Our New Experiment

How many times have you gone to prepare a meal, only to realize that you didn't defrost the meat you needed or you had forgotten to pick up some of the ingredients at the store? If you're like us than this has happened countless times. And also, if you're like us, than you'll just hop in your car and drive to the grocery to pick up what you need. If you perform this same routine quite frequently, eventually your pantry, cabinets, refrigerator, and freezer begin to overflow and you run out of room to store everything. I don't know how many times we've gone to the store and brought back something only to find that we already had it and that we had just forgotten about it. Well...no more!

Inspired by another blog that we keep up with, Keeper of the Home, we have decided that we were going to create our menu plan, for the next TWO WEEKS, using only the items that we already have in our kitchen. That means NO trips to the grocery store...except for our "essentials". We consider these to be our milk, eggs, bread, orange juice and of course...Diet Pepsi. If you know us than you realize that we can not function without our Diet Pepsi :)

At first, we didn't think it would be that hard to come up with our menu ideas. When we looked in our cabinets and freezer it seemed that we had plenty to choose from. After sitting down and beginning to make our menu, we realized that this may be a bit more challenging than we had originally anticipated. We came to find that we may be cooking things and creating meals that we may have never thought of.

We're hoping that this little experiment of ours disciplines us and we're also hoping that this will lower our overall cost of groceries.

Breakfasts will consist of cereal, fruit or toast on most weekday mornings. Lunches will be eaten at home or taken to work. Lunches will be sandwiches or leftovers. That is another thing we are working on...eating our leftovers and not letting our food go to waste. We have gotten much better with this.

Here is our dinner menu plan for the next two weeks:

Saturday: Chili Dogs with Mashed Potatoes (Very healthy...we know!!)

Sunday: Turkey Melt Sandwiches with Asparagus

Monday: Eggs and Toast

Tuesday: Vegetable Soup with Cornbread

Wednesday: Chicken Swiss Bake with Green Beans and Corn

Thursday: Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Friday: Chicken and Corn Chowder Soup with Toast

Saturday: We are cheating this night and going out to dinner but it is for a good reason...we're celebrating our April Birthdays!

Sunday: Cheeseburgers with Homemade Hash browns

Monday: Pancakes ( can you tell we're starting to run out of ideas?!?!)

Tuesday: Chicken Noodle Soup with Toast or some sort of sandwich

Wednesday: Parmesan Crusted Chicken and Peas over Pasta with Light Alfredo Sauce and Garlic Bread

Thursday: Egg Sandwiches

Friday: Taco Night!

Saturday: Ravioli and Asparagus with Garlic Toast

We think we did a pretty good job at making this menu plan. Now let's hope we can stick to it!

Making It Work

So last Tuesday I decided to pay my mom a quick visit at her workplace. I was driving on New Circle Road, two exits away from where I was supposed to get off, when a chunk of wood, about the size of a brick (a little larger), came flying out of the bed of the pick up truck in front of me. I was so worried it was going to hit my windshield...I couldn't swerve into the other lane because of the cars traveling so quickly and I couldn't swerve off the road because there was a ditch. I slowed down as much as I could but ultimately the wood hit the front grill of my car and continued to bounce and hit underneath. The lights on my dashboard flashed for a moment but my airbag light remained on. I pulled off to the nearest exit because I was so scared that the airbag was going to go off. Luckily...it didn't! I called my dealership and had my car towed to the body shop. They told me that I was smart to pull off and not continue to drive because anything could have set off the airbag. I'm so grateful that my airbags didn't go off...it would have made the situation so much worse.

After waiting for about an hour, the tow truck finally arrived! While I waited, I called my mom, who came and stayed with me, and told Brian everything that had happened. I was also two and a half hours late for work. I was on the phone so long that afternoon talking with the insurance people and the workers at the body shop...I was exhausted! There wasn't a whole lot that they could do so I had to wait until Wednesday to get an estimate. The girl working told me that she would call me back by noon on Wednesday with the estimate and we would take it from there. We were pretty sure insurance would cover most of it but we just had to wait and make sure. Sooooo...Wednesday rolled around and I hadn't heard anything so I called and left several messages...nothing! I was so frustrated! Thursday rolled around...still nothing! Again...I called and left several messages with the woman I had been in contact with. Friday rolled around...FINALLY, after I called, I got some information. They still hadn't completed my estimate!

All this time, Brian and I have been carpooling to and from work. I will get up early and take him to work and he will stay late, until I'm done at the studio, and then I will go back and pick him up. It was pretty rough the first few days but we've gotten used to it and it's nice to spend some time together in the mornings.

Well, I finally got my full estimate on Monday afternoon and they have been working on my car since Tuesday. Hopefully I will have it tomorrow!!

This entire situation has been less than ideal but sometimes God puts you in situations for a reason. I've learned to be more patient and Brian and I have made our routine work and we have adapted to our schedules. By getting up earlier I have actually gotten a lot more done around the house and, when Brian stays late at the hospital, he gets his dictations done for his clinics much more quickly. When he does them at home I feel like there are so many distractions so this has actually helped him stay more focused.

I'm just thankful that I, or anyone else, wasn't injured. Things could have of been a lot worse. Brian and I have come to enjoy spending our mornings together!

Happy Easter

We hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

A Day Off!

We both had the day off from work yesterday so, after catching up on some must needed rest, we headed up to Cincinnatti, Ohio for some shopping and good food! We did some shopping in the Kenwood area and bought some things for our home. We are in love with our new towels from Pottery Barn...I'm so glad our good friend Diana suggested we check them out. We got some items to organize our bedroom and office and also got a new shower curtain for the master bath. Again...I got very excited about the shower curtain! It really brightnened up the bathroom. I introduced Brian to Crate & Barrel ( that's where we got our shower curtain) and I'm pretty sure he loves it as much as I do. After lots of shopping we headed to one of our favorite restaurants...Cheesecake Factory. Yum! It was a perfect day and it was wonderful to spend some time with each other. When we got back home we immediately started putting our things to use. Once we get everything organized and all of our wedding presents put away we will post some pictures of our place for our friends and family to see!

The Knot Has Officially Been Tied!!

We're finally married!! Yesterday was the big day and we were so blessed to be surrounded by our family and friends as we shared our vows and joined in celebration. More pictures to come soon...we are too tired to write tonight! This past week has been a whirlwind and yesterday was a blur so we are still on cloud nine and can't believe that we are now husband and wife :)

Nap Time...Please?!?!

Only a couple more days and we're going to be married! We can't believe it. So much has been going on this week. Last minute errands and making sure everything is in place for the weekend events. We have both lost sleep and we found ourselves dragging today. I mean...we are absolutely exhausted!! We've been keeping ourselves busy from morning to night but when it's time to go to bed, we find ourselves talking/ texting to who knows what time!

I think it's just because we have so much on our minds and such a wide variety of emotions. We're excited, nervous, anxious, stressed, happy...and TIRED!! Haha.

Actually, I'm writing this right now because I'm still wide awake and can't seem to sleep. It's been this way, for both of us, the past few nights. Any suggestions?

Maybe I'll try to read...that may help! I have a feeling we won't get around to blogging in the next couple of days so keep us in your thoughts and prayers and when we return...we'll be husband and wife :)