The monster thing it is! Mine looked just like it would hold a baby! Maybe the doctor shipped my baby to me insted. I really can’t open this box up… but if it is a baby I should at least allow it to breath right? After a few deep breaths you open it up and discover a maze of needles and packages that say refrigerate this and leave this one at room temperture. You start second guessing your choice of “room temperture”. I mean I like it at 72. Is that good for my meds? This corner has a bit of a draft, maybe I should put it closer to the center of the room. Oh that might be tricky with my next dinner party with this all hanging out there. What sort of questions will people ask. Ugg! Must avoid this. I know, I will take a thermometer and go around my room and find the ideal spot for the meds and put them there… in this closet, surrounded by a blanket.

Now you look at your refrigerated meds. Where should this go? Now for me this question was easy. They got their own little dorm style refrigerator. I could make them happy in there and not bother my other food. However for other people this isn’t an option. So where do you put those? Some try the crisper or the shelf, maybe the egg tray… yeah that would be a great spot after all they will help you make eggs!

Now those needles! Do they really expect me to inject myself with these? How am I going to do this? I REALLY want a baby but is this really the only way? Sadly this is one area where you just have to live through it to know that they really are not that bad. Yeah it isn’t fun, but at least your not having to be awake when they do the egg retrieval and take out the REALLY big needles.

Inside my box was 2 sharps containers, more needles and syringes then I could ever use, alcohol wipes, Repronex, Gonal F, Lupron, Noverel, Progesterone in Ethyl Oleate, Doxycycline (antibiotic), Medrol (steroid), and prometrium. I used this corner of my bedroom to stage all of this. It worked well for me.

Don’t worry you can and will get through this. The big box turns smaller and smaller after a few days into your cycle. By the time your done, you are thankful and just pray that it will work… and odds are it will!

Jennifer (BL-3 ladybugs)

Valentine’s Day — Some Fun Ideas

I love to decorate for the holidays. . . . every holiday.  If I could have come up with something festive for MLK day, I would have decorated for it! 

With Valentine’s Day just a few weeks away, I’ve been saving several items concerning Valentine’s Day in my favorites folder.  That’s the way I “pin” things I see.  I have yet to master the “pinning” technique for pinterest.com, so I’ve just continued saving recipes and crafty items in my favorites’ folders like I always have.

Here are some of my favorites for Valentine’s Day :

You know how much I love to cook and when I saw this Chocolate Cherry Whoopie Pie recipe, I just knew I was going to have to make them for Valentine’s Day!

So I put the Slow Cooker Dr. Pepper Ribs in the crockpot this morning around 9 o’clock.  I used the ribs I had purchased on sale yesterday at our local grocery store.  They looked pretty good except they were all frozen together in a great big block!  The ribs were cut into portions of 3 or 4 ribs together . . . and all of these portions were frozen together and I couldn’t get them to break apart! 

Dave suggested I take the box (closed of course) to the front concrete porch and throw the box down like a bag of ice to break the ribs apart.  Somewhat skeptical . . . I did as he suggested.  It worked!  It didn’t break all the ribs apart, but it broke enough off and separated for me to use for tonight’s meal.  Here’s the ribs at the start of the cooking process.  They were still frozen.

I seasoned them and poured 1 cup of Dr. Pepper over the ribs and left them to cook on low all day (8 hours).  Here’s what they looked like right before we took them up.

We took the ribs out and set them on a cookie sheet to pour the liquid out of the crockpot.    They were very fragile . . . the ribs kept breaking apart because they were so tender . . . and fall apart good.

The recipe said to brush BBQ sauce on the ribs and place them back in the crockpot for 1 hour to continue cooking.  (See the white crockpot . . . that’s my “baked” potatoes cooking)

Instead of putting the ribs back in the crockpot . . . Dave wanted me to put them on the grill and finish cooking them there and since I was cooking the ribs for Dave  . . . I did as he wished. 

Here are the ribs right before I took them up.

I cooked them on the grill at about 300 degrees for a few minutes on each side.  I had to use a spatula and tongs to turn them over because they were wanting to fall apart!

Dave loved them!  In fact, everyone loved them!  We give this recipe:

            5 thumbs up from the Ferrell boys and me!

Last night’s menu is also worth sharing.  We had grilled boneless pork chops, brown rice, and green bean “bundles”.

Shane helped me in the kitchen when I was making this meal.  He’s a big “helper”.

I used the Mesquite marinade on the pork chops.  I got one of the great guys in the meat department at the grocery to cut me some boneless pork chops about 3/4 to 1 inch thick.  I think pork chops do better on the grill when they’re a little thicker.  I let them marinate for about an hour in the refrigerator while I cooked the rice and green beans.

The brown rice recipe I use is in the local bank’s cookbook in the side dish section.  You need these ingredients:

You mix 1 cup of rice, the two soups, 1 tbsp of butter, and 1/4 cup of water together in a casserole dish.  Put a lid on the dish and cook it at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Mix and fluff the rice before serving.

My boys don’t like the little brown onions from the french onion soup in the rice . . . they pick them out!  Next time I make it, I’m going to blend the onions up so they won’t see them!

The green bean “bundles” are my lazy way to make them.  Here’s the ingredients:

You pour the 2 cans of green beans and juice into a casserole dish.  Lay the bacon across the top of the green beans and sprinkle with garlic powder and pepper.  I cut the bacon in half.

Bake at 350 degrees uncovered for 1 hour.  I always make these green beans and the brown rice together since they both cook for an hour.  Sometimes I’m not lazy and I actually make the bean bundles, but this lazy way is really good too.  The bacon cooks and crisps on top and adds great flavor to the beans!

Right before the rice and beans were ready, I put the pork chops on the grill.  I cooked them at 300 degrees on the grill for several minutes on each side.  I turned them over 2 or 3 times and let them cook at least twice on each side of the pork chop.  I like to cook slowly on the grill so as not to burn the food.

The pork chops were really good.  The mesquite flavor made them so yummy!  The fat on the outside of the pork chops burned a little (see the black) but the pork chops weren’t burnt.  I went to check on them one time and opened the grill and . . . the fat on one of the pork chops was on fire!  Freaked me out a little.

But of course, while I’m grilling, I have a little “helper” in the kitchen which can be distracting . . .

“Look Mom . . . I’m in a box!”

It’s a wonder I didn’t burn all the pork chops!  “Look Mom . . . I’m running fast in the box!”

I am working on a little project I saw on pinterest.com, but I haven’t finished it yet.  When I get finished I’ll be posting it to show you.  I’m making it from some of the wood from the torn up piano . . . which by the way . . . is still on the front porch!

Don’t stress about the piano . . . we were told by professional piano tuners to chunk it.  Dave has been dismantling it since before Christmas . . . I just hope it’s gone by Easter !  Here are the pieces I’m trying to repurpose through my crafting projects. 

Dave thinks I’m nuts.  LOL!   

Well, I’ve got to go.  We’ve got school tomorrow and have to get up early after an easy . . . lazy . . . day at Ferrell Farm!

 So long . . . and sweet dreams from
                                            the Ferrell boys and me!

Sunday Night Blogging & Next Week’s Menu

So here we go:

Monday:

Slow Cooker Dr. Pepper Ribs
Crockpot Baked Potatoes  
Mac & Cheese
Left-over green beans

Tuesday:

Easy Lemon Chicken  
Rice
English peas
Garlic bread

(picture & recipe from thequeenbeeshive.com )

Wednesday:

Chicken Tortilla Soup   

Toppings:  cheese, sour cream
tortilla chips

(picture & recipe from thelarsonlingo.blogspot.com )

Thursday:

Tacos  (The taco kits were on sale this week at Tems)
Mexican rice

(picture & recipe from tastykitchen.com)

Friday:

Take-out Mike’s pizza  (cause I hate to cook on Fridays)
Salad

Saturday:

Lunch:  Alphabet soup & grilled cheese  (My boys love this!)

Supper:
From the freezer:  PW Chicken spaghetti (we didn’t eat it this past Sat. like planned)
Salad
Garlic bread

Sunday:

Lunch:  Roast/gravy/carrots/rice/rolls  [Dave is off this Sunday so I'm planning a ole-fashioned Sunday lunch]

Supper:
Left-overs

This week I’m trying a few new recipes (Poor Dave!), but I think they sound pretty good!  Maybe they’ll be keepers!

When I planned my menu for this week, I used our local grocery store sales paper in deciding what to have . . . the ribs were on sale  this week.   They had 10lb. box of baby back ribs for .98 cents a pound.  I was a little concerned about buying a box of ribs I couldn’t see . . . so I called Robert, the meat man at the store, on my cell phone . . . I coincidentally have his cell phone number . . . and asked him about it.  He said they were really good ribs with a lot of meat on ‘em at a great price . . . so get ‘em!  So I did!  If you can’t trust your butcher . . . who can you trust?

I planned on getting the skinless, boneless chicken breasts that were on sale too . . . but they were frozen with hairy ice crystals all over them and I didn’t like the way they looked. . .  So I opted for the chicken breast and chicken tenders that weren’t frozen and also not on sale. 

The taco kits and the garlic bread were also on sale.  I love my local grocery store!  They also had some California clementines.  They were not the Cutie namebrand, but I’m still gonna give them a try!

We’ve had an easy weekend.  I’ve been cleaning around the house and washing clothes.  My house is not anywhere as clean as I want it, but I took several breaks to play with my boys.

Zach got  uno attack! for Christmas and we played it some this weekend.  The boys love it!  Tomorrow, we’re going to play the dominoes that Alex got.  Fun.

I cleaned out three drawers from the boys’ old nursery wardrobe . . . one drawer had pajamas that used to be Zach and Alex’s when they were Shane’s age!  Spiderman, Hulk, Cars, Buzz Lightyear, Thomas the Train, and even more Spiderman pajamas all for Shane!  He was so excited.  He immediately had to put on the Cars pjs.

Friday afternoon Alex spotted an Eagle flying over the catfish ponds near our house.  We saw eagles at Dollywood this summer.  The Dollywood Eagle Mountain Sanctuary is a 30,000-square-foot aviary that houses the country’s largest presentation of non-releasable bald eagles.  Read about Dollywood’s Eagle Foundation HERE.

They also have a live bird show with all kinds of birds like hawks, bald eagles, golden eagles and other birds (whose names I can’t remember). 

The boys loved it  . . . especially Alex.   See how excited he is pointing to the eagles.  He’s my little nature boy. . . 

When he said he could see a big bird and he thought it was an eagle, I doubted him.  I told him it probably wasn’t an eagle and remember, eagles have white heads.  He said it has a white head.  I pulled over and looked up and sure enough it was an eagle.  Actually two eagles flying around and swooping.  It was so cool.  It made Alex’s day.

Shane has spent the entire weekend watching Despicable Me over and over.  I had recorded it for the boys a while ago, and it has become Shane’s favorite movie.  He’ll ask me to please put on “da-pickle-me” movie.  It took me a while to understand what he meant, but now I’ve heard it so much I know what he’s talking about.

Well, anyway, that’s our weekend at the farm.  We’re all off work and school for MLK holiday.  I’m going to my WW meeting in the morning, but after that, I plan to spend the day with the boys . . . playing cards or board games or maybe even laser tag!  I hope Dave feels better and can play with us too!

Hope your weekend has been exactly what you hoped it would be! 

It certainly has been for the Ferrell boys and me!