rain on tulips

Happy, happy birthday, Fuul!! Hope its a wonderful one!!

I wish I’d known before I placed my order yesterday that Kindering has a link on their site that lets Amazon.com donate to them if you access through their site.

Anyone else doing holiday shopping, please feel free to go through the Kindering link to Amazon… its all for helping babies and toddlers, and I know EK and CC have both personally benefitted from the services they provide!

Have a cold that comes and goes… always feel pretty good in the morning. By afternoon, my head is threatening to explode, and I feel like I’ve got burning sandpaper in my throat. Then, the next morning I wake up feeling fine again. Go figure.

Did all the seaming on the Cable Luxe sweater but one and weaving in a few ends. It seems to fit pretty well so far, and is nice and warm! (Just in time… tomorrow or Friday is supposed to have a high of 29 degrees! Brrr!)

Placed an order on Amazon.com for Christmas… I think there may still be some things I need to get, but the big things — the ones that I searched and searched for — seem to be taken care of. Feel free to keep fingers crossed that everything ships on time!

Fuul and I took my bass in to the guitar place last night, to see if they could figure out what’s wrong with it. Of course, once I took it in and they looked at it, it was as simple as needing to replace the 9-volt in the back. I did that, you know. I replaced it. Still didn’t work. Fuul thinks I must have mixed up the new battery I thought I was putting in with an old one he took out of his tuner. Who knows. The upside is, my bass is working fine again, and it only cost me $3 and 20 minutes of my time. I’ll take that kind of problem any day over something requiring some ‘real’ fix.

Tomorrow is Fuul’s birthday. I don’t have anything for him yet. I looked some today while I was out, and know one thing I want to pick up tomorrow — that and get his guitar restrung and the action reset — but nothing else. Oh. Maybe Pineapple Upside Down Cake. I wish there was some ‘perfect’ gift for him. He’s so hard to shop for. *sigh*

EK rode the school bus for the first time on Monday. It was really strange putting her on there and watching them drive away. Tuesday she was home with a cold and cough. Today they didn’t have class. Hoping she’s well enough tomorrow to go again.

I need to return the movies tonight. I meant to do it this morning while I was out and forgot. Now I have to go out again. Blah.

Need to pick up AE from activity days, as well, in a few minutes. Maybe then I will have enough sitting-down-time to finish the sweater?

…and waiting so impatiently for it to dry, so I can unpin it and stitch the seams!!! I mean, I know that for the shape of the sweater, and the cables, it will be best-served by blocking… but boy, the waiting is killing me!

(That, and I don’t have any other projects on needles, so I have restless hands!)

I think we know what we’re getting the kids for Christmas… I won’t post it here, because my kids occasionally lurk on my blog, but just knowing — and with a month to go! — is a big relief!

The pickup on my bass isn’t working. I’m going to have to take it in to get it fixed.

(I even tried replacing the battery, and it still isn’t working).

Waahhhh

• Thanksgiving was nice, though the old addage “Cook 15 hours, eat 15 minutes” held true. Ah well. Everyone loved the food.
• The house stayed clean all weekend.
• The girls and I played haircolor: mine is back to black and red-orange; AE got the pink tips updated, and GC got the fringe under the back of her hair bleached and ‘turquoised’. Everyone is happy.
• An orange crayon went through the dryer. Ugh. Luckily, it was on a red load, so most stuff seems to have come out unscathed, or at least able to camouflage the damage.
• Landlord had someone take out two bushes from the backyard. Nice they are not touching the roof any more; sad that the ‘foliage’ outside my bedroom window is gone.
• My parents and two brothers came for a visit Friday night/Saturday. Really enjoyed getting to just sit and visit.
• Much interlinked PC gaming occurred!
• Shipped off several boxes of baby clothes, a double stroller, two high chairs, a baby swing, a toddler bedframe, and a swinging bassinette with them to take to my sister-in-law who is expecting her second. Suddenly found more room in the garage!
• Everyone missed church this morning: colds, coughs, sore throats, headaches. We probably could have made it, but it just didn’t seem worth it when the alarm was going off.
• Got much knitting done: am almost done with the first sleeve (need one more cable repeat) on the Cable Luxe Tunic from LionBrand.com. I’m loving how its turning out. One more sleeve, and the yoke, and I think I’ll be done! (Except for the seaming, but I’m even enjoying seaming this month, so that’s not a bad thing!)
• The landlord send the fix-it guy to take care of the broken water faucet (broke last fall!), so he’s been in and out, crawling through the crawlspace in the house. Hopefully it will be taken care of today, and we won’t have to worry about its freezing this winter. I can’t wait for him to close up the crawlspace, because the house is reeking of mildew now, from its being open. Ewww.
• Seahawks just won a game that started off poorly, so that’s a plus.
• Probably going to pull out leftover turkey and make some warm soup for dinner. Hoping everyone is feeling better tomorrow!

Happy weekend!

(also in the fridge, awaitig Turkey-Day!!!)

Raspberry Delight
from Grandma T

Done in three layers:

Layer One: Crust
1½ cups graham cracker crumbs
1½ cups chopped nuts
½ cup butter or margarine, melted

Mix and layer in sheet pan. Cool.

Layer Two: Filling
50 large marshmallows (one large bag)
1 cup milk

Melt in double boiler, then cool.

Mix two packages Dream Whip topping according to directions (or substitute 4 cups whipped topping). Fold marshmallows into topping. Cool two hours.

Layer Three: Topping
2 pkg frozen raspberries
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 cup sugar
4 Tablespoons corn starch
½ cup water

In saucepan, dissolve cornstarch in water. Add sugar, lemon juice and raspberries. Cook until thick and clear. COOL!!!

Assembly:
Layer marshmallow over crumb crust. Let set. Spread cooled raspberries over top. Chill til set.

I can’t wait!!!

(The following ‘green stuff’ is in the fridge, getting set for Turkey-day!)

Jello Salad
from Mom

2 small pkg lime jello
2 cups hot water (NO COLD WATER!)
1¼ cup crushed pineapple with juice
¾ cup canned (evaporated) milk
1 cup chopped nuts
1 pound small curd cottage cheese

Mix jello and hot water until gelatin dissolves. Stir in all other ingredients until well-mixed. Chill in refrigerator until set.

Pistachio Quick Salad
from Mom

1 pkg (3.4 oz) Pistachio Instant Pudding Mix
2 cups frozen whipped topping (9oz)
1 small (tuna-sized) can crushed pineapple

Stir until pudding is dissolved. Set in fridge to firm up.

Just got my invite… done nothing further than picking a user name…

I’ll be teribella on there… but don’t go looking for anything exciting, because I haven’t even gotten past the welcome page, and I’ve got to go do last-minute turkey-day shopping before my grocery delivery at 1! (Trying it out to see if its worth it!)

We had EK’s cake today after church. Wound up with an Angel Food cake with whipped cream and strawberries.

We have been trying to get her to hold up “three” (ASL uses two fingers and the thumb to represent three) when we ask her how old she is… its a developing thing, I guess, though she will do it if we show her, or ask her to show three!

She was more than thrilled that there were candles on it: she kept signing ‘candle’ and trying to blow them out, even before we got them lit! Once they were lit, she blew out each one on her own! So exciting!

She got a box of ducks, a bucket of little balls and tongs to move them around with, tinkertoys, a lights and music mirrored toy, and a bouncy gym*! It was so great to see her honestly interested in each item, since so often her attention is fleeting.

She really liked the mirror in the top of the box of ducks. After she’d opened several presents, she went back to that one, and kept laughing at herself making faces in the mirror. Who was I to let that moment pass??

I think she will really like the bouncy gym once we get it inflated… she really likes bouncing on things, and it will give her some great exercise, and hopefully hours of fun!

*Wish the bouncy gym had said on the outside of the box that you really need a pump to fill it, and a bike pump won’t work! Guess who will be shopping for a mattress pump tomorrow afternoon???

We went to Chuck E Cheese for dinner and playtime — chasing toddlers through that place on a Saturday night is quite the adventure! — then we spent about an hour and a half wandering the aisles of Toys’R'Us. We did wind up finding something EK seemed to like, and tomorrow we will have cake and ice cream and open presents!

We’re trying to teacher her to hold up three fingers when asked how old she is, but she doesn’t seem to quite understand yet! Ah well!

I’ll try to get photos of her blowing out the candles tomorrow — she loves pretending to do that a lot!

Happy, happy three years, EK!

(text to follow)

Tried a new recipe last night: Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak. Turned out pretty good — everyone liked it but CC and GC, who tend to not like anything! (I did substitute bouillon cubes for the au jus sauce, and added garlic powder and pepper… but the rest went by the recipe!)

Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 5 Hours Ready In: 5 Hours 15 Minutes
Yields: 8 servings

“This recipe goes together quickly and does not need a lot of time in the slow cooker. It’s a delicious way to add flavor to ground beef and the children love it! The gravy is delightful served over mashed potatoes.”

INGREDIENTS:
2 pounds lean ground beef
1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion
soup mix
1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread
crumbs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 (10.75 ounce) cans
condensed cream of chicken
soup
1 (1 ounce) packet dry au jus
mix
3/4 cup water

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large bowl, mix together the ground beef, onion soup mix, bread crumbs, and milk using your hands. Shape into 8 patties.
2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Dredge the patties in flour just to coat, and quickly brown on both sides in the hot skillet. Place browned patties into the slow cooker stacking alternately like a pyramid. In a medium bowl, mix together the cream of chicken soup, au jus mix, and water. Pour over the meat. Cook on the Low setting for 4 or 5 hours, until ground beef is well done.

Definately a ‘make this one again’ recipe!