Sausage wontons!

This is a great appetizer for any time, but with the holidays this week and next I thought I would share it now!

I tried these tasty treats a few years ago at my moms.  This week at work we all signed up to bring snacks to munch on and I wanted to try the sausage wontons.  They were super easy to make...like seriously easy...and delish!

Ingredients:

-1lb sausage (I used ground sausage)
-1 cup cheddar cheese
-1 cup monterey cheese
-1 cup ranch dressing
-1 16oz package wonton wrappers (or you can sub with egg roll sheets and just cut down to size)
-1/2 cup chopped black olives, drained (I totally left these out)



1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Brown the sausage in a sauce pan, drain.

3. Grease muffin pan (original instructions I followed said mini muffin, but all I have is regular and it worked just fine), place a single wonton in each cup.  Bake on 350 for 5min.  The muffin pan will give the wontons their shape.

4. In bowl, mix sausage, cheeses and ranch.

5. Fill each pre-baked wonton cup with sausage mix.

6. Cook filled wontons on 350 for 12min and serve!

My first WTF - parent moment

I can't remember if I posted about it on here or not, but Persephone is officially "nini" free. Nini was our name for her pacifier. 

The name actually came from the TLC show Toddlers & Tiaras.  There was a little girl (drama queen) on the show who had her nini even at 4yrs old.  It was hilarious, probably because she wasn't my kid to watch her throw fits and scream for her nini.  So before Persephone was born my mom suggested we say nini instead of binky or paci.  It stuck.

Here's a little video compilation of MaKenzie from Toddlers & Tiaras throwing fits and demanding her nini!



Lets get back to the point...I'm super proud to say she's been 2.5 weeks without it.  She was getting over an ear infection right as we decided to let it go bye bye.  You would think that would have been the worst time to do it, but I think it helped.  She couldn't really breathe through her nose and using nini of course made breathing harder.  She asked for it a few times that first week and we just responded with "I don't know where nini went, oh well"

Now...in this transition phase a new issue has risen.  Her sleep routine is TOTALLY out of whack.  School says she sleeps fine at nap time and is usually one of the first to fall asleep.  At night at home, this is an entirely different situation.

She used to be a breeze to put to bed.  Grab her blankies and babies, tell mommy and daddy goodnight and she would lay down with no issue.  Now that nini's gone, she seriously cries before we ever take her upstairs for bed.  She'll stand in her crib, scream, cry...jump.  Hardy starts panicking...I get a little irritated, but I know she's not in pain or hurting she's just lonely.

I gave in pretty easily to begin with.  I let her sleep in our bed because it was easier than fighting and I wanted sleep too.  Now if you can, picture Hardy and I in a FULL SIZE because that's what we have.  Sometimes add 2 cats...and now add in a 2yr old.  This makes for a very crowded bed.  Eventually Hardy got the boot entirely and started sleeping on the couch or the spare bed.  As if there aren't enough daily stress trigger to put a strain on a relationship...try living like room mates and see how "married" you feel.

I've been asking friends/family for advice left and right.  Most say to let Persephone cry it out in her bed, eventually after a few nights she'll get the hint that she can't always get what she wants.  Now aside from her falling asleep issues, she also has staying asleep issues.  She will wake up at least twice every night, crying.  The first time is around 12-1am...but when I check on her, her eyes are closed and she'll stop after a few minutes.  The second time is usually 3am and she's awake standing in her bed crying.  During my "give in stage" I would just go grab her and put her in my bed...but this is getting really old.  I LOVE love love cuddles, but I also love my sleep and my husband.

So this week, I switched it up.  I started laying in the floor beside her crib and told her lay down and hold my hand.  After she dosed off I would leave.  She continues to wake up in the middle of the night.  Hardy did floor duty on Monday evening and she went to sleep fine for him too.  Last night though, it was my turn again and she just wasn't sleepy.  I don't know exactly what was going on, but I could see her close her eyes and open them to make sure I was still there.  She stood up and said "Mommy hold you", I kindly reminded her she needed to sleep in her big girl bed and go night night .  When she started crying I kept my cool and "sweet tone" and left the room.  It took her approx 25min of crying and jumping, but she finally fell asleep.  I guess we'll have to stick with crying it out since it seems to have worked last night.  Now if we can just solve the middle of the night crying.....

It is heartbreaking to hear your child yell for you or their Daddy.  But I know she needs to learn independence and self soothing.  It's just so dang hard.  Here's to hoping this won't last long and we get our sanity back.

Claustrophobia

Claustrophobia is the fear of having no escape and being in closed or small spaces or rooms.

This entire house process has opened my eyes more than I could have imagined.  I've been feeling a roller coaster of emotions - sometimes even on an hourly/daily basis.  We listed our house on Nov 17th, within a week we were under contract.  The potential buyers were investors wanting our property to rent, requested to close 12/30.  They apparently already owned another house in our subdivision.  They immediately complained about a crack in the driveway, but kept the contract anyway.  We kicked into high gear trying to find a house. 

1. Found something we liked
2. Made an offer...even stretched beyond our comfort zone when they countered
3. Had an inspection
4. We backed out after results from inspection

I don't mind buying an older home, but I don't want to buy someones problems.  The house we had under contract was 12yrs old, but had several repairs that needed to get done.  They played such hardball on the price from the get-go, I was confident the current owners would not be willing to fix all of the issues if any.  And certainly wouldn't drop the price enough.

Back to square one. 

I was relieved we spent $400 before buying 30yrs worth of debt and repairs.  But I was also deflated, because we were running out of time.  Our current house was scheduled to close in less than a month and we still had nowhere to live.

Friday 12/5 the potential buyers had our home inspected and while the recommendations of repairs were nowhere near as severe as those on the house we almost bought - our buyers also backed out.  Structurally the house is totally fine, there's nothing wrong with the bones or foundation.  The inspector complained of the crack in our driveway, a loose accent stone on the front of the house, water damage to hardwood at back door, claims the stairs "give"?!? and need more support, we need to replace the water guard strip on bottom of shower door.  Our dryer vent running into the attic apparently has a leak that's dripping onto the insulation above Persephone's closet.  Also recommended we have HVAC professionally cleaned and lastly replace one of the plumbing boots on the roof.  Now of course we have to fix these problems if we want to sell.

I'm just so overwhelmed.  I know it's not literally the end of the world, but it feels like it.  Going from high to low takes an unbelievable toll.  I'm mad at the world even though it's not the worlds fault.  Of course we're blessed to have a roof over our heads and food...but I'm feeling claustrophobic.  So many thoughts have gone through my mind...lets fix it and stay in the dumb house we have now.  Lets fix it, sell it and rent...because obviously we aren't knowledgeable enough in "home maintenance" to know how to take care of what we have.

I'm mad we lost the $400 when we really didn't have it to spare.  I'm mad at the potential buyers for backing out even though we did the same thing just last week.  We plan to use what little profit we make on the sale of this house to pay off the remaining credit card debt we have. 

So in the meantime we're spinning our tires.  Speaking of tires, I also need new tires.