taco soup

I was asked to share the recipe for my crock pot taco soup.

1 lb (cooked) ground beef (turkey, chicken or etc)
1 large can diced tomatoes
2 cans kidney beans
2 cans pintos
2 cans corn
1 can rotele
1 package of taco seasoning
1 package of hidden valley ranch

add it all to the pot, cok 6-8 hrs. serve with shredded colby jack (or mexican blend) and sour cream.

week one down! :)

Wow, time is flying! This year we are homeschooling! Crazy right? I thought so too, just a few years ago even. As I had kids, I was like, "wow, that's great that some moms can do that, but me? NO WAY EVER!" Well, last February, God laughed at me. He started convicting me, He sent several people into my life that talked about homeschooling, just brief blurbs, nothing sustaining and nothing too serious. Well, shortly after the week where 5-6 people came to me talking about homeschooling, I was reading in Proverbs (I was reading a proverb a day, for a month, great plan by the way, there is SOOOOO much you can learn in Proverbs and Psalms!) and I can to Prov 22:6 and it reads, "train up your child in the Way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." It doesn't say, send them off to school. Or raise the children of the village. It says YOUR child. MINE MINE MINE when I read it. Also in Deuteronomy, it tells us to teach our children! Wow, can you say convicted? God's promise to me was that if I relied on him through this experience, He would teach Jaiden through me, that He would hold my hand through the easy days, and carry me through the hard times!

Anyways, He has done just what He promised me. I've felt Him all week! And, Jaiden and I managed to get through our first week of school without screaming at each other!

Sweedish meatballs!

So about a month ago (maybe a bit longer now), my friend and I took a drive over to Ikea. There, we decided to eat lunch, and my friend suggested I get the meatballs, because they were devine! And oh, they so were! I all but licked my plate. First time I ever really had sweedish meatballs either. The weird part was, they were served with fries...I found that a bit odd. Oh well. Needless to say, while planning my menu for the payperiod (I shop every 2 weeks), I decided I needed to fabricate the recipe. Well, here is my sweedish meatball recipe :)

2 cans of golden mushroom soup
1 cup water
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp of onion powder (or a cup of onion, we just don't "real" onion)
1 bag of frozen meatballs
1 cup sour cream
2 tbsp flour
a pinch of pepper

Add the soup, water, garlic, onion & meatballs to the crock pot (btw, did I say that this was a crock pot meal?) and let cook for 6-8 hours on the low setting. After the cook time, mix together the sour cream, flour and that pinch of pepper, and add a few spoonfuls of the "gravy" in the crock pot as well (this helps to mix the sour cream mix togheter). After it's mixed, add it to the crock pot, and let cook for an additional 15 minutes. You can serve this over anything your family would like...we did rice, because I didn't even think about egg noodles until mom mentioned it to me (duh), but you could do rice, egg noodles, potatoes. They're really yummy. You could even do them on top of biscuits. enjoy!!

Chicken Enchillada Casserole

SUPER YUMMY...SUPER EASY!
you'll need...
*5-6 chicken tenders (or 2 chicken breasts)
*package of corn tortillas
*can of green enchillada sauce
*can of cream of chicken soup
*shredded mexican cheese

1. boil chicken breast (I just do straight water, but you could do broth if you really wanted to) until done, and easy to shred. Drain water, shred chicken. return to pot
2. add enchillada sauce and soup to the chicken. bring to a boil.
3. dip the corn tortillas into the sauce/soup mix.
4. arrange in baking dish (I use a 9x13 pan...you could do whatever really, as long as it has sides), with tortilla (with mix on), add some more sauce so the tortillas are completely covered adn then add some cheese to it. layer until the package of corn tortillas are in the dish. Top with some sauce and cheese :)
5. bake on 400º (200ºC) until the cheese is melted, and it's warm all the wya through.

like I said, it's SUPER easy...and so much easier than having to frying & rolling the tortillas.

forgot to add

So the other day when I finally updated, I completely forgot to let you know that Travis is POTTY TRAINED! woohoo!!! i'm so proud of him. He hasn't had an accident in what seems like forever (probably about 2-3 weeks). I'm so proud of my big boy! He's pretty proud of himself too, especially when he does #2...usually it goes something like this...

T: "MOMMYYYYY"
me: "yes, baby?"
T: "Mommy, I need your help!"
me: "what's up baby?"
T: "MOMMMYYYYYY, I pooped. I need help!"
then I walk into the bathroom, and he says...
T: "Loook!!! I poopedddd! Poop in there (as he points in the toilet bowl)"

He cracks me up!

There are so many things that he says and does that put a smile on my face. This morning, he told me that daddy left him in charge of the video camera (yea, right!), and that's why he had it....what am I going to do with him?

I am a horrible blogger...

So the last post I made, which was over 7 months ago, was about how it had been so long since I last was on...HA. I'm a horrible blogger, I think I proved that!

So, since February, Jamie's been gone (deployment). March 6th I had Timothy Isaiah, who was a healthy 7 lbs 13 oz. He was born via c-section (bummer, I was so hoping for aVBAC, but oh well) at 11:14 pm, at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC). Other than the fact my husband wasn't there, all went really well. My nurisng and medical staff were amazing!

Timothy is now 5 months old, I can't believe how time flies!!! It feels like yesterday that I tested positive on the C-17 on the way back here...but it was now over 14 months ago...yikes!

Jaiden is with his mother for the summer and gets back in a little more than 2 weeks. I cannot wait. about a week after he gets back, we'll start homeschooling. we're using Alpha Omega Life Pacs. I'm excited and nervous for the change!

Jamie should be coming back shortly after that, and I cannot even think about this, because I'll start jumping up and down with joy!!! It's been such a rough, and tough time without him here, I feel like sometimes I'm an emotional mess (no, better say sometimes I AM an emotional mess). Thank God that I can lean on my Heavenly Father to get me through the days and nights that are the most difficult, and every day even. Through this deployment, I have plastered my feet in the Lord's strength, and it really has grown me closer to Him, more than I ever expected. I cannot wait for my husband to get home, so we can be plastered together!!!

That's all for now! Later gators!

wow...haven't updated

wow, haven't updated in a long while! It's been snowing here since friday, but not accumulating much. Friday night we got about 3 inches, but not much since then--just dustings...enough to be annoying. It's pretty when falling, but a pain in the butt when on the ground and cold and wet!

For those who don't know, I fell on tuesday (the 5th), on my butt at the gas station. I went in to be monitored at Labor & Delivery, and little Timothy was doing well, and moving the whole time the monitors were on (for about 4.5 hours). Needless to say, it wasn't exactly fun laying there at the hospital, nor for Jamie walking around the hospital with the boys--I told him to go home, but he didn't want to, just in case something happened!

Things are going really great here! Jaiden's back in school (has been for the last week) and Travis and I are trying to adapt to our schedule, with it just being the two of us again.

that's all for now :)