Let’s make it play time!

A while back when we had the income we found this amazing deal on a swing set.  Regular $600 on sale for $130 yup a total mis-mark down but I will take it!  So we picked it up and put it in the garage.  With Rick currently unemployed we have some time to build it.  Rick worked a few extra hours at my parents house and was able to pick up the extra wood and the slide needed to complete it!

Now we started last Sunday night around 4pm thinking it couldn’t take that long right? LOL at 9pm we threw in the towel for the night.  Rick went back out the next morning while I was working in the rain and finally finished later that day AFTER he picked Cole up.  YUP I think it took 18+ hours to put this sucker together!

Day 1 – We had a peanut gallery and a little drilling hope.

Day 2 it’s complete and ready to be played on!  It’s a great addition to our back yard and hopefully will give me some sanity this summer with the kids home!  The pool will be next to go up that my mother in law bought us.

Happy Friday everyone!  We still have no job on the front for Rick and the taxes are still giving me a headache.  Any prayers are appreciated.  Have a GREAT weekend everyone.  I will be making lego cupcakes along with some lego crayon men for the party next weekend.

Tuesday Dinner with Friends … Hamburger Noodle Bake

We got back on our Tuesday dinner with my friend and her son.  It was great to have them back over it has been a few weeks and we were able to let the kids play and we were able to sit and chat and have some wine.  I haven’t been to the grocery store in a while so I’m using what we have in the house.  I found this recipe for Hamburger Noodle Bake on the Weight Watcher website.  I did switch it out with Turkey so I guess mine would be Turkey Noodle Bake!

Ingredients

• 12 oz uncooked no-yolk egg noodles  
• 2 medium uncooked red onion(s), chopped  
• 1 small green pepper(s), yellow pepper or green pepper, chopped  
• 1 1/2 pound(s) uncooked 95% lean ground beef  
• 29 oz canned diced tomatoes  
• 1/3 cup(s) parsley, flat-leaf, chopped  
• 1/4 tsp black pepper  
• 1 1/2 cup(s) low-fat shredded Cheddar cheese  
• 3 3/4 oz Nabisco Ritz Reduced-fat crackers, about 35 crackers  

Instructions

• Cook the noodles according to the package directions, omitting the salt if desired.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray.
• Spray a large nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and set over medium-high heat. Add the red onion and bell pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes.
• Combine the beef mixture, noodles, tomatoes, parsley, and pepper in the baking dish. Stir in the ¾ cup of the cheese. Sprinkle the top with the remaining ¾ cup of cheese and the crackers. Spray the topping with nonstick spray. Bake until hot and the cheese is melted, about 45 minutes.

Now my little tweaks were using Ground Turkey & Whole Wheat Noodles.  This was delish, very easy to throw together and even our little picky eater who usually is not a noodle fan loved it.

Taxes .. I think this rat trap my just take me under!

I use to love the beginning of the year getting my taxes in and getting a refund!  Oh how I miss those days.

Now don’t get me wrong I LOVE LOVE my job, working from home is amazing!  THE ONLY thing that has been a drag is self employment taxes.  NOW if I was smart when I started this adventure I would have been putting money aside or sending money in to the IRS so when tax time came around I wouldn’t have a bill.  Well I didn’t so my first full year I get this I got a crazy LARGE bill I start making my monthly payments (which barely make a dent) and my boss even sent me an amazing bonus to send to the IRS that did put a dent in it but still I’m making payments.  SO this last year I thought I’d be smart and have Rick holding extra with his checks.  So when I went to do the taxes thinking I was all set I was in for a BIG wake up call yesterday!

UGH I made a little dent in what we owe BUT the bill once again was a large one!  I was deflated sitting in the tax office yesterday.  My stomach was in knots and I was almost in tears.  The poor tax lady was so kind, she just smiled and tried to make me laugh.  She said let’s work on a plan.  She told me what I need to pay each month to get caught up and to have next year paid in advance and mind you it was the amount of my mortgage and I started to cry again.  It was a rough day.  THEN she told me the cost of our 1 hour visit!  Let’s just say there were no more tears left only SHOCK!  Our ONE HOUR visit was $470!!  Mind you I’ve been doing this on my own for $39 on the computer!  This amazing tax lady took pity on me and found me a discount (let’s just say I am now counted as her family member) and I walked out with a $108 bill!  God sent me an angel during this rough patch.

Now only if I could find an angel to help with this tax bill … ugh feeling a little defeated now and trying to figure it out.  I know what I will do to take even more out of Rick’s checks to be held back so we won’t have the problem HOPEFULLY next year.  BUT that sadly doesn’t take care of the back taxes.  I think I may have to find a part time job … ugh .. lol life!  Ok as mama says I’m going to put on my big girl panties and deal with it some how.  No more complaining … oh who the heck am I kidding this sucks!

Lego Party–Invite Time

Cole’s has picked Lego to be the theme of his party this year.  So on the hunt for Lego party ideas I went.  THANK God for Pinterest this year it made it so much easier.  I think I pinned at least 50 ideas!  I found a few invite ideas but the one I really liked didn’t let you down the template.  Then I found Allison Waken’s website and she made a FREE template for a Lego tri-fold card.  This card turned out so cute.  I don’t have Photoshop, BUT I do have Picasa so I uploaded the photos she made and was able to add words to the inside of the card.  I then saved the updated photo added it to a word document and then printed!  I found at Michael’s in the wedding section a tri-fold card that was perfect!

What you need:

• Photoshop or Picasa to add words to your card
• Tri-Fold Card
• Scissors to make cuts in the card
• Ink printer
• Envelopes if you’re mailing

Head to the link above for the free downloads. 

So there you have it a VERY cool interactive card.  More Lego fun to come!

Sundae Lover Gift

My bosses daughter turned 15 last week and I wanted to send something fun for her.  She is an amazing young woman.  I saw a while back this cool idea on Pinterest for Ice Cream Sundae Kit.  The picture she had was so cute, she put the treats in little bags and the sauce in little glass jars.  Since mine is being shipped across the US to her I didn’t want it to be all messed up by the time it got there.  So mine is not as pretty, but still a great gift idea if you want to ship it do it my way.  If handing to someone make it pretty like her’s.

What you’ll need:

• Ice Cream Cones (the nice waffle kind)
• Toppings (ie gummy bears, sprinkles, nuts … etc)
• Sauce (ie fudge, caramel etc)
• Plastic bags or plastic boxes like I did
• Box

Put your toppings in a plastic bag or plastic boxes like I found at the dollar store.  If putting in a box to ship leave the cones in the box if handing it out put in a nice plastic bag with a ribbon.  If shipping leave the sauce in the container it came in, if giving out then put in some cute glass jars.

Hope you have a wonderful day and maybe try this sweet treat!

Easter Palooza!

We had bunny time and egg time this past weekend.  Lot’s of kid fun!  We enjoyed this past weekend to the most.  I had to share some fun pictures of what we did!

First off we went to the Saturday Church Service were after service they had the Easter Bunny visit.  We waited in line that went very fast and the boys along with my friends daughter and her neighbor kids joined in on the picture.

Here we are waiting in line.  My iPhone was  hit with the kids to play games on.  Caden of course was a cheese as always!

We coordinated with our neighbor for an egg hunt between the two yards.  The kids sure did have fun and LOT’s of eggs, I think I counted at least 250.

In some of the eggs were Gummy Teeth, these were a huge hit.  It was so funny to see the kids and adults wearing them … lol.

Some random shots of the egg carnage .. lol and even some of my yummy fudge!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter.