Play Dough, Play Dough, GO AWAY!

Ok, so I am am not the brightest person on earth. Yesterday when we ran to Walmart to pick up the All You mags, I let the boys get a 4-pk of Playdough. I left it in the car when we got home because I just was not ready to deal with it. Well, yesterday afternoon when we went to pick Evie up from school Mathis saw it and carried it inside. I told him that we would save it for tomorrow. So last night when I was taking a shower and Evie and Skye were doing homework Mathis and Alden stopped watching cartoon and went and hid in the back of their closet. Opened the 4pk. of Play Dough and created a new color blob. Later when we were getting ready to leave the house, Mathis came to show me his handy work. I was so upset I grabbed up his beautiful creation and threw it in a ziploc bag. This afternoon I used that same playdough to bribe Mathis into picking up his mess. I know that I shouldn't have but if I would have asked him to just do it, I would still be sitting here at 7:00 pm waiting for the mess to be picked up. Because playdough was on the line he picked up a huge mess in under 10 minutes. I mean he had toys all over the playroom, a chair fort in the kitchen, and other toys spread throughout the house. All of it gone so quickly amazed me. Now here is the very stupid thing that I did. I was in the process of sorting coupons on the kitchen table so I let Mathis play in the playroom. I gave him a huge cutting board and a couple of kitchen tools. A few minutes later I look in the playroom and he has playdough on the floor, his pants, and a trail going to the bathroom in my bedroom. So I felt like the damaged was done and he was playing so quietly (also a phenomenon) that I let him continue to play. When it was almost time to go get Evie he had been playing in the same spot for over 2 hours while Alden was taking a long nap. I told him we needed to clean up so we could go pick up Evie and after a few minutes of protest and the promise from me that he could play with the playdough when we got back he cleaned up his mess and I vacuumed the floor.
As soon as we got home from picking Evie up from school we moved the playdough to the now cleaned off kitchen table and all three kids gathered round like they were about to have the best time of their lives. They played for almost two hours before I sent Evie to do her homework and told Mathis he needed to clean up the playdough off the now semi-blue linolium. Well of course all miracles must come to an end because instead of doing as he was asked he took his playdough and went to the dining room table to make another mess. I chased him out of there before it to became blue and now one and a half hours later the mess has finally been picked up. I knew that this would not last forever and I should relish the good behavior and semi-quietness while it lasted, but secretly in the back of my mind I was hoping it would never go away. It seemed that in a period of thirty minutes all of the good things about today crumbled around my feet and the bad shone threw. Well I have taken a deep breath, vented to whoever is reading this blog and got it all out. I am hoping to be a nicer person for my efforts. I think I will fix myself an hot cup of chai tea and go settle in for the night on the couch with Daniel until the next up roar occurs.

Publix Oh Publix, How I Love Thee

Publix oh Publix, how I love thee. Let me count the ways.

#1 Greenwise 4pk. Toilet Paper~.1 cent
#2 Smuckers Whole Wheat Uncrustables~.45 cents
#3 (2)Right Guard Gel Deodorant~.40 cents each
#4 Lucky Charms 11.5oz. box~ .69 cents
#5 Cinnamon Toast Crunch 17 oz. box + FREE Matchbox Car~.70 cents
#6 Pint Fresh Strawberries~$1.67

The only thing I got that was not a stellar deal was a pack of Thomas Everything Bagels for $2.00 and only because it was not worth going elsewhere 2.96lbs. of Bananas for $2.04.

Total spent w/ tax $9.47
Total saved $17.40

Not bad for 10 minutes worth of work and another 15 minutes in the store.

Back at Walgreen's

I made a quick run to Walgreen's this evening to take advantage of a great deal that was 1-day only in the photo lab. It will be a gift for an upcoming birthday. While I was there I had to get a few other deals. This is what I got:

Transaction #1
Excedrin Menstrual $2.50
Used~Free for any 1 bottle of Excedrin up to $5.99 Q
Total Spent~$.27
Got~$2 RR

Transaction #2
Goody's Ouchless Ponytail Holders $2.00
Used~$2RR
Total Spent~$.27
Got~$2 RR

Transaction #3
(2)Tylenol Cold $5.00 Each
Used~$3/2 Q & $2 RR
Total Spent~$5.90
Got~$3 RR

Transaction #4
Fusion Power Razor $8.99
AZ Tea $.99
AZ Tea $.99
Used~$3/1 Q, 3RR, BOGO AZ TEA WAGC
Total Spent~$4.89
Got~$4RR

Transaction #5
Thera Flu Cold Med $5.00
Thera Flu Cold Tea $5.00
Royal Choc. Pudding Mix .39
Used~2/1 Q, 2/1 Q, $4RR, WAGC -.14 Pudding
Total Spent~$3.20
Got~$5RR

I will save the $5RR for Friday when ink cartridge refills are on sale for $4.99

Total Spent $14.53
Total Saved $35.11

We had a really great dinner tonight. We went to Blue Orleans dowtown across from the Choo Choo. I used a $25.00 off a $35 purchase gift certificate I got from Restaurants.com for $2.00. The atmosphere was great and the food was delicious.Daniel got the sampler and he loved it. It must have been rather spicy because he said he could breathe fire. I will definitely use this coupon again. Just a word of advice, after trying both Blue Orleans restaurants in Chattanooga I would only advise you go to the one downtown. The one on Amnicola tastes like Zatarans and the atmosphere is a little cheesy. Well that is all I can say for tonight. I need to go post some coupons on the trading forum and get in bed. Tomorrow is another day.

CVS why have you failed me?

Why oh why must my CVS be out of the cheapest diaper wipes in the county? Do I really want to drive all over town looking for the deal? If I go, will my children behave? Alden cried the entire three minutes we were in CVS earlier. I really could use 184 baby wipes for a mere $2.50. Oh the decisions I must make.

Make the Beeping STOP!

I awoke this morning to a constant beep. I would hear it and then everything would go silent, making me think that I was imagining the beep in the first place. Then there it was again BEEEEEP! So finally, after what seemed like hours listening to this annoying noise I got out of bed and went to the kitchen. Daniel was rushing around getting his stuff ready for work. (Ignoring the alarm) I asked him what the noise was and he said it was the fire detector. I guess that was a good enough answer for me so I turned around and went back to bed. I still had a precious thirty minutes of sleep to get in before I had to get up and take the girls to school. I shut the bedroom door and covered up my head trying to muffle out the constant beep. Finally just as I was drifting back to sleep Mathis opens the bedroom door and wants to know what that annoying noise is and can I make it stop. I figured at this point there was no point in trying to sleep so after a few minutes of my mind fighting with my feet I got up. I went and got the ladder since the fire detector is twelve feet up in the air and climbed away. It took several minutes to pry the alarm from the wall. Apparently the last time the room was painted nobody bothered to remove the alarm. As soon as I removed it from the wall the ADT alarm starts buzzing. It thinks there is a fire. Great. I go over to the alarm and finally make it stop. At this point I am thinking this is not a great way to start the morning. Later in the morning after we dropped Skye off at school the boys and I went to Walmart to pick up some copies of the ALL YOU magazine and get some Play-Dough. Then we drove to East Brainerd to get some coupon books from my Mom. That was enough excitement for one day so we came straight home and Alden is taking his nap. I need to stop procrastinating and go do some laundry and figure out what in the world we are going to have for dinner. I have chicken in the fridge so I guess I just need to decide how I am going to cook it. Well til next time.....Thanks for taking a moment of your time to read about my day.

Publix 2/22/10

I am back from my quick run to Publix. I wish it was closer to the house but we can't have it all. I did ok today with my coupons but I needed a few items that I either had to pay full price for or just take advantage of the sale price with no coupon.
I got the following items for a great deal:
1 Progresso Chicken Broth 32 ounces-29 cents
3 Smuckers Uncrustables 4pk.-45 cents each
1 Coffee Mate Liquid Creamer 32 ounces-*Made 50 cents*
4 Green Giant Creamed Style Corn 14.75 ounces-14 cents each

Total spent-53.64
Total saved 53.65
Items-46

Why does technology hate me?

Ok so this morning I am trying my hardest to get all my coupons together to make a quick run back to Publix to get some things that will go off sale tomorrow. There are some great coupons on coupons.com for Smucker's Uncrustables. It's for $1/1. Combine that with the already great sale price of $2.00 and the Publix Coupon in the new mag. I will only have to pay 45 cents. How can I pass that up. Also we need some more juice boxes since it was so warm yesterday they quickly drank half of my stock. I also need some shredded cheese and cilantro because we are having mexican tonight.
Here is were the technology part comes in. My printer is out to ruin my coupon career. These coupon web sites are very finicky and there is no saving to PDF or pressing restart if something does not print. You never know when this is going to happen either. One day it will be working fine and the next it will be ruining your shopping trip. I hope to figure out what the problem is soon but for the time being I guess I will only get two boxes of sandwiches instead of the four I had my heart set on.

Walgreens Trip

Ok, so I just returned from Walgreens and here is what I got:

#1) Buy Excedrin Menstrual Care @ $2.50
Use $2/1 Q
(Pay 50¢ ~ Get $2 Excedrin RR Back!)
Triaminic products $5 ea
Use (1) $1.50/1 Triaminic
(Makes it $4.25 each~ Get $5 RR wyb 2)
(Pay $10.16 ~ Get $7 RR Back!)

#2) Buy Gillette Fusion Razor @$8.99
Use $4/1 Q
(Get $4 RR Back!)
+ Sunday Newspaper @ $1.00
+Tressame Daily Clense Shampoo @$3.34
Use $4/1 Q + $5 Triaminic RR+$2 Excedrin RR
(Pay $3.47 ~ Get $4 RR Back!)

#3) Buy Excedrin Menstrual Care @ $2.50
Use $2/1 Q
(Pay 50¢ ~ Get $2 Excedrin RR Back!)
+ Goody Ouchless Elastics 27 pk @ $2.99
(~Get $2.00 RR Back!)
+3 Sunday Newspapers @ $3.00
Use $2/1 Q + $4 RR Gillette
(pay $ 3.00 ~Get $2.00 RR Back +2 RR Goodys!)

#4) Buy Tressame Deep Cleaning Conditioner @ $3.34
+1 Newspaper @1.00
Use the $2RR+$2RR
(Pay $.65)

Total Spent-$17.28
Total Saved-$46.36

I could have done better but I was missing a few coupons. If you have two Triaminic coupons you could have saved an additional $1.50 on transaction #1. I also needed the shampoo and conditioner so that cost extra money. Overall I was pretty happy. If I would have went in and only bought the shampoo, conditioner, and the 5 newspapers I would have spent $12.30. So for an extra $4.98 I got 2 bottles of Excedrin, 2 bottles of Triaminic, 1 pack of ponytail holders, and a Fusion power razor. Not bad. Also as a side note the Sunday paper is only $1.00 at Walgreens as opposed to the $1.50 it costs at the gas station or out of the machine. So since I bought 5 it saved me $2.50.

Up and at 'em sleepy head!

It is a bright sunshiny day. Rain is on the way so we better enjoy it while we can. I slept in this morning until 8:00am but the sun was shining into my room like it was at least noon. I rolled out of bed and was welcomed by Evie who gets up at the crack of dawn. She was fixing drinks and cereal for her brothers. What a sweet girl. She made me a cup of coffee too. I have lots to do today. The house is still in a bit of disarray and my parents and grandmother are coming over for a post Valentine's dinner. We had planned to do it sooner but our schedules were just too full. I also need to run down to Walgreens and get a few newspapers. They are 50 cents cheaper there than at the gas station and when you buy four it saves you 2 bucks. While I am there I may do the the Excedrin Register Reward Deal. We'll see. When I get back home I have to get my bedroom known as the laundry dump and my bathroom cleaned up. I guess I should probably wash some clothes too. My least favorite chore. Then it will be time to start cooking. We are having steaks, yummy shrimp from Fresh Market, Salad, Baked Potatoes, and anything else that strikes my fancy. Well I better get to it before my energy wanes and I am back in bed. See ya later....

It has been brought to my attention that I left child medium out of my previous rant. Ok, well here it goes. As we are trying to walk out the door he has a toy gun and rag and is cleaning his gun. Somehow he managed to get the gun to the car and the whole time I am trying to back the van out onto the busy road we live on his is pumping the shot gun. Finally we get a few blocks down the road and I am threatening to throw the thing out the window. He said that would be fine he could walk down the road and get it later. Finally I must have been scary enough or he grew tired of cleaning that the noise stopped. He was pretty quiet until I missed the turn for Target and got rather upset. He really only likes to go to the Hixson Target and he kept saying he wanted to go to his Target not the other one which is in East Brainerd. Finally he hushed up until we were in Target and he got lost on the toy isle. Child large noticed that he was not with us but did not say anything until we were three isles away. I turn the corner heading back towards the Tag books that we had been looking at earlier when I hear a sad yelp for momma. He comes to the end of the isle and has tears in his eyes. I tell him to stay with us next time and we continue on through the store. He is over it as soon as he sees a echo microphone and a laser pointer he would like to have. Upon hearing the words no he is sad once again. Finally we get to the end of our shopping trip and everyone is in need of a snack. Thank god for the $1.00 popcorn combo. Ofcourse medium wanted apples and caramel not popcorn so I agree but they are out. We settle for a blue icee. In my craziness I forget to order a drink for small and he is really unhappy about sharing. Medium is not going to let him have any without a fight. I offer small mine but it's not blue so he does not want it. We leave Target and I am ready for a nap. As I got the wild hair and pulled into the Big Lots parking lot medium is yelling NOOOOOOO!!!! He is ready to go home. In retrospect I should have listened. We made it home and medium jumped out of the car so he could go ride his bike since it was hot outside. He did not stay out for long since large did not follow. He came up on the deck and played with the pogo stick and ate some cookies. There now you know is part in todays rant. Now Daniel is home and we have had a frozen pizza and salad for supper and are watching Nitro Circus. Just another fabulous night at our house.

The Afternoon Rant

Ok so I just experienced the most miserable shopping trip in some time. I had this great plan to get something for nothing at Target. Well it all starts when I am driving down hwy 153 on my way to Target and the chick beside me clearly sees my blinker but instead of speeding up or hanging back so I can get in the turn lane she just stay right next to me even when I slow down. (SCREAM) So then I decided that's fine I will go to the next turn lane. I make way over there just in time for a red light. No biggie. Finally we make it in to the parking lot and it is packed full. That was not exactly what I was hoping for. We park next to a 14 passenger van full of one family of children and their mother. I was just thinking how glad I am to only have four. We wait till she gets out with two of her little girls carrying their baby dolls looking all sweet and well behaved. Then we get out and go inside. Our first outbreak was before we got in the doors when we encounter a lone buggy that we say child large starts to spin in a circle. Child small freaks out at the prospect of actually having to sit in that buggy. Child super-size takes control of the situation and we continue on through the doors. First we have to make it past the dollar spot full of irristable junk that we have no use for but always seem to buy. Somehow we make it past and the kids trail after me through the store. We were all fine and dandy until child small requested we buy him diapers and new cookie monster undies. Not wanting to cause a fuss because I was really to tired to argue, I concede and we put the new super cool undies and a box of Pampers finest in the buggy. On to the toys. I wish they would keep toys and candy in a locked room with a pass code so I would not be forced to suffer through isle after isle of begging every single trip. We make it past with only a new Dr. Suess book for our Tag Jr. and we are off. Now for the Valentines clearance. I guess it is my fault that my children are so drawn to clearance isles. I have trained them to always hunt for the bargain and sometimes it backfires. We select a few items that were thankfully 75% off and made our way finally to what we had came for. On the website time2saveworkshops.com I found a great coupon scenario
★ Buy (3) Olay Body Wash ~ Get $5 Target Gift Card

*Do-able Deal Idea*

Buy:
(3) Olay Bodywash @ $5.49 ea
(3) Venus Embrace Razors @ $6.99 ea
(1) Gillette Fusion Razor @ $6.99
Use:
(1) $4/1 Gillette from 2/7 P&G
(3) Free Olay Bodywash wyb Venus from 2/7 P&G
(3) $2/1 Venus from 2/7 P&G
+ the $2/1 Target Mobile Coupon
Pay: $15.96 ~ Get (3) $5 Target Gift Cards = 96¢ for everything!
Now, Submit for $15 Olay Rebate HERE
Earn over $14 Profit!

Who would not want to get all that stuff for so cheap. Well apparently no one wanted to miss out. Because there I stood in front of empty racks. (tear) I grabbed so things I thought might work instead and went to customer service to find out. Sadly no they were not offering any substitutions. I was welcome to get a rain check but I needed body wash today not next week. I decided to go ahead and buy the other razors at $5.99 each-$2.00 coupon and get the free Olay body wash. I had two sets of coupons so I spent roughly $8.00 and got 4 razors and 2 $5.99 Olay body washes. It was not a bad deal but I really had my heart set on something better. Oh well I guess I can't win them all. We made our way to the check out forgetting the other items we needed and headed home. I got a wild hair on the way home to stop at Big Lots. I am pretty sure we were the loudest bunch in the entire store. I made it quick and got out of there with a great deal on milk singles. Now that I am home and in my pj's I feel a lot better. I guess I should do something about supper but I really have no desire. Maybe the pizza fairy can drop by. Till next time....

I just got home from the worst four hours of my life. WORK SUCKED!!!!! Thanks for letting me get that out of my system.

AWESOME!!!

I just picked Evie up from her field trip and I am pretty sure she has said the word AWESOME fifty times in one breath. I am so glad she had a great time. I gave her some spending money for the trip and she came home with a lovely wolf necklace, a weapon of some sort, and a post card. She apparently also paid another kid 50 cents for some awesome rocks. That kid is crazy but she had a awesome day.

Technology challenged

So here I am trying to upload my grocery photos and my camera has said ONE MOMENT for well over 100 moments. I have never uploaded images with it on a PC so apparently I am going to have to wait until Daniel gets home and tells me what I am doing wrong. Until that happens I guess you'll just have to imagine the greatness.

Ughh, I can't stop pressing the wrong buttons. Multi-tasking is not a strong suit for me. I was going to say that my total finally reached $435.57. This is the time when Daniel's eyes bug out of his head and he begins to worry that I am spending every penny we have. Of course I would never pay full price for anything so I hand over no joke a two inch thick stack of coupons and bring my total down to $165.23 SAVING a GRAND TOTAL of $270.34. What a day. The receipt tape printed for like what seem to be forever and the cashier congratulated me on my savings and the fact that I had the longest receipt of the day thus far. It was great to see the now two buggys filled with groceries and my huge savings. Elated I made a few phone calls to share in my joy and littlerly danced in to the house to show Larry my receipt when I got home. He seemed pretty excited too and he helped me carry in bag after bag of stuff and display it on the dining room table. He then took pictures of everything which of course I plan to post. All in all it was thrilling. Well I know that was really long and drawn out but I had a lot to say. Wubbzy is on so the boys gave me a few quiet moments to get it all out.

Sorry a child jumped on my arm and I hit the wrong button. Anyways, continuing that thought, I was getting it for only 39 cents which in my opinion is a much better deal. So I made my way through the store only straying from my list a few times to gather up more great unadvertised deals. I encountered a few quantity limitations which was a little upsetting but I would rather have that happen then have to get a raincheck because they were all out. I got to the card isle which is kind of the half way point in the store and my buggy was already full to the rim. So I started moving big items to the underneath and trudged ahead. I got to the cold items were I planned to get 12 packages of cinnamon rolls and 9 tubes of crescent rolls. My buggy was so full they started to slide out of the buggy. What a mess. At least I did not have to deal with the kids too. I pushed my buggy over to the pharmacy and tried to get control of the mess without being in everyone's way. I got all of my coupons out and went through them to make sure I had what I needed and put back the things I either changed my mind on or they were out of. I found a few coupons for things I had forgotten so I made my way back across the store to get a couple more things. When I finally got back to the register I started unloading my stuff when another cashier came and unloaded my buggy for me. Thank god for great service. I watched the total go up and up and up until it was at

What A Day!

It has been an exciting day. First I had to get up at the crack of dawn and take Evie to school for her field trip. It actually was not that early but I am not really a morning person so to me it was the crack of dawn at 7:10am when I pulled into the school driveway. After that I came home and got ready to take Skye to the orthodontist. Her braces wires were stabbing her to death and I think she really wanted to miss German. Larry came by to use our internet so the boys stayed home with him. What a blessing. I took Skye to the ortho at 9:00 and we sat there for what seemed like forever. There were no other patients the rooms was only half lit and seemed deserted. Finally someone came and got her and it took all of five minutes and we were off. Lucky for Skye it was just in time for her Algebra test. I went by Bi-Lo to pick up my paycheck and was saddened that I worked 52 hours last week for so little money. As punishment to those folks at Bi-Lo I went to Publix to do my grocery shopping. That is were all the fun started. Earlier that morning I had read all the problems everyone was encountering about the current promotion Publix is running. I started having anxiety that they would not accept all of my coupons and I would not have enough money. So the minute I walked through the door I went to customer service just to clarify things. They called a manager just to double check. It was good news they would take all of my Viva Italian coupons! WooHoo!!! I was thrilled. So I thanked the gal over in customer service, grabbed a few new coupons that were out and was on my way. For once everything was in stock and I quickly gathered up all of my treasures. I caught a few stares at the quantities of stuff I was purchasing. Oh well those people are the same ones paying a $1.39 for the pasta I am paying 39

Yippee!!! I stayed a wake long enough to watch Burn Notice and enjoy some peace and quiet. I will probably regret staying up late in the morning but at the moment it is definitely worth it. Evie has to be at school at 7:15 in the morning for a field trip to the Booth Western Museum and New Echota State Park. I hope she has a great time. I think I will stay up just a bit longer and finish watching White Collar then kick Larry out and get to bed. Tomorrow will be another day.

So dinner is finshed and Mathis refused to eat anything but his breadstick and the breadsticks of those around him. He said my food looked gross and he was not going to eat it. So now he is sitting in his bedroom floor crying because if you do not eat your dinner you can not watch cartoons. Such is life. Larry joined us for dinner since he has been here for the last nine hours using our fabulous fiber optic cable internet. It has actually been nice having him here to watch the boys while I took the girls to and from school. Getting them dressed and in the car for a two minute drive down the road can take twenty minutes. Especially since I am totally organized and always know were the mates to their shoes are and have tons of mated socks. (I wish). Hopefully Daniel will be home soon from work and we can sit on the couch and watch all the great shows that come on Thursday. Bones and Burn Notice are my faves. I wish that Burn Notice would come on before my bed time but some things are worth staying up for. Well Skye thinks I am telling you my life story so I guess I will hush.

So the chores are as good as they are going to get. Dinner is made and ready to go into the oven in about an hour. Now it is time to get my coupons together. I worked on them for most of the day yesterday then left them laying on the coffee table last night. Oh, HUGE mistake. I decided to let the kids stay in the living room and play since they were being good. I went in the playroom and turned on NCIS. When Daniel came in there a little while later we watched three hours of Bear Grylls. I was planning on taking control of the TV at 10pm or going to the living room since the kids had already went to bed but I awoke at 11:30 to realize that I had missed the season finally of Leverage and my coupons that were just laying there unsupervised had been piled into a jumbled mess. Too tired to care I just went to bed. Now I am regretting my actions of yesterday as I begin to sort through my coupons and make sure they are all accounted for and remove the ones that got thrown in to the mess. Maybe the girls will actually do their chores tonight and pick up were I have left off.

In the words of Rachael Ray, "That's what's for dinner tonight!"

Tonight for dinner we are having:

Mini Cannelloni Bake

Ingredients

• 1 pound ziti with no lines or ditalini
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds ground veal, beef or chicken
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 to 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
• 2 boxes frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed of excess water
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups milk
• A few grates fresh nutmeg

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Yields: 6 servings

Preparation

Preheat broiler.

Place a large pot of salted water over high heat and bring it up to a boil. Cook the pasta to al dente according to package directions. Drain and reserve in the pot it was cooked in.

While the pasta is cooking, place a large skillet over medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons EVOO, about 2 turns of the pan. Add the ground meat to the pan and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until evenly browned throughout, about 6-7 minutes.

Add the onion and garlic to the pan and continue cooking until the onion has softened, 6-7 minutes. Add the spinach and cook about 1 minute to heat through, then season the mixture with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

While the onions are cooking, place a medium-size pot over medium heat and melt the butter. Sprinkle the flour over the butter and cook the mixture for about 1 minute. Whisk the milk into the butter-flour mixture and cook until the liquid has thickened up. Season the sauce with nutmeg, salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Add the meat-onion mixture and the sauce to the pot with the cooked pasta and stir to evenly combine. Transfer the mixture to a casserole dish and sprinkle the grated cheese over the top. Place the dish under the broiler until the cheese is melted and golden brown.

While the casserole is browning up, prepare your favorite side salad and serve it alongside the pasta bake.

Thanks to Rachael Ray or her staff for making my life slightly easier.

Here it is a few hours after naptime was initiated and both boys are still awake and driving me crazy. I have loaded the dishwasher, vacuumed the floor in the living room where I think I may have sucked up 500 airsoft bebes, now I am starting on dinner so at 4:30 when I am totally drained of energy I don't have to deal with it I can just simply stick it in the oven. Maybe naptime will come eventually. Until then I better go supervise the hoodlums. Til next time....

Nap time To-Do List

It is now the hour in which I can do all the things in life that I aspire to do. Today I will be cleaning the kitchen which looks like a bomb went off in, start preparing dinner which I will need to research for online, and then finally organize all my coupons for this weeks grocery shopping trip. I will let you know more about that part of my life at another time. If all of these things are going to happen I have a small window of opportunity so I best get to it. I will check back in later to let you know if anything was accomplished or if I followed my real dreams of grabbing a cup of coffee and burying myself under a blanket on the couch and watch daytime television. That has been known to happen.

Just another day....

After weeks of working crazy hours all in the name of Valentines, my life is slowly getting back to its usual pace. The girls are finally back at school after multiple snow days. Now I am beginning to feel life catching up with me. Today I began to wonder if I am out of practice taking care of own children. The boys have been pushing every button I have since they rolled out of my bed this morning. Yes, I said my bed because why on earth would anyone want to sleep in their own room for even one night. It is much better to come and get in bed with mommy to insure she gets a restful nights sleep. Haha. Enough about that, back to what I was fussing about. Oh, the boys pushing buttons. The noise has been at the volume you might imagine if you were to sit on the third row of a rock concert. Not that I would really know what that sounds like but I have a pretty good idea. Then to make matters worse in a matter of seconds they drag a basketful of toys to the living room and dump them in the floor. It only takes a blink of an eye to scatter them in every corner of the room but it will take hours to get them to pick up. Now every other breath out of their sweet little mouths is we need a snack, Mom, I am hungry, Snack NOW! This starts up a mere twenty minutes after they polish off a half dozen blueberry muffins. I keep saying no snack we will have lunch soon. Finally at 10:30 I break down and begin to make lunch. I get out the cottage cheese and tuna salad which is typically what they beg for. Of course today that is not what they have in mind. Today, because I did not ask their opinions they want something different. So after offering them several options, which I know is a NO-NO is every parenting book ever written, we come to a decision. Today we will have turkey and swiss sandwich, Doritos, and diced apples. To my shock both boys ate everything. Maybe they didn't eat all the muffins. Maybe the dog ate them. Usually they eat two bites and are gone. Now as is tradition it is nap time at our house. Giving mommy a few minutes to regain my composure in order to make it until bed time or atleast til Daddy gets home and the kids magically transform into angels. Thank you for letting me vent about my morning and I promise i am not always this fussy.