Gobble Gobble

Do you still have tons of leftover turkey in your fridge? Are you tired of turkey and mashed potatoes for dinner and lunch and snack and...

Try these recipes for a nice change of pace

Turkey Enchiladas
3-4 cups chopped turkey
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 C. sour cream
1/2 C. Green Chilli Enchilada Sauce
1 C. Shredded Cheese
1 Package flour or wheat tortillas

Combine soup, sour cream and enchilada sauce.  Reserve enough to cover enchiladas. Mix turkey with remaining miture. Spoon mixture on tortilla shells and roll up.  Place seam side down in a baking dish. Cover with remaining mixture and sprinkle with shredded cheese if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 25 minutes.

Turkey Salad Sandwich
1/2 - 1 C. chopped turkey
Mayo (as much as you like)
Chopped olives
Chopped onion
Garlic salt, pepper
Cranberries (if you like)

Mix everything together and place on your favorite bread

Turkey Patties (I got this one from allrecipes)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups half-and-half cream, divided
1 cup cooked, chopped turkey meat
1 teaspoon finely chopped onion
1 cup dry bread crumbs
2/3 cup crushed cornflakes cereal
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Blend in flour, salt, pepper and 1 cup of half-and-half. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring, until thick. Stir in turkey, onion and bread crumbs. Mix well, then shape mixture into 8 small patties and refrigerate to chill for 30 minutes. 

Place cornflake crumbs in a shallow dish or bowl and place remaining 1 cup half-and-half in a second shallow dish or bowl. Heat oil in skillet. Dip patties in crumbs, then in cream, then in crumbs again; brown patties in the hot skillet, place in a serving dish and cover with soup.

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Life Insurance

Obtaining term life insurance is not something I like to think about but I know it is something I really need to do.  When I quit my job with the Federal Government in January, I lost my life insurance policy that I had with them.  Now I only have a couple of small policies with the credit unions.  It's a little stressful to think that if something happened to me I haven't gotten things set up so Twitch and the kids would have a little bit to help out with things. 

I really need to get on the ball and get it taken care of - first thing after the holidays. (That seems to be my timeframe for everything)

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Christmas Tradition Forgotten

I can't believe I did it!

Every year, since Rooster was a baby, we have gone into Ogden the day after Thanksgiving and watched the Christmas parade where Santa makes his grand entrance. After the parade the lights are turned on in Christmas Village and they have a fireworks show.  By the time it's over we're all pretty hungry and we walk over to a friend's Greek restaurant and have a yummy dinner. 

I have no idea what happened this year but I completely forgot about it! I feel like such a bad mom - how could I forget a tradition that we've had for years?  I have a sneeky suspicion that my kids won't even notice but I still feel pretty bad about it.

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Natural pain relief

My body is showing the effects of dancing and tumbling all my life.  I put my body under so many countless hours of strenuous activity that it's not suprising that I've developed some arthritis and pain. 

I've had a lot of people recommend magnetic therapy to help relieve some of my symptoms. In fact, my Grandma wears a magnetic bracelets to help her symptoms of Fibromyalgia. I'm not a big fan of taking a lot of medications so I think using a natural technique like magnetic therapy would be a better solution for me.

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Can I get a thank you?

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to anyone who has the job of putting Christmas lights on trees. You've made my Christmas decorating so much easier. What did I ever do without you? I've even figured out a way so I don't have to shape the tree every year.  I'm putting it as is in our fruit cellar when Christmas is over. Why didn't I think of this before?  I almost went and bought a new tree on Saturday that has a memory and shapes itself  then I thought why not just put it away put together.  A friend of mine says she even leaves it decorated when she puts it away but I have such a blast with the boys decorating and would really miss it if we didn't do it.

Yeah this may sound a little lazy but I prefer to think of it as freeing up time so I can shop and spend more time with my family. 

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Getting there

We've spent the day pulling out Christmas decorations and I must say we've made a lot of progress.  We've got most of the outside decorations up, just need to do the lights on the house and got the tree up, still need to decorate it though and then I just need to put the various decorations around the house and we'll be done.

We even managed to find the treadmill that has been in our storage room since last Christmas.  Rooster asked if we could bring it back out so he could start running at night.  He is starting to get on a big fitness kick, which is good, but I think it's more so he can impress the girls. He even put the free weights up in his room so he can lift weights when he gets home from school.  Are all 12 year olds so girl crazy?  The part that I have a hard time with is most of the girls he hangs around with are in 9th grade.  Seems just a tad bit too old for me but his dad thinks it's pretty cool. Gotta love the men mentality.

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Christmas Tree

I just finished shaping my Christmas tree and wanted to share a tip.

Whether you use a real tree or an artificial one there is always going to be some holes or bare spots.  Last year I decided on a really cool way to fill in the bare spots on a tree.

I bought a big bag of cinnamon scented pine cones and put a pine cone where ever there was a blank spot.  It helps my artificial tree smell really good and it looks great too.  I'm thinking about getting some non-scented pine cones and trying to find a pine spray that I can use. 

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Looking for home based business ops

I know quite a few people who do really well with a home business.  I've been approached by many of them to join their business and have seriously looked at and even joined a few. 

I've often wondered though how an average person (like myself) finds unbiased information on home based businesses.  I recently found a website, which is ran by Microsoft,  that helps people connect with home based businesses. If you are interested in operating your own home based business, you may want to check it out.

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I'm worn out

Have you ever noticed how being around constant fighting and stress can wear you right out? I'm so exhausted I feel like I could sleep for a few days and still be tired.

As I sit here trying to get my Christmas tree up all I've heard for the past 2 hours is my boys fight like they are mortal enemies.  Please someone humor me and tell me that one day they will actually be friends. This, after my morning spent in hell also known as Wal-Mart on Black Friday.  I honestly could not believe the way some people were acting this morning.  Black Friday is always crazy but this year it was over the top.  I can't count the number of times I got hit by a cart, getting my toes ran over in my soaking wet slippers (hint don't wear slippers outside in a downpour, you're feet ) and I just missed a full on brawl in the electronics section. I guess a guy and a girl were fighting over a TV and it turned physical.  Seriously is saving a few bucks worth going to jail over? 

I'm am glad that I was able to get the majority of my stuff online last night and just needed to pick up a few things.

Maybe I need to take a little vacation and stay at a Las Vegas hotel!

Let me know how your Black Friday was. Hope it was better than mine!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

May your turkey be golden brown and juicy, your mashed potatoes fluffy, your pies delicious and may your memories of time spent with family and friends last a lifetime!

 

I heard the other day that the average amount of calories a person eats on Thanksgiving is 4500 calories and that one slice of pecan pie has over 1,000 calories.  Holy cow! No wonder I can't move for hours after. I better take it easy this time I'm getting a head start on my Black Friday shopping and heading out Thanksgiving night to go get a new Christmas tree. 

weight loss

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To all my EC dropers and Commentors

I'm Sorry!! Please forgive me for not returning the visit. I will though.  I've been so busy trying to fix my lack of questions coming in from ChaCha that I haven't done much else the past couple of days. This in itself could be a REALLY long post but it would be nothing but me ranting and raving so I'll stop.

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Proud Mama

I'm so proud of my little Tater that I had to share. He got 100% on his spelling test! He has worked so hard and it was great to see him so excited.  We took him out to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate and had so much fun.

He struggles with spelling and reading. He has been in speech therapy since he was 2 because of a speech delay so it makes sense that spelling and reading wouldn't come easy for him.

A few posts ago I mentioned that we were dealing with some issues with both of the boys. With Tater there was some concern that he may have suffered a brain injury over the summer and it was just showing up now. After visits with his pediatrician he doesn't think there has been any brain trauma (although I'm still a little freaked out that there may be) but he wants him to be tested for Dyslexia.  I've had my concerns about Dyslexia, which is what started the whole testing process at school and brought up the brain injury concern.

So with everything going on he definately deserved a big celebration for his hard earned 100%.

tv stands

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Dinner Exchange Group

I realized I haven't blogged about the dinner exchange group that I belong to on this blog so I thought I'd take a minute and post about it.

I set it up with 3 other friends, we all live really close so it makes it really easy.  Each family takes a night and cooks dinner for all 4 families and delivers the meals to everyone by 5:00.  On the nights I have to cook it can be a bit stressfull but it is so nice to cook one night and have dinner brought to us 3 nights.  We have it set up for Monday-Thursday, though I would really like to add one more person for Friday.

I get asked a lot if it saves us money.  There are times when I've spent way too much on a meal to make it worth it but it's a learning process and I'll just save those dinners for the weekend.  Other than that, I really think we are saving money. It also helps on those night when I just don't feel like cooking and would normally go get fast food.

I have another blog where I post our weekly menu and recipes. You can check it out at Mama M's Cucina. 

Some suggestions if you decide it might work for you.

• Set up the exchange with close friends who are willing to hear criticism about their food if the meal they make isn't a hit. We've been lucky that everyone has enjoyed all of the meals, but we have an understanding that we can tell each other if something might not be worth having again.  
• Be organized.  We meet once every 2 months and plan out the meals. This way we can all agree on a meal up front. It also gives us a chance to catch things when they're on sale.  Organization is key on the day I cook and I don't always do a good job. It's hard for me to judged how much time I need to cook for 16 people and there has been a few times I've had to call and say dinner was going to be late. My kitchen is usually trashed on the days I cook.  I could definitely use some organization skills on the day I cook.
  
• Be flexible. There have been times where someone has had to switch their menu because life happened and they didn't have time to cook what was planned.  I also keep a stash of frozen dinners for the kids just in case they don't like something that is brought over.
• Relax. It was kind of odd for me at first to be able to do other things besides cooking on my days off.
  

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Invitiations for every occasion

I just found a company that is right up my alley. We love hosting get togethers at our house. New Year's Eve is always done here, I make a big deal out the boys birthdays and summertime is just an excuse to have a BBQ every weekend.  The part that I have a hard time with is the invitations. I'm not a fan of store bought invites so I usually make my own, which can take a really long time when my OCD tendancies kick in and I have to redo it over and over again.

I found this company that will make customized invitations. They make everything from wedding invitations to pet birth and pet adoption announcements.  I'm definitely thinking about using them for our New Year's Eve invitations this year.

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My Review - Twilight Movie

Warning - Possible Spoilers!!!

First let me say that I never like a movie as much as the book but in the case of Twilight I really didn't like it as much as the movie. 

I went to the midnight showing with a group of friends. I envisioned all of us clapping and cheering when the movie ended. Instead, we found dead silence. Apparently, I wasn't the only one not impressed.  The film is raking in the money though, Wikepedia says the film made over $35 million its opening day!

I think the movie did a horrible job of portraying the intensity of the relationship with Bella and Edward.  A friend of mine said she didn't know what else they could do since the movie was already over 2 hours.  A perfect example would have been to make the waitress in the restaurant as pretty as she was described in the book.  In the movie, she was a bit scary so of course Edward wouldn't pay attention to her. In the book, Bella said she was pretty and Edward didn't even pay attention to her.

The movie moved incredibly fast and left out a lot of key scenes from the book. It also had some things added that confused me.  I think one of the best parts of the book is when Edward and Bella are in the meadow and Bella is fascinated by Edward's skin in the sun. In the movie, the first shot of Edward in the sun looks like he is sweating not shimmering. The rest of the time in the meadow is shown in short clips with both of them just laying in the meadow.

I thought the acting was horrible! With the exception of Cam Gigandet who played James. His character does have a pretty intense role in the movie but I thought he was fantastic.  For the most part all of the Cullen's walked around with crazy looking, wild eyes.  The way the other high school kids talked was way more than I could handle.

My biggest complaint about the movie is that I never really connected with any of the characters in the movie.

My break down on the characters; (you can check out their bios at IMDB)
Bella: I think she is a doll.  Really cute and a good Bella. Not the best actor, especially when she is thrashing around after James bit her.

Edward: Didn't like him at all in the first part of the movie. He had really weird facial expressions and came across kind of dorky (technical word, I guess). But by the end of the show I really liked him. He was really cute with Bella.

Jacob: I liked him. He had a real innocence about him. Although I thought it sucked that they cut out the entire beach scene where he tells Bella about the history of the vampires and werewolves.Oops totally forgot that it was there just shorter than in the book.

Charlie Swan: Not much there. My heart broke for him when Bella was leaving.

Alice Cullen: Not in the movie much, which is sad because her and Bella seem to be good friends in the book.

Jasper Cullen: All I can say is WOW! He was a train wreck that I couldn't stop watching. He looked like he should have been locked up somewhere instead of going to a high school.

Rosalie: Not a bad actor but a REALLY bad wig!

Emmett Cullen: Was he in the movie? Oh yeah, I saw him riding in the back of a jeep a couple of times.

Dr. Cullen: I thought he was an ok actor but my hell he looked horrible! His hair was bleached way too much and his skin looked plastic.

Esme Cullen: I'm not sure that she said over 10 words in the whole movie.

James: Awesome!

Laurent: Really not in the movie much - loved his red eyes

Jessica, Mike, Eric, Angela, and Billy Black: None of them had much to in the film. They really let the relationship between Mike and Bella slide and Jessica never shows the jealousy of Bella and Edward's relationship.

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I love a Giveaway!!

A fellow blogger (who has helped me out tremendously) is having a fantastic giveaway on her blog. She is giving away a $50 gift certificate - just in time for the holiday shopping.  Check it out and enter yourself at her World of Mom blog.

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Weight Loss

I've been struggling to lose the weight from my last pregnancy. Ok Tater is 7 but it takes some time right?  I've decided I need to start taking better care of myself.  I ordered a couple of work out DVDs, vowed to eat more than once a day, sleep more than 3 hours at a time and I may need to buy Phentermine.

I know there are a lot of factors that play into not being able to lose the weight I need to. Maybe by doing all of the above I will get some good results.

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The Gift That Keeps Giving

I'm finally starting to think about what to buy for Christmas gifts. Better late than never right? I always have a hard time deciding what to get friends and family that live out of town. By the time I buy the gift, wrap it, box it up and pay for shipping I'm exhausted. Then I found the wine of the month club. I can have the wine shipped directly to their house and I can determine how often they get it (once a month, bi-monthly or quarterly). I can also set it up for them to receive it every month or a set number of times.  It's like the gift that keeps giving all year long!

Salute!

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Mounds of Laundry

Right now, everybody's dirty clothes get put in a hamper in my room. That's four people's dirty laundry put in my room and most of the time the boys miss the hamper and it ends up on my floor for me to pick up.  I told Twitch that it is time for there to be a hamper in each room and have the boys responsible for taking care of their own clothes.

I started looking around and found this great laundry hamper. The boys could put their clothes in it, zip it up and roll downstairs to the laundry room.  It can also be used for groceries and toting sports equipment to and from games.

Now if I can get them to use it we'll be on the right track.

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Give me your thoughts - Please

I'm changing my blog template around, as if you couldn't tell. 

Please let me know what you think about the header. Is it creepy to have eyeballs staring back at you when you visit someone's blog?  Even though they are cute little eyes, yeah Tater is feeling like a rock star now.

Don't let that influence you please leave me your honest thoughts.

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New Weekly Feature

I've noticed a weekly feature on some blogs and decided to come up with my own.  I'm proud to announce

"Wacky News Wednesday"

Provided I remember, I'll post a new weird or unusual news story every Wednesday.

The first story I've picked reminds me of something I did when I was younger. I was in junior high and getting ready to go to school. There was a candle burning on the shelf in the bathroom that I decided to put out with the hairspray I had just used on my hair. Yeah, you read correct - I have no idea what I was thinking. 

It was the 80's and I was using Aquanet which seemed to be awfully flammable.  One little squirt and there was a huge (maybe smaller) fireball that exploded in my face.  I was fine other than the lose of some eyelashes, a few singed eyebrow hairs and the majority of my bangs gone. You know the bangs - the big 80's bangs.  

According to the Daily Telegrah, a 13 year old thought his toilet smelled a little funky so he sprayed it with room freshner. While using the same toilet he decided to play with his dad's lighter.  Apparently, the fumes (from the air freshener) were still lingering and he was blown off the toilet and through a window.  

The 13 year old was quoted as saying "Then I began fiddling with a lighter my dad left in there and suddenly there was this big orange whoosh! of flame. I woke up outside with my clothes burned off me and smelling like a barbecue."

I hesitated in posting this story because the poor kid was injured and will need months of treatment. I hope he feels better soon and that everything goes well for him.

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Just in time for the movie

My mom and I have been working frantically trying to get our version of a Twilight bracelet done. Here they are. Each one has a pewter wolf, a Czech crystal heart and an apple made from glass beads. We're selling them for $20.00. If you're interested let me know.

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Veteran's Day

In honor of Veteran's Day 

From my family to you - Thank You!

Special remembrance to Ryan Balmer and his family. You remain in our thoughts, our prayers and our hearts.

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Twilight Movie

I'm so excited for the Twilight Movie to come out. I hope I like it as much as I did the book. 

I was able to get tickets for a group of us to go to the midnight showing. From what I'm hearing the midnight shows are sold out now around here so I'm glad we got them when we did. 

Not sure if I'm a fan of the actor playing Edward. He looked a bit different in my mind.  

Any other Twilight fans? Are you going to the movie?

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Give Me A Break!

Let me start by saying we've got some major stuff going on with both of the boys which has left me stressed and quite grumpy but seriously do we need to see Christmas decorations and have Christmas music on the radio the day after Halloween.

Don't get me wrong I love Christmas just as much as the next person.  I love seeing my kid's faces light up on Christmas morning. I love spending time with friends and family throughout the holidays.  Knowing that I get one of my girlfriends that one thing that they really want but would never buy for themselves is great.  But, all in due time.

The Saturday after Halloween 2 houses in our neighborhood already had their big blow up decorations outside, Christmas lights up and trees in their windows.  And Wal-Mart and a couple stations on the radio were playing Christmas music.  Even Tater was bugged and asked if we shouldn't have Thanksgiving before all the Christmas stuff came out.

I guess I should at least take my Halloween decorations down this weekend but I'm not giving in. I'm keeping the fall decorations up until the end of the month then I'll bust out the 15 totes of Christmas stuff and fit right in with the Griswald's of the neighborhood.

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Could we get so lucky?

One of my dreams is to be able to take our family to Africa.  I was at the elementary school talking to Rooster's teacher last week.  She volunteers for an organization that has adopted a tribe in Africa that has been devastated by AIDS and malaria.  We started talking and she told me she could help make my dream happen.  What?! Are you kidding me!  She is emailling the director of the program and I should know more in a couple of weeks.  The price for airfare is crazy so I'm not sure that we will be able to swing it for this summer but hopefully by next summer.

The boys are torn between going and not going.  They don't want to get all the vaccines and their a little nervous about going so far away but they are excited about taking the plane and meeting the kids in the tribe.

You can adopt a child through the organization, the money goes to providing food and other supplies.  We are going to adopt 2, one for each kid and it would be so amazing for them to be able to meet them if we can make it over there.

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Barack Obama's Grandmother Passes Away

I just read that Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, lost her battle with cancer on Monday night at the age of 86.  He has credited his grandmother with helping him become the man he is today.  How difficult it must be for him to keep his focus on what may be one of the biggest days of his life.

I can only imagine that losing a loved one on the eve of such an important event would be almost unbearable. 

My heart and prayers go out to him and his family.

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Vote

VOTE

Don't forget to vote!

I'm sitting here watching SNL Presidential Bash on TV (hope you've been able to enjoy it, it's been entertaining - Amy Poller's rap is hilarious!) and thinking about how important it is for all of us to get out there and vote.

I'm also kind of relieved that it is coming to an end.  I'm tired of all the negative ads and the emails that I have been getting that are obviously not true, the endless recorded phone calls telling me who I should vote for and the abundance of fliers in my mailbox and on my door. 

I hope everyone has done their research and uses their vote wisely for whoever they feel is the right candidate for President and local offices.

As if the privilege of voting isn't enough, companies are offering free goodies to voters.


Participating Starbucks shops are giving away away a free tall coffee to voters.
Participating Ben & Jerry's stores are giving away a free scoop of ice cream for voters between 5PM - 8PM
Participating Krispy Kreme stores are giving away a free star shaped doughnut with red, white and blue sprinkles to customers wearing a I Voted sticker.

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Halloween!

We had a great time on Halloween!  We went trunk or treating at a church in our neighborhood, then over to some friends for apple cider, trick or treating around the neighborhood and then over to visit Grandma and Grandpa.  We were all worn out by the time we got home. In fact, Tater fell asleep in the car. 

We carved pumpkins Thursday night when Twitch got home.  He has been working out of town for 3 weeks and the boys were so excited to see him.

 

He has been wearing these vampire teeth no stop since Monday

 

In honor of his Dad, the plumber, Rooster chose a slightly offensive pumpkin.  Twitch should have been the one talked about in the debate.  Dave the plumber sounds so much better than Joe the plumber (or maybe I'm a bit biased) but he is a licensed plumber who would have revealed in the "exposure" ha ha.  Did you hear that Joe just hired a management company to handle all the request for appearances? Crazy!

 

Rooster aka Slash - He wrote his Hero paper in school about Slash and his Dad

 

Tater aka Indiana Jones.  He loves the movies!

Hope you all had a great Halloween!

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