Boy Am I Sidelined!!!

I was blazing through my chores yesterday and came to the one that is usually my favorite, chopping veggies. I bought 10 green bell peppers on sale and needed to cut them up to freeze. I was on the last piece of the last pepper and the knife(and my hand) was wet. I sliced through the tip of my right thumb, bad. Luckily I was able to keep pressure on it for about 45 minutes and it didn't bleed too much. Mark brought me some gauze, liquid bandaids and a finger cot(metal splint) so I was fixed up in a jiffy. It probably needed stitches but I'm not sure they could go where this injury is very well. This morning it was throbbing pretty bad and I can't do simple things like put on clothes or crochet without some major adjustments. Actually, I can't crochet much at all so that afghan(Christmas present) might be way late getting to its recipient.

Mark is out of town today, he had to pick up equipment on one of their patients in McKinney and then meet someone for lunch to deliver some helios bases the guy bought, and then meet with a pharmacist who wants to sub-lease their Commerce office from them. It would be nice if he didn't have to work any more 12-hour days. He left this morning before 6.

So, that leaves me to get the rest of the house in order. There is laundry to be done, fresh sheets to be put on the beds(that ought to be interesting with my thumb), mopping, decluttering, and menu planning. Sigh. I'm wearing my favorite shirt though, it says, "After viewing her calendar for the week, she went ahead and pre-medicated.", how funny is that?

Oh yeah, wanted to tell about this! My neighbors are having their concrete slab(the whole house) stained to look like rock. It is exquisite! There are geometric designs scored into the concrete and painted leaf accents here and there. I think they used 3 or 4 different browns including a saddle tan, a rust and a dark chocolate. Last night Puppy-girl and I went over because they were unloading the POD that has been on their driveway since late September. I thought maybe the floor was finished but it isn't quite. They just didn't want to have to rent the pod for another month. Anyway, I would LOVE to have that sort of flooring but worry about the hardness and lack of sound absorbing that concrete has. They said the worst problem has been the fact that my dad's sealant job on the slab was so good that it has been hard to get the stain to take(my dad built this house in 1979). The artists are having to scrape the entire floor by hand with a razor blade putty knife contraption. It is taking "for freaking ever" said the lady of the house. Maybe when it is done they'll let me take a picture or three to share.

Now, I'm off to mop this wreck of a kitchen.

Beginning to Look Something Like Christmas....

moar funny pictures

Santa is making his way to our house! Hope he brings something fun for the kids! I shopped til I dropped yesterday and have spent all the money so I guess I'm done. There are a few more Santa items I need to get, mostly in the form of chocolate.

I did manage to get one of the six things on my revised list done. I hung the stockings!!! This picture is from 3 years ago. Now they are under the bottom edge, held on by nails and thumbtacks. We take them down when Santa fills them so they won't stretch or break from the weight of the goodies.

(Mark's, Sarah's, Ryan's, Amy's and Molly's)

My parents are leaving this morning from North Carolina and will be here sometime tomorrow(or late, late tonight if they decide to drive through). Mom was recently diagnosed with Type II diabetes so our Christmas menu will have to change slightly to accomodate that. I'm looking forward to having them here and the kids are really excited about it! Which reminds me, my dad gave Ryan his old metal detector last January. We've never assembled or played with it but Ryan asked if we could get it fixed up for a present a few weeks ago.

Last night, or very early this morning I should say, we were awakened by some noise. Neither one of us could place what it was but it was loud and definitely real(not our imagination). After I fell back to sleep I dreamed that we had a ghost and at different times either Mark or I would become possessed by this ghost. There was a phrase we said, in that deep growly "possessed" voice, the same thing each time. I wish I could remember what it was because words in your dreams are supposed to have deep meaning. It was something along the lines of "its my turn to blah, blah, blah", or "I'm going to blah, blah, blah", or some other kind of statement. Man I hope it comes to me, it was a very strange and powerful dream. Dreaming of ghosts or spirits, especially ones that possess, has to do with either something in your subconcious or your concious needing to come out to the surface. Possibly, a part of your personality that is being neglected or repressed, either willfully or not. It typically means a change, a drastic one! We shall see!!!

Oh yeah, I found a new pizza crust recipe! We've tried it twice as "focaccia" but tonight I'm going to roll it out thinner and use it for our pizza. Wish me luck!

The Busy-ness Continues....

We've been busy. Busy wrapping, busy shopping, busy cleaning, busy tidying, busy cooking, busy taking care. Self-imposed stress? YES! Most of these things have to be done anyway so they don't count, but there are extra things this time of year that we tell ourselves MUST be done before Christmas, or before the relatives come, or before we do this or that. The good thing, is that for some reason this is not a bad stress for me this time. It will get done, things will fall into place. The mess of laundry will be neatly in the drawers, the mess of yarn will be wound and put in baskets.

Today's busy-ness includes more shopping, more cleaning, some painting, some sorting, a bit of laundry, vacuuming, mopping, crocheting, decluttering, and baking(pumpkin cake I blogged around Thanksgiving)!
~~***UPDATED**~~~ I am 99% done with the shopping part!!! YEEEEHAW!!!

Ryan goes back to the orthopedist tomorrow, early. We'll find out if his arm is healing like it is supposed to and hopefully when he can get his cast off! This weekend was two weeks since the break. The cast doesn't slow Ryan down much at all, he is even still able to play his guitar a little.

After yesterday's pictures, my camera is now back to not uploading pictures but we've figured out that it is my McAfee being incompatible with the camera software. Not sure what to do about it yet, I have the online version of McAfee so it isn't like I can uninstall and reinstall as I like.

Anyway, I have some great pictures of the dogs to share and I CAN'T!! Talk about frustrating! Oh well, I have a ton of other stuff, however boring, to keep me occupied today.

Yum, my favorite treat of the season!

We went to Target last night while the girls were at a birthday party at Pump It Up. Can't post much about our trip because it involves Christmas presents! But, I happened upon the frozen treats section and found Dreyers Peppermint Ice Cream(the lower fat version)!! This I can share with the whole family, except Ryan won't eat it, silly boy. It is ooooh so good!! So good I had to take pictures!

Here I am enjoying it:




And here are Ruby and Rosie enjoying some peace under the tree:

Meme, meme Christmas!

Found this at the Lowdown From Lois and thought I'd play along...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Paper please!

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real. We've had fake ones in the past and will probably again but for now we enjoy the search for the perfect tree. And, we can get one to fit our 12 foot ceilings.

3. When do you put up the tree? About 2-3 weeks before Christmas.

4. When do you take the tree down? Depends on how dried out it is. Usually a few days after Christmas.

5. Do you like eggnog? It is ok, not my favorite but I definitely don't mind drinking it if forced, lol.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? A red barn my dad made for my Breyer horses and Barbies.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, but not a real one, it is a very small tree ornament set. I'd love the Lennox china version but that would be many hundreds of $$$s and I don't really have a place for it.

8. Hardest person to buy for? My husband. He gets what he needs throughout the year, and things he wants too. He's weird about gifts too, very picky.

9. Easiest person to buy for? My kids are super easy.

10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? I'm not real sure, can't recall any that were just too horrible. Except the Marilyn Monroe phone I got last minute from my horrid cousin.

11. Mail or email Christmas card? Neither, I don't do them.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Home Alone, Christmas Vacation, The Santa Clause, The Muppet Christmas Carol(and the original too). I love the funny ones, not so much into the old sappy ones. I love all the animated ones from childhood, Rudolf and Frosty and Meisterberger Bergermeister and the Grinch and Mr. Heat Miser....

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? As soon as we have the money.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I can't recall.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Chex Party Mix, my version with honey mustard coating. I love most holiday foods, can't go wrong with them I say.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Both at the same time...the more the merrier!

17. Favorite Christmas song? Andy Williams version of Do You Hear What I Hear, Sarah McLachlan's Christmas stuff, Burl Ives, Gene Autry, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, Julie Andrew's version of Favorite Things(Andy Williams does a good one too, as does Babs). I'm very musical so I love most holiday music except for extreme rock or rap or countrified stuff.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We usually stay home and have my parents and occasionally brother and/or others come to our house.

19. Can you name Santa's reindeers? Yep. Uh, did you want me to do it now?

20. Do you have an Angel on top or a star? Nothing.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Morning

22. Most annoying thing(s) about this time of year? Self-imposed stress

Buttery Goodness....

I made BUTTER today!!! We've been getting raw(organic/added-hormone-free) milk from a dairy co-op for several weeks now but I've been concerned about the fat content of the milk(for me anyway). I didn't want to scoop the cream off and toss it out but didn't have a need to make whipped cream either. Some of the other families in the co-op make yogurt and kefir on a regular basis and yesterday I found out I could make butter! The benefit of this is that I'll be skimming my milk, making great tasting fresh butter, and buttermilk all at the same time! I can drink the skim and use the butter and buttermilk for cooking and baking!

First, I put about half the gallon into a widemouthed insulated drink dispenser(like a rubbermaid type thermos), covered it with foil and let it sit in the fridge overnight. This morning I used a wide spoon to scoop the cream into an old pickle jar. I let this sit out for about 30 minutes to warm up a bit, then shook the crap out of it for 15-20 minutes or so. It turned into BUTTER!!!! Amazing! I drained the buttermilk off and then rinsed the butter with cold water 3 times to get the remaining buttermilk out of it(that makes it go rancid quickly if you don't get it out). It made about 2/3 cup of butter and maybe a cup of buttermilk. Yummmmy!

Getting in the Spirit!!

But first, I had to do a massive restructuring of the China Cabinet. We cleaned it out a few weeks ago so it could be moved to allow for the Christmas tree. I'd seen several bloggers post pics of their own lovely hutches with paper or fabric as a backdrop for their collections so I went in search of paper. Found it at Hobby Lobby, 1/2 off in fact.


(china cabinet before move)

I took the rest of the stuff out, cleaned the shelves, taped the paper up and reloaded it with only "china" type stuff. We've decided to put a glass door on one of our bookshelves and make it be our rock cabinet.


(mostly full)

Then I thought, maybe I should decorate it for the holidays...




(the deer-aren't they sweet?- decided to move next to the button tree, which took me hours to complete-never again)

Mark got the house lights up but we'll need a fuse or two for the ones on the back. Our neighbors across the street have their runway up.

I also hung up my(mom's) Joan Walsh Anglund calendars from the early 1970s.




(this and the horseback tree haulers are tied for my favorites)


(this is my second favorite)

All this while biting my nails over the Cowboys game, so glad they won!!!!

Now I'm off to make more pizzas for our dinner and chill out on the couch.