My Distractions

I guess we have to take the good with the bad sometimes. We did buy a 'new' car last week. It's a 1998 Ford Contour. It's red, not bright and not brick, somewhere in between. I'm kind of in love with it.

On the other hand, I've been in a lot of pain this last week. Yesterday was excruciating, but I survived. It's depressing to have to be in this same place again after so much time, surgery and hormone treatments. I think I'll be seeing the OB/GYN at my new doctors office sometime soon, transferring my records and starting over. There's so much to say about all of this, but somehow it seems done to death and I just can't bring myself to put it all down.

To provide a distraction, I've buried myself in some new cookbooks that a friend dropped off this weekend. They are mostly diet and Weight Watchers cookbooks, but I find them all fascinating. I found ideas for 'light' simple salads to take to work for lunch along with some dinner recipes that are not affected by the reduction of fat and calories. Not that I have a problem eating these foods myself, but my family has a tendency to turn their noses up at these types of meals. I did discover that I could never go on Weight Watchers because of it's continuous suggestion/requirement of sugar substitutes. I cannot use aspartame or even Splenda. I am allergic (or at least very sensitive) to aspartame and Splenda gives me a headache - like I don't have enough of those.

On the up side, I've confirmed a loss of over 20 pounds over the last year. Even though that number is not very high, it makes me happy because I didn't gain any of it back, showed continuous loss (and plateau's) rather that loss and gain. I've changed my eating habits, use healthy fats when I do use them, exercise more, eat less but more often (because of my hypoglycemia) and feel better. Next year I hope to experience a similar loss. The slower I lose, the more permanent - or at least that's the way I see it.

Even though I've spent hours and hours pouring over cookbooks, my meal plan for this week is still very basic.
Meal Plan - June 30 - July 6

• Monday - Calzones. This time I used Pillsbury's Thin Crust Pizza Dough - it's light and crispy rather than heavy and... bready? Is that even a word?
• Tuesday - Hamburger Casserole ala Lindsay.
• Wednesday - Black Bean and Veggie Stack. It's like a Mexican lasagna - yummy.
• Thursday - Spaghetti Carbonara.
• Friday - Family Picnic and I have no idea what I'm bringing.
• Saturday - Spicy Beef and Broccoli.
• Sunday - Leftovers

I'm hoping to have a good attitude this week. I only have to work three days and I actually get paid for the 4th. Then I have four days off in a row. Lindsay will be spending the 4th through the 9th in Greeley with her cousin and the hubby's aunt. I think this second 'vacation' is to make up for her last one being cut short by snow in the mountains. They all plan to spend their days laying beside the pool and - again - having spa days.

Trying Not To Get Excited

I'm crossing my fingers... I'm thinking positive thoughts... I have the money... (thanks to my boss) Now I need to pray for patience.

Tomorrow after work, the hubby and I are going to Loveland to look at a car. If all goes well, I'll drive it home tomorrow night.

This isn't the car, it's the same color and body style - 1999 Ford Contour

Some Random Pictures

Lindsay fell asleep reading a book next to her chair on the floor. She was too cute so I had to take a picture.

She had a long weekend, helping with the new chairs, some cleaning and spending time with her grandparents.

This is my desk - when it's clean. There are really only two distinct piles and that is a huge plus for my desk. Every bill, paystub, school note, photo, scrap of paper, everything ends up on my desk.

So welcome to my world.

This is the new chair I bought - one of them. Yeah, it's ugly, but it can be covered and I was never concerned with looks, just comfort.

Meal Plan for June 23 - 29 and MORE

There is a method to my meal planning madness. The goal is to feed my family, for a week, for $100 or less. This is out of necessity, not some desire to save tons of money. So far I've done okay. I have back up food in my freezer, and I budget a little extra for quick stuff from Schwans. This week I went to the store before I had everything planned out and I spent almost $100 for less than the full week. I have a reunion coming up on Saturday and I still have to buy the food for my dishes - lucky for me, they are pretty simple.

Meal Plan for June 23 - 29

• Monday - Chicken Stir-fry with eggrolls and rice.
• Tuesday - Crab and Red Pepper Alfredo over angel hair pasta with broccoli and cauliflower.
• Wednesday - Chicken Fried Steak with mashed potatoes and corn.
• Thursday - Spaghetti and garlic bread.
• Friday - Chicken strips and parmesan garlic french fries.
• Saturday - Family Reunion, Watermelon/Strawberry salad, potato salad and baked beans.
• Sunday - I have no idea... Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with Hot Dogs?

I've learned how to make several dishes with some of the same basic ingredients - stirfry and spaghetti have onion, peppers and mushrooms - stirfry and chicken strips off the same large package of chicken. You get the idea. I have enough veggies to throw together a salad with any meal or to take to work.
In other news...? I'm frustrated with my mother-in-law (but how many of us aren't at some point). I just can't deal with the selfish attitude right now and I'm even having bad dreams about the situation I've found myself in with her. I woke up to one this morning and when I'd doze off I'd end up right back in the same dream, so upset with her that I was crying. I cry when I get angry. There is nothing I can do about it, I just start to sob. It's a frustrating personality flaw that I have.

I found a Queen Anne Wing Back chair at a garage sale this weekend. They had a matching pair for sale and I only wanted one, which they agreed to sell me for $5. Since I was on a bike ride with Lindsay, I promised I'd be back after I got home and went to the ATM. I called Jake to come with his truck - the Altima could never haul a chair - and when I got back to the sale, the man told me to take them both - for $5! I had to think about where the other would go, but I took it. They are old and tattered, but that was what I was looking for. Queen Anne Wing Back chairs are expensive and I hadn't found a nice one for under $250. So now I have a comfy chair at my desk to curl up in to read a book, watch a video on my little television on my desk (the only place in the house to watch a video) or Netflix online, or write... whatever! I'm so happy. Lindsay gets the other chair. She's made a place in her room but we've found a spot for it right next to my desk - she can watch movies with me or just curl up and read her own book.

I tried to load some photos of a sleeping girl and my 'clean' desk. Clean is a relative term when it comes to my desk. Anyway, I'll load some later - if google cooperates.

Easy dinner tip: Calzones, REALLY! Refrigerated pizza dough cut into quarters, fill with ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, pepperoni, thin sliced veggies of your choice, pinch close with fork, poke holes to vent and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Adjust your fillings to taste but serve pizza sauce on the side, it just works better that way. Great easy meal!

Meal Plan for June 16 - 22

Last week we skipped a few planned meals. I never really was happy about making spaghetti casserole in the first place, so the kids just ate leftovers. Tonight, Lindsay made dinner for us out of her Children's Cookbook; Tater Tot Casserole isn't too bad. It's only got ground beef, tater tots, cream of mushroom soup and milk in it.

Meal Plan for June 16 - 22

• Monday - Spicy Beef and Broccoli Stir-fry with rice and Schwan's egg rolls. I found recipes for sweet and sour sauce as well as hot mustard!
• Tuesday - Slow Cooker Mac N Cheese with Spicy Hot Dogs.
• Wednesday - Black Bean and Veggie Stack with Spanish rice.
• Thursday - Spicy Shredded Beef (Encore because everyone liked it - and I bought enough to make it twice).
• Friday - Salisbury Steaks from Super Suppers with mashed potatoes and veggie. They had a buy one get one special last week.
• Saturday - Taco Salad with trimmings.
• Sunday - To Be Determined.

I've got to go take care of Lindsay now. She fell on her scooter and banged up her knees pretty bad and now they are really hurting... Time to find the Neosporin.

100 Things

It's finally my 100th post and I have a list of 100 things about me - some are about my kids and husband though, I guess I've cheated a little.

1. I have a pen fetish. However, I’m not as bad as my friend Crystal, she’ll steal pens from the wait staff at restaurants because she likes the pen she signs the credit card slip with. Weird.

2. My father died in a small plane crash when I was five weeks old.

3. REMOVED

4. My earlobes are too small to have more than one hole for an earring.

5. I don’t have any tattoo’s but my husband has one.

6. I’m a family black sheep, just like my mother.

7. My grandmother thinks I go to church every Sunday and I haven’t corrected her.

8. I had two children before I got married, but all four of my kids have the same father.

9. I met the hubby when I was 15.

10. I buy too many pairs of shoes.

11. I am painfully shy. Because of that, I often give people the wrong impression.

12. I hate beer.

13. I’m a Wal-Mart snob. Translation: I shop there when I have to, but I don’t like the four-square-mile parking lots, the idiots who let their kids run wild, and the families of 20 who think that it’s their right to make an area impassable… the shopping experience leaves something to be desired.

14. I’m kind of afraid of water, as in: pools and lakes. I’m not a great swimmer and I hate to have water splashed in my face.

15. My favorite wine costs $25, but I’m totally okay buying a $4.99 bottle of Sutter Home White Zinfandel.

16. I think it’s crazy that in other states you can buy alcohol in a grocery store! You can't do that here, they only sell 3.2 in supermarkets in Colorado.

17. You probably don’t know what 3.2 is.

18. There are maybe only 6 people from high school that even remember I exist. They only remember me because I still call them or send emails.

19. I speak without the benefit of thinking sometimes.

20. I would rather lie to a friend than tell them something is wrong between us.

21. I’m working on number 20.

22. I give unsolicited advice. All the time. I can be annoying.

23. I love horses and had two Shetland ponies when I was little.

24. I’m a control freak. That should have been number 1.

25. I have two brothers but they have a different father than I.

26. Between my brothers, the hubby's brother, half-sister and step-sister, we have five nieces and two nephews.

27. I didn’t grow up with my brothers so I don’t know them very well.

28. My brothers are eight and nine years older than I am.

29. The hubby, on the other hand, is four years older than his brother and 14 years older than his half-sister.

30. I’ve had two step-fathers. I’ve called my mom’s current husband ‘Dad’ since I was 21 – even though I met him when I was 6.

31. I introduced my mom and dad.

32. There is a neat freak living inside of me but she can’t get out.

33. That said, I’m a messy person who managed to raise a neat freak. Jake is the cleanest, most tidy 17 year old I’ve ever met.

34. Since the hubby and I got married 17 years ago, every house and apartment we’ve lived in has had to have the hot water heater replaced after it spewed water all over our belongings.

35. Major household appliances hate me. Our dishwasher, hot water heater, furnace and refrigerator died and my dryer is in need of new bearings and a belt – I think. We haven't replaced the dishwasher or dryer yet.

36. My neighbor warned me that my oven might die too and I jinxed myself by saying that nothing could go wrong with it… it doesn’t have anything electric on it. I'm waiting for the fall out on that one.

37. Cars hate me. We live in a perpetual state of crappy car karma. I have no idea why.

38. I love to cook but I can’t bake. Besides, baking is too much work and it’s more of a science whereas cooking is an art.

39. I am a coffee addict. I have a regular drip coffee maker, a Senseo and an espresso maker.

40. I love to read. My favorite ‘easy reads’ are the Stephanie Plumb novels by Janet Evanovitch. I also like Dean Koontz, Michael Crichton, J.D. Robb, Patricia Cornwell, and tons of other popular fiction writers. I find lots of books through an online book club and wandering around the library.

41. I also like auto-biographies written by comedians. Don’t Stand Too Close To A Naked Man & I’m Not Really Here, Tim Allen - Everything And A Kite, Ray Romano - No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem, Jeff Foxworthy

42. I wear glasses because I’m totally blind without them. I can’t see anything farther away than three or four inches. Yeikes, right? I have an on-again/off-again relationship with contacts because my astigmatism is in a constant state of flux and the glasses handle it better.

43. I think it is arrogant to assume that there is no other intelligent life in the universe.

44. My pantry has a lot of expired cans of food – and did you know that Velveeta expired???

45. I’ve lived in Colorado nearly all my life; I spent a few years in Oregon as a child.

46. I’ve never learned to ski and I have no desire to.

47. Only once in my life have I gotten so drunk that I got sick. It was St. Patrick’s day 2007 and my neighbor and her boyfriend were too drunk to drive so I picked them up and brought them home. Once there, they invited me to have a drink with them and I proceeded to drink a bottle and a half of wine on my own in about an hours time and got sick when I made it home. Remember, I said neighbor – she lives next door.

48. Yeesh, and I’m normally a lightweight. Two glasses of wine and I’m really close to either rolling on the floor giggling or passed out in bed.

49. I think if my house ever got clean – as in, it was acceptable to my grandmother – I would pass out, or possibly die of shock.

50. I can’t wear fingernail polish because I can feel it on my fingers. Yeah, I know, it’s weird.

51. I like to paint my toenails in the summer though… they don’t bother me.

52. During a previous marriage, my father adopted his wife's two daughters, Christen and Melody. These are my older sisters and I've never met them, nor do I know where they are.

53. I think when we move I’ll consider lighting my old house on fire rather than packing everything. It might be easier to buy all new stuff. Just kidding. Maybe.

54. I hate crowds. I get a little panicky in large groups of people.

55. I love popcorn at the movie theater but not out of the microwave, air popped or on the stove.

56. I don’t like to go to the movie theater because there are too many people. It sucks to be me.

57. Jake has my maiden name, not the hubby's last name.

58. My last name is hyphenated so that – and this is stupid – people know he belongs to me. I know, weird.

59. People think that Jake doesn’t belong to the hubby because of his last name.

60. Ten years ago, I broke my right leg – both bones – below the knee all the way down into my ankle and had to use a handicap placard for five months.

61. My favorite number is 5 and my birthday is 5/25.

62. My favorite color is green.

63. With friends, I’m a social freaking butterfly and I try to collect more friends like other people collect seashells – or whatever it is that people collect. I can be almost stalker-bad when I meet someone I’d like to be friends with. I have an easy conversation, love the person, get their phone number, and call all the time. Yeah, I know, bad.

64. It is possible to be a social butterfly and shy at the same time – trust me. (See number 11)

65. I’m a freaky, overprotective parent. Matt adds, “…hell bent on destroying my kids lives.” Hmmmm.

66. I prefer Pepsi to other soft drinks.

67. In the summer I drink lots and lots of lemonade, strawberry lemonade and from Sonic… Limeades. Yum.

68. I am a Democrat, but that’s not a reason to hate me.

69. I love the fall, all the leaves are beautiful, it smells great, and the weather is nice. Too bad it doesn’t last long here.

70. When I was 14 months old I broke my left femur. I was in a body cast and smelled bad, because, well, they leave a little hole for diapers. You get the idea.

71. While I was in that body cast, the hubby's aunt babysat me a couple of times. She says she remembered that I smelled. Yeesh!

72. The hubby's aunt and I figured out the strange coincidence over Christmas in the mountains when I was 21.

73. In response to the question, "How are you?" I always seem to answer with, "I'm tired and I need a nap."

74. I have insomnia, but when I’m stressed out, I sleep really well. Go figure.

75. I love stupid movies, Tremors, Ghostbusters, The Mummy, The Goonies, Groundhog Day… you get the idea. I sometimes watch them to go to sleep because I know every line of the movies.

76. I have the attention span of a gnat. That would be another reason I don’t like to go to the movies.

77. Celestial Soda Pop from the Deep Breakfast album by Ray Lynch is my favorite piece of music – ever. Again, raised by hippies.

78. I hate math. I almost didn’t get my AA because I would cry when I had to do math. I don’t think I have to take anymore math to get my BS. EEK!

79. Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope was released on my fifth birthday.

80. Artificial sweeteners make me sick.

81. I hated God for several years after my son died.

82. I love BareMinerals. Yep, I bought it and it was so worth it. Only problem is that I don't wear makeup often.

83. I took SCUBA classes with the hubby but when it came time to do my open-water certification, I freaked out and wouldn’t go. See number 14.

84. I’ve never been out of the country.

85. I didn’t meet my fathers family until I was 31.

86. They had no idea where I was until I turned 18 and my mother gave me their names and last known addresses and phone numbers. One of them still lived in the same place with the same phone number.

87. My family took our first vacations in 2006.

88. In April of that year, we went to Southern Colorado to see the Royal Gorge Bridge, the Cave of the Winds and the Garden of the Gods.

89. In July of that year we went to South Dakota with my in-laws to see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. It was the longest five days of my life. 'Nuff said.

90. I learned to drive a stick shift before an automatic.

91. I’ve only had two dogs in my life, a German Shepherd named Zack that we got when I was four and died when I was 13 and an English Springer Spaniel named Hunter that died in 2007.

92. I’ve also had nine cats, three ponies, two cockatiels, a gerbil, four rats, and tons of fish – not all at the same time.

93. Rather than a green thumb, mine is black. I kill plants of all kinds.

94. I was in two car accidents in six months. The first one wasn’t my fault and almost totaled my car, the second was my fault and cost my insurance company $300.

95. It's odd, but most of the cars the hubby and I have owned have been Nissans. This is purely unintentional and I will make a point to never (ever, never, never) buy one again.

96. I love Starry Night and Café Terrace at Night by Vincent Van Gogh.

97. I like chocolate but I don’t eat it much.

98. Next to cherries, Navel oranges are my favorite fruit.

99. I took first-semester German twice – once in 8th grade and again in 10th grade. I still don't speak German.

100. I am a phone addict. I talk on the phone for hours almost every day.

Ski Resort To Open! - In JUNE?

Aspen Mountain has enough snow to open for skiing this weekend! It is unbelievable. I just thought I'd share that bit of information.

My weekend is over and work is waiting for me in the morning. I've tried to make this weekend productive - at least the very end of it. Lindsay and I cleaned out some cupboards and a closet today. It felt good but I don't have enough room in my trash tote to put everything out tomorrow.

While I made dinner tonight I also made potato salad for tomorrow night. I'd called my mom earlier in the weekend to get some tips for getting the potato texture just right. I always end up making mashed-potato salad and I really wanted to do it right. The trick, according to my great result, is to quarter the potatoes with their skins on and cook them to just done, run them under cold water and then cut them into the desired bite sized pieces. Not bad.

This Week's Meal Plan

Like I said, planning last weeks' meals was a great idea and helped a lot. This week I shopped for most of our meals at Sam's, with future weeks' meals in mind as well.

Meal Plan for June 9 - 15

• Monday - Chicken, Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas with sour cream, salsa, avocado, lettuce, tomato and tortilla chips. From Allrecipes.com
• Tuesday - Spicy Shredded Beef on french hard rolls with potato salad.
• Wednesday - Chili with sour cream, shredded cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches. This is a family favorite however, I was conned into buying Frito's at the grocery store by my daughter. She hates my chili (and also my Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas) but says she'll eat it if I give her Frito's. Bribery at it's best.
• Thursday - Spaghetti Casserole from the Dinner Doctor*, p. 241 with french bread and salad.
• Friday - Schwan's delivery night... a night off cooking. Yea!
• Saturday - Chicken Divan over rice with salad.
• Sunday - Breakfast for Dinner. Eggs, biscuits, gravy and fruit.

We don't normally have leftovers or I would make a Leftover Night. Sometimes when someone asks me "What's for dinner?" I say, "Whatever you can find." We called it Fin-Fer night when I was growing up - Fin For Yourself... :)

By the way, everybody who has a Sam's Club membership (or any club discount store) should buy things like shredded cheese there. Hands down, they have the most amazing prices on that kind of thing. I bought 5 lbs (20 CUPS!) of shredded Monterey Jack/Mild Cheddar blend for $13.00! When you split it up into quart size Ziploc bags, it's like six quarts and costs about half of what Safeway charges!

Oh, and I found a new favorite dessert food. Chocolate Angel Food Cake is, well, heavenly. I saw some on the day-old rack as I passed and thought it was worth the $1.00 to try it. YUM! It makes me wish I could bake.

* I bought this book after borrowing it from the library for nearly six months last year. It's truly amazing and everything is pretty easy to make.

Random

Poor Lindsay. Her vacation was cut short by a JUNE snowstorm in the mountains. They had 8 inches of snow in fewer hours and it wasn't stopping. She came home Thursday afternoon and I was happy to see her - even if it did cut short my time away from her.

The boys were at football camp at CSU for 13 hours a day on Thursday and Friday. They had camp this morning until noon, came home, whined for about an hour and then fell asleep. Gotta love the tired boys. I'm hoping they feel better soon.

I slept really well the last few nights and I almost find that strange - strange but welcome. I also quit taking the Inderol my doctor prescribed because I've had a headache almost every day I've been on it. It's useless. Since I went off the medication have been relatively pain free, and I slept well too. Hmmmm.

Planning our dinners has been a godsend this week. I always knew what we were having and that I had all of the ingredients. I'm hoping the next week goes just as well, considering the boys will be home for dinner all week. Well, Jake might have plans some of those days, but for the most part, I'll be feeding everyone and the boys eat like horses. I'll post my plan tomorrow; today, I'm still working on it. If you like to cook (or don't) and would like a reference for recipes of all kinds (beginner-easy to gourmet), check out this site.

I went over my classes this week and discovered that I need seven more to graduate - I think. I've put in a call to my advisor but I'm pretty sure that I've only got 21 more credits, 7 very specific classes, until I have my BS in Applied Psychology. Since I take my classes either online or at the Fort Collins satellite campus of Regis, and they don't offer all of these classes here, and I don't have a reliable car, I'm hoping that they will let me do those that aren't on the Fort Collins campus via GIS (guided independent study). They cost more but I need to finish my degree. I don't know exactly what I'll do when I'm done - as in, how I'll find the job I want - but I'll figure it out.

Exhaustion

I didn't sleep well last night. I didn't sleep much either. I went to bed around 11:30 and couldn't sleep. I got up at 12:30, surfed the web until 1:30 or 2 and then got back in bed. I still couldn't fall asleep so started an On Demand movie (a free one, of course) and fell asleep, finally, sometime around 3. The hubby's alarm went off at 6:30 but I ignored it, getting out of bed with my alarm at 7. I'm exhausted. I'm sore. I'm not going to sleep tonight either. I can feel it.

I left for work early today so that I could drop Lindsay's soccer forms and the check off. Today was the first day for fall soccer sign up and I thought getting there around 8:30 would ensure her a spot on her home team. There were tons of people there, so many that I doubt she'll make it on her own school team. It's a real let down.

I was good at my job today. Although, I dragged the financial statements out for a couple of hours so that I would be busy all day. QuickBooks did something weird with a payment though. I'll have to play with it tomorrow to fix the problem. QB can be a real pain in the butt sometimes.

After work, I stopped at the grocery store, came home, baked muffins (OMG - I'm traumatized!*), boiled eggs for the boys to eat in the morning, made my pathetic Mac N Cheese dinner, and now I'm trying to figure out how to make myself sleepy. I've been productive, but I'm wiped.

* I'm allergic to baking - nothing I've ever baked, from scratch, has ever been edible. Truth is, even the cookie dough you buy in the store and bake, doesn't make good cookies when I do it. The muffins I made tonight were the kind you mix their powder with milk and bake. They are already lacking so I can't be blamed for their quality. They aren't too bad.

Frustration

AARRGGGGHHH! I'm frustrated. I feel like I'm not getting anywhere with starting up the business and I need to buckle down and get something accomplished. I don't have any excuses now. The kids are out of school - Woo Hoo! Lindsay even got stickers for every school day on her calendar so when she gets back from the mountains, she'll get the monkey stickers I promised her. I don't have to stress out about Matt's grades - he passed English, people! I don't understand what the problem is, he speaks English, doesn't he? Why, yes he does. I think he got a better grade in Spanish. Pathetic. Yes, Matt. I said PATHETIC! Okay, I'm over it now.

So, I just have my three-and-a-half day a week job to do and the rest of the 'work week' time could be dedicated to filing the trade name, ordering business cards, coming up with a marketing idea, finalizing pricing, working on the business plan, etc. Okay, that's a lot, but that's my point. I need to do it before I have the excuse of being in school, and the kids are in school, and the hubby is in school - oops, the hubby will be in school again in 2 weeks). Yeah, we will all be back in school in 12 short weeks. Time to get down and dirty.

Besides, I'll need the extra money if I plan to actually attend school in the fall. I think I'll be able to file a Professional Judgement with the school to get my financial aid increased, but who knows.
Sorry, I'm just frustrated right now. I shouldn't be. My mindset has shifted to summer mode and I should be excited about coming home after work and hitting the pool with Lindsay and Matt, warm summer nights, no homework, all of that stuff.

Well, a depressing, boring, lacking post. Hopefully I'll be happier when I get some simple things done tomorrow, like going to work and rocking when I do the invoices and financial statements. (BORING) But I'm so good at what I do.

Ppfftt! Sorry.

Back to the Meal Plan

I'm feeling better today. I've started to notice my triggers. Sitting at the computer for a long time (because of this darn chair - I'm looking for a new one), talking on the phone because I lean my head and hold it with my shoulder, and sitting funny on the couch with my neck twisted, are all triggers for neck pain and the subsequent headaches - which I swear now are NOT migraines. I could feel the muscles in my neck ripple last night as I dozed on the couch face down. I think those muscles just get a lot of improper use and I have to figure out how to reduce the abuse I subject them to.

During the previously mentioned blog browsing, I discovered lots and lots of people who post weekly menus. They do this for several reasons. First, meal planning helps your evenings go more smoothly and can keep your food bills down, there's an answer every night - or at least a list of possibilities - to the question, "What's for dinner?" and they can get ideas and inspiration from others who post meal plans. I, personally, love to read what other people come up with for dinner. I sometimes ask my neighbor what she's had for dinner over the past week because she cooks more simply than I. That's a good thing, trust me. I'll agonize over all my ingredients and she'll come home and make turkey sandwiches and a bowl of soup! What a great idea! I never would have thought of it, seriously. I have to make everything complicated.

Well, I decided to get back into the swing of writing up seven dinner possibilities and stick to it for two or three weeks. I can see if the grocery bill can be brought down, maybe make dinner before 8pm, and give myself a little space in the evenings. So here goes nothing:

Meal Plan for June 2 - 8, 2008

• Monday - Mushroom Stuffed Chicken Rollups with rice and peas
• Tuesday - Mac & Cheese (the Blue Box) with Hot Dogs and salad
• Wednesday - Baked pasta with garlic bread, and salad or corn (boys are in football camp at CSU)
• Thursday - Meatloaf and mashed potatoes with corn (boys in camp)
• Friday - Breakfast for dinner. Eggs, bacon, grits, biscuits and gravy (boys in camp)
• Saturday - Soup, sandwiches and salad. (camp is over this evening) A IS HOME TODAY!
• Sunday - Spaghetti Carbonara with salad

The only ingredients I still need to buy for this weeks plan are salad fixings, hot dogs, chicken noodle soup and potatoes. That will cost me about $27 if I splurge. OMG, check me out! I just checked out the ads online for King Soopers and Safeway to find the best prices. I amaze me sometimes. I can't wait to start buying fresh produce at the farmers market. They don't have much right now because our growing season just started. When the zucchini shows up, I'll be in heaven. I have a recipe for a zucchini casserole thing that has pepper jack cheese in it that is to die for.

Because the boys will need morning fuel I'll have to have hard boiled eggs, bran muffins and cheese sticks ready for them to take off with in the mornings before the football camp they are attending this week. They will eat lunch provided by the camp so I don't have to worry about packing their lunches.

Did I forget to mention? Lindsay has gone up to the mountains with the in-laws for the first week of June. Lindsay spends a week every summer with her cousin, great grandparents (the hubby's Grandmother and Grandfather), and her great aunt (the hubby's aunt). She's going to do a 'spa day' this week because, you know, they are growing up and like to paint their nails and have a foot soak and use lotion... I even got a call a little while ago asking my permission to wear acrylic nails for the week. I caved and said yes. Hope she has fun playing in the woods, wading in the creek looking for bugs, and helping with dinner in fake nails!

Maturity. Not mine though!

I was doing a little blog browsing when I came across a blog that had this entry. I nearly died. Go on, take a peek - I'll wait.

My daughter is having the very same experience. As a matter of fact, I just bought her two sports bra's. Now, these are really small and meant for little girls, but they do 'hide' (?) what's going on under her thin summer shirts. I even bought her a few pairs of little 'boy cut' underpants that match.

She's growing up. There's nothing we can do to stop it. God, help us all!