RECIPE: Lazy Lasagna

I was shocked when I didn't see this recipe on my blog. I came up with it several years ago and have made it several times since then. It's basically lazy lasagna...and very yummy! Aubry called and was not happy that I made it without telling her so she could come over and get some. ;) She likes all of the pasta dishes I make. I used to make this with Prego Leafy Greens, but that doesn't seem to be available in stores anymore. I hate when that happens! But it still tastes pretty good. :) And really, you could use whatever kind of spaghetti sauce you want...it doesn't have to be Prego. That's just the only spaghetti sauce that I personally like. ;)

Lazy Lasagna 

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef
16 oz sour cream
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated parmesan
12oz bowtie pasta
1 jar Prego Roasted Garlic & Herb
1 jar Prego Fresh Musroom
2 cups shredded Italian blend cheese 

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Prepare pasta according to package.
3. Brown hamburger and drain. Return to pan and mix with both jars of spaghetti sauce.
4. In a mixing bowl combine sour cream, mozzarella, and parmesan.
5. In a 9x13 baking dish, layer half of the meat sauce, half of the pasta, all of the sour cream mixture, the rest of the pasta, and then the rest of the meat sauce.
6. Spread a layer of the Italian blend cheese on top.
7. Bake for 30 minutes until cheese is melted.

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Start of a New School Year!

It's hard to believe that "summer" has ended and Ashlyn is already back at school. She had a good first day and likes several of her classes. I think she is most excited for her photography classes. She's also in drama club again this year and may possibly be assistant/stage manager...just as her sister was. I think it's really awesome that they were able to have that one year in high school together (when Aubry was a senior and Ashlyn was a Freshman) to introduce Ashlyn to some things that she might not have otherwise tried. It's hard to believe she has just two years left! 

Ashlyn reluctantly let me take her picture the morning before her first day of her junior year. She's wearing her new shoes and jeans...but she didn't wear any of her new shirts that Johnny had gotten her because they're all long-sleeve shirts and hoodies...and it was pretty hot that day. But...she's been wearing hoodies since then so maybe the air conditioner is working really well at the school. :P 

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Aubry had her first emergency room visit and overnight hospital stay this past week. She was actually in the ER overnight waiting for a bed to open up and then spent one more night after that. She is fine now...it was more just a precautionary measure. 

Johnny and I also celebrated our 9th year together and 4th year of marriage! It's both hard to believe that it's been that long and also seems that it's been even longer. I can't imagine my life without Johnny...and it's getting harder to even remember what life was like before we got back together in 2012. We've been through so much over the last nine years (and even before when we met in 2005) but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I actually found Johnny's anniversary present this year through an ad that was on Facebook. I ordered it at the beginning of April because I didn't quite trust that it would get here in a timely manner (it did arrive later than scheduled and I had to contact them multiple times, but it did end up getting here a little less than a month after I ordered it). It's a canvas with a print that looks like a cassette tape with the lyrics to 'our song' printed on the ribbon and then a couple pictures of us. I really like how it turned out. :) 

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In other news...FedEx lost Johnny's birthday present. UGH. And of course, Lowes won't have the refund processed until after, like, an entire month. It's a new tool set in a hard case where everything has a designated spot so it's easy to keep organized and to know if something is missing. This way I can get the hodge-podge of tools out of the armoire in the office. I'm going to be cleaning it out to keep my printer and supplies in there...that way I can try to reduce the amount of dust that gets to the printer. I had a really hard time finding my printer, but it was FINALLY delivered this week. Large format printers are nearly impossible to find in stock right now. I ended up having to get a more expensive model than I was planning to because the only printers of the previous model I could find on places like Amazon and Walmart Marketplace were marked almost $400 more than list price because they're so hard to find. So at that point it made more sense to just get the newer one for about the same price. With the supply chain issues, it's also difficult to find some substrates in stock as well. But I've been keeping myself busy with trying to get the office cleaned up and organized so I can get everything set up for my new adventure. I've also been trying to get all my digital design elements organized, creating designs, researching, etc. I can't wait to see everything really start coming together. 

The dogs are still doing great! It's so much fun watching Bozley and NovaLee play together. They always keep us laughing, that's for sure! :) I was finally able to schedule their appointment with the groomer. I'm so glad she was able to get both dogs in...I think they'll do a lot better if they're both there together considering how antsy they seem to get when the other isn't around. And I don't think Nova has ever been to the groomer before, so I'm hoping she'll do well. And then we also have her appointment scheduled to be spayed after that. It'll be weird not having her taking up all the room in the bed that night. :P  

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Busy, Busy, Busy!

Things have seemed pretty busy lately. 

I've been working on getting my Etsy shop up and running. First I had to finish putting together my logo and cover banner. I will only be using Etsy to sell digital designs and utilizing Facebook when I'm ready to sell physical end-products. I had to return my original printer and the replacement is out of stock...so I'll have to wait a little while to start creating products. There are so many supply chain issues right now with both printers as well as sublimation blanks. But while I'm waiting on that, I'm having a lot of fun creating digital products. I'm also trying to reorganize all my digital elements so that I can find everything easier and make the process go a bit more smoothly. It's time consuming, but I really enjoy it. :) I only have two designs finished and uploaded in my shop...but I hope to have a LOT more soon! 

I had take Bosley to the vet again last week. We noticed that Nova had some discharge from her eye after we brought her home. We found a small blade of grass in her eye that we removed so we assumed that was the cause of the discharge. We were keeping it clean and watching it but then when Bozley also started having some discharge, I took him to the vet for some antibiotic/steroid eye drops which has cleared up the redness and discharge completely for both of them. :) And Nova's spots/scabs from her allergies seem to be doing better as well. I think the new food has helped a lot. And it's been over a week and Bozley is still eating all of his lunch and dinner with the new dehydrated food! I'm SO glad that we've found something that he likes. :) We are still so happy with our decision to bring Nova home for Bozley. We've noticed such a positive change in Bozley's anxiety. They've definitely bonded with each other and it's so fun watching them play together. I need to get them both into the groomer soon and we still need to get Nova spayed, too. 

I also had to take Ashlyn to get her meningococcal vaccine before school starts next week. It's hard to believe summer is almost over already! This will be Ashlyn's first time back in the classroom since March 2020. She was remote learning during all of her Sophomore year. There were several positive cases during last school year so I just felt it would be better to have her continue remote learning. She did really well the first semester, but she started slacking quite a bit second semester...which seems to be pretty typical of Ashlyn. She focuses more on her social life than her GPA. :P But I think Ashlyn is excited for her electives...since she was so limited on what electives she could take with remote learning. This year she's taking photography, journalism, theater tech, and clay fundamentals. I took a pottery class when I was in college and took the girls up to the campus with me to get some of my projects done and they really enjoyed it. Aubry took these same classes when she was in high school too (except Journalism). Like me, they've always loved arts and crafts. :) Aubry was really involved in Thespians and during her senior year she talked her sister into becoming a theater techie as a freshman...so Ashlyn is excited to get back to that this year. :) 

We had dinner tonight at Olive Garden tonight for Johnny's birthday. My grandparents' like to take everyone out to dinner for birthdays. So we met them and my mom at the restaurant...and it's the first time we've actually eaten IN a restaurant in awhile! It was yummy, as always. I'm bummed they still don't have my smoked mozzarella chicken though. :( But it was an enjoyable evening with family. My grandparents' always get Johnny some Jelly Belly jellybeans and cashews from the Nifty Nuthouse. He looks forward to it every year! They also had a really neat puzzle game that my cousin's husband made with his 3-D printer...so that was fun! And tonight was the first time we left Bozley and Nova home alone...and everything seemed to be fine! We didn't come home to find anything destroyed...so that's good! lol. 

Tonight after dinner, Johnny took Ashlyn shopping for some school clothes. The kids think it's a lot more fun to shop with Johnny. ;) He likes to browse and be silly...and I'm more of a let's get in and get this done and get out sort of person. Plus he has a bad habit of spoiling the kids so of course they like that too. :P Johnny and Ashlyn decided to hit up the clearance rack at Kohls first and she found quite a lot there plus a couple more things that were on sale. She ended up getting two pairs of jeans, a jean skirt, bralette, two cardigans, two soft sweatshirts, and then a cute lightweight hoodie in three different colors. Plus now we have some Kohls cash to use starting the 16th. :) 

Ashlyn wanted a new backpack this year, too. She said she wants a backpack that "doesn't have as many pockets." Seriously?! How can a child of mine not want ALL the pockets?! The more pockets the better, I say! They didn't see any backpacks she liked while they were out, so she came home and looked on Amazon and we found one with free Prime 2-day shipping. It had more pockets than she wanted but it was big enough to hold everything she needed and she liked how it looked. And it was under $20 too! Then tomorrow I have a Walmart grocery order being delivered that will have her notebook paper and new binder. The binder I found has lots of pockets too! ;) 

I still can't believe my youngest child will be a junior in high school this year. They grow up so fast!