Home is where your heart is...

Isnt that the saying? Im not certain.

I dont think anyone really reads my blog, which sort of plays in my favor right now, because I feel like whining.

I want a house, BADLY.... But where we live its just not an option, home prices are extraordinarily expensive, even in bad areas. We get such great rent and live in a great school district, but I just cant seem to get rid of that feeling...I want to own a home.

But being an adult is knowing patience...all things come in time. John and I are working hard together to budget. We are paying down debts, hopefully soon all that will be left to tackle is the car loan and school loans..which is a lot, but it can be done. Then we can save our 3 - 6 months of an emergency fund. Then it will be time to save for a house.

I would love to be able to save 100 percent down, but that isnt likely. We will have to settle for a large down payment and a 15 year loan. Either way, its not happening for awhile.

On another note John should be graduating from school with his bachelors in about a year or so, not sure on the exact date because his school counselor hasnt returned his email yet.

The future holds so much for us, but at times its hard to wait. Today is one of those days.

Sick sick sick

Im plain sick of being sick! It seems like I turn around and get a cold lately. Now I have this horrible cough.. This wont be a long blog.. I just want to whine!!!!! It sucks.

Life as always

There isnt too much to report. I have been sick the last few days, so I havent been up to much.

My dishwasher comes tomorrow, and man am I excited.. lol Its been a long time waiting. It wont be installed for a few days though..but ive waited this long. I can wait a few more days.

Saturday my hubby turns 30! We dont know yet what we intend on doing for his birthday. According to him, he is not turning 30, but rather 29b... sure honey..whatever you say lol. I told him to think about it this way. He is a 30 year old man with a wife in her early twenties! : )

Nothing much new to report or complain about. Although I guess I could complain about lots of things lol... I think about it sometimes..of just letting myself vent here or somewhere..anywhere, but I have this stigma against it. For a few reasons. One I used to keep a journal to vent in, as a child, and my mother always read it and she was always upset with what she read. I guess I learned to keep my thoughts to myself because people sometimes dont understand that you say things in the heat of anger, but its not always entirely meant... so you hurt someone.. (though around some people I can gossip... its like word vomit flowing freely from my mouth, yet only around certain people. So now I avoid those people or avoid specific subjects with them. I also have become better at holding some thoughts in and asking for forgiveness for thoughts I just shouldnt have)

I guess I have always been the type of person who cares what other people think, especially of me. One of those "keeping up with the Jones' type". Well not anymore, Im sick of keeping up with the Jones'. Even then, I still cant bring myself to vent here, or anywhere for that matter. I vent to my husband or maybe even my close friends, but I still dont want to hurt anyones feelings.

I care too much about my friends to hurt their feelings, but maybe you could say I dont care enough to tell them all the truth... Hmm.. food for thought.

Been Busy

I dont even know where to begin. I am getting close to the end of this semester. Still holding onto my A's in my classes.. I just have one paper left to write for English 100 and the final for my math class. I signed up for an online summer anthropology course, it ought to be interesting.

I think we have decided that Aurora will not be continuing mommy and me ballet right now, she just isnt enjoying being there anymore and I just dont think she is ready for the structure of the class. Who knows, maybe ballet isnt going to be her thing.. So I am thinking about looking into different classes and trying to pick something that will really interest her. I think during summer we might do swim classes again, she loves the water.

Johnny is doing good, talking more now. He is quite the loving little boy lately, with kisses, hugs, and cuddles. I am concerned that he may be bowlegged, his appointment is coming up at the end of May and I will be mentioning it to his pedi then.

If I have not mentioned it yet, our family is expanding! We decided to begin ttc and had my IUD taken out at the end of feb. I thought it would at least take a few months, but was very happily surprised when I received three positive tests at the end of March. We are now eight weeks along, we had an ultrasound last week. We were able to see the little ones heartbeat, it was beautiful. Aurora is overjoyed to be a sister again. She randomly talks about the baby, comes up and hugs my stomach. We are very excited about this new addition to our family. : ) Its amazing to think of it, but our family will now be a family of five!

Food!

So lately I have wanted to start learning how to cook more things. I have been inspired by all the friends around me that have been cooking awesome meals. You see I was raised in a broken home. My mother worked full time and went to school at night, there wasnt time for a great home cooked meal all the time, the crock pot was her best friend. We had a lot of the same meals often. And my father, with home I spent most of my time in my teenage years.. well he cooked very rarely and if he did it was SPAM, or sloppy joes.. or cheese in a tortilla in the microwave lol..

If I gleaned any cooking knowledge, it was from my grandmothers. Two women that I respect. I lost one a year and a month ago. I still have my other grandmother though, sadly she lives across the country, but she will be here this weekend.

Anyways. I wanted to share the meal I made last night. It started with a food network recipe. Then I changed it a bit. I am all about pocket book friendly food (thank you Dave Ramsey for helping to make me a budgeter! )

I used Rice a Roni fried rice
Plus Oriental top ramen
And carrots and peas.

And I used cubed tofu instead of tofu strips. I didnt have sherry vinegar, so I used white wine vinegar. I also increased the Worcester sauce.

Here is the link to the recipe for the tofu, as well as the recipe.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/fillet-ofu-recipe/index.html

Ingredients
1 (19-ounce) block firm tofu
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Few dashes of hot pepper sauce
Canola oil to cover skillet by 1/8-inch
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Directions
Slice the block of tofu into 4 equal portions. Place the slices on paper towels and fold the towels over in both directions to cover the tofu. Place a baking sheet on top of the tofu and weigh it down with a 28-ounce can of tomatoes for 1 hour.

Combine the sherry vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and hot pepper sauce and place the tofu into the marinade. Marinate for 15 minutes on each side.

Place the flour into a shallow dish and the eggs into another. Lightly beat the eggs.

Heat the canola oil in the skillet over medium-high heat.

Remove tofu from marinade and drain on paper towels to remove any excess marinade.

Lightly dredge the tofu in the flour, knocking off any excess flour and slide into the eggs until completely, but thinly, coated on both sides.

Slide tofu gently into the hot oil and fry for 2 minutes until golden brown and delicious. Flip the tofu using the tongs, and cook for another 2 minutes.

And here is the finished product.. all mixed together


And the best part of the whole thing was my husband... He said he loved it, that I need to make it more often, and that it was better than rest restaurant Chinese food! (And he doesnt lie... if he doesnt like something, he will tell me so that I dont make it again lol)

Maybe A little too much Green...

So I am sure most of you are aware, St. Patty's day just came and went. It was a busy day for us, so I have not shared our pictures with anyone. I thought here would be a great place to do it. I put the corned beef in the crock pot. The kiddos ate and then dressed in their St. Patty's day tops then we went out to run some errands. After the errands were ran we went to the park where the kids played and played.
Here they are in their shirts


Then we went for a short walk up to the local shopping center, we bought some items to make goodies for later. We stopped for a drink and a snack, then back home.





Johnny went down for a nap while Aurora and I baked some St.Patty's day desserts.


Finally, When daddy came home, we had corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes. With green cookies and green swirl cake for dinner....


After dinner, I had to run off to class.
However this was not the last of green we would see lol.

Thoughts run swiftly through my head, If only I could catch one and hold onto it!

I have been so busy lately. Let us start with my favorite subject, my kids.

Aurora has been doing so well on her potty training, if it weren't for her lack of night time potty training, then I would call her potty trained. She wears underwear during the day with a rare accident, maybe once every two weeks or a month. She still wears pull ups at night, though most of the night she wakes up and they are dry. She is a talker, like her mommy. Oh my how that little girl can talk! Mommy what time is it? Mommy what color is this? or my newest favorite, Eyy Eyee Captain mommy! (I have no clue where she found this little phrase, but I think its adorable!) She can recognize colors now, but does not get them perfect all the time. She also can count 1 to 10, but has not mastered the skill quite yet. She can go higher, but she starts making more slip ups as the time goes on. I am not forcing her to learn these things, she just does. She has such an imagination! We will go to the park and play with the pretend store. She will get leaves and they will be all kind of food, as well as money. Currently she is obsessed with all of the classic Disney movies. She is also a big animal lover. Recently we went on a little trip with a neighbor and her son, to his school farm. There she was able to see a few different farm animals and feed a goat. She loved it. Here is a recent picture of my love, my doodle.



Now to talk about my little boy, Johnny. This little one has my will. Today he was determined to touch my brand new printer, I would tell him no. Then he would look and me, smile and try again. I would smack his hand and move him away. This repeated about five times before I said it was time for all of us to leave my bedroom. The laundry would just have to wait. My aunt tells me that I was the same exact way. Aurora has always been a more compliant child, not that she does not have her moments. When we all took our trip to the farm, johnny was leery of the animals and gave them all a wide berth. He is a musical child. Since the moment of his birth music has been a part of his life. When born he would scream and scream and yet rocking and humming made him happy. This was the instant after his birth. This was so noticeable that our delivery nurse mentioned it. To this day he has kept up the love of music. If a tune comes on that he likes, which is most music, he will sway back and forth, as well as attempt to dance. He says a few words now, grandpa, mommy, ball, no (a favorite of his), go, car, aunt suss, nana, etc. Here is a new picture of my dudsey.



Well my friend our financial peace university is going well, still going. We are still paying off debt, but we are keeping up the debt snowball. I think we may have our credit cards paid off by August, then our car by next March or so. Then it will be time to tackle the student loan debt and I believe we will begin our emergency fun then as well. (Seeing as the student loans could take some time)

On another note. John is doing well in school (as always). I think he will be scheduled to graduate with his B.A. in about a year and a half. I am still working on my general req's for my AA degree. Though it seems to be coming to an end, but then I will need to tackle my major req's. This is where I lose my mind. My current major is Chemistry. I have been giving it some though and I am considering a Biochem major. My lit teacher would like me to minor in literature. Maybe I will, time will tell. I have so much to think about.

And then at last let us close with my thoughts. I would have to say I have had issues dealing with myself lately. Not that I am sad, upset or even depressed. I love my life, but I have this personality.. where I feel like I need to know how everything works, to experience many things. I see things around me and I think I could do that. I want to know how to do everything. My math teacher has a calculus class prior to the current math I am in, I stare at the board in sheer curiosity. I want to know what it all means. Or I see images of a social lite college student. I think I could do that, I could have been that kind of person.

But then alas I can not do everything. lol... I have been blessed with two beautiful children and a wonderful loving husband. I am ready to follow the path God would lead us down and accept his trials and blessings to come.

Love,
Mrs.JohnBrown