Meet the Pres......

If you know Kyle McCarthy, you know he's one funny guy. Well, he suggested that we start up a feature on here called "Meet the Pres" where we share funny stuff about Preston. Our first installment comes from the victim himself....Pres' Dad Wes:

Hi everybody. It's me, Wes. Today after getting home from work and eating dinner with the family, Preston asked to go play outside in our backyard. I opened the door for him as he flew out into the yard with all his yard toys. Our back patio had some weeds that were starting to grow in the cracks, so I decided to pull each one of them out by hand since I knew Preston would enjoy being out there for a while anyway. I was hunched over on both of my knees and putting my weight on one arm while pulling the weeds with the other hand. After getting halfway done pulling out the weeds I suddenly felt a cool sensation at the top of my butt crack. Although this felt somewhat soothing, I knew something was happening that shouldn't be. I looked up behind me to find my little son, Pres, was using his sandbox shovel to pour a scoop full of play sand down my pants! He looked so innocent as he ran off to his sandbox again. I stood up laughing at what he did while sand poured "Down Under" and down my legs and out the bottom of my pant legs. I shook for a few seconds trying to release the trapped sand from my jeans as I saw Preston walking back to me with his ever-so-steady hands as he carried another large scoop of sand. Let's just say I didn't let him achieve what he did before, but he and Stacy definitely had a good laugh about what he did. I now have had a shower and am feeling much better!

Meatball Sandwich: Taste Test Tuesday

How about a Meatball Sandwich??


Here's our cast of characters

Here is the recipe, taken from Allrecipes.com:

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
1 pound ground beef
3/4 cup bread crumbs
2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 French baguette
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 pinch salt, or to taste
1 (14 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
4 slices provolone cheese

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, gently mix by hand the ground beef, bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, garlic, parsley, Parmesan cheese, and egg. Shape into 12 meatballs, and place in a baking dish.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cooked through. Meanwhile, cut the baguette in half lengthwise, and remove some of the bread from the inside to make a well for the meatballs. Brush with olive oil, and season with garlic powder and salt. Slip the baguette into the oven during the last 5 minutes of the meatball's time, or until lightly toasted.

While the bread toasts, warm the spaghetti sauce in a saucepan over medium heat. When the meatballs are done, use a slotted spoon to transfer them to the sauce. Spoon onto the baguette and top with slices of provolone cheese. Return to the oven for 2 to 3 minutes to melt the cheese. Cool slightly, cut into servings, and enjoy!

Here's the meat balls before they have been formed....appetizing isn't it??

Here is what they look like right before they are about to go back in the oven for the final time.

The Meatball Lowdown: These were really easy to make. This is also a great meal to make if you have leftover spagetti sauce you need to use. When we make spagetti we only use half the can, so we always have leftover.

There are a lot of steps but they all make sense and are easy to follow. I had a problem with my spices because I have Italian bread crumbs and so I debated how much, if any, italian seasoning I should put in. Well I guess I put in too much. Wes said that he kept having bites that had too much spice in it. Oops! I also had a problem because my garlic press has disappeared!! So I had to press garlic on my own so needless to say, it didn't come out great.

Wes and Stacy's Score:

Wes: 4....too much spice, but overall was a good meal.

Stacy: 4.5 I thought it was pretty good. Maybe my scores are higher because I have to make all the stuff, I don't know!! But I did think we could have used more sauce.

Final Synopsis: If you are buying all of these ingredients for meatball sandwiches, save yourself some money and get a footlong at Subway! :)

Progress on the Room

Well, we got a lot accomplished yesterday! Wes being the burly guy that he is, painted the whole room by himself while I put together Preston's toy box that we got at the Goodwill.

Anyway, here's the pictures of the progress we made:

Did you know you can find stuff at the Goodwill that comes from Target?? I got a Target brand toy box at Goodwill for $14.99 (in picture above) and Target has the same exact same one for $50! The only reason it made it to the Goodwill is because the box had been opened. Can you believe that?? And see the nightstand in the picture? I got that at Goodwill for $8.99...and the exact same one is online at Target right now for $39.99! So, when you go to Goodwill, keep your eyes open and learn Target brand names and you might score yourself a great deal!!

And see the headboard?? Yeah...$3 from a garage sale!!

Have I got a tip for you!!

I read a lot of frugal message boards and blogs so I have heard of this tip, but I had never actually been able to pull this one off. We were at Meijer and I ran into one of my friends from the neighborhood and she told me to head straight to the deli counter at 8:30 sharp. This is when they put all of their deli meat from the day up for half price. So, Wes and I hurried over and sure enough, there were about 30 1/2 lb. packages of deli meat for .77-.90 cents a piece! The good stuff too! Jennie-o-yeah! So, we got two packs of ham and two packs of turkey for less than $4. I don't even know how much a pound of deli meat goes for these days, but I know it's at least $4-6. So, there you go, my frugal tip for today!!

Let the Room Makeover Begin!

There really hasn't been too much going on over in our neck of the woods. Hope you guys have had a good weekend! Well, the work is about to begin on Preston's new bedroom. First we're going to paint and put up a border. Then we're going to put up all of the accessories and get the bed all set up.

Our plan is to get the room done and then introduce it to Preston but keep him sleeping in his crib until about 2 months before Baby #2 is born. Hope it works out...I will give you the details. Here's my fear: he will start getting up in the middle of the night, invite some friends over and raid the fridge all while I'm asleep in my room. There's a comfort in knowing he is asleep in his white prison. Oh well, I guess he's has to grow up sometime!

But I will post pictures as we go along with the room redecoration so you can see transformation.

Here's the room before:

Comments!

I know of at least one person who will be happy because now you can comment on my blog without having a Gmail account. So, let the comments flow!!

Journey/Heart Concert

Once in a while, Wes and I like to let our hair down and do something out of the ordinary. Tonight was one of those nights! We went to a concert at Verizon Wireless; Cheap Trick, Heart and Journey. Now, we're not experts on the bands music, but we knew some key songs so we thought it would be fun!

Here's some highlights:

1. We didn't realize it, but I guess it's a given that if you are at a concert, you should drink at least 5 beers a piece! (We only drank four a piece though.......just kidding!!)

2. Cheap Trick is really old, but they have cool guitars. They had a 12 or 16 (I can't remember) string guitar and also a guitar that was like 5 guitars in one! We didn't know any of their songs though. Oops.

3. Heart was wonderful. Those girls sure can sing! I was inspired by how great they can sing and also play guitar. They are definitely talented.

4. Journey was also great. It's really neat because just recently they got a new lead singer who they discovered off of YouTube. He is from the Phillipines and he is a dead wringer for the old lead singer (in voice, not looks). He was an amazing singer and he had so much energy! He bounced all over the stage and Journey made sure he earned his money because he sang like 20 songs!

All in all, it was a great, lively concert with lots of drunk people and lots of good music!