Coming Soon: Ella Marie

My best friend, Kristi, is having a baby really soon! We had a little luncheon for her last weekend and she got all kinds of pink things and this princess bear from me adorned with a tiara and frilly pink wands.  We're counting down the days until baby Ella will be here so we can play dress-up with all her pink clothes (I should've taken a picture of her closet to post on here...it's unbelievable how cute her clothes are!). 

Winter Blahs

Man, do I feel stuck!  It's about that time of year when, especially during the past two dreary, cold, rainy days, I am wanting to run full force into Spring allergies and all.  When I took out the mail earlier I looked for any sign of Spring and I found some...my crocus leaves are up and some daffodils are starting to poke up from beneath the mulch.  Thank goodness!  We have plenty to do inside but the thought of doing an indoor home improvement project pushes me over the edge.  I might try to finally get the crown moulding in our bedroom painted on Sunday but otherwise am fine with the inside of our house for now.  Projects always take us so long (ie. not having the crown moulding painted yet). 
I'm ready to turn my compost, plant herb seeds, get the patio furniture out and watch the birds come and go.  Outdoor projects are so much fun and don't seem to take as long as indoor ones. 

I also sit and read the Yellowstone Facebook page and think about going there this year.  You knew I was going, right?  ha ha!   Then I think about all the future trips I plan on taking there like in the Winter so I can see everything covered in a blanket of snow and in Autumn so I can see the aspen trees in full color down in the lower elevations.  I think about dragging Bob on hiking trails despite the risk for grizzly bear activity.  He's kind of a scaredy-cat like that. 

Then I think of the bucket list of places I want to go....New York City, Washington DC, Key West, Napa Valley, Italy, Cowboys Stadium, Michigan Upper Peninsula, Montana, Oregon coast, possibly a cruise and maybe Hawaii.  And the places I never want to go (or care to go back again)...Panama City Beach, Myrtle Beach, Disney World,  New Mexico, Arizona, Arkansas, Mississippi.  Probably Oklahoma, cause why would I?

So this is my brain dump for today.  Could've probably turned this into two posts.  Maybe I'll have pictures of something to post next time.

Sometimes I Work From Here

I need a change of scenery every once in a while.  My "office" area in the downstairs is not ideal right now.  It's a child's desk with a bunch of office equipment and lacks any personality.  This gets boring some days.

So when I need to change things up I just gather what I need for the day and work up here.  I can look out the window, listen to the tv, have a place for my coffee or hot cocoa and prop my feet up on the new-to-us ottomon I purchased last month.  It's probably not good for my posture to sit on a cushy chair all day and balance the laptop on my crossed legs but it's so worth it when I need a little change.  One day last week I reused my coffee cup from Donut Bank and made some homemade cocoa.  (see below)

It was almost too much for one sitting.  That's a lot of cocoa and marshmallows and I was a little quesy for several hours after drinking it.  Note to self:  just drink a regular sized cup next time. 

The good thing about that day was when I got off work early and went to the salon to become blond once again.  (you should've seen my roots!)  If I could I would go to the salon and have someone wash and fix my hair everyday.  I have a good stylist who takes a few extra minutes and does a scalp massage when she washes hair.  So nice!

Happenings 'Round Here

It's been a slow computer-use week as our laptop got sick from a Malware virus and spent a few days at the computer hospital getting fixed.  About $90 later it is well again.  I missed my best friend and I'm glad it's back.  ha ha! 

We've made our vacation plans to see Mom and Tom.  We are staying in a condo on the beach and I'm so excited!  Hotel rooms just don't work out for us (meaning me, Bob) and the teenager. We need more space to spread out to stay off each other's nerves.  Here are some photos:

Aside from that, I'm actually looking forward to more snow around here.  I would like to have a couple more snowfalls before Spring arrives.  No ice, just snow.    I had to cancel my trip to visit my friend, Glenna, last weekend because of the snow in her area but have rescheduled so I don't want it to snow again then.  I just want it when I want it, I suppose.

We spent several hours as couch potatoes last weekend watching the NFL playoffs.  I was rooting for the Ravens, Giants, Saints and Broncos.  Well, half my teams are going.  I'm going to make a huge pot of chili on Saturday night and we'll spend this Sunday watching some more.  I be rooting for the Giants and Ravens (I got hooked on the Ravens because of Michael Oher from "The Blind Side"). 

Speaking of chili...my friend told me about her chili recipe recently. She just uses a packet mix for her seasonings and adds tomato sauce, ground beef, onion and beans BUT her secret ingredient is a jar of tamales.  You know, the ones rolled up in paper in a jar.  Dad used to buy them when I lived at home.   She said she chops them up and adds the tamales and their juice to her batch of chili and everyone loves it.  It does really sound good!  I think I'll just put everything in the crockpot Saturday night and let it simmer.

That's about all I know thus far this week.  Hope everyone is doing well!!

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

As of today, I have been blogging for 4 years!  I wrote 765 posts on my old blog and 10 on this new one.  I think I kept about 40 of them as drafts though.  I have written several posts that I've just needed to record on here but didn't feel like publically posting after I got the issue off my chest or out of my head.  Ha ha!  I want to eventually print out each of my posts and keep in a binder somewhere since this is kind of a diary of our lives.

Anyway, I know at one time I had contemplated discontinuing my blog but I'm glad I didn't.  I still really like doing this even if I don't have very many readers.  ha ha!

Yellowstone in Winter

This is so cool. This is a coyote near Old Faithful on Jan. 11, 2012. Hard to believe we were there less than a year ago and now it is covered in beautiful snow. Can't wait to go there in the Winter sometime and stay at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. If you follow along in the video the coyote goes on and off screen in back of the snowdrifts and towards the end you can see it trailing off into the trees.

Dunkin' Do-NOTS

Major disappointment today. I only worked a couple hours because I was supposed to leave this morning to visit my dear friend, Glenna, for the weekend. Our first real snow and the winter weather over in their area has put a damper on those plans. That was disappointment #1. Number 2 was when Robbie and I went out for a quick stop to the Dunkin' Donuts shop that just opened up here. I haven't had Dunkin' Donuts since we were in Panama City Beach several years ago. The donuts were nothing to write home about but I wanted to give it another try. We bought 1/2 dozen donuts and a bag of donut holes. Crappy! The donuts all tasted day-old, like someone left them out on the counter overnight or something. There wasn't hardly any glaze on them and the texture of the donut itself was stale and not really soft and yeasty like other donuts. So $10 down the drain (I also got a coffee--it was ok) but now we know to not go there EVER again. I'm sure the leftover donuts will not get eaten and I'll be throwing them out to the birds in a couple days.

I really don't see how they'll make it here in this ole one horse town. There are a couple other privately owned donut places in town that are much better. I'm sure people here will see the difference and not long from now the fast food place-turned pizza place-turned Dunkin' Donuts shop will be sitting empty.

That New Year's Resolution

So far, so good with my resolution to be less busy.  I was a little busier on the front end of the first week of the New Year making a chore calendar for those of us at this old house.  Everyone has their own color coded list of things to do each week.  I've placed it on the refrigerator so that we all know what needs to be done and when.  It has saved me time and anguish from wondering when the stairway might get swept of all the cat hair that accumlates every few days, etc. Not everything that needs to be done is listed but most of the things that should be done every week or few days is on there. It's been very helpful in my quest to have more down time as I know I'm not responsible for keeping everything clean or having to ask my housemates to "help" me with housework.  I think I've given the speech about how I didn't spend 5 years in college to be a housewife more than once.  ha ha!

Another time saver has been to plan our meals out for each week.  Last week I made a big ole pot of potato soup and cheddar garlic biscuits. We ate on that for 3 nights.  This week we'll eat crockpot bbq chicken and baked home fries/sweet potatoes for a couple nights then spaghetti with andouille sausage  and salad for a couple nights. 

Speaking of salads...if you go to O'Charley's and are in the salad mood you should try the Calypso Spinach Salad.  Yum!  I figured out how to make the honey apple cider viniagrette here at home so ate that salad last week for my lunches.  Another good salad I'm going to try to make at home is the Calypso Chicken Salad found at Cheeseburger in Paradise.  It has a lot of fruit in it and is really good.  Yes, I think that's correct that they both are called "Calypso" salads. 

Okay, I'll shut up after this.  If you've never seen either of the "Hangover" movies you must AND after you watch the first one you have to watch the second one. We watched "The Hanger II" last night and laughed our asses off!  Robbie saw it before us; what can I do?  Chaperone him when he goes to the movie theater??  Obviously he saw it last year when it came out and probably bought a ticket to see a Disney movie but actually snuck in to see the rated R movie.  Didn't you do that when you were a kid?  ha ha  Now that he's 17 he can get into any movie legitimately.  Oh well, he tells me he knows everything anyway.  He said he learned his knowledge from the older kids on the school bus. 

Have a good week!

Bang Bang Shrimp

The cast of characters for the sauce (well, not the wine; I was drinking a spritzer)...mayonnaise, sugar, rice vinegar, garlic chili sauce.

Whisk all together in a small bowl until ready to use. 

Heat the oil to 350 degrees.

Throw in 1/4 of the shrimp at a time (after you've cleaned them and run them through a mixture of Panko bread crumbs, flour and basil, then egg mixture, then back through the bread crumb mix); oh and after you've put them in the refrigerator for 20 minutes so the flour mixture stays on them.

Anyway, this is the final result. I forgot to garnish with the green onions I chopped.  Use extra sauce as a dip on the side.

We've heard all these good things about something called Bang Bang Shrimp lately.  My picky sister-in-law even loves these shrimp.  She talks about how Bonefish Grill has them on special Wednesday nights.  I love all things food, especially shrimp, so when I was browsing on Pintrest about a month ago I found a pin that someone posted for this recipe.  People commented on and on about how great Bang Bang Shrimp is.  I Googled the recipe and found that the Pintrest one was very similar to the other recipes I found.  Even if my sister-in-law wouldn't think my recipe tasted like the real thing I knew it would be good regardless.  How can you go wrong with a mayonnaise based sauce and deep fried shrimp?

I bought some *fresh shrimp at the meat counter and brought them home to peel and devein them (the nastiest job in the world).  I dragged them through the mixtures, chilled them then deep fried them.  We put ours over a bed of fried rice but I think Bonefish puts theirs over lettuce or something.  We drizzled some of the sauce on and marveled at the sight of something that was actually deep fried right here in this old house.  It smelled the the Fall Festival in the kitchen.  Yum!

We took our plate of delicacies downstairs and proceeded to savor our artery clogging snack while watching "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" on Netflix. Has anyone seen that retro movie starring Natalie Wood?? LOL!  It was good.    I mean, both the movie and the food.  The shrimp was fried perfectly and had the nicest sea-food taste. The breading was crispy and the sauce was oh, so yummy.  If anyone wants the recipe I will post it on here or email it to you.  It's a labor of love.

*that shrimp you can buy in the freezer section in a bag is so bland compared to fresh shrimp.  The fresh only cost about $1 more per pound and is well worth the extra $.

Ghosts (& foods) of Christmas Past

The dessert area...pumpkin rum cake, pumpkin pecan cheesecake, Texas gold bars.

The kids table...tablecloth is a relic from G&G Henning that I inherited.

The adult table...I just love the new Christmas dishes I got this year.

Our blond nephew, Braden, opening Greedy Santa gifts.

Our lovely niece, Morgan, showing off her new Ulta makeup kit.

Future farmer of America, our first nephew, Jared, happy to get some cash for Christmas.

Hot apple cider simmering away on the stove...add a little rum and YUM!, good stuff!!

Candy cane shaped cheeseball (recipe on here a couple posts back).

Mom excited about some new bubble bath and fragrant lotion...and an early birthday gift of Lib's candy.

Sadly, there are not any pictures of any of us from this old house.  We opened our gifts after returning home with Robbie from medical appt. #2 in 3 days on Christmas Eve morning.  I knew Robbie wouldn't want to be photographed since he was so sick and didn't even think to get a picture of me, Bob or the cats.  I also didn't get any pictures of Brock and Sarah that day.  Oh well.  Maybe we'll try to get a good family picture in 2012.

My Lofty Goal

2012 looks to have a lot of significant milestones for us. Watching the Summer Olympics. Presidential election where Robbie will be able to vote for the first time. Acquiring another vehicle. Our second trip to Yellowstone National Park. My best friend having a baby. My in-law's 50th wedding anniversary. Spring Break with my teenager. I'm sure there are many more.

I didn't made a resolution list for this year but one thing I am promising to myself is to be less busy. I'm not going to fill up our calendar only to find no time where we can be at home, sitting on our patio swing and watching the birds on a mild evening after work. I might be doing more semi-homemade meals instead of insisting everything be made from scratch so I'm not in the kitchen so much. We are going to keep this old house picked up by using a schedule of when certain chores need to be done instead of waiting for a couple weeks to have some mass cleaning because of company coming over.

I want to do all the fun stuff this year but I also want to take time to enjoy what I am doing. Just seems like if everything else in order there would be time to stop and smell the roses, right? We discussed our annual Quesadilla Party recently. We don't want to skip the annual make-your-own gathering but may not go to the extremes we usually do since our vacation will be around that time. Last year was CRAZY trying to get all that done within a few days of coming home after a two week vacation. I was so tired afterwards that I'm not sure I even remember who I talked to that day.

Maybe I should have used the word 'balance' in this post title. I think that's what I'm really searching for this year. I don't know if I can do this but I'm going to give it a try. Anyone else setting goals for 2012?

January 2

I finally feel like I can sit down and relax after being off work for the 11th day now. Isn't that crazy? I started my vacation in a baking and cooking frenzy, all excited about the holidays and wanting to make everything just right. I wanted to have a good, homecooked meal for my family on Christmas Eve and lots of goodies to eat and give away. I did it all and it was wonderful weekend despite Robbie being sick.

Last week I did relax and watch movies but constantly stared at gift boxes, leftovers, Christmas stuff starting to pile up in every room and I pondered when I would finally find the energy to tackle "undecorating." We all hate that, right? Thinking about all the effort it would take to turn our home back to normal wore me plum out. I put up so much stuff this year, including two fully decorated trees.

Finally, last night and today we GOT IT ALL DONE! I was up early, as usual, and cleaned out the downstairs pantry and purged more things we just don't need. Bob and I went through every single Christmas storage container and labeled what went where, etc. He checked every single strand of lights we own and threw out the ones that didn't work. I got rid of a bunch of decorations we never use. Hello Goodwill! There is not a single Christmas trinket sitting around anywhere in our home now and I am loving it!!! I am sitting in the living room with my feet propped up on the new-to-me ottoman we purchased at Traderbaker's a couple days ago am watching snowflakes blow wildly in the wind. I'm thinking a cup of hot tea would be great right now so that's next on my agenda.

I'm going to spend the last few waking hours of my vacation here in the living room. I'm going to watch some tv and perhaps the news. My new Southern Living magazine has arrived and needs to be read over. Bob is going to fetch take-out for us because after being up and about since 7:00 working non-stop I am not about to stand in the kitchen and make homemade potato soup like I had planned. I'll do that tomorrow. I'm still on vacation today.