Revelation

I've always said I wanted to travel back in time if I could. Any period of the past from medieval to Regency to the prairie days would be fine with me. I love to read historcial (mostly)romantical fiction. Amanda Quick, Julia London, Julia Quinn, Laura Ingalls Wilder are right up my alley. I can imagine myself in the time period living the life.

No running water? No problem! Plague? Bah! Strict social rules? Ha! Horses, wagons? Bring them on! I can handle them all with grace. Or so I thought until a few night ago when I had my revelation....an epiphany if you will.

Brother and I had driven the 40 minute round trip to town to get some fast food (yes, I'm aware if I lived in the past there would be no whopper). This is when I realized what would be my downfall and prevent me from going back in time.

It wasn't the fast food, it's the dark, man! One thing about me is I hate...no, make that HATE the dark. I cannot stand a dark house, it's 100 watts for me all the way, baby. None of this one lamp on in the living room crap, all lights have to be on. I realized that if I was to go back to Regency England there would be no 100 watts for me, it would be candle light!!! UGH, I couldn't do it. Even if my handsome price was there to rescue me...hmmm, maybe I could go back just far enough to hook up with Thomas Edison. This is going to take some more thought.

Fuzzy Caterpillars

I noticed tonight on the way home from work there were several fuzzy caterpillars crawling across the road. And as my granddad Frank used to say...that's a sign of a hard winter. So I guess we'd better get ready! Maybe I need to buy sister some long pants, I don't think she will want to wear shorts all winter long.

Of course none of her jeans from last winter fit so we need to go shopping soon. A cold front came through today and it's pretty chilly out compared to what it has been. The high tomorrow is only supposed to be 66...brrr!

If Terri can do it, so can I

Lately, I've been thinking of getting busy blogging again. So here I am!

Summer is winding down, we took the pool down today. And by we, I mean dh did 99.99% of the work and I came in at the absolute last minute and "helped" which seems to be our regular MO.

I've been picking a ton of tomatoes out of the garden. I made some fresh salsa Saturday night using our tomatoes, green peppers and jalapenos. Oh my heck it was so hot!! I had to add some sugar and a couple more tomatoes to try to cut the heat. It's still hot but now you can actually eat it without fire coming out of your mouth. It was nice to make something using our homegrown produce.

Anyway, I guess I'm back to blogging. The internets can breath easy again.

Recipe #1 of the Great Chicken Experiment 2009

Crispy Onion Chicken

1/2 butter, melted
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 can (6oz) french fried onion, crushed
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1. In a shallow bowl, combine the butter, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic salt and pepper. In another shallow bowl, add 1/2 cup french fried onions. Dip the chicken in the butter mixture, then coat with onions.

2. Place in greased 9 inch square baking pan. Top with remaining onions; drizzle with any remaining butter mixture. Bake , uncovered, at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until juices run clear.

The great summer chicken experiment of 2009

I recently bought a chicken cook book. As it sounds it has only chicken recipes in it...we eat a lot of chicken.

I told Mallory to go through the cookbook and mark all the recipes she thought sounded and looked good. I love this cookbook because it has a picture of every recipe...very helpful to someone like me.

Anyway, she picked about 15 recipes and we will be trying most of them this summer. She decided that we would go to the list after we tried them and mark if we liked them or not. :) means we love it. :( means we hate it and :| means meh, we didn't love it or hate it.

I've made two so far. The first one got a hearty "meh" from everyone! It was OK but not great. I probably won't be making it again. The second one got a huge :) "YUMMMM" from everyone. It was grilled chicken and it was so good, it was a keeper!

I will try to get the recipes posted later, hopefully by tomorrow. I will try to post the recipes and results as we go along.

Butterflies

"Would you" you asked
and I said yes.
First touch, first kiss
butterflies
turning to heat
burning us with fire

"Will you" you asked
and I said I do.
Butterflies and heat
turning to steel.
Unbreakable

"Are you" you asked
and I said I'm positive.
New butterflies
bringing joy and fear
and love.

Not quite and other ramblings

I decided I needed some changes around here. Not sure I like this look but it's better than the tired old pink I had before. I guess it's a work in progress.

I kind of fell off the wagon this morning..one foot was dragging the ground but I managed to pull myself back on. I was starving this morning and I was sure when I dropped my kids off at my parents that my mom would have something delicious for breakfast. Nope. Nothing cooked when I got there. She's always making stuff like biscuits and gravy or pancakes (bunnys with chocolate chip eyes for the kids ). Nothing done today. So I had no breakfast. As I said I was starving but I'd made a promise to myself that I wouldn't get fast food for breakfast or lunch. Sadly I had a breakfast burrito today. But! it was just a junior size! And I got a Healthy Choice thingie for lunch. I wanted to cave and go get a greasy cheeseburger but I resisted. Yay me. But I do feel bad about the burrito, but I was starving, man!

I could feel myself sliding down the slippery slope but I managed to hang on. I kept reminding myself that the scales show less weight than the last time I weighed, and I'm sure cutting out the fast food breakfast and lunch has helped that tremendously.

But now writing about food has me starving again. Frown.

I survived

I did it, I survived the banquet. I went by myself which I hate to do. I hate going to the store by myself so this was a big deal. I got there and saw several people I know but no one I know well enough to just plunk myself down by. So I got my plate and tried to sit somewhere out of the way. Of course I ended up sitting right in front in a very obvious spot. Loser sitting alone. Finally enough people got there that they had to sit at my table.

A nice man and his wife sat by me at first then someone I know a little(a customer from work)came and sat by me. I was doing fine during the awards part until I had to pee so bad I knew I wouldn't be able to wait until it was my turn to go up front. So of course I had to walk in front of everyone to get to the bathroom.

I was still doing fine sitting there....thinking, Ok this isn't so bad I can do this. Then as it got closer and closer to my time to be in the spotlight my heart started beating faster and faster. It felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. LOL Then it was my turn. I knew the first person to get an award, she's a customer. The posing for the numerous pictures was kind of awkward. Then the next guy came up...I kind of know him, I've at least met him before. Again, posing for pictures was weird. I hate getting my picture taken and I hate fake smiling. My legs were shaking I was so nervous.

Being in front of around 300 people is almost more than I could take. But I did it and I'm proud of myself. It was good exposure for my work and also for me. Plus my boss really appreciated me doing it.

And the winner is.....

Tonight I am really stepping out of my comfort zone. Out. Like in the next hemisphere out of my comfort zone. Not quite in to orbit, but close.

My boss has donated some money to buy/sponsor awards at a banquet tonight. It's to honor conservation efforts in our county. He will not be available to hand out the awards so guess who gets to do it? No, really, guess?!? Me!!!

I will be standing in front of who knows how many people shaking hands and posing for pictures. Oh my. Oh and shaking hands. That's enough to give me a seizure just thinking about it. The only saving grace is that I don't have to speak. Someone else will be announcing the names I just have to give the awards. Just have to give the awards, I make it sound like it's no big deal. It's a big deal to me.

I was going to say no, I couldn't do it. But then I had a talk with myself and thought Good grief woman, you are almost 40 years old!!! Buck up and just do it.

So tonight I will smile and shake hands like the professional I am. Ha!

Day one (or would it be two?)

I have decided that I have GOT to lose some weight. I'm miserable. I can't walk with out pain and getting winded. I'm so out of shape it's embarrassing, really. I know I'm fat, I don't think I'm a blubbery mess or anything yet. I'm jiggly for sure, but I'm so weak physically I'm starting to get worried for my health and my future.

I've started trying to cut out the fast food which is a huge problem for me. I work out of the home and I hate packing a lunch so I just grab a burger or whatever. Besides being expensive it's killing my health......so I've decided to start bringing my lunch. Now, what I bring might not be the best but it has to be better than McD's, right? And breakfast at home too.

I'm not Catholic, so we're not big in to giving up stuff for Lent but I've done it before. So...I figure I'm giving up eating out for lunch for Lent. Giving up my bad habit, does that count?

I also ordered a work out DVD that I got yesterday. I did it yesterday afternoon when I was home with a sick girl. It was HARD. The exercises were not that hard but I was panting and sweating. Wow. It was bad. Now of course today I'm sore. Not too sore but the longer the day goes on the more sore I get. I have to do this, I have to stick to it.

Rock on!

I'm sitting here in the computer room listening to/watching VH1 Classics. When did the music I listened to in high school become classic rock???!?

Ozzy, Bon Jovi, Ratt, David Lee Roth, Quiet Riot, Whitesnake. The big hair, the scarves, the spandex body suits, the even bigger hair. How embarassing it must for some of them to look back now and see what they wore and how they looked!

But wow, what memories. When Ozzy came on singing Bark at the Moon I was instantly back in dh's white truck cruising around town and out in the country, sitting in the middle next to dh, my butt vibrating with the thump thump of his huge speaker he had behind the seat. It would get so loud stuff would vibrate off the seat, it's a wonder either one of us can still hear anything. We would cruise the countryside listening to tapes and rocking out. What bad asses we were LOL

Rock on dude!! *making the rock on sign with my hands*

Woohoo! I've still got it

Sometimes I get to feeling a little down on myself. I'm 37, fat and out of shape. Plus the whole ugly thing going on...so I worry. I worry that dh is tired of me. He's been seeing me naked since 1987... maybe he's done getting excited about that. I've had 2 kids, I have stretch marks and pooches where before there were none.

Today I am wearing a shirt to work that I have worn before. BUT today I'm wearing the shirt with my new-ish bra that really makes the girls stand up and be noticed. I came out of the bathroom asking dh if the shirt was too revealing for work. His vote was no. He liked the shirt. A lot. Woohoo!!

But now I'm sitting at my desk thinking what is good for a dh to notice might not be too good for the rest of the world. Oh well, it is my boss's birthday today...maybe I'll get a raise. LOL

Not that kind of raise....get your mind out of the gutter!!

The end is near!

Repent!! The end is near!

I feel like I will be seeing guys standing on the street corner yelling at us to repent. There have been two, yes TWO earthquakes in Oklahoma this week!! WOW, that's freaky.

I can remember several years ago there was one and we actually felt it at work. It was wierd! It was only a 1 point something I think. THe most recent two have been small also, it's just weird to hear of earthquakes in Oklahoma.

Or maybe the fact that I'm drinking tonight makes it even wierder? *paranoid*

Busted

Ha! The losers who broke in to our house have been arrested. It was a man and a woman. They are both being held for $100,000 bond. Obviously they had robbed more than just us. The deputy said they are suspected in robbing houses in many counties around here and even up in to Kansas.

The deputy came by our house Tuesday to show us some pictures of blankets that were found at the house. None of them were ours though. We were all home from work and school because of the ice storm that we had. When the deputy came over this time thank god the house was clean!!! Well, clean for us. I've heard from someone that knows him that he's a complete neat freak so he probably still thought it was bad, but for me it was almost spotless LOL.

Anyway, when he was here talking to dh, brother was fascinated because as he told me in a whisper "mama, I can see his gun". Then when I told him I thought that he had TWO guns, he about fell out of his chair LOL That boy does love guns. Everything he picks up he can turn in to a gun, which is kind of worrying in a way. I will fully expect dh to teach him the safe way to handle a gun when brother's a little older.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the jerkfaces that robbed us are in jail and I doubt if they will be getting out any time soon. $100,000 is a LOT of money, I'm thinking they are in for some serious jail time. Which doesn't hurt my feelings at all.

Mental Block

Monday January 5th I got a call from dh. I was at work by myself and my cell phone rang, it was dh. He says "hey" and I can instantly tell something is wrong. I can always tell when he's upset on the phone and for a split second my mind races back to the day almost 19 years ago when he called me and says "guess what....my dad died today". I was expecting the worst.

It was bad but certainly not the worst. Someone broke in to our house and stole both our brand new flat screen televisions. They broke the window on our back door and got the door unlocked. They came in to our house and took our tv sets. The also dumped out a lock box we have apparently looking for money.....we have no money you idiots!!! We have new tv sets where do you think the money went?

Dh called the sheriff department I left work in a panic. My mind was racing...what else did they take, what did they tear up? I got home and the sheriff was there with dh. Contrary to what it looked like, they did not tear up the house. We managed that on our own. It had been a bad week and the house was a wreck. At the time I didn't care but looking back I'm horribly embarrassed. I just want to invent a reason for the deputy to come back to see my house clean.

As I looked through the house I kept thinking of stuff they might have taken. Two brand new boxes of checks in the computer room...still there. My digital camera laying on the kitchen counter that they walked right by.....still there. My kids rooms...untouched as far as I can tell. The Wii that was right beside the now missing tv......still there.

As we got ready for bed that night dh realizes........no blanket. Those creeps took the blanket off our bed!!

Even through all this I have remained really calm about it all. I have come to realize I have not let myself think of the actual people that were in my house. I don't know if it was one or two or how many but I haven't/can't let myself go down that road. I know my televisions are gone. And that's as far as I can go. I can't imagine that there were actual strangers in my house touching my stuff....touching my bed. Sometimes that door will crack open and all I can do is slam it shut again. Maybe when they catch the guy(s) (and they are well on their way to doing just that) I'll be able to process it, but until then I keep it blocked out.