Sick

Sorry I will not be posting till 2012. It seems there are too many things going on, and now I have a cold.

I should be excited to be off work, but I am stuck at home with a sore throat, buggers, sneezes, and plugged ears.

I'm just going to take it easy for a while till I get better, and get caught up on life.

So have a wonderful last few days of 2011 and have a great New Year. I hope 2012 brings joy and happiness to you.

Happy New Year!
Trisha.

Christmas Eve

Wow time flies! Here's Christmas!

I hope you have the best Christmas ever!

Merry Christmas!

Trisha

Whew!

I think I'm officially over my 3 day off and on migraine/headache. I am thinking I might have been sick, but I don't know with what because the only symptems I had were migraine/headache, I couldn't sleep, I was so tired, and I was achy sore. I woke up with a blistery cold sore as an after effect this morning. My immune system was busy with something!

So I hope you have survived without any fun posts from me for a while.

This is our latest idea to our wall of ideas. My husband masking taped out a buffet/hutch he found at a consignment store a few days ago. I still havn't seen it.
I guess today, we are going to go find a buffet for our dining room, so we'll soon have a finished house! My master closet is just waiting for the last few details to be painted, and then I can stuff it with clothes!

At work yesterday, we had our Christmas Party! I got bonus giftcard. Talk about exciting! I can't "wait" to spend it! It's from Walmart and I hate Walmart. Just a ton of cheap junk there that you have to return. Ever take a look at their return line? It's always so long, and ever try buy your stuff there? Longer line. They could care less about customer service. I would have rather seen my work spend all that $$ at Target or any other place that has better customer service, and sells stuff you can still use a couple months later. 

Oh well. I'll have to buy food again this year with it, or something else that doesn't involve buying something, having it quit working, and having to return/exchange it.

Now tonight, we go to our annual family reunion/Christmas party! It's so weird thinking Christmas is not so far away anymore! 7 more days/ 1 more week! I am so shocked at how fast it's flying up! I still have gifts to buy! Gifts to wrap! Things to do and things to make!

And I am still recovering from whatever I had! Oh dear! I hope I only spread Holiday cheer and not a bug!

I gotta get busy! See you later! I got another 3 day weekend!
Trisha

Surprises

On Monday night, we went out.
We looked at couches and room sets and buffets and... went to a store we had gone to a month before. We found a good deal on the couch we came back to see that had: a couch, love seat, chair, coffee table, cocktail table, 2 lamps, 2 candle sticks, and a decorative tray! I couldn't stop laughing at what was included with the furniture because non of it went with the couches. It was a horrendous combination! I liked the style of the couches though and same with my husband. We would have had to figure something out for the add ins... They were sold out until mid February. Just shows how desperate people are for a "deal!" Or they just have bad taste...

Either way, At the same store, the sales guy showed my husband a couch set my husband had also admired last time we were there and told him the marked down price now because it's a floor model. So we now are the proud owners of a new couch set, and now have 2 sets.

Before,

 During,

 After,

 And again.

New couches. I wanted a set with baseball stitch that wasn't so puffy, but I guess these are better quality than the ones I was looking at and cheaper than the only set we found that had everything we wanted. So I guess I'll have to love this one. It came yesterday. Ta Da! Here it is!

I am running on fumes today. You know when you're outta gas and your car somehow miraculously makes it to the gas station? It was running on fumes. That's how I am today. After I got up yesterday, a headache started. It got progressively worse till I was feeling somewhat queasy so I took Tylenol at work. It just took the edge off it. I went to bed at 9PM. I promise you I woke up so many times between 9PM and 2:53AM That I must have woke up at least every 1/2 hour or more times than that. I took Tylenol again, went to bed AND DIDN'T SLEEP! I heard the water turn on 6AM to water my garden. My headache finally started feeling better. I might have fallen asleep some time after because I don't really remember my husband's alarm going off at 7AM. I got out of bed at 8AM because my body just said HEY! I'M AWAKE!

So here I be. I am tired and have HUGE bags under my eyes. And will probably scare everyone at work today. My day has started.

How's yours? I'm going to sew or do something that doesn't require brain work.
Trisha.

Holy squash!

Finally went out yesterday and picked this squash.

I "forgot" this squash every time I went out to harvest stuff from the garden because I wanted to see how big it'd get, and then I really forgot it until yesterday when I decided to go out into the garden and saw it. The squash plants are almost obliterated. FINALLY. They were so frozen, they uncovered this squash. The thing is huge!

I don't know if it's good for eating though.

Yesterday was fun! We hardly ever have people over, so having most of my family here was exciting! And everyone hardly put a dent in the cookies! I MADE TOO MUCH!

Last night we went Christmas shopping and got most of our shopping done!

I have great plans for sewing today. I need to go out into the garage and find all my sewing stuff, and dig through my big Christmas decoration bin to find my Nativity scene to decorate with.

My tree this year:

Pretty plain. This is the first time we put it on a table. It's pretty short, so this year we have a "tall" tree. No topper yet.

I'll write more later maybe tomorrow.
Happy Rainy Monday!
Trisha.

I finished!

I started the oven around 9:30 AM. I baked and baked, and took about 1/2 hour to give Cruizer a bath. Baked again, then took about another 1/2 hour to go look at my neighbor's new kitchen and give her some cookies. Back to baking, and then I took 15 minutes to eat supper (lunch was a few cookies).
At around 8PM I finished baking!

I still have to put jelly between these things: SPOON COOKIES

 Bottom left clockwise: GINGERBREAD BOYS, GINGERBREAD BOYS WITH SUGAR, GINGER SNAPS, SNICKER DOODLES, and 2 bags PRUNE TARTS (all in gallon bags).

(In gallon ice cream tubs) CANDY CANE COOKIES which I forgot to dust with crushed candy canes, SUGAR COOKIES, CHOCOLATE CHIP. There was more, but I gave some to the neighbors.

 SPRITZ sprinkled with leftover cinnamon sugar from snicker doodles

 more spritz and chocolate chip cookies that don't fit in the container.

 more spritz.

 CHOCOLATE KISS COOKIES

RUSSIAN TEACAKES:

 1/4 the tart dough left after I ran out of prunes.

I only used 3 pieces of parchment all day! For 11 different kinds of cookies! This stuff holds up really well!

WHAT A MESS!!!!!!

While I baked, My husband finished most of the closet in our room! It's almost done! 

I gotta go clean now (and my floors again) and decorate for Christmas and wash my sheets, and make the dog bed and finish the spoon cookies, and take a shower and sleep and it's already 8:26, so goodnight!

Trisha

Saturday Starts

Saturday morning means start the baking. I will see exactly how long I have to keep the oven on to bake everything!

I was so proud of myself yesterday! I got my floor swept and mopped, and it's still pretty well picked up and will be easy to dust while I have nothing to do while I wait for cookies to finish baking!

I have to go to the store to buy parchment paper, and then I will start. I'm eating breakfast right now.

I'm actually excited! And then we have to decorate for Christmas! And give the dog a bath. He stinks pretty bad and feels greasy when you pet him! This will be the first time in a while then that everything will be done all at the same time!

I'll probably report back later how long it took!
See ya later!
Trisha.

Here I be!

I have emerged from the kitchen. I turned these:

All set out with the recipe cards.

INTO THESE! 9 different doughs all chilling.

Hee Hee mom! Can you guess which ones they are? They are all recipes from you!
HOLY COW! That is a lot of sugar, and butter, and flour!
But MMMMMMM! I cannot wait!

I still have 2 more recipes to go, but will be baking them all on Saturday.
I HAVE 3 DAYS OFF IN A ROW!!!!! I am beyond excited! I gave my hours for Saturday to my lead server because they were short on hours and had no PTO left. And they even thanked me! Which leaves me the entire day to bake 11 different batches of cookies! (And again, they thanked me!) I feel I need to thank them! Worked out wonderfully for everyone!

Oh dear! I shall be exhausted Saturday night! I have invited my family over for a Christmas party on Sunday after Church so I have been busy trying to get my house clean and decorated for it.

A Christmas party! I am so excited!!

Check out my garden! The squash plants have been annihilated! All it took was a freeze!

 My sweet potatoes are blackening up also and wilting from the frost as well. I still wish that grass would just die!

Oh those squash! I can't tell you the joy I felt when I saw this! I just didn't have the heart to pull it all up before, and now I can!

Next years garden, here I come!

I have to go roll another stick of butter into my tart recipe, and sweep my house and maybe mop it finally! And I also have to eat breakfast, so I'll write more later!

Have a good day! Today's my Friday and it's actually a real Friday this time! Weekend off!
Trisha.

Monday's doings

After meticulously cleaning the kitchen, picking up the entire house, and sweeping the floors, I bombed the kitchen by baking.

I made 12 cupcakes.
Hee hee! :-D

Apparently the recipe isn't supposed to be made into cupcakes, just cake. It's my first time making this recipe. It sounded fancy. I won't be making it again though- it's incredibly greasy and tastes like plain sugar with a hint of almond, so gross. Supposedly the egg white brown sugar mixture on top is supposed to form a crust...EPIC FAIL.

 I also placed my purchases from yesterday into glass jars. I bought raisins, rainbow quinoa, amaranth seeds, golden flax, and red wheat. I also bought tons of almonds not pictured. These sorts of jars of things bring excitement to my life.

 Then I made my bed and pulled out my pillows from Ikea. DO YOU SEE HOW DUSTY EVERYTHING IS??? I GIVE UP!!!I just washed that comforter last week!

 A closeup of my dusty bed. I think these are the coolest pillows ever! They are feather pillows.

 And my almost finished cupboard!

HAVE A HAPPY DAY!

Trisha.

Cold Winter Day

This winter is just sneaking up on me! Here today it's cloudy, raining, windy, and the sun is so dim. The leaves are falling off the trees, and it is cold enough to snow. It's like fall and winter and spring all in one day! But cold!

It's so weird.

I started finally cleaning my house. I always don't want to clean it when construction mess is there, but I am done sneezing. I feel like I have bad allergies and I haven't had them this bad in a long time. Last night, me and my husband sneezed 1 right after the other and I realized it ain't just going to go away on it's own, that I'll have to clean it.

Kitchen down, the whole rest of the house to go...

See you later!
Trisha.

I ate 2 mangoes, 1 banana, 1 avocado, and 1 kiwi for breakfast. MMMMMMMMM!

I got home after 9PM last night. We went to Valle Luna at 10:00PM for take out. We went to bed at 11:40. So I am tired. I woke up early of course with the sun, but wouldn't let myself out of bed until 8:00AM so I wouldn't be too tired. But I think I am still tired.

Oh well. The entire time I lay there in bed, I kept thinking of one of the resident's guests who always comes and eats in our dining room at work, and wondering when he'll bring a gun and shoot everyone.
(He threatened to already (why can he still come there???)) I must have fallen asleep too because I dreamed me and the resident had restraining orders against him, and he showed up, and we got the police to come, and when he saw them, got up and pulled out his gun, and I was closest, so I lunged for it to knock it out of his hands because he had it pointed at the 3 police officers and he shot me.

I am terrified of this man and have tried to tell my 2 bosses about it. He called everyone A- Holes yesterday because we made him sign a room charge paper as usual before he got his food because he likes to walk out before signing. And really gets a free meal then. The resident is a frail thin lady who pays for every one of his meals. He complains rudely every time about each meal even though it's free for him.

I am at a loss of what to do. Yesterday after he scared my server by calling everyone a name, I called my boss and asked her what to do, and she gave me the authority to tell him he's not to come into the dining room until he speaks with the executive director on Monday. And then what? They'll slap his hand and let him back in? I felt like puking when I had to tell him that because I didn't know what his reaction would be. I had another server witness it to back me up if he said I was rude. She used to be a manager/ owner of her own restaurant and said I handled it very well. So I'm no longer worried about that part of it. Just worried he'll go there today and shoot everyone of my servers and the kitchen staff, or wait till I go in next to shoot me.

I fear for my life when I see this man. He is so mean and is so nasty I have had every one of my servers shaken up by him including me for the last 2 years I have worked there. And my bosses won't do anything but tell him he can't threaten the staff and then lets him back in. It was just about 2 weeks ago he threatened with a gun, so it's getting worse. He's never threatened harm like that before. And all because the cooks put gravy on the resident's mashed potatoes. I truly believe if they tell him to not return again, my boss is afraid the resident might get angry and move out and she's $$$$ as long as they can get her to stay, so they keep letting him back to keep her happy.

But I truly believe she's just as scared of him as we are but is afraid to admit it. Her family won't ever come to eat with her if he is there. They don't like him.

I am so undecided at what to do about this. That name was directed at me because I asked the server to get the ticket signed before bringing his food out. I feel every time he yells at us, or threatens us, it is directed to me because I am in charge. And I really believe he is capable of coming and shooting us especially after he threatened to.

So I had a great start to my day.
Hope yours is without fear and off to a better start than mine.
Happy Sunday!
Trisha.

Enough You Say?

OK. This will be the last post about the dehydrator. (for a while).

Here's the banana chips/leather, apples, and we made some beef jerky last night. There are sticks in the bottom of the bowl. I don't think I'm a fan of the Excalibur jerky seasoning, and when I do decide to make beef jerky again, I will probably make my own from now on. It's salty, and smells like Lawry's salt and has a flavor unlike beef jerky. Not anything like the spicy peppery beef taste I'm used to. Oh well. Now my husband has a beef snack to eat!

I am eating baked potatoes and watermelon for breakfast. I also ate a few pieces of jerky. So a weird meal to start the day. I also have to get to the office to clean. I'm liking the Friday night, or the Saturday morning better than trying to cram it into my busy Thursdays. So I go this morning.

See you later! Have a great day!
Trisha

My Dehydrated Food

This:

 Turned into this:

 And left this:

 And this is what the banana leather looked like after I tore it up:

The dehydrated coconut has a very light crunchy soft delicate sort of texture. I am shocked! I thought it would be like a rock. But it turned into a fun treat! It just crushes in your mouth like a macaroon!
 This is my breakfast:

1. massaged kale
2. banana with bad spot cut out
3. quinoa raisin cookie
4. mango
5. watermelon
6. tomato

I also ate a banana leather piece. It tastes like banana bread. The banana chips do also. It's weird.

The cupboard is finished all but the caulking, paint, and doors. My closet just needs 1 more shelf, and a hanger rack and that will be finished all but the paint. Life is getting exciting around here!

I'll see you later! Have a fun day!
Trisha.

Yay! Kablam!

I have fruit! And vegetables not pictured

 These bananas are for making banana chips and banana leather. That's why I only bought a couple...

 Ka-Blam! Construction mess, and Cruizer's mess. He pulled apart another toy...

 More construction mess, and an almost finished cupboard!

This morning I'll be making a dent in the fruit and vegetables and making banana leather and chips. I'll post pictures of both tomorrow.

Have an exciting day!
Trisha.