immediately and cool on wire racks.

Yield: 4 dozen.
Freezes well. Place two cookies back to back wrapping in plastic wrap.

**After trying for 10 minutes to upload pictures, I hear Gabriel waking up. So will upload pictures later and info about Nachos too. Off to celebrate Pancake Friday with just Gabe and I**

This is why I am a SAHM....

I get to wake up in the morning and make our son semi-homemade Chocolate Chip Pancakes. Sorry for the blurry picture but Gabe gobbled up THREE pancakes and I just had to get a picture of this adorable smile!!! So the phone was the closest camera I had. I blame First Watch for Gabe's love of chocolate chip pancakes and since I could go broke eating there every morning for breakfast, I got up before Gabe did and made us breakfast...our usual is grits, oatmeal, or cereal.

Then tonight we webcammed with my parents and had the BEST time!!! Gabriel was so full of energy (not normal because of the time change we usually webcam right before his bedtime). He talked, played, counted his numbers, said animal sounds, and best of all....showed his papa (still working on a name for grandma) his dance moves!!! My goal tomorrow is to get a video of Gabriel dancing. He is the cutest thing dancing and must say, watch out Lady Gaga!!! ;)

How I hope the rest of the week is a great if not better than my Monday!!!

Yep that's hottttt!

Gabriel has a girlfriend (yes he is only 19 months old) and we like to joke that we have already arranged their marriage. Gabe and Elena get along so well!!! They love on each other, entertain one another so well, give each other kisses, and will fight but a minute later back to being the best of friends!!! Out of all of Gabe's buddies, Miss Elena is the only one to make Gabe giggle nonstop. Watching these two together just melts my heart!!! An added bonus is that Nathan and I LOVE Elena's parents too :D

So yesterday we went over to the George's home and helped celebrate Miss Elena's 2nd birthday. I forgot my camera but Lina had the birthday party a Rock Start theme. Guitars, music, balloons, bubbles, lots of laughter, great food, and such a YUMMY cake!!! Happy Birthday Elena...your future mother-n-law loves you!!

Then that night we had a date night. It started out as a double date night, then was going to be a quad-date night, but ended up a triple date night. We had sooo much fun!!! It is rare that you become friends with someone and have your husbands get along too. I really love Catherine and having so much fun getting to know Jessica, that in no time I know I will love her too!!! The best part of the evening was sitting back and watch all three of the husbands talk and share stories. I am surprised we didn't get kicked out of P.F. Chang's from laughing so loud - well maybe it was just my loud laugh ;) We really missed our fabulous friends The Walker's but hope next time they will be able to come!!!!!

After P.F. Chang's we went back to the Mize's house (Catherine and Jessica are neighbors so makes get together super easy!) and sat around a fire pit. Let me tell you, for a perfect Saturday night, tell some stories, have a fire, the makings for S'mores, a man named Nenose, and you will truly have the best evening!!! Here is to many more Saturday nights with my military-family.

Me, Catherine, and Jessica

Awe...such a cute little belly!!

Oh, just a finally note.....the lights outside P.F. Chang's that light up the building are HOT!!! How do I know???? Well see what happened was.....let me just say, pay attention to where you are standing when you are about to take a picture. Otherwise you will end up with a burnt thigh, 5 minutes of non-stop laughter, but two really cute pictures.

Look within yourself

and not liking what you see, can be really scary and sad. Week ago I just felt down about myself. So after blogging I made a list of what I am changing and it all started with Facebook.

How I allowed myself to get sucked in so deep with FB I seriously don't know. But instead of dwelling on it I am fixing it!! I have deleted all pictures of hubby and son off FB. Pictures now will be found on our password needed, secure, Shutterfly account. I am making myself stop updating my status....period. I am going cold turkey because I was finding myself updating my status' three to four times a day!!!! That is just plain wrong (IMO of course).

Now I won't delete my account for two, well maybe three reasons.
#1 - I can't expect family and friends to email me pictures of my nieces and nephews or their kids when they already upload them to FB.
#2 - I plan GNO and Playgroup Activities -
**after 20 minutes of sitting at this computer and typing out all the drama, I have realized that I am still way beyond pissed to type things and blog about it. So I will just say join the playgroup on FB...period. For GNO, I will no longer be planning...period
#3 - I joined a group on FB (Fun Days 101) that is all about things to do in Dayton and the surrounding area. I love this group!!

Now onto some positive notes....

#1 - For four weeks now I have been doing a Bible study - Anointed, Transformed, and Redeemed - I truly have been enjoying myself, the class, and the lessons!!! This is my first Bible Study, ever, and it couldn't have come more at a time when I needed it the most in my life!!! I will blog about some of the things that I am learning and truly trying to live my life by.

#2 - Gabriel is 19 months today. He has such a passion for life and he is only 19 months old!!! He is always into everything, learning, touching, on the go, and fills our home and hearts with laughter and such indescribable joy!!!! Nathan and I still find ourselves smiling and amazed that God has given Gabriel to us. We truly are blessed beyond words.

#3 - I am slowly starting to see my true self again. Working out, letting go of FB, planning stuff, and drama, is really what I need right now. Just wish it hadn't taken me this long to realize that I have been heading down a path that is not healthy and basically that is not me!!!

Oh I seriously don't know!!!

Gabriel is almost 19 months and this past week I have been feeling like a crappy wife and mother. I truly feel like I am letting too much outside stuff affect how I am raising Gabriel and the way I am as a wife. My goal today was to workout, mop, and put laundry away. I did one of these things - workout!!! WOOHOO Day one of Jillian was tough but it felt great!

Then I look at my dirty floors or the laundry that is piled up on the kitchen floor and in the laundry baskets (everyone has their own basket to help separate the clothes), and just feel like I suck as I wife/mother. When Gabriel was born Nathan and I were beyond blessed with such a happy, easy, loving baby. I was rested (yes I slept for 3-4 hours, nursed/bottled, napped, and even read books), cooked meals every night (after the first 3 months of getting used to being a new mom), and this house was SPOTLESS!!!!!

Now jump to 18 months later and I am lucky if my husband has a cooked meal ready for him and the toys at least shoved into a corner. Nathan tells me all the time he loves, respects, and appreciates me, but I don't feel it for myself. I also seriously don't understand how in the beginning I had all this energy and ran a fabulous home and now....I feel like the walls are closing in on me with all the mess.

Something has to give or change and it has to happen ASAP!!!! So I have promised myself by the end of Sunday the floors (kitchen and bathrooms) will be swept and mopped. All laundry will be put away into drawers or hung in the closet. Then next week, I am grabbing trash bags and throwing out the junk that I haven't touched in 6 months - donated or being tossed....either way I can't continue like this. I am disappointed in myself.

**Side note** I shouldn't be hard on myself for today because today Gabriel was in the mood to dance, play, read, and hang with his momma. So for days like these I am okay with not doing housework or cooking a meal because I know my fabulous son will not want to hang with his mom forever. It is those days when Gabe is playing by himself and I am sitting on the couch doing nothing that get to me.

30 Day Shred...

So last week I didn't do so great with working out. Life and family got in the way (not complaining because I am very thankful to have a life and family) so I only got 3 days of working out in. We celebrated 4th of July yesterday and truly had a wonderful time!!!! Then everyone started posting pictures and my joy truly turned into saddness.....this weight has got to come off people!!!

So today after Gabe's nap, I put in Jillian's 30 Day Shred to get an idea of what I was about to get myself into. You know it isn't that bad!!!! LOL The workouts are 20 minutes long and all I need is a mat and weights. So I have the mat and will go get some hand weights tomorrow. I will roll out a mat for Gabe so he can "workout" with me too.

I would really like to lose at least 30 pounds before we start trying for baby #2. This also has me getting my butt up and moving because come September.......fingers crossed :D

Too much is out there....

So almost three years ago I joined MySpace and then about a year ago I joined Facebook. Funny how everyone I knew was on MySpace and even I was eating it up. Then it seemed everyone jumped ship to Facebook and since I wanted to stay in contact, I jumped shipped to. I seriously don't remember the last time I checked my MySpace account and really should just delete it (if I even remember my log in and password).

Then we have Facebook. Facebook can be great to keep in contact with family and friends. However it can cause lots of drama, you being "deleted" from someone's page, people thinking you are talking about them and never mind that you have 300plus "friends" on Facebook, and then all the security issues.

So tonight, with my husband out for Guy's Night, our son who has been up off and on for 3 hours now, fireworks still going off at 11pm at night, and my nightly nonsleeping habit, I have decided that I must delete my MySpace account and seriously cut back on Facebook!!!

I am mainly sick of the drama people like to cause and all the security issues with posting pictures and too much information about yourself.

Instead of posting pictures on FB, I will now post them on my favorite site - Shutterfly!!! They have a free, unlimited, password needed site, where you can post pictures and videos. Then you invite people to join or view your photos (password needed) and family and friends can see your life that way.

As of 5 minutes ago, emails went out to every email I have of family and friends requesting them to bookmark and join Shutterfly. Hope they do since in 5 minutes MySpace will be deleted and so will post of my pictures :( If you are a family or friend reading this, on FB and we are friends, and didn't get an email from Shutterfly and would like to follow our family photos, let me know.