Friday, January 29, 2010

Happy Friday!

Hello all!

I hope you are staying warm. The wind is howling here and with the wind chill it's -7 F. Brrr!

Today is Day 3 of not smoking! Go me! I really hope I can stick with it and kick this habit. My head is in the game this time so I'm feeling confident. I want to give a big shout out to all my FB peeps! You guys rock! I truly appreciate your encouragement. Thank you. (((Big Hugs)))

We picked out our new range last weekend and it was delivered this week. We're getting there. Right now it is sitting in our sun room taunting me, but it's real purdy. =) We had a carpenter out to give us an estimate and his "off the top of my head" estimate was outrageous! He basically was quoting a week's worth of pay for a barely one day job. I don't think so! I think we're going to work on this ourselves with a friend's help to make the new cabinet door. That's the plan anyway. We'll be starting on that tomorrow.

Assuming our work on the kitchen is successful this weekend, I will be back with several cooking posts. Oh, how I miss having an oven that isn't possessed. I can't wait to bake some bread and sweet treats. A lasagna or some homemade mac and cheese wouldn't go amiss either. I've been scouring the interwebs for some new recipes and have a few lined up. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Yum!

On a completely different topic, I think I'd like to start some digital scrapbooking. Now that I have my nice camera, I'd like to do something with the pictures I've been taking. I heard about a software package on another blog, but when I checked it out it was a subscription type thing. They would send me a new disk every two months with new templates and charge me X amount each time. I don't really want to get into that sort of thing. I was looking for more of a one time purchase deal. If anyone has any recommendations that won't break the bank, I'm all ears.

What have you been up to?

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Yikes! 2 Months??

Sorry! I've been neglecting you! Things got busy with the holidays and such that I'm just now getting back into the swing of things.

Let's see, where to I start?

Well, Thanksgiving was very nice, despite the fact that the blasted Brady Bunch oven kicked it on me just before dinner. Thankfully, everything was already cooked and I was just using the oven to keep things warm. We had a lovely meal and great company! I highly recommend that menu plan I mentioned since the food is yummy and it kept me on track (and got all the food cooked before the oven fiasco).

My high school had an informal part 2 to our reunion that weekend. It was great to catch up with those that didn't make it to part 1 over the summer.

The next weekend was Michael's work Christmas party. It was a blast. It was so good to meet so many of the guys that I've heard about forever but hadn't yet met in person. They are a great bunch and load of fun.

We hosted Christmas Eve with Mum and Dad and C and S and the kids. It was hectic getting the food ready since we still don't have our oven, but I made a great chicken, broccoli and ziti on the cooktop, with salad and garlic bread (in the toaster oven.) Christmas Day we went over to Michael's family and had a yummy Irish breakfast and played Wii. I have some funny pics of the boxing matches. LOL. Any why is it that the little people you fight all wear glasses? Later that day, I went over to C and S's for dinner with them, Mum and Dad and Uncle J. All in all, it was a great Christmas!

For New Year's we went to see Michael's cousin M and his girlfriend W in NYC. We stayed with them for a few days and went to see Gaelic Storm on NYE. That show rocked! I can't wait to see them again. W made the yummiest Guinness Beef Stew on New Year's Day. It was perfect! I can't wait to see them again later in the spring at our house. =)

The following weekend, we finally got those windows installed that I spoke of in my last post. It had been a scheduling nightmare with the original installer, but the person that actually came out in his place was awesome. His did a great job and is going to help us with a few other projects.

One of those projects is replacing our cooktop/wall oven set up with a stand alone range. That's going to require me to put on my GC hat at coordinate the carpenter, plumber and electrician but I think I'll be able to handle it. They're all good guys and have worked at our house before so I don't see it as being a problem. I just can't wait! I've been dying to make cookies and bread. Soon enough. I expect that we'll have this project done in the next 2-3 weeks.

Sheesh, that turned out to be a longer post than I expected. I hope you are all doing well!

What have you been up to?