I Tri and Craft

thoughts from a mother of boys, a marathoner, a triathlete, a crafter, a wife, and a scientist


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Menu Plan Monday Sept. 16

Oh, hello Monday.  When did you get here?

I feel like I had an exhausting weekend, but it wasn’t any worse than the ones before.  I think I am still recovering from the summer.

Sunday I had to run to the store so I used a promo-code at Redbox to rent the newest Star Trek movie.

LOVED IT!

I am so happy they decided to do a younger Enterprise crew, as opposed to creating a new crew.  I think the cast is excellent.

After doing dinner, baths, dishes, putting boys to bed, and making lunches, we finally turned it on about 9:30.  Which meant I didn’t get to bed till after 11:30!

I know, I am a party animal!

 

 

I started my meal plan earlier in the day, but the kids took over and I didn’t get it done yesterday.  When looking at recipes I came across the one for the Cheeseburger casserole, and just then my hubby walked by and said “tater tots! that looks awesome!”

So I had to add it to the plan.  Not really my first choice for a meal.  And let’s be honest, I will probably make some kind of pasta to eat with it.

 

Baby Sid has found a new way to get messy during meal times.

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Really?  Not only to I have to clean his face, hair, ears, hands and arms; but now I have to clean his feet too?

Menu Plan 9/16-9/22

Mon: Grilled Ham & Cheese with Tomato Soup

Tue:  3 Ingredient Crock Pot Tacos 

Wed: Chicken Pesto Wraps with salad

Thr: Parent Night at Ian’s school

Fri: Leftovers 

Sat: Kitchen is Closed

Sun: Bacon Cheese Burger Casserole with veggies & salad

 

 

Happy Cooking

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Need something to help plan your meals?  I use the Plan to Eat online meal planner.  Try it free for 30 days

Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat

Find more recipes at I’m an Organizing Junkie


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Menu Plan Monday Sept. 9

It has been a crazy week and weekend.

Baby Sid’s party turned out fantastic.  I can’t wait to put up some pictures.

I have seen him do a number on food and make a spectacular mess, but he didn’t really get that messy with the cake.  The Jello though, that was everywhere, and the blue took forever to come off his fingers!

MPM_09Sept2013_SidCake

I will admit that I am still recovering from the event.  It was really hard to try to think about what to cook next week.  I don’t want to step in a kitchen for a month!

Menu Plan 9/9-9/15

Mon: Bacon Cheddar Quesadillia with chicken

Tue:  Three Cheese Chicken Alfredo Bake

Wed: Asian Pork Tenderloin with Cheesy Potato Casserole

Thr: Garlic Cheddar Chicken with garlic noodles

Fri: a mystery 

Sat: Kitchen is Closed

Sun: Cajun Chicken Sandwich 

 

 

Happy Cooking

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Need something to help plan your meals?  I use the Plan to Eat online meal planner.  Try it free for 30 days

Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat

Find more recipes at I’m an Organizing Junkie

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Menu Plan Monday Sept. 2

Happy Labor Day!!

We are having Baby Sid’s first birthday party this coming weekend.  And let’s be honest here.  I really have no plans for dinner.

I am still gonna have to make dinner, I know, but it will be a surprise!

Since the party is this weekend I have tons of stuff to do this week, so I know that dinners will be made on the fly.  Even if I did plan stuff, it wouldn’t get made.

The crockpot will probably get used more than once this week.

I have been making some great decorations for the party

Thank you tags for the guest gifts

Thank you tags for the guest gifts

Menu Plan 9/2-9/8

Mon: ?

Tue:  ?

Wed: Salmon on the grill for my Mom with Lemon Risotto and Orzo with Basil and Parmesan 

Thr:  ?  Tacos

Fri: ?

Sat: Baby Sid’s birthday party!!

Sun:  recovering from the party 🙂

 

 

Happy Cooking

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Need something to help plan your meals?  I use the Plan to Eat online meal planner.  Try it free for 30 days

Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat

Find more recipes at I’m an Organizing Junkie

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Why I fell in love with Dyson

This is not a review.  I was not asked to write this post, nor was compensated for it.  I have no affiliations with the Dyson company.  I am just a mom sharing her experience about her vacuum.

When the Dyson company started selling their vacuums I coveted one.  At the time they only had the one model, which you could also get in the ‘animal’ version.

Now there are many models to choose from.  I know, I know, have you seen the price?  Whoa…

I was finally given one as a gift after Baby Sid was born.  I would have chosen a different model, for only one reason.  The handheld hose part.

I have the DC24 Animal, because we are dog people.

DC24 ~ image from Dyson.com

 

We don’t have a large house, so this vacuum is great for us.  It is compact and light weight.  Because of the dog, I do have to empty the canister before I am done vacuuming the living room, but that is not a big deal.

DC24 ~ image from Dyson.com

My only complaint is that when I want to use the hose I have to take it apart first.

Dyson_manual

Image from Dyson Manual

See.  I can’t just pull up the hose and vacuum the cobwebs in the upper corner.  I have to take it apart and put it back together.

This is the only design flaw I have found.  If I had known about it, I might have looked into exchanging it.

 

However none of that has anything to do with what made me fall in love with my vacuum company.

While vacuuming one day it starting to make a bad noise.  I noticed that the noise was coming from this white disk.  It still worked, yep no loss of suction.  It just didn’t work as well as before.

vacuum_noise

When I covered the circle the sound went away, but then it would come back.  I looked on their support page for help, but couldn’t find an answer.

The support page offers contact information so I decided to write an email as I wanted to send them the above picture explaining what was wrong.

 

I sent them an email at 11:15 a.m.

They replied at 11:21.  The same day.

Yep.  They responded within SIX minutes.

And it wasn’t one of those, ‘we got your email and we will get back to you’ responses.

They answered my question.  And while I know it was a canned response, it was tailored to my problem.  That means someone read my issue and adapted the response to me.

I can’t tell you how impressed I was at the quick response.

Turns out my vacuum was clogged, but not in a place I could easily see.  The email explained how to remove the clog.

 

I vacuumed up the stuff that was clogging my vacuum and it filled the canister.  Twice.

Umm.  Gross.

 

Not only was I impressed with the fact that my vacuumed still worked while clogged, the very quick, very helpful customer service is what really wooed me.

Would I recommend spending that much on a vacuum?  Yes, yes I would.

 

Happy Cleaning

 

Update:

Since I had a few people contact me about Dyson’s response I thought I would let you know what they said.

Look for and remove any blockages from the cleaner head or lower duct hose.
To remove the cleanerhead follow the steps:
Recline the handle of the machine and place handle on the floor.
Locate opening for C-clip on the front of the.
Place flathead screw driver into the opening and lift C-clip straight up to unlock cleanerhead from machine.
Remove cleanerhead from the machine.
Once the cleanerhead is removed inspect the pins on the cleanerhead and the outlet on the main body of the machine for damage or debris.
Reattach the cleanerhead and lock it onto the machine using the C-clip and attempt to vacuum
Instructions for removing the Lower Duct Hose:
1) Unplug your machine from the power outlet
2) Position yourself in front of the machine facing the dust canister
3) To the immediate left of the Ball there is an accordion-like hose that measures roughly 3 inches long
4) Grip the hose in center and pull firmly to the left, away from the machine
5) Once the Hose is disconnected, check for obstructions and remove as necessary
6) Reinstall the hose by using a twisting motion

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