Can someone taste my hot chocolate and see if it's cool yet

I love this week of the year!

I love having a few days off, spending time with family, cooking, and putting up Christmas decorations...

I got the house decorated on Tuesday... that has been a huge treat... We also broke out "Elf" for the first time this season...

The mother in law made it safely here...

We enjoyed a big, yummy Thanksgiving dinner...

Jennifer and I usually go shopping for early on Black Friday for something...
This year there wasn't a thing on sale I needed and I had decided we would stay in our warm beds.
Until. 
Kellie, Katie and her friend decided they were dying to get up (or rather stay up all night) and go shopping.
So, we got up at 3:45, fixed some hot chocolate to go and ventured out in the 16 degree weather with a million other crazy people...
Yes.  I didn't need a thing and I got up earlier this year than I ever have and it was colder than it has ever been in years past...And people brought babies.... Who wakes babies up in the middle of the night and goes shopping???

After risking our lives to get in Target (which had to be over the maxium occupancy) we found the couple of things we decided we would get since we were there and were in line with in 5 minutes.  We were in the line forever...but, tis the season...

Jennifer and I have shopped, crafted and other than her dog needing an unexpected vet trip for a jumping on the bed injury,  the weekend has been great...

Jennifer took the girls to the Texas Tech game tonight... I am still coughing like a black lung patient and didn't think sitting out in the cold would be of great help for the cough...  So instead of a fun ballgame I had a little fun at the walk in clinic...but, tis the season...

Hope this fog lifts soon

Thursday night I could feel it coming...
the tight chest and tickle in my throat...
And Friday it came... and ever since I have felt like my head is hazy...

I did nothing I wanted to get done this weekend...
I hate when that happens...

I was going to put up the Christmas tree, even though the family thinks I should wait... I'm ready...

But I didn't...

I must get rid of the fog before I put up decorations...

Also, I'll need you to do some praying for my mother in law... she is going to drive out here. 
She hasn't driven farther than maybe 30 minutes away from her house in years....
She's bringing a pecan pie but not with pecans, with walnuts... and some other goodies... pray my husband is nice... when I told him about the pecan pie he was a little upset...
And for me... She wants to do some shopping on Friday...FRIDAY people... she wants to shop on Friday!
She's not sturdy enough for Friday shopping...
Remember the broken hip of 2009?  And that was just us taking her out to eat, no shopping involved... I'm afraid we'll be on the news if I taking her shopping on Friday...

Jennifer is coming Thursday!

And this is the beginning of my favorite time of year...

Cooking to do, eating to do, lots to be thankful for, shopping, decorating, and even a girls night out at the football game...Mike got 4 tickets to the Texas Tech game on Sat. night and is letting Jennifer, the girls and myself go... oh, wait... not letting us, but rather choosing not to go because he doesn't like Tech... that's it...

but, still, it shall be good girl fun...cool weather, college football... Mike will enjoy a night at home with his favorite visiting dog...

and left over pecan Walnut pie...

Have a great week...

I have to think things through better next time...

I volunteered to do breakfast for a girls retreat at our church yesterday.  Both the girls were going so I was happy to help...
I failed to think through this though.... Both kids gone... I could sleep in and not have anyone needing anything...hmmm....That sounds good as an after thought.
 But, sure I'll do breakfast.
What time do you need it there?
How many girls????
So, I was up at 6 a.m. feeling like your lunch room lady (minus the hair net of course) cooking up a HUGE pan of biscuits, several batches of muffins and some heat and serve sausage...I have a new found love of the frozen biscuits!

Last night I had dinner with a sweet friend that I met at church months ago.
She had just moved here from the Dallas area, too and that made us fast friends...
Several dinners and visits later we have slowly discovered some odd things that make us think God knew we would need each other here... 
Things like her family is from the small town where Mike's family is from and he grew up with her cousins... Our family pasts are very much alike and last night we spent most of the dinner discussing us both being adopted and our stories that are very similar...Thank you God for sending me a good friend (and great Sushi)!

My early Saturday morning also started with a smoke alarm beeping and having to go buy batteries...Now, I was getting up anyway but why does this always happen while you're sleeping?  I am just glad it wasn't the two very very high up smoke alarms we have... I am trying to figure out how we can change those without calling the fire department for the ladder truck...
Ellie was scared to death and shaking, hiding while it was beeping...

Elvis on the other hand...

I'm not sure how he got his whole body on this pillow but he sure looked like he worked hard at it...

A little sister time and new recipes

My sister and brother in law came for the weekend.  The trip was for Mike and Ted to go to the Texas Tech game.
Jan and I spent Saturday going to some cute gift shops and the usual stops, Hobby Lobby and Michael's.  I was looking for some goodies for baskets for college girls helping with the youth retreat at our church and Michael's dollar isle was the answer!  I'm going back to do stocking stuffers soon. 
I loved getting to spend a few hours without my kids just puttering around good shops getting Christmas ideas.  We stopped for lunch at a little place and ate outside and enjoyed the beautiful day...

Jennifer sent me treats with her mom... here is my favorite thing she sent

I got stopped three times with people wanting to know where I got my shirt.  I LOVE it, thanks Jennifer...

I tried two new recipes for dinner Friday night and let me tell you, you really need to make these.  They were both great and even got rave reviews from Mike, who never 'loves' anything....

Balsamic Maple Glazed Pork Chops

4 boneless center cut pork chops

Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp Dijon mustard

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup chicken broth

Heat large skillet over med-high heat.   Dry the pork chops and season well with salt and pepper.  Add the oil to the pan and when hot lay pork chops int he pan and cook till lightly browned on the first side, about 4 minutes.  Turn and cook on second side till browned and cooked through, about 3 min.  Transfer to a platter.

Add vinegar to the pan and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the any brown bits.  Stir in mustard, syrup, and broth.  Also add any juices that have come from the pork chops.  Cook over high heat till mixture is syrupy, about 5 minutes.  Add pork chops back to pan and coat with glaze.

Sweet Potato Au Gratin

1 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 cup milk

8 oz Smoked Gouda shredded

1 tbsp chipotle in adobo puree

3 med. sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

salt and fresh ground pepper

Combine the cream, milk and chipotle in a small bowl.  Spray an 8x8 baking dish with Pam and arrange a forth of the potatoes in pan, add a layer of cheese and pour over a forth of the liquid mixture and continue layering to form 4 layers. 

Cover pan with foil and cook 1 hr to 1 hr 15 min. till liquid is absorbed.  I covered mine with foil for the first half of cooking. 

Try this today... it's that good!

The time change messed me up this morning... I've been up since 5:45...it's only 8 and I feel like I've had a full morning all day... off to church now... enjoy your Sunday!

Halloween Bee

I took the cutest bumble bee trick or treating tonight...

 All the girls at dance were dressing up so I agreed to buy the last minute costume...it was close, she was almost a 'rocker girl'....

I was glad she picked the bumble be... I was glad she still wants to be a little girl...



Today in Sunday school, my co-teacher was talking politics and voting...

she brought up a political issue and I was not well informed enough to offer up opinion...

I had to explain to her that unless it was discussed during a recent sporting event it hasn't been on the t.v. at my house...

Tonight when I asked Mike why he was grumpy he replied with "the score is 2-0".... when I pointed out he had been a little grumpy all day he said "I've been worried about it..."

During the Cowboy game I came through the room and found him watching tennis...

The Cowboys are dead to him was the explanation for the random tennis watching...

I had a little crafty friend time yesterday morning and have finally about finished the cute carousel started a couple of months ago...  I think it will move to my desk at work tomorrow...

We did some serious cleaning, cleaning out and rearranging in the girls rooms today!  I've folded tons of clothes with a snoring dog with gas lying beside me...

 And a little dog that seems to be in time out...

or maybe she's pouting about a sports score too...

Hope your weekend was great, your Halloween fun and that your favorite team isn't dead to you!

Old people can rock...

We went to the Eagle's concert last night...

When we heard about the concert coming here, Mike told me that his life would not be complete if he didn't get to go...

The price of the tickets made me sure that my life would still be fine if I didn't go and I even asked him if was interested in going alone...

I am glad he convinced me....

I was a little surprised at the average age of the audience...I hadn't thought much about who might be attending...

or even how old the Eagle's might be now...

the concert was going to be a few weeks ago but a couple of them were sick and had to reschedule...

I understood better after I saw them...

They've aged a little since the 70's and 80's...Their music however, was still just the same!

When they came on stage Don Henley referred to it as the "assisted living tour"....

I felt young in the crowd....some of the old guys looked like they could hardly get up the stairs to their seats...

I realize I am not that young but since I was younger than the band and at least 60% of the other people I still felt young...

I thought it was funny that in a crowd this age, you still had to stand in a line and show your i.d. to get a wrist band if you wanted to buy beer...

All the old people were buying beer...

I believe some may have been over served....

The security lady in our section was very 'anti-fun'... if any one tried to stand up and dance she quickly took care of that...

One poor guy was as entertaining to me as the concert...  he tried to stand up and dance all night...she told him to sit down no less than 50 times...so he just pretended to sit and hung over his seat dancing...I'll bet his thighs are sore this morning...he may have been one of the ones over served...I was so glad at the end that everyone stood up for a few songs and he finally got to get his groove on without being in trouble...

One very normal looking 'mom' in front of me kept standing up and rocking and her teenage son sitting next to her looked like he would surely die...

It looks kind of odd to see the older crowd rocking out...

But, it was great music, and the best concert I've been to and now Mike's life is complete now...

a little down time

We had a quiet weekend. 

The weather was perfect...

The windows were open....

The girls and I watched a movie and I used that time to do some digital scrapbooking...

I got through July... that's almost caught up!

Here are a few of the pages...

It's as close to scrapbooking as I can keep up with! I have a couple of real projects I need to get started...Maybe next weekend....