Food Favorites and Not So Favorites

When I was a kid, I loved my mom's spaghetti...especially the second day. For some reason it tasted even better the next day. She also made a wonderful cheesecake and I recall a lot of homemade pizzas. My dad baked awesome Norwegian breads and all kinds of yummy cookies for the holidays and he made the best fudge you would ever want to eat.

What was your favorite food as a child? Is it still your favorite?

I have to laugh because if I asked my kids what food they loved when they were little....I'm sure there would be a very long pause...and then silence.

I am not a cook. In fact, I hate to cook. I also hate to bake. To me it's such a hassle and makes such a mess and it's soooo time consuming. If I could, I would hire a chef....because even though I hate to cook....I love to eat!

What was your least favorite food as a child?

Mine was this awful soup/stew dish that everyone else in our family loved. I have no idea how to spell it and I couldn't find it on line, but it was something like lapscouse. It was a thick mixture of overcooked potatoes and I think ham maybe. All I know is it look like vomit and just thinking about it makes me feel ill. UGH! If my sister Karen reads this, I guarantee you she will not only e-mail me the name, but she probably has the recipe and maybe even had it for dinner last week.

If my kids did come up with something they liked it would probably be this terribly unhealthy cheese stuffed meatloaf and Chocolate Eclair Cake. Whoop dee doo! They would also say McDonalds Happy Meals because lord knows they ate a ton of those!

How about peanut butter, butter and sugar sandwiches, or sour cream and sugar on rye bread? How about sugar on lettuce? Are you seeing a pattern here? Those were some of my easy to make favorites! Rice A Roni, Macaroni and cheese and cereal. Man I loved cereal and still do! Then it was Cap'n Crunch and Frosted Flakes....hmmmmm....more sugar.....

Now a days....give me a bowl of cereal for dinner and I'm a happy girl. Toss me a box of Healthy Choice Devil's Food Cookies and I'll be your friend for life.

Are you hungry yet?

Halloween Costumes

I've been working really hard on the costumes at work this week....it sounds so funny to say that...but yes, I am sitting at work, in my bosses office, with my sewing machine, making Halloween costumes. What a way to spend the day!

In all honesty, it's tough. I keep going out to my desk to check for e-mails and phone messages...handling anything that's come in....running back to my makeshift workshop....sewing some more....running back out to my desk....you get the picture. It's all for a good cause though and that is so our nurses can continue to educate our students on covering their coughs and washing their hands. You can read the original post here.

So I have the 2 hand sanitizers almost done. They will be sandwich boards for my boss and another staff member to wear. I think they turned out pretty good.

I just need to put the rope or strapping or whatever I'm going to use on them and then they are done. In this picture you can see their little pump "hats"! They are going to look so darn funny!

Yesterday I started cutting the fabric for the nurse's germ costumes. I hate working without a pattern. I am not good enough at sewing to do that. I just got my idea in my head and started chopping away. HAHA! Today I started sewing pieces together and they are actually starting to take shape.

Boy is it nice using a great big conference table as your sewing table!!

You can see a couple of the "germs" hanging over the chair. I just pinned the purple and white spots all over them for now. If it's a slow day tomorrow I should be able to finish sewing the last couple of "bodies" and then sew the spots on. Then I need to go get more fabric this weekend to make the piece that will go over their head that will have the goofy face on it.

So, that is how I spent my day today! How was your day?

The Booby

This is a Blue Footed Booby....but this isn't the kind of booby I want to talk about today. I just didn't want to search online for a picture of the other kind. I was afraid of what might pop up.

In all seriousness....I received my "Good News" letter this week from the Breast Imaging Center. I never miss my mammogram, and I never miss my annual gyne visit. I lost an Aunt to Breast Cancer and my sister has been battling Ovarian Cancer for a number of years. I would be a fool not to go, and I am no fool! Are you?

When was your last mammogram? This is Breast Cancer Awareness Month you know......

I don't accept the excuse that it hurts....try being an "A" cup and having one. They need to be able to see a layer of fat between the breast tissue and the breast bone....you would not believe what I go through for them to accomplish that....so no excuses. Deal with it!

If you have had yours for the year...good for you! You are a one smart cookie.

If it's been more than a year since your last one....pick up that phone right now. It's a small thing you can do for yourself and for the people who love and care about you.

Go get your mammogram!

Roller Coaster....

Wow! I feel like I'm on a roller coaster and they won't let me off!

First...I am busy at work making those 6 Halloween costumes, plus keeping up with my regular work. I made good progress today on the Hand Sanitizers. Story and photos here. I'll try to take a picture tomorrow so I can show you.

Second...I am busy at home listing, and listing, and listing in etsy, all of the things I made during the spring and summer that are sitting here and never made it into MyOtherShop. I am having trouble getting good pictures of the tote bags and that is always so frustrating. I'll try again when I get some good light. I've probably listed over 50 new things in the past few days. It's good because I have even sold a few of them too. Remember....you can't sell what you don't have listed!

Third...we plan to start painting this weekend. Irv has to patch a recurring crack in the ceiling and then we will be ready to go. I think I am going to go with the Sassafrass Green. It's a bit on the mossy side and I like that. Then I can accent with brown, yellow and of course a touch of blue.

Fourth...we are looking for another dog. (See yesterday's post) We aren't in any hurry. We're just perusing Petfinder.com and seeing if any little face pops up that says, "Here I am!" Actually, they all say that, but we are looking for a particular mix, size, sex and age...so it might take us a while. Still, I think about it daily...not with worry, just thinking.

One nice thing is that I don't get too worked up, even when I have a lot on my plate. I'm working to stay centered and only focus on whatever it is I am working on at that moment, and not get distracted by what's waiting in the wings. That usually works well for me.

The only thing with a true deadline is the costumes and they will get done....somehow.

So, how does your fall look? Anything fun and exciting going on or anything that causes you to burst into tears when you think about it? Feel free to share!

Woof, Woof, Woof?

Okay, so over the weekend, Irv came to my workshop door and said, "Can I ask you something?" That usually isn't a good thing when a question is preceded by that question, but I said, "Sure...what?"

"Do you think we could get another dog?"

AHHHHHHHHHHHH.......hands covering ears......lalalalalalala.....no, no, no, I don't want to hear this.......lalalalalalalalalala!!!!!!

"Why do you think we need another dog? We already have two." I said calmly.

We have had this discussion many times over the past year. The reason that we are even considering getting a third dog is because of Wrigley. Wrigs is two and loves to play. When Wrigley and Michael and Bernadette's Aussie, Teagan get together they have a blast. They just run and jump and chase each other all over the place. They come in, get a drink, rest a few minutes and they are at it again.

Bling

Sparky, our other dog is twelve and a half....she doesn't play much. She likes to just go out, do her thing, lay in the sun if it's out, or curl up under an afghan on the couch. Once in a while she'll surprise us and run around a bit, but those times are few and far between. She isn't unhealthy, she's just starting to slow down.

Harley

We have always had a dog, or two dogs and at one time we had three. It was a bit crazy, but it was fine.

So, do we get another dog now....maybe a one or two year old....so Wrigley has a playmate and a friend so when Sparky is no longer with us she isn't lonely on top of not having anyone to play with?

Catalina

It's such a hard decision to make. Dogs are such a big responsibility. They have needs and they can get sick. You have to be prepared for those things with the time and finances to handle them.

Kira

We spent a good couple of hours on Petfinder.com over the weekend and saw one dog we thought we might be interested in, but when I e-mailed, she had already been adopted. Of course, they have many more they would like to show us.....but we like to look online first. I know if we went to the shelter we would come home with a dog of some kind....even if it wasn't what we were looking for. It's safer to find one online and then go look at that particular dog. Those places are dangerous!

We need a dog that loves other dogs, cats (just in case we get another kitty) and kids (just in case we have grandchildren one of these days). The pictures are doggies that we like. We found them on Petfinder.com. They have 200,000 dogs available for adoption from all over the country. That just makes me so sad.

We will keep pondering and searching and if the right little pooch comes along, I'm sure Wrigley will have a new playmate. Do you have a dog? More than one dog? What kind(s)?

Monday, Monday...So Good To Me.....

Happy Monday! Thanks to Christopher Columbus...I am off today! Bless his little exploring heart!

Sunday turned out to be a pretty good day. We went grocery shopping and on the way I got a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks and then stopped and picked up a Pumpkin Bagel from Einsteins. Mmmmmmm....good!!

After not shopping last weekend because of the craft show, I really expected to fork out about $230 at the checkout, especially since our cart was overflowing....but we got off easy at $176!! I never thought I would say $176 was good, but we didn't shop last week so that is really good!

We had to listen to a young female...I won't even call her a woman...because it would be insulting to the word...it's hard enough to call her a female....yell and scream across the store from our checkout to her husband or boyfriend that he got the wrong macaroni and that she told him to send back $2.00 with one of the little kids and not $1.00...when everyone in the friggin' store heard her yell $1.00.

She snapped at the kids for nothing. She was the rudest most obnoxious young "thing" I think I have ever seen, and the fact that she had three darling little kids made me physically ill.

I get very uncomfortable when people are rude to other people and degrade them, and she did one heck of a job. I came so close to telling her to zip it up. I wanted to ask the guy if he was married to her and if he said yes, I was going to tell him how sorry I was. It took me a while on the ride home to get the whole scene out of my head....but I finally did.

The rest of my day was awesome. I took another 180 photos of things for MyOtherShop. This time it was aprons and tote bags. What a job it is when you are so behind....

The pins and the coasters in the photos are already listed, the aprons and totes will get listed today....I hope! I will be SO happy when I am caught up!

Did I tell you Irv wants another dog? We'll talk about that another day......

Super, Super Saturday

What a great day I had yesterday. I went to Walmart to pick up poster board and foam board for the Halloween costumes for work. Next stop was Hobby Lobby for some pin clasps for my new pins and some holiday paper for coasters. From there it was over to Hancock Fabrics to take advantage of their big pattern sale. I got 12 patterns for a buck each! I love those sales!

Next I headed over to the two resale shops. I didn't find much there today...just a couple of plates for cake stands and some neat candlesticks.

Then I stopped at a garage sale in our neighborhood. I didn't find anything for my shops, but I found some awesome stuff for ME!!! I love old wood picture frames. I like to sand them and paint them and use them. I found a couple of those, a very old little standing mirror frame...missing the mirror, a very rusty old metal candle holder for outside on the deck, and couple of cute little candle holders that I will probably make soap dishes with AND I got 2 wicker chairs and a little table to go with them. The grand total....$17.75!!!


Irv is going to paint the wicker pieces next spring for the deck and I'm going to make some cute cushions for them. The picture frames and mirror stand I'll work on during the winter.

When I got home I took over 250 photographs of items I made during the summer and had not had time to list in MyOtherShop yet. I will be on a listing frenzy for a while. I still have to photograph the totes and aprons and I hope to do that today.

It was a super Saturday! Hope you all have an awesome Sunday!