Random Photo Friday

So, I've discovered that my "Random Photo Fridays" have been hijacked and are now being cleverly disguised as "Insta-Friday" by some in other circles. Hmpf.  Well, since I'm not part of the circle that is Instagram, we shall continue with the Random Photo title over here in these parts.

And, in protest of Insta-Friday (I jest), today I'm doing Random Photo Tuesday instead.  Just because.

Ohhh, doesn't this look just awful?  ;-)  Several months ago, I started having this feeling like something was stuck to the bottom of my heel.  I would check, and there would be nothing there, and I'd forget about it.  Then the next day or so, I'd feel it again, and there'd be nothing there.  Well, after a couple of weeks, the "something" started to grow.  And it grew and grew until it felt like I was walking around with a marble inside my heel.  Walking on a marble = not fun.
 


So I went to the podiatrist and....it was a wart!  Now mind you, there was no evidence on the outside - just that marble-like feeling on the inside.  But anyway, of the 3 options he gave me for treatment, somehow strapping an acid pack to my foot seemed like it would be the most fun.  Yes.  So they stuck a little pad to my heel, packed it full of acid, wrapped it up in about 3 bandages, told me not to get it wet for 6 days, and to take Advil if I needed to.

Oh. My. Word.  It started out not-so-bad.  But by about day 3 I could hardly walk on the thing.  Three advil at a time wasn't touching it.  Um, ACID on your foot?  Maybe not such a good idea.  I can't get my foot into a shoe, so I had to borrow a velcro-strap sandal from my mom.  I've been hobbling around like a little old lady, trying to set a good example for my kids about not complaining. Ha!  It's finally starting to get a little better, and thank the Lord, I go back to the doctor tomorrow.  Pray that the acid has done its magic and I get go back to walking semi-normal!

Now after all that foot talk, let's discuss dinner, shall we?

Cereal night. I heart cereal night. Why yes, that is a box of Cap'n Crunch you see there. Why yes, the whole box was consumed in one sitting (not by me alone). Don't judge. Please also notice the boxes of Cheerios, Cascadian Farms, Corn Flakes, and Kashi. Thank you.

All those letters that gave me and my family such stress back before Christmas? I thought it'd be fun to make some more. :)

And by the way, now that I'm a spray painting expert (oh, please hear the sarcasm in my voice) here's my humble opinion about spray paint - cuz baby, I've used a. lot. of it in the past four months: Valspar. With primer inside. Krylon? No. Say it with me: Valllll-Sparrrr.  The end.



Happy happy happy-ness that came in my mailbox today ~

This?  This would be what happens when you put a bag of frozen strawberries in your refrigerator to thaw, and said bag has a hole in it that you don't notice until 3 days a while later and all the juice leaks out all over your refrigerator and runs down the back (of course it has to be the back) of the shelf to all the happy shelves below.  And then said juice turns into pretty red cement.

And with that, I bid you a happy Wednesday!

Five Six Several for Sunday

1.  I finally used up the last of my Christmas stamps from last year.  Whew!  Just in time to get some new ones for this Christmas year.

2.  Kloe is playing tennis in school this year, and she LOVES it.  Ever since last Valentine's Day, my kids beg to go play tennis anytime we have a free afternoon.  Can you believe this was my first time to use my new racket?  I know.  And after I'd played for a while, the kids weren't all that anxious for me to use it again anytime soon. :)





Love this action shot! :)









Haha - me in a jacket; Jacob with no shirt. :)

3.  Jacob's last soccer game of the season was a couple of weeks ago.  Team USA had a great 5-3 season.
 

The coach (who also happens to be my Mister) has a tradition that any player who scores four goals in one game gets to pour water on him. But when it's the last game of the season, we pretend everyone scored four goals. Even when it's 41 degrees outside.

4.  You might be a redneck if....this is how you make Cocoa Rice Crispies.

5.  We have Box Tops coming out our ears....

6. They're back!  Glory and hallelujah.  Hurry, buy a bag or twenty before they're gone again!

7. Science experiment.  I wasn't sure what exactly was supposed to happen, so I asked.  Jacob said, "Nothing, I just wanted to make it look all science-y."

8.  Our first pomegranate.  Not a lot to eat out of a pomegranate, but lots of fun (and so pretty)! :)

9.  Does your table ever look like this?  No?  Just me?  Sigh.

10.  I'm plum (do your people say plum?) out of dinner ideas.  What are you having tonight?

A blogging slump and a yummy salad.

I've been missing all of you out in bloggy land.  But every time I sit down to blog, it seems I have nothing to say.  Ever hit a blogging slump?  I haven't even had my camera out in probably a couple of weeks, can you believe it?  I did pull it out on Friday night to record the yumminess that is couscous-turkey salad - a recipe I tried from my new Good Housekeeping Light & Healthy Cookbook.  I have to confess, as I was making the salad I was thinking it would be mediocre at best.  But y'all.  This was DELICIOUS.  To keep things in perspective, Kloe wants to have it every day, and Jacob wants to never have it again. So somewhere in the middle is probably the actuality of its yumminess.  :)

I wanted to share the recipe and a beautiful, magazine-worthy picture with you, but alas, due to a half-baked photography class I took that made me (mistakenly) think I know how to use the manual controls on my camera, these are the numerous, decidedly un-magazine-worthy pics I ended up with:

So, yeah, I obviously need another photography class.

The salad, however - although really more of a summer salad - was the bomb.  And for me that's saying a lot, because I don't do fruit with my meat.  Canadian bacon and pineapple?  No.  Mango salsa on fish?  Just not natural.  But hey, give me some dried cherries with some turkey and couscous and you've got a winner!

So, if you're tired of all your same-o recipes and looking for something new and fun, give this one a try.

Couscous and Smoked Turkey Salad
1 tsp ground cumin *
1 10oz package plain or original flavor couscous
1/3 cup dried tart cherries
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice *
2 tbsp olive oil *
1 tbsp dijon mustard *
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
3 ripe nectarines, finely chopped (may substitute plums, peaches, or apricots)
4 oz smoked turkey breast, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
Boston lettuce leaves

1. In a 3-quart saucepan, heat cumin over medium-high heat until fragrant, about 1-3 minutes.  In saucepan with cumin, prepare couscous as label directs, omitting salt and butter.

2. Meanwhile, prepare dressing.  In a large bowl, whisk together lemon juice, oil, mustard, salt and pepper until well blended.

3.  Add warm couscous, nectarines, and turkey to dressing in bowl.  Mix well.  Spoon salad onto large platter lined with Boston lettuce leaves.  Makes about 7 1/2 cups, or 6 main-dish servings.

Valerie's variations:
1. Increased all the ingredients marked with a * by 50%.
2. Didn't have enough lemon juice, so substituted a half-tablespoon of lime juice.
3. Used peaches instead of nectarines.
4. I have no idea what Boston lettuce is.  I used romaine, and instead of serving the salad on top of lettuce leaves, I tore the lettuce and mixed it with the couscous (not pictured).  Kloe says it yucky without the lettuce. :)

Hope you enjoy!  Let me know if you try it - or if you have any ideas to drag me out of this blogging slump!

Mr. Clean is my Mr. Right.

This guy?

Is my new best friend.

Love at first scrub.

And this guy?

Sayonara.

Ciao. 

Adios, not-my-amigo.

I haaaaate scrubbing the bathtub with a scrub brush.  The bottom of our tub is textured, and the brush just never seems to get it clean no matter how much I scrub.

But Mr. Right Clean?

Bee-you-ti-ful, baby!

I first fell in love with Mr. Clean when he effectively removed black SHARPIE - aka PERMANENT marker - from my white refrigerator door.  (In order to protect the not-so-innocent, we won't say how the black sharpie got on the refrigerator in the first place. *ahem*)  He's been my best friend ever since.

So when I saw these bathtub scrubbers at the store, my heart skipped a beat!

Soap scum?  Wipes right off!

West Texas hard water spots?  No problem!

And that textured bathtub floor?  Sparkling!

Love this guy.

Oh yeah?  Well why don't you marry him?

I just might. ;)

This is NOT a paid or sponsored review - I just happen to really love these things!

Tulips!

Can you see them? They look like little sticks in the pic below. :) My tulips are coming up! A little late, you say? Yeah, well, that would be because I planted them a little late....like, um, two weeks ago. Ha! Yep, it appears you CAN plant tulip bulbs in the spring! :)



Crackin' through the hard West Texas dirt. :) {actually, the dirt's not as hard as it looks in this photo - it's been raining off and on for the past 3 days....woohoo!}



Look!  This little beauty's already got blooms! :)

These are from the fundraiser I did last fall for my mission trip, and they've been hibernating in my refrigerator all winter. I'm so excited that they're coming up! But NONE of the ones I planted at the other end of the flower bed are coming up. *sigh*

I've never planted bulbs before....they are pink and BLACK tulips. Can't wait until these bloom. I'll have to post pictures when they do. So excited!

A Day to Myself

So guess what I did on Friday?  It's a shocker - you better sit down.

I TOOK THE DAY OFF.

Can you believe it?  Me neither.  I felt guilty the whole day.

See, usually - for the past few years anyway - I've been off work on Fridays, but all this school year I've been working on Friday mornings.  The original intent was to try to earn a little extra money, but somehow it seems that just about every single week I end up missing a few hours of work here and there during the week for some reason or other, so pretty much all my Fridays have ended up being makeup time instead of extra time.

Oh, how I have missed my quiet, all-by-myself, do-whatever-I-want (even if that means grocery shopping and laundry) Fridays.

So last Friday, I took the day off!  I took the kids to school with no makeup.  In my slippers.  Oh yes I did.  Then I went home and made myself some BREAKFAST.  What a concept.

What to do with my wide-open day?  Ohh, the possibilities.

First, I spent a little time with Karen.

Oddly enough, I'm having a hard time getting into this book.  If you remember, I had never read any of Karen Kingsbury's books before my cruise, but I've loved every one of them I've read since.  This one's just not grabbing my attention.  Maybe because I have so many other books calling to me from the back of my mind.

After that I spent a little time with Stormie.

I love this book.  My copy is worn and highlighted and written in and dog-eared and paper-clipped and full of wisdom and conviction.  Have you read it (or any of her others)?  Love.

When Stormie and I were done, I went to volunteer my usual Friday time in the school office, and then I had lunch at school with Jacob.  That's always an adventure.  :)  There is one lunch monitor who is always so....well....just plain mean.  She is sweet as pie to adults - kind, helpful, friendly - but she talks ugly to the kids and never says a word without yelling at them and telling them how bad they're being.  I hate it.  I've hated it every year since Jacob was in first grade.  Every single time I go eat lunch with him, I start writing a letter to the principal in my mind.  But I'm sure you can guess it's never made it to paper.

I totally get that I have no idea what it's like to deal with that many kids every day - many of whom act ugly and disrespectful themselves.  TOTALLY get it.  But that's no reason to treat them that way even when they're not acting up.  Or really even when they are.  Meanness and yelling don't change kids' behavior.  In fact, it just makes them angry and resentful.  And there's no reason to presume they're going to act up and so be ugly to them from the get-go.  All I can think every time I eat lunch with Jacob is, "These are somebody else's kids.  You just don't treat other people's kids this way."  If you just don't LIKE kids....perhaps some career reconsideration is in order?

Sorry, where was I?  Oh yes, so after lunch I went home and started the crockpot.

I LOVE cooking in the crockpot.  I don't do it nearly enough.  Mainly because I can hardly ever remember to start it in the mornings.  But my day at home was a perfect day for it, and I was so happy to have dinner practically done!

Then, after getting dinner going, I remembered.....I had a 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby!!  PERFECT!  I headed for Utopia HobLob, as we affectionately refer to it around here, and spent one whole blissful hour, all by myself, moseying and meandering and perusing to my heart's content.  I found a beautiful scrapbook album cover to use with my new Project Life system (that I've been wanting FOR.EV.ER. and asked for for my birthday...and Christmas...but didn't get, so I got one for myself!), and I was so happy to get to use my coupon for it!  I also bought another album cover that was on sale for 40% off, so it was a bonus!

And that was my happy, all-to-myself Friday.  Which, of course, only lasted until it was time to pick up the kids from school.  But still so totally counts in my book.

Dear American Children....

No more complaining about your walk to school.
(article)

Five for Friday

I love those random, rambly kind of posts that really don't have any specific topic, but just sorta feel like you're sitting down with a friend over lunch and talking about your day. Even if it's a friend you've never met and have only stalked over the internet.

I'm not great at writing like that, but maybe I'll get better at it someday. Or...if you don't like those kinds of posts, I guess you'd think that was getting worse. :)

Until then, here's my own version of random ramblyness, otherwise known as Five for Friday.

1. The weekend after Jacob came home from the hospital, all three of the rest of us came down with the crud.  The Mister got over his pretty quickly, but Kloe and I had the same awful symptoms Jacob had - nasty cough and off-and-on fever.  I missed two days of work and Kloe missed 3 1/2 days of school.  I actually went to the doctor first, because I felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest.  Any guesses?  Pneumonia.  Ugh.
   
   You'd think I'd learn, but noooo.  Kloe's fever actually broke for a couple of days, and because of that I ended up not taking her to the doctor for A WEEK.  When we finally went, she was diagnosed with bronchitis.  I would be willing to bet, though (since I'm so good at the doctoring thing - sheesh) that since Jacob had pneumonia, and I had pneumonia, she probably had pneumonia too.
   
   While I was too sick to get off the couch, Jacob offered to make me dinner.  He made this menu for me to order from (because he got to order off a menu in the hospital).
   
   

   

   (Bagle, toast, milk, OJ, AJ (apple juice), toast w/sinimin-shuger)

   
   I placed my order (adding the option of cream cheese), and he brought my dinner on a tray. Cute. :)
   
   
   
   
   
2. Definitely the husband's job: Catching mice. Killing bugs. Checking out noises. And this....
   
   
   
   
   
3. Have any of you ever done this? I've tried so many times and it never works. The seed always just molds. Do you know the trick?
   
   
   
   
   
4. Stir fry. Mmmm.
   
   
   
   
   If you use the pre-cooked grilled chicken though, be sure you don't get this kind.
   
   
   
   
   Unless, you know, you like to go cross-cultural with your stir fry.
   
   
   
5. 
   
   

Happy Friday, friends!

Hello Bloggy World!

I'm so glad to be back! Man, I can't believe it's been almost a MONTH since I posted!

What's that?

What do you mean you didn't realize I'd been gone? Wow, you must be even busier than I am! ;)

Well, here's the low down. A while back (apparently about a month ago), my laptop had a nervous breakdown and freaked out with the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH...not once, but THREE times! It finally freaked ME out enough that I took it to the laptop hospital (aka, Best Buy). After a restful stay in laptop ICU, the nice man at Best Buy was able to fix my little laptop friend and send it home.

Sadly, once my little friend came home we discovered that his (her?) main source of fruitfulness and entertainment (i.e., internet service) was also out of business. For THREE. WEEKS. After hemming and hawing and ranting and raving, we finally switched carriers and just got back up and running again last weekend.

WHEW!

And now here we are! (And by the way, we are LOVING our new internet provider. SOO much faster, and...guess what Jen? we can actually watch an entire movie on Netfl*x without it retrieving half a dozen times! LOVE.)

I've missed you guys so much! Actually, I've been secretly stalking all of you, I just haven't been keeping up my end of the conversation flow. A lot has happened in the last month. And, there were a lot of things I had on the tip of my bloggy tongue just before all the fiasco started, so I've got lots of pent-up words to spill. Hopefully I can find some time to get them all out. I wish we could all just grab a cup of coffee and have a conference call to get caught up. Chatting on the phone is so much more time efficient. :)

Since I last talked to you, Kloe has started middle school (that's been an adventure!) and also band, I've received a (semi) update from SixtyFeet, Jacob has played half a season of soccer and joined Cub Scouts, I saw this amazing woman in person, we remembered and honored a tragic day in our nation's history, we pulled up all the tile in our bathroom (and have yet to put down the new), I attended my very first photography class, we babysat an awesome new vehicle for 24 hours (and then took it back because it was out of our price range), and The Mister and I went to see this incredible, amazing, outstanding movie on opening night. (Have you seen it yet? You must. You MUST.)

What I didn't get to tell you about before The Great Computer Crash of 2011 was Kloe's very fun 11th birthday party and our very fun summer vacation road trip. I know you're sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for the update. ;) Actually, it's more for my own future-memory benefit that I want to get all of that posted, but maybe you'll come along for the ride?

Put on the coffee and I'll call you in a few minutes.

Status.

Here are a few statuses (statusi?) you might have missed on my Facebook recently. Mainly because I didn't post them. :)

• I don't understand people who enjoy running for fun. Me, ummm, not so much. Not at all, actually.


• Almost back to my pre-Uganda weight! LOL


• "What if my greatest disappointments, or the aching of this life, is a revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy?" ~Blessings, by Laura Story


• Number one thing I'm going to miss while I have my braces on: tacos. Oh, and chips and salsa. And flossing the normal way. And maybe popcorn. But only when I'm at the movies.


• Finally jumped on The Help bandwagon last weekend (movie, not book). Like. But not love. And no popcorn.


• Have you guys checked out Baron Batch's blog? You should. Former TTU running back, drafted this year by the Steelers. Amazing writer, photographer, and humanitarian.


• Despicable Me = first movie in a long time (ever?) I have actually enjoyed watching over and over again with my kids. So cute!

And here's one I really did post:

• SIXTY FEET IS COMING TO TOWN!!!

Happy Friday, friends!

Thoughts on going to the dentist

I have come to hate going to the dentist.

I didn’t used to hate it, but for the last few years it seems all that scraping and digging and scraping just about push me over the edge. Maybe my 40-year-old teeth just can’t handle it anymore.

And really, it’s not the dentist’s fault. It’s the hygienist who actually makes the deal or breaks it. They’re the ones who actually do most of the work. The dentist is there for all of about 3.4 minutes, does a little poking around, checks my bite, looks under my tongue, and he’s outta there. I actually love my dentist as a person (even though I’d rather love him from afar), but the last THREE TIMES I’ve gone, his hygienist has made me seriously consider breaking up with him. She is SO ROUGH, and I’ve left the office in major pain, feeling like I've just had oral surgery, and have had to take Advil for 2 solid days just to be able to eat.

Not kidding.

So when I went last week, I literally was dreading it for 3 days before. I woke up that morning praying that God would “Please don’t let me have the mean rough hygienist! PLEASE don’t let me have the rough hygienist!”

Did you know God cares about your mouth comfort? Glory and hallelujah, I didn’t have the rough hygienist! And since I didn’t, and since my dentist seems to get a new one about every 18-24 months, I figured she was gone. But she wasn’t. I saw her in the office. God was just having mercy on my gums. Thank you, Lord.

However, it looks like He’s calling me to take the longer, less glorious and hallelujah-ous road with respect to all the trouble I’ve been having with my jaw. For about the last two years, every time I go to the dentist he says, “You know, your jaw’s not going to get any better until you get braces.” Ugh. And it’s been hurting enough – and badly enough – lately that I’m seriously contemplating yielding to his command offer. We’ll see. Right now I’m calculating all the insurance differentials and trying to decide if it’s worth it to wait until the new plan year.

And relishing my clean, not-throbbing teeth.

Wooohooo! Love this!

Jesus shows up at Oprah's "Legends Ball"...

For Girls Only project

I have loved working on the For Girls Only project so much. Even though it was so much harder than it looked (Lara's awesome tutorial made it look easy-peasy!). Even though I got a stiff neck from looking down at my sewing machine for so long (and even though I look like a dork in this picture :)). Even though I made some of the pads too skinny and almost couldn't get the cloths inside.

This is my zone. My happy place. My thang. Not sewing.....doing. I love it when I come across hands-on things I can DO to help. Because usually I don't have the foggiest idea what to do.

And to think that I could do something to help, and those receiving the help would be young ladies living in my newly-beloved Uganda? Icing.