Thank You

Thank you so much to our Veterans who have fought for our freedom. Every day I thank God for you and the noble cause you continue to fight for. God bless you and your families.

Where's Reagan??

This was from a couple of weekends ago at Reagan's grandparents house!

Reagan is doing great!

Just an update and to say thank you for all the prayers! Reagan is doing WONDERFUL! She only has two more doses of Tamiflu and her oral steroid left to go. After that, she has five more days left to go on her antibiotic. (She has very proactive doctors, and due to her background, and they gave her the antibiotic to prevent a secondary bacterial infection). Her breathing treatments are keeping her cough under control now that she's on the oral steroid.

She is running around playing having a great time and tomorrow we'll see the doctor and hopefully get clearance to let her back around other people!

In the meantime, keep Josh in your thoughts. He did go to work today, but yesterday he spent most of his time asleep and under the influence of a fever. I'm well-just a nice head cold and cough--but what can you expect when you're thrown up on, coughed on and used as a human tissue (hey, what else are moms for!?)

By the way, here are some tips for avoiding the flu, especially if you have children:

1. Constantly wash hands--a great hand sanitizer is the Germ-X foaming hand sanitizer without alcohol, although it still rids your hands of 99.9% of the germs when used properly.

2. Lysol has been shown to kill the flu virus. Make sure if you use Lysol you leave it on surfaces for at least ten minutes so it has time to effectively kill the virus.

3. Have your child change clothes upon arriving home from school or daycare. Remember, they've spent all day with other germy kids!

4. Sneeze in your sleeve if you don't have tissues available..NOT your hands!

5. Good old fashioned soap and water is best for removing germs--remember to wash vigorously for at least 20 seconds (sing the happy birthday song) under running water. Part of the reason for this is that the action of rubbing your hands together helps get rid of the germs.

6. Eat healthy foods to help boost your immune system: fruits, vegetables, whole grains.

7. Keep a tissue box full of tissues taped to an empty tissue box...this way you always have some place to throw your used tissues.

8. Finally, make sure your child gets plenty of rest and fluids..taking care of yourself is the best way to avoid getting sick.

Check out this deal!

This is perfect for scoring lots of games for your toddler, stacking up some birthday gifts, or even for donating to Toys for Tots!

Buy 7 of these games at Toys R Us for 3.99 each (NOTE: You must buy SEVEN different games and make sure you purchase the regular, traditional edition of the games, not the character games (except for memory) otherwise you won't get the $3.99 price.)

$3.99 games are:

Candy Land
Chutes and Ladders
Memory (any character)
Spiderman Chutes and Ladders (I THINK)
Hi Ho Cherry-o
Don't Break The Ice
Ants In My Pants
Cooties

This should add up to $27.93 plus tax. You'll get a $10 TRU gift card at checkout for spending $25 on Hasbro games. THEN,

Print out this rebate slip:

http://www.hasbro.com/familygamenight/en_US/discover/upload/RevisedHasbroGameNightRebateForm.pdf

You get $2.00 back per game listed above, for a total of $14.0. So you're paying roughly .56 cents PER GAME.

Two Great Soup Recipes

This week I've been in a soup making mood and out of the three I've tried, one has been good, one has been EXCELLENT and one was just downright YUCK! So, I decided I would share the two good ones with you! Both of these are from Cheap.Fast.Good! by Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross. (My adaptations are noted)

Hearty Homemade Beef and Vegetable Soup
1 lb ground beef
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lg onion, chopped
1 clove garlic (or bottled or ground)
1 can 15 oz red kidney beans (or use dry homemade kidney beans)
2 cans fat free chicken broth (or approximately 4 cups of homemade chicken stock)
1 14.5 oz can of chopped tomatoes, flavored with onion and herbs (I used no-salt added diced tomatoes and added my own seasonings)
6 oz tomato paste
1 cup frozen corn (I added more)
1 cup frozen green peas (again, I added more)
1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning (I like to use a little more)
(I added salt and pepper, otherwise it was bland...just enough to taste...and it really flavors the soup!)

Heat oil in soup pot and add onion to it. Let it simmer a few minutes, then add ground beef and allow it to brown (approximately 7-8 minutes). Add garlic, drained beans, broth, tomatoes in juice and paste. (The recipe also says to add 2 cups of water at this point, but I didn't). Raise heat to high and stir.

Add corn, peas and seasoning. Cover and continue to cook until soup boils. Serve.
(6 servings!) I served this with foccacia bread. SO GOOD!

Super Saver Tortilla Soup

This is rated as a Super-Cheap recipe by the authors. Personally, I thought the way it was made in the cookbook left the soup a little runny and without much to it. By adding a few simple ingredients, this soup turned out DELICIOUS! My family really enjoyed it.

2/3 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut up into bite size pieces
2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion (I like onion so I used a larger one)
1/2 tsp ground cumin (I didn't use this-and the recipe says it's optional)
1/2 tsp chili powder (I DID use this--but the recipe says it's optional)
3 cups beef broth (I used homemade, but if you're using canned get low-sodium)
1 cup chicken broth (again, I use homemade, but if you're using canned get low-sodium)
1 cup bottled salsa (Ok, this is WAY too little for this recipe, I recommend doubling the amount, which is what I did)
tortilla chips, for serving
sour cream, for serving
shredded cheese, for serving
I added one can of kidney beans drained (I ran out of homemade, but if you're using homemade, add at least one cup...more if you're family likes kidney beans)
I added half a bag of frozen corn

Pour oil in soup pot and add onions, letting them simmer for a few minutes. Add chicken and stir until chicken is cooked through. Add cumin and/or chili powder. Add both broths, salsa, corn and beans. Cover and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Serve with sour cream and cheese on top and sprinkle with tortilla chips.

Enjoy!

Complete Brag Post

I may have the smartest two year old (almost three year old) on the planet! Seriously, what two year old can recite tons of dinosaur names (correctly, no less!) and several facts about each of them? Reagan can! And today, she was so cute...we were playing with her dinosaurs and she said "Mommy, we are omnivores." Yes, we are!

I'm just amazed at all the things she knows already!

Keep Reagan in Your Prayers

Reagan was just diagnosed with H1N1. She's very sick and just feels pretty awful in general. Please keep her in your prayers.

Free Sure Deodorant (Possible Money Maker) at CVS!

This week, Sure Deodorant is on sale at CVS for 2/$5.00. Purchase two and use two coupons (both from the 10-18-09 SS; one for $1.00 off any Sure Anti-Perspirant and Deodorant, 2.0 oz+ and the other for $1.50 off Sure for Men Anti-Perspirant and Deodorant). Make sure to buy one of the Sure for Men with a sticky label that says "Try Me for Free!"

Use this mail in rebate form and you'll receive a check for up to $2.99! At the very least you should receive your purchase price back which will make 2 Deoderant/Anti-Perspirants free!

2/$5.00
-1.00
-1.50
=2.50
Rebate Check for $2.50-$2.99!
Score!

Major Toy Purge!

A few weeks ago I just finished a MAJOR toy purge in our house. I can't believe how much stuff we've managed to collect for Reagan in her three short years. And I can't believe how hard it is for ME to part with some of the things. Really....I was teary eyed over most of her stuffed animals--"oh, but this is the bunny I got her for Easter" or "but this was the first stuffed animal grandpa bought her" or "oh that was the first toy she ever held!"

I'm looking forward to getting her some new items to play with for Christmas (note: I need new items!!!!!!!! Playing with the same little people set gets boring for me too!) but I really do miss some of her sweet baby toys!

The coke's on us.....

Reagan and I were driving past a local hardware store that is in our neighborhood and Reagan happened to mention that that's where we go to get drinks sometimes. I nodded (because we do run up there to grab a diet coke from time to time) and she proceeded to rattle along with some story that I was only half listening to (in my defense I was a little amazed at the fall colors!) I tuned back in to hear her saying "And little kids can't drink coke because cokes are only for dolts." LOL! The kid's really gotta work on not dropping those syllables!