August's MONTHLY Meal Planning

Between Monday and Tuesday I came up with an entire MONTH of meal planning! Oh my dear goodness, I am so proud of myself! To top it off they are mostly new recipes :)

Would you like to hear what it is? :D

Week One:

{July 31 - August 7}

Sunday: Pork Chops, Green Beans, Fruit Salad, Corn Bread, Bruchetta

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Bacon and Eggs

Wednesday: Potato Spinach Sausage Casserole

Thursday: BLT's, Corn, Rice, Pasta Salad

Friday: French Onion Soup (hot dogs for the boys)

Saturday: Corned Beef and Cabbage

Sunday: Southwestern Casserole and Corn Bread

[Desserts]

Brownies

Chocolate Crinkles

Ice Cream

Week Two:

{August 8-14}

Monday: Gnocchi, Salad, Green Beans, Eggplant Parmesan

Tuesday: Coke Roast, Potatoes, Glazed Carrots and Onions

Wednesday: Chicken Pot Pie

Thursday: Mediterranean Orzo Salad with Grilled Vegetables

Friday: Pepperoni Bites and Salad

Saturday: Cheese Ravioli, Fried Egg Plant and Salad

Sunday: Catalina Chicken, Rice and Broccoli

[Desserts]

Churros

Cinnamon/Oatmeal/Raisin Cookies

Raspberry Oatmeal Crumble Pie

Ice Cream

Week Three:

{August 15-21}

Monday: Hot Dogs, Green Beans and Potato Salad

Tuesday: Chicken Salad with Roasted Red Bell Peppers and Almonds

Wednesday: Vegetable White Bean and Orzo Soup

Thursday: Pizza Braid and Salad

Friday: Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole

Saturday: Encrusted Mustard Pecan Chicken, Broccoli and Rice

Sunday: Butternut Squash Ravioli and Beef Ravioli with Salad

[Desserts]

Apple Crisp

Cinnamon and Sugar Donut Muffins

Jiffy Cake

Icecream

Week Four:

{August 22-28}

Monday: Italian Meatball Soup

Tuesday: Tuscan Chicken with Whitebeans and Spinach

Wednesday: Hot Dogs, Corn and Pasta Salad

Thursday: Stuffed Shells, Green Beans, Garlic Bread and Salad

Friday: Pork Tenderloin Burritos, Salsa and Chips

Saturday: Southwestern Goulash

Sunday: Ham, Sweet Potatoes, Salad, Bread, Corn

[Desserts]

Jiffy Cake

Sugar Cookies

Cinnamon Roasted Almonds

Bummer....

Today was a pretty sad day. I had recently wrote out the entire month of homeschooling for the boys. Well I woke up Sunday with NO voice. So there goes day uno. BUMMER. I was really looking forward to starting. I will probably wait until next week to start. [everything happens for a reason].

So we pretty much hung out and played all day.

Around 2ish my friend Crystal came over and we went over some wedding stuff. I have a Cricut [adore] and I am cutting out some monograms for her wedding programs. I seriously love this stuff! Shortly after, I left for my Chiropractor appointment and then met up with her at JoAnn's for paper which they didn't have. OH! You'd be so incredibly proud of me.... I didn't buy a thing there. Do you have any idea how hard that was!!??!?!?!

That's about it.

Can I have my voice back please?!

[Sunday FUNday]

Today was a long day. I was pretty much exhaused. But the boys and I had a lot of fun. We surprised daddy and went to the flip to visit him and see all of the progress that they've made. It's looking so incredibly good. I am so proud of him. He's pretty darn amazing and handy :P

On the way home we stopped at a local farm and picked up a couple of tomoatoes and eggplants. Then it was time for a Aldi's trip. The boys were amazing while we were grocery shopping and we had a great time. By the time we got home, unloaded all of the groceries and I started dinner Daddy came home shortly after.

It was a fun day and it was so nice to have dinner as a family

{l.o.v.e.}

Bachelorette Madness

Here's Crystal. My dear friend. Getting married very very soon!

Here she is the night of her Bachelorette Party.

We may have had too much fun ;)

Looking forward to your BIG BIG day! I love you!

Winnie the Pooh and Tigger TOO!

Today I watched Kenz and Abigail. I love these days :)

I had a Chiroprator appt. at ten a.m. and went to get adjusted. On the way home I decided that since it was so hot out, maybe they could play at the playplace in the mall. So I pulled in and the kids played. While we were there the girls cousin works in that mall and she was working that day, but not until 11. Until that time we decided to take a stroll around the mall to kill the last 10 minutes until her arrival. Well when doing that, I had forgotten that there was a movie theater inside! Lucky us, Winnie the Pooh was playing in 15 minutes - so on the spur of the moment we saw the movie! (Werenbergh at Mid Rivers any movie before noon all tickets are only $5) We grabbed a large popcorn and headed to theater #5!

Here's the link to the movie - http://www.disney.go.com/pooh/

The kiddos loved the movie and I did too, it was absolutely adorable and I would love love love to see it again when it comes out on DVD.

After the movie, we headed to the Library to get a couple of books and movies since this week is going to be in the triple digits. So inside this week its going to be! Then we stopped at our house (holy smokes it was hot in there!) to get some food and clothes. The 15 minutes we were in the house we were drenched. We got back to my moms and Jeff was there to pick up the girls so soon, I was sad. The rest of the afternoon was pretty rough, the boys were beyond exhausted and it was showing. Oh! While I was at the house guess what I got in the mail........... OUR WEDDING PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After dinner since my mom has cable and guess what I got to watch.... THE BACHELORETTE! <-- Dork, this I know. Billy was in bed at 7:30 and Finn followed at 8:00. I stayed up for a little bit longer and then got some beauty sleep.

{goodnight moon}

I forgot to add - yesterday when mom and the boys and I went Kohls, my mom surprised the boys with Clifford doggies! They love them. Finn fell sound asleep on the couch snuggling with him ::melts your heart::

Weekend MADNESS!

This weekend was quite entertaining! Since the blower motor is broke and we are waiting for the part to come in.... With these HOT days the boys and I decided to stay at Nani Cindy and Papa Mike's house.

Friday early morning the boys and I got ready, got our bags packed and headed over. We dropped off all of our cold food and headed over to Michaels to get a few things. On the way back to my parents my brother called and said that he hurt his back playing hockey the night before. So once I got home I called Dr. Hoffman and got him an appointment. (If you are ever looking for a chiropractor in the St. Charles area - go there! Amazing! Hoffman Chiropractic Center) We stopped and got Burger King on the way home. I let Billy pick out where we could drive through. Once we got home we all ate and I *attempted* to get the boys to take a nap and it was not very successful! While this was going on I was making Cake Pops and Balls. (Recipe to be posted in our For the Love of Food Blog) - I know its not very pretty (my first attempt at pops) but they sure are tasty!

I made dinner for everyone, it was a new recipe (Thanks to Angela & Jeremey!) I changed it up a bit since I was at my moms and didn't have all of the ingredients. But it turned out great and its almost all gone! (Again the recipe will be posted in the For the Love of Food blog). Bill surprised us, he came over to Mom and Mike's. We thought that he was going over to the flip to work on it and he ended up showing up and staying the night with us! YEH Daddy time!!

On Saturday we woke up, early again! I swear this whole week the boys have been getting up at 5:45-6:30 a.m. WHAT THE HECK! Not that I don't mind starting the day early, but I'm still tired ;) We all had breakfast and then daddy left to go work on the flip and the boys got our stuff together and headed home to change, take showers and get a few things. Uncle Nick and Aunt Stephanie met us at our house and we headed out to Monkey Joe's! Unfortunately the one that was right down the street closed, so we had a hike to make! (Ahh, not that bad, just 35 minutes away or so.) We got to Monkey Joe's and the boys freaked out, we barely made it in the door! I've never seen shoes come off so fast :P We played and had a couple of snacks for a couple of hours and then headed home. When we got home we relaxed for a little bit and then Nani Cindy made dinner for us. After dinner we went out for a special treat to..... SNOBIZ!!! I l.o.v.e. that place. Nani treated us to yummy, delish, goodieness! Finnegan got Rainbow, Billy got Pink Bubble Gum and I got... BUTTERBEER! Oh my goodness. Amazing. I could go back twice a day and still not have enough. Thank you Harry Potter - Thank you! Oh and we wated Red Riding Hood - awesome movie!

Sunday was a 'fun'day ;) We woke up, had breakfast, got ready and went shopping with Nani Cindy at Kohls. I wasn't planning on getting anything, however the 80% off racks kind of was calling my name and I got a whole outfit, plus a necklace for $30. I saved over $73 :) I love a good bargain! Once we got home we had lunch and Nani and Papa headed to Jeff City for the week and the boys and I took a nap. We had a pretty low key evening and it was really nice.

The Good, The Bad and the UGLY

Today was a all around up and down day. Nothing that was heartbreaking or horrific, just a few simple things that made it good and bad ;)

Today I received a call from my Dr. about my MRI results. The good thing is that I finally know what is going on with my back. I have a disc extrusion on my L4, which isn't touching any nerves and two disc extrusions on my L5 which are compressing my L5 nerve root. They gave me a Dr.'s name and I am to call to set up a consultation to see what my options are. Although I am pretty much anti-drug I am hoping to find a way to do this without messing my back up more and possibly surgery. So I am looking at all options.

The blower motor went out today too which = no a.c.! Whew, it was a hot one.