It's what's for supper TONIGHT

I have been planning out my meals in advance faithfully; some of you would be so impressed! However, tonight I had spaghetti scheduled, and when I went to make it, it sounded so.....boring. So, I decided to play around a little bit and had a great result!! Here's approximately what I did...

Chopped 1 onion and about a half of a green pepper up and sauted them in a tiny bit of olive oil, seasoned with garlic powder, salt and pepper, and red pepper flakes until tender. Reheated a pound of hamburger (save time and money...buy it in 10 lb. tubes when it goes on sale, brown it up right away, and freeze in .75 lb. portions. It goes farther, is ready when you want it, and is cheaper than buying it by the pound!), then threw a jar of spaghetti sauce in and let that simmer. I boiled about 10 ounces of whole wheat penne until tender, then drained them and threw them back in the pot. Put in 3 ounces or so of reduced fat cream cheese, let it melt all over, then stirred in the sauce. I'm sure it would have been great then, but I, super mom/wife, went a step farther. I tossed it into a 9 x 13 inch pan, sprinkled about a cup of low fat mozzarella on top, and broiled until the cheese melted. YUM! Ok, it really wasn't anything fancy but it DID hit the spot as something a little more exciting than the usual spaghetti. And I only kinda had to bribe Grady to eat it (he does not do green pepper, something this supermom kinda forgot/purposefully doesn't really care about.) :) Lemme know if you make it! And if you want to order an advanced copy of my cookbook.....

Josh is a working fool lately! He's been leaving the house at 5:30 (pm) and returning around 7:30 am. Take time out for sleeping, showering, and eating and that doesn't leave a whole lot leftover!

Tonight I'm going to try and give him a little "I get how much you are working and third shift stinks" love. By way of dinner. (What else?!) I'm doing breakfast for dinner, as that's what time it is for him.

Yum? (Bacon and Egg cheesey biscuits)

Fruit. Coffee. Oatmeal. And anything else I can come up with between now and then. :)

Where did that stinking 50 degree weather go?? Tonight it's supposed to be -8. Yuck!!! I never did get to wear those new tights. I have the cutest outfit planned out (brown boots, cream tights, lavender Banana Republic dress, jean jacket) but I don't feel like catching pneumonia to wear it...spring will be here soon, right??

I have no real updates....coming off the MLK weekend, which was----thankfully-----uneventful. Everyone is back to normal and we enjoyed a weekend of doing laundry, cooking and eating good food, and re-cooperating. No complaints there.

One other thing...I am getting an itch to do a house project. Paint......back splash in the kitchen......new flooring....? The problem is that the house is, well, basically done. Now what???

HAH! So life was fabulous at 1:00 Tuesday, or whenever I wrote that. Speed ahead about 12 hours, not so much. Grady had the stomach flu Friday night. Kingsley had it Monday. Guess whose turn next? BOTH mama and daddy. I was in bed Tuesday night around 12:30, feeling decent (not awesome) but not able to sleep when I heard Josh come home. He was supposed to have jury duty on Wednesday morning, so I thought maybe he just came home to get some sleep before having to go in for the day. No such luck. I went into the kitchen and heard him in the bathroom, well, barfing. I grabbed a cold cloth and a glass of water and took it in. (I'm such a good wife, it smelled bad in there!) :) He just looked at me and said, "You know you're next." It was in the saddest voice possible. Kinda sweet that he was concerned about me at that point. My stomach sank because I knew he was right. Or maybe that was it's way of warning me too. Indeed, I was next, and it happened much sooner rather than later. I'll spare you the details, but know that over the next 8 or so hours, I lost 4.5 pounds. Best/worst weight loss plan ever.

However, that's not what I got on to blog about tonight. I actually got on to write about my dr. appointment today. I went back to the Breast Care Center for another biopsy of the lump in my left breast. (Let me back up if you did not know this information. I have a lump in my left breast. My ob-gyn found it at my visit this past June. She had me go to a radiologist, who ruled it "not nothing" and sent me on to Dr. Duvan in Waterloo. He did an exam, ultrasound, and biopsy in June. He was wary of the look of the lump. The biopsy was ruled "inconclusive," better than "cancerous" but still awfully scary. I had to go back three months later for another ultrasound, they decided they would watch it. Today was another three months out, and I was to have a biopsy. There, you're up to speed.) I went in to my appointment and the doc did the manual exam first, then proceeded to the ultrasound. He said, and I quote, "Well, there's nothing I can do for you, ma'am." I took this to be good, but...you never know. I just looked at him, waiting. He said the lump was gone. Nothing there. Nada. I asked if this was common, and he said yes, when things are benign, they shift and move and disappear altogether. He told me to get out and never come back. :) Well, mostly. He did tell me that, but he also followed it up with saying that since I've had this lump now in my 20's, my stats for other, scary things later on go up, and I need to keep doing self exams and get my toucas in if I feel anything immediately. (This doesn't reassure me as I never felt this one in the first place, but we'll pretend I'm competent for the purposes of this post.)

Hmmm this feels a little Debbie Downer all of a sudden. Let's end this back on the high note. The lump is gone. No more Breast Care Center. No more biopsies. Whoop, whoop! Thanks to all that prayed/sent good thoughts/texts/calls, etc. I really truly believed it made a difference!!

Jan. 10th - something like 57 degrees outside. It's fabulous. So far today, Grady's gone to preschool while Kingsley and I had a little Target run. I had a cup of fabulous coffee in my new Keurig. Chili is going in the crock pot. I got a full 50 minute, uninterrupted workout in. (Jillian, I will be sore tomorrow!! You need to take it easy on me!) I got a new pair of tights that I am gonna wear to work tomorrow. We're going to hit the park when K wakes up. Life. Is. Good.

And I saw this today on Facebook...she was talking about how easy it is to get caught up in materialism and the little things in life, and about how she read something that gave her a little perspective. She ended the post with..."Nathan, all I want (from life) is to grow old together with you watching our kids grow up (with the influence of God in their heart!)"

LOVE that! I'm not really close with this girl but she's our (kinda) neighbor and I think we need to become better friends cause I couldn't have said it better myself!! :)

Happy Tuesday!

"If you are sick of starting over, you have to stop quitting."

Word.

WW lemon cake

Ran across this recipe on Pinterest, and made it tonight. Delish!!!

WW Lemon Cake.

One lemon cake mix
1 20 oz diet sprite
lite cool whip

Mix cake mix and sprite together, and spread into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake 30 minutes at 350. Let cool completely before cutting. Cut slices and top with cool whip (optional, I didn't think it was needed!) Delish, very moist, and something like 1.5 points a piece. :) Yum!

Back to work tomorrow. The ending of breaks is always bittersweet for me. I love my job, students and coworkers. I also love my kids. Luckily, I have an awesome job that allows me to split my time between the two! Teaching 3 days a week and getting to be home with the kiddos the other two = priceless. Plus, the kids get to hang with daddy one day a week and their beloved MeeMaw the other two. How many people are so lucky???

The break felt short but in retrospect, we did a lot. Started out with tonsil surgery. Then we threw a going away party for our friends moving to Florida. Right after that was Christmas, and we celebrated at my parents, then our house, then Waverly, and finally the Heimanns. We watched a lot of football, played a lot of games, watched some good TV, had play dates, went to a comedian, had friends over for dinner several times, rang in the new year...I even read about 6 books for pleasure. It was busy yet refreshing and I'm ready to begin the next 16 weeks. Between prepping my online class and teaching a "new" one (theory, which I've taught once before, but I switched the text), I will be plenty busy. I also want to plan and do a bunch of fun things with the kids and begin my 10k training. (This ankle is still swollen and painful, so I guess I'll just kick it in on the elliptical? Not sure how to increase from my regular workouts....?) Love having a bunch of projects going! :)

Stomach flu

Why do I have this horrible feeling I should have labeled this post "Stomach flu, part 1"? Last night Josh and I were out with friends and had a sitter. She called me around 9 and said, "I just wanted to let you know that Grady just threw up everywhere....I gave him a bath and cleaned it up the best I could, then got him back to sleep." Ugggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh. How much do you tip the sitter that had to clean up your son's barf???? After he had a supper of strawberries and lasagna????? Cream carpet + pink throw up = one gross stain.

I checked on him after we got home...he had thrown up again. Bath and sheet/jammie change #2. (To speed this story along, I'll just tell you there were 4 of these in the next few hours.) Tip: Put a towel down under the trash can that your kid is barfing in, it will save you some trouble.

And at 8:30 am, when you are working on your second hour of sleep, try not to kill your husband when he tells you to put Dora on for the kids so he can sleep a little longer......

Gradykins.

Almost forgot.

Put this on FB but I want it here too.

Grady and I were just discussing somersaults. I showed him a front somersault, and a back somersault. He goes, "Wow!!!! You can do that all by yourself?!" I said "Yes, I'm amazing!" Then he said, "And YOU married DADDY?????" Bahahahahah.

Sometimes kids just say the darnest things.......though Josh didn't find it quite as funny as I did! :)

What is up with this GORGEOUS weather?! This is NOT me complaining. I will take 57 degrees in Jan. anytime!!! Yesterday, we took the kids to the park. Both of them were wearing coats, but no gloves, hats, etc. And those coats were unzipped so fast! LOVE IT!

Tonight Josh and I are going out...so excited. We are headed to do one of our favorite things, hit up a comedian at Jokers. Honestly, I'm not sure who it is! We went there for my birthday in November and tonight are going for the birthday of a friend of ours.

Last night we had the Dodd family over...so fun. Tomorrow will be a relaxing day...I don't think anything is planned except for a pool party for Grady in the afternoon. Interestingly, I think we are all going, making it a family affair. The kids will LOVE it. I am not quite as enthused about putting my pasty white body into a swimsuit in front of strangers, but what the heck. It's for a little boy that Grady is in preschool with, so it will be fun to meet some new people who live in Dike and can be family friends of ours. (Since it seems like everyone we know moved away...) The rest of the weekend is church Sunday and then back to reality Monday. I'm getting excited to get back at it, actually.

Happy weekend!

Workshoppin'

Yesterday and today I was at workshops at UNI. I am putting a course online in the Fall, so it was two days of learning how to do it! Lots to think about, but I'm ready for the new challenge.

Boring post? Yes. But at least I'm posting! (Hint, hint!!) :)

NYE!!

I am horrible about remembering to take my camera WITH me places. Sigh. So I only have one pic from a party last night.

I was trying to show off my new antler headband I got in a grab bag. Sadly, the antlers were floppy. And it looks like I'm trying to take out my friend Katy, not sure why. She's good people. :)

Annie and I went to the party while Josh, Jeff, and Nick hung out and watched boy stuff. The guys came over and kissed us at midnight, which was sweet and got a lot of awwws and heckling, then they went back home. Annie and I then proceeded to dance the night away! Super fun. Wish I could show ya more pictures. :P