He's home!!

Ronnie made it home yesterday. Paige was excited to say the least. And so was Mommy. She's been firmly attached to her Daddy's leg since she saw him. They went to the park this morning, came home ate lunch, she took her nap, then went back to the park. She keeps going on and on about wanting to play with her Daddy.

Mommy has put the time to good use too. I got my haircut, eyebrows waxed & a pedicure. Definitely some long overdue pampering. The lady doing the pedicure threatened to charge me extra my feet were in such bad shape. :(


Ronnie had a good time in Chicago. The class itself was boring and repetitious. Monday night the instructors took everyone out to a really bad dinner at an Italian restaurant. Ronnie skipped that and went to a Cubs game. Of course there was a huge storm and 2 tornadoes touched down in the area where he was. (Someone remind me to UP his life insurance!)

Arriving at the field:

Rain delay:



After it started up again:


He wanted to have a Ferris Bueller's Day Off style outing, but just couldn't manage it. Stupid work kept getting in the way. This game was the highlight of the trip, even though we're Red Sox fans. He keeps saying he's glad to be back home and by looking at him, he definitely is. I know 2 girls who are happy to have him back too.

Mexican Goulash

Here you go, Beth! This recipe makes about 3 meals for us including the leftovers I take for lunch. Sometimes we end up freezing some of it.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground meat
1 onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 can diced tomato
1 can mushrooms, drained
1 can enchilada sauce
1 can green chilis (optional)
1 package Spanish rice
1 cup water
Cumin
Chili Powder
Salt & Pepper
Cracked red pepper
Garlic
Grated cheese

Brown ground meat, drain. Brown your veggies (cook until tender), and add your beef back in.

Add cumin, chili powder, salt & pepper, red pepper, garlic. All is to taste.

Keep cooking until the mixture is "ooey & gooey."

Add remaining ingredients, except for cheese.

Turn down heat, cover & simmer.

It's ready when the rice is done.

Sprinkle cheese on top & serve.


The longest part of this is the rice. We make it in a large sauté pan. If you don't have one, I would suggest browning the veggies in a large pot while browning the ground meat in a pan. This will save you some time. Normally, fresh mushrooms are better, but for this the canned stuff works best. Spanish rice can be substituted with yellow rice. We were out of chili powder when I made it, so I added Mojo instead.

Enjoy!

D'Oh!

There are things you think you will NEVER say in your life. Words that, once they escape from you lips you say "Oh my gosh, did I just say that?" I had one of those moments this morning. In the past I've said things like "Don't lick the dog." Or "Don't bite the cat."

This morning was something special.

"No, Paige, cats don't wear chap stick!"

Poor R2.

Hello, Roland, old friend

I'm a reader. One of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone is "Time Enough at Last". It always sticks with me that the main character is called a reader like it's a bad thing. I just love to read. I always have. My family says I take after my Aunt Glennis, and I think they're right! (Yes, Aunt Glenny, I take it as a compliment!)

Stephen King is one of my favorite writers. Some of his books I read once and go on. There's even one that I can't finish. Maybe one day, but this isn't it. My favorite single book by him is The Eyes of the Dragon. It started as a bedtime story for his daughter when she was small. My favorite series is The Dark Tower.

The Dark Tower is a series of 7 books. The first was published in 1982, a few years before I was old enough to read Stephen King. It took King 22 years to write the series from first word to last. I started reading the books in 1991 just after the 3rd book was published. The final book was released in 2004. During that time he did a lot of drugs, drank a lot of booze, sobered up, and was almost killed when hit by a van drove by someone on lots of drugs. He has also been diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease. He decided he had to finish the books before he died or lost his sight. The telling of the story has always followed his path in life, and can feel a bit disjointed. Overall, it does flow well together.

Since the final book came out I've said that I wanted to go back and read them, all 7, from start to finish. No 22 years in between. Absolutely no stopping. Put one down and pick up the next. Since 1991 I have re-read the books here and there. But never all at one time. It's something I did when I finished the last Harry Potter, and it's something I want to do with The Dark Tower.

If you aren't a Stephen King fan, I understand. Not too many people out there are like me and think he's good bedtime reading material. I will say that this is not his usual type of story. It's not The Shining, or Carrie, and definitely not Rose Madder. This is the story of a man who is the last of his kind. And he's out to save the world, all worlds, his and ours. See, worlds turn on pivot points that line up. They are stacked on top of each other and can flow into each other. One such pivot point, the last to hold, is the Dark Tower. To save one world is to save all. Roland, the gunslinger, is the man to do it, or die trying.

I hope the first words of the novels will grab you like they did me and pull you into this fabulous world.


"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

Night 3 of no hubby

I think I'm doing pretty good with this Single Mom thing. I can handle it for a week. Tonight has been a busy one for me. As soon as Paige went to bed I started my Tuesday night to do list. It went something like this:

• Clean litter box
• Clean cats water fountain
• Make Mexican Goulash for dinner tomorrow night
• Clean kitchen
• Download pictures from camera
• Do standard evening chores: make sippy, cereal, pack lunch, set coffeepot

Not too bad for an evening. So far I'm just waiting for the goulash to finish cooking.

Now, of my original Hubby's Gone To Do List, I'm doing pretty good on that one too! I still have my last 3 items to go.

• 2 scrapbook pages
• Paper lanterns
• Christmas gifts

I did make a start on the gifts. I didn't like the way things looked, so I'm starting over. Once I've finished some I'll take a few pictures and post them on here.

He's traveling- again!

Summer is the time of year Ronnie travels with his new job. Once the school year starts he's too busy to travel. So, all of the management staff have to get their training done during the summer months when things are slow. So far Ronnie has been to Nashville, Ole Miss, and now to Chicago. His trip to Atlanta last week was canceled at the last minute.

This trip is a full week. Paige and I dropped him off at the airport this morning at 11. I'll pick him up Friday night at 11 pm. Paige goes to bed by 7:45 every night. That means I have all of this time to myself. What to do with all that time? I have a list:

• Start a new thread on the Mommy board
• Upload Facebook pics
• Clean out fridge
• Start some ebay auctions
• Complete at least 2 scrapbook pages
• Decorate paper lanterns for Paige's bedroom
• Work on Christmas gifts for daycare

That's 7 items so I think that's enough. And yes, I am working on daycare Christmas gifts already. There are 22 kids in both classes (they combine them for some activities & separate them for others), plus 4 teachers. I bought all of the stuff back in March. It was clearanced out really low at Oriental Trading. I got crafts that make 12, originally sold for $6.99 for only 99 cents. I shopped early and put them up!

I'll check in mid-week to see how I'm doing.

The latest dilema

Who needs water? And while you're at it, do you really need sewer, phones lines & a gas line? Obviously the ditch digger working in our backyard didn't think so. It all started about 4 months ago. We got this really cool new shed for the backyard and had electricity ran to it. The cable needed to be buried. We took our time. After all, it wasn't like we were spending a lot of time in the backyard.

Now it's time to mow the glass every week, and the cable needed to be buried. Two weeks ago the line crews came out to mark the existing buried cables. Smart thinking right? We thought so as well, and patted ourselves on the backs. We have these nice bright, hunter orange lines spray painted on our grass. The electricity is clearly marked and even has little orange flags next to it. Go Alabama Power. The gas company wrote "Gas OK" on the grass. The water company? Once it's on your property they won't mark it. Man, I wish we had known that before.

The very nice man burying our cable hit the water, sewer and gas all at once. He capped off the gas pretty fast. Water and sewer? He scratched his head and said he thought he may be able to do something about it. At that point a professional plumber was called. He went back to burying the cable and hit the phone line.

Of course just after that it stormed the rest of the afternoon. There wasn't much the plumbers could do. I had planned a girls night out and kept to it. I bought 2 gallons of water for cooking, washing hands, fixing coffee & brushing teeth. Just after 5 Wendy called in a favor from a friend. He sent a crew out and fixed our water and sewer that afternoon. The also fixed the gas line. Phone? We have cells, but no land line. We can live without it.

Ronnie sent me a text about half way into my second drink: "Paige down, water fixed, taking a shower." Probably one of the best text's I got all week.