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!