New workup of Routines

Here's a copy of my new routines I am starting to baby step into at our house. Everyone is assigned one "space" for the week... plus their bedroom...... A variation of zones....plus a "mom's basic schedule" and a 2 week menu.....This menu cost us $110 for the dinner portion (plus a few fill ins) for a family of 5 for 2 weeks...... the kids are getting lunch and breakfast at school this year.....

Mom’s Basic Schedule:

5-5:15- dress to shoes

5:15-6 walk

6-6:45 Kids ready for school

6:45-7:30 Breakfast, Meds/vits, dw, laundry

7:30- 8:30- QTWG, Table, Bathroom

8:30-9- Island, Countertops, Garbage, laundry

9-10- Rachel Ray, Dining room

10-11 Bedrooms

11-12 The Dr.s, Kitchen

12-1, Lunch, DW, laundry

1-3- Nap OR Bedrooms, Family room, Van, yard

3-5 Homework, snack, sweep, start dinner, kids chores

5-7- Paige Shower (5), Hannah Shower (7) Dinner (6:30), clean up dinner, put away school stuff (by front door), Devotion before dinner

7-9 Crochet, bake or read

Bedroom:

Monday: Straighten dresser drawers and top

Tuesday: straighten closet/floor (sweep, throw away garbage, put empty hangers in front of closet rod)

Wednesday: Gather dirty clothes, take down stairs, change bedsheets

Thursday: Pick up floor/sweep, sweep under bed, take out garbage

Friday: straighten desk, dust furniture, sweep/steam mop

Saturday: enjoy

Sunday: gather dirty laundry and bring down

Hallways:

Monday: sweep, pick up floor

Tuesday: sweep, declutter basket in front hall- put extras away properly

Wednesday: sweep, clean yellow table (declutter, wipe down)

Thursday: sweep, wipe down big door, clean glass door and white part

Friday: sweep, steam mop both halls, dust walls and pictures, wipe doors opening into hall (bedrooms) and knobs

Outside:

Monday: clean out van/car, bring in and put away things properly

Tuesday: sweep sidewalk, take cans out in am, back in at night

Wednesday: pick up branches front and back

Thursday: pick up trash/toys, etc front and back and put away

Friday: sweep sidewalk, take cans out in am and back in at night

Saturday (for adult- mow front and back)

Dining Room:

Monday: Sweep floor, Take out garbage

Tuesday: Clean table, under table, and vacuum

Wednesday: Clean Buffet and drysink, corner, under chairs

Thursday: Wipe down wood chairs, steam mop floor

Friday: Dust, final pickup of room, take out garbage

Bathrooms:

Monday: Gather all dirty laundry and take down, take out garbage

Tuesday: clean off countertops, wipe down, shine faucets, mirror

Wednesday: Wash toilet, sweep floor

Thursday: Wash tub/shower, shine faucet, wash walls

Friday: Wipe everything down, sweep, take out garbage, gather all dirty laundry and take down

Menu for 2 weeks:

1. Baked chicken ziti- 1 lb ground chicken breast (or ground turkey), 3 cans spaghetti sauce, 1 lb ziti, 6 oz mozzarella

Green Beans- garlic salt and pepper

2. Leftover Spaghetti Sauce over spaghetti noodles, salad
3. 3 lbs chicken breast, 1 jar salsa, bake in crockpot, shred for fajitas (lettuce, sourcream, cheese, black olives, refried beans –homemade) – cooked broccoli with lemon and butter/salt/pepper
4. Leftover fajita meat, 1 block velveeta, 2 pkg cream cheese, 1 can rotel, 2 bags tortilla chips, sour cream, refried beans, salad
5. 3 lbs chicken breasts baked with garlic, salt and pepper, ½ each breast. Freeze ½ of this. Take what is left, top with sliced ham and provolone, melt cheese. Rice with garlic butter salt, cooked broccoli parmesan
6. other ½ of chicken breasts, dice small, toss with rice, diced carrots, green onions, broccoli, soy sauce, whisked eggs (chicken fried rice)
7. Corn chowder, homemade bread, salad
8. chicken noodle soup, homemade bread, salad
9. 3 lbs ground beef/taco seasoning- tacos, lettuce, sour cream, black olives, refried beans, homemade tortillas
10. with leftover taco meat and cheese sauce- taco lasagna, salad
11. Beef Stroganoff, noodles, broccoli parmesan
12. chili (beans on side) fritos, sour cream, shredded cheese, salad
13. Leftover chili- chili dogs (buns), homemade potato wedges, veggies/dip
14. OUT!

Menu Week of June 14, 2010

Menu Week of 6/15/2010

Monday: Chicken Pot Pie

Tuesday: Chicken Taco lasagna

Recipe: Leftover shredded salsa chicken, flour tortillas, salsa, kernel corn, shredded cheese. Layer and bake. Top with: sour cream, lettuce, black olives, scallions, black beans

Shredded salsa chicken: take a bag of chicken breasts (can be done with regular bone in chicken- any type) and put in a large roasting pan with lid. Dump a jar or medium (or your favorite spicy-ness) salsa over the top and bake until chicken is done and tender- I cooked the breasts over an hour. Take out and, using 2 forks, shred in the pan (with the salsa), mixing the chicken with the salsa. This makes a LOT. We used it one night for topping nachos, then mixed it in the leftover nacho sauce for lunches the next day. What was leftover (that was too much for the nacho dip!) I froze to use for “something else”….. this sounds like a good use!

Wednesday:- Spaghetti- old faithful! ;) with beef, green beans

Thursday- Baked chicken legs, Broccoli, corn, potato salad

Friday- chicken tetrazzini Green beans with bacon and brown sugar

1 16-oz package whole wheat spaghetti (use ½ of package or 8 oz)1 1/4 cup finely chopped onion (1 cup sauteed)3 T butter1 cup chopped green bell pepper5 1/2 cups cooked, diced chicken4 cups grated Montery Jack Cheese2- 10 3/4 oz cans cream of mushoom soup (I used 2 servings of my cream of soup recipe)1 1/4 cup 2% milksalt and pepper to taste

Break spaghetti in half and cook as directed on package until al dente; drain. Saute onions in butter. Thouroughly mix in onions and remaining ingredients with spaghetti in a large bowl. Put spaghetti mixture in 2 containers, and freeze.To prepare for serving, thaw tetrazzini a nd put in a baking dish. Bake uncovered in a preheated 350 degree oven until bubbly about 30-40 minutesNumber of Servings: 12

Update from the Flood zone! :)

Well, this is what we saw almost 3 weeks ago... it started raining on a friday, and didn't stop until sunday. The one picture is from our front door to the right, the other front door to the left. What a wild roller coaster we have been on since!

I cannot BEGIN to thank all the people who have helped us and our neighbors over the last 2+ weeks! SO MANY churches mobilized and knew JUST what to do before we even had a THOUGHT about what we were going to do!

As fast as the water came (2 inches every 15-20 min really) it went- left the house at 10:15 am, were able to return by 5:30 and stay the night! Some on our block were not so lucky and lost 95% of their homes! By the time the "clean up" was done, studs, floor joists and ceilings were left! :(

Both schools principals came by Monday to check on us- along with guidance counselors, the FCA leaders, teachers and faculty! It was just amazing to see them there! You don't realize they KNOW what is going on. Monday night the PTO from the elementary school came by and we were talking, she said "we have a grill and some food we are going to do for you guys" I told her they could set up in our front yard. That was all it took for God to do his work!

We started trying to do things on our own that day- Scott's parents showed up at 7:30 that am to help get the big furniture out, the heavy area rug, etc and shop vac up the mud. I think that night friends who had been calling all day to come help us and we turning them down just came over and ignored us! LOL

The next day one of my daughter's friends' dads came over (he's a contractor) and he set us on the right path of what to take and what to leave..... thank goodness it was not in our MAIN living area, just the family room, dd14's bedroom, and the laundry room. While Scott was back there with him, I was out front working with the grills, food, and trying to get people to take a break from the emotionally and physically draining work they were doing. That day we had volunteers TAKE food to people so they would eat. We had to do that some the next day too. People learned after that!

Tuesday night the Mayor, our Alderman (a woman!) and several other people came and stood in our front yard and talked about what was going on with the food- the mayor asked if port a potty's and tents would help, so the next morning they set up 4 tents and 2 potty's for us! The rest of the week was a blur! Volunteers would come to find out where to go, where a need was, donations were dropped off at our house to be disbursed to the people on the block- including 2 pallets of bottled water and tons of cleaning supplies! We ended up with many tables, coolers, chairs in our yard as well as 3 grills going from 10 am to about 7 pm every day. Food to be grilled was provided by Publix grocery store, and other food was brought in by local restaurants and just dropped! not to mention all the food/drinks/clothing/etc dropped by just PEOPLE wanting to help! If we had a need, it was immediatly remedied! God provided for our every need.

Every night someone would ask me "who is going to help you tomorrow" "God will send them to me" I would say- and every day someone who was amazing would come! "what food is coming tomorrow" "God knows" and sure enough, just the right amount of food was brought! By Thursday we started getting non-perishables, which before then we couldn't have thought about, but by that time, we could think about it! God knew our needs and when to provide everything! It just worked SO perfectly!

I have become known by many names now..... Jenny the red head (my new hair color!), Jenny from Facebook (I was updating as often as possible to help the relief efforts), "command central" was the name of our house! LOL People are still contacting me wanting to know how to help, or asking me for help (my neighbors) and I am glad to do it. When other areas opened up in Hendersonville, we made sure that they were taken well care of, just like our street! Our community has been AMAZING!

Tonight the kids' elementary school's PTO put on a fundraiser to aid the 16 families in the school affected by the flood. Originally the fundraiser was going to be the weekend after the flood, but they cancelled it to do this instead. It was SO amazing to be there and see all of them and KNOW they were doing it for MY family!

God sure has taught me a million lessons these last 2+ weeks, and I'm not sure if I will ever really understand all of them or even realize all of them, but I am so glad I was able to help out in the small way that I did.

I'm not telling you all this to toot my horn, but to account to you what a wonderful community I live in, how they have blessed us, and those on our street, and my small part in it! I'm so glad God could use me and my family this way! I feel so blessed! Even more than before the flood! :)

Update on Flood needs

So, the day is done....had a lot of work done today... most I couldn't do because of health issues.....grrrrr..... We had donations come today, so I wanted to update the needs list for us....

Flood Items Needed

Clothing:
Gift cards to Wal-mart, Goodwill, Etc.

Scott: Size 36X30 Pants, Size L-XL shirts, Size 11 shoes
Jenny: Size 18/20 Shirts, Size 16/18 pants, Size 8-9 shoes
PJs are always a good thing!
Kids clothes are taken care of.... still going through to see what we got for us... will update when I know better!

Furniture:

LeighAnn’s Room

Dresser
Desk/chair
Book Shelf (all her books were ruined because she didn’t have a book shelf in her room and they were in material totes, or in the drawers under her bed in there)

Family Room:

Desk
Chair
Couch/loveseat or any similar thing
Entertainment center
Upholstered chair
Lamps

Building Materials (will insert measurements of rooms when I get them):

Laminate wood flooring for Family room and LeighAnn’s Room
Something to replace the paneling with – Drywall
Insulation for the walls
2X4's
Paint (teal for LeighAnn’s room, not sure on the family room yet)
Quarter round
Baseboard
Laminate stick tiles for the laundry room
Duct work (completely saturated, so we can’t run a/c until its replaced, can’t replace until it’s dried out some down there)
Some sort of outside storage (shed was already bad-but could have been repaired, but now it just needs to be taken down, it is all wood so it will rot)

Lowe’s or Home Depot Gift Cards

Someone asked about paypal, so.... shogan63@comcast.net

Update from Hendersonville- Flood of 2010

Hey everyone, not sure who reads this, but here's a list of things we need. We were BLESSED it did NOT get into the main part of our house, so we just have a family room, daughter's bedroom and laundry room to fix- take up flooring and replace, replace walls, etc. We also have to take our shed down outside since it is all wood and soaked up a lot of water...... Our area was NOT in a flood area, so we don't have flood insurance, and it seems our insurance will probably NOT cover any damage- repairs or replacements. We will set up a paypal (I hate to say that, but others have asked) and if you would like our personal address, please email me at www.jehogan09@gmail.com and I will let you know where to send stuff.

Flood Items Needed

Clothing:
Gift cards to Wal-mart, Goodwill, Etc.

Scott: Size 36X30 Pants, Size L-XL shirts, Size 11 shoes
Jenny: Size 18/20 Shirts, Size 16/18 pants, Size 8-9 shoes
LeighAnn Size M Shirts, Size 6-7 pants, Size 8-9 shoes
Hannah- Size XS/S adult or size 16 kids shirts, size 14 kids pants 6-7 shoes
Paige- Size 10 shirt/pants, size 2 ½-3 shoes

PJs are always a good thing!

Furniture:

LeighAnn’s Room

Bunk Bed (2 will have to share a room until we can get the other bedroom fixed)
Twin size bed (for her new room once it is finished – she’s 14)
Dresser
Desk/chair
Book Shelf (all her books were ruined because she didn’t have a book shelf in her room and they were in material totes, or in the drawers under her bed in there)

Family Room:

Desk
Chair
Couch/loveseat or any similar thing
Entertainment center
Upholstered chair
Lamps

Building Materials (will insert measurements of rooms when I get them):

Laminate wood flooring for Family room and LeighAnn’s Room
Something to replace the paneling with – Drywall
Insulation for the walls
Paint (teal for LeighAnn’s room, not sure on the family room yet)
Quarter round
Baseboard
Laminate stick tiles for the laundry room
Duct work (completely saturated, so we can’t run a/c until its replaced, can’t replace until it’s dried out some down there)
Some sort of outside storage (shed was already bad-but could have been repaired, but now it just needs to be taken down, it is all wood so it will rot)
Lowe’s or Home Depot Gift Cards

update on cataract surgery

Well, it went pretty good on monday! :) tuesday I went back for my check up, and it was good then too.

Dh is a computer geek at work, and last week mcafee had an issue that about tanked all their computers at his 2 plants here in TN. TG he had his boss to help him, and an "imager" to help him recover the 20+ computers that got hit by "not a virus" virus. Well, they also have a plant in Augusta, Ky. The one plant is about as big as the 2 plants here, and only ONE guy works there! Well, that plant got hit as well. about DOUBLE the amount of computers got hit, and he DOESN'T have an imager- so he is about 1/2 way done doing what dh was almost done doing on tuesday.

I tell you this to tell you THIS.....Tuesday he was going to take me to work for a "check in" before he took me home (I'm taking up too much of his time with all this computer stuff going on), but I "whined" enough and he took me home. Good thing. By the time he got to work his boss informed him he was heading to Augusta, Ky for the rest of the week! :) So, I've been on my own since tuesday! Luckily my eye is doing SO MUCH better than last time, and my vision is SO MUCH clearer.

I have noticed I am allergic to these eye drops as well (he changed me this time)- which I had a suspicion I would be, because in my charts I'm "allergic to zithromax" and this is in the same family. The pharmacist warned me, but we decided my initial reaction was so small as to not worry, and try and see what happens. Well, I told the dr today that every time I put them in my eye itches "pretty good" and the only thing that helps somewhat is putting in the other drops. :( He said "I'm worried about your allergies" LOL "you must have a lot of serious ones" uh, yeah... told him "I just try really hard not to get sick". lol So, he dropped me down to 1x per day, and said I can stop them at the beginning of next week! yay! Unless of course it gets worse. considering I'm having these itching issues WITH Zyrtec 24 hr every day.... LOL But other than that my eyes are healing really well! I can now drive without those pricey prescription glasses I got about a month ago! I had to go out and buy new $1 glasses since dd14 took off with all my old ones and lost them to the ocean when we were on vacation! LOL

So, DH is home tomorrow night.. need to get kids moving on cleaning on the house since we are having company saturday some time......

Menu week of April 26th 2010

Since I will be out of commission with my eye surgery, I really want to get things straightened out and ready better than I did last time..... so I have entered all my recipes in the spark recipe calculator, printed them out, and will be shopping today or tomorrow and cooking these 5 meals this weekend. I took them from the Once A Month Cooking book, a family favorite, and one from recipezaar.com . So, here's a list of the recipes I will be making, and you can all find them in my cookbook.... Jennywren93's cookbook.... in the sparkrecipes section. All of these are freezer meals, so this may be a good way to get your menus on track. You don't have to cook them all at once, but maybe cook an extra meal every night for a week - or every other day- and your freezer will be overflowing with less work for you soon! :) Linked the title to my sparkpeople cookbook. If it doesn't work, let me know and I will post all the recipes...

1. OMAC Spaghetti Pie- 373.6 cals/serving
Additional recipes used- Sweet Italian Sausage, Basic Spaghetti Sauce

2. Bird's Nest Pie- 429 cals (think this can be cut down by smaller servings, not sure how many servings it will make yet....)
Additional recipes used- Sweet Italian Sausage

3. chicken Tetrazzini- 317 cals/serving
Additional Recipes used- Cream of soup with Variations recipe

4. Jennywren93's Famous Chicken Casserole- 263 cals/serving
Additional recipes used- Cream of soup with variations

5.OMAC Oriental Chicken- 121.4 cals (this does not include brown rice-can add stir fry veggies or steamed veggies to go with this)


Yes, I do make a lot of things from scratch. I find it is cheaper and healthier that way. If you want convenience-I have no problem with using jarred spaghetti sauce, premade sausage and cream of soup.... this is just a choice I have made.


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Got my second Cataract Surgery finally scheduled....

had been trying all week to get ahold of them, but no such luck- had to "talk to one person" and kept getting her voice mail. I was so nice today and said I kept getting it, is she out this week... and they were nice, got my file, and scheduled me for this coming Monday - so in 5 days!

In some ways I am sooooo excited, and ready to get it over with... ready to get on with my life. I feel like I've been on "pause" for a few months now (since January)....

In other ways I am really nervous again. I remember what happened last time with my antibiotic drops (I was allergic), and how stressed I got near the end of the surgery, and all the things I need to do to get the house/family ready again for this.... including food in the freezer, laundry, cleaning, etc.....

Time to take a deep breath.... focus on relaxing and not stressing everyone out before monday! ;)

Before I called, I had updated/printed out lists for everyone from the www.handipoints.com website.... the kids love to play there, so I need to give them a way to earn the points to "buy" more stuff.....and this way everyone will see what to do when I am down again. I will be able to add to the list for next week while I am down so they can pick up my slack, and I can just make sure they are doing their lists..... I SO love this site for younger ones (they love playing on it with things they earn) and older ones (they can use their other way of earning for earning "things" as well), and for me and hubby to keep us on track! We all have accounts so I can add/subtract from our lists as I need. Saturday I will update/print the lists for the next week so maybe things will go smoother this time......

Ready to get this over with and on with my life...

Fibromyalgia Awareness Day May 12th

May 12th is Fibromyalgia Awareness Day!!

Between now and May 12th many of us will be stepping up our efforts to sharing videos, pictures, stories and information. One of the greatest ways to spread awareness is to share all of this with as many people as we can. The internet is one of the fastest and greatest ways to do just that. So when someone passes something along to you here on facebook, click "share" and post it to your profile...and be sure to share it with the group too. Each time you share something remember to say "Fibromyalgia Awareness Day is May 12th so help spread the word!

Many people live with Fibromyalgia, Lupus and other debilitating illnesses. I am adding a link to the "spoon theory" written my Christine Miserandino to help spread understanding about what a "day in the life" is like. Some days are better than others- some days I have more spoons than others- but when it's bad I may start out with just 2 or 3 spoons for the day!

Please feel free to pass on spoon theory to those in your family, your friends, or acquaintances who know someone going through medical issues- or may be themselves- so that you signal to them you understand some of what is going on.

Many doctors want to say fibro is "all in your head" but trust me when I say, it isn't! Please don't ever tell anyone who is hurting "well if you just keep going, you can work through it". No, they really can't. Belive me. When I over work (to get the house ready for a party, leaving for vacation, ready for my surgery), I can sleep for 3 days straight after. Yeah, I can keep going that day, but I pay for it after.

Ok, my 2 cents about it tonight! ;)

Blog will be shifting gears!

I have been having a....time.... trying to get here and do things. For that I apologize! My focus the last 6 mo or so has been different, and redirected, and it's time to redirect the scope of the blog as well!

So, what does that mean? Oh, I'm still going to be giving tips on saving money, organizing, and just generally being who I have been! BUT.... My focus has changed to include healthy living, losing weight, cooking well, embracing my fibromyalgia/food allergies, exercising, my cataract surgery and how things we are doing/eating affect us physically and mentally- and not just us, but our family as well.

I have been getting on www.sparkpeople.com more consistantly the last 2 months to log my food (most of the time) and record my exercise (we now have a treadmill we got at "play it again sports" for $150- and a great one!, and a recumbent bike we got at www.essex.com - the store actually- for $65 (compared to $160!) and also to blog on spark. Over the next week or so I will be working to get all of those blog entries added to this blog, and any new ones added as well- when I add them.

My husband did his "biggest loser" contest at work, and had a GREAT partner! They both realized about 1/2 way through they needed to work on making lifestyle changes rather than dropping tons of weight fast! His partner (www.garybowman.blogspot.com) is now taking on the task of training for a 1/2 marathon in October! My husband will be training as well, and I have always wanted to do this (much to Gary's surprise I think!) so I will be training along with them! October 9 is our anniversary, what better gift could we give eachother but the gift of health?

One thing I will have to work out in the beginning is how the training will affect my fibromyalgia, and also in 3 weeks I will have my second cataract surgery. I had my right eye done Feb 15th, and the dr really thought I would have until the fall to do my left, but it tanked in the last couple weeks. So, training starts next week (when we are on vacation!) so the 2 weeks after surgery I will continue to get my miles in, but just by walking slowly. The first few weeks of training is just a couple- 5 miles/day depending on the day, so this shouldn't be too bad.

I will be posting about Once a month cooking- I "rediscovered" this book today, and looking at the recipes it seems like pretty healthy food! I will put my recipes into my www.sparkrecipes.com recipe calculator to see if they are "worthy" of making (more on what I consider "good amounts" for meals in another post), and making/saving some up the week we get back from vacation to be prepared for after surgery! Not only will it save you time at night, BUT, money in the long run.

Speaking of money, I will be talking about one of my favorite guys more... Dave Ramsey! Gotta get things buttoned up in our household, get things back on track. I've been looking for a new job for over a month (as this job is on "contractor status" and haven't worked in 3 weeks) and it just seems God keeps saying "not right now" to me. So, my job for now will be to save us money, cook us good healthy food, and get us all on the right track!

So, my kids decided to be picky eaters....

Not picky per se, but I think I am in a rut with my cooking, and I needed a bit of input. So, I asked my oldest to sit down with me and think of all the things she loved that I cooked. It was a hard thing, but finally pulled a lot of ideas out of her:
pizza
spaghetti (with meatballs too!)
lasagna
chicken casserole
clam chowder
corn chowder
chili
biscuit wrapped hot dogs (she called them "pig in a blanket")
cheeseburgers homemade
pub fries
pizza pockets (a new addition)
waffles
pancakes
sausage links
green beans
salad
broccoli/carrots (raw)
fruit
whipped yogurt
chicken breasts (no bones chicken as well)
baked chicken (but no bones! LOL)
meatballs
fried chicken
chicken fingers
hard boiled eggs
Fried Egg sandwiches
egg salad sandwiches
deviled eggs
mashed potatoes (with brown gravy)
biscuits (with white gravy)

You get the idea. LOL

So, I took the list and went out to shop tonight. I got a lot of things on the list (some with things in mind for the superbowl "party" we are having with ourselves and hubby's cousin) and the kids are too excited! So, tonight we ended up with meatball sandwiches (bought buns for the cheeseburgers, but used some for tonight, and a bit of frozen spaghetti sauce I had!) and some veggies. They was soooo excited! They wanted that, cheeseburgers and pigs in a blanket all tonight! LOL

So..... Here's the menu for a while...

Chicken casserole
green beans with bacon and brown sugar
red potatoes with butter and rosemary

tacos/quesadillas
veggies/dip

pigs in a blanket
potato salad
deviled eggs

ham spread sandwiches (with swiss for those who are adventurous)
rice with butter salt and garlic
cooked broccoli

breaded and baked chicken breasts (possibly as fingers)
mashed potatoes
green beans/peas

Teriaki chicken
rice
Broccoli

spaghetti and meatballs
spaghetti squash for me and hubby
salad (possibly homemade caesar)
homemade bread

Cheeseburgers
Pub fries
veggies



Superbowl food
potato salad (red potatoes, hidden valley ranch, chives)
deviled eggs
ham spread on crackers
nacho dip
wings from walmart (for hubby!)
smokies in sauce
veggies/dip
fruit
pizza pockets
Homemade bread

Happy Snowy Monday Feb 1, 2010!

Yep! it's a new year! Wow! how time flies! In 10 days all the work I have been doing will come to fruition and we will turn in our RFP to Metro for review and 10 days later we will find out if we got the contract! We will find out if we will be doing business where we have been planning or if we will have to find a new venue. I think we will get it, but hey! You never know.

I am 39, turning 40 this year, so it's a big year for me too! I am really wanting to get in shape before then (glad I have until december! LOL), and I have a few hurdles to overcome first! Hubby and I went to Essex (www.essex.com) and found a recumbent bike for $80 instead of about $150+ and have been working out about 1 hr a day with it! Great! BUT.... The same week we got it (last week) I went to the eye dr for a check up because my eyes are not "good" since I got off Lyrica in May 2009. Hazy, fuzzy, sensitive to light, etc. They got slightly better off the Lyrica, but I think they have improved as much as they are going to. Anyway, that's one reason I am not on the blog as much as I want to, I'm not on the computer much. It's too hard on the eyes. Anyway. The eye dr this past week diagnosed me with Cataracts and that I need to have eye surgery. I will not be able to workout for 1-2 weeks after each surgery :(

Let me just say this: if you know anyone taking Lyrica, thinking of taking Lyrica or have taken Lyrica, please tell them not too! :) I have started a Facebook group.... Lyrica and Cataracts... trying to see if there is anyone else like me who has used or is using Lyrica and has been diagnosed with cataracts. In the commercials it says "may cause vision problems" but that is just so not right! I am 39 and this is too young to have them!

Ok, enough of my rant! I am going to be looking for recipes for freezer so I can get a few meals in there for after my surgery, that are healthier. I am just BLOWN AWAY as we are reading labels more, how much crap is in things! 45mg of cholesterol in ONE slice of pizza- how much pizza do you eat? How much is an acceptable amount of cholesterol during the day? I don't know either, so I am going to research that information too! I have found a few great recipes from www.sparkpeople.com 's recipe section and I will try to look through there and add more to this blog for everyone! :)

So, I hope everyone is having a great day! it snowed 4 inches in TN friday/saturday so the kids are out of school today, maybe even tomorrow! I made a HUGE pot of chicken/veggie/rice soup we are eating as snacks/when kids come in from playing- cheap and easy! :) Have a fun day!