There has not been any updates. I do not have any new dates for court or depositions yet. Hopefully soon. I probably will not hear back from my atty until after the first of the year. With all the holidays and him being on vacation and honymooning from his recent marriage (Congrats Mr Atty!), he is not in right now.
As far as the new "friend", we hit a stone wall. He wanted to spend every available minute either at my house or on the phone together. That drives me nuts. I was feeling smothered. When I tried to tell him about it, he kind of blew me off saying that he did not want any more than I did and he would wait for me. I told him I could not give him the time and "energy" that a relationship with him would require and he just kept telling me he did not want anything, and did not expect anything. I told him that his behaviors and words told me he did want more and I could not give more. He then told me he would give me a while and some space to decide, but he would not just be friends. That to me sounded like an ultimatum and so I said that was fine and he left. I thought that was the end of it until the next day. I got a text message from him wanting to know where I was. As if he was sitting at my house and I was not there, so where was I? That bothered me. I did not ask him to come over and I had plans and was not going to be home. He did not ask, just assumed he could come over. When I told him where I was (what town) he wanted to know if I was still there from the night before when I was supposed to go to that town. I did not make it the night before because the plans fell through, but what business is it of his was how I felt. That pretty much told me that I did not/should not be in any kind of relationship with him. Well, I actually already knew that, it was just sort of the clincher. Then in the past two weeks, I keep getting text messages from him about how much he misses me. How do you miss someone you have only known for three weeks. I also got one from him on Christmas Eve morning at 5:30 in the morning! Talk about a rude awakening.
I did decide through all of this annoyance at him, though, that I was still interested in dating. I have met a couple of different guys, and have been introduced to others. I have been on one date, and I had a blast. It was really nice to go out with someone for a change. Obviously I have no idea where any of this will lead, and most likely it will be to nowhere, but I will have fun getting there. And if I get a nice dinner or two out of the deal, all the better.
On another personal note, I have been working on the weight loss goal I set for the year. You know, now that the year is almost over. I have started walking with my sister for two mornings a week. I would like more, but that is all she can commit to right now. I also have walked/jogged a few times on my own. I have been following my diet. I am down about 4 inches this past month. I was visiting my best friend and she was purging her closet. I love it when I am there when she does that. I came home with an armful of new clothes, some of them from her SIL with the tags still on, like JCrew and LizClaiborne. I started trying them on and they all fit. Then I thought while I was at it, I should try on my own clothes that did not fit anymore. Happy Day! I can get them on. Not all of them yet, the smallest ones don't fit yet, but I am well on my way! Happy Day Oh Happy Day! I even burned the food I was cooking for our family holiday dinner I was so excited and spent so much time in the bedroom trying on clothes. I totally forgot about it. I didn't ruin it thank goodness, it was just a little crunchy and dark on the top. We just picked that part off! *laughing at myself again*
So far that is all that is going on in my life. Nothing new to report on the deals and steals front. I still haven't really been shopping. Just for things like milk and eggs. I don't have any new reports on the custody front yet, although I hope really soon for that. And on the personal front, just the weight loss is going great. And the dinner. Hopefully more of those come my way....
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Finally, A Court Date
Finally. Well, last Tuesday I had the first hearing. It was a joke of a court room. It was held in a civil court setting where all the cases are just argued out there in front of the whole room. People were in and out of the courtroom the whole time. The door was loud and it was distracting every time it slammed shut. My case was called as the second hearing. Unfortunately my ex and his atty were not there yet so we had to wait until the last case was heard. While we waited our turn, we actually heard a case where one man was sueing another for money just in case the leasing company sued him after an accident that happened over six years ago. What is wrong with the people in that particular area? It totally blew my mind all the cases I heard that morning. Finally it was our turn. We were there to argue whether to be allowed to have a hearing and if my son could keep the atty that had already been appointed. First, my ex's atty gets up and talks about how unusual this case was and it was his first time fighting a case like this, the first time as far as he knew for the county. Then says that the case should be summarily dismissed because I am crazy. They all said so. *insert me rolling my eyes* Then my atty gets up and states that is not true and the entire case is disputed facts therefore the case could not be summarily dismissed. SURPRISE: the judge agreed with my atty! That is a first!!!! That means we progress to depositions, discovery and a custody hearing.
Next up was the issue with the GAL (Guardian Ad Litem) that was already appointed for my son. The ex's atty actually said that he did not know if any of the allegations made by me were true or not but that did not matter. What mattered was that I was ordered to carry health insurance, but since I stated that I could not afford it, I could obviously not afford to pay the GAL and therefore the cost would fall to his client. No GAL should be appointed and set aside the order. My atty got up and stated that no court costs that have been remanded to me have been unpaid. I have fulfilled my court cost obligation every time and there was no indication that I would not pay these costs. Then my ex's atty gets up and says there is a new State Supreme Court ruling that says that only in extraordinary cases can the child have a GAL. The judge asked him what was his definition of extraordinary. Yes, the judge asked my ex's atty to provide the definition of an extraordinary for the court. WTF?!?!?!? The ex's atty said he did not know. So the judge said that he would set aside the GAL order. Actually he said that so many orders were filed with the courts to be filed that there was no way for the judges to always know what they were signing and they always got one side or the other mad for signing orders. I simply cannot believe what transpires in the courts down there. It is insane.
So, while we lost the GAL for S we do still get to go to court. We will just have to find another way around the issue. Next up is trying to get dates set for the depositions and such. I don't have a date for them yet. Hopefully soon.
On a personal note, I met someone. I have been on a couple of dates with him and so far we are getting along great. My dad introduced us one night a few months ago. He is a bit older than me. Well a lot actually. He is about 20 years older than me. So far no one in my family has been bothered by it. I thought they might be, but they don't seem to care. Pretty much all they have said so far is they don't care about his age or skin color, just how he treats me. So far, only with respect. He better or he'll be on the curb with the rest of them. I won't go into any details yet, mostly because other than sitting and talking to get to know each other there are not any details.
I also wanted to put in a mention for all those that want to whiten their teeth, I found a product that actually worked. For me at least. (I get nothing for mentioning this-they don't even know I exist.) Aquafresh White Trays are what I used. They were fabulous. I have sensitive teeth and other whitening products hurt my teeth or caused even more sensitivity. These White Trays were really easy to use, they did not make my teeth hurt and you only use them for seven days. I can totally live with that. My mom said that she can really tell a big difference in the color of my teeth. YEAH! Money well spent.
That pretty much brings you all up to speed with everything. I will let you know when I get some more dates for the custody issues. Hope this finds you all well.
Next up was the issue with the GAL (Guardian Ad Litem) that was already appointed for my son. The ex's atty actually said that he did not know if any of the allegations made by me were true or not but that did not matter. What mattered was that I was ordered to carry health insurance, but since I stated that I could not afford it, I could obviously not afford to pay the GAL and therefore the cost would fall to his client. No GAL should be appointed and set aside the order. My atty got up and stated that no court costs that have been remanded to me have been unpaid. I have fulfilled my court cost obligation every time and there was no indication that I would not pay these costs. Then my ex's atty gets up and says there is a new State Supreme Court ruling that says that only in extraordinary cases can the child have a GAL. The judge asked him what was his definition of extraordinary. Yes, the judge asked my ex's atty to provide the definition of an extraordinary for the court. WTF?!?!?!? The ex's atty said he did not know. So the judge said that he would set aside the GAL order. Actually he said that so many orders were filed with the courts to be filed that there was no way for the judges to always know what they were signing and they always got one side or the other mad for signing orders. I simply cannot believe what transpires in the courts down there. It is insane.
So, while we lost the GAL for S we do still get to go to court. We will just have to find another way around the issue. Next up is trying to get dates set for the depositions and such. I don't have a date for them yet. Hopefully soon.
On a personal note, I met someone. I have been on a couple of dates with him and so far we are getting along great. My dad introduced us one night a few months ago. He is a bit older than me. Well a lot actually. He is about 20 years older than me. So far no one in my family has been bothered by it. I thought they might be, but they don't seem to care. Pretty much all they have said so far is they don't care about his age or skin color, just how he treats me. So far, only with respect. He better or he'll be on the curb with the rest of them. I won't go into any details yet, mostly because other than sitting and talking to get to know each other there are not any details.
I also wanted to put in a mention for all those that want to whiten their teeth, I found a product that actually worked. For me at least. (I get nothing for mentioning this-they don't even know I exist.) Aquafresh White Trays are what I used. They were fabulous. I have sensitive teeth and other whitening products hurt my teeth or caused even more sensitivity. These White Trays were really easy to use, they did not make my teeth hurt and you only use them for seven days. I can totally live with that. My mom said that she can really tell a big difference in the color of my teeth. YEAH! Money well spent.
That pretty much brings you all up to speed with everything. I will let you know when I get some more dates for the custody issues. Hope this finds you all well.
Monday, October 26, 2009
What a Surprise. And a recipe.
Well, I am back from my visit with my son. And guess what? That's right, no hearing. It does not really surprise me. I did get another date on Monday from my attorney. This time the hearing is set for Tuesday, November 24th. Hopefully this time the hearing will happen. I had a great time with my son this past weekend. We played alot and spent some time just sitting together. He was feeling better, or so he said. He was a little bit more tired and a little bit less active. But all in all, he seemed to be better. He did eat really well too.
For our visit around the hearing, I will see S on the 21st and 22nd, meet with the attorney on the 23rd. Have the hearing on the 24th, hang out on the 25th, and see S again for Thanksgiving holiday on the 26th and 27th. That's a lot of living at a hotel. Not my favorite, but better than the cold wet campgrounds. Man, I can't believe how wet it has been this year. It's been hard to camp some weekends. A few times we ended up just going to the hotel because it rained so much. Other times we toughed it out and hoped we didn't get washed away.
My mom and I learned how to cook in a dutch oven over a fire this summer. That was some tasty eatin'. We made a pork stew. I found a store that carries large cans of pork. I have never had canned pork like that and thought we would give it a try since it needs no refrigeration prior to opening and that makes it handy when camping. So we took some onions, potatoes, celery and carrots to put in it. We added some spices that I always have in the camping kit (salt, pepper steak seasoning, and garlic). We also brought along a bit of cornstarch to make a thickening sauce, and dumped it all in. That was it. We put it over the fire and let it cook up and it was really good. It does not take very long to cook, and it stays warm for a long time as well.
The pork we used was not like the canned ham that I have found in the grocery stores. It was like a roasted pork loin that had been cooked and then stuck in the can. I think it would have made great BBQ as well. I do plan to try that next time. The can was a big can too. I think it was like 28 ounces or something. Enough to feed a whole bunch of us. And even better was the price. I only paid around $5 for a little over two pounds, instead of the $1 + I spend on the cans that are only around 5 ounces. If you can find some in your area, it is worth the price for the convenience of precooked ham that does not have to be kept cold.
So have you found any neat food items in your searches for good deals? Made anything tasty lately?
For our visit around the hearing, I will see S on the 21st and 22nd, meet with the attorney on the 23rd. Have the hearing on the 24th, hang out on the 25th, and see S again for Thanksgiving holiday on the 26th and 27th. That's a lot of living at a hotel. Not my favorite, but better than the cold wet campgrounds. Man, I can't believe how wet it has been this year. It's been hard to camp some weekends. A few times we ended up just going to the hotel because it rained so much. Other times we toughed it out and hoped we didn't get washed away.
My mom and I learned how to cook in a dutch oven over a fire this summer. That was some tasty eatin'. We made a pork stew. I found a store that carries large cans of pork. I have never had canned pork like that and thought we would give it a try since it needs no refrigeration prior to opening and that makes it handy when camping. So we took some onions, potatoes, celery and carrots to put in it. We added some spices that I always have in the camping kit (salt, pepper steak seasoning, and garlic). We also brought along a bit of cornstarch to make a thickening sauce, and dumped it all in. That was it. We put it over the fire and let it cook up and it was really good. It does not take very long to cook, and it stays warm for a long time as well.
The pork we used was not like the canned ham that I have found in the grocery stores. It was like a roasted pork loin that had been cooked and then stuck in the can. I think it would have made great BBQ as well. I do plan to try that next time. The can was a big can too. I think it was like 28 ounces or something. Enough to feed a whole bunch of us. And even better was the price. I only paid around $5 for a little over two pounds, instead of the $1 + I spend on the cans that are only around 5 ounces. If you can find some in your area, it is worth the price for the convenience of precooked ham that does not have to be kept cold.
So have you found any neat food items in your searches for good deals? Made anything tasty lately?
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
What to Cook Wednesday
Today I am going to take a bit of a different approach. In trying to keep my blog non-political I will just post that I think everyone should think about storing up some food. I know that many of my readers do, just because the couponing makes things easier and cheaper to stock up. For those that don't coupon, I think now is the time to take advantage before prices start going up. I worry that inflation is going to get us all sometime in the future. And by future I mean sooner rather than later. Maybe not in the next 6-12 months, but sometime shortly after that. I want to take advantage of these (relatively) low prices and get some food squared away. Some of the things that I worry may be hard to get in the future are wheat, rice, corn, and anything made with soybeans. I don't know how many of you watch the news, but there are many stories of food shortages coming due to bad weather conditions. I know here in the heartland it is wet. I mean really wet. Crops are not coming in and there is concern that they will rot in the fields due to too much moisture. This is soybean and corn country. I know that wheat plantings were down last year to begin with and now there have been problems with the wheat and a fungus taking out the plants. So, for what to cook Wednesday, I propose that instead of what to cook, I let you know what I am gathering.
I always try to keep some whole wheat flour in the freezer. I also keep cornmeal and bread flour in there. I also have many boxes of pasta and sauce (thanks Meijer!), canned chicken and tuna, and of course fruits and veggies, and dry beans. I also keep canned soups in stock and things like evaporated milk. Not the tastiest to drink, but can be used in cooking. I don't usually eat white rice, but will eat brown rice. I also keep this in the freezer. There are many things that thanks to couponing I have been able to stock up on. For example, I love oatmeal. I bought oatmeal at the first of the year when the coupons came out for them. I am just now running out of oatmeal. I do still have the oats in the canister, but I meant the instant packs that I take for work for meals. Those were some great deals as I love oatmeal. I will run out of the instant packets before the next really good sale, but I will still have the regular oats to eat and cook with. I do plan to go to the store and pick up a few items, but nothing that I have coupons for. Just some random things that I would like to have. Like milk, marshmallows, a jug or two of water for my trips, and some beans. I love beans. I really do. You can do so much with beans, they are so versatile. I usually get dry beans because they are so much cheaper than canned. It just takes a bit of planning or batch cooking on the weekend. Which I am still not doing. Shame on me, I have become so lazy when it comes to cooking. I have not even made bread or desserts. Wow, I must be feeling overwhelmed and lazy! I think I need a good kick in the a** to get up and get going again. Maybe after the court date next week I will feel renewed and energized. In the meantime, I will just eat canned soup *gasp*. It isn't too bad I guess. Well, I know it isn't because I keep eating it.
What things do you like to keep stocked up on? Any favorites or just whatever is on sale and has a coupon? Let me know.
Just an update on the new to me van. It has been great. It hasn't had any major problems, just a couple of easily resolved ones.
I always try to keep some whole wheat flour in the freezer. I also keep cornmeal and bread flour in there. I also have many boxes of pasta and sauce (thanks Meijer!), canned chicken and tuna, and of course fruits and veggies, and dry beans. I also keep canned soups in stock and things like evaporated milk. Not the tastiest to drink, but can be used in cooking. I don't usually eat white rice, but will eat brown rice. I also keep this in the freezer. There are many things that thanks to couponing I have been able to stock up on. For example, I love oatmeal. I bought oatmeal at the first of the year when the coupons came out for them. I am just now running out of oatmeal. I do still have the oats in the canister, but I meant the instant packs that I take for work for meals. Those were some great deals as I love oatmeal. I will run out of the instant packets before the next really good sale, but I will still have the regular oats to eat and cook with. I do plan to go to the store and pick up a few items, but nothing that I have coupons for. Just some random things that I would like to have. Like milk, marshmallows, a jug or two of water for my trips, and some beans. I love beans. I really do. You can do so much with beans, they are so versatile. I usually get dry beans because they are so much cheaper than canned. It just takes a bit of planning or batch cooking on the weekend. Which I am still not doing. Shame on me, I have become so lazy when it comes to cooking. I have not even made bread or desserts. Wow, I must be feeling overwhelmed and lazy! I think I need a good kick in the a** to get up and get going again. Maybe after the court date next week I will feel renewed and energized. In the meantime, I will just eat canned soup *gasp*. It isn't too bad I guess. Well, I know it isn't because I keep eating it.
What things do you like to keep stocked up on? Any favorites or just whatever is on sale and has a coupon? Let me know.
Just an update on the new to me van. It has been great. It hasn't had any major problems, just a couple of easily resolved ones.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
MIA
It seems I owe everyone an apology. My life is crazy and hectic right now. We have had court dates come up and be cancelled and new dates set. I have not been shopping to share deals in ages as I am saving up to pay for attorney costs, court costs, filing fees; it seems like the list never ends. I have been super busy at work since I have been taking time off for court dates that never happen. I have been trying hard to keep a positive attitude through all of this. I have been really struggling this last month in particular. I feel like I have so much to do, so many things that I want to accomplish, and just not enough time to get to all of it. So, I let you, my readers down. I am sorry for that. I will do my best to get here and post. It may not have much to do with deals and steals. It may just be random musings and updates on what is going on with my son and me.
I have been feeling down in the dumps for many reasons lately. I was told by my son several weeks ago that he needed more dental work done. This little boy, well not so little boy, is only nine years old and because of the poor nutrition and shoddy dental care has had to get eight cavities filled. While this was going on, because he is also stressed, he wound up mouth ulcers. I know they were painful. He hardly ever complains about pain, and yet he continually told me how his mouth hurt. My son had some dental work done earlier this year, and more done this fall, and who knows how much more before his dad is done ruining his teeth. Just last week they had to pull a tooth because the dental work done was not the greatest and because his teeth were in such bad shape, the tooth broke. So, out it came. He was terrified and when I called him, he was in tears because he was so afraid it was going to hurt. With my policy to never, ever lie to him, I told him it might hurt. He should ask his dad to tell the dentist that he was scared it would hurt. He told me his dad does not go in with him, he has to go in by himself and that scared him too. I swear I don't know what is wrong with that man. He did get the tooth pulled last week and thankfully he did not have any pain. Then he tells me that he got the flu shot. That was on Tuesday. Friday when I called he was sick. Saturday when I called he was sick again. "The doctor" said he had bronchitis. Or bronchy-itis as my son used to say. Then on Sunday he did not say anything about not feeling well. When I called last night, he was even sicker and this time he went to the doctor and he was diagnosed with the flu. If it was up to me, he would have never gotten the flu shot. I will save my rant on the flu shots for another day, but suffice it to say, I don't like them. In the midst of all of this, I have to keep hearing snide hateful comments from my ex, listen to my son repeat them because that is all he is hearing down there, and in general just feel stressed out by the upcoming court dates. And I only get every other weekend for a few hours to try to make up for all of it.
I don't mean all of this as a pity party. I don't even really want sympathy. I just wanted to let you know that I may not always post right now because it would not be very nice of me to post a bunch of negative things out here and bring you all down. I will try to get back on schedule of posting and try to keep them positive.
On an unrelated note, I have also been very worried about our economy, and the direction I see our government headed. What I see scares me. Not like the terrified, can't sleep at night sort of thing. The scared just enough to try to figure out what I need to do to be prepared for anything. Like job loss, outbreaks of swine flu that our local government over reacts to. You know, that sort of thing. I also have been stressed at work. There is a woman that I have to work with that is awful. You know the kind that wants credit for every good thing and blames you for every mistake. She has even tried to get me fired on more than one occasion. I used to not be too worried about it as I had a buffer. Now, the buffer got tired of working here and moved on. So, no more buffer. Then she has maintenance move her office so she is right next door to me. She comes in at least once a day to "say hello" or just "ask a question". I don't believe her for one second. She is back to her old tricks of complaining about me to everyone and anyone. Fortunately, most people are already onto her games and don't listen, but a few do. And those few could make my life hell. I am trying not to borrow trouble, but with this kind of person, I must always be ready and prepared as best as I can. She attacks when you least expect it.
So, I have been trying to be good at work, get things done at home, fret about finances, simmer and stew about my son, worry about the economy, and just try to keep a smile on my face and steam in my engines. I am certain that I am not accomplishing much these days, even though I feel like I am constatly on the go and pulled every which way.
Okay, after all my whining, how are you all doing? Better I sincerely hope.
I have been feeling down in the dumps for many reasons lately. I was told by my son several weeks ago that he needed more dental work done. This little boy, well not so little boy, is only nine years old and because of the poor nutrition and shoddy dental care has had to get eight cavities filled. While this was going on, because he is also stressed, he wound up mouth ulcers. I know they were painful. He hardly ever complains about pain, and yet he continually told me how his mouth hurt. My son had some dental work done earlier this year, and more done this fall, and who knows how much more before his dad is done ruining his teeth. Just last week they had to pull a tooth because the dental work done was not the greatest and because his teeth were in such bad shape, the tooth broke. So, out it came. He was terrified and when I called him, he was in tears because he was so afraid it was going to hurt. With my policy to never, ever lie to him, I told him it might hurt. He should ask his dad to tell the dentist that he was scared it would hurt. He told me his dad does not go in with him, he has to go in by himself and that scared him too. I swear I don't know what is wrong with that man. He did get the tooth pulled last week and thankfully he did not have any pain. Then he tells me that he got the flu shot. That was on Tuesday. Friday when I called he was sick. Saturday when I called he was sick again. "The doctor" said he had bronchitis. Or bronchy-itis as my son used to say. Then on Sunday he did not say anything about not feeling well. When I called last night, he was even sicker and this time he went to the doctor and he was diagnosed with the flu. If it was up to me, he would have never gotten the flu shot. I will save my rant on the flu shots for another day, but suffice it to say, I don't like them. In the midst of all of this, I have to keep hearing snide hateful comments from my ex, listen to my son repeat them because that is all he is hearing down there, and in general just feel stressed out by the upcoming court dates. And I only get every other weekend for a few hours to try to make up for all of it.
I don't mean all of this as a pity party. I don't even really want sympathy. I just wanted to let you know that I may not always post right now because it would not be very nice of me to post a bunch of negative things out here and bring you all down. I will try to get back on schedule of posting and try to keep them positive.
On an unrelated note, I have also been very worried about our economy, and the direction I see our government headed. What I see scares me. Not like the terrified, can't sleep at night sort of thing. The scared just enough to try to figure out what I need to do to be prepared for anything. Like job loss, outbreaks of swine flu that our local government over reacts to. You know, that sort of thing. I also have been stressed at work. There is a woman that I have to work with that is awful. You know the kind that wants credit for every good thing and blames you for every mistake. She has even tried to get me fired on more than one occasion. I used to not be too worried about it as I had a buffer. Now, the buffer got tired of working here and moved on. So, no more buffer. Then she has maintenance move her office so she is right next door to me. She comes in at least once a day to "say hello" or just "ask a question". I don't believe her for one second. She is back to her old tricks of complaining about me to everyone and anyone. Fortunately, most people are already onto her games and don't listen, but a few do. And those few could make my life hell. I am trying not to borrow trouble, but with this kind of person, I must always be ready and prepared as best as I can. She attacks when you least expect it.
So, I have been trying to be good at work, get things done at home, fret about finances, simmer and stew about my son, worry about the economy, and just try to keep a smile on my face and steam in my engines. I am certain that I am not accomplishing much these days, even though I feel like I am constatly on the go and pulled every which way.
Okay, after all my whining, how are you all doing? Better I sincerely hope.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Thankful Thursday
This week I am thankful for:
1. Excedrin
2. Sunshine
3. Vitamin Water
4. Good books to read
5. Donuts. Mmmmmmmm.
What's got you thankful this week?
1. Excedrin
2. Sunshine
3. Vitamin Water
4. Good books to read
5. Donuts. Mmmmmmmm.
What's got you thankful this week?
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
What To Cook Wednesday
For this week's edition of what to cook, I bring you another soup recipe. I like soup. I like fall too, and that is the perfect time for pulling out those stock pots and making soup.
Potato Soup. I know that everyone has a potato soup recipe in their family. Here, I present you with my family's potato soup.
8-10 potatoes, peeled
onion
salt
evaporated milk
water
3 eggs
flour
pepper
I use any kind of potato for this. Last night I used regular Idaho potatoes. I used onion powder last night, I have also used minced dried onion and fresh onion. Really just use whatever you like.
Peel and cube your potatoes. Place in pot and cover with water. Add onion. I like onion flavor, so I added a lot. Use as much as your family will allow. I do not add salt here, but my mom does. I don't add salt to anything until it is done cooking, but that's just me.
While the potatoes are cooking, crack three eggs into a bowl, and start adding flour. I used whole wheat last night, so I ended up with brown dumplings, if appearances matter, use white flour. You want to add enough flour to make a nice sticky dough. It should still be wet looking and very sticky. When the potatoes are almost done cooking, start adding the egg/flour mixture. I use a spoon that has been dipped into the hot water, and scoop a small amount, about 1/4 of the teaspoon, and put the spoon in the water again. The hot water makes the dough slip right off the spoon. Of course now the spoon is hot and you can just go to town dipping your little dumplings out of the bowl and placing the dumpling into the water. By the time you are finished with this, it will be time to add the evaporated milk. Dump one whole can into the pot. The dumplings will only take a minute or two to finish cooking. At this time, I taste and add salt if necessary (always is) and add some pepper. That is it, dinner is done. Add some tasty bread and a salad, and you are ready to go.
Though as I read through this and my other posts, I realize I am one of those folks that cooks without measuring. I just add the amounts of ingredients based on what I know my son and I like. It may be kind of hard to follow recipes that call for adding what you like or adding a pinch. If you think that I need to start adding more precise measurements, please let me know and I can start paying attention and measuring what I make.
Potato Soup. I know that everyone has a potato soup recipe in their family. Here, I present you with my family's potato soup.
8-10 potatoes, peeled
onion
salt
evaporated milk
water
3 eggs
flour
pepper
I use any kind of potato for this. Last night I used regular Idaho potatoes. I used onion powder last night, I have also used minced dried onion and fresh onion. Really just use whatever you like.
Peel and cube your potatoes. Place in pot and cover with water. Add onion. I like onion flavor, so I added a lot. Use as much as your family will allow. I do not add salt here, but my mom does. I don't add salt to anything until it is done cooking, but that's just me.
While the potatoes are cooking, crack three eggs into a bowl, and start adding flour. I used whole wheat last night, so I ended up with brown dumplings, if appearances matter, use white flour. You want to add enough flour to make a nice sticky dough. It should still be wet looking and very sticky. When the potatoes are almost done cooking, start adding the egg/flour mixture. I use a spoon that has been dipped into the hot water, and scoop a small amount, about 1/4 of the teaspoon, and put the spoon in the water again. The hot water makes the dough slip right off the spoon. Of course now the spoon is hot and you can just go to town dipping your little dumplings out of the bowl and placing the dumpling into the water. By the time you are finished with this, it will be time to add the evaporated milk. Dump one whole can into the pot. The dumplings will only take a minute or two to finish cooking. At this time, I taste and add salt if necessary (always is) and add some pepper. That is it, dinner is done. Add some tasty bread and a salad, and you are ready to go.
Though as I read through this and my other posts, I realize I am one of those folks that cooks without measuring. I just add the amounts of ingredients based on what I know my son and I like. It may be kind of hard to follow recipes that call for adding what you like or adding a pinch. If you think that I need to start adding more precise measurements, please let me know and I can start paying attention and measuring what I make.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Random Tuesday Thoughts
Hello? Hello? Where am I? I think I forgot how to get here, or there, or anywhere.... What?
I am back again. I thought Random Tuesday would be a good place to begin. Go on over to The Unmom and check out everyone else's randomness too.
I, uh, well, I really don't know where to start. I'm sorry seems like a good place. I have abandoned my blog here for the last couple of weeks. And for no good reason. Mostly I have been very easily distracted and unfocused. I am going to start working on that. Let me share a couple of stories to give you my frame of mind these past couple of weeks:
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that my tub was not really draining very well. Now, I have had issues with this house's plumbing pretty much since I moved in. Usually not too major, and never with the tub. But it was draining slow. I left it alone for about a week. Then a week ago, I went to Walmart and got a couple of buckets from their bakery. I took them home and washed them out. Those things are great for storing anything and everything. And best of all they were free. Any way I digress, again. Washing the tubs out, yes that's where I was. I washed them out and dumped the water. It did not drain. I left it alone for a bit and it did eventually drain completely. I took a shower and noticed that I don't use nearly the water for a shower as I would have run for a bath even for a small child. Decided to hardly ever take a bath again, only showers. Not that this has anything to do with the tub draining, or not draining as the case may be. I had to soak the free tubs with some baking soda and vinegar to get rid of the icing smell completely. While I was at it I decided to soak the garbage cans too. I went in to dump the cans and nothing drained. I came back a little later, and nothing had drained. I tried plunging and nothing drained. Next day after work, I bought some draino at the dollar store, except it was more than a dollar. Why do they call it a dollar store if everything is more than a dollar? I poured in the drain cleaner when I got home. I waited about 30 minutes and went back to check still no draining. I ran hot water like the directions said to. No draining. I poured more in since the directions said to repeat if necessary. 30 minutes later, still had not drained. This is where I started to ignore the directions. I started plunging even though the directions said not too. At this point I am wondering if my cats stuffed a mouse carcass down the drain to save for later. No draining. So I gather my courage and stick my bare hand down the drain. Now I know that I should have used a glove since there was so much drain cleaner in there, but how was I supposed to feel anything? Yeah, I felt something all right. The drain plug. I had apparently knocked the little lever while cleaning the tub originally and finished knocking it closed while cleaning the buckets. I opened the drain. It drained. No mouse, no clog, not even slow....Whoosh, all the water when right down.....
Wow.
The next episode of pure genius occured this weekend. I was playing tennis with my son at the park. He really is not that great (neither am I) and likes to hit the ball as hard as he can. Right out of the courts, over the fence. And right towards the pond. Fortunately it hit a rock and did not become a floater. Time to go. We load into the new to me minivan (which has been great by the way). I turn the car on, and yes! that air feels great. We were both really hot and sweaty. I put the car in reverse, take my foot off the brake, hit the gas and we start to roll --forward. I slam on the brakes and put it back in park. I try to put it in reverse again. We roll forward. I am getting really scared at this point as it is time to take S back to his dad's. My car has to go. So, I open the door and step out of the car, and realize, are you ready for this? It was not on. Nope, the van was not running. I could not tell because the fan was running on high and I could not tell that it was not on. I turn the key and start the car. What do you know?! It went into gear. Yeah.
So there is the randomness of my life for the past couple of weeks. Want some more? If not then you can stop reading now. I have more though. I'm sorry again. If you are one of those people that has to read until the end and you want to move along, here you go: The End.
I took my cat in to the vet's office for her surgery for her skin cancer. It is the kind that does not spread (I can't remember today what that is called-I swear I am brain dead lately), it just affects the cells it is in. They grow, I get them cut off. She is high for a few days. This time they did blood work first, with my permission of course, and discovered that her red blood cell count was low. They could still do the surgery, just had to twilight sleep her and inject some pain meds. She was great, she was not high, and shortly after I got home she was back to her normal self. I took her in early this morning before work to get the stitches out. Poor baby does not like being in a cage at all. She kept trying to bite the carrier door. At one point I stuck my hand in front of her face hoping to stop her from chewing on the bars and breaking a tooth. Yup, she bit me. It hurt, but that was better than her breaking a tooth.
Our county is preparing for the H1N1 virus. It is kind of scary some of the things they are talking about implementing if the virus spreads too much here. I am really hoping that it avoids our area all together. I doubt it though as the college in the town next to us has already had 5 confirmed cases. No deaths, just students with the flu. Me, I think it's just the flu, some will get it, some will get it and die, some will not get it at all. It happens with the flu virus that hits every year. Why is this one so different? Get over it. We don't freak out when 1/3 of our county has the "regular" flu. I am concerned that it will affect my visits with my son if they "discourage" travelling. The interstate runs right through the middle of our county though. I am not really sure how they would do that any way. Besides, I live about 2 miles from the state line. I will just go out the back road and be on my way. (politics-warning!) Personally I think the "big scare" is to help the awful and dreaded health care reform get movement to be passed.
It has been really cool here for the past few days. I got up yesterday and today and it was only 60 degrees in my house. The warmest it got all day yesterday was about 64 degrees. It is a bit chilly in my house during this season. I would say time of year, but this is the first time it has happened this early. Usually it is still hot outside right now. Homemade potato soup sounds really good for tonight. Good thing I bought potatoes last night and stocked up on evaporated milk when it was on sale! Way to go stocking up!
I finally got rid of the fleas. I can't remember if I posted about my war on fleas, but it has been an ugly battle that I finally won! I sprinkled Sevin Dust all over my entire house. I did NOT put any on the cats, but sprinkled all non living things in my house liberally. This was after treating the cats, spraying the house and bombing/fogging the house. I have not seen any fleas since last Thursday. I will begin cleaning up every scrap and sprinkle of dust tonight. Time for the fall house cleaning anyway. Gotta get everything nice and clean to close the house up for the winter. I don't much care for spring cleaning, but I do love a good fall cleaning to get me in the mood to keep the windows shut and start burning those wonderful, good smelling candles. And now I can start baking without melting from the heat.
Gotta love fall. Crisp leaves. Beautiful colors. I am fall coloring by the way. I love the smell of the leaves burning after raking them up. I love a good campfire, or just a fire in the fire pit or the little fire table thingy I have on my patio. Yup, good times.
So, how have you been? How is life treating? Assuming of course you are still here reading....
I am back again. I thought Random Tuesday would be a good place to begin. Go on over to The Unmom and check out everyone else's randomness too.
I, uh, well, I really don't know where to start. I'm sorry seems like a good place. I have abandoned my blog here for the last couple of weeks. And for no good reason. Mostly I have been very easily distracted and unfocused. I am going to start working on that. Let me share a couple of stories to give you my frame of mind these past couple of weeks:
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that my tub was not really draining very well. Now, I have had issues with this house's plumbing pretty much since I moved in. Usually not too major, and never with the tub. But it was draining slow. I left it alone for about a week. Then a week ago, I went to Walmart and got a couple of buckets from their bakery. I took them home and washed them out. Those things are great for storing anything and everything. And best of all they were free. Any way I digress, again. Washing the tubs out, yes that's where I was. I washed them out and dumped the water. It did not drain. I left it alone for a bit and it did eventually drain completely. I took a shower and noticed that I don't use nearly the water for a shower as I would have run for a bath even for a small child. Decided to hardly ever take a bath again, only showers. Not that this has anything to do with the tub draining, or not draining as the case may be. I had to soak the free tubs with some baking soda and vinegar to get rid of the icing smell completely. While I was at it I decided to soak the garbage cans too. I went in to dump the cans and nothing drained. I came back a little later, and nothing had drained. I tried plunging and nothing drained. Next day after work, I bought some draino at the dollar store, except it was more than a dollar. Why do they call it a dollar store if everything is more than a dollar? I poured in the drain cleaner when I got home. I waited about 30 minutes and went back to check still no draining. I ran hot water like the directions said to. No draining. I poured more in since the directions said to repeat if necessary. 30 minutes later, still had not drained. This is where I started to ignore the directions. I started plunging even though the directions said not too. At this point I am wondering if my cats stuffed a mouse carcass down the drain to save for later. No draining. So I gather my courage and stick my bare hand down the drain. Now I know that I should have used a glove since there was so much drain cleaner in there, but how was I supposed to feel anything? Yeah, I felt something all right. The drain plug. I had apparently knocked the little lever while cleaning the tub originally and finished knocking it closed while cleaning the buckets. I opened the drain. It drained. No mouse, no clog, not even slow....Whoosh, all the water when right down.....
Wow.
The next episode of pure genius occured this weekend. I was playing tennis with my son at the park. He really is not that great (neither am I) and likes to hit the ball as hard as he can. Right out of the courts, over the fence. And right towards the pond. Fortunately it hit a rock and did not become a floater. Time to go. We load into the new to me minivan (which has been great by the way). I turn the car on, and yes! that air feels great. We were both really hot and sweaty. I put the car in reverse, take my foot off the brake, hit the gas and we start to roll --forward. I slam on the brakes and put it back in park. I try to put it in reverse again. We roll forward. I am getting really scared at this point as it is time to take S back to his dad's. My car has to go. So, I open the door and step out of the car, and realize, are you ready for this? It was not on. Nope, the van was not running. I could not tell because the fan was running on high and I could not tell that it was not on. I turn the key and start the car. What do you know?! It went into gear. Yeah.
So there is the randomness of my life for the past couple of weeks. Want some more? If not then you can stop reading now. I have more though. I'm sorry again. If you are one of those people that has to read until the end and you want to move along, here you go: The End.
I took my cat in to the vet's office for her surgery for her skin cancer. It is the kind that does not spread (I can't remember today what that is called-I swear I am brain dead lately), it just affects the cells it is in. They grow, I get them cut off. She is high for a few days. This time they did blood work first, with my permission of course, and discovered that her red blood cell count was low. They could still do the surgery, just had to twilight sleep her and inject some pain meds. She was great, she was not high, and shortly after I got home she was back to her normal self. I took her in early this morning before work to get the stitches out. Poor baby does not like being in a cage at all. She kept trying to bite the carrier door. At one point I stuck my hand in front of her face hoping to stop her from chewing on the bars and breaking a tooth. Yup, she bit me. It hurt, but that was better than her breaking a tooth.
Our county is preparing for the H1N1 virus. It is kind of scary some of the things they are talking about implementing if the virus spreads too much here. I am really hoping that it avoids our area all together. I doubt it though as the college in the town next to us has already had 5 confirmed cases. No deaths, just students with the flu. Me, I think it's just the flu, some will get it, some will get it and die, some will not get it at all. It happens with the flu virus that hits every year. Why is this one so different? Get over it. We don't freak out when 1/3 of our county has the "regular" flu. I am concerned that it will affect my visits with my son if they "discourage" travelling. The interstate runs right through the middle of our county though. I am not really sure how they would do that any way. Besides, I live about 2 miles from the state line. I will just go out the back road and be on my way. (politics-warning!) Personally I think the "big scare" is to help the awful and dreaded health care reform get movement to be passed.
It has been really cool here for the past few days. I got up yesterday and today and it was only 60 degrees in my house. The warmest it got all day yesterday was about 64 degrees. It is a bit chilly in my house during this season. I would say time of year, but this is the first time it has happened this early. Usually it is still hot outside right now. Homemade potato soup sounds really good for tonight. Good thing I bought potatoes last night and stocked up on evaporated milk when it was on sale! Way to go stocking up!
I finally got rid of the fleas. I can't remember if I posted about my war on fleas, but it has been an ugly battle that I finally won! I sprinkled Sevin Dust all over my entire house. I did NOT put any on the cats, but sprinkled all non living things in my house liberally. This was after treating the cats, spraying the house and bombing/fogging the house. I have not seen any fleas since last Thursday. I will begin cleaning up every scrap and sprinkle of dust tonight. Time for the fall house cleaning anyway. Gotta get everything nice and clean to close the house up for the winter. I don't much care for spring cleaning, but I do love a good fall cleaning to get me in the mood to keep the windows shut and start burning those wonderful, good smelling candles. And now I can start baking without melting from the heat.
Gotta love fall. Crisp leaves. Beautiful colors. I am fall coloring by the way. I love the smell of the leaves burning after raking them up. I love a good campfire, or just a fire in the fire pit or the little fire table thingy I have on my patio. Yup, good times.
So, how have you been? How is life treating? Assuming of course you are still here reading....
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Site of the Week Saturday
This week I would like to highlight Jack over at the survival podcast. I know this is not going to be quite what some of you expect, but I like the message that Jack spreads. He does get a bit excited on some of his podcasts, and you don't have to agree or even listen to him, but he does discuss getting out of debt, not getting any new debt, and stockpiling. There is even a thread in the forum about couponing and another one about CVS'ing. Some of his ideas won't appeal to you, but I bet some of them will. Go check out the site, the podcasts and the forum. I guarantee you will learn something new. I know I have.
ETA: This is the first time I have featured a guy for the site of the week!
ETA: This is the first time I have featured a guy for the site of the week!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Thankful Thursday
This week my list looks like this:
1. Found a new to me minivan!
2. Dinner with friends, especially when I go to her house and she cooks!
3. My BIL got called back to work. That is great news for my sister, BIL and their girls.
4. Stockpiled food, No major grocery shopping for me lately.
5. As always, I will end with chocolate. I have been cutting back and not eating candy, but I will always love me some chocolate.
What are you thankful for today?
1. Found a new to me minivan!
2. Dinner with friends, especially when I go to her house and she cooks!
3. My BIL got called back to work. That is great news for my sister, BIL and their girls.
4. Stockpiled food, No major grocery shopping for me lately.
5. As always, I will end with chocolate. I have been cutting back and not eating candy, but I will always love me some chocolate.
What are you thankful for today?
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
New (to me) Wheels
Well, I bought a minivan last night. I have been looking off and on for a replacement vehicle as I have been renting a car for a few months now. I wanted a suburban or Tahoe or something along those lines. I could afford a pinto. I knew if I kept looking I would find a car that would be adequate. I am not overjoyed that I have a minivan again, however a good running car is very valuable to me right now. I stopped on a whim last night at a dealership that normally I ignore as being too pricey. Of course they wanted me to trade in my big van using the cash for clunkers and buy a brand new car. I told them no way. I did not want to participate in that, nor did I want a brand new car. I don't want the car payments. He told me they had a couple of minivans in the back so I went to look at them. The first one I knew would be too expensive. So we moved on to the next one. Fortunately it does not have power stuff. No power windows, locks, seats, etc. I don't have to worry about that stuff breaking. I have had to have all that power stuff repaired in every car I have ever owned. Manual does not break so much. It is bright shiny red and my son will love that as it is his favorite color. It also has a lot of cubbyholes which he will also love. I will have to get the windows tinted at some point as there is no tint on any windows. I like tint. I am not sure what that will cost so it may be a while before I work that into the budget. It certainly is a want and not a need. At least I say that now before we try to sleep in it! All in all I am satisfied, although not jumping for joy. The plan is to use this car until S gets home at which point I can either sell it and get something new or keep driving it and thereby saving as much money as possible. I think we can all be pretty sure we know what choice will be made. At least now I have some new to me wheels to get me back and forth to see my son.
What to Cook Wednesday
Quick and Easy Chicken and Noodles
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp basil
1/8 pepper
2 cups frozen veggies
2 cups uncooked egg noodles
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
Heat the broth, spices and veggies in pan until boiling. Reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the noodles. Cook for 5 minutes. Stir in chicken and cook until thoroughly heated.
I know it's not as good as the original home made, but this will do in a pinch. Let me know what you think.
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp basil
1/8 pepper
2 cups frozen veggies
2 cups uncooked egg noodles
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
Heat the broth, spices and veggies in pan until boiling. Reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the noodles. Cook for 5 minutes. Stir in chicken and cook until thoroughly heated.
I know it's not as good as the original home made, but this will do in a pinch. Let me know what you think.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Random Tuesday Thoughts
Stop and visit Keely over at the UN Mom to see her random Tuesday thoughts. And don't forget to check out the other links to all the randomness. So without further ado, my randomness:
I am going to have to start doing my couponing thing again because I miss it. I miss the rush of the deals.
I have been listening to Jack over at SurvivalPodcast for a couple of days. He was recommended to me by a friend of mine. I can't say that I agree with everything that he says as they are his personal views, but I can say I have enjoyed listening to his show. It has been informative and in the forum area, there is even a topic of couponing to stock up! I especially liked that!
I have also been super busy at work. Work, work work yesterday and today. Where is my slow time at work going?
I went to Victoria Secrets this weekend to get a couple of new bras. Mine were broke down, ragged out sorts of things. Old too. I found a couple of really comfy ones that were even on sale. Now I understand why people pay so much for the stuff at Victoria Secrets. All I can say is I wish I had bought bras there before. I will definitely be back for a couple more when I can afford it.
S started school yesterday. I talked to him about it last night. He was really excited because his teacher was nice to him. He said she was pretty nice to everyone, but was really nice to him. I really hope that my talk with her last week was productive and she stays this way, if it is even the reason that she was so nice to him. She is going through a similar situation with her daughter and her ex and I hope that gives her empathy for our situation.
S also has a baseball party this weekend. They are meeting at a waterworks sort of place. I don't remember the name off the top of my head, but he was really wanting to go. I made a deal that I would bring S back two hours later on Saturday and deliver him to the water park two hours earlier than my usual drop off for the party. Because let's face it, the kid is not going to want to hang out with me on the sidelines while there are a bunch of slides and pools to play in. Then S tells me that he wants me to stay. If there seems to be a need for more supervision, then I will indeed stay, but if he is having fun and there are plenty of other parents, we may go a bit early to get a head start home. My guess though is that we will be staying so that someone is there to keep an eye on S. Which means that we ultimately be getting a late start home as the party is not over until six. I just am confused on why the party is now. The ball games have been over for over a month. Almost two months I think. Those people down there just make my head hurt. I can't even think about it.
The good news is my cats are still just as destructive as always. I say good news because if they were suddenly different, I would think invasion of the cat snatchers. They also have fleas. I have been trying to rid my cats and house of fleas for a couple of days now. So far, I don't have fleas. But if I start scratching behind my ear with my feet I will let you know. I also found out that I can get frontline at the store for a whole lot cheaper than the vets office. I did not even know the stores carried it. They learnt me sumthin new -as my son say now. I am totally going to have to work on that, the little hillbilly.
I think that is about all that I have in my head at all today. Apparently my brain is not holding much. But what can I say. I thought that yesterday was the 13th. I even dated all the paperwork that went through my office as the 13th. Even worse, I didn't know any different until I got to work today and looked at a calendar. Wow. To me today is the 14th. Must be almost time for the weekend.
ETA: When I did spell check, learnt is apparently a word. Yikes. I always though it was not a real word.
I am going to have to start doing my couponing thing again because I miss it. I miss the rush of the deals.
I have been listening to Jack over at SurvivalPodcast for a couple of days. He was recommended to me by a friend of mine. I can't say that I agree with everything that he says as they are his personal views, but I can say I have enjoyed listening to his show. It has been informative and in the forum area, there is even a topic of couponing to stock up! I especially liked that!
I have also been super busy at work. Work, work work yesterday and today. Where is my slow time at work going?
I went to Victoria Secrets this weekend to get a couple of new bras. Mine were broke down, ragged out sorts of things. Old too. I found a couple of really comfy ones that were even on sale. Now I understand why people pay so much for the stuff at Victoria Secrets. All I can say is I wish I had bought bras there before. I will definitely be back for a couple more when I can afford it.
S started school yesterday. I talked to him about it last night. He was really excited because his teacher was nice to him. He said she was pretty nice to everyone, but was really nice to him. I really hope that my talk with her last week was productive and she stays this way, if it is even the reason that she was so nice to him. She is going through a similar situation with her daughter and her ex and I hope that gives her empathy for our situation.
S also has a baseball party this weekend. They are meeting at a waterworks sort of place. I don't remember the name off the top of my head, but he was really wanting to go. I made a deal that I would bring S back two hours later on Saturday and deliver him to the water park two hours earlier than my usual drop off for the party. Because let's face it, the kid is not going to want to hang out with me on the sidelines while there are a bunch of slides and pools to play in. Then S tells me that he wants me to stay. If there seems to be a need for more supervision, then I will indeed stay, but if he is having fun and there are plenty of other parents, we may go a bit early to get a head start home. My guess though is that we will be staying so that someone is there to keep an eye on S. Which means that we ultimately be getting a late start home as the party is not over until six. I just am confused on why the party is now. The ball games have been over for over a month. Almost two months I think. Those people down there just make my head hurt. I can't even think about it.
The good news is my cats are still just as destructive as always. I say good news because if they were suddenly different, I would think invasion of the cat snatchers. They also have fleas. I have been trying to rid my cats and house of fleas for a couple of days now. So far, I don't have fleas. But if I start scratching behind my ear with my feet I will let you know. I also found out that I can get frontline at the store for a whole lot cheaper than the vets office. I did not even know the stores carried it. They learnt me sumthin new -as my son say now. I am totally going to have to work on that, the little hillbilly.
I think that is about all that I have in my head at all today. Apparently my brain is not holding much. But what can I say. I thought that yesterday was the 13th. I even dated all the paperwork that went through my office as the 13th. Even worse, I didn't know any different until I got to work today and looked at a calendar. Wow. To me today is the 14th. Must be almost time for the weekend.
ETA: When I did spell check, learnt is apparently a word. Yikes. I always though it was not a real word.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Site of the Week Saturday
This week for my site of the week, I would like to propose that you go visit Precious at Frugal Makes Cents. She is a wealth of information, and her followers share their tips as well. Any kind of financial advice can be found there. She is the first to tell you that she is just a regular person, not a financial advisor, but I am finding that her advice is something worth listening to. Go check her out.
What to Cook Wednesday
True to my word I am indeed catching up on my posts. I should be out cleaning the car out. It is actually mom's car and I need to transfer everything to my car. But I am really tired and will do it in just a bit. I need to rest until my caffeine kicks in here in a few minutes.
I will tell you to not eat the way I am today. I have so far had a handful of M&M's, a handful of raisins and now am munching on popcorn. I feel like such a fraud as I have not cooked in a while here.
Back to what to cook. I think that I will make some comfort food tonight. And to me there is nothing more comforting that potatoes and eggs. Just slice and fry up some potatoes in a skillet with just a bit of oil( I use EVOO or smart balance, but you could probably use canola as well). Just slice up however many potatoes you need to feed the mouths in your house. Cover and cook on medium heat, turning to prevent burning to a crisp. Some crispiness is desirable though. When the potatoes are nearly done, crack in some eggs and gently stir. Stir frequently until the eggs are fully cooked. I often will add chopped onions and peppers with the potatoes. You can also add pepper if you like. I will add that salt is okay to add only because I know that most folks don't have the aversion to salt that I do. So salt those spuds if you want. That is all there is to it. I won't put a number on the potatoes and eggs because I don't know how many per person for your family. In my family, we like to eat, so we make a lot. If you don't eat so much, cook a little less. It also microwaves well, so make extra and have some for breakfast or lunch the next day.
I will tell you to not eat the way I am today. I have so far had a handful of M&M's, a handful of raisins and now am munching on popcorn. I feel like such a fraud as I have not cooked in a while here.
Back to what to cook. I think that I will make some comfort food tonight. And to me there is nothing more comforting that potatoes and eggs. Just slice and fry up some potatoes in a skillet with just a bit of oil( I use EVOO or smart balance, but you could probably use canola as well). Just slice up however many potatoes you need to feed the mouths in your house. Cover and cook on medium heat, turning to prevent burning to a crisp. Some crispiness is desirable though. When the potatoes are nearly done, crack in some eggs and gently stir. Stir frequently until the eggs are fully cooked. I often will add chopped onions and peppers with the potatoes. You can also add pepper if you like. I will add that salt is okay to add only because I know that most folks don't have the aversion to salt that I do. So salt those spuds if you want. That is all there is to it. I won't put a number on the potatoes and eggs because I don't know how many per person for your family. In my family, we like to eat, so we make a lot. If you don't eat so much, cook a little less. It also microwaves well, so make extra and have some for breakfast or lunch the next day.
Thankful Thursday
This week for Thankful Thursday I will include:
1. No rain on my trip
2. Getting to have my son for my birthday
3. Having a day off of work
4. A CB radio in my car while travelling
5. A comfy bed to sleep in (when I get there)
So what were you thankful for this week?
1. No rain on my trip
2. Getting to have my son for my birthday
3. Having a day off of work
4. A CB radio in my car while travelling
5. A comfy bed to sleep in (when I get there)
So what were you thankful for this week?
Flashback Friday
This is a Flashback Friday post, hosted by none other than ScaryMommy. Go check out all the other posts for Flashback Friday.
I don't actually have a post to flash back onto. Instead I am going to flash back to yesterday. I know, I know, that is not really flashing back to far, but my son was really funny yesterday.
While playing with my son yesterday, he had me rolling with laughter. What better way to spend my birthday, right? We played star wars as soon as we got there. He had the day planned to the minute, at least he told me he did. He puts on his cape so he can be Darth Vader. Plus he just wanted to wear it. He also wanted to ride his bike with the cape on to see if it flew behind him when he went really fast. It did. I even took a picture. We also spent some time talking about donkey's, burrows, and wild asses. Which if you watch Ice Age 2, then you might know why and what I am talking about. He just had the best time ever discussing the differences and why these animals all had "ass" in the name. Good times being a nine year old boy. Then we moved on the the topic of crafting. He wanted to make a few home made light sabers. So we haul out the craft tub and got to work. He kept telling me all about the way and reasons behind his project light saber. And kept up a running commentary about the different glitters and why some were better than others. We let those dry a bit, and in the meantime went back to playing star wars. He made me Darth Vader this time and told me to put on my cooper suit. Me-My cooper suit? What is that? S-You know, that black suit that D.V. wears. Me-Why is it called that?(thinking I had missed something somewhere) S-Because that is what D.V. says every time he breathes. Cooooooo Peeeerrrrrrr. Cooooooo Peerrrrrrrr. This just struck me as super funny. I had never noticed that, but that is exactly what it sounds like. So now we have D.V. and his cooper suit.
I also got a hands on demonstration on how his dad's cat is doing, and how it attacks. Let me tell you, if you have never seen a gangly nine year old boy trying to look small like a tiny kitten, you are truly missing something funny. That boy is all arms and legs, and he was trying to curl up and be small.
Just thinking about these conversations with my son has kept a smile in my heart. I just can't wait til he gets home so I can have these moments every day.
I don't actually have a post to flash back onto. Instead I am going to flash back to yesterday. I know, I know, that is not really flashing back to far, but my son was really funny yesterday.
While playing with my son yesterday, he had me rolling with laughter. What better way to spend my birthday, right? We played star wars as soon as we got there. He had the day planned to the minute, at least he told me he did. He puts on his cape so he can be Darth Vader. Plus he just wanted to wear it. He also wanted to ride his bike with the cape on to see if it flew behind him when he went really fast. It did. I even took a picture. We also spent some time talking about donkey's, burrows, and wild asses. Which if you watch Ice Age 2, then you might know why and what I am talking about. He just had the best time ever discussing the differences and why these animals all had "ass" in the name. Good times being a nine year old boy. Then we moved on the the topic of crafting. He wanted to make a few home made light sabers. So we haul out the craft tub and got to work. He kept telling me all about the way and reasons behind his project light saber. And kept up a running commentary about the different glitters and why some were better than others. We let those dry a bit, and in the meantime went back to playing star wars. He made me Darth Vader this time and told me to put on my cooper suit. Me-My cooper suit? What is that? S-You know, that black suit that D.V. wears. Me-Why is it called that?(thinking I had missed something somewhere) S-Because that is what D.V. says every time he breathes. Cooooooo Peeeerrrrrrr. Cooooooo Peerrrrrrrr. This just struck me as super funny. I had never noticed that, but that is exactly what it sounds like. So now we have D.V. and his cooper suit.
I also got a hands on demonstration on how his dad's cat is doing, and how it attacks. Let me tell you, if you have never seen a gangly nine year old boy trying to look small like a tiny kitten, you are truly missing something funny. That boy is all arms and legs, and he was trying to curl up and be small.
Just thinking about these conversations with my son has kept a smile in my heart. I just can't wait til he gets home so I can have these moments every day.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Update
I will be back on Friday. I am going to see my son for my birthday tomorrow. I will post my What to Cook Wednesday and Thankful Thursday on Friday. I do not have time to create the blog posts today. Have a happy couple of days until I return!
Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
I am not sure if that thingy up there will work. I seem to be challenged when it comes to posting the link pictures. Whatever it does, do yourself a favor and go check out Keely's blog at The Unmom. Read through all the randomness floating around over there.
Random Thought Tuesday:
Wow is it ever stormy here. I came in to work this morning and thought perhaps I should be going home for the evening it was so dark.
I am researching work at home articles. I would love to create some kind of income working online. I realize it would not replace the job I have, but it could someday. I would love to be able to stay home on those dark mornings.
I slept like a log last night. It felt great. When the alarm went off this morning, I seriously did one of those sit straight up in bed things. I wasn't even sure what woke me up to start with. At least I did not see any bugs on my ceiling. That is always a good sign-no bugs.
I have a gazillion things to do tonight after I get off work. I leave for a visit with S tomorrow around noon. I have to finish washing all the blankets, pillows, clothes, dishes, etc, etc, for packing tonight so I can load tomorrow when I get off work and get the heck outta here.
My head hurts today. I don't know if it is the weather or just because the monitor for this computer is too big. It's like it has dinosaur-ific proportions. Which would be great if I was old and had bad eyes, or sat 10 feet away, but the monitor is about one foot away unless I stretch my arms and lean back, then I get two feet of clearance. It just makes my eyes hurt. I think I will order a different one.
My son was a chatty Kathy last night on our call. He is making grand plans for our visit. He is timing down to the minute. He told me what time we were eating all our meals. What time and what game we are playing at the top of each hour. I think it is funny when he does this. He will make all these plans, but when I get there he will change them and act like he doesn't know what I am talking about if I ask about the previous plans. He tells me I must be confused.
I am ready for lunch. I am starving. I have been hungry all morning. I had egg salad for breakfast. I know, I'm weird. At least it wasn't like live fish or something squirmy. Too bad it wasn't pizza.
Speaking of pizza, the pizza dude will be here shortly for lunch time deliveries. I need to eat my lunch first so I am not tempted to buy a pizza. And eat the whole thing. By myself. Those pizza's are sure making it hard to lose weight. And the donuts. And the whole box of macaroni and cheese. And the brownies...
Boring healthy lunch, here I come, dreaming you were something tasty.
Monday, August 3, 2009
I'm Tired, and my cats are destructive
I had my weekend with my son. I got stuck in traffic that was nearly at a standstill in Kentucky. There was construction on the interstate and I was not paying attention to my radio and missed the fact that there was a backup. I could have gone around it if I had been listening. Oh, well, I got to be amused by the truck drivers. I got down there late and conked out in the backseat for a couple of hours. I picked up S and showed him my new phone. He was not nearly as impressed to start with as I thought he would be. That eventually changed. We played hard all day. It was hot and sunny. We went swimming, played cars, star wars, all that good stuff. He did warm up to the phone after he realized that I had the bluetooth and he could talk with the earpiece. He then wanted me to show him the internet. He had a blast with it after that.
After I took him home, I took a shower to get all that icky pool water off of me. I called S to talk. While I waited for him to call me back, I read more of my Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich. These books are the best. Always enough funny stuff going on to keep my laughing and bring my mood up. Thanks to my friend K for showing me this series. After a while S called back. I made my way into the tent for the night. I read by the light of the dvd player while some batman movie was in. I have never actually watched the movie, but after seeing part of it last night, I will watch the whole thing one of these days. Somewhere in the middle of the night it started raining. At first it was that gentle rain that you enjoy while slumbering. Then it started raining hard. It was really loud in a tent. Then it started raining even harder. Then harder yet. I thought my tent would collapse it was raining so hard. There was a dry creek bed next to our campsite. I could hear the water rushing through it. I was slightly worried it would make its way over to my tent. It was impossible to sleep at that point. I laid there and listened hoping it would lighten back up to that enjoyable level of rain. Nope, it just kept raining so hard I could not hear myself think. Which was a good thing because I was still wondering if I was going to float down the hill right into the river. It did finally ease up a bit by the time the sun was coming up. Course by then I needed to get up so I could start getting ready for my day with S. I climbed out of the tent to a world of soppiness. Everything, and I mean everything was soaked. Water even got into the car somehow. I dried up what I could. Thankfully I don't leave much out. So it was just a couple of plastic tubs that got wet. Everything else had been picked up before bed. I got ready and picked up S. We played in the tent while it was windy and rainy outside. Eventually I moved the gazebo over the tent so at least one thing had an opportunity to dry. Then the sun came out. OMG, talk about humid. I was dripping and it was not sweat. There was that much water in the air and the sun came out. Ugh. Thank goodness it was relatively cool out. We enjoyed our day with toys, games and water balloons. When it was time to deliver my buddy back to his dad's house, he started playing with the phone. It has a "notepad" to make notes (duh). I now have half a dozen notes. I have voice recording on the phone as well. I now have my son's voice and requests recorded to listen to anytime I want. He sure did have lots of fun with that phone.
On the way home, I ran into car wrecks with backed up traffic and again-construction with backups. It was a long ride home. I was already tired because of a lack of sleep the two previous nights. Just get home, I kept telling myself. Open the window, close the window. Find a good song to sing along with, shift around in the seat. Just don't close the eyes and we will be good. I got home, grabbed my purse, the keys and the phone. Drag up to the door, put the key in, start swinging the door open, hang on what was that? Something just brushed up against my legs. Please tell me the outdoor kitty made it in. She has been trying for weeks. Nope, it was my goofy Kitten. I grabbed the bag of food to try to get his attention. I don't leave him out for fear of him getting into a fight. Because he would start it. The heathen. I finally got him close enough to grab. The brat. I dragged his butt back into the house. I made a pit stop in the bathroom, stripped on the way to the bedroom and crashed. Next thing I know, it is about 5:30. I am dog tired and I wake up at 5:30? What is wrong with me? I lounged there for about a half hour petting the cats. More accurately getting smothered by the cats. They must have missed me. I get up and get started cleaning out the car. I can not figure out why it takes so much more time to unload than it does to load. I throw on some clothes and head off to the car rental place. I am so tired that my eye started twitching this morning. After some (un)healthy doses of caffeine, it stopped.
To get to the destruction part: My cats are destruction with fur. They are little time bombs waiting to happen. I walked into my kitchen last night and the floor was covered with fur. I swear they kidnapped a cat and plucked its fur for fun this weekend. There has to be a naked cat running around in my neighborhood. Otherwise I cannot figure out where all the fur came from. Not just a puff or two. It seriously looks like enough fur to cover an entire cat. Then I walk into the living room. From the corner of my eye I can see something big in the storage room. I turn on the light. It is something big alright. It is everything in the storage room in a big pile in the middle. Gone are my tidy stacks of tubs and boxes. Tipped are the lamps and coat tree. It looks like a bomb went off in there and all the rubble was piled up. I could not even look at it. I decided to ignore it for now. I think tonight I will close the door and not look at it again til this weekend. That seems like a good way to deal with it. Pretend it is not there. After all, when I get home I have to find the naked cat and stick some of that fur back on. Do you think if I spit on the cat and stick the fur on it that the fur will stick? Or should I break out the glue stick? I also have to get ready and repack and wash and all that for my next trip, which I leave for on Wednesday. I visit for my eight hours on Thursday, which is my birthday, come home and get Sassy to the vet by 7ish in the morning on Friday for her surgery. I was going to take the day off to sleep, but if I have to take her into town and then wait until after 3:00 to pick her up, I might as well go to work. Then I get to take her home and start cleaning the disaster zone. Hopefully there are no new ones in the mean time. I also get to watch my kitty. Apparently she is one of those cats that does not tolerate the meds well and so she is pretty loopy for a day or two after the surgery. She runs into things and falls off the couch. If it weren't so nerve racking, it would be funny. She normally is very graceful and classy. Give her a bit of anesthesia and she is a klutzy dope. She would certainly be a cheap date, one drink and she would be done.
So how was your weekend? Any excitement for your life?
After I took him home, I took a shower to get all that icky pool water off of me. I called S to talk. While I waited for him to call me back, I read more of my Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich. These books are the best. Always enough funny stuff going on to keep my laughing and bring my mood up. Thanks to my friend K for showing me this series. After a while S called back. I made my way into the tent for the night. I read by the light of the dvd player while some batman movie was in. I have never actually watched the movie, but after seeing part of it last night, I will watch the whole thing one of these days. Somewhere in the middle of the night it started raining. At first it was that gentle rain that you enjoy while slumbering. Then it started raining hard. It was really loud in a tent. Then it started raining even harder. Then harder yet. I thought my tent would collapse it was raining so hard. There was a dry creek bed next to our campsite. I could hear the water rushing through it. I was slightly worried it would make its way over to my tent. It was impossible to sleep at that point. I laid there and listened hoping it would lighten back up to that enjoyable level of rain. Nope, it just kept raining so hard I could not hear myself think. Which was a good thing because I was still wondering if I was going to float down the hill right into the river. It did finally ease up a bit by the time the sun was coming up. Course by then I needed to get up so I could start getting ready for my day with S. I climbed out of the tent to a world of soppiness. Everything, and I mean everything was soaked. Water even got into the car somehow. I dried up what I could. Thankfully I don't leave much out. So it was just a couple of plastic tubs that got wet. Everything else had been picked up before bed. I got ready and picked up S. We played in the tent while it was windy and rainy outside. Eventually I moved the gazebo over the tent so at least one thing had an opportunity to dry. Then the sun came out. OMG, talk about humid. I was dripping and it was not sweat. There was that much water in the air and the sun came out. Ugh. Thank goodness it was relatively cool out. We enjoyed our day with toys, games and water balloons. When it was time to deliver my buddy back to his dad's house, he started playing with the phone. It has a "notepad" to make notes (duh). I now have half a dozen notes. I have voice recording on the phone as well. I now have my son's voice and requests recorded to listen to anytime I want. He sure did have lots of fun with that phone.
On the way home, I ran into car wrecks with backed up traffic and again-construction with backups. It was a long ride home. I was already tired because of a lack of sleep the two previous nights. Just get home, I kept telling myself. Open the window, close the window. Find a good song to sing along with, shift around in the seat. Just don't close the eyes and we will be good. I got home, grabbed my purse, the keys and the phone. Drag up to the door, put the key in, start swinging the door open, hang on what was that? Something just brushed up against my legs. Please tell me the outdoor kitty made it in. She has been trying for weeks. Nope, it was my goofy Kitten. I grabbed the bag of food to try to get his attention. I don't leave him out for fear of him getting into a fight. Because he would start it. The heathen. I finally got him close enough to grab. The brat. I dragged his butt back into the house. I made a pit stop in the bathroom, stripped on the way to the bedroom and crashed. Next thing I know, it is about 5:30. I am dog tired and I wake up at 5:30? What is wrong with me? I lounged there for about a half hour petting the cats. More accurately getting smothered by the cats. They must have missed me. I get up and get started cleaning out the car. I can not figure out why it takes so much more time to unload than it does to load. I throw on some clothes and head off to the car rental place. I am so tired that my eye started twitching this morning. After some (un)healthy doses of caffeine, it stopped.
To get to the destruction part: My cats are destruction with fur. They are little time bombs waiting to happen. I walked into my kitchen last night and the floor was covered with fur. I swear they kidnapped a cat and plucked its fur for fun this weekend. There has to be a naked cat running around in my neighborhood. Otherwise I cannot figure out where all the fur came from. Not just a puff or two. It seriously looks like enough fur to cover an entire cat. Then I walk into the living room. From the corner of my eye I can see something big in the storage room. I turn on the light. It is something big alright. It is everything in the storage room in a big pile in the middle. Gone are my tidy stacks of tubs and boxes. Tipped are the lamps and coat tree. It looks like a bomb went off in there and all the rubble was piled up. I could not even look at it. I decided to ignore it for now. I think tonight I will close the door and not look at it again til this weekend. That seems like a good way to deal with it. Pretend it is not there. After all, when I get home I have to find the naked cat and stick some of that fur back on. Do you think if I spit on the cat and stick the fur on it that the fur will stick? Or should I break out the glue stick? I also have to get ready and repack and wash and all that for my next trip, which I leave for on Wednesday. I visit for my eight hours on Thursday, which is my birthday, come home and get Sassy to the vet by 7ish in the morning on Friday for her surgery. I was going to take the day off to sleep, but if I have to take her into town and then wait until after 3:00 to pick her up, I might as well go to work. Then I get to take her home and start cleaning the disaster zone. Hopefully there are no new ones in the mean time. I also get to watch my kitty. Apparently she is one of those cats that does not tolerate the meds well and so she is pretty loopy for a day or two after the surgery. She runs into things and falls off the couch. If it weren't so nerve racking, it would be funny. She normally is very graceful and classy. Give her a bit of anesthesia and she is a klutzy dope. She would certainly be a cheap date, one drink and she would be done.
So how was your weekend? Any excitement for your life?
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thankful Thrusday
Thankful Thursday..... Hmmm, what am I thankful for this week. I am feeling really sarcastic today so I am having a hard time coming up with things that I am truly thankful for. So here is my sarcastic list for today:
1. My mom never listens. I tell her something and the next day she totally has forgotten it. I swear she has dementia.
2. My atty is always so prompt at returning my calls. I have been calling and waiting for over a week now....ugh.
3. My sister is a scatterbrain. She and her husband both actually. I don't know how they keep track of their kids let alone their keys...
4. Work--by golly I just work with the most efficient and knowledgeable folks ever. I really don't know how some of these people don't get lost on the way to work.
5. The stray outdoor female cat is in heat. Let me tell you, I have heard enough growling, hissing, yowling and cat noises for a lifetime. Hurry up and get knocked up. I've had enough. Although that seems to be the attitude that the female cat has. She doesn't want anything to do with those randy little basta***. I can't say as I blame her.
So that's it for today's edition of Thankful Thursday. What are you thankful for. Even if it is a bit (okay a lot) sarcastic.
1. My mom never listens. I tell her something and the next day she totally has forgotten it. I swear she has dementia.
2. My atty is always so prompt at returning my calls. I have been calling and waiting for over a week now....ugh.
3. My sister is a scatterbrain. She and her husband both actually. I don't know how they keep track of their kids let alone their keys...
4. Work--by golly I just work with the most efficient and knowledgeable folks ever. I really don't know how some of these people don't get lost on the way to work.
5. The stray outdoor female cat is in heat. Let me tell you, I have heard enough growling, hissing, yowling and cat noises for a lifetime. Hurry up and get knocked up. I've had enough. Although that seems to be the attitude that the female cat has. She doesn't want anything to do with those randy little basta***. I can't say as I blame her.
So that's it for today's edition of Thankful Thursday. What are you thankful for. Even if it is a bit (okay a lot) sarcastic.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
What to Cook Wednesday
i am still stumped on what to offer here. I again did not cook this weekend due to our (draining) family get together. We had potato salad, Italian pork, chips and of course, chocolate. We had pancakes for breakfast. And this week I have not cooked anything. I had pizza yesterday, macaroni and cheese for dinner from a box *gasp*, and I don't even remember what I had on Monday, cereal maybe?....Can't remember. Obviously it was not that great. So for what to cook Wednesday I bring you: Snack Ideas. These snack ideas have gone over well in my house so I hope they work for you.
Ants on a log:
celery, peanut butter and raisins. Wash and cut celery, spread the pb on, and line the ants, ahem, raisins along the pb.
One eyed Sams:
bread, egg. Butter both sides of the bread tear/cut out a circle, and place in hot pan. Crack egg into the middle. Either eat the buttered bread or cook right along side the bread/egg for a toasted circle.
Apple dunkins:
apple, peanut butter. Slice apple, dunk in a bit of peanut butter.
Chocolate:
You knew I had to include this. I could never forget my lovely smooth rich wonderful chocolate.
Iceburgs:
popsicles. We would either use store bought or home made popsicles and call them iceburgs. You have to eat them before they melt and cause a flood.
Home made ice cream sandwiches:
cookies (we liked chocolate chip of course), ice cream, whip cream. Take one cookie and lay it upside down-soft cookies work best, add a spoon of ice cream, top with another cookie right side up, and put in the freezer until ready to eat. Add a dollop of whip when you are ready to eat. And why not have a real sugar rush and add some sugar crystals or sprinkles on top of the whip. Then go run it off with the kids and their post sugar rush....
So what kind of snacks do you serve in your house?
Ants on a log:
celery, peanut butter and raisins. Wash and cut celery, spread the pb on, and line the ants, ahem, raisins along the pb.
One eyed Sams:
bread, egg. Butter both sides of the bread tear/cut out a circle, and place in hot pan. Crack egg into the middle. Either eat the buttered bread or cook right along side the bread/egg for a toasted circle.
Apple dunkins:
apple, peanut butter. Slice apple, dunk in a bit of peanut butter.
Chocolate:
You knew I had to include this. I could never forget my lovely smooth rich wonderful chocolate.
Iceburgs:
popsicles. We would either use store bought or home made popsicles and call them iceburgs. You have to eat them before they melt and cause a flood.
Home made ice cream sandwiches:
cookies (we liked chocolate chip of course), ice cream, whip cream. Take one cookie and lay it upside down-soft cookies work best, add a spoon of ice cream, top with another cookie right side up, and put in the freezer until ready to eat. Add a dollop of whip when you are ready to eat. And why not have a real sugar rush and add some sugar crystals or sprinkles on top of the whip. Then go run it off with the kids and their post sugar rush....
So what kind of snacks do you serve in your house?
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Random Thoughts Tuesday
Go visit Keely over at the Un Mom for more Random Thoughts Tuesday. You can find her here:
http://www.theunmom.com/
My random thoughts for the day:
I have recently started reading the Stephanie Plum series. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard from reading a book. I think I will have to buy one or two to keep around the house in case I need a pick me up.
I am still reeling from this past weekend. I am totally glad it is over. Except now my family is already trying to plan another one. That scares me....
I wish we were having a real summer. It has been pretty cool here this summer. We had like one week of hot weather and that was it. I want some heat!
I had a lot of commotion at my house last night. I was playing on my new phone waiting for the time to call S. I could hear all the kids outside and decided it might be prudent to sit on the back porch for a bit. They were out there yelling and fighting with each other. Then fortunately they all separated. Some of the kids remained on the corner of my block being loud and obnoxious. Then one of the heathens spotted some buddies and took off running. Right through my yard. Now, I have been trying for the two+ years that I have lived here trying to keep the heathens out of my yard. I yelled for him to get out of my yard and got some smart ass remark about being sorry and he would not do it again. My response was yes I can see that. The other boys with him walked around my yard and told him to be respectful and not cut through other peoples yards. I wanted to go and give those boys gold stars or something. Anyway, this continued for most of the evening until it was dark. Then they tried hiding from me on the patio area of the church building next to me. When I started to go over there, they ran. Except apparently learning balance while running is next semester because two of the kids fell and one knocked the gutter off the side of the building. Of course they ran really fast after that. I called to let the church folks know the damage had been done. I went around the front to see which house they went into just for my knowledge. I went back in and started dishes. I could hear the kids yelling outside my kitchen and bathroom windows. I was going to ignore them until I heard them right under my bathroom window. I went outside only to see the police driving in the church parking lot behind my house. I went out to meet them and asked who finally called them. No one called them. The stupid little bas***** stole the window washers/squeegees from the gas station and ran right out in the road in front of the cops. They took off towards the church building and dropped the washers in my back yard. The cops asked me if the the gutter hanging off was new and I told him yes, and I knew which kids did it cuz I watched them. He thought I meant right then and I said no, they were hiding from me over by the building earlier and did it then. I of course knew which kids they were talking about, what clothes they were wearing and what they looked like, and most importantly which house they would be hiding out at. I told the cops what I knew and off they went. They were gone for a little bit and when they returned, I saw all the kids going off in different directions. It was quiet at my house for the rest of the night. I played on my phone-it has internet, so cool, I am really excited about that. Then I went to bed around 12:15. I could not sleep for a while so I tossed and turned. I fell asleep somewhere after 1 which is when I last looked at the time.
Work sucks. I don't really like my job all that much. Well, it is more that there are a couple of key players in my workplace that I don't like. I am annoyed because one co-worker in my office has been coughing and sick sounding for over a week, has not been to the doctor and just keeps hacking all over everything. I think this co-worker went to the doctor today. I hope anyway. The other ones that annoy me are just a couple of those people that are just cruel and mean. They are just not right as some folks would say. They make my job hard to do and make it miserable to come into work. For the most part, my office gets along really well. Just add in the crazy folks from the other offices and things go downhill.
I think that is all that has been rattling around in my brain for today. Now my brain is empty. You know, that is a good feeling for today.
http://www.theunmom.com/
My random thoughts for the day:
I have recently started reading the Stephanie Plum series. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard from reading a book. I think I will have to buy one or two to keep around the house in case I need a pick me up.
I am still reeling from this past weekend. I am totally glad it is over. Except now my family is already trying to plan another one. That scares me....
I wish we were having a real summer. It has been pretty cool here this summer. We had like one week of hot weather and that was it. I want some heat!
I had a lot of commotion at my house last night. I was playing on my new phone waiting for the time to call S. I could hear all the kids outside and decided it might be prudent to sit on the back porch for a bit. They were out there yelling and fighting with each other. Then fortunately they all separated. Some of the kids remained on the corner of my block being loud and obnoxious. Then one of the heathens spotted some buddies and took off running. Right through my yard. Now, I have been trying for the two+ years that I have lived here trying to keep the heathens out of my yard. I yelled for him to get out of my yard and got some smart ass remark about being sorry and he would not do it again. My response was yes I can see that. The other boys with him walked around my yard and told him to be respectful and not cut through other peoples yards. I wanted to go and give those boys gold stars or something. Anyway, this continued for most of the evening until it was dark. Then they tried hiding from me on the patio area of the church building next to me. When I started to go over there, they ran. Except apparently learning balance while running is next semester because two of the kids fell and one knocked the gutter off the side of the building. Of course they ran really fast after that. I called to let the church folks know the damage had been done. I went around the front to see which house they went into just for my knowledge. I went back in and started dishes. I could hear the kids yelling outside my kitchen and bathroom windows. I was going to ignore them until I heard them right under my bathroom window. I went outside only to see the police driving in the church parking lot behind my house. I went out to meet them and asked who finally called them. No one called them. The stupid little bas***** stole the window washers/squeegees from the gas station and ran right out in the road in front of the cops. They took off towards the church building and dropped the washers in my back yard. The cops asked me if the the gutter hanging off was new and I told him yes, and I knew which kids did it cuz I watched them. He thought I meant right then and I said no, they were hiding from me over by the building earlier and did it then. I of course knew which kids they were talking about, what clothes they were wearing and what they looked like, and most importantly which house they would be hiding out at. I told the cops what I knew and off they went. They were gone for a little bit and when they returned, I saw all the kids going off in different directions. It was quiet at my house for the rest of the night. I played on my phone-it has internet, so cool, I am really excited about that. Then I went to bed around 12:15. I could not sleep for a while so I tossed and turned. I fell asleep somewhere after 1 which is when I last looked at the time.
Work sucks. I don't really like my job all that much. Well, it is more that there are a couple of key players in my workplace that I don't like. I am annoyed because one co-worker in my office has been coughing and sick sounding for over a week, has not been to the doctor and just keeps hacking all over everything. I think this co-worker went to the doctor today. I hope anyway. The other ones that annoy me are just a couple of those people that are just cruel and mean. They are just not right as some folks would say. They make my job hard to do and make it miserable to come into work. For the most part, my office gets along really well. Just add in the crazy folks from the other offices and things go downhill.
I think that is all that has been rattling around in my brain for today. Now my brain is empty. You know, that is a good feeling for today.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Lots of family drama.
This weekend was fun, but I am not sure I want to do it again. My family from the north did not arrive until after 3 o'clock. We picked up the family from the south at 10:30 am . We all went, my mom, sis and her two girls and me. It was not too unpleasant considering neither of them got a nap. That part all in all was a good time. Most of Saturday evening was pretty good. I missed that there were snarky comments made from one cousin to another. We also had a choking episode from my oldest cousin, we actually had to give her the heimlich to get her breating again. No more celery for her. The adrenilin rush was big and we were really upset by this. Although it would be nothing compared to what happened the next day. We, meaning us "original girls"-my mom and her sister, me and my sister and my aunt's two girls all stayed up together until about 1 am. Then the "old ladies" went to bed. My sister and older cousin were grouped together and my cousin that is my age and I grouped together. Then we dualed on American Idol. We had a blast and were up until after 2 am. Then I drove home and showered. It had been a long day, but mostly fun. I returned the next morning about 8. I did not want to get over to my sister's house any earlier cuz I figured they would just be getting up, and I was right. I had gotten up at 7 but waited so I did not wake everyone trying to get in. That is when the real nastiness began. My "step" cousin started being a pest about what time they were leaving. Now mind you, they got in around three the day before and there she was wanting to leave by 9 am. She was complaining about the drive home and how long it would take. My sister was yelling at her girls who were still tired from the day before and were now being cranky. The kids were having a lot of tears and screaming. My aunt and one of her daughter's were discussing that she would make a deposit for my cousin since there is no branch of her bank in her town and there is for my aunt. Then my "step" cousin started hollering about how she said she would give some money and she will, why is it a big deal. So my cousin came to tell her to chill out, she was just discussing a deposit, not making a deal out of it, and really did her financial situation need to be shouted throughout the whole house. At this point I very very loudly pronounced that I was so glad I came over, every one is so pleasant this morning. That got me some stares, but come on, we were supposed to be having fun and everyone was snarking at each other. I could easily just go back home. Everyone stopped loudly arguing but it continued throughout the morning........Until we had a very BIG BIG problem. We could not find one of the babies. He is about 22 months old and no one knew where he was. We searched the house and no one found him. We went outside and searched and eventually realized the bike was gone. No bike and no baby. We frantically took off in all directions yelling as loudly as we could hoping for an answer. I got around the corner and a few houses up and found the bike in a front yard but no baby.....We kept yelling and looking and as I made my way towards the end of the block I realized someone was waving at me. They were at the intersection of the road I am on the highway. The baby was by the highway. I started running as fast as I could and then my mom went flying around me in her car. I was so intent on the person waving at me, I did not even hear the car coming up behind me. By the time I got to the end of the block, my cousin (the one that is my age but not the mom) had already arrived from the other side of the block. My aunt snatched him to get him back to his mom who we think is walking around my sister's house looking for him. We got there and her car was gone. No one could call her and tell her we had her child because she had loaded the cars already from "step" cousin complaining about leaving and all their purses and phones were in the car. I had my phone, my new one by the way, but did not have her number. And since everyone programs their phones, they did not really know the number either. Then my cousin S (my age) arrived back and found her phone. She is the one that came on the train so her phone thankfully was in the house. My mom is also out driving around looking for the baby's mom. S called her sister to tell her we found the baby and I tried calling mom and discovered she had left her phone in my sister's house. So, now we had no way to contact her to tell her that we called the baby's mom and she was on her way back. Fortunately, she happened to see my cousin drive back to the house and she pulled into the yard and came around the house to where we all gathered. In the meantime, baby was smiling and laughing as if nothing had happened. We were all trying to recover from the heart attacks we were having. That was pretty awful. Based on where the bike was and where he was found, we were figuring he had been gone for at least 20 minutes before anyone realized he was gone. It was one of those everyone is in and out, loading the car, and the folks inside thought he was outside and the folks outside thought he was inside. Most of us were assuming he was with my sister's kids as they had been playing so well all weekend. It was an awful feeling and he was not even my kid. They folks from the north left then. Us gals that were left finished cleaning up the dishes and helped pick up a bit with the toys. Then we watched a movie. Well, the baby napped and Drama Girl watched a movie, I read a book, and my sister, mom and cousin all napped. I really wanted a nap was there was no chance in hell that I was going to close my eyes with Drama Girl still up. If she had napped I might have rested too, but I was not taking any chances. My sister's girls have never pulled anything like that before so it's not likely, but it ain't happenin' on my watch!
So while it was a good time and I am glad to have seen my aunt and at least two of my cousins, I do not want to relive any of that drama again. It was just kind of a sour ending to a morning that had been unpleasant. I am super glad to have found him safe and sound though. We will see if there is going to be another weekend.....And if I have the fortitude to attend.
So while it was a good time and I am glad to have seen my aunt and at least two of my cousins, I do not want to relive any of that drama again. It was just kind of a sour ending to a morning that had been unpleasant. I am super glad to have found him safe and sound though. We will see if there is going to be another weekend.....And if I have the fortitude to attend.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Site of the Week Saturday
This week for my site of the week, stop by and visit Alaina at Ms.SingleMama. She is a single mama trying, scratch that, doing the best possible for her son. Go and check her site out. She has lots of advice and stories to share for all of us. She has stories to make you laugh and stories to make your heart melt.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Ramblings, Again
Today I am just going to post some random thoughts. I am excited for tonight, but slightly annoyed at the same time for a completely unrelated reason...
We (as in my family) are supposed to have a get together this weekend. We have been planning it for about 4 months total. Then we found out on Wednesday that one of the gals coming down, who is driving two of the other gals mind you, made some other plans and won't be able to leave until late. They won't arrive until after 3:00. We had been planning on an arrival in the morning. So now that screws up the plans that we made for Saturday. Then one of the gals that was going to ride decided to take a train and we would pick her up at the same time we were picking up our pal coming from the south. No can do, apparently she has been volunteered to babysit for the gal driving and can't leave now. But didn't get told she was babysitting until last night. So still only one person coming in out of the four in the morning. We've decided that us three local gals will go pick our southern friend up at the train station and spend the day shopping and end the day by going to the winery. We'll get back when we get back.
Then I've been waiting oh-so-(un)patiently for my atty to call and give me some news from his Tuesday meeting, only to be met with......silence....ugghhh.
On the flip side, I got to have a good conversation with my son the last two nights. On Sunday and Monday he was really moping on the call, well so was I, and they were just sad calls. On Tuesday, he was working on some project. He said he wanted to talk, but he wanted to finish his project before it got dark. I told him I would call him on Wednesday and we could talk longer then if that was what he wanted. He said what he wanted was to talk but he could not get his project done if he did. We only talked for about 5 minutes. But Wednesday and Thursday, the phone calls were fun and enjoyable.
Tonight is the night. This is the night I go to "bargain" for a better cell phone deal and new phones. I will be so glad to have internet access, even if it is on a screen that is 2 inches! At least I can check the weather and movie times if my son wants to see a movie. And get on facebook and twitter. I will have at least a bit of contact with the outside world after work and on the weekends. I am aware of the fact that it will not be the same as a computer, but that is out of my means at the moment. Someday I hope to have a laptop with an aircard to have internet access where ever I go. At this point, I believe that day is far in the future. I wish that I could afford it now. I think my son would love that too. He will think the phone is neat enough. I will just be glad for a phone that is no longer possessed. And does not drop calls. That will be just peachy.
I think that is about all I have for today. What is going on in your world?
We (as in my family) are supposed to have a get together this weekend. We have been planning it for about 4 months total. Then we found out on Wednesday that one of the gals coming down, who is driving two of the other gals mind you, made some other plans and won't be able to leave until late. They won't arrive until after 3:00. We had been planning on an arrival in the morning. So now that screws up the plans that we made for Saturday. Then one of the gals that was going to ride decided to take a train and we would pick her up at the same time we were picking up our pal coming from the south. No can do, apparently she has been volunteered to babysit for the gal driving and can't leave now. But didn't get told she was babysitting until last night. So still only one person coming in out of the four in the morning. We've decided that us three local gals will go pick our southern friend up at the train station and spend the day shopping and end the day by going to the winery. We'll get back when we get back.
Then I've been waiting oh-so-(un)patiently for my atty to call and give me some news from his Tuesday meeting, only to be met with......silence....ugghhh.
On the flip side, I got to have a good conversation with my son the last two nights. On Sunday and Monday he was really moping on the call, well so was I, and they were just sad calls. On Tuesday, he was working on some project. He said he wanted to talk, but he wanted to finish his project before it got dark. I told him I would call him on Wednesday and we could talk longer then if that was what he wanted. He said what he wanted was to talk but he could not get his project done if he did. We only talked for about 5 minutes. But Wednesday and Thursday, the phone calls were fun and enjoyable.
Tonight is the night. This is the night I go to "bargain" for a better cell phone deal and new phones. I will be so glad to have internet access, even if it is on a screen that is 2 inches! At least I can check the weather and movie times if my son wants to see a movie. And get on facebook and twitter. I will have at least a bit of contact with the outside world after work and on the weekends. I am aware of the fact that it will not be the same as a computer, but that is out of my means at the moment. Someday I hope to have a laptop with an aircard to have internet access where ever I go. At this point, I believe that day is far in the future. I wish that I could afford it now. I think my son would love that too. He will think the phone is neat enough. I will just be glad for a phone that is no longer possessed. And does not drop calls. That will be just peachy.
I think that is about all I have for today. What is going on in your world?
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thankful Thursday
This week I am thankful for a lot. I will still keep to my list of five however.
1. My atty is making progress. We have more filed and are getting closer to a court date.
2. Donuts. I am sitting here eating my way through six donuts. I know I will suffer all day from this, but they are donuts, they are on my desk, therefore, they are MINE!
3. I finally got rid of the camper, they picked it up and it is outta here.
4. I finally had a regular full weekend visit with my son. Those short visits are hard, especially when they happen more than one at a time.
5. My dad is going to help me with getting a new car and paying for the GAL for my son. I totally need the help financially for this. My car is dying painfully and I cannot afford an atty for my son, but he definitely needs one.
What are you thankful for this week? Take a moment and think about what makes you smile.
1. My atty is making progress. We have more filed and are getting closer to a court date.
2. Donuts. I am sitting here eating my way through six donuts. I know I will suffer all day from this, but they are donuts, they are on my desk, therefore, they are MINE!
3. I finally got rid of the camper, they picked it up and it is outta here.
4. I finally had a regular full weekend visit with my son. Those short visits are hard, especially when they happen more than one at a time.
5. My dad is going to help me with getting a new car and paying for the GAL for my son. I totally need the help financially for this. My car is dying painfully and I cannot afford an atty for my son, but he definitely needs one.
What are you thankful for this week? Take a moment and think about what makes you smile.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
What To Cook Wednesday
I was really having a hard time deciding what to post for today. I have been thinking about it since last week. I could not think of anything that was calling my name: Post me, Post me. Nope, it just was not there. Maybe because I was not really craving anything. Except ice cream, but that is a whole other topic...
So I decided to ask what my co-workers were having. No good ideas there either. Next I thought to ask what sounded good. But I was getting the same suggestions I had; Ice cream. It's always good. Finally I decided to fall back on something I make when it gets cool out, since it is not even 70 degrees here right now.
Mostly home made veggie soup. I usually make it in the crockpot. I like to throw it together in the morning and come home to a delicious smelling house. I usually just add bread and butter to go with it. This is also one of those recipes that you can adjust to what ever you like. There is no right or wrong combination.
If you want, you can add stew meat. Just brown it before adding to the pot. My mom likes to add it because she likes the flavor, me, I don't add it. I think it is fine without it and it makes it cheaper to make.
I use a variety of veggies, mostly depending on what's in my freezer and pantry. I usually use green beans, lima beans, corn, carrots (I like fresh baby carrots), black or kidney beans, cut up canned tomatoes, peas, spinach, onions. Like I said just about anything. I do not use broccoli or cauliflower. The taste is too strong. I throw the veggies in the crockpot. If you are using canned veggies, for added flavor you can leave some of the water it is packed in. I usually use the juice from the tomatoes and sometimes the green beans and corn. Depends on how "soupy" you want it. Next add V-8 juice. You can use which ever variety of V-8 you like. I personally like the reduced sodium. My mom likes the spicy. My sister uses the regular. If I am making a big batch, I use the big bottle and use it all, if I am making a smaller batch I either use a portion of the big bottle and freeze the rest, or just use a smaller bottle. I also add herbs or spices like pepper, sometimes basil or sage. I cook it on low all day, give it a good stir and serve. That is it. Super simple. Easily adaptable. It just hits the spot on a cool day. Especially with some warm fresh baked bread and melty butter.
So I decided to ask what my co-workers were having. No good ideas there either. Next I thought to ask what sounded good. But I was getting the same suggestions I had; Ice cream. It's always good. Finally I decided to fall back on something I make when it gets cool out, since it is not even 70 degrees here right now.
Mostly home made veggie soup. I usually make it in the crockpot. I like to throw it together in the morning and come home to a delicious smelling house. I usually just add bread and butter to go with it. This is also one of those recipes that you can adjust to what ever you like. There is no right or wrong combination.
If you want, you can add stew meat. Just brown it before adding to the pot. My mom likes to add it because she likes the flavor, me, I don't add it. I think it is fine without it and it makes it cheaper to make.
I use a variety of veggies, mostly depending on what's in my freezer and pantry. I usually use green beans, lima beans, corn, carrots (I like fresh baby carrots), black or kidney beans, cut up canned tomatoes, peas, spinach, onions. Like I said just about anything. I do not use broccoli or cauliflower. The taste is too strong. I throw the veggies in the crockpot. If you are using canned veggies, for added flavor you can leave some of the water it is packed in. I usually use the juice from the tomatoes and sometimes the green beans and corn. Depends on how "soupy" you want it. Next add V-8 juice. You can use which ever variety of V-8 you like. I personally like the reduced sodium. My mom likes the spicy. My sister uses the regular. If I am making a big batch, I use the big bottle and use it all, if I am making a smaller batch I either use a portion of the big bottle and freeze the rest, or just use a smaller bottle. I also add herbs or spices like pepper, sometimes basil or sage. I cook it on low all day, give it a good stir and serve. That is it. Super simple. Easily adaptable. It just hits the spot on a cool day. Especially with some warm fresh baked bread and melty butter.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
I Made My decision
I decided to go ahead and get a new phone with internet access. I did my research. I checked out phones, plans, companies, etc. I am going to my current phone company and telling them that i can get a better deal from another company and that I plan to switch unless they will give me a better deal. I am going Friday which is payday. I figured out which plan that I want and will add the second line for my dad. I can actually get both of us new phones this Friday if they give me the deal that I am going to ask for. We'll see how much customer service they have. My contract is up and I can go to a different company if they aren't very cooperative. I am getting very excited now! I will even be able to write about it over the weekend too! WooHoo! This is going to be fun!
Another Great Weekend AKA: The Best Weekend Ever
I went down to see my son again this weekend. It started Friday afternoon on a bad note. I was renting a car and was supposed to be picked up at 3:30. At 3:40, I called to see where the ride was. They were running late, but sorry we forgot to call. So, I continue to wait impatiently. My ride finally got there and the driver said he was sorry and did the guys call? I said no, I had to call them when you weren't here. He was not surprised. Then when I walk inside to rent the car, I kept getting excuses, you know, they were busy. Then I find out that the car that I was supposed to rent was given out and the car they have is not clean, I have to wait while they vacuum it out. That all made me not happy. Plus the car is not very big. I asked for a full size car because they keep giving me small cars that don't have enough room for all the stuff I take for my trips. This one was no different. I like the car and if I did not need it to be packed full for the trip it would have been great. As it was, it was nice to drive, handled well and was overall just pretty nice.
The drive was not too bad. But we did get a late start. I left my mom at the campgrounds while I went to get S for the day on Saturday. The first thing he did was start asking about the car and opening all the little doors and cubby holes. A few minutes later he told me he wants me to not go to court right now and that he does not want to talk to an atty. "Someone" has told him that the atty will go and tell everyone what S tells him. I have already told him that won't happen, but now he is scared. Great. Without S's help, I can't bring him home. I started to tell him all that same stuff again. We continued on that path for a few minutes until he changed the subject. I let him. I basically just encouraged him all day to play and have fun, with a time or two of reminders that he needed to talk to the atty and that he would be safe even if he did. It must have worked because on Sunday morning he informed me that he would talk to an atty and how long before he got one? I had no idea. I told him I would work on it. During the course of the day, he made my mom and I pinkie swear that we would not tell all the stuff he told us. Towards the end of the day he was making us pinkie swear not to tell again, but that time he added that he wanted to be the one to tell. He asked again when he got an atty. On the way to his dad's house he told me that his dad told him to write some stuff down about visits. He told S to write down that S wanted to come home only two times a year for a regular visit like we have now. S told me that he needed to find it and get rid of it because it was not what he wanted. His dad told him to write it. Oh, that is just super for the case. I did not say anything to S because I did not want him to stress about it any more than he apparently already was. He looked like he was crying when we dropped him off. Sunday night when I called him, he sounded like he was crying at the start of the phone call. He told me he did not know how he could keep doing all this. He was tired. He did not think he could do it anymore. I told him not to give up, we can do this one day at a time just like we have been doing it all along. Just one day, I will call him, and then we will mark another day off on the calendar, counting down to our next visit. He did seem to cheer up some by the time the phone call was over. At least he was no longer crying.
I called my atty the next day and told him what S had been telling me, about the letter, being tired, not wanting to talk anymore. Asked what could be done now to help S out. We are going to try to get the atty for S today. I hope that is accomplished while he can still remember what we talked about this weekend. I told him that the atty was his, could not tell anyone what S told him, and that S could tell the atty anything that was bothering him, no matter what or who it was about. This atty would be for S and S alone, not me and not his dad. He would be safe talking to him. I hope he remembers and does talk to him. I hope that my atty gets it accomplished today. He also is going to work on getting a court date. I hope that tomorrow I can post on here that we have a new atty for my son and an upcoming court date.
As for the visit part of the weekend, it was great. As usual S declared it the best visit ever. Every time we have a visit, it is the best one ever. We bought a tent to put up and the directions were awful. Not to mention that it was hard to put together. It was supposed to be one of those pop up tents, but they don't tell you on the outside of the box that you have to be he-man to pop some of the pieces in place. I did finally get it in place. S loved the tent. It had a "doggie door" in it and he had a blast crawling in and out of it. We played in the tent and he set it all up for us to sleep in it. Then we played cars. We had all the race cars and fast cars out so we could race. We took pictures of the winners in the winners circle that he created. We played Star Wars. We made hamburgers that he got to put the seasoning on....A lot of seasoning. They were tasty. We also had fried potatoes and brownies that my mom made. We went for a walk. We played video games. On Sunday, we watched a dvd, played more cars, played more Star Wars. S always wins of course. More video games. More tent playing. That doggie door was a big hit. S informed me that our tent was the best tent there was. Even better than the really big ones. We also played "baseball" in the tent with a little bitty ball of aluminum foil. Then S took two more pieces of aluminum foil and "made" a tannning bed. I have no idea why a tanning bed, but that is what he said. We just had a lot of fun playing on the best visit ever with the best tent ever and the best toys ever. S is just too funny with his best ever's. I personally can't wait for the best ever day - the one where he gets to come home.
The drive was not too bad. But we did get a late start. I left my mom at the campgrounds while I went to get S for the day on Saturday. The first thing he did was start asking about the car and opening all the little doors and cubby holes. A few minutes later he told me he wants me to not go to court right now and that he does not want to talk to an atty. "Someone" has told him that the atty will go and tell everyone what S tells him. I have already told him that won't happen, but now he is scared. Great. Without S's help, I can't bring him home. I started to tell him all that same stuff again. We continued on that path for a few minutes until he changed the subject. I let him. I basically just encouraged him all day to play and have fun, with a time or two of reminders that he needed to talk to the atty and that he would be safe even if he did. It must have worked because on Sunday morning he informed me that he would talk to an atty and how long before he got one? I had no idea. I told him I would work on it. During the course of the day, he made my mom and I pinkie swear that we would not tell all the stuff he told us. Towards the end of the day he was making us pinkie swear not to tell again, but that time he added that he wanted to be the one to tell. He asked again when he got an atty. On the way to his dad's house he told me that his dad told him to write some stuff down about visits. He told S to write down that S wanted to come home only two times a year for a regular visit like we have now. S told me that he needed to find it and get rid of it because it was not what he wanted. His dad told him to write it. Oh, that is just super for the case. I did not say anything to S because I did not want him to stress about it any more than he apparently already was. He looked like he was crying when we dropped him off. Sunday night when I called him, he sounded like he was crying at the start of the phone call. He told me he did not know how he could keep doing all this. He was tired. He did not think he could do it anymore. I told him not to give up, we can do this one day at a time just like we have been doing it all along. Just one day, I will call him, and then we will mark another day off on the calendar, counting down to our next visit. He did seem to cheer up some by the time the phone call was over. At least he was no longer crying.
I called my atty the next day and told him what S had been telling me, about the letter, being tired, not wanting to talk anymore. Asked what could be done now to help S out. We are going to try to get the atty for S today. I hope that is accomplished while he can still remember what we talked about this weekend. I told him that the atty was his, could not tell anyone what S told him, and that S could tell the atty anything that was bothering him, no matter what or who it was about. This atty would be for S and S alone, not me and not his dad. He would be safe talking to him. I hope he remembers and does talk to him. I hope that my atty gets it accomplished today. He also is going to work on getting a court date. I hope that tomorrow I can post on here that we have a new atty for my son and an upcoming court date.
As for the visit part of the weekend, it was great. As usual S declared it the best visit ever. Every time we have a visit, it is the best one ever. We bought a tent to put up and the directions were awful. Not to mention that it was hard to put together. It was supposed to be one of those pop up tents, but they don't tell you on the outside of the box that you have to be he-man to pop some of the pieces in place. I did finally get it in place. S loved the tent. It had a "doggie door" in it and he had a blast crawling in and out of it. We played in the tent and he set it all up for us to sleep in it. Then we played cars. We had all the race cars and fast cars out so we could race. We took pictures of the winners in the winners circle that he created. We played Star Wars. We made hamburgers that he got to put the seasoning on....A lot of seasoning. They were tasty. We also had fried potatoes and brownies that my mom made. We went for a walk. We played video games. On Sunday, we watched a dvd, played more cars, played more Star Wars. S always wins of course. More video games. More tent playing. That doggie door was a big hit. S informed me that our tent was the best tent there was. Even better than the really big ones. We also played "baseball" in the tent with a little bitty ball of aluminum foil. Then S took two more pieces of aluminum foil and "made" a tannning bed. I have no idea why a tanning bed, but that is what he said. We just had a lot of fun playing on the best visit ever with the best tent ever and the best toys ever. S is just too funny with his best ever's. I personally can't wait for the best ever day - the one where he gets to come home.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Site of The Week Saturday
This week's Site of the Week? It's Scary Mommy. Jill over there at Scary Mommy tells it like it is with her three little munchkins. She puts a humerous take on the life of mommyhood. Go and check her out. You will laugh out loud at her children's antics and her stories of life.
Why my kitties kept me laughing
This week my cats have been pretty funny. They have been getting into everything. When I took the sheets off the bed, they burrowed into them. When I was doing laundry, they jumped into the washer and dryer. I always check them now to make sure there are no cats before I turn them on. But the best one was this:
This was Tiger Crisp hiding out in a box I had saved for putting Christmas gifts in.
Affirmative Sir, I see my target. Count down to pounce...
This was Tiger Crisp hiding out in a box I had saved for putting Christmas gifts in.
Affirmative Sir, I see my target. Count down to pounce...
Thrifty-ness from the Challenge
I did not really spend much money this week. I bought two containers of raisins at Wags this week, and I went to Aldi's to get milk, buns and eggs. That is it. I love having built up a stockpile of food through the challenge that Precious set up. I have plenty of food for meals and the trips. It makes life so much easier in the busy busy summer weeks to not have to keep going to the store. Thanks Precious for the inspiration to get this done! By using some of the ideas shared on Precious's blog, I also got my power bill down to lower than $50 for gas and electricity for the past month. That is great compared to what it has been running. Just goes to show you that all the little things do add up to savings.
So how have your savings been adding up?
So how have your savings been adding up?
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Thankful Thursday
This week I am thankful for:
1. My cats, they have kept me laughing this week
2. Getting caught up at work
3. Accomplishing a lot of housework
4. Lightning bugs-fun to catch together with my son while on the phone with him
5. Desserts.
Let me know what you are thankful for this week!
1. My cats, they have kept me laughing this week
2. Getting caught up at work
3. Accomplishing a lot of housework
4. Lightning bugs-fun to catch together with my son while on the phone with him
5. Desserts.
Let me know what you are thankful for this week!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
What To Cook Wednesday
Like Annie, I am all about ham. I think pigs are cute and tasty. I love ham, pork roasts, bacon. Yum Yum. So, in the spirit of ham loving today, I bring you another pork roast recipe.
Dill and Garlic Pork
1 pork roast or loin (boneless)
fresh dill - approx 8 tblsp chopped up
minced garlic - I will say to taste as I use a lot more than average folks, perhaps 1 tblsp
2 tbsp plain yogurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
dash salt and pepper
1 tbsp evoo (extra virgin olive oil)
1/4-1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
Mix 3 tbsp dill, yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper together and spread over the top of the pork loin. Mix another 3 tbsp dill, oil and panko. Spread this over the top of the pork loin as well.
In a preheated oven (425 degrees) bake for 15 minutes. Then reduce temp to 375 and finish baking (25 to 30 minutes). Let stand for 10 minutes and then sprinkle the remaining dill on the top and serve.
I love panko bread crumbs. They are the best bread crumb ever. I also love fresh dill and grow it in my herb garden every year. Garlic goes with just about everything in my book. I hope you like these tastes together as much as I did.
Dill and Garlic Pork
1 pork roast or loin (boneless)
fresh dill - approx 8 tblsp chopped up
minced garlic - I will say to taste as I use a lot more than average folks, perhaps 1 tblsp
2 tbsp plain yogurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
dash salt and pepper
1 tbsp evoo (extra virgin olive oil)
1/4-1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
Mix 3 tbsp dill, yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper together and spread over the top of the pork loin. Mix another 3 tbsp dill, oil and panko. Spread this over the top of the pork loin as well.
In a preheated oven (425 degrees) bake for 15 minutes. Then reduce temp to 375 and finish baking (25 to 30 minutes). Let stand for 10 minutes and then sprinkle the remaining dill on the top and serve.
I love panko bread crumbs. They are the best bread crumb ever. I also love fresh dill and grow it in my herb garden every year. Garlic goes with just about everything in my book. I hope you like these tastes together as much as I did.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Hallucinations?
I think I am having hallucinations.
Ok, I am going to share this with you all because I think (now) that it is funny. Last night after cleaning up a litte bit, I was really tired. I called my mom because she was going to possibly stop over after dinner at my sister's house. She said it was late and she was tired as well. All right, I can go to bed and don't have to wait up for her.
I get myself ready for bed, pat the kitties one last time and go curl up in bed. I had a couple of tealights burning in the living room. I know, I know, you should never leave a candle burning without supervision. Whatever, I do it all the time. If my house burns down you can tell me "I told you so". Then I'll probably take a swing at you. Anyway, tealights burning-gives my room a nice comfy little glow. I lay there and promplty fall asleep. That in itself is unusual. Then I do one of those jerky things - you know the one where you are just asleep and your leg jerks? So, it wakes me up and I look at the ceiling. THERE ARE DOZENS OF BUGS CRAWLING ACROSS MY CEILING! Talk about freaking out. I do not usually mind bugs, but they were right over the bed. I fling my covers back, fly out of bed, and race from the room. I turn on the halogen lamp in the living room and peek around the corner. There are no bugs. I look on the bed, on the floor, the walls, the ceiling again. No bugs. I go and get the flashlight from the kitchen, and shine it under the bed, no bugs. There. Are. NO. Bugs. Anywhere.
I turn out the light in the living room and realize the tealights are burning still. I look at the clock. I have only been in bed for like 20 minutes. I do believe that I was still dreaming when I woke up. That has never happened to me before. It was mongo weird, let me tell you. I guess that is what folks mean when they say they are dreaming but thought they were awake.
I know, it was from my tear ducts being overused this weekend....All the same, I think this is one tale I won't share with my ex and his atty...
Ok, I am going to share this with you all because I think (now) that it is funny. Last night after cleaning up a litte bit, I was really tired. I called my mom because she was going to possibly stop over after dinner at my sister's house. She said it was late and she was tired as well. All right, I can go to bed and don't have to wait up for her.
I get myself ready for bed, pat the kitties one last time and go curl up in bed. I had a couple of tealights burning in the living room. I know, I know, you should never leave a candle burning without supervision. Whatever, I do it all the time. If my house burns down you can tell me "I told you so". Then I'll probably take a swing at you. Anyway, tealights burning-gives my room a nice comfy little glow. I lay there and promplty fall asleep. That in itself is unusual. Then I do one of those jerky things - you know the one where you are just asleep and your leg jerks? So, it wakes me up and I look at the ceiling. THERE ARE DOZENS OF BUGS CRAWLING ACROSS MY CEILING! Talk about freaking out. I do not usually mind bugs, but they were right over the bed. I fling my covers back, fly out of bed, and race from the room. I turn on the halogen lamp in the living room and peek around the corner. There are no bugs. I look on the bed, on the floor, the walls, the ceiling again. No bugs. I go and get the flashlight from the kitchen, and shine it under the bed, no bugs. There. Are. NO. Bugs. Anywhere.
I turn out the light in the living room and realize the tealights are burning still. I look at the clock. I have only been in bed for like 20 minutes. I do believe that I was still dreaming when I woke up. That has never happened to me before. It was mongo weird, let me tell you. I guess that is what folks mean when they say they are dreaming but thought they were awake.
I know, it was from my tear ducts being overused this weekend....All the same, I think this is one tale I won't share with my ex and his atty...
Time for the diet - again
I have decided that I need to restart my diet. I keep saying that, I know. But now it is time. I am too ashamed to put my starting weight on here. I lost about 30 pounds two years ago on this diet and did really well until this past Christmas. I think I ate too many noodles, and cookies, and cakes, and, well, you get the idea. I actually don't have a scale at home, so I could not put an accurate starting weight on here. I think I will go ahead and put it out there. I weighed in at 190 at my last visit to the health department. That means I gained back everything that I lost the first time. I am going to spend some time today planning out my meals and get started tomorrow. I know that traditionally people start their diets on Monday's. Monday's don't work so well for me. I will try starting tomorrow and see where I go.
Any one out there interested in dieting together? We can either follow the same diet and I would gladly share my materials or try a different diet from mine and we can compare results. Let me know and we can hold ourselves accountable to one another and see if that helps us stick to it!
Any one out there interested in dieting together? We can either follow the same diet and I would gladly share my materials or try a different diet from mine and we can compare results. Let me know and we can hold ourselves accountable to one another and see if that helps us stick to it!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Wow, My Weekend and Some Rambling
That is all I can say about my weekend. I was home this weekend. I did not go visit my son for the weekend. I went last weekend for just Sunday. Then I also went to see him on Thursday for a few hours for his birthday. We celebrated his birthday on Sunday with presents and brownies. He does not like cake, only the icing. So, we had brownies. It is all a chocolate-y goodness, so makes no difference to me. We had a blast. We pretty much just played all day.
Then I think Thursday was my undoing. I totally enjoyed my time with my son. I saved a couple of cards and one present for his actual birthday. We went to the river and the park to play as well. Of course I had to drop him off after just a couple of hours and it was really sad. Not enough time. He did tell me I was the first to sing him Happy Birthday on his birthday, and he said it with the sweetest little smile. Then as I was dropping him off, he said he liked the big van better than all the different cars I've been driving (two rentals and my moms explorer). When I asked why he had the funniest answer. Because the big van has two side doors that open and he feels like a king when we open both doors to let him out. In all the cars, there is just one door and he's just a regular kid. I laughed a lot at that one. I may have to get another full size van to replace my old one just to make my kid feel like a king again!
I also sold the camper (I hope). I am waiting on the title to arrive to my house. A couple came and looked at it on Sunday and said consider it sold, call them when the title comes in and they will come and get it. I was doing the happy dance for hours. I thought I would never sell it. At least for what I wanted to get out of it. I am actually getting more than I paid for it, but not more than I spent on it. I will recoup everything I have had out of pocket from it. That is super news, and more money to put towards the hearing and the court costs if they are soon or a new car if it is going to be months before we get to court.
Back to the undoing. When I had to leave S this past Thursday, it was all I could do to hold my tears in. I am not usually happy to drop him off, but am pretty good at keeping my emotions in check. I think it was kind of a combination of two short visits in a row followed by his birthday. He just keeps getting older, and he is still not home. This is really hard. I am really tired of waiting. I think that it is part of the bad guy team plan (my ex and his atty). Part of MSBP is that the mom's start to get more emotional and stressed the longer it takes to get their children back. Oh, yes cause all mom's would start to relax and get calmer as the time passes without their kids. (can you see the sarcasm dripping off that comment?) Craziness I tell you. I think they are hoping that I go nuts and start raving like a lunatic if they keep dragging it out and make it so they are not available to get dates and times set up. Nope, I will just calmly rip him a new one the first chance I get. Hopefully right after court....Right after the court (hopefully-keeping my fingers crossed) terminates all his rights.
Anyway, I think I am sad about my son getting older and I am missing it. Yes, I realize I do get to see him. But I am missing the day to day things. The discoveries, the playing, the interacting with the pets and other children. The interacting with me. Even the arguing. So I came home from my visit and decided this weekend was as good as any to start getting the house cleaned up. I actually plug in the tv and put in a movie. Now I do not have any new movies. All my movies are either about 10 years old (or older) or Disney movies. I just put it on in the background and by the end of the movie, I had been crying for at least four different scenes and through the whole ending. Not just the sad stuff, at all the mushy stuff and happy stuff too. So I watched a different movie with the same results. The second movie, BTW, was Harry Potter, the first one-Sorcerer's Stone- and has absolutely no reason to cry. At least it did not used to have any reason to cry for me in the past. I got done cleaning in the front half of my house and moved on to the kitchen. I plugged in the tv/vcr combo. I just needed the noise, and usually I don't need that either. I was just weird all weekend. I watched Homeward Bound. That movie is from ages ago, and I have watched it a billion times, I know all the animals make it home. Instead at the point you think one of the dogs is going to die, I cried for the whole rest of the movie, right through the end where he lives and makes it home. I'm talking sobbing, nose running and all.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I really do wish I knew exactly what is going on with me this weekend. I am feeling better today, albeit catty. I am not really sure what is wrong with that though. Sometimes a gal just needs to be catty and let it all out. I just don't know if I had been holding it all in for too long, and it burst out, or if I am just lonely, or if I am just stressed because I don't like my job, I don't like my ex, and I want my kid back. I am just confused. But at least this week I know which day it is! :)
Here is a pic of us on his birthday, when he did not feel like a king, but did feel special that I sang Happy Birthday to him. Me with my shiny face and S playing his new DS game.
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