Mad Men-u

I am having a mad week.  I'm not mad at anyone or anything, it's just crazy busy, a little mad around here.  I forget, until I get busy, how much I miss being busy.  The busyness should be over by Wednesday, and then I should have a few minutes to sit down and plan out a menu and shopping list.  I guess I could have done that instead of writing this blog post, but what fun would that have been?

Part of  the madness of the week includes co-hosting an 80s party tomorrow night for our spouses' group.  I am sure hilarity will ensue.  I am trying to finish up my outfit for the party and am having a really hard time deciding between wearing leggings, or these pants...

Yes, these really are faux, red snake skin pleather pants that haven't seen the outside of my closet since my (I am embarrassed to admit) bachelorette party (I am not embarrassed that they haven't been out in 9 years, but that I wore them at all.  In some kind of alcohol induced haze, I thought they looked pretty hot that night).  Either way I go, I know that my pants will be tucked into these fine looking boots,

Try not to be jealous that I was able to find these lookers on Guam, for a mere $6.  I have also come to the conclusion that there is a very fine line between dressing for an 80s party and looking like a hooker.  I'm just really hoping that I don't trip over that line.  Hopefully, after one or two of these,

if I trip over the line, I won't care too much.  We are even going old school with the drinks and bringing back the wine cooler!  It'll be a fun night for sure.

Speaking of fun nights, I spent mine being an awesome mom and giving Price two pieces of cheese toast with pepperoni and calling that dinner.  He went to bed just fine, but woke up two hours later really hungry.  WHEN WILL I LEARN that taking short cuts with this child on food and sleep usually backfires and makes my life a little more hectic?  I should have known that my growing boy, who is actually 20 months old today, and graduated from a high chair to a booster chair, would probably not get enough sustenance from two pieces of cheese toast.

But even though he was a mad man when he woke up tonight (and I mean mad in the angry sense of the word), if he hadn't woken up I wouldn't have had the chance to rock him back to sleep, and that was by far the best part of my night.  I marvel at how big he's getting and yet how small he still seems and how truly precious he is. 

And speaking of mad men, have you watched Mad Men?  Don and I are both hooked.  We have spent the past two nights watching the first 4 episodes of season 2.  It's a really great show and I am so thankful that my mailman has finally started picking up and delivering our mail on a regular basis so I can get my fix.  I am alternately in love with and loathe with Don Draper, the main character.  I appreciate a good tv show, especially one that is well written and that Don and I can enjoy watching together (there are so many shows on tv that really divide us- he likes Fringe, I like- don't judge me- Real Housewives of any given locale).  I can't wait until our next dvd gets here, because I can't wait to find out what's going to happen.

Hope you have a great week!  I'm off to dream of all things 80s to get me geared up for tomorrow night. And forgive me for not sharing a menu with you today as I've been distracted by a mad little man, Mad Men, and just the madness that is my week.

Dear So and So....

Welcome to this week's addition of Dear So and So.
To join in the fun or see what others are getting off their chests this week, click on the button above.

Dear Facebook,

It's been a few weeks since I've visited with you (ok, for full disclosure, I went on FB to make sure that a friend was recovering ok after having a baby).  And I am happy to report that I don't miss you nearly as much as I thought I would.  Sure, I missed the fairly instant gratification of finding out that three friends gave birth to healthy babies and seeing pictures of all the new babies.  But, I am no longer thinking of my day as a series of status updates.

Of course, I do miss posting random pictures like these, pictures that perhaps don't deserve an entire blog post, although it's really tempting to write about Price's baby shoes, I'm just afraid that the few of you who read might give up on me.

Easter Shoes

I don't think these count as baby feet any more

I have decided that in your case absence really doesn't make the heart grow fonder.  Sure, I'll see ya again the minute Lent is over soon, but I'm keeping you off of my phone.

-Me

Dear Isabelle,

Our living room is NOT a litter box.  Please quit using it as such.  We will continue to have words about this. I've Oxycleaned, Resolved and vinegared to make the smells go away. Yet, you keep doing it, no matter how often I take you outside to do your business.  And don't you realize how much Price adores you?  He wants to be just like you- he plays with your toys, he eats your food and I'm afraid of what he'll do if he ever finds one of your "treats" before I can clean it up.  Seriously, this must stop- or I won't be so vigilant about not letting you play with the poisonous frogs.

-Me

Dear Face,

Seriously, what are you 12?  What's up with all the pimples?  Can you please clear up soon?

Thanks,

Proactiv Poster Child

Dear Y'all-

Yes, you all.  All of you who read this blog.  First, thanks for reading!  I love that you take time out of your busy days to hear what I have to say.  Keep your comments coming, I  love, love what you have to say!!  I want to give a little shout out for one of my fellow Guam blog buddies, Tessa.  I may have mentioned her a time or ten before...  Anyway, she is doing a Guamazing give away.  All you have to do is visit her blog (which is excellent, really funny) and leave a comment for a chance to win a whole bunch of Guam goodies.  

Speaking of giveaways, keep your eyes posted because I have an exciting one coming up soon!

Have a great weekend

-Me

Hashbrown Casserole

I was supposed to make this casserole for dinner last night, but it didn't happen.  So, I made it for lunch today, which was great because we ate it for dinner too.  This means I didn't really have to cook dinner tonight, which means my kitchen is relatively clean for the start of the weekend and since I didn't have to cook-cook I wasn't desperate to go out to dinner and I got to stay in my super comfy, paint spattered yoga pants and slouchy t-shirt lounge wear.  It's pretty good comfort food, not the healthiest or fanciest thing you can fix, but it's a good throw together meal....

Hashbrown Casserole
1 lb of ground turkey or extra lean ground beef
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion chopped
1 bag of mixed vegetables (which I didn't have, so I used two carrots and some frozen peas and frozen green beans.  You can use and vegetables you like)
4 tsp of  Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup, plus a little extra sharp cheddar cheese (or any cheese you like), grated
2 cups thawed hashbrowns

Preheat oven to 350.  Heat oil in skillet, add onion and carrot (only add carrot if you are using fresh, if you are using frozen veggies hold off on adding them).

Add meat, salt, pepper, garlic powder and 2 tsp of Worcestershire sauce.  When meat is browned, drain all but 1 tbsp of grease.

Add frozen veggies, reduce heat to medium low.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine hashbrowns, sour cream, soup and 1 cup of cheese.  Add meat mixture and stir until all ingredients are well combined.  Pour into 9" x 13" baking dish and top with remaining cheese.  Bake for 35 minutes until hashbrowns are tender and casserole is bubbly.

Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the final product.

Black Bean Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries

Tonight we had black bean burgers and sweet potato fries for dinner.  Let me just say this, "YUM!!"  And it was a healthy meal to boot.  I've been making sweet potato fries for who knows how long.  They only take about 30 minutes to cook, and are so sweet and spicy, I can't even stand it.  But I've never made black bean burgers from scratch before.  We are usually Boca or Morningstar Farms folks, (honestly we are really big juicy beef people, but we do like an occasional veggie burger as a healthy alternative and especially here in Guam, where the meat is shipped frozen from far away lands and always tastes just a tad freezer burnt in burgers (is that an actual phrase? I will admit that I originally typed frozer burnt- what the heck does that even mean?), non-meat burgers seem more and more appealing.  And it's getting close to the end of the month, which means we are getting close to the end of our grocery budget, so I went shopping in my pantry to see what all we had on hand before coming up with my menu this week.  I ran across a recipe for black bean burgers via a link from the orgjunkie web, and since I have more cans of black beans than a non-survivalist should have, it was perfect for this week's menu.

Sweet Potato Fries
2 large sweet potatoes
2 tbsp Tony's Creole Seasoning
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 350.  Line 2 cookie sheets with aluminum foil.  Thinly slice potatoes (I cheated and used my food processor).  Place about a fourth of the potatoes into a large bowl, sprinkle with about 1/2 tbsp of Tony's and 1 tbsp of olive oil.  Stir, coating slices with oil and spice.  Repeat process until all slices are coated.

Place slices in single layer on cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Cook for 15 minutes, remove from oven and turn over, cook for 15 more minutes or until tender.


Black Bean Burgers (adapted from Low Calorie Black Bean Burgers submitted by Kimberly Eggleston)

1 15-oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup dried breadcrumbs

1 large egg, beaten

1/2 lrg onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/4 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp chipotle chili powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp olive oil

4 hamburger buns

In a skillet, melt butter.  Add carrot, onion and garlic. 

Cook, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent and carrots are fairly tender.

In the meantime, smoosh beans.  Smoosh, that's one of my more technical terms...

Add bread crumbs, seasonings, worshestire sauce, and cooked veggies.  Stir to combine all ingredients.  Add egg.

Check on your kids to see what they are destroying while you are cooking.  Enjoy the quiet caused by the harmless distraction.  

Heat olive oil in skillet used to cook veggies.  While oil is heating form 4 patties from bean mixture and place into warm skillet.

Cook until patties are firm- about 4 minutes on each side.  They'll look a lot like hamburgers when they are done.

I tried not to take pictures since these aren't the prettiest things to look at.  Thank goodness for buns out of season Christmas plates to distract you.  We did put our burgers on buns and used typical condiments.  In the future, if the Commissary ever has avocados again, I'll dress them with avocado and a spicy mayo or something.  Also, I am going to tweak this recipe and try it with peppers and mushrooms- really any veggies would work well, just be sure to chop small enough that they are almost tender when added to the bean mixture. 

Scooby Snacks

For the first time in 19 months I got- wait for it- 10 WHOLE HOURS OF UNINTERRUPTED SLEEP LAST NIGHT!!!  I am not sure how many times today I have said little prayers of thanks to God for that amazing treat.  I was so sleepy last night, I went to bed before either one of the boys.  I thought I would lay in bed and read or watch tv, but nope, I tried and just passed out, at 8:00 at night.  I didn't wake up again until 6:00 this morning (ok, there was a brief rendezvous to relieve to my bladder sometime in the middle of the night, but since I fell back to sleep immediately, it doesn't count).  I probably would have slept longer had Price not woken up way early thanks to the super huge poop he made at 5:45 this morning.  Of course, maybe if I had bought the right size diapers (why oh why did I buy size 3 and not size 4 like I have been buying for the past 4 months??), he might not have been so uncomfortable that he had to wake all of us up to let us know about the stinky present in his pants.  But honestly, with ten glorious hours of sleep, I almost didn't care.  And because I was so well rested and in such a good mood, I almost laughed when I was brushing my teeth and Price threw his sippy cup, that I had just made, into the toilet.  But no! Sleep is a rejuvenator, I was too serene from so many continuous hours of sleep that I just grabbed it and took into the kitchen to fix him another one.  I wish that I could say the happy sleep spell stayed with me while washing potty cup off in the kitchen sink, but it would be a lie to say that every ounce of hard earned serenity did not abandon my soul when I walked into the dining room and saw that my sweet, precious angel had dumped the dog's food and water onto the floor and was having a mid-morning snack of soggy dog food...

Other than dog food, here's what we'll be eating this week...
Monday-Sloppy Joes
Tuesday- thanks to an unexpected early evening errand to find fix a flat, we feasted on Popeye's
Wednesday- Black Bean Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries (what is it about this flavor combo that I enjoy so much?)
Thursday- Hashbrown Casserole
Friday- leftovers
Saturday-  Pizza

Dear So and So

Do you ever get really frustrated (or even pleasantly surprised) about something, so you start writing a letter in your head to the universe or some corporate entity or some civil servant's boss because of their complete lack of competence (or maybe even extreme helpfulness).  I do this.  All. The. Time.  Of course with me being me, these letters never make it from my head to paper and they never get sent.  Well, the other day, I stumbled across this blog, Mom in High Heels.  She's also a military wife living abroad while her husband serves our country.  The tag line of her blog is, "Life's Too Short to Wear Ugly Shoes,"  how could I not read this blog? Although living in Guam, I can count on one hand the amount of times I've worn a shoe other than a flip flop, there was this occasion a few weeks ago...

I'm not sure what was up with the pose, but we clean up pretty well don't we?  And this is way TMI, but I really, really need to go bra shopping.

Anyway, while reading Mom in High Heels' blog, I came across a post entitled, "Dear So and So."  And discovered that apparently I am not the only person who writes random letters to people in my head, and thanks to Kat, another military wife blogger, we can now get the letters out without actually having to look up an address (which is especially hard to do when you're "writing" to the universe) or waste money on a stamp.

Today I had the opportunity to compose several such letters...



Dear Guam,

What does it take to entice the mailman to come pick up the mail that has been attached to my mailbox for several days?  It's obviously not the mail that is now dripping wet and coming precariously close to being blown off our mailbox thanks to this unseasonable monsoon we are currently experiencing.  Don't you understand that Netflix won't send a new movie until they receive our current movie and it takes wayyyyy longer for us to get our movies because we live in the middle of no where the Pacific Ocean.  And I'm ready to start watching season two of Mad Men, so please share with me what I need to do in order to have my mail picked up.

Also, have you or anyone specifically on Andersen AFB ever heard of a drive-thru ATM?  I realize you probably don't have an inquisitive 19 month old that goes almost every where with you, but seriously, no one likes to park and get out of a car just to get cash.  They especially don't like to do it if they have to get a toddler out of a carseat, chase them around while the money is being dispensed and then wrestle the kid back into the seat.  Please, Guam or someone on Andersen, give a drive-thru ATM a thought.

Finally, I don't like going to your DMV.  I have been twice this week trying to procure a passport and after today's visit, I still have to go back before the crack of dawn on Monday.  Seriously, do you want me to never leave this island?  Could you make your website a little more informative?  If so, maybe I would have checked it before I drove down to apply for my passport on Tuesday only to find that you you can only apply for a passport on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Before I left today, I checked your website to make sure I had all of the necessary documents to obtain to my passport.  No where, and I MEAN NO WHERE did it state I needed a copy of my marriage certificate.  To your credit, the lady saw me about to burst into tears at the thought of making a third trip and sitting with a rambunctious kid for a second time so she let me apply, but I still have to go back with my marriage license to prove that I am who I claim to be because obviously my birth certificate and two other forms of ID are not enough.

-Yours Truly


Dear Class 6 (on base beer store)-

You TOTALLY rock! Thank you for the surprise, mysterious shipment of Yuengling beer.  I am now Wife of the Year and am in good favor with some neighbors.

Gracias!


Dear Terrell

I wish you would listen to me more often.  I told you to take 5 more minutes of your precious time to locate your marriage license even though it wasn't on the list of required documents.

Sincerely,
Your Self


If you have any letters you want to get off your chest, link up on Kat's page.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I took the picture on the left exactly one year ago today (ok, so for some reason Blogger doesn't post the pics the way appear in my feeder or in my preview- but in my world, there are two pictures side by side and not on top of each other).  Well, maybe not EXACTLY given the fact that we are a day ahead of most of the rest of the world and also last year was a Leap Year, but it's close enough...  The picture on the right is him today.  Can you believe how much he's changed? How much our life has changed?

St. Patrick's Day is actually a pretty big deal around our house.  Don and I are both Irish (with a few other things thrown in for good measure).  We celebrated our Irish heritage by wearing green; sharing a dinner of brisket (the closest I could get to corned beef), mashed potatoes, cabbage and several bottles of Guinness with folks from Don's office.  It was a good day.

I have been thinking about our heritage, who we are and where we come, from quite a bit lately.  I've always been interested in my family's genealogy (and really regret not paying better attention to taking notes when my grandparents told me stories about my relatives).  But my recent interest has been spurred by the shows Who Do You Think You Are?   and the less commercial version of Henry Louis Gates' Faces of America.  Both of these shows reignited my desire to find out where I came from, where Don came from.    

So Sunday, Don and I sat down at the computer, signed up for a free trial at Ancestory.com and started looking at our family tree.  I immediately found ACTUAL copies of my great grandfather's draft registration and we saw the Census records for his paternal grandparents.  We spent hours, just looking for the next set of relatives.  Unfortunately, we have hit dead ends for almost everyone, but that just makes me want to try harder to see what I can find, who I can find.

Here's the brisket recipe I used, adapted from something I found on AllRecipes.com...

• 1 (4 pound) beef brisket, trimmed of fat (I left the thick layer of fat on top of brisket)
• Tony's (creole seasoning, could use salt and pepper instead)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) bottle dark beer
• 1 apple, cored and chunked
• 3 tablespoons worchestire sauce + 1 tablespoon
• 3 tablespoon brown sugar 
• 1 can of beef stock
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 2 teaspoons chipotle chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 tablespoon mustard
• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup (could substitute ketchup, mustard and syrup with equal amount bbq sauce)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Heat olive oil in large dutch oven (must be able to use on stove top and in oven).  Cover the beef brisket with Tony's Creole seasoning.  Add brisket to hot pan and brown all sides (about 4 minutes per side).  Remove brisket from pan.  Keeping pan on heat, add beer and beef stock, bring to a simmer, stirring with wooden spoon to remove brown bits from pan.  Add all remaining ingredients, reserving half of apple, onion and garlic.  Place brisket fat side up in pan, cover with remaining tablespoon of worchestire sauce, apple, onion and garlic.  Cover pan.
3. Bake for 6-8 hours in the preheated oven.  Brisket is done when fork tender.  Cut fat off (it should come off very easily), shred brisket with fork.  Serve on bun, use drippings as sauce.

Due to the seasonings, this brisket has a little bit of kick to it, but not super spicy.  I made two briskets tonight, one in the oven and the other in the crockpot.  They both cooked for the same amount of time and were cooked using the same basic method.  The brisket done in the oven was definitely the better of the two- better flavor, moist and delicious. I cooked it for about 6 hours and it probably would have been even better with another hour or two.  

What We're Eating This Week

Here's this week's menu.  I'm about to go and get caught up on recipes- wish me luck!

Monday- Leftover tuna casserole

Tuesday- Slow cooker lasagna

Wednesday- Irish Heritage Appreciation Night at the Michaels'- beer soaked brisket, mashed potatoes and cabbage

Thursday- Brisket Soft Tacos
Friday- Terrell no cook on Friday!

Someone's In the Kitchen With Momma

As Price stumbles towards the terrible twos, I find that he's into EVERYTHING.  He's currently happiest when crawling into tight, dark spaces such as the depths of his closet or laying under his bed with dust bunnies and who knows what other creatures...  So, I try my hardest to keep him in my line of vision.  Something I've recently started doing is trying to get him to "help" (I use that term verrryyyy loosely) me cook.  He has a pretty short attention span, but he really enjoys getting to stand on a chair.  Thanks to him, I will become an expert at mis en place, rather than pulling ingredients as I read need them.  The other day, Price helped me make Pepperoni Pizza Pie.

Turning the food processor off and on was a big hit!

My dough boy!  He was covered in flour.

Teamwork.  

In full disclosure, we weren't able to actually roll out the crust, we ended up just pressing the dough into the pie plate.

Luckily, the pepperoni provided a good pre-lunch snack.  Don't worry, no eggs had been added yet.  Don't you want to snack on those cheeks?

Pepperoni Pizza Pie, adapted from Carnation Recipe published at lynnskitchenadventures.com (my changes are in italics)

1 unbaked (9 in) pie shell (I made my own crust, but a store bought would work fine)
8 ounces of shredded cheese
2 ounces of sliced pepperoni (I used about 30 slices)
1 (12 ounce can) Carnation evaporated milk
3 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
a dash of crushed red peppers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle 1 cup of cheese and half of the pepperoni onto the bottom of the pie shell.  Whisk together the milk, eggs, flour, basil, and garlic powder.  Pour into pie shell. Sprinkle remaining cheese over top and carefully lay pepperoni on top of cheese.  Bake for 40-45 minutes or until done.

This recipe was easy and delicious!  I will definitely make it again.  However, notice the cook time (mine was done at about 35 minutes, but my oven cooks hot).   I had originally planned to make this for dinner on Wednesday, but Price and I got an unexpected dinner invitation and then I planned to make it on Thursday, but I overlooked how long it would take to bake.  So, we actually made it for lunch on Friday, then munched on the leftovers for several more meals.  This recipe is super versatile- it would be so easy to change up the meat and cheese or even leave the meat out all together and add some veggies.  It has a slightly different texture than quiche, but is the same general idea, which also makes it a great any time meal- we ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

It's Official

I have decided that there is no use in trying to squelch my inner beach bum, the one who was latent for the first three months of our time here.  I think after being dormant for so long, it's knocking on my soul to break free and hit the beach as often as possible. Luckily, according to my laminated map of Guam, there are 29 named beaches on our teeny, tiny island.  My mission is to visit each one of them at least once.  As of today, I have been to 7.  As of today, I have a new favorite beach.

Today my fellow beach bums (Amy and Price) and I went to a new beach.  We traversed over pot hole (pot hole is really an understatement, more like small craters) laden roads and descended down a narrow, cliff side road into the jungle.

We parked under a canopy of coconut trees and were greeted by hundreds of butterflies.

After a brief coconut distraction,

we stumbled out onto this-

A look to the right,

We quickly settled into our hard day's work of bumming it at the beach.

Oh yes, the water really is THAT clear.

 

We enjoyed a few sunny hours on a practically deserted beach.  Then it was time to pack up and head home.

The End.

(In case you were wondering, we spent the morning at Ritidian Beach, a wildlife refuge at the northern most tip of Guam where the Pacific Ocean and Philippine Sea meet.  It's open 8:30-4:00 every day except federal holidays.  It's more than worth the bumpy ride to get there.)

Mondays, Movies, Monkeys and Menus

Today has been a good day.  So much better than the last Monday when Don was out of town.  He's off Island.   That's Guam lingo for saying he's gone again.  He traded our little island for the bigger island of Oahu.  Poor guy...

Anyway, back to me.  I'm sitting here watching the Oscars.  I'm not really sure why.  I have only seen one movie that is nominated for anything- Up.  By the way, if you haven't seen it, you should- unless you're hormonal or really miss your grandparents.  Even then you should still watch it, just bring extra Kleenex with you.  I digress AGAIN!  I guess I continue to watch the Oscars because I like the pageantry, I LOVE to see the dresses, I like hearing the winners' speeches, the In Memoriam segment makes me feel nostalgic.  Tonight's tribute to John Hughes made me feel kind of old.  Do I look as old as they do?  God I hope not.  (Ok, just checked Wikipedia, The Breakfast Club came out when I was 10, so they've got a good 20 years on me).  I know I'm probably only about the billionth person to state this, but I grew up with John Hughes movies.  They gave me some insight into what to expect from high school and maybe even instilled in me the fact that it's ok to be on the outside looking in.

Earlier today, Price had a hearing appointment down at the Naval Hospital.  Since we were so close to Big Navy, I decided we would head down there after the appointment, walk around the Exchange and then have a picnic on the beach.  It was a lovely morning.  I'm just bummed that I forgot my camera.  As we were sitting and feasting on our subway sandwiches, toes being tickled by the sand, hair blowing in the breeze while watching the little waves tumble onto shore, I couldn't help but feel happy.  Happy to be here, happy to be.  The other day when I met my two blogger buddies for coffee, Tessa asked me if I liked it here.  And I answered honestly (something like this), "I do. I like it more and more each day.  Whenever I get a chance to sit outside on the beach and take in the beauty of where we are, although I own my feelings on bad days and think it's ok to have them (psycho babble much Terrell?), I really am reminded that life is good."  Good thing Amy was there, cause pretty sure an answer like that to a simple question three minutes after meeting me should have scared her off.   But, that's really how I feel.  Even when I have a down day, and we're all entitled to have those every now and then- even if you know someone whose life is harder than yours, I just have to remember the good.  And then probably should hit the beach just to get re-centered.

Speaking of Price, we have always called him  Monkey.  It's probably the most used of the one million nicknames we have for him.  Over the past few days, he has decided to truly embody this word...  The other day while fixing his snack, I knew he was in the laundry room, but when I went to look for him I could n't find him.  Then I heard a faint rustling and saw this,

After cracking up laughing and doing what every good mom does, I left him to go find the camera so i could more pictures like this,

Then on Saturday he was being just a little too quiet (never a good sign for a 19 month old boy), and I found him playing dump truck.

He's not actually supposed to sit in that part of the truck.  But then again he's not really supposed to sit in our entertainment center either...

All I can wonder is, why was I in such a hurry for him to be super mobile???

Now that you've read all of that, you're probably dying to know what I'm eating this week...

Monday- Cheeseburger Buns (I was supposed to make these last week, but life got in the way)
Tuesday- Pork chops with black beans and pineapple rice
Wednesday- Pepperoni Pizza Pie
Thursday- Tuna Patties and Slow Cooker Mac n Cheese with Peas (or as I would call it if I were a contestant on Top Chef, Deconstructed Tuna Casserole)
Friday- Leftovers