Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday everyone! I am just watching some football (Mississippi State vs Arkansas) and blogging to avoid putting my second coat of paint on some trim. I was all gung ho to get it done and was doing my "The Painting is Done" happy dance until Michael said, "Well, you also need to touch up the window trim." Do What? I told him he could do it and sat here and pouted. It really took the wind out of my sails to be told that. UGH!

I was disappointed earlier because I had not been that productive today. We are having Thanksgiving with Michael's family tomorrow and I hadn't baked anything. Nor had I done any real cleaning, worked on Project Living Room, gone for a run, or worked out. It really didn't help that Joseph was a grumpy gus this afternoon and nothing would make him happy. I finally just had to stick him in his Exersaucer in the kitchen with some cheerios so I could fix supper. He fussed alot but I don't guess that will kill him. Luckily he went to bed early and then I got down to business. I baked my biscuits and cornbread for my dressing, stained a section of our new shelving, and, like I said, painted the "last" of the trim in the living room. I will get to that second coat here in a few minutes. I need to get it done so I can move the loveseat back.

On another note, this football game is suddenly not going so well for my Bulldogs. When did we get to be down by 10?

Anyway, I will be sure to post pics of my Thanksgiving grub. I am planning on making hashbrown casserole, dressing, sweet potato rolls (new for 2010), and derby pie. I also need to get a second coat of stain on the shelves in the morning first thing. Looks like a busy Sunday ahead! I'm gonna try to enjoy the rest of my Saturday.

Look What I Can Do!

I went to get the Munchkin from his morning nap yesterday and this is what I found! He's growing up so fast!

Getting a Little Shelby Love...

It's been a super busy week here. We are still working on our living room. I have been painting trim all week...ugh! To make it even harder, the Munchkin likes to untape the trim about as quick as I tape it. I'm so ready to have this house back in order!!

On a good...no a GREAT note...the Munchkin is back to a more regular schedule for now and is sleeping better at night. Michael started getting up with him when it wasn't time for him to eat and I guess he got the message that just because he wakes up and cries, he's not necessarily going to get fed. So yay for that!!

Anyway, I just wanted to put a quick post up. Hope everyone is having a great week!! I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving!!

Zesty Italian Casserole

This is my go to recipe. The one I usually make when I'm preparing supper for someone for the first time...the one I make and take to people's houses when they need a care package. It was the first dish I made for Michael when we started dating. It's delicious and so easy!

Here's what you need:
1 lb ground beef
1/4 c chopped onion
1 c spaghetti sauce
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 c sour cream
1-8 oz can crescent rolls
1/3 c grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large skillet, brown beef and onion until beef is done. Drain. Add spaghetti sauce and heat through. Spread meat mixture in a 9 x 13 dish. Sprinkle with mozzarella. Drop small spoonfuls of sour cream over cheese and spread out. Unroll crescent rolls and place on top. Mix melted butter and Parmesan and brush over rolls. Bake 18-25 minutes or until rolls are golden and mixture is bubbly.

Take a look at this yumminess:



This is also a good dish to prepare ahead of time (except for baking) and keep in the fridge. Just pop it in the oven and you're 20ish minutes away from a fabulous casserole! Enjoy!

Crafts with a 7 month old...

I saw a great Thanksgiving craft idea online the other day and I just HAD to make a onesie with Joseph's hand and footprints making a turkey. I mean, how hard could it be? I got a bath all ready since I knew he would instantly go into the bath once we were done. I laid out paper all over the floor and put paint in little plates. I dipped his little hand in red (all is going well) but then the little squirt clenched his fist and would not open it. I tried to get him to but he started bawling. Obviously he was not enjoying arts and crafts time, but he had already smudged red paint on the onesie and I refused to let it go to waste. So, I got a footprint out of him and then gave him a bath.I painted the feathers on myself and filled in his footprint a little.

I think it turned out pretty cute regardless. He will be sporting it on Thanksgiving.

In other news, it's been a pretty good week here. Joseph continues to do better with solids. He is still waking once or twice a night, but we're dealing with it. I've had a couple of pretty crappy runs this week...I think I run better in the cold and it's been in the 70s this week when I've run. I am also missing going to the gym really bad. My iPhone is gone...I got a new phone that just does basic stuff....which is weird for me. But I thought it was silly to be paying $30 a month for a data plan for my phone when I have a laptop next to me 75% of the time. We are getting Direct TV this weekend. No more cable! YAY!! I am trying to clean off the DVR now. I think today is going to be a How I Met Your Mother marathon. :)

I can't ALWAYS be upbeat...

Someone made the comment on Facebook a while back that Joseph always looks so happy. I thought.."DUH...I'm not usually snapping pictures of him when he's throwing a fit!!" He IS generally a happy baby and a joy to be around, don't get me wrong. Another Facebook comment I got recently was that my statuses tend to be so upbeat that I make motherhood look easy. PSSSH! Things are not always what they seem. I try to be an upbeat person. I try to see the good of a situation and not get bogged down in the day to day trials of being a stay at home mom. I must tell you though...I had a major set back last night. If you read my post yesterday you would see that I planned to go to bootcamp, go for a run, and ride my horse. I went for a run. It was a great run, but that was as far as I got with my list. I'll write more about the run in a minute. Joseph fell asleep before the lunch bootcamp class so I had to miss that. I TRIED to keep him up, but he just wasn't having it. Things were looking good for getting my ride in though....Joseph went to sleep early (at 7 sharp) and I got dressed and headed out to the barn. I no more got Spice saddled when my phone rang...uh oh. It was Michael and the Munchkin was up....and ANGRY! He had been trying to put him back down, but Joseph wasn't having it. I had Spice unsaddled in less than a minute and was out the door, back in the car, and back on my way home. I got home, but did Joseph stop crying for me? NOOOOOO! It took me another hour to get him settled down and back to sleep. I ended up nursing him back to sleep which I hate to do and try not to, but I was soooo exasperated. I know these set backs are only temporary but I was really getting in the groove. Tonight will be my last night at bootcamp until at least after Thanksgiving or until Joseph gets a nap schedule that doesn't keep me from every class. That combined with the thought of not being able to have my night rides at the barn really got to me. I feel like what little freedom I've carved out for myself is gone. But enough of that...quit being such a downer, Jules!

I did have a rather nice run yesterday. It was sunny and 52...perfect running weather for me. I can't stand getting too hot when I run. I took the baby jogger and Shelby again. I really booked it for the first mile and shaved a minute off my time! I had a bit of an issue in the second mile when out of no where a loose dog jumped on Shelby and I screamed and was just about to start kicking, but the dog was a good listener when I told it to "GO ON!" However, it's Basset Hound friend was not such a good listener and thought he needed some exercise. So, he went with us. Which would have been just fine...he was friendly and I don't mind exercising other people's dogs, but Shelby acted like a complete fool. I discovered something though...my next dog needs to be a Basset and it will be my running buddy because they actually RUN beside me instead of prancing/trotting/generally mocking my slowness like Shelby. Yep, I need a Basset Hound..or maybe a Dachshund...something with short legs. :) Anyway, even with Shelby's foolishness, I had a great run...faster than my usual pace even with the jogger. It was so uplifting that I cooked steak for supper with asparagus (which Joseph liked), au gratin potatoes (which Joseph LOVED) and homemade bread. I'm really in the mood to bake cookies today....don't know if I will or not though. Cookie dough does sound so good though!

Spaghetti!

I should be napping now. But as you can see, I'm not. I have learned to cope with Joseph's getting up 2 to 3 times a night by taking a nap when he goes to sleep at 7:30 AM (he has been waking up between 5:30 and 6 and then by 7:30 is ready to go to bed again. We are all out of whack!). However, this morning, Michael stayed at the house until 8 and so I just kinda missed my sleep groove. I gave up trying at 8:20 since I know that Joseph will be up around 9.
Anyway....although Joseph has not improved in his sleeping habits..he has gotten better about eating solids. We had a breakthrough earlier this week when he kept going after my oatmeal that I eat as a mid morning snack. I usually only feed him solids (or attempt to) at lunch and supper. However, I thought, what the heck. So I fixed him some of his oatmeal and we sat down and ate together. Well, he wanted NOTHING to do with his oatmeal. So I offered him a spoonful of mine and he LOVED it. I looked at what the oatmeal had in it and it was just oats, cinnamon, apples, and sugar. The sugar was low, so I deemed it ok...plus he LIKES it! So we have shared oatmeal every day since. I also cooked some ground turkey and pureed it for him. He really liked it the first night but hasn't been real into it since. I wonder if he is like me and doesn't like meat reheated. Hmmm. Last night I sat him down with his usual turkey and sweet potatoes but he didn't really want either. He kept reaching for my spaghetti. So I gave him a noodle. I don't know how much he really got down but he tried so hard to eat that spaghetti. It was hilarious! So I guess he just wants to eat what we eat. That's not a bad thing...it will inspire me to cook healthier since I don't want him eating a bunch of crap. Now if he would just sleep more than 3 hours at a time at night.....

In other news....I took the jogging stroller out the other day for an afternoon run. I also took Shelby and let's just say that was INTERESTING! Jogging with stroller and dog added a whole new level of difficulty. Once I got outside it was chillier than I had thought it would be so we only ran for 20 minutes since I didn't want the Munchkin to get too cold. I didn't have him bundled up very well. I am planning on going for another run later today in addition to bootcamp at noon and riding my horse this evening. It's going to be a full day!! :)