Old People

I haven't blogged in awhile because I haven't had much to blog about. Today my sister sent me a facebook message telling me I should check out this blog about Clara, a 93 year old woman who cooks meals she ate during the depression. Clara is a gem! So sweet and she's funny too.
I am fond of older people and thought I just had to pass sweet Clara's blog on to you...
Clara's Blog
There are links there for her yout*be videos check 'em out.

Family Photos

We had family photos taken to celebrate my In-Laws 44th wedding anniversary. Congrats you two! The top photo is obviously our little family and below is everyone.
Mom, dad, 2 brothers, 1 sister, 2 spouses and 3 grand kids.

2 New Fav's

I have two new favorite things....

First Up...

Lay It On Thick body cream lotion from Bath and Bo.dy work.s as well as the shower cream!

I have dry skin and the winter is no friend of mine! I usually use Cur.el lotion for xtreme dry skin and it works ok - but for Christmas my brother in law gave me a gift certificate to the above named store and I came upon the Spa collection they have and these two products caught my eye. I'm tellin you I love them! I don't feel greasy but when I use the lotion I still have soft legs at the end of the day and rarely need to put the lotion on more than once a day - this is a miracle people! The shower cream is great but smells like Pina Coldas and makes me crave them! One of these days I hope my husband will bring me one to enjoy after my shower. (I'm sure it will never happen, but I can dream, right?) Ok, TMI I'm sure!

On to the next favorite thing...

You should know that I HATE oatmeal! Well, hot oatmeal that is. I don't care how you doctor the stuff up, I can't get past the texture to enjoy it - I gag every time. It's really sad because it's pretty affordable, easy, hot breakfast, good for you and it smells delightful - but alas - I gag. :(

While picking up a box of oatmeal for my hubby, I see this: Oatmeal To Go...looks like a cookie to me! I LOVE cookies and they don't make me gag - so I bought a box.

LOVE LOVE LOVE these things, even better they sell them at Sams for cheap and you get multiple flavors. One "cookie" is equal to one bowl of hot oatmeal - you can heat the "cookie" for a yum breakfast treat - no dishes involved and it has lots of vitamins. It has lots of calories (hello - it is replacing a hearty bowl of oatmeal!) so one is plenty and sticks with you until lunch time for sure, at least for me it does.

Be Mine?

Baby K's 1st Valentine....FROM A BOY!

Yesterday, Baby K got her 1st Valentine in the mail and it was not from mommy & daddy. It was from a boy. ;) Our friends have a little boy who is 2weeks younger than Baby K and he is a sweetheart. I am hoping one of these days we get to go see them. Baby K sent James a Christmas present because mommy found a cute sleeper that was too sweet to pass up. James sent the cutest bib ever to Baby K and it was made by his grandma. Very sweet. Thanks M&Em.

And for all of you who have been asking about the new furniture upstairs, I took some pics. The green wall is going to be painted another color soon, so just block that out. :) Also the flash made the color of the furniture look odd, so I took pics w/o the flash, so now they are a little out of focus.
Because things got moved around I need to find some accent pieces/colors to add upstairs now b/c it's a little monochromatic and blah, but it is restful and I really love our new chair.

Thanks Keely

Thanks Say family for the cute shirt - it finally fits and I think Baby K looks especially cute in it!
Miss you lots!

Basement pics!!!!

Well the walls need some personal touches, pictures and decoration, but as far as function - the basement is done!

A special thanks to our small group from church for helping move furniture around.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog address....
Same Blog - Same Sweet Stuff - Just a new address

I'm Bummed because for some reason my sidebar of Favorite Blogs is now empty and I will have to link to all of my favorites all over again! Dang it!

If I didn't link to your blog & you know I stalk you...please let me know via a comment and then I can find you - I don't have addresses memorized or saved anywhere else - what a mess, I look forward to keeping up with you when I have your blog address again. :)

Question...

I need to hire someone/company to steam clean our upstairs carpet.
The problem is how do you choose who to hire. I am NOT going to have 3-4 different companies to give me an estimate - I'll spend all my time waiting for cleaning guys to stop in my house.

I do plan on getting 2 estimates unless I just get overwhelming recommendations for a certain company.

I looked in the phone book and there are so many companies listed - argh!

Anyway - I need to have it steam cleaned - not shampoo - any suggestions? If you live in my area and have had a good experience with a company let me know.
Thanks

Old Bay Seasoning

In my last post I said I used Old Bay Spice in a recipe- it's actually called Old Bay Seasoning -opps. Here is their website: Old Bay Seasoning I'd never been there before today...

As for where you can get this stuff - well I found it on a little shelf back by the seafood counter in my local grocery store. Otherwise I would check in the spice aisle around other things to season fish with maybe near the cornmeal? If you ask someone at the seafood counter they should be able to help you find it.

As for what's in this stuff - here is what the label says: "Celery salt, spices (including mustard, red pepper, black pepper, bay leaves, cloves, allspice (pimento), ginger, mace, cardamom, cinnamon), and paprika." Seriously I never would have guessed half of this stuff is in here - anyway, it good and not spicy. Is it safe to eat something with mace in it? :)

Christy, if you can't find it I will mail you some - really I will!

Keely - No it is not with the deodorant, but I cracked up when I read that - witty! :)

Baby K Helps...& a new recipe

Above is what it looks like when Baby K helps mommy wash dishes - she sits next to me while I work and last week discovered she can reach the paper towels and if she pulls they just keep coming! She loves it - it's cute for now. ;)
Dinner:

So here is the salad I made for dinner the other night - YUMMY! and Healthy!!!
It is a bed of baby spinach topped with craisins, red onion, mushrooms, almonds, feta crumbles and salmon - the best part was the salmon! Oh and I used Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing (from Kraft).

This is how I cooked the Salmon:
2/3 c apple juice
2 tsp Old Bay spice

in a non stick pan I brought the juice and spice to a simmer at med-high heat.
I placed the salmon (which I got in 4 oz servings vacuum sealed at Dillons) in the skillet and put the lid on the skillet for 4 min.

After 4 min I turned the salmon over meat down on the heat - skin side up facing the lid and cooked it for 3 more min.
It was beautifully caramelized! And SO flavorful and took less than 10 min!

I let the salmon rest then cut the skin off and cut fish into strips to place on the salad.

I will make the salmon this way again and think I may serve it with a side of salad and a potato rather than as a topping to the salad.
Enjoy!

Memories that Still make you laugh out loud

Don't you just love it when a memory from several years back can randomly come to mind and make you laugh out loud?! I do...
Today, while filling out the Facebook "25 random things about me" thing, I was reminded of a memory I share with my dear friend "Joy" and honestly I have laughed out loud several times this morning because of it.
We were out to eat one day at a local restaurant and on their menu they had an advertisement for an offer called "Make it a Platter!"
The offer was for $1.99 you could add two sides and a drink to any sandwich order.
J asked the waitress if she could "Just make it a platter" after explaining herself a few times, she had stumped the waitress. Yep, J wanted to order two sides and a drink for $1.99 no sandwich. I still laugh at the look on the waitresses face when she realized what J was asking - finally deciding she didn't know the answer and would have to ask her manager.
In the end the answer was no. No you can not JUST make it a platter!

Why this is so funny I'm not totally sure but I think it was the looks on everyones's faces, my face, J's face, the waitress and I can only imagine her manager's face.

So Funny! Honestly, usually when J tries to work something like this...it works. She gets great deals and sometimes even free stuff because of her boldness to ask. I love her (for many more reasons than just this).

Swimming..

Baby K LOVES the bathtub! I think she is ready to try swimming. I want to take her to the YMCA and try it out and then last night at Targ*t they had swimming suits! Here she is modeling...

Serving

My wonderful husband was helping me in the preschool children's church class a few Sunday's ago. We have a toy workbench and some toy tools down there and he found that our drill was broken - not only was it broken, someone must have stepped on it and we were worried that small pieces may fall out of it! After both agreeing the toy was now dangerous, I said we should throw it away - he thought he could fix it.
Ok, so my idea of "fixing" it would be take out the small electrical pieces inside, throw them away, glue the plastic thing back together again and call it good.
My husband's idea of fixing it...is seen below in the slide show - he got out the superglue, the special small screwdrivers, and the soldering iron & wire. Not only did he put it back together but he was able to repair the electrical part of the toy so it completely works again - and it is almost as loud as a real drill which I'm sure the kids will love - but the volunteers may not! HA!

The adventures of a 4month old...

Baby K is days away from being 5 months old. This past month she has had 3 more shots, started trying rice cereal and other baby foods, ROLLED OVER from tummy to back, taken a few naps (and I mean few), enjoys her excersaucer with the help of a blanket (she's so long and lean that the seat is too big w/o the blanket), watched history in the making yesterday although she won't remember it, oh and many things I'm sure I've forgotten at the moment.
We have been so busy - the basement is almost finished - all we need is carpet I can't believe it! Children's church is now planned for the next two months, my bow party is over, my house is clean w/ the exception of laundry and holiday decorations have been put away, OH And I finally mailed all 140 Happy New Year Cards yesterday - what in the world!
Here are some pictures of our sweet Baby K

Justice gets a hair cut...

So I take our dog to the same wonderful groomer every time, I always pick her up to find our cocker shaved down to look like some kind of lab puppy - that's how I ask them to cut her. Sometimes they give her a more traditional cocker shave and leave some curls on her ears but no matter how they cut her hair she always has a bandanna around her neck when I pick her up.
Today was different. Today she had no bandanna, she looked like a princess dog, she looked like this:

Kiss

My cousin, Beth, and I are good friends even though we live miles apart and are years apart in age. In a lot of ways Beth is my personality clone. We talk often on the phone. When my husband and i were dating Beth would call and he would see her name on the caller id, and then proceed to sing the Kiss song "Beth I hear you calling." When his birthday rolled around Beth and I ordered a kiss doll off the internet, then purchased a build-a-bear voice box, recorded the song and put it inside the doll. When you would push his belly he would sing. Later when it was Beth's birthday we rerecorded on the voice box, Happy birthday and had her mom put the doll in her locker to surprise her. So the plan was made...the doll must continue to be passed around as our little family inside joke...well...Beth keeps forgetting to give the doll up and it's been 2 years people! So I have decided that I will just keep pranking her until she passes the doll back.

I've put the craziest looking stuffed Troll doll in her duffel bag with a note, and twice now I have changed the header on her blog (girl needs to change her password) and this last one was pretty funny, I crack myself up! :) She posted some pictures of the troll doll on her blog several weeks back, check my favorite blogs for "Fingerprints" you can visit her there.
Here is the header I posted last night...

My favorite part is I put her photo on the screen of the cell phones, oh and the gross chest hair is pretty funny too. You'll have to see the header on her actual blog to see how well it blends in. What a hoot.

Baby K & Daddy...

This is Baby K at 4mo old...
The previous post (Guess Who) is her daddy at 5 1/2 months old...

I think they look similar only their noses are different and of course Baby K looks like a girl and not a boy. :)

Guess Who...

Look at this cute kid!

An EASY meal

Want to make something tasty, healthy, easy and beautiful?
Here's a delightful meal.
Main Dish: Honey Orange Glazed Chicken (quick prep but cooks 45 min in oven, make sure to allow for cooking time)
Sides: Fresh Spinach Salad, greenbeans, potatoes (boiled new potatoes red or white are wonderful!)

Fresh Spinach Salad:
prewashed baby spinach leaves
dried cranberries
drained light mandarin oranges
toasted almond slices
feta cheese crumbled
store bought Balsamic Vinegrette Dressing

Greenbeans:
Just from the can but if you have a little bacon fat (I know not the healthiest ingred but just use a tiny bit and it will go a long way to add flavor)
add a few toasted almond slices for easy added flare!

Ok the Chicken:
4 Chicken Breasts
1 Tb Olive Oil
4 green onions, chopped
1 Garlic clove, minced
3Tb honey
4 Tb Orange Juice
1 Orange peeled and segmented
2 Tb light soy sauce

Preheat oven to 375
place chicken in a shallow pan, I use a 9x9 pan the chicken should just fit and not touch each other.
Heat oil in a small saucepan. Fry onions & garlic until soft. Add honey, OJ, orange segments, and soy sauce. heat until honey is dissolved.
Pour sauce over chicken & bake uncovered for 45min.
Remove from oven and cover dish tightly with foil and let set for 5-10min. This will lock in the juices of the chicken. Plus it will be too hot to eat right away.
Serve with sauce.