Saturday is a Special Day

Anyone remember that primary song? I was singing it all day yesterday. It was definitely one of "those" Saturdays. I was busy all day with cleaning and other household stuff in preparation for leaving on Wednesday to go home for Thanksgiving. I hate coming home to a to-do list. I'd much rather get stuff done before leaving and return to a clean house.

I started my day with laundry and cleaning the main level of our house. It was in need of more of a deep clean than compared to my normal de-clutter sort of cleaning. So I cleaned the bathroom, mopped floors, cleaned the kitchen and living room. I did make some time in all this to catch the final episode of AMNTM though. What can I say, I'm a sucker for the show.

I then took some time to shower so Jacob and I could run to Lowe's and Target. He needed stuff to put up Christmas lights and I needed stuff to finish that blasted bedroom downstairs. (It's still far from completed bytheway. But I have a deadline since Jacob's family is coming for Christmas. It MUST be done by then.)

We got home and I finished up laundry and then started helping Jacob with the Christmas lights. This turned out to be quite the chore. And, I am a little afraid of heights but Jacob is even more afraid of heights (remember his experience at the Seattle Space Needle...I do.) So I ended up getting on the roof a little more than he did.

He had a plan to avoid the roof as much as possible by jimmy rigging a pole with a hook. Most of the roof line on our house had little hooks on it already so we used those to string the lights. Trouble is, it was still really hard to get the lights tight and looking good.

So after Jacob spent a long time with the pole, out one of the bedroom windows, anchored by a rope around me ('cuz the roof over the garage is STEEP and he was scaredy...and I don't blame him), all to avoid getting on the very tip top of our roof line....I still went up there to make the lights a little straighter and tighter. But it wasn't so bad. And I see another trip up there in the future to replace a burnt out bulb. The stupid light burnt out just as we were finishing it all up. Jacob says I should just leave it but I don't think I can stand it. It's a very obvious hole.

Anyway, the lights took way longer than I thought they would so I didn't get time to really clean up my bedroom. The good news is Jacob had already cleaned our bathroom and the other bathroom upstairs. So at least it's not as nasty as it was.

We then made our way to King Soopers to pick up a few necessary items, and a few not so necessary items. Jacob and I are quite pleased with our adventures in couponing and our ability to stock up on items for pretty cheap. Our food storage has grown quite a bit since starting the couponing game. We are spending about the same amount in groceries as we used to but it sure is going farther than before.

After dinner (a pretty late dinner might I add), I ended the evening by playing a little band hero with some friends. It was a good time. And I was completely worn out by the end of the day!

It's good to have a productive Saturday every now and then.

I've Been Called Out--Twice

Well I"m pretty sure I've already done this one but since Diana and Shannon are certain I'll compete this list, I guess I'll do it. But just because I don't want them to look bad! :)

6 Questions

A) Four places that I go to over and over:
Work, Court (totally work related...not personal), King Soopers, Target

B) Four people who e-mail me:
Loads of people at work. On my personal email I most often get messages from: Jacob, Facebook, and things for Church (activities committee stuff, Visiting Teaching stuff...)

C) Four of my favorite places to eat:
Back Country Provisions, Spoons, Spicy Pickle and Gib's NY Bagel (all places I usually eat for lunch, if I'm going out. My list would look different if I were to list actual sit down, out to eat kinds of places)

D) Four places you would love to be:
Utah, curled up in bed sleeping, DC (hopefully this summer) and Vegas (definitely in February for the arrival of my new niece)

E) Four people I'm almost sure will respond:
probably no one. Not because I'm not loved but just because anyone who would have completed this already did.

F) Four of your favorite TV shows:
The Office, Glee, Fringe, NCIS LA (I picked up those last two because of Jacob. But anyone who liked the x-files may also want to give Fringe a try. It's pretty good and creepy.)

And now to clear up another thing for the benefit of Scott and Shannon:

Menu items selected by me...
1. Split Pea Soup
2. Salad Bar
3. Bean and Potato Soup
4. Cream of Veggie Soup
5. London Broil
6. Pork roast
7. Shepherd's Pie

So, now you know...

At the Request of Some High School Chums

Interesting to me that the two requests I get for recipes from my most recent "meal plan" post are for food I don't really have recipes for. So, for the benefit of Harmony and Mand, here's the best I can do:

Cream of Veggie Soup

I grew up eating this one. I learned how to make it from my mother, but there are not really clearly defined proportions. In fact, when I made it yesterday it turned out too thin...

I use: potatoes, carrots, celery, and onion in whatever proportions you like most.

Cook the veggies in water, or a more tasty option broth, until they are tender.

Add salt and pepper to taste. (Lately I have been throwing in some parsley and playing around with other seasonings. It's pretty good.)

My mom always made a big pot full so this next part is a little sketchy when you are cutting down the amount of soup.

She would use a full can of evaporated milk mixed with a cup of flour. The milk will thicken a little.

Add this milk/flour mixture to the cooked veggies and cook a little longer. Generally enough time for the flour to cook and thicken the soup a little.

We always ate it with cheese on top which makes for a very delicious cheesy veggie soup.

Good luck...

Spinach Feta Crepes

Mix crepe batter as follows (From Jacob's mother's recipe, though it's very similar to others I've used in the past)

For 12 crepes

1 1/2 Cups flour
1 TB sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 TB margarine, melted

Use a blender to mix it all together, adding the wet ingredients first. Pour a small amount of batter onto a lightly buttered skillet, rotating the pan to cover the entire bottom with a thin coating of batter. Cook over medium heat until lightly browned, flip and cook on the other side.

For the spinach and feta crepes I left out most of the sugar and vanilla. I added it later when we were making fruit/dessert crepes.

Here's what Jacob and I did for the spinach/feta filling:

While the crepe is cooking on the second side, put defrosted spinach, tomatoes, feta, onion, green pepper, mushroom, olives (pretty much whatever you want) on one half of the crepe. Fold the crepe, like an omelet, over the ingredients. Flip the stuffed crepe half way through cooking to make sure you don't burn your crepe but get the filling all warmed through.

They were tasty...

What I Did Today

So after much deliberation, I decided to spend this day off doing whatever I felt like doing.

Jacob laughed at me a little for still getting up when he was leaving for work at about 8:30 but little does he know I went back to sleep after he left. Not for much longer, but a little. It was very nice to sleep until 9:15.

I then proceeded to waste some time surfing the Internet and watching some tv on HULU. I ended up spending the next few hours removing the stubborn wallpaper border downstairs. I was pleased that with a little DIF the wallpaper seems to be coming off. It's still taking the majority of the texture and sometimes dry wall with it, but I'll take what I can get. It will be an adventure trying to repair that section and trying to match the existing texture. I love a project!

It was then my pleasure to spend a couple of hours catching up with a friend who was in town visiting after returning from her mission to Japan. Christina always had the best stories and turns out that held true for her mission! So fun hearing her adventures.

I was also productive in finishing my visiting teaching for the month and grocery shopping with Jacob (a 44% savings at King Soopers tonight with coupons and such). We also scored some Chex cereal at Albertsons for pretty stinkin' cheap.

And Wednesday night is always reserved for a little vegging in front of the TV watching some GLEE. I won't whole-heartedly endorse the show, but I do enjoy it. I mean, come on, it's a tv musical dramadey! I love any show that incorporates some good tunes. I folded some laundry while watching the show so it wasn't a total waste of time.

I just finished loading the dishwasher and doing a little meal planning for the next few days. Shannon commented that I hadn't shared our meal plan in awhile and I told her that was because I hadn't been doing a very good job of planning. So this is for Shannon...

1. Split Pea Soup
2. Homemade pizza
3. Breakfast - eggs, bacon, whatev
4. Spinach Feta Crepes
5. Chicken Stuffing Casserole
6. Salad bar
7. Bean and Potato soup
8. Cream of Veggie soup
9. London Broil
10. Lemon Chicken Pasta
11. Pork Roast
12. Shepherd's Pie

Now the challenge for you all is to guess which meals Jacob contributed to the list and which were my ideas. If you can figure it out I would be pretty impressed.

And now I'm pretty ready to call it a night. It's a shame that I have to work a very full day tomorrow...I liked my day off.

A Full Day To Myself

I love random holidays that my employment decides to acknowledge.

Enter Veterans Day.

I have the day off tomorrow and I've spent all night trying to decide what to do with my time.

I have a house in desperate need of cleaning. A basement bedroom that requires wallpaper removal, patching walls, retexturing and painting. I have a Relief Society lesson to prepare for Sunday. I have laundry that needs folded, cooking that could be done, and hair that could use a good cut.

But I think I'll probably start the day with a good dose of sleeping in, lazing about, blog reading, and possibly tv watching. I might even go to a movie alone. I could also see myself getting a little crafty with some holiday decor in the works.

I'm so torn between the "to do" list and some good old fashioned lazy, relaxing, "me" time.

What's a girl to do?!?

Especially when I have no one to share my time with. 'Cuz who gets Veteran's Day off?
Except you, Scott.

How We Spent Our Halloween

Prepare yourself now for a lengthy post with many a picture. If you stop here I won't be offended.

Jacob and I had been putting off going to the Temple this month as things just kept coming up. I'm sure you all know what that is like. So it was down to Saturday, October 31st and no excuses. We planned to leave Saturday morning and make a day of it all with a few shopping stops included in the trip. We anticipated leaving at about 9:00 am (well I anticipated leaving promptly at 9 am while Jacob anticipated 9-ish). Turns out we didn't hit the road until about 10:30. We had a slight delay with a lost wallet.

But we made it on the road and decided the first stop of the day would be Costco for a few items but mostly for Jacob to replace the struggling battery in his car. His old battery was still under warranty so we figured we could get a slight reimbursement for the new one. It worked out just fine. But we drove his car so he replaced it in the parking lot, in his Sunday best. My favorite Costco moment was when the checker asked us if we wanted a cart for the new battery purchase. Jacobs responded with "No, I'm pretty strong."





After the Costco detour, we drove the remainder of the way to the Temple. It was a beautiful day! There was still plenty of snow on the ground from the downpour a few days ago but it was melting rapidly in the 50 some-odd degree weather. It was also lovely in the Temple, as it always is.





We had been given a gift card to Crate and Barrel from one of Jacob's uncles and decided to make a stop at one of the stores to use it up. And let's just say I am a big fan of the Crate and Barrel!


The rest of the evening was spent eating chili, passing out candy, and watching Fringe and Flash Forward episodes.

Happy Halloween to all!

Carving Pumpkins

Jacob and I carved pumpkins on Thursday night. I was meaning to post about it that evening but never got around to uploading the pictures.

Here are the facts:

I picked my pumpkin thinking it was kinda cool with all the warts and slightly green skin.
Slightly green skin turns out to be an indication of a really unripe pumpkin.
Unripe pumpkins have REALLY hard exteriors.
Jacob's pumpkin was perfectly ripe and soft-skinned.
Jacob loves power tools.
The mess of pumpkin carving is expounded when power tools are involved.

Here are the photos:

The finished products: