Col. Panic. has been having adventures at work. They tried to implement something new and it ended up causing quite a few problems. Some of them effecting the 911 dispatch- not a good thing. He has been working late hours trying to get it all sorted out. Monday and Tuesday night he was there late and didn’t have enough food to tide him over so he scrounged around and found some MREs to eat. MRE stands for Meals Ready to Eat. Yes, the lovely things that our soldiers out in the field get to eat daily. When you are hungry- food, or anything slightly resembling food, is a good thing. He described the omelet and hash browns he ate on Tuesday night to us last night at dinner. (He made it home in time to eat with us last night! Yippee!) He said the eggs were kind of recognizable, using your imagination, and the hash browns were a soggy mass but he poured hot sauce on them and that covered a multitude of sins.
We had tortellini soup for dinner last night with fresh focaccia bread, celery sticks with cream cheese in them and salad. I was feeling rather good about our meal because I have been reading a lot lately about “local” food or “knowing where your food came from”. I didn’t make the tortellini (I’m not that crazy, but it might be interesting to try someday…) but the turkey broth was some I had made from our Thanksgiving Turkey and the green beans and broccoli (I chopped it up small and no one seemed to notice it was there. 🙂 was from my Parent’s garden. The rest of it was from who knows where but I thought it was a start. The Col. looked at it and his first thoughts were not that it was “local” food but that it was “identifiable” food.
Look a green bean! Look pasta! Look bread! And salad! Not this says it’s egg, I hope they are right.
I am very thankful we live in a place that has an abundant, identifiable food supply.
I was in the Beauty Salon a few months ago getting my hair trimmed. I’ve been trying to keep up on this. I have a tendency to get it styled and then let it grow out and then a year and a half later do it again. But in keeping with my new outward “image”, I’ve done well with the maintenance this time around. Plus with these long bangs, it has to be cut frequently and I am under strict orders to not cut my bangs myself. (Shhh! Don’t tell! But once in awhile I break the rules.) Anyway, back to the Salon. I was sitting there watching the other people about me in the mirror when I noticed a young girl get a pop from the machine. I put her about 10ish. And then I noticed the foil in her light brown hair. For those of us who are hair challenged, this means she was getting highlights- or lighter streaks put into her hair. I hope my jaw didn’t hit the floor too loudly.
I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked. But I was. Of course, being the cheap frugal person I am, I kept wondering about the cost of getting it done and upkeep- for a 10 year old! Now, if she was in a position to pay for it herself then that would be a different situation. But I bet her Mom was paying for it. I cut my girls’ hair (and all the men’s too) but I can see a day when my Fashionista will want a “real” cut and I can see us paying for that but I don’t think we’d pay for “color”.
Am I showing my Conservative roots again? What do YOU think?
I finally got all my Christmas stuff packed up. The tree is unadorned. The boxes are ready to go to the shop. I am just waiting for my strong Man to come home to help carry them out.
I am telling you this so you who have completed this task weeks ago can feel smug and competent. I am all about making you feel good about yourself. 🙂
When I circled the item in the catalog as an idea for my Mom to get Pixie for Christmas I had no idea. What was it that I so innocently thought was a good idea? One of those heads on which a child can style hair and apply makeup. Pixie is so into clothes and making her hair cute- I thought it would be a fun thing for her to have. Sounds safe enough. Little did I know.
Pixie opened it on Christmas morning and immediately found the button that made her talk. I hadn’t noticed that feature in the catalog description. OK, slightly annoying aspect to the thing but we’ll get by. Maybe by not replacing the batteries when they run down. But then we listened to what that dumb blonde in her best Valley Girl voice was saying, and I quote:
“Back to school, need to look intelligent!”
Excuse me?
“O la la! I need to look slick and chic to go with my new outfit!”
This was supposedly for ages 3 and up.
“I feel like a Princess get me ready to Party!”
And the final straw-
“Make me look wild…. grrrrr!”
Yes, the thing actually GROWLED!
Pixie’s Papa took the batteries out while she cried on her Grandma’s shoulder. It was a sad thing but one we felt we had to do. Who comes up with this stuff? Who thought that a doll that growls was appropriate for ages 3 and up? Not us. Sigh.
Because I know you are just dying to know what we got the kids for Christmas, especially after my rant here and several rants verbally if you were close enough to hear.
The Children received from their Wise, All Knowing Parents (I’ll wait until you stop laughing….)
5, cinco, funf, five presents. (Plus stocking stuff).
Here is a run down of what they got:
1. Pajamas. Do you know that it is nearly impossible to find nightgowns any more? Much less ones made of cotton or flannel or ones without some T.V. character on it that don’t cost a fortune.
2. White boards, markers and erasers. (Thanks Dawn for the tip!) They are pretty small 12X 10 or so. Blank on one side and with lines on the other. They like drawing on them and we can use them for school. Ooow! Double use!
3. The Girls- tutus. I was going to throw them in their stockings if we didn’t get anything else for The Boy but we found a snap together model airplane for him.
4. Bibles. The Girls shared one and The Boy got his own. (O.K. so The Girls technically received 4 1/2 presents.)
5. The Boy got a telescope and microscope set. Pixie got one of those fashion drawing things where you put paper over the templates and rub with a crayon to make the silhouette. I had been thinking about getting one for her anyway- I always wanted one as a kid and then KN suggested it too. TG got Lincoln Logs. I am disappointed in the set because it has very few larger pieces and tons of the little one inch ones.
So after all that angst and gnashing of teeth, the kids did get presents and I think they actually enjoy them. They, of course, received many wonderful gifts from Grandparents and Uncles and friends. Overall, it turned out to be a Blessed Christmas.
…blow your nose.
Take a tissue, more than one if you can manage it, hold it up to your nose. Sniff loudly. Repeat if necessary. Throw practically unused tissue in garbage. When Mama says “Blow!’ complain loudly that you are blowing and sniff again.
I took Crack to our Church Pot Luck today. It’s really good.
We leave people with interesting impressions of us on many occasions. I know we have managed to leave a dozy behind us again.
I mentioned that we went over to my Uncle and Aunt’s house after Christmas to visit with them and their children who live out of state. My two cousins have new boyfriends so it was fun to get to meet them. We tend to get over there and then stay for hours on end- I feel we are pests really but we are comfortable there and really enjoy the company so we settle in for the long haul. My Aunt and Uncle have grown used to us staying forever, let the kids wrestle on the floor and often, feed us. This time though, I was prepared. I took over a plateful of cookies, cut up veggies, dip and some of my popular jalepeno poppers.
When we got home, there were still a few poppers left and so I ate one- I like them but hadn’t taken the time to eat one on this trip. I chewed. Then realized something wasn’t quite right. The jalepeno was crunchy and extra spicy. Then it dawned on me- I hadn’t cooked them before we left because I thought they would store better and then completely forgot that they weren’t done.
Oy! I served raw, crunchy jalepeno poppers to people I know and love plus people I was meeting for the first time. So my signature appetizer was a bust and we most likely lift them with stomach bug germs all over the place.
I bet the new boyfriends remember us!
Another year. HP is very excited and is amazed at how fast the years go by. He is 7! This evening he pointed out how the first day of 2008 was already nearly over. How fast it flies.
I have no big resolutions. I tend to float through life taking it as it comes. Have you made any resolutions?
I was chopping up cabbage for a salad to take to The Col.’s office party (yes, the old standby Chinese Cabbage salad with ramen noodles in it- it’s what I had the ingredients for!) when my finger somehow got in the way of the knife. It was a pretty good cut near my fingernail- it was a real bleeder. Those kind are no fun at all.
For Christmas, The Col. bought me a very nice knife but he said I was not to use it to cut my fingers off. Don’t you hate it when people give you gifts and then place stipulations and restrictions on it?
