"Feelings. Nothing more than feelings...."

I feel like an emotional basketcase today.

First off, it's almost that "time of the month", so my emotions are all wacked out anyway! It's not fair.

Week before last Cade & I had some experiences that professed to us that we needed to attempt to get temporary custody of our 2 neices and our nephew. That alone was a very difficult statement to process, but we know that this is what we need to do. And actually, I'm excited. Nervous, but excited.

This week has been a little tumultuous for me. First we had a family meeting on Wednesday. Tears were shed. The process of getting custody was started.
All week we've been preparing for these 3 special little kids. Unfortunately for me, that involves getting rid of a TON of my "collections", lol. I am apparantly a hoarder - who knew?!? I have just about every piece of clothing that my kids have ever owned (including shoes) since Ethen was born 9 years ago. Yes, 4 kids + 9 years worth of clothing = A LOT of stuff!!! Trying to decide what to discard has been quite an emotional rollercoaster. After almost a week of sorting and cleaning and discarding, I've had it. It's making me into a mess - my nerves are shot.

I got some great news last night from a close family member - she's pregnant! :) Her first. I'm so excited for her and her husband. I wish she lived closer so I could share more in the experience with her (or really, so I can boss her around and tell her how to take care of a baby, lol!) I guess one of the good things about this for me, is that I can pass down my 9 years worth of "stuff" to HER! bwahahahaha!!!

Alright, I think it's time for a little retail therapy...

Family Night Fanfare

Every other week, my house is host to our Brown/Campbell Family Night. On the other weeks, it's hosted by my mother. We always start out the evening with dinner and then the typical family night fanfare.

Last night I decided I was going to go all out - Roast Chicken, fresh green beans, and roasted new potatoes. ...now I just needed to find some recipes seeing as I had never cooked fresh green beans nor new potatoes before in my entire life!

I LOVE trying new recipes. Cade gets mad, because I'm always trying new things! I can't help it, I get sick of having tacos, spaghetti and tator tot casserole on a weekly basis!

Recipezaar.com is my most favorite-ist (yes, I know, that's not a word) recipe website ever! They have just about any recipe you could every desire, plus you can sort them by ingredient, dish, and (this is the best part) by rating! I love it, so obviously that's "whom" I turn to in my time of need!
I present to you THE RECIPES:

roasted green beans
and
roasted garlic herb new potatoes.

The kids (well, except Asher, who doesn't like most anything except mac & cheese) LOVED the green beans. As Ethen so kindly put it, "they look like crap, but they taste GREAT!" Which is true, they don't look so pretty, but they really are tasty - and this coming from a lady who has a great disdain for all things vegetable. ;) Try 'em, you'll like 'em!

The only change I made to the potatoes was that I tossed them in a bit of olive oil, and then added a bit of kosher salt, more garlic (of course, why would you cook ANYTHING without more garlic!) and some fresh rosemary.

Dessert was your choice of homemade strawberry pie (I made the pie at home, not the strawberries. They came from the store) or coconut cream pie.

Dinner was a hit! Next time I'll take a purty picture to tempt you!
The only problem? I didn't make enough...