Ahhhhh...

This afternoon I got my car washed and vacuumed. I feel like I have a whole new outlook on life!

It’s the little things… :-)

Cook Now – Eat Later

This seems to be my motto lately, and so far, it’s working out quite well. Tanner works weekends overnight, so I’m left to entertain myself. This weekend, I had fun in the kitchen.


Two weeks ago, I had such a busy weekend. I was going non-stop, from a class, to babysitting, to a meeting for work, etc. I had no time to cook. Consequently – and I’m kind of ashamed to admit it -- we ordered pizza three times last week.


But this weekend… this weekend was glorious! On Saturday I made Mexican Casserole; on Sunday, Chili; and on Monday morning (which I have off!) I made Lasagna. Now, our fridge is jam-packed, but I’m excited about eating leftovers this week. And excited about the relaxation that can happen after work! Unfortunately, this week, I’m working late three nights, so we won’t get to have dinner together, but I’m going to keep up this idea next weekend, hoping this could be a very nice trend!  :-)

And, because I LOVE to share recipes, here they are:

Mexican Chicken

Combine in saucepan & cook until smooth:
1 can cream of celery
1 can cream of chicken
5.3 oz evaporated milk
10 oz tomatoes & green chilies (Rotel)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Crush 1 large bag of Nacho Cheese flavored Dorito chips.  Place half of the bag in a greased 9 x 13 pan.  Top with 3 drained 5 oz cans of chunked chicken.  Pour soup mixture over the top and sprinkle with the remaining chips.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. 

Bob's Famous Chili

3 lbs ground beef
1 lg sweet yellow onion
3 lg cans diced tomatos
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
3 16 oz cans chili beans
2 Tbsp chili powder
4-5 cups water (or tomato juice)
3 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt & pepper

In a large pot, brown hamburger & finely chopped onion.  Drain off fat.  Add diced tomatos, paste, sauce, beans & water.  Heat to medium-high & reduce to simmer.  Add chili powder, salt & pepper.  In a small sauce pan, heat vinegar until hot. Remove from heat & dissolve sugar.  Add to chili.  Simmer for about 2 hours. 

Dinner & A shopping cart

I guess this is what happens when you get married…

Tonight is date night! But, we need groceries – desperately! So, forget dinner and a movie! Our exciting date-night plans are… drum roll please… dinner and a shopping cart!

Don’t worry… we also plan to face off in Mario & Sonic’s Winter Olympics as soon as all the groceries are put away. :-)

Wonder Wife!

Today I am Wonder Wife! Yes, I know I'm bragging, but oh well!

After my lazy day yesterday (RE: last post) I was a cleaning mad woman today. I successfully completed:

-- EIGHT loads of laundry (washed, dried, folded & put away)
-- dusting
-- vacuuming
-- scrubbing
-- dishes
-- changed the sheets
-- cleaned the fan
-- cleaned the kitchen
-- cleaned the fridge
-- updated picture frames with wedding pictures

And, best of all, I spent two hours watching Lost with my husband in the time he was awake before he left for work.

Yes, I'm bragging, but I don't care. Hooray for me! ;-)

now... where's my good book?!?!? I think I'll go read in bed!

Lazy Days

I love lazy days. And I've been instructed to "enjoy them now"... becasue something about kids don't allow lazy days. Bah! Humbug! Here's my recipe for a wonderfully lazy day:

good book -- currently "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown
"Lost" Season 4 (really any season will do)
air mattress
Facebook
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
box of cake mix
bag of chocolate chips

Don't wake up until 9:00. Begin reading book. Don't get out of bed until noon. check Facebook. Continue to read book on the couch until husband wakes up around 2:30. Have husband blow up air mattress on the living room floor and spend at least 4 hours watching "Lost". Finally, mix edible ingrediants and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Enjoy! ;-)

Thanks, Mom!

There are a lot of things my mother has always done that I never realized how much I appreciated, until I had to do them myself.

Most notably today – cooking dinner.

After a long day at work, I want nothing more than to just be at home with my husband. However, I’m told we as humans must eat to survive. If it were just me, I’d be eating mac & cheese almost every night. Don’t get me wrong, I love to cook – just not after work.

I know I could ask my husband to do it. However, I enjoy cooking much more than he does. And he wouldn’t enjoy it every night, either. Plus, one of us working past burning marshmallows is enough… :-)

Someday, I hope to be a good as my mom – cooking a well balanced meal every night for my family. But, tonight, my husband will have to deal with a Papa Murphy's pizza. If it’s baked at home it counts as home-made, right? :-)

Lessons Learned

Yesterday was our 6 month anniversary. After the initial shock of realizing it’s already been six months since the wedding, I started thinking…


Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

-- You can burn marshmallows.

-- Combining two lives is harder than you’d think. Fitting both of our stuff into one apartment has been hard enough, but it’s also difficult to figure out bank accounts, credit cards, who’s doing the dishes, the laundry… and much, much more.

-- Old habits are hard to break.

-- I can’t ever make anything just like Mom… or Grandma

-- Pick your battles. Proverbs 19:13 says “a nagging wife is like a dripping faucet”.

-- Changing your name is difficult – I still get bills that are under my maiden name. I thought I changed them all, but it seems every month I’ve missed one.

-- It’s also difficult to get used to a new name. At work, people call me Mrs. Hatfield… and I ignore them! (unintentionally, of course!)

-- Don’t take time together for granted. We have completely opposite schedules, which means time together is precious.

-- Date night is important. We set aside Friday night as “date night” – a night we don’t make plans with anyone but each other.

-- Cooking for two is difficult. It’s hard to find recipes for just 2 people… making for a lot of over-eating and an overstuffed freezer!

-- Take time for yourself. It’s important to have enough “me” time to enjoy your time together.

-- I still have a lot to learn… :-)

More than Memorable

Many of the Christmas cards we received this year said “hope your first Christmas as husband and wife is memorable” Let me tell you… it was EXACTLY that!

It all started Monday. I am a major weather worrier. I spent all day Monday and half of Tuesday stressing over the weather for our 6 hour drive home Tuesday night. They were predicting freezing rain to begin sometime late Tuesday or early Wednesday. After consulting 3 of the 4 meteorologists who work at the station, and obsessing over probably every weather web site on the internet, I decided we’d try to go home and pray we didn’t get stuck in bad weather. Thankfully, we arrived at my parent's house safely around 1:00 Wednesday morning without encountering any major weather hazards.

Wednesday was fun hanging out with my family. Thursday, though, Thursday got exciting. We enjoyed celebrating Christmas with my in-laws over lunch on Christmas. We headed to Grandma & Grandpa’s (about a hour drive) around dinner time. The snow was falling and blowing across the road, but we still made it in good time. We headed home from Grandpa & Grandma’s around 11:30.

Around 1:00 Christmas morning, we decided the roads were no longer safe, so we spent the night in the "Super 7" hotel in a town about half-way between Grandma & Grandpa's and home. Funny enough, this is the same hotel we stayed in on our wedding night!

So, we woke up Christmas morning in the hotel and had a lovely continental breakfast. Unfortunately, Santa doesn’t deliver to the Super 7 – mega bummer!

After watching two snow plows go by during breakfast, we decided we’d try to leave. Thank goodness we did. We made it home safely two hours later.

By Christmas afternoon, the state had completely closed the highway because there were 5 spots that were completely drifted shut. Santa was able to make it to our house shortly after we got home – better late than never! :-)

Talk about an adventure! It’s fun looking back now, but was a little stressful at the time. We’re just very thankful we (and our families) made it safely through the Holiday. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well – and that you were safe and warm as you celebrated!