Menu Planning 8/29-9/4

We have been able to do most of the planned menu.  Some days have gone better than others last week, but I think as we slowly get back into routine, it will be much easier.

Sunday: Grilled Honey Mustard Chicken, Corn-on-the-Cob
Monday: Tacos, Refried Beans
Tuesday: Leftover Buffet
Wednesday: Crunchy Onion BBQ Chicken, Corn
Thursday: Spiced Rubbed Pork, Rice, Peas
Friday: Grilled Hot Dogs, Ranch Style Beans, Chips
Saturday: Hamburger Helper, Green Beans, Garlic Bread

Menu Planning 8/22-8/28

I am so ready to get back in the routine of things!  I had intentions to create our menu last week, but things were so busy!  Jakob starts his first day of Kindergarten tomorrow morning!  I know this upcoming week will fly by and I know I will busy with school too!  It's so much easier to have a plan on what to cook.  I honestly enjoy looking through the recipes and planning for what we have in the house.  I went to the grocery store today and know Kroger does not have an exciting ad next week.  Have a great week!

Sunday: Steak, Hashbrowns, Corn, Toast
Monday: Seasoned Chickened Strips, Green Beans
Tuesday: Hot Dogs, Ranch Style Beans, Chips
Wednesday: Lloyd's BBQ Sandwiches, Ranch Style Beans (leftovers)
Thursday: Leftover Buffet
Friday: Tombstone Pizza
Saturday: Honey Garlic Pork Chops, Peas, Peaches

Group Pictures from our California Vacation

Jeff and I purchased a new printer last week and it arrived on Friday.  We decided to switch from HP to Canon based reading reviews and so far I'm quite happy with it!  We bought a Canon MX870 from Amazon since it was cheaper than purchasing it in a store.  It has been really nice and hooked up correctly to our network to my machine and to Jeff's machine.  The only problems I am having at the moment is getting it to connect to my virtual system to Windows...

Anyhow, the pictures were all taken while we were in California.  I scanned them in using the new printer.







Sea World San Diego - Jeff, Lisa, Roland, and Jakob

San Diego Zoo - Jeff, Lisa, Roland, Jakob, Mom, Dad, Mema, and Jenn.

San Diego Zoo - Jeff, Lisa, Roland, Jakob, Mom, Dad, Mema, and Jenn.

Lego Land California - Jeff, Lisa, Roland, and Jakob

Lego Land California - Jeff, Lisa, Roland, and Jakob.  Jakob actually really enjoyed this roller coaster which was the reason we purchased the picture!  The picture was taken on the first drop and largest drop of the whole ride, so his facial expression is pretty funny knowing he still really enjoyed the ride!!

Menu Planning 8/8-8/14

We have been off schedule a little since returning from our vacation.  I am still finishing my blog post from the vacation.  I need to get copies of CDs/DVDs in the mail for family too!

We have not had much of a menu this week and working on putting things together for the next few weeks since I will get busy with school.  However, I am planning on the following to finish off this week!

Thursday - Spaghetti w/Meat Sauce, French Bread
Friday - County Fair Chicken, Fruit Cup, Crescent Rolls
Saturday - BBQ Sausage, Rice, Corn

I read a post from I'm an Organizing Junkie and liked the idea about leftovers.  We usually always have leftovers and I like having a somewhat planned way to eat those leftovers.  It's always funny when you pull something out of the refrigerator and ask each other when did we cook this?  Since school is about to start back up, some of the leftovers will go faster since I'll eat them for my lunches too.

From I'm an Organizing Junkie: 

• I recently started doing a leftover buffet thing (which is a great idea btw).  But I’m always so scared of things still being okay to eat.  Do you follow any sort of guidelines?  For instance, how long you keep it in the fridge depending on ingredients?  I appreciate your help!  Jen
  
  Thanks for your question Jen.    For us, having a leftover day scheduled right in the middle of the week allows me to break up my leftovers so I don’t have too much hanging around at any given time.  So Mon/Tues/Wed’s leftovers are eaten on Thursday.  Whatever doesn’t get eaten that day is tossed and then typically we do a simple supper on Sunday where leftovers from Friday and Saturday are eaten.  If we don’t have leftovers for Sunday I will make something easy like grilled cheese and soup or breakfast for dinner.  I usually have a pretty good idea now how many leftovers will be involved based on what recipe I’m cooking so I take that into consideration when deciding whether or not to go ahead and pre-plan Sunday’s menu.  I always start with a clean slate every Monday.  Hope that helps!

Swagbucks: 5 or More Codes Today!

Swagbucks is joining in on the back to school fun! They are going to have awesome promotions all week!!

If you are unsure what Swagbucks is, get all the details.

This is your week to get started if you haven’t already.  Sign up today and use the code SwagToSchool to get 20 extra swagbucks.  You are supposed to get 30 Swagbucks for joining, so you will have 50 right off from the beginning!

Now get ready to start collecting/earning more swagbucks!

Some of the special promotions this week are:

• You’ll have the chance to win five different  limited edition back-to-school themed Swagbucks.
  If you win them all, you’ll get an extra 50 swagbucks!

• Swag code extravaganza TODAY with at least 5 swagbuck codes throughout the day.

I have decided to save for the $50 Southwest Airlines Giftcard at the moment.  I currently have 2218 Swagbucks and I figured it's still FREE!

A Few of My Other Favorites:

$5 e-gift card to Amazon.com

$10 e-gift card to Barnes N Noble

$10 gift card to Starbucks

$50 e-gift card to Southwest Airlines

$5 PayPal (yes, cash)

Stanley, Flat Again!

  Stanley, Flat Again! by Jeff Brown

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Jakob really enjoyed this book.  It was his first chapter book and I was really impressed in how well he comprehended it!  He could answer basic questions I asked throughout and even after we finished it!

View all my reviews >>

Since we started reading this book, Jakob also created a Flat Stanley.  We sent it to my brother, Randy, in California!  Then after Randy and Nikki got married, they took it with them on their honeymoon!  So Jakob is traveling all over the place and visiting some pretty neat places!  He might get to go on a trip with Jeff's grandparents if Flat Stanley returns in time!

Jakob's "Flat Stanley" on a Sam Houston statue in DC.

Jakob's "Flat Stanley" at the captial. The star he is on is the very center of DC.

Jakob's "Flat Stanley" at the Old Supreme Court.

Jakob's "Flat Stanley" in Nikki's tomato plants in California!

Magic Tree House: Dinosaurs Before Dark

  Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osborne




Jakob is doing well listening to this book too! He remembered the names of the characters and is predicting what will happen next!! YEAH!

View all my reviews >>

Jakob and I started reading this book a few days ago.  He is enjoying it and today told me the character names and then predicted what he thought was going to happen next!  We have been reading a chapter a night and it is exciting to see him want me to keep reading!

Vacation Day 5 - LegoLand California!

Jakob was not initially feeling well this morning.  I think he was tired from our week since started to feel better after getting a little food and water in his stomach.

We headed toward LegoLand and had breakfast at Einstein Bagels.  It was near LegoLand, so after we finished we only had about ten miles to drive.  Many people wanted to come to LegoLand and we had to wait a little while to get to the gates to pay for parking.

There have been some really neat things built with Legos!!  The pictures below are the main ones focusing on those with family in the pictures.  I have more to post of all the many things built with Legos!!

Vacation Day 4 - San Diego Zoo

We had breakfast this morning at the hotel.  After eating, we met up with everyone to head over to the San Diego Zoo.

We all really wanted to see the elephants, so we headed in that direction.  While walking in that direction we saw the Koalas.  They sleep for almost 22 hours and they were awake!!  We stopped and got some fun pictures! Later in the day when we took the bus tour, they were asleep!

The elephants are always fun to see especially in San Diego!  Their elephant exhibit is huge and they have so much room!  Roland and Jakob posed with many of the statue animals around the exhibits!

We passed the Sky Tram and went to see the Polar Bears.  We caught them at a great time since they were about to get fed.  They were walking around and watching for the keeper to drop the food over the ledge.  One of them came over to the window and sat next to us while we watching them!

After lunch, we took the bus tour and went around the zoo.  One of the things we saw while on the bus was the giraffes.  My favorite animals at the zoo are the elephants and the giraffes.

We also attended the Sea Lion Show at the zoo.  I posted a video of the show on my blog earlier today. Enjoy!

Sea Lion Show: San Diego Zoo - Video Clip

We had a great trip to the San Diego Zoo.  Here is a short video from the Sea Lion Show that all 8 of us watched!

Sea World San Diego, CA

As mentioned in my other post, we went to Sea World in San Diego after Randy's wedding.  The boys really enjoyed it and we were there most of the day!  Here's a short video clip from the day.

Vacation Day 3 - Sea World San Diego

We went to Denny's for breakfast this morning.  After breakfast we headed to Sea World.  We arrived at Sea World around 9:30AM PST and ended up staying until after 7PM!  Since we were at Sea World right at open, we were able to get a cute picture with Shamu and the kids!  They had some other characters, but Jakob wasn't interested in them.  This was Jakob's first trip to any large amusement park.

We went and saw the Dolphin show first.  I have always enjoyed watching the dolphins.

We fed the sea lions and they were so funny to feed since they would literally open their mouths wide and wait for you to drop food into their mouths!  We had to watch out for the seagulls because they were trying to steal the food away and eat it!

One thing Jeff and I noticed was none of the trainers were in the water.  It probably is due to the incident that occurred in February 2010 in Orlando where the killer whale pulled the trainer into the water and was killed.

 

We asked Jakob if he wanted to sit in the soak zone, but he said no!  It's a good thing because we probably would have been wet!

We saw the polar bears at the right time since they were active and waiting for food.  They were impressive to see and are so big!!

Since we fed the sea lions earlier in the day, we had to see their show.  The sea lion shows are usually pretty funny and Jakob really enjoyed this show!

One of the last things Jeff, Roland, and Jakob did at Sea World was ride a water ride!  Jakob had been wanting to do them all day along with Roland.  So near the end, we saw this ride and it was great because I was able to take pictures as they went around the corner!  They all really enjoyed the ride!