Sunday, February 24

We did our second trip to the clinic this weekend. Carly was better this morning than she was last night, but she said it still hurt when she went potty. They looked at a urine sample under the scope and there was presence of an infection, so she'll be taking antibiotics for the next week 4 times a day. We got right in at 9 o'clock and were out of the clinic by 9:30.

While the prescription was being filled we bought groceries - it's nice having a pharmacy in the grocery store. Super One is toward the end of a major remodeling project. They moved and expanded the deli. They doubled the size of their health food section. They added a seafood counter in the meat department. They also have more isle and freezer goods. It's really nice. I thought it was a very good grocery store before, but it's a lot nicer now. They moved quite a few things around and we spend more time looking for things. It will be nice when I have the layout of the store memorized again.

When we got home I made a chocolate eclair dessert to bring to a coworker of mine. Her mom died of lung cancer last week. They lived right next door to Paul's parents for many years. She was a really nice lady. Paul dropped it off and visited with them for a few minutes before he went ice fishing.

I also got out for a longish run - at least 4.5 miles. I ran until my watch said I ran 45 minutes. It's sunny and warm here, so it felt nice to get outside. I don't really like running the streets because it's boring, but it's better than doing a dvd inside. I look forward to the trails being clear. Paul says that he'll run with me after school as soon as they are open. It shouldn't be too long if we continue to have days like we did this weekend. We are going to Duluth next week for our last hockey game (they were shut out last night, so we didn't feel too bad about not making it to the game). One of our stops is a running store down by the lake. We're going to each get "good" running shoes. I worry that I'll lose what I built up over the winter, but I think I should be able to pick up right where I left off this fall. My only goal for the summer is to be able to run from Nashwauk to Keewatin on the 4th of July. I don't think it will be a problem. There are runs in Grand Rapids and Hibbing this spring. I might have to sign up for one or both of them. I really wish that I had a "running friend" up here. I think I'd be more inclined to sign up for more things like that if I didn't have to do them alone.

Carly is taking a nap and I'm going to watch "The Jane Austen Book Club" as soon as I hit submit. Have a good rest of the weekend!

February 23, 2008

We were supposed to be at a hockey game tonight, but decided not to go at the very last minute. Every season we have at least one night where our tickets go unused due to weather or illness. So I guess it was tonight.

Ellen has had a sore throat the last three days. I took her into the clinic this morning. It was nice that our regular doctor was the one on call. They have been seeing so much strep throat that he just put her on meds for Strep without doing a culture. We got to the clinic within a few minutes of it opening, so we were able to get in and out quickly. Ellen seemed to be feeling ok, so we figured it would be ok to go to the game if we just went straight to the game and home again.

Right before we were going to leave we made Carly use the bathroom. She starts screaming like a maniac that it hurts when she pees and we tried to get her to sit down and go, but she was crying hysterically. At this point we decide screw it. We were kind of pushing it in the first place with Ellen and if Carly does indeed have an infection of some sort, we don't need her screaming in a public bathroom in Duluth. We made her drink a bunch of juice and we did have to hold her down to get her to pee tonight, but once we got her to go she didn't hold back. She's not running a fever and seems fine other than crying in the bathroom. If all is not fine tomorrow, we'll be taking her in to see if she has a uti.

Annual Fire Department Valentine Dinner

It was last night. I decided it would be fun to have a shirt made up for the party. I can also wear it on the day that we go to the firehall with our school kids, so I didn't view it as a one time wearing purchase. I got a lot of compliments on my shirt.

Since the party was in town and we'd only be gone about three hours, we let Ellen babysit Carly. We called home a couple times and all was well. Ellen even put Carly to bed at her usual bedtime. Ellen and Paul had worked out a babysitting rate and we were happy with how things went. It is nice to have the kids getting older. We wouldn't have left them home if we'd have been going out of town, but it's not going to be too long until we can do that.

No plans for today. I think Paul plans to go fishing again.

Baking Project

When I was in Walmart Friday, I was tempted to pick up a can of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, but decided to buy some pecans and yeast instead. I had made homemade carmel rolls before and decided it would be a good Saturday morning project. It's not expensive to make them since you have most of the ingredients on hand anyway. It's also not difficult. You just have a little bit of time invested. This is a recipe that I got from a Taste of Home cookbook a few years ago. I use my Kitchenaid mixer for the kneading part, but have also done it by hand.

Carmel Pecan Rolls

In a large bowl mix together with an electric mixer until smooth (about 2 minutes):

-1 pkg yeast disolved in

-3/4 quarter cup warm water

-3/4 quarter cup warm milk

-1/4 cup sugar

-3 Tbsp vegetable oil

-2 tsp salt

-1 1/4 cup flour

Add an additional 2 1/2 to 3 cups of flour to form a soft dough. If you don't have a stand mixer, you can do this by hand. Turn onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic - about 6 to 8 minutes. Place into a greased bowl, turn once to grease the top. Cover and let rise one hour.

Punch down dough and roll into a 18 x12 inch rectangle on a floured surface.

Filling:

-1/2 cup butter, spread across the dough to within an inch of the edges

-1/4 sup sugar mixed with 3 tsps cinnamon, sprinkle over the butter.

Roll up jelly-roll style, pinch seam. Cut into 12 one inch slices.

Topping:

-Combine 3/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup heavy cream, spread into the bottom of a 9x13 pan.

-Sprinkle with 1 cup chopped pecans.

Place the rolls into the prepared pan. Cover and let rise until doubled - about an hour. Bake at 350 for about 30 to 35 minutes or until well browned (I gave it the full 35 minutes). Cool for one minute before turning on the serving platter. It's very satisfying to see lift up the pan and see the results.

Again, none of this is difficult. While the dough in the bowl is about done rising, I get the topping and filling ready, so it's pretty easy once you get to the rolling out the dough stage. I think the next time I make these, I might use a bit more brown sugar and cream. The carmel is my favorite part. Paul went fishing around 10 o'clock yesterday and it was just bugging him that they wouldn't be done before he left.

Long Weekend!

I usually don't have the Friday of President's Day off from school but I did this year. I have conferences this week and the next, so they added our make-up day to the already extended weekend. While I like it now, I might be grumbling about it later on.

On Friday I did some chores around the house. We took Carly in for a much needed haircut. The woman who cut her hair was named Carly and that kind of turned into a mini-theme for the day. We stopped in at Paul's school to say hi. We ate lunch at McDonalds and then picked up some stuff at Walmart.

One of the items we picked up was a second mat for Dance Dance Revolution for $20 - well worth it. Ellen and I played together for quite a while yesterday. It's nice to play at the same time and not have to sit around waiting for your turn. I've already told Paul that I want another DDR game for my birthday.

That night we went out to eat at Binsters in Hibbing. This place used to be the Old Howard, which back in its day was awesome, but then they got new owners and it went downhill and we stopped eating there. They reopened as Binsters this fall and it is really a good place to eat again. It's such an attractive restaurant too - old wooden booths, tin ceiling, cool bar. Paul had steak & shrimp. I had shrimp. It was all good. When the waitress came to give us menus she introduced herself as Carly. My Carly turned to me and gave me a look that said, "No way!!" It was funny.

Hat Fundraiser

I was in charge of a PTSA fundraiser a couple weeks ago. We ordered the hats from a company that recently started up. One of the owners attends the Thursday ECFE class and she works at Paul's school as a sign language interpretter. So she and I worked on this project together. We had orders for 138 hats and they came in last week. The kids were just thrilled with them and their parents thought they were cute. I've had a few people ask me about ordering more, so tomorrow I am letting kids know that we'll do a second round of orders and that they are due Thursday. We will not order any beyond that day. If I don't do it that way, I'm going to be ordering small numbers of hats for the next month. We made $3 on each hat, so it was a good money maker for us considering the short amount of time that went into it.

Carly was very excited about her hat - she even slept with it on. Her name is embroidered on the back. That was her favorite part. I'm looking into getting a couple in Eden Prairie colors.

Making Valentines

Carly's ECFE class is having a little Valentine party at our weekly class. She decided that she would rather make Valentines than buy them, which I thought was great. We needed a little project to do this weekend. I cut up the cardstock and showed her how to use the rubber stamps. For a five year old, she did a really nice job. When she was done she turned them over and signed her name on the backs of all of them. Little things like that show me that she's definitely ready for kindergarten next year.

Cold, Windy Weekend.

The weekend was pretty uneventful since it was so cold and windy. Our neighbor's flag was straight out and snapping all weekend. There is no reason to leave the house if you don't have to. I decided to put up a beach picture at the top of the blog in protest of this cold weather. I'd rather be there than here.

On Friday after school, I had a retirement party to attend. Our school secretary retired this week after 40 years with the district. She's a nice lady and lives less than two blocks from my house. I walk past her house all them time when it's not winter. I always stop and visit with her if she's out. I think our visits will be a bit longer now that I won't see her at work. Happy retirement, Celeste!

I did a couple exercise dvds over the weekend. I have been putting in extra effort since Christmas. Since I get three movies at a time from Netflix, I've been making a point to get one exercise dvd each week just to mix up the routine. The one I did today about killed me. I stepped on the scale today and I've lost 2 pounds since Christmas break without changing what I've been eating, so I think the effort has paid off.

We also had "Ferris Beuhler's Day Off" from Netflix. We watched it Saturday night. Ellen needs to be introduced to some of the "classics." She got a kick out of it. Paul and I enjoyed seeing it again too. When we finished it we immediately went to CNN to check for primary/caucus results.

This weekend we spent a lot of time watching election coverage on tv. Paul and I always pay attention, but since there is nothing else to watch on tv we know what every single network has to say about the Democratic race. I can never flip past a channel if Tim Russert is on. I don't really know what it says about me that Pat Buchanan and Joe Scarborough are the commentators that I enjoy the most after Tim. Paul jumped on the Obama bandwagon very early and he pulled me up there about two weeks ago. We're excited to see him doing well and hope that he has a good day on Tuesday as well.

We went to our local caucus last week thinking we'd be home in less than 15 minutes. We put in a full 90 minutes. In Keewatin they wouldn't let us vote and leave like they did everywhere else in the state. This was a social outing for many - an evening to discuss politics with people in your community. We didn't vote until after 7:30. There were 18 people at the meeting - 11 Hillary supporters and 7 for Barack. The guy running the meeting (who kept saying Arizona instead of Minnesota) wanted people to talk about the candidates they were supporting and why in case there were a few undecided in the room. A guy a couple rows up for me explained why he was supporting Obama and I agreed with everything he said, but I thought there was a little to add, so I spoke out for Barack Obama. I wasn't too nervous about it since Paul and I have been practicing in our living room for weeks. I don't usually do things like that. Kayla's mom, Laura, went with us. We had quite a few open slots for delegates to our county convention, so Laura and I are going to go. We figure it can't be worse than the 6 hours we spent watching Kayla and Ellen play volleyball one afternoon. At the end of the meeting they were talking about Al Franken and why he would be good for our state and the guy in charge said, "We have got to start electing people who will stand up for Arizona!" You're damn right!

I am really going to miss my boyfriend.

Tonight was the last episode of Friday Night Lights. I really hope this show will get picked up for a third season. As of tonight, there is absolutely nothing to watch on tv anymore. I have a feeling that I might really improve my Guitar Hero skills in the weeks to come. Since I'll be trapped in my house all weekend with -40 windchills, I'll write up a longer post tomorrow.

I'll be taking a few days off

Our computer is just slow and gradually getting worse. We're going to take it in for a tune up before it completely crashes on us.

Have a Super Tuesday!

For Dan

I drove uptown afterwork to get the mail and was surprised at how many cars were there. At first I was thinking there must be a meeting at the union hall. Then I saw Norm Coleman standing in front of the City Hall building and remembered that Keewatin Taconite was announcing a major expansion today. I guess Tim Pawlenty was there too. Since I had a Democratic post yesterday, I thought it would be fair to balance it out with a Republican post. I try to be like FOX News.

I wonder if Norm saw the Al Franken bumper sticker on the back of my jeep.