Welcome Fall: Baked Potato Soup

I love Fall! I love falling leaves, caramel apples, pumpkins, sweat pants, football games, popcorn balls, Halloween, sweater weather, and FALL FOODS! I just love the simplicity of soups and stews. This soup is so simple that it just doesn't even seem possible that it could taste so delicious. My family has always loved potato soup and it was one of my least favorite to make because I could never seem to chop enough potatoes. I know you will never go back to your old fashioned spud cutting ways after trying this recipe that calls for frozen hash browns. It is unbelievable to me that you can't even tell the difference. We serve ours with a big bowl of shredded cheddar cheese and fresh crumbled bacon. Another favorite variation is to add Velveeta cheese instead of cream cheese. I can usually get two meals out of this recipe. The first night we serve it with crusty french bread and the second night we have it with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Nineteen Years and Counting...

Things to notice about this picture from way back when...

• Chance no longer wears cowboy hats
• I no longer wear anything western - my attire in this picture consisted of ropers, rocky mountains, and a belt buckle I really won!
• This was a bachelor pad as indicated by the missing lamp shade and the decorative "rope"
• Chance now has less hair than he did in this picture
• I have less hair than I did in this picture ( I was channeling Reba)
• I no longer have the swatch watch I was wearing - man I did love a good jelly swatch watch
• the two people in the picture still make each other laugh almost every single day
• We still kiss...but mostly just to gross out our kids - "Good Times"

Happy 19th Anniversary to my one and only - Jerilynn

Sports Schedules and Sub Jobs

I have updated the sports schedule blog (click on the monkey picture to the right) with all of the game times. I think I will be adding some tournament times in October, but for now everything should be listed. I think I still have question marks by a couple of the softball locations. I will try to get those. I knew it was bound to happen, but we do have a few games that overlap. It will be really strange for Chance and I to have to split up and attend games separately!

I thought just to give you an idea of how busy I have been with subbing this year (and I thought the beginning of the school year would be SLOW) I would post a screen picture of my Aesop schedule. Aesop is the online substitute system that the CISD uses. The squares that are white are days that I have not taken off and have not filled with a job. The yellow days are nonworking days and in this house that translates to "days I have Campbell". I even mark the weekend days - just so I have a visual reminder that he is slated to come that day. The blue days....are all the days I have scheduled to sub! Yes, almost every day in September. It is really crazy. I know it is bound to slow down, but I even have 8 days in October and 1 day in November. Lately, I can only dream of the days that I used to get laundry done and actually made it to Target to hunt for clearance. LOL

P.S. I actually subbed the 31st of August and I sub the 2nd of October - so you could color two more squares blue. It only color codes the month you have pulled up. I sub mostly at the Intermediate school. I am there so much that a lot of kids know me by name and I think a handful actually think I am an employed teacher. Ü

Jason's Deli Chicken Salad

We discovered while living in Lubbock that the local Jason's Deli let an unlimited number of kids eat free on Monday nights - so all five of us could eat and we only paid for two meals. Let's just say that there was only a handful of Mondays missed! LOL It was our known Monday night destination. The funny thing is...it was the same for many other local families. You started to notice the same people week in and week out!

My usual Monday night fare was the chicken salad sandwich - so light and refreshing. I decided not long ago that I wanted to recreate it at home. It is super easy and really taste better than the original version.
Side Note: Cambry always called it Jason's Jelly. Ü

Recipe:

cubed or shredded cooked chicken
crushed pineapple, drained
crushed slivered almonds
miracle whip (try not to use low-fat)

Now, I don't have exact measurements. I just start with whatever amount of chicken I have, add the amount of pineapple and almonds I want to taste - and then just add enough miracle whip so that the ingredients bind together. My estimate would be 2-3 cups of chicken, 1/2 cup pineapple, and 1/4 to 1/2 cup crushed almonds. You can salt and pepper to taste.

Really yummy - may seem like "chic food"...but Chance LOVED it! We served ours on these really cool Sara Lee sandwich rounds that I found at the grocery store. They were very good!

Warning - Martha Stewartish helpful hint below:

***I always buy the cheap frozen chicken breasts (green bag) from walmart and I bake them in foil with a little salt, pepper, and a T. of butter for 30 minutes. I place them in the freezer (still in foil) and then just thaw out how many I need for any given recipe. I place them back in the oven (set to 300) and warm them up so they are easy to slice or cube. It is so nice having cooked seasoned chicken ready whenever I need them.

This picture shows about 10 chicken packets ready for the oven - I can get around three meals out of this amount.

Cutter's Birthday Part 2

Wow! What a super fun day we had with Cutter and all of his sweet friends from school. They were 100% into the whole jumping thing. I am pretty sure we sent some "tired" kids home from this party. They were all so well mannered and sweet - just a fun fun party. I am glad it is over though - one less thing to think about. Here are a few pics from the party that include the best cookie cake ever! Cookie cake is the way to go - most kids asked for seconds. It was nice not to throw away 15 plates of half eaten cake. LOL

He received some really nice gifts and already stopped by Academy and used his gift cards and money to buy a new trolling motor for his boat.
Special thanks to the family members that endured "death by germs" a.k.a Jump n Jive!

my multi-talented middle child

I have sung a few Cambry praises on my blog before...I can do that because I am her mom and it's my blog - LOL!

I am pretty sure I have not blogged about one of her secret talents. She is becoming quite the "toenail" artist! She wants to give me a pedicure at least once a week. No...you can't have her - we would miss her (and her pedicures way too much!) She saw this design on my cousin's toes this past weekend and came home and recreated it on mine using Canyon Eagle colors. It won't be long and she'll be hosting her own toenail painting parties.

the artist at work

Now, my toes don't really look like little toe nubs...bad camera angle!

One of her more "known" talents is softball! Her first games are coming up this Saturday at 2:00 and 3:30 at Amarillo High school. Be There or Be Square!

p.s. I am blogging at 8:00 at night in front of the Jr. High. I just dropped all the girls off at the Powder Puff game (where the girls play football the night before the big homecoming game) and then a Bonfire. I am guessing it will be a 10:00 night for the Hedger girls. The weekend is only going to get even more crazy (high school is fun, but so busy). We have homecoming and Chesley is going with a friend...so tomorrow she gets her first MUM! Sooo exciting! Hopefully, I will get a few pictures, but you all know how she is.

p.s.s. I made it home by 9:35

A Birthday Summary: Part 1

I don't know why this is, but we are notorious in the Hedger House for dragging out the birthday celebrations. Every year I tell myself I am going to do better....and then I don't! Cutter has already had a great birthday that will end next weekend with his Jump n Jive party. We let him open gifts from us and my parents on Saturday (Nana and Papa are coming in a couple of weekends so that they can see a little softball and flag football action - so they sent their gifts earlier this month).

We got together last night with family at LuLu's and Papa Check's house to see my cousin Josh and his sweet family. I am so mad that I didn't take pictures. We had yummy green chili burgers and lots of visiting. Cutter got birthday money and the new Wii Sports Resort game....he has been playing it nonstop. It is seriously FUN! (thanks Aunt Jill and family).

The Handsome Birthday Boy!

Cutter and his new IPOD from Mom and Dad

Cutter got a very special gift from Papa Check - his first shotgun

(it went straight into the locked gun safe until he can take safety classes when he is much older)

Cutter got a really cool fish finder that attaches to his fishing rod from Nana and Papa. You can see in this video that he loves opening gifts. LOL

The Big 7!

Someone in our house turns 7 today..how can it be??? I officially want the world to slow down so I can drag my family off...just for a little while. My kids are growing up too fast. Cutter is still supposed to be Campbell's size! We are looking forward to a long weekend and one extra day to sleep in! We will be celebrating this weekend quietly with family and next weekend with his friends. This is the first year that Cutter gets to have a party with friends. He is very excited about that! Happy Labor Day Weekend Everyone!
p.s. this video was made a very long time ago...Cutter was such an easy going happy baby - I think it shows in these pictures. Hope you enjoy the look back.

edited to add: celebrating with his school friends and family too - next weekend. He is having hot dogs tonight with just us. He asked for hot dogs and pork chops! LOL

Blogging on the Go

The no blog comments idea just didn't have the effect I was hoping for! My house still needs to be cleaned, my laundry still needs to be done, and I still have errands that need to be run. So, maybe with the help of this:

wireless USB internet

and the help of this:

Dell mini laptop

I can blog on the go considering that I am pretty much going to be constantly on the go these days. We have three different activities to attend this evening. (same as last night....I got home at 8:00 *yawn* !!!

You know - I am thankful to be running myself ragged taking my healthy kids to do softball practice, football practice, theater class, auditions, etc. etc. etc.

I known there are parents all over the world worn tired and ragged from doctors visits, hospital visits and pharmacy runs. We have much to be thankful for!

I am subbing today in a keyboarding class - funny considering I never took it in school and I am a champion finger typer.

So, this is my first blog post from school (during my third period conference) and the comments have returned. Hope everyone is having a great week.