Such a busy day today. I started at the dentist's office and walked out with a treatment plan totaling $1100. A cleaning, three fillings, and a crown. We'll begin the procedures in two weeks. Yippee.

After the dentist trauma, I met my mother-in-law for lunch where we swapped Carson and dined on yummy Mexican food. After lunch I took Carson to school, then followed the buses to his class field trip at the fairgrounds. We had a great time with all of the other preschoolers and parents from his school. He and I stayed at the fair and waited for Greg to meet us after work for some fair food and a few rides. We had time to see literally every exhibit in the entire fair. It was a long wait for Daddy. I have never willingly watched a cattle show, but today I was ready to sit down and that's where we ended up. Lot's of mooing. Here are some pics from our day:




Every year when we first see the little monkey in the outfit, I wonder why I didn't come up with the idea to dress up a monkey and take quarters from people all day. That guy is a genius. For $5 you can get your picture with the monkey and an autographed picture. Crazy.

In other news, my plans to apply to the doctoral program have been put on hold. I saw my ob/gyn on Monday and she advised me not to take on too much if I plan on having any more children in the near future. With Carson turning 5 next month and me turning 30 this year, it's going to be sooner rather than later on the plan to expand the family. I am under doctor's orders to get in shape this year so we can discuss Franklin Baby #2 at my next appointment next September. I'm feeling pretty good about the plan, though it's pretty daunting to think about the amount of work I have ahead of me to really get in shape in the next twelve months. I am feeling relieved about postponing school and focusing on my health. I was in graduate school when Carson was born and that ended up being a mess when he came so early. The doctor also diagnosed me with a slight heart murmur. I think I've been given a pretty loud wake-up call to get my act together.

The rest of the week is packed with work and Bunco tomorrow, a crop on Friday, and work all day Saturday in St Louis. That will be my third trip to St Louis in 6 days. I'm thinking it would be cheaper for the university to rent an apartment for me. Next week I have an overnight in Jefferson City and then I'm done traveling for at least a few weeks,, other than my very last Festus class on the 26th. Yay!

A recipe and some rest

Here's the recipe for the first of our freezer meals. The pan is currently defrosting in my fridge just waiting to be popped in the oven tomorrow night. If this all works out, I may just start cooking one weekend a month and filling the freezer. Tonight I came home late from class and had some cheap, yet pretty good, Hamburger Helper ready in 10 minutes thanks to my precooked, frozen ground beef. I'm looking forward to some blueberry pancakes straight from the frrezer in the morning. This is pretty cool so far.

King Ranch Chicken

1 package corn tortillas
2 cups chicken -- cooked and shredded ( I just baked about 5 boneless, skinless breasts)
12 ounces cheddar cheese -- grated
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1 can tomatoes with green chilies -- (Ro-Tel)
1 1/4 cups milk
1 onion -- chopped

Directions
Shred cooled, cooked chicken meat with two forks. Tear tortillas into 1-inch wide strips.

In a large baking dish, alternate layers of tortillas, chicken meat and cheese (reserve 1/2 cup of cheese for topping) until all the chicken is used. Combine the remaining ingredients and pour over the layered mixture. Top with reserved cheese.

Cover with plastic wrap, then seal with aluminum foil.



To prepare: thaw casserole before baking. Remove plastic wrap, then replace foil. Bake covered casserole at 350-degrees until hot and bubbly. You may remove aluminum foil 10 minutes before taking the casserole out of the oven to melt cheese.

Allow to stand 5 to 10 minutes, then cut with spatula and serve.


That's it for tonight. I caught a pretty severe head cold from Juli this weekend and I've felt terrible all day. The drive home from class was awful. I'm off to take some medicine and get to bed.

What a weekend

Here's a rundown of our Labor Day weekend. We packed a whole lot into the past three days.

Saturday we slept in and watched TV for a few hours in the morning. We hardly ever get to do either anymore, so it was great to stay in PJ's until midmorning. Greg and his dad finished putting the metal roofing on our front garage. His mom stopped by with some new Levi's for Carson and we all had pizza together for lunch. I cooked the first of my freezer meals, (more on that later), then prepared a scrumptious dinner of poppyseed chicken, broccoli rice casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy and rolls, then waited for my sister and her fiancee to get here. We stuffed ourselves, then played two games of Apples to Apples, which was hilarious. They left late and we went straight to bed.


Sunday morning was church, then to Ruby Tuesday for lunch, thanks to a buy one entree get one free coupon. We then bought a birthday gift at Toys R Us for a party next weekend, browsed in Big Lots, then went home to get ready for the Karaoke/Ziti party. I also printed all of the bridal shower invites. Juli came by on her way to Mom's from work and stayed for 2 hours. We assembled the shower invitations together, then left for the party. At the party I ate a little bit of Ziti and a whole lot of marshmallows and cake chunks dipped in the most delicious chocolate sauce pouring from our friend, Missi's, chocolate fountain. Greg wants to install one permanently in our kitchen. I think it might be a good idea. :) Our friend, Barb, also made a small replica of Juli and Ashley's wedding cake for the party. She makes all of the cakes for our family events and her cakes are the best ever. Yum-o! My oldest friend, Angie, and I sang a few songs together (Young Love, Redneck Woman, and Somedays You Gotta Dance). We were quite the hit. I sang a few songs by myself, including a moving rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, which of course my mother missed because she was too busy talking, as usual. Carson crashed at my mom's and Greg and I got home around 1:00am. It was a great party.

Today we slept in again. Carson stayed at Mom's most of the day and I worked on invites for the rehearsal dinner. Juli and Mom brought Carson home at 3:00 and all of us girls went to Kohl's to help Juli with her bridal registry. We had a great time and swayed her toward quality cookware and high thread count sheets. I got home around 6:00, made a yummy casserole, finished up my freezer cooking, ate, got Carson to bed, filled out our paperwork for the family dental appointments this week, wrote a note to Carson's teacher, cleaned up the kitchen, checked my message boards, and did a load of laundry. I am beat.

I have decided that we eat out entirely too much and waste a ton of food at home. I've been researching "freezer cooking" recipes and methods in hopes of getting our meals more organized and our bank account more full. So, this weekend I cooked and cooked and cooked and now have all of this yummy food in the freezer waiting to be eaten on hurried nights:

1 King Ranch Chicken casserole
1 Tater Tot Casserole
1 pan of lasagna
1 pan of ravioli lasagna
2 bags of Lipton burgers
3 bags of ground beef starter for tacos, spaghetti, etc
7 bags of 3 pancakes each

I so put my advanced degree in Home Economics to work this weekend! I am feeling like such a domestic goddess. We'll see if I remember to get those casseroles out 24 hours ahead to defrost. :)

Tomorrow is work, then teaching in Festus. Only 4 more classes! Have a great week!