Christmas Eve At April And Curtis' House

Mallory, Carter, Wesley

Wesley

Carter, Mallory, Linda, Keith, the back of April's head

Wesley, Mallory, Donna, Alyssa

Tina
Just getting back from dinner at April's house. Dinner was amazing! She had turkey with all the trimmings. :)

Treats For Santa!

I had a pretty busy day today. I had to grocery shop. *ugh* Tonight after dinner I got to work on the things I have to take to April's house Christmas Eve dinner. I made the "BIG" cookie and deviled eggs. I also dipped marshmallows in chocolate and rolled them in graham cracker crumbs. I also dipped a few potato chips in chocolate. The marshmallows and graham crackers are AMAZING! Pop one in the microwave for 3-5 seconds and you have yourself a little S'more! yum! :)

Chocolate covered marshmallows

rolled in crushed graham crackers:

A few marshmallows dipped in chocolate without graham crackers and a few potato chips dipped in chocolate:

Wordless Monday ;)

Carter

Oatmeal cookies:
Sweet Treats, the recipe:

http://marisrecipes.blogspot.com/2008/12/sweet-treats.html

Pictures And A Recipe

Linda putting up my tree:

Mallory today:

Red Velvet Cake

1/2 cup shortening (Crisco)

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoons cocoa

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 oz. red food coloring (2 bottles)

1 teaspoons baking soda

1 tablespoon vinegar

Frosting/Icing Ingredients:

1 cup milk

1/3 cup flour dash of salt

1/2 cup Crisco 1 stick margarine 1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Grease two 9 inch round pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Cream shortening and sugar WELL. Add eggs and beat well. Sift together 3 times flour, cocoa, and salt. Add these three ingredients and buttermilk to batter, beat well. Add vanilla and food coloring and beat in. Then in a small bowl add vinegar and soda, until soda is dissolved, FOLD INTO CAKE BATTER. DON'T BEAT OR STIR NOW. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool layers before icing.

Icing Directions:

To Make Icing: Cook 1 cup milk and flour in double boiler until the consistency of pudding, stirring constantly. Add dash of salt and set aside to cool. Cream 1/2 cup Crisco and 1 stick of margarine and 1 cup granulated sugar. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add to cooling pudding mixture and beat until creamy.

DON'T ICE CAKE TILL COOL because the icing will melt all over the cake.

Wednesday Update

I've been a bad blogger the last few days and haven't been posting. My granddaughter Mallory has been coming over every day so I've been spending time with her. Today Wesley is off of school so he's been here today too. Mallory spent the night here Monday night, its always a treat to have her here with us.

Monday nights dinner was kid friendly because Mallory was here, I made her favorite, fish sticks and for the life of me I cant remember what our side dish was and we had green beans. She LOVES green beans! Tuesday nights dinner was supposed to have been sticky chicken, but my chicken was still frozen solid (the chicken is in the fridge in the garage and it still isnt thawed, I was going to cook it today but had to change my plans) so I was going to make bacon and eggs. I had cooked my bacon in the oven and right about the time Keith came home it was done and I was about to make the scrambled eggs when he came in and he had stopped off at the grocery store for me to buy bread and he came home with some kind of soup. He ate the soup for dinner and I made myself a bacon sammie.

I need to blog about what happened to Keith Monday morning, but I don't have time to do it now so I'll do that in another post another day. Just let me say, coffee and glass is hard to clean up off the floor! *insert eye roll*

It's been raining here all week and today it has been drizzling all day, its dark and just plain yucky out! Dinner tonight will be roast that was cooked on top of the stove with potatoes in it. I'll make some gravy and serve peas with it and also make Bisquick drop biscuits.

Weekend Happenings

We finally put our Christmas tree up. It's not decorated yet. I hope to get that done this week.
I started Christmas shopping. I got a few things. I cant say what, but I can say I got April, Tina, Carter, Alyssa and Wesley's presents. I need to find a toy cash register for Alyssa, I still cant believe Walmart didn't have them.

Saturday I didn't go out of the house, I even stayed in my PJ's. I didn't do much of anything, just laid around and took cold meds. Today (Sunday) I did my grocery shopping. Dinner tonight was quick and easy, Sloppy Joe's and Tater Tots. After dinner we roasted marshmallows, then put the tree up. Matt and Eric started putting the lights on the outside of the house, but decided to wait until tomorrow evening to do it.

I took a few pics of Linda and Matt putting the tree up, but I haven't uploaded them to my computer yet. I'll post them as soon as I load them.

Friday

Here is a pic of my grandson Wesley on his first day of school Monday. He is doing great and loves going to school. Today he went on his first field trip. They went to the mall to see Santa. They also got to ride the Christmas train that is at the mall and they ate lunch at the Chick-fil-A there.

Update

I've got a horrible cold and haven't felt like posting. I'll be back posting soon as I feel better. Take care.

Gingerbread Men Recipe

I thought I would post the gingerbread men recipe that I use at Christmas time here since it is that time of year again. This recipe is really good. It got it from a friend of my sisters:

Gingerbread:

1 cup light molasses

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup shortening

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 cups flour

Bring molasses and sugar to boil and pour over shortening in large bowl. Stir until cool. Add eggs, mix dry ingredients. Chill dough overnight. Roll on lightly floured board to desired thickness. (I roll my dough kind of thick, we like soft gingerbread men) With cookie cutter, cut out cookies and place on lightly greased cookie sheet or stone. Use currents for eyes and buttons. Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 mins. or until done, depending on the thickness of your cookie. Decorate with icing as desired. I have made these cookies as gingerbread men and as round cookies.

Recipe by: Carol, a friend of my sisters.

SNOW!

It is snowing at my house now!!!!!!! :) I am so excited! My grandson Carter and I were at the grocery store a little bit ago and a cashier came over the intercom and said that it was snowing like crazy on Interstate 95. When we finally got out of the store and into the car and on the road we could see the snow falling in front of the head lights. Right now it is snowing really hard. I wish it was day light so I could snap some pictures.

Congratulations VA Tech, ACC Champions!

Coach Frank Beamer and Victor "Macho" Harris

VA Tech won today! YAY! Virginia Tech become the first two-time winner of the ACC championship game with a 30-12 victory over No. 18 Boston College. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jnpWXlas7EUWiwGPKpwBAbQBJhzgD94TF7A00

Are You A Jackie Or A Marilyn?

This was on my friend erinandshawn blog:

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are a Doris!

You are a Doris -- "I must help others."

Dorises are warm, concerned, nurturing, and sensitive to other people's needs.

How to Get Along with Me

• * Tell me that you appreciate me. Be specific.
• * Share fun times with me.
• * Take an interest in my problems, though I will probably try to focus on yours.
• * Let me know that I am important and special to you.
• * Be gentle if you decide to criticize me.

In Intimate Relationships

• * Reassure me that I am interesting to you.
• * Reassure me often that you love me.
• * Tell me I'm attractive and that you're glad to be seen with me.

What I Like About Being a Doris

• * being able to relate easily to people and to make friends
• * knowing what people need and being able to make their lives better
• * being generous, caring, and warm
• * being sensitive to and perceptive about others' feelings
• * being enthusiastic and fun-loving, and having a good sense of humor

What's Hard About Being a Doris

• * not being able to say no
• * having low self-esteem
• * feeling drained from overdoing for others
• * not doing things I really like to do for myself for fear of being selfish
• * criticizing myself for not feeling as loving as I think I should
• * being upset that others don't tune in to me as much as I tume in to them
• * working so hard to be tactful and considerate that I suppress my real feelings

Dorises as Children Often

• * are very sensitive to disapproval and criticism
• * try hard to please their parents by being helpful and understanding
• * are outwardly compliant
• * are popular or try to be popular with other children
• * act coy, precocious, or dramatic in order to get attention
• * are clowns and jokers (the more extroverted Dorises), or quiet and shy (the more introverted Dorises)

Dorises as Parents

• * are good listeners, love their children unconditionally, and are warm and encouraging (or suffer guilt if they aren't)
• * are often playful with their children
• * wonder: "Am I doing it right?" "Am I giving enough?" "Have I caused irreparable damage?"
• * can become fiercely protective

Thursday

Dinner tonight was spaghetti and garlic bread. I made brownies for dessert. I didn't use a box mix, I dug out my old brownie recipe and made them from scratch. The were SO good! I'll try to post my recipe soon. I don't feel like typing it out tonight.

I didn't do much lot today. I did some laundry and dusted my bedroom furniture. I've been feeling out of sorts lately.

My daughter Tina had a meeting with Wesley's new teacher the other day and Wesley will be starting school this Monday! He is so excited. I know this will be great for him. Tina said he got to go to his class while she was meeting with this teacher and he had a great time. One of his teacher's name is Miss Emma. ;) He also made a friend, his name is Carter. ;) Tina said he will have three teachers and there are only 6 or 8 (I forget which) children in the class, so he will get a lot of one on one time with the teachers.

Through The Window

I found this today on a message board that I read:

Through The Window

A young couple moved into a new neighborhood.

The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her

neighbor hanging the wash outside.

"That laundry is not very clean", she said.

"She doesn't know how to wash correctly.

Perhaps she needs better laundry soap"

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry,

the young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later,

the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband:

"Look, she has learned how to wash correctly.

I wonder who taught her this?"

The husband said,

"I got up this morning and cleaned our windows."

And so it is with life.

What we see when watching others,

depends on the purity of the window through which we look.

Rainy Sunday

It has rained here all day and I've been really lazy. I did get some towels washed, dried, folded and put away and we had taco's for dinner. Later this after noon I made some Fudgies (AKA no bake cookies).

I had mentioned in my Thanksgiving post that I would tell of some of my cooking mishaps. I was supposed to make crock pot meatballs for April's boyfriend Curtis. I normally put them in the crock pot in the morning. I don't know what was wrong with me Thanksgiving day because I forgot all about fixing them that morning! Soon as April, Curtis and Alyssa pulled into my driveway Thanksgiving day I remembered I had forgotten to do the meatballs! I was so upset with myself. The one thing Curtis loves and I forgot it! I did go ahead and mixed them up and started the crock pot, but they were not ready to eat until later that night and I have to say they were the best I've ever made. :x The other thing that I forgot was the green beans. I did remember to warm them in the microwave while we were heating everything up to go on the table, but I forgot to take them out of the microwave! lol They were the last dish that got warmed. Eric was about to use the microwave later that night and when he opened it there sat the green beans! OOPS! Did you have any Thanksgiving mishaps in your kitchen? If so, care to share?

Saturday

I had a nice day. Tina and Wesley came over around 11:00am. She wanted to go to Kohl's to look for some jeans and tops/sweaters so I went with her. I needed a new pair of jeans. I found a pair on sale for $19.99. Tina bought a whole big bag of clothes and only paid $40.xx for everything! She was so excited. After we got back we went outside and played ball in the yard with Emma. It was a nice day. :)

We had more Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner. After dinner I started on some laundry and cleaning the kitchen. I had to stop cleaning in the kitchen when I ran out of hot water. I think something is going wrong with our hot water heater, it runs out of hot water way to soon. Granted I was washing kitchen towels and I wash those in hot water, but I really shouldn't have ran out of hot water that fast. Hopefully Keith will get around to looking at it on his vacation that is coming up soon.

Matt took this pic of Emma yesterday with his new cell phone. He sent it to me and I set it as my backgorund on my cell phone:

The Day After Thanksgiving

Keith, Matt and I got new cell phones today! Matt's old cell was falling apart, Keith's old cell phone was just old and mine wasn't holding a charge for very long. We all got these phones:

Keith got an orange one, Matt got a black one and I got the lavender one. They are neat little phones. We all have text messaging now and Keith is driving me nuts sending text messages to me. He has never had a cell that has text messages on it. Here is what his old cell looked like:

The lady at the cell phone store laughed at Keith's old phone when he took it out of his pocket to show her which phone he had. lol His old phone didn't even have voice mail on it! lol He even got a blue tooth headset for his new phone. Now to see if he will ever use it. My old cell had text messaging but I didn't have it turned on. I had it turned on the new phone.

My grandson Carter is spending the night with us tonight. Carter and I went to Target this evening. I needed a small desk lamp for here at my computer. I found one for $9.99, it's not exactly like what I wanted but I didn't want to drive all the way to Walmart tonight, so this one will do. We also stopped off at the Dollar Tree and walked around. I let Carter pick out a few things in there.

Dinner tonight was leftover from yesterday. Carter had chicken nuggets because he said he didn't want what we had yesterday because he had it for lunch today. lol Tina was here when we got back from the cell phone store and she stayed here until around 4:00 or so.

Thanksgiving 08 Pictures

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had a few mishaps in the kitchen, but everything turned out delicious. I'll post more tomorrow. I'm beat and need sleep! Night nite.

Here are a few pics from today:

My kids: Tina, Matt, Eric, April and granddaughter Alyssa

My kids goofing off
The BIG cookies before the toppingOne BIG cookie all done
(I don't add nuts to it like the recipe calls for)

Hot Artichoke Crab Dip

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope your day is wonderful!

Wednesday Thanksgiving Prep

I have some cooking to do today. I have my green beans cooking now and am about to go make the first BIG cookie. I am going to have to go to the grocery store again today. I need eggs, Ukrop's was out of them last night (the guy said he was going to be putting some more out, but I couldn't wait for them to be put out) and I totally forgot to stop off at another grocery store on the way home. I really didn't want to go into a grocery store today, but my son Matt said I had to make his deviled eggs or it would seem like Thanksgiving. I want to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies and I have to make my hot artichoke crab meat dip. Tomorrow I'll put the meatballs together and cook them in the crock pot I would make them today but I don't know how good they would be made a day ahead of time plus my family would eat them all before tomorrow. lol

I also have some cleaning to do. I think my laundry is finally caught up. Tonight before I go to bed I want to mop the floors. Oh by the way, my kitchen floor still isn't finished *insert eye roll* They said they would try to get it finished tonight, we shall see. Matt has to clean his and Eric's bathroom tonight after dinner. I told him I wasn't touching it and I mean it! I have to give Emma a bath at some point today or tonight, she really needs a bath! Dinner tonight will be something quick and easy, probably Hamburger Helper, we haven't had that in a long time.

I hope everyone has a good day and happy cooking to everyone cooking today!

The Tuesday Before Thanksgiving

I did some cleaning today. My main thing to get cleaned today was the window in front of my kitchen sink. I took the mini blind down and took it into the bathroom, filled the tub with hot water and then sprayed the mini blind real good with Grease Lightening and then put the blind into the hot water and let the grease Lightening do its thing. After it stayed in the water for a little bit I lifted it up and took the shower sprayer and sprayed it really good, then I laid it on a towel that I had laid on the floor and let it dry for a bit.

Grease Lightening is amazing! That blind was really yucky and now it looks like brand new! I can now look out of my kitchen window and not see spots all over my window. lol The view from my kitchen window is all wooded area and sometimes if I'm standing at the window at just the right time I can spot a deer or two. If I think to do it tomorrow I'll take a pic and show you all what it looks like while standing at the kitchen window. While the blind was soaking I washed the window and threw the valance into the washer.

I got everything put back up and then started on dinner. We had pinto beans for dinner tonight along with some cornbread. It was so good, plain, cheap and simple and it really hit the spot.

After dinner Eric, Matt and I went to Best Buy, Circuit City (it's so nice to have those stores so close to our house now) and Ukrop's (a locally owned grocery store). I was just going into Ukrop's to get a loaf of Baguette bread for my hot artichoke dip (see recipe below) and ended up spending over $40.00. :x We are invited our neighbors house Thanksgiving evening for dessert and the hostess said if I wanted to bring something that would be great so I'm taking The "BIG" Cookie (see recipe below), so I had to get the stuff to make that. I'm making one for us also, my kids said I had to make one for dessert. I'm also making some crock pot meatballs for my daughter April's boyfriend, Curtis. He loves them, this will be his first year coming to my house for Thanksgiving and I wanted to make these especially for him, so I bought the stuff to make those and I bought a few little odds and ends that I needed. I really don't want to go to a grocery store tomorrow if I can help it, the grocery stores are going to be SO busy tomorrow!

Hot Artichoke Crab Meat Dip

Recipe by: The Pampered Chef

1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

1 cup mayonnaise

1 garlic clove, pressed

1 can (14 oz.) artichoke hearts in water, drained and chopped

8 oz. crab meat, chopped (real or imitation, real is better)

3/4 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions with tops

1 lemon

1/8 tsp. ground black pepper

1/3 cup chopped red bell pepper

Additional sliced green onions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine cream cheese and mayo. Press in garlic. Zest lemon to measure 1 teaspoon lemon zest. Add lemon zest and all remaining ingredients EXCEPT red pepper and additional sliced green onions to bowl and stir gently until well blended. Spoon into Deep Dish Baker. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Sprinkle with red bell pepper and additional green onions.
Serve with Baked Pita Chips, sliced french bread rounds, Baguette bread, or crackers.

Chocolate Chip Sensation

AKA The "BIG" Cookie

Recipe by: The Pampered Chef

1 pk refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough

8 oz cream cheese; softened

1/3 c sugar

1 pt half and half

1 pk instant pudding mix;-chocolate

1/4 c nuts; chopped

Preheat oven to 375.
Roll cookie dough into a ball and flatten. Roll out dough into a 13" circle on baking stone. Bake cookie for 12 - 15 minutes or until browned. Let cool 10 minutes. Loosen crust from stone. Cool completely.
Combine cream cheese and sugar; set aside.
Combine half and half and instant pudding. Let set until firm, about 5 minutes.
Spread cream cheese mixture on thoroughly cooled cookie base. Layer pudding mixture on thoroughly cooled cookie base. Layer pudding mixture over cream cheese layer. Sprinkle chopped nuts over cookie.
Chill until served.

Monday Ramblings

WOW it's been a loonngg day for me! The day didn't start off very well. I forgot to hook the house phone up last night after I had unplugged it and hooked up the Directv so my son Eric could order a wrestling PPV. For some reason I forgot to unhook it and hook the phone back in. My grandson Wesley spent the night with his dad last night and he was to bring Wesley to me on his way to work this morning. He always drops him off really early and at different times so I never know what time to set my alarm so it works out good for him to call me before he comes over with Wesley. Well, since I forgot to plug the phone back up I never got his calls. I also forgot to set my alarm in case he didn't call me in time to wake Eric up. I got woke up at 8:00 by Emma running, jumping on me and she was barking. I jumped up looked at the clock and checked Eric's room, he was still sound asleep. I woke him and then called Tina to see why JJ (Wesley's dad) hadn't called to drop Wesley off. She said well Mama he called and it went to voice mail and he came over and banged on your front door for 20 minutes, you never came to the door so he left, his ride left and now he's probably going to get fired because he is on probation and cant miss any days. I'm in tears at this point thinking I've gotten him fired! I told Tina that I would take him to work but my truck is leaking something and Keith told me not to drive it far. JJ was working 45 minutes away. Tina couldn't come over and take him because she was sick two days last week and couldn't miss any time because she was so backed up on her work. I then remembered Eric's car was here, but I wasn't sure if it would start. Tina told me that I would have to let the car warm up for 15 minutes because it was so cold outside. The car started on the first try and I let it run while I ran back into the house to get dressed, then I drove over and picked JJ and Wesley up and took JJ to work. He was late, but he made it and didn't get fired!

My whole day has been so out of whack because of having to go out this morning. I didn't get my normally morning chores done and the whole day has just been "off". I did get most of the towels washed, dried and put away, I have one load in the dryer and one in the washer to go.

I was going to make BBQ chicken legs for dinner, but when I went to get the BBQ sauce out of the pantry there was a bottle of salsa sitting next to it and I remember I had seen a recipe for Salsa Chicken on the KF board. So I ran to my computer and googled salsa chicken and I had everything to make it so that is what I made. It was super easy and my family and I loved it! Here is how I made it (I didn't follow the recipe I found I just dumped stuff in).
I used chicken legs but you can use any chicken part, next time I make it I'm making it with boneless chicken breast. I laid my chicken legs into a 9x13 pan, then I sprinkled taco seasoning mix over top of the chicken, then I took the bottle of salsa and dumped it over the chicken, covered with foil and baked until done. After it was done I sprinkled shredded cheddar cheese over the chicken and salsa and put it back into the oven until the cheese melted. Some of the recipes I found said to top with sour cream, but I don't like sour cream so I didn't do that. I made a side dish (some kind of noodle thingie from a box mix) and corn.

Turkey Hunting

I went turkey hunting today. ;) I finally ended up buying my turkey at Food Lion after checking four stores, .59 cent a pound with a $35.00 (or $30.00 I forget) purchase. I just have a hard time spending over $20.00 for a turkey and that seemed to be all I was finding around here. Last year I bought my turkey at Food Lion and they were .39 cent a pound, I was able to buy two, but not this year.
I also bought most of the stuff I will need to make Thanksgiving dinner. Tina and April are going to be making some things so that will help me a whole lot! Tina is making mac and cheese (she uses my Mama's recipe and makes it so good) and she is also making broccoli casserole. April is cooking a ham and making pumpkin pie and I think meatball's in the crockpot. I have to go out sometimes this week, maybe Tuesday and buy my bread for my hot artichoke crab dip. I used to make chips out of pita bread, but discovered that bruschetta works great with the dip.

Eric didn't get my kitchen floor finished today. He is almost finished and said he will finish it after dinner tomorrow evening.

Friday

I finished cleaning out my pantry last night. It looks so much better in there and I can actually find stuff! I wish I had of counted all the empty boxes that I threw away. This evening when everyone is at home I'll have yet another talk to those people that live with me about the importance of throwing away the empty boxes instead of just throwing them back into the pantry.

I don't have much to do today. Wesley is here. Mallory went back to her Dad's last night and Carter is in school. Carter and Wesley will be with their Dad this weekend so I will get to see a lot of Carter. He spends a lot of his time with us when it is his weekend with his Dad, since he will only be 4 houses away from us. I'm sure he will be excited to be here and help with the flooring installation. He loves to help. Many times when he is here with me he will ask to help me clean. I give him a rag and he will go to town dusting. He also likes to fold wash clothes and kitchen towels.

I'm not cooking tonight, we will either go out or get take out. I'll also be going to Walmart I guess.

I need to start shopping for my Thanksgiving meal since I will be cooking. Tina had talked about cooking for us, but has changed her mind. Tina cooked last Thanksgiving and it was so good!

I had hoped to get a free turkey at Farmers Foods but I don't have enough feathers. The store has been running a promotion, spend $50.00 and get a feather. collect 6 feathers and get a free turkey. I only have 3 feathers.

Once I decide on my menu for Thanksgiving I'll post it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and a great weekend!

Pantry Cleaning

I have finally started cleaning out my pantry! It's a big ole mess in there. I have the bottom all cleaned out and now I'm moving my way up. I have already thrown a bunch of stuff away. Things that have gotten pushed to the back mostly. I hate wasting food. It makes me so mad. If those people that I live with would just put the stuff that they take out BACK where they got it then I think that would cut down on a lot of the problem. Also, if they would NOT put empty boxes BACK into the pantry that would make my life so much easier. I don't think I'll get this pantry all done today. I might take pics after it is all finished (after the floor is all down. It doesn't have any flooring in it now so Keith wants to put the laminate in there).

Dinner tonight will be super easy. Fish sticks, mac and cheese (Velveeta) and a veggie. Mallory and Wesley will be staying here till around 6:00pm so I they will be joining us for dinner. They will love the fish sticks I am sure. lol

Free Heat And Some Great News

OK, I just checked the temperature in my living room and it 84 inside my house! Keith has the wood stove in the garage going. He has this pipe thingie running from the top of the wood stove and it goes to this blower that he has blowing the heat from the wood stove into my living room. I checked the temperature outside and it says that our temps outside is 37. We haven't had to turn on our heat from the heat pump yet and this is the second day/night that we have had a fire in the wood stove. We have tons of wood here on my Father in laws land so the wood is free, which gives us free heat for the winter. Last winter I think we turned our heat on a few times, the rest of the winter our house was heated with the wood stove.

My daughter Tina found out yesterday that my grandson Wesley will get to start school in two weeks! We are all so excited about this. He will go to school 4 days a week and off on Wednesdays. He will also get to ride the bus with his big brother Carter to and from school. Wesley is so excited that he gets to ride the bus. :) I think I blogged about Wesley a while ago about him being severally developmentally delayed. The program that he will be in will be of great help to him. All of the teachers that interviewed with him said that he was a very fast learner and that he caught on quick with the things they tested him on.

My dinner tonight as very yummy. I made stuff pork chops, mashed taters and mixed veggies. My stuff pork recipe is super simple. I got the recipe from my friend Julie. All it is is stove stop stuffing on top of the pork chop. I made some gravy to go on top of it while it was baking. I took two cups of water and dissolved two chicken bouillon cubes (I was out of chicken stock so I thought. I was filling my salt shakers later this evening and came across it in the cabinet, but I swear I didn't see it when I was looking for it to use in my gravy lol), sit that aside and then took a few tablespoons of margarine and melted it, then I added a few tablespoons of flour and stirred it with my whisk. I then added my liquid to the flour and margarine and stirred over medium high heat until it thickened. Then I poured it over the pork and stove top, covered with foil and baked. It is so easy and so yummy!

Award!

My sweet friend Julieann juliean-mylife gave me this award today. I am touched and honored, thank you Julieann! :) If you haven't checked out her blog you really should, it is beautifully done and she has some wonderful post on it. The rules are I am to pick 10 blogs and give this award too them. Here are my 10 blogs that I think should receive this award. I love each blog and they each have that something special thing about them that make me come back day after day to read them. Some make me laugh, some have even made me cry both sad tears and happy tears of joy. Some I have just discovered and have been to shy to post in their comments. Others I have been reading for a long time now and have become good friends with.

The rules for this blog are:

1. Put the logo on your blog

2. Add a link to the person who awarded you

3. Nominate 10 other blogs for this award

4. Add links to those blogs

5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

6. Give a reason why you consider their blogs cool.

Ten Cool Blogs:
Barbara: http://celticspirit-domesticgoddess.blogspot.com/
Crystal: http://cmswanson.blogspot.com/

Jessica: http://www.pixiemarierose.blogspot.com/

Gail: http://gail-dish.blogspot.com/
Ms Ruta: http://mzrutabaga.blogspot.com/
Moose: http://tronwife.blogspot.com/
Ms T: http://itmatterstome-t.blogspot.com/
Erin: http://erinandshawn.blogspot.com/
Rebecca: http://rebeccaandtom.blogspot.com/
Lisa: http://goodolegoodsons.blogspot.com/
If any one of my nominees does not want to participate please fell free to not play, I totally understand.

SNOW!

My husband called me about 7:30 this morning to tell me that it was snowing like crazy where he works! I haven't seen one single flake here at the house. :( The sun is shining here now. I hope the snow comes my way, I want Wesley and Mallory to see snow falling. They have never seen a big snow fall and I'm sure they don't remember the snow showers we had last year. The last big snow fall we had Carter was about 18 months old.

When I was a little girl we used to get a lot of big snow falls. I remember going to bed at night with no snow and waking to newly fallen snow, school closing and going out to play in the snow. I also remember a few times we had big snow falls and being sick and not being able to go outside and play in it. I remember sitting up in my bed playing my Spirograph and looking out of my bedroom window seeing all my friends playing in the snow.
We had a few really good snow falls when my children were little. So they have the memory of them, but so far my grandchildren do not have that wonderful memory. *sigh*

I have no idea what dinner will be, probably something chicken. I have laundry to do and my bathroom needs a good cleaning. I really should get into my pantry and clean it out and organize it. I have right much stuff on the floor of it and all of that will have to be moved so the new flooring can be installed in the kitchen, I'm not sure if they will put it in the pantry or not. Right now it is just the sub floor in there.

I hope everyone has a great day!

Monday

I put a roast into my cast iron dutch oven for dinner tonight and it is cooking on top of the stove as I type this. I added a onion and some potatoes to it along with two cups of water with two beef bouillon cubes to it. I'll make some gravy, peas and some biscuits and that will be dinner.

I've been putting things back together in the living room. Linda helped me put my computer back together last night and she put up everything up differently then how I had it. I like the way she did it all. The tower is beside the monitor instead of in the tower cubby hole that is at the bottom of the desk (she tried laying the tower on its side and putting the monitor on top of it (my tower is one of those skinny ones and flat screen monitors fits nicely on it), but my monitor which is a flat screen was to tall and didn't fit. It will make cleaning the dust off the back of the tower a lot easier then when it was on the bottom. She also put my printer in the printer cubby hole on the desk and she put my speakers on the top shelve along with my wireless router and my DSL modem thingie. I'll get a pic of it later and post it.

Sunday

Well my guys got most of the dining room floor put in today. They had to stop at a certain spot so there is a little bit of the dining room that isn't finished. My kitchen is a galley style kitchen so it is long, they hope to get it all finished next weekend. What is finished looks so good. I am so happy with it and wish we had of done it sooner. I don't think Emma likes it to much, she keeps slipping and sliding all over the place when she runs to fetch her ball.

I went to Target today and bought some new curtains for the living room. It's been so long since I bought new curtains I didn't know most were sold with just one panel. The last time I bought curtains or even looked at them in the stores they sold them in two panel packages. I found some I really liked but I needed four panels and they would have been over $40.00 and I just didn't want to spend that on curtains right now (there really isn't anything wrong with the ones I have now, I just wanted new because these are so old). I was so excited when I found a display on the end cap and they were on sale and they were two panels, a valance and the tie backs for $13.99, plus I had a $5.00 off 25.00 or more coupon! I decided on the color and picked up two packages and a rod. I cant wait to see how they look all hung up in my living room. I hope to talk either Keith or Matt into putting the rod up this week some time so I can hang them.

Flooring, Tempers And Pictures

Well my guys started installing our new floor this morning. Less then an hour into it Eric and Keith got into an argument. Keith said Eric wasn't doing it right and Eric said he was and that Keith didn't know what he was doing. Eric threw up his hands and said, he was done, that Keith could finish it. After Eric sat in the kitchen for about 10 minutes and Matt calmed Keith down, they finally kissed and made up. After that little spat was out of the way they worked wonderfully together. They haven't finished. They still have to finish the whole living room, hall, dining room and kitchen. They stop at my computer. They will pick up in the morning at the computer desk and hopefully finish it all tomorrow. I have to say that what they have done so far is so pretty! I LOVE it. :) Eric's boss and his wife came over earlier today to see how Eric was doing. He said Eric was doing a good job.
Here are some pics:

Eric installing our new floor

Taking a break

Done for the day. Matt, David and Eric's arm.

Pretty!!