This Was Suppose To Start Sooner

So I declared that effective March 1st I was going to really concentrate on getting my shit together.  I restarted tracking my expenses in order to effectively budget my money.  I also need to recommit to being healthier too.  Notice how one of these is 'I've restarted' and the other is 'I need'...  Opps!

The last time I blogged I spoke of the fact that so much of my life was in limbo.  Well, within 24 hours or so 2 of the areas of my life was no longer in the limbo it was at the time I blogged.  The move at work is done for the most part and should be finished as of now.  I've sort of settled my office...just need to get some work done and move a few cabinets, but I have to wait to get to that this coming week, because we all know I'm not moving those cabinets by myself!  Ha!

In other news, I did not get approved high enough for a mortgage to get a house I would be happy with.  I sort of expected this thanks to all of those student loans I'm hauling around on my credit reports.  I could get a house, but not something that is going to make me happy so I've decided to wait.  There was some discussion between my aunt and I about me renting a house, because this place is just too small for the munchkin and I and her moving in here still.  As of yesterday that decision was tabled.  Instead my auntie and I are going to rent a storage unit together so I feel less stuffed into this place and since she is going from a 4 bedroom home to a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment, she will need it too.  And we are going to paint my house to make it feel fresh for me and make it easier to stay here in the coming months as I continue to work on getting my debt further under control (see the tracking of expenses & budgeting discussed earlier!), so I can buy a house in the future...one that I'll be happy with!

We are only early into March and I feel like this is going to be a really good month for me.  So even though I was suppose to be blogging about getting my shit together effective March 1 on March 1 it is better late than never!!

Cooking Up A Storm

As you well know I am not the domestic type; however, I've had the desire to cook lately so I decided to make some of my favorite winter dishes this week.

So far, I've made a very yummy chili!  I'm not the best chili cooker and would never enter a chili cook-off and I'm very envious of those that can do chili.  I was so hungry for homemade chili though and the munchkin just loves it.  So I ended up putting like 3 recipes for chili together and viola!  Yum, yum, yum!!  I made an entire slow-cooker full and we are down to just a little bit left!  The munchkin always asks for seconds of chili and finally he asked for seconds of my chili!

Tomorrow I'm going to put stuffed green peppers over before I leave for work and then sloppy joes are on the horizon for later in the week!  Since my son will not be into the stuffed green peppers I figure the first night or two he can have the rest of the chili and if push comes to shove I will fix him some hot dogs, which are his favorites!

A few weeks ago I made the best bean soup I've made in a long time!  So I'm not sure what has gotten into me, but I'll ride this for as long as it takes me!

What are you cooking these winter months?

$3.17/Gallon

That is how much I paid for gas tonight and I was beyond giddy! I just hope it sticks around for a while!

The munchkin had another soccer game this afternoon and he played great. They won!! His coach cracks me up, because he gets so riled up! He is just a kid himself...maybe 19...but has a lot of passion for the game, which is great for the boys.

After the game we headed up to Sam's Club and did a little shopping. I'm not sure what all we really purchased, but my bill was over $200. That always blows my mind! How can a cart, not full, reach $200, let alone go over that amount?! Well, we did buy 2 movies and a book too, but seriously?! How much does cereal, fruit by the foot, tons of mac 'n cheese, pizza rolls, soap, and frozen PB&J sandwiches really cost?! Oh well...it is what it is and we just keep paying the bills and moving forward. Some day I will figure out a way to save some money...

Never My Intention

It was never my intention to blog on August 1st and not to return until 13 days later, but I've been crazy busy and pretty exhausted. My apologies to the few readers I have left. Hope you will bear with me while I continue to work through this whole new phase in my life! It will get better. I promise!

For the last five years or so I've been blessed or should I say spoiled by being able to have someone come and clean our home. Well, those good times have came to an end. I can no longer afford it nor can I justify it. So tonight I embarked on this new adventure of cleaning my own house. I'm not finished and I move really slow. Probably since I hate it so much, I'm sure. Plus I end up taking a lot of breaks. Once I put the clean sheets on my bed and vacuum I will be done with our 2 bedrooms, the munchkin's playroom and our one and only hallway, leaving the 2 bathrooms, the living room and the kitchen. Of course the last room that I will tackle is my bathroom, because it just grosses me out to clean it. Blah!!

I'm sure this whole cleaning process would be easier in my life if I would have learned how to clean when I was younger. When I was growing up my mom did not work outside of the house the majority of the time, so she did all of our cleaning while we were at school and our dad was at work. So I never even had the opportunity to watch how she cleaned or to do it with her either. We also never had chores assigned to us either, so outside of cleaning my bedroom because I was anal even as a child I did not learn how to clean and manage a home until after I was married and in my 20's and after taking a five-year break I feel like I'm having to learn it all over again.

Since this is posting close to 2am Saturday night/Sunday morning, please don't think I've been trying cleaning all day and night. I didn't even start this process until after 10:00pm tonight and I've also watched some TV in between too! LOL I multi-task during cleaning, but probably not in the best way.

Time To Get Cooking!

Apparently I've been bit by a shopping bug, but not the usual chick shopping bug. I've been bit by the grocery shopping bug.

I don't know what has sparked this, but I've been to the grocery shopping store twice today and I'm not even preparing any meals. I just can't seem to stay away and I keep buying more and more. I swear, if anyone looked in our cupboards and freezers you would think we were a family of seven, not two. We even have two full gallons and one partial gallon of milk.

Since we are so stocked I guess it is time to get cooking!

It All Started With A Little Blue Puddle

This all started Saturday night after my wonderful bubble bath and right before I went to bed when I noticed a little puddle of blue under the back of my toilet. I discovered that the tank on my toilet was leaking. It was 1:30am Saturday night. Nothing I could do about it and no one to call to help. And it wasn't serious enough Sunday to call my plumber. Um, hello? Paying a plumber on a Sunday? No thank you!

Monday morning I called my other aunt and then my uncle because it wasn't like I was able to afford even a phone call to anyone, because I couldn't pay them when they came out. While talking to them I also mentioned that my washer was having serious issues too. It was making a horrible noise going into the spin cycle and wasn't spinning all the water out and I would have to toss in an extra spin before putting them in the dryer. My wonderful uncle told me to make the necessary calls and they would take care of it. I was relieved...

In between getting this all together Monday morning I put some sausage and sauerkraut over. I was so hungry for it I couldn't wait all day for dinner to roll around. I hit the gym that afternoon and waited and waited and waited for my aunt and munchkin to get here so we could eat! I weighed out my sausage, measured my sauerkraut and sat down to finally eat. Even though I had cooked it all day, it wasn't done enough. Dinner failure. I cooked it again the rest of the night and resorted back to my chips & dips again for dinner. When it was finally done I tried it again. No go! There was no taste. How did I mess up a dish that I've made a hundred plus times? Needless to say I was not happy.

Off to bed I went, disappointed in my dinner, but I also knew I had to be up early for repair guys #1 who were scheduled to be here at 8:00am Tuesday morning. Fast forward to the following morning...repair guys quickly fix my toilet (the tank was lose...who knew that could happen...), so I figure while they are here and since I kept the cost so low I mentioned that it appeared my kitchen faucet had started to leak where the nozzle attached. After a quick look they discover it is more than a little leak...it was also leaking under the sink way in the back too. Of course that wasn't fixable, it had to be replaced. Out of the blue Mr. Fix-It asked me when was the last time I had checked my hot water tank...um, if it had ever been "checked" it would have been before my guy and I split up in '04. So he offers to check it and of course, thank God he did, because it was leaking. God, help me...

So a quote of $1,200 later to replace both my kitchen faucet and hot water tank I figured my day was pretty well shot! Of course this was normally bad all in of itself, but when you also figure that not only did I have to clear out from under my skin so they could replace my faucet I also had to clear out around my back door (a/k/a my laundry and pantry room) and my closet. You must remember...I live in a trailer so every room is small and I have everything packed in tight!! You may wonder why I would have to clear out around my back door, so the guys could drain my hot water tank. You then may ask what my bedroom closet has to do with this mess...well, that's because my hot water tank is impaneled inside my bedroom closet. Convenient, huh?

So four hours and several dollars later, I had the pleasure of putting my kitchen, laundry room, and bedroom back together. I was so excited I could barely contain myself... I did use the opportunity to clean out all of the bakeware I had stuffed under the sink. Seriously, do I need 9 glass baking dishes, 5 of which are the size?! Or 12 cookie sheets?! I didn't think so either. By the time I finished putting everything back together, which of course included sweeping and mopping part of my kitchen floor and my little pantry plus vacuuming my bedroom closet and the surrounding area, it was time to get the munchkin because I had to take him to karate.

Throughout the day I knew I had to take the munchkin to karate and after we would go to dinner with my aunt and every time something went wrong or became much messier than anticipated I just kept telling myself that I could handle it, because tonight I was going to partake in a tall Sunset Passion Colada or two while enjoying Parrot Isle Jumbo Coconut Shrimp at Red Lobster, which I've been craving for a few weeks. Knowing this helped me get through everything yesterday. After karate we headed to Red Lobster just to see that the restaurant was all dark with 3 utility vans outside and a note on the door explaining they were closed due to electrical problems.

I couldn't win yesterday... We ended up going to the China Buffet in town, which was yummy, but since I was so set on my Red Lobster meal nothing was satisfying to me. Of course this caused me to eat more than I should have. And today? Well, now I just sit here waiting for the Sear's Repair Guy to get here to look at that racket machine...opps, I meant washing machine! He should be here between 1pm & 5pm. Of course that means closer to 5pm than 1pm, especially since it is already 2pm...

Consider it done: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

Just getting started: 17, 18

Needs attention: 10, 11

It Isn't Failing To Plan That Gets Me...It's Just My Planning Fails

How many times must I say it...I fail at planning. Maybe I don't do it right. I'm not sure. But it seems when I plan something it falls through. It just doesn't happen the way it should. Maybe I don't cover all of my bases before I plan. I'm not exactly sure, but planning by me is usually an epic failure.

Don't believe me? Well, here is another example of one of my planning failures... A week or so ago I saw a recipe coming across on Twitter from Nathan Fillon (the actor in Castle) and it sounded pretty good. It was a Mexican Bean Dip recipe and I'm always up for that. So I made my shopping list after checking the fridge and cupboards and away I went Friday night after my weekly visit with my honey. So this morning I decide in addition to studying I also want to cook a few new dishes. Well...I actually decided that yesterday and I started on that with cooking chicken in my crockpot with salsa to use in a different recipe...but I digress... I pulled out all of my ingredients this afternoon to make my bean dip and my black olives are gone.

Yup...my munchkin and my aunt ate them Friday night with their dinner. Ugh... Okay, so I decided to make it without. No big deal and heck, it likely saved on calories too. So I move on from this, make the bean dip, reach for the bag of tortilla chips to eat some. Ummm...hello whoever left just crumbs in the bottom of the bag, but only rolled it down once giving an appearance of an almost full bag of chips...nice job! Luckily I had an unopened package of taco shells to use.

Not all was lost. I was able to eat my newly made bean dip and it was yummy sans black olives or chips. But come on...I don't need help with the failing part of my planning. Ugh....

Consider it done: 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18

Just getting started: 3, 5, 16, 17, 19, 20

Needs attention: 6, 9, 10

Yes, I Have An Addiction...To Recipes

I love recipes. I think I have a bit of an addiction to them. I collect them and have an entire cupboard filled with them! I have a secret plan...er...hope that when my guy comes home he will type up and organize all my recipes. I've been told by some (yes Janice I'm calling you out! Ha!) to keep on dreaming! LOL But there is a downfall with my obsession. I rarely ever use any of the recipes I've collected. I fix the same things time after time. My other downfall...I suck at cooking!

From time to time I watch Top Chef and often think maybe I should take a cooking class, because I must confess that I am someone who can screw up boiling water. But every now and then I will keep a recipe out, add all the ingredients to my list of grocery shopping and maybe...just maybe I'll eventually get around to making that recipe.

Back in August I came across a recipe in an email I received from Hungry Girl. I added the ingredients to my shopping list and since I was going to have to throw out the crab I had bought if I didn't use it by this Thursday I decided to make the recipe today. So after doing my weekly weigh-in (see stats below) I whipped up HG's Ab-Fab Artichoke Crab Dip. It was very yummy. I wasn't so sure when I was cutting up the artichokes, but it turned out really good. It is definitely yummier the hotter you can make it (heat hot, not spicy hot) and eat it. So one more recipe goes back into the cupboard but this time it was actually made and passed the j'lynn's taste test! (Psst...if you want the recipe just click on the link above and you'll have it!)

Today's stats...

Starting weight (7/8/09): 363lbs

Current weight: 322.6lbs

This week's results: -3.4lbs

Total weight lost: -40.4lbs

Remember last week when I was all "I have to get back to basics"? Well, I didn't completely get back to basics every day, but I did do a decent job with trying to get back in the healthy groove and it obviously really paid off! I didn't workout due to my mental health crisis and my wrist situation, but I tried to do the best I could. I'm hoping to keep going with my momentum this week and keep kicking butt so I can finally crack the two mental stumbling blocks I apparently have...getting out of the 320's for good & losing over 50lbs. Since I'm feeling better mentally these days I think it will be easier. Plus Mother-Nature finally left a couple days ago and that always makes life better!

Consider it done: 1, 2, 3, 4, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 23

Just getting started: 5, 11, 18, 21, 22

Needs attention: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 25, 26

Cooking With Some Help From A Friend...

My friend Janice...you've probably seen her lurking around lately in the comment section...sent me a recipe that I tried out this weekend and I just had to share it with all of you. Both of us have a love for Mexican food, so I was totally down with this when she sent it to me. And as Janice implied...chicken, beans & cheese~~what else could one want in a meal?! :)

Let's get started...

Ingredients:

1 can refried beans

1 can chicken broth

1 can corn (not drained)

1 small jar of salsa

1 large can of chicken (who knew there was canned chicken out there...I sure didn't!)

1 can black beans (rinsed)

1 can northern beans (drained)

The recipe is originally a soup recipe, but Janice always cooks it down and makes it into a dip, so I decided to do the same thing. The original recipe says to put it all in a crock-pot and cook on high until the beans are pretty mashed up. (Janice cooks hers on the stove until the liquid is pretty well all boiled off.) The original recipe then says to turn the crock-pot on low and add 8 oz. velveeta cheese or 1/2 cup shredded cheese.

I decided I wanted to make mine in the crock-pot, but I wanted a dip instead of a soup. So I began with pour all of the ingredients into the crock pot (except the cheese)...

Then I mixed everything together.

I have one of those timers on my crock-pot so I set it to cook for 6 hours on high. After I had everything mixed together I put the cover on it and let the whole thing get nice and hot. Knowing the cover wasn't going to allow the liquid to cook-off after it was all hot (approximately 1.5-2 hours) I removed the cover, reset that original timer again to restart the 6 hours on high and left it to cook down...

This is where my plan went off course. Since I didn't even start this whole process until early afternoon yesterday I knew it wasn't going to be ready for dinner, but I figured I'd have some midnight munchies while slaving away with my homework. Well...I didn't plan on passing out while reading for Tax sometime after 7:30pm last night... Opps! But don't worry everyone because when I awoke at 4:30am this morning, my crock-pot was on warm, the dish was piping hot and the liquid was gone! The top was initially a little crusted looking, but as soon as I put my spoon in to see if my sleepiness had ruined an entire crock-pot of Chicken/Bean Dip it all came back to life! :)

And yes, for those curious...it did cook all night long without the top on the crock-pot; yes I woke up to the smell of Chicken/Cheese Dip all over my house~~needless to say I was extra hungry when I woke up; and no I do not worry about sleeping with a crock-pot going nor do I worry when I leave the house about leaving my crock-pot going...isn't that what they are made for?!?

So, at 4:30am this morning I sprinkled my cheese on it and waited for it to melt (I put the cover back on for that part...I was starving y'all!)...

After the cheese has melted it is ready to eat! Yummy!!

I put some on a plate and scarfed it down with some corn chips! It was very delicious!! Yummy!! :) At first I found it a little salty for my taste, but I'm crazy like that. I don't know why, but my taste buds can pick up salt in anything. So a little later when I had some more I added a little sour cream and some Catalina dressing...and I switched from the blue corn chips to the regular corn chips and it tasted perfect.

Since this is all I've snacked on all day (it reheats beautifully!) my man sad he was actually glad he wasn't sleeping next to me tonight! Toot~toot!!!!

Thanks Janice for the recipe! This is going to be a regular in j'lynn's world! I've already got plans to make it for the 4th of July!! hehehehe

Consider it done: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23

Just getting started: 9, 11, 22, 24, 25

Needs attention: 10, 12, 15, 16, 17