Family Funny

My father wears hearing aids.

One evening, after feverishly cleaning up the kitchen, my mother said to my dad, "The kitchen is closed."

Dad replies, "What?"
Mom: "The kitchen is closed!"
Dad: "Huh?"
Mom: "THE KITCHEN IS CLOSED!!"

A few minutes later, my father comes out of their bedroom with a duffle bag in his hands. Mom says, "What are you doing?"

Dad replies, "I don't know, but I got my clothes."

He had no idea where they were going but he did what the boss had instructed.

Some Wishes Granted

I was able to refinance which means I'll get to skip a mortgage payment. So this month's mortgage payment went towards two items on my wish list.

My FIRST computer. Yes, I've never owned my own computer. Have always used my work computer. I decided I should join the adult world and purchase my own. I'm a bit technically challenged so I hope I'm able to work out the bugs.



A trip to Seattle with a side trip to Vancouver (if I remember to pack my passport!). One of my "Seven" goals is to visit seven new places. Here is #1 and #2! I am going to see my niece Lauren and her family. My goal is to teach Maks to say "Jojo."


Oh and, my mortgage payment also went toward the heat pump repairs. Thankful for available funds for the necessities.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Here are my two favorite Christmas gifts which I bought for myself...

My Starbucks travel mug. LOVE it!
I bought it on clearance for about $6. It took me forever to find a picture of this exact mug to include in this post. I finally found it on Amazon. You are not going to believe what it is selling for.....$44.96. Are you kidding me? It's jeweled but not made of jewels!


















My griddler! It's a grill and a griddle in one. I use it all the time!

Things to DO on a Snowy Day

It's been awhile since I've done a list...

• eat breakfast with the neighbors (eggs and french toast)
  
• reserve airline tickets (to visit these guys)
• shovel slush (in the rain)
  
• check work email (and respond)
• laundry (and run the dryer twice per load, grrr)
  
• purchase a new computer (actually, my FIRST computer!)
  
• call for lab results (negative!)
• spend $400 for heat repair (grrrrr)
  
• blog (check!)
  
• vacuum (since the vacuum has been sitting out for 3 weeks)
  
• facebook (too much)
  
• clean bathrooms (don't ask when I did that last)
  
• clean stove (yuck)
• be amazed at the thunder snow (crazy!)
  
• do a puzzle (tonight)
• make homemade donuts (YUMMO!!!)

What to Eat on a Snow Day

I made this awesome crockpot recipe tonight for my neighbors and me. It was an improvization of a recipe I found in my Fix It and Forget It cookbook. I had to use what I had on hand because, as you know, no grocery shopping allowed this month.

1 1/2 lbs ground beef or sausage (I used 1 lb beef, 1/2 lb sausage)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 jar spaghetti sauce
10 oz jar of mushrooms
8 oz shredded cheddar (I had misc bags of sharp, mild, white, yellow that I used up)
1/2 box elbows, cooked
4 oz shredded mozzarella

Brown meat with onion. Build two layers in the crockpot in this order: meat, mushrooms, pasta, cheddar, sauce. Repeat (uh, of course...that's what "build two layers" means).

Cook on low 3-4 hrs. I miscalculated and cooked it the full four hours. It was just about to get to that "mushy" stage so stay close to the 3 hr mark. Sprinkle with mozzarella and let melt for 5 minutes.

We had garlic bread and salad with it and it was scrumptious!! We've already planned on eating the leftovers for dinner tomorrow night.

Just wish I had remembered to use a crockpot liner! Grrrr....I swear by those things but always forget to use them!

Dessert? Brownie sundaes at their house shortly. Yum!

Did I mention we started our day with pancakes?
LOVE my neighbors!

Charm Card

Things you don't want to hear your surgeon say to his resident...

"This is Jodie. We will be seeing her indefinitely."

"See this area of regrowth? It's too early to tell if it's papilloma but we'll have to keep our eye on it."

"Her stent isn't working."

"This is exposed bone. It should be developing new lining but it's taking longer than expected."

"Usually at this point we can stretch out appointments but we still need to see her weekly because there is so much buildup that needs removed."

I decided it was time to buy a metro fare pass.

2011 Snuck In

Yes, it is January 8th. One week of the new year has gone by and I'm just getting around to doing the annual blog kick-off. But let me back track a bit...

Can I just start by saying how incredibly glad I am that 2010 is OVER!? Been-there-done-that-never-wanna-do-it-again! CHECK!

So what does 2011 hold? Who knows? But I know Who's facing it with me.

I love to blog. You wouldn't know it by my lack of posts this year (uh-hem, thanks to Courtney for pointing that out to me). So, yes, I'm going to once again commit to doing better this year. But this blog may suffer a bit because of its competition found here. I'll probably be writing more over there than here but you can still follow me anyhow anywhere. (My great-nephew's infatuation with Dr. Seuss is rubbing off.)

And for the record...I read every entry of your blogs!