Zucchini Cookies

So classes started this week at MATC, which means homework, yuck! Thankfully so far it seems pretty easy, I can't see my classes being to difficult really....... so Savannah has been sleeping worse than normal, which means I've been super tired/cranky! It also means it was hard to get up and go to work today..........and then work sucked! The power went out for an hour, then my computer crashed & it took over an hour to get a new one set up..........I should have just stayed in bed today!

So Monday night I made a new recipe using some of the zucchini I picked from Aunt Missy's house. The recipe was taken from allrecipes.com and is called Zucchini Cookies. I made Scott try them right away to make sure they were edible, then I sent a few to his parents house and then took the rest to work. The recipe made a total of 28 cookies for me & I followed it exactly except I didn't have raisins (and I don't like them) so I skipped that part. Also the recipe says 8-10 minutes, but with using my Pampered Chef large bar pan it took 12-13 minutes. I thought they tasted pretty good, I think Scott liked them better than I did, and the girls at work ate them right up. The cookies were super soft! I wish I could make chocolate chip cookies that turned out that soft! This will be another recipe I use again to use up the 20+ cups of shredded zucchini I have in my freezer.

Buffalo Style Chicken Pizza

So I finally got my hair cut yesterday, haven't' had a hair cut since last October! Feels nice! Got about 6 inches or so cut off! Today we went over to Jessica & Justin's house and picked their tomatoes, got about 14 pounds, so we're at about 35 pounds total I think. School starts tomorrow! We need to run to MATC tomorrow night to get a textbook for me because we didn't end up doing it yesterday like I planned.

So yesterday we tried a new recipe from allrecipes.com - Buffalo Style Chicken Pizza. Instead of buying a pre-made crust (about $3) we bought a little envelope of mix to make it ourselves (about 85 cents) - which made it a lot cheaper. We probably ended up using closer to 3oz of hot sauce instead of 2oz, but other than that we didn't change the recipe at all. And can I say AWESOME! We will definitely be making this again, it was so good! The chicken we used was from the leftovers from the whole chicken we made with Jessica & Justin last weekend - so this was very cheap to make & it tasted better than any frozen pizza you could buy.

Coming Out

So I'm in the middle of the creating the "new" me. Dyed my hair yesterday, going to get it cut tomorrow.......if only I could stick to loosing weight! It feels great when I work out, I just wish I had more energy to work out more often........I should really start "sleep training" Savannah.....but I just don't know if I like that idea............hmmmmm

So Wednesday I finished reading Coming Out by Danielle Steel. While it wasn't my favorite Danielle Steel book I did enjoy it. The basic story is 2 teenage girls "coming out" of adolescence and going into adulthood. Obviously the book has more of a "hidden" meaning then the obvious and it seems by the end of the store most of the characters have come out of something. Whether it being into society, or admitting who they truly are, or even just stepping out of their comfort zone to support their loved ones. Now I'm going to take a break from Danielle Steel (even though I still have a bunch more that I had picked up from the St. Dennis Festival) and read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

Whole Chicken in a Crock Pot

Last night we took Connor to his new school to meet his teacher & drop off his school supplies. I'm not entirely thrilled about the looks of this new school, and from what I've heard from a couple of friends it's not necessarily the best place to take your kid....oh great.....thankfully it's only 1/2 days, and it's only for 9 months! I'm sure Connor will have fun with all of his new friends he'll make!

So this past weekend before we went to Devil's lake we through a Whole Chicken in a Crock Pot. We put Garlic Garlic & Onion Onion (Tastefully Simple) & some paprika like the recipe suggested. When we got home it smelled great. The chicken had been sitting a little longer than the recipe suggested and just fell apart from the bone so Justin didn't have to carve it (don't think he liked that), but I thought it tasted great. We got enough chicken left over to put in some Alfredo & also make a spicy chicken pizza this coming weekend. I also did the chicken broth & got 2 containers full in the freezer now thanks to this! Quick & easy dinner plus left overs! Can't ask for better!

Devil's Lake

Got all of Connor's school supplies bought at Walmart, and we also finished up Ella for her birthday and a couple of other odds and ends. Now we need to figure out what we're going to have for dinner tonight..... maybe a tenderloin.......not sure yet.....

So yesterday with Jessica & Justin we headed up to Devil's Lake. We originally were going to go to Mt. Olympus yesterday, but the passes we had were expired, so instead we went there. We had a lot of fun hanging out and swimming, eating lunch and getting ice cream before we left. The worst part of the day was Savannah getting stung by a bee....my poor baby! Her shoulder got all red, but she took it like a trooper and only cried for a little bit. It was a nice day and exhausting! I had never been to Devil's Lake and it was really pretty, it would have been nice to walk around but difficult with the kids so we didn't.

Five Days In Paris

Being lazy..... just ate lunch, now I want another nap, lol. But can't............gotta actually get something accomplished today. Gotta run and get Connor's school supplies, gotta get some laundry done, and then clean up the kitchen from yesterday.Ugh........why can't weekends be 5 days and week days be 2 days?? Wouldn't that be great!!

On Thursday I finished reading another book. This time I read Five Days In Paris by Danielle Steel. I've noticed a lot of her books are set either in Paris, or New York, or in the case of this book - both. 2 people in horrible marriages meet in Paris, 1 in which doesn't even realize how much of his life he has compromised because of his marriage. After meeting and spending a few wonderful days together, they try to go back to their lives but nothing is the same anymore and they must decide to compromise even more of themselves or walk out of their current lives forever. You should obviously be able to tell how much I enjoy Danielle Steel books by how often I read them. I like reading stories that challenging and keep me guessing, but I also like books like these that I can fly through and really believe that something like this could happen out there. Since I bought so many Danielle Steel books at the St. Dennis Festival in July, I'm going to read another one next.

Preschool 2 Here We Come

A lazy Sunday today. We spent most of the morning just relaxing around the house, and now it's after 1 p.m. we're finally going to make lunch & then head out and buy Connor's school supplies. We have an open house on Wednesday to see the school & meet his teachers, and we have to bring the school supplies with us. Thankfully we didn't buy the supplies ahead of time because the list on the website is different then the list we received in the mail this week.

So this past Tuesday was Connor's last swimming lesson of the summer, and guess what? He passed! After 3 sessions of being in Preschool 1 he can finally move onto Preschool 2 next summer! Next summer I'll probably just sign him up for Preschool 2 twice because it seems a lot more difficult than Preschool 1, and it's hard to imagine that he'll pass the first time considering it took him 3 times for this part of it........we'll see I guess.

Slow Cooker Dump and Go Cheesy Chicken

Well Jessica, Justin, and the family were going to go to Mt. Olympus tomorrow.......but since I'm dumb and didn't look at the dates on our free passes, we just realized tonight that they had expired, oops! So instead we decided we'll head out to Devil's Lake. I've never been there, so it should be fun!

So this past Tuesday we tried another recipe from allrecipes.com - Slow Cooker Dump and Go Cheesy Chicken. Instead of Garlic Powder I put some of Tastefully Simples Garlic Garlic & Onion Onion on it. It wasn't the best chicken recipe in the world, but it was pretty good. It made enough for dinner & 2 lunches for me. We served it over brown rice. I might make it again, but I would maybe try some of the other suggestions in the comment area and maybe some other "cream of" soups.

Zucchini Bars

Why is it some days there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day? Today is definitely one of those days! Didn't get home until about 8 p.m., had to put away groceries, Scott gave the kids a bath, run out to the garden, played with the kids for a little while and now it's 9:30 which means I have to feed Savannah shortly and go to bed.........run run run.........

Sunday, for Katie's Birthday Celebration I made some Zucchini Bars, which I found the recipe on allrecipes.com. I used some of my zucchini I grew in the garden and made a cream cheese & powder sugar frosting, yummy! I rung out the water from the zucchini as some of the comments suggested, but because of that I think I ended up not putting in enough zucchini. It still tasted good but it could have been better. I think if I would use this recipe again I would add more zucchini and try adding a few more spices to it. Also I really liked the frosting, but some people thought it was a little to sugary so maybe cut back on the powdered sugar.

Look Whose 21

So we played some more in the front yard tonight, it was pretty fun. It's nice to get some energy out with Connor, and since I've been slacking on my work outs this is kind of at least some exercise! Sitting here watching Hell's Kitchen & just chilling now after eating some ice cream (yeah....kind of defeated the purpose of exercise, lol).

So last Wednesday was my wonderful cousin Katie's 21st birthday! I didn't get a chance to get out with her to celebrate, but I owe her a shot! We did go out to Aunt Missy's house this past Sunday though so I could make her a yummy dessert & give her - her present. (discover gift card & some candles). Hope her birthday was wonderful & I can't wait until I can drink & go out with her for a night!

Happy Birthday GG

2/5 of the work wee done! It's gone by pretty fast too. The "new" girl at work is no longer "with" the company, which means I'm super busy at work getting her stuff done & my stuff done. I'm not going to lie.......I'm kind of glad she's gone........but I won't go into a lot of details and bashing here.

So this past weekend was GG's (Scott's grandma - GG - great-grandma - Connor started calling her that when he was a baby and it kind of stuck) 79th birthday! So everyone went over to her house and celebrated. We ate some good food, sat around talking for awhile, she opened her presents (we gave her some candles & some pickles that Jessica & I just made) and then had some cake. Hope she had a great birthday and has many more to come.

Garlic Dill Pickles

So it's Sunday. Going over to GG's later to celebrate her birthday and then Aunt Missy's (I think, still gotta call her). Going to make some zucchini bar things and decorate them with pink letters for Katie's birthday. Still have to make both of their birthday cards and wrap their presents.......usually I'm so ahead of things, it's kind of weird to do things at the last minute!

So yesterday Jessica & Justin came over and Jessica & I made some Garlic Dill Pickles. We doubled the recipe and ended up getting 14 pint jars even though we should have gotten 16. Our cucumbers were pretty little, so that's some of the reason we didn't get the 16. We did have a little bit of the brine left over, but I'm not even sure it would have been enough for 1 more jar or not. 4 of the jars we put some of my jalapenos from the garden to make them a little spicy. Can't wait to try them in a few weeks or months to see how they taste .

Lemon Garlic Tilapia

Why do weekends go by so fast? It's basically night time already, which means theres only a little over 24 hours before it's time to go to bed and the week starts again! Ugh! I think we should have 3 or 4 day weekends every week! Anyway we can make this a law or something?

So last night we tried a new recipe from allrecipes.com, Lemon Garlic Tilapia. We're not huge fish fans, but this was pretty good. I could eat it again. I think next time we do fish though we'll do the poor man's lobster style cause that's probably the best way to eat fish! We served this with some Pasta Roni which rounded out the meal pretty good. Scott said we should have had some asparagus or something to go with it....oops, maybe next time. This was also Savannah's 1st time trying fish, and she probably loved it the most! She ate way more of it than Connor did! So I'll say this recipe was a success.

A Reliable Wife

It's finally Friday night, yay!! Time for the weekend! Tonight we're going to do a little shopping, run to Kohl's & then the mall. We have a meeting at Karate America tomorrow to learn about possibly enrolling Connor in karate. Might can some pickles tomorrow with Jessica. Sunday we're going over to GG's house to celebrate her birthday and then afterwards I'm assuming we'll head out to Aunt Missy's for dinner & celebrate Katie's birthday which was on Wednesday.

Finished another book this week! I haven't read a book in 3 days in a long time. It was A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick. I really enjoyed the book (reason why I read it so quickly). It had me guessing & wondering the entire time that I read the book. From the website: "Rural Wisconsin, 1907. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt stands alone on the train platform anxiously awaiting the arrival of a visitor. The women who arrives is not what he expects. This women, this reliable wife, will decide whether Ralph Truitt lives or dies." I definitely recommend others to read this and hope they enjoy it as well as I did. Now onto the next book, another Danielle Steel one.

Yogurt

Connor had his 2nd to last swimming lesson tonight, I hope he passes this time! Not sure if he will, but I sure hope so! Savannah's finally getting a tooth! Connor got his 1st tooth at 7.5 months old, so she's about a month behind him. I can see a little white through her gums (that took a lot of effort to look at, lol), so I'm hoping it comes soon!

The other night Savannah got a new food, yogurt! I gave her a bread stick and a spoonful of yogurt on her tray and let her go to town. (she also had peaches & tomato's she dipped in as well). This was an extremely messy meal, and anyone who is a neat freak probably couldn't have done it, but it was a lot of fun. She seemed to love it and it covered most of her head when she was done. She went straight into the bath after that. She did seem to eat more than normal though, which ended up being good, cause she only woke up once that night! Don't know if it was a coincidence or not, but I'll take it!

The Ranch

Almost 8 o'clock already.........why does work drag, but after work go by so fast?? Connor had swimming lessons tonight, then we ate dinner, Scott gave the kids baths while I read a little, and now we're going to watch some TV eat a little ice cream and then Tuesday is done...........really? Why is there always so much to do around the house, but I never have the energy to do it? I'd rather play with my kids, read a book and watch TV............I really need a maid......lol.

So yesterday I finished reading The Ranch by Danielle Steel. I really enjoy her writing (as you can probably tell by now since I've read several this year already) and this book was no different. It was about 3 women all going through a rough time in their life (1. going through divorce #3, 2. runs an Aids clinic and recently discovered she had given herself the disease accidentaly & #3 a women whose son had committed suicide a year before and since then her husband has shut her out completely). They all met back in college and decided to take a vacation in Wyoming together, the vacation changed their lives completely. Although I loved the story & the outcome for #1 & #2, I'm not entirely sure I love how it ended with #3.............still kind of processing the ending......either way if you like Danielle Steel type of writing, read this! Next Book: A Reliable Wife.

Noah's Ark

So it's not even 6:45 p.m. and both kids are clean & ready for bed....however they probably will not go to sleep for a couple of hours. Dinner was extremely messy so Savannah desperately needed a bath before anything else. Went in the garden tonight, picked 3 more tomato's and some more broccoli, starting to get a good little crop :)

So this past Saturday we met up with John, Carol, Kari & Hanna and took Connor to Noah's Ark (Savannah stayed behind, seemed like a little much for so little). We had a blast playing in the park. We enjoyed a lot of time in the wave pool, took Connor on Flash Flood twice & Congo Bongo. Hanna, Kari, Hanna's friend Izzy & I went on Black Thunder, and John, Kari, Hanna, Izzy, Scott & I went on Kawabunga. Other than that we just played in the kiddie areas & Paradise Lagoon. I would have liked to do a lot of the other rides, but it was just crazy busy. We would have liked to stay longer than we did too (left at 3p.m.), but we had to go pick up Savannah. Next time we just bring Savannah & stay till close I think! I don't think we're going to have another chance to go this summer, so it'll just have to wait until next year.........can you believe the summer is almost over? It just goes by way to fast......Connor starts school in a month.....

Eggs & Potatos

Ran to Kohl's tonight because I noticed online they had a TON of clearance, so I wanted to see if the same was true in the store, and yup! It was! I spent $74.01 and saved $395.85. If there was an extreme couponing for clothes, that'd be what I do, lol, now if I could only do the same with groceries we'd save so much money.......but I'm not sure if it would work for us or not because we eat pretty cheaply as it is. Anyways, can't wait for tomorrow, taking Connor to Noah's Ark & I get to use my new waterproof digital camera!!

Since we haven't gone to the grocery store in over a week, food in the house is getting pretty scarce so Wednesday night we ate up the last of the eggs & potatoes, and we gave Savannah some. She seemed to enjoy it a lot, she definitely seems to be eating a lot more food recently, she ate probably 1/4 of an egg cut up and a few pieces of a potato, which is a lot for her. She's definitely getting the hang of this Baby Led Weaning Stuff, and I'm so glad we went this route with her. No fighting to get her to eat, most of her calories are coming from breast milk, which is now recommended for the first year to be the majority of the calories, so whatever she actually eats is just in addition to not in replacement of breast milk. If we have another baby after this, we will definitely be going this route again!

8 Months Old

Monday is almost about done, thank goodness. The new girl at work (whose in charge of the billing) called in today...on the last day to finish up July business...........which means me & my boss were running around like crazy trying to get her job done plus ours........it was not fun, but we did it. Hopefully tomorrow at work is less eventfull and less stressful!

Today Savannah is 8 months old today. 2/3 of a year old, only 4 months until her birthday. Can you believe how fast the last 8 months have gone by?? Well, at 8 months old, Savannah is around 16 pounds and over 28 inches long, she doesn't have a Dr. apt until mid-September, so these are just estimates. She can feed herself small pieces of food (cheerios, 1/2 blueberries, etc - has been doing this for a month, but is getting better every day), can sit and lunge forward towards toys (almost got on her belly from a sitting position tonight). She can go in circles while laying on her belly and I'm guessing she will probably figure out how to crawl soon. She tried so hard tonight laying on her belly she got her feet on the ground and pushed her butt in the air. She is my little princess but she really needs to start sleeping better! She still gets up on average 2 times every night, which is exhausting........excited for the next month to see how much more changes in the next few weeks!