So I stink at keeping a blog :)

Kids are getting old, life is staying busy, and the world keeps turning. Jam will be 8 in January, our little J-bean just turned 6, Lynnie-loo is 4.5 and enjoying her 2nd year in preschool, Boo-boo is a crazy 2 and a half year old who loves to sing, and baby-cakes is 1!

My husband has gone back to school to be an EMT and I have started life as an independent consultant for a MLM company.  It's been a crazy year.

In celebration of J-bean's birthday we made her favorite sugar cookie recipe that I posted a while back. She got a new set of Pampered Chef Creative Cutters and was having a blast while mommy got COVERED in the flour that had been used to dust the counter. Glad there were no cameras around. :)

Tasty Turkey

Last night I decided to roast up the turkey breast that my amazingly sweet visiting teacher had brought over last week. She is constantly surprising me with her acts of kindness. I decided I did not want to go the traditional route with my bird since I've never really liked it any way we have done it before. I used something I remembered from a recipe I had read on the Butterball recipe site mixed with a little imagination.

The original recipe was found here: http://www.butterball.com/recipes/detail/citrus-glazed-turkey-breast, and although it is simple, called for more ingredients than I had around.

I unwrapped my 7.6 pound turkey breast and followed the directions on the package:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
Remove the outer packaging and the gravy packet
Rinse the turkey breast inside and out
Pat dry

I then put it in a 9x13 glass baking dish (that I sprayed for good measure). Here is where the fun got started. I took a small can of concentrated OJ (partially thawed) and mixed it with about a cup of Apricot Pineapple Marmalade. I couldn't find a brush so I used the back of a spoon to spread it along the outside of the bird (I had removed about half of the skin for personal preference). I covered it with aluminum foil and put it in the oven for 3 1/2 hours (time will vary by size). At that time I rotated the turkey and ladled juices from the bottom of the pan, into the cavity of the turkey for the final 25 minutes.

My kids decided they liked it with a little bit of soy sauce and my husband put it on yeasty rolls from Sam's Club. I thought it turned out well and was super moist. A moment of bravery for my cooking resume!

Yay!!!! I finally have a computer again!

December 2013 was a little rough. Some of you know that I'm a bit a bargain shopper. Christmas is the time when that shines through quite a bit. I rarely pay 25% of the retail value for the presents I do buy. Therefore, I am not a last minute holiday shopper. By the first week of December all presents had been purchased and those that were shipped had already arrived. In fact, I had already wrapped and stashed the presents, including a new Nikon I had gotten for myself! Mid-month our chest freezer decided to start a house fire. It started on our back porch where it blew a few propane tanks and went into the attic and spread rapidly. Luckily all of the family (we didn't have any pets) got out. The Christmas presents weren't so lucky. I had stowed them away atop the china hutch in the back room....close to the attic.

The kitchen was a total loss and that was where my laptop sat on the built-in desk. Life has been a bit difficult without a computer all these months. There are some tasks for which an iPhone just won't do. I haven't blogged, or used my coupons, or made invites for my kids birthday parties. I haven't been able to run the CDs of photos that we salvaged from the wreckage to see if the files survived the heat. I finally have that ability again!!!!!! I can't wait to get started. But right now we are up by Flagstaff at Boy Scout Camp so I have to hold-my-horses until we get back home. :( Such hard work.

I had an Olympus Tough camera which survived the flames, and the firefighters soaking. I tossed the charger cord because it smelled of smoke and the type of rubbery plastic it is, I couldn't make it go away. Well, the battery died and I have yet to find a new charger. It's a specialty end and I can't even figure out what it's called to try to find another. Hopefully that problem will be remedied soon.

I really want to get this blog moving and grooving so it actually gives me an outlet. We will see how it goes. I would love to start posting pics of the rebuild and my projects for the house along the way. Happy trails from Scout camp!

Sugar Cookies for my Sweet Daughter

I decided upon searching year old Facebook posts for the umpteenth time to find this recipe that I would share it on my blog so as to not lose it again! This recipe was shared with me by my friend Brandi and makes an excellent sugar cookie...no frosting necessary. It does spread a little more than you'd like for super sharp images though so bare that in mind.

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Spoon Mix softened butter and sugar until smooth.
Beat in eggs & vanilla
Spoon stir in remaining ingredients 

*refrigerate for at least 1 hour before baking :)*

Roll out dough apx 1/4 inch thick
Place cookie shapes at least 1 inch apart on a greased cookie sheet.
Preheat oven to 400
Bake for 6-8 minutes
Allow to cool completely before icing
Enjoy :))

Half Price Dresser Makeover Part One

I decided I needed a dresser to put in the center of the girls closet, so I headed off to the Saturday 50% off sale over at one of our local Goodwill stores. I found this little beauty and figured I could make it work! It has a few holes drilled in the top and the side was scraped up a bit, but I figured it wasn't anything I couldn't solve with some wood filler and a little elbow grease.

I decided to feature this a one of my makeover-in-minutes features. I sanded it up a bit, pulled the drawers out to leave as is for now, and grabbed one of my quarts of paint I have acquired for $0 through promotions. Then I got to work. Sanded it enough just to rough up the paint for a good bond, cleaned it off and started painting. The paint color was "sexy pink" by Glidden.

Threw a drawer back in so I could see if I liked it as it was or if I needed to paint that too. Turns out I loved it. Always liked the cotton candy/bubble gum style pink and blue combo. Left it to dry so I could come back in a couple hours to spend another 10 minutes tops to put on a second coat.....then this happened!

The driveway is the only place I have to do my projects. I had the dresser under the carport...but not far enough. It got wet. REALLY REALLY WET. It has been relocated but we will have to wait and see how the first coat faired and "weather" or not it will be ready for a second. Wish me luck!

Not so crazy couponer

Yesterday I saved a ton of money grocery shopping, which makes me SOOO very happy. And I didn't use a single coupon. I just went to Wal-mart with my pre-printed grocery list. I employed the powers of ad matching without spending hours scouring ads. Dealstomeals.com did all that for me. You simply pick your location, tell it which stores to look through (which since I plan on price matching I pick them all) and then look through the deals. I find it easier to sort by type instead of by store because I'd rather not pick the same item twice and sometimes multiple stores will have deals on the same items but not for the same price and sorting by type makes it easier for me to see those. I then click the box next to the items I want to buy and it puts them right into a shopping list for me!!!! When you go to print the shopping list you can leave it sorted by store or click a box to sort it by type. That's the method I prefer since that's the way the store is laid out. Being a Deals to Meals member cost $4.95 a month, but it saved me that much on the two cartons of ice cream I bought yesterday so I felt it was definitely worth that. They occasionally run a "try me" promotion so go give it a whirl. You don't have to spend more time couponing than you spend with your kids to save money. It's not saving 99% or anything like you see on the Extreme Coupon show but it does help stick to a budget, or squeeze more out of the budget you're already on!!

First Day of School

No tears here!
Today we sent the Js off to school. My little Jam man went to his first day of Kindergarten and Jen went to her second first day of preschool.

She has her same teacher as last year, which is great because she is awesome. Herself and her team of assistants do amazing work and helped Jen improved so much over the last year. She gets to share the class with two of her best friends too! Her preschool is only half day so she gets picked up by the bus at 5 til 11.

Jam has Ms. Goldblatt and just from his pre-screening and meet the teacher night he is already saying, "I love Ms. Goldblatt! She is awesome!" I hope that statement still proves true at the end of the year. He never went to preschool so he is jumping in to all day kindergarten....the deep end! Luckily he has always been my early riser so having him out for the bus at five minutes after seven this morning was a breeze. Late last night I had to run to Wal-Mart to buy him new sneakers. I swear his feet just decided to grow yesterday. He had been in the same size for more than a year and when prepping his outfit for the day the only thing that fit were his flip flops that he isn't allowed to wear.

I sort of wish that Jen and Jam went to school at the same time. I have a hard time dealing with the staggered start and Jen gets busy playing before she has to go so she gets a bit worked up when it's time to go. Hopefully she won't have too much trouble with that this year though.

Little B and S and I had an ice cream party after they were both gone! S especially is being cuddly and relishing the time she has with mommy almost to herself. I'd say the ice cream was to help her feel better about missing her siblings but lets face it, I just wanted an excuse to eat some more of my caramel I had delivered down here from Leatherby's Family Creamery in Citrus Heights, California. That's right, my caramel made a 14 hour drive just for me! {With a little help from my parents that is :)}

I still can't believe Baby B is already 6 months old! She sits up, and crawls now. She has started pulling herself up on things and is already Trying to stand. No success yet though, thank heaven!

Hope all of you and your families have a successful school year!