Eating German

Tried a new recipe last night.....German Skillet Dinner

We would rate it 2 thumbs up.  At first, the husband didn't think he liked it.  But by the end of the meal he declared that it was pretty good.

Of course, we'll be making it again sometime in the future -- although we've decided on a couple of things that we'd do differently (such as substituting hamburger for sausage).

But since you weren't here and couldn't see how heavenly it smelled as it simmered.....you'll just have to look at my pictures and be jealous.

 

Gathering all the necessary ingredients

Stacking it all up in the skillet as directed and getting ready for the long simmer

Here's it is all done and ready to eat

 

Here the recipe sits awaiting it's outcome. 

 If we liked it -- it will stay; if not -- in the trash it goes

The perfect ending to a yummy meal

Hey mom.....look what I can do!

I just created these calendars for all the families that order for school nights.

They are reminder cards with all the dates of their pizza nights so that they'll be sure to order.

I was just so proud of my creation......I just felt the need to share them.

I also got all my photos printed and in frames and put neatly across the mantle.

And.....I got that big ginormous vase decorated all "fall like" and displayed nicely on the stair landing.  Paul had brought home that giant vase filled with flowers a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to do something with that vase.  Looked at Pinterest and got a couple of ideas.....and here's the result. 

It was nice to be able to add a little creativeness to a normal boring work-filled weekend.

Ok....I know it wasn't as exhilerating for you as it is for me.....but hey - we all need to enjoy the simple things in life!

And now a word from our sponsor

We don't usually buy prepared meals because they are too high in calories, too much fat grams, and just plain crap.

But we went out on a limb when our grocery store had a Buy 1- get 1 Free coupon on these new Joe's Crab Shack skillet dinners.

So we took the plunge and bought a couple.

We tried the first one last night(Blackened Chicken and Shrimp Alfredo) and we have to say we were totally impressed.  Calories not bad; fat not bad; taste delicious.  Winner!

I was going to make my fabulous Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits to go with it.....but we didn't have enough milk on hand and I was NOT going to go out to the store.

 Next time we'll pair it with the Cheddar Bay Biscuits and a fresh salad.....and that will make it a complete meal! We have a Shrimp Linguine one waiting in the freezer to try.

It's time to scream

Allow me the moment to scream!

It's building up inside me and I think today I'm going over the edge.

All week long I've been struggling to get caught up.  No chance of that happening. 

My house is destroyed.  I kid you not.....you all think I'm exaggerating -- but you have no idea.  I'm not even going to post pictures of the problems.....because I am too embarrassed.

Last night at Pizza Zone was a DISASTER!  Phones did not stop ringing, deliveries were delayed by as much as 1 1/2 to 2 hours (and we working our butts off), customers cussing us out and cancelling their orders.  Gee whiz....couldn't they see that it was pouring out there and that throws everything off?  Now I've probably got 50 apology cards with discounts on them to send to everyone who got a really late delivery.

Get home last night at 10pm only to find the power is out.  Great.  Only thing to do is go to bed and try and get some sleep.  I saw the power trucks drive down the street so I assume they are going to get it fixed.  Well it came off an on about 5 times during the night.....would stay on for less than a minute.....then we could hear the transformer blow it out again.

Woke up this morning.....no power.

Ok.....guess I'll go run my errands since I can't do anything at the house.

Come home 3 hours later and the power is on, but the freezer has started melting and there's water everywhere and the refrigerator felt left out.....so she dumped some water on the floor too.

I walk out in the back yard and this is what I found.

At first I thought the tree had crashed through the fence, but it didn't seem possible that it would miss the pool.  Upon closer inspection it appears that someone cut the tree down and stacked it all up in our yard.  There is a power transformer box on the property line that has been getting crooked because of tree roots.....so we think maybe it was the power company that came in and cut the tree and decided that we were going to be the lucky ones to get rid of the mess.

So please......just give me a moment while I get out all this pent up stress.  AGHGHGHGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now it's time to act like a rational adult again and start getting busy.  It's going to be a long, long day.

P.S.  Hope it wasn't our power box that caused everyone to lose their power.....oops!

5 years later.....Hurricane Ike

I now have the ability to add "being in a Hurricane" to add to my resume.

Granted, we live 100 miles from the coast, but we did feel a "mini" version of the storm.

It was strange that night - September 13, 2008 -- everybody was in their houses because everything had shut down.  All the neighbors were in their yards and we gathered together and talked and in some cases met neighbors that we hadn't yet met.  We all talked about what we did to "batten down our hatches" and we all wondered what the storm was going to bring to our neighborhood.

As it grew dark, we all went into our houses and wouldn't emerge until the storm was over.  The storm knocked out our power about 3am -- so that meant no more TV coverage.  We hated that part.  Cris, Aaron, and I had blankets and beds in the living room so we could watch the TV and see what was happening around the city.  Once we lost that -- we just sat in the dark and listened to the crashing of things outside from the high winds. 

The winds finally died down about 8am and little by little people started coming out of their houses and looking to see what damage had been done.  We were pretty lucky, here are a few pictures of what we saw.

 

We stacked the cars up on the lawn and as close to the house as we could.  Our street floods and we didn't want to lose any of our cars.

Have no idea who he was on the phone with.  We were closed and nothing was open.

And here is the beginning of Ike.

 

 

The tree debris begins.

 

Lost all our backyard fence.

Smashed the neighbor's bedroom window.

 

Neighbors on the other side had a tree fall on their house and car.

 

You couldn't take a good enough picture to represent all the tree debris that was in our yard. 

 

This was how we spen one afternoon -- raking the debris.

 

The power was out for 9 days at our house, luckily power was on at Kuykendahl store -- so we spent the day working and then came home to a hot and dark house.  Neighbors were gracious enough to share their food and we brought home pizzas and ice in return.

 

Now that I've had the experience -- I care not to enjoy it again.  Thank you very much.

Days filled with fun. Days filled with work.

Today was spent in front of my computer catching up on the paperwork so that I can do payroll before the end of the week.

Of course there was the usual trip to the bank, the stores, and post office to also help fill the day.

Tomorrow night will be trivia with good friends.....always look forward to that.  We won 1st place a couple of weeks ago so we have $70 to spend on food and drink.  That's always a good thing.

Tomorrow also needs to try and squeeze in the time to sit down and have a meeting with the President and CEO of Pizza Zone.  We need to discuss our upcoming move, drawing out a kitchen layout, what will need to be done, raises, and a whole other lot of issues that I have.

Thursday is the youngest child coming home.  It's been almost 9 months since he's been back "home" and he has lots of people waiting to see him.  I need to get the house cleaned and plan a couple of meals that he wants while he's here.  We're also having a mini dinner one night while he's here.

In addition, sometime this week we need to get out and get a birthday present for a very good friend.  We'll be going out Saturday night and listening to two of our favorite people and attending the birthday party.

I also want to spend some time and start planning our Memphis trip.  We really don't know if we're driving or flying, where we're staying, or what we're doing while we are there.

What a great life I have!

A pictorial view of how NOT to enjoy a Sunday

It's Sunday. 

Might be important to those of you fortunate to work 8-5 Monday through Friday.

But those of us who don't......just another day.

Here's the schedule of my day:

Lots of paperwork to do to get ready for payroll next week

Lots of dirty towels and aprons to wash for Pizza Zone

 

 

Got to get something to make for dinner tonight

Got to get the house reasonably cleaned......got company coming this week!

 

If there's time.......probably will be consuing some of this (I'll need it)

 

 

 

Hopefully, I will not be called away from all my other stuff to do this

 

 

 

This will be me during this entire day.

 

 

 

So go on now......get out of here and let me get my work done!

 

 

I love to blog!

Why do I write this blog?

It really doesn't matter to me if anyone else reads it or not (well some of that statement is not entirely true)

I write it because I love writing.  I love reading.  I have a burning passion to write a book. 

I remember doing research and writing reports on countries during the summers because I just loved doing that stuff (looking back I realize what a freaking nerd I was).

But mostly I blog to have a chronicle of my life. 

I have so much fun going back and looking at the pictures and remembering all those special and non-eventful things in my life.

Life is short.  Life is not always going to be filled with big moments.  Sometimes you have to slow down and just enjoy all the small moments too.....you never know when it all stops.

Looking back on my life, I feel incredibly blessed with where I've been and where I'm headed.

I learned a long time ago to stop dwelling on the negative and instead celebrate the positive.  Sure I have those things that I wish I could "do over".  I can't.  So let's just move ahead and enjoy the people and the moments and the experiences that I have today.

In the meantime, I got a new haircut today that I thought I liked when I got it and now I'm not so sure.

Ha Ha......love it when I leave ya'll with this mystery and don't post a picture about it ;-)

September 4, 1996

WARNING:  Mushiness ahead!

September 4 might just be a normal day to most people, but to us it has a very special meaning.

That's the day we met each other.  In a Prodigy chatroom on the internet.  We actually were in a singles chat room.  I was in there for no particular reason, except that I had just gotten the computer a few days earlier and was checking things out.

I have no idea why he was in there.  Well maybe I do, but that's his story to tell.

The very first night I was ever in this particular chat room and I got a private message.  It was from someone named Gazillionair.  I really hadn't been paying much attention to him in the regular room, but once I got the private chat......it started a conversation. 

A conversation that eventually led to the most wonderful relationship I could ever imagine.

Yesterday, marked 17 years from that first meeting.  And our first meeting in person came one month later in Houston.

From the moment we met, we knew this was the person that we were supposed to be with.  Wow.....I sure looked skinny back in those days :-)

So today, we took a moment and just talked about all the wonderful things that have happened since we first met.  Last night my husband walked in with the BIGGEST HUGEST GIGANTIC flower bouquet that I have ever received.  I was totally surprised!

But just so you don't think that I didn't do something special on my own......when he came home last night he was able to feast on eggplant parmesan and one of my special salads.

 

I could never express how much I love this man and how much he has changed my life. 

Thank you Paul........you are truly the one person I have waited for all of my life!  I love you!

We're still strolling down memory lane

Yay!  We've made it to May.

Here's just another bunch of random photos. 

We enjoyed one night at the ballfield enjoying our little Pizza Zone sponsored team.  What a laugh that was.  But they sure did look cute with their little Pizza Zone logos on their shirts :-)

Mother's Day took us to New Mexico to visit Aaron.  We had a great trip and saw lots of beautiful New Mexico scenery.....even the inside of a couple of casinos!  But since that has already been a subject of a blog or two......we'll just show a couple of pictures to remind you of the fun!

We ate more green chiles while we were there (more than we should have) and one of our favorites was the green chiles on the pizza.

This picture was taken from our table at the High Finance restaurant.  This was the top of Sandia Peak and we enjoyed a nice dinner and a spectacular view and sunset.  Even caught pictures of us in the reflection.

While searching for some piece of important paperwork, I found this letter in my lockbox.  I continually hold this over my sister's head that she needs to take my children.  She's not having it.

Can't believe I still have this paper in safekeeping.

I guess this is what you have to do when you don't want to forget something.  Found these keys sitting inside the dispenser on the refrigerator one day.  Won't tell you who they belong to.....but they're not mine.

May also got me experimenting with making fresh salsas.  I've become such a salsa snob and don't like any that we buy in the store.....I like them fresh.  So I got some tomatillos and made two different kinds.  I just have to say............they were both SO GOOD!

 

 

Now I just need to master the fine art of making red salsa with fire roasted tomatoes. 

But that's another task for another day!