Great recipe

So, I rarely share recipes because I'm usually snagging recipes from all you who have your own blogs. :) However, I do want to share one quick recipe that was given to me by one of my best friends. It is perfect for a cold rainy night (like tonight) which is what made me think to post it.

It is Tortellini Soup. Here's the recipe:

1 large jar of Salsa

2 cans chicken broth

1 can stewed tomatoes

1-1 1/2 lb. ground beef

1 bag tortellini noodles

Brown ground beef and mix with salsa, broth and tomatoes on high until boiling. Add tortellini noodles and cook until noodles are done.

Super easy and fairly quick! We eat ours with Parmesan cheese on top and serve with either corn bread or cheese bread (depending on how much time I have.) The noodles can sometimes be hard to find (I usually can't find them here in town at the supermarkets but they do have them at Wal-Mart Supercenter--frozen foods over by the frozen bread if you shop at South Wal-Mart).

This was perfect for the cold rainy night tonight and definitely hit the spot. Enjoy!

Exhausted...

Yesterday was just that--an exhausting day. To start out, I didn't sleep very well the night before therefore waking up not very well rested. Never a good way to start the day off.

But never-the-less, the day must begin. So we began getting dressed and ready for church. After a few episodes of "I don't want to wear this" and "I don't want to eat that" mixed in with Rhett's own language of grunting and squealing I was short on patience before we even made it to the car! Deep breath though. I can do this.

Upon arriving at church we sit down. A quick glance down the pew to make sure we had all made it there fully clothed and, check! Mission accomplished. And we were even on time. About two songs into the service I realized that I had left the iron plugged in. Great. Super. Fantastic. Sheepishly: "Honey, I forgot to unplug the iron. Will you pleeeeeease run back home and unplug it?" No problem except that it caused my other half to miss the entire church sermon. Well, actually it caused us both to miss the entire sermon because I don't think I heard one word in-between wrestling my year old wiggle worm and taking the bigger one to the potty with the aforementioned one year old in tow. I turned around to make sure the biggie was following behind me to the restroom to notice that he was walking all the way down the isle, literally holding "it". (I'm sure we often look quite comical! Boys; you've gotta love them!)

After church services were over we headed to our respective bible classes where Rhett screamed and cried and attached himself to my chest like a koala bear. Normally cute and sweet in an "oh he loves me and doesn't want to be away from me" kind of way except...I'm exhausted.

But, after prying him off of me and running for cover I head over to my 2 year old class that I'm teaching this quarter with the help of my mom. Teaching (entertaining) two year olds. Enough said. Exhausting. And it's only 10:00 in the morning.

After church we headed to Cracker Barrel with my parents for an early lunch. Three small boys; restaurant full of people; keeping food on the table rather than the floor (but a very good meal!) but I'm exhausted.

Home. Home to a house waiting with dishes to be washed (rather, loaded into the dishwasher--thank goodness for those!), clothes to be washed, folded, put away, and ready for evening services at church and I'm still exhausted. Evening services at church are spent trying to keep my one year old from throwing a fit, climbing over the pews, dumping the container of animal crackers into the floor and throwing the sippy cup four rows in front of us. He wiggles, he squirms, he jabbers, he's up, he's down, he wants a book, no, not that book, the other book and then...there it is. He looks up at me and grins that squinty-eyed grin and I melt. I'm not aggravated anymore. But still exhausted.

After church came the dreadful trip to the place that so many love--Wal-Mart. Sorry. I don't share the same enthusiasm for that place as many. We always stay too long, spend too much and, yep, you got it! Walk out exhausted.

We get home and there are groceries to put away, kids to get ready for bed, clothes to lay out for school the next morning back-packs to sit by the door and where did the day (*ahem* weekend!) go?? I'M EXHAUSTED!!!

Finally, everyone's pajamas are on and we are all ready for bed but take a few minutes to all pile on the bed and enjoy a little snuggle time. Below is a picture of me surrounded by my very special men in my life. Below is the reason I keep going even when I'm exhausted. I'm still exhausted--but happy. And I know I'm doing exactly what I need to be doing. :)

Halloween 2009

Well, I've already posted below about what a crazy, hectic week Halloween week was for us at the Young household! Here are a couple of Halloween pics from this year. Hope everyone had a great Halloween! :)

The Young and Welch kids with one of their favorites, Ms. Kimberly.

The Young kiddos, Welch kiddos, and Weekley kiddos. A couch full!! :)

Happy Belated Birthday to my sweet Peanut!!

Although his birthday wish on my blog is somewhat late, we did celebrate his birthday all week long last week! Man! That is one busy week for us Youngs! We started out with Brandon's birthday lunch on Sunday afternoon at the Spaghetti Store. (Yum! Yum!) His birthday was on Monday (so belated blog happy birthday to you as well!). Monday we sent birthday snacks with Jagger to his pre-school. Tuesday night was Trunk or Treat at church (as well as preparing sandwiches for Jagger's Halloween party the next day. Wednesday was Jagger's pre-school Halloween party complete with more Trick-or-Treating. Thursday was Trick-or-Treat in the dorm. We were also treated with a visit from the Weekleys! We were able to have pizza afterwards and visit and catch up a bit which we all really enjoyed! Friday was Lawson's Halloween party at school. I got to go and help with centers and he was pretty excited about that. It was fun but I must say that I know without a shadow of a doubt why I was not an education major! Ha. :) Then Saturday we ended our week long celebrations with Jagger's family birthday party. Whew! I'm tired all over again just typing about it! Ha.

I'll post Halloween pics in the next update but for now I want to say Happy Belated Birthday to my Peanut, my cuddle bug! You are my snuggly loving child that I always wanted! Still at 4 years old you want to be held and give the best hugs I could ask for! :) I'll continue to hold you as long as I can breathe sitting underneath you! :) Then maybe you can hold me! :)

Trip to STL

We recently had the opportunity to visit my brother in STL for the weekend. He's finishing up chiropractor school there in December! We can't wait to have him back closer to home! But it has been nice having a place to stay in STL while we enjoy all of the things the city has to offer! :) Each year during the fall we usually try to plan a trip there and hit up the zoo. This year, he suggested we forgo the zoo and try out Grant's Farm. We were SO glad we did! It was something new that we'd never done before and was so worth it. The fall scenery was beautiful; the leaves were changing, there were animals to see, a tram ride, a visit to the Clydesdale stables, perfect places for fall pictures, etc. They even had their Halloween decor up which the boys seemed to enjoy more than the animals! Ha.

Ready to go inside Grant's Farm

Waiting at the Clydesdale Stables.

Stopping to pose for pics.

At Grant's Farm.

Tram ride. BRRRRR! It was CHILLY!!

Pretty fall scenery.

While in STL we also took in the Magic House. This place was incredible!!! Totally devoted to kids. Imagine a place where everything is kid friendly and made to be handled by children-around 50,000 square feet full of toys, displays, playhouses etc! For all you parents, imagine taking your kids to a place where you didn't have to say every 2 minutes, "Don't touch that! Don't mess with this! Stay away from that!" I think not only being child bliss it was also parental bliss as well! Ha. If you're interested you can read about more information here.

Climbing up the three story beanstalk.

Checking out at the grocery store.

Playing with magnets.

Checking out books at the Library.

Playing at the water-works table.

Playing with light switches--this was Rhett's favorite.

Playing in the construction area.

In the court room--under pressure. :)

Addressing the nation.

Making the big decisions.

Funniest picture from the whole trip--hands down! :)

We also did a trip to the Arch. The boys had never been close up to the Arch and we wanted them to experience that as well. They absolutely LOVED it. They got to ride to the top (while Rhett and I hung out by the river and waited for them) and got the see the bird's eye view of ST. Louis. How fun!

In the pod to go up in the Arch.

At the top.

Hanging out at the river, waiting on our boys to come back down.

To get a picture like this...

...one must do this! Ha. :)

My boys in front of the STL Arch.

My wonderful hubby!

Thanks J! Thanks so much for putting us up for the weekend and letting us drag you all over the city with us! :)

Smile

I heard a song recently and just can't get it out of my head. I usually hate when that happens but this time it's such a happy song that I really don't mind it. I have no idea how old the song is and until today wasn't 100% sure that Uncle Kracker sang it (although I was pretty sure). The song is called "Smile".

I typically do not download music. Brandon can tell you that. He knows if I ever download a song I must REALLY like it. I typically stick to my regular old playlist with the same old songs on my iPod. But today I found this one on iTunes, downloaded it and Googled the lyrics. Again, I just love it. I love the feeling he describes in the song. The "just make your heart burst with love" feelings. I hope everyone has a chance to feel that. I know I feel it. Every time I hear that song I'm made to stop and think about one of my richest blessings in life--Brandon. I can't listen to that song and not think about him and our mostly fun, crazy, joy-filled lives. In case you aren't familiar with the song here are some of the lyrics (you can Google the rest if interested. I promise the rest are just as good):

"You make me smile like the sun
Fall out of bed, sing like a bird
Dizzy in my head, spin like a record
Crazy on a Sunday night
You make me dance like a fool
Forget how to breathe
Shine like gold, buzz like a bee
Just the thought of you can drive me wild
Ohh, you make me smile"

I can't imagine a life without these feelings or, most importantly, without the person who brings to life these feelings. I want to do better tomorrow than I did today making him feel the same way I do when I hear this song. I feel sure that without him this would be just another ordinary song. But because of him, this song is about our life. =)

Perhaps this song is not as powerful without the happy, catchy little tune but it gets me every time. And yes, every time I hear that song I...SMILE! =)

A day on the Hill!

Last Saturday was beautiful, perfect, fall football weather. No better way to spend it than on the Hill of Good Ol' Rocky Top! We had such a great time. We won't really say much about the game itself--not much to say until we get a decent quarter back who knows home jerseys from opponents' jerseys. :( Still, SUCH a wonderful day. There truly is nothing like getting out amongst 100,000 other dyed in the wool Vol fans. It's an atmosphere you can't even fully describe but makes the heart swell and long to go back to once you've been a part of it. Even my KY husband dressed in orange for the occasion and rooted the for the Vols. I must say I'm making progress with him. :)

See! Told you he looked good in ORANGE. GooooooooVols!!!!