Monday, August 3, 2009

My un-eventful weekend that turned eventful!

Saturday I had a hair cut / color appointment so my friend took my kids for me. They went to lunch and to a museum. She brought them back to me after they were done at the museum.

After my appointment I had time to kill so I finished up our school supply shopping and got my grocery shopping done. Then we had a family BBQ of grilled burgers, baked beans, cottage cheese, sweet pickles and fresh corn on the cob. Then we settled in for a movie together. Nice day, but not all that eventful.

Sunday was church, then home for grilled cheese sandwiches. After lunch the kids went out to play and I did laundry and cleaning. woot (or not)! After a about an hour the neighbor boy came over to get the boys to come swimming at his house. So Lady Bug and I walked over with them and although the pool is too deep for Lady Bug she sat on the stairs and splashed while my neighbor and I gabbed.

After we had gone to bed Sunday night (which for Mr. Man and I was a little after 11:00 pm) I was woken up by a very strange noise. It was a noise I couldn't quite figure out what it was. Almost sounded like someone shaking a trash bag. Then I thought maybe it was someone outside working on a car. I just couldn't quite put my finger on what the noise was or where it was coming from. After a couple minutes I got out of bed and looked out my bedroom window. At first I didn't see anything. Then I finally saw the source of the noise, but without my glasses I really couldn't make out what it was for sure, but I could tell there was a cat. After watching for another minute or two I decided it was two cats fighting so I whistled out the window and one of the "cats" took off toward the street. It was then that I could make out a fuzzy picture of what I thought was a fox. I got Mr. Man and he looked and said it was actually a coyote. A COYOTE??!! We looked and it was clear that the coyote had already killed the cat, although the cat was still breathing it was not going to live. Then we watched the coyote do some strange hunting moves as he circled my minivan looking around. Then he ran quickly and grabbed the cat again and started to run off, then he heard Mr. Man make a noise and he dropped the cat who did a very sad roll into the gutter. He stood across the street watching us. Within a couple minutes we watched the coyote come back for the cat. The cat had one last fight in him and he made some swings at the coyote's nose, but only a few swipes before the coyote got him around the throat and that was the end. We watched the coyote lick the cat, which was weird to me, then after a few more minutes he hauled the cat off to the yard across the street. He didn't eat it though. It was really weird. Because I still didn't have my glasses on I was relying on Mr. Man to tell me what the coyote was doing. He said he wasn't eating the cat. He was, I guess, just making sure the cat was dead. Then he grabbed the cat and ran off. I don't know where he took it. I don't know where the coyote is living, but he was awfully comfortable roaming the streets. He looked like he had been there plenty of times before. Mr. Man commented that the coyote looked kinda fat...I said "ya, 'cause he is eating all the neighborhood cats!"

It was so odd that I didn't hear major screeching from the cat. The noises that woke me up were the two rustling in the leaves in my yard and a periodic moan from the cat. I wonder how the coyote caught the cat without more of a fight.

It was all very dramatic and sad. It was also disturbing to know that while I am sleeping a ravenous coyote is prowling the streets of my neighborhood!




Friday, July 31, 2009

Friday Recipe -- Southwestern Chicken Salad

This is a new salad recipe we tried this week and Mr. Man fell in love --and remember he isn't a huge "salad as a main dish" kind of a guy!

Southwestern Chicken Salad
SALAD INGREDIENTS:
4 c Romaine lettuce, torn into pieces
2 Roma tomatoes, cubed
2/3 c sharp cheddar cheese
2/3 c corn
2/3 c crushed tortilla chips
2 chicken breasts, grilled and sliced into strips

DRESSING INGREDIENTS:
1 c ranch salad dressing
1/4 c salsa
1/4 tsp chili powder

Mix lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and corn in a large serving bowl. Mix all dressing ingredients together in a small bowl.

Place a serving amount of salad on plate. Sprinkle some of the crushed tortilla chips on top of salad. Lay some chicken strips on top of salad. Pour dressing over top of salad.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Changes all around


Poor little Lady Bug...she is surrounded by changes (listed in the order she complained about them to me on the way to daycare this morning)

1. Her foot decided to grow so she has outgrown all of her favorite summer shoes.

2. She moves up next week to the 4-5 year old "pre-k" class at daycare.

3. Her current (and most favorite) teacher found a job at a different daycare center so after today she won't be there anymore.

4. She doesn't really like chocolate chip cookies now, but still thinks Cookie Crisp cereal is the greatest thing ever.

It sure is tough being 4, don't ya think?

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

i-pod or my-pod

I work in a small law office and usually it is so overly quiet in here I can almost go crazy listening to my own thoughts all day! For the past couple of days I have been working with a client preparing some documents that are to be submitted to the judge at the end of this week. Well, yesterday he had on his i-pod while we were sifting through files. At first I was fine with him listening to the music because I was so busy I hardly noticed. Pretty soon, as I began to slow down a little and spend more time compiling notes, I could hear the music more clearly. His play list was very good, nice and rounded between all types and genres of music. I found myself wanting to sing, but needed to remain professional. It was hard to remain still and pretend as though I couldn't hear his music.

Then Beyonce's Single Ladies came on. Now, whether you hate that song or love it...the tune is catchy, especially when cooped up all day in the office going through boxes upon boxes of files. I couldn't stop myself and found myself jamming to the tune, apparently more loudly than I thought....he looked up at me and we both burst out laughing!

I was embarrassed beyond belief!! Good news is that he had been FOUR hours late to meet with me so I was a little ticked at him...after that outburst of song I wasn't mad anymore (but I'm still embarrassed)! LOL

Guess I need my own i-pod, or maybe not!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Take a tour of my house - the Sunroom

This is one of the rooms in the house that I fell in love with when we were looking at the house! It has also become one of the favorite spots in our house for entertaining or just hanging out together! It is a great place to sit and visit, or sit alone and read while watching the birds and squirrels in the backyard.
This room is an addition to the original house and it is just off the kitchen. There are french doors just off the eating nook in the kitchen area that lead to this sunroom. I am not sure what the original owners of the house used this room for, but with our family of 5 we use it as our main dining area.

Here is a picture of the french doors looking into the sunroom. This is taken from the kitchen breakfast nook area. The vinyl wall letters were not there when we bought the house. I added those later (p.s. - I LOVE vinyl wall words. So easy to put up and if I ever get sick of it I can just peel them off!)

This is a picture of the our dining table and the "room of windows". I love all the windows that look out to our backyard.


Now this is looking from the dining table towards the sliding glass doors and to the left you will see another table. This table sits just under the window that is in my kitchen above my sink. This table we use for the kids to do crafts on. OR when entertaining it is a great place to set out all the dishes and food!
This picture is taken from the sliding glass doors looking towards the french doors. The room is very large. I also love the built in bookshelf to the left of the french doors! (the table in the picture is the "craft" table)

Saturday, July 25, 2009

VBS, cops, traffic tickets and other craziness

This week was VBS. Our church does VBS in the evenings from 6:00 to 8:30. This year's theme was a camping theme. Mr. Man and I were in charge of games. One night was a ring toss and they had to answer bible story questions. Another night was an obstacle course, set up similar to Survivor game, where the kids ran a serpentine thing, then through some rings, into a tent to find a puzzle piece that matched their team's color. They ran back and put the puzzle together, the puzzle formed the memory verse for that day. Another day was just fun times with water balloons and a water rocket launcher.

Friday night after VBS was over, I was helping clean up and the lady that was doing the Bible story center came to me and told me that they were learning about consequences for not obeying laws, etc. Spirit pipes up and tells the whole group how his mom got pulled over by the cops one night and got a ticket.

Thanks, son, for ratting me out!!
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Which brings me to the next story... Thursday night I was innocently travelling down the highway...had my brights on (but I had the brights on because I realized I had a burnt out headlight! whoops) and pretty soon here comes a cop up behind me with his lights on. I pulled over. He came up to the car - I NEVER get pulled over so I was shaking and couldn't find my license. Then I find that but now I can't find the registration. After a couple minutes I finally find all the right documents (well, except our insurance JUST renewed and I didn't put the new card in the car yet and my defense on that one is that the car has been broken down for over a month and it just got fixed 5 days ago and it slipped my mind to put the new insurance card in there!) The officer asks me if I know why he pulled me over and I told him probably because of my bright lights. So he heads back to his car and after what seemed like forever he came back with a 2 point violation for "failure to dim lights". Meanwhile, Lefty is in the car with me freaking out that I am going to have to go to jail and all sorts of drama wondering also what will happen to him if they take me to jail. I kept telling him I would not be going to jail, but he wasn't buying it until that cop came back with the ticket and let us go home!
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This week I got to have lunch TWICE with a good friend! We used to work together and we would go to lunch all the time. Then I got a new job and she became a SAHM which made it harder to get together so for us to be able to meet two times in one week was a wonderful treat! I miss those times of just chatting about silly girl stuff.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Friday Recipe - Linguine

I have posted these recipes before, but we haven't eaten at home much this week so I don't have any new recipes to share and as I was planning next week's meals I thought of these recipes. Enjoy!


Linguine, Bacon and Spinach

This is a nice refreshing meal and it won't heat up the house too much!

For dessert you can make this quick, easy dessert that tastes like lemon meringue pie!

Lemon Jello Dessert
INGREDIENTS:
1 package of lemon jello
1 1/2 c boiling water
8 oz frozen whipped topping

Mix together jello and water. Stir until dissolved. Mix in 2/3 of the 8 oz container of FROZEN whipped topping. Whisk together until blended. Put in refrigerator to set up. It will separate and layer as it sets up.

Serve topped with additional whipped topping if desired.