tgim!  I love Monday. Seriously.  Everyone goes to school/work and Izzy and I are left with quiet (except for Sesame Street).  I finished my closet project and need to shift out all the stuff I got rid of today.  I was brutal!  I finished after 1 a.m. Thursday night so by that time I didn’t care much about getting rid of stuff!  One thing I had trouble getting rid of was purses.  I have many many many purses and I didn’t get rid of any (except the one I gave to Amanda)… why do I hold on to those purses?  I had them on hooks in the back corner of my walk in L shaped closet and they were really just in the way.  I moved them into a zip up comforter bag and it is too full and crazy heavy.  Part of me wants to just pitch the whole thing and part of me can’t imagine tossing one of them!  Oh well…

This is going to be a busy week!  Not a whole lot planned for today (yet).  I am making tacos for dinner so I can make Matt’s taquitos that we are out of.  I’ll make some guacamole and have refried (fat free) beans and maybe rice.  Matt wants some special glasses with changeable lenses so I may make a trip to a store in the city if everything else gets finished before noon. Tuesday we are going to the nursing home with our church.  We found out our 93 year old neighbor just got moved to that nursing home so it’ll be nice to say hello.  She is still very with it.  She has just not completely recovered from pneumonia. I am going to make burgers since we’ll have to leave early.  Wednesday is church night, so I’ll put some pork chops in the crockpot with onions and potatoes…  Thursday I’m going to Winter Jam!  Mandisa is going to be there!  I plan to get something carry out because I will have to leave really early to meet up with the group at church.

I’m on my second cup of raspberry coffee.  I never really got the hang of enjoying coffee honestly.  But today when Matt mentioned he was completely out of his hazelnut coffee I remembered a one pot pouch of this raspberry coffee so I made it.  He hated it!  But with a little cream and sugar it was pretty good to me!  Now I just have to count 2 points per cup of coffee to equal four for breakfast… plus the reduced sugar granola bar which is 2… So 6 for basically a few oats with chocolate chips and coffee!  Oh well

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It’s almost Sunday (10:54 p.m. to be exact).

Today I started by picking Emelia up from the Embassy Suites Hotel. Matt’s cousin (and my friend) Jana had her daughter Brooke’s 9th birthday party there. They had a suite, close to the pool (indoors) and had a blast! Emelia had such red eyes even with the goggles that were part of her party favors! Brooke loved the bag of goodies we sent which included a huge stamping kit (she’s very crafty) and some little pet thinkamajigs that all the little girls like I hear. I also got a bunch of the cute stuff at Target’s one spot and saved some things to tuck in Emelia’s luggage for late night activities… like the black felt art projects and fake leopard print fingernails. They had so much fun!

After a quick lunch at chickfila, we then got ready for party #2 & 3! These girls (Erica and Taylor) had a Hannah Montana bash at the local skating rink. It was great fun. I even skated for a bit with Emelia. There was a HM cake, singing balloons and everything HM you can imagine! Emelia was running out of steam before this party was over.

While we were gone, Matt and Bailey were doing something to his PSP which has resulted in a broken battery. They are so into taking things apart and hacking systems… very computer smart these guys! I just try to stay away from it all!

I put on a HUGE pot of stew! I started with sirloin steak. I cubed it and sprinkled liberally with salt, pepper and flour… browned in canola oil along with a sliced onion… added two cans of diced tomatoes, one can of rotel, and a can of crushed tomatoes… give or take a quartish of hot water, quartered a pound of new red potatoes, one pound bag of baby carrots, a bag of frozen veggies (white & yellow corn, asparagus, and more baby carrots), and a bag of cut green beans. I add in about a half package of williams chili seasoning and then more salt. It just simmered on medium for a couple of hours! DELISH! Dad came down for a few bowls because mom was out of town for her father’s birthday party. I made cornbread and picked up jiffy because it was on an end cap in the front of the store close to the register and I didn’t want to go all the way back to that aisle (it was a busy days, come on!) AND anyway, started making two boxes realizing I only had one egg. I added a touch extra milk and everyone said that it was the best cornbread ever! Who would have known eliminating an egg would have a good affect? I have to admit there was one more difference, I keep kosher salt in a small bowl and use it instead of a shaker (mostly) I dusted the unbaked muffins with a pinch of the kosher salt right before putting them in the oven.

Well, that’s all for this day. Emelia fell asleep really early. Bailey is asleep too. Amanda is sick but a little better and hopefully not talking on the phone, but sleeping! Goodnight!

P.S. My sweet special funny friend NANCY FACE is having a birthday in about an hour!!!

Happy Birthday Nancy!

I love reading and writing short stories! I remember taking writing classes in college and loving the assignments, and even listening to each student read their story!  The most amazing part is how every person views things so differently and writes it in a way you would have never imagined.  I read this story, “My Little Jewel,” this morning. It is a sweet story about a girl and a unicorn. It’s a fantasy type story and it’s very sweet. I remember loving unicorns when I was younger.

You should check out Weekly Shorts! You can read or participate in the stories. You are asked to leave a name, gender (human or not) and the genre of stories you enjoy most. The author then writes a 1000 (or so) short story and posts it!  At the end of the story you are thanked and there is a link added to your blog.  This has been going on since Aug. 07.  The goal is to compile fifty or more stories to make into a book.  I think I’m going to head over and give it a try.  You should too!