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! :)