Spaghetti Pie

My most requested recipe by far is my spaghetti pie. I feel so bad because I have been promising so many people the recipe for a long time. Tonight I decided to make it and document the whole thing. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!

Spaghetti Pie

1-2 pounds beef
1 jar of your favorite sauce
1/2 small can of tomato paste
1 can petite diced tomatoes
6oz sour cream
4oz cream cheese
garlic salt
ranch dressing mix
2 cups mozzarella
parmasan cheese
1 box angel hair pasta (boiled and drained)

Mix together cooked ground beef, sauce, paste, and tomatoes in sauce pan.

Mix together sour cream, cream cheese, 2 tbls ranch dressing mix, and a generous sprinkle of garlic salt.

Layer noodles on bottom of 9x13 or two 9x9 pans, dallop and spread "white" mixture on top, top with red mixture, and sprinkle mozzarella and parm.

Bake at 350 till bubbly!

Oh and while you wait for this to cook, you could always do what Jack did...


Courtney

My Favorite Things

I figure if Oprah can have a favorite things list, so can I! So here goes my top ten... In no particular order!
1. Yogurt Mountain. It's new in Mountain Brook and its the greatest thing. Think 16 flavors of fat free yogurt and endless toppings, all "serve yourself"!
2. Heather Cummans Photography. She captures the sweetest images on a matted fiber paper. While its not cheap, I have never regreted one penny spent on those pics! Love her work!!

3. Ecover. Its an organic all purpose cleaner that works! It shines granite beautifully, you can mop the floors with it, clean the bathroom, and the high chair... I love it! Throw away the 20 other cleaners you have and exchange it for this... its non toxic and good for the environment! I got mine at Whole Foods.... oh and it last forever!

4. The Nesting Place. It's in Cahaba Heights Village and its a wonderful store with great gifts. It has everything you just can't possibly live without! Like this cute basket that folds and holds everything perfectly...

5. gDiapers. {gasp}... your still into that???(yes) Didn't the poop scare you off??(no) Yes, I still cloth diaper and I love it. Actually, I would love any cloth diaper because I love what they represent.

6. David Leeman. He owns Circle L crafts and he has made much of the furniture in our house. His quality far exceeds anything you can purchase in a store and you get to design it yourself. And did I mention he is affordable?? I love supporting local businesses and individuals. ( oh and I HATE Walmart if you were wondering!)

yes, this is my 11 month old climbing to the top bunk all by himself!

7. Charlies soap. It is a organic laundry detergent that I starting using for my cloth diapers and ended up using for all of our clothes. I promise you it cleans better that tide. There is no build up of yuck things.
I love this pic of our laundry room because it looks like I'm a total hippie... I'm not, I promise ;)

8. Dr.Brown Bottles. Ok, I am a huge fan of breastfeeding, I think its the greatest thing you can do for your baby, but if you have to turn to the bottle - This is the one. I love glass ( no it doesn't break easily), after the whole BPA thing, plastics make me leary. While these are a tiny bit harder to clean, I think its well worth it.

9. My running shoes. I love them simply because they represent discipline in my life and have taken me further than I have ever gone! Love that you can slip a gps tracker in these and sync it with your iphone... only nike and mac could ever come up with that!

10. MacBook Pro. Love this computer and I assure you I will never own a PC again!

Courtney

baby steps

Collins isn't walking yet, but when he decides to... he will be ready! I found these shoes, Umi, and they are the cutest things ever. Soooooo cute that I felt the need to buy 3 ( the boy needs a pair to match every outfit ;)! Don't ask me what I spent... it would make you {Gasp}. One thing that I forgot when I bought them... my children have Fred Flinstone feet, this means that while these shoes fit, they won't for long! So I decided to let my readers in on my great misfortune- Comment on my blog and I will put your name in a hat. When he grows out of them I will pass a pair along to the name I draw!
Fun!
Collins checkin out his new shoes...


...and a tractor

checkum' out!

Courtney

Out with the old...

On with the new...


If your wondering where I have been, I have been OBSESSING over my new iPhone! Yes, it wasn't too long ago that I was drooling over my crackberry, however, I have moved on. Can I just say that the iPhone is the best thing ever! It is light years better than the Blackberry ever dreamed of being! That thing makes my computer obsolete... except for blogging.
Other than that we did take a quick vacation and have been kicking off small groups! It's not to late join my Mom's Night Out group. This week we are bringing our "top 10 list"... If Oprah can have one, so can we. I will be posting mine after group!
Enjoy some random pics.
Courtney

Hazards of the Job

So, I was doing laundry the other day... actually I do 2 loads daily, anyways, I hear a loud clancking in the dryer. I figured it must be a metal snap or something, didn't give it much thought. Well, when I grabbed up the load and threw it on the bed to fold, I couldn't believe what I saw... An extremely sharp pocket knife fully opened!

And you thought Brendans job was dangerous...

Could someone remind Brendan to empty his pockets before tossing his clothes in the hamper?!
At least it wasn't his gun :)

Courtney
(and yes, it reeked havoc on the {new} dryer interior!)

Back to school

This week we had our 2nd Annual Back to School Party! Up till the very last hour I was torn as to where to send him and if to send him to preschool. I love that he gets to spend time with friends, but I dislike that our shelter of protection is away from him those hours. I kinda make a big deal about a few hours a week... I'm just like that!
So here is blog that salutes Jack. He is just the greatest blessing!

Making cookies for the party... yes, we have an actual party!

Of course this was a fine opportunity for a "photo op"

He took his Daddy's backpack and thought he was so cool!

A RARE picture of them all sitting!

Courtney

A miracle twice over

My sweet Love Nugget gave me a HUGE scare today. He was munching on some watermelon when I notice that he had that "look" on his face... that look of NO air exchange. No panick, folks choke around our house all time. I scooped him up and started whacking his back. Well, after a few seconds I realized this was not a normal choking... this was the real deal. I began whacking harder, abdominal thrust... everything. Panick, desperation kicked in. I called 911. PLEASE HELP, my son is choking. I cannot put into words what I felt... Horror. He eventually ran out of oxygen, went limp, listless. I threw him to the ground and stuck my entire finger down his throat, out came a clump of mucous, went down a second time, out came a chunk of watermelon. He quickly puked, I swept it out of his mouth, and the most beautiful sound I have ever heard... a gasp and a weak cry!

OH sweet Jesus! Thank you for saving him!
Life without Collins would be no life at all.

Courtney

You simply lack discipline.

So here lately I have been hearing the remark, "my have you changed" a WHOLE lot. Honestly, I take it as a compliment. I have been trying to do things diffferently... let me explain...
You see a few months ago I found myself in one of life's little "ruts". I was living life like everyone else, and that is not what I want. I would see women doing extrordinary things, parenting in an inspiring way. I found myself telling a friend, " thats great for those women, but I could never do that". How PATHETIC. The difference between between me and them is LAZINESS. I simply lacked discipline.
I use to be a very disciplined person. I set high goals, and reached them. I had good "life coaches", but somewhere along the way I got spoiled and lazy. Now, an outsider certainly wouldn't have come to that conclusion... I get up before the sun, chase my boys around all day, keep the house clean, cook, volunteer my time, etc.
However, I could do more. As Christians we are to be "set apart". I wasn't, I was typical.
So, I decided I wasn't going to make excuses anymore. I was going to be "set apart". The wonderful thing is that Brendan was completely on board too. We were going to do the opposite of what we were doing, BE PROUDLY DIFFERENT.
When I made the decision I had a box in my hand. I went to throw it away, and stopped myself. DIFFERENT would recycle this, before I didn't recycle because.... well, I was lazy, let everybody else take care of the earth that our Creator in-trusted us with, "I just don't have time" {how pathetic was I?}. NOT ANYMORE!!!!
So my change started with a box! Isn't that funny. Now we recycle 90% of household waste.
OK, so my change has been MUCH more that recycling. I decided everything in my life I was doing because I had a good excuse, I was going to stop, do it better, with a little discipline.
WOW, have things change around here! It's like a breath of fresh air. We are "set apart" and not ashamed, working a little harder, but feeling like I am the woman Christ has called my to be... not the lazy person I had become.

Courtney
Pics from last week...



My sweet Niece Callie

What a day...

Ugh... My day began at 4am with Brendans work calling EVERY phone possible MULTIPLE times. Needless to say it woke the household up... I am learning this is a lovely benefit of the job. Then once we got out of the house I realized that my wallet was no longer in my possession. After HOURS of searching we came to the conclusion that it was stolen at Gold's Gym the other day when I decided to park far away and {might} have forgotten to lock the car. After driving around looking for it (which everyone assured me was a waste of time) I came to grips with the matter and had a small funeral for my wallet:
Good bye wallet that I bought when I had Jack gently tucked inside of my womb. Good bye EVERYONE's social security card, I am sure I will have joyous hours trying to replace you and ward off identity theft. Good Bye credit cards that I had and never used, now I get to wait on hold while trying to cancel you. Good bye nursing license, It should be interesting getting clearance to take my ACLS class in 15 days without you. Good bye Starbucks card that had a zero balance, I was so hoping someone would recharge you. Good bye to every other card that I can't remember (because I was up at 4am due to the fact that another Burglar Looser was stealing alcohol), I am sure you will all come back to haunt me.

If that doesn't make for a bad day... while eating dinner we hear the ice cream man. A few minutes later I decide that chasing down the ice cream man would certainly redeem the day. So UP we HOPPED from the table, leaving our ever so healthy dinner waiting, we jumped in the car and off we went searching. Sweet Jack had his window down hollering "come back ice cream man" with a HUGE grin on his face. We were so cool! Were... for about 30 minutes when it became clear the ice cream man had alluded us. Ugh... not a happy 3 year old, and certainly not a happy baby in the backseat. We ended up at Doodles, just not the same if I might say so myself.
Looking forward to tomorrow. I am sure it will be better. Cheap certainly, I have nothing to spend.
Goodnight,
Courtney