Catching Up

I’ve been a bad blogger. Sue me.

Most days I’m too tired after work to do much. It’s the oldness creeping up on me. There are too many things to do around the house on the weekends to sit down  for barely an hour or two.  It’s already almost the end of June already. Pretty soon I’ll be school shopping for B again. Since she is going to CTC this year she’ll start a week earlier. That’s one week less I have to get things together. Blah.

Here’s my latest project….

This used to sit on my grandparent’s back porch.  It sat there for as long as I remember.  I’m not sure how old it is.  Dad inherited it when my grandfather died almost 10 years ago.  When Dad asked me if I wanted it I didn’t hestitate.  It’s been sat on by 13 grandchildren and who knows what else.  It’s a work in progress and taking a little bit of time. Two coats of stain on it already. I’ll post pictures of the finished product soon.

Here’s my lillies that I planted last fall….

Daisy being silly…..

I’m on vacation the last week of June/first week of July. Going to the annual Tattoo at the AFB on the 26th. Food, Fireworks and good music. We are planning on going to Amish country and the zoo but no big travel plans this year.  Hawaii is starting to become a reality. We’ve got over half the money we need saved up so by the time we need to start getting really serious about planning we should be all set. 10 months and counting!

3 day weekend

Yippee! I usually work the holiday but decided this year I”m not gonna do it. It’s not worth time and a half anymore. People would rather shop than spend time with friends anymore and that’s sad. So I’m staying home just to prove a point. My nephew is graduating this weekend and my sister is having his graduation party on Memorial Day(which I think is stupid but that’s just my opinion). I’m not even going to that.

My peonies are blooming! I got an email this afternoon from Michigan Bulb saying that my order has been shipped so should be receiving that this weekend and that’s what we’ll be doing.

I took B last night shopping for a homecoming dress for next year. Now is the best time to shop for them because they are all on clearance. Found a full length black and white formal at Elder Beerman, regular price $90.00, marked down to $29.99!  The time to get a great deal is right after the last prom in the area though. Pickings were getting slim last night and the  last prom was just last weekend.

My ex finally had to go back to court for not paying child support. Right now he owes the kids around $6000. I haven’t heard or received any papers from the court so I called CSA to find out what happened.  They slapped him on the wrist and said he needed to start paying $50 more a month. WTF? He’s not paying me anything now so why would he pay me more? He has until August 11th when he has to reappear, then he  has to show that’s he’s paying. If not then it’s either pay the full amount he owes or go back to jail. I’d like to know where he going to get $6000 from. Would suit me just fine if he went back to jail. It’s where he belongs. And this is a convicted felon folks. Shows you what kind of court system we have.

It’s Friday so we are having a date night tonite. B is going to be out with friends so it’s just J and me! Woohoo! Don’t know what we are doing. I want to go play putt putt and he wants to go see Terminator. Who likes to be inside with all this wonderful weather we’ve been having? Not me.

What I’ve been up to

Had such a busy week last week. Working every day, B’s choir concert on Tuesday night, going to my parents today since I didn’t get to go last Sunday for Mother’s Day. I still haven’t made it to the grocery store this week and my laundry (better known as “The Mound”) is piling up the ceiling again. What am I doing tomorrow? Doing the previously mentioned plus going to the gym and going the the Parade of Homes. I swore I wasn’t going to do anything on Sunday but we all see where that went!

Here’s some choir pics that I took….. B is third from the right on the bottom riser

This is the Treble Choir. B was going to do this next year but since she is going to CTC  she won’t be joining.  They sang Beauty School Dropout from the movie “Grease”. Too  Cute!

If you look closely, you will see one of two hawks that are stalking birds and rodents in my backyard. I came home a few weeks ago to a dove massacre. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

My beautiful clematis that I transplanted about 2 months ago.

My Mother’s Day present

My peonies are just about ready to bloom

My other pretty girl. Don’t ask me why she’s in Daisy’s bed.

It’s going to be another busy week for me with Memorial Day coming up. Our business is up over 50 percent from this time last year. People are feeling the pinch and trying to save money.  I have noticed that Target and Kroger have lowered milk and bread prices. Gotta love that!

That’s it for me. J and B are watching a movie and I’m ready to head for bed soon. Have a great week!

Last Night

Here’s a good one for you.  After we got home from dinner last night I had to hit the bathroom and J took the dog out to pee. I was in the bathroom maybe 5 minutes tops and when I came out J said that Daisy tried to eat Mr. Toad that has been living in the backyard. She had it in her mouth for a second or two but that was enough. She had already thrown up 3 times and was working on number 4.  Luckily, there is a 24 hour emergency pet clinic in Centerville so I ended up calling them just to make sure she would be OK.  While I was talking to them she threw up again. When I told them what was going on and how many times she had up-chucked they said to bring her in. While J was getting his shit together she chucked up number 5 and 6. By this time I’m getting a little worried. I grab some towels and off we go.  Puke number 7 was in the car on my lap.  I was worried about her getting dehydrated but didn’t want to give her any water.  We were at the clinic for over two hours. The doctor said that toads have a scent they release as a defense mechanism and maybe she swallowed some toad pee. That’s what was causing all the puking. They gave her a shot for her upset stomach and told us not to feed her or give her water for 8 hours. Luckily, it was around her bedtime that wasn’t a big problem.  She seems to be ok today, maybe just a little tired.  And I’m $100 poorer.  I think the toads are going to be finding a new home because the next time I or J see them they are going over the fence into the neighbors yard.

I don’t get it

We went to Jeffersonville over the weekend.  This is supposed to be an outlet mall but for some reason I don’t get it. Some of the stores have reasonable prices but others are way out there. Pottery Barn is a good example. Ummmmm $1400 for a couch? Makes me wonder what the original price was to begin with. That’s more than I paid for my whole entire living room setup. You can call me cheap I guess. Anyway, back to Pottery Barn. The whole store is just too chi-chi snobby and I don’t get the women who shop there. What is the appeal?  Which leads me to another store that was there….Coach. Now I love purses but come on girls! $220 for something that could be stolen the minute you turn your back?  I just don’t get it.

Here’s something else I don’t get. Twitter.  Why in the world would I want someone to know what I’m doing 24 hours a day?  Is your life so boring that you can’t find something to do other than tell everyone you need to go the bathroom? Go outside people! I put Facebook and MySpace in this same category.

American Idol. Don’t get it. Watching someone get slammed on national television because they think they can sing when they really can’t just doesn’t make any sense to me. How humiliating. 

Watching Dancing with the Stars is like watching paint dry.

Rachael Ray. Nails on a chalkboard.

The Weekend

Here’s an update on what we did over the weekend.

Went to the gym Saturday morning.

Grocery shopping at Sam’s Club.

I mowed the grass and J did the weedwacking.

Went to Lowes twice. Once for string for the weedwacker and once for a new water filter for the refrigerator.

Walked the dog.

Ordered pizza.

Went to garden center for perrenials.  Coneflowers and bee balm.

Ordered plants from Michigan Bulb.  Ordered this to replace the lightpole in the front yard we are going to dig up.

Also ordered this to go with the other stuff we planted.

Plus we ordered a bunch of daisies to fill in holes.

I think that about it. We were supposed to go to J’s sister’s house for a cookout but the rain took care of that.

I haven’t mentioned that we bought a  new car. J’s car was just about toast and we were tired of putting money into it. This last repair was going to to cost us around $2000. So we decided to take that money and put it into something trustworthy. We ended up getting a 2009 Honda Civic. Sweet!

Time for me to head out for work. Have a great week and enjoy the beautiful weather that is headed this way!

Two in one day!

Shocking I know but I had to post this recipe. My brother made this side dish for Easter dinner and I had to make it again. So very simple and very light and tasty.

Couscous Salad

Two boxes of couscous with pine nuts

1/2 of each pepper (green, red, yellow) finely chopped

1/2 cucumber, seeded and finely chopped

one lemon

olive oil

cherry Roma tomatoes (optional)

Cook couscous according to directions. After you let it sit for 5 minutes, drain and rinse with cold water to stop cooking process. Drain again thoroughly .  Mix together couscous, peppers, cucumber, the juice from the whole lemon and olive oil (this is an eyeball thing. Maybe 3 tablespoons at the most).  Top with split tomatoes and refrigerate for several hours.

This is perfect for a summer barbeque. Yum!

Hello world!

I’m switching over from blogspot because it sucks!

I’ll eventually move all the other stuff over but for right now I’m curious to see if this site is any easier.

So….Spring is finally here! I took a few pictures a few weeks ago before it got all rainy and cold. We were cleaning out the flower beds and came across this little guy……I’d like to think it’s the same one from last summer and he survived the winter but I can’t tell for sure.  They all look alike to me

My flowering pear tree in my front yard is beautiful this year

Miss Daisy and her huge  hole that she dug.  J gets so mad at  her when she digs.  I want to pay for a big pile of dirt just so she can dig to China but he says no.  I tell him he needs to stop bitching.  Being outside is her thing.

Sweet Potato Heaven

Sounds like a town in backwoods West Virginia doesn’t it? Ever since I’ve started my new healthy living plan I have tried to find new ways to fix old standards. How do you usually cook sweet potatoes? Baked or mashed right? When baked you add butter and lots of sugar. When mashed you add heavy cream. So my brain started working and came up with a somewhat healthier version. There is some sugar in it but I think you need it to even up the flavor. These are so good that we have them at least once a week. You can even roast them on the grill but watch your temperature setting. They do tend to burn if you aren’t watching.

Slow Roasted Sweet Potatoes

4 large sweet potatoes (around 2 pounds)

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

cinnamon- about 2 tablespoons

cumin- about 1 tablespoon

olive oil

Peel and cube sweet potatoes

Mix together the sugars, cinnamon and cumin

Dump everything into a large Ziploc bag. Drizzle in olive oil ( I would say around 2 tables spoons). Shake bag until potatoes are well coated.

Line a large baking dish with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Dump potatoes in dish and spread evenly.

Cover with foil and bake at 300 degrees for at least 2 hours. I usually stick these in about 2:30 or 3 in the afternoon. I get home from the gym around 5 and by the time I get out of the shower it’s 5:20 or so. The end result……

YUM!

Try these as an alternative to your mashed potatoes at Easter Dinner. Your guests will thank you.

As you can probably tell I’m off work today but no rest for the wicked here. Gotta run to Target, Petsmart, Bed Bath and Beyond and Krogers. Plus I’ve got about 4 loads of laundry to catch up on, gym this afternoon, and bed early tonight. I have an early morning tomorrow and company coming from out of town this weekend . Thankfully my house isn’t all that filthy so I have carpet to sweep and floors to mop tomorrow afternoon.

Have a great Thursday!

Back on track

Talk about being sidetracked! Yes I’m back. Things just got a little crazy and I had to take a break.
J’s mom is better. She’s back in the nursing home and talking up a storm. She’s even walking a little and eating soft foods. She may never be back to the way she was though. There is still no explanation as to why she took such a drastic turn. Maybe we’ll never know.
I’ve had to kick my son out of my house. When he moved back in in December, I had given him 3 weeks to find another place to live or to start paying me 40 bucks a week. I didn’t think 40 was a a bad deal. But apparently he did because I never did see a dime. So I let things go. Then this week J was looking for my daughter’s missing camera in his room when he came across a homemade pipe with some marijuana in it. Deal breaker for me. A couple of years ago he had brought some into the house and I let it slide and told him that if I ever found it in my house again that he would be gone. Apparently he didn’t believe me. Then I found out that he had been wanting B to smoke with him. I told him that he needed to get his ass out of my house TODAY! Between the drugs and things coming up missing (camera, money, DVDs) I had had enough. He didn’t argue with me and left. And picked up all his stuff today. I told him he could be mad at me all he wants right now. He just doesn’t get it. I don’t think I’ll be seeing him anytime soon. Tough love sucks but needed to be done.
Here’s some really good news……we are Hawaii bound! Next April I’ll be sitting on a beach on the north shore of Oahu. My brother wants to share a house for a week during the kids spring break.
I think he’s convinced my parents to go so with 3 families splitting the cost of the house it’s cheaper than a hotel. I told B that it would be an early graduation present. She had a chance to go to NYC with the choir at the same time but decided she would rather do the beach. Do ya blame her? I’ll keep you updated on the details.
With inventory done at work hopefully things will be a little slower and I can get back into writing more often. I know the girls at work are bitching because I haven’t posted any good recipes in a while. But with summer coming up I have some really good BBQ recipes to post. I promise!
Spring is almost here. I noticed green on the trees and my spring bulbs are coming up. We have a few things planned for the house but nothing major. I would like to rip off the front deck and dig up the light pole by the driveway. Whoever built the deck half-assed it and it’s warping pretty bad. I pushing for decorative concrete but that might not happen this year. We’ll probably settle for pavers for right now. Plus when the deck is gone I’ll have about 6 more feet of yard. That’s the plan anyway….doesn’t always mean it’s going to happen.
I’m out for now…..Good Sunday to all!