The Weekend Rundown

Before I tell you about my weekend which I'm a few days late I know, I'd like to wish my Mom a very Happy Birthday! The kids were so cute on the phone wishing Grandma a happy birthday. Evan asked her how old she was and she said 63. Evan responded, "63?" and Em said, "I'm three!" LOL. I said to the kids it's like putting the two numbers of their ages together, 6 (Evan's almost six) and 3 (Em's three of course). They liked that.

Now onto my weekend rundown, which I was so excited to tell you about my great shopping find that I forgot I hadn't recapped our weekend. Now it's midweek and it's pretty much old news, but I thought I'd give ya the rundown since it was a weekend full of fun things. It didn't start out so great, but thankfully it did end up to be a nice weekend. Saturday morning I made sure to get on the computer at 10am because Kid Rock tickets went on sale for the January concert at Van Andel in Grand Rapids. This is a concert that I've been talking about going to and want to go to very badly. I was expecting it to be hard to get tickets and expecting to get crappy seats. My friends Jessica and Brenda were planning to go with Greg and I so I was really excited. It was to be a fun night out in January. After sitting at the computer for a few minutes waiting and waiting for Ticketmaster to pop up the available seats to my surprise some half way decent seats popped up (section 106) at the cheaper ticket price (there were two different prices). I snatched them up and was so excited that I was going to be going to see Kid Rock! I then went through each step in the checkout process. I entered my credit card info and billing info and clicked the "submit" button and was waiting for my confirmation. Guess what? No confirmation! Instead something popped up that said "billing info error" and then said "your tickets have been released!" ARE YOU KIDDING ME? It couldn't be. I was fuming and very mad to say the least. I'm not sure what the problem was, but it didn't even give me a chance to fix it. I immediately quickly tried to pull up some more tickets, but by that time they were in like section 202 which was on the side of the stage and more than likely blocked by speakers and half way behind the stage! These tickets were even the same price as the section 106 tickets. SERIOUSLY? I of course kept trying and tickets were gone. I even called and was on hold forever with Ticketmaster and of course got nowhere with them. What a waste of an hour and a half Saturday morning. I'm still ticked about it! Ugh!

Thankfully the rest of the weekend went well. I then headed off to the MSU Arts & Crafts fair at the Union. I've gone for many years now and this year the gal who I got Em's cute MSU outfit from was going to be there. I got some hats for Em, and our annual family Christmas ornament. If you remember from last year, I posted a pic of all our family ornaments over the years. Each year I get us an ornament.

Here's our 2010 family Christmas ornament.

I chose a tree this year since this is our first year having an artificial tree. I thought it was fitting for our 2010 ornament. Saturday afternoon I ran errands and then that evening was bunco night with the girls! Our last bunco of the year and this time my friend Carmen was the hostess. It was "Slumber Party Bunco" so we got to wear our pj's! Right up my alley since I love hanging out in my pj's! It was a fun night and I walked away with one "baby" bunco prize and won $20 for the most wins! Woo Hoo!

Sunday we had to miss out on "Winter Fest" downtown E.Lansing which is where the kids usually get their pics with Santa, see the reindeer, make a Christmas ornament, and we attend the "Chili Bowl" and get to sample local businesses chili and soup. Instead we had two birthday parties to go to. It was actually two parties in one though because it was for my friend Marie's kids, Kyra and Connor. They're birthdays are only a couple weeks apart so she combines their birthday party. Brilliant if you ask me because it's only one prep, entertaining, and clean up! We all had a great time at the party and had a fun afternoon. That wraps up our weekend and now another weekend is almost upon us!

My Great Shopping Find

Don't you just hate it when you're looking and looking for something and you just can't find it anywhere? That's the case right now for me when it comes to finding a doll house I like for Em. I've kind of put the idea of getting her one from Santa on the back burner because I feel like I've exhausted all places to find that "perfect doll house." I saw one last year at Home Goods, and I just don't think it exists anymore. With that said, don't you just love it when you're not looking for something and you come across a great find you really can't pass up? It's even greater when you're at Home Goods, Marshall's, or TJ Maxx because those places are really a hit or miss kind of place. It's all about the timing and sometimes you can walk in those stores and find absolutely nothing, or find a ton or things you must have, or find that perfect something you're oh so happy you've stumbled upon.

That was the case with me last Thursday when I stopped into Marshall's looking for a birthday present. After I got the birthday present I went in for, I was going to just go check out and leave but decided I might as well go around the store the other way from the way I came in, and see what they got. It was a good thing because I passed by this table.


I instantly thought this little table would be perfect for Em's room as a nightstand. Once we turned her crib into a full size bed, I've always had in the back of my mind that some day I'd get a table to put next to her bed. She's three though and at this point doesn't really "need" one, but it would be nice to have to sort of "complete" the bedroom set. However, I ended up taking a picture of the table and walked out not buying it. That's considered a "no no" when it comes to a store like Marshall's because more than likely if you go back to get something you saw, it's usually gone. I went home and showed it to Greg and see what he thought. I was a actually a little surprised because usually he just says whatever. He thought it would look fine in her room and said to get it if I wanted to.

Well of course since I got his approval, I figured I was sure to be out of luck going back on Friday to get it. I headed into the store hoping the table would still be there, but thinking if it's not then well, it's not meant to be. Sure enough though it was there, so I guess it was meant to be! I couldn't find anyone to help me so I took everything off the table that was on it and carried it to the front. Em was so excited we were getting a table for her room. I noticed a few small scratches on the table so figured I'd ask if they'd take anything off. They did so it was an added bonus and I got an extra 10% off. It wasn't a huge amount, but it was something. So I walked out with my table and it only cost $36! What a bargain!

Here's Em's dresser. It's black and has like some distressed marks on it (like on the top middle drawer, I added her ladybug knobs).

Once again here's the table. (The flash made the table look a little shiny, but it's really not.)

Here's Em's bed with the table next to it.

It matches perfectly, don't you think? The knob is almost the same as the knobs on her dresser. The slats on the bottom match the slats on her headboard. And the table even has the distressed marks on it. I think it will be a perfect spot to put some bedtime books for her and eventually a lamp to go on top! As you can tell I'm pretty excited about my shopping find! It has sort of replaced my frustration about the doll house issue temporarily.

Turkey/Chicken Noodle Casserole

Everyday I get recipes emailed to me from Allrecipes. Often I think, "that sounds good, I should try that for dinner." Then I forget about it. The other day I got this recipe for Chicken Noodle Casserole that sounded really good. I had some turkey left over from Thanksgiving and thought that I could make the recipe with turkey instead of chicken. So that's what I did and it turned out really good. Here's the recipe from Allrecipes.

Ingredients

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 6 ounces egg noodles
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup sour cream ( I used reduced fat sour cream)
  
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• 1 cup crumbled buttery round crackers
• 1/2 cup butter

Directions

1. Boil chicken in a large pot of simmering water. Cook until no longer pink in center, about 12 minutes. Remove from pot and set aside. Bring chicken cooking water to a boil and cook pasta in it. Drain. Cut chicken into small pieces, and mix with noodles.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together mushroom soup, chicken soup, and sour cream. Season with salt and pepper. Gently stir together cream soup mixture with the chicken mixture. Place in a 2 quart baking dish.
3. Melt butter in a small saucepan, and remove from heat. Stir in crumbled crackers. Top casserole with the buttery crackers.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes, until heated through and browned on top.

I omitted step one since I already had the turkey cooked up and just boiled some egg noodles. However, if I were to make it sometime with chicken I'd probably omit step one again and just use a rotisserie chicken. I also didn't have any crackers and rather than running to the store, I just omitted that part too. It tasted fine with out. The recipe also said wonderful as leftovers topped with melted cheese. So towards the end of the 30 minutes of cooking I mixed in some shredded cheese on half of it to try. The half with cheese was good, as was the half without. I'd say you could make it either way. It was a great recipe to use up that leftover turkey and the kids really liked it so it was a win win meal!

The First Snow

Well here we are starting December and we got our first official snow today. Why I live in Michigan is really beyond me because I hate this weather. I don't like to be cold, I don't like to drive on the icy roads, and I hate having to bundle up in heavy winter coats, not to mention bundle up kids in hats, coats, mittens, boots. I'm happy just grabbing my purse, keys, and slipping on my flip flops to head out the door. I probably shouldn't complain too much since we have had a pretty warm fall for the most part. However yesterday it was 50 and today I wake up to 27 degrees and snow on the ground. That's a little too much of a change for me. I know it's only December 1st, but here's to hoping winter moves in and out very quickly!

I'm so proud of myself that I got all the Christmas decorations up before December hit. I don't remember the last time that happened. Evan helped me put the rest of the decorations out Monday night after Em went to bed. Yesterday morning when we came downstairs Em walked into the living room, and says, "Bootiful" (it sounds like boo when she says it), then she walked into the middle of the room, opened her arms up, spun around in a circle while saying, "It's so bootiful in here." She did this a few times. It was just too darn cute. She absolutely loves the Christmas decorations this year! It's so fun to watch her look at everything. I'll try to post a picture soon. I meant to take a picture tonight and forgot, and now it's too dark.

Now onto another recipe. It's actually fitting for this weather because as soon as the cold hits, what do you think of making? If you're like me it's soup! It's the perfect meal on a cold winter day. I usually make my soup up ahead of time so it's already made come dinner time, and then there's always enough for leftovers so that's another added bonus of making soup! Greg made this soup about a month ago for the first time. It was from my soup cookbook (the same one I posted the Italian Chicken Soup recipe from that's on this blog). The first time we had it we both liked it, but it had a little too much garlic we thought. We're not huge garlic fans, but put in what it called for anyway. The next time we made it, we tweaked the recipe a little. I'll post the recipe and then tell you what we changed.

Beef & Bean Soup

Ingredients:
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 carrots, sliced
14oz. canned black-eyed peas (found in the canned bean aisle)
1 cup fresh ground beef
1 tsp. of each- ground cumin, chili powder, and paprika
1/4 head of cabbage, sliced
8 ounces of tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2 1/2 cups of Beef Stock
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring frequently (about 5 minutes or until softened). Add bell pepper and carrots and cook another 5 minutes (we cooked a little longer).
2. Meanwhile, drain the peas, reserving the liquid from the can. Put two-thirds of the peas (reserve the rest) in a food processor or blender along with the liquid from the peas. Process until smooth.
3. Add the ground beef to the pan and cook until well browned (we cooked our burger up in a separate pan before hand and added already cooked).
4. Add the spices, cabbage, tomatoes, stock, and pureed peas and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
5. Stir in the reserved peas, cover and simmer for another 5 minutes before serving!

Lisa's tweaks:
I just use the baby cut carrots (that's what I always have on hand) and chop some of those up. I don't really measure them. The second time we made it, instead of using garlic gloves I just put in some garlic powder (didn't really measure, just tasted along the way). The third time I made it with my sister and we tried this McCormick's Garlic Pepper seasoning I have in place of the garlic cloves and it tasted really good. To save time (or maybe because I'm lazy) I didn't drain the peas and just poured all the liquid and 2/3 of the peas into the food processor, reserving the rest of the peas. I used more than a cup of ground beef (didn't really measure) I wasn't about to peel tomatoes so I just used a can of diced tomatoes (with juice). The first time we used beef stock, the next two times we used beef broth (it's cheaper) and it tasted just as good. Honestly I don't really know the difference between beef stock and broth so I figured it didn't matter much.

Note: We sort of doubled this recipe. Well certain parts- carrots, black-eyed peas, ground beef (probably used about 1 lb.), and beef broth. This is a recipe that I don't think you can really screw up. If you double the beef broth (5 cups) and black-eyed peas (2- 14oz. cans) then add however much of everything else you want to your liking it will be fine. You can kind of make it your own to your preferences. If you like more or less of something then add what you desire. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Recipes

Below I'm posting the two recipes I talked about I made on Thanksgiving. Both are very simple to make and very tasty! The first one is the pumpkin bar recipe I saw on my friend Ann's blog. The second one is for the sweet potato casserole. 

Pumpkin Squares 

Ingredients:

1 cup pumpkin 

1/2 cup oil 

2 eggs 

1 cup sugar 

1 cup flour 

1 tsp cinnamon 

1 tsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp baking soda 

1/4 tsp salt 

Directions: 

Add the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients into another (I just put all the ingredients in one bowl). Slowly mix together and beat until smooth. Pour the batter into (1) 9 X 13 pan or (2) 8 X 8 pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. 

  

Frosting 

3 oz cream cheese 

1 1/2 cup powder sugar 

1/2 tsp vanilla 

1/4 stick of butter (4 tbsp) 

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients together. Frost the cake after it has cooled and store in the refrigerator. *Note- I made a double batch of these and on one I frosted with the cream cheese frosting and the other I just put cool whip on top. They're both equally good I thought. If you want a little sweeter go with the frosting. If you want a little "lighter" or don't have time to make the frosting, go with the cool whip. Next up the sweet potato casserole. I really don't have a recipe for this as far as amounts of each item I put in, as I just throw the items in and mix it to taste. However for the purpose of posting this recipe I'll give you an estimate. You can always add more if it's not enough to your liking. 

Sweet Potato Casserole 

Ingredients:

5 Sweet Potatoes (Cooked) 

milk (about 1/4-1/2 cup) 

butter/margarine (about a 3-4 tbsp.) 

brown sugar (about 1/2 cup) 

cinnamon (probably about 1/2 tsp.) 

nutmeg (probably about 1/2 tsp.)  

mini marshmallows (top casserole with at very end) 

Directions: 

Boil the sweet potatoes until soft when poked with a fork. Approximately 20-25 minutes. Drain potatoes and let cool enough to peel skins off. Mash with potato masher and add the next five ingredients (NOT THE MARSHMALLOWS). Mix well and pour into a 9x12 (or whatever size casserole dish you have) baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and top with mini marshmallows (enough to cover top of casserole). Place under broiler long enough to get marshmallows toasty brown (I leave the oven door cracked a little and keep an eye on them because they brown very fast). Note- You can also add a small can of crushed pineapple (drained) if desired.

Big Ten Football Champs

After a nice Thanksgiving dinner Thursday and a successful day of Black Friday shopping, Saturday ended even better. My beloved Spartans ended there special season beating Penn State at Penn State. I had a feeling on that day back in August when we went downtown East Lansing to "Meet the Spartan Football Team," that it was going to be a special season for the Spartans. Many didn't believe in the Spartans and underestimated them, but in the end they came away with a record of 11-1. That record earned them a share of the Big Ten Championship along with Ohio State and Wisconsin who also have 11-1 records. It's also earned the Spartans a BCS Bowl Bid which there's a lot of controversy over. You see there's a three way tie in the Big Ten and only one team gets to go to the Rose Bowl. Because of tie the bowl game is determined based on the BCS rankings. Well that means it goes to Wisconsin who is ranked higher than OSU and MSU. However, many disagree and I'm one of them on determining it by the BCS rankings. Wisconsin beat OSU, MSU beat Wisconsin, and MSU and OSU did not play each other. That ends up looking like this between the three teams: MSU is 1-0 (with their win over WIS), OSU is 0-1 (with their loss to WIS), and Wisconsin is 1-1 (with their win to OSU and loss to MSU). That means MSU is UNDEFEATED against the co-champs which you would think would mean they would go to the Rose Bowl. Well these are all new rules this year with the BCS, and had they not changed and had last years rules, MSU would be going to the Rose Bowl. The whole BCS thing really is a bunch of crap anyway. It's such a bummer, and you might say well, MSU should of beat Iowa which that loss hurts, but then had MSU won, MSU would be 12-0 and still would most likely be on the outside looking in at the BCS Championship Game. MSU gets overlooked more times than not and unfortunately get no respect outside of the Spartan "family." It's pretty sad when Coach D has really turned this football program around and is a well respected coach. So with that said, there's not much one can do, but sit and wait for the bowl game to be announced. Most likely it will be the Capital One Bowl against Alabama. We're still proud to be going to a bowl game and would love to end the season with a win. We shall find out Sunday when the announcements are made.

Enough about my bitching on the BCS and with that Big Ten Championship comes a celebration! Saturday night MSU opened up the Breslin Center to welcome back the team and coaches. Remember we went to celebrate the Basketball team after the Final Four? Of course we weren't going to miss this so we headed on over to the Breslin Center to congratulate the Big Ten Football Champs and celebrate with other Spartan fans. It was a Sparty party at the Breslin and such a great moment to be a part of! Coach Izzo and the b-ball team even came out to support the football program. We met up with my friend Jessica and her family and had a fun time! Here's a few photos from the evening. (Remember my camera sucks and is sloooooow so the pics aren't the greatest.)

Actually While waiting for the team to arrive Evan wanted to go say hi to Coach Izzo and give him a high five. He walked over to him all by himself. Here he is getting his high five from Coach Izzo (Coach gave him two high fives).

Coach Dantonio thanking the fans for all their support and congratulating the team on all their hard work!

Greg Jones (Evan's favorite MSU player), addressing the crowd and thanking them for supporting him on returning for his senior year~

Right before we were about to head out, MSU b-ball player, Draymond Green came out and was gracious enough to stick around for a minute to take a pic with the kids!

Saturday night we got the tree up. This year it's our first time having an artificial tree. Every year since we've been married we've either bought or cut down a live tree. Last year after Christmas we decided to go the artificial route and bought one on clearance. I do miss the real tree and the wonderful smell a real tree gives off, but I must say it was nice not to hassle with getting it in the stand and having to string lights! We didn't have a chance to decorate it though since we had to leave for the MSU celebration so that was for Sunday.

On Sunday we took the kids to see Tangled. Ever since Emmaline saw the movie preview on T.V. she's been saying she wanted to go see it. Finally after a busy holiday weekend we got time on Sunday. It was a really cute movie and Em loved it. Evan even liked it a lot too! After the movie we came home and got the tree decorated. The kids were so excited to help put the decorations on. This year I thought it was only fitting to put the MSU football front and center and top the tree off with a Spartan Santa hat! Our tree is definitely "bleeding" lots of green this year. Here's our tree for 2010!


A movie and decorating the tree on Sunday was a perfect way to end our nice long weekend! My next couple posts will be the recipes I promised to post!

A Nice Long Holiday Weekend

Before I run down our Thanksgiving weekend, I thought I'd let you know that Tuesday and Wednesday went really well watching Brooke. Tuesday was the best day and she only fussed a little and took naps for me. Wednesday wasn't as good as Tuesday, but far better than Monday so I can't complain. She was pretty good for me, and I was even able to get a few things done during the day. Evan didn't have school on Wednesday so he was home all day. It was me and three kids all day long, which could have made for a long day, but actually ended up not being too bad. Emmaline took her nap for me and Evan was a great help with Brooke. He even read some books to her which was really sweet. It was a joy to watch Brooke for Angie, and I look forward to maybe watching her down the road sometime.

With Thanksgiving on Thursday and having lots to do, I prepared some of the Thanksgiving dishes ahead of time. On Tuesday I made pumpkin bars which I got the recipe from my friend Ann's blog. On Wednesday I made my sweet potato casserole. I figured the more I got out of the way before Thursday, the less I'd have to do on Thanksgiving. I will be posting the recipes soon because they were both fantastic! Great additions to Thanksgiving dinner or to just make whenever.

This year we had Thanksgiving at our house with my mom, sister, and my niece. My mom bought the turkey and we all contributed some of the side dishes. I prepared the turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin bars. My sister made green bean casserole, and my mom made the stuffing. It was my first time cooking a turkey all by myself and having to clean the "gross parts" out of the turkey. I made Greg take the neck out because it was just a little too gross for me. I stuffed the turkey with cranberries, an orange, and an apple and then basted it with olive oil. It turned out pretty good, as did all the side dishes. Dinner was tasty and we were definitely stuffed by the end of the meal. Thanks to my mom and sister for all they contributed to help cut back on all the work that goes into making a Thanksgiving meal.

Thursday night we just chilled for the most part. Greg, my sister, and I did make a quick run to Meijer that night to check out a few deals they had for their Thanksgiving sale. We then came home to plan our Black Friday shopping. I've been Black Friday shopping for many years now. I don't even know how long I've been doing it, but I do remember the days when my mom, sister, and I used to go out on Black Friday with my niece Kaitlyn when she was a baby. She's now 14 so it's been at least that long! It's kind of a tradition and while Black Friday seems to keep getting crazier and crazier and isn't like it used to be, I keep getting suckered into going. Now stores are opening earlier and earlier (some even on Thanksgiving night), and I find myself saying I'm not going out next year and then I still end up going.

This year we hit Walmart at midnight and it was of course a madhouse. The "hot" items like electronics weren't available until 5am, but what I really wanted was a Shark Steam Cleaner for the hardwood floors which I was able to get so I was very happy! We got a few other items and then stopped by home to drop them off before we headed out Okemos to hit the other Walmart which wasn't opening until 5am and Target at 4am. We took two cars and my mom and Kaite camped out at Walmart while my sister and I were going to head over to Old Navy and Target. Kaite was such a trooper and sat in line in the cold in her chair bundled in blankets. My mom traded off with her a few times so she could warm up. We had heard that Old Navy was supposed to open at midnight, but when we got there we found out they weren't opening until 4am. We decided to skip waiting there and head over to Target. The line was super long, and I was about to wait in it because I knew the "hot" items I wanted weren't going to be there by the time I got in. So my sister and I camped out in the car and decided we'd just go in after the line was all in. Well 4am rolled around and still at 4:20am the line was still feeding into the store. We decided to skip Target at that point because even if we went in and got some of the items we wanted we wouldn't be checked out in time to get back to Walmart at 5am. We made a McD's stop to pick up and early breakfast for all of us and took it back to Walmart. By the time everyone ate their breakfast and Kaite packed up her chair and blankets there was only about five minutes left to wait for the store to open. 5am struck, the doors opened, and everyone was off to find their bargains. My sister and I got the t.v.'s we wanted and Kaite got her new laptop. We also got a few other things like my hand mixer I missed out on at the first Walmart. After we finished there we headed back over to Target and ended up getting the "non-hot" items we wanted and got through the checkout in pretty good time. All in all it was a successful Black Friday shopping experience! The early morning shopping paid off!

We got home around 6:45am and I ended up only sleeping about two hours before I heard the garbage truck going through the neighborhood and of course Emmaline got up. Late morning we decided to make an impromptu trip to Trader Joe's and Home Goods. Greg needed to go to the camera store in GR so he and Evan went there and the girls went shopping. We stopped in Howell for lunch at Tomato Bros. (which is super yummy if you're ever in the area), then hit TJ's at 8-mile. On our way back to Home Goods in Brighton, we decided to make a detour and head to Ann Arbor to hit that TJ's. The first TJ's was out of the chicken tamales which was one of the items we went for. Thankfully the second TJ's had them since we made the trek there. On the way back we hit Home Goods, but didn't find what I was looking for. Bummer. Then we headed home and got back around 5:30pm. It was a long day and all on about two hours of sleep. A big thanks to my mom for driving there and back and for lunch at Tomato Bros. Friday night my mom and the kids made Christmas cut out cookies which is a tradition. This was the only time we had to do it before Christmas and the kids had fun making them.

I've got more to share about Saturday and Sunday, but I shall save that until my next post as it's late and I should get to bed. We've got a full week this week which means early mornings off to school! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and long weekend!