The Living Room

Quite a few people have been asking for pictures of our house.  I can never seem to get pictures when everything is clean all at the same time so I though I would just share a room at a time.  The first room I will share is the Living Room.  Keep in mind when looking at these pictures that my living room is about double the size of most living rooms here in the local area.  We were very lucky when we got this house.  It was the first and only house we had to look at.  We actually had to make a decision right on the spot as there was another family taking a second look at the house after our viewing.  I kinda felt bad about swiping this house out from someone...but only for a few seconds.  You snooze you loose....LOL!

 I don't like how my curtains are tied together right now.  But...I've not got the hooks for the tie backs anchored to the wall.  So, I tie the tie back around the curtain.  We don't get much sunlight here so I let it in when I can.  One day I will get the anchors up...LOL!

The black recliner was Nick's Christmas present this past year.  

We did have an ugly cream colored one that was an eye-sore.  

I totally love the red pillows.  They have raised flowers on them with a diamond looking center.  I found them at a local store here in England.

This is an ALL wool...totally handmade rug that Nick bought on one of his trips to Turkey.  We've been afraid to use it since we have the kids and the dog.  This rug was not cheap!  But...we decided to try and use it here.  No food or drinks allowed in the living room and shoes off at the front door.  So far...so good!!!   

Also, since we decided to use this rug we changed the colors of the living to room to include red.  We've never had red and black before.  I kinda like it though!!!  Black is my very favorite color!!

Dumb Dog

Many of you know that I refer to our dog Hazelnut as "Dumb Dog."  Not so much because she is actually dumb, but rather she is SO smart.  Hazel is one of the best dogs I have ever owned.  Although her puppy years were filled with frustration she has permanently become a member of our family.  So much so that she thinks she is human.  

Check out the pictures below.

I was working on laundry and I walked by Jake's room and this is what I saw.  Mind you both Jake and Kortney were in school.  I don't mind Hazel being in the kids' bed...but...she has her own blanket she is supposed to lay on so it's easier to keep everything clean.  

1).  She's not on her own blanket...but lying directly on the sheets.  

2).  Her head is on his pillow...LOL!  

I find her like this quite often....silly girl!!

This picture was taken 5 minutes later.  When I walked in and caught her in the first picture...she decided to move to her own blanket.  She thought she was going to get into trouble.  Notice though how she is only half way on her blanket and still lying on Jake's pillows.  If bedroom doors are left open I will find her rotating between Kortney's bed and Jake's bed.  A long time ago for one of my Creative Writing classes I actually wrote a sonnet about Hazel. 

I am sharing it below. 

 Not the best...but...I thought it was quite funny!!

Dumb Dog

A chocolate brown lab, tall with skinny legs

A loud mouth to boot, always making noise.

Annoyingly close, at dinner-time begs

Chewing on everything but her own toys.

Up early every morning to go pee,

As soon as she’s out all she does is bark.

A great pain in the rear, my dog is she.

White scratches on the door, she leaves her mark;

Restless all day she paces and she roams.

Anxious, excited, never stops to rest,

Eager she waits for the kids to come home.

They walk through the door, and I am quite stressed.

       The house becomes wild, my mind’s in a fog,

       All because of the stupid, brown, dumb dog.

The Winning Shot

Last night Jake had a basketball game.  His team did a great job.  It was their 5th game and thus far they had not had a win.  Let me just point out that technically in this basketball league there are no winners and losers.  However, at 11 years old...they know who wins and who loses.

Last night the game ended in a tie so they went into a 3 minute overtime and my little man made the winning shot for the team.  The score ended 18 to 16.  Now...I'm not trying to brag on Jake...but...taking that shot was huge for him.  Until this winning shot he had not even attempted to shoot the ball out of fear of letting his team down by missing a shot.  He overcame that fear this game and went for the shot.  It was a beautiful shot and really helped him with his self-esteem with his basketball abilities.

Jake mostly plays defense.  Tonight he did a really good job within defensive role.  I got a couple of shots on my camera.  I don't take the best pics but I wanted to share a few.

I love this shot!!  Check out Jake stealing the ball from the opposing team.

Jake passing the ball to his teammate.

I think there are about 11 games left in the season.  It is exciting to see the changes and the growth in all the kids as the season progresses.  GO NUMBER 22!!!  GO LAKERS!!!!  

Cheeseburger Casserole

Cheeseburger Casserole (Weight Watchers)

Servings: 6

Prep Time: 30 min

Cook Time: 55 min

Categories: Main Dish

Ingredients

		2 sprays Cooking Spray
		2 ea Potatoes (large, boiled or steam whole, drained and cooled)
		1 clove Minced Garlic
		1 ea Onion (chopped)
		1 ea Green Bell Pepper (chopped)
		1 cup mushrooms (sliced)
		1 lb ground turkey breast (uncooked)
		1/8 tsp ground cumin
		1/4 tsp Salt
		1/8 tsp Black Pepper
		2 oz Kraft Velveeta Light Reduced-Fat Pasteurized Processed Cheese
		1/4 cup low-fat evaporated milk
		1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
		8 ea baked low-fat tortilla chips (crushed)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Coat a 9-inch square baking dish with cooking spray.

Peel and thinly slice potatoes; layer in prepared baking dish. bake potatoes until slightly crisp, about 10 minutes; remove baking dish from oven and set aside.

While potatoes are baking, coat a large non-stick skillet with cooking spray and warm over medium-high heat; add garlic, onion, green pepper, and mushrooms. Cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are tender, about 7 to 10 minutes; remove to a plate, cover to keep warm and set aside. Add turkey to skillet; cook until browned, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon as it cooks, about 8-1- minutes. Add cooked vegetables, cumin, salt, and pepper to turkey and stir to combine; spread mixture over potatoes in baking dish.

In a small microwave safe bowl, combine cheese product, evaporated milk and crushed red pepper flakes; cover and microwave on high power until cheese melts, about 1 to 2 minutes. Spoon melted cheese over turkey and sprinkle with tortilla chips. Bake for 35 minutes; remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes before slicing into 6 pieces.

Notes

220 calories per serving

Journey To Health....

Germany was an awesome place to live. It's a beautiful country with lots of yummy foods. The cool thing about when I lived Germany was that I had endless options of food that I could indulge in that would not aggravate my food allergies or bladder issues. However, the food I ate there was not very healthy. And...I loved German bakeries and the candy aisle at the grocery stores. And they have the best soda in the world...German Fanta.

Unfortunately, I don't live in Germany anymore and have lost access to the yummy foods I readily partook of while there. So...I am going to use this time in England to get back on track with healthy eating and living.

In my journey to regain a healthy lifestyle of exercise and eating nutritious foods, I downloaded an app to my iPad called Menu Planner.

I absolutely LOVE this app. I was able to plan for a whole months worth of meals. It tracks what I need for groceries and creates a master shopping list that I can email to myself. I can also input my own recipes and...check this out...IMPORT recipes from a ton of online websites and magazines!!! Most of my recipe's are Weight Watcher's so don't let the titles of meals fool you.

That said I have January's menu completed. There are nights I won't be eating what is listed on the menu. For example Pizza Night and Spaghetti Night. I can't make the family suffer through a WHOLE month of blandness....LOL!! They will start crying ;(. I'll prob just eat pancakes or some yucky frozen meal those nights.

Since Jake will have basketball games on Tuesdays for the next 8 weeks I set Tuesday as Crockpot dinner night. That way all we have to do is eat before we leave or right when we get home.

Fridays are an easy cooking night just in case we decide to not eat at home and venture out for dinner.

Oh...another thing I am working is making a little bit of extra food to portion out and put in the freezer so I can stock up on freshly made meals I freeze myself so I don't have to buy store bought frozen dinners. Tastes WAY better! I'm shooting for 1200 calories a day and this will also help me keep track of calories since I already have it properly portioned.

Here we go to a healthy New Year!!