Howdie Family and Friends - here are the going ons in the life of me. Stew shows up frequently. My family and friends visit a lot. My nieces and nephews are represented throughout. It's all about me and how I'm traveling along in this thing I call my life.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

POTD: February 27, 2013

Between Stew's back and the snoring, I've been sleeping on the couch a lot. Tonight, I found my eagles already in bed, one with the Note, the other one with the Kindle. Take a look at the Kindle screen. Pretty cool coincidence.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Pinned It, Did It, Friday: Crispy Edamame

This next pin I originally saved because I thought it would make a good snack.  Turns out we had it with dinner as a side.

Here's the original pin and the original picture:

Stew made this the night we had it for dinner since I had a lot going on that night.  We had it with baked chicken. 

Our version:



It was delicious.  Pin Approved!

Just one word of warning, though - Stew took this for lunch the next day and said that it didn't warm up in the microwave very well.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Journal: February 17, 2013

I got up around 7:30 this morning after sleeping like the dead last night.  It's funny because even after sleeping that long, I'm still tired.  I know that when I don't eat right, I feel bad, but sometimes that's not enough to stop me.  We need to get back on the wagon.

Stew got up around 9:30, very early for him.  He's feeling pretty achy today.  He switched from Dayquil to Mucinex and Tylenol.  I hope he feels better soon.  I don't like seeing him not be himself.

After he got up, I made him breakfast.  We had french toast.  I only had 2 slices which is some kind of miracle for me.  I made sure I had my yogurt with protein powder, too - so that my breakfast wasn't too, too bad.

I'm working on getting caught up on LOAD.  I think that the prompt on Monday, along with feeling really tired from the weekend in Kansas and the lack of sleep just threw me for a loop this week, but I'm determined to do every prompt this month.  The prompt that's giving me the most trouble is to scrap about a lesson learned in adulthood.  I'm not sure what the hell to scrap about.  In fact this prompt is giving me so much trouble that I completely forgot about it.  When I was uploading the layouts I did complete this weekend, I mislabeled day 12 as day 11.  Just totally blanked that day 11 hadn't been completed yet.  Sigh.  So tomorrow morning, I'll be three layouts behind, including tomorrow's prompt.  Thankfully, I don't think I'm traveling this week so I think I'll get it done.

Stew spent the day resting and watching tv.  He's watching Starship Troopers or Battle Star gallactica or something sci-fi like that.  I'm not sure which.  Something, I'm definitely not interested in, that's for sure.  He said that in this show there are only 50,000 humans left.  Of course, my question had to be how in the hell are they going to re-populate this new world they're looking for.  He said, "well, there are 50,000 of them."  Yeah, true, I suppose.  I hope some of them are good looking.

I spent the day in the craft room.  I rebelled today and didn't go to the store like I should have.  Will have to do that tomorrow.  No more dish detergent and no more laundry detergent.  Damn, that means I can't do laundry, shucks!  Have to get it done though.  I leave for Calgary in a week and want the house, the laundry and my blog up to date by then.  Wishful thinking probably, but hey, it's good to have goals.

Stew and I watched the race from last night.  Man, if that's how Daytona's going to be - that's going to be a snore fest.  I didn't think that the racing was any better with the new car, or at least not in my limited view.  Maybe when there's more than 12 cars on the track it will be more interesting.  Kasey didn't wreck - that's good news.  Tony was a bone head and caused the wreck that took out most of the field - I hope this isn't foreshadowing what's to come next weekend.

We also watched some more episodes of White Collar - still loving this show.  Very different from the other crime shows we watch, but it's funny, so we like it.

I made tacos for dinner tonight.  Stew said the filling was more spicy than usual - hmmm, I didn't do anything differently, maybe it was the spice mix?  And we didn't have any sour cream.  I'm not sure how I forgot that at the store - but I did.  That makes a world of difference in how those tacos taste.  I won't forget again, though it was probably better for us that it wasn't there!

And with that, the day is in the books.  Not a very exciting weekend around here, but with Stew sick - there's not much we can do.  Hopefully, he's feeling better soon and we can go do some stuff.

Off to bed now.  Back to work in the AM - all you who are off tomorrow, grrrrrrrrrrrrr.  Like Stew!  He's off tomorrow, too - good for ya'll.  I'll be slaving it at work - which is laughable if you consider what a day of working from my home office looks like.

Laters....

POTD: February 17, 2013


French toast on a lazy Sunday morning.  Mine with jelly and butter, Stew's with syrup, cinnamon and sugar.  Yummy!

Saturday, February 16, 2013

POTD: February 16, 2013

The chicken soup was delicious.

Journal: February 15, 2013

Well, today was a day....that's really all there is to say about it.

I'm up way into Saturday and I'm praying for a blizzard but by the looks of things outside, doesn't appear that that is going to happen.  I'm pouting, damn it.

Stew woke up this morning for work after having a bad night sleeping.  He had such a bad night, I finished up my night on the couch.  He wasn't feeling well so he decided to stay home today and rest.  He slept until almost 1.

After work, I headed out to the grocery store to pick up some food for us to eat and lots of liquidy stuff for him so that he can combat whatever he has going on.  Lots and lots of gatorade.

When I was putting the groceries in the trunk of Stew's car, I found the second part of my Valentine's Day gift.  I've been wanting one of these for years.  We do a lot of entertaining at our house and I thought this would be perfect for keeping things warm throughout the gatherings.  Stew and I saw one of these while we were in Kansas and he gave me one for Valentine's Day.  He also bought me a real knife protection sleeve (kind of sounds like a condom, doesn't it?  LOL) for my fancy dancy knife he bought me for Christmas.  Still need to sign up for that knife skills class.  Maybe I'll do that this weekend.




We had pizzas for lunch/dinner.  It amazes me how different the pizzas we eat are - there's no such thing for me as too much sauce.  On Stew's pizza you can barely see the sauce let alone taste it.  We don't eat pizza often and by that I mean, we together don't eat pizza often.  I eat pizza a lot, it has to be one of my favorite foods, but normally when I order it, Stew gets something else.  Since we couldn't eat meat today, pizza was an easy choice.  It was yummy.






I finished the scrap room re-organization (probably will be more on this on the craft blog sometime this weekend).  Loving it much better this way.  Everything is so accessible and I hooked up my Wacom tablet - looking forward to playing with that this weekend.

We watched some tv.  Top Chef didn't record...AGAIN.  I'm not loving the new season of Project Runway - I hate the whole team concept thing.  Blue Bloods - still loving it.  Finally catching up with this season of Bones.  I really love the country bumpkin squint.  I wish they would have him on every show.  I mean how can you not love a character who comes out with lines like, "it's as smooth as a frog's fart."  That's genius, right there.  They just better get rid of this new agent chick that was partnered with Sweets - Not loving her. Still loving Elementary.  Loving Jonny Lee Miller but I still can't believe that dude was married to Angelina.  Just had to grab a picture of this look...


Awwwww....Sherlock sad.


I played in the scrap room, Stew watched some tv and then he went to bed and I'm still up at quarter till 3.  Hmmmm.  That's no good.  I think I'll head to bed now and see if I can get some sleep.  *fingers crossed*

Bad news of the day - Stew's cold means that we won't be heading to Jersey tomorrow for little Ms. CEH's birthday.  How can that child be almost 1?  The time just slips away.  We will have to celebrate with her later.

Steve went to the Salisbury Zoo today - sent me a picture of a Bald Eagle - gotta love when my guys think of me...especially when one that's full on into his bratty 20s stage.  Loved the picture, love the kid.

And a final picture for the night.  After I gave Stew his Valentine's day present - he just had to have Stitch play with it.  Look at Stitch - he's eating some part of the world.





Night, ya'll.

POTD: February 15, 2013


I gave Stew his Valentine's Day gift today.  I bought him this globe - and I got it on clearance at Home Goods for $18 - score!!  Only reason I mention that is because I forgot to take the damn price tag off - he would have known anyway when we did the budget, so....anyway....

I gave him the present and can I just tell you what this man said?  He said, "My wife gave me the world for Valentine's Day."  I think my heart melted just a bit - I don't know where he comes up with this stuff and most of the time I roll my eyes and tell him to shut up and then other times, like today, it just reminds me why I'm so thankful he's in my life. 

Friday, February 15, 2013

Pinned it, Did it, Friday: Sassy Water

Just about the only thing I drink except for the small glass of orange juice in the morning to take my pills is water and let me just be straight with you right now and tell you that sometimes, water is boring.  So I've been looking for ways to give it some flavor.  I saw this pin for Sassy Water and decided to try it out.

Here's the original pin

That's the original blogger's photo.

Not much to this one, folks.  Cut up the ingredients, throw them in a pitcher, drink in the morning.

Here's mine

I think this turned out very good.  I drank it the whole week and then tired of it, but I'll call this one PinApproved.  Just one thing though, I would definitely bruise your mint leaves before putting them in the water - gives it more of a minty flavor.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Pinned It, Did It, Friday: Blackened Tilapia

Ahhh, the joys of trying to eat better.  I'm a big fan of fish that doesn't taste anything like fish and Stew is a fan of fish that is shaped like a square.  Introducing fish into our diet is a monumental task, but I'm definitely going to give it a go...

I saw this recipe on Pinterest for Oven-Baked Blackened Tilapia.  Now, interestingly enough, I followed the pin and then immediately went to where the blogger had gotten the original recipe.  Turns out, the original recipe from Food Network which the blogger modified but I didn't read, wasn't oven-baked at all.  I followed the original recipe and fried it on the stove.  It turned out really good and I can't imagine that the small amount of oil I used to fry it really diminished the healthy fact that we were eating fish.  Or as Stew said, "you really can't tell you're eating fish, at all."  Score one for the spice.

Here's the original pin:


And the original recipe.

Next time, I think I will try the oven baked version.  I think I might even like that better, but as I said - this is delicious either way.

Started with fresh tilapia from Wegman's.

Got my spices together for the coating.


 All coated and ready for the pan.
 Ready to eat.
 Yum.  I'm calling this one pin-approved.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

POTD: February 6, 2013

The new toy I got today....

I can't wait until next week when I'll have time to play with it.

POTD: February 5, 2013

Well, we didn't do much today to warrant a picture - so I thought, let me document something that I haven't yet documented.

Look at my pretty shoes...picked these up right before Christmas and though Stew rolls his eyes every time I wear them, I love them.  I might even wear them today, in fact.



Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Journal: February 5, 2013

(Typed February 7, 2013)

All the time I tell myself I'm going to keep up with this and all the time, I don't.  The whole night time routine thing is definitely not working out.  I don't know what it is.  We've got our morning routine down, but going to bed when we're supposed to and doing the things before bed that we want to get done - yeah, that's not happening.  Guess we'll give it a go again tomorrow.

Eating hasn't been going as well this week as last.  Tonight for dinner I had nutella on an English muffin with bananas.  Now, probably not as bad for me as say, that doughnut from 7-11 that I really wanted, but still, not exactly what I should be having for dinner.  And there's perfectly good pot roast that I made on Sunday in the fridge waiting to be warmed up.  I just really want a doughnut.  After the english muffin, I had pretzels with nutella.  We're not buying anymore of that stuff until SMP and EAP come to visit again - it's a dangerous thing to have in the house.

Work is still going well.  Though someone, and I'm not naming any names, is sometimes a complete idiot when it comes to all things computer.  They've recently changed how we access our VPN.  They now use a number generator that issues you a passcode and it refreshes every I don't know how long.  Well, I entered that, and it told me to enter token code (of course I didn't read the whole thing), so I entered the passcode again.  Over and over and over.  Until finally one of our IT guys realized what I was doing and said, you have to get a token code when this happens.  So much for all those lessons I got from Sister Mary in the second grade about reading.  Darn it.

So, that's the exciting life of today.  I'm still going strong with LOAD.  Really hope I can finish this time.

Completely bailed on the picture of the day thing today.  Just nothing happened that was all that picture worthy.  Maybe tomorrow.

I copied this from my sister-in-law Kelly's facebook page.  Her older daughter, GDH, had some interesting words to share about her younger sister.

GDH: "When are you retuning CEH back to her mommy and daddy?" 
Kelly:"who is her mommy and daddy?" 
GDH: "I think it's Aunt Gina and Uncle Stew... they can come take her back any time."

As Mike put it, don't tempt me little one, don't tempt me.

Man if SMP and GDH ever got together they could totally share war stories about having a younger sibling.  Next time I see MTP, I'm going to have to ask her how she feels about her younger brother. 

Monday, February 4, 2013

Journal: February 4, 2013

Let me start by saying Congratulations to the Ravens.  I'm glad that Ray is going out on that high.  I think with all the work he's put in with that team, he deserves it.  He is THE original Raven afterall.  Let me also say thank you to the Ravens - due to their win over the 49ers, the Steelers remain the only NFL team with 6 rings.  (thank you James Harrison for pointing that out)

Now that that's over, can I please ask what the hell that half time show was all about?  The light show was cool, but my God, a few years ago we were all up in arms about a boob and this year we have an almost nude Beyonce gyrating around the stage like I don't know what.  Please bring back the arena rock Gods.  PLEASE.  I beg of you.

Best commercial I saw during the Superbowl was the one by Dodge about the farmers.  Really touching.  Though I will say, I missed the Tide commercial with the Joe Montana stain and I heard that one was good.  I can't believe some of the commercials that are aired - you're spending so much damn money to get air time during that game.  I would think that you could hire some advertising firm to think of something original and entertaining to do with that time, or from what I saw, I guess not.

What was up with the lights going out?  The comments being posted to Twitter after that happened were hilarious.  I liked this one, in particular:


And the biggest news of the night and the biggest win of the night was announced by Matt shortly after the game ended.  I am the winner of the Kielbasa cup!  By 6 points I won.  I guess it doesn't matter that for some of the questions I had to ask Stew who the 49ers running back was or receiver.  I still won.  Whooohoooo, I get a signed football.  (Every year for the Superbowl, Stew's family has a list of questions relating to the game.  Everyone answers.  Scores are tallied.  Results are announced.  Winner receives a football signed by all those that were in attendance at the party.  This year there was no party, HOWEVER, I still want my signed football.  Make it happen, people!!!!)

I went to bed last night before the game ended.  Finished reading a book that Stew downloaded for me.  (He downloads me the free ones that Amazon offers every week.  I review them, put the ones that look interesting in a folder on my Kindle marked "May not suck" and every once in awhile when I have nothing I want to read, I start some book that is in the folder.  If I don't like it, I stop reading it right away and delete it.  No harm, no foul.)  This one wasn't so bad.  I'll probably write a review tomorrow or something.  It's on the list.

This morning got up, put on my workout clothes, made my husband breakfast, then started to work only for my work computer to go bat shit crazy.  It won't open links on the internet, it won't connect to work's VPN.  Sigh.  Since I had training all day for our new system it was no big deal, but I'm gonna have to work on getting that fixed tomorrow.

After work, I worked on my layout for the day.  Actually finished the assignment for my One Little Word class that was given out in the beginning of January.  The prompt for LOAD today was scrapbook a goal - this seemed like a good fit and good way to knock out two birds with one stone - so I made that happen.

I worked out while Stew made dinner which is quite the roll reversal, but I had an appointment with my therapist tonight.  He made baked chicken and crispy edamame.  Very good.

He also introduced me to the site, www.lamebook.com

We spent some time looking through some of those things - some of them make me not want to live on this planet anymore.  Though this one we found rather funny.

The therapist appointment went well, though it was hard.  We spent time talking about childhood and family.  It just sucks when things aren't the way you want them, yet there isn't a damn thing you can do about it.  That's life I guess.  I'll just continue to focus on the things that bring good in my life and hope that time does, in fact, heal all wounds.

In better news:

I got happy mail today - not once, or twice, but four times.  Three boxes of who the hell knows what I ordered craft supplies and the best mail of all - pictures of my adorable little nieces. 



AND Christina posted on Facebook today that she had a lot of 0-3 month baby clothes to give away.  Darn it, AGP, slow down.  You're growing up way too fast for your aunt's liking.

I think that's all for today.  (Side note: Stew worked out while I was at the doctor's - we're starting the week off right.)

Until tomorrow....

POTD: February 4, 2013

We all know Stew's a geek - this is not news.  Imagine how happy he was when he figured out that his exercise bike had a tray for his iPad.  Now he can watch his Netflix while on the bike.  I asked him, "Why doesn't my treadmill have fancy things like that?"  He said, "that thing was built before cell phones existed, let alone iPads."  Then I think it's time for an upgrade, don't you????

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Journal: February 3, 2013

One of the things that Stew and I are trying, or I'm trying and Stew is supporting me in trying, is building one new habit a week.  Last week, our goal was to make sure we ate breakfast every day.  We did that.  We also ate dinner at the kitchen table 6 out of the 7 nights (Friday night is tv night and was pizza night which is meant to be eaten in front of the tv).  We didn't eat out once this week, which, hello - helps the budget.  All in all, it was a pretty good week in terms of making and keeping our one goal.

The goal for the coming week is our nighttime routine.  Normally, we're up doing whatever until we absolutely can't keep our eyes open anymore and we go upstairs and fall into bed.  We want to make our bedtime routine a little more systematic.  Go through and straighten up the house, journal, think about our plans for the next day, do all of the things that we should do before going to bed so the transition is easier and we get to bed earlier. 

In that vein, it's not even 9PM and I'm journaling for the day.  Doing this at night before I go to bed will sure as hell help me in all aspects of my memory keeping.  Having to go back and re-create entries from the notes I keep is pure hell, so, this is the new habit I want to incorporate while continuing to make sure we eat breakfast.  I've already baked our eggs for the week and Stew went to the store and bought English Muffins.  I have yogurt and protein powder, so we're all set.

Today was another lazy day for us.  We normally travel to Jersey for the superbowl festivities, but there's weather to contend with and people are ill, and it just wasn't meant to happen this year.  From the updates I'm getting from Stew it doesn't appear that it's much of a game at all.  I couldn't care less one way or another, but I'll be happy for Ray and I know a lot of my friends will be thrilled.

We did get some of our chores done today.  We finalized our January budget and weirdly, somehow, we were actually under-budget.  We still don't know how in the hell we did that.  Mainly, I think our cancelled trip to Savannah had something to do with it, but hey, under-budget is better than over-budget, so we'll take it.  The overage was immediately transferred into our savings account.  We planned out February's budget and put away the financial stuff for the day.

Stew's really been enjoying our subscription to NetFlix.  He's watched several movies this weekend.  It's a cool thing, too.  We can watch as many movies as we want, not have to store them and not feel guilty about not finishing them if we hate them.  I think this is going to be a good thing if it is like Stew says and the number of movies available increase once the subscription becomes paid.


I put away our laundry today and started packing for Kansas - we don't leave until Friday - who the hell am I?  It's going to feel good on Friday though when it's time to leave and I'm ready without running around the house like a crazy person.

I spent a lot of time in the scraproom, which makes me happy.  I've been successful for the first three days of LOAD, we'll see if that continues.  I've gotten a lot of great feedback on my layouts and my videos and that's awesome.

We saw Steve today.  He stopped by to pick up his wireless router and his food money for the month.  He needs the wireless at his new apartment because he's going over his amount of data on his phone because he's always on the network.  I asked him if he's met any girls while at school - he changed the subject.  Smooth, so smooth...It's funny, but I can actually understand him much better when he's in front of me than when I'm trying to read his Facebook updates.  Go figure!  He seems to be doing well but he went and tried to change his 8AM class to 10AM and ended up changing it to 7AM - that's what he gets, I suppose.

GDH had a quote for me today.  "Everybody here is really nice, except Casey, Casey is just clumsy."  Oh, the nightmare of being the older sibling.  LOL.

And Frank sent me a picture on Facebook - AWESOME!


I have to finish editing the video for day 3 of LOAD and then I think I'll have a snack and head off to bed.  Very busy day tomorrow - training all day on the new trial monitoring system they're putting in place for my new study.  Should be interesting....I hope.  It'll be important to learn, either way.

Until tomorrow....

POTD: February 3, 2013

Stew's snacks for his proclaimed cheat day.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Journal: February 2, 2013

I don't really have a whole lot to share today.  It was a pretty lazy day around the house.  It was absolutely wonderful.  I spent a lot of time in the craft room.  Worked on some layouts, did some re-organizing.  We watched some tv.  I cheated just a tad on the sugar thing and had some nutella on an English Muffin with bananas - considering that I was craving a doughnut all day and I didn't get one, that's not too bad.  We were supposed to go to the Flyers game tonight, but we both just needed a relaxing day at home.  It's been a long week for both of us as we adjust to our new routines and I've actually been busy at work - which has been great, but it's an adjustment and we just needed a pajama day.

Stew did weigh in this morning.  His weight is down since we started - that's awesome!  Next week, we'll be more consistent with working out so that should also help!

There's a lot of back and forth going on about the Super Bowl.  Matt and family has been sick so they won't be attending the party at mom and dad's and the weather is supposed to be making a turn toward the icy and snowy.  Stew and I think that we're probably just going to stay home.  Stew's made tomorrow his cheat day and let me just tell you how much he's looking forward to that.  He's been talking about Cheetos and Doritos all day.

So, that's probably what we'll do - just stay home and watch the game.  Though honestly, I have no desire to watch it, really.  I'll probably play in the scrap room.

I guess we'll see tomorrow.

POTD: February 2, 2013

The craft desk - it's clean, for the first time in weeks!

Friday, February 1, 2013

Pinned It, Did It, Friday: Alternative to Hamburgers

I've been looking at vegetarian hamburger recipes for quite some time.  When I happened upon this one, I pinned it and then I went to the kitchen and tried it out.  Turns out we had everything I needed in the pantry, so the dinner didn't cost a dime.  We paired it with a salad.

Here's the original pin.

They're black bean and brown rice burgers. 

I made the rice earlier in the day which made prep of these burgers a breeze.  I'm considering cooking a batch of brown rice every Sunday and just keeping it in our fridge or freezing it - I'll have to see if freezing it is a good idea.


I used canned black beans, well rinsed.


Followed the directions on the recipe.


(I need a new blender - this one is awful.)


At this point, I'm not sure about these things - the stuff that came out of the blender didn't look apetizing at all.



Here's the finished "burgers".


They were very delicate and flakey - but I must say, they tasted really good.  Even Stew liked them.  They won't replace an actual hamburger for us, but I can see us adding this to our cooking menu.

I call this one PinApproved.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Pinned It, Did it, Friday: Cleaning Glass Cooktops

Like a lot of people I know, the thought of having a glass cooktop meant that cleaning would be easier - well, I've found that that isn't always true.  Especially if you cook like me - which means, that more food ends up on the stove than in the pan.  If the saying "a messy cook is a good cook" is true - I'm not sure why I don't have my own cooking show on the Food Network...

Anyhow.  I saw this and pinned it.

The source for the pin is here.

This is the before picture - I can't even believe I'm showing this...


The only baking soda I had on hand.


Following the directions.

Used Dawn dishwashing liquid.


Stew and I don't like lighthouses or anything.


I can't believe the difference.  I never thought I'd get those black marks off of those gray rings and they all came off.  I don't think my towels were wet enough, so next time I will definitely use a little more liquid to get more of a paste from the baking soda, but I'm very pleased with how this worked.



I'm going to call this one PinApproved and add it to my monthly cleaning schedule.

Now, if only I had remembered to turn on the self cleaning oven while this was going on.  Ahhhh, maybe next time.