Weekly Dose of Random

Welcome to the brain dump that is RTT!

**It's been quite the hectic week around our house.

**We are moving to a different house at the end of this month.  It is on-post housing so we will be closer to everything which is awesome.  Sucky part is that the kiddos are going to have to change schools again.  They'll be fine.

**Our new nephew arrived last Wednesday afternoon.  He is totally beautiful.  Everyone is healthy and home.

**I'm currently watching a show on the History Channel called "Jefferson".  It is pretty interesting.

**I was going to cancel our DVR service but Hubby won't watch Real Housewives of NJ with me, so I'm keeping the DVR...

**The boys are especially loud this afternoon.  I have no idea why.

**Baby Girl is starting to pull her pants up by herself (well, at least trying)...you know what that means?!  It means that we are quickly approaching her potty training days!!

**I really ought to be working on my resume' and letter of intent for a job application but telling you guys about the random stuff in my head is more fun.

**Umm, the boys are now engaged in a pillow fight with the couch pillows.  I probably should put a stop to that...oh wait, they are now distracted by the ice cream truck...not that they ever get ice cream from the truck (I'm much too cheap for that) but they have dreams...

Yeah, so I have to go do the mom thing now.  Have a great Tuesday evening!

Fast, Warm Breakfast

My kiddos aren't exactly patient.  I am not exactly one of those people who enjoy getting up at the butt-crack of dawn to make a hot breakfast.  I do, however, like to send my kiddos off to school with a warm breakfast.  I feel totally guilty if they eat cold cereal for too many mornings in a row.

Earlier this week, I came across the idea of scrambled eggs in the microwave.  Hubby thought it sounded gross.  But, quite frankly, I think hot dogs sound gross but that doesn't stop the kids from eating those.  So, we have been trying the microwaved scrambled eggs this week.  Both boys said they were pretty yummy.  Baby Girl ate them without spitting them out which in my book means success.

So, here's the method...crack two eggs into a microwave-safe bowl.  Scramble them up and add any seasonings you like.  (My kiddos are fans of seasoned salt in their eggs.)  Then microwave for 35-45 seconds.  (This takes a little trial-and-error to find out what works best with your particular microwave.)  Give the eggs a stir and microwave for another 35-45 seconds.  Remove from microwave and give them a stir.  If you like cheese on your eggs, add it at this point.  Cool for a minute and eat.

All Sorts of Random Stuff

Yo peeps :)  It's Tuesday and you know what that means...it is my day to get totally random!!

**We might move...again...this time it is only across town to a different house.  I'm so hoping it works out!  We got offered an on-post house.  Being on-post would be so much better in a lot of ways.

**This morning on the way home from the store, I saw a guy mowing his lawn.  Dude was wearing pointy-toed cowboy boots and smoking a cigarette.  He was also about 900 years old.  It was an odd sight.

**Anyone else notice that pretty much all Rascal Flats songs for like the last 5 years sound exactly the same?

**Heard that "Little White Church" song?  Baby Girl loves to dance to that song.  It is pretty freakin' adorable.

**A tropical vacation sounds really good.

**I love that football season is almost here.  Yay football!

**Whoever is holding the laundry fairy hostage needs to release her!  I did 6 freakin' loads of laundry yesterday and it exhausted me.

Well, that's all the random for today.  Hope ya'll had a great Tuesday!

Interesting Insects

Over the summer, we made a trip to Arkansas to visit the fam.  Of course, my totally awesome camera went along with us.  One night while we were at my parents house, all five of the kiddos were running around outside.  I had my camera out and was catching all the fabulous moments.

Amid all of the chaos, somehow, this little guy caught my eye...

I was so excited about having caught this image that I quickly became obsessed with finding kept my eyes open for other cool insects to photograph.  Here's what else I managed to find...

Taking these pictures was so much fun.  The kiddos had fun finding stuff for me to take pictures of too.

Mini Meatloaves

I make some awesome meatloaf.  I'm also very modest.  When I first started learning to cook, early in my marriage, I hated making meatloaf because it takes forever to cook.  The answer to my meatloaf dilema arrived one day on some cooking show I was watching.  Make them mini.  I started making my meatloaf in a muffin pan.  This cut the cooking time down to 20-30 minutes.  Since then, however, I have struggled with what to call them.  Obviously, they aren't technically a loaf.  And, meat muffins sounds odd and disturbing to me.  For now, I've settled on mini meatloaves.  Anyhoo, here is the recipe...

1 lb. ground beef
1 egg
1/2 pkg Chicken flavored stuffing mix
1/3 cup barbeque sauce

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a medium mixing bowl, mix all ingredients.  Use your hands.  Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray.  Divide the meat mixture into even amounts in the muffin tin. 

Cook for 20 to 30 minutes.  (The ones in the picture about took about 30 minutes because they are a little thicker.  Usually I stretch this recipe into 10, and those cook for about 20 minutes.)

I usually make some oven roasted potatoes and green beans to go along with these little morsels of deliciousness.  Also, keep in mind that you can totally personalize this recipe.  I've used ground bison.  I've used lots of different flavors of barbeque sauce.  I haven't ever tried any other stuffing flavors.  If you give that a whirl, let me know how it turns out.  Also, you could sprinkle some cheese on top of these.  This recipe is also super easy to double.  See, there are a million different ways to make this recipe your own.  Enjoy it!

The Return of Randomness

I am so excited to be back in the blogging routine.  And, I know, that you guys are super excited for my return to Random Tuesday Thoughts!  If you are new here, RTT is a post where I spit out completely random stuff and call it a post.  Sounds fun, right?  Well then, let's get to it...

**Baby Girl is now 16 months old and is completely obsessed with a Rolie Polie Olie book.  Yes, there are worse things, but I've read Rolie Polie Olie about 5,342 times today and it's starting to wear on me.

**I have a kid in 3rd grade.  Um, wow.

**We go through approximately 5 gallons of milk each week in our house.  I can't figure out if this is normal.

**Hubby and I are expecting a new nephew any day now.  Middle Kiddo is hoping that they will name the kid "Curious the George".  It's probably better than what hubby and I have been calling him...Gomer.  Yeah, Curious the George is totally the way to go if those are the options.

**Hubby's birthday is Sunday.  Our niece's birthday is also on Sunday.  Wouldn't it be nice and easy to remember if new nephew would show up then?!

**This morning I was watching Sesame Street and they actually used the phrase "Drop it like it's hot".  It made my day.

**I'm thinking I need more creative bloggy names for the kiddos and hubby.  Any suggestions?

Alrighty, well, I'm gonna have to cut off the random there because I'm being attacked with that danged Rolie Polie Olie book again.  Hope everyone has a great Tuesday!  And if you need more random in your life visit The UnMom.

What I Did This Summer

I had a spectacular summer!  The boys didn't actually have a lot of time off from school, but we managed to make the best of it and fit in a lot of fun.  Kiddos grow up so fast.  There are days that they drove me absolutely crazy (which is actually a pretty short drive) but I also realize that someday all too soon they will be grown up.  Then I will miss these days.  So, without further sappy ado, I spent this summer...

...taking the kiddos to the park for free lunch.  Um, hello!  Free lunch rocks my world.  Plus the whole park thing was a great way to get out of the house.

...coming to grips with the fact that I am now only 2 years away from 30.  Yep, I turned 28 this summer.  I had a fantastic birthday.  The boys made me the cutest little coupon booklets.  I am entitled to backrubs and car washes for the rest of my life.

...traveling to Arkansas.  We took a trip home to visit family.  I have to say it was the best trip yet.  We had such a wonderful time.  On one hand, I hated to leave.  But I was also super excited to get back to my own bed.

...kind of looking for a job.  I still haven't found a job.  Honestly, I'm getting a little panicked about it.  But I'm sure something will come along soon.

...reading.  I read a few books.  I'll tell you about those in an upcoming post.

...cooking and baking.  I taught myself to make some kick-butt pies.  I'll share those recipes and tips soon.  I also made some great dinner dishes.  Again, I have plans of sharing those too.

So, that was my big exciting summer.  I loved every minute of it.  I did miss you, my bloggy friends.  But I made some awesome memories with my kiddos and that's what it's all about :)

Probably Should've Mentioned This Earlier...

I kind of decided to take the summer off.  I have been enjoying some awesome times with the fam.  The boys have returned to school so I now have more time.  I will be back with regularly scheduled blogging in the next few days.  Sorry for being MIA so long, but it was totally worth it :)