The Making of a Home

Holy toledo! I think I brought my "crazy-busy" schedule habit with me to KC...I had good intentions to get this written up on Wednesday or Thursday, but that didn't happen. Here's a bit of what we've been up to:

Cooking!
With all this free time (haha), I got back to cooking new and exciting meals. Sometimes I just get stuck in a rut when it comes to meal times and that's for a few reasons: 1. I can eat the same thing for many meals in a row and never get bored. 2. I'm a cheapo...err...very frugal at the grocery store. 3. Yeah, #2 pretty much covers it. Jordan, on the other hand, doesn't enjoy eating the same types of meals indefinitely so I felt it was my wifely duty to serve him up some new recipes. Left to right: Taco night , Lemon Pepper Chicken Divan and Spinach- & Cheese-Stuffed Manicotti. Bottom two pics: Jordan enjoying his Shredded Pork Tostada and...YELLOW watermelon!!! We bought the watermelon at City Market for $4, the guy we bought it from said, "That there's a yeller watermelon. It don't got no seeds and it's yeller on the inside." And sure enough it was!

   

 

I didn't get pictures of our Orange Chicken Lo Mein or the Fiesta Chili Mac - rest assured, they were delicious. All of the recipes (except taco night) are from Pampered Chef's More Weekday Dinners Done recipe collection. This affordable little collection of recipes ($6.50) gives you 2 weeks of meals in one easy envelope - each week has 5 recipes that average $2/serving. The recipes are simple and delicious...and there's even a grocery list card that you can take to the store with you - SO EASY. There's another collection, too (Weekday Dinners Done). These things are one of my very favorite PC products!

More Decorating!

Interviews
Some of you were maybe beginning to wonder if I was going to get a job or if I was going to just take up blogging, hanging out and cooking as my occupation. That all sounds wonderful, and if only it paid the bills I think I'd do that...it's my long-term goal. I plan to be doing that in...oh...10+ years, hehe. I've actually had quite a slew of interest lately, which has been encouraging. Tomorrow I have THREE interviews - 8:30, 10:30, and 1:30 - so if you think of me, pray that I'll have stamina and that I won't get to hot in my suit in this heat! I'm going to be downtown all day; not enough time to come home between interviews. So I'm hoping to find a nice little coffeeshop with wifi. The interviews though - the 8:30 and 1:30 are 2nd-round interviews. I'm one of two candidates that they're debating between. Both of these are account manager positions at advertising agencies and I'd be SUPER stoked to get either job. I'm praying that a job offer comes in this week b/c I've been saying that ideally I'd like to start my job on the 13th...and that's Monday!

Going to the Movies
If you know us, you know that we don't "waste" money at the movies. We rarely see movies in the theatre, so it's a pretty big deal when we do go. In the past month we've seen TWO: Batman: The Dark Knight Rises and Brave. I'm sure most of you have seen the new Batman, and if you haven't, you definitely need to see it. Brave was cute, but definitely had a storyline twist I was expecting! I have a soft soft for animated movies...so I really liked it.

Coffee
Who's a coffee drinker? Jordan MUST have his coffee every AM, but he's not a Folgers guy...which means I had to do some frugal sleuthing to come up with an affordable, delicious coffee that he enjoyed. Enter World Market coffee. Price ranges from $6-$12/bag. Not cheap enough for me. We just got 16 bags for about $3/bag. Follow these steps:Join WM Explorer Club.

1. Only purchase coffee on Wednesdays. (Normally, 1 bag of coffee = 1 point, on Wednesdays 1 bag of coffee = 2 points. After you collect 12 points, you get a free bag of coffee.)
2. Wait for a $10 off a $30 purchase coupon comes out (they have these frequently). 
3. Go to WM with your hubby or a friend...or twice, by yourself. Buy 6 bags, get double points, use $10 off coupon. Do this twice, so you come home with 12 bags of coffee; your 4 free coupons will be emailed to you.

We always get the $12 bags for our free coffee, so yesterday we went in and got $50 worth of coffee for FREE. Talk about awesome. And, when you're a WM explorer, you get $10 free for every $100 you purchase, so about twice a year I get 2 $10 free for purchasing coffee (and that's different than their $10 off $30 coupon). Go forth and buy cheap coffee!

Vacation Bible School

I was lucky enough to help my aunt Kathy with the VBS on base this past week. I was a tour guide for 10 3rd and 4th graders and lead them through the Daniel and Babylon scene. It was amazing how much work went into these 3 days of VBS. There were 60 3rd and 4th graders alone....I wouldn't be surprised if there were 500 kids at this VBS. The planning was phenomenal. Each day, I took my kids to Club Adventure (where they saw a skit about Daniel and the Lyons performed by high schoolers), Music, Video (to see a Daniel video), Recreation (outdoor games), Snack Time, and Courts. Each day we went to a different Court - Fiery Fork, Captive Corner or Slumber Section (that's not the right name for the Slumber Court...now it's escaping me) and the kids did crafts, saw a skit about a specific part of the Daniel story and got to experience things like the Daniel and others may have experienced when they were taken to Babylon - such as different foods (greek yogurt and liverwurst), being spoke to in a different language, trusting God when you're afraid (they put their hands into a box that had something in it...they didn't know what - jello, etc). 

Fall Launch 

Pampered Chef Fall Launch was in Omaha, so aunt Karen and two others from my SF team came and I was able to see them for the day. We got to see all the new products for the fall selling season and I am super pumped to get my biz going in KC. I've been trying super hard to find ONE person in KC that would like to host a show for me to help me get my biz started. If you're from KC, maybe you could help me! I'd sure appreciate it! And you'd get new, free products for your kitchen!