I did it again!

I just got a phone call from my daughter. The way she says "Hey Moma" with that sing song voice just makes me smile. Anyway we are talking and she says "what are you doing?" I answer, telling her I am still in my gown, looking at my sewing room while working up the nerve to work on a top I don't want to work on. Then the question...."do you know what day it is?" I stand there kinda of stunned trying to get my brain to unfreeze and calculate...nope, I got nothin'.

Me: "What day is it?"

Kari: "It's my birthday!"

Oh man! I did it again! I have her birthday card all ready and stamped but forgot to mail it! I should have gone with my first thought and mailed it with her Christmas letter! UGH!

Me: "Oh Kari, happy birthday!"

I am so glad my children understand I do not ever remember special days. EVER! I forget my own birthday and anniversary if no one mentions it. I am one of those "live in the moment" kind of people. Either that or I am too cheap to buy a calender! LOL

Anyway just a note to tell you how special my daughter is. She can make you smile just by the way she says your name. God has blessed her with a beautiful voice. She is the best nurse anyone could ask for when you are sick. Many times she has cared for me after surgeries. She is the funniest person I know. When we go to dinner she will keep you laughing the whole time. You usually have to tell her to stop so you can eat. She has more crazy stuff happen to her.

Twenty four years ago I was blessed with a beautiful baby girl. Still to this day when I think about her birth I get tears.

We lived 70 miles from the hospital. My dearest friends were visiting and Linda told me I was probably in the early stages of labor. I called the doctor and he said I might want to come to the hospital when my pains were about 15 minutes apart. No problem! My friends leave and Ray and I get in the car. My pains have been 15-20 minutes apart so we are all good to stop and get gas. The INSTANT he pulled in the station for gas my pains hit HARD!

I tell him in no uncertain terms that we have enough gas. Get in the car!

Knowing we have 70 miles to go he starts driving pretty fast, but only about 5 miles over the speed limit. Then the next pain hits and it was only about 4 minutes since the last one. He speeds up more and turns on the flashers. Yep, Mr. Texas State Trooper turns on his lights. Ray says he has to stop and I give him a really UGLY look. After just a few seconds of the officer talking to Ray and then me, he says..."I can't tell you to speed...but please be careful"

As we are racing down the freeway we pass and I mean PASS no less than 3 police cars and all of them wave as we go by.

We arrive at the hospital at 7:58 pm and Kari is born at 8:27 pm. The doctor didn't even have time to get his gloves on. He caught her bare handed! LOL

She has lived her life in overdrive since then. She could never wait to be old enough to do anything. She wanted to do everything that life had to offer with no fear.

Still does.

In my sewing room

Today I am in my sewing room...lets see how long I get to stay.



On my last foray into the deeply loved and seldom visited sewing room I was working on the hexagon blocks. I made more until I have a size I like. Now I have to sew them together into a top. There in lies the rub...I don't like sewing them together. I was fine with it until I got to this part.
I can see much playing of the guilt card to get this into a top.

Like:
1. You already have too many UFOs to put this in a box
2. Why work so hard to make these if you just want to put them away
3. I remember when this was started...in Mobile...TWO moves ago!
I talk to myself a lot.

Ok, enough procrastinating, let me see if I can get anything accomplished.

Later,
Diane

****Edit***
I didn't get to spend any time at all in my sewing room. I was a bit aggrivated when Ray came in and said "let's go". I wanted to stay home, but he will go back to work next week and I can stay home then.
I did get to do some much needed shopping...more on that later.

Recipe - Chichen Spaghetti

I have been neglecting the blog, I know. Ray has been home for the past week and will be home for another. My life tends to revolve around him when he is home so I have been away from the computer.

I got a request for the Chicken Spaghetti recipe I made the other day so here it is:

2 c. cooked chicken
3 c. dry spaghetti broken into about 2 inch pieces
2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup ( or 1 cream of chicken & 1 cream of mushroom)
2 c. grated sharp cheddar
1/4 c finely diced green pepper
1/4 c. finely diced onion
2 c. chicken broth (either from can or strained from the pot you boiled chicken)
1 tsp. Lawry's seasoned salt
pepper to taste
1 c. additional grated sharp cheddar for the top

*I cut up and cooked a chicken in a pot of water with an onion, two stalks of celery, a couple of carrots, several cloves of garlic and salt and pepper, but you can get your chicken from where ever you like. Of course if you don't cook your own chicken you will need to buy chicken broth.*

Cook your spaghetti in the same broth as the chicken but just until it is barely cooked. Do not cook it all the way or it will be too soft in the casserole.
When the spaghetti is cooked throw all ingredients (except the reserved 1 cup of cheese) in a bowl and mix well. Put mixture in a casserole dish you have sprayed with Pam. Put the reserved cheese on top.
Now you can either cook at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or cover with foil and freeze.
I recommend covering with foil for the first 25-30 minutes, it keeps the edges from drying out.

More cooking

I spent the whole day cooking again. I tried all new recipes with mixed results.
First I made cinnamon sugar muffins that my guys loved. They turned out great and I know I will make them again.
Then I made cheese puffs like we had at Fuego De Chao. These didn't come out so great. I noticed while making the muffins that the temperature was off (too cool)by a few degrees but I just let them cook longer. The cheese puff didn't work the same way though. After emailing Judy L. a couple of times I think we might have come up with a solution. If we are home tomorrow I will try again.
Then for dinner made a chicken spaghetti casserole. I have never made this before can you believe it? This recipe came out really good. Fortunately it made a lot so I was able to freeze a casserole for another day. I love it when I don't have to plan a meal in advance.

Another day not spent in the sewing room, but it was a good day anyway.

Diane

Today and the next two weeks

I cooked all day. I have been thinking about Italian Wedding soup ever since we had some at a little diner in Clearwater last weekend. It was amazing! So, today I gave it a try. I followed a recipe that sounded similar and I made something that was really good although it needs some tweaking.
Then I decided to make some bread. Note to self...always check expiration date on the yeast! It bubbled up when I proofed it, but the bread fell. Oh well, I ran to the store and bought new and have a new loaf baking now. Nothing like fresh bread at 11pm! LOL

With Ray taking the next two weeks off work my days are going to be different. He has something planned for us to do almost every day until his return to work, Tomorrow we go to the movies. We have tickets to Busch Gardens and there is at least two visits to Disney planned.

OH, the bread is ready!
Later,
Diane

A good day

I had a good day, a productive day!

I woke up with energy and started redoing my pantry. I got it all organized a different way and I hope this way works better. Every day is still a struggle in the kitchen. I just can't get the layout right, but I'm working at it.

After the pantry was finished I started lunch. I made a huge pot of bean soup and a lemon icebox pie. Then I had to clean the kitchen because I am a messy cook. I tend to use every surface, bowl and utensil in the place. It makes me crazy. My mom can cook and so can my MIL and when they finish you can hardly tell they had been in there working because the clean as they go. I have never been able to do that.

Then I hit my sewing room that looked like a tornado had hit it. No exaggeration! I worked in it for over two hours just to be able to set up my sewing machine. I remembered I had been wanting to make myself an iPod carrier thing so I found a piece of scrap fabric and played around and made this. It has a hole for the earphone jack and a long wide strap so I can wear it a long time with out it hurting my neck. Now I just have to figure out something for the long earphone cord...it may get tangled on something so I have to wrapped around the strap right now. It's a work in progress.

Remember seeing this project? After cleaning my sewing room I put my hands on the box this was in and decided to work on it. After doing a lot of sewing on blocks I remembered I was suppose to put it together a different way. UGH!
So I have spent more time unsewing all of the seams I had just put in. I could blame it on the fact I was so interested in the book I was listening to on my iPod I wasn't paying attention. Actually the truth is if I had just stopped and looked at the project closer instead of trying to go from memory I wouldn't be ripping so much. And I was doing perfect 1/4" seams too!


Gotta rip some more...
Diane

Another company Christmas party

Last night we attended another company Christmas party. We went to Clearwater to a hotel on the beach that had a Tiki Bar with a live band. The weather was pleasant after several days of hot and muggy. The sunset was beautiful!
Nothing says Christmas like a Reggae band on a beach, and dancing in shorts and flip flops! LOL
Not that we danced, but lots did.
After listening to the band for a few minutes Ray and I decided the lead singer of the band must have owned the microphone and the amp because he really didn't sing that well. Actually the guy on the keyboard sang better. LOL

Later,
Diane

A few of my favorite things...

Behold, the Lamb of God... who takes away the sins of the world.

Since we married in 1981 I have collected Precious Moments figurines. I loved with the way Sam Butcher was able to make figurines that captured the simplicity my new found faith in Jesus Christ. I loved his everyday figurines about marriage and relationships also and I have several of those, but my absolute favorite is the nativity set I have collected over the years.

Jesus the Savior is born!


This is Harold who sings "Hark!"

I'll show more later,

Diane

I told you it hurt!

Pygmy date palms have the sharpest and longest thorns! Not only that they seem to be mildly toxic. All three of us have been stuck by the thorns and all three of us end up with very sore and very red blisters. We have all learned if you mess with the palm tree to wear gloves. No problem.
When I work in the yard though I wear shorts. I am fat and I get very hot. After working in the yard for a couple of days I noticed a spot on my leg that looked like a bug bite but hurt like the dickens. Ray looked at it and said it looked like a splinter but I wouldn't let him touch it as it put me in orbit if he got within an inch of it.
Finally after over a week of this I was getting myself ready to go to the dermatologist as it was still super tender to the touch and not getting better and Ray said let me look one more time. LOOK what he found!

Yep that is my ruler and yep it measures the thorn at 1/2 " long. No wonder it hurt!

I didn't even work with the palm tree the day I got the thorn so it must have been in the grass where I was sitting pulling weeds. Note to self...wear long pants when working in the yard!

Christmas has come early!

Look what I won!! Well, not really won...I paid for it. There was a silent auction to raise money for the local food pantry and one of our retreaters offered one of her Featherweight machines. It was a white knuckler for a while but I was victorious and the food pantry got a good donation. Everyone was happy...maybe not the ones who didn't win, but I was! :)

This beauty is a Singer 301. It is in PERFECT condition and one of the retreaters had it for sale in the country store for $50. You tell me, could I pass that deal up? NOPE! So I have a little sister and a big sister, how cute!
more later,

Diane

What happens at the retreat....

Beautiful quilts abound! These were some of the gifts in our goodie bags. We also got a T-shirt (we get one each year, I'll make photo later) and magazines. This is the BEST retreat!

Ho-Ho-Ho it's Santa Jo!

What a pretty smile! From a pretty (and sweet) lady.

More later,

Diane