The after Christmas entry

Well, Christmas is over already. Can't hardly believe how fast this entire year has flown by. We had a wonderful holiday weekend. It was VERY VERY nice for Christmas to be on Friday because it made a four day weekend from work. We got to see all of our family and had a lot of fun. We ended up with some awesome gifts. We are very spoiled! Our big ticket items were 32 flat screen LCD tv , and a rockin speaker system for our computer. Both will be used ALOT. We got a lot of other really nice things to go along with the big stuff too! We got a camping propane stove burner, the game Scategories, cash, and food goodies. Separately, Allen got a very nice electric drill, pocket knife, a cd that he has had stolen from him twice in the past, and a knife sharpener. I received a very cool necklace made out recycled beads from an organization called beads for life , an amazing set of wind chimes, storage containters, a gardening book, an super nice spice rack and many other things for the kitchen. Allen really spoiled me this year, but I'm not complaining. Not one bit! :) He also bought me a fishing pole that is pink, which I love and a new tennis racket.

The weekend was so wonderful I never wanted it to end. But it's been back to work already...bleh, and the phones have been crazy. Allen doesn't have to start his new job until the 7th of January, but he has been busy around the house too. This weekend we are going back down to Sturgeon, because it's a three day weekend we will get to spend some extra time with the family for the New Year. I think Josh is going to go down with us, so it will be really nice.

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas and that everyone has a great New Year. After January 7th I will begin blogging regularly again, as Allen will be at work and I will have some extra time to blog.

We love you all!

We're alive

Sorry we haven't been blogging. Like I said, these few weeks until Allen starts his new job are going to be crazy. We've been shopping, spending time with family and friends, and having a great time. Plus work..bleh! We can't wait to see everyone for Christmas. Hope everyone is staying warm. We love you all sooooo much. OOOhh and I know we've been lacking in the blogging dept for the past two weeks, but for next year, I'm planning on adding a few "blogettes" off of this main blog. So, there should be more to read, but don't expect it until after 1/7/2010.

JANUARY 7, 2010

This is the day that my wonderful hubby starts his job at General Mills! YAY! They called him today while he was at work and let him know that they want him to start on 1/7/10! So, it now we all breathe a great sigh of relief. I was worried , that with the economy going the way it is, that it would be a while before he started working there. He put his two weeks in today at work. Which means we're going to be able to fully enjoy the holidays with our family without having to worry about him having to go to work. THIS IS HUGE! It means that some major changes are headed our way! :)

It's about time...

I know, it's been a long time since we've blogged, and I'm just going to go ahead and say at least until January, the blog posts will probably be few and far between. We will of course blog when we can, but things have really picked up now, with work and trying to get ready for the holidays, it's pretty hectic around here. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was so great to get to see everyone. The food was awesome, as always, WAY too much of it. I can't even think about turkey right now. I didn't have my camera out this weekend, so no pics, but still great memories. Just wanted to let everyone know how much we love you all and how lucky we feel to have such a loving family and great friends. We are grateful for you always, but around the holidays, the feelings just seem to intensify. I know, I know, I'm getting all mushy on everyone, but it's true!

Well, we have our tree out and placed in the living room, but we haven't decorated it yet. We're gonna get that done tomorrow night. (Probably...) We did hang out mistletoe ball and we put some decorations on the door. Since we're having a holiday dinner party for our friends next weekend, this weekend I'm going to go decorating crazy! YAY! The hard part is there are sooo many beautiful decorations and not enough space (or money) for that matter.

We went out with Jessica and Alex and Josh. We all ate at Maya and then went to see Ninja Assassins. The previews looked great, but the movie...well, lets just say I REALLY wish we would have waiting to get it on Netflix. Oh well! It was still a good time with our friends and Josh. Plus it was cheap movie night. I might have really been upset if we paid full ticket price to see it. It's a good thing to get out of the house during the week every now and then. Takes away from some of the monotony of the work week!

Allen and I have been cutting out snowflakes to help decorate the house with. It's kind of a neat thing to do together. Speaking of snowflakes, I guess we had our first snow of the season today, although I didn't get to see it, stuck in my cubicle. Allen said I didn't miss much, that it wasn't a pretty snow.

Well, there are probably other things I could blog about, but we really need to be getting to bed. So, love you all!

Brussel Sprouts and a Cactus Plant...

Well, I'm writing this blog at the very end of the day. It's ten minutes til midnight. Allen is taking Penny out and we will probably be getting ready for bed soon. We just finished watching the Disney computer animated film BOLT. It was VERY cute. We both liked it a lot. Allen had to work today, so I did a little bit of cleaning, took him lunch and did a tiny bit of shopping. Well I had the intention of doing some real Christmas shopping but it was too insane up town today so I only went to two stores and headed home. I think I will go during the week maybe when there aren't as many crazy people out and about. I needed to go to the mall, but there was no way I was brave enough to attempt that today! I bought us a cactus at Big Lots for $5. It has pretty red flowers, it's not the same as the Christmas cactus my mom had while we were growing up, but it's still neat. I also found some awesome heavy glass hot chocolate mugs at the Dollar Tree. I bought 4 of them. Sometimes you really can find some nice stuff at the dollar store , you just have to keep your eye out for the good stuff vs. the tons of crap they have there.

This evening I tried a new recipe for dinner and it was AWESOME! Definately a new "go to" recipe for chicken. It was honey balsamic glazed chicken and we both LOVED it. I served it with brown rice and brussel sprouts. I haven't haven't had brussel sprouts in a VERY long time, as a kid I didn't like them, but Allen said he really likes them, so I thought, what the heck, I'm an adult now, so we cooked em up. I steamed them rather than boiling them and they were really pretty good. I think I might have steamed them a little bit too long because they were pretty mushy. The flavor was good though, and I think I might experiment a little bit with them, they are very nutritious. Did you know that they are high in magnesium, phosphorus, riboflavin, and thiamin. They are very high in potassium, dietary fiber, manganese (not sure what that is...lol), vitamin A, C, and B6. Not one of the "super" veggies, but still overall a good one.

If any one wants the recipe for the chicken just shoot us an email.

Hope that everyone else had a great day! LOVE YOU ALL!

It was the real deal!

So, I picked up my prize tonight and she barely even tried to sell me anything! It was a set of the vanilla scented things in a nice little zip up bag from Mary Kay. A little bottle of body spray, jar of body butter and hand lotion. SWEET! :)

Tonight Josh came over for dinner. We ate Philly Steak Sandwiches and they were yummy! We had to watch our shows, and episode of Flash Forward and then of course The Office...hilarious as always. Then we had a few vicious games of Pente. I'm telling you it's a very difficult game. Very hard between two people, even harder with three people, I can't imagine when we add the fourth player and play teams!

Oooooo! Next week the Christmas decorations go up! YAY! I can't wait. I love that Grandma Downing gave us a lot of her old Christmas decorations. Seeing them around makes me think about all the wonderful Christmas Eves at Grandma and PopPops!

OOooo I WON! YAY!

Last night at the cooking school I entered a drawing to win a basket of Mary Kay stuff and I actually won! YAY! I get to pick up my basket tomorrow night. I know, I know, the lady is going to try and sell me stuff, but who cares if I'm getting a basket of free stuff out of the deal! YAY! :) I NEVER WIN ANYTHING!

Taste of Home Cooking School

Tonight we went to the Taste Of Home Cooking School at the Oakley Lindsay Center. Dad had given us a few of his extra tickets, so we went. It was pretty neat , except that it lasted FOREVER and we didn't win anything. :( But we did walk away with some neat cooking tips and I got a few free magazine. I feel sorry for Allen. LOL! It definately wasn't a "dude's" scene, but he suffered through it just for me!

Allen's physical went well. Now we wait for that call with his start date! YAY! :)

CAN YOU BELIEVE THANKSGIVING IS NEXT WEEK! AAAAHHH! I HAVE THREE DINNERS I HAVE TO DECIDE WHAT TO BRING TO!!!! I have been looking at recipes for weeks now for Thanksgiving and I just can't decide. There are toooo many choices!

Eat your food Tina!

Seriously today was quite possibly one of the worst Monday's of the year! We had system issues all day at work, making for a VERY long day and this weather is about as miserable as it can get! YUCK! Everytime I looked outside today on my breaks and lunch, I wanted nothing more than to go back home and crawl under the covers!

This past weekend was nice though! Friday night was spaghetti night at Grandma and Popop's. We had a great time playing games and visiting, then on Saturday Allen had to work. Caleb and I had lunch with my friend Jessica! YAY! We bought two rakes and some gloves and rakes the front yard. You would not believe how many leaves that tiny little tree in our neighbors yard (at the edge our ours) has dropped! We only accomplished the front yard, the back yard was much too daunting of a task after we spent so much time on the front yard. Now it has rained and who knows if we'll be able to it done. :( We might have missed the leaf raking boat. I hope not because seriously there is a TON of leaves in the backyard. Saturday we went over to Mom and Dad's. Dad made meatloaf and it was AWESOME. I didn't know my dad could make such a fantastic meatloaf. I tried to ask him for the recipe, but he says there is no recipe, just whatever he wants to put in it. Grandma Hazel was there for dinner and stayed afterwards to play games. We played a game of Uno Stacko and Taboo. One of the things Caleb had to get me to say was "Napolean Bonaparte". And the clue that got me to say it? "Eat your food Tina!" LOL! It's pretty sad that it was the perfect clue! (If you've never seen the movie Napolean Dynamite , then you have no idea what I'm talking about lol.)

Well, we're getting more and more excited about Thanksgiving weekend! :) Allen has been headache free for a while now, so we think he is in the clear.

Tomorrow he goes to get his physical for General Mills and after I get off work we are going to the Oakley Lindsay Center to the "Taste of Home" Cooking School. Dad got a few extra tickets and gave them to us. Hopefully we will win one of the door prizes! :)

Let's hope tomorrow is a better day than today. Love you all!

Good news!

Allen received a phone call from General Mills asking him to go ahead and get his physical and drug test taken. He made an appointment for next Tuesday. They said that he may not be starting until the beginning of January, but there is a possibility he can start in December. They want him to go ahead and get his tests taken so he will be ready to go, but they did say he would be able to give his two weeks to his current employer. What a relief it will be when he finally starts working there full time and can say Buh-Bye to Jiffi Stop.

Just wanted to let everyone know! :)

YAY!

Allen has gone over a week without any headaches a just a little less than a week without having any "shadows", which for those of you who aren't familiar with the term, is almost a headache but not quite. So, things are looking good for his cycle to be over. He isn't in the clear yet, but at least it's on its very last leg. The melatonin he has been taking has helped.

Tonight I cooked spaghetti squash for Allen. It was the first time he can remember having it. We looked it up online tonight and it has a lot of nutritional value to it. One night we are going to make "spaghetti" with it instead of pasta noodles.

On our kitchen counter we have a kachiya persimmon ripening. Boy are we glad we googled it before we cut into it. It's really a beautiful fruit, the size of a peach and the color of a sunset, but one person online has described eating an upripe hachiya as one of the worst experiences of bitterness ever, that they are truly inedible until fully ripened. So, we wait. I have it sitting next to an apple. Somewhere I read that will make it ripen faster. We'll have to let you know how it tastes!

Love you all!

Countdown to the five day weekend...

20 days until the five day Thanksgiving weekend begins! CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!

This week has been just a normal week pretty much. The weather has been cold but the sun has been shining, so it has been nice. This whole time change thing though means we're getting off work when it's dark...YUCK! I wish they would just leave the time alone! It takes so long to get used to it, and then as soon as you really get used to it, it switches back again! BLEH!

Josh came over last night for dinner. I made italian stuffed peppers. I'd never made the italian kind before, but I just did what my mom told me to do, used spaghetti sauce and they turned out pretty good. We taught Josh how to play our new board game Pente. It's a very easy game to learn, but it's a VERY hard game to play. Fun though! Love you all!

Halloween...here and gone...Holiday Season here we come!

We had a great weekend! Friday night was the Halloween party at Jessica and Alex's. It was a lot of fun. The decorations were awesome! Food and drink was amazing and spending time with our friends was excellent! Josh came with us and he had a great time too. We were looking forward to the party all month and it did not disappoint! :) Everyone's costumes were so cute! Allen and I went as "Guns and Roses". It was a cute idea, unfortunately some people just didn't get it , lol. There was this one guy who was trying to figure out what we were and what he came up with was "RAMBO IN LOVE!" LOL! I laughed so hard!

Saturday night we went over to Mom and Dad's. We had a bonfire and roasted hot dogs, ate smores and played cards. It was a really nice time, and today Allen and I have been relaxing. We watched a few movies , caught up on a few of the TV shows we missed this week and straightened the house up a bit. We ate breakfast for lunch and beef stroganoff for dinner. I had never made it before, but it turned out pretty good!

Well, now that Halloween weekend is over it's time to start thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas! YAY! :) Allen and I were just talking about how some people say that Halloween is their favorite holiday of the year, but not for us at all. Halloween is a silly holiday to spend some good times with friends, but the Thanksgiving/Christmas and New Years holidays are the best time of the year. The holiday have just gotten even better in the past few years because now we get to celebrate the holidays with a much larger family (The Cooleys+The Downings=AWESOME!). It means twice the fun and twice the wonderful memories. We haven't decided where we are going to put the Christmas tree yet, but we're going to get it up right after Thanksgiving and I think we are going to have a Christmas party for our friends either the first or second Saturday in December. We will let everyone know what we decide.

Hope everyone else had a great and safe weekend! More pics from Halloween in the side bar, click on the pic link! :)

Prood of ID to eat cake?!

Well yesterday we celebrated our one year anniversary. Actually, all weekend we celebrated our one year anniversary! On Saturday we slept in REALLY late and then we went to eat sushi atthe local Japanese Steak house. It was really good. Sushi is definately one of those things that Allen and I have both decided we like a lot, but it's not something we have the desire to eat alot. Since we ate there this past weekend, we probably won't feel like eating it for another several months. Then we went to the mall and bought a new game called Pente that we have had our eye on for while. We relaxed at home for a while and then we went to out to dinner at Kelly's for their prime rib special. It was really good, but the dining atmosphere was not good at all. Allen and I have decided that it was the last time we are ever going to eat there. We just can't understand why so many people in Quincy love it. It must just be a "native" Quincy thing because honestly, it's over priced and the place was over packed, and instead of a nice romantic quiet dining experience, it felt like we were trying to eat dinner at busy bar. We definately have no desire to eat there again. It was good food though! Then we went to the movies. We finally watched Zombieland. It was not as good as we had hoped. I think we had our hopes way too high because we had heard so many good things about how hilarious it was going to be, and when it was only funny instead of hilarious, I think we both were pretty disappointed. It's a good movie, just one that I wish we would have waited and rented to watch at home. Part of the disappointment might also have had to do with the PACK of teenage girls shrieking at even the previews! BLEH!

When we got home Saturday night, we weren't even sure we were on the right street because there were so many cars lined up in front of our house and all down the street. The neighbor boys, across the street from us had a two keg house party! Honestly I think half of Quincy was trying to squeeze into their house, and it is not any bigger than ours! It was crazy! There were tons of people just walking around on the street. We heard several people get into a fight, we didn't think the cops got called on the party, but come to find out , our next door neighbor Mike , did call the cops on the party and all the partyers were told was that it had to be inside! They got off easy for as many people as there were!

Saturday night we also played our new card and board games we bought. We have several new games to play now. In addition to Pente, we bought Uno Stacko, Scabble Slam and Shoot the Moon. We can't wait to have another game night!

Sunday we slept in really late again and watched one of our favorite movies together, Forest Gump! GOOD MOVIE! We finally took the wedding cake out of our freezer and ate the traditional tiny piece. It actually didn't taste too bad! Oh, and I found my drivers license that I lost at this time last year. SERIOUSLY, I'M NOT KIDDING! MY DRIVER'S LICENSE WAS FROZEN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE CAKE PLATE IN THE FREEZER FOR A YEAR! And yes that includes the move in March! UNFREAKINBELIEVABLE! When I had lost it last year, I thought for sure it was just gone forever, so I ended up buying a new one. Who would've guessed that a year later it would show up on the kitchen table after thawing off of the bottom of the cake plate! CRAZINESS!

It was a great weekend and Allen and I are looking forward to spending many many more happy anniversaries together!

And you know how the rest of the story goes....back to work...back to work...bleh!

Back to Monday again...bleh!

Well it was back to work today for both of us. I'm on the late shift this week. YUCK! I hope this week goes by quickly because this weekend we are celebrating one year of marriage! YAY! :) We have been saving our pocket change for a few months now, we counted the silver tonight, and we have about $81.00. Not sure how much in pennies. We decided we are going to do the same thing for our anniversary for next year. Next year we will have enough change to cash in to do something even more fun! We still aren't 100% sure what we're going to do yet.

This weekend was a fun and busy weekend! Saturday Allen had to work, but Josh, Caleb, Grandma Hazel, and I ate lunch together and went to the folklife festival in Hannibal! It was really neat! I bought some local honey, and homemade horseradish sauce. I also bought Allen a suprise. He was pretty bummed out that he had to work and couldn't go with us. I bought him some flint rocks and a striker that was made by an old fashioned blacksmith! You should have seen his face when he saw it! He loves it! That night we all went to Grandma and PopPop's to eat soup and play games, but before that we played little bit of tennis at the tennis courts after Allen got off work. Then Caleb and Josh spent the night over here. We stayed up WAY too late and then had to get up early to go to Mom and Dad's because Uncle Roy was over from Indiana to sell Caleb his first car! I can't believe my littlest brother is going to be old enough to drive in just a year and a half! IT'S SO CRAZY! We spent the whole day on Sunday hanging out at Mom and Dad's. We took family pictures. Most of the pictures turned out pretty good, but it was windy and we couldn't get the light exactly right, so we might be taking some indoor pics closer to Christmas at our house. It was a lot of fun though! We had some of Dad's famous chili for lunch and mom had made us egg sandwiches for breakfast earlier in the day! This might be too much information, but later on when we got back home Allen and I ended up stink gas bombing our house! LOL! Chili and eggs, that is one dangerous digestive combination!

Oh and speaking of digestively dangerous food. After almost one year of marriage, I finally succeeded in cooking a meal that was not edible! LOL! I made some chinese "sweet and spicy" shrimp stir-fry that ended up being too spicy to eat! I'm not kidding, it made our noses run!!!

I used something called tiger sauce, and a little tobasco, but ummm the tiger sauce aparantly didn't need any help!

Hope everyone else had a great weekend! We missed everyone in Sturgeon this weekend! We can't wait to come and see you guys!

Mid-week Update

Well, it's already Wednesday! Time is flying by soooo quickly. Can you believe that in two weeks Allen and I will be celebrating our first year of marriage! YAY! :) Allen bought me an amazing ring for our anniversary. He gave it to me early so we could get it sized so I can actually wear it on our anniversary. We haven't really made any special plans yet, but it will still be a special day!

Nothing much else to report. This weather is not fun! Getting too cold too soon! This weekend Caleb is going to come over and help us hang plastic on our windows.

Allen's headaches are hitting him hard now. Last night he was up for most of the night with a really bad, extended headache. So bad and so long, he actually ended up taking two showers to try and get some relief. I wish I could take his headaches away. It's very hard to watch him in so much pain and know there isn't anything I can say or do to help the pain go away.

Hope everyone is having a good week and staying warm!

GOOD NEWS!!!! No, GREAT NEWS!!!

I don't know what's up with this picture, but it made me laugh out loud, so I definately had to share it!

Allen received his letter in the mail on Saturday from General Mills letting him know that he has been placed in their hiring pool! YAY! So, now we know he gets the job , we just have to wait until there is an opening. My mom says that they are firing people and people quit all the time, so hopefully it won't be too long. Allen is going to keep his other job, of course, until he gets word that a position is his to start. Then he will give them his two weeks. This news comes to us as a great relief. Thank you to everyone for all of their thoughts and prayers for Allen. We will let you know as soon as we find out that a position has opened up.

This weekend was not long enough. I wish the work week was only four days long every single week! (It could be for me , I guess if I wanted to work four 10 hours days, but I've decided with the type of job that I have, 10 hours might drive me crazy!)

Love you all!

Interview done

Well I finally had my interview with General Mills and now I can stop worrying about it. It is getting late so I won't go into great detail but I believe I did very well. It was the weirdest interview Ive ever had. There were 6 people getting an interview and they had us all in the same room. We were as far away as we could be in the room during the interview but you could still hear everyone talking. We each had 2 interviewers, one from management and one from the production line. The questions were pretty standard and I answered them all very well I think. However, I was expecting to get the why general mills? and where do you see yourself in 5 years? questions but never did. Also what was weird, is that I was the only guy wearing a tie and 2 of the guys were wearing t-shirts and jeans!! Who wears that to an interview seriously. Any how, they said that we would be getting a letter in the mail about 2 weeks from now telling us if we got the job or not. If we did then we would be put in their "hiring pool" and could wait anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months to hear from them. All I can say is I'm glad I'm not hurting for a job. This has been a long process and to add a couple more months to it would make it unbearable if I didnt have a job.

Love you all! Have a great day!

Tomorrow is the big interview!

Keep Allen in your thoughts and prayers at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. He has his big interview with General Mills. We will let everyone know how it goes!

I AM NOT CRAZY!

THERE WAS A SWARM OF BEES/HORNET TYPE STYINGING THINGS IN THE BASEMENT! Today Allen found their nest and RAIDED the heck out of it. Now there's like 50 dead bees on the floor! YUCK! (Hey Jessica, wonder if Kelly's family thought about RAID? Worked for us! LOL! I crack myself up!) Actually, Allen says the bees are really yellow jackets, which looks like he's right! UGH!!!!

P.S. The Mexican Stuffed Peppers are DEFINATELY making it into the regular meal rotation! They were yummy and really cheap to make!

Wishing the weekend wasn't almost over...

We had a wonderful time this weekend. I hate that it's now Sunday evening and that means tomorrow...back to the work week. (SIGH...it's life...if we didn't work, we wouldn't probably be able to have the wonderful weekends that we do.) Friday night we went to visit Grandma and Pop Pop. We had some homemade chili, which was yummy. It was our first bowl of chili since the beginning of chilly weather. (Which by the way...we are not ready for yet! Gotta get the plastic up on the windows ASAP!) We ended up playing three games of 10 point pitch and an entire game of Mexican Crazy Train Dominoes. An entire game of MCTD took us two hours! It was so much fun though! Oooo and grandma sent us home with a jar of homemade pepper relish! It is DELICIOUS! On Saturday Allen had to work, I ended up braving the crowd at Hy Vee so I could have a gallon of milk for .99, 2lb of 85/15 hamburger meat for $1.98 and four bags of shredded cheese for $4.00. The prices were so good I couldn't pass it up, and apparantly neither could anyone else in Quincy. (The sale was a six hour sale.) I'm not kidding you, it was a MAD HOUSE! No parking spots, no carts, no room in the aisles...CRAZINESS! It honestly looked like Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving! I made it home safely from that and then I went up town with Mom and Caleb. We went to the Farmer's Market at Farm and Home, and to the mall. While mom was trying on a shirt in the dressing room, I saw a GIANT spider just sitting on the back of one of the shirts hanging on a rack. I took a picture of it, but the picture didn't come out well. I took the shirt and the spider up to the cashier. I would have killed it first, but I thought maybe they would want to see what kind of spider it was. Wierd huh? When Allen got home from work we decided to have date night. We went to Sprouts for dinner, then we went to the mall. We went to shop ko and came home with a Shop Ko brand magic bullet blender! YAY! I've been wanting one of those soooo bad! We got ours for $25 with a three year warantee! Which, the Magic Bullet at Shop Ko is $70! We've already made smoothies with it! I LOVE IT! :) We also bought a dice game called Kismet for $4. We figured what the heck...we would try it, since it was only $4, couldn't go too wrong with it! Well, it is definately worth what we paid! It's so much fun we played five games of it last night! We can't wait to play with everyone else! (Grandma D. , we think you are REALLY going to like it!)

Today, I cleaned up house a lil bit and started to do laundry, but stopped as soon as I realized there was a swarm of some kind of hornet around the dryer. Allen is home now and says that he can see two now in spider webs, but earlier I swear there were at least ten-fifteen of the suckers! UGH!

Tonight for dinner we are having a recipe that I have completely made up on my own. I didn't have a recipe, but I stole a basic idea and built on that. We are having mexican stuffed peppers tonight! They are in the oven now! I hope they turn out good!

Hope everyone else had a good weekend too! LOVE YOU ALL LOTS!

October means...

POMEGRANATES!!!!! YAY! :) Last year Allen and I both tried our first ever pomegranates and we LOVED them! October is the first month of them being in season, and last year Hy-Vee was selling them for $1 a piece. I hope it's the same this year. One pomegranate yields ALOT of delicious fruit. Last year we just ate them raw, but this year I'm planning on cooking with them. Pomegranates are not only yummy, but REALLY REALLY good for you. They are in the "super fruit" category for their nutritional richness.

Some interesting pomegranate facts here: http://www.xomba.com/fun_facts_about_pomegranates

Hope every one is having a good week!

Catching up

Sorry we haven't posted in awhile. Just to let you know this is Allen making the post this time around. I don't post much because Amber loves to do it and tells it all anyway. Saturday we had some friends over (and Josh). We had a blast. We played guitar hero, poker, and apples to apples. Amber and Amy split the pot in poker because they had about the same amount of chips and the already long game would have took forever. I'm not sure but I think Amber has some pics. I'm sure she will post them asap.

Sunday we went over to the in-laws. We had BBQ beef sandwiches and Amber made her parmesan green bean casserole. Everything was awesome! Its always a treat to go over there. Its very relaxing.

Well I'm about one week away from my interveiw with General Mills. I'm both excited and nervous. This job would mean so much to our little family and would allow us to have a bigger one in the future. I hope everything goes well.

Some bad news today, I started my cluster headache cycle with searing pain at 4:00 am. If anyone wants to know what cluster headaches are Wikipedia has done a good job discribing them. The link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_headache . I get what is known as episodic cluster headaches and it has been over a year since I got one. I had been noticing some signs that it was going to hit soon ie. popping and ringing of my right ear and some pressure that felt almost like a shadow. I think everything was just in order last night that made the "door open" : amount of sunlight changing rapidly, lots of stress (about jobs), hadn't had a cycle an awhile, food from super didn't settle (both of us had that issue), allergies at the max, and I got really hot last night with the comforter on. I am very thankful that I have went over a year without having one but this is some really bad timing for sure. I'm tough though and will make it through it.

Hope everything is going good with everyone. Love you all!

Allergies are the worst...

WHY IS THIS YEAR SO BAD FOR THE ALLERGIES? MY FACE HURTS!

So, Allen ROCKS at mini-golf and Beatles Rock Band really rocks, and I was trying to think of something else catchy to put in this sentence that also includes the word "rocks", but I've run out of ideas.

Tomorrow is Friday, which is wonderful. I can't wait for it to be over. It's also pay day Friday, which makes it even better.

Nothing else to report. Oh wait, one thing, I talked to a customer on the phone today who told me that I should stop drinking milk, to help with my allergies, and that I should call her doctor in Chicago...hmmm....

Hope everyone has had a great Thursday!

As promised...

Allen's boss gave him a three day weekend , so I took PTO today to have the full three days off in a row with him. (When Allen gets his new job our weekends may not happen as often and we probably won't get to see eachother nearly as much as we do now...so we took the extra three day weekend glady!) We went to Sturgeon on Friday night. Penny didn't puke this time, thank goodness! (Last time we went to Sturgeon she had eaten something from our bedroom that made her puke all over me and our car.) Saturday was a wonderful lazy day of sleeping in and spending time with the Cooley's. We played our new guitar hero with Matt and Nicole and we got to meet Mooney , their adorable 8 week old miniature schnauzer! She was sooooo darn cute I just wanted to hold her and squeeze her all day! But she wasn't about to have too much of that. She was typical puppy! Wanted to play with everyone! (We remember when Penny used to want to play with everyone...now she's a little shy...we're working on it...) Mooney and Penny got a long really well, and Allen's parents' dog Rose, who is a much bigger yellow lab didn't mind the smaller dogs at all. Penny suprised us a little bit because typically Penny LOVES to play rambunctiously with other dogs, but it was as if Penny instantly knew that Mooney was a puppy, instead of a play mate. Penny really acted like a big sis or something, she played a little bit with her, but gently. When Mooney gets a little older though, then I think Penny will play with her. Especially since Mooney is going to get quite a bit bigger in a short amount of time.

We had grilled chicken for dinner on Saturday which was DELICIOUS, as always.

Sunday we went to church with Allen's dad. Their church is very beautiful and the preacher had a great message. I'm glad we got to go!

We decided to come home Sunday night and spend the day today together, just Allen, Penny , and me. It was a good day. We REALLY must have all needed to sleep in because we slept in later today, all three of us, than we have in a long time. We had BLT's for lunch because Allen has been craving them, and he finally got me to sit through the movie Ben-Hur. All three hours and 40 minutes of it! I do have to say, it was an amazing movie. Now I can say I've seen it, and Allen can stop begging me to watch it with him lol! Seriously , though, he was right, a GREAT movie; just make sure you have plenty of time to watch it.

It was the season premier of our favorite TV show, HEROES, tonight. Looks like it's gonna be another great season! YAY! :)

And tonight I made Winter Squash Chowder. IT WAS AMAZING! :) Definatey worth all the time it took to get the squash peeled and chopped. (Allen helped me because he didn't want my inner Kensai to come out and chop a finger off...) The recipe is one I found on www.foodnetwork.com . The recipe is a keeper for sure! I think I will make it some night for my mom because I know she would love it. Recipe here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/winter-squash-chowder-recipe/index.html

Another blog to come...

So, it's really late, I'm not blogging about this weekend yet, but I do have some good news to share with everyone. When we got home tonight, in our mailbox Allen had received a letter from General Mills. He passed the second round of testing and has an interview scheduled for October 7th ! YAY! :) Well, I will be blogging again tomorrow with some pics of Matt and Nicole's ADORABLE mini-schnauzer. Until then, check out this video of kids with the Marshmallow waiting test. SO CUTE! They even say that a child's ability to resist the marshmallow was directly related to their later success in other things as they got older.

Hmmmm...

Hmmmm...is the title of this blog because I couldn't think of anything better.

Last night Caleb and Josh came over for dinner. We played a little bit of Guitar Hero, ate dinner, and headed to the tennis courts. It was Caleb's first time playing. He got upset because he wasn't instantly Andre Agassi. We had to keep telling him that he will get better with practice. We took Penny with us again, and she again LOVED it. We tried to catch some good video of her running with the balls, but my batteries were low on the camera, so no luck. We'll try harder next time. IT'S SOOOO CUTE! We had a really great time hanging out with Josh and Caleb. As long as Caleb promises to get his homework done, maybe Mom will let him come over again with Josh on a school night. Tomorrow night we leave for Sturgeon. YAY! :) Matt and Nicole, I hope you're ready for some serious Guitar Hero songs and we can't wait to meet your puppy!

Grandma and Popop, be careful on your way to Columbia and on your way to Iowa. Tell everyone hi!

Everyone else reading this, hope you have great weekends too! :)

We love you all!

Tuesday Night-Friend Night YAY!

It was an impromptu mini game night tonight, which was awesome! Our friends Jessica and Alex and our new friend Becky (the one who never wants her picture taken, lol), came over this evening to play Apples 2 Apples, and we played a little bit of guitar hero. It was a really nice break from the weekly hum-drums: get up-go to work-eat dinner-shower-go to bed, wash, rinse, and repeat. Penny's boyfriend, Butch didn't get to come over. :( maybe next time! Apples 2 Apples is such a great game, such a simple idea, maybe that's why it is such a hit. It's funny because you never know what you're gonna hear. For example: "Comfortable : Berlin 1945", or "Fake: The Mississippi River" , just to name a few.