Jury Duty

I got the dreaded letter a few weeks back, Jury Duty Summons. By law you are required to be here on this date, at this time, blah, blah, blah!

I called the court clerk and told her I had four kids and am basically a single mom 75% of the time. I asked her if I could be excused and she said that while she was empathetic, I had to report.

So, I sucked it up and reported for jury duty this morning! I was not thrilled about this, but sort of intrigued to see how this process works. Being an avid John Grisham fan, I have read about things like this, but have never actually experienced the process. Well, my experience was very short and I was sent home within the first 10min of processing.

Basically, there were 64 jurors and only 12 were needed. The judge asked if there was any reason you could not serve to stand up and let him know. I wasn't going to stand up and say anything until one mom stood up and said her husband was going to be out of town and that she had 2 children at home. The judge told her she was excused and sent her on her merry way. So, with that, I stood up and told the judge how my husband works out of State and that I have 4 children. He told me, thank you for coming, you are dismissed! Wow! Kind of bummed that I never even got to hear what the trial was for and/or about but I'm sure I'll get my turn to do that another day. Being a juror isn't that big of a deal to me, I would do it with out to much complaining if I didn't have 4 kids at home. So maybe a future jury trial post will be coming but that will have to wait for another day.

I kept telling myself that God would not give me more than I could handle and apparently we both agreed that being a juror and single mom would have been too much!

I like to cook, so what is my problem

So we had a great Valentines weekend, cooked my heart out with Jason. We had good times and good food, it was GREAT! Then after Jason left I kept putting off grocery shopping, like the plague. I had no idea what we were having for dinner for 3 nights in a row! One night I pulled spaghetti sauce out of the freezer and we ate spaghetti, another night we did a hodge podge of leftovers and finally we did Subway for dinner. The kids weren't complaining but it stressed me out not to know what we were doing for dinner! So finally, I am going to the grocery store!
It took me what felt like forever to come up with my menu for the next week and now my shopping day is all messed up with having to go on Friday instead of Monday!
Anyway, here is my half hearted attempt at a meal plan for the next week! Maybe I will get my zest back in the next couple days but right now I'm not even excited about cooking any of it! SNAP OUT OF IT BEKAH! (Thanks, I needed that!)

Friday - Pizza
Saturday - Chicken and Rice Tacos with Salsa and chips
Sunday - Tequila Chicken Fettuccini, Garlic Bread, Grean Beans
Monday - Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes and Steamed Carrots
Tuesday - Ham, Sweet Potatoes, Corn
Wedensday - Mexicali Pork Chops, Rice Pilaf
Thursday - Beef Stroganoff In a Skillet, Noodles, Salad

Well at least it all looks good! Haven't made the chicken tacos in forever, hope everyone likes them and the Stroganoff recipe is new from Emeril. Keeping my fingers crossed!
Have a GREAT weekend all!
I got a jury Summons for Monday...that should be a good blog post! :-)

Happy Valentines Day

What a great weekend here in Savannah, GA! The kids had a short week at school and Jason was set to come home on Friday evening the 12th. Of course mother nature had other plans with snow and storms barreling across the country, Delta canceled 1100 flights on Friday night! With no hope of Jason getting home until Saturday at midnight I thought my Valentine weekend was ruined...but I was wrong now, wasn't I?

Friday night 8pm
All snuggled in to watch the Olympic opening ceremony and suddenly my daughters phone starts getting texts about snow in our area. We peak outside, only to see rain and figure these Southerners don't know what real snow is. After a few more texts and 15 more min, we peaked back outside and saw the magic outside. Snow in the Southern state of GA! I guess it happens about once every 20 years, and that is plenty for me! :-) (see below post)

Saturday 8am
Jason called to say that he was driving home to Savannah. All the snow was over and he wanted to be home! It was like sweet angels singing in my ear as I heard the good news!

Sunday - Valentines Day
Jason and I slept in and then got up to prepare our Julia Child Boeuf Bourguignon. Being an avid Food Network watcher and cook, I was honestly a little intimidated with Julia Child. I just look at her cookbook and find it so wordy and the recipes seem so long...I was nervous. No need to be nervous though, the recipe was easy, perfect, and tasted like heaven! It was so worth letting it cook all day long and smelling it for 3 long hours! The kids even enjoyed it, minus the onions and mushrooms BUT that just meant more for me! :-)

Monday - Presidents Day/No School
After sleeping in Jason and I decided to get up and make the kiddos pancakes for breakfast. We had been talking all weekend about taking the kids to see a movie so while he was cooking pancakes I started looking at movie times. We decided on a 12:10 movie and then realized it was already 10:40! With a mad dash to get 4 people showered and ready by 11:20 we quick ate some pancakes and headed out to the theater. Jason took the boys and Steph to see Percy Jackson and I took Lexi to see The Tooth Fairy. It was perfect. On the way home Jason stopped to surprise me and picked up some flowers for me, they were beautiful!

Tuesday
Meant back to life and reality. YUCK! Jason headed back to Little Rock and the kids headed back to school, I also headed back to the gym!

It was a GREAT relaxing weekend! I mean, it couldn't have been any better! I am so blessed! Oh and here are a few pictures from our Valentines day!

Snow in GA

I can't believe it has snowed in GA! Can you believe it? I guess they get snow here about once every 20 years or so! Must be why I like it here so much, once every 20 years is plenty of snow for me! Ha-ha!

We were planning to watch the Olympic Opening Ceremonies but about the time we sat down to watch our rain turned into snow! Every kid from every house on the block came running into the yards to jump, play, and scream at the white stuff falling from the sky! It was BEAUTIFUL! They were big, fluffy, wet flakes, perfect for making snowballs and snowmen! So much fun! Here are a few pics of the kids having fun in the snow!

Thanks goodness for warm Coats and a couple pairs of gloves I picked up just a few weeks back!

I want to remember today

I woke up this morning and turned on the computer just like any other day. I started to brew my coffee and pulled up the Fox News Webpage. The news story jumped out at me like a flashing red light. EARTHQUAKE HITS CHICAGO... Before even taking the time to read the news story I flew to the phone, heart pounding, to call my parents and sisters in Chicago. Come to find out, neither one of my sisters felt the quake and my parents just woke up to a loud BOOM! Once my parents found everything to be in order they went right back to sleep! WOW!
If I had taken the time to read the news story I would have seen that there was no need to panic or call my poor family members at 6am Chicago time but, I guess that is called Hindsight! After everything that just happened in Haiti, I couldn't help but fear for the worst! So VERY THANKFUL that everyone was fine and the earthquake was not a big disaster! Just wakes you up a little to think about all that can happen in one day, one hour, one minute...your whole life can change! So, just for me, give the ones you love a big hug and, call the ones you can't get your arms around because of distance!

GILBERTS, Ill. — A small earthquake woke residents and shook furniture in northern Illinois early Wednesday, causing no major damage or injuries but startling people as far away as Michigan and Iowa.

The epicenter of the 3.8-magnitude earthquake was near the villages of Gilberts and Pingree Grove in Kane County, about 45 miles northwest of Chicago, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake hit at 4 a.m. Sheriff's dispatchers and the USGS were flooded with calls from concerned residents.

"It's rare in northern Illinois," USGS geophysicist Amy Vaughan said. "It's downstate where we'd expect the larger quakes and where the larger ones have happened historically."

The USGS initially reported the magnitude as 4.3 but later downgraded it. Vaughan described the shaking as light to moderate.

Residents in Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan also reported feeling the quake, she said.

In Pingree Grove, 43-year-old artist Dan Erman said the temblor moved his bed and woke him.

"I knew it was an earthquake," Erman said. "It was pretty loud. The bed headboard was hitting the back of the wall."

Erman said he heard dogs barking and when he looked outside he saw his neighbors turning on their lights. There was no damage to his home.

Some residential and business alarms were triggered, but deputies weren't called for assistance, Kane County sheriff's spokesman Lt. Pat Gengler said. DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott said residents in his area also reported feeling the earthquake, but no damage was reported.

The last earthquake in the area was recorded at a magnitude of 4.2 on June 28, 2004, about 35 miles away from Wednesday's temblor, according to the USGS.

Menu planning

Throwing my menu for the week out there on blog world is the easiest post I can put out all week long. I can't say it takes no thought because it takes time to come up with my menu but I like posting it and hearing what you are making for the week too! So, here is this weeks menu and then I need to get shopping! :-)

Tuesday - Salisbury Steak, steamed carrots, and mashed potatoes
Wednesday - Mexican Chicken Lasagna
Thursday - Chicken Short-Cut-A-Tori, Green beans, Garlic Bread
Friday - OLYMPICS!! Pizza!! So excited! :-)
Saturday - Beef Bourguignon with Egg Noodles and Salad
Sunday - VALENTINES DAY! Jason is taking me out! Woohoo!
Monday - Steak Fajitas and Cheese Quesadillas for the one who won't eat Fajitas! :-)

So many great things to look forward to this week! It's going to be a GREAT week and even better because I don't have to deal with snow like the rest of the USA! Ha-ha! ;-)

I finally did it

I went and got myself a gym membership. It finally dawned on me that I am exactly the same weight now that I was when I was 19 and 9 months pregnant with my first child! What the heck? I decided that was unacceptable! I started looking at gym memberships around here and really felt like they were sort of expensive. Then while driving down road I saw an advertisement for a local gym Spring special for only $25 a month. $25 a month?! How could I not go and sign up!? I went in and signed up that day!
I have now been to the gym 3 days in a row! I get the weekend off and then should be in the gym every day during the week.
M, W, F is weights and then 45 -60min on Cardio
T, Th is just 60min of Cardio
So far, I am enjoying the cardio. The weights aren't bad but good god are my arms sore! I mean seriously sore! Owwww! Oh well, they keep telling me it will be worth it. I am trying to stay motivated and so want to make sure I don't quit! I want to keep going and lose some weight, tone my body, and stay healthy. After my dad has his heart attack last year, it's never to early or late to start a change for the better!

Menu for the week

I know that today is Tuesday and I should have gone grocery shopping but a friend invited me to go shopping so I did that instead. :-) Tomorrow I will tackle the job of grocery shopping for the week. So here ya' go, here is my menu.

Tuesday - Leftover turkey with Gravy, cranberries, carrots, and mashed potatoes

Wednesday - Sloppy Joes and Fruit Cocktail

Thursday - Spaghetti and Meatballs, Garlic Bread and choice of salad or green beans

Friday - PIZZA and a movie night

Saturday - Marinated Steak (will search food network for a new recipe), some form of potato, and grilled asparagus

Super Bowl Sunday - Cuban Burgers, Spinach and Artichoke dip with chips, Brownies, and whatever else we decide to munch on while watching football!

Monday - Grilled Chicken with Salsa or BBQ, Roast potatoes, Corn

Should be a good week with a lot of food that the kids will eat without to much complaining! Sloppy Joes are something we eat on a pretty regular basis and something we all love! Spaghetti is also an easy family favorite!

Friday night pizza night NEVER changes. This is my one free night off of cooking! I look forward to Fridays so much! When I was a little girl my parents would put a big sheet on the living room floor, order good Chicago pizza, and then we would sit and watch The Dukes Of Hazard! I look back on those pizza nights and just remember how much I loved it! It was the one night of the week that we were aloud to have pop with dinner and that we could eat in the living room. I have such fond memories of those pizza nights and wanted to continue the tradition with my kiddos. We don't watch The Dukes of Hazard anymore but instead pick a different movie each week. We always have pizza while watching the movie and I let the kids each have one can of pop on Friday nights! It may not be good Chicago pizza but it is so relaxing and the perfect end to the week/start to the weekend!

Back to boring posts

Okay, I am all done getting on my soap box about the importance of Sex in a marriage and how we teach our children about Sex. Now I will get back to the more mundane posts of life!
I had a GREAT night out with just my Stephanie on Saturday. Her and I went to Ruth's Chris in downtown Savannah and I let her order whatever she wanted. It was her first Fine Dining experience and she really liked it! It was nice to just talk to her without the interruptions from other siblings and just spend some girl time together! Pretty soon my girl will be driving and possibly working, trying to treasure the moments I have with her because I know they will get less and less as she approaches adulthood! Here is a pic from our night out! I guess we sort of look alike! :-)