Good News

I just wanted to fill everyone in on my husband's job situation. Everyone's prayers must have worked. My husband got a job. He won't start until the beginning of March and right now he is working temporarily, at least until Monday. We will be able to make it off savings until he starts in March. I think we will be able to stay in our house (I hope so), it will be tight, but we will make adjustments.
Even though this job does not pay as well , he will not have to be on call, he should get home earlier in the evening, and his new boss seems nice and normal (more than I can say for his old one).

Thanks again for everyone's prayers. I love you all. I could have never imagined blogging bringing so many bloggy friends that I totally love.

Random Recipes and Slow Cooking Thursday - Flavorable Pot Roast

For Random Recipes go to Pam at Random Thoughts .
I found this great Pot Roast recipe in my 5 Ingredients Favorite Slow Cooker Cook Book. I made it, and it is so yummy. For more recipes you can go to Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.
Are you tired of hearing about your Mother-in-Laws pot roast, well this one will taste just as good, if not better. And you can make gravy with it too. I get excited about gravy because I just recently learned how to make gravy without the white lumps of corn starch in it. You can tell I am not a great cook and I get excited about and easy, delicious recipes.
The combination of salad dressings may sound strange but it is good.

Favorable Pot Roast

2 -2 1/2 lbs boneless beef chuck roasts
1 envelope dry ranch salad dressing mix
1 envelope dry Italian salad dressing mix
1 envelope dry brown gravy mix
1/2 cup water

Optional Ingredients:
1 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup water


1. Place the chuck roast in the slow cooker.
2. In a small bowl, combine the salad dressing and gravy mixes. Stir in water. Pour over meat.
3. Cover and cook on Low 7-8 hours, or until the meat is tender but not dry.
4.If you wish, thicken the cooking juices for gravy.
remove the meat at the end of the cooking time and keep warm on a platter.
5.Turn cooker on to High. Bring to a boil.
6. Meanwhile, mix 1 Tbsp. flour with 1/2 cup water in a jar with a tight fitting lid. Shake until smooth.
7. When juices come to a boil, pour flour-water into cooker in a thin stream constantly. Continue cooking and stirring until juices thicken.
8. Serve over meat, or in a side along with the meat.

Also I have some great news but I have to write about it later because I have a school function to go to. So check back later today.

Kid Decorated Valentine's Day Table

For other great ideas go to Scribbit's Winter Bazaar and Rocks In My Dryer's Works For Me Wednesday.



If your Valentine's Day is like mine it is spent home with the kids, so let them decorate and have fun with it. We hung hearts from the chandelier, made utensil holders, coasters and candy cups with a message. And we also made Valentine votive candles.

For this place setting, we made the felt heart utensil holder, the CD coaster and the candy message holder or place marker.

It may not make the evening romantic but fun.

Valentine CD Coasters

I saw this idea and I thought it would be a simple but cute project. I am not sure where I got the idea from but if it was from someones blog I am sorry I did not give you credit but it is a great idea.

Supplies:
CD or DVD
Foam or felt ( I used foam)
craft glue

Cut the foam out in to shapes and glue on CD's. It is that easy.

Valentine Utensil Holders

I took my Christmas Stocking idea and used it for for Valentine's Day.
Easy, Easy, Easy.
Cut out 2 hearts ( I used felt), hot glue then together leaving an opening in the top to insert utensils.
Then decorate as you want.

My Thanks and My Craft Closet

First, I would like to thank everyone for their supportive and loving words. It really does help to know so many people are praying for me and have me in their thoughts. I know God will help us through this and this is part of his plan he has for us, but it helps to have others remind me of it. And also helps to hear that others have gone through it and it has worked out for the better. I feel so blessed to have met so many wonderful people through blogging. When I started my blog I would have never imagined that. Thanks so much and I love you all.
We are still waiting to hear about that job, now we hope to know by Monday or Tuesday, I will keep you guys posted.


This next thing is on totally different topic but it is good for me to switch gears. I have had a few people ask me about my craft closet. So I took some pictures and I thought I would post them.

































This closet is also my medicine cabinet. I do have one more container in my bedroom closet that I keep big pieces of foam and construction paper in. I also have some stuff in my basement. But most of my stuff is in this hall closet. And no, it is not always this neat. I know this is a weird post but inquiring minds wanted to know.
Also someone asked me when I started doing crafts with my kids, I started pretty when they were pretty young. My 2 younger kids always wanted to do what the older one were doing. So I want to say I started before they were 2 years old and now my 2 year old is almost 3 and she can do a lot of crafts. My 6 year old does stuff by herself, all the time. She just goes in the closet pulls out stuff and makes all kinds of things. And she is always improving on my ideas. My 8 year old is also very creative and always thinks outside the box. At first that was hard for me because I would say," No, you are suppose to do it this way." But a lot of times the things he came up with were great. So it taught me a lesson. It was hard for me to let that go, but now I see he comes up with great things.
I know doing crafts is not for everyone and I totally understand. Before I had kids, if you told me I would be doing crafts with kids and posting them on the computer,I would have said you were crazy. If the people from high school could see me now, they would never believe it. Now I am just rambling so I will go now. Thanks again to everyone.

Not Such A Good Weekend

I do not normally write about the things that go wrong in my life. I read other people's blog and their problems seem a lot worse then my little problems ever could be. I am very blessed with a great husband who loves me and 4 beautiful, healthy, wonderful children. And my problems could never compare to having a sick child or my husband or I having a life threaten illness, but something happened this weekend that is really bothering me. And not to bring down any of you with my problems, I just need to share my frustrations. And since I do not have a therapist, you are the lucky ones who get to hear it.
On Friday night my husband lost his job. My husband's boss called 11:45 P.M. Friday night and said,"I am closing the business and you do not need to come back." My husband has been having issues with his boss for months, so my husband decided to share his thoughts with his boss and then hang up on him.
You see, his boss is going through a divorce right now and is not happy that his wife is not taking him back. In his attempts to hurt her, he does not care who else is affected.
Of course his boss did not close the business, he went in the next morning to work without calling my husband to inform him they were open or to apologize. We suspected that because the thought of him missing an opportunity to make a buck is impossible.
This is not the first time he has pulled this, he has made other claims of not coming to work, selling the business and many other immature threats. The divorce is his fault completely and I can not possibly have one bit of sympathy for him.
Anyway my husband went to work and got his things and told his boss what he thought of him and his immature behavior. Well, of course after that conversation,my husband no longer has a job. I think my husband did the right thing because we have been putting up with this ridiculous behavior for months. And because of that, my husband has been looking for a job. He has not found one yet but we are hoping he is close to getting one. We are not really prepared for the financial burden of my husband not working. He did not take another job sooner because he was making good money and we were use to that income and not everyone in his profession pays what he was getting.
Anyway, if it was just my husband and myself I would not care so much, but I have 4 kids to worry about. My husband will find a job to keep food on the table but I do not know if we will be able to keep the house. And with the housing market the way it is, it will take a while to sell our house unless we take a huge hit on it.
The thing that bothers me the most is when people own a business and they do not care who they affect. My husband's boss could careless that he is messing with my four kids lives. He does not care about anyone else but himself. He has made terrible mistakes and now we get to pay for it. There is a lot more to the story but I do not know legally what I am a loud to write. My husband boss is a well know person in the community and since people know me it would not take long to figure out who my husband's boss is. And the last thing we need is a law suit.
So that was my great weekend. If I stop writing blog posts, you will know I had to cut off my internet service.
Thanks for reading my post, and I will go back to doing my craft posts soon.
I hope everyone else is having a great weekend.

My Celebrity Look A Like

Friday, Tie Up All Lose Ends

This week has been busy for me , my kids were off school for 6 days, I had the book club meeting at my house, I have Dip Club tomorrow and I am co hosting a Pampered Chef Party at my house this Sunday. I have had to do stuff with my kids and clean the house.
So I have not had time to blog, so I need to tie up some lose ends.

First, I want to thank Jennisa at Jennisa's Bloggie Design for doing a wonderful make over on my blog. She did a fabulous job and was so easy to work with. I would recommend her to anyone who is thinking about jazzing up their blog. I love it!!!! Thanks Jennisa!!!!!




I also want to thank my BFF, Beth ,for treating me to my blog make over. Beth surprised me with the blog make over. She knows I am going through a rough time right now, and as always, she is thinking of me.That is the kind of person Beth is, she is always there for others. And she is always willing to help people. She is as nice as she seems on her blog. I want to thank her again and let everyone to know that Beth is a very special and I am very privileged that she is my BFF.

I also received some awards and I want to thank Corey at Living and Loving Every Moment for the Bodacious Blog Award.
And Jennifer at Zaankali's adventure for the Spreading the Love Award
And thank you to Mama Geek at What Works for Us for the Blog Buddies and The I'm Fabulous Award. I love all my awards and I get excited every time someone passed one on to me. Thanks again everyone.
I want to give Beth the Spread the Love Award and the Blog Buddies Award.
Pam at Random Thoughts the I'm Fabulous Award.
Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom and Melissa at Hope for the Hopeless the Bodacious Blog award.

I was tagged by The Thrifty Blogger ,the meme is to write a list of 10 things I love and 10 things I hate.
I will start out by saying I love my family and friends but I am not going to put them on my list, I thought maybe I would try to be a little different. We will see how it goes.

10 Things I love and hate

1.I love being stay at home Mom.
I hate when people think stay at home Moms are lazy and have it easy.
2. I love American Idol and The Biggest Loser.
I hate Steven Seagal movies, my husband watches them every time they are on T.V. . Steven Seagal is a terrible actor.
3. I love desserts. Cheese cake, brownies, cake, ice cream , ect. The more calories the better.
I hate black eyed peas, cooked spinach, asparagus and Lima Beans. Yuck !! Phooey!!!
4. I love being married.
I hate the thought of being single again, and having to find another person who will put up with me.
5. I love my low rider stretchy jeans.
I hate thong underwear. Too uncomfortable.
6. I love warm sunny days, sitting by the pool.
I hate, hate being cold. My nose, hands and feet stay cold all winter long.
7. I love water.
I hate beer and coffee. I do not have anything against alcohol beverages, I just hate the smell of beer. Another ,Yuck!!!!
8. I love watching my kids accomplish something on their own.
I hate when they say they can't do something.
9. I love staying at home and being a homebody.
I hate packing and traveling with 4 car sick prone children.
10.I love blogging. I am totally and completely addicted. I think my husband is planning an intervention.
I hate when my kids want to play on my computer. (Of course this interrupts my blogging).

I did it. I hope that was not too boring.
I have to pass this on and the lucky winner is:
Beth at A Mom's Life

Slow Cooking Thursday

These are soooooo good!!! I could eat them alone for dinner. The recipe is from the Fix it and Forget 5 ingredient favorites cookbook.

Slow Cooked Cheese-y Potatoes

30 oz. package frozen hash browns, shredded or sliced
2- 10 3/4 oz cans cheddar cheese soup
12 oz can evaporated milk
3 oz can French fried onion rings, divided
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

1. Spray interior of slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Combine potatoes, soup, milk, half the onion rings, salt and pepper in the slow cooker.
3. Cover and cook on low 7-9 hours or high 3-4 hours, or until potatoes are heated through.
4. Sprinkle remaining onion rings over the top before serving.

I love this recipe for other great slow cooker recipes go to Slow Cooking Thursday at Diary of a Stay Home Mom. She always has great recipes.

Candy Heart Crafts

Scribbit's Winer Bazaar.
Works For Me Wednesday at Rocks In My Dryer.


Wondering what to do with your kids candy hearts besides eat them, play Bingo with them. I found this idea in one of my son's magazines , National Geographic Kids and all my kids love to play (even my 2 year old, you just have to tell her not to eat the candy).


You will need: markers, ruler, paper and candy hearts.

To make the Bingo Cards: For each card, cut the card the same size. I did mine . Now using a ruler draw 25 squares that are equal in size. Each player counts out 25 hearts and writes the saying from each candy. It is o-kay if the same saying appears more than once.

To start playing: All player throw in their 25 hearts into a bowl or bag. Pick one person to be the "caller." I used pieces of paper as markers but you can also use coins or extra candy. The first player to fill a straight line wins.

You can also make a candle with them.
Glue the candy hearts to the outside of a votive candle. Use a craft glue. Do not be silly like me and use hot glue, DAH!! Now when I light up my candles the candies fall off. Sometimes I do not know where my head is.

Valentine's Love Birds

Supplies needed:
Construction paper, 2 pipe stem cleaner, 2 wiggley eyes, and 2 feathers for each bird.

For the body cut out 3 large hearts, and glue them together. As shown to the left.

Glue on 2 smaller hearts to each side of the face for the beak. Glue on the eyes, one on each side.

Curl up about an inch of the ends of the pipe stem cleaners and glue on each side.
Cut 2, one inch pieces off each leg for the toes. For the middle toe, bend about 1/2 inches of the pipe stem cleaner forward. Attach the one inch pieces by bending them on the leg. one on each side, making each foot have 3 toes. You need to play with the legs to get the bird to stand up.

Glue on a feather to the top of the head and one on the bottom point of the bird.
Now you have your love bird.

I Was Tagged Twice

Melody over at Pennies In My Pocket tagged me with this fun meme and I thought I'd be a good blog neighbor and follow through, even though I was tagged days ago. Sorry Melody. If you have not been to Melody's blog, you need to go look at it. She always has great deals and contest posted. Right now she how a contest to win cute decals that you apply to the wall. There are some great quotes for any room of the house.

Now, on to the classes to fix my life.

Here's what I have to do: Devise a list of 5-10 courses you would take to fix your life. It’s more fun to be in classes with friends, so include one class from the person who tagged you that you’d also like to take. Tag five.

1. How to organize chaos. Melody had this one on her list.
With 4 kids, as you can imagine we have a lot of stuff. We have boys stuff and we have girls stuff, I try to keep it as organized as possible, but a lot of the stuff never ends up where it is suppose too. Also, there is stuff that needs to go somewhere, but I do not know where to put it. It ends up in the closet or a drawer. I have dressers full of stuff instead of clothes. I can not believe I just admitted that to everyone. I need this class and a trash bag.
After writing this, it inspired my to clean out the drawers in my dresser, the laundry room and master closet. Wow, they all look great now.

2. How To Do Laundry and Love It.
Actually the washing and drying of clothes is not too bad. Even hanging and folding is not too bad, it is putting all that stuff away. I always have a laundry room full of clean, hung, and folded clothes, but I hate to put them all away. Maybe there is a class who can tell me an easier way to do it, so I will like it.

3. How to Cook for 6 , where everyone will love it and it will be healthy.
I can come up with meals that all 6 of us will like, but most of the time, all of the food groups are not represented. I also can come up with healthy meals, but then 2 of the 6 of us will not like it.
This something I struggle with daily.

4. How to have more hours in a day, to do all the things I need and want to do.
I would pay top dollar for this class. There are so many things I need and want to do but I never get them in all in. Something always has to suffer. I know this is a struggle all moms deal with but I would like someone to tell me how to do it.

5. How to Clean A Room in the House and Keep your Children from Messing Up All the Others.
While I am busy cleaning a room in my house, my kids are busy creating messes in all the other rooms in the house. It is so frustrating. Even watching T.V. does not prevent them from causing havoc.
The only thing I can come up to stop them is drugging them and I do not feel comfortable to that (not yet).

These are the classes I would like to have to help me with my daily life.

Sandra at Diary Of A Stay At Home Mom tagged me for this meme. If you have not been to her blog you need to go to hers too. She has great stories and great recipes.
so here we go.....
I need to list 7 weird things about myself.

1. Sandra had this one too, but I thought I was the only adult who did not like raw tomatoes. Yuck!! I dislike them on my hamburgers, taco and salads.

2. My husband dyes my hair. He does an o.k. job, I have paid for worse.

3. I like to put all my dinner dishes away before I serve dessert.

4. I drink water all the time. I rarely drink anything else. I even take my own water when I go out to eat (fast food joint) because I am a water snob and I do not like to pay $1 or more for a bottle of water. If I drink a diet coke ,it has to have lemon in it. I do not like coffee and I do not like to drink milk, only in my cereal.

5. I hate to wear shoes, even when I go to other people houses, I usually take them off at the door. It was a great habit I picked up while living in Montana. Now I realize when others come to my house , they take there shoes off too. I do not mind people wearing shoes in my house, I just do not like to wear them.

6. I am a very obsessive person. When I get something on my mind, that is all I can think about and that is all I want to do. Right now, my obsession is blogging, before that, it was working out. I need to go back to the working out one.

7. I think it is funny to names dog names that do not fit them. Such as I wanted to name our Doberman, Fluffy, but he would not let me.


I thought I would give the people I tag the choice of which meme to do. I know a lot of people have done the 7 weird things about myself. The lucky winners are:

Pam at Random Thoughts
Pam at Kid Kitchen
Andrea at The Laugh Will Go On

I know everyone is busy, so only do it if you have time.





And Mary from Mary's Writing Nook is holding a contest to celebrate her 200 th post.

Valentine Marshmallow Treat Pops

These are so good. Yummy! And they would look great for a party or a fun dessert. Change the sprinkles and they would be great for any occasion.
I saw these in a Quick Cooking Magazine:
Marshmallow Treat Pops
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
4 cups miniature marshmallow
6 cups crisp rice cereal
Popsicle sticks
9 oz milk Chocolate candy coating (I used chocolate chips)
decorating sprinkles
9 oz white candy coating ( white chocolate chips)

In large saucepan, combine the butter and marshmallows. Cook and stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Place cereal in a large bowl: add the marshmallow mixture and stir until combined. Shape into 2 in. balls; gently insert a Popsicle stick into the center of each ball.









In a microwave-safe bowl, heat the milk chocolate candy coating until melted; stir until smooth. Dip half of the treats in chocolate; decorate with sprinkles. Repeat with the white candy coating and remaining sprinkles. Place on waxed paper until firm.

Since I used the chocolate chips, I spread it on with a spoontula. And I put the finished balls in the refrigerator to let chocolate firm. I remove the treats from the refrigerator about 10 minutes before serving.

My kids really loved them and so did I. I love rice crispy treats any way but then to add chocolate, that makes them perfect.