Exceedingly Mundane

Or any meme for that matter! They used to be all the rage out in BlogLand, but they appear to be very few left. And of the ones I have found for Monday or any other day, there are always questions that don’t apply to me, or else I would be answering the same thing every.single.time. So I guess I’ll stick with regular blogging and see how that pans out 🙂

Speaking of blogging, I’m coming up on my TEN YEAR anniversary of my blog. Hard to believe, but when I go back in my archives, I started in February of 2005. Good golly Miss Molly, where did the time go? I’ve taken a lot of breaks, but find it’s a great way to keep up with what is going on with us, so I keep coming back.

Ok, back to the original topic, today is Monday. We are zipping through January, hard to believe it’s already almost half way through the month. Today is a grey, bleak day. It rained some yesterday and quite a bit last night, but had mostly ended this morning. Tim had to work last night, for about 3 or so hours until the wee hours of the morning. He started a new fitness challenge at work, to log steps walked with a pedometer, so he wanted to go walking at lunch. Yippee! First time he’s walked with me in at least a year, maybe two. I showed him the route I had mapped out in the new subdivision, and we had a nice long walk during his lunch hour today. That makes me all kinds of happy 🙂

I’ve got some ham and bean soup in the crockpot today. I tasted the beans a while ago and they were still hard as a rock. I guess I’ve added too much salt, got old beans from the bin at Whole Foods or something, because I soaked them all night long and threw them in the crockpot this morning. I guess we’ll eat leftovers if the soup doesn’t turn out.

We had a busy weekend. We went to Greenwood for the funeral for Don’s mom Margaret on Saturday. It was nice to see Trent, Grayson and Henry though, since we missed seeing them at New Years. Just a really sad occasion though 🙁 We stayed to eat and visit, but the church ladies ran out of food, so we stopped at Sonic and picked up fast food on the way home. After we got home, I made a loaf of cranberry bread to take to Sunday School. Sunday was busy with Sunday School, church and going to Kroger afterwards. After that, I cooked lunch (pepperoni crescents, really easy and so not healthy) and then Tim took a long nap and watched the NFL playoff games. I cooked supper, thereby breaking my rule that I don’t like cooking on Sundays 🙁

Currently weather: as stated, grey and bleak

Currently reading: Rachel by Jill Eileen Smith

Currently watching on TV: the new Agent Carter … I need to watch Downtown, I’m already two weeks behind, but don’t seem to have much time lately for catching up on the DVR

Currently Cooking: ham and bean soup today, potato soup later in the week, winging a couple of days

Week Ahead: have to take Suzanne to the airport, get my hair cut, make a run to Sam’s for food for the family get-together we are hosting this Saturday, take Tim’s suit to the dry cleaners and a few more errands. I’d much rather stay home, but these things have to get done!

And a photo from the weekend, I made a new recipe Friday night for a skillet chocolate chip cookie cooked in a cast iron skillet. It was DELICIOUS!

More next time, hope everyone is having a great day!

Today is election day in our country, incumbent Barack Obama against Republican governor Mitt Romney. We got out and voted this morning, and it only took a few minutes. There are reports that there are long lines, a few here in our state and a lot more across the country. Hoping for a good outcome!

David was here all last week, hanging out and visiting friends in Jackson. He stayed with us from Monday-Saturday. Wednesday night was Halloween and we had a great time this year! Kathryn and Jeremy came and brought Katelyn and Sam. Katelyn was a witch this year, and Sam was Captain America! Tony and Stephanie brought the twins, Leila and Rylan, and also Ramsey, and Jackie came too. Jackie stayed here and gave our candy for us while we went out, in two shifts (the older kids got here earlier and headed out first). Leila was a mouse and Rylan was a dragon. They’re just two, but got the hang of saying thank you and bye quickly, and Rylan starting having too much fun ringing doorbells! I made witches brew and vampire juice (both punch drinks), mummy dogs, witches brooms and taco soup for the adults. Tim and I had a great time, and we hope everyone else did too!

We went out and ran errands Friday night, and then picked up Chick-Fil-A on the way home. Such is date night sometimes around here, aren’t we exciting?! 🙂 Saturday, we ended up vegging. Stayed home and watched movies, popped popcorn, ordered pizza and caught up on stuff on the DVR. Sunday was church, and we dropped off our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. They have some missions speakers for the next couple of weeks, so no new series at church.

Sunday the time changed, so we got that extra hour back. It was awesome, probably my favorite day of the year, hahaha! Sunday afternoon, I went grocery shopping, and Tim stayed home to watch football. I was shocked, Saturday and Sunday, daylight, no rain, and he didn’t even venture towards the golf course 🙂 He’ll slack off until early spring and then go back hot and heavy, I’m sure!

Sunday night, I made steak sandwiches and Monday I made a new soup, sausage and kale with white beans. Today we’re making a practice run for Thanksgiving, trying our first turkey in the new smoker that I gave Tim for Christmas last year. We’ve tried chickens, ribs and pork tenderloins in it this year, and they’ve all come out delicious. I’m hoping the turkeys will too. We could buy a larger container for our propane thing and he could deep fry them, but I’m thinking the smoke flavor will be great, so I’m hoping it comes out. We’ll be able to do turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas to take to family get-togethers. We’ll need to try a ham soon 🙂

Monday morning we got up and walked, back to our normal morning schedule, now that it’s light in the AM and not pitch black dark. I don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to walk in the AM. It’s been in the 40’s, and later this week, it’s supposed to be in the 30’s overnight. I don’t want to get sick, so we usually walk during Tim’s lunch break when it’s really cold in the AM. Tim got on the treadmill Monday afternoon, he says he’s going to do that again this winter. He tried to guilt me into getting on, but I fought that with all I had 😀

Today is election day. We’ll probably watch some of the results come in tonight, as well as some stuff on the DVR. Just another blessed day around here!

Wow, August drug its slow self and it seemed like September would never come. Now, I’ve blinked, and September is over 🙂

October, November and December are my favorite months. Holidays, birthdays, fall and the change of seasons and food. I’m ready!

Ok, a quick update. The toilet saga was obviously sooopo newsworthy! Otherwise, the weekend was fairly quiet. Lots of rain on Saturday and Sunday. We only ate out once (Friday night, at Mr Chen’s), and I’m working hard on a menu for the week. Today is still dreary, misting outside, and the high is only supposed to be 64 degrees. Highly unusual for us (it will be back near 90 before the week is over). So, I’m making potato soup and homemade bread for supper tonight! I’ll love it, and Tim, well, he’ll tolerate it. He’d much rather have a steak or meatloaf 🙂

Our sports teams were so disappointing again this weekend. Tim has been in a bad mood for two days, since the Eagles lost (0-4 now), the Saints lost to the Packers yesterday (0-4 now, boo), and even the Ryder Cup team lost on the last day. They started Sunday with a lead and blew it. Tim is not happy, very grumpy for Tim.

I’ve walked twice today – a little over 7 miles. I’m beat! Beau is sound asleep, and I wish I had time for a nap! I think tonight will be an early one for me.

Finished a good cozy mystery last night, Murder Most Maine (3rd in the Gray Whale Inn series) and started another good one, Mary Magdalene by Diana Wallis Taylor. Looking forward to all the new shows that are waiting for us on the DVR and the fact that I’ll have Dancing with the Stars: AllStars to watch tomorrow! 🙂

Was happy to find milk on sale this week at Kroger for 2.99! It’s the little things that make me happy 🙂

Unhappy to not see very many free books for my Kindle today. A while back, I seemed to find a ton of new, free books for my Kindle on the first day of the month. Now, it seems like most of the ones they are offering I already have. Now, mind you, I definitely do NOT need more books. I have a couple hundred I have still not read, I buy a few from time to time, and I can get them from the library. I just love to get good free Christian books for my Kindle. 😀

Hope everyone is having a great day!

found this cute button on an old post at Jen’s blog, a Good Cup of Coffee, and she said it came from another bloggy buddy, Karen at Over the Backyard Fence. Both wonderful ladies, with terrific blogs. Hope they don’t mind me swiping and using!

This was the weekend that I could have done without. Tim was happy, oh so happy, since he played in his club’s two day championship tournament. He ended up doing really well, he came in second in his flight (although he was upset, he only lost by one stroke and he *really* wanted to win, he said!). I knew he was playing, and had some girly movies all lined up, a book to read, things to do, so I was more than happy to stay home with Beau and hang out. Tim was gone about 9 hours on Saturday and about 8 on Sunday, so I watched 2 football games by myself, then re-watched them with him when he got home. Both our teams lost (USM to East Carolina and the Saints to the Panthers, boo hiss).

No, the bad part was that I started getting a horrible headache on Friday. Saturday and Sunday were miserable. Friday wasn’t too bad, we went out to eat at Zaxby’s (since it’s next to Sam’s) and also ran to Marshalls and TJ Maxx and then did a huge trip to Sam’s. I may have spent more in Sam’s than ever, our bill was atrociously high. Anyway, Saturday morning I woke up and my head was so much worse. I don’t know if it’s just the weather or time of year, but I always seem to get sinus and a bad sinus pressure headache in September. Ugh. Sunday was a smidge better, not much. I did get out and go grocery shopping at Kroger, and also made a big batch of homemade calzones for Tim. He had one when he got home, and now he’s set for lunch for a few days.

Today is supposed to be rainy. It wasn’t raining this morning yet, so Beau and I headed out on our walk. Tim had to work last night, so he slept in and didn’t go. I walked a whopping 19 miles last week, so I was happy. Of course, I haven’t lost a pound (all of those cookies, homemade bread, ice cream, etc are not helping), but the exercise is good. I had hoped it would help my head, but alas, not much. It’s supposed to rain later, so maybe once that moves on through, my head will get better.
🙂

Once again, I’m playing catch-up here at my blog. 🙂 I haven’t blogged in about 11 days, so a lot to chatter about. I won’t talk about today’s date, although it is the 11th anniversary of 9/11. I remember that day well. 🙁

Labor Day was good this year, but quieter than in years past. We had gone to Terry’s house the Sunday before Labor Day, to celebrate Zack’s 17th birthday. Good grief, I remember the day that boy was born! He’s just about all grown up now. We got him golf stuff and money, which of course is all Tim’s idea. Zack is as “eat up” with golf as his Uncle Tim is. Labor Day, Tim played golf all morning and barely got home in time to start the fantasy football draft at 1 PM. We did the draft (I’m never happy with my team, but oh well!), and then ran to Chick-Fil-A for sandwiches. After we ate, we took out the baby back ribs I had defrosted, and Tim got them ready for the smoker. They smoked for several hours and we had ribs for Labor Day. No extended family here as in years past, but that’s ok. It was kinda nice to have a day off just for us 🙂

The rest of the week flew by. Tim is still busy at work during the day but is not working late hours any longer. His foot seems to have healed enough for him to be back to playing golf most every day (he normally doesn’t play on Tuesdays and Fridays, and plays every other day). He played most of the week, and both days on the weekend. Saturday was cloudy and cooler. So nice to have good weather for a change! Tim played golf all morning, then we went to a late lunch at a new place, Signa’s Grille. Tim got the philly chicken and I got a shrimp po-boy and we split sweet potato fries. Portions are smaller than most other places (although I’m sure more in line with what we SHOULD be eating), and prices were a bit higher, but it was good.

Sunday was busy with church, cooking out burgers, and the first Saints game! They lost (BOO) to the Redskins, and both of us are always cranky after the Saints lose. So, Tim went to the golf course and I ran to Kroger for food, and then piddled around the house. We watched Sunday night football and some tv when he got in. And checked on our fantasy teams!

Sunday night was cool, I woke up Monday morning and it was 57 degrees! Tim slept in and Beau and I went out walking. My app I use for walking (DailyMile) said that I walked 17.69 miles last week, and I hope to walk that or more this week. It’s cooler this week, so I’m trying to get more in. Yesterday and today, I’ve walked nearly 9 miles. Of course, I’m eating cookies, homemade bread and ice cream, so I need to be doing a lot more than walking!

Oh, and yesterday I had another incident with bugs in the pantry. This time, I opened a package of Gold Medal bread flour and there were bugs in it. I had bought a bag of unbleached all purpose at the same time and both were unopened in the bottom shelf of the pantry, and both had bugs in them. I went through everything else in the pantry (most things are in Oxo or Tupperware containers) and couldn’t find bugs in anything else. Thank goodness. Tim was SO sweet and took them back to Kroger for me last night, after he got finished at the golf course. He exchanged them (they didn’t complain or ask to see a receipt or anything, I didn’t want to go because I thought they’d fuss or say I had them in my house!) for me. He brought home new bags of each flour and I opened them up … and, NO BUGS! I was so glad. One is now in a tupperware and the other in a ziploc bag. I hope that’s the end of that!