wondering

Psalm 8:3-4

"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?"

Five Years!

Today is me & Jonathan's 5th anniversary! We had fun yesterday spending the day together. Our original plans were to go to disney but that was cancelled due to tropical storm Fay. Hopefully we'll be able to still go in the coming weeks.

We had lunch together at Longhorn's, I gave Jonathan a new wedding band (actually he got this a month or two ago because I just couldn't wait anymore to give it to him! His old ring was badly scratched so I wanted him to have a new one) and yesterday we bought a Wii! I am so excited! We have been wanting one for a long time.

The time has flown by - 5 years. We talked a lot yesterday about our many many memories we have made together and now with our son Shea too. Jonathan & I have known each other for 15 years so we have a ton of memories!

I am so grateful to God that He made me for Jonathan! He is such a godly man, he works very hard to provide for us, he makes me laugh, he is my best friend, he is such a great dad and loves Shea soooo much!

I pray that we have many many more anniversaries together. Love you babe!

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I love trying out new recipes! Over at Today's Housewife blog, they are doing a series of recipe swaps called "Please pass the..." This week the main ingredient is chicken. I have a chicken recipe that my family just loves! It is a little bit time consuming but it's worth it! I double it because we really really like it.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients
3 tablespoons oil
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup water chestnut
2/3 cup mushroom
3 tablespoons chopped onions
1 teaspoon minced garlic
4-5 leaves iceberg lettuce

Special Sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon hot mustard
2 teaspoons water
1-2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste

Stir Fry Sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

Directions
1. Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl.
2. Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil.
3. Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve.
4. Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well.
5. Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.
6. Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan.
7. Saute chicken breasts for 4 to 5 minutes per side or done.
8. Remove chicken from the pan and cool.
9. Keep oil in the pan, keep hot.
10. As chicken cools mince water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas.
11. Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl.
12. When chicken is cool, mince it as the mushrooms and water chestnuts are.
13. With the pan still on high heat, add another Tbsp of vegetable oil.
14. Add chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms to the pan.
15. Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and saute the mixture for a couple minutes then serve it in the lettuce"cups".
16. Top with"Special Sauce".

Thank You!

Thanks for the new shoes, Grandaddy & Grammy!!!!!!

Busy, busy

It was a busy day at our house yesterday.

I was cleaning out my pantry and Shea was playing in the kitchen when he slipped and fell. He has his first busted lip now. After a few tears he was up and playing again but his lip is swollen. I know it's probably the first of many bumps and bruises my active little boy will have in his life.

Then we made more freezer meals. Lena came over and she made lasagna while I made chicken stuffing casserole & baked spaghetti.

We ate some of the Chicken Stuffing Casserole last night and it was yummy! Here's the recipe:

2 packages (6oz each) chicken stuffing mix
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 cup milk
4 cups cubed cooked chicken
2 cups frozen corn

2 cans mushroom stems & pieces
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1. Prepare stuffing mixes.
2. In a large bowl, combine soup and milk. Set aside.
3. Spread the stuffing into a greased 9x13 pan.
4. Layer with chicken, corn, mushrooms, soup mixture & cheese.
5. Cover and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

After that we ran some errands and then Shea & I came home and played for a bit before I went to work. I thought this was a really cute pic & wanted to share it. :)

Staples

Many of you know that I got a part time job at Staples a few weeks ago. It's convenient because they give me the hours I want: evenings & some weekends (so Jonathan can be home to watch Shea). And it's only 5 minutes from my house.

Well they are having a pretty good sale this week on school supplies: 4 pack gel pens free after rebate, slider pencil cases for a penny, mini staplers for a quarter, and 2 pocket plastic report covers for 20 cents. The report covers are good for organizing coupons or menus; they have holes on the side, like a folder does, so you can put it in a 3 ring binder.

Another cool thing about Staples is this Saturday, Aug 2, they are having Teacher Appreciation Day. This is even for homeschool moms. I know you get a free gift if you are one of the first 200 teachers (I think 200) and I'm pretty sure there are other cool perks if you stop by. I will find out more details tonight and post here.

Diapers, Diapers Everywhere!

I have been hoping this Walgreens diaper deal would work out, and had pretty much given up on it until last night.

Those of you that shop at Walgreens know about a coupon book they have available at the front of the store. A new one comes out each month. Well, July's coupons were good thru 7/26 and August's coupons started 7/25 so there were two "overlap" days where you could use both coupons.

My friend Lena and I decided that Friday morning we would drive to all of our local Walgreens and hopefully get this great deal on diapers. But it was a bust; no one had the August books out.

On Saturday I called every Walgreens in my county to see if they were available yet but they were not. I was so disappointed!

Lena was coming over Saturday evening to do some more freezer meals with me and she stopped by Walgreens on her way over. OH MY GOODNESS they have the new coupons! Needless to say, we abandoned our meals and drove to 3 different Walgreens and cleared out their shelves!

Here's what I got:

27 packs of diapers @ 5.99 each = 161.73

minus (9) $5/2 coupons from July book = 94.23

minus (9) $5/2 coupons from Aug book = 26.73

After Register Rewards back ($5 for every 3 packs) this was my total:

-18.27

Yes, Walgreens paid me 18.27 to take 27 packs of diapers out of their store! Crazy, huh.

This picture doesn't really do it justice. But here it is anyway. Lena's 24 packs & my 27 = 51 packs of diapers!! Wahhhhooooooooooooooooooo :)