One down and one to go

The holidays are now in full motion! Thanksgiving came and went in the blink of an eye and Christmas is only a blink away. Our dinner was nice, quiet and pretty relaxing although I was still rushing around like I said I wasn't going to do!
Our guests showed up at the door at 9:30 in the morning and I was still in my pajamas with no make up and still cleaning. At least I was wearing something decent. My hubby usually laughs at me and my ensemble in the morning. Hey I can't help it, I throw on whats close to my bed and comfortable. I don't really think about coordinating my tee shirts and fat pants!!! The best one is the Tye dye shirt (pink, green and purple) and the purple plaid pants with white socks! Hee hee, I can't help but laugh at myself for that one, it is pretty bad.

Any whoo...back to the holidays. We ate our dinner early and headed to my parents house to visit with the rest of the family and to see my new favorite nephew. He is so damn cute I cant stand it and guess who snatched him up first? My husband! I didn't even have a chance, he sat there and slept with the baby and would not give him up! Finally at the end of the night I had bribe him for a turn. I got to hold him and feed him and I miss it soooo much, I do, I guess it's my comfort zone. I would be happy taking care of babies for the rest of my life I think. Too bad they wont be mine.

Back to the holidays again, we have never been ones to go out on black Friday and do any shopping. We both hate the crowds and end up cursing people and their carts but this year the hubby had a change of heart and we braved the stores (cue the horror music and screaming). We weren't brave enough to go before the ass crack of dawn though, those people who are lined up at 4 am are just retarded in my mind. Seriously, who goes shopping at 4 in the freakin morning? it's crazy I tell ya. We got a lot of our shopping done for the kids and spent way too much money. My husbands excuse....." they are kids and it's only money". He makes the moolah so I guess he gets to chose how to spend it. I was only along for the ride.

Slaving away and thankful

It's the night before Thanksgiving and I have been slaving away in the kitchen for 3 hours now. I decided that I am not going to spend my holiday rushing around cooking and cleaning and forgetting to get myself ready before our guests arrive!!! Nope not this year, this year I am going to be prepared and relaxed.

This will be our first Thanksgiving with only my family and 1 grandparent. We had no idea when baby Phoenix was going to arrive as his due date was yesterday and we weren't sure if we would be spending the day back and forth from the hospital. So I made plans to have a small dinner at our house with my Grandfather in law and just have a relaxing day. I have made the stuffing, the potatoes are peeled and cut ready for cooking and the turkey is thawed, the green beans are cleaned and the house is kind of clean.

For those of you who know my family you know that there is no such thing as a small affair! For those of you who dont here is a scenario of any family function......I am one of 22 grandchildren, 21 great grandchildren, 14 aunts and uncles, plus my parents and my brother who now has extra family to count!!! That is just my mothers side.........it's a good thing my dads side equals 2! If you think of inviting just one or two cousins the others will hunt. you. down. If you think about inviting certain aunts or uncles the others will hunt you down and throw a fit to make you feel so guilty you could cry. Therefore any family get together includes about 50 guests! 50 wild, loud, laughing guests that eat a shit load of food. This is how you can imagine a Thanksgiving dinner with EVERYONE there! We tried it and it looked similar to this...............................

Now you understand why I am thankful for this Thanksgiving. Nice and quite.

Photo Tag

My 6th folder and the 6th picture is............................................

A view from the airplane. I surprised my hubby with a trip to Vegas for his birthday this year. It was our first trip alone since having Jaxson. I think I will pick a few people to pass this along to. I pick Tasha, Cena, Lula, Scary mommy, and Anna

The horror is back

Here they go again.
They barely had Halloween taken down and they already got the Christmas ones up! Come on people give the neighbors eyes a rest!!! They can't wait until Thanksgiving like the rest of us? I have yet to see it lit up, so maybe they are waiting......Nah, I doubt it. I just haven't been lucky enough to see it's full glory and scorch my eyeballs. Yes you can bet that I will be taking enough photos of it next month to torture you all and leave you in amazment and awe! Where in the hell do these people store this crap?

I'm sorry but the pictures just don't do it justice!!!!!!!

What a little s@*t

Remember all that hard work that I did a few days ago? I folded all of the clothes. Well that's as far as I got. They just sat their in nice, neat piles hoping that they would be picked up by their prospective owners and put away. Wishful thinking huh? I went to work this morning and did not feel well so I came home early. This is what I found.

Apparently while Daddy was taking care of business in the bathroom Riley decided to entertain himself with the damn laundry AGAIN!!!!!! Why? What is so freaking entertaining about clothes?

Introducing........

Phoenix Sebastian Viedma Reutter

8 lbs (exactly) and 21 inches long ( I think that's what my brother said)

Born around 7:30 pm this evening

I am so excited to hold this little bundle of hair and joy!!!!!

He was stubborn, defiant and unwilling, but he finally came after almost 3 hours of pushing

Hence his cute little cone head!

Delivery day

So I know I said I was going to post about the holiday decorations gone bad but I have something even better!!!! My new nephew will be here in about an hour and I am so excited I'm about to pee myself!!!! Hehe, I can't wait to hold a little baby. I will post pictures tonight......I'm headed to the hospital right now.

Update.....I'm still at home. My brother said her labor has slowed and now he wont be here until this evening. So I may go ahead and do my original post since I wont see the little booger until late tonight.

Mom on a mission

My mission this evening is to restore some (laundry) sanity! Yes I must say since our little dryer mishap (click here for that story), laundry hasn't been the same. I have gotten horribly behind and just didn't feel like doing it. So 3 days ago I bit the bullet and washed ALL of the clothes that were starting to overtake the laundry room, the bedrooms and the floors ( or where ever they felt like landing). Only one thing remained.....folding them. I just didn't have it in me until tonight when I decided that I can no longer stand looking and the ginormous pile that has formed on my couch and keeps finding it's way to the floor (thanks to Riley). I WILL be folding laundry tonight and if you don't hear from me for a few days.....send someone in to find me please!

This is only half of it. Scary I know

That reminds me.....I have another scary holiday decoration installment (click here to see the last one)coming tomorrow!!!

We have a visitor, meet Squishy

My brother and his wife are getting ready to have a baby (yeah!) and her mother is coming to town for 3 weeks. From what I have been told she HATES cats with a passion! I offered to keep him and now I'm wondering if that was a good idea!!!!! He is kind of a shithead. He wants in the baby's bedroom and is scratching on his door! I tried to pull him out from under the crib and he bit me! I know he doesn't know me but I can't help that and now I feel like a have to cough a freakin hair ball out of my throat. I think I'm allergic to the little shit.

My Grandma's Stuffing

I am VERY picky when it comes to stuffing. I like it simple! I don't want fruit or nuts in mine and I like it kinda dry. Yes I'm wierd I know but this is my favorite stuffing in the world.

Grandma's Stuffing

12 Cups white bread, dried a little and cubed
1/2 Cup dried parsley (if you want to use fresh parsley use a 3/4 cup)
1 tbsp poultry seasoning
2 tsp salt
1/2 pepper
1/2 butter or margarine
3 cups celery chopped
1 cup onion chopped fine


Combine all ingredients (except the bread) and mix well. Then add the bread and combine in the largest bowl you have!!
Like I said I like my stuffing dry, so I don't stuff the bird very much. I only put about 1/4 of the mixture in the bird ( to satisfy the rest of the family) and I put the rest in a casserole dish to bake and dry it out!!! If you would like to make it moist you can add some chicken broth (1/2 cup) and then bake it. If you opt to do it like me, it only needs to bake for about an hour. If you do it the other way it can go alllllll day long.

Enjoy and I guess if you want to add stuff you can! I'll allow it :)

I've got nuthin'

I wish I had SOMETHING to write about. Can't come up with a damn thing. I've got nuthin.....except a headache. It wont leave me alone and has been torturing me for a week now. My hubby thinks it's a tension headache and I think I need a massage, but like I said I don't need one THAT bad (refering to yesterday's post). My hubby will do it but it hurts, he doesn't realize how strong he is. So yeah sorry, that's all I have for today!

I need a massage but not that bad!

I was browsing through some pictures on the Internet today and some how came across this article. Apparently it's the newest thing in massage! Eeeeew. Don't get me wrong, I am not afraid of snakes and I don't mind touching or holding them but this? No thanks.

Photos courtesy of http://weirdnews.about.com/ and http://allvoices.com/

First Snow

This morning we woke up to our first snow!

Our weather here in Colorado has been so odd. Usually our first snow is on Halloween, it never fails. This year we have definitely had an Indian summer, I mean it was 65 degrees yesterday! The wind kicked up last night and brought the cold with it.

If we could get snow once a month and have the rest of the days be bearable I would be sooooo happy! I don't really enjoy the snow, it's just a big pain in my ass. I loath taking the kids out in it to do the errands and the back and forth crap. Put the coats on to get out to the car to take them off cuz they don't fit in the car seats, put them back on when you get to where you are going, get inside, take the coats off again........you see what I am getting at right? Then you have the snow boots, hats, gloves and snow pants to deal with! I don't even mind driving in it, thats the part that I do like. Now if I could only figure out how to do donuts in a mini van. If we didn't have places to go and things to do and just hang out at home all winter then yes I would like the snow.

By noon it was sunny and melting! Yeah!

Happy Anniversary

My sexy husband and I went out to dinner for our anniversary (#4) last night and had a great dinner. We started out with a big glass of red wine and beer. Of course we couldn't decide on an appetizer so we got 2 - Calamari and a Bruchetta sampler. They were both awesome and we just about finished them off. Bad idea, I was already full and I still had my dinner to eat. I ordered Gnocchi with a spicy red sauce and Italian sausage. My dh got a 14oz. strip steak topped with Gorgonzola, garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus.

It was an awesome dinner and it was so nice just to be out by ourselves. No kids, adult conversation and heavy rich Italian food. Who could ask for more? Us! all we wanted was a bed (yeah I know what your thinking.....sex all night?) We hurried to pick up the kids and made our way home. We put the rugrats to bed and rushed up to the bedroom where we stripped in the blink of an eye. Of course we did we had to alleviate the growing pressure in our guts!!! Yeah we were hot and bothered alright, my heartburn was enough to make me puke and I felt like a freakin helium balloon! Yes you heard me right, we ate sooooooo much that we barely made it to the sitters to pick up the kids. I was so stuffed and sleepy I felt like wrecking the car. We were so bloated and exhausted that we were in bed by 9:00.

We ended the evening gassy and falling asleep to the CMA's. Guess we will have to make up for the missed activities another night! Love ya honey, Happy Anniversary and I can't wait to get old with you! Oh wait I think we already are.

Veteran's Day Tribute

Thanks Dad for all that you have done and thanks for serving our country!

United States Army Veteran

Served in Vietnam

Monday Menu

I have been trying to come up with a good title for a weekly menu post. I really like Sunday Spread, with thanks to Tattooed Minivan Mom. I felt like crap yesterday so it got put off until today and I am hoping to have it again this coming Sunday!
This is what I have planned for this week (6 days worth, 1 day for leftovers or eating out). I have attempted to use some of the same ingredients with totally different dinners trying to cut cost for a budget that fits most family needs and cut your time in the kitchen without feeding your family boring meals.

Menu for the week

• Meatloaf and loaded baked potatoes
• Tacos, rice and beans
• Homemade Mac and Cheese with fruit
• Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo
• Homemade chicken pot pies
• Goulash (noodles, tomato soup and corn, ground beef) with a salad

Grocery list - $45.00 if you bargain shop. Not too bad for a weeks worth of dinners for 5 people.

• 3 lbs ground beef
• lg potatoes for baking
• sour cream
• Lg bag shredded cheddar cheese (split 2 ways)
• small bag of long grain rice
• 1 can refried beans
• elbow noodles
• Velveeta cheese
• 1 lg rotisserie chicken
• 1 small head of broccoli
• 1 jar Alfredo sauce or Alfredo mix
• 1 pkg Fettuccine noodles
• 1 pkg frozen mixed veggies
• 1 jar or mix chicken gravy
• 1 pkg pie crust
• 2 cans tomato soup
• 1 can corn
• fresh fruit
• lettuce and any of your favorite salad fixings

If anyone is interested in any of these recipes just email me and I would be happy to share them with you. Happy cooking!

I Just about peed my pants twice!

I got a few unexpected treats today!

1. I got a child support payment (something that doesn't happen very often) from my ex husband! Did I ever mention that I was married before? Yes I call that one my practice marriage.

2. I went to my parents to do laundry, really just to dry the damn clothes and get a free dinner that I didn't have to cook. As I was pulling away from their house I saw that the gas station across from them had gas for............wait till you hear this..............$1.77!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I about peed myself right then and there. Actually I almost wrecked my car when I flipped a bitch to get back to the gas station! I filled my gas guzzling mini van for $20! I was so excited that I called everyone I know just to brag.
Finally a day when I didn't want to drown myself in the sock filled toilet. A much needed stress free day!

That's one way to clog a toilet!

The boys have been wild ones all day! They are on my last nerve and it's only getting better! While making dinner tonight and on the phone trying to get a bill paid the kids decided to entertain themselves.....with socks. My love seat is covered with a ton of socks that are either folded or need to be folded. Due to my lack of a working clothes dryer my laundry situation is getting a bit nasty to say the least. Yesterday I had a working dryer that just ran with cold air. Today I have no dryer at all. Just a growing pile of clothes and nothing to do with them even if I had the motivation to do so! Anyway, the boys started by unfolding almost all of the pairs and throwing them all over the living room making it look like there was an explosion of some kind or another. How they managed to migrate to the bathroom I don't have a clue but they did and decided to put the remaining folded pairs of socks into the toilet. Let me remind you that Jax the 3 year old and rookie of the potty, forgets to flush 8 out of 9 times!!!! While on the phone with the very nice lady at target Jax informs me that "Riley got a sock stuck in the toilet". Yes Linda (the lady on the phone) can't help but laugh when I repeat the question back to jax, "there is a sock stuck in the toilet?" I go downstairs to find little one making pee and sock dumpling soup......with his hands. Yummy. Thank god they had not attempted to flush! So what do you do with sock dripping pee water all of the bathroom floor? Throw them in the empty washer to drain, cuz I won't be using it anytime soon!!! Eeeeeewwww.

Wordless Wednesday

Getting screwed one way or another

As I was doing laundry yesterday, like I do everyday, I got a very unexpected surprise. I put the clothes in as I was running out the door to the dentist, in my attempt to multi task. I came home and did my usual stuff (alternating between computer and cleaning) and as I was sitting here at my desk I heard this familiar noise running in the background but it didn't really phase me for like 2 hours. Suddenly I thought to myself "is the dryer running? Still?" Yes it was! Running for the past 4 hours!!! I quickly ran down the stairs and into the laundry room, yanked the darn thing open to find.....wet jeans. WTF is going on here? Apparently the timer on the dryer quit working as well as the heating element. Wouldn't you think jeans would be dried after 4 hours of air drying? Nope! So what's a girl to do? I turned it on again in hopes of getting the load dry!
Just my luck. I called a appliance repair place and do you know what they want to charge?!!! They want $60 just to come out and look at the damn thing. That didn't include what they wanted for parts and labor IF they could fix it. Ummm last time I checked money doesn't grow on trees nor can I pull it from places that I won't mention!!! I have 5 people in my house and only one of them thinks that (she) can wear a pair of jeans or a shirt more than once before it's dirty! My laundry is OUT OF CONTROL as it is. What am I going to do without a properly functioning dryer even for a week before we can get this problem solved? My family is going to end up recycling their underwear or they are gonna get crunchy line dried clothes and they are going to like it! Oh yeah, I don't have a line to dry them on. Great, just my luck.

Paranoid mommy

I have been a wreck for the past week over the baby's teeth. I was giving him a bath one night and just happened to notice grayish black spots on his lower front teeth! OMG he has bottle rot. I went into sheer panic mode and called the hubby at work.

I have never gone by the book as far a raising my kids. I was bad and put all 3 of them to bed with a bottle. So kill me. Anyway, the first thing I said to myself......this is my fault, I should have never let him fall asleep with that damn bottle. That very night I cut him off from his night time bottle and he was fine with it. Throughout the week I have been brushing his teeth like a freaking obsessive compulsive mad woman! 3-4 times a day to be exact. I have worked in the dental field and I know what happens when kids get bottle rot, and I will be damned if my kid has to go through baby root canals and crowns.

We got into the dentist this morning and he did an awesome job! He was such a big boy at his first dentist appointment.

Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first? Well the good news is that the grayish stuff was staining and not decay and there really isn't any bad news! I am ecstatic about a clear bill of dental health!!!! I am such a teeth freak, but now I can relax.

Chicken Marsala

My family has been begging for Chicken Marsala for months now, so I gave in tonight and made it. It really is pretty easy and my kids were very thankful!

1 pkg chicken breast ( I like mine thin)
1 bottle marsala cooking wine (12.7 oz)
1 can chicken broth
2 tbsp oil
3 tbs real butter
2+ tbsp flour
canned or fresh mushrooms

1/2 of an onion sliced into thin strips
1 lb angel hair pasta
fresh parsley

Begin by melting the butter and oil together in a pan and start the water boiling for the pasta. Season the chicken with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Saute the chicken until it's golden brown on both sides. Remove it from the pan and let it rest while you make the sauce. Add 2-3 tbsp flour to the butter and oil in the pan to make a paste and cook it for a few minutes to get the flour taste out. Add your bottle of Marsala and whisk until smooth. It will thicken quickly! Whisk in the can of chicken broth and mushrooms, cook for 15 minutes on medium low. Add the chicken to the sauce and let it cook another 15 minutes on low (or until the chicken is fully cooked). Cook the pasta while it is simmering. When everything is done, top the pasta with the chicken and sauce. Use the fresh chopped parsley and parmesean cheese for a garnish. Enjoy!