What's For Dinner?

This week was a super busy week for me. So I wanted nothing more than some comfort food to relax with. Pasta and meatballs sounded AH-mazing, but that didn't seem like a good idea since I'm trying to watch what I eat. So I came up with an alternative, which is equally delicious and comforting!

Chicken Meatballs
2 lbs ground chicken
1/2 cup skim milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 t Oregano
1 t Italian Seasoning
1/2 c minced onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 whole wheat bread crumbs
salt and pepper, to taste

First, preheat the over to 400.

Then, start by putting the chicken into a big bowl. Add all of the ingredients except the onion and garlic.

Finely chop the onion and garlic, and then dry sautee (no oil) them together for about 5 minutes. I wanted a stronger onion flavor, so I only did it long enough for the onions to begin to soften. If you don't want as strong of an onion flavor, you may want to cook them longer.

Add the onion and garlic right into the bowl, and then mix everything together with your hands.

Form meatballs that will fit into a mini muffin pan, and fill!

Cook the meatballs for approximately 20 minutes. I used a meat thermometer, and mine were perfectly done at 19 minutes.

This recipe made 30 meatballs, and a good serving size was 3 a piece. Which meant I had plenty to freeze and serve later!

I'm sure there are plenty of ways to serve these, but like I mentioned, I was going for comfort. I cooked up a very basic tomato sauce recipe and dropped the meatballs in for a minute, then served over some cooked quinoa. D-E-L-I-S-H! And super duper comforting - exactly what I needed.

Home Organization Notebook

Although I've been trying to reign in some of the chaos in my life, I'd never considered any type of organizer before. Then I saw Erin's post on her organizer, followed by Laura's. That was all the convincing that I needed to create something of my own.

Initially, I thought I would make an organizer. After all, creating my own would allow me to put exactly what I needed for my particular home, and would allow me to eliminate those things I didn't need since I'm a total control freak I know what I want. I went to work finding lists and links all over, and bought a binder, and some other staples for my notebook. I've been working on it for a couple of weeks, but I needed some dividers, so off to Target I went. While I was searching for dividers, I came across their planners section, and started flipping through for ideas. That's when I realized that most of them had everything that I needed, but packaged more nicely than my homemade notebook. Unfortunately, there were still a few things I wanted, and I also wanted a pretty one, because I'm a girl and I like pretty things  :-)

Enter Erin Condren. After some researching, I've decided that I'm investing in this rather than making my own as originally planned. Although it's not as specific as my original, I can definitely make it work. There are a few things that I LOVE. I love the special dates page. It will allow me to keep track of birthdays (which is a huge opportunity of mine). There is also a Morning, Day, and Night breakdown that will allow me to not only track meals, but also track chores and blogging. The monthly overview will be used for appointments and other important reminders. The notes section in the back can be used for a few different things, but I'm definitely going to be using it to track Christmas cards and gifts received, which will be super helpful during holiday season!!!! It also comes with stickers, and let's face it, stickers rock!

I haven't ordered it yet (since it's such a recent discovery), but I can't wait to fill it up! Once I get it in, I definitely intend on showing you how it's helping me stay organized!

Super Embarrassing...

You know those SUPER embarrassing moments that you feel like you could, literally, just die. Well, I had one of those today. Actually, about an hour ago.

I should first admit that I have a little confession. I sing and dance around my house almost daily. And by singing and dancing I mean wail at the top of my lungs while incorporating a sad, sad combination of old school dance moves with some occasional twirling. That alone, would be mortifying for anyone to witness. Today was a step beyond though.

So, I got home, took off my work clothes, and then just didn't get dressed. I was kindof hot, so I thought I would just walk around in my undies for awhile. I wanted to take some pictures of my home organization notebook to blog about, and I knew the best place to lay everything out would be the dining room table. Of course I go to the side that's right next to the window, because that's where the best light is. So I'm in the middle of my rendition of "It's Your Life" when I realize that there is a woman watching me.

Oh.Dear.

My neighbors are 80 years old, and they never, ever come outside, EVER. I've also never seen anyone visiting them. Lo and behold, they had a visitor today, who must've spotted me when she got out of her car. My dining room has a bay window, which faces the neighbor's driveway perfectly.

See, it's the window to the right, which, as you can see by the turned out chair, is exactly where I was shaking my booty.

There was really nothing to do at this point. Our eyes met, so there was no doubt she saw my performance. She quickly walked inside (probably to rinse her eyes out with bleach...)

I wasn't even in cute panties! Haha. You know the VS cotton ones that you've had for 3 years that are faded? Yep, that's what I'm sporting today.

I guess I can just be thankful that it was a middle aged woman, and not some hunky mail delivery boy   ;-)

Of course, I didn't go anywhere near that window again, so I didn't get pics of the notebook, but I will take them as soon as I get home from work tomorrow (fully dressed).

Some Things I'm Loving

I love fresh tomatoes from the garden.

I love fresh peaches from my peach tree (which I ate before I could get a picture)

I love our newest addition.

I love that fall is right around the corner! It's my favorite season, which leads right into my favorite holiday (CHRISTMAS!!!!)

I love that my trip to Bowling Green, KY this week should be my last trip of the year for work.

I love sushi night at home with the hubby!

I love my new Home Organization Notebook! I'll be telling you all about that this week!

I love that we got some great pictures from my nephew's second birthday. This little guy melts Aunt Kristen's heart.

What are you loving right now?!

Crazy Weather!

We had some bad storms come through Tennessee yesterday! I spent the day in Atlanta for work, so we drove up yesterday morning, and then came back home yesterday evening. On our way home, it started lightening. I'm not sure if those of you up North experience this or not, but it looked like "heat lightening" (and no, that isn't the technical term...).

It was absolutely beautiful for about half an hour, and we ooohed and ahhed, but then the sky opened up. We hit a wall of water, and stayed in it for a good 20 minutes! Everyone had their hazards on, there were cars pulled over on the side of the highway, and you really couldn't see anything at all. Of course it didn't help that by this time it was dark. Fortunately, I was with 2 of my co-workers, so I didn't have to drive in it.

By the time I got home, it had calmed down a little, but apparently came through again. I was exhausted from 8 hours in the car and 5 hours of working in the middle, so I passed out. But this morning I found out that this was happening only 10 minutes away from me.

This is my cousin's house (hi Jenn!). That's her bedroom underneath the tree. Everyone is okay, but there was plenty of damage. Lots of water poured in after the tree fell, so late last night, they were up trying to clear things out of the rain coming inside. I can imagine that's not very fun at all.

We didn't have any damage at my house, but I know it was windy because our trash cans were in the middle of the back yard this morning. Thank goodness that was the extent of it!

Baby Shower Fun!

I've been busy, busy planning a baby shower for my good friend Vicki. We had it last week, and it all came together beautifully! If you guys are ever hosting anything, you have to check out this site. It's seriously amazing and has so many great ideas! We went with the Mod Monkey theme since the baby's nursery will be decorated in monkeys.

We had the shower at our church, so please excuse the music equipment in the background.

The "M" is for Mom, and Monkey!

Our "trees" - glass cylinders wrapped in scrapbook paper, and topped with a styrofoam ball covered in tissue paper.



Mom-to-be had lots of fun  :-)

Only 9 more weeks until we meet baby Cade!!

Did You Know?

Did you know that it is really difficult to good a good picture of a kitten that doesn't sit still and wants to chew on the camera? Well it is. Very. Difficult.

Meet the newest member of our family - Millie  :-)

She chews on everything, including my fingers.

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But she is a total snugglebug, too.

I forgot how sweet (and destructive) new kitties are. And funny. Oh so funny.

She wants to sleep on top of us. Literally. I assume it's because we are warm, since neither of us sleeps in a shirt, but she does her very best to cuddle at night. Last night, she draped her entire body across my neck and started purring. After insisting that Josh roll over to witness this cuteness, of course I had to move her. So then she kept trying to cuddle on my chest, but she had a hard time getting comfortable on my...eh hem...hilly bits. She settled for right in between us, stretched out so her front feet were touching me and her back feet were touching Josh.

We have learned a few valuable lessons this week:

• We cannot leap off of the second story balcony onto the tile below (oh yes, she did)
•  We do not play in the litter box
• The clicking that results from my typing on the laptop does not mean that we go insanely crazy and must play,play,play RIGHTNOW
• 4 AM is not when we wake up

Obviously there is much to be learned. She is adjusting well though, and we are completely and totally in love with this 2 pounds of crazy!