Happy Birthday Me

 

It's my birthday today. I'm 35 if you were wondering. I seem to have earned a few more wrinkles and one or two more grey hairs since last year. My waistline is a bit softer too. All that considered, I had an awesome year! Looking forward to next year, though might consider hair dye if more grey hairs pop up.

Tuesday Tips - Cooking Ground Meat

When cooking ground meat the directions often tell you to break up the large chunks with your spoon so that the pieces are small and even. This never works for me! I try to cut a large piece in two and in shoots out of the pot and onto the floor. It makes me so frustrated (though our dog Lucca loves it!). One of Jim's cousin's wives told me that she always uses a potato masher to break up the pieces. I thought it might make a mess of the meat but it worked wonderfully!

I would recommend using the handy dandy spoon to cook the meat and once cooked break up any large chunks with the potato masher.

Note, the above ground sausage was for the "World's Best Lasagna". The recipe and my thoughts will follow later in the week.

Hiya!

Sorry for the lack of posts. We've been so busy and I've had the best intentions but sometimes time just slips by. I'm going to inundate you the next couple of weeks to try to fill you in on all the goings-on with our family.

First up, Nate had his first belt test for Taekwondo on Thursday and passed! He will now be a white belt with a yellow stripe. I don't think it is an official belt in the belting system, just one of those feel-good things to keep the "Little Tigers" interested and engaged.

 

In order to pass Nate had to do two things; first he had to recite his telephone number and second, break a board. On the board Nate wrote his New Year's resolution "I want to learn to read." Apparently if you break the board you will accomplish your resolution. Nate was a bit nervous about whether or not he could break the board but managed with a good punch. For his little level the boards are made out of balsa wood. It took a lot of willpower for Jim and I not to break it ourselves. It looked like so much fun!

Last Week

We were in California last week and had a wonderful time visiting my family. I already miss my family. I miss the yummy food. I really miss the weather. It was in the 60s and 70s and right now that sounds heavenly. When we woke this morning it was freezing cold! Actually, it's below freezing! Our weather gauge read 8 degrees...single digit cold! Yikes!

 

One of the major highlights of the trip was a family excursion to Disneyland. Happily my cousins Natalie and Nick were able to join us. They were so much fun and really made the day about the little kids; sitting with them on rides, feeding Gabs frozen lemonade, holding their hands. They were amazing!

 

Surprisingly, the longest line of the day was our first ride, Peter Pan (Jim's sentimental favorite ride). A whopping 15 minutes!

 

Nate's favorite ride is Splash Mountain. Maybe Californian-ers thought it was too cold to get all wet, but Splash Mountain had one of the shortest lines of the day. The line wait time was mostly walking through to the start. Even though you can't see us, Natalie, Nate and I were in the back of the boat. We wanted all of the guys to block us from getting too wet...it worked. Nick and Jim were soaked. We just got a couple of splatters.

 

 

Of course, no visit to Disneyland would be complete with a big hug and photo op with the big cheese himself, M-I-C-K-E-Y  M-O-U-S-E!

Capturing the Moment

It's hard to believe it was only a year ago our whole family was in Hawaii; our kids, his parents, my parents and my sister. Jim and I constantly realize how special it is that both sides of our family get along so well. One of the best things we did was hire a photographer to capture photos of our combined family trip. We found a photographer on Craig's List who was fabulous. She took the time to scout out a deserted beach for us and literally got her feet wet to get the perfect picture. Despite ruffled hair from all of the wind, we have great photos to look back on our combined family trip.

Happy Turkey Day!

May you and your family have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

or Happy Turkey Day!

Love,
Rice Pot Mama

Tuesday Tips - Amazon Lightening Deals

 

Today's Deals.

New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day and more daily deals and limited-time sales.

With Black Friday approaching I'll be joining the throngs shopping for Christmas. Though I choose to not be jostled by the crowds and will instead be fighting it out online. One of my favorite online retailers to shop is Amazon. Their Lightening Deals in particular are typically awesome. In fact, Jim just bought me my birthday present with one of these deals yesterday (an awesome coral colored hybrid commuter bike. Love it!) For each deal there are a limited number of items available so you have to act fast. Here are some tips I've learned from winning and losing some deals:

1. Check out the deals in advance by going to the Deals page.
2. When you find a deal you are interested in pursuing, note the time the deal is going to start. Be sure to be back on the page 10 minutes before the deal goes live.
3. As soon as the time for the deal starts (to the second if possible), click on "add to cart" from the Lightening Deal page. If you were quick enough to get the deal added to your cart be sure to complete your transaction. If you are waffling whether or not you want the deal, go to your cart and click on the item. A new page with the item details will appear, it will have a countdown clock for how long the item will stay in your cart (typically 15 minutes).
4. If you miss the item, don't despair! From the Lightening Deal page click on "Join Waitlist" for that item. If someone doesn't complete the purchase of the item within the allotted time it will be returned to the Lightening Deals for purchase. When you join the waitlist a pop up window will tell you that you have been added to the list and what number you are on the waitlist. Be sure to stay on main deal page, should the item become available a new pop up window will tell you that you can now add the item to your cart. Note, you will only have 2 minutes to add it to your cart before the window disappears.

Happy Shopping!