Menu Plan Monday

I did okay last week, I did not use all my meals and we did eat out once, but this week I'll do better.

Here is this week's list.

Monday - Sausage and Cabbage (still haven't made this from last week :o( tonight is the night!

Tuesday - Beef Tip Steak on the grill, tator tots and salad

Wednesday - Chicken Breasts, Rice & Greed beans

Thursday - Spaghetti, Garlic bread, and salad

Friday - C.O.R.N. (Clean Out Fridge Night) or pizza

Go Check our Laura's blog for more menu plans

The Wedding

We had a lot of fun at the wedding. It was a beautiful service. It was very honoring to God. One thing they did that I thought was very nice, was take communion together. I think this is very nice for all the obvious reasons. But also, they did it while the soloist was singing. They stayed, kneeled down, facing each other while the singing was going on, but they were done with the communion. From my position, I could see my cousin’s face and she was smiling and she and her husband were whispering to each other. IT was really very sweet. I could tell that she was enjoying her wedding.

I, on the other had was a nervous wreck at my wedding, and can’t remember any of it. I think it was really neat that they got to have a minute during the service, to pause and enjoy their moment!


Here is the photo of me and my girls. They had so much fun at the wedding. I have to say I hope my 8yodd matures A LOT before she gets married She had some really scary suggestions like…

The bride should not wear white that is boring; she should wear purple or blue.

Why does the groom wear black that is depressing, he should wear red. Red is a happy color.

They should have fewer flowers and more balloons.

They should have cupcakes for everyone instead of two cakes they have to cut up, that takes too long.

There should be WAY more dancing and a LOT less talking at the reception.

The one thing she did approve of? The bride wore white, decorated flip flops at the reception under her big billowy skirt. It was really cute. Annika thought that was a great idea.

I am VERY scared of this girls wedding. DH is already trying to bribe them into eloping! Bad, bad, man!


Here is a photo of me and the boys, Gunnar was being a bit silly, but they were dressed up. They looked so nice. They even stayed tucked in for the whole wedding. The reception is another story though. :o)

What hansom men I have. Too bad dh had to run inside and work, he looked pretty good too. I did not get a good photo of him :o(

Too Much Information!

***UPDATE BELOW***

Today I went shopping. I hate shopping. I think I need my own tailor because I don’t fit properly into regular clothes. Big girl clothes are too big. They fit in the shoulders but then are too blousy everywhere else. Large clothes in regular stores are not big enough in the shoulders. I go from shop to shop to find something and end up with another shirt from Wal-mart, that shrinks in the dryer and can’t be worn anymore.

So I need an outfit for this wedding tomorrow. (Okay need is a bit of a stretch, but I’m getting tired of the same 3 dresses!)

Well, after finding a cute pair of denim shorts that don’t give TMI, or go down to my knees, and a nice t shirt that is long enough that I don’t have to worry about showing it all when I bend over; I had already spent my budget and still had no dress. Sigh, story of my life.

My aunt, who is so kindly paying for this new dress (she must be tired of the same 3 dresses too), forbid me to go to Wal-mart or Target. After A LOT of taking off and trying on things in various women’s shops I have decided something. Big girls must really like to show off their, um, assets, up top. I mean really, every dress I tried showed WAY to much up there. I know big girls are…well, bigger. But no one but my dh needs that much information about me. It is like wearing a sign that says, “Tricia’s boobs are here, the rest of her will be along shortly”.

I am not a must-be-to-the-neck person, but have some respect clothing designers! Can’t a girl get a nice dress, feel pretty, and not have to show the world what she’s all about!

So I settled for my standard church uniform; a skirt and top. The top is a sheer pink ¾ sleeve button down with a pink tank under it. The skirt is the typical twirly skirt that goes a little past my knees and even has about ½ inch of eyelet at the hem. It is white with small pink flowers.

I even went back to payless for the cute pink shoes to match. And while I was buying the dress I bought a necklace, bracelet and earrings to match. I thought of buying a nice pink purse to match it all, but I had to draw the line somewhere and my kids were home about to kill each other.

I think I have spent more $ on clothes and shoes this month than I have in the pervious 6 months! I may never shop again. I hate the numbers! The numbers on the clothing label keep going up and the number in my bank account keeps going down!

It is so much more fun to shop for my girls. I could have found two adorable, dresses, sandals,and hair bows for my girls at Wal-mart for the price I spent on my outfit today! Good thing I’m not paying for it.

Sigh, have I mentioned I hate shopping for clothes? Give me a good bookstore any day! I don’t have to try on the books and they don’t come in sizes that make me feel queasy.

I’ll try to snap a photo of my family all decked out in our expensive finery. Rarely are we all cleaned up and looking spiffy at the same time. It will really be a noteworthy event. Hopefully I won’t be to dumbstruck by my clean, good-looking family to snap a photo.

***UPDATE***
Turns out I was too dumbstruck by my beautiful family to snap a photo before we left. But when we came home I took one of me and the boys and me and the girls. Dh got paged while we were at the wedding so we had to leave early and he went straight into the house to work, so he was not there for the picture taking festivities.
So here is a photo of me and my outfit. It is not the nicest photo of me, it was hot and humid outside, but you can see the outfit. It took so long to find, I had to post it!
I'll post the ones of me and the girls tomorrow.

Awards

Wow. I have been nominated as a Thinker! Trust me when I tell you that I have been accused of a lot of things in my life, but being a thinker is not among them.

I am really surprised because I've only being doing this blogging thing since March, and I only started it really, because I was trying to spare my husband from having to listen to all my quirky thoughts. Really it works out better for everyone when I blog instead of talk AT dh. He nods and says mmmmm now and then, but we both know he is not really listening.

When I blog, I can imagine lots of people reading my high thoughts and laughing at my clever wit. Weather this is really happening or not, I'll never know.

So, now an award. People really are reading! Now I feel great responsibility to live up to my new title of "Thinking Blogger". Look out world, the great thoughts and wit of Tricia are about to be unleashed!!! I'm sure I have many more fascinating shoe posts in me! :o)

Seriously though, thank you Halfmoon Happenings for the honor. And, really it is an honor. It is nice to know people are not only reading but enjoying my blog.

Now I must think who I'm going to bestow this great honor on...check back later.

Now, for those of you nominated, here are some rules(don't worry, there aren't very many!):
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote.

Church Shoes

Today I took my kids, ALL 4 of them, to Wal-mart. The boys needed church shoes. Not for church, they don’t wear church shoes to church anymore because I have experienced spiritual growth in this area and have decided to not care. If they want to look all raggedy in their cargo shorts and flip flops like all the other kids in the youth group, go right ahead, I don’t care anymore. Really, I don’t. Really.

However my cousin is getting married on Saturday and all my family will be there. Apparently I have not experienced as much spiritual growth as I had previously thought, because my boys are NOT wearing their raggedy old cargo shorts and flip flops to the wedding.

I am not worried about my girls; I think we have enough church dresses and pretty little paten lather shoes to dress a gaggle of girls. I am also not worried about my husband because while he hates to dress up and he does not do it often, he had some regional meetings this week that he had to do the whole suit coat and tie thing. He had to go out and buy a new outfit (do men call them outfits?) for the meetings. On a side note my wonderful husband and I are not quite the same size we were last year and sadly the number got bigger not smaller, but that is another post.

So back to the boys. I know they have nice attire to wear. They don’t really mind wearing a nice polo style shirt and khaki pants. What they do mind are the shoes. So off we went to Wal-Mart. My theory was that if we could find shoes we both like, maybe they’ll actually wear them again. I know, how naive, but it sounded good at the time. So there we are in Wal-Mart and my girls, being…well, girls, tried on every shoe in the store in their size and found about ten pair they just had to have. I did stand firm here ladies and gentlemen. NO new shoes for the girls until we go through aaaallllllll the old ones.

While the girls are in shoe heaven, the boys are in…well you get the idea. No shoes in the place were acceptable. After a while my oldest found a pair he said would do. What this means is that he was willing to wear the pair of awful shoes he found to one wedding, if it meant we could STOP shopping and go home. We both knew, no matter what he said, these shoes would never grace his cute little size 11 feet again after their maiden and mandatory voyage to the wedding. At this point, I was willing too. So he bought those and we went to the car.

My wonderful son #2 has wide feet. Really wide feet. So no shoes in all of Wal-Mart were able to accommodate the bricks that are attached to the bottom of his legs. So, as if Wal-Mart with all 4 was not bad enough, we went to Payless. In Payless the lovely salesperson offered to measure his feet. I accepted. Size 8 and ½ . Regular. What? NO way. His feet are wide, I tell her. Hummmm. The thingy must be rigged. So off we go to the size 8 and ½ section. I’ll tell you right here and now ladies and gentleman. His feet are a solid 10. NOT 8 and ½ . So after trying on every “tolerable” shoe in the sizes 8 through 10 we come upon a pair he can live with. O Happy Day!

I go to find my girls who have now tried on every shoe in Payless that is their size and added about 10 more pairs to their must-have list, I say “no, no, no we are not getting anymore shoes, remember?” about 10 times and we get in line. When it is finally our turn, the salesperson asks me if I’m sure I’d not like to get another pair, it is buy one get one half off. Well, NOW you tell me. As my girls (BOTH of them) stare up at me pleadingly, I say NO, because, hay, I’m not about to start world war 3 between my girls, and really I just wanted to go home.

So she gives me the total. $40! Yes, you read that right $40 at Payless. For shoes for a 12yob. Shoes that we all know, no matter how much we try to delude ourselves, he will never wear again. What is a girl to do? I simply CAN’T shop with these kids anymore. I CAN’T do it again tomorrow, and I CAN’T buy my 12yo destructo son shoes costing $40!!

The people behind me are starting to groan. My kids are wishing the ground would open up and swallow them up, as I ask the sales lady, IN THE NICEST VOICE I CAN MUSTER, why these shoes at Payless were so expensive. She gives me a blank stare. How in the world would she know? She is only there from 8 to 1 to pay for her college classes. She has no idea, nor does she care. (All this I am surmising from the blank stare.)

So after more groaning and appalled looks from my children, I bought the shoes. All forty-stinking-dollars of them.

Want to see what $40 will get you at payless? Here you go.

I think you will probably be able to find some, just like this, cheap on Ebay real soon!

Well Drained Mind

I posted today over at The Well Drained Mind about how to refill!

Go check it out...

HOLY COW!

Okay ladies (and gentleman if there are any gentleman out of the 10 of you that read my blog daily)



I have had a shocking realization. Really, shocking. Do you know how much an AVERAGE wedding costs? And remember, this is AVERAGE. Get ready, sit down if you swoon easily… $ 20,000 - $ 25,000 based on one google site that had it’s numbers based on 2003 figures. Another site I went to had more current info and specific to my area.

That site was $6,000 to $11,000 MORE!

Here is the info from the second site… On average, couples will spend $31,010 for their wedding in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington TX . This does not include cost for products and services listed in the Addtional Items section. Results based on our research and responses from other married users of this site.

What is in the additional section, you ask?

On average, couples will spend $310,497 on Additional Items in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington TX . These items include New or Used Car, Engagement Ring, Financial Services, Furniture & Household Items, New Home, Honeymoon, Bridal Consultant or Wedding Planner, and Insurance.

OMYGOSH!!! I have 4 children. And if you think just because I have 2 boys I’ll be getting off scott free at their weddings, you have another thing coming. Guess who paid for MY wedding? My in-laws, that’s who; the parents of the son. Why? Well that is another post entirely.

So I started thinking about this because I’ll be going to my cousin’s wedding this Sat, and I found out yesterday that my sons algebra tutor (God bless that woman) makes wedding, and special occasion cakes in her spare time. For approximately $400 a piece!!!!!! Okay, I am not saying that her cakes are not worth $400, or that she is not a wonderful cake maker. She is, I saw some of her work. She is really amazing. But $400! I had NO IDEA a cake cost that much. JUST A CAKE for the wedding cost $400.

$400 is alot of money, but isin't that such a pretty cake?


Okay…so…they can’t have a car…they can’t go to college..and dh and I can’t go to the tropical island of my dreams for our 20th anniversary…but we can afford to marry them off. Hummm?

I’ll tell you right her and now that MY wedding did not cost $310,497. I know it was almost 17 years ago, but really. I think we pulled off my wedding for under $1000. Now, it was at my in-laws house, but they have a beautiful house, and I know a friend made the wedding cake for free…and I think the pastor did it for free…but really $310,497! I think I’m going to swoon!

Now I understand why my FIL told all his boys he’d pay them $500 to elope! My MIL did not appreciate this, but I think that is a great idea. Elope, I’ll pay them $500, just let me come to the elopement! :o)

Because after yesterday, I just need a laugh...

In case you can't read the above comic, The boy is saying "Mommy, where would we do our homework if we were homeschooled?"

Virginia Tech Campus Reels From Shooting That Leaves at Least 33 Dead



When I hear about stuff like this I not only want to homeschool my kids through college, but perhaps for their entire lives. In fact, I don’t want to let anyone I love leave my sight.

This is just so terribly sad. I can’t imagine being one of those parents who are hundreds of miles away and don’t know where their precious children are. They are in my prayers. Everyone touched by this situation is in my prayers.

The only thing that gives me hope is… In this world, you will have trouble, but fear not, for I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

Meal Plan Monday

Go visti Laura for more Meal Plan Monday lists.

Monday – This was really yummy. Everyone liked it and went back for more!
Goulash and rolls

Tuesday – Lemon Honey Chicken (thanks to Karen)
Brussels Sprouts
Homemade bread

Wednesday – Veggie and Chicken Pot Pie

Thursday – Sausage & Cabbage

Friday – Pork Chops, Tator Tots & carrots

Here is the recipe for my pot pie. It is super easy and everyone around here loves it.

Simple chicken pot pie

1 can chicken (next to tuna)
2 cans mixed vegetables ( I buy the kind without lima beans, but with potatoes)
1 can cream of chicken soup
3 dashes sage
salt and pepper to taste
2 deep dish frozen pie crusts

Drain chicken and vegetables. In a large bowl, mix the first five ingredients.
Place mixture into pie crust and top with second.

Crimp edges together. Make 2 or 3 slits in top crust and bake according to pie shell directions. (I cook it at 350 for about 45 min)

I add frozen cauliflower and broccoli and some grated cheese to the mixture. I usually double this because my family will eat 2, but if your family will only eat one, the other will freeze well.