Happy New Year!

Wow, it's hard to believe 2009 is here. Do you know what 2009 is? April 2nd tom and i will have been married 10 years.

Holy Moly 10 years! And then right after that, Patrick will have 1st communion and then I get to celebrate our 10 year anniversary by going on a Carnival Cruise with all my favorite Tastebuds (tastebuds: my tastefully simple friends).

Then as I have already been told a dozen times just this evening, Patrick is going to be 9 this year. And you know what that means? He will be 9 on May 9th! Yes he is planning a big bash for his golden birthday.

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Would you like to know about my new 2 favorite things?
1. the scramble game on Facebook. Oy. highly addictive and totally a blow to the ego to see that my vocabulary isn't nearly as large as I thought it was! On the plus side, I am better at doing the JUMBLE game in the paper now...
2. Pride and Prejudice (v. 2005) Sigh. It's the original Chick lit made into a fabulously romantic movie.

IceSnow Storm

We woke up to snow and ice. Most of the schools called off school but not our schools! Tom almost had to stay home cause he couldn't get traction to leave our street. It was a brutal morning on the roads. Even the main roads were ice and slush city!

Here is our drive after I got done shoveling, it was tough heavy ice!

Las. Vegas gets 4 inches of Snow.

Crazy weather and we are looking at a big storm coming to Chicagoland w/in hours. Now who knows because sometimes they say we are getting a big storm and we get like maybe 1 inch of snow.

In any case, the snow in Las Vegas reminds me of Leadership Las Vegas in ah 2006 where it was in the 20s on the strip and they had a dusting of snow (it was January) now that was a major bummer--to go from January in Chicago to January in Chicago in Las Vegas.

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Red 40.
That is a red food dye that I really think makes Bryce have an attack of ADHD. I have kept track of when Bryce doesn't listen, and is fighting w/his sister and brother and yelling and over a couple weeks I saw that if he get the food coloring he is aweful. Today was his school Christmas party and suffice it to say I think the cupcakes had red frosting
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Countdown to me going to Leadership Tucson 27 days. :-)

Too much to do.

I really need more time before Christmas. Not to shop, I have that done, but to do Christmas Cards --haven't started on that yet, might not do it this year. And the wrapping of the presents which is the number one thing I like doing least during the holidays--and it shows in the crappy way I wrap because I am too impatient to put any effort into wrapping. I really should switch over to all Gift Bags. That is a great idea for next year.

I have had 4 Tastefully Simple open house events this year, and so far the ones at people's homes have not gone well for me --saleswise or bookingswise--I'm just not running into my people--the people who love the TS and who like trying new things (f00d-wise) and would like to host a party. I have 2 more events left, both of which are fundraisers --one of which is for PADS which stands for something like Parishes, A? Delivering Shelter. It's churches that open up and provide shelter on a certain day of the week for the homeless --different churchs do different days of the week. So that is a cause I am very happy to fundraise on behalf of--also this Fri I'll be at a Spa Night fundraiser for Relay for Life and that is another great one I love to fundraise for through my business.

Statistics I am happy about.
My sales are up 15% this year and I am thisclose to $47,000 in sales.
My Team Sales are up over 35% for the year--and they are past $125,000 for the year.

A few of my favorite things

My Laptop
The DVR
Public Libraries
Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Coffee
Hagen Dazs Peppermint Bark Ice Cream
Clementines
Pedicures
Facials
A great pair of boots that doesn' cost over $60
Paperback Books
A new notebook
going to the movies
Bisque Soups
Pilot Precise V5 Pens
I tunes
Laptops
Cranberry Orange Bread
Basalmic & Basil Dipping Oil

My heart has been stolen

I was at Carsons Piere Scott, mid moring on Blacke Friday, when I saw and tried on the most fabulously wonderful boots ever. Doorbuster. Picked over boxes. No boots left in my size (I need and 8.5--I like to wear thick socks-I can't stand having cold feet).

I hugged the pair I tried on and left. Last night I dreamed of the boots. Today I googled the boots. Ruff Hewn.

Sold only in the Carson family of stores. Bon-ton, Bergmans, Elder Beerman, sniff sniff, they don't care the style online. Ruff Hewn Amsterdam. I searched and searched and I cannot even find a picture of these boots.Tears are streaming down my face. Oh beautiful boots!

thanksgiving dinner success!

We decided to stay home and have dinner just the 5 of us. I was happy that the kids got the idea of giving thanks when we played a little thank you game.

I was EXTREMELY happy that my first attempt at brining a Turkey was a total success and that Tom loved the cornbread dressing recipe and the cranberry sauce recipe--all of which I found on foodnetwork.com.

GOOD EATS ROAST TURKEY
Ingredients
1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey
For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
1 gallon iced water

For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Directions
Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.
Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.

Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

And I love Tyler Florences recipes...this is no exception!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/caramelized-onion-and-cornbread-stuffing-recipe3/index.html

Lastly I skipped the walnuts for this Cranberry Sauce:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/foodnation-with-bobby-flay/cranberry-sauce-recipe/index.html

And now I am looking forward to getting up and shopping on Black Friday!

Monday: Putting the M in Mundane.

A week from Wed I leave for our National Conference. Can't wait. I was thinking of packing my suitcase today, but then I thought hmm. a bit too early.

Exciting news around here...our cat Friday who only eats Friskies Salmon dinner in a can--actually ate cat food I got at aldi.

can of Friskies from Walgreens: 69 cents. can of Friskies from Jewel: 59 cents. can of Friskies from Walmart: 49 cents.

can at Aldi: 23 cents. Number of cans of cat food the cat goes thru a day = 2-3

So... we go thru a good 20 cans a week. Yippee.

Yes it doesn't take much to pass for exciting news.

School count down: 2 weeks from Today!

*note to self: see if the boys have gym shoes that fit.

August 1st

August has arrived. Back on June 1st who know how quickly it would arrive. I'll be leaving for my National Conference in 13 days. And it looks like Tom will have to travel to New York again for work either the 11, 12 or 13--any of which will mean some extra child care shuffling...but it will all workout. Fingers Crossed.

This morning you might have thought it was 10/1 around here instead of 8/1. Patrick left for his last day of summer school sporting a sweatshirt and long pants (apparently it has been really cold in the classroom. And I made a big pot of Mama's soup per Bryce's request for breakfast-and then I really wanted a cookie so I made a batch of peanut butter cookies from a recipe in a cookbook given to me by my good friend Beth LeMie, Personal Historian.

So S-L-O-W

this morning my IE is just running really really slow. It's very very annoying...so I tried the safari browser on my pc and that worked ah 500x faster, but not all the features for websites works w/that--esp. links so not as helpful as it could be to me.

Tomrrow is my big garage sale AND 7/25/08--ie Christmas in July. Not that that means anything, just a little observation. Being Christmas in July Eve, there was an article in the Tribune talking about a retailers already being worried about the holiday shopping season. I think we'll just focus on socks and underwear for the kids this year...