Happy New Year!

It was another cold day here today. It was about -20 when I got out of bed. I've been sleeping until 8 am lately and Monday morning's 6:15 alarm is going to feel very harsh next week. We just hung around the house today. I did a longer workout dvd this morning because I am going to a party tonight and I plan to eat. I got the first installment of the tv show "Mad Men" from Netflix and watched two episodes this afternoon. Dan had been telling me that I needed to rent it and I bumped it up this past weekend. I wish I would have had two dvds sent since only three episodes are on each dvd. I am feeling very thankful for the women's liberation movement after watching it. I'm also glad I'm not a smoker.

Paul was at the fire hall for a while this morning. He has hall duty this month so it is his job to make sure that trucks are ready to pull out of the hall if there were to be a fire call. Ellen stayed over at Kayla's last night and got home around noon. They went ice skating for a little while this afternoon, but I'm assuming they thought it was too cold since they came back in about an hour. They were at the rink for about three hours yesterday, so maybe they were just tired. It's nice that they are old enough to go down there by themselves. Carly and Paul spent some time on the computer today printing up math sheets for Carly to use. She's good with patterns and she was very good at doing addition problems. She'd use our fingers for counters and would write down the correct answer. She and I played Scrabble again last night. It's frustrating to her when she does not have the letters to spell cat.

We're going to a party in Keewatin tonight. It should be fun. Several people from the fire department will be there and I guarantee there will be great food there. Paul is bringing a crock pot of Booker's sausage and pepper dip. I made up a pineapple cheese ball this afternoon. We'll have a couple of drinks and probably be home well before midnight. Paul and I will never be called partiers in this town - especially Paul.

Happy New Year!

Andes Mint Cookies

http://www.recipetips.com/recipe-cards/t--2343/andes-mint-cookies.asp

I tried this recipe last week and it's one of the better cookies I've ever made. It's kind of like a soft Girl Scout Thin Mint. It's great with a cup of coffee or a glass of milk. My dad was a big fan. I made one small change. I used a full mint on the cookie and would do that again, so you'd need to buy two packages of mints to make this. It made exactly four dozen cookies for me.

Thrifty Finds

On our trip to the Salvation Army in Morris, I had the best luck that I have ever had there. One of my finds was this Pyrex pitcher for 99 cents. It is not easy to find these with the covers. The price and condition are perfect. One of the lemon slices looks a little wonky in the picture, but it's just fine. It's currently being used as a water pitcher in the fridge. I have four Pyrex pitchers now and haven't paid more than $2.50 for one. I imagine that I'll always pick them up, so it's time for me to start thinking about who might need one.

Everything priced at over $1 was 1/2 price on Christmas Eve day. I got this 4 quart mixing bowl for $4. There is some minor scratching and a little bit of paint loss under one of the handles, but the color and condition of the bowl is great. This bowl is from the late 50s. I love the bright turquoise color.

I have three different bowls of this style & size (four actually, there is a yellow one in the cupboard). The brown one on the right isn't all that pretty on its own, but I think it looks pretty when it's next to the pink bowl. It was nice to use during the fall.

This was Laurie's yard sale find in Cyrus last June. She remembered me admiring this Fire King bowl at an antique shop a couple years ago. It's a great bowl and I was very happy to get it for Christmas. I love the polka dots! Thanks again. It's currently sitting on my kitchen counter.

New Panini Grill

I have been wanting one of these for quite a while. I had been using the Foreman Grill for making panini sandwiches, but I could only make one at a time and you'd have to flip the sandwich over so that it would flatten and cook evenly.

I made three sandwiches tonight, although there is room for four. We had turkey, bacon, and Swiss cheese on each sandwich. I put a couple slices of avocado on mine. We bought ingredients to do good tuna melts tomorrow. I read on the internet that Barack Obama had a tuna melt at a deli in Hawaii yesterday so that planted the idea (yes, I am a total follower). That man has no privacy at all anymore.

The beauty of the Panini grill is the adjustable top. You don't have the one hinge at the end. You adjust the grill top to what you are grilling. You can use this to grill any type of meat. So I have no need for the Foreman anymore - if anyone wants it, let me know. It's yours, but I won't send it in the mail. You'll have to wait until you see me.

Notice the lovely grill marks. The sandwiches were delish! I'm glad that Paul got a recipe book too. There were a lot of combinations that I just wouldn't have thought of and we plan to try many. I've never bought prosciutto before, but I know they have it at the Sunrise Deli - I will get some soon.

Christmas in Cyrus

I didn't take many pictures because Laurie had her camera out quite a bit, so I just planned to get her photos after she loaded them onto Shutterfly. Carly was pretty tight with Laurie while we were there. One of the better things we did was play Scrabble with the girls. They both liked playing. Carly was pretty good when she was paired up with someone else. When we got back home Carly and I played a couple games of "Scramble."

Carly & Grandpa

Carly took this photo of Mom & Laurie.

Laurie, the girls and I did a quick run over to Morris as soon as we got there. We went to the Salvation Army first and I had enough luck there that it merits its own post. We then made a quick trip to Willies, the liquor store (up north we call it a bottle shop, but in the farming areas we just call it what it really is), and Town & Country Supply. I love T & C Supply. Laurie and I each bought a shirt there. Laurie's is from the Farm Girl line and mine is from a MN company called "Cowgirl Tuff." I'll have to take a picture of mine the next time I wear it. You just don't expect to go to the Hardware store to buy cool clothes, but we do frequently.

On Wednesday night we had a ham dinner with several good sides. Laurie took a great photo of me with the ham, but I just cannot get it saved to my computer. The girls opened a few of their gifts that night.

On Thursday the girls got open and checked out what they got from Santa. They got a lot of candy and rolls of coins for their new banks. We had a meal of left-overs from the night before and then they opened their remaining presents. Since they both have birthdays around Christmas time, they were gifted twice and they got some great stuff - lots of clothes, pajamas, Itunes cards, books, all sorts of things that they are enjoying. The Sharpay wig continues to be a popular item. Thank you!

That night we made wild rice soup with ham and a couple of appetizers. It was all good and I ate way too much! Since freezing rain was predicted for the next day, we made a point to get up and get going by about 9 am. We had a very easy trip home - no icy conditions, little traffic, and kids who were sleeping or watching movies. I did have to laugh when Carly said, "I wonder what Santa left us at our house?!" as we pulled up to our house. We explained that Santa only finds you once on Christmas. I can't blame her for hoping.

Keewatin Christmas

We opened all of our gifts on December 23 since we were heading to Cyrus the next day. Carly had a hard time waiting. On that Monday we told her we'd be opening gifts on Tuesday night. She suggested that we do it on Tuesday morning since she didn't have anything else to do. She had to wait until after dinner.
Ellen got a couple of sweaters, Guitar Hero World Tour, jeans, books, a necklace, a make-up case with some make up items, and I forget if there was anything else.
This was the main thing that Carly wanted - a Baby Alive doll with a pink headband. She also got the Muppet Show Season 1, a Disney CD, jeans, Spartan sweatshirt, some shirts, a necklace, and some books. Both girls got new pajamas, robes, and slippers. Carly is especially fond of the robe. They each got a set of banks too - the kind that count your coins

We were originally supposed to go to Cyrus the weekend before Christmas, but the weather just didn't cooperate. We missed out on seeing Nancy, Royce, and their families, but that's how it goes sometimes. We talked on the phone a few times. I guess I didn't mention what Paul and I gave each other. Paul gave me Under Armour cold weather gear - now that I have that and my Yaktrax I am well set for running in the winter. I've gone out a couple times and have been very happy. He also gave me a panini sandwich grill and a cookbook to go with it - awesome! Paul got a Sonicare toothbrush, 2 pairs of pajama pants, and a UMD Bulldog shirt.

Carribean Black Bean Soup

I got this recipe from the cookie madness food blog and made it tonight. With the exception of the coriandar , this recipe uses very basic ingredients. We had it for dinner tonight. Instead of using chicken tenders, I just used two frozen chicken breasts cut into smaller pieces. You could really smell and taste the orange juice in the soup. It was a little spicy (in a good way) and I think you could get by just fine with only one can of black beans. Paul loved it.


http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1831947

Santa Goes Green

Carly with Misty and Maddie. The kindergartners in Carly's class wore little elf hats. The kids in the other k class wore reindeer antlers. They were the first song of the program. They sang a song about being Santa's helpers and "Let's be jolly! Hang all the holly! Christmas season has begun!" The little kids are always so darn cute.

Our school does a musical every year. We order a play and we start working on the music at the end of October. This year's show was called "Santa Goes Green." It was about encouraging Santa to do more things to protect the environment. Each class sang a song that went with the play. We had songs about preserving our forests, penguins worrying about global warming, protecting our world, and recycling. All of the songs were cute, but I thought the 4th graders got the funnest one. It was about recycling fruitcake. It was so catchy that our kids learned it right away. Even Carly could sing the verses after hearing it just a few times. You are always a bit nervous when you get your song. You don't want to be the class that ruins the program. The songs sound really bad when you first start working on them. We do actions and little dances to go with them, so a lot of time goes into it. By the time you do the rehearsal with the rest of the school, the kids have it down and you quit worrying about it.

Ellen & Kayla. Their song was the final song called, "We're Going Green." It was kind of a chorus line type of song. It was cute and the sixth graders had cute actions and dancing. For the last month we have been bugging our kids to wear green shirts for the program and they did really well. We only had a few didn't wear one and we all tried to bring in some extras for those kids to wear. It looked sharp. The play went well. The audience enjoyed it and we all left school today feeling really good about it. If I could change one thing it would be to hold it in a real auditorium, but we don't have one. If any of you would like me to sing the fruitcake song over the holidays, give me a couple beers and I'll belt it out. I can't get it out of my head.

Christmas Decorations

On Saturday at least a dozen people from our school went over to the gym to decorate. We got a lot done in a short amount of time. One of the things we did was assemble a tree for each grade level. We had the kids make an ornament out of recycled objects. My class made the paper ornaments out of a math worksheet we had done the week before. Mrs. DeNucci's class made the stars out of star shaped aluminum tins, wallpaper remnants, and some gold tinsel type of stuff. We wanted our ornaments to be seen from a distance. From a distance our tree looked surprisingly elegant. I wish I would have taken a picture of each tree, but it's hard to get pictures when you have your entire class with you. I should have brought my camera with me when we were decorating.

It's so hard to get nice pictures in the gym when you really don't have time to monkey with your camera. If you click on the picture and get a larger image you can maybe see the snowflakes hanging in the background. That was one of the projects I worked on. I held a little snowflake making class in my classroom after school a couple weeks ago and we went to work getting enough snowflakes to make a nice hanging from the gym rafters. The only cost involved was the magnets that held the strands of snowflakes to the rafters. It was quite pretty. I meant to take a picture of the sleigh that my neighbor Jeff made. It was so pretty. He's quite talented.

Carly's Birthday Party

My pictures loaded in the opposite order that I wanted them, but I don't feel like trying to fix it so we'll go with it. I tried several times to space things in the post below, but it keeps eliminating the paragraph spacing. It drives me crazy. Anyway, above you will see my balloon chandelier. I was pleased with how it turned out.

Carly had a High School Musical cake. Paul is always in charge of picking out the cakes with the girls. She was torn between this and a Hannah Montana cake.

We decided to let Carly open a couple gifts from us at her party and save a few for her actual birthday on the 19th. We gave her a CD player and a High School Musical 3 cd. She looks pretty happy.

Posing with classmates, Jacie and Madison. Misty had a Girl Scout bowling party, so she had to leave before we had cake and ice cream. All the girls who came were just nice little girls and I can see why Carly enjoys being with them in school.

Carly invited 3 girls from her class - Jacie (Paul's cousin's daughter), Madison (Kayla's cousin), and Misty. These are girls that Carly talks about a lot and we know their parents, so it was pretty easy to decide who to invite to her party. We decided that we'd try having a party the first weekend in December rather than doing it right around her birthday. People have too much stuff going on that close to Christmas. They had an elementary cheerleading camp from 10-12 on Saturday afternoon. I picked up the girls and we went back to our house for a pizza. They enjoyed checking out Carly's room and toy area. Ellen and Kayla helped them play Dance Dance Revolution and did a Guitar Hero demonstration for them. They mainly played. Jacie was the last one to get picked up and I thought it was kind of strange that Carly went into her bedroom and didn't want to say goodbye in the entry. It made sense once Jacie left. Carly came out and cried that she was sad that her party was already over. I told her that we'd have a friend over to play again soon.

Carly got a make up kit from one of her friends. We've been playing "What Not to Wear" today. I got a "fabulous makeover!" So did Ellen. I also got many little glittery touch-ups throughout the day.

Homemade Caramels

Caramel Recipe

2 C white sugar

1 C brown sugar

1 C light corn syrup

1 C evaporated milk (NOT sweetened condensed)

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1 C butter

1 1/2 tsp

• Combine all except vanilla in a large, heavy pan. Stirring constantly, heat to exactly 250 degrees and remove from heat. Stir in vanilla (will bubble up). Pour into greased 10x15 pan and cool. Cut into bite-sized pieces and wrap with wax paper.

• I found this recipe on-line today and thought I would give it a try. It was very easy and they turned out great. If you do try them I suggest that you put the phone next to the stove, turn the radio onto a good station, and start stirring. You will be standing at the stove stirring for a long time. You will not feel like you can leave it for even a minute without it burning on the bottom of the pan. I set the burner at medium and kept it there. I think it took at least 20 minutes to get to 250. I would also suggest that you make sure you have a wrapping assistant. I had Paul to help wrap them and that saved me a lot of time. I meant to put the wrapped caramels in a bowl and take a picture of them, but I didn't remember until about an hour after I put them in the freezer - I also read on-line that you can freeze them.