Saturday Bakes

Saturday I usually do alot of cooking/baking. I always make a special breakfast and normally at least one other thing. Well, this Saturday, I made Rachel Ray's Ham, Egg and Cheese Bake. While, I think Rachel has good ideas, they are normally starting off points for me and I will alter as I feel neccessary. Therefore I have changed it to Sausage, Egg and Cheese Bake. The ham wasn't good as well as some other ingrediants.

I also made Smitten Kitchen's Pumpkin Butter. If only I had some pecans on had. Mmmm...that would have been good. Once I made the Pumpkin Butter, I decided I needed something to spread it on so I made a Layered Pumpkin Loaf from Kraft's halloween recipes last year.

TGIF!

Boy am I glad we have moved on from this week. E and I have both been sick with a cold. He still has a few more long days of it though. I may have 2 or 3 more easy days left. We have both been severely exhausted due to meetings, work, travel, homework and just life in general, so Friday couldn't come soon enough this week.

But lots of exciting things happened this week:

-I found out that I am helping make Thanksgiving dinner (which I am actually excited about)

-E graduates on Monday night

-I finished a book for the first time in a VERY long time

-We settled on a first name for the baby

-An ER visit

-Having dinner with friends we hardly ever see tonight

-I am hosting a Dave Ramsey book giveaway!!

-I found a Pumpkin Butter recipe (per smitten kitchen) that I completely plan on making this weekend!

I know you are reading this thinking to yourself, "That's not exciting!!" Well, it is for me and I will take what I can get!! So what book did I read? Well, I am so very glad that you asked. I saw E.D. Hill on TV on night promoting her new book. The author is a mom of eight kids...YES...you heard me ...eight!! She is a promenant figure on Fox News trying to raise her family and hold a successful career. But the book is called "I'm not your friend, I'm your parent." I know I don't have kids yet but I thought it would hold my interest long enough to read it and I was completely right. I feel much more prepared for parenting this week than I did last week. And if you want to borrow this book from me, feel free to but I definately want it back. I fully intend on rereading this book several times before my kids leave for college. Good read...HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Pay It Forward Giveaway!

As some of you may remember, I won a Pay It Forward giveaway a few months ago. Having hosted a giveaway at the same time, I didn't feel the need to do another giveaway so soon. But now the time has come.

As many of you know, me and E having been working hard this year to pay off all of our debt. We fell upon Dave Ramsey's book Financial Peace right before we got married and really put it into practice over the past year. What a life change. Not that there was any fighting about money before (because E was never home and I just did what I needed to do) but we wanted to make sure that we didn't end up being one of those couples who fights constantly about money.

We also wanted to have plans for the future, plans for our kids and no bills to pay. While that's not entirely achieveable, since we will end up paying the power, water and gas bill every month, I want to be able to live my life without a car payment, without a credit card payment and without a student loan payment. We want to be able to pay for large purchases without having to use credit! Insane right?? No to us and so many others that are working towards that kind of lifestyle. We don't want to owe anyone...anything!!!

Since we are one step closer to paying off our debt (if you missed this post, we paid off our cars 2 weeks ago), I have decided to do a book giveaway. And no you don't get to chose which book...sorry! I am giving away Dave Ramsay's Total Money Makeover (unless you would rather have another one of Dave's books instead). Great book full of common sense advice that will teach you how to get out of debt, save, invest, and live the life you want without debt's hold over you. And just so you know, I plan on giving away another one of Dave's books everytime I pay off another bill.

So comment on this post before Monday at 5:00pm, and I will put you into the drawing for the book. I promise, it will change your life! I will announce the winner on Tuesday, November 28th. Good luck to you all!!

Bedroom Redo

Since me and E got a new mattress a few months ago, and it wouldn't fit on our original bed frame, we needed to adjust our bedroom setup since the bed was originally in front of the window. Every night, I found myself sleeping further and further down the bed to avoid losing my pillows in the window sill. So we rearranged the bedroom and I FINALLY got around to putting pictures into the picture frames. I have been married for almost 4.5 years and still haven't gotten around to putting pictures in any of my frames that I got for wedding presents or bought for our house. I know... ridiculous!!

So here are the pictures of the room. Sorry one of them is so blurry. I think I need my eyes checked.

Saturday Night Ball Games

Boy, after leaving Alabama several years ago, I had forgotten all of the football fanatics that plague our state (and my family). But we agreed to go to dinner party to watch the game anyway. E ended up helping family members on their computers while I socialized with the women while we talked about what we were/weren't going to name the baby. My cousin's wife Tara made lasagna, salad, garlic bread and an AWESOME Blueberry Pineapple Cobbler. (BTW, Tara, I need that recipe)

To appease my immediate family who couldn't attend, my aunt took several pictures of me including one belly picture. (**Please keep in mind that this belly picture is not current and is, in fact, a month old since all of the these events happened during the hurricane evacuation. My current belly no longer looks anything like this...will post current pics soon)

My aunt wanted someone to compare my belly to for a picture she wanted to send my mom. Immediately, my grandfather stood up, grinning from ear to ear, pulled up his shirt and posed for the picture. TOO FUNNY!!!

Best Laid Plans

My trip to the Woodlands got cut short this week so I am back to the blogosphere earlier than expected. Due to an out of control heartrate over 2 days, I was told I needed to go to the ER and get checked out since I was out of town. To tell the whole truth, I was more worried about the baby because I hadn't felt her move since my heartrate had jumped up which was a bit unusual. But the ER said I was fine, but wanted me to go home where I could be properly cared for by my own OB and they wanted me to see a cardiologist. They also checked Baby Bailey too. No worries there either. She was stunning!! As soon as they started hooking monitors to my belly, she felt the need to start jumping up and down and kicking and hasn't stopped yet. In fact, E felt her move for the first time last night while I was sleeping. He was quite excited. He says he is still not in baby mode and probably won't be until all of his schoolwork is over with (which will be Monday evening!!!)

So we decided it was time for me to come home and my traveling days are over unless we are together. Fine with me. It makes me nervous not knowing where the nearest hospitals are in case something happens and now that I am married, I have no desire to be in an ER waiting room by myself. I like to think I am independent enough to handle certain things alone but at the end of the day, I don't want to be that independent. And I know it made him sick that all of this stuff was going on while he was at home waiting for a phone call with the prognosis. But we are back home now and hopefully life will get back to normal starting today!

Another Business Trip...

Well, we are headed out AGAIN on Sunday morning for, yet, another business trip. Yes! Another one! If you have lost count already, this will make four trips in four weeks. Hopefully this is our last...because this is definately my last one. The swollen feet have started setting in and I can take anymore traveling. But we are heading to the Woodlands in Houston until Wednesday night so I will be back to normal on Thursday. I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Knock, Knock...Housekeeping

So I told you I was getting a housekeeper right? I think the only reason that E agreed to it was because I couldn't clean the bathtubs anymore and he didn't want to. But for whatever reason, I am glad they are coming now. They come every other week to clean my floors, the bathroom, and the kitchen. Yesterday was the first day and I loved every minute of it. They cleaned my baseboards, the kitchen cabinets, the ceiling fans, the picked up everything and moved it to clean under it, the window sills, even my toaster oven. It is so awesome to know that all I have to do this weekend is laundry!

Thank you God for giving the world housekeepers!!!