10 Random Things for a Friday

1. The Enchilada Casserole was a big hit :)
2. Jack seems to be sleeping a little worse each night lately. I'm exhausted!
3. My oven officially sucks. Hubby tested the temp. When set to 400 degrees, it varies between 350 and 460. 
4. Based on #3, I'm trying to decide what to do for my chocolate tastings this weekend. I usually bake cookies, and was planning to bake brownies this time, but now that I know why they haven't been working out, I'm reluctant to set myself up for failure again.
5. I think the kids are tired too - it's pretty quiet around here today.
6. It's really nice to have a Friday night off for a change. And I'd better appreciate the heck out of it now - I work the next two again :)
7. I'm still sitting on a hard metal chair at my computer, so I don't come up here much...
8. I think I just may go take a nap with the kids.
9. Maggie was so excited to see snow this morning, but I don't have boots, and the snow has melted before daddy is coming home from work. Oh well.
10. I could be making phone calls now, but I know that would wake the kids up. I'm not sure how, but that's how it works.

Enchilada Casserole Recipe

I saw this over on A Busy Mom's Slow Cooker Adventures and decided we're trying it for dinner tonight. I'm actually retyping it here so I'll be able to print it out and take it to the kitchen with me. Her post has the pictures that are getting me to try the recipe, but I don't want to print them all out!

Ingredients:

12-14 small flour tortillas (someone later in her comments mentioned corn tortillas didn't work!)

1/2 lb. ground beef, seasoned, browned and drained

1 can black beans, drained

1 jar salsa

1 medium onion, chopped

1 can Enchilada Sauce

2 cups Shredded Cheese

1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 - 1 tsp. chili powder

non-stick spray

Directions:

Spray the Slow Cooker liner (or the slow cooker, if you haven't got the fabulous liners) with non-stick spray.

Brown the ground beef with the salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and chili powder.

Line the bottom of the Slow Cooker with the flour tortillas.  You may need to cut some in half.

Next, spread 1/3 of the ground beef, 1/3 of the black beans, 1/3 of the onion, 1/3 of the salsa, 1/3 of enchilada sauce and 1/4 of the shredded cheese over the bottom layer of tortillas.

Now, make 2 more layers just like this! Just reserve a tiny bit of Enchilada sauce for the top layer!

Lastly, place one last layer of tortillas on top and top that with the last bit of Enchilada Sauce and cheese!

Cook on LOW for 4-6 hours or on HIGH for 2 hours.

When it's all done, she said the top actually got crispy!!!!! Sounds delicious - and the photos are great too if you check out her post here.

Stalled Decorating...

Other than setting up my office, we've now completed most of the things that came in at the 'top' of our list for decorating in the new house.

Primarily, that was just the bathroom that the kids (well, just Maggie for now) will use upstairs. This little picture shows the decorations from Uppercase Living that we put opposite the bathroom vanity. It doesn't show the paint color very well at all, though. It's actually a really light, non-offensive cream color. Blame the rest on my photography skills ;)


I'd still like to paint the office a fun, energetic color, but of course first I need to actually find places to store my stuff and make the room more usable anyway. Someday...

Why Indeed??

Dear Stayfree:

My daughter was looking around the other morning as I got dressed and ready. She gets lonely if she's in an area of the house away from me, so she's usually in our bedroom or bathroom while I get ready. On this morning, she found a beautiful white piece of paper with pink butterflies. It was the adhesive covering from a sanitary pad. She asked me, "Mommy, why did someone draw butterflies on this?" Why, indeed.

In trying to find what exactly butterflies signify, I found things like 'love,' 'freedom,' 'rebirth,' and 'transformation.' Now I wonder who wants me to think of these things when I'm decidedly not pregnant, and bleeding from my crotch. Really??

How much are the spending to make the paper on the back of the adhesive of my sanitary pads have pretty pictures on it? And who is actually making money for designing freestyle butterflies to be printed there?

Unfortunately, my dear daughter, this is one of those questions that will never have a satisfactory answer. I have absolutely no idea why someone drew butterflies on something that is only seen by any eyes on its way to the trash. No idea at all.

Too Busy to be Single!

It feels like hubby and I are running in circles lately - too bad they're usually different circles ;) And the stuff we're doing usually has us taking off our artcarved wedding bands - me so I don't coat it in baby poop...again...and him so he doesn't catch it on some car part and take off half a finger along with it!

I've been extra busy doing the same stuff as normal - laundry, cleaning, dishes, meals...but trying to do it all while holding Jack! He's such a snuggler, and I can't stand to hear him cry when it's so easy to hold him and watch him smile :)

Hubby is in the home stretch of fixing his car. Getting the parts he needed was a real struggle, but he's finally found the stuff that will make it work. He says it will only be about one more night away from home (working with a friend's tools in his garage), and less than a week left overall! I know he likes that car - I'll be really happy for him to be able to drive it again.

What the Hell Wednesday

Maybe in polite society this post would be called, "Things that make you go hmmm..." But I don't feel like starting my own meme, so I'll follow Stacy and Elle at Blue Monkey Butt with WTH Wednesday.

Dear insurance company: Really? I can change my doctor, but it doesn't become active until February 1? We're not even half way through January! So I'll have to go see some doctor I've never seen tomorrow, but then I'll actually have yet another doctor (the closer one to home, who I actually want to see from now on) starting in a few weeks. Yeah, this sounds really great for resolving issues. If tomorrow's doctor can't figure it all out by January 31, we'll just start over again next month. Yay.

And kudos to either my local credit union, or the federal government. Between them, my daughter now apparently has an invalid social security number somewhere...so the credit union is charging her backup withholding for the federal government. Really? How far can she really be behind on her taxes - she's FOUR! This seems so obvious it should be easily rectified, but instead I need to fill out paperwork for the credit union (again) and if it isn't don in time (since we never received the letter they supposedly sent in November), I'll have to go sort it out at Secretary of State. Just imagine if she actually had a job or records anywhere! Who thought being in preschool could be this complicated?

Last but certainly not least - dearest body of mine, get with the program. Childbirth is over. Time to get back to regularly scheduled programing. Just saying.

My Sister

Authored by Rickey Combs

My sister has been totally useful since I started talking about buying a house and it’s mostly because she’s a realtor. I love that I can go to her if I have any questions and she’s constantly coming to me with unsolicited – but good – suggestions like “Ambit Energy for your home” and “hire someone to do the lawn instead of doing it yourself!” I am really close to her since we’re so similar in age and I know that it’s only a matter of time before I find the perfect house. She’s going to want to help me move in and decorate and all that, I’m sure, and I really appreciate that she’s willing to give up her free time to make my living situation as good as it can possibly be. Sharon’s always been really selfless and I’m just lucky her chosen profession is something that benefits me in the long run, you know what I mean? I’m glad she’s not a garbage collector or something!