Aggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!
NEEEEEEEEED
MOOOOORE
TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!!
School starts for students on Thursday; tomorrow is the final day of Teacher-Inservice, loaded with a full-day meeting.
My room is SOOOOOOO NOT ready!
I was "kindly" kicked out of the school at 9:00 tonight.......what?!?!? What happened to 11:30PM deadline (the typical cut-off during the school year).
Oh dear
Oh dear
Oh dear
;0)
Whew
Okay
That's out of my system....
In all honesty......
Thursday (First Day) is CRAZY for students; NOT a normal schedule AT ALL. It'll be kinda a "coast" day for the 7/8 Grade staff, so I think I'm set.
Friday (first "real" day) follows a normal schedule, and I THINK I'm mostly set for classes, syllabi, books, binders, first "fun" projects.....
And that'll give me the weekend to REALLY make sure I'm ready for Tuesday, the first "real-real" day :0)
On the garden-forefront:
We're DONE with corn. We decided to give our remaining corn away to friends/family.
We're DONE with beans. Anything that comes now will merely remain on the bushes.
We're DONE with cucumbers. Same as beans.
Tomatoes are slowly turning red; must peek at them tomorrow because I haven't seen them in three days. I don't know how our leaf-less babies are doing.....I wonder if the Septoria Leaf Spot is attacking again.....yup. MUST get to the garden before leaving tomorrow....just for a peek.
Potatoes.....no clue. Must ask Paul about those.
Ummm......carrots. Oh my word! I have no idea what Paul has in mind for them this year. Yet to come.
Onions....still in ground.
Melons.....still growing.
Okay.
Quilting forefront:
At a complete standstill until life gets back on a schedule. LOL...yeah, you teachers out there know what I mean. Give me another week and I should be bringing quilting back into my schedule.
Family forefront:
Candace's Kindergarten openhouse: 5:00 tonight. Check.
Caitlyn's 2nd grade openhouse: 6:00 tonight. Check.
Cassie's 5th grade openhouse: 6:30 tonight. Check.
Dentist appts tomorrow: 3:30, 3:50, 4:20. Check.
Okay.
Have I mentioned that I am SO GLAD I don't have volleyball on my plate right now?!?!?!!? {{The team is starting off great, BTW!!! 5-1 going into tonight's match! I'm their #1 Fan!!!!!}}
I miss summer already and will enjoy next June when it eventually gets here, but....
....in the meantime, I AM excited for what this new school year will bring!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Final day of vacation.... and some catchup
Morning! Bright -n- early up -n- at 'em! 3:30 AM and I gave up the fight...again.
With today being my last day of summer vacation, I SURELY hope this sleepless "can't shut brain down" thing gets under control before back-to-school next week. I wouldn't want to be a GRUMP to my students, afterall :(
There's so much I could be updating right now....
Stash Report! Gosh---haven't calculated those numbers since the beginning of August. Sadly, though....my notebook is downstairs, and I'm all snuggled up with a quilt and the laptop and simply don't want to get up and go down to get it. Wisconsin August temperatures aren't letting me down this August!!!! I dare say, it's 59 degrees outside right now, so we have ALL the windows open. It's a wee bit chilly in the house, but after it reached 90 degrees inside yesterday, the house has cooled down nicely.
Garden update! The REASON it was 90 degrees in the house yesterday is because the canner had been going full-bore! For the past two days, it's been CORN, CORN, CORN! By the time I turned everything off yesterday, I had only tackled 3 rows of corns (of our 9), and have completed 47 pints of corns (only!). BOY! This is my first year actually canning corn; we usually freeze it. Canning it is QUITE the lengthy process! With 6 rows left to do, I think the game plan is to can up another case (or so) of pints, but then to freeze the rest like we've done in the past.
Smith Mountain Morning update! Sorry no pics; I plead the same laziness about getting the camera as I did for the stash report notebook. Before I tackled the corn yesterday, I spent a couple of hours cutting and piecing the units for the border. All blocks and border units are complete, so it's simply a matter of putting it all together.
I truly apologize about a "no-picture" post. They ARE kinda boring to read.......but if you took to time to read all the black-n-white, THANKS!!!
Today, I head to my parents. The girls will spend the afternoon and evening "camping" with my parents. They are SOOO excited! I will spend the afternoon doing my own school shopping, and then this evening I'll spend with my childhood BFF. We haven't seen each other in years!!!!! Via facebook earlier this week, she put a call-out that she's in need of some motivation to get back into her running (BOY, THAT sounds familiar, huh????) I wrote back....one thing lead to another....and we're running a race on Saturday close to the home town (where she still lives).
Anyway...enough of the black-n-white.
**sigh**
I wish I could sleep. It's 4:10 AM now; and I know it will be pointless crawling back into bed.
I wish there were more blogs to read up on; I may have to start clicking everything on everyone else's blogs.
Here's wishing you a happy Friday and weekend to come!
With today being my last day of summer vacation, I SURELY hope this sleepless "can't shut brain down" thing gets under control before back-to-school next week. I wouldn't want to be a GRUMP to my students, afterall :(
There's so much I could be updating right now....
Stash Report! Gosh---haven't calculated those numbers since the beginning of August. Sadly, though....my notebook is downstairs, and I'm all snuggled up with a quilt and the laptop and simply don't want to get up and go down to get it. Wisconsin August temperatures aren't letting me down this August!!!! I dare say, it's 59 degrees outside right now, so we have ALL the windows open. It's a wee bit chilly in the house, but after it reached 90 degrees inside yesterday, the house has cooled down nicely.
Garden update! The REASON it was 90 degrees in the house yesterday is because the canner had been going full-bore! For the past two days, it's been CORN, CORN, CORN! By the time I turned everything off yesterday, I had only tackled 3 rows of corns (of our 9), and have completed 47 pints of corns (only!). BOY! This is my first year actually canning corn; we usually freeze it. Canning it is QUITE the lengthy process! With 6 rows left to do, I think the game plan is to can up another case (or so) of pints, but then to freeze the rest like we've done in the past.
Smith Mountain Morning update! Sorry no pics; I plead the same laziness about getting the camera as I did for the stash report notebook. Before I tackled the corn yesterday, I spent a couple of hours cutting and piecing the units for the border. All blocks and border units are complete, so it's simply a matter of putting it all together.
I truly apologize about a "no-picture" post. They ARE kinda boring to read.......but if you took to time to read all the black-n-white, THANKS!!!
Today, I head to my parents. The girls will spend the afternoon and evening "camping" with my parents. They are SOOO excited! I will spend the afternoon doing my own school shopping, and then this evening I'll spend with my childhood BFF. We haven't seen each other in years!!!!! Via facebook earlier this week, she put a call-out that she's in need of some motivation to get back into her running (BOY, THAT sounds familiar, huh????) I wrote back....one thing lead to another....and we're running a race on Saturday close to the home town (where she still lives).
Anyway...enough of the black-n-white.
**sigh**
I wish I could sleep. It's 4:10 AM now; and I know it will be pointless crawling back into bed.
I wish there were more blogs to read up on; I may have to start clicking everything on everyone else's blogs.
Here's wishing you a happy Friday and weekend to come!
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Locks of Love [Cassie] - The sequal
Back on February 13, 2009, Cassie received her first EVER hair cut and donated 10 inches to Locks of Love.
Today, we upped that by an inch.
She loves it and is SOOOO excited for school to start next week. All that remains on our back-to-school shopping list is new shoes for all three girls.
As for the computer; ;| Still deader-n-a-doornail! :0(
BUT....my day is much better than yesterday (so far).
I've spent much of the morning piecing together the 28 chimney blocks for Smith Mountain Morning
Caitlyn joined me; practically begging to help. With some training and supervision, she worked the iron to press the final blocks.
To close....
When Candace saw Cassie's hair, she whined and pleaded for me to cut HER hair too.
**sucking in breath**
Oooooo........that one has to grow on ME for a little bit before I allow it to happen. I admit----I am in LOVE with her hair. Would it be terrible for me to tell her a lil' white lie? .... that her hair needs to be just a little bit longer in order to donate it to Locks of Love??? .... JUST to buy me some more time to grieve the passing of her hair before we really cut it???.....
:D
Today, we upped that by an inch.
She loves it and is SOOOO excited for school to start next week. All that remains on our back-to-school shopping list is new shoes for all three girls.
As for the computer; ;| Still deader-n-a-doornail! :0(
BUT....my day is much better than yesterday (so far).
I've spent much of the morning piecing together the 28 chimney blocks for Smith Mountain Morning
Caitlyn joined me; practically begging to help. With some training and supervision, she worked the iron to press the final blocks.
To close....
When Candace saw Cassie's hair, she whined and pleaded for me to cut HER hair too.
**sucking in breath**
Oooooo........that one has to grow on ME for a little bit before I allow it to happen. I admit----I am in LOVE with her hair. Would it be terrible for me to tell her a lil' white lie? .... that her hair needs to be just a little bit longer in order to donate it to Locks of Love??? .... JUST to buy me some more time to grieve the passing of her hair before we really cut it???.....
:D
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
This day needs to get better
To start..... our tomatoes are in DANGER!!!! Either Leaf Blight or Septoria Leaf Spot is spreading like wild-fire through the tomatoes. Over half are infected with it and about 1/4 are completely bare now that all the bad, naughty BAD BAD leaves have been removed. Four hour ordeal there.....back-breaking work :\ {{yeah, yeah...roll your eyes Paul}}
These poor buggars :0( Will they survive the heat without their protective leaves???? Oh, I'll be soooooo 
Okay....at least SOME of them aren't infected (yet???) Paul went out to buy some fungicide and just sprayed them. *crossing finger and toes*
From a distance, the patch doesn't look ALL that bad, I guess. But.... :\ .... these front two rows aren't that bad....but those back two....
alright......I need to move onto something positive......
since I had the camera, I figured I'd show you the SUCCESS with Paul's cucumber trellis idea.
With some training as the plant spread, the 'arms' climbed nicely up the trellis.
It makes harvesting the cuks SO much nicer! We usually have a 2-person picking team with one person underneath while the other is on the outside. You don't miss too many cuks this way.
The girls usually get a bit freaked out with these guys around doing their job. And there are LOTS of them around.....working their magic with the cuks, tomatoes AND green beans. Hat's off to ya buddy :0) WOW! I REALLY like this camera!!!!!---hey, there's ANOTHER postive :0)
Okay....so then....let's get back to the headline of this post.....
Not only did the tomato-deleafing already put me in a not-so-pleasant mood... after lunch I decided to take a small break to check emails, etc.
Cassie: {[seeing me with the computer, making a face as to why I can't turn it on}} Oh, ummm...Mom. [[gulp]]. Somehow your coffee mug spilled.
Me: not a sound
Cassie: I don't really know how it happened.....I wiped it up right away.....
Me: [[leaving table to wipe dishes}}
{{10 minutes later}}
Me: Cassie, where exactly did it spill?
So, she went on to give me the run-down.....I REALLY was doing my best not to blow up.....I know it could have happened to anyone.....{{well, maybe not Paul because he thinks he perfect far too often}}
I grabbed the other laptop and started googling away......"spilled coffee on MacBook"..... read up on a lot. But, in the end....
This is what she looks like right now. I contacted a coworker who has a computer side-job.
Me: Hiya Darin.
Darin: Hi Amy. How are you?
Me: Darin, I'm calling you; it's never good when I call you.
Darin: uh-oh
I went on to explain to HIM everything that happened. The power-cord lights up; the battery actually shows a full-charge, I simply get no response when I try to turn it on. He agreed with me that it's most likely the logic board (the board that runs the keyboard) and NOT the hard-drive. AND.....the most IMPORTANT news..... he's fairly certain that he'll be able to recover all of my hard drive.
I have one more idea to try, but it'll mean getting a special keyboard from school that has a power button on it. You may recall last year when we spilled Coke on THIS laptop (the family one I'm using right now); we lost the top row of letters on the keyboard; no action what-so-ever from them (logic board was partially damaged). Repairing/replacing a logic board is INSANELY expensive! It's the classic..."you might as well buy a NEW one for that price!" Anyway.....we simply attach a USB keyboard to it and it works beautifully. ... Well, not BEAUTIFULLY; it's a bit of a pain that you can't actually USE the laptop as a laptop.... but.... it still gets the job done. Anyway.... I'd like to try this idea out with our newly damaged one. **crossing fingers and toes for the 2nd time today**
{{Do you think we've learned to establish a new rule: NO LIQUIDS NEAR THE COMPUTERS!!!!" ????}}
Okay.....so, I'm going on strike 2 right now. You KNOW bad things always come in THREE's! What else could possibly go wrong? It's 5:00... lots of evening left yet. I don't care to go to bed yet....no...no....that would be giving up. It's my day off of running, but I hope to do some strength training..... :/ maybe I shouldn't? I'll probably drop a weight on my foot and will be joining Caitlyn in the Gimp-races! Hmmm.....Cassie should get some miles on her feet after having a day off; the 3-mile course is most likely in my future tonight. ... DEFINITELY no quilting! I wouldn't want THAT machine to break on me.....
To close.....and for the needed laugh.....
Paul is doing his best to cheer me up. I want to believe he knows how hard I'm working on "lightening up" with the whole laptop incident....otherwise he probably wouldn't DARE talk to me cuz he'd just receive "the glare."
Butt.....I mean......
But....
No wait....no.....I DO mean BUTT!
He JUST walked up to me..... and asked...."What does this say?" To which I look over and see him bearing his butt cheek with the words "Kiss Here" on it
**giggling after the fact....**
No fret! THAT picture won't be shown :0)
Monday, August 22, 2011
I'm progressing!!! [2011 Running]
Tonight's 3.25 mile out-n-back. No walks, and in fact....I felt GOOOOOOOD! FINALLY! AND.....10:01/mile pace!!!! Where did THAT come from?
From the 2-3 hours of sleep last night?
From the wee "drugged state" I feel from my allergy meds?
From the 3 hour back-to-school shopping spree?
From the chicken strips for lunch?
From the amazing lunch company?
From Cassie's and my 2 mile run LAST night??? Which, BTW, Cassie surprised me on! The first mile, I had us pacing right around 10:30, which made me a bit nervous since her last run with me was at ~12:00's. Then, at the mile-turn-around, after a short walk break, we started back up. And she kept pulling away from me! I tried to keep her reigned in, but she insisted she was "fine." SO......onward we continued at 9:00/mile pace! Sadly, about half mile down the road, we found ourselves walking MORE than what we wanted. BUT....... for good reason! Our neighbor just invited a new bull into his meadow. Normally, I don't pay too much mind to the cows in the pasture, but....I found it odd that his electric fence was OBVIOUSLY on! Tick-Tick-Tick-Tick.... There was no MISSING the fence noise. So....I peered around. And sure enough.........oooooo......MEAN looking fella! I swear his neck was bigger than his body's total girth. HUGE HUGE HUGE and a bit ..... unsettling. I tried getting us back to running after a short hill climb, but his head popped up right away. Nuh-uh! I was freaked! So, we walked until we cleared the meadow. Needless to say, I probably won't be running the 2-mile route again anytime soon. "You just take care of those ladies, Buddy. Earn your keep and I'll keep my distance."
Anyway....
tonight's numbers:
3.25 miles (10:01/mile for a total of 32:33). HR: 174 avg
Design Wall - Rolling Star make way for Smith Mountain Morning!
For reasons not completely known, I simply could NOT sleep last night!!! It took forever for me to finally fall asleep (1:00 maybe????), and then toss-n-turn-n-toss-n-turn......by 3:30, I gave up and just got up!!!! I had a Diet Mt. Dew with dinner; that may have caused it since I haven't had a Dew in a while. ??? I also took an allergy pill last night around 8:00, which isn't the norm for me. My ragweed allergy started acting up on Friday....**sigh**....due to the lateness of EVERYTHING this year, when my allergies didn't show up at the normal time (usually 2nd week in August), I ALMOST had myself convinced that I was magically CURED!!!!! :\ Oh well.
Paul was outside for most of the day mowing weeds; I think that stirred up the pollen something fierce (AND we had the windows open enjoying the GORGEOUS!!!! August Wisconsin weather!!!!). So, I was getting pretty miserable as the day went on.
My actual theory for my sleeplessness is that it's a combination of the meds AND the Dew. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Regardless....I was UP at 3:30 AM. Watching news. Reading emails and blogs. By 5:00, I was ready to start something, but I didn't dare start up the machine for fear of waking Paul. And I didn't feel like loading a quilt to the frame. So....I surfed some more until Paul woke at 6:00.
At 6:00AM, I was piecing away and finished up the sixteen blue star blocks for Smith Mountain Morning. I am absolutely in love with all these fabrics from the swap; and blue-n-brown are SPECTACULAR together!!! And I think it goes without saying.....coffee is STILL a must despite having been awake for nearly 3 hours!
My Rolling Star blocks have been on the design wall for toooooo long. Let's face it; they ain't gonna see any progress any time soon; not with Smith Mountain Morning and Jamestown Landing in the works!!! Therefore.....they were neatly stacked and set aside on the shelf for NEXT year's UFO challenge!! LOL.....oh goodness! I haven't done too well on the UFO challenge this year :]
Next came trimming up the hourglass units.
And then an hour of cutting the log units for the final 28 blocks. I can't wait to tackle these nicely organized piles, but I need to be patient a little while longer. Hopefully SOON, all these blocks and units will take over the design wall!
Today has a POSSIBLE full schedule even though it's still really loose. Candace and Caitlyn need to shower with me this morning. I can't even THINK of when the last time was they had a REAL bath/shower and not just lake water or "showers" from the sprinkler. Ick, right????
Then we need to do some errands; (pick up Cassie's glasses, order a pair for myself; small grocery supply list).
We have a lunch date scheduled with my former volleyball captain and her parents. What a sweet lil' gal!! She's receiving Transitions as her belated graduation gift, and as a "good luck in college" gift.
Finally, I hope to tackle all the school shopping today! THREE girls this year and not just two. Hmmm.....can I handle all of them at the same time? School supplies are one thing.....but clothes?!?! Oh, I don't know if I have the strength!!! Specially after a night of little sleep.
Happy Monday!
Paul was outside for most of the day mowing weeds; I think that stirred up the pollen something fierce (AND we had the windows open enjoying the GORGEOUS!!!! August Wisconsin weather!!!!). So, I was getting pretty miserable as the day went on.
My actual theory for my sleeplessness is that it's a combination of the meds AND the Dew. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Regardless....I was UP at 3:30 AM. Watching news. Reading emails and blogs. By 5:00, I was ready to start something, but I didn't dare start up the machine for fear of waking Paul. And I didn't feel like loading a quilt to the frame. So....I surfed some more until Paul woke at 6:00.
At 6:00AM, I was piecing away and finished up the sixteen blue star blocks for Smith Mountain Morning. I am absolutely in love with all these fabrics from the swap; and blue-n-brown are SPECTACULAR together!!! And I think it goes without saying.....coffee is STILL a must despite having been awake for nearly 3 hours!
My Rolling Star blocks have been on the design wall for toooooo long. Let's face it; they ain't gonna see any progress any time soon; not with Smith Mountain Morning and Jamestown Landing in the works!!! Therefore.....they were neatly stacked and set aside on the shelf for NEXT year's UFO challenge!! LOL.....oh goodness! I haven't done too well on the UFO challenge this year :]
Next came trimming up the hourglass units.
And then an hour of cutting the log units for the final 28 blocks. I can't wait to tackle these nicely organized piles, but I need to be patient a little while longer. Hopefully SOON, all these blocks and units will take over the design wall!
Today has a POSSIBLE full schedule even though it's still really loose. Candace and Caitlyn need to shower with me this morning. I can't even THINK of when the last time was they had a REAL bath/shower and not just lake water or "showers" from the sprinkler. Ick, right????
Then we need to do some errands; (pick up Cassie's glasses, order a pair for myself; small grocery supply list).
We have a lunch date scheduled with my former volleyball captain and her parents. What a sweet lil' gal!! She's receiving Transitions as her belated graduation gift, and as a "good luck in college" gift.
Finally, I hope to tackle all the school shopping today! THREE girls this year and not just two. Hmmm.....can I handle all of them at the same time? School supplies are one thing.....but clothes?!?! Oh, I don't know if I have the strength!!! Specially after a night of little sleep.
Happy Monday!
Sunday, August 21, 2011
SMM and Saturday happenings...
Gimp-girl joined me downstairs for most of the afternoon while Paul kept the other two busy with chores/tasks/etc. Tscha....poor girl, huh??? :0)
With Caitlyn's trimming help, all of the Smith Mountain Morning 3.5" units were tackled today. LOTS of cutting this AM to make the star points!
All twelve of the brown star blocks were completed. {{Andee----you see your fabrics??????}}
And the sixteen blue star blocks have been pieced into rows, but this is the stage I'm leaving them for the day. LOADS completed though; can't remember the last time I sat and sewed for 8 hours. WOW!
So, let me catch you back up with yesterday's events.....
The day started with my 9 mile jog around the lake (Shell Lake, the lake our town is named after.) Start-to-finish, beach-back to-beach, it was actually 8.95 miles, but that's close enough to 9 for me! Initially, I
The temperatures were quite ideal! 52 degrees at the start (7:00 AM), and 74 by the end (~8:45 AM), according to the bank sign. WIthin my first three miles, I came across 6 different people, either biking, walking or running. One gentleman who I ran into shortly after starting (not even half mile into my run) was running in the opposite direction I was. Just before the halfway point around the lake, there he was again! He was also running the Lake Drive, just in the opposite direction. And THEN....shortly before returning to my starting point......there he was-AGAIN!!!! Obviously he was running faster than I was, and obviously running MUCH further than me! I was thinking about joking with him about how many "laps" he was planning....but decided to let it go. Not all runners care to be disturbed when running.
So, in the end: 8.94 miles (11:43/mile pace -- Total: 1:44:44). My goal for the day was to hold a 11:22 pace, so I was a bit off, although many of my miles WERE under that time. I simply took a couple too many walks towards the end again :\
Upon returning....
... I joined Paul out in the garden to pick beans.
Rather than help Ma and Pa, the girls spent their time in the boat, practicing their casting skills. Great caption: "What's missing from this picture??" :0)
Feeling a bit drained, I took a wee break on the computer before tackling the canning of the green beans.
In the afternoon, Nikki, our babysitter decided to spend some time with the girls before needing to head back to college. She's a GREAT kid!!!!!!!! What other 20 year-old would spend her Saturday just spending time with her babysitting kids?????
By the end of the day, after all the work and "toe" events......two lil' ladies were tuckered out. (Well, we ALL were to be completely honest!)
Short-n-sweet update :0)
And now.....Cass and I are going to try to beat the sprinkles and head out for a 2-mile EZ jog. She was all thumbs-up when I asked if she wanted to be signed up for the 5K our town has over Labor Day weekend. So....every 2-3 days, she'll be out with me doing 2- and 3- mile training runs.
Some final touches
Splendidly Marching Along and Transitions only needed labels to be complete. SMA will be sent to Alycia as soon as Maltese Star gets finished (my next to be loaded on the frame). Transitions will be in the hands of a new owner by the end of this week as she heads off to college.
Hopscotch needed binding; I had LOADS of this burgundy in my 2.5" strip drawer; NO IDEA where it was from???? But, used most of it :0) FINISHED!
Despite having had Roll, Roll Cottonboll marked off as" finished" in May, it still needed binding as well as a label even though it had been living on our bed :0). So, using some yellow and blue 2.5" strips from the drawer....it's FINISHED!
Feels good having those putzy tiny finishing tasks DONE! ;0)
Check
Check
Check
and
Check!
Cabbage - guess its use
Because I want to get downstairs quilting ASAP, I am electing NOT to give a step-by-step rundown of ONE of our tasks yesterday. Instead.....those "gardeny-people" that all of you are out there...... I give you a task: What are we prepping/making in these series of photos?
My job, shredding cabbage via food-processor, that, surprisingly, took a couple of hours to complete! I couldn't IMAGINE how long it would have taken had I not had the food processor!
Cassie's job; sprinkle the salt
Paul's job; pressing it down
Cassie's job; sprinkle the salt
Paul's job; pressing it down
Saturday, August 20, 2011
A late supper delayed even longer
Oh....we did plenty today around the Skattebo-Ranch; but all of that will need to wait until tomorrow. I haven't uploaded all the pics from the day and simply don't have the heart or energy to edit them.
Instead....
We ate a lunch late: 2:30. {{Paul made some homemade Cream of Broccoli soup---QUITE Da-LISH!}}
Therefore, we were destined to have supper late, too.
However....THIS lil' lady had other things in mind....
7:30 pm
She's not wearing the "Hello, My name is TROUBLE" shirt for nothin'!
7:50 PM
"So, tell me Caitlyn, what happened?"
Caitlyn: Well, Mom was making dinner, and we needed to finish up drying the dishes. Dad made us. I just finished drying a glass, and I was reaching for another dish. Somehow the glass was bumped and fell to the floor, breaking in lots of pieces. I jumped up, and cut my toe when I came down."
The on-call doc is a friend of ours, and I felt kinda bad having him come in for what COULD be something minor. But, thankfully, even he said it was a tough call....."it's one of those in-between lacerations. Too deep to ignore. But I think glue will work nicely."
An intern also came in for the ER-call. Quite surprised was I when "Intern Tim" came strolling in; he's a former student of mine. He took lead.....and glued the cut shut. SLICK! And quite a bit less painful than stitches!!!! Two thumbs up from this Mom.
8:45 PM
We made it home happy and safe; reheated dinner that had been covered up on the table when we headed to town, and finally sat down to eat.
Instead....
We ate a lunch late: 2:30. {{Paul made some homemade Cream of Broccoli soup---QUITE Da-LISH!}}
Therefore, we were destined to have supper late, too.
However....THIS lil' lady had other things in mind....
7:30 pm
She's not wearing the "Hello, My name is TROUBLE" shirt for nothin'!
7:50 PM
"So, tell me Caitlyn, what happened?"
Caitlyn: Well, Mom was making dinner, and we needed to finish up drying the dishes. Dad made us. I just finished drying a glass, and I was reaching for another dish. Somehow the glass was bumped and fell to the floor, breaking in lots of pieces. I jumped up, and cut my toe when I came down."
The on-call doc is a friend of ours, and I felt kinda bad having him come in for what COULD be something minor. But, thankfully, even he said it was a tough call....."it's one of those in-between lacerations. Too deep to ignore. But I think glue will work nicely."
An intern also came in for the ER-call. Quite surprised was I when "Intern Tim" came strolling in; he's a former student of mine. He took lead.....and glued the cut shut. SLICK! And quite a bit less painful than stitches!!!! Two thumbs up from this Mom.
8:45 PM
We made it home happy and safe; reheated dinner that had been covered up on the table when we headed to town, and finally sat down to eat.
6:32 AM----do I realllllly have to run?
I can do it
I can do it
I can do it
**struggling to find motivation**
UPDATE
But I DID run - 9 miles; details to come later after done with picking beans, cutting beans, canning beans........and repeat with cucumbers? and maybe some quilting?
I can do it
I can do it
**struggling to find motivation**
UPDATE
But I DID run - 9 miles; details to come later after done with picking beans, cutting beans, canning beans........and repeat with cucumbers? and maybe some quilting?
Friday, August 19, 2011
Smith Mountain Morning time!
After dinner this evening, I meandered outside to watch the girls play, and I headed over to the playset for a little bit of swinging myself.
It hit me that I hadn't checked the mailbox yet today.......
The Smith Mountain Morning fabrics arrived from the swap!!!!!
And look Andee!!! I received some of your 1.5" sets and HSTs!!!! :0)
I even received one of your 4" sets. Wahoo!
Working with the "new" fabrics was a perfect way to spend my evening after allowing myself to "be okay" with backing out of my plans to attend the home-opener Football game tonight. :\
Outcome after two hours: All 48 blue/white and all 64 brown/white 3.5" HSTs pieced, pressed and de-dog-eared.
After closing shop, I headed upstairs to be a witness to THIS. Paul was playing surgeon to Caitlyn, attempting to remove a sliver. Caitlyn may look tormented here....but she was great! No crying...and actually laughing at times.
My plans now: sit back n relax. I have plans to awake at 6 AM tomorrow to have some coffee/oatmeal before heading into town by 7:00 for an 11 mile training run. I'll head around the lake -- Shell Lake....which is only 'bout 9 miles around the perimeter road, so I'll need to head out along the snowmobile trail once the lake run is completed. I'm getting out of picking beans, too :0) Tee-heeee. Paul has been asked to handle the picking; I'll take care of the canning.
It hit me that I hadn't checked the mailbox yet today.......
The Smith Mountain Morning fabrics arrived from the swap!!!!!
And look Andee!!! I received some of your 1.5" sets and HSTs!!!! :0)
I even received one of your 4" sets. Wahoo!
Working with the "new" fabrics was a perfect way to spend my evening after allowing myself to "be okay" with backing out of my plans to attend the home-opener Football game tonight. :\
Outcome after two hours: All 48 blue/white and all 64 brown/white 3.5" HSTs pieced, pressed and de-dog-eared.
After closing shop, I headed upstairs to be a witness to THIS. Paul was playing surgeon to Caitlyn, attempting to remove a sliver. Caitlyn may look tormented here....but she was great! No crying...and actually laughing at times.
My plans now: sit back n relax. I have plans to awake at 6 AM tomorrow to have some coffee/oatmeal before heading into town by 7:00 for an 11 mile training run. I'll head around the lake -- Shell Lake....which is only 'bout 9 miles around the perimeter road, so I'll need to head out along the snowmobile trail once the lake run is completed. I'm getting out of picking beans, too :0) Tee-heeee. Paul has been asked to handle the picking; I'll take care of the canning.
Another recipe (Chicken Dumpling Soup)
A request was made by Paul last night for me to make Chicken Dumpling soup again :0)
Whew! At least there are SOME meals of mine that he likes!!!!
The soup itself utilizes our own chicken meat that we raise. The breasts are usually reserved for chinese recipes or home-made chicken-strips. The legs/thighs aren't a family favorite, so they are PERFECTLY utilzed in soups!!!!!! (Chicken noodle is another family favorite).
I don't follow a strict recipe for the soup portion; whatever we have on-hand. Carrots, beans, onions, potatoes, celery... Naturally, during harvest time, we have ALL of this on-hand ('cept Celery :0( Too bad, I LOVE celery in soups!!!!) :0) I added about 1-1.5 cups of carrots and potatoes to the soup today; only a handful of cut-up beans from Cassie's plant (that I had FORGOTTEN about!!!!), and a medium onion that has started to flower this past week.
I usually put the legs/thighs (from one chicken) in the crock-pot on high for a few hours with 4-cups of water; to the point the meats falls off the bone (no seasonings yet). I set the meat aside (to cool) and strain the liquid into a soup-pot. I add 8 more cups of water to the pot and then add enough Chicken-boullion to the liquid as prescribed by the package. I'll admit....this boullion is the SELLING POINT of the soup!!!! It adds the PERFECT amount of flavoring! I've tried both the boullion cubes AND the boullion "paste"---I like both equally well.
Anyway----once veggies are chopped up, they get added to the soup and boiling....
While that's cooking (~15 minutes???), I start cutting up (pulling apart) the chicken meat.
Once I add the meat, I start mixing up the Dumpling recipe. THIS is the part that I follow without making any changes since I found this yummy version on Cooks.com :0)
The ingredients:
2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. white or black pepper
1 egg, well beaten
2 tbsp. melted butter
2/3 c. milk
On a quilting note: I DID make up 5 labels today!!!!! But then found myself "resting my eyes" at 1:00, and haven't sewn them to the actual quilts yet.......(the LABELS, not my eyes!!!) :0)
Whew! At least there are SOME meals of mine that he likes!!!!
The soup itself utilizes our own chicken meat that we raise. The breasts are usually reserved for chinese recipes or home-made chicken-strips. The legs/thighs aren't a family favorite, so they are PERFECTLY utilzed in soups!!!!!! (Chicken noodle is another family favorite).
I don't follow a strict recipe for the soup portion; whatever we have on-hand. Carrots, beans, onions, potatoes, celery... Naturally, during harvest time, we have ALL of this on-hand ('cept Celery :0( Too bad, I LOVE celery in soups!!!!) :0) I added about 1-1.5 cups of carrots and potatoes to the soup today; only a handful of cut-up beans from Cassie's plant (that I had FORGOTTEN about!!!!), and a medium onion that has started to flower this past week.
I usually put the legs/thighs (from one chicken) in the crock-pot on high for a few hours with 4-cups of water; to the point the meats falls off the bone (no seasonings yet). I set the meat aside (to cool) and strain the liquid into a soup-pot. I add 8 more cups of water to the pot and then add enough Chicken-boullion to the liquid as prescribed by the package. I'll admit....this boullion is the SELLING POINT of the soup!!!! It adds the PERFECT amount of flavoring! I've tried both the boullion cubes AND the boullion "paste"---I like both equally well.
Anyway----once veggies are chopped up, they get added to the soup and boiling....
While that's cooking (~15 minutes???), I start cutting up (pulling apart) the chicken meat.
Once I add the meat, I start mixing up the Dumpling recipe. THIS is the part that I follow without making any changes since I found this yummy version on Cooks.com :0)
The ingredients:
2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. white or black pepper
1 egg, well beaten
2 tbsp. melted butter
2/3 c. milk
On a quilting note: I DID make up 5 labels today!!!!! But then found myself "resting my eyes" at 1:00, and haven't sewn them to the actual quilts yet.......(the LABELS, not my eyes!!!) :0)
Heavenly-Sinful Brownies!!!!!
I absolutely MUST share this recipe with all of you out there who are brownie fans!!!!!!
This is the recipe Paul used for the brownies last night------
Since I couldn't decide on "heavenly" or "sinful" to describe them, I'm going with the oxy-moron "Heavenly-Sinful!"
Easy Homemade Brownie Recipe
Paul added a marshmallow to the top of each "piece" of brownie; {{I think he cut a marshmallow in half and placed it on top.}}
This is the recipe Paul used for the brownies last night------
Since I couldn't decide on "heavenly" or "sinful" to describe them, I'm going with the oxy-moron "Heavenly-Sinful!"
Easy Homemade Brownie Recipe
Paul added a marshmallow to the top of each "piece" of brownie; {{I think he cut a marshmallow in half and placed it on top.}}
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Corn on the Cob; not for everyone :/
The first corn-on-the-cob meal of the season is ALWAYS memorable!!!! Crispy, Snappy, SWEEEET....and kernals just POP off the cob in your mouth. Yummmmmmmmmmmmm.......
BUT........
:\
When a 7-year-old loses her THIRD top tooth (JUST TODAY!!), corn-on-the-cob simply can't be enjoyed like it should be to really appreciate it.
She knew we needed to help her along... and was okay having us cut it off the cob for her.
AND THEN.....
a few moments later.....
Candace: OW! Mom....this hurts my mouth.....
Me: Where, honey?
Candace: Right here....
Me: CANDACE! You have a loose tooth too!
Candace: {{pouty face}}
Me: Why are you sad?
Candace: I don't want the blood like Cailtyn.
LOL......oh, what we have to look forward to over the next week? month? Who knows how long this tooth is going to take to actually be ready to come out.
Meanwhile.....
Cassie was sitting back, smiling, and gnawing away on her FIFTH cob :0)
Nah.....Paul wasn't going to be forgotten ;0) He was enjoying his first taste this season of fried-green-tomatoes.
And after dinner.....
Paul decided to make home-made brownies with the girls. So that only means ONE thing. Time for me to get out on the road for my easy 2-miles so that I can allow myself a WEEEEE indulgence when finished :) Cassie is going to run along with me, so it'll be a nice-easy pace.
Happy Thursday!!!!!!!! Tomorrow, I hope to get some quilting in, so watch for a quilting post (FINALLY) :0)
Workout Update
Cassie did very well on her 2 mile run with me, only needing 3 very small walk breaks. Upon returning, I added 5 GPU (general pickups) where each was ~100-200 meters in length. AND THEN....when I started heading toward the door, Candace and Caitlyn came out to meet me to run. They were disappointed when I said "not on the road" (it was getting quite dark already!), so we did 3 laps on our driveway, which added another ~200 meters per lap. So....between the GPUs and the driveway laps, I'll beg to say I ran about 3 miles total tonight. Sadly, my watch died before the first mile :0( I don't think I've charged it since the Marathon-relay last weekend :0( OopS!!!!!!!!
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