Are we still in Kansas Toto?

I was rudely awoken early this morning about 2:00AM to the sound of fierce wind (what DOES a freight train sound like at 2am?), thunder and rain hitting the bedroom window so hard I thought we were having a tornado!  I checked the weather and sure enough we were under a watch so I got up and just then the power flickered – not enough to make the clocks blink but enough to make the fire alarm chirp.  I stumbled downstairs to check if Austen was awake – he usually is that time of night.  I think I woke him.  Meghan came out of Erik’s room asking what was wrong.  I told her we were under a tornado watch to keep an ear open – then I went back to bed.

No, I really didn’t sleep much – off and on even after the storm passed.  Being woke up in the middle of the night to the point that I get up out of bed does not do well for going back to sleep on my part.  Surprisingly I’m not too tired this morning (watch, now I’ll be sleeping at my computer this afternoon).  Aubri slept though the entire thing!  I think you could set off an A-bomb in her bedroom and she would not wake.

Got up this morning to the sun shining, wet grass, some leaf buds all over the driveway from the maple next to it but no damage that I saw so far.  I really do need to walk around the back of the house and check the siding – that is the west side and that is were the wind comes from.  We have had a few spots were the siding likes to come loose before so I need to check those tonight. 

I made multi-grain Bread today.  The recipe I got off the internet (Cookeatshare.com) it makes two REALLY BIG loaves.  I would show you the other but I had to use a bigger loaf pan for it and so it looks smaller.  :)

What's Cookin?

Monday: Super-Easy Cream of Broccoli Soup (ww), Homemade bread
Tuesday: Panko Crusted Beef, Roast Potatoes with Tomato Basil Feta, Green Beans with Smoked Almonds and bacon (Dierbergs Everybody Cooks, March 2012)
Wednesday: Sharon’s Company Chicken – using asiago cheese instead of swiss (Dierbergs March 2012), Lipton pasta side dish, leftover green beans
Thursday: Crab Cakes with Lipton Rice Side dish and Garlic topped summer squash (Dierbergs March 2012)
Friday: Blackened Tilapia (or Salmon), Toasted Pecan Quinoa (Dierbergs March 2012), leftover summer squash
Saturday: Italian Meat Loaf (Dierbergs March 2010), mashed potatoes, and green beans
Sunday: Pork Tenderloin in Pan Sauce (Dierbergs March 2010), Salad, Bread

As usual if you want a recipe just ask.

What's Cookin?

Sorry I haven’t’ posted my menus the last few weeks. I did have them and followed them but I just never got them posted. I do have two new cookbooks from Weight Watchers “Power Foods” that the kids bought me for Christmas and “Best Darn Food Ever” that I bought for myself a few weeks ago. Some really good stuff in both of them!

Monday: Easy Skillet lasagna (Dierbergs, Everybody Cooks Mag. March 2010)
Tuesday: Roast Beef, Mashed Potatoes and gravy, Green beans
Wednesday: Oven Fried Chicken (WW Best Darn Food Ever), Turnip greens and corn
Thursday: Creamy Chicken Paprikash with Fresh Dill (WW Power Foods)
Friday: Sicilian Tilapia (Dierbergs, Everybody Cooks mag. March 2010)
Saturday: Salisbury Steak, mashed potatoes, Mushroom gravy and some veggie
Sunday: Eating out

As usual, if you want a recipe - just ask.

Cats got into the nip

I went to Petco this weekend to get some cat food and such and as I was standing at the checkout they had catnip. I had planted some nip for the cats a few weeks ago but they won't let it grow - they eat it as soon as it breaks the soil. So I bought them some already grown nip. This is what is left of it:



Couldn't quite make it UP the stairs:



Sleeping it off in the sunshine:



"I am uneffffff.....unefeccccc.....underfed.......I don't know what you are talking about!"



I'm thinking I might need to enroll them in a 12 step program - between this and that darn red bug they are living quite the hippy lifestyle!

Great Harvest Bread Co - yummy!

Went to GH this weekend to buy some soap. Yes, you read that right – soap. One of my favorite soaps in the whole wide world is made right here in Hannibal MO at Sweet Spirits Farm handmade Goats Milk Soap ! I loves this stuff – anyway, she posted on her FB that she had started stocking it at the BH in St. Charles so I went to get me some.

While there we perused the shelves (had never been there before) and OMG! The wonderful people that work there give you samples of any bread they currently have! And by samples I mean a whole slice! I had whole wheat and High Five Whole Grain *melts* Oh it was good! So of course I bought some. Erik tried the Cinnamon chip bread and we bought some of that. We sampled a few others and made our purchases which included a smoothie for Erik. On the way home Erik ate ¾ of the loaf of the cinnamon bread by himself! I think the only reason he didn’t finish it was we were teasing him! So I had some High Five toasted and with Homemade apple butter for breakfast this morning – ohhh yummy!

WooHoo!!

I weighed in a Weight Watchers last night and I have hit 60 total pounds lost!  I’m so excited!  I celebrated by going next door to DSW and buying new shoes.  Hey, a girl can never have enough shoes – right?   ;)

Then when I got home Erik and Austen had bought me flowers for Valentines Day.  Roses and Carnations and baby’s breath – mmmm they smell so good! 

So it was a very nice Valentines Day.  J

Weekend Roundup

Had a really good weekend in the country.  It was bitterly cold so we didn’t do anything outside and not really much inside but I still feel like I accomplished something.  You see I’ve tried to learn to crochet for years.  My mother tried to teach me, a couple of friends have tried to show me but I just didn’t get it.  I could cast on fine but once I had to start back into what I had already done to add to it – well, I got lost.

But this weekend I bought an “I taught myself to crochet” booklet (my second one mind you) and Bill had some old yarn and I did it.  Not without much mumbling and grumbling but I finally got it!  I only have a couple of stitches (and I still don’t get that slip stitch) but I can single and one and a half crochet now with reasonable results.  (Sorry, forgot to take pictures.)

I think my problem was one of yarn.  You see I knit and I like the nubby yarn because it hides mistakes but for crocheting, it sucks!  So, Bill had some smooth yarn in a pale baby mint green *gads!* and I was able to figure it all out.  I have a long way to go before I’m crocheting anything useful (well, ok, my first little sample looked sort of like one side of a string bikini!  And the second one is now a coaster on my night stand LOL – but yeah, it’ll be a while.)

In other news, it was Noah’s 5^th birthday.  They had the party at an indoor pool which was sort of cool for the kids.  Noah received a bike from his mom and dad that he proceeded to ride around the pool (with a parent walking between him and the pool just in case.)  I didn’t even know he knew how to ride a bike!

Then yesterday we went to Lowes and purchased a dusk to dawn light for the outside of the shop.  It has been very very dark walking up to the door at night – I’ve had to use a flashlight – so I decided that we needed a light.  Notice how I decided so we got one!  LOL.  We also bought more lights for the inside and we put tarps up over the stairs to keep the heat down in the shop and not let it escape upstairs.  With the temps down below freezing this weekend the furnace could barely keep up – we also priced more insulation.

On my way home from the country last night I stopped at Global Market in Kirkwood and bought Gyro meat, goat, and lamb chops.  All things I can’t get at my local grocery store.  I also picked up a bag of flax seed to make a pillow to heat.  These pillows hold the heat for quite some time so they are good heat packs (or just to warm up the bed before you get in.)

Well, I’m off this morning to class (not working from home today) at work for JAVA.  Wish me luck.

Snow today, Cold tomorrow

It was supposed to rain all day yesterday but we only had overcast skies and fog in the morning. By midday the sun was shining.

Last night on my way home from Weight Watches I noticed little snow flakes dancing in the car headlights. Just barely – you had to really look to see them. I commented to Aubri and she saw them too.

We went home and the first thing I did was go find my purse because I had left my phone in it and was expecting someone to come by with my Pure Romance order. But my purse was no where to be found. I looked all over the house. I was sure I brought it home – my medication box was in it and I had taken that into the kitchen to refill it. I looked in the car – Aubri looked in the car. We couldn’t find it anywhere! I was starting to panic – not for the purse but for the phone that was in it – when Aubri called Erik.

Apparently he had the night off and had texted me to see what we were doing for dinner. When he heard the phone go off in my purse he decided to bring the purse to me at Weight Watchers. Unfortunately, the meeting was moved up a half hour so I was leaving as he was coming. We missed somewhere in the middle. So I told him to come on home and we would think about dinner after my guest left.

So after she left he told me that he was going to take me to dinner (woot!) and to the mall because he wanted my opinion on a gift for Bill. So, we headed back out – the snow was coming down harder now and you could see it and feel it falling. We went to Racanelli’s for dinner and then to the mall.

Erik bought Bill a pocket watch and had it engraved. Very nice – I know he doesn’t have one so I think it will be a nice present. Then on the way home it really started to snow. I told Bill when he called later that by morning we would probably have white grass but I wasn’t sure about the roads. I turned the ringer off on my phone just in case – the school texts when there is no school. The problem is they text at like 6:00 – well before any of us are up. So having been woken at 6:10 that morning by my sister I decided that I could check the phone once I was awake and text Aubri then if needed. They did not cancel school.

But I did wake to white grass. The streets were fine. A little wet but not slick at all. It had stopped snowing by morning but the trees are all covered in a thin layer of snow and everything looks clean and white. This is probably the last of our snow this winter – we’ve had a really warm winter (it was in the 60s last week) so the flowers are starting to come up and the trees are all budding already. I don’t know what that is going to do for summer – I sure hope it’s not unbearably hot!

I bought an almanac last weekend but forgot it at Bill’s house so I’ll have to check this weekend. I had already checked the Chicago area in June (PSG) and it’s supposed to be cool and have possibly rain. Sounds like last year.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is sunny and cold. 35 for our high. I don’t mind cold – it’s February – it’s supposed to be cold. And I don’t want to have to start thinking about shorts just yet. I will have to buy all new this summer because all my shorts were falling off last fall so I know they will be too big this year. I wonder when Goodwill will start putting out summer clothes.



Both pictures taken from the 2nd story window of my building - looking out over the pond.