Happy Tuesday!

We've been running, running, running lately. Last week we left on Tuesday and drove down to my hometown for the Thanksgiving holiday. Michael spent a lot of time fishing with one of my favorite people in the whole world, Bubba. (thanks to a super-sweet person at hometown Wal-Mart for hooking him up with a fishing license for the in-state rate, because $45+ for a fishing license is outrageous!) In all their (many) hours of fishing, they caught ONE tiny little fish. But they still enjoyed themselves. I wish I had gotten a picture. They took Cade, Bubba's 10-year-old son, along with them. Sara was not very fond of this because she couldn't fit on the little boat Bubba has, which meant she had to stay behind. She thinks Cade hung the moon but she was NOT happy that she couldn't go fishing with him. She even packed her little pink pole. :) I did not get one single picture of the three Muskateers fishing, which is a shame.

On Wednesday, a couple more of my favorite people ever came up from south Mississippi.


Bubba's brother, Michael, and his wife, April. Bubba & Michael (and their sister, Lee) are my cousins -- but we were raised in the same household with our grandparents and they are more like siblings to me. We are just that close. Closer than close. Like peanut butter & jelly. Biscuits & butter. Sausage and gravy. Whipped cream & hot chocolate.

You get the drift.

Anyway. Thursday we ate, ate, ate, and ate some more. I cooked green bean casserole. Everybody else cooked a LOT of food and it was GOOD! (Props to my mom for making a FROM SCRATCH red velvet cake just 'cause I asked her to! You did good, mama! Now we know you can cook and you will NOT be left off the hook anymore! *evil laugh*)

Sara with two of her cousins -- Cade & Aubrey

Michael & April left and went back to south MS. Had my cryfest, sucked it up and put myself back together. Michael (my husband) went with my mom & Lee shopping while I put the girls to bed, then he came home and I went shopping. At 3 am. To Kohls. And it was heavenly. I get such a rush from Black Friday shopping!

Saturday we slept in until Bubba came banging on the door, telling us he was leaving early to head back home. We all said our goodbyes and I came in to have my little (okay, stupidly huge ) cry fest. I was TOTALLY EXHAUSTED at this point. I was running on about 4 hours of sleep ove the past 48 hours. Threw us all together and went over to another cousins for the AL/AU game. Got overly cocky the beginning of the game and spent the second half sleeping because I was so disappointed with our team....and tired. Next year, boys. Auburn is a great team (even though I bleed crimson through and through!) but I do NOT understand the hooplah about Cam Newton. He ain't the only one on your team, folks!

Sunday we didn't make church because I seriously have been having some horrible body pains lately. I don't know if it's the weather (cold + rainy) or WHAT. It seriously hurts so bad I want to take pain pills when I get up every morning and I NEVER take pain meds! I feel like I'm 85 or something.

And now...I'm spending this week unpacking, cleaning house, decorating outside for Christmas, and then packing it all up again because Michael is going away next week. Story of my life.

Menu Plan Monday! 11/29

Monday: beef stir fry, white rice, egg rolls

Tuesday: salmon croquettes, vegetables from the freezer & wild rice

Wednesday: lima beans & cornbread

Thursday: pancakes or waffles

Friday: grilled cheese sandwiches & soup

Saturday & Sunday we'll be in my hometown for a birthday party & church. I have the ingredients for the whole week on hand already -- so no grocery shopping for me! We're in grave "Dave Ramsey" mode, so this is good news for the grocery budget.

P.S. -- That veggie pizza I made last week? ROCKED! It was a huge hit and I've been asked to add it to our regular circulation of recipes. I seriously contemplated making it again this week.

Meal Plan Monday

Monday: whole wheat pizza with alfredo, sauteed green peppers, zuchinni, onions, spinach, and goat cheese.

Tuesday: whole wheat pitas with hummus, onion, tomato, and spinach

Wednesday: chicken & dumplings

Thursday: Thanksgiving! Gobble Gobble. :)

Friday: leftovers

Saturday: leftovers

Sunday: vegetable beef soup

**Tuesday - Sunday we'll be at my mama's, so I'm trying to clear out my fridge before we go...hence all the fresh vegetables being used today & tomorrow!

Hope you have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving this week!

2010 Christmas Cards

This year, we're adding a precious new member to our Christmas card photo. Last year, I didn't even DO Christmas cards -- I was way too sick with the pregnancy to even think about it. I'm struggling with capturing just the right photo -- we have one so far, but I'm hoping to catch a few more.

A few weeks ago, I started searching for Christmas card templates to use. I'm ordering a few from Shutterfly...there are a couple looks I really like & I'm having the hardest time choosing! (

I really like the look of this one and the fact that I can use more than one picture:

And I LOVE the print on the bottom of this one:

This year, Shutterfly is giving away FIFTY FREE CARDS to bloggers. I'm THRILLED to see them do this! Go, Shutterfly!

If you've already done your Christmas cards, Shutterfly offers plenty of other things to satisfy your needs. They have wall calendars, canvas wall art, and birthday party invitations. I really love the calendars as gifts -- for less than $20, they're a bargain! I definitely think we'll be ordering June Claire's birthday party invitations from here. They are super cute!

So if you're a fellow blogger -- go grab your 50 free cards from Shutterfly today!

Can't wait to see what you choose. :)

Junk-infested garage & a little Christmas decor

Last weekend, we cleaned the garage out. When I say "we", I really mean that Michael did 90% of the work. I did as much as I could in between keeping June happy. We haven't cleaned it out since we've lived here -- and we've been here over 3 years. Let me just say there was SO. MUCH. JUNK! But the garage is so clean and pretty now! We can actually park our car in there, and we can actually move around in there, and I don't have to worry about being bit by a monster from the depths of the junkiness! Don't believe we have a lot of junk? Here it is in the driveway & in the front yard after we pulled it out:





Told ya'll it was bad.

For some reason, I didn't take pictures after we had put it back in. Probably because a certain 5 month old was melting down due to being put down late for bed. At least, that's what I'm going to blame it on. Yeah, that's definitely what I'm going to blame it on. Just trust me when I say -- we got rid of 85% of that stuff, & my husband rocks at organization. Must be the military thing workin' on him!

While we had all the Christmas storage tubs out, M had the bright idea of going ahead and putting up all the Christmas decorations inside the house.

Faint. Fall out. What the heck did he just say? He always rags on people who decorate before Thanksgiving!

After I made sure that's REALLY what he said (and picked myself up off the floor), I agreed. I think we were both feeling the short of the stick last Christmas season, when we got the tree up, oh.....two weeks before Christmas. And I don't think I even did any other decorating. I was expecting June and things were tough. So, anyway -- now that I've bored you all to tears -- here's a few things for your eyes:

This is a peek into just how often Miss Junebug gets held around here!

The bookcase. I swear it looks like it has more on it in person...

Top. Eeeek!!! at the dust! Sorry, ya'll -- I'm not perfect. ;)

I had taken more pictures of the rest of the bookcase, but Blogger is being a pain and won't load them correctly. I still have to take pictures of the mantle, the tree itself, the Christmas village, the wreath, & the second little tree -- I'll get that post up later in the week.

I hope ya'll have a great weekend!

Modern Bird Studios -- giveaway!

I LOVE Thrifty Decor Chick, and this weekend she has paired up with Modern Bird Studios with an aaaaaaamazing giveaway!

Modern Bird Studios breaks down normal photographs into two, three, four, or five-color images. Their work looks stunning and I'm REALLY hoping I win the $250 gift card to their studio, because an image of the girls would look beautiful in my living room!

The giveaway is open until Monday, November 22, at 5 pm EST. Good luck -- these images are gorgeous!

The best meatloaf you've EVER put in your mouth!

My mama turned another year younger on October 31 (Hey, mama! I know you're reading this!) and she specifically asked for meatloaf, lima beans, mashed potatoes & gravy, green beans, coleslaw, and cornbread for her birthday dinner. I had never made meatloaf before so I asked around and got this recipe from my cousin, Tammy. Her husbands grandmother had passed it down to her. I was a little skeptical because....horseradish in meatloaf? Really? But ya'll. YA'LL. It was the BEST meatloaf I have EVER had -- and I looooove meatloaf! I don't have any pictures, but here's the recipe. I command you to TRY IT!



3 Cups Kelloggs Corn Flakes Cereal
1 can (10 3/4 oz) Campbell's condensed tomato soup
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 egg
1 tsp. prepared mustard
1 tablespoon horseradish (optional)
1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar

1. Throughly combine Kellogg's corn flakes cereal, 1/2 cup of the tomato soup, onion,
egg, and horseradish. Mix in ground beef.

2. Portion meat mixture into 6 parts or shape it into individual loaves.

3. Place on foil lined baking sheet.

4. Mix together remaining soup, brown sugar and mustard. Spread evenly over meat.

5. Bake in oven on 350 degrees for about 35 minutes or until meat is cooked.

Hope ya'll enjoy!

Brain dump

1. There are big, big changes coming to my blog. I've got a new name picked out (thanks to my trusty creative friend, Ashlee), I'm going to get a new template & I'm shopping around for a new header. I also SWEAR BY THE GRACE OF GOD I'm going to post at least twice a week. For real this time. I'm going to sit down on the weekend and type up a few entries at a time and schedule them! Why did I never think of that utilizing that cool tool before?

2. June had an appointment Thursday for her second Synergis (Synagis?) vaccination. She weighed 9 pounds 10 ounces! That was up 5 ounces from her previous appointment the week before. Go June!

3. Speaking of June, about a week ago we started her on solids. Everyone with a degree gave me the go ahead, so I attempted it. Baby cereal = FAIL. But I don't blame her. That stuff looks like regurgitated vomit. However, squash and green beans? Amazeballs.

4. My decision to change my blog name happened because I discovered someone who was searching for "bare feet of a 12 year old girl" found my blog. Disturbing. And sickening.

5. Where did fall go? It's been frigid here lately. It seems like we went from throw-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk-and-fry-it HOT.....to the kind of cold where you don't even want to go outside.

6. And by that kind of cold, I mean 50 degrees. Hey, this IS Alabama, after all! (Although it did drop down to 28 one night.)

I've got tons of super cute pictures & good posts coming up, so stay tuned!