Menu Plan Monday

The cost of my youngest son's surgery and my upcoming decrease in work hours because of classes has me thinking of ways to cut our budget. So I'm going to jump on the Menu Plan Monday wagon. I know that menu planning helps your budget because 1: your less likely to splurge on eating out if you already know what your going to fix for dinner, and 2: you make out your grocery list according to your menu and less likely to buy impulse buys.

So I made out a menu for two weeks but I'm only going to post this weeks up here right now.
Menu Plan for 11/9-11/14

Dinners

Monday: Fried Chicken,Mashed potatoes w/gravy,Green Beans
Tuesday: Pork Roast w/ potatoes, carrots, onion, celery
Wednesday: Beans w/ leftover meat from pork roast, cornbread
Thursday: Spaghetti, salad, breadsticks
Friday: Steak, Baked Potatoes, Green Beans
Saturday: Pizza, Salad, breadsticks

Lunches:

The kiddies all eat lunch at school Monday-Friday. Saturdays and Sundays are sandwiches or whatever is available. I'll eat either soup, ramen noodles or a sandwich and Hubby eats whatever he can throw in his cooler.

Breakfasts:

Monday: Pancakes

Tuesday: Oatmeal

Wednesday: Overnight French Toast

Thursday: Bacon and Eggs

Friday: Bread Pudding

Saturday and Sunday: Cereal

November kinda sucks already

It's only the first week of the month and it kinda sucks. I had a tooth pulled Monday, my mouth is still a little tender. My youngest son's ear has been draining so I kept him home Tuesday and Wednesday morning, bright and early, we went to the ENT doctor. Turns out he has chronic mastoiditis, an infection in the mastoid bone behind the ear. The doctor is going to have to go in and remove a portion of the bone and drain the infection. Then he is going to repair a hole my son has in his eardrum.
The doctor said it was a simple operation that he has done nearly 5,000 times. My son will be under general anesthesia and the surgery will take about a hour. The second floor of their office building is the surgery floor so it's all done in office. My son still needs a ct scan but I couldn't afford it and the office visit yesterday so I guess I need to see how much that will be and schedule it soon. The office visit alone was 200+ dollars. I'm glad we have insurance however crappy it may be 'cause this surgery would cost over 8,000 out-of-pocket if we didn't...as it is it's gonna cost around 800. Well off to work and worry, lol. Hope everyone has a great day.

I hope everyone had a good night last night. I don't have any Halloween pics to post because we didn't dress up. Well, I did dress up some for work but as a family we didn't dress up. Money was too tight this year for costumes for everyone so we just stayed in ate a ton of candy, watched semi-scary movies (kids are still to young for really scary ones) and bobbed for apples (that was fun to watch and had my camera battery been charged I would of had pictures), ate more candy, ate dinner at about 8:30pm (at least those of us who didn't have a belly too full of candy ate) and all in all enjoyed a good family night in. None of the kids fought or bickered or argued we just kicked back and relaxed. Hubby unscrewed the porch light because he was worried about trick-or-treaters. I don't think they do that on our street as it's dark and no sidewalks. Anyway we have a long driveway and I don't think anyone would want to traipse up it to darken our doorway.

Pictures in Sepia

Tammy from Photography for Fun made a challenge to change photos from sepia that you had not thought of changing. So here's some I did. Click the pics to see them larger.

okay so this isn't very original...old car in sepia. It's still nice though.

I like the way these icicles from last winter look in sepia.

I think this is my favorite.

Memphis skyline in sepia.

Here are the originals.

It Feels Right

BCHS, the college I wanted to attend to begin with, finally accepted my transcripts. YEAH!! So in about 2 hrs I'll be sitting there taking the HOBET test (Hubby has been calling it my Bilbo test, lol...I told him I let him know if I find a ring, my precciousssss). I had to get updated Letters of Recommendation and update my app. The administrator at the nursing home I work wrote me a glowing recommendation that made me feel so appreciated. Which is big 'cause most of the time at this place you feel like just another disposable peon. Thank you's and Your great's come from the residents and coworkers a lot. The uppers (DON, Administrator, etc.) not so much.

Anyway, so for the last couple of nights I've been brushing up on my math skills making sure I have my formula's and stuff right in my head. I've had enough math I know I know everything, but a lot of the earlier stuff I learned I've forgotten and had to refresh myself. That and ratio's and fractions scare me so I want to make sure I have those down. I just have to tell myself not to get nervous 'cause I should know everything on this test. Somewhere in my little noggin is all the information I need to make a great score.

I'm just so happy I brought my GPA up high enough for them to consider me. I was on cloud 9 when I called the school on Monday to check on my app and got told that. I wasn't going to call due to fear of another rejection. I sucked it up and called and now wonder why I didn't do it sooner.

Well, gonna go and do some last minute studying before I leave. Wish me luck everyone, I'm sure all reading this know how badly I want this.

Wordless Wednesday

My favorite view after a trip to visit family in Mo.

For more Wordless Wednesdays go HERE

It's been awhile...

Not been posting much here because everything has been fairly quiet and I haven't had much to blog about. So I thought today I would post some pics I took over Labor Day weekend.

Well these are kinda in reverse but that's OK. This, of course, is the Memphis skyline. I'm so eager to see this when we are coming back from Missouri because it means we're home (or nearly so).

The view from one of the hills driving home on Highway 63 through Arkansas.

Footbridge in Water Wheel, Arkansas

Old mill in Water Wheel, Arkansas.

To see these pics bigger just click on them. I took more but I'll save those for another time. Hope everyone has a great Monday, I'll be spending my day off taking care of a sick kid. My oldest started running a fever yesterday. Doesn't surprise me as the middle and high schools here have been hit pretty hard by the flu. Not the swine flu, it seems most of the kids just have the good old fashioned flu.