Thanksgiving, 2008

I can't get the stupid pictures to load right. *sigh* See the beautiful feast? Well,Jody cooked it all. All I had to do was 1) wake up 2) make the deviled eggs and 3) put the steamer bag of mixed vegies into the microwave. I'm a lucky, lucky girl.
If you've NEVER had deep fried turkey, you should try it. :)

Danielle spent the night, we had a good time. We went to see Twilight. It was... AWESOME! I love my girl. Isn't she beeeeeeee-youuuteeful? I think she is. So, it's nice and quiet here for a few days.... Aren't we lucky?

Funny..ha hah

I'm pretty sure that Kate is so happy that she has a girl, and that she doesn't have to face this... (any more)




Now I on the other hand... have to worry about it on a daily basis. LUCKILY, the baby boy in my charge hasn't done this yet... Lil S on the other hand... a GIRL HAS!!! EWWWWWWWWWWWW

Ken Lee.....

Ok, Pam thought the turkey was funny... I had tears rolling down my cheeks, my ribs hurt, and I almost peed my pants! Enjoy!

About the cake...

We finally broke into the cake last night about 9pm.... I was worried about it turning out because I had mixed the sugar/cocoa with the hot water.....

It was FINE! It didn't make enough of the pudding mixture (It never does ) So maybe I should try to double that part of the recipe. =) Next time I make that I'm going to try that.


Tansy called me on Thursday wanting to know what "our" plans were for our birthday. She's got from Dec. 23 to Jan 31 off, and wanted to be out here for the birthday at least.... I'll have to keep reminding my boss that I NEED that day off, but we get to spend it together.... We've only spent one birthday apart, when she was visiting James and Nicole in Washington.... That did not go well. She pretty much cried the whole day. Granted she was only about 10, but she still wants to spend time with her mom. =)

Friday, my phone starts ringing while I'm at work. I'm not really supposed to be on my cell at work, but I keep it on me just in case my kids need to call me. I look down, and see an "overseas" number. That puts me into panic mode right away.... Then, it's a voice I don't really recognize.... But she says it's Karalyn. Now, I know that she and Mike have been hunting in Idaho, and that they are still there. So, I ask her how she's doing.... (trying hard NOT to hyperventilate!) and she says "Not too good"..... FULL BLOWN PANIC MODE kicks in.....

She starts telling me about her house here in West Columbia. They had a contract with a property management team, they collected the rent/mortgage and put it into their account, but took care of making sure that it was rented out, was in good repair, etc. ANYWAY, they got an email the night before telling them that the business was shutting down and could no longer take care of the property. Come to find out, they hadn't even gotten October's rent, let alone November's rent.

Could I help?

So, I spent my lunch hour trying to reach the owner of said failed business (who's website is still up and running, btw) and the tenant. NO LUCK.... Called 411 to get phone numbers, and called those.... and then Thursday night after having dinner with a group of friends, we drove by the house... We saw a "For Sale by Owner" sign in the front yard. THAT had a different number on it than I had for the tenant and the business owner. The plot appeared to thicken. Called THAT number and left a message.

Go home and keep trying to call the number for the tenant... Finally reach her, and she had NO IDEA what was going on. I told her to go check her email and/or regular mail and call me back. She checks her email, and the owner wrote HER on Wendsday... NICE business practices, huh?

I'm trying to get a rental contract made up, but she told me that she was making a payment of "X" dollars, which just so happens to be the amount that Mike and Karalyn had been being paid for the mortgage payment.... So this guy wasn't charging MORE for his time??? I don't think so. So, I now need to get a copy of rental agreement etc. Hopefully, SHE has it, cause I'm not having any luck getting hold of the business owner. GRRRR.... I guess I need to send a certified letter to him too, but I'm not sure what to say. But that needs to be soon. Any suggestions on wording? Right now, I'm just voicemail bombing his inbox.
Mike and Karalyn need October's mortgage payment (Tenant says she has paid October) and November's too (she says she hasn't paid that, I'm supposed to get paid for that today.)

Ok, I need to scarf my oatmeal, it's getting late. *sigh*

HAD to share.....

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

Ingredients:

• 1-1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa, divided
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1-1/4 cups hot water
• Whipped topping

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Combine 3/4 cup granulated sugar, flour, 1/4 cup cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in milk, butter and vanilla; beat until smooth.

2. Pour batter into ungreased 9-inch square baking pan. Stir together remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar and remaining 1/4 cup cocoa; sprinkle mixture evenly over batter. Pour hot water over top; do not stir.

3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Remove from oven; let stand 15 minutes. Serve in dessert dishes, spooning sauce from bottom of pan over top. Garnish with whipped topping. About 8 servings.

So I made this a few weeks ago for Jody (been making it for the kids for a few years now...) and I knew he liked it, but didn't know how much..... Yesterday he practically begged for it... so I'm making it now.... It's almost been in the oven long enough for the yummy chocolate smell to ooze throughout our house. It works well if you double the recipe also...

It says to serve with whipped topping... vanilla ice cream is a MUCH better choice. Also, I wasn't paying attention to the recipe this time, and ummm, mixed the ingredients in the last step... I'll let y'all know how that works out. Oh yeah, I also added a smidge of vanilla to the hot water.

Ok, we can now run the dryer... but only if the washing machine isn't plugged in. For some reason, the dryer plug is grounded at the washing machine... or soemthing wierd like that.So, we can only do one load at a time. But at least it's possible to wash clothes. =)

something to think about...

Was reading this as I was eating breakfast.

WHY?

*sigh* those who know me, know I'm a pretty darn liberal person, and will share my opinion at the drop of the hat. I like to think that as I get older and more mature, I can hold my tongue when it's appropriate. I'm having a hard time with facebook right now. I know it sounds silly, but grrrrrrrrrrr.
So many of my old high school friends have now befriended me on there. Great. But knowing that so many of them still hold ideals and values that I find... hateful? divisive? rupugnant?, I'm still listed as their friends.. BUT I do try to temper my blasts and be careful to not offend, to not step on toes. Some of the hateful comments left on there by some of them leave me speechless. I don't want to get into a hateful conversation. At this point, I don't even think a respectful, intellegent conversation is possible. It is so hard, knowing that I am trying to take the higher ground, yet feeling that by keeping my mouth shut about some of the hateful language on there, I'm condoning it. I honestly don't know what to do. Kudo's to my brother-in-law who is able to speak so clearly and concisely about the issues. I am in awe.

I guess I just wanted to vent. Now I'm off to see how many rows I can get done on the afghan. =) I've got 7 of 10 sets of rows done.... whoot, that means more than half done. =) I really hope that I can hand deliver it.

The small things....

that get you down.. Yup, don't read this if you might get as upset as me. *sigh*

So, today started out good. Jody had an appointment to do a camera/alarm install this morning. I decided to be lazy and work on my new niece's afghan. I realized that I needed more yarn, and so I headed out to Hobby Lobby. No luck. *sigh* Couldn't find the right stuff... So, I headed out to Michaels.. the nearest one is another 20 miles from my place... But what else do I have to do but drive? :)

I find my yarn and get home. I start in on the afghan again... get a few rows done. OH yeah, I really need to get some laundry done... Put a load in the wash and we're good.... Well, we're good until all of a sudden we hear a *POOF* and there is NO POWER!!! We try to trip breakers, no luck. We call our landlord, no answer. We leave a message and head out for the store. We've been planning a trip to the drag races tomorrow, another local car club has put together a car and Jody's club wants to go show some love...... to save money, we are bringing our food to grill, all that good stuff. :)

We get home, still no answer from the landlord. It's now 4:30 and we need to do something. Jody pulls one of the main breakers out, and we head to Lowes. Get a new breaker, and he fixes the problem.

Finally hear from the landlord, but inform her that we've taken care of the problem. Fix some dinner and crochet some more. Oh yeah, I need to put my clothes in the dryer. So, I load up the dryer, and try to push start. NO LUCK. It is dark now, yes this is important, and Jody starts fiddling with the breakers in the box. The house plunges into utter darkness, and all of a sudden sparks come flying out of the dryer... OOPS!!!!!

So, I think we need a new dryer. Lucky us.