Goulash & pudding

Yum, what a combo, eh? LOL Well, not eaten together! Separately, though, it was a good meal tonight. I saw someone else online do this photo effect on their food photos, so I thought I'd try it. Here's the goulash:



And here's the banana pudding:


You can find the recipe for Vintage Hamburger Goulash right here. But I want to say something about it. I will be making it again, but I will only eat it as a leftover and I will cover it with a layer of shredded cheddar cheese. I might even occasionally add in a small can of corn, drained. The dang thing is too bland otherwise, just fresh off the stove.

Yes, I know this how? I ate a small bowl at supper unenthusiastically, but later on in the evening my hunger tempted me to try another, and the taste difference was like night and day. Then, I tried it with the shredded melted cheese and it was even better.

Isn't that the way with a recipe sometimes? I've found I have to pull some kind of trick on them about half the time. I have to laugh, remembering when I was younger blaming it on a typo, but now I just think not everyone has the same taste buds.

I guess I should fess up that I'm beginning to cook dinner now. Last night was roast chicken, mashed pots and peas. Tonight was goulash and biscuits. I think I'll order a pizza tomorrow...that way I'll have something. I had to scour the kitchen cabinet dungeon for the goulash fixins (the macaroni came out of a Kraft mac n cheese box), and I'm not going to the grocery store on Saturday.

I think I jinxed it...

Oy. Happy Super Bowl Sunday.

I haven't posted since Wednesday, because I jinxed my recovery and had a relapse. Called the doc's office Friday and they were not impressed. Been there, done that, apparently. They said I'll be hacking and blowing and *relapsing* for a couple more weeks. Sigh.

Feels like a relapse to me. Harrumph. So it shall be, in my world.

At any rate, it's put a dent in my little power productivity drive I had going on upon feeling better. Drats. Oh well, story of my life. Might as well be used to it.


So it was a good day for a national holiday, then. Hubs and I started out with some chips and dips.


Then, some appetizers...namely, Pillsbury Savorings Flaky Pastry Bites. The cheese and spinach ones are my favorites.


Finally, our entree: Super Bowl Recovery Soup. It's basically ministrone with ground beef mixed in. Soup is good food.

You probably know that I do not watch football. Not a fan of the game, and not a fan of any of the pro sports, really. I do try to make an exception for the big world-class games like the Super Bowl and World Series, though, if Hubs wants me too. And he did want company this year, I decided to be nice.

Neither one of us had any kind of a favorite this year, mainly due to a long-held grudge against the Steelers. Old-timers down here remember them as the arch-enemies of our team, the Oilers (who are now the Titans after leaving Houston and moving to Tennessee).

Still, my head said bet the farm on them. They were our arch-enemies and we hated them, but we did respect their venom. My heart tugged for the Cardinals. So, it was pretty boring until the final 5minutes or so. The commercials were pretty much my only diversion.

So, anyway, Hubs is now asleep and I am watching The Office and trying not to cough. Time to go re-slather Vicks on my feet. :-)))

Fun with Family

Missy drove home Monday night and brought her roomie Matt with her, so that we could all go to see a school performance in a nearby town of The Wizard of Oz. We had members from both sides of our family performing: my oldest nephew, who had a supporting song-and-dance role, and youngest niece, who was a munchkin. The show was absolutely awesome. They had a real, live Toto dog in the opening scene on the Gale farm with caged baby chicks to boot! (The poor dog barked hilariously nonstop at them, too, which was why he was only in the opening scene...Dorothy held a stuffed animal after that.) When the tornado hit, the little farmhouse twirled around on wheels and the wood trees and fence were all picked up by black-clad prop people and twirled while a light show and sound made it as realistic as could be. A boy! played the Wicked Witch fabulously.

Everyone was fabulous. Hubs (who has to get up at 4 a.m. every workday and was awake way past his bedtime) even said it was the fastest 2 hours he'd ever spent (which means he enjoyed it). My nephew is growing up so fast and will be 16 in March. It was great getting to see him and his family (my brother). You know I'd have had photos, except that school district is uber-strict about no photos or video, darnit. That was the only thing wrong with the whole evening. Family memories get no respect, I tellya!

On the shopping front, I found me a few good little bargains online after Christmas. I should add, I found tons of fantastic bargains and they are still coming. It's been tough not to snatch up more of them, but this is one time my K-marty frugality comes in handy, LOL.

When I got my fantastic fur-lined Crocs that I still love, I immediately threw out my old crappy terry cloth slides that were more than past their prime, but I did need to replace those. The tootsies need to breathe sometimes, even in winter.

So, I found some perfect ones for $2.99 at Carol Wright Gifts.


Now, I did not need a new purse, but if you have boobs and a v-j-j, you know that doesn't matter.

And when I saw this purse on sale for $4.99, I added it to my order so that my new terry slides wouldn't feel alone in the box. Isn't it a great winter purse? I have developed a sizeable crush on snowflakes, so the design lets me indulge for a little longer. (The white soft fleece scarf is an Old Navy hand-me-down from Missy).

And of course, no blog entry of mine is complete without a little good eats photo. :-)))

Do you tend to eat more hot soup during the colder months? I sure do. But when I need a little somethin-somethin in the bowl to give more staying power, I add a torn-up biscuit. After I eat a buttered one, of course. LOL No really, this works great for soups that would taste great with dumplings in them, like beef barley and of course, chicken noodle. Saltine crackers will work in a pinch, but not nearly as good. Keep a can of store-brand biscuits in your fridge and try it sometime.

Tag - I'm It!

I was tagged by my friend Rozette and my fingers have been giving me fits last couple of days, so I wanted to get right on it in case this is all I can post today:

Six Things About Me:
1) I am a Leap Year baby (1956 crop).
2) I owned my own accounting business for 20 years.
3) I have a pretty great husband and a pretty great daughter.
4) I have a very sweet and obedient dachshund.
5) I am allergic to dust mites, pecan trees, shellfish and bananas, just to name a few things.
6) I crave salads and chocolate (but not together).

So if you read this and want to share 6 things about you, please feel free to consider yourself tagged by me!



I also just wanted to show you the pretty salad I made myself with still more cole slaw (I keep making it) and some sliced rib-eye that Hubs grilled. It was delish!

I am also happy to report that I weighed on Friday and those 5 pounds I gained over the holidays are gone. Now to email the nutritonist as to how to proceed...

I'm Finally Free!

I do apologize for my absence, but I just decided to go with my natural linear behavior and finish up my tax business paperwork before doing anything else. I think it might have been the only way it was ever gonna get done, LOL. I am finding that my ability to multi-task, a skill at which I used to excel, is slowly but surely ebbing from my bag 'o tricks.

Sometimes you just gotta work with what ya got left. In Texas, we say we gotta dance with who brung us. And I did. There will be a bit more paperwork later, but the ball of it is now in my buyer's court (quite literally, as it's all legal sale paperwork, winkwink).

I can now breathe and feel pretty darn free. The continual pressure of IRS deadlines and client expectations are now a thing of the past. YAY!

So, where does my mind go for comfort? To food, of course. LOL No, seriously, I've been wanting to share with you what we ate on New Years' Day, because it was just so pretty and colorful. Well, to me it was. And delicious.

Simple Southern "country" food. Nothing fancy. And remember, our wall oven is broken, so everything had to be chosen based upon if it could be cooked on the stovetop or in the toaster oven.

We also fixed that yummy cabbage coleslaw at Thanksgiving. It's my new favorite comfort food, and it's made with a package mix. Ham requires an oven, so we just chose another pork: breaded pork chop fillets. The cornbread did not taste quite as good as when we bake it in a cast-iron skillet in the wall oven, but the teflon pan toaster oven version was tasty enough. There's something about cornbread baked in grease that makes it perfect, I guess.

Thanks for letting me share (belatedly). Are ya hungry? winkwink

But anyway, that was our feast to ring in the new and to give us good luck and prosperity for another year. I never feel quite right not paying homage to that glorious food tradition, so now I can proceed with 2009.

Especially now that I only have one tax return to do every year from now on! Yay!

Lucky # 13: How Sweet It Was!

As sweet as my bread pudding a la Haagen Dazs mode, which is what the restaurant comped me with for my celebration...And I got almost a dozen cards, a huge Hershey Almond Bar stash, some well-wisher emails, your wonderful comments here, and the one that shocked me: 13 red roses from my little brother:
It's all been perfect, but I so need a day to recoup and rest. Yesterday was nonstop. So, I'll be back tomorrow with 3 more RAK recipients and more photos of my big day. Maybe also a piece of art or two...

Thanks to everyone once again for making my day yesterday!!!!

It's Cold Again

37 degrees here this morning, and that's cold for being less than 3 miles from the Galveston Bay shoreline. (I took the photo early this morning with my little Canon Powershot, just as several flocks of sparrows were flying overhead northward.)

At least it is clear and sunny for a couple of days, and we'll get up to the low 60's today. Saw the national weather and some of you are suffering more snow and storms. I'll take what I've got, I guess, LOL.

Heather blogged about her hip hurting from sitting too long, and I can so relate. Hope you feel better, Heather. I've been suffering myself from a bruised hip joint. Sometimes if I sleep wrong, as in ON that hip, it does that. It's in the same area as my degenerated spinal disks (L4 and L5), but the pain radiates through my right hip and down my thigh and makes it really hard to walk on my leg. When I sit at the computer, it makes it flare up worse. So, do I stop sitting here? Heck no. Anyway, I am suffering right now with that and the cold weather is aiding and abetting the pain.

Last time I blogged I had 5 more atc's to do for those swaps. Now I have 2 more to do. I spent a lot of time yesterday reading friend' blogs and if I haven't gotten to yours yet, I will tonight.

Yesterday, Hubs and I volunteered at our local Hillary campaign office. Hubs delivered yard signs to homes, and I did the phone banks. We worked for 4 hours in the middle of the day. I was amazed at the low number of nasty replies I got, seriously. This is Bush Country, after all. Out of about 1,000 phone numbers that I called, about half never answered or their machine did, and of the people who answered, only about 10% were either not interested or negative.

I was lucky about who I got to call, though. They were targeting Dem voters over 50 yesterday, so the audience was probably more positive and less combative. At any rate, if I knew I'd be getting the same type of calls, I'd go back, because we were asked to come back. But Hubs says we both have too much to do. We enjoyed volunteering though. Neither one of us had ever volunteered on a campaign before, which once we stopped to think about it seemed a bit odd. Depending on how things go here in the next week, I may think about doing it one more day next week. We'll see.

On Hub's list of chores (this one is something that HE added) is to plant these in the back yard somewhere. They are plants his mom gave him from the funeral. He has a weakness for tropicals. I do not know why. He's got it in his head he can transplant these to the outside, but the only place that they will be protected is in the bed on the back of the house.


Now, I do not have an exact "before" photo, darnit, but the two photos above give you some idea of the overgrowth against the house. See the philodendrums on the right side? See how tall they are, up to the roof overhang? Well, I have been after him to clear those out for almost a year. In 2001, they were only as high as the window and still in their planters. Seven years later, the roots had totally busted the planters and have become monsters.

So, now that Hubs had his own reason for clearing it all out, he got to doing it this past weekend. I'd asked him to transplant them beside the pool, but he decided to chop all the green off and then work at killing and clearing the roots. This is what he's gotten done so far: He also wants to chop down and destroy those japanese yews and I can't wait. He needs to do it soon, too, because a bluejay family always makes a nest in there every spring...a very mean and loud one.


Last night we had fajita burritos and guacamole for dinner, done simply, similar to how real Mexicans make it. Hubs hit the most Mexican tacqueria in town on our way home from volunteering for the meat, the freshly-made tortillas and the avocados. It was absolutely delish. I could probably eat Mexican several times a week. Not Tex-Mex, but Mexican (which is really just home cooking using their traditional food items). I suspect Hubs will be frequenting that tacqueria more and more in the near future.

Super Bowl Sunday

Can't remember when the last time I actually spent the day engaged in watching football like I did today, but 'never say never' is one of my mottos. We feasted on comfort food, so that helped me stay with it, along with halfway entertaining pre-game, half-time and post-game shows. Oh, and the game was thrilling at times, too!

Get a load of our game day menu: shrimp and guacamole nachos, chili cheese dogs, tater tots, pizza, and chocolate chip cake. It was a smorgasboard-type buffet, to say the least. We grazed all afternoon. Hubs and I are so used to not wasting food since Missy went off to college, and today felt a bit weird with all of these eats, but we soon got used to it, LOL.

I do admit to sneaking off a few times to work on art. But my plans to read blogs got sidelined. My computer was pretty much an orphan today. At some point, I got email wind that 2peas was down, and there was one time that blogger was down, too. In fact, right at this moment I cannot run spell check or upload a photo through blogger. So, I will rely on flickr for the photos tonight and learn to love the typos, LOL.

This is a card I made a while back for my Mom. It had to be as flat as possible because of how I mailed it (long story), so I resisted the urge to frou-frou it up a bit more. It looks a bit plain to me, but the beauty of it is my Mom thought it was fabulous, and sometimes I forget that's really what counts:

I'm trying to find a good time tomorrow to get together for dinner with my bff Cindy on the other side of Houston. I have to deliver some papers for my in-laws and I want to hang out until rush hour ends, and she is trying to clear her schedule. So, I'm going to call it a night and get some shut-eye. Just wanted to pop in and post a bit. Here's to a good week for everyone!

Will It Be This Week?

...that it snows here?

LOL, just kidding. I know it won't, and I really don't want it to, as people just go wacko whenever it snows. That's a photo of the eastern sky this morning, taken on my back porch. Tres cloudy. The sun is usually blinding me, but not today. Hovering around 40 degrees, and I'm feeling very lucky. My heart goes out to you all enduring the below freezing weather, ugh!

Ok, back to what my title meant..."Will It Be This Week?"
...that I do everything I've planned for it?

I highly doubt it. Seeing as I plan way more than I realistically can do, that is. So, another new, fresh week for me to screw up, LOL. Dangit, why do I do that to myself?

I was thinking about that this weekend. Little things that set our moods, expectations, ways we judge ourselves (fairly or not so much) when we're not even looking. And ways we react without even fully ingesting what we are reacting to.

Heavy stuff. But here's my case in point before your eyes glaze over in utter confusion, lol. When Hubs and I got married, he already owned a home. He'd bought it with his first wife and kept it in the divorce.

And, it did not have a dishwasher, which I noticed right off the bat because I'd never lived without one. Even when I was a baby, we had one that rolled out and hooked up to the kitchen sink. No way was I gonna start living with one now, right? It was 1987, after all.

The week before our wedding, he took me to Conn's, had me pick one out, and then bought it, remarking, "Here's your wedding present."

Well, I thought he was trying to be funny. That was a joke, right? Uh, no, it wasn't. I decided to not make any drama over it, but I remember being a little insulted and just wrote it off to eccentric behavior on his part.

Now, from my first visit to Hub's parents' house, I knew his mom did not have a built-in dishwasher. She had the kind we had when I was a freakin' baby, except that her machine was not as old as I was by a long shot. I refrained from asking any questions as I didn't want to appear rude.

All these years go by, and I'm still just writing it off to eccentric behavior being genetic, okay? Cuz to my mind, no one in their right mind lives without a nice dishwasher, a built-in dishwasher.

This weekend, Hubs and I are talking about our new dishwasher and how I forget it's new and more modern and improved than the one we had for 10 years prior (the one after my wedding present one, which stayed in the house when we sold it in 1998). How I just automatically treat it like the old one, even though the new one is lots more powerful, yadayada.

Well, I make a quip about it being my third wedding present, and that hurts Hubs' feelings. I'm like, confused and ask him to explain.

Turns out, he had bought that first dishwasher for me as a sincere gesture of bigheartedness, because he was raised to be dead-set against them as a general rule.

"After all," he said, "my mom had to wait 20 years to get one."

Well, that just floored me. Not only did Hubs genuinely believe he was giving me more than his dad had given his mom, and a heckuva lot sooner, but I'd never even realised it! And, he'd never even realised that being against having a dishwasher wasn't even a belief he really wanted to own at all.

I swear, if O. Henry'd been sittin' there, he'd have had a new story line. It's just funny, we really do learn something new every day. LOL

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Hey, I have another layout on Scrap the Girls. I say this because you can, too. It just has to be a girl layout. It can be your child, but it can also be you or your mom or sister or friend. They want their readers to send them layouts. It's more like a reader's gallery than submitting and competing and all that crap that I avoid. So, if you visit that blog and believe in spreading your scrap love around, send them a few of your fave layouts about girls. You need to read the post to see what file size and where to send them, so check it out!
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Doesn't that look delish? Don't worry - it was. Food by Hubs, presentation by me. Another funny story here: he told me we were having mahi mahi. Now, call it a sixth sense, but something told me to ask him how he was cooking it. He was going to blacken it. I don't care for his blackened foods, but I'd never told him that. Now I was going to have to fess up, which I did. He got a little ticked, but begrudgingly said, well, I'll fry it in batter then.

Later, I go to make my plate for dinner, and what do I find? Pan-fried blackened fish. {Sigh}. He's just lucky it was delish, that's all I'm sayin...
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Now, what about this dish? It's called Simple Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. You can get the recipe HERE. This is a fave dish at Hub's workplace, and their food rivals any fire house, okay? If you are in the mood for gumbo, this is it.
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Did you ever know a dog that watched football? Our Reggie does. Here he is, catching the games yesterday with Hubs. I don't think Reggie knows how to yell at the refs, but when Hubs does, Reg starts howling. So, maybe I'm wrong...
Anyway, we've been trying to pay a lot of attention to Reggie and he's been lapping it up. I might pay a hefty sum to know what he's thinking. If he's missing Sheila, or even wonders where the heck she is. I know I'll never know this, but still, intriguing questions.

I do notice that he spends a LOT more time in the doghouse now. Granted, it's winter and cold, and that's where the space heater is. I will be curious to see if he continues once the weather warms. We always wondered if Sheila kicked him out of there, since we'd often find him outside when he was supposed to be sleeping...
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The 2peas blogger challenge for today asks: "If you set a New Years Resolutions, how are you doing with it?"

Well, I did not make any per se, but my WordQuad (Dare-->Bare-->Share-->CARE) implies my resolutions, since I'm trying to do more of those 4 things. And so far, I have:
1)dared to go through my "nice" dressy clothes and part with some outfits that I frankly looked silly in but had to have because the model looked great in it. I bared and tried them on first and looked in the mirror, I suppose to hope in vain that I didn't look silly, LOL. Anyway, I shared by donating them to charity when they called for home pickups. Gonna try to do that every time they call, til I get rid of all the silly stuff, and because I care.
2)Yeah, not gonna go thru the words in each case...that one above was just to show the process...I sent my layouts to Scrap the Girls, cuz they asked for them.
3) I've been keeping in touch with my IRL girlfriends more, as well as our couple friends.

Each of these have been conscious efforts, where my first response was not to bother. So, it's a beginning.

It's {still} Friday, and I'm Here!

true that.

it is 9pm my time and almost saturday, but i made it to post, as promised.

note to self: improvement over last time. yay for small accomplishments.

i won't go into what i had to wade through to get here. it's a little too woe-is-me, even for me. just know i was bound and determined to get here.

i didn't even blog last time about my hands and about the trial study drama. i've been trying not to think about it. but, my problems with the meds are still plaguing me, plus some. my toes are also in the same boat. damn, there went my idea to type with my toes, huh? lol but i'm hanging in, counting the days til i get tested (12 to be exact).

oh, and thanks for all the well-wishes and suggests. reading your comments helps me stay connected so much, and i'm really getting tired of only reading and not interacting on a daily basis. so, when i read your comments and emails, it helps me get through this, more than you'll ever know! {{{hugs}}}

i had to giggle at the voice-recognition idea for the blog posts, though. then it made my brain hurt when i thought about having to buy a program and ugh, learn it.

sort of ditto for the video idea, too, although the blame lies 100% with me on that one. i should know how to do that. it's almost 2008, for gawdsakes. and i do have the equipment. alas, i'm able to figure it out after investigating the idea, but only about 2% motivated to actually try. it's on my back burner for a later time, though, cuz occasional video blogging does seem pretty neat and intriguing...

oh, and thanks for putting up with the lower-case. hopefully, just a couple more weeks...

well, without further ado, i've some art to show that I've worked on since last I posted.

i'm linking to my flickr gallery, like last time, because there is more details about each piece posted over there, so it saves my fingers.

my aedm for 11/21 was our potato soup recipe:

the recipe itself is in the flickr description. we like this soup on the first day of a cold front, with some cornbread and a salad.

my aedm for 11/22, 11/23, and 11/24 is the dreamy girl i posted the last time, asking for ideas:

thank you to those who did offer up some. i've had some rhonna farrer autumn leaves stamps for a while that i had no clue how i was gonna use, but this gave me a chance to. you may notice the four stamped phrases surrounding her face. that's all i ended up doing. i could have flourish-stamped the edges all around and more, but i chose to keep it simple. this way, if the notion stays with me to do that, i always can. or not.

do you ever have any art (cards, layouts, journal pages, altered pieces)that you hesitate to finish, and decide not to for awhile? i've been going thru a phase lately where i hesitate to add on everything, fearing i'll ruin it by over-doing it. it's really a bugger to deal with, too. so, if my stuff seems too plain, that's probably why, sheesh! the worst part is, it may also be a wonderful thing. it might be me adjusting, evolving my style. i cannot see it in stone yet, though. so frustrating. the voices need to just tell me what's what and be done with it, ya know? hehehe

my aedm for 11/25 and 11/26 is a birthday card for the hubster's mom:

this card was inspired by a card i saw in my paper crafts magazine for dec/jan (current issue, pg. 36):


my aedm for 11/27 and 11/28 was a birthday i made for the hubster's oldest sister:

this card was also inspired by a card seen on the same page as the first one. lol, why not, they were both cute cards:


and finally, my aedm for 11/29 and 11/30...note to self: this means i actually completed aedm!!! yay for big accomplishments, too.
since i made a dozen of these cards, i decided to make a little photobucket slide show with them all and not clog up my flickr gallery with 7 uploads:

i told you i was going to start a holiday card marathon, and i did. i am trying to continue it through sunday, then see where i stand on how many i've completed. i'm at 28 completed right now. it is so fun! of course, i now wish i'd started in september, or maybe even july.

(note to self...yadayada).

next blog post will be monday, and i promise some cool web site shares, more creations, and a little family 411...

til then, have a great weekend, and leave me some comment love to let me know you stopped by!

TOO MUCH FUN FOR ME

...or so the headline should read. oops, my bad.
Hope no one missed my absence on black friday.
had i a lick of sense, i'd have planned to post today instead of then.

after the holiday weekend.

i'll have to say that this was the best holiday for me in many years. we celebrated with the hubster's family aka my in-laws, as we've done for the last 2-3 years since my parents moved away. we brought our famous corn casserole and our equally delish green bean casserole, with the topping of french's french fried onions. everyone was there, too, so that would be in addition to hubs, me and missy: hub's parents, his brother, 3 sisters, 1 sis-in-law, 2 bros-in-law, and 6 other grandchildren. what is that, 18 people. not one dull moment all day. gawd. why couldn't the previous 19 been this way?

hub's dad recently found out he has lung cancer, so i knew everyone would be on their best behavior, but even i was amazed at how loving everyone was. for hub's family, this is not a normal behavior, lol. they may love deeply, but they don't usually show it. whereas my family over-shows it.

so i was enjoying the atmosphere thursday. only bad things that happened were no ham to eat (bah!) and i should have flat ironed my hair because the nasty wet weather we had turned it into crap. Anyway, i figure if that was all, it was a very good day, and it was indeed.

well, where did i leave off on my art every day thing? i think 11/8's was the last i've shown. so, 11/9's aedm was baking
drop biscuits. i'll just link you to my flickr, where the details are, if there are any.

11/10's aedm was a
green butterfly box that's another little stash box for a niece.

11/11, 11/12, and 11/13's aedm was a
birthday card for my friend cindy.

11/14:
toll house choco-chip cookies. and they were good, too. lol

11/15, 11/16, 11/17's aedm was a little art journal essay
about that christmas cheer.

finally, 11/18, 11/19, 11/20's was another little art essay piece
about my tradition of eating ham instead of turkey on thanksgiving.

oh, i do need your help! this is an art journal piece that i finished up saturday. I haven't offically uploaded to flickr and called it an aedm yet because i don't know if it's finished or not. and, i'd love to know your thoughts or take, etc... some advice, please:



i'm wondering if it needs a title and/or some journaling. i really felt no need to add any (and i suppose that could be my answer, but i'd rather ask your input first). i cut that little girl off some junk mail, because she really looks dreamy, doesn't she? and then i began making a sunburst quilt pattern with paper scraps around her, that being her inner light shining out. and that's really all i wanted to say. so, do you see that just from the art? or do i need to add some words to make that happen? please leave me a comment or email.

that is all i've gotten uploaded so far. there are more because i am actually all caught up on my aedm's. i very much want to be excited about completing the entire month, it is the 26th after all, but that might jinx it so i won't mention it. lol but after what all happened over the weekend and the doctor today and the dentist tomorrow, i need to upload the others later in the week.

sometime during late saturday night / early sunday morning, hub's car tires were slashed. right in the driveway, next to our 2 other cars that were spared. and he says it was unlocked and nothing taken, so we are thinking a teen prank. it's really unsettled me even though i haven't let myself dwell on it too much. where we live is always peaceful and pretty untouched by any crime, so something as petty as this is big trauma.

every couple of years we will have cars broken into or some such, but that's it. lots of folks talk about property crime on a weekly basis. and we could clean out that garage and use it as it's intended. i doubt we'll do one thing different, though.

being hit by crime is just kinda unnerving, like you had to appear nekked in public or something. leaves ya a bit exposed. i plan to do my best to keep thinking of it as random and therefore over until the next time not soon.

now this worked out well for missy who had been campaigning to take her car back to school with her. suddenly it seemed maybe safer for her to do that, so off she left sunday and nobody had to take her. sweet. her insurance will go up again probably, but what else is new. with gasoline costs, it might be cheaper. might.

she got a job at the applebee's near the campus before she came home last week. another reason for needing her wheels back. she's got big plans for making some serious bucks. she knows it's hard work. so we'll see. how better to do that trial and error living otherwise known as growing up.

she was working 40-plus hours a week at the beginning of the semester at the book store (for the rush the first month), working hard, too. and she can always quit if it gets too hard. her advisor in communications (her major is broadcast - radio, tv & film) offered to get her a job operating a camera at the local nbc-affiliate for $7 an hour, but it was right after she'd accepted applebee's, and she's thinking she can make like $10 waitressing.

personally, i think she won't make that, but hey, not my life.

sunday i was stressed and exhausted over the tires and all the homecoming. hubs and i both fell asleep as soon as missy called to say she got to the dorms safely. and today I'm still dragging. so, i'll call this done for now. i'm thinking i will try to post this friday with more art.

i'm planning to start a card crop marathon on wednesday to finish them up and get started getting them mailed off. i did order stamps, but did i order enough? we are heading into that crunch down on christmas, aren't we? dec one is this saturday. ack!

i hope you each have an amazing fruitful week, since saturday will be december one and that means 25 days countdown crunch starts. ack! let's get in gear here, aimes...

My Creative-Every-Day for 11/6 was this yummilicious dinner dish:

KING RANCH CHICKEN (ALSO CALLED CHICKEN TORTILLA CASSEROLE)
4 chicken breasts
12 corn tortillas
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup milk
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes
1 lb. Cheddar cheese, grated
jalepenos or other hot peppers, sliced (optional)

Boil chicken breasts. Cool and debone. Tear into bite-sized pieces; set aside.
Cut tortillas into quarters; set aside.
In a bowl, mix soups, milk, onion and tomatoes. Butter a large baking dish. Put a layer of tortillas in dish bottom, then a layer of the soup mixture, then chicken, and then cheese. Repeat, ending with the cheese on top. Bake uncovered at 300-325F for 45-60 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Serves 4.
The Hubster fried up some extra tortilla quarters in "his" big chicken-fryin' cast iron skillet (seriously, it's his exclusively because he loves it so; I get to touch the small one to make corn bread in). We topped it off with some sour cream, a salad and some guacamole, and called it Texas Heaven. Try it on a chilly evening when you need something to stick to your ribs, as they say. Good comfort food.

I Was RAK'd!
Started out innocently enough. Went by Sherry's blog, noticed her pretty blog banner and left her a comment. Last night, I find an email from her with {gasp} a banner for me! She'd made me one. How sweet is that? Sherry, you rock, seriously! Anyway, what do ya'll think? Isn't it pretty? THANK YOU!!!!! I just love everything about it.

I really admire the talent to scrap digitally. I've been scoping out trying to learn it and I decided yesterday that I need some kind of mentor cuz I suck at figuring out some parts of the software. I'm hoping I can find someone who could answer questions if I get stuck.

I checked out Sherry's gallery at 2peas, and you should see her first digital LO: Go here and leave her some praise...that was her first one and it looks so good, it just amazes me!

http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/layout_images/1248688.jpg
I can only pray that my first digital layout looks 1/4 that good! If I can ever get through one, that is...

Well, it's another hump day. I am really feeling pressure in every area of my life lately. Have you ever felt jazzed and excited about life, yet depressed and dreadful about it, too? (I know, right? You're going "what???") Well, I have been. I think I'm really over-committed again. The Creating Thing every day is bearing down on me like a balloon made of lead. I think I'm going to have to slow it down to only a couple of times a week, because I have to do my Christmas gift-making, that was the deal I made with myself, and I've about run out of things that can be made in a day. Which of the two is more important here? I mean, "uh, sorry little Johnny and Jenny, Auntie Aimes couldn't get your gift finished because I was too busy creating a finished product every day" or "Here, you get a card or journal page, cuz it only took a day to make."

Not. So, you see my dilemma. Yeah, should have never signed up, sorry, Leah. I really thought it could work. I definitely will be creating every single day, but nothing to show for it except for every so often. That challenge is really more suited to art journal pages and such.

Well, great, now I get to feel like a failure for not being able to do it even a whole week. Man, can I ever set myself up? I guess I could try and just do a 30-minute doodle or drawing every day, pure fluff at the busiest time of the year, and call it a therapeutic break. We'll see.

So now, do you see, my attitude blows. Like, nothing to live for, even though that isn't anywhere near the truth. And, I am jazzed about learning digital and scrapping some layouts again the old-fashioned way, too. I'm burned out on cards, though. I needed a break and got a bit of one, but family birthdays are starting up again. Plus the few I make for Christmas. Back to the card factory grind.

I think I just want to be a curmudgeon. Just for that, I'm making chocolate chip cookies today. Oh, and I thought I was going to be gaining some weight (under the it-figures rule of Murphy's Law), but I actually lost 2 pounds. Didn't even walk a lot this past week, either. Must have been the yogurt and cereal. Maybe that Special K ad is correct!