just miss kim

We left a bit early for our trip as we needed to attend the funeral of Dan's grandfather in northern Kansas. We'll be in Branson this weekend... and hopefully having lots of fun seeing our Duttons and Haygoods. Be safe, and have fun!

whole buncha freebies

I have a whole load of 8.5x11 traditional and landscape templates for you this week. These are all smaller versions of previously offered 12x12 templates. I had them made at the same time, I just never gave away the 8.5x11 versions and thought I'd get caught up. So here's previews...
The Baby Savannah:

Download it here.

Baby Jessica:

Download it here.

Baby Karissa:

Download it here.

And finally Baby Payton:

Download it here.

Have some fun with these! Enjoy! Scrap those stories!

layouts from this weekend

I didn't scrap much this weekend. Just didn't have it flowing through me. Here's a few I did get done:

First layout uses a kit and simple set by [ksharonkdesigns]. Second layout uses a template by Melanie Colosimo. And the last is Kay Miller's School Rules kit. I just wanted to scrap about my job when I saw that kit. Have I mentioned I love my job? I do, I really do. Even if I do work with some of the craziest women this side of the Mississippi.

Eye Candy is Shawn Haygood. I'm quickly running out of ideas for eye candy, and since I may or may not be seeing him and his brothers this weekend, he was easy. And freaking cute as heck. I think it's about time to open up eye candy for nominations... remind me next week!

weekend

So Saturday, Dan, the girls and I went to cash a check.

Three hours later, we came home after having cashed the check, stopped and picked Brady up, eaten lunch, and watched a movie.

Lunch was Cici's Pizza, which was having customer appreciation day. I did not know this when I suggested pizza buffet for lunch, but we ate there cheaper than we could have eaten at McD's. Buffets were only $3/each! I was feeling like I won the lottery or something.

Then Dan was doing his usual "I don't want to just sit at home all weekend" moaning, so I told him we'd go see a movie.

Hey, I didn't say we'd see a movie that he wanted to see.

I loved Hairspray just as much the second time around as I did the first. More even. By the final scene Ches was up dancing in the aisles. We were sitting in the back row of stadium seating, so this was OK. I promise. Saturday's crowd seemed much more amused by John Travolta than the previous crowd. I guess when I saw it the first time, I just admired Mr. Travolta's amazing range and talent. The fact that he was playing a woman in itself was never amusing to me the way it was to my husband, for example. And while amused, Dan just could not get over the fact that he was playing a woman. He kept asking why they didn't just cast a woman. "It's tradition to have a man play the role," just wasn't cutting it for him apparently.

Anyway, the girls and I are even bigger Hairspray fans now. Brady liked it. Dan thought it was OK. I'm sure he would have preferred the Bourne movie, but it was OK. The man has been to enough Branson shows that he can appreciate a good musical by now. Sadly, his musical education was lacking when he came to me. It has been up to me to mold and tutor him in the ways of music and shows. If you can believe it, when he met me, he thought he didn't like musicals or musical shows. We all know he was wrong about that one, right?

So that's pretty much our Saturday in a nutshell. Sunday was getting the van ready for a roadtrip, laundry and scrapping. At the moment, my biggest dilemma is whether or not to see the Haygoods on this road trip. I know, the idea of visiting Branson without them makes me gasp, but the only seats I could get were on the 11th row. And folks, I just don't do heads in front of me very well (really messes up those pictures). So I have back-up reservations at another show, where I got 4th row seats. I know, I'm a seat snob. I can't help it.

Right now, my plan is to wait until Thursday afternoon and call and see if we can get into the balcony at the Haygoods. (They don't open the balcony until something happens -- probably a certain number of seats on the floor are sold.) If it's not open, or if it is open and we can't get the front row there, I guess I'll go ahead and cancel. It's with a heavy heart that I say that. And I know it's my own fault because I won't pay the extra for the first three rows (too much for 5 people), and then we planned this trip on the spur of the moment so the good seats were gone. But still... a trip without my boys.  Makes ya sad to think of it, doesn't it?

bacon cheeseburger rice

OK, I didn't freeze this one. I just couldn't picture how rice would freeze in a sauce, but it sounded so yummy that I just had to make it. So I made it last night and we gobbled it right up. It reminds me of the filling for stuffed peppers... without the pepper. Because my husband hates peppers, ya know.

                       

4-5	cups cooked rice
1	lb ground beef
3	slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
1   (10 3/4	ounce) can condensed tomato soup, undiluted
3	tablespoons onion soup mix
2	cups shredded cheddar cheese

1. Brown and drain beef.
2. While beef is cooking, mix together soup, onion soup mix, bacon pieces and cheese.  Add to browned ground beef.
3. Simmer on low until cheese is just melted.
4. Add rice and mix well.
5. Serve immediately or allow to cool and ladle into 1-gallon freezer bag.
6. Label and freeze.
7. To serve: allow to thaw overnight in refrigerator and reheat on stovetop or in microwave; You could also freeze this in a reusable casserole dish for easier thawing/cooking.

road trip

My children -- well, Mykiah -- talked us into a road trip for Labor Day weekend. Here's a hint where we're going:

kai freebie

OK, a few samples. First, an oldie:

And a more recent layout using Mary Fran's latest kit, Little Men:

As you can see, I find this template useful for doing before and after photos, or photos which show the same person over time, but you could really use it for any 2 photo layout. Here's a preview of the template:

You can download the template here. I'd love for you to leave a comment, but don't feel obligated. Scrap those stories! That's what's important!

Woo Hoo!

Kids come today! I am so ready for kids! Hard to teach when there's no kids. Funny how that works.

Today we are reading "The Kissing Hand." Then we're going on a hunt for Chester, who will eventually be found back in the book, but not until we've met the principal, librarian and counselor. And he'll have left us some cookies before he jumps back into the book. Cute, huh? Totally not my idea, but looking forward to it. These little pre-K kiddos are so excited to be coming to school. It's so fun to be working with an age where they're still hyper-excited about it.

Eye candy for this week is George Eads, from CSI: Vegas. I was scrambling last night, and I was almost desperate enough to put up my husband. Then I googled "eye candy" and up popped George. And I've always thought he was way cute. So hey, that one worked out.

That's it, folks. I am so glad I'm doing the cooking ahead thing. If not, my family would be eating fast food or PB&J. It's really working for us. We've sat down to a decent meal every day. Have a happy Wednesday. We'll see ya tomorrow, with a template!

layouts

Thought I'd share some layouts I did in the last week or so. These layouts feature kits from Mary Fran, Kay Miller, and Nancy Kubo. Hope you enjoy!

And then some fun layouts, both using the same Simple Set from [ksharonkdesigns]. First, I used it as a quick page:

And then as a template:

Super Easy Working Mom's Manicotti

So our anniversary was pretty boring. Dan wasn't feeling well... not sure if he had a virus or ate something bad or if it was just his usual stomach upset. He sat and watched TV. Me? I scrapped a lot. I got my CT assignments done before I even took a shower so that when I had a nice chunk of scrapping time, I got to work on the Shutterfly book I'm doing of our Disney photos. I sort of think I should get it started now, while the details are still a little fresh, and hope to have it in my hands by Christmas. So far, I'm on Day 2 of the trip. Which would sound better if I didn't tell you that at this point, we haven't set foot in a park. Once we start going to parks, I expect the number of photos to be scrapped to start reaching the stratosphere. God bless Jen Caputo and thank heavens she had a birthday just as I was in the mood to start this project. Between Jen, Kay and Mary Fran, my book is going to rock. (I'm limiting to the album to stuff by those 3 ladies. I've got a theme going.)

Anyway, I wanted this blog entry to be about manicotti, and I'm talking about scrapping. Crazy. Here's the make-ahead recipe I did this week:

Super Easy Working Mom's Manicotti

8 ounces manicotti (about 14 pieces)
26 ounces spaghetti sauce (this is a jar/can of prepared sauce; if you're using homemade, it's 3 cups-ish)
1 cup water
15 ounces ricotta cheese
8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese (about 2 cups)
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
2 tbsp parsley flakes (don't really measure these; just dump some in)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper (again... do you really measure your salt and pepper in recipes? I don't.)
1 lb Italian sausage (I used ground beef. Normally, I would do a 1/2 ground beef, 1/2 Italian sausage mix, but Dan was paying attention and he would have had a hissy fit, so I just did all ground beef. Funny, but if he doesn't know it's in there, he never has a hissy about the Italian sausage. He thinks he doesn't like the taste. Oh yeah, and the original recipe says you can sub assorted veggies like squash and zucchini.)
garlic/italian seasoning/salt/pepper to taste

1. Heat oven to 400°F.
2. Cook thoroghly sausage and mushrooms (or saute assorted veggies if making vaggie version) with garlic,italian seasoning and salt and pepper to taste.
3. In saucepan, combine spaghetti sauce and water; heat to boiling, stirring frequently.
4. Reduce heat; keep warm.
5. In bowl, stir together cheeses, parsley, egg, salt and pepper; spoon into uncooked pasta tubes.
6. Pour 1 cup sauce on bottom of 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish; arrange filled pasta in single layer over sauce.
7. Pour remaining sauce over pasta; sprinkle with cheese if desired and cover with foil.
8. Bake 40 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Remove foil; bake 5 minutes longer.
9. Serve -pasta and filling will be HOT!
10. Enjoy!
11. To make ahead and freeze:.
12. MAKE AHEAD DIRECTIONS: Prepare as directed above; cool 30 minutes.
13. Cover tightly with plastic wrap; then foil.
14. Freeze up to 2 months.
15. Thaw in refrigerator overnight (casserole is too dry if heated from frozen state)May want to add a small amount of additional moisture- water or sauce.
16. Bake at 350°F 60 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Now I couldn't find in this recipe what I was supposed to do with my meat. So I just poured it over the manicotti before I added the sauce. I did 2 at once. We ate one and I froze one. It was only one extra meall, but those manicotti take forever to stuff, so I felt better for getting two done and knowing that the next time we eat this meal the only work I'll be doing will be sliding it in the oven. And Emmy, I know it's not dairy free. Sorry. Hard to do manicotti without dairy. I'll work on it.

Oh, I almost forgot. I got this recipe at Recipezaar which is a great recipe site, with an amazing cooking community. They get all giddy over taking photos of food, and they are so helpful when someone new comes along who wants to try freezer cooking. Love that place.

Happy Monday and happy cooking all! See ya tomorrow!