What's for Dinner

My friend, Selina, and I are becoming masters at preparing freezer meals. We both hate to cook but still want our families to eat a healthy dinner thus freezer meals are our solution to appeasing everyone. This is our fourth attempt and we love it. We each walked away with 40 dinners. We spent $196 and about 7 hours of our time. That includes shopping, prepping, cooking, packaging and cleaning. Some of our dinners include: chicken teriyaki, spaghetti, tator tot casserole, 2x4 soup, taco meat, bbq meatballs......and the list goes on. Selina has not confessed this truth but I feel confident enough to speak for both of us..... The best part of freezer meals is all the fun we experience! REALLY! I have included some photos to help you, the reader, experience some of our fun.

Can you really deny the joy of digging your hands through raw meat? ABSOLUTELY!!! We both hated every second of handling the raw meat- all 60 pounds of it (including chicken, hamburger and pork loin).

Of course during the middle of all the cooking, Quincy needed her hair combed for preschool. You can't really tell in this picture so let me describe the events.....Trey is trying to pull himself up on on me using my apron strings, Quincy is crying because she HATES her hair brushed and Bella (Selina's daughter) is staring at us in disbelief. Like I said, FUN TIMES.

Of course we each had our pepsi's to help us cope. Notice my little 12 ounce can sitting so contained on the counter- Of course Selina had to have her 32 ounce fountain drink. Now what do you suppose happened to that 32 ounces of black liquid?

Yup, you guessed it. It was only a matter of time. Look closely and you will see that Selina is not about to let any of that Pepsi go to waste. (note the straw in her hands).

At the end of the day we both had a freezer packed full of yummy meals to feed our family. It was all worth it.

We decided to take our family on a fun filled vacation to sunny Southern California. We bought three day passes to Disneyland and as part of a Disney promotion we received two extra days free admission. 5 days at Disneyland. We also were able to spend a few nights with our friends, the Meldrums and one day at the beach. We had fun, fun, fun. By the end of the 6th day we were ready to come home. This is a post of random pictures from our trip. Enjoy.

kids say the darndest things

This morning Quincy said prayers with me. She petitioned Heavenly Father to bless me "to be a nice mommy". Shortly after prayers, as I ventured into the family room, and seeing the mess not picked up from last night, I began to make demands from each child in a loud, not so nice, voice. Quincy just looked at me and asked," didn't you hear my prayer? you are supposed to be nice today".

Listening to the Spirit

Tonight, a 22 year old young woman was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I wasn't planning on attending the baptism but at the last minute our ward missionary leader phoned and asked me to lead the music- I have no idea how to lead music but I said I would (Once I arrived I secured another person to lead the music).
I noticed this sister was wearing slacks to her baptism, similar to the slacks she had been wearing to church each Sunday. I started to wonder if the MALE missonaries (leave it the guys to forget details) had talked to her about wearing a skirt or dress to church or if she just wasn't able to afford that right now. The spirit was very strong in prompting me to approach her, after her baptism, and offer to purchase a new outfit for her confirmation on Sunday. She gladly accepted my offer. Two other amazing sisters in my ward overheard me talking to her and wanted to come along for the fun. AND FUN WE HAD. The three of us ended up splitting the cost so we were able to purchase a new dress, shoes, slip and skirt for her. I blog this story for one reason..........to remind me that we are able to perform the Lords errands when we are listening to the spirit. I am grateful for the opportunity that I was given to serve the Lord tonight.

Happy Valentines Day!

12:30 a.m and can't sleep so instead I spend over an hour blog hopping. I feel so voyeristic, surfing blogs of total strangers, AND it's fascinating. NO more! I will get control of this and not spend one more mindless minute engaging in such an unproductive activity. I should be prepping for my gospel doctrine lesson......
Still no cable for the digital camera to attach pictures. How will total strangers, who might be peeking at my blog, ever know how adorable my family is? Quinn just doesn't seem to get my urgency. Anyway for journaling purposes here we go......
Celebrated V-day today with my family. It was fun. I got Quincy a pair of pajamas, because she has a pj fetish. She would wear them all day, everyday if I let her, which I sometimes do. I hope the people who see us at Albertson's know I am honoring her "free agency" and NOT that I can't afford to dress her. UGH! I bought Reece a GIANT cinnamon roll from Mrs. Powells. They are his favorite. I cheated Trey once again because I believe in taking advantage of his youth. He has no idea what V-day is and that won't last much longer. I slaved over a yummy dinner for Quinn, which he loved (shrimp, filet mignon (spelling?), cinnamon roll, red potatoes and salad.
I really had a great day.

Hairspray!

Last Friday, my friend Sarah (far right) hosted a Hairspray themed party. It was so fun. Who do I look like?(third one from the left or fourth one from the right). If you didn't guess Tracy then you're blind. I worked hard on my costume. I am very competitve and when I heard there would be a prize for "biggest hair" well, I just had to win. I started at 2:00 p.m. (party was at 6:30). I just wasn't having much success so I called in a professional (my friend Selina) for help. She back combed, sprayed, curled,back combed some more and produced a masterpiece of big hair. However this was about 4:00 and by the time 6:00 rolled around my hair was showing signs of weakness. On the way to the party I stopped at Selina's for a touch up. She pulled out the big guns- the hair dryer! This time she back combed, sprayed, and applied heat. This went on several times until........an even "bigger" masterpiece was created! I arrived at the party very confident the big hair prize was in the bag.

p.s. I did have to stuff my costume :) my hand is trying to hold the stuffing in for the picture. Thank you Sarah for a very needed "girls" night out.

Finally......

One reason I resisted blogging is it would be just one more thing to keep track of. I don't even think my friends view regularly. Then I remembered I am doing this for me and my journaling purposes not for others. I changed my title to " i will survive" because survival mode is where i am at. i am so tired and frustrated with parenting and feeling like a failure all the time. thus my new mantra is, "i will survive". maybe tomorrow or next month or next year i will gain a surging sense of confidence and feel like doing more than merely surviving but for today that's where it's at. still can't find the hookups for the digital so i continue to host a pictureless blog- boring. my favorite item on blogs are the pictures. i'll keep looking. well off to read a really great parenting book, titled, "Siblings without Rivalry". Suggestions will sound fantastic in theory, in practice, well that's a whole nother ball game......