Menu Planning

So since we've sort of got ourselves into a nice work routine, I have been so lazy about getting a menu together for the week. This is so helpful because it'll eliminate spontaneous trips to the grocery store and I'm certain it'll help cut some of that spontaneous spending as well.

Before I got this job I was just too tired to put one together, and it was more of a "Do I feel like cooking today?" type of thing. Have any of you gone through that kind of rut?

But now, since we've got a good flow going - it's time to get on the ball and get organized!

I currently only have plenty of ground beef and chicken thighs to work with, as well as a ton of frozen veggies. I feel like I've already exhausted the usual go to meals with these proteins and honestly, the last 3-4 weeks were jam packed. So I'm gonna start checking out some newer recipes from all different kinds of sources and then get to sharing them on here. 

Its been long enough...

Well hello there people!

It seems I fell off the face of the planet ... again. LOL

The truth is I've been lurking in the background, reading all the blogs on my list and keeping up with everyone - I just haven't blogged, for different reasons.

But now, it seems that everything is finally settling back into a norm.

SO backtracking a bit here to briefly catch up with me ..

August 2011 - I was let go from my job in the port with the metal shredding company. Shortly after that I began temporary work with my dad at his courier job. This was supposed to be short term, but after my first experience of job hunting I knew there was a possibility of it being not so temporary.

Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to keep up with all the bills!

September 2011 - January 2012:
In September we added a new member to our little family:

This is Jake

We rescued him from a shelter, he is about 2 years old and a full bred Shnauzer

Work wise, it was pretty much the same routine every day for these 5 months.

And now looking back, I kind of miss it. I miss seeing my dad everyday. I miss the sweating I would do loading up my route into the van and then delivering it. I miss meeting new people everyday. I miss the daily drives to SPI.

The end of January brought  some new things as well.

We finished our lease on our first apartment! And then were lucky to find a house for rent!!

Gosh those last few weeks in January were stressful! But it all worked out.

Our house is in a less than desireable location, but with all the little extras it had about it - we just couldn't pass it up.

Now we have all our pets with us and they have a yard to run around in. We have our own washer and dryer, huge deal! And no more stairs or downstairs neighbors complaining our tv/music is too loud!

I have to say, the first day out of the apartment I did not miss it one bit. It was a great starter for us, but we are definitely moving on to better things!

And the best thing that happened, I finally found a job!! Or well, the job kind of found me. LOL, GOD had it all worked out for us.

On Jan. 31st, I got an email asking to contact and go in for an interview. I was already driving to the warehouse to do the courier thing, but I went ahead and called anyway to possibly schedule something for the next day. I spoke to the Business Office Manager and he informed me that I had to go in that day, no other option. The owner of the business was in from out of town and pressuring the administration staff to fill the position asap. Initially I acutally said I would not be able to make it, so that was it. Then I called my dad who was already at the warehouse to talk to him about it. He told me I HAD to go, it was an interview and I couldn't pass it up. He took care of everything for me at the warehouse so I called back and said I would be able to show up after all.

Cue the hysterics and panic! This was my first interview in months! I rushed home to get dressed get myself together.

I do my interview and overall, feel like it had gone really well. I was done before 11:30 AM and they said they would make a decision within a few hours, so needless to say I was nervous the rest of the entire day. I was constantly checking my phone to see the time and check if I missed their call by any chance. When it got to 4:30, I pretty much gave up hope on it. I was already giving myself a prep talk so I wouldn't be too bummed about it. Then, lo and behold, I hear an alert from my phone - I had a voicemail!!

I GOT THE JOB! And the thing about it was they wanted me to start the next day! Crazy stuff.

I am the Assistant Business Office Manager at a nursing home.

I've had this job for about a month now and I like it. Its different, I have a lot of responsibilities, and I have A LOT of work. It's going great!

5 months ago I was delivering office supplies. Now I'm ordering it :)

Update - August 2011

Before begining this post, I hesitated for a few minutes - pondering how much longer I could put this off. lol. Yep, that's the procrastinator in me speaking! Shameful, yes, I know.

• 3 weeks ago today, Danny and I celebrated 1 year of living in our apartment together. I kicked myself for not having before pictures of our place when we first moved in. And then for not having cleaned the apartment to take pictures of what it looks like today. I definitely have had my moments of disliking the apartment, mostly because the kitchen is so darn small and cramped. But I've come to like this place, it's homey :D I will miss it when it comes time to leave.
• August 5th ended up being my last day of work at my super, cool, awesome and interesting job. Our company is closing down and they'd begun to make preperations to shut down. The office staff was one of the first casulties. It'd been up for sale for some time and when there weren't any big bites, the owner decided to close it down.  Right now, they have a limited amount of guys out in the yard-mostly for clean-up since the yard and everything on it is going up for auction on September 15.
• I  put off finishing my resume and sending out applications during that first week of being unemployed, mostly because I had high hopes of being called back for whatever reason. Or even that a buyer was in the process of making negotiations and wanted to keep the place running. Sadly, nothing to that effect happened. And I didn't really enjoy that week off. I felt annoyed, and I was a little mad that I was in this situation. Again. Looking back, I'm in the same place I was last year. Unemployed.
• I got to see Bella at my dad's house last week, after almost [or maybe even longer than] a month. It seemed like forever. Before that, I'd tried FaceTiming with her, and boy oh boy did she let me know she was mad at me! :( I felt so sad. Thanks to Audrey for kidnapping me that weekend because I got to spend some quality time with Bella and made sure to let her know she was my pooch! Love that punk!



Last week (08/14-08/20) I started helping my dad out at his job. They're couriers [kinda like the UPS] guys, out and about delivering stuff. They'd just landed a great contract with Staples so there was gonna be some extra work. I'd helped out several years before when my mom used to work there too and she went on vacation or whatever reason she couldn't work. It's not hard, it's just work. lol. Does that make sense?? Well, luckily for me I had Danny to help me get into it for a few days. And the true test came on Friday when he couldn't go with me. The biggest obstacle for me is going to be the cases of paper because they're so darn heavy! Just being in the warehouse loading up for deliveries is a work out so you know I'm getting my exercise on! lol. You sweat so much you need an extra shirt or two to get through the day. So for temporary work, I'll be ok. But I still miss my old job and being in the nice, comfy air conditioning.

Just today, [08/21] I filled out 2 applications, and sent out 4 more resumes. OOh and I baked a cake! How awesome am I?? ;) I kid, I kid. Seriously though, one of the applications is for a job that I really, really want. And I really did bake that cake ...  So say a little prayer for me while I go through this awful process of "job hunting" again. Please and thank you!

Smokey has been a lot more cuddly! :) Thank goodness, it's comforting and makes me smile.

Conversations with Danny

Danny: Wanna play [Call of Duty-Black Ops] with me?


Jessica: Nah. It’s ok, not right now. I think I’m gonna play tetris.

Danny: What?! I thought that’s what your "vacation" was for?!




Lol. So I've got some updating to do on here... A post on that definitely coming tomorrow!  Nothing too unbearably [is that a word? lol.] bad, but still enough that is update worthy.

Wishlist - The "Jim Shore" version

Is anybody familiar with Jim Shore figurines??

A couple of years ago I got turned on to them by my older sister Christina, and Audrey is in on the obsession too.

I have a Nursery Rhyme's collection going, and I also got a replica of Bonnie [which is almost scary identical to what she used to look like].

I haven't been to the website in some time, and Audrey sent me some links so I browsed around online for awhile and I've compiled a list of stuff I want to get already!!

These are the ones I want to complete my Nursery Rhymes Collection:

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Humpty Dumpty

And The Old Woman That Lived in a Shoe

I want these so I can set them out for Halloween:

There's a lot of neat stuff available on the website, so I encourage you to check it out!

Happy Shopping! :)

Conversations with Audrey

This is where Audrey, my little sister, and I were talking about having recently watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and the end of the Harry Potter era.

LOL

Summer Beach Days

My older sister and her family vacationed at South Padre Island last week and Danny and I were able to go spend time with them a couple of days:)

I know I say this everytime we go, but we really need to make it a point to head out there more often! I forget how much I love the beach until I get there.

***It's taken me over a week because Blogger Picture uploader thing was doing something weird with my photos, they were all turned wrong when I tried to upload :( I don't have very much patience .. as you can tell. lol.

The view from their balcony - the water looked so blue!

Danny in the water ... we weren't prepared to get wet. Yeah I know, who does that? Go to the beach all unprepared .. smh. haha.

Our nephew Jack excited to be in the water :)

My Sister Christina and her husband Casey

Cool sand ripples - clear water too :)

We went to dinner at Blackbeards later [yummmmm :)] and then came back to the beach!

I have a whole set of pictures of Casey "Making a hole" but they keep showing as turned all wrong when I insert them :( This is the only one that is turned correctly.

Sunset :)

Danny and I were able to meet up with The Royer's again for dinner on Monday :) We had an awesome dinner at Louie's Backyard, yummmmm!!

There's a parking lot across the street that has several attractions, like bungee jumping and even has some things for little kids. Jack saw this trampoline jumper thing and was convinced he had to do it. He was talking about how he was gonna do all sorts of flips whenever he got on it.

Here he is getting ready in line

Ready to go!

Getting strapped in

Ready to jump!

Landing in the end that it was all over.

Here's a video clip of Jack jumping, he got so scared being up so high. Immediately after he got off he wanted to try again :)



Worless Wednesday :)

Apparently, Smokey likes having company over :)

My sister Audrey visisted us over the weekend and she brought her little pooch with her.

Wishlist

Look at me! 2 posts in 1 day! :D

Ever since I learned how to cook, I was accustomed to cooking enough for 4-6 people and then some!

Now that most days it's just Danny and myself, I still can't figure the measurements out. I know it's silly because it's simple math, but I have yet to master cooking just enough for us 2.

So once I finally got over my cold, guess who gets sick?!

Yep, that's right - the husband.

LOL, And since I'm all better now I was finally able to cook! I made "caldo de res", which is just beef and veggie soup.

Here's what the stove looked like while the soup was simmering:

I used all of my pots! The big pot had 3 steaks in there with a lot of the veggies, the medium pot had one steak and some veggies, and the tiny pot had some vegetables that couldn't fit in the other 2 pots.

This always happens to me when I cook!

 I had seriously considered only cooking enough for the night, but then reconsidered and thought about what Danny could eat if he was still feeling sick and so on ....

All in all - I used 4 shank steaks, 3 baking potatoes, about 6 small-medium carrots [one of Danny's least liked vegetables], 2 medium sized sweet yellow onions and a small head of cabbage [another of Danny's least liked vegetables] complete with a side of spanish rice .. served with limes and corn tortillas.

Oh yeah the point of this post! (ref. the title) HAHA - I need a tall stock pot!

Something like this:

LINK

Something with a 10-12 quart capacity would be perfect!

But until then, this is what I'll be dealing with.

Conversations With Audrey

On Monday Audrey [my little sister] had a final to take for one of her summer classes .. This was just right about when she was about to go in and take her exam... LOL

That's how we roll ;D

What's on your phone??

I "borrowed" this idea from another blog I read :)
She went through her phone and shared random pictures she had stored.

I actually went to the random number generator site and picked 6 random numbers out of the many photos I had to share with you girls ..

#14

My Mr. Smokey Pants. He really is a big softie deep down inside even though most of the time he refuses to show it. He likes to sit with me at the kitchen table sometimes, lol

 #48

JOSH GROBAN!!!

This was taken during his concert in Dallas on 05/16. Floor seats, 3rd row center!! WHOOOO!!!

What else can I say?! lol.

#65

Our dog Bella, she looks down in the dumps about 95% of the time. I really do miss her a lot :(

There's not a day that goes by that I don't think of her. Soon, hopefully really soon she'll come to live with us when we get out of the apartment and into a house! I'm always bugging my sister to send me pictures of Bella. Sometimes we'll even facetime and I'll spend a good chunk of that time trying to get Bella to look at the phone.

#21

Danny and I after his Dad's wedding in April. It's not everyday that Danny dresses in a tux or that I wear my hair down - it's just too HOT and HUMID in South Texas ... we HAD to take a pic :)

#16 

This one was taken on a weekend at my Dad's house after bathing all the dogs. A ladybug came to say "Hello" :)

#32

This was taken on a random weekday trip to South Padre. It took me awhile to actually be able to step into the water... it felt really refreshing that day.

What do you store on your phone?