Crock Pot BBQ Pork Loin

I made this last week and Cody LOVED it. He said it was the best barbeque he'd ever had...I don't know about that, but it was pretty good! And extremely easy!

Ingredients:
1 lb unseasoned pork loin
garlic salt and pepper
1 can of coke, pepsi, root beer..whatever you like (I used coke)
1 bottle of barbeque sauce

Directions:
Season the pork loin with garlic salt and pepper and put it in the crock pot.
Pour in can of coke.
Cook on low for 5 1/2 to 6 hours.
Take pork loin and coke out of the crock pot.
Shred the pork loin and put it back in the crock pot.
Pour in the bottle of sauce. I poured a small amount of the coke back in.
Cook on low for another hour or so.

We ate ours as sandwhiches and I roasted some potatoes to go with it.

Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

I am linking up to Kelly's Korner's Show Us Your Life - Main Dish Recipes. I made this soup a couple of months ago and Cody and I both loved it. It makes a lot more than just the 2 of us can eat so I froze the rest. We ate it about a month later and it was still so good. I couldn't find enchilada sauce mix so I used a packet of taco seasoning. I found the enchilda sauce mix by the taco seasoning another time at Wal-Mart, so I'll use it next time.

Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 can black beans, drained
1 can corn, drained
1 can rotel
1 packet enchilada sauce mix
1 1/2 C water
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 C milk
3-4 boneless chicken breasts

In crock pot, mix the enchilada packet together with the water and tomato sauce. Add cream of chicken soup and milk and whisk together until smooth. Add chicken. Pour drained black beans, drained corn and rotel on top of that. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Before serving, take out chicken and shred or dice, then put back and stir it all together. Serve with sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, lime, avocado, or tortilla chips.

I think I'll post another crock pot recipe next..I'm loving the crock pot these days!

Learning to Sew

I have been wanting to learn to sew for some time now. Cody's mom is trying to teach me and with lots of her help, I made my first short set. I sewed most of the shorts myself and cut out the applique for the shirt. I still have a lot to learn, but it was fun making it. I had a coupon to JoAnn's craft store so we went to Huntsville a few weeks ago and bought three kinds of fabric for cheap. We're making more short sets whenever we can find the time to sit down and do it. Hopefully someday I'll know enough to be able to make a few things on my own. There's not a lot of things to make for a boy, but I definitely want to know how to sew so that if we ever have a little girl, I can make her all kinds of cute things.

Monday, Monday

Eli and I both get bored sitting at home so I try to go out and do stuff as much as I can. With gas prices so high and just not a whole lot to do, we are home most of the time. Since I knew it was supposed to be nearly 90 degrees today I decided I would try to get some sun and let Eli swim in his little pool. Just getting us both ready to go outside was an event. I blew up the swimming pool, put sun block on Eli, put his swim diaper on, put his swim clothes on, put my bathing suit on, put sun block on me, got a towel, and got ready to go outside. I was just going to go outside on the grass at our house and I'd lay on a blanket while Eli played in his pool. Well, Cody hasn't mowed in a couple weeks so that turned out to be a bad idea. I don't know how I would've got water in the pool anyways because there's no water hose. I just decided to go on up to Jan's so I put the pool in the car and went up there. I get the pool filled with water and put Eli in it. He plays for about 5 minutes and starts crawling out. All that work for 5 minutes of swimming..but he loved it for those few minutes. Anyway, by then it was just about nap time so I dried him off, changed his clothes, and we went home. He fell asleep as soon as we got in the house but only slept for about 30 minutes. I decided to take him outside to eat a popsicle and wait for Cody to come home. He loves it outside and would probably stay out all day if he had the choice!

He is pulling up to EVERYTHING now.

So silly!


Trying to get a drink.


And..he's done.


Yum!

Mother's Day

When I woke up on Mother’s Day this was waiting on me in the living room:

I loved them and Cody painted them all on his own. I had seen the canvases at his mom’s house and I asked him if he knew what she was painting. He told me something beachy..haha. So, I had no clue what they really were. On Sunday’s Cody always gets up with Eli and goes up to his mom’s house for breakfast while I sleep in. So while they were up there they did Eli’s handprints and one of Cody’s. I put mine on when he gave them to me. I already know where I’m going to put them..I’m just waiting on Cody to do it because there’s no way I’d get them straight.

We got ready and went to church. They always have something for the youngest mother and oldest grandmother. I was the youngest mother there and got $5. After church we went to Sonic for lunch then to my mom’s house. Later we had to go to Home Depot to get a new mailbox since ours didn’t make it through the storm. As soon as I got out of the car a lady pulled up and asked if she could ask me something. Cody was getting Eli out of the car and I walked a little closer. She told me that she was trying to get to the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, that someone had told her how to get there and she thought she could figure it out, but she only had 3 gallons of gas. She asked if I knew of anyway for her to get some gas, so I gave her the cash that we had...the $5 that I had got at church.

I forgot to get any pictures of me and Eli. I'm always the one taking them.

Last Mother’s day we were still in Tuscaloosa and I had only known I was pregnant for a little over a month, but it was a special day too. I had no clue yet what being a mom meant, but I knew I couldn’t wait to be one. Eli is such a blessing and I am so glad that I get to be his mom.

Storms

Last Wednesday I woke up to pine cones falling on the roof, which happens often. It was louder than usual and I figured it had probably woken Eli up. I was just going to go in his room to see and as soon as I raised up out of the bed, the power went out. Sure enough, he was awake and just laying in his crib. I picked him up and went to look out the window. About that time I could hear the wind blowing and what sounded like the roof trying to come up, which ended up being the tin on the porch blowing off. I think it was about 6:45 or a little after, I never even looked at the time. Cody had went to work early to do some things before school and had been trying to call and tell me to go up to his mom’s before the storms came, but I didn’t hear the phone ring. After I looked outside I started to get scared. I had to find the cord phone to plug up and it seemed like it took me forever to get it plugged up. I called Cody first but he didn’t answer, then I called his mom and the phone went out while it was ringing. Now I was really scared and starting to panic. I knew it was bad when I looked outside and could see the wind and rain and trees down in the yard. I was thinking that maybe I could drive up to Jan’s, but I was afraid I might wreck. I knew that I didn’t want to be home by myself so I thought I could just run up there, but that wasn’t going to happen. I got to the road and there were trees down everywhere. I ran back inside and got in the shower with Eli, praying the whole time. After what seemed like forever but was realy only a couple of minutes, it seemed to calm down a little. I found my cell phone which is usually always dead because we get no service at our house. Thank goodness is wasn’t dead and I went and stood by the window and got service. I called Jan, she said they would come get us as soon as they could get debris out from behind the cars, but they couldn’t have made it anyway because of the trees down in the road. I grabbed Eli’s diaper bag, some extra clothes for him, his blanket, and I decided to just make my way up to Jan’s on my own. I had to climb over and go under trees, but I just didn’t want to be by myself with Eli anymore. Thank God another storm didn’t come through right then. The Lord was definitely with us that morning and He kept us safe.

The only damage we had to our house was the roof on the porch. Trees fell everywhere in the yard, a couple just missing the dining room and Eli’s room. It is so scary just thinking about what could have happened, but we were very fortunate. Some tin must have hit the side of the car because there is a piece missing out of the side. Other than that, everything’s fine. Cody’s parents had a lot more damage. The storm blew most of the tin off their chicken house. Their pump house and potting shed are gone. The back awning blew over the house and knocked out a window in his dad’s truck. We are all just so blessed that it wasn’t worse and that we are all safe.

We were without power for 5 ½ days and stayed with Cody’s parents the whole time. Not having power wasn’t all that bad, but no hot water for showers wasn’t any fun. Most nights we grilled something for supper. After we ate there wasn’t much to do except go to bed. We went to bed early and got up early. Eli slept with me and I was afraid that once we got back home he wouldn’t want to go back to his crib, but he has done fine. I’m very thankful that we had a house to come back to.