havocandmayhem.com

It's been awhile since I posted one. This focuses on both a main meal and then a leftover meal (sounds appetizing doesn't it - 'leftover meal'? I need to come up with something a bit more tasty....'reinventions' perhaps?) These are in no particular order. We had Kraft Mac & Cheese for dinner tonight (like Mom used to make:) ) which is not on the menu, so so far, menu 0 laziness 1. Main Meals Ravioli Broiled Salmon w/sesame glaze Steak & Spinich Salad Chicken with beans & artichokes Pork Loin w/teriyaki noodles Burgers on the grill (DH is cooking) Reinvented Meals Pizza with steak & artichokes Salmon cakes Spaghetti with ragu of pork sauce Chicken with coucous Casserole to be determined.... (sounds like a threat to me) That is 11 meals over 14 days (assuming the casserole needs made), plus we have had mac & cheese and we won't actully be home 3 of those days so technically I am one meal over what is required. This menu was designed to ...

What leaves me speechless? Generally, anger and shock that someone could actually *SAY* that (whatever that may be). There was the guy at the garage who told me they rotated my studded tires, rather than changing them out with the ones in my trunk, as i had asked, because I had told him to rotate them & it's not his problem if women have no clue what they are asking for. I have to admit the main reason I was speechless was because I was telling myself not to kick him in the nuts. When I had convinced myself not to give him teh crack he deserved I pointed out that he had been too busy oggling another woman's breasts to have the slightest clue what I may or may not have told them and anyone with half a brain would know better than to put studded tires on the front of a rear wheel drive, IN MAY! After making an incredible fuss, one I am both proud of & embarassed by, they fixed the tires free, I filed a complaint with the BBB & never went back to that shop. Dh occ...

I cannot upload files after 7pm-ish. This is a regular thing. DH says it is because someone on the same tower, with a higher error rate, is online doing something & it's distracting the signal box. Sorta like having several people say "Hey look at this! Hey look at this! Hey look at this!" all at once, over & over, only one of them keeps dropping the thing, so they have to pester even more, making it hard for the others to get the attention. And one of the others is clumsy as well, only not as clumsy. It's annoying on the one hand. On the other it's good to know *I* don't have the highest error rate. :) I'm sure my online presence in the afternoon is annoying the daylights out of someone else for the same reason. So I suppose it is just fair.

Manage your money better!!!! Save more, spend less. You don't need 4 different versions of the same pair of shoes, 14 purses and 60+ tarot deck. You'll never use them all. Think harder about what you are buying & why you are buying it. She who dies with the most stuff does *NOT* win. Put that money in the bank, you'll need it down the road. Establish better spending habits now so the older you doesn't have to struggle so hard to overcome the entrenched bad ones.

I was tagged by a couple of friends with this. 1. Have you ever been searched by the cops? yes but so was everyone else in the apartment. They busted a neighbor for dealing drugs and searched all 4 apartments in the quad because they were not certain it was just the one neighbor. Not my apartment, but I was visiting when the bust happened. 2. Do you close your eyes on a roller coaster? I used to often but not all the time, when I wore contacts. I haven't been on a coster since I had LASIK though. I think I would keep them open now 3. When's the last time you've been sledding? A couple years ago 4. Would you rather sleep with someone else, or alone? Alone, that way I get all the blankets 5. Do you believe in ghosts? yes 6. Do you consider yourself creative? yes 7. Do you think O.J. killed his wife? I don't know. I lean toward yes but I don't know enough about the situation. 8. Jennifer Aniston or Angelina Jolie? (silly, I know ... but very "now") Doing...

Now that I have gotten the family meal memories out of my system I've got a recipe for you. This one is an original by me, inspired by a couple different dip/dishes that I have had at other's homes on bunco nights. (bunco is a dice game played by 12 people at 3 tables). I combined a few ingredients of different dishes and added one of my own. As with all my recipes you get a rambling explanation of why I use the ingredients I do, variations that I have tried and only vague proportions to work with. But I hope if you do give it a try, you like it. This is a variation on 7 layer dip, it's meant to be served with tortilla chips along side the guacamole & salsa, but I'll admit right now I have served with a spinach salad and called it dinner. 1 pound of ground beef or a bit more . 1 or 2 avocados , depends on how much you like avocados. I really like them so I use 2. The little dark green ones, not the big light green ones. One of those would probably be suff...

The prompt today is to write about a favorite family recipe and to do a layout of it for the CIJ Holiday recipe challenge on DSP. I don't know if I'll get a layout done & here is the reason - we don't have recipes in my family, unless you consider opening a jar or can or box to be a recipe. I always joke that my spaghetti sauce is my Mom's secret recipie...no one can open a jar of Ragu like Mom can! :) Mom doesn't really like to cook. She had a husband & 2 kids to feed so she cooked, but I think easy & efficient were the main points she was going for in her meals. Nutrition too I suppose - though I don't think boiled to death canned green beans or boil in a bag cauliflower with cheese sauce are really brimming over with nutrients, but then I am still working to overcome my dislike of veggies & I blame those things for causing it, so I don't have much good to say about them. I don't blame mom & I am not knocking mom for serving th...

For the most part I am happy with what i look like. There is one part that I would like to change but am not having much luck with. Its the barrel that has taken the place of my abs. Not that I ever had the rock hard 6 pack or anything. i always had a bit of bulge below my navel but it was not this thick barrel that extends from chest to crotch. The muscles under it are firm after all teh ab work I have done, but the thick layer of fat disguises that. It started out as baby weight. 2 kids in 2 years and non-stop breastfeeding munchies kept me 20lbs over my pre TTC weight. I lost 10 of it & firmed up all those muscles. But the remaining 10 lbs is keeping the barrel roll look in place. I'd love to claim it as baby weight but I am too honest with myself to do that. The baby is 2.5 years old. This is cookie weight. Exeercise I can manage. Diets ain't my thing, but I suppose I really need to just indulge less and make some better choices. Or the roll will never go a...

The only sort of advice I remember people actually giving me is straightforward things like - "Dump the jerk", "don't mix beer & liquor when drinking", and "don't sit too close to the tv, you'll ruin your eyes". All useful, but not really profound. These are 3 other pieces of advice I have picked up along the way. Mostly from stuff I read. "this too shall pass" - good, bad or indifferent, nothing lasts forever. Cherish the good, endure the bad & let the indifferent happen. "treat others as you would like to be treated" - which is challenging when you are feeling very testy because the stupid phone system has hung upon you twice and you have been on hold for a total of over 40 minutes in an attempt to convince your satellite provider the receiver they gave you is a piece of crap. You end up muttering it like a mantra while having evil thoughts. "don't slam the door on your way out" - you never kn...

Let me preface this by saying - waking me up out of a sound sleep, unless the house is on fire, is never a good idea. DH & I had been dating for 4 years and living together for 3 when he proposed. We'd talked about it before & hadn't wanted to get married. We didn't want kids so there was no real reason to get married (apart from the 'what will the neighbors think' issue my mother had, but we were living 5 hours away from her neighbors & didn't really care what they thought). So we are going along with life, perfectly happy with the status quo and one night, out of the blue, DH wakes me up and says "Let's get married." I said "Are you nuts? What time is it?" he said "No really, let's get married." I replied "If you are serious, ask me again in the morning." Sounds callous on my part I know, but this was the situation. He was awake because he was studying for finals. He'd just started lookin...

I don't really have my own voice. I have Douglas Adams'. The majority of my sayings tend to come from his books. I read the repeatedly at an early age and they are just a part of me. Lately I have been getting a lot of "Why are they buildign that Mommy?" questions from DS1. Constuction is booming in this area, we can't go anywhere without running into an excavator or dumptruck or shell of a building. There are only so many good factual answers to his question and after a bit just respond. "It's a Target. You've got to build Targets" which is from Hitchhiker's Guide "Its a bypass. You've got to build bypasses" I've also been known to stop an endless flood of questions by saying "42". The boys now realize Mommy has give them the Ultimate Answer & no more questions are necessary. I'll make comments about "having the sort of day that would make St Francis of Asissi kick babies.", refer to b...

The favorite room in my house is my bedroom. Not because of the decor, it's painted a rather flat matte grey green, (nice color, but DULL) or all the natural wood furnitue. Certainly not because of the big metal gun safe in the corner :rollseyes:. But because of the bed. It's a very NICE bed. We bought a Tempur Pedic mattress last year. It is soooo comfy. Add to that my mass of pillows and a big poofy comforter & it's a great place to curl up with a book (as long as the males in the house are out of the house or the door is locked). It is quiet & peaceful, a wonderful retreat when "I have had enough!" as I tend to announce to the males. I'd take a photo of it right now but the males are all napping in there & I don't want to risk my lovely peace & quiet in the living room by accidentally waking them up.

This isn't something I do very often. I can see both sides of too many issues to have firm hard opinions on things - not the sort that I am going to go to any great length to defend. I have strong opinions about things, I just prefer not to discuss them most of the time. I'm talking about the larger issues - abortion, immigration, the environment, etc. There are plenty of smaller issues for which I will draw a line in the sand - vodka or gin martini? Hunts or Heinz ketchup? whether you should return your shopping cart to the corral or not. But I think I will tackle today a very important issue. NUTS DO NOT BELONG IN BAKED GOODS EVER! (except baklava) Brownies, cake, cookies -all are irrepairably harmed by the addition of nuts. It spoils the texture. You have this nice soft, chewy brownie you are nibbleing at then WHAM your teeth sink into a small rocklike object. Totally ruins the experience, throws you off your brownie eating stride. Cookies are worse because the nut...

The boys have a book called "A Wocket in my Pocket" about a boy who lives with a bunch of creatures in his house including - a Bofa on the sofa, some Nuboards in the cupboards, Yeps on the steps and a Yottle in a bottle. I've decided I want a couple than are not mentioned in the book. I would like some Nishes, to do the dishes and Bondry, to do my laundry. A cat that didn't consider the whole house his litterbox would be nice as well.

If I found $100 today, sadly I'd use it for grocery shopping or to ransom our TV from the repair shop. DH's truck just cost us $780 last week in repairs, and a lighting storm messed up the TV the same week. It is $125 to repair (but totally worth it). Unfortunately these expenses caught us in the same pay period the mortgage & auto insurance are due, so we are in the red at the moment & $100 would be nice. What I would like to do with $100 is buy an iStation for my iPod mini. It's a set of speakers. I'd like to have it so I can listen to audiobooks while cooking or listen to music in the bedroom. It was going to be my birthday present this month, but I am getting a repaired TV instead. iStation at Circuit City

Does your outside reflect your inside? For the most part, these days, I'd say yes. at least the outside parts I have control of. Wrinkles happen and while I feel younger than I look, I am not the type to put any real effort into wrinkle reducers. So my outsides do and don't reflect me at the same time. :) I've stopped denying the less admirable parts of myself & am working with them instead. So they show up more outside than they used to. I have less problem sharing negative things than I used to. The desire to constantly please, to be liked by everyone, to avoid conflict, led me to agreeing to things I didn't want to do (like camping or organizing a party) and not do things I wanted to do (because they were not 'cool') I'm much better at saying no or going my own way these days. I feel comfortable with myself inside most of the time, even with the uncomfortable parts, and I think I reflect that on the outside. Most of the time.

The words that caught my eye initially were - hot, sticky, sweltering - which describes the weather around here most of the summer. Then the words - inscects, bugs, camping - the first 2 explain why I dislike the third (so do the previous three actually). That was followed by - carnivals & fetivals - which are some of my favorite ways to spend summer evenings. Where does the time go? I had really intended to do more scrapping this month. I did get 2 challenges at ScrapMommies done(using the same layout) adn I did finish a mini album I have been working on, using a mini album by Stacey Stahl. I have also created the wallet sized mini album for the freebie for next week and one quick page set. So it isn't as if I haven't done anything. But I just thouht I would have more challenges done. There are lots of them & I had no intention of completing them all but I'd sorta thought I would have done a few At DSP I'm interested in the Daily Life, AAM, Boot Camp, IO...

Write about your computer habits and space: When during the day you like to sit at the computer/email/scrap etc. Do you have snacks or coffee nearby? What about a pic of your computer space? (optional)What do you have on your desk, walls. I am at my computer in the morning, while drinking my coffee & eating breakfast. I check my email & a couple of chat boards then. I get back on in the early afternoon, during 'quiet' time. ::eyeroll:: (like my kids are ever quiet). I visit DSP then & do any scrapping that I feel like. I often get on in the evening after dinner when it's Daddy Time. I'll check email & the boards/galleries and scrap. I try to attend chats in the evening but if the kids are at all a challenge to get to sleep I usually just collapse on the sofa & read. I change my desktop photo every month. I use PSP to add a monthly calendar to whatever photo I choose. I have stacked monitors. I was not about to give up my 19 inch flat screen ...

All the males napped today. I had more than 2 solid hours all to myself. Mayhem as usual took a bit to go down but Havoc & Daddy went out just fine. Unfortunately later no one wanted to sleep. Havoc's cough kept him up. Mayhem was dropping off at 6:30 at Chili's and then could barely stay awake for story time, but as soon as we laid him in bed it was as if he'd just drank a pot of coffee. He bounced all over the place, collapsing to sleep in our bed at 9:30. I put him in his own bed and he turned up in our room at 3:15. DH went to sleep in the playroom and Mayhem laid there playing for over 2 hours. He's been doing this lately & it is really getting on our nerves.

There is rather a lot of ground to cover in this. I'm taking the personal path. I'm not good at talking politics, so aside from mentioning I am a registered Independant who has not voted for a majority party Presidential candidate ever in her life & regularly votes 3rd party whenever possible in other elections, just because they are 3rd party, I'm going to leave politics out of this. Personally independance to me means being able to choose to do things, or not do things. I have chosen to be financially dependant on my husband currently. I have chosen to live rurally, with my nearest neighbor a mile away and a stranger to me rather than live in a subdivision with people only yards away, there if you need them. I have chosen, reluctantly, to live away from my family, because I chose to work in a field that had few jobs in the area my family lives. I have not decided if I will homeschool or not. Independance also means responsibility. You are free to choose but you a...