Mountainair

I am biased because I love Christmas!!! I've already started watching Hallmark Christmas movies (Yea, I'm one of those people) but I saw some online poll the other day where the majority of people thought stores should wait until after Thanksgiving to start putting up Christmas stuff. I for one put up my decor the day after Thanksgiving so I like that the stores have Christmas up early so I can go ahead and buy my replacement lights, new stuff, etc and have everything I need to spend the weekend decorating without having to wait until December. I also only have a few more people to shop for and have already finished shopping for my kids and husband with 90% of it already wrapped. Now, I am 110% against Thanksgiving Day shopping at midnight and black friday in general. Thank god for Layaway. I might miss out on some deals but you will never catch me in a store the Friday after Thanksgiving or on Thanksgiving. Also, I'm such a sap that it really doesn't take much for a Christmas commercial to make me cry. I like the folgers commercial with the big brother coming home to surprise everyone. It's been a year since I've seen my own baby brother (he is in the Navy) and if he surprised us like that I would be a bucket full of tears!

So, haven't seen much action here. Are people participating? I checked online and my library has a copy of the first book available. I alone will not offer much feedback. Want to see if it's worth making a trip to the library tomorrow or not?

I saw the news about Tom this afternoon as a I am "friends" with Car Talk on Facebook. I had no idea he suffered from Alzheimer's. Admittedly I haven't listened to the show in a while, were they still taping new episodes? Back before I Had baby number two I used to work in a four story building and on my lunch breaks I would download Car Talk pod casts and listen to Tom and Ray while I ran the stairs. I lost all the first baby's weight and then some and hardly even noticed I was excercising because I was laughing so much!

I made "dump chicken" tonight with leftover rice and fresh salad. Naturally, DH didn't eat any. The kids, being excited for Trick or Treating, didn't eat any either. It was good. Overnight marinade with lemon juice and garlic, bake in the oven or crockpot the next day. Oh well. The never ending saga of chicken in my household. I love to eat salads for lunch so I have plenty of chicken now to throw in! I did my big monthly shopping today and have a stocked fridge/freezer/pantry. They are calling for 12 inches of snow tomorrow!! What happened to fall??!!! I plan on making a pot of chili tomorrow for dinner. I have a great recipe for chili that I use all the time. I once left to recipe with DH so he could make the chili while I was away for the day. The recipe calls for 2 canned Adobe peppers with their sauce. 2 peppers. I got home and he had added two Cans of Adobe peppers! Talk about Fire breathing! Anyhow, not ready for snow but am ready for some yummy chili tomorrow!

No, sorry. Asheville, NC. He visits here about twice a year and always eats at 12 Bones Smokehouse. If he can't eat there in person he has been known to have his aides deliver it to him before Air Force one takes off.

Back to just the four of us tonight. My parents left this afternoon. Between leftover party food and using what I had on hand already I came out pretty cheaply this weekend. For lunch today we went to a local BBQ joint, (it's delish but ever since Obama started eating there the lines are ridiculous, my parents love the place so thats the only time I go) It does make the best BBQ! Custom sandwiches. I always get the smoked turkey with sugared bacon, Brie cheese and pesto mayo served on Texas Toast. Yum! My mom bought me some turkey legs I need to do something with soon. Any suggestions?

I sometimes read a chick lit series set in Georgia and the author often includes recipes in the back. I'm not a HUGE fan of southern foods (born and raised in the south but my mom spent her whole life in Alaska and she did all the cooking) but I did eat a lot of Brunswick Stew which the book had a recipe for. I want to try it but there are a ton of ingredients and around my parts growing up Brunswick Stew was only eaten if the men of the Methodist church nearby prepared it. My parents arrive tomorrow for a long weekend birthday celebration for my almost 5 year old!! I am waiting for my mom to get here (make grandpa watch the boys) so we can go shopping together for the party. So, in addition to cleaning the house top to bottom, today I made Pumpkin looking Rice Krispie treats for all the preschool kids tomorrow for my sons Birthday, I used some leftover chicken to make Buffalo Chicken Wontons for football watching, I made dinner (breakfast) which is quite time consuming with little ones, I made dinner for the crockpot (cowboy casserole, easy, cheap, yummy) for tomorrow night, tomorrow I have to make a sheet cake to serve 30+ people and in the morning go to the shop we have downtown and clean that top to bottom for the party site. I always hold parties at my house but I hate how dirty my house gets. This year I decided to hold the party at our place of business. It is essiently two small offices, two bathrooms and two oversized garage bays. People don't linger and my house isn't a wreck :)

Breakfast. Eggs, bacon,potatoes,pancakes.

I'm down! Any book is good with me, I love to read. My only exception is that unless the book is available at the library I'll have to bow out of the conversation on that particular selection.

We had cake and ice cream at our wedding and IIRC, the reception hall kept a big tub of ice cream in their freezer and when it was time for cake and ice cream they brought it out and we had a couple of church ladies serve it up on the plates/bowls. Now, I know the Duggars don't spend money but my four year old recently attended a birthday party downtown at a pottery place and the parents of the birthday girl paid for an ice cream truck to park outside so you could order whatever they provided. Thought that was a neat idea :)

Tonight I made Sticky Chicken in the crockpot and served rice and steamed veggies on the side. The chicken cooks in a soy/brown sugar sauce and the you brush more soy/brown sugar/tomato paste on top and broil it for a few minutes. Turned out pretty good. We aren't big chicken fans over here but I can't serve ground beef for every meal and my son has a mild shellfish allergy and my husband has a white fish allergy so no seafood at my house :( Good news on the house guest front, two guests cancelled on me (which really came as a relief to me) so just my parents will be staying with us. They tend to help with the grocery bill so that's a plus! Now, I'm not much of a baker and couldn't justify spending $40 on a sheet cake so I'm going to attempt to make two 9x13 cakes and slide them together using icing as glue to make one big one. That should work right?

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I didn't even think of sloppy joes, that's kid friendly and yummy! Taco bar is a great idea too! I've got a ton of housework to do this week and party prep to get done so anything that is easy to put together and requires little time in the kitchen in right up my alley! I always say I'm going to make birthdays easier. HA! I have a guest list of 30 people and find myself hand making super hero capes for all the kids the rest of the week. I always go over board! As for dinner tonight, we are still nursing the Lasagna I made Saturday. I'll freeze whatever is left after DH gets home and make something new tomorrow night. I promised my family :)

My oldest child is turning five in a week with a HUGE super hero party being held Saturday. As a result I will be hosting four house guests this weekend, which means 8 mouths to feed for four days worth of meals. I'm on a budget so does anyone have any go to feed a crowd meals they can suggest. Besides spaghetti? I really hate spaghetti!

I have never been a fan of sweets. I am more the savory type. When I was pregnant with my first kid I got hooked on those stupid freezer pops. Nothing but crap ingredients, sugar, sugar, sugar. I would literally eat 10 a night. Needles to say, a few weeks after my addiction kicked in I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. HUGE changes commenced. Ones I didn't even know I needed! I tend to run in the middle of the pack. Not overweight and not underweight. But counting the carbs to maintain the diabetes made a huge change in my life. I stopped using cream in my coffee and to this day I still prefer my coffee black. I mentally measure only a few gulps of milk in my cup instead of a big tall glass. All this to say, my second pregnany found me wanting to make and eat sweets as well. I purchased the Americas Test Kitchen Family Cookbook which had a scrumptious New York style cheesecake. It takes two days to make but if I'm in the mood for sweets that is my go to recipe. YUM! As an aside, I was not diagnosed with diabetes with my second kid, just high blood pressure and was put on bed rest. I'd prefer the diabetes to bed rest to be honest!

Gah! Finally caught the episode, at dinner time no less with a 2 and 4 year old. Don't judge, weekends the kids get to eat in the living room with a movie. Why isn't this onDemand yet? Needless to say, I only half caught the episode but wanted to weigh in on the Kelley vs. Eddie debate. I just turned 30 last week, happily married for 10 years so my option may be skewed but if I were "on the prowl" Kelley would be my first pick based on looks and immediate attractiveness alone. Then, after having a conversation with the guy I would realize what a loser/tool he is and opt for Eddie. Eddie is cute in the non conventional way and I'm sure we could carry on a conversation together. Does that make me a bad person? Perhaps, but that's based solely on first impressions.

Mr. Mountain actually got off work at a decent hour yesterday so instead of fried chicken we went out for Mexican. With a 2 and 4 year old we rarely go out so that was a nice treat. Ironically the 2 year old was much better behaved than the 4 year old. Spent all morning making my lasagna and it smells divine cooking right now! I went to take the foil off a few minutes ago and with it the top layer of cheese and noodles came off as well. Oops! Should have sprayed the foil with cooking spray. The sucker weighed 50 pounds so loosing one layer isn't the end of the world except for presentation points of course!

I quit watching right after Josie was born. I couldn't even hate watch anymore! My first son was born just a few months after or either before Josie (I think) and he will be turning 5 next week. This latest season is the first I've tuned in since Josie's birth and I was shocked to see Josie, the same age as my son, acting like my two year old. In fact, I think my two year old has better verbal skills than she does! It really just breaks my heart for her. I have kept up with the Duggars via message board and now, with the cooler weather I am able to stay inside and catch some of the afternoon re runs that air on TLC. I had heard about Michelle being pregnant again after Josie and these are the episodes that are airing now. How anyone with 19 kids, one of them being a "miracle" baby could proceed to conceive again is just beyond the pale IMO.

Last night I made a delicious broccoli cheese soup for the first time. Tasted great and the kids even ate it, well not the 2 year old but he's more of a constant snacker anyway. Friday's I usually reserve for take out. Usually it's pizza but since I'm doing homemade lasagna for dinner tomorrow I think we may just do fried chicken. I know, I know. But it's budget friendly for my family of four and something the kids will eat too!

My viewership doesn't count towards anything however I'll add my 2 cents to the discussion. I don't have DVR but am always home on Friday nights. Unfortunately, my kids go to bed during the 8 o'clock hour so regardless of the day TAR airs, 8 o'clock is a hard time for me to watch anything and I end up missing the first 15 minutes or so and find myself only half paying attention to the rest of the show. I do find it interesting that in my area, TAR is now available OnDemand. Last year, when it was constantly interrupted by football the only way to watch it was online, which I personally despise watching TV on my mobile device or even on my PC. I just won't do it. Now that scheduling isn't a problem anymore they decide to offer it on demand? If anything it would have made more sense to offer it OnDemand last year and not this year. I don't get it.

You are going out of town for the weekend without kids and spouse but promise to be back in time for the premiere of Walking Dead (NO!! Do not watch without me)! I've planned my trip accordingly so I can listen to football on the 6 1/2 hour drive back but made sure I was home in plenty of time to tuck the kids in and be seated on the couch with time to spare!

My bad, it was actually called Candy Cane. A quick google image search for Jello Candy Cane pudding brought it right up. I'm cool with pumpkin spice but my favorite thing about the holidays is the PepperMint flavored things! I did end up finding another peppermint cookie recipe that didn't call for the pudding and it was ok.

I still see watchamacallits from time to time. That used to be my lunch back in high school. That and a melon Gatorade. If I tried that today I think I'd starve to death though! In the vein of discontinued foods, I had two products recently that on a whim was in need of. Peppermint Jello Pudding. I was going to make some yummy looking cookies I saw on Pinterest for Christmas past, looked all around and then checked their Facebook page where lo and behold others were looking for it too! Discontinued! Second item was for my youngest sons 2nd birthday party (Mickey Mouse themed) a few months ago. I remember when I was a kid (turning 30 next week!) having the most delicious Mickey Mouse (shaped and colored to look just like him) ice cream bars. Thought that would be perfect! Evidently they weren't exactly discontinued but the only place you can get them is at a Disney theme park. Bummer!

Yes, their hair makes me itch just looking at it! I hate hair in my face or on my neck, it literally makes me itchy all over! That being said, I get a hair cut once every three years. I never dye it and I rarely blow dry it. I donate my hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths (their length requirement is less than Locks of Love and the hair is strictly for women with Breast cancer, which I do in memory of my Aunt). As soon as my hair is long enough I chop it all off and then as soon as it grows enough to put it in a pony tail this how it says until I can get it all cut off again. I couldn't imagine keeping all that Duggar hair on my neck all the time and yes, the "after" at the beauty salon looked horrendous though the make up wasn't too bad!

I thought it was a lovely wedding and I think Audrey is a pretty girl. I've always had a mild crush on Jeremy and thought he looked really great in his tux! I even liked the flowered halos. I just thought it was beautiful. I did not get the signs the boys were holding as mentioned above. What all did they say? I could only make out the dad's and one word on one of the grooms men's signs which was, "sexy".

We've been campers since before the kids were born. Mostly canoe camping. Pack our stuff in the canoe and start paddling. Once kids came into the picture we have switched to base camping. When I was 8 months pregnant with my youngest we based camp with family durring an unseasonably hot July, and all the neighboring campers would comment on me being out in a tent in "my condition" It really wasn't that bad, though I'd never do it again. Not to mention a week after we got back I got put on bed rest due to high blood pressure and was induced a week early. If they like to camp, good for them, do it now! That's about the only good I can muster for them.