Thursday, April 26, 2012
Utterly Perfect Ssssss?
I want to tell you about the second love of my life. He a little bit mysterious. There are times when I don't even see him come to my house, but when I do my heart thrills with anticipation. He never comes without bringing a gift for me, how thoughtful is that? I don't always know that he's coming, sometimes he just shows up. I knew he was coming yesterday so I must have gone to the back door at least a dozen times to see if he had been here. Disappointed filled my being each time that I went and didn't see evidence of his visit. But, alas, my husband comes home and tells me joyfully (he knew I was looking forward to the visit from my second love, so he was happy for me) that "he came". In Steve walks with my package from the UPS man. Now, I don't know his name, I just call him my UPS god. He hasn't been to see me as often as before, I'm blaming the economy. But when he does come, it makes me happy all day. Yes, my second love is the UPS man and Steve is good with that as long as whatever the UPS man brings me didn't come out of his wallet. (The Ssss in my title, sorry, just wasn't clever enought to think of an s word).
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
High Intelligence?
This morning I was in the kitchen watching tv and making cookies. I was worrying about not being able to finish the cookies before I had to take Ty to school. I just wasn't sure that my timing would work out. Then what would I do, just leave the cookies to burn in the oven while I was gone? That was really not an option. I wanted to go get donuts after I dropped Ty off at school. But then I remembered that they were delivering propane today. Would I be able to get to town for a donut run and get back in time for the propane guy? I just didn't know, I worried that I would miss him and then he wouln't be able
to come back until next week. We need propane NOW. Shoot, propane or donuts. Well, it was really a no brainer. I could probably get to Carlos' Donut Shop and back before propane guy got to the house.....I think. I was worried that perhaps I couldn't. What to do? To top it all off we are having company over for dinner. I was worried about what to make for them. What if they didn't like what I made, what if they were vegans or they were lactose intolerant? One more thing to worry about. BUT....then as I was listening to the tv they were telling about a study that had been done. This study said that worry was directly related to intelligence, that people who worried were generally more intelligent. I started feeling pretty good about myself. They continued. They said that there was help out there for worriers. The "help" is called acceptance and commitment therapy. Okay, I'm halfway there. I accept that I worry....about everything. And I am totally committed. Committed mostly go figuring out a way to have my donuts and manage my time. I am thinking, however, that my worry has less to do with intellegence that with my love for sweets.
to come back until next week. We need propane NOW. Shoot, propane or donuts. Well, it was really a no brainer. I could probably get to Carlos' Donut Shop and back before propane guy got to the house.....I think. I was worried that perhaps I couldn't. What to do? To top it all off we are having company over for dinner. I was worried about what to make for them. What if they didn't like what I made, what if they were vegans or they were lactose intolerant? One more thing to worry about. BUT....then as I was listening to the tv they were telling about a study that had been done. This study said that worry was directly related to intelligence, that people who worried were generally more intelligent. I started feeling pretty good about myself. They continued. They said that there was help out there for worriers. The "help" is called acceptance and commitment therapy. Okay, I'm halfway there. I accept that I worry....about everything. And I am totally committed. Committed mostly go figuring out a way to have my donuts and manage my time. I am thinking, however, that my worry has less to do with intellegence that with my love for sweets.
Swearing is in the Mind of the Beholder
The other day I was at the elementary school picking up my grandson when I ran into a friend. She was there picking up her 5 year old. We exchanged pleasantries and then she told me that she was thinking of putting a disclaimer on her facebook page. So, this is getting interesting. This woman is one of the nicest, most genuine people I know. I'm very anxious to hear what she has to disclaim, and then she tells me. On Sunday in her daughter's Primary class they were talking about using bad language, swearing. And how it was bad. Well, she told the entire Primary that her mom swears all the time (Idon't think she has even ever said the word crap). Of course my friend was aghast, she has never used a swear word in her entire life and she tells her daughter that. This is how her daughter responded....."but mom, you swear all the time, you are always saying I swear". As relieved as my friend was, still the entire Primary thinks that she swears like a sailor.
Monday, April 16, 2012
He Needs ME
My heart is still thumping, I think my face is still a little flushed. I just got off the telephone. Mitt called me. Yes, I said Mitt. I don't think a last name is needed. He wanted to talk to me. He told me that he needed me. No, not just my money, which I don't have anyway. When I told him that I just couldn't contribute to his campaign he didn't just hang up on me. He told me that if I was unable to contribute that there were many other ways that I was needed. Can you believe that? I didn't know what to say. But by the time I gathered my wits, he had hung up. Actually, I don't even remember him responding to any of my questions or comments. Well, I guess he's just so busy. You know, gotta get down to work and all that. I'm hoping that next time he calls me that we can have a nice little chat. I do have a lot of suggestions.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Instructions?
Saturday was a busy day for me, but I still needed to make a dessert for Easter dinner. At my house you could skip dinner altogether if you have a great dessert.
On Saturday we spend a good part of the day at our son's house helping him with the baby while he was finishing putting floors down, hoping to get them done before his wife got home from work that night. When we got home we began to frame out our new laundry room. We are not carpenters, no where near that, so you can imagine that it took us a very long time to get one small wall up. But, up it is, yea! The level even says it's straight (that's a new one for us).
So it was pretty late when I decided to make dessert. And I decided to change what I was making. I was going to made pineapple upside down cake, but opted for this really yummy looking pound cake. After all I had strawberries and real whipped cream to go with it.
I checked, I had all the ingredients. It was 10:00 p.m. when I got everything out of the cupboards and put them on the counter. I decided that it would help me save time. I glanced at the recipe and it told me, I swear it really did, that after I got all the ingredients mixed the way they told me to that it would take 45 minuted to bake. Deep down I knew that was not nearly long enough, but I was too tired to worry about it and hoped that I just got lucky with the recipe.
So, I get it in the tube pan and put it in the oven and decide to check the recipe one more time. Oh shoot. bake for 45 minutes......THEN over it with foil and cover it for 45-60 more minutes. Okay, well I could still get to bed by midnight.
So I stay up til midnight and am finally able to take the cake out of the oven. Better read those instructions one more time, just to be sure.
Well, bedtime has been pushed back by about another hour and a half. I have to take the cake out, let it sit for 20 minutes, then run the knife around the edges, let it sit another 20 minutes. And then finally, I get to take the cake out of the pan.....except I can't get it out of the pan without it falling apart. It was a very dense cake. So now I have to let it cool completely before I cover it. That takes a little more than 30 minutes.
Yea! Finally, after falling asleep at the computer, I get to go to bed.
Only thing is, now I can't seem to fall asleep.
But, at least the consensus was that the cake was worth it. It really was good.
On Saturday we spend a good part of the day at our son's house helping him with the baby while he was finishing putting floors down, hoping to get them done before his wife got home from work that night. When we got home we began to frame out our new laundry room. We are not carpenters, no where near that, so you can imagine that it took us a very long time to get one small wall up. But, up it is, yea! The level even says it's straight (that's a new one for us).
So it was pretty late when I decided to make dessert. And I decided to change what I was making. I was going to made pineapple upside down cake, but opted for this really yummy looking pound cake. After all I had strawberries and real whipped cream to go with it.
I checked, I had all the ingredients. It was 10:00 p.m. when I got everything out of the cupboards and put them on the counter. I decided that it would help me save time. I glanced at the recipe and it told me, I swear it really did, that after I got all the ingredients mixed the way they told me to that it would take 45 minuted to bake. Deep down I knew that was not nearly long enough, but I was too tired to worry about it and hoped that I just got lucky with the recipe.
So, I get it in the tube pan and put it in the oven and decide to check the recipe one more time. Oh shoot. bake for 45 minutes......THEN over it with foil and cover it for 45-60 more minutes. Okay, well I could still get to bed by midnight.
So I stay up til midnight and am finally able to take the cake out of the oven. Better read those instructions one more time, just to be sure.
Well, bedtime has been pushed back by about another hour and a half. I have to take the cake out, let it sit for 20 minutes, then run the knife around the edges, let it sit another 20 minutes. And then finally, I get to take the cake out of the pan.....except I can't get it out of the pan without it falling apart. It was a very dense cake. So now I have to let it cool completely before I cover it. That takes a little more than 30 minutes.
Yea! Finally, after falling asleep at the computer, I get to go to bed.
Only thing is, now I can't seem to fall asleep.
But, at least the consensus was that the cake was worth it. It really was good.
Trash Bag Memories
Yesterday was Easter, I have loved Easter since I was a little girl. My sister wrote in her blog about the Easters we had when we were little girls. They were probably the beginning of all of my holiday memories and the reasons why I wanted to make wonderful holiday memories for my children.
We sat around the table yesterday after church and after dinner, remembering the Easters that we all shared with extended families years ago. Normally we went to my older sisters house, she has three boys. We would all pitch in with dinner and then of course the kids had their Easter egg hunt. Yesterday after everyone left I brought out the old pictures and was enjoying the memories of those hunts. The kids all had their baskets and ran like crazy all around the yard trying to find as many eggs as they could. Some of them would find one egg and sit, open the egg, eat the candy and then go looking for their next treasure.
After the Easter egg hunt the kids would eat as much of the candy that they could before parents were telling them to put it away for now. The hard boiled eggs didn't usually get eaten right away. Those were saved for later in the day to be hidden again in the house for the kids to find again. By the time the eggs had been hidden and found several times no one really wanted to eat them, they were cracked and nasty looking. But those kids had FUN.
My almost 12 year old granddaughter has a friend who is about the same age. She comes from a family of six children. I think the first three children were a bit of a disappointment to their mother so in effect she just seemed to give up on mothering when the youngest came along.
Yesterday at church my granddaughter and her friend were sharing the events of the morning with each other. Emma, my granddaughter, was telling her friend about the earrings that were in her basket. Now I know that Emma no longer believes in the Easter Bunny, or Santa Claus, but she can't quite bring herself to say it out loud. What if by some really weird chance that they are real. Would she blow her chances of ever receiving Easter or Christmas gifts ever again?
Anyway, Emma's friend was telling her about her Easter "basket", which as it turns out was really an Easter trash bag. She got all the neat stuff but it was all shoved into a trash bag. Emma didn't know quite what to say, her friend told her that she had always gotten her Easter candy and gifts in a trash bag.
Now, when my daughter told me about this it made me incredibly sad. I'm sure that Emma's friend didn't care one way or another because that's all she ever had. And it probably didn't make her sad. And let me clarify, the trash bag wasn't a money issue. I don 't believe that money is a problem in their household. I think it is an "I'm done with all the holiday trappings",so to speak, issue.
When my children where young we tried to make every holiday special because we wanted them to have those memories, memories that included the family we spent the holiday with. And to me, what a wonderful way to start an Easter Sunday,with the gift of an Easter basket. Kind of a reminder of the gift that was given to each of us. A gift of love and sacrifice.
Well, anyway, I feel pretty confident that my children and my grandchildren will always have wonderful memories of holidays spent together with family that loves them. I don't want trash bag memories for my family.
We sat around the table yesterday after church and after dinner, remembering the Easters that we all shared with extended families years ago. Normally we went to my older sisters house, she has three boys. We would all pitch in with dinner and then of course the kids had their Easter egg hunt. Yesterday after everyone left I brought out the old pictures and was enjoying the memories of those hunts. The kids all had their baskets and ran like crazy all around the yard trying to find as many eggs as they could. Some of them would find one egg and sit, open the egg, eat the candy and then go looking for their next treasure.
After the Easter egg hunt the kids would eat as much of the candy that they could before parents were telling them to put it away for now. The hard boiled eggs didn't usually get eaten right away. Those were saved for later in the day to be hidden again in the house for the kids to find again. By the time the eggs had been hidden and found several times no one really wanted to eat them, they were cracked and nasty looking. But those kids had FUN.
My almost 12 year old granddaughter has a friend who is about the same age. She comes from a family of six children. I think the first three children were a bit of a disappointment to their mother so in effect she just seemed to give up on mothering when the youngest came along.
Yesterday at church my granddaughter and her friend were sharing the events of the morning with each other. Emma, my granddaughter, was telling her friend about the earrings that were in her basket. Now I know that Emma no longer believes in the Easter Bunny, or Santa Claus, but she can't quite bring herself to say it out loud. What if by some really weird chance that they are real. Would she blow her chances of ever receiving Easter or Christmas gifts ever again?
Anyway, Emma's friend was telling her about her Easter "basket", which as it turns out was really an Easter trash bag. She got all the neat stuff but it was all shoved into a trash bag. Emma didn't know quite what to say, her friend told her that she had always gotten her Easter candy and gifts in a trash bag.
Now, when my daughter told me about this it made me incredibly sad. I'm sure that Emma's friend didn't care one way or another because that's all she ever had. And it probably didn't make her sad. And let me clarify, the trash bag wasn't a money issue. I don 't believe that money is a problem in their household. I think it is an "I'm done with all the holiday trappings",so to speak, issue.
When my children where young we tried to make every holiday special because we wanted them to have those memories, memories that included the family we spent the holiday with. And to me, what a wonderful way to start an Easter Sunday,with the gift of an Easter basket. Kind of a reminder of the gift that was given to each of us. A gift of love and sacrifice.
Well, anyway, I feel pretty confident that my children and my grandchildren will always have wonderful memories of holidays spent together with family that loves them. I don't want trash bag memories for my family.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Shelby
First of all, my apologies to my beautiful niece Shelby. I'm sorry you share the same name as Shelby from Ax Men. Believe me when I tell you that the two of you have NOTHING in common.
But, thank you Ax Man, Shelby, for supplying me with my favorite quote of my tv viewing evening. Sure hope I can get the spelling correct:
"Disbranded crazone donegit holdasumpin" Shelby, Ax Men
Just a little background on Shelby in case you don't watch Ax Men; another of my favorite reality tv shows. Shelby works in Louisiana in the bayou dredging big dead trees that he sells. He rarely works alone, thanks to his dozens of cousins who work with him. However, the same cousin never seems to work with him twice. His cousins are a little, I guess you could say, odd.
There is a man that Shelby says is former Special Forces who seems to be poaching Shelby's trees. He tried to kill Shelby, yes, I mean really kill him, last week with a bow and arrow. He barely missed his head. Tonight he threatened Shelby with a machete. Well, it turns out that crazy guy is another of Shelby's cousins. Go figure.
But, thank you Ax Man, Shelby, for supplying me with my favorite quote of my tv viewing evening. Sure hope I can get the spelling correct:
"Disbranded crazone donegit holdasumpin" Shelby, Ax Men
Just a little background on Shelby in case you don't watch Ax Men; another of my favorite reality tv shows. Shelby works in Louisiana in the bayou dredging big dead trees that he sells. He rarely works alone, thanks to his dozens of cousins who work with him. However, the same cousin never seems to work with him twice. His cousins are a little, I guess you could say, odd.
There is a man that Shelby says is former Special Forces who seems to be poaching Shelby's trees. He tried to kill Shelby, yes, I mean really kill him, last week with a bow and arrow. He barely missed his head. Tonight he threatened Shelby with a machete. Well, it turns out that crazy guy is another of Shelby's cousins. Go figure.
Do It Yourself, Part ll
So, with the help of my husband I started another project. We are remodeling our master bathroom, making it a little smaller so we can add space to the laundry room. I've always wanted a larger laundry room, as opposed to the laundry closet I have not. But it cinched the deal when I was watching Celebrity House Hunt the other day.
Shannon Dougherty was looking for a larger home for her family and one of the houses that she looked at (they were all in Malibu, I'm a far cry from Malibu!) had her ideal laundry room. According to Shannon, she loves doing laundry. Well, I don't love doing laundry but I also don't love butting up against the laundry room door every time I load the washing machine. The laundry room she fell in love with was about the size of my entire house. It had two sets of ultra modern washers and dryers and an entire wall of neat looking lockers, a big table for folding and a gift wrap station, among many other things. I think they may have been a McDonalds franchise in there too, I can't be sure.
Well, Steve and I did the part of the renovation that we are the best at...tearing down walls. We starting looking at the framing we would have to do, the ceiling in there is slanted and very high. Then we looked at the plumbing, I don't do plumbing and believe me when I tell you that Steve doesn't either. We began to doubt our ability. And since our local (very odd) handyman moved away we had to decide if we should diy or call a professional. We voted on the professional.
Steve has a friend who is a general contractor, he's pretty expensive, but he's all we had. So he comes over and looks at our job and gives us some great ideas about adding a closet too. Boy, I'm glad we called him.
We know that he is going to cost us a little more than we wanted to spend, but I really don't want walls falling down in the middle of the night so we decided to go with it.
Now, the good part is......he rescued a cat at one of his jobs and he and his wife have been caring for it. But, alas, they are allergic so they have been trying unsuccessfully to find her a home (not his wife, but the cat). So, Steve and I look at each other because we are thinking the very same thing, it's scary sometimes. We figure if we offer to take the cat off of his hands he will feel obligated to give us a little discount.
Now, we really don't know yet if he actually will because he hasn't even given us a price for the job yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. And no matter what he charges us at least I can sleep at night knowing that the job didn't get done "good enough" (Steve's motto), but it gone done professionally and right.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Chocolate Covered Jelly Beans
I have a major sweet tooth, it's the reason that I fight with my weight constantly. And I love holiday candies. You know those candies that you anticipate all year long.
Easter time has always brought the best candy to the stores and, ultimately, to my various hiding places in my kitchen. I don't share well with others...another one of my faults.
Well, this year I have discovered a new favorite. First of all let me tell you, I am not a big fan of jelly beans. I do love the black ones, black licorice anything is something I love. But this year, you may want to sit down for this, they have chocolate covered jelly beans. I have only just discovered them. Please don't tell me that they have been around forever. The jelly beans actually taste all the same, which is fine with me. But they are made so much tastier covered in chocolate.
You know, I don't even care if they have been around forever, I'm just happy that I have finally discovered them for myself. You really need to try them, they are great. The ones that I found are made by Ferrara, yum!
I haven't tasted the Jelly Belly ones, but I can't imagine them tasting any better.
The only complaint I have about Easter candy is that they put it out into the stores way too soon. I have found out that you really can OD on Russell Stovers Marshmallow Eggs.
Easter time has always brought the best candy to the stores and, ultimately, to my various hiding places in my kitchen. I don't share well with others...another one of my faults.
Well, this year I have discovered a new favorite. First of all let me tell you, I am not a big fan of jelly beans. I do love the black ones, black licorice anything is something I love. But this year, you may want to sit down for this, they have chocolate covered jelly beans. I have only just discovered them. Please don't tell me that they have been around forever. The jelly beans actually taste all the same, which is fine with me. But they are made so much tastier covered in chocolate.
I haven't tasted the Jelly Belly ones, but I can't imagine them tasting any better.
The only complaint I have about Easter candy is that they put it out into the stores way too soon. I have found out that you really can OD on Russell Stovers Marshmallow Eggs.
Grandma's Little Helper
Steve and I have the best "every other weekends". That's when we get to watch our youngest grandchild while his parents are at work. He is so much fun and so smart. Aiden is 11 months old and is the happiest little guy I have ever known.
Yesterday I was emptying out the dishwasher. The first thing I always do is take out the silverware basket...and now I'm glad that I do. I turned my back to put the basket on the counter by the silverware drawer and this is what I saw when I turned back around.
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