Another Good Quote

“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be” -George Sheehan

Selling More Stuff

The kids don't play with this stuff anymore so it's time for it to go! Let me know if you are interested in buying any of these items.

Little Tikes Play House - sold!

Little Tikes Jungle Climber

Cozy Coupes - sold!

Radio Flyer Wagon - sold!

First Day of School

I am not quite sure how it has happened but summer is now over and today was the first day of school for Alex and Abbie. Abbie is starting kindergarten this year and Alex is a big first grader. Both kids were supper excited to start school today, and Alex was being such a great big brother telling Abbie all about kindergarten and what to expect as we walked to school this morning.

Alex Finally Lost a Tooth!

At Alex's last dentist appointment the dentist pointed out that he had a loose tooth on the bottom. After months of wiggling Alex finally let me pull the tooth. This has really brought to my attention that Alex is no longer a little boy but a big soon to be First Grader!

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Selling some things

As many of you may know I am in grad school to become a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, but one thing that you may not know is that I have decided to go to grad school debt free. So far I have been doing great with this goal, but with two semesters left my savings account is getting a bit lower than I am comfortable with. Therefore I have decided to take the advice of my favorite financial guru Dave Ramsey and "sell so much stuff the kids think they are next". I have started by listing some items on ebay which you can check out here.

I have also posted some items on Craig's List you can find them here:

Radio Flyer Wagon

Little Tikes Bike Trailer - gone

Superyard - gone! that was fast

Toddler Bike - gone

Summer Reading Programs

There are so many great summer reading programs out there for kids that I want to be able to take advantage of this summer. Unfortunately they are all starting to run together in my brain so I decided to compile a list here so other people can take advantage of it too.

Half Price Books

Age: Under 14
Requirements: At least 600 minutes of reading during the months of June and July
Reward: $5 gift certificate to Half Price Books

Borders

Age: 12 and under
Requirements: Read 10 books between 6/1/2011 and 9/15/2011
Reward: Free book from a selected list

Barnes and Noble

Age: Not listed but looks like 1st through 6th grade
Requirements: read 8 books and list who you would recommend them to
Reward: One free book from a selected list

Maricopa County Library

Age: 0-18
Requirements: ? can't find it, says it starts May 26th
Reward: usually several small prizes plus a free book

A Girl Day

I finished up this semester last night and decided to take advantage of the day off to spend some one on one time with Abbie. We started off the day at the Desert Botanical Garden visiting the butterflies. Abbie and I had a great time identifying all of the butterflies flying about and a few even landed on us! After the garden we decided to drop in on Nana Jan to say hi and were lucky enough to be able to have lunch with Nana Jan and Papa Ron. Abbie and I had a great time together on our Girls Day!

Alex's First Report

Alex has his first report due tomorrow so tonight we put it together and practiced giving a report to the class. He has learned so much since the beginning of the year and is starting to read so much better!

Why I love whole chickens (and why you should too)

I know that a lot of people out there don't like to mess with whole chickens and I have to agree that there is a yuck factor involved, but for a frugal gall like me the savings are too good to pass up. To start I buy whole chickens when they are about 60 cents a pound. This is my rock bottom stock up price and I'll usually buy 3 or 4 when they are this cheap and put them in my freezer for later. I will usually get a 4 or 5 pound chicken, which means that a whole chicken costs around $3.
My favorite way to use these whole chickens is to cook them in the crockpot. To do this I thaw a chicken, remove the giblets (save these for later) and put it in my crockpot. I then cover the chicken in water and cook it on low until the chicken is cooked through, usually about 4 or 5 hours. When the chicken is fully cooked take it out of the crockpot and let it sit until it is cool enough to handle, leave the liquid in the crockpot on low, you will get back to it later. After the chicken is cool enough to handle take all of the meat off the bones (put the meat in the fridge for later use) and throw the bones and such back into the crock pot along with the giblets you saved from earlier and turn it on high. Cook this on high for a few hours then take out all the bones and strain the broth into a large bowl (I usually use a tea towel over a strainer to get the clearest broth possible). Put the broth into the fridge to cool. Now you have lots of cooked chicken and chicken broth waiting to be made into yummy meals. The last time I did this I managed to get 3 meals out of the meat with broth left in the freezer for future meals. The meals I got were:

Curried Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken and Broccoli Braid (I made a half batch for the kids and I)

You could also use the cooked chicken to make my cheesy chicken and rice casserole or in place of the turkey in many of my turkey day take two recipes.

Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff

I made this for my Dad this weekend and thought I would share the recipe here. I originally got this out of a Betty Crocker Slow Cooker cookbook many years ago.

Beef Stroganoff

2 lbs beef stew meat
1 large onion
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
8 oz fresh sliced mushrooms, sauteed
1/4 tsp pepper
1 8 oz package cream cheese, cubed
1 8 oz container sour cream
6 cups hot cooked egg noodles

Mix beef, onions, soups and pepper in a crock pot
Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or until beef is very tender
Stir in cream cheese, sour cream and mushrooms. Serve over noodles.

Becky's notes: I used a roast that I had gotten cheap and cut into small cubes, I didn't have cream of mushroom or cream of celery so I just used 2 cans of cream of chicken soup and it tasted just fine. I did not add the pepper since I don't like pepper. Before adding the sour cream and cream cheese turn the crock pot up to high so that the cream cheese will melt better. Rather than cubing the cream cheese I just left it out all day so it was at room temperature before I added it to the crock pot this made it so that the cream cheese melted nicely rather than leaving chunks behind which has happened before. I used a 4 quart crock pot which was a good size for this.