Crock Pot Adventures

When Andy and I got married, we were given a huge, stainless steel fancy crock pot. At the age of 22, neither of us had ever used a crock pot, had any idea what you could make with one or how one was supposed to work. I have made several things in this bad boy, but never religiously since it tended to cook things pretty fast. Little did I know...

One morning a few years ago, Andy's parents were staying over and we had planned to have a roast for lunch the next day. I arose from bed around 8 and found Peggy in my kitchen running warm water over the rock hard frozen roast furiously trying to thaw it. She made a comment to me that there was no way the roast would be done in four hours. I told her to trust me, and we put the rock hard roast in the pot with all the fixins, set it to high and let it cook. I could tell she was nervous (I didn't really care, if it wasn't done, we could just order pizza.) Four hours later, the roast was ready, totally cooked and perfect--even a little dry in some sections. We came to the conclusion that the heating element on my slow cooker must be out, considering a ten pound roast should not cook from frozen in four hours. Who knew?

So tonight I am going to buy another. Considering the one we have can boil water in 30 minutes, I am willing to try something that cooks..well..slow. I am going to post pics of my meals- successes and hopefully no failures. I cooked sloppy joes last night in our old one, and thank God we turned it off in time. Good recipe though. Here it is:

Ingredients:

1lb ground beef
1/4 cup of Onion (I used dehydrated and only 1/8 of a cup)
1/8 cup of green pepper (I skipped these)
1/2 cup of ketchup
2 tsp of yellow mustard
3 tsp of brown sugar
2tsp of Worchestershire sauce
A few shakes of garlic powder
Salt
Pepper

Brown hamburger with onion and pepper until done.
Drain grease.
Combine all ingredients (add a little water if it is too thick) and put in slow cooker
Cook for 2-3 hours on high (or if you have mine about 30 minutes)

I served them on Hawaiian style hamburger buns (they come in packs of 4--so no stale buns at the end of the week) and Alexia sweet potato waffle fries. The sloppy joes turned out wonderfully, MUCH better than Manwich. This recipe serves about 4 sandwiches.

More tomorrow!

Lots of changes in the Bentley house!

Hello! A Year LATER!

Hello everyone! So my last post was (0ver) a year ago, and while that is incredibly pathetic I suppose the best way to remedy the situation is to post again!

A lot has changed for us in the last year, including job changes, the birth of a new little niece Kate and all of the changes that come with having a now four year old boy!

Andy is gearing up to make a change from working as a relationship manager for Bank of the West, to a well, I'm not exactly sure what his title will be, for Market One. Market One does primarily commodities trading, and Andy will act as a financial guru for them. Wow, I sounded way informed, huh? (sigh) We all know how little information I typically get from Andy, and I have accepted that! :)

I have taken a new position with Ankeny Schools as an Instructional Coach at Prairie Ridge Middle School. I am super excited to be a partner with teachers in their classrooms and lead the professional development as we move into our third year of content literacy work. Prairie Ridge is one of two 6-7 buildings in the district. My job is very different than what I have been doing my entire career, but is a welcome change. This is the first "Sunday before the first day of school" where I haven't been stressed about meeting my students and preparing my classroom. A weird feeling, and a little sad--but welcome!! I am sure this year will be full of growing pains and new adventures.

Carter began his new daycare/preschool a few weeks ago and has had a rough time settling in. He is usually very go with the flow, but after having been in an in home where he was the king of the hill, adapting to kids his own age has been a challenge.

He had a wonderful first week, but then last week--a rough Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday- but Thursday and Friday were great. He even got his monkey in the tree. (Not sure what that means, but I think it is good-- I could have never been an elementary teacher!) So, here's to hoping week three goes well- and his monkey gets real comfortable in the tree.

Well that's it for now, I have a few ideas of how I would like to transform this blog to include a bit more interesting topics than updates on our family. Because, let's face it, we are not that exciting! Here's to a new start on the blog!

Ok, ok, I know it has been FOREVER

Wow, to say that it has been a busy year would be the world's biggest understatement. Here are a few images of the last few months. I know this won't be hard to believe, but I currently have 345 images on my camera- starting in June of last yer up until now that haven't been uploaded to the computer. So grandparents, you can be looking forward to that email from Shutterfly after the 6 hours that pictures take to download!

This first pic is the morning of the Drake Relays ON-the-ROAD Half Marathon.

I think this pic sums up our trip to Oakland for Easter. Cale, Papa Lyle and Kylie. I am still laughing!
Carter and Cale were best buddies. Cale was so sweet with Carter. I think he has waited a long time for the day when Carter could really "play" with him.
Cale's loot at the Carson Easter Egg Hunt.
Carty with Papa Lyle and Grandma Peggy. He was way too interested in what was inside of the eggs than taking this picture.

We were able to go to the Carson Easter Egg Hunt for the third year in a row. It was a lovely day!

Here is one of Carter and his Papa Lyle snuggling on the couch at our house. They look a lot alike, don't they?!
We went to ISU to see our cousin Shay compete with the ISU gymnastics team. I think Carter is in love. What do you think?
We have loved having Lauren over to our house to play. Here are the two rascals all wrapped up in the Snuggie.
Our little Irishman decorating cookies on St. Patty's day. He was so cute. He wanted to make sure that we made one for everyone. Daddy's had like ten pounds of sprinkles on it.
Well that's it for now. The school year is winding down and I will be on summer break soon. I hope to be able to get a handle on these pics and be a little better about updating this blog! We love all of you!!

Grandpa Dunn in Des Moines!

Grandpa Dunn was in town from Florida this past week.  We really enjoyed catching up with him at Aunt Shari and Uncle Chick's house.  Carter and Lauren played hide and seek behind the chairs in the living room.  They were running around like crazy and having the best time. Grandpa headed back to Florida on Saturday, just in time to miss out on our cold weather!  

Booooooo!! Halloween!

Here are a few pics of the little guy and his Dinosaur costume. It was so cold and rainy, but we did make it to about 5 houses. He is getting so big! He kept on handing us pieces of candy and saying, "Open dis please" after about five pieces we had to cut him off. What a fun night!

Things we love about Carter

My friend Jess posted something like this on her blog and I loved it! So I copied it!

1. I love the way Carter sings Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. He knows every word, sings very softly and a few of the words are in a southern accent.
2. I love how he knows now if skip words or pages in his favorite books-- and how every book in our libary is a favorite!
3. A few days ago, he looked out the window and came up to me and said, "Mommy it's going to rain." When I asked him how he knew, he said, "Wind". I said, what else is the rain bringing? He said, "Funder and lightning." I said, "is that scary?" He said, "Not when it's sunny."
4. I love and hate that he is totally potty trained at the sitter but refuses to go at our house.
5. I also love and hate it that he eats green beans, corn and peas at the sitter's and won't touch them at home. At least he is getting it somewhere, right?
6. I love how he grabs his belly button, squeezes it like lips and says, "HEELLLLOOOOO"
7. I love how snuggly he is when we say it is time for bed, then he forgets and gets down to run around again and then when we mention that he needs to go to bed, he wants to snuggle with person who did not say it.
8. I love how he can pop right out of bed, wide awake. Totally NOT like his mother.
9. I love it that he knows what pop and beer people like. He pulled a bottle of Coors Light out of the fridge the other day and said, "Jon's beer." Jon and Mary Beth came to visit in July and he still remembers!
10. I love how when we ask him "Carter, who loves you?" He goes through everyone he knows-- but he always starts with Daddy.
11. I love how he is so curious about things. He climbs, digs, and takes apart anything he can find and when I ask him what he is doing, he says- "Nothing!"
12. I love how he has always been so warm and loving to every person he meets.
13. I love how he now makes his own forts with blankets and pillows from the couch. He will crawl inside and say "Momma/Dadda don't get me!" And squeal with delight!
14. It does make me laugh that he has finally found the humor in his and other's farts.
15. I love it that he can bring such joy to our lives with each passing moment. We are so blessed!

Nasty Flu hits Bentley house!

Last week was a tough one on our family! Carter came down with a nasty flu bug on Thursday and Friday and then I got it on Saturday. Yes, I was really sick, not just disgusted by the Cyclones' poor performance against the Hawks.

We are all back to normal today- but holding our breath that Andy doesn't get it while meeting with customers this week!

More pics to come!