It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's cold outside, I have to scrape ice off my car windows every morning, and I am getting at least one package on my doorstep when I get home for work- that must mean one thing- it's nearly Christmas!  Christmas means being extra nice to one another, reflecting on the past year, and remembering the birth of baby Jesus. Oh- and shopping.

 I HATE shopping at the mall and other stores during the holidays.  People are typically not showing their holiday cheer.  Instead, they're cutting in line at the checkout, cutting you off in the parking lot, and knocking you down for that last sale item they may see.  This is not my idea of fun!
Sitting at home and shopping online is the way to go.  I'll spend a few extra bucks to keep my sanity, thank you.  Battling crowds and traffic makes me have heart burn. But, I also have to admit, that those packages on the door step make me happy.  I know they're not for me but they're still things I get to open!
Amazon.com has free shipping on basically any purchase over 25 bucks.  Who wouldn't go for that?  They tend to get your stuff there before the estimated date too.  It's also keeping the postal service busy!  Everyone wins!  Wal-mart has free site to store shipping- that's simple as well. 
So for me- I don't leave my house.  Forget those black Friday sales.  They're not worth  it.  Instead, I sit in my study with a cup of hot tea and point and click and voila! my Christmas shopping is done! 
My gifts for people are already wrapped under the tree.  I've been done with shopping for over a week now.   Gotta love the interwebs.

It's been a while...

So I've been bad about updating this thing but I will try to do better. 
Today is "cyber Monday" and I just happen to have the day off so I've spent the morning doing some shopping.  I am not overly impressed with the "deals" today though.   I have managed to buy for my dad, my brother in law, my 2 nieces, and my nephew.  My husband is always impossible to buy for so I had no hope for that one. 

I've also managed to do laundry, the dishes, make chili (it's in the crockpot) and finish putting out the rest of the Christmas stuff.  Productive morning!

I'm trying to get more photos uploaded for my 2011 My publisher book.  I copied my sister's tradition of making one each year.  Love it.

That's it for now. 

Thankful Thursday

Well I missed last week.  It was pretty hectic.  Work is a bit more stressful with our transition from paper charts to EMR and home has been a little different since my husband has started working again.  We're definately seeing each other less than when he was a house husband.

OK so-
What am I thankful for ?  - I am thankful for hardworking people;  people who do their job because they take pride in their work.  Nowadays there seem to be so many people who go out of their way to NOT to work.  They work more at not working than they do at working. If they worked as hard at their job than trying to find ways out of it, they'd be the CEO.   It's so frustrating.  Do your job.  Get your sh!t done and get over yourself.  I guess they don't realize that their slack is being picked up by the hardworking people around them.

     So cheers to you hardworkers-  whether you're a Mom who takes care of your kids and doesn't expect others to, or a medical assistant who rooms patients without asking, or even the cashier at Target who doesn't "dilly dally" and actually checks people out.  Cheers.  Keep up the good work.  Thank you for your hard work!

Thankful Thursday

Thursday is coming to a close and I almost forgot to post thankful Thursday.  I'm obviously not so great at starting traditions.
But here ya go- post number 2 for today.  Lucky you guys.

I am thankful for:

• My husbands new job.
• Living close to my sister and getting to be an aunt to the 3 J's.
• and last but not least- I'm thankful for the tiny amount of rain we got today.  Any amount is better than none.

I hope everyone is has something to be thankful for today.

Halloween Party

So I decided that I'm going to throw a halloween bash this year.  I'm super excited because I love halloween and I also love to entertain so I get the best of both worlds!  I've already started looking through websites like Better Homes and Gardens , Party City, and even just good old google images for ideas.
I know I'm definately getting my sister on board to help with some of my ideas.  She's so crafty I can't go wrong. 
I'm also planning on making some scary foods.  I'll be stealing ideas from here,  Lil' Luna and here Garden and Spice & Everything nice and maaaaybe here, Divine dinner party , but their ideas are pretty gross.

The tables will be decorated, pumpkins will be intracately carved, and the bar will be open for creepy service!  I found a special drink to tie in with my previous post-  infused vodka.    Candy corn vodka is just the thing to make the party unique!

I am heading to Party City and Hobby Lobby tonight to get started on the decorations.  I tend to go a little overboard but I think the better the planning, the better the night goes.

Stay at home husband no longer-

Hip Hip Hooray!  My husband, C, has found a job!  And it's a good job!  I'll share more details as time progresses.
So background- C quit his job back in January, after 14 years with the same company.  Which is amazing in itself considering his young age.
Although we could (and can) afford to not have him work, this placed a lot of stress on him and on our family.  We were just married October 16th, 2011.
In the beginning his not working was definately was a source of contention between the two of us.  But as time progressed we found our own routine.  And while it took him some time to find and accept his role in the home, it took me a while to accept my role as the "provider".  But, now I actually enjoy having a "stay at home husband".  I get breakfast cooked for me every morning, (it's plated as I'm getting ready for work and I get a "Breakfast is ready!!") the house is clean, the laundry is done, the dog is walked and played with, and best of all- I'm not doing it.  We even discussed, that if he did not find a job in the market, he may play the role as the stay at home dad, if and when we expand our family. 
But that's all in the past now.  Presently, we'll have to decide how to re-split up the chores, cooking and responsibilites.  We will need to revamp our lives and readjust to having us both work.  I know he is happy because, well, most men don't want to stay at home and do the house work.  I am happy because he is happy.

Infused vodka

I often get an itch to be "creative".   My "itch" led me to infusing vodka.  It was surprisingly simple and things turned out remarkably well. 

First you need to decide what flavor of vodka you want.  If you hate lemons, don't make a lemon vodka.  If you like lemons, make a lemon vodka.  It's really that easy.  I decided to try a few different flavors and see what would be good enough to repeat.  My goal in the end was to be able to give the "homemade" vodka as gifts to people.  In my extensive Internet research I found there is really no exact science to the process, and there's no limits to what you can attempt to infuse.  I found more than one blog where they infused bacon into vodka.  Why you would want to do that, I have no idea, but they did.  And apparently they liked it.

That being said, I did not choose bacon.  I chose more traditional flavors:  lemon, apple cinnamon, green apple, and jalapeno.  The jalapeno was the weirdest but my husband likes bloody Mary's and I figured you'd get spice without having to add much Tabasco.  I also opted to make a lemoncello.  I've never had lemoncello before but I thought, what the heck. 

The end results? 
Green apple was not good.  Although I filled the entire mason jar with apple, there wasn't enough flavor to even identify after 2 weeks.  I let it sit longer (4 weeks total) and the apples started fermenting/rotting.  I threw that batch away.
The lemon was very lemony.   If you like super sour it was ok.  I found that most people would drink it if I mixed in a few tablespoons of sugar to the sprite mixer.  This defeated the sprite zero/ zero calorie angle most people were going for. 
The jalapeno was HOT and you could definitely tell it was flavored like a jalapeno. Initially I had cut up and filled the entire jar with peppers but my husband talked me out of it.  In the end only about  1/2 the jar was full of peppers and that was probably more than plenty.  It was good and it left that jalapeno burn in your mouth. 
The lemoncello.  This one took 90 days and was more complex than the others.  You let the lemon only vodka sit for 45 days then add a homemade simple sugar and let it sit for another 45 days.  It is sweet.  Very sweet.  I serve it straight from the freezer but it's just too sweet for me.  I let a co-worker try it and she loved it.  I will be giving the rest to her soon.
The winner-  The apple cinnamon.  This was the favorite  of all the flavors but only because of the cinnamon.  The apples contributed no flavor.  The cinnamon colored the vodka a beautiful red color and we mixed it with apple juice so it tasted like spiced apple cider.  We liked it so much I made another entire bottle of just cinnamon to give away. 

I found and purchased bottles on http://www.amazon.com/ and I will be making my own labels so I can give the cinnamon vodka away.  I'll post an update with the finished project at a later time.

from left to right- green apple, lemon, apple cinnamon, lemoncello, jalapeno

Thankful Thursday

On a website's board I visit they have a post on Thursdays called "Thankful Thursday".  Members post what they're thankful for- whether it be that minute, day, week, etc.  I think this is good practice.

I think more people should spend time reflecting on what they're thankful for rather than bitching and moaning about what's wrong or who wronged them.

So here's my thankful Thursday post.

• I am thankful for:  The cooler weather and the forcasted rain.  Texas and much of the nation has been under so much duress lately with the lack of rain and blistering heat, it's a much needed break. 
• I am thankful for my husband.  He does basically anything for me and he's always there when I need him. 
• I am thankful for my job.  The people I work with are all good people and typically everyone gets along.  Considering that it's all women except for one lone man, that's a feat.
• I am thankful that it's Thursday.  The week is almost over and I get the weekend off. 

What are you thankful for today?

Finally

I saw the most beautiful thing this morning. ----------->

Yep.  That's the weather forcast.  All that rain dancing finally paid off.
Thank goodness.

But it's Tuesday-

Today has been an awful day at work- already.  It's just halfway over and I'm pooped.  I'd expect this from a Monday, but Tuesday?- Tuesday you back stabber you!  You're supposed to be a better day. It's gotta be the full moon.  I have noticed though that craziness seems more rampant on Tuesdays.
  I wonder why.                                  This is me today  ---->

Anyways- this morning, we've had over 10 walk in patients on top of our previously scheduled patients, and we're supposed to be incorporating a new EMR (electronic medical records) system?  HA!  And my husband wants to know what I'm tired when I get home. 

 Well for starters, I listen to people complain for a living- no one WANTS to come in to the doctor's office.  They're sick or they're not sick and we're "making them" come in.  I can't win.  It's fatiguing. I love my job but it wears on you.
At least at lunch I used to be able to "play" on the Internet.  I was able to browse some sites I was interested in and participate on "the boards" there.  I also checked my "facebook" to see what random crap people posted (there's nothing important on facebook- ever).  Now work has blocked them and blocked my lunch joy.  I get no "nice" recharger.

On a typical day I use up my "nice" during work hours and I'm a tired, likely bitchy, slug when I get home.  But today my niceness has been used up by noon.  Sorry folks.  And sorry dear husband-  you won't like me tonight.  Well, unless I get a glass of wine when I walk in the door.  That seems to be a good way to start to re-charge the nice.
Enough complaining- back to the grind stone.

I can be creative too

So my sister is sickeningly (is that a word?) creative.  And talented to boot.  She can pretty much do anything- sew, draw, paint, web design, pumpkin carving- whatever.  If you need proof- here's a link to her blog.  linky
It's hard "making" stuff around her.  My stuff is always uglier and basically all around crappier than her stuff. This is why she was left in charge of doing most of my wedding stuff-I just ruined it if I tried to do anything.  She really does need to go into business.  But enough about her.

I wanted to make something to spice up my back yard.  My husband and I don't spend much time back there not just because Texas has been a raging inferno for the past 6 months, but because, well it's boring.  So random google searches led me to this-  recycled-bottle-torch.  I loved it.  Some of the pieces were hard to find but wandering around Lowe's I did manage to find the needed parts- not in copper but a little spray paint can do wonders.  Here's one of mine in the daytime.  It's a cell phone picture so not the best quality.

I chose to use wine bottles with meaning.  This wine was from the Peju Winery in Napa Valley.  My husband and I went there for the first time in June.  We loved it.
I've already finished 2 more torches. I ended up spray painting the metal hangers copper which matches the fence pretty well.  I also used a clear coat to seal the labels so the labels won't get ruined.
To celebrate my craftiness we had a lovely dinner outside last night with our new romatic lighting.

So I volunteered him....

     Today is the first game for my niece's soccer team.  My sister had the bright idea to be the coach.  Has she ever played soccer?  Does she know any of the actual rules of the game?  Nah.  What does that matter?  It's a team of 3-5 year olds.  They move with mob mentality up and down the field, lucky if someone accidentally kicks the ball towards the goal.
     Enter my husband.  I felt he would be a great contributor.  He loves kids.  He loves my niece.  And he's played soccer and knows the rules.  So- I volunteered him for assistant coach.  He was a little hesitant at first but after the 1st two practices I can tell he enjoys it.  ( I knew he would.)
     Some times you have to push someone to do something they normally wouldn't.
     Wish the "Jaybirds" luck today!

Sometimes it's the little things

My husband and I have been discussing starting a family.  This likely comes as a surprise to no one considering 1. We're married.  2. My dear husband basically told his entire family already.
      This got me thinking-
      How does one show that it is little things that mean the most?  Will my future child (children?) know and respect that love, "a roof over their heads", food on the table, and clothes on their back are the basic needs in life?  Will they know that sometimes a cool rain storm in the middle of summer or late nights talking with a friend are priceless gifts?   Or -will they be self centered, spoiled children, that Hollywood standards encourage?
      I've been into an Abercrombie a less handful of times, & I leave without buying anything. I don't own expensive sunglasses.  I don't know what H&M is.  I don't wear designer clothes, and I don't have expensive tastes (though, I admit, I am a shoe whore- I'd give nearly anything for a pair of Christian Louboutins).... I ask- how does one instill a sense of worth into a child in today's society?  How do you teach your children the meaning of the true gifts in life?