Seeking Advice from the masses

I have found this great website www.e-mealz.com. For just $15.00 a quarter (3 month period), you can sign up for weekly menu plans AND shopping lists. We are saving a lot on food now because with quick and easy recipes at my fingertips we are eating out less often. That is where the real savings (for us) comes in!

Anyway, now I'm at this point where I want to make my grocery shopping trips a bit more productive as well. The fewer trips I have to make to the store for perishables the fewer opportunities I have to impulse buy.

Which leads to my question, I have this great big freezer that I know I could be using more efficiently, but I need advice. Have any of you ever frozen milk to use later? How has that worked for you? We use non-fat milk, now that the kids are teens.. so I think it will freeze well, but I want confirmation. Also, what other items have you found that you can freeze (bread, etc) that came back to room temperature without freezer burn. As a kid, my parents froze everything, but i remember some of that stuff not faring too well, so I need advice from a savvy freezing pro.

Thanks so much! :)

Oh, and on a side note... e-mealz offers several menu plans (low fat, point, coupon, vegetarian). We're using the low fat and so far, there isn't a menu we haven't enjoyed. A few have become our new favorites.

An open letter to the man with the DUI

Mr. Darrin Paul Ellis,

I find that the tactics you and your attorney employed in court today to be most heinous. After delaying the court trial month after month with your stall tactics (as I found out today, your hope was that we would not show in court and you could continue your "not guilty" plea), you suddenly switched your plea to "Guilty" in order to prevent my daughter from having her day in court.

Her one chance to speak up about the horror of being involved in a head-on collision with you on that fateful night was snatched away from her today, while you managed to work the insanely lax DUI laws in your favor. Please realize that I don't for one minute believe that this is your first ever offense. You are 39 years old and you should freaking know better by this point. Why, oh why couldn't you have called a family member or a friend to come and pick you up after your long night of drinking?

Did you see my daughter's car after that accident? I did... I took tons of pictures of it. The blood that dried up in the console between the seats was the hardest thing of all to see. I broke down and cried that day. I suddenly realized in all too clear a manner just how seriously blessed we were that night you ran head-on into my daughter's car. By all the laws of physics, she should have been dead. But God saw fit to keep her safe during a very scary time. He was with her in that car that night and I have thanked Him daily for the safety he has kept her in.

My daughter is no longer comfortable driving at night, neither can she relax when someone else is driving. For the last 8 months she has had to change her way of living to prevent the need to drive after dark. All this because of you. I hold you completely responsible for that night.

I hope that this time you've learned your lesson and any future drinking events will be with a designated driver in tow. I don't think the $800.00 fine and the $150.00 court fees, plus a suspended thirty day jail sentence, with an unsupervised one year parole (along with a court approved substance abuse program) is anywhere near enough punishment for what you almost stole from our family that night. My only consolation in this is that I believe the scales do eventually balance and you will one day get what you deserve. I just hope when that day comes you don't take some other innocent driver with you.

I hope that night haunts you for the rest of your life. I know it will me.

I have been humbled

I am not thrilled with my test scores... the muscle lab quiz came back as a 78 (I missed points for spelling)... and the psych test was an 86.7.... if I had missed one less question, I would have stayed in the A zone (my unit tests have all been A's)... but the midterm knocked me down to a B (for now).

Lots of work ahead of me, but I'll "keep on swimming, swimming, swimming."

glitter-graphics.com

Of Muscles and Psych tests

Normally I love Thursdays. My last day of school each week is Thursday. I look forward to my three day weekends... which I use to study, study, study. This week, I'm not so sure I'm loving Thursday.

I have my first muscle lab test in anatomy. The muscles of the upper limb, and it's "attachment" muscles to the trunk are the first 29 muscles I have had to learn (we aren't doing ALL the muscles.... The human body has more than 600 muscles).

Then I have my mid-term in Psychology. Normally I don't mind tests...I actually do pretty well in tests... but I really hate having two tests on the same day. It's hard to make time to study well for both.

Tonight I focused on the muscles. Tomorrow between classes, I'll study the psych notes. 60-75 questions on the first 6 sections we've studied. Multiple choice.

I guess I'm venting. :)

back in the saddle

Things are going well at school. I dropped Microbiology. It was easier to push forward in my other classes than to have all of them suffer while I tried to stay mediocre(at best) in Microbiology.

Now it's study, study, study as I get ready for my mid-terms.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Back to school

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I have a lot of studying to do to catch up. I think this would be easier if I didn't have two lab sciences and algebra too! I have two lab quizzes and one unit test to be ready for by Monday.

Still, it's good to be back at school. Good to feel well again.

School, FLU, and birthdays

Kim and Kendra, September 1991

It's been a hectic month for all of us here. Kendra is back up at school, doing well. Her first post-op visit was encouraging, we go back again in October to see how things are moving along. I actually cried, the news was so good the first time.

My husband is a fount of wisdom and I would do myself well to listen to him more often. In my anxious need to make myself as competitive as possible for the nursing program, I am taking two lab sciences this semester. Paul warned me that I might find myself a bit overwhelmed. Well.. he was right, although I suspect part of the problem lies in the ongoing care of Kendra. I missed a few key days here and there for her appointments. But I'm doing okay. I actually thought I'd be well settled by this past weeked.

And then the FLU hit me on Tuesday last. Following CDC guidelines, the military clinics are no longer testing to confirm h1n1 diagnosis, but based on the information I was given, I'd say that is what I am struggling with now. Kim and Mac have come down with it too. The basic strategy is to stay away from people until you are 24 hours without a fever and fever reducing medicines. But, based on how I have felt... you don't really want to be farther than your bed anyway. My fever finally left this morning, so I think I am good to go back to school tomorrow... but both kids are still feverish and very lethargic.

Kim and Kendra had birthdays this month. Kim on the 15th (the day I got SLAMMED down by the FLU) and Kendra's was the 20th. We celebrated yesterday, with Kim, Mac and I wearing lovely face masks throughout the event (at home). We were trying to keep Kendra's exposure to a minimum.

At any rate, we took a few pics of the event (with Kim in mask). I can't believe I have two "adult" daughters. Kim turned 18 and Kendra turned 21.

glitter-graphics.com

glitter-graphics.com
I'll post the new pics once Paul gets the new ones uploaded.