Monkeyface's agenda for today

a) Learn to ride a tricycle
b) Help with the laundry
c) Make apple dumplings
d) Foamerators
e) Have sausage and eggs for breakfast
f) Clip my nails
g) Go to Target to play with all the toys that I don't need but boy oh boy do I love to play with them**
h) Stick my feet in my mom's face and tell her to smell the feet of the king (Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters reference)

**edit at 1215pm-Just been invited to the pool so I've decided not to go to Target. I think it is a wise decision.**

Food Friday

This week I made Broccoli and Cheese Chicken and served it with mashed potatoes. It was delicious and would be great for a fall night. The little one looked at my best friend over dinner and said, "I love broccoli". Well this was news to me but if this recipe will get him to eat it then I will make it.

Broccoli & Cheese Chicken Breasts

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into smaller pieces
Salt & pepper, to taste
2 T. butter or margarine
2 T. flour
1 1/4 c. milk
1 1/2 c. cheddar cheese, cubed or shredded
2 c. frozen broccoli
1/2 t. thyme
2 T. butter or margarine
1 c. breadcrumbs
1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Place in small casserole dish (8×8 or 9×9).

2. In a small saucepan, melt 2 T. butter or margarine over medium heat. Stir in flour and cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in milk, bring to a boil and cook until thickened to gravy consistency. Remove from heat. Stir in cheese until melted. Add the broccoli. Season with salt, pepper and thyme. Pour over chicken.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

4. Melt 2 T. butter or margarine and combine with breadcrumbs. Sprinkle over chicken and return to the oven. Bake for 5-10 minutes, or until browned and chicken is fully cooked.

This recipe was totally stolen from Cooking During Stolen Moments. Her website is great and right now there are pull apart rolls on the main page which I am going to make.

This recipe is posted to Gayle's website.

Giveaway Everyday

This looks like a really fun prize

I love this website for giveaways and for gift ideas.

Canning Queen

I just won another giveaway. This time I won this. My sister in law is going to be excited that I don't have to bug her every time I want to can.

100 Best Beach Books Ever

According to NPR these are the 100 Best Beach Books Ever. How many have I read?

1. The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling
2. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
3. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
4. Bridget Jones’s Diary, by Helen Fielding
5. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
6. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells
7. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald(more than once)
8. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
9. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, by Fannie Flagg(more than once)
10. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
11. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
12. Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
13. The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan
14. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
15. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
16. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
17. Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett
18. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
19. Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
20. Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen
21. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain(more than once)
22. The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver
23. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith
24. The World According to Garp, by John Irving
25. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
26. The Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy
27. Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel
28. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
29. The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler
30. Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer
31. A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
32. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
33. The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
34. Beach Music, by Pat Conroy
35. One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
36. Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier
37. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
38. Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
39. The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough
40. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon
41. Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett
42. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
43. Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice
44. Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier
45. Empire Falls, by Richard Russo
46. Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes
47. The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
48. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, by Tom Robbins
49. I Know This Much Is True, by Wally Lamb
50. Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie
51. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott(awwwww)
52. The Stand, by Stephen King
53. She’s Come Undone, by Wally Lamb
54. Dune, by Frank Herbert
55. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
56. Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
57. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
58. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
59. The Godfather, by Mario Puzo
60. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
61. Animal Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver
62. Jaws, by Peter Benchley
63. Good in Bed, by Jennifer Weiner
64. Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner
65. Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
66. The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
67. The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
68. Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut
69. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
70. The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler
71. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
72. The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy
73. Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns
74. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding (more than once)
74. Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe [tie]
76. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
77. Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon
78. The Shell Seekers, by Rosamunde Pilcher
79. Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver
80. Eye of the Needle, by Ken Follett
81. Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck
81. The Pilot’s Wife, by Anita Shreve [tie]
83. All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy
84. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
85. The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
86. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
87. One for the Money, by Janet Evanovich
88. Shogun, by James Clavell
89. Dracula, by Bram Stoker
90. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera
91. Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow
92. Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
93. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
94. Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris
95. Summer Sisters, by Judy Blume
96. The Shining, by Stephen King
97. How Stella Got Her Groove Back, by Terry McMillan
98. Lamb, by Christopher Moore
99. Sick Puppy, by Carl Hiaasen
100. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

**Whoa. Only 28. I need to get to reading**
**I own quite a few of these. I need to get busy**
***updated 23FEB11***

Things I have said this morning

1) Get your feet out of the grapes!
2) Go pull up your yogurt chair.

Let me tell you how much fun you will not have if you spend 4 hours in an inflatable palace of jumping and joy only to come home to find out your a/c is broken. It was like all the happiness in me just ran away screaming and I instantly became evil. In my mind all I could see was $5000 being spent to fix it. I'm trying so hard to get out of debt and I felt utterly defeated. I also realized I like being in control a lot more than I thought. There is nothing I can control about a broken a/c but then I realized that I should call my friend that just had the same thing happen. He told us where the fuses should be located and Hubby changed those out. We now have a/c but I'm still going to get it serviced. I'm not going to let that happen again.

Week Six

I didn't do an update last week b/c it was just too depressing to post the same thing again. No weight loss. Same thing this week and I know it is all purely mental. I'm too exhausted by the time I get home each and every day and I cannot bring myself to get out of bed any earlier. Tomorrow is the day I go for my yearly check up at the cardiologist so I suppose it's my New Year's Day. I've got to find something to motivate me and soon. I've got to snap out of this.

Weight Loss
I have neither lost nor gained any weight
exercise
Still having a problem with the moving thing. Why oh why do I fight it? How do I convince myself to roll out of the bed early in the morning?
Food
Food is all out of whack. My portion sizes are smaller but what I'm eating is not all that great.
Emotions
I feel like I'm fighting depression. Yes I know exercise would snap me out of this but I am caught in a Catch-22. I know I'll snap out of it soon enough but for now I'm taking it for what it is and I'm learning new things about myself.

Goals for Week 6:
**15 minutes of movement every day
**Try out Jillian Michael's 30 day shred (for real really this time-it is in the DVD player waiting for me)
**Lose 3 lbs this week
**Get outside for a nature walk...maybe the art museum trail
**water, water, water