Menu Plan Monday - 10/25 - 10/31

Sunday - Burgers, Fries and Veggies

Monday - Crockpot Mongolian Beef and Rice

Tuesday - Hot Roast Beef Sandwhiches and Salad

Wednesday - Crockpot Tex-Mex Chicken, Rice and Beans

Thursday - Pasta, Salad and Garlic Bread

Friday - Leftovers

Saturday - Pizza! It's a Halloween tradition.

Mission 101

A lot of my blogging buddies have been starting the 101 goals in 1001 days project. I must admit: I'm a little jealous. I'd love to sit down and come up with a list of 101 things I'd like to do right now. But, I already have a list.

I started my mission 101 back in Febuary 2008, so I have just about 13 months left to go. Quite a few of mine have already been checked off. I decided that I'm going to start blogging about the rest of my progress here - hopefully it will be the push I need to keep things going to the end.

I'm about 60% of the way done!

So, here are the remaining goals on my list (italicized goals are currently in progress, strike-through are now completed):

3. Visit 2 states that I’ve never been to before.(Hawaii, DC)
4. Visit another country. (Belize, Hondoras, Grand Cayman, Mexico - 10/10)
5. Get a passport.
8. Stay at a hotel in Atlantic City other than the Tropicana.
10. Go for a hike on the Appalachian Trail.
11. Shop at the Mall of America.
12. Visit 10 new sites from the “1000 Places” book.(10/10 - Hana Highway, Lahaina, Old Lahaina Luau, Molokini, Diamond Head, Waikiki Beach, Pearl Harbor, Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Central Park)
22. Read 25 books I haven’t read before.(25/25 - Playing with Boys finished 3/27/08, Eat, Pray Love finished 4/08, Bookends finished 5/22/08, Secret Life of Bees 7/08, Twilight 7/09, Good in Bed 7/09, New Moon 8/09, Eclipse 8/09, The Time Travelers Wife 8/09, Breaking Dawn 9/09 Bully Buster 11/09, Dead Until Dark 12/09, Living Dead in Dallas 1/10, Club Dead 1/10, Dead to Worse 1/10, Dead as a Doornail 1/10, Definately Dead 2/10, Committed 2/10, The Help 2/10, The Bread of Angels 2/10, All Together Dead 3/10, Book of Rhymes 4/10, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 4/10, Live to Tell 4/10, Olive Kitteridge 4/10)
25. Try 10 from the Copycat Recipe cookbook. (7/10 - Auntie Anne's Pretzels 9/09, McDonalds Milkshakes 9/09, McDonalds Chicken Nuggest 1/10, McDonalds Sweet and Sour Sauce 1/10, Jack Daniels Sauce 1/10, McDonalds Pancakes 2/10, Burger King Hershey Sundae Pie 3/10, Fried Pickles 8/10)
26. Go see a show taping.
28. Go to the Thanksgiving Day parade.
29. Host 5 parties – at least one in honor of someone else, and another not related to a holiday or event.(5/5 - Labor Day 08, New Year's Eve 09, Girls Day June '09, Labor Day 09, Christmas 09, Fun Fit 1/10, Valentine's '10)
30. Dress up for Halloween.
32. Finish paint by number.
33. Finish quilt.
45. Learn to make fudge.
48. Go fruit picking 4 times each year.(4/12 - Blueberries 7/08, Raspberries 8/08, Apples 9/08, Apples 9/09)
49. Make a liquor cabinet.
52. Participate in Homefront’s Christmas toy drive yearly.(2/2)
53. Make a food basket for Homefront’s Thanksgiving drive yearly.(2/3)
54. Participate in Light the Night yearly.(2/3)
55. Organize craft supplies.
56. Organize recipes.
57. Sort schoolbooks and sell the ones that I don’t want to save.
58. Clean out closet each season and donate clothes that don’t fit or I don’t want.(6/6)
60. Get storage for newspapers.
62. Find a good way to store keepsake t-shirts.
68. Finish editing 2007 Nanowrimo novel so that it’s readable.
70. Get published 3 times each year.
71. Start a non-NaNo writing project.
72. Buy 10 new bottles of nailpolish.
73. Go to the gym at least twice a week.
74. Go to a spa.
75. Take vitamins daily.
76. Run a 5k.
81. Get a meditation CD.
82. Lose 10 lbs.
93. Take a class for fun. - Glass fusing in Nov.
94. Get Tim Gunn’s wardrobe basics.(0/10)
96. Bowl a 200.
101. Keep this list updated until the end date.

Menu Plan Monday - 10/18 - 10/24

Request of the week - what are your favorite beef crockpot recipes?

Sunday - Chicken Helper (We're usually okay with Hamburger Helper, so we thought we'd try this... it was awful! We definitely won't be making it again.)

Monday - General Tso's Chicken and Broccoli

Tuesday - Beef Stew & Biscuits

Wednesday - Steak, Potatoes au Gratin and Green Beans

Thursday - Pasta, Salad and Garlic Bread

Friday - Leftovers

Saturday - Homecoming!

MHR - He's not above some busy work

I have a tendancy to jump into projects and quickly get in over my head. Case in point: before the wedding I started collecting coupons from the ladies at my gym to send to military families overseas. With the wedding approaching I found myself too busy and ended up taking a month off from the gym. When I went back they had several boxes of coupons for me. As in, our guest bed is covered.

Mark has never once complained. Instead, he's incredibly supportive. As I'm writing this, he's sitting on the couch with a box next to him, sorting while he watches the Yankees. I'm so lucky that rather than be annoyed, he'll just help me sort. He rocks.

Wordless Wednesday: Sunday's Giants Game

This is a Nightmare

Yesterday I told you about all that's been keeping me from blogging. Today I was going to apologize in advance for the lack of blogging that's certain to happen in November. It's National Novel Writing Month (aka, NaNoWriMo) and I'm planning to spend my time cranking out some 50,000 words of fiction.

Or, at least, I thought I was.

I've developed a sort of pre-NaNo routine: lots of reading, lots of stocking the freezer with heat 'n eat meals and lots of sorting through ideas to decide what to write. I've had a solid idea of what I'm intending to write since about July, so I've been slacking on pulling out my inspiration folder.

My inspiration folder. It's something that makes my heart swell just thinking about it. It's a collection of complete and udder crap, if we're being honest: magazine clippings, pictures of hot guys, random lines of poetry scribbled down, ideas for future stories, paint chips. I've had it since middle school and it's a physical collection of everything that makes me want to write.

And, it's MIA. I can't find it anywhere.

I checked all the obvious places last night and then all of the less obvious places. I turned the office upside down. I swear it's not here. I decided to sleep on it, hoping for a midnight epiphany. No such luck.

And the thought of tackling November without it makes me want to cry and give up before I start. If that folder doesn't show up soon I might be doing a lot more blogging in November than I thought.

Hello, Busy World!

Things around these parts have been busy. I can’t believe it’s already mid-October… I feel like I was just getting ready for Labor Day.

I intended to put together a witty picture post of what’s been keeping me from blogging, but I can’t even find the time to take the pictures, so I’m going to settle for bullet points:

- Light the Night! I ended up doing a lot of last minute running around for this – making a banner, picking up money from balloon sales, etc. We ended up raising more than $500 but the walk itself was a little less exciting… we got rained out!
- Coupons. I collect coupons from the women at the gym to send to military bases overseas. While I was on my honeymoon they kept collecting them so I’m inundated with boxes of them to sort and send. I’ve been frantically trying to get through them all before they expire!
- Speaking of the gym – that’s another thing that’s keeping me busy. When the Curves here closed, I switched my membership to the next closest one. It now forces me to go after work and get stuck in rush-hour traffic. My 40 minute gym trip now takes me an hour and a half. As much as I enjoy it there, I’m seriously thinking of now renewing my membership – it just takes up too much time!
- Miscellaneous wedding projects. Nearly all of our Thank Yous have been sent – I only have one or two hanging around that need proper addresses. Next up is working on the albums for us and our parents.
- Kiwibox – I love working on that site, but it’s chewing up a lot more time than I’d like. We’re now publishing every-other week but to keep my section (Entertainment) up to date I still need to publish content weekly.
- All of the mandatory fall activities: apple picking, pumpkin picking, getting mums, decorating for Halloween, watching copious amounts of football.

Of course, I’m still working full time and trying to have some semblance of a social life too… doesn’t leave much time for blogging.

So, if you made it through all that and are still reading – what have you been up to? I haven’t been getting through my blogroll lately and can’t wait to catch up with all of you!

Menu Plan Monday - 10/11 - 10/17

I've decided to start doing these posts because I think it helps me to identify where are menus are lacking. (Note to self: Too many frozen foods this week!) We only do one big meal a day - breakfast and lunch it's every man for themselves - we just pick up general staples each week like cereal, orange juice, yogurt and coldcuts.

Also, does anyone have any good sources for paired down recipies? I hate making eight servings for two people!


Sunday - Honey BBQ Chicken and Mac & Cheese

Monday - Beef Enchiladas with Rice

Tuesday - Chicken Cordon Bleu Sandwiches

Wednesday - Chicken Helper

Thursday - Perogies w/ Sauerkraut

Friday - Leftovers

Saturday - Out to Lunch with Friends