I'm in charge of dinner? Crap!

Dinner is usually planned out a week in advance. I normally have a dinner plan that I put together at the beginning of the month and have the food as pre made as possible for the upcoming week. Since the New Year and I started back at work, I have yet to put together a monthly menu or even have anything pre made. I have failed at my job, being the cook. I never realized how much more difficult it is for me to figure out dinner on a nightly basis without my plan. Coming home from work at 5 to look in the pantry or fridge and decide on what to make easily puts dinner past 8:30. Or instead of making anything, I pick something up that is pre made or we go out. With not cooking as often, we have both been eating lunch out more often than before. This isn’t the type of eating habits I want for us. If we both go out to lunch and dinner in one day, it puts our food total around $50 a day which is outrages. For $50, I could buy 4 days worth of food for both of us and Scott eats a lot. So my pledge for the rest of the year is to make 6 full dinners a week which will also provide us both with 5 lunches. It’s not only fiscally responsible; it is healthier for both of us. I am back on track with monthly meal plans as well as filling up the freezer with meals in advance for the nights we have sports. I can’t encourage everyone enough to sit down for one hour and plan out your meals. It makes it so much easier to eat at home when there is a set plan. It’s only 2 of us but we both work full time jobs and I am in school full time so neither of us has time or money to waste eating out at a restaurant as much as we have.

Dating Rules

Last night I met up with some friends to watch the Texas Longhorns beat the crap out of the OSU Cowboys. Within 10-15 minutes of the start of the game, neither of us girls was paying any attention to the game. We pretty much used the game as an excuse to get out of the house, drink beer and gossip. So we let our boyfriends watch the game while we gossiped. This was the first time I had met her new boyfriend and previous to this guy she had gone on a lot of dates through match.com with very little to no luck. As we talked about her previous dates, I began to realize she had her dating pattern all wrong, or at least in my opinion. I may be young but I have gone on a LOT of dates. After my first year post high school sweetheart, I formulated a dating guide to help navigate the dating waters. These guidelines helped me a lot to weed out the bad ones and to catch a great guy. Some people disagree with them but I have had great success over the past year sticking to them.
1. First dates should never be anything more than a drink. Whether it is the first time meeting the person because it’s an internet date or you met the person at a happy hour or event, never do anything more than drinks.
2. First 3 dates should occur during the week. Dates on Friday and Saturday night don’t have the same end time as week dates. If you meet during the week, the date should end by 10:30. This takes the pressure off. It lets you get to know the person on a more casual level. Plus if the date is going really bad, there is the excuse of work in the morning.
3. For the Ladies: Do not text, email or call the guy until he calls, texts or emails you and only respond once for each line of communication. He sends you a text respond once and keep it brief. You want to look interested but not so interested that he thinks you’re crazy. I would typically wait at least 30 min to respond to a text, 2+ hours for an email and 12-24 hours for a phone call. I never answered the phone the first time a guy called. If he was really interested, he would leave a voice mail with info for a next date.
4. Do not introduce friends until the 5th date. Get to know the guy before you bring him to your friends for judgment.
By the 4th date, your judgment should be able to tell you if the person is right for you. If your gut is saying something is not right than trust it.

Bog? What Blog?

So this Blog has fallen by the waist side for me. Life took over and I have not been a good blogger, clearly. Over the past few months I have explored many different blogs and really thought about what I want this space to be. A cooking Blog? Not so much because my cooking and photography skills are lacking, heavily. A blog where I can go and complain? No Thanks. Because who really wants to read a blog that the writer complains on EVERY. DAMN. DAY. I know I don't. So instead of defining what this space on the vast Internet will be, I am going to call it the junk pile. I will some days write about my struggles in the kitchen or with my boyfriend or even my crazy ass family. Please comment if you like or don't like something but remember this is my space. If you really don't like what you read, you don't have to read it.

THANKS!

December Recap

Does December fly by incredibly fast for anyone else? I feel like I went to bed on thanksgiving and woke up on the day after Christmas. So this is going to be my fast recap on everything that has happened since thanksgiving.

December kicked off with a storm. It felt like we had something to do and somewhere to go every weekend. The first weekend we headed off to Dallas for the Big 12 Championship game. It was a nail bitter. I didn't think the longhorns were going to pull it out but they did! We parked about a mile from the stadium but I couldn't tell on the walk back to the car because I was so excited about the big win.



The following weekend we went to a friends Christmas party where I proceeded to drink way too much and spent the weekend recovering. I also finished another round of classes that weekend so it was kind of crazy.

Up next was my office Christmas party. My boss's wife was generous enough to agree to host so I didn’t have to do any extra work like normal. It was so nice to see everyone's significant other and the food was awesome. There was only one downer but she took off early so she didn't ruin anyone's fun.

The last weekend before Christmas, Scott and I had an awesome weekend away in Fredericksburg. We went to 4 different wineries and bought way too much wine but it was really relaxing to just walk around and enjoy all the beautiful Christmas decorations. I really didn't want to go home and face my kitchen....

This year instead of going out to buy 15 different gifts for my co-workers, I decided I would make them all a small basket of treats. It took about two days to make everything but the treats turned out great and everyone loved them. I loved the price tag and how much easier it was then going shopping for a bunch of pointless gifts. The grand total for all 15 gifts was a whopping $115 which included wrapping and all the materials. Last year I spent almost double that and I don't think people enjoyed the gifts half as much.

Christmas this year was a little rough. Kyle is still in Iraq so it was hard to celebrate knowing he is still in harm’s way. Christmas Eve we went to Scott's parent’s house for dinner. His Mom makes Swedish meatballs for dinner and we sit around drinking Glog. After dinner Scott and I drive back up north to church with my parents and sister. After church we all go back to my house for dessert, coffee and opening of some gifts. By the time everyone left, we got the house cleaned, and the dogs put to bed, it's always after midnight. We have to wake up at 7 Christmas morning to get everything ready to head back down to Scott's parents house for a brunch and gifts. By the time we leave there to head back up north to my parent’s house, I am ready for a nap. Christmas at my parents i spent opening gifts and listening to Christmas music. We were really lucky to get to talk to Kyle on Skype for about an hour. It's not the same as having him with us but it's better than nothing. After all the gifts are opened and dinner has been consumed. We go see a movie. This year we went to see Avatar. If you haven't seen it yet, go. It was a really good movie. It was a great message and the graphics were really cool. I also went to see It's Complicated with my Mom, Another GREAT movie. We were laughing through almost the entire thing. I still want to see Did you hear about the Morgan’s, and Young Victoria but I can probably wait for those to come out on DVD. Have you seen any good movies?

For New Years we are heading off to Houston. I am hoping I can talk Scott into going to the Art Museum but I have a feeling that won't be happening but keep your fingers crossed for me.

I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas and have a Happy New Year! I will be back after the first with TWD, MSCC, and CEIMB.

Oh Mrs. Palin...

I told myself when I started this blog that I would try not to bring up Politics. But this to me is something that must be talked about. First and foremost, I am not a Democrat. Nor am I a Republican. I prefer to say I am somewhere in the middle. I like a balanced budget and prefer the Republican fiscal standards but on the other hand I usually agree with Democratic social issues. So let’s say I am a Redemocratican.

While watching the nightly news, I saw on the news ticker that Sarah Palin was asking President Obama to boycott the Climate Conference in Copenhagen on her Facebook page. So like any other concerned citizen, I logged onto Facebook, found Mrs. Palin’s Facebook page and read in detail what the hell she was talking about. You can find the article here.

After reading her full note, all I want to do is find her, and yell at her until she becomes an intelligent human being. What the hell goes through her small brain to make her think this is a good idea? What message does it send to the world when our President doesn’t show up? We are in a time where our nations is looked down upon by almost every other country in the world. As a whole we need to be looking to for ways to rebuild our relationships with the world, not tear them down anymore. I could go on and on and on but I am going to stop there for today.

Cohabitation

I live with my Boyfriend and we are not married and do not plan to marry for another couple years. I read the statistics online and know what the “professionals” say about living together before marriage. But I disagree. We moved in together after only dating for 6 months. It was fast to say the least. We had not talked about marriage before moving and really weren’t sure if things were going to work out. But we made the plunge and moved in. After a year and a half we are still together and working through our issues one day at a time. It is not easy but we work on things daily. A great example came up recently. He is a huge clean freak. He is almost to the point of OCD. He does not like a thing out of place or a piece of paper to be left lying around. This inevitably caused an argument between us because I am not so much of a clean freak. I start many projects and don’t always clean up right away. We are both learning how to work with one another’s cleaning habits to create a living environment we both can live in. Some days it’s hard for both of us but knowing we are both willing to work on it really helps. I don’t know if I would make the same decision I made again in the future if it ever comes up but right now I am happy, Even if my mother bugs me daily to get married. I know in my heart I made the right decision for me at the time I made it. Critics say what you want about living together before marriage, but know that those of us doing it, did it by choice and are happy with the choice we made.

Monday Funday

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break. I know for me it went by really fast.

Since it was my day to pick over at Martha Mondays, I decided to give martha another shot. I picked something I thought would be easy and straight forward, Picture-Frame Ornaments. I was wrong. It was not easy and it turned out horrible. So in light of all my failed Martha Stewart projects, I have decided to send Martha a letter. Let me know what you think.

Dear Mrs. Stewart,

May I ask what is going on? Your magazine has taken a sharp turn downward lately. Every recipe and project I have tried from you has been awful lately. Nothing has turned out as you say in your directions. I usually have great success with your stuff but lately it has been the opposite. I tried many different version of your stuff but have suffered the same problems. What is going on with Omnimedia? Is it time to hire on a new CEO? Whatever it is, I hope you fix the issue soon. Until then I am sorry to say I canceled my subscription to Martha Stewart Living. I hope you fix the issues soon and I will renew my subscription.

All the Best,
Maryann


Here are a couple pictures of my christmas decorations. Out house is pretty small so I have been limited to decorating the dinning room only.