Meal Planning And Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

So now that I'm working ten hour days, I'm trying really hard to prepare dinners on Sunday and Monday that will feed us Tuesday and Wednesday as well. Last weekend I made taco salad on Sunday and Molly made tacos on Tuesday. On Monday I made beef stroganoff which we were planning to eat again on Wednesday (but we ate dinner at my mom's instead).


Yesterday I made barbecue chicken and rice which we'll have again tomorrow night and tonight I'm making sour cream chicken enchiladas which we'll have again on Wednesday (unless we eat at mom's again!).


That being said, I was thinking it would be fun to share some recipes once in awhile and since sour cream chicken enchiladas is a family favorite, here goes!

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 large container of sour cream

2 cans of Cream of Chicken soup

1 small can of mild, diced green chiles

3 cups of cheddar cheese

10 soft taco size flour tortillas

Boil the chicken breasts for 20 - 30 minutes then shred. In a large bowl, mix together sour cream, cream of chicken soup, chiles, cheese (save a little bit out to top the enchiladas before baking) and chicken.

Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Spread a thin layer of the mixture on the bottom of the pan. Spoon a couple of large spoonfuls of the mixture into the middle of each tortilla and roll them up. Place them side by side in the pan.

Spread remaining mixture over the top of the enchiladas and sprinkle with cheese. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes.

ENJOY!

Disney's Oceans

Tonight my mom and the kids and I went to see Disney's Oceans. It came out on Earth Day so it's been out for quite awhile and was only playing in one local theater. It was a small theater and since it's been out for so long, there weren't many people there.

Before the movie started the kids were talking to the 8 other people in the theater. They had a pretty good conversation going with the couple in our row. After awhile Big A said, "Well, if you want to talk about the movie at all, our phone number is 792-1951." They couple thought that was pretty funny, as did mom and I, but we seized the opportunity to tell Big A that it wasn't a good idea to give out phone number out to strangers.

During the movie the kids went back and forth from their seats to our laps, ate their popcorn and drank their juice but never once did they ask if it was almost over. We all really enjoyed the show!

A few more Big Aisms, Oceans style....

"Those are Eggowannas!" (Translation? Iguanas...)

When the sea lions were featured... *Laughing hysterically* "Those sound like Daddy's burps and tooters!"

And while watching what goes on in the deepest parts of the sea at night... "I have to study this so I can remember it."

Brithdays And Baptisms

Today we went to San Jose to watch my nephew be baptized and to celebrate his 8th birthday.

We arrived at the church RIGHT at 10 which is when the baptism started. We jumped out of the truck and went in and I realized I'd forgotten my camera. I thought about having B run out to get it but I looked around and there were no other cameras there. It was a Mormon baptism and I'm not sure if cameras were allowed so I don't have any pictures of the actual baptism. Later in the day my sister-in-law made a comment about wishing she'd taken pictures during the day. Bummer! You KNOW how camera happy I am, I'd have taken them for her!

After the baptism we were all invited back to my brother's house for lunch. We feasted on nachos and cake and the kids played while the grown ups chatted. It was a nice afternoon!

The birthday/baptism boy

COUSINS!

Checking out Syd's Guinea Pigs

COUSINS!

The Emcee

Piano Player

Drummer

Little A's turn!

The kids had a blast with their cousins and LOVED the drums, pianos and guitars in the 'music area'. A good time was had by all!

Congratulations, Drew, and Happy Birthday!

Family Night

B had suggested that he and the kids come have lunch with me today but Fridays are sometimes kind of crazy, especially today. I suggested that they come meet me when I got off work at five, so they did. It was fun! The sun was shining, it was a warm evening, and we enjoyed family time together.

We started by having appetizers at one of Guy Fieri's restaurants and followed that up with a walk through downtown and a trip to the candy store. After that we drove around the neighborhoods and B showed the kids his old stomping grounds before returning to pick up our other car and heading home.

It was a great Friday evening with my great family!

This is what Little A looked like by the time we returned to get our other car. She OBVIOUSLY wasn't enoying that ring pop! Can you see it on her hands, face, pants, hair, etc? YUM!

LL Cool A

Ummm... Is my son flashing gang signs at me???

Me - "Big A, what are you doing with your hands? Who taught you that?"

Big A - "Oh! That means Rock and Roll! I saw it on the move that bus show. Remember the one with the rock and roll family? The little girl did it so it means rock and roll."

Of course all this took place after my five year old was rapping in the backseat...

Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy
Got my glasses- I'm out the door - I'm gonna hit this city
Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack
Cause when I leave for the night, I ain't coming back

Thanks, Daddy! My kids have been given specific instructions to say, "We're not allowed to listen to this."

But... In all fairness... He DOES make a pretty cute rock star!

Daily Affirmations

We all need a positive affirmations now and then, do we not? Who doesn't? Perhaps we should all take a lesson from this little girl (Okay, maybe we shouldn't stand on the counter....).

Wouldn't the world be a better place if each and every one of us started the morning with something like this?

The Sneeze

They walked in tandem, each of the ninety-two students filing into the already crowded auditorium. With their rich maroon gowns flowing and the traditional caps, they looked almost as grown up as they felt. Dads swallowed hard behind broad smiles, and moms freely brushed away tears.

This class would NOT pray during the commencements, not by choice, but because of a recent court ruling prohibiting it. The principal and several students were careful to stay within the guidelines allowed by the ruling. They gave inspirational and challenging speeches, but no one mentioned divine guidance and no one asked for blessings on the graduates or their families.

The speeches were nice, but they were routine until the final speech received a standing ovation. A solitary student walked proudly to the microphone. He stood still and silent for just a moment, and then it happened. All 92 students, every single one of them, suddenly SNEEZED!

The student on stage simply looked at the audience and said, 'GOD BLESS YOU.' He then walked off the stage...

The audience exploded into applause. This graduating class had found a unique way to invoke God's blessing on their future with or without the court's approval.

This story was forwarded to me in an email and like most emails of this nature, especially ones that I find interesting, unique or worthy of sharing, I first check Snopes.com for validity. It turns out that this story is true, or at least true enough to get the point across. There are some details that are blurry, but the main idea is in fact, true.

How powerful this is, and what courage it took for this young man to come up with this plan (or some semblance of it). Amazing!

My First Monday Off...

Today was my first Monday off with my new 4 tens schedule. I got up this morning, got the kids ready, made a hot breakfast (something I'm SURE my kids have never seen before on a school morning, unless you count toaster waffles), took Big A to school and headed out to run errands with Little A. Before we knew it, it was time to pick up Big A and our afternoon was filled with more of the same.

I made sure last night and tonight that I fixed enough dinner for us to have it two more nights and so far it's working great (I've actually been doing that for awhile now, at least one night a week)! The dishes are done, the kids are asleep, everything is laid out for tomorrow, there's a load of wash in the dryer and another one washing, the blog is updated... I think I'll go watch Bachelorette!

Yep, I think I'm going to like this! Oh... And the kids like it too! We talked about it at dinner tonight so I could make sure that it's worth it to them to have me get home a little later the other night so I can have a full day with them. I mean... Of course I think I'd like working NO TENS better, but that's not an option so we'll make this work.

The Newest Members of Our Family

I'd like to introduce to you, the two newest members of our family, Fin (on the left) and Taffio (on the right). You might remember (or maybe I've never mentioned it, I can't rightly say) that we previously had two guppies named Silly Lou and Tinkerbell. They lived long and boring prosperous lives and finally kicked the bucket (I wonder what's on a fish's bucket list...) so we decided that we'd use our little tank for the purpose for which it was designed, and we bought two male bettas.

This is Taffio. He's Little A's fish. You can't really tell in this picture, but he has quite a bit of purple (albeit DARK purple) on him so she chose him.

This is Fin, Big A's fish. He was determined to find a red one, and he succeeded.

If you know about bettas, you know that they can not be in the same tank. This little tank has a divider in the middle that can be clear so the fish can see through it which encourages them to 'puff' at each other, or you can slide another divider in so they can just have peace and quiet. We didn't want to let them 'puff' at each other right away, as we wanted to get them acclimated first, but tonight we took the divider out for awhile to see what happened.

Here is Taffio 'puffed' out. His is MUCH more aggressive and puffs much larger than Fin. He even has a spot around his mouth that puffs.

Here is Fin 'puffed' out. He just gets very full but not very spread out. Fin also doesn't really give Taffio the time of day, whereas Taffio just keeps staring at Fin and puffing out. It's actually pretty neat!

Now... If we could just get them to eat! The food says to feed them two times a day just as much as they can eat in 3 minutes then to remove the rest of the food. I've dropped one little pellet in there at a time and they hardly touch them. I THINK Fin ate his but Taffio keeps putting them in his mouth then spitting them back out.

So, if you're in need of a little entertainment, they perform at 8am and 7pm. Drop by any time!

Pizza, Wine and Catching Up With Family

Tonight we drove to Benicia to meet my sister and her family for dinner. We live an hour and a half away from each other yet we rarely see each other. My sister emailed us last week with the brilliant idea that we should meet in the middle for dinner. GEEZ! Why hadn't we thought of that sooner!?!?

Mom had gone online to search for restaurants in the area and found a little whole in the wall pizza place that does mainly take-out and delivery but has seating for about 20 people. It was great! We were the only people in the restaurant the majority of the time, being joined only now and then by patrons waiting for take-out orders.

There was a gentleman in there when we arrived who my sister was convinced thought that we were nuts. I don't know what was abnormal about the fact that we pretty much took over the place but he sure liked to watch us! Because of that, I HAD to find a way to get his picture for my blog.

Mom and B were so nice to pose for me. After the picture I loudly said, "That was no good, let me try again."

This time they rudely politely spread apart so I could get a good shot. They are SO clever!

Since we were the only group actually eating at the restaurant, the owner allowed Big A and Little A to stand right at the opening of the kitchen to watch them make pizzas. They were THRILLED (and I must say, so was I because it kept them occupied!)!

We enjoyed three different kinds of pizzas, a bottle of wine, and just being together! My sister and my mom compared iPhones and apps, the guys talked about guy things and the kids talked to whomever would listen.

They LOVED playing with their cousin (although they missed their other cousin and hope he can join us next time) and were sad to leave.

But alas, all good things must end...

We said our goodbyes, gave our hugs and kisses and headed our separate ways with promises of setting a date to do it all again next month. Good idea, Sis! I'm glad you thought of it!

Ladies' Night Out

Last night I went out with the ladies! NO HUSBANDS, NO KIDS!

We spent the first hour trying to figure out what we were going to do but once we'd settled on El Torito, we had a blast... Tons of laughing, talking, snacking, having fun and very little drinking, right? *WINK WINK*

There were six of us total, five moms and our favorite babysitter. (Is it wrong that we take our babysitter out on the town with us?) We actually closed down the bar. Our server brought our check and kept trying to get rid of us but we wouldn't leave. He finally left and gave our table over to a different server who checked on us a couple of times and then told us it was last call. They sure know how to ruin a good time!

That's pretty much how it is when this group gets together. We do it so infrequently that when we DO get out without husbands and kids, we don't want to go home. We closed the bar down the last time we went out, which we figured out was exactly a year ago. (We REALLY need to get out more often!)

I'll bet you're thinking we're a bunch of party animals, right? Okay, I'll be honest with you (although I really am curious as to what you're thinking about us....). Both times we were at restaurants/bars that closed at ten o'clock. I mean come on, we're MOMS! We still have to get up in the middle of the night to pass out water and calm bad dreams, we still have to get up with the sunrise when our children decide it's morning, and we still have to be able to function the next day. I can GUARANTEE that our husbands would have NO sympathy if we came home drunk and woke up hungover... We'd still have to do the same things we do EVERY other day.

Thanks for a great night, Ladies! I can't wait to do it again!

Busy Couple of Days Weeks

It's been a crazy couple of weeks! *SIGH* If I've seemed distant lately, that's why... Between endless evening meetings, plumbing problems, preparing for VBS, girls' weekend last weekend, and starting my new four tens (4 days per week, ten hours per day) schedule this week which means working a 48 hour week (our pay periods run Tuesday-Monday), I'm beat!

My new schedule is going to take a little getting used to in terms of preparing dinners in advance, resigning myself to the fact that bedtime is no longer 7pm in our house, and getting over the guilt of not having as much time to spend with the kids on a daily basis. The GREAT part about it, though, is that I'll have EVERY MONDAY OFF! I will be able to take the kids to school, pick them up, work in classrooms, go on field trips, etc. I can't wait!

I'll definitely be calling on Molly more to get the kids bathed before I get home, to pop a casserole in the oven, etc., but I know Molly, and I know she'll always do it willingly and with a smile! Thanks, Molly! I know I couldn't do it without you!

So... While I will TRY my hardest to keep up on my blog daily, please forgive me if I slip. I might be too tired, or I might just be out enjoying a Monday with my kids!

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner

Okay, so maybe it's no chicken dinner...

The winner of the Indivisible book is Theresa! Congratulations!

To my other entrants... I have one more copy (the one I read) and would be MORE than happy to share it with you if you'd like to read it. Just let me know!

And because I can't resist, a cute Little A story... On Wednesdays my mom picks Little A up and takes her to ballet. After ballet they go to Starbucks or another local store and get a cookie (at least I THINK they do this every week...) and then they pick Big A up from school.

Today after ballet Little A was sitting in her carseat looking through a Divine Delights catalog and drooling over the pink Petits Fours and cookies. She looked at my mom and said, "Grandma, when I get married can you get me some of these?"

Girls' Weekend

My mom and Little A and I went on a girls' weekend this morning to attend a bridal shower in Southern California. (Does this sound familiar?) We left Thursday night when I got off work so that we could get a couple hundred miles down the road and hopefully not hit much Friday LA traffic.

We hit the road about 9am on Friday. The long, boring drive South turned out to be quite productive as I used the time to begin preparing for Vacation Bible School. After planning out snacks and outdoor activities for the week, I enjoyed the scenery.

I-5 is not usually very scenic, but the poppies were in full bloom over the Grapevine and there was orange EVERYWHERE!

After unloading at our hotel we met up with my cousin and aunt for a whirlwind Costco/Sam's Club trip then met up with some more family for dinner, hit up another couple of stores, and went back to my aunt and uncles to unpack again.

We were up early the next morning to meet my aunt and cousins for a girls' breakfast before heading back to my aunts to prepare for the shower. We cooked and decorated and decorated and cooked and before we knew it, the bride to be had returned home and the guests began arriving.

The shower went really well and I think everyone had a good time. We ate, played games, had cake, opened gifts and enjoyed visiting. Little A enjoyed seeing family, playing with Big Rabbit, and entertaining the ladies at the shower. She was in a GREAT mood, smiling and happy the ENTIRE day! For those of you who TRULY know Little A, you'd know that it's not often that we get a day like that but she proved to us that she could handle being with the girls. Well done, Monkey!

When the party was over, the guests had gone and the mess had been cleaned up, we returned to our hotel for a quiet dinner and an early bed time. Sunday we spend another LONG day in the car, playing games and singing with Little A, planning the preschool portion of VBS (another productive day!) and just enjoying one anothers’ company.

Our girls' weekend turned out to be pretty good! Wonder where our next girls trip will take us... One can dream, right??

I-5 Funnies

This past weekend, my mom and Little A and I had a girls' weekend at a bridal shower in Southern California. More on that to come, but here are some funny Little Aisms that took place along the way...

When passing a man walking a dot on a leash, Little A said, "Mommy, do you see that dog?"

Me - "Yes, I see it."

Little A - "What kind of dog is it?"

Me - "I don't know what kind it is, honey."

Little A - "Well it's not a pimple dog! Pimples aren't nice dogs!"

(For those of you who can't translate 3 year old dog breeds, a 'pimple' is a pit bull.... Get it???)

________________________________________

When passing the thousands of cows along I-5 at Harris Ranch, Little A commented, "Hey! They must be having a cow meeting!"

_________________________________________

While singing songs in the car on the way home, and having just visited her Auntie Marilee and Uncle Larry, Little A entertained us with the following:

Roll, roll, roll your boat

Gently down the stream

Marilee, Marilee, Marilee, Larry

Life is but a dream

Oh, my... She sure keeps me on my toes! You never know what's going to come out of that little mouth! My lubs her!

Blog Tour - Indivisible by Kristen Heitzmann

Its book review and giveaway time again!

This time I'm reviewing Indivisible, by Kristen Heitzmann.

I really enjoyed this book! From the moment I cracked the cover, I was hooked! The complex cast of characters held my attention and kept me guessing as the story unfolded. From Jonah Westfall, the Chief of Police, to Liz Rainer, the town veterinarian, and everyone in between, the reader is taken into the souls, minds and relationships of each character. There is a thread of evil and gruesomeness running through the story, but it's just that... A thread. Just when you think it's too much, it's gone.

My only complaint is that the book ends too abruptly and leaves you wondering what happened to some of the characters. That being said, I am anxious to read more of Kristen Heitzmann's books!

Get a sneak peak by downloading the first two chapters HERE!

Want to win a copy of this book??? Leave me a comment by midnight Pacific Time on Sunday, May 16. One winner will be chosen at random!

Didn't win and still want to read the book? Follow this link to purchase it!

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

All God's Critters

Tonight was the kids' Spring Sing at school. The theme was "All God's Critters" and the kids all wore animal masks and costumes. It was super cute to see all of the dogs, butterflies, bugs, spiders, dinosaurs, etc., up on the stage singing and dancing.

I'm frustrated with myself that I didn't get any video of the kids singing, but I was very confused. The program made it look like ALL of the classes were going to be singing a song at the end, and I was planning on getting that on video so I could get both kids in one video. I guess 'ALL' means all but the 2-day class and I didn't realize that the group that was up there was already on the last song so I completely missed the boat! I ended up getting some cute pictures, but with so many kids and so many parents it's difficult to get just the right location to get the perfect shot and people kept getting in the way. I'm sure I got in the way of other people too, so I'm not really complaining.

I do have one complaint, though... When I went in to get seats, (And I went half an hour early, mind you...) all of the very front rows were still open. I tried to sit in one but was told that they were reserved for the students. That made perfect sense, so I picked other seats. I made a judgment call based on where B told me Big A stood during the singing. BAD CHOICE, by the way... But anyhow... As it got closer to show time and more and more people started showing up, they saw open seats up front and sat down. And guess what??? THEY STAYED! And they were ALLOWED TO STAY! Not fair! NOT FAIR, I TELL YOU! I know, I know... Life's not fair! I should just be thankful that we had seats, the the kids go to a good school, that we were able to watch the show, etc. Okay, I'm better now!

I never got a picture of Little A looking at the camera either... Bummer!

We were sitting in a spot where we were watching Big A from an angle and never go to really see his face...

Until a break between songs when he turned and we got him to smile and wave (that's his 'girlfriend' sitting next to him!)

Cheesy grin girl!

After the show, Little A's friend, Bailie, was upset that the 2-Day class had only gotten to sing one song. Wonder Woman Molly came up with the brilliant idea to take Little A and Bailie up to the risers to let them sing their own song which made it all better. Thanks, Molly!