Blog overload, gotta catch up!

This weekend was busy! We started out by going to dinner Friday with our friends. We went to the Olive Garden, and it was sooo good. We practically had to roll ourselves out of there, we ate so much. Then, when we got back from I.F., we decided to go check out The Craze Zone, which is a new place here in town. We played laser tag, and I WON! :) It was a free for all. This place is worth checking out if you want something to do! The laser tag area is two levels, so it's extra awesome, and they have fog machines, so you can see your laser easier. It was great to work off some of dinner.

Saturday morning we all got up bright and early at 8 a.m. to go clean the church building. I wasn't sure how many people were in the other family assigned, so we got Lillie and James to come help us. The other family ended up having like 5 people or something, so there was like 10 of us there. We got done in an hour! Then James and Kendall went and picked up a washer and dryer...it will be SO nice to have a newer washer/dryer... the ones that came with the house ... well... they function, but the dryer doesn't even have the knob to turn the settings, so we have to use pliers and just guess where to set it. We were so excited, but the plug is a three plug and we need a four, so we have to buy some new cords or something.
We left for Yellowstone around 10:30, stopped in Ashton and decided to have lunch there since it was 11:00 and we were all hungry. We shared a Big Judd's burger (DELICIOUS!) and hit the road. Yellowstone was great and Mady was pretty good the whole trip. Made me miss Alaska though!

School starts in 10 days. EEk! I've registered for 4 Social Work classes, and my last religion credit. I am super excited, but a little nervous too. Our house is about to change into chaos mode! Lillie's going to be watching Mady while I'm in school, and then she has two classes to go to in the afternoon/evening. I think James' is taking 17 credits, so I doubt we'll see much of him once school starts, and Kendall has been working crazy hours. He got a raise, but it's hard to have him gone so much.

We decided to count the words Mady knows, because I'm a little worried sometimes. She uses 32 words... does that sound all right for a 20 month old? Should she be talking way more? I feel like she's been focusing more on her motor skills, and we work with her and read to her all the time, so I'm not toooo worried, but still. Her comprehension seems really good, and she follows directions and imitates.

Trip to Yellowstone

Here's Mady checking out the cows. We went to the fair last Friday and Mady liked seeing the bunnies, chickens, and goats.

Chopstick fun

James made us a little taste of Hungary, and it was delicious!

Isn't she looking good~slimming down!

Oh boy.

Mommy and Mady having fun with the webcam :) Got my haircut today.. not sure if I'm a fan, we'll see in a week.

Now for the scary part.

I am so terrified to post pictures of myself... still really self-conscious. I hate pictures of myself so much that I wouldn't even let Kendall take them. Anyways, a few people have asked, so here they are. My total weight loss is now 24 pounds.

Mady's new BFF

First... how many people does it take to install blinds? Good thing Wade and Amanda were there to help, or we would have given up :)

I have tried to get a picture of James and Mady, but this is the best I've got. Mady adores her uncle James (who is living in the downstairs apt with Lillie)

These are Kendall's gerbils...he renamed them Steven and Hawking...he was cleaning out their cage so they were chilling in this box.

This dresser has been floating around since.. .I think May or so... I FINALLY got it done! I was really pleased with how it turned out, so cute! It's for Mady's room. I completely stripped it, had to patch some giant dents in the wood, sand it, replace the handles, and paint it.

A good friend of ours got Mady this cute dress from Target, and she keeps asking to wear it :) She also insists on wearing her backpack 'leash'...

Weight Loss update

The weight loss ... is getting harder. I can't get motivated to work out.. it's just TOO HOT! I've still managed to lose two more pounds, bringing my total to 22 lbs! I'm still doing okay with staying off the junk food :)

Dance parade and looong hair!

The first three pictures were our attempt to show how long Mady's hair is because it looks short with the all the curls. The last picture if from last night, we went to the International Dance festival parade. We saw a lot of great costumes and talented dances from all over the world. A storm was blowing in, so we didn't get a chance to check out any of the street festival shops. Mady is sporting her poodle 'backpack'... got a few dirty looks for my child's "leash" but a lot of people thought it was cute...and Mady loves it! Sorry, I like keeping my kid safe in a busy place on the street.

Dinner

Here's one of the recipes I tried the other day.. once again, I'm not sure the picture makes them look all that great, but they were! They are 250 calories per serving if you use ground turkey instead of ground beef (which works out to be 3) It cost me about $5 (including the corn) since I already had a few things on hand, like the rice, garlic and lemon juice. Easily serves 4. Even if you aren't a fan of cabbage rolls, you might like it, because there isn't really much of a cabbage taste.

Cabbage Rolls

What you'll need:
12 Cabbage Leaves
1 lb ground turkey (recipe calls for ground beef, I substituted turkey)
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
1/2 cup uncooked instant rice (I accidentally used regular rice, was a little crunchy still)
1/2 ts salt
1/8 ts pepper
1 medium onion chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 can (4 oz) mushroom pieces and stems, undrained
1 ts sugar
1/2 ts lemon juice
1 tb cornstarch
1 tb water

What to do:
1. Cover cabbage leaves wtih boiling wtaer. Cover and let stand about 10 minutes or until leaves are limp. Remove leaves; drain. *This was the hardest part for me, separating the leaves and keeping the whole. Some of them ripped, but i was still able to use them. (The recipe suggests removing the core from the head of cabbage first and letting the cabbage stand in cold water for 10 minutes before separating the leaves. That didn't work very well for me)

2. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

3. Mix ground meat, rice, 1/2 cup of tomato sauce, salt, pepper, onion, garlic, and mushrooms. *I added some red pepper/cayenne, and we all felt like the mixture needed something else, like chopped up bell pepper maybe.

4. Place about 1/3 cup mixture at stem end of each leaf. Roll leaf around mixture, tucking in sides. Place cabbage rolls, seam down, in ungreased square baking dish 8x8x2 inches. They fit perfectly for me, snuggly.

5. Mix remaining tomato sauce, the sugar and lemon juice; pour over cabbage rolls.

6. Cover and bake about 45 minutes or until mixture is no longer pink in center. *I had trouble with this because ground turkey doesn't cook the same as beef, but it was done after the 45 min

7. Remove cabbage rolls to platter/plate. Pour liquid in baking dish into a saucepan. Mix cornstarch and water; stir into liquid. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly (like you would if you were making gravy) Boil and stir 1 minute. Pour sauce over cabbage rolls.

Interesting article

http://www.slate.com/id/2223745/?gt1=38001

Don't know how reliable it is ... but got me thinking