Wednesday, November 25, 2015

This and that...

Starting today I have five whole days off.
A little vacation. Aaaaah. It is going to be wonderful.

Ol' mother nature may be throwing us a curve ball for Thanksgiving though.
Supposed to rain this evening turning over to freezing rain in the early AM and then start SNOWING. Possibly up to 4" and right about the time of our travel. It might work out better to do our celebration on Friday instead. We'll play it by ear I guess since we all know forecasts do change.


Even though it's hunting season Chyann and I went for a ride yesterday afternoon. We had the best time. Just her and I talking about everything under the sun. I hope we can do it again soon.

Speaking of horses. Scotch is quite the Houdini. Somehow that bad boy is going through the fence everyday this week, sometimes multiple times a day. He never goes far, knock on wood, but its a pain in the ass. Apparently the Hubby needs to turn the electric fence back on. Give him a little zap as incentive to quit going through the fence.

I'm sure you've heard about coconut oil and what an wonder product it is. It's uses range from cooking, lip and skin conditioning to eye make up remover and is a natural sunscreen. I purchased some a few months ago and then pretty much forgot I had it until I was searching for recipes to use up the 18 frozen bananas I had in the freezer. You absolutely have to try this recipe for Banana Chocolate swirl cake! It is hands down the best cake I've ever made and yes it calls for coconut oil in both the cake and glaze. Now that I know cooking with coconut oil is easy and see how it adds just a little something extra to your recipes I'm definitely going to be cooking with it on a regular basis. I also made 4 loaves of banana bread and managed to used up all 18 frozen bananas. We finally have some room in my kitchen freezer again.


Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!
later :)



Saturday, November 21, 2015

Saturday AM coffee


It's been quite a week. 

Technology is amazing and wonderful when it works. 
I logged onto my work computer Monday morning to find that the system updates that were pushed to it had not loaded properly and ended up completely corrupting it.
Which after many hours on the phone and two trips into the office resulted in getting a new computer shipped to me on Tuesday. 
A new computer sounds great right? It did have most of the programs I needed, but seriously it took about four hours to set up. What a pain in the buns I tell you.

Sure it's mid November and the weather was bound to turn more seasonal, but I wasn't ready for it. 
Still no snow. A few flurries here and there. Damn it's cold though and the wind. Freaking howled for a few days there. 

The neighbor finally harvested the corn next door too. 
View from my office window when they were cutting.
Unfortunately it is the start of gun deer season so I probably wont be venturing far on the ride I plan on taking today. 



Caden started wrestling on Tuesday and had the time of his life. I should have taken a picture of his face, he has some nice scrapes and cuts. Wrestling is definitely not for the faint of heart. Somehow he and the Hubby ended up bringing home a 13x13 foot wrestling mat. No idea where we are going to put that heavy sucker. The Hubby says he is going to put it in the basement. Make a gym workout area down there. Ok, let me know how that goes. We've had several different basement remodel ideas over the years and none of them have panned out. 

Colton being the low man on the totem pole at work is not getting much time off around Thanksgiving. We are planning on going to River Falls to spend what little time he has off together.  With any luck he'll be able to come home for an extended period over the Christmas holiday break. He hasn't been home for over three months now. Almost as long as when he went to Europe last spring. 

Speaking of River Falls. 
Remember when I came back from AK two years ago I had a serious hankering for Tillamock cheese? Well I have been dreaming about that damn cheese again so I got online an looked it up. Come to find out the store Colton works in actually carries it! So yes I'll be making a stop there to stock up on the most delicious cheese! I am hoping its just as good as what I remember and will be making this favorite

toodles



Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Pet peeves - texting a persuasive essay

Yes it's true texting is now a basic way of communicating in our modern world.

I do text, but with my breath held.

My problem with texting is that the intent of any given text can easily be misconstrued. This fact is true whether you are the text sender or receiver.
You can't hear a persons voice and discern their tone; therefore when I get a text I usually read it multiple times trying to determine the intent - Was that meant to be nice? Was it bitchy? Was that mean? Just what is this person trying to say? WTF

Not to mention there is just something about texting that makes people brave. They'll send texts to friends when they are upset (or drunk) about some random bullshit thing with content that they'd never have the balls to say to that persons face. What's up with that? Grow the fuck up people.
If you really have a problem or issue with someone your best bet to resolve an issue is to confront that person face to face and if that is not possible the text sender needs to consider their words carefully before sending their text because you can really damage a relationship otherwise.

And lets not forget the amazing wonder of auto correct. OMG. 9 times out of 10 you end up looking like an idiot when you text because of what auto correct thinks you are trying to say.

and...

Hello people! Why no greeting when you text? Isn't it customary to say Hello or Hi such and such before whatever the gist of your conversation is about? Is that lazy, rude, a show of contempt or just part of our contemporary culture?

I will concede that sending a text may be appropriate at times vs making a telephone call, but really if you want to talk to me your best option is just call.

Pick up the phone and hit that other button - let me hear your voice and you can hear mine. This way we'll avoid any miss communication, not ruffle anyone's tender sensibilities and we can connect on a personal level. Isn't that a better option? Actually hearing a friends laugh rather than reading lol?

Besides all that I an not one of those people who are connected to their phone and almost never have it in my hand or even nearby me so I wont realize you sent a text, but I will hear the damn phone ring!

later



Monday, November 16, 2015

A matter of opinion


When your child is born you get in idea what color their eyes are and within a few weeks can say yes my child has blue eyes with confidence.
All my kids have blue eyes.
Imagine my surprise when I find a document, one of those you fill out to describe your person for identification purposes, that has my daughter proclaiming she has green eyes!?!
WTF? Green eyes?
So I asked her about it. She says "Mom my eyes have always been green. I don't know why you think they are blue." Well ok then.
I still say she has blue eyes.


Since Caden got into sports a few years ago wearing jeans has fallen to the wayside. He favors sweatpants and/or shorts throughout the seasons - rain, shine, snow whatever.
He typically will have one pair of jeans to wear at any given time, which always seemed to be on the edge of too small since he rarely wears them.
Anyhow with him participating in choir and band this year he has already had quite few instances of needing to dress up. I bought him three new jean and shirt outfits to wear.
Now to me wearing jeans is a wardrobe staple. Levis are my jean of choice and since they are spendy those babies are treated tenderly.
Washed only once every few wearings and hung dry - never put in the dryer. They are hung with the seams together at the leg and I make sure that crease from bottom to top is even so when they are dry you have a nice crease without having to iron them. I did Caden's new jeans just like that.
The other morning he is getting dressed and comes into my office carrying a pair of jeans and asking me if there is any way to get this weird crease out of his pant legs because he just doesn't like the way they look.
OMG really? A crease in your jean legs is the only way to wear nice jeans. He shakes his head and says "I don't think so Mom".

Well I suppose they can have their opinions.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Saturday AM coffee

It's in all the news. The attacks in Paris.
All I could think was how thankful I was that my son was not there.
Our local news stated there were several college study abroad programs in Paris this semester and the schools were trying to find out the students status. Even thinking about it I get chills.
An awful tragedy for so many people. Its a scary world we are living in folks.

~~ 

We've got a bit of a bug going through the house this week. No one is quite up to snuff. Which is how that works I think. Our propane furnace is on the fritz and we don't have much wood in the basement. So apparently at some point, regardless of how we are feeling the wood is going in. Sure am glad the weather continues to be mild.

later










Monday, November 9, 2015

The ban has been lifted....

Approximately 26 years ago a ban on chili was placed upon our house.

A ban you ask? Yes a ban stating no chili would be made here.

The story goes something like this.....

Once upon a time a young gal graduated from high school and moved in with her boyfriend. Attempting to be an awesome girlfriend the girl cooked dinner for the boyfriend every night.

The boyfriend though this was great, at first.

Unfortunately the girlfriend only knew how to make three meals: chili, fried pork chops with boiled potatoes and corn, meat loaf with boiled potatoes and green beans. Ordering pizza or take out didn't count as "cooking".

For whatever reason growing up she fought her own Mother tooth and nail to escape the kitchen at every opportunity. Not realizing that her Mother had valuable information to impart regarding the preparation and cooking of food. Of course the young gal realized her folly in a very short time, but being the age she was she just couldn't call Mom up and say "Help me please!"

As you can imagine those three meals got old quickly. The young gal attempted many many different variations of the three meals but did not meet with a lot of success. The boyfriend tired of the same three meals and sometimes awful experiments, he said enough of these three meals!

Hence the chili ban. Course pork chops, meat loaf and boiled potatoes were also banned, but those bans were of short duration. Not chili though.

Time passed as it does - The young gal swallowed her pride and received assistance from her Mother. She bought tons of cook books. Watched many cooking shows. From which she has managed to evolve into a damn decent cook much to the now husbands delight.

Fast forward through the years to yesterday: it is early evening and after working outside for a good chunk of the day I am pondering dinner. Something easy. Something warm. I am struck with an idea - freaking chili! To hell with the chili ban I'm making chili and I did.

It was delicious. Even the Hubby declared that it was. We laughingly declared the chili ban finally over.

But

As we all know history is bound to repeat itself in some cases. Our darling daughter will be leaving us in the spring for college and her life. I try and try to encourage/request her assistance in the kitchen, but she like the younger me, is not interested. Sigh. She too will learn the hard way no doubt.


Later







Sunday, November 8, 2015

Weekends

always go too fast. 
We've been cutting and splitting wood, the weather has been perfect for working outside. Only problem has been the ticks. Those buggers never quite died off with the mild temps. We've all had a few and the dogs even more. Ish. Ticks are just nasty. 


The guy who has corn on the fields around us is supposed to be getting it harvested sometime this next week. I can hear them in the fields to the South and am looking forward to them finishing up so we can ride back there before deer hunting begins and the weather gets crappy. 



Are you going black Friday shopping this year?
I've been invited to go with a friend, but don't feel the enthusiasm to do it that most folks have. 
The one time I went a few years back, yes it was fun but damned if it didn't seem to take me the rest of the weekend to recover from staying up all night. Plus I didn't feel like the deals I got were really all that good. So I'm not sure if I'll go. I guess some of it will depend if Colton comes home or not. If he's here I'd like to be here as well. 

Have a good one - I'm heading out to chuck some wood :)

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Saturday AM coffee

Good Morning!

It's been a while right?
Many computer problems and the lack of desire to attempt a post from my phone were leading obstacles in my lack of posts. I like to type rather than one finger poke to write. Not to mention autocorrect on the phone would have likely made for some awful stuff lol

Anyhow it's November. 
We are continuing to enjoy mild weather. We had an evening last week where rain turned to snow briefly, but that has been the extent of winter so far.  Last night the Hubby fired up the wood furnace for the first time this year just to try it out. Fingers crossed the snow and cold holds off for another month. 

What else is going on...

I got a text just this morning from the lady who bought Casper and she says he is an amazing mini. Her family loves him. Was so nice to hear from her. I still miss seeing him when I look out at the horses. 

Scotch enjoying a nap the other day. 


Colton turned the big 23. We went to see him last weekend and really enjoyed spending time with him. 
While waiting for Chyann to arrive I played around with my camera and the timer. 


Handsome guy if I don't say so myself.


The idea was to get a family picture taken. 
EVERYONE knew this but no one chose to dress up.
Whatever.
Be who you are I suppose. 
However now Chyann says she doesn't want me to use the pictures we took for the xmas card cuz she didn't do her hair. 
OY oy oy....
Guess she'd better hope Colton is able to come home for Thanksgiving so we can do another, otherwise we are sticking with the ones we took.




Wrestling starts in earnest very soon.  I think we are all excited about that. 

That is all for now. 
Enjoy your Saturday :)
later