Weekend-Ness & Crock Pot Meatloaf

This past weekend was the last weekend before we start celebrating Christmas.  Jon and I both love Christmas, but we were looking forward to taking Ellie (ahem, and me) out of the house and walk around.  (Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us use your stroller so we wouldn't have to carry Ellie everywhere!)

Friday Jon got off in the middle of the afternoon.  When he came home he helped me get Ellie ready to go out.  (She had a blow out just in time for Daddy to come home.)  Then we had late lunch at Pancheros.  If you know Jon at all, that is NO surprise what so ever!  Then we went to Westdale Mall near our apartment.  The mall is best for walking.  It's indoors and not crowded.  There are hardly any stores left in this mall.  Besides a few salons, Younkers, JCPenny, Payless, and Chick fil A there's not a whole lot else.  Except the Cedar Rapids Library.  So Jon and I did some window shopping.  Well, actually I got some new gloves and we got a Christmas gift!  And couldn't pass up the sales on an outfit for Ellie. :)  Now she was something to wear next weekend at my Dad's business Christmas Party! (Pictures later.)

When we got home I fed Ellie and put her to bed.  She fell asleep!  Yeah! :)  (She usually fights it.  So Jon and I watched a movie we had gotten from the library.  And it was just the two of us.  Jon and I have not had an evening together at the apartment without interruption for two months!  It was such a wonderful blessing. :)

Since we stayed up late Friday night enjoying our sleeping baby, we slept in.  All three of us!  I love it how well Ellie sleeps in the morning. We got up and ready and once Ellie was awake we started off on our fun-filled day!  We ate at Arby's and Ellie fell asleep.  It gave us some extra minutes to chat about life.  Then we went up north Cedar Rapids to the nice mall.  We walked and went in a few stores.  We came home with another outfit for Ellie, a wall decor to hang up our jackets that match our bedroom furniture, and then ended the night with grocery shopping at Walmart.  It was pretty late (which was fine since we had a late lunch) so we just put in a frozen pizza.  Ellie went down for the night so we enjoyed another night of just the two of us.  We stayed up WAY too late.  Ugg something like 1am.  Ellie was up about 3am and then again at 7am.  I couldn't fall asleep and got up at 8:30am to get ready for church.

After church (can I add we made it on time?), we went to Carlos O'Kelly's for lunch.  Jon is a huge Mexican eater and he's not a fan of their food so he got a Jimmy John's sandwich beforehand.  Don't worry he didn't bring it in.  He ate it in the car while I fed Ellie.  When we got home I started cleaning.  Big time!  Our nightstands and dresser drawers needed organizing.  Then I dusted.  Meanwhile worked on some laundry and had dinner in the crock pot.  While I was busy in mounds of clothes, dust, and well the kitchen....Jon was working on a list I had given him. :)  After two years of marriage I found the best way not to feel like I am nagging my husband!  If there is a few things I would like him to help with around the house apartment, I just write them down.  And he looks at them and does them in the order he wants.  Then I don't have to keep bothering him to do what I need help on.

His list:

• Hang up wall decor in our bedroom
• Hang up picture over living room couch
• Clean up computer stuff so there's a walkway to the nursery
• Make bed (had sheets washed while at church)
• Sweep and wash kitchen floor
• Organize mail, bills, and papers
• Clean shower (going to give Jon haircut first)
• Vacuum apartment (didn't get to this)

And it helps encourage him to know I have a list as well. :)  So here goes:

• Dinner, clean up kitchen
• Laundry
• Organize dresser and nightstands
• Organize bathroom cupboards (long story why)
• Dust bedroom and living room
• Clean toilet and bathroom floor (after Jon gets haircut and cleans shower)
• Help Jon file papers

Ellie slept very well for us again this evening.  It was such a blessing!  She went down at 9pm and fell asleep within 15 minutes.  She didn't wake up again until 3:45am!  But what I really wanted to share with you was this awesome blog I found.  Possibly found it through Pinterest?  But I can't remember.  It's a blog filled with yummy recipes.  And I get emails every time she makes a new post.  It's awesome.  Every day I wake up to a new blog post with a recipe!  Some times it's snacks or dessert, but I also get good meal ideas.  And one day I happened to get something so good I wanted to try it...Slow Cooker BBQ Ranch Meatloaf!  She got me at Slow Cooker!  So awesome! :)  I am always looking for more slow cooker recipes that are NOT soup.  

I had to get my hands dirty and mix it all up in a bowl.  Ugg touching raw meat.  But it was SO good.  For future reference it's a good reminder that Ellie needs to be good and sleeping or something when I make it.  Touching raw meat is the main part of making this meal and I can't do it if she's cranky, hungry, and needing me.  

It says to put it on low for 6 hours but by the time I got to making it we would've had dinner way too late.  So I put it on high for 4 hours.  It worked okay.  It was yummy!  It was so meaty and delicious.  Try it!  I served it with organic sweet corn and a spinach salad with leftover bacon from that chicken meal I made the other night.  Delish!

Can't wait to enjoy it today for lunch!!  Click on the link to find her blog AND to get the recipe!  yumm!