what do you think?

yet another evolution of my blog design...

Menu Plan Monday

Has it really been over a month since I've posted my menus, and two weeks since I've posted anything? Sheesh! I really have planned menus, but I plan them and forget to post. Oops. I feel more compelled to follow the menus when they're online, though, so I need to get back in the habit of putting them up.

Menu Plan for Week of August 27:
Monday:
breakfast - sweet potato pancakes (stir a couple heaping spoonfulls of mashed sweet potatoes into your pancake batter. They are to DIE for - so light and fluffy and faintly sweet.)
dinner - fajitas. (Great idea, Organizing Junkie!!)

Tuesday:
breakfast - skinny omelettes (we actually haven't had these in a while.... mmm!)
dinner - Creamy Ranch Potatoes & Chicken (thanks, Amy)

Wednesday:
breakfast - oatmeal
dinner - paninis

Thursday:
breakfast - scrambled eggs
dinner - going to a baseball game - Mister is going to the Cubs game and I am going to the Brewers game. Good thing they're playing each other!

Friday:
breakfast - with in-laws
dinner - with in-laws

Saturday:
breakfast - with in-laws
dinner - who knows? it's the weekend!!

Sunday:
breakfast - pancakes or biscuits and gravy - up to the Mister
dinner - sticky chicken (thanks, JudyL!)

sometimes life is fair

So I was driving back from the post office this afternoon when this car speeds by me, pulls in front of me, cutting me off, and then suddenly drops about 20 mph. Seriously. I was a little frustrated, but then a minute later, from out of nowhere come these blessed red and blue lights... I of course had the momentary panic of "what did I do wrong?" but the wonderful police officer pulled over the offending driver and made my day.

Not that I was glad to see that person get a ticket, but I was just glad that... oh wait, I have to admit, I was a little glad to see them get a ticket. Oops.

On an unrelated front, we gave Peanut a sippy cup for the first time yesterday, and have cracked up at the wobegone faces she gets when she chews on the spout and gets WATER IN HER MOUTH. She never expects it, and still gets startled every time it happens. Is it wrong that I think that's funny?

Gosh, I sound like I really enjoy other's misery. Hmm. What's wrong with me? Must be the heat.

i went on a DATE last night!

So yesterday, Mister took a half day off of work, came home and finished shampooing the carpets in the house (love that man!) and then we drove up to the Quad Cities, which for the uninitiated is two cities in Iowa (Davenport and Bettendorf) and a number of cities in Illinois (Rock Island, Moline, East Moline and Silvis). I know that adds up to more than 4, but East Moline and Silvis get really offended if they're left off the list. :) It's a cluster of cities (they all run into each other) that are found on the banks of the Mississippi.

My brother and sister-in-law and babies moved there recently, so we spent the afternoon with them, and then left Peanut there while Mister and I went to the American Idol concert! Wooooohooo! It was AMAZING! We really just had so much fun - had super seats - and just got such a kick out of seeing everybody. I thought it was more fun than a regular ol' concert because you never knew WHO was performing next, and WHAT they were going to do. Normally, at a concert, you know that band/person X will do a song, usually off one of their cds. This time, you didn't know if Sanjaya or Blake was going to come out, if they were doing a duet with Melinda or Sligh or something... and if anyone was playing instruments, etc.

Really, it was a phenomenal party. Musically, it was great - it was almost all covers, which meant that I knew the lyrics and could sing along, but it was just a lot of fun. Two surprises of the night: Phil and Chris Richardson were better in person than they were on tv... and LaKisha was PHENOMENAL. I'm not going to give any more details, in case anyone else will see them later in the tour, but it was just so much fun!

Then, we went back to my brother's house, stayed overnight, hung out with all of them this morning, and came on back here. Now, Peanut is sleeping and I think I may go catch up on a few ZZZ's myself!

grr

so i feel like a major dork right now. we have an extra freezer in our garage, and it has been so helpful during the last few months of pregnancy / birth / first months of craziness... i can just walk downstairs, see what's in there and then pop it in the oven for dinner.

either i left the door open last sunday night or it's just been too darn hot, because i went in there a few minutes ago and everything is soggy and squishy.

so sad. there is a ton of food in there.

notice that i said "is" and not "was?" that's right. i am in here blogging about it instead of cleaning it up. this is denial if i ever saw it.

but I am married to the best man ever, because when i just called Mister to tell him we weren't going to have frozen pizza for dinner, his first reaction was to tell me that it was okay that we just lost a ton of food... and then he asked what he should bring home for dinner. now that is a man i could love forever!

i think it's a conspiracy

Peanut was supposed to go down for her morning nap this morning at 8, like I plan for her to do she does on a regular basis. Nope. Not interested. She ate a few times, crawled all over the house, all over me, gave me wet kisses on my open mouth, etc... But not too interested in sleeping.

So I said to myself, "Self, if she's still awake at 10:00, we'll go to the library." That's when it opens, you see. And I have two books that were due yesterday. Funny how that always happens.

9:59 and the babbling to herself from in her crib finally stops. 9:59. No joke. Not going to the library for at least a couple of hours now.

If it's a conspiracy, I don't know who else is in it, but Peanut sure is!

dopey

Gosh, Shannon's got a lot of parenting advice up at her blog today, so I think I'd better brew myself some decaf (I pretend it helps) and blearily flip through blogs this morning...

Don't know what is going on with Peanut recently, but she doesn't particularly want to fall back asleep after one of her midnight snacks. She used to sleep through the night so easily; I always felt bad telling other new moms about it... but now I'm hopping up and down every hour and a half or so to go coax her back to sleep. Which means I'm dopey now. Better go get me some parenting advice!

Since I know there's a lot of readers out there, and obviously we all love contests, I thought I'd point you to one for a Christian chick-lit book... go check it out!