Saturday, February 28, 2009

What We've Been Up To...


This is the gang that is working on the sets for Thoroughly Modern Millie. I got there just as they were having what appeared to be a "wrap-up" meeting. I told them I came to take pictures of how hard they were working, and here they were all just standing there, I don't think they saw the humor in my statement but you could look around and tell they had gotten a lot done. I love the fact that Andrew is involved in this, he does too. I try to stay away because so much of the time, living in Jasper county, he gets labeled as Robert's dad or Mindy's husband, here he is just Andrew.

And...it's over, the Energy Innovations Conference I spoke at this week. I feel this will be the last time I speak at this conference as our workshop wasn't well attended. They are wanting us to come back and speak specifically to the students of Lakeland, that should be next fall though.

Robert spent about 90% of his waking hours at school, no picture of him on this post represents how much time I have actually seen him this week. It won't get any better for a while either. He loves the musical though, is excited he is learning how to tap dance and is even more excited that he is keeping his grades up this year.

Next week should be pretty non-eventful. The next one though, I head to Springfield for the week. With the guys heading in different directions all the time, that one will be interesting on both of them!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Look What Finally Pulled Into ERBA's driveway!!

Sharon's car that she won on the Price Is Right has finally arrived!! It is absolutely gorgeous- inside and out, and to top it off, it's a hybrid!


Congratulations again, Sharon!! Enjoy!

Something Left Behind

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I would have to post some of the things the Kerans' left when we bought the house. One of my favorite "finds" was inside the back bathroom closet- this bathroom was very cleary Mr. Kerans, you could tell by the fishing border and the Bass Pro window shade. Although it was cute, it isn't really us and hopefully this spring, the bathroom will get renovated. Something that will stay though are the two slips of paper, one a poem about dying and the other this:

My Belief
Winners Vs. Losers
By Joseph Bruchac

The Winner -Is always part of the answer.
The Loser -is always part of the problem .

The Winner -Always has a program.
The Loser -Always has an excuse.

The Winner -Says “Let me do it for you”.
The Loser -Says “That’s not my job”.

The Winner -Sees an answer for every problem.
The Loser -Sees a problem in every answer.

The Winner -Sees a green near every sand trap.
The Loser -Sees two or three sand traps near every green.

The Winner -Says “It may be difficult but it’s possible”.
The Loser -Says “It may be possible, but it’s too difficult”.

Be A Winner

A "Re" invite

As all of you know, the JCJH Band-aid/PTO Basket Bingo has been rescheduled for this coming Friday night. Doors open at 5:30, games start at 6. Hope to see you there!!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

This Week

Monday morning, Mom, Robert and I loaded up the van and headed for Lincoln to see my sister. As usual, I really meant to take pictures and as usual I realized on the way home that I didn't. We still had a great time, visiting, shopping and eating. The day was entirely too short (why can't work days go that fast??) but I was really glad we got to go.


The rest of the week has been pretty non-eventful. Robert is settling into Musical practice, Andrew worked on sets for the musical last night and will again tomorrow night.

We had AWANA last night but I had half the group missing, hope they get back soon! One of my girls got a new job, I am afraid that will pull her away from us some Wednesday nights, but I am excited for her and her new adventure.

I have my help back at work, which is a welcome relief! Our LIHEAP clerk, Betty, has been out for a month, it is REALLY good to have her back and feeling better!

Next week is the Lakeland College Energy Innovations Conference, which I am speaking at, this one always makes me nervous. I will be doing a workshop for the Head Start Parent fair in March and then I will probably be done with those until Fall.

Happy Thursday!!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Friday, February 13, 2009

Happy '"Just Because I Love You" Day


That was the words out of Andrew's mouth when he finished his latest honey do project. All my life, I had wanted a fireplace (pay no attention to the fact that the flash on the camera makes mine show how badly it needs cleaned- it doesn't look that bad in real life). Ever since we moved in, I have been in the process of making my living room perfect and someplace to spend more time in. Our major problem was there was no light in the room and it was too dark to do something like sit and read--Andrew put in a ceiling light, which I love when we have family and friends over but it still wasn't right just to sit on the couch, in front of the fire and read. Sooo, yesterday, Andrew put a Ground Fault outlet in the floor under my sofa. It had to be strategically placed so any way I wanted to rearrange the furniture, it would be hidden--yes the man has the patience of Job, because I ran through every scenario I could think of and I actually moved the furniture around until I found the perfect spot, then when that wasn't the easiest spot for him, he did it anyway.



Thank you again, Honey! I love you too!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Little Brothers and "Dirty Magazines"

Our Pastor's wife has just posted on her post about getting a magazine in the mail wrapped in brown paper, she had ordered a Journal of Christian Nursing and got a Journal on Genital Disease. It reminded me of a story.

When I was growning up, my sister was ten years older than me and then the three boys down the road, the Fulton boys, were 2, 4 and 6 years younger than me. Of course, this is Jon, Grant and Jason. They were the closest things to brothers I ever had. Grant's birthday was in February, and there have been many memories randomly popping in my head. Reading Melissa's post brought back the day when 3 or 4 of my friends were at my house and we were all laying on the bed and floor in my room looking at "Seventeen". Grant had came down for a visit--we did that a lot growing up, I lived at their house that much too. Anyway, Grant went home and told his mom he was looking at dirty magazines at my house. And as any good mom would do, Grant's mom, aka Nanny Fulton, called my mom. Okay, so to a 15 year old girl, looking at bras and underwear in a magazine ad isn't a big deal but to an 11 year old boy---- (from then on, I hid my magazines from him!) then there was the time we were skating in my garage, my mom had put up black lights and a disco ball and all that- Grant was the first one to point out that all of us girls were wearing white shirts and that you could see our bras right through them. He was definately the life of most of my parties- Man, I miss him but I am sure glad I have all those great and funny memories.

"Honey"

You know how they tell you when you are young parents that you are training your children in how to have relationships. Your actions towards each other shapes your child's view of what a loving relationship is supposed to be. Well, I have seen that come to fruition in a couple little things I have notice with Robert. The main one being his "pet name" for Tika.

Andrew and I very rarely call each other by our first names, if we do, it is usually because we are in a crowd and have already said "Honey" or "Sweetheart" and the other one hasn't heard us.

A few weeks ago as Robert was hanging up the phone, he said, "Goodnight Honey". At first I was a little shocked and thought "I'm not sure I'm ready for them to be calling each other "Honey" and then it occurred to me, we taught him that... He was watching and listening and taking it all in and honestly, with so many bad relationships in the world, it made me realize how thankful I was that he got to grow up in a loving home.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Barbecue Beef Filled Biscuits

Here is another quick recipe-- it too, came off of the Kraft website. Sunday nights are crazy at our house because Andrew has to be at work at 8, Robert and I have choir practice at 5 and church at 6, which Andrew tries to make church at 6 so we are all running different directions. I can make these Sunday afternoon, bake them in time for Andrew to get up at 4:30 and then reheat them for Robert and me when we get home from church. I actually change a couple of things, I use a couple spoonfuls more meat, which I use lean ground turkey instead of the hamburger and that way I use all 10 biscuits. This meal is EXTREMELY cheap, especially if you have time to make it to Aldi, where the biscuits are 29 cents a can. It's one of those "sneak veggies in" recipes. I have used different BBQ sauces and it was fine, of course, since it is the Kraft website, they recommend their own brands,but it is good with others too. This has been a favorite Sunday night meal around here for a long time!



1/2 lb. extra-lean ground beef (remember just a couple spoonfuls more)
1 medium green pepper, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, shredded
1/3 cup BULL'S-EYE Original Barbecue Sauce
1 can (7.5 oz.) refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1/2 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

BROWN meat in medium skillet; drain. Add green pepper; cook and stir 5 minutes or until peppers are crisp-tender. Remove from heat. Add carrots and barbecue sauce; mix well.
SEPARATE biscuits. Press 1 biscuit onto bottom and up side of each of 10 medium muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray. SPOON meat-vegetable mixture evenly into biscuit cups, pressing filling into cups with back of spoon. (Filling will be mounded.)
BAKE at 375°F for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese. Continue baking 3 to 4 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown and cheese is melted.

Enjoy! I know I should have taken my own picture, but I took the easy way out and cut and pasted. They really do look like the pic above though- they were gone before I thought about it!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Basket Bingo Anyone???

Basket Bingo has been postponed to February 27th.




Okay, a little plug (and an invite) for the Jr. High Band-aids and PTO's annual Basket Bingo. This coming Monday night, the 9th at the Jr. High. Doors open at 5:30, Games begin at 6. This is one of the PTO/Band-aid's biggest fundraisers of the year. The profit is split between the two so some of it goes to help all the kids and some of it goes to help the band.

If you have never been to one of their bingos, this one is always one of my favorites. I am going to assume they still do things the way they did a couple of years ago and buy all new baskets. They have thrown Pampered Chef in the mix since I have left but that would be good too. The theme baskets are made by the classes at school and they are always over the top! I won a scrapbooking theme basket year before last and it was unreal! I won a Longaberger Workaround Basket- valued at $199 the year before that.

So, what is everybody doing Monday night and would anyone like to meet me for Basket Bingo?

Monday, February 2, 2009

The Party




Well, the party ended up to be a little on the small side. I'm not going to say it was a flop because we had a good time but some of the kids who on Friday thought they were coming found out their families had other plans for them and that was fine. Tika and Trygve were here so the five of us ate, played games, ate, won Dairy Queen gift cards, ate, watched the game, ate.....well, you get the picture. There was definately plenty of food.




As far as the game goes, most of us were rooting for the Cardinals. When I was in high school, I marched at a St. Louis Cards game and of course, Andrew's dad now lives just outside of Phoenix so we both had a little sense of loyalty there. Tika was rooting for the Steelers, so that meant Robert was too. I think Trygve was rooting for whoever was winning.




Trygve actually broke his arm Saturday and hasn't had it looked at by a surgeon yet, he goes today. We kept him on pain medicine and he acted like he had a good time but on the way home I could tell he was pretty quiet and had probably had a very long day. I am glad he felt up to coming though.