GNO

Miley Cyrus sings about it

Cuz it's a girls night
It's alright without you
I'm gonna stay out
And play out
Without you
Let's go GNO
Let's go GNO
Let's go GNO
Let's go

and I participate in it, every month with girlfriends from church (hey friends, I told you I would put you in my blog). :-D

Each month we have a different hostess, with the mostess of course. A theme is chosen and we all bring a dish. I guess we could call it a meet-and-eat, but we just call it Girls Night Out. It gives us time away from the hustle and bustle of our daily duties as mothers, wives, and workers. It's a time where we leave everything behind and catch up with one another over good food. We've all been told that laughter is the best medicine, and I'm telling you we all leave GNO with our health meters full!!

This past week/weekend at work was a very busy one for me and this month's GNO came at just the right time. It's amazing what 3 hours with a fun group of friends can do for your soul. However, tonight we were missing one of the centerpieces of our GNO group....Regina, our friend who was in a terrible wreck on March 21st. She has been at home almost a week and her condition continues to improve. So, please continue to pray for the best GNO tea party hostess!! We missed you Regina, and can't wait for you to rejoin us!!

Next month's hostess is none other than yours truly...the theme...an Over the Hill party for myself as I celebrate the BIG 4-0! {sounds of party horns} {confetti falling}

I'm coming out

I want the world to know......no, no, no, don't get the wrong idea, really!



I must confess I am a fan of American Idol. I got hooked on the show a few years ago, so I haven't watched it from its beginning of time. I do tape it on the DVR just in case I miss an episode. It's taken me halfway through this season to post about the show, but tonight I feel compelled. I usually depend on my good friend Teresa to keep the blog world updated on AI, but not this week. On tonight's show each contestant chose a song from the year they were born.....yea, about that.....I am officially old! I would recap the songs sang but my DVR is having a seizure?!

First, I think that David Archuleta will win the whole thing. He's young, he's cute and he can sing well. It's not necessarily the one I am pulling for.

David Cook got my vote tonight. He sang a different arrangement of "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson.


I think Kristy Lee Cook is a goner and she pulled out the patriotic song card tonight. I don't think it helped.

Chikezie's name is super cool!

Jason Castro, aka dread-lock dude, can sing but I just can't get past how bad that hair must smell. And I swear I saw bugs flying around it in an interview a couple weeks ago. Ick!

My favorite girl is Brooke White, but I think she lacks qualities necessary to win. And in my humble opinion, the girls pretty much stink this year.

Carly the tattoo chick is pretty good, but there is something about having tattoo's up and down one arm that creeps me out!

As for the rest, whom I have left out......blah, blah, blah.

Ok, and my last comments are saved for our dear judges. Randy, dog, whassup skinny man! Simon, love him, but can't he wear a shirt with a little color.

And then there's Paula....sweet little psychotic Paula. I am a totally girl of the 80's. I KNOW the words to "Straight Up" and just about every other song on the Forever Your Girl album (thank you, Teresa). I am not ashamed. However, girlfriend is in some serious need of an intervention....mentally and fashionably. What was up with the elbow length fingerless leather gloves with bracelets on over them??? Huh? Doesn't she have people that check her out before letting her go out like that?! 'Nuff said.

Prediction: Kristy Lee is finally leaving!

Comments, thoughts suggestions.......

The SON has risen....

Luke 24:1-3

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

I think every Easter I wake up with the same song in my mind...."Christ the Lord has risen today, Alleluia" and probably many of you sang the same song today in your church service.

The princess donned her new Easter dress with matching white "tappy" shoes and we all headed for church. We took flowers to place on the cross outside of our church. The service was good and the choir numbers were over the top. And just for the record, Easter lilies still make my eyes water.

Our Easter lunch plans have been put on hold due to our friend's wreck. So we headed over to one of the kids favorite places to eat, Cypress Inn. It sits right on the Black Warrior River and the kids love to watch the boats go by as we eat. The food was good and we took some photos by the riverside. Following lunch we stopped by the hospital to check on our friend, and praise the Lord she is feeling a little better and will be moved out of the ICU today.

We are thankful for so much this Easter, mostly for God's love and the resurrection of his Son that we may have eternal life. But we are also thankful for our life and health and for friends and family. I hope everyone had a blessed Easter day, I know I did!

Pre-Easter Activities

(Yes, I am writing this on Easter day, but do to circumstances beyond my control I had to postpone my composing!)

We crammed a lot of activities into our Saturday before Easter. The fuzzy headed son HAD to have a hair cut or I was just going to do it myself. And the princess got the while-we-are-here trim. After that we headed to our favorite store, Super Target, for some last minute items.

We began the Easter festivities with good ol' fashioned egg dying. *sigh* I must admit, this is one thing I always dread. It seems like this activity gets out of hand quicker than I can react....hence, the spilling of the PINK vinegar-water all over the counter! Oh yes, I must make a note to self here.....you have to shrink the little plastic sleevie thing in the hot water BEFORE you dye the egg!




This year I decided to do something new with the kids. We made Resurrection Cookies. Now that the kids are a little older and have a little more understanding, I thought this would be a fun activity. I had each of them with their Bible and they took turns reading the passages. I think we all enjoyed the story and making the cookies.



Somehow our priorities this Easter morning were a bit off, but after checking out what the Easter bunny brought, we then checked out our cookies. They almost turned out, but the message was clear. Christ rose from the dead and the tomb was empty!

Please pray for my friend.....

Yesterday seemed just like another regular day until the phone rang about 5:30pm, it was my husband who was out of town. He was calling to see if I had heard anything about one of our good friends (RH) being in a car accident. My heart just sank, so I began making a few phone calls. Finally, I did get confirmation that she was indeed in a very bad car wreck and that BOTH of her children WERE in the car with her! I gathered the kids together and we had a moment of prayer for our friends.

Let me just say that it is a complete miracle that no one was killed from this wreck. And to make matters worse, the driver of the other car is suspected of DUI! It took the firefighters almost an hour to extricate her from the car! The 3 year old suffered a broken arm and lacerations to his head, and his 10 month old little sister was almost scratch free! Praise the Lord. However, my friend suffered a severely broken elbow-- for which she went to surgery late last night. She also has a couple of broken ribs as well as a broken pelvis and foot fracture.

This is a precious Christian family and RH is going to have some rehab ahead of her due to her injuries. So, as you and your family say your prayers please remember my friend, her kids and her husband as they go through this difficult time.

Here's a news video with footage from the wreck scene:

The Kiddie Casino

I wanted to title this post "Satan's Playground" but the hubby, being as smart as he is, inspired me to change my mind to something much more appropriate!

You see, we spent a little over an hour in the one place that brings chills up every parent's spine when mentioned. Yes, you guessed it, Satan's Pizza Palace......



As I mentioned in another post, it's Spring Break here in God's Country, Alabama. Because we are working this year, the hubby and I have tried to incorporate a few fun things for the kids on their week off. And for some crazy reason, I volunteered to take the kiddies and a friend to the Prince of Darkness' Palace! We knew the kids would be more than thrilled so we sucked it up and "took one for the team". We had a plan: supper at tolerable restaurant followed by a trip to the Antichrist's Arcade. Our plans came to a screeching halt when the kids informed us they were not hungry and wanted to go directly to Beelzebub's Burrow.

The nausea and head spinning began about, oh, let me see, 30 seconds after we got our arms stamped with the number 666 in invisible ink by a 16 year old. The mayhem then ensued. We were greeted by the OUT OF ORDER sign on the token machine, which also instructed us to return to the one open cash register for our golden tokens! I felt like a drug addict waiting in line for a crack rock, or a zoo animal waiting to be fed. FINALLY, 10 minutes later we got what we came for, Lucifer's Loot!

The hubby picked out the best booth in the house with a perfect view of his cell phone's screen, no seriously, he was watching the kid's drinks. The princess played her usual softball style skeeball-- you've all seen it, you know exactly what I am talking about. The boys settled in on a game that involves dropping a ball on a rotating platform with numbered holes. Tickets spit out based on which hole the ball lands in. It was mesmerizing to watch the tokens go in and the tickets fly out! At one point, a little girl with a cup full of tokens stood at the spinning machine and put in coin after coin. My little princess waited patiently for about 2 minutes and then she got face to face with the ponytail girl. She spoke no words, but clearly gave this girl the "listen sister, I'm gonna give you 2 more minutes then I'm moving you outta' the way" look. Message not received, I moved the princess on to spend her last few coins. We cashed out our chips, I mean tickets, and all three decided to save their tickets until another day. A trip to the ticket counter runs a close second to the trip to Devil's Dungeon.

In retrospect the ponytail girl really made something very clear to me. The path to Gambler's Anonymous begins early. It's not some crazy mutated part of the human genome, it all begins with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese's!

It's not easy being green....

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all you folks who celebrate it. I am one of those who does not have fond memories of the green holiday. I have vivid memories of forgetting to wear green with the ol' maroon school uniform and being pinched unmercifully by my so called friends. I am half Greek for crying out loud and we love royal blue! When is that holiday??

Anywhoo, the kiddies were dressed in full holiday fashion and went to the Children's Hands On Museum (CHOM) with Grandma and celebrated St. Patty's Day. I celebrated by working and wearing my green scrubs! ;-)







Even Maggie (aka Dogzilla) got in on the green action:



Why she is called Dogzilla:


My sweet ol' dog Bailey (which could be an Irish name):

Swap and Hop folks......

Once again friends I am participating in my online "friend" Lysa TerKeurst's topic of the day. Today's topic (drum roll please): ORGANIZATION. Woo hoo, my favorite!
So if you are looking for some organizational ideas or have one to share please hop over to her site.



I must admit I have quite a few OCD tendencies, and my husband will certainly vouch for that. I aspire to have the neatest home in America but working full-time and being a mom to an 8 and 6 year old certainly are obstacles. Wifehood and especially motherhood has forced me to focus on the more important things in life, such as raising Godly and polite children! I think I have gotten better over time in letting things go and taking the "people live here" attitude about our home. Right dear?? Now don't get me wrong, we do not live in filth, but I am less OCD about having things completely spotless. Yes, goodness, I still have occasional meltdowns about the piles of clutter and messy kids rooms, which seems to get a deer in headlight response from the 3 other members of this home.

However, I have implemented a few things to help out in that department. As some of you know, we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE some Super Target in our home. We implemented the idea of storage bins early in their life which has carried us through today. In each of the kids rooms we have the following set of bookshelves and bins in the kids rooms:








Since the princess seems to have more little things to keep up with (i.e. Polly Pockets), we bought more storage bins. Each bin has a surface that can be labeled with chalk. Now because I am OCD and the chalk makes a mess and rubs off easily, I used my favorite label maker and applied labels to the bins!

The second item we use in their rooms are under the bed plastic containers, for which I also use my handy dandy label maker. They are a great place to store my son's billions of legos, because we all know they are no fun to step on in the pitch dark as you check on your sleeping angel!! And they are also great for storing doll house furniture as well as baby doll and Barbie clothes. And we all know that Barbie NEVER has her clothes on.

I've created a monster

True conversation in my car yesterday after school:

Caleb: "I am SO thirsty and Dad doesn't put a water bottle in my lunch box anymore"

Me: "Where is your new water bottle I bought for you to have at school?"

Caleb: "It's in my backpack"

Me: "Is it empty?"

Caleb: "No ma'am"

Me: "So drink the water out of your bottle" (thinking DUH!)

Caleb: "I can't, it fell out of my backpack and the top and sides touched the floor. I am NOT drinking out of that!"

My husband will tell you straight up that I am totally responsible for creating this little monster-- the perfect germophobe! Now, in my head, I am thinking what is wrong with this?? I am a nurse for crying out loud, I live and breathe amongst the germs.

I guess this all began with our simple hand washing lessons as a little boy. Fine, I am not ashamed that my kids wash their hands like little nurses. Get the paper towel ready to tear before turning on the water. Then wash hands followed by turning the sink off and opening the bathroom door with the used paper towel. I suspect this training has led to other obsessive compulsive behaviors by the son (because Madison could care less about a germ). It is often overheard in our house, "Madison, that has germs!" Caleb's stock portfolio will include hand sanitizer and liquid soap!

I am going to share a few of my favorite germophobic moments of Caleb: (yes, I realize that sounds a bit sick)

While at a Chinese buffet, Caleb was unrolling his silverware when his fork flies flew out and landed on the table top. He screams "aaaaaccckkkkkk", when dad asked what was wrong he said, "the fork touched the table". I got a loving glare from the hubby and Caleb got a new fork.

Now that he is 8, I thought it was as good a time as any for Caleb to learn how to clean his toilet. After all, I am the Queen Germophobe and I was sick of cleaning the pee off the toilet seat. Sooo, I got out the clorox wipes and gave him the step by step, he returned the demonstration while daintily holding the wipe and a scowl on his face. I explained to him how the pee got there and told him he could continue cleaning it if he was going to make the mess. I must say, the toilet has been a bit cleaner!

If you ever get the privilege of eating with our family, you can watch Caleb and notice that he will have a little pile that is off by itself. That would be any of the food that fell off his plate during the meal. Meanwhile, you will see Madison eating food off the table, out of the chair and at one time off the floor.

Ok, ok, now that I've put this in print and read it, I see I've created a monster. But he's my little monster and I wouldn't trade him for the world. Everybody needs a little monster in their life, don't they? Now excuse me please while I go wash my hands.

The Black and Blue Blues....

I am coming to you live today from my recliner that has been padded with my favorite heating pad. Yes, friends, I am officially old! I am reminded of this each time I do something physically demanding with my children. Case in point, Madison's first time on roller skates yesterday!

Madison has been BEGGING us for roller skates for a while now, and so far we have avoided making the purchase of her lifetime. We didn't name the child Grace, which is a good thing because it definitely would not suit her! After 2 hours of multiple slips, trips and falls she still got in the car and wanted to know when we would buy her some skates. I'm not sure we are any closer to making our purchase.

Recipe Swap

Today on Lysa TerKeurst's blogsite she is hosting a recipe swap. Other folks in blogger-space are adding links to their sites with great recipe ideas. So if you need some new recipe ideas this is the place to go! I just saw a recipe for a popcorn salad!

We love pasta in our house so I am posting a spaghetti dish. This recipe makes two pies so you have one to enjoy and one you can share with a friend or freeze. I usually make these for the new parents at church and add a salad, bread and dessert. Hope you enjoy!



Easy Spaghetti Pie Recipe
45 min | 20 min prep | SERVES 12

1 lb lean ground beef (I use 1/2 ground Italian sausage and 1/2 beef)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 16 ounce pasta sauce
1 cup parmesan cheese (Kraft grated)
3 eggs
1 tablespoon italian seasoning
1 (16 oz.) carton ricotta cheese
1 (16 oz.) package thin spaghetti, cooked and drained
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

1. Brown ground beef and garlic in skillet. Drain well.
2. Mix cooked and drained ground beef/garlic mixture with the spaghetti sauce in a large skillet. Cook on medium/low until heated through.
3. Beat eggs and add parmesan cheese in a large bowl.
4. Add cooked and drained pasta (cooled slightly so as not to "scramble" the eggs) and toss well to coat.
5. Spread pasta mixture on bottom and up sides of 2- 9" glass deep dish pie plates. (Press it down firmly with a spoon to resemble the shape of a pie crust.).
6. Sprinkle 1/2 tablespoons Italian Seasoning evenly on pasta mixture on each 9" pie.
7. Spread 1/2 Ricotta cheese evenly on EACH pie, over the pasta mixture.
8. Top each pie with 1/2 the meat mixture.
9. Sprinkle each pie with 1 cup mozzerella cheese. (I sprinkle a little bit more Parmesan cheese on top -- ).
10. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, until the cheese melts and is SLIGHTLY crispy on top.
11. Let stand and cool for 5 minutes, and then cut into wedges.

Week in review......

It's been a pretty busy week here, I guess for me more than anyone else. I worked the 3-11 shift on Monday, then a regular morning shift on Tuesday and I was on call in the hospital 24 hours on Wednesday. So, I feel like I haven't been at home at all. Thankfully I wasn't up all night last night, so I got a few things done today. Actually, the few things I got done involved catching up on American Idol and Little People Big World....you didn't expect me to do housework on my day off. I'm pacing myself, I don't have to go back to work until next Thursday!

My quick thoughts on American Idol are 1.) the boys are definitely better than the girls, 2.) David Archuleta should win and 3.) Danny Noriega must go, his appearance alone leads to awkward questions by the kids. We are NOT ready for that in our house, what about you??

The warm weather has been so nice and I was thoroughly looking forward to our first weekend sans Upward activities. Sadly, it's supposed to start raining tomorrow and be FREEZING on Saturday! So, my plans of cleaning out our storage room are postponed. *sigh*

Tonight I did a very fun thing with a friend, her mom and some of her friends from work. We went to a place in Birmingham called Meals in the Making. I think it is a local operation, but it should be franchised....trust me. I chose the meals I wanted to fix when I signed up for the class two weeks ago. When we arrived we got our aprons and went to work. There were stations set up to prepare each entrée, the prep-work had already been done. All I had to do was follow detailed instructions to prepare the meal and place it in take home containers. I made some new friends, had warm chocolate chip cookies and my freezer is full of meals that just need to be cooked. It was awesome, and I didn't even have to wear a hairnet!

Happy weekend y'all!