back again

yes, i've been gone for so long!

i meant to write a nice long and meaningful post about the ash wednesday mass i attended at the holy cross chapel downtown, but i have literally been running since wednesday after work, and i only just stopped last night.

i attended/volunteered at a juvenile law conference for three days (including saturday!! i forgot how much i hate working on saturday!) then baked a cake for the boy scout banquet, a casserole for the unitas church group potluck, attended both events, did piles of laundry, and hit kroger again, and just to let you know, i saved $22 in coupons yesterday, so including the $$ i saved getting the sale items (dog food was $8 off!!!) i got $125 worth of groceries for 80 bucks. i rock.

anyway, now it's back at work for more hiring fun.

i'm giving up cokes/sodas/soft drinks (however you say it in your part of the country) for lent. so i'm dealing with this lack of caffiene headache now too.

so that gets me to the comment about the ash wednesday mass - i loved what the priest said about ashes and suffering. some people ask why we wear the ashes all day after we recieve them, and some go so far as to accuse us of "proclaiming" our righteousness by doing so, which would be in direct opposition to jesus' command to pray and fast in secret. but the priest explained that the ashes are not a proclamation of righteousness, but an acknowlegement of sin. i wear the ashes because i am admitting to the world that i am a sinner, and that i will be using the season of lent to steer my thoughts and actions toward transformation and leaving sin behind. what a great way to think about that. i know plenty of people who don't go to mass all year, but they show up for ash wednesday to get the ashes so they can run around with a symbol of "faith" on thier forheads for a day, but i think the majority of catholics really do identify with this time of year as a time for really trying to change and put god first, and remember the suffering he endured for us.

so anyway, my nose has been away from the grindstone long enough.

next time, i'll tell you a little about the conference and how the kids did staying at uncle carlos and aunt dena's house on saturday.

happy monday!

thin mints

is is wrong that i pretend to forget every year that no one else in my house likes thin mints, but i buy them every year anyway and when they come in, fall upon them like a shark in a feeding frenzy?

they'll be lucky if the other 2 boxes of cookies i bought actually make it home from the office. maybe i won't tell jerry i bought any this year, and he can just buy some from the girl scouts out in front of kroger....

for all math nerds, and anyone who hates the phone company!

how to pay a bill when you're hacked off at the phone company:



is that not awesome!!?? bonus points for anyone who can actually tell me how much his bill was...i have no clue, since i never took calculus.

happy friday!

don't hate me because i thought this was funny!

got this on email this morning, and it caught me by surprise, and i laughed out loud.

WHY YOU NEVER QUESTION A DRUNK
I was shopping at the local supermarket where I selected:
A half-gallon of 2% milk,
A carton of eggs,
A quart of orange juice,
A head of romaine lettuce,
A 2 lb. can of coffee, and
A 1 lb. package of bacon.

As I was unloading my items on the conveyor belt
to check out, a drunk standing behind me watched as
I placed the items in front of the cashier.

While the cashier was ringing up the purchases,
the drunk calmly stated, "You must be single."
I was a bit startled by this proclamation, but I
was intrigued by the derelict's intuition, since I
was indeed single. I looked at the six items on the
belt and saw nothing particularly unusual about my
selections that could have tipped off the drunk to
my marital status.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I said: "Well,
you know what, you're absolutely right. But how on
earth did you know that?"

The drunk replied, "Cause you're ugly."

Presenting: The A-B-C's of Homemaking - Carrie Style

Aprons- Y/N? Jerry and the boys bought me one last year for christmas. i love it! it's got pretty blue ribbon and white fur on the edges.

Baking- Favorite thing to bake? Paula Deen's gooey butter cake. I've made it in several different flavors, but i think jerry's favorite has been the elvis one (peanut butter and banana.)

Clothesline- Y/N? Nope. our backyard is a wreck enough without our laundry hanging out there. plus i'm sure the dogs would have a field day tearing it all down.

Donuts- Ever made them? when i was a kid, every time we spent the night at our friend nicole's house, we would make donuts by poking a hole in raw biscuits and deep frying them, then covering in powdered sugar. very oily and sugary and oh-so-good. i should try it again sometime, now that we have a fry-daddy.

Everyday- One homemaking thing you do everyday? go to kroger. for diapers, ground beef, tortillas, it's always something.

Freezer- Do you have a separate deep freezer? No, but we do have a second freezer in the garage - just a normal one, not a deep freezer. it is home to a turkey (that i got free at thanksgiving, and didn't need to make) and about 7 frozen pizzas.

Garbage Disposal- Y/N? of Course!

Handbook- Y/N? heck no. the way i see it, making your home run is purely trial and error and what works best that day. ok, maybe more error than trial, but what the hell.

Ironing- Love it or hate it? hate it. hate. you know what else i hate? i hate the sound the ironing board makes when you open or close it. like a screaming banshee. you would think that someone would patent a silent one that doesn't wake up the babies in the morning when you're trying to iron something you just pulled out of the dryer for work and you're already running late and are hoping everyone will just stay asleep for a few more minutes so you can get your stuff together before it's time to get the bottle ready and change the diapers, and....oh, sorry. i digress.

Junk Drawer- Where is it? heh heh. kind of embarrassing. we have four junk drawers in the kitchen, and one junk cabinet. the junk, it just spreads and infiltrates! it's unstoppable!

Kitchen- Design and decorating? i painted it a cheery, bright yellow, with plans of putting a burgandy/orange border up too. it's pretty good size, with a butcher block island that we put in the middle. just got an advantium oven too - the piece de resistance.

Love- What is your favorite part of homemaking? i love to cook. i wish i had a magic wand to clean up the mess i make when i do it, but i love cooking, baking, and how appreciative my family is of good food.

Mop- Y/N? i have a mop, and i use it on occasion. i sweep about every other day.

Nylons- Wash by hand or in the washer? I wash them in the washer. like i have time to hand wash them and dry them over the bath tub or something. we have a delicate/handwash cycle for that.

Oven- Do you use the window or open it to check? i try to see thru the window, and i fuss at the boys if they open the oven, but i always end up opening to check for doneness too.

Pizza- What do you put on yours? i like all the meats. and occasionally i'm up for canadian bacon and pineapple. but no veggies on my pizza please, except for mushrooms are cool with me.

Quiet- What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment? read, sleep, or fold laundry.

Recipe card box- Y/N? i have one, but i rarely use it. i pretty much make stuff up as i go along, or go from memory for the old standards like meatloaf/spaghetti sauce/chicken pot pie. i have several cook books that i scan for new ideas, then i usually end up tailoring those to whatever ingredients i have in the frig.

Style of house- it's a 1 1/2 story i guess. enters to a big living room with high ceiling, with a catwalk across on the second floor. 4 bedrooms up, master down.

Tablecloths and napkins- Y/N? i use placemats and paper towels for napkins. fancy, i know. tablecloth is for special occasions.

Under the kitchen sink- was a total disaster, with tons of cleaning supplies stuffed in every which way. until saturday, when our little cub scout cleaned it out and organized it for a project. now i've got dish stuff on one side, insect spray and cleaners in the middle, and hand soap and dog stuff on the other side. very neat.

Vacuum- How many times a week? our sitter vacuums about every other day. i do it maybe once a week. i know, i'm spoiled.

Wash- How many loads do you do a week? i always tell myself i'm going to do wash during the week, but i'm always so tired when i get home and it's the last thing i want to do, especially after cooking and cleaning up after dinner. so i end up doing 5 or 6 loads between saturday and sunday, and i'm lucky if it all gets put away before monday morning.

X's- Do you keep a list of things to do and cross them off? no. probably a good idea to. i do make a grocery list though!

Yard- Who does what? we have yard guys who mow, edge, and weedeat. they also tear up our fence and let our dogs out, but hey, what do you expect for $25 a pop!? i'd be happier doing it ourselves, but the decision has been made....

ZZZ's- What is your last homemaking task for the day? make sure the kitchen is clean/dishes out of the sink. clear a path in the living room for aidan when he gets out of bed and comes to our room in the middle of the night.

ta da!! i'm so unorganized, i don't know how it all gets done. oh, yeah - because it doesn't all get done!!

i tag kelli and ksl for this one!

thursday 13 #12

So last week i did one about my favorite drinks, so this week, it's things i hate to eat. My mother always told me "Don't say gross about food!" It's impolite, especially if you say it in front of the person who made it. So these are all the food that i think are gross, even though i can't say so.

Thirteen Things that i absolutely will not eat! 1. Blue cheese. oh.my.gawd. i love cobb salads, and so often they come with blue cheese dressing, and i always practically beg the waiter to please remember to put ranch on it, because if there is so much as a tiny crumble of blue cheese on the salad i will cry. just one little taste of it is enough to ruin the taste of anything for the rest of the day. ick. 2. saurkraut. my mom used to boil this to put on top of hot dogs/bratwurst or whatever, and it made the whole house stink. uuhhhh. 3. cocont. man oh man, i wish i like coconut. they put in in so many good things. but i can't handle the texture, and it just tastes like suntan lotion. 4. sushi. yes i've tried a few times, and i just can't get with the slipperyness of raw fish. and wasabi is awful. 5. raw oysters. tried this too, and even if the taste weren't bad enough, it's like swallowing someone else's snot. i'm feeling nauseous just talking about it. i better finish this list up fast.... 6. greens. mustard, collard, whatever. tastes and smells like grass. 7. barbacoa. people, this is roasted cow head. 8. menudo. cow intestines soup. shudder. even my mexican husband is smart enough to stay the hell away from this stuff. 9. my mother makes this concoction called 4 bean salad. it's got kidney beans, yellow wax beans, garbonzo beans (also known as chick peas) and green beans, all tossed in an obnoxiously tangy vinaigrette sauce. she used to make it for practically every special occasion dinner, and never remembered that we all hated it. thankfully, she's moved on to other more yummy things. because 4 bean salad is just.....well, it's gross. sorry mom. 10. green peppers. ok, cooked in a sauce or something, i can manage. but raw, i cannot handle them. 11. haggus. this is some kind of loosely packed sheep liver sausauge or something. i had it at a pub in scotland. talk about ruining your day. 12. turkey bacon. i don't care what you health nuts say, a thin, salty stick of dry turkey colored to look like bacon is not bacon!! and i wouldn't like it even if it weren't trying to be bacon. blech. 13. golly, well i am hard pressed to think of anything else. i mean there are others that i don't prefer, but i wouldn't list them in the "absolutely not" category. hhmm. tell me what foods you would call gross if it weren't an impolite thing to say! Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

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here i am!

trying to get back in the habit of posting more often. work is just busy, and i never get computer time at home.

i'm in the process of trying to hire as many substitute teachers as i possibly can before march 1 for one of our alternative school campuses. they're getting an influx of 200 kids that day, and they'll need warm bodies to control them all, and hopefully some of those warm bodies can actually teach the kids something....

i'm not good at asking for help. apparently they think i can do this all by myself, along with various other duties i have here too. i feel like if i ask for help in this, they'll wonder what the hell i'm doing with my time, and just consider me lazy. but dammit, just one more person working on this with me would make such a big difference. especially when they need these people working as of yesterday, and i just can't do it fast enough. sigh.

i guess i should quit wasting time blogging when i've got tons of employment verifications and personal references to do, forms to complete, phone calls to make, interviews to schedule.......ugh. i guess this is one of those times when i do kind of miss casework. i just can't get motivated!!!!!!!!!

Thursday 13 #11

Thirteen of my favorite things to drink!!

1. Bud Light. especially when it's ice cold in a bottle. Good thing my hubby and i prefer the same beer. i think it's one of the reasons he married me. that and i like baseball. but i digress.

2. Diet Coke. or diet crack, as it's known around our house. things are ugly in the morning if we're out. and it is an unspoken testament of my love for the hubby that if there's only one left in the fridge, i'll leave it for him. (also because he's more snarly than me without it.)

3. Gin and tonic. with lots of lime. i once had a dream that my sociology professor that i had a sort of intellectual crush on invited me over and made me a gin and tonic. weird.

4. Earl Gray Tea. it's flavored with bergamot, a sort of honey-sweet plum kind of fruit i think. comes from over on 'the continent'. yummy, and so comforting. with just a touch of honey and milk.

5. Chamomile Tea. yet another very comforting drink - with a little honey and lemon. great for cramps or a sore throat.

6. Margaritas. you didn't think i could stay away from the alcohol, did you? i like them on the rocks NOT frozen. with salt. and preferably made with the lime juice, tequila, and triple sec, not from a premade mix. oh, so good.

7. Baskin Robbins Mocha Blast. i first had one when i was doing mystery shopping, and had to buy one for a job. man i loved it!!! frozen, chocolaty espresso with ice cream all blended up, with whipped cream on top. sugar rush plus caffiene kick - yum!!

8. Root Beer Float. evokes images of lazy summer days for me. use good quality root beer - IBC is my favorite - and blue bell homemade vanilla ice cream. nothing better in this world.

9. Coffee. hot and rich, with a little sugar and some heavy cream, if you have it. normally i'm not a coffee drinker in the morning, but i do like a cup after a big meal like thanksgiving, with a piece of pie. mmmm.

10. Any red-flavored Sonic Slush. man, oh man, for the last month when i was pregnant with aidan, i went to sonic literally every day for one. just had to have something cool and fruity. and i still like them now. i pity those of you who don't have Sonics where you live.

11. Snapple Cherry-Lime Rickey. i first met this drink in college, b/c they had them at the cafeteria. loooove it! i can't remember the last time i had one. guess i should tell our kroger to special order a case of them.

12. A cool glass of good chardonnay on a hot summer day. very relaxing and makes me feel a little sophisticated and decadent. best enjoyed outside with a light dinner on the patio table.

13. Mulled wine. a good burgundy, warmed through with mulling spices and sliced apples that fills the house with spicy winter scents, and feels slow and shimmery going down. ahhhh.

What's your favorite drink??





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