No Butterflies....

Friday was a very busy day volunteering. I was the only volunteer for my shift. And I was happy there were no butterflies! I am sure you are wondering what in the heck I am talking about. Well about 2 months ago, I went to visit a patient.  She was not doing well, and her Pastor was with her. I told them  I would come back later. Well a couple hours later I went back to her room. The door was shut, so I knocked. Someone answered, "come in." So in I waltzed. Well to my surprise, it was the funeral home there to pick up her body. I assumed that when you died in a hospital, they moved you to a special room where you waited until the funeral home came and got you. Well, found out that is not the case. It was really hard on me to see that body being zipped into that body bag. So, after talking to some of the staff, we came up with this idea. When you come to a room that the door is shut, and there is a butterfly on the door, that means the person in that room has passed away and are either waiting for the funeral home personal, or the funeral home personal is in with them. No more surprises.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I struggled missing my mom.

Still have not gotten into my craft room. We had some awesome weather last week, so I took Candy for a couple walks every day. Did all the laundry and hung it outside. Nothing beats fresh sheets off the line. And got a lot of cleaning done. I hope to start my Christmas cards soon. Need some snow on the ground first! Hopefully that will come soon.

I hope everyone has a great day!

Joan

Friday! That means volunteer today!

Whew....made it through another week. What a rough week. I had cooking disasters, baking disasters and did not get any crafting done! Here is some of the disasters this week. Monday, I got my sample of Snuggle's new Exhilaration's White Lilac and Spring Flowers. Was so looking forward to getting this. And perfect timing as Tuesday is my laundry day. Well this sample was a full sized bottle. It leaked all over the box. There was only about 1/4 of the bottle left. However it did make the rest of my mail smell wonderful. My mailbox still smells good, so this must be some good stuff! I did e-mail the company that I am trying this for, and they are sending me a new bottle! Tuesday we had steak on the grill. Whenever we have steak on the grill we have mashed potatoes and creamed corn. Bryan's favorite. I made the mashed potatoes (my carpal tunnel was acting up...that is my defense) and the potatoes were pretty lumpy. Although they tasted good, just not "mashed" enough. That disaster over we made it to Wednesday. I had a coupon for $1.00 of Idahoan instant  potato's. Never tied them before. But with the coupon making the package only 18 cents! Heck ya. Well I had a million (well ok, maybe not a million) things on my mind as I was making the potatoes. I followed the directions correctly (or at least I thought) When dinner was finally ready, I called Bryan to the table. I took the potatoes off the stove and they looked like (according to Bryan) cream-of wheat! Oh crap! I looked and sure enough they were really soupy. I got the package out of the recycle bin and thought I had done every step correctly. I mean really, how do you screw up instant potato's? Well as I looked in the sink, I noticed that I had grabbed the 2 cup measuring cup instead of the 1. Oops, that will make soupy potatoes! Thursday I was in the mood to bake something. I decided to make my mom's blonde brownies. I usually double this batch so I can make a 9 X 13 pan. I got them all mixed (something did not look right, but I have not made these for a long, long time) and put them in the oven to bake. They smelled good while baking. I let them cool, and had one. They did not taste anything like I remember. Looked at the recipe again, it called for 1/3 cup melted butter (which I doubled) and 1 cup of brown sugar. Oops, I read the recipe wrong and added 1/3 cup brown sugar, doubled. Not the 2 cups that it called for. They really had not taste. So last night I told Bryan we were having something simple. So, I made SOS (shit on a shingle) I made everything right!!! Tonight is our pizza night, so I know I will have 2 nights with no cooking disasters! I mean , who can screw up frozen pizza........right?

Thanks for stopping by!

Take Care

Joan

Our anniversary!

Saturday was Bryan's and my wedding anniversary. I had wanted snow on my wedding day, but just had really cold temps. We were eating breakfast yesterday and I asked Bryan how long we had been married. He said "13 blissful years" Well, I told him to try again.. he guessed 15 years? I told him that it has been 17 years. He said, "it sure does not seem like that long" I am not sure if that is a good thing or not. Bryan tried hard to keep my spirits up, he came home from his morning coffee and was so excited that he had figured out what we were doing for dinner. I ask and usually either hear, "I don't care, or I don't know" As the day went on, I kept trying to guess. We had just talked about my favorite restaurants to go to. I like Pedro's ( a Mexican restaurant) but Bryan does not like it. I usually go to lunch there with my friends Karen and Janet. Then I guessd Olive Garden. I was just telling him how I could go for their some of their salad. Nope, still was not right. Although, knowing my husband all my life, I knew he could be fooling me. I asked him how fancy I had to dress up. He said not real fancy. Well to my surprise, he took me to the VFW for all you can eat corned beef and cabbage! I am so lucky to have married Mr Romance! It was a great dinner, and I did not have to cook. So it was a great night!

Tonight I tried a new recipe. Chicken Sticky Strips! Yumm... So easy and fast. We had them with steamed green beans (from our garden) and mashed potatoes.

This is after about 20 minutes.

It does not start out to look like much, but once the sauce cooks down. I think next time I make it I will make it along with some rice. Here is the recipe.

4 chicken breasts, cut into strips

1 cup Italian dressing

2 t lemon juice

2 t honey

2 t brown sugar

Put everything in a zip-loc baggie and marinate for at least an hour. In skillet on med-high, add everything to the skillet. When comes to a boil, turn heat to med-low. Simmer for about 45 minutes. Mine was not turned high enough so I had to crank the heat for the last 10 minutes. Once the sauce starts to turn, it turns very fast. Also, don't get nervous that you have so much sauce in the beginning, it will cook down.

I hope to get into my craft room this week and work on some cards. I was not in the mood the last couple weeks.

Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great today.

Joan

Well....Saturday sure sucked!

Saturday was my birthday, and it really sucked. This is my first birthday since the passing of my mom.
She really knew how to make a person feel so special on their birthday. She always called, we always got 2 cards, one funny one and one special one. Growing up as kids, we always got to have our favorite meal and our favorite dessert. I always picked her spaghetti and her Orange Kiss Me Cake. Although in my more "adult" years, I wanted her apple pie. This pie she won a blue ribbon for at the fair in their town. I tried to keep so busy on Saturday, but spent a lot of time crying. The phone never rang....no cards in the mailbox...no spaghetti dinner or apple pie. It was a very beautiful sun shiny day. I did laundry and hung out our bedding. My sister-in-law gave me a bottle of my favorite laundry soap, so doing laundry gave me some comfort. I was emotionally drained and ready for bed about 7:30, but went around to turn the clocks back before I went to bed, but that made it 6:30. YUK!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and hope you come back again!

Enjoy today!

Joan

Bryan's project.....done!

I have ALWAYS hated the tv stand we had downstairs. We got the big tv about 5 years ago, and used an old stand we had in the basement. It was black so if felt like it needed to be dusted daily. Notice I said, needed, not that it was done. And it was low. For the past 6 months, Bryan and I have been looking at them in the stores. We would like something on one, something else on another. But they still all seemed so low. And so expensive for a what we wanted. We both wanted something very simple. So one day Bryan and I were talking, and we thought that (will a little....ok a lot) of help we could make our own. My brother-in-law, Tim is an awesome wood crafter. After sending him an e-mail on what we wanted he thought we could do it. So one Saturday, Bryan and I went up to their house. Bryan and Tim put together what we wanted! It is GREAT! It makes the whole room so much brighter. The tv sits up so much higher.

I took a before and after picture!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!