Wordless Wednesday...

Last boat ride of the season....

Menu Plan Monday...

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Ours was busy and jam-packed but good!  I have to admit I'm already looking forward to the coming weekend!  This week is like our holiday kick off - this coming weekend it's a train ride with Santa, visiting my sister and seeing the Trans Siberian Orchestra!

Monday - Grilled Wahoo & Triggerfish with rice and squash (see below for a recipe)
Tuesday - PW's Perfect Pot Roast with mashed taters
Wednesday - Chili cook-off at Church
Thursday - Chicken Stirfry over rice
Friday thru Sunday we're on the road!

Here's to another good week of good food!  Head over to orgjunkie.com where I'm linking up my menu with lots of other great dinner plans this week!


Perfect Grilled Fish Marinade:
This works well for pretty much any fish you want to grill! 

1 gallon ziploc bag
1 small to med coffee cup
1 coffee cup of Zesty Italian Dressing
1 coffee cup of Orange Juice
1/2 coffee cup of Teriyaki Sauce

Mix the three liquids together in the bag.  Add your fish no more than 20 minutes prior to grilling.  It is important not to let the fish sit too long in the marinade, the acid from the orange juice will start to cook the fish and fish will have it's best flavor when it is not overcooked, or slightly underdone.

Epic...

Once again I've entered my child in one of Modern Bird Studios Epic Photo Contest!  My last entry was from our family pictures but this year I went with a snap shot of him that I snagged one day playing at the beach (oh summer, I miss you already).  I've promised myself a piece of their kick-ass art no matter what this year so if Allan's picture doesn't win I'll be ordering myself a custom piece after the new year!  

You can head on over to Facebook and click on this adorable face! 

 

Wordless Wednesday...

A boy, on his boat, with a breeze in his hair...

Zoo Trip By Way of the Fair...

We've put off a lot of things in the name of becoming debt free.  When we began our financial journey the Husband and I both agreed it would be best to make some sacrifices while our little man was littlest so we would be able to do what ever we wanted as he grew.  Even trips around our own state have been limited to family and holidays.  We live at the beach so we have that going for us. ;)  

We had to be in Raleigh for something (lucky that my Sister lives there and lets us crash) - it was the last day of the State Fair, and we were planning to come home on Monday.  We rushed up the highway Sunday after Church and hit up the fair.  As you can see, my child is all for a candy apple (I'm sure my dentist fainted somewhere).  With it being the last day a lot of things were already closing down so livestock interactions were limited but no worries - my kid can go three hours from home and still find somewhere to fish.  He was devastated when we had to leave the fishing game.  We still ate junk and miscellaneous fried "foods" (I use the word foods loosely) and had a great time!

Sunday night we were trying to decide what to do... Marbles was closed on Monday, so was Mike's Farm... well, we were this close already - Zoo it was!  We couldn't have asked for a better day or a more beautiful fall drive.  It was the first time that the three of us had off and gone to do anything like that.  Since then little man keeps asking to do things "together" "mommy, daddy, Allan - together" - precious. 

There weren't a lot of people at the Zoo since it was a Monday in the fall and Little Man soared right through nap time and didn't pass out until we hit the trail back to our parking lot (yes, for those who know the NC Zoo, the Husband insisted we walk everywhere. no trollies, and certainly no parking lot shuttles).

Not breaking the bank and feeling good about our trip. Priceless.
Just the three of us. Infinitely priceless.

Menu Plan Monday...

We have a few carry-over and re-arranged meals this week thanks to some unexpected meals at the homes of family and friends last week!  This is something I really like about having a lot of our meats frozen, I don't ever feel rushed to use it and if our plans change it's not been wasted. This week there will be some things from last week shifted around and some meals to help clean up the fridge in preperation for Thanksgiving next week! 

Monday -Baked chicken with spaghetti squash and salad
Tuesday - Blackend wahoo with rice and sauteed vegetables
Wednesday - Church
Thursday - Grilled pork chops with mac&cheese and green beans
Friday - Boneless chicken "wings" with sweet chili sauce, sauteed vegetables, and rice
Saturday - Nachos
Sunday - Spaghetti with salad and garlic bread.

Please head over to orgjunkie.com and check out all of the other inspiring menus!  That's where I'll be linking up!

Veteran's Day...

We have a huge Veteran's Day parade in these parts - Watching the Boy Scouts running around handing out flags to children, and the innate sense of pride my little man feels in waving it around.  Smelling the BBQ on the cooker across the street at our Church, seeing both my boys get so excited over those little Shriner cars, telling him the branches of the military as their color guards marched pasted, teaching him to applaud the float of our remaining World War II vets.  Parades like this are one of the best things about a small town.  We have so much to thank our military for.

 
Thank you.  To those who have served, to those who are serving.

One Year Later...

One Happy Husband

It's funny how you remember some things so perfect and vividly, and others are blurs.  And how some memories are a mix of both. This is one of those mixes.

I was half ready to yell at him - he was running late, after he promised the morning fishing trip with his friends would be short.  We had to get the boy from daycare, we had to drive 2 hours for our family Christmas card pictures with our wedding photographer.  Before I could say a word, I knew something was horribly wrong.  He could hardly breathe as he explained to me that he was loosing his job and that there were complications with knowing the details of what would transpire over the next few weeks.  Stunned and in shock, we got ready as quickly as we could, put on brave faces, had awkward silence the entire drive, and then did our best to smile for the camera (by the way, FAIL, it's so obvious something is wrong in those pictures).

After we got the little one to bed that night, I cried, drank liquor, and we did a financial review - what we could and couldn't do without, what and when to cut things.  Christmas.  What would we do about Christmas?  We were suddenly terrified to spend our "we set this money aside for the Holidays" money.  The emergency fund was fine, but lets see what we can do not to touch it.  Our counters became filled with financial what-if scenarios scribbled out on paper, job interview, after job interview, phone call after phone call, researching his unemployment options for when the other shoe finally fell.  I'm lucky to be married to such a driven man.

The hard part was broken promises and lies.  See with what the Husband does, it's intensely personal, he takes care of multimillion dollar dreams for people.  And of course the Husband always treats his "girls" (boats) the way he'd want his own boat treated so when a job carry over to a new owner was promised and didn't happen, when a severance promised verses a severance given are night and day different, when you are the pawn in someone's scheme to screw someone else over - it's draining.  Simply draining to pour so much of yourself into a job only to be raked over the coals and tossed aside like yesterday's trash.

Once all was said and done it was the day after Christmas (yes, klassy, I know) that he got the call that ended his job officially.  Our Christmas and Holidays had been a blur of worry and bent hearts, as we packed away our ornaments we kept saying how thankful we were that the boy was to young to remember the previous two months.

Now one year later we are so thankful to God for those challenging days.  Our hearts are truly truly grateful.  The Husband has his own business and the clients he has are more than we could have dreamed of!  It is hard sometimes to do it all own our own but it is worth it to be where we are now in our marriage, as parents, and financially. 

It's just amazing the difference a year makes.

Three Gifts...

We're scouting Christmas gifts tonight - and we're so excited about it!  It's going to be so much fun watching the joy and wonder in our little man's eyes!  We're Christmas people -  Griswold style.  But with all that joy and wonder comes ridiculous amounts of excess.

Little man was only six months old his first Christmas but that year the Husband and I began talking about what we truly want Christmas to be in our house and how to strike a balance between our faith and the fact that the mall is fully decorated before Halloween.  I wanted his gifts to ultimately represent Christmas - now I know that there weren't any Lego sets or any of Thomas' Friends laid before the manger but still I wanted to link the two.


After much thought and discussion we came up with a Three Gifts Rule.  The Wise Men brought Jesus three gifts so Little Man may thoughtfully ask Santa for three gifts.  With the understanding that Mommy and Daddy and those who love you will also give you gifts (as they see fit) but when it comes to Santa you may ask for three gifts only. And you must also give three gifts, to someone who would have no gifts otherwise.

My hope is that this will make him think long and hard about what to ask for, and that having limits there will reign in the excess in other places because there's only so many times I can remind people that he has a 529 plan if they want to give him something!

Do you have gift rules in your house?  How do you reign in the excess?