on holidays

I love holidays.  I truly love them.  I love the feeling, the preparation, just not the actual event.  I hate that.  I loved all my baking on Wednesday night.  I was exhausted but I was happy.  2 chocolate pies, a pumpkin cake and spinach dip.  All delicious and a big hit. 

I am getting ready to do my Christmas tree.  Or will be as soon as  I write this tiny little article review for Psychodiagnosis.  It only has to be 1 page long but I can not get motivated.  Ug.  I just printed my article.  1 page is not that hard to write.  I just want to start on my tree.  I'm procrastinating in hopes that I will have tree decorating help though. 

I'm excited about Christmas this year.  Looking forward to starting new traditions.  The month leading up the the actual event will be full as usual.  Hopefully my Christmas spirit will stick around. 

My tree from last year -- pink, turquoise and silver.  As soon as it goes up and I have time, there will be new tree pictures.  I'm going back to my old burgundy and gold.

on things I love

I rarely have time for this anymore.  So much to do, so little time.  Thanksgiving is almost here and it's almost time to start baking.  I will start tomorrow -- 2 chocolate pies, a pumpkin cake and spinach dip.  Yum!  I'm looking forward to it.  But, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are some things I am thankful for.

I bought this today with a $2 off coupon so it was like half price.  I am already in love.  I have the driest skin in the world and this was fabulous.  Ah!  I love it!

This year I am loving fuzzy boots.  My feet have become permanently cold I'm pretty sure.  I got these the other night while shopping on a girl's night with my best friends.  Hooray for shoes and great friends.

My best friend is currently on her way to my house.  I'm taking her to the airport in the morning because I am an awesome friend.  **This also means I should be cleaning my house right now.

Getting ready to order Minsky's pizza for dinner at the request of previously mentioned best friend.  Possibly the best pizza ever.  Yum!

yeah, um

There are not enough hours in a day.  There just are not.  I think I could do quite nicely with 26 or even possibly 28 hours in a day.  I am doing laundry.  And sewing.  Oh yes, you read right, sewing.  I am fixing a hook on camo coveralls in preparation for duck season.  Because I am awesome.

This week I have also cooked like a crazy person. 
Saturday: Lasagna.
Tuesday:  chicken enchiladas.  **Did not have sour cream for them because I don't read when I go grocery shopping and instead of sour cream got a small carton of cottage cheese.  Dur!
Wednesday:  Mac & Cheese with brats.  Oh yes, just like the childhood mac & cheese with hot dogs.  But all grown up as shells and cheese with brats.  It was delicious.
I was desperately hoping I was done cooking for the week and could survive on leftovers.  Tomorrow night I have class and I usually don't cook when I have class.  That's when those extra 2 hours in a day would come in handy.

Also, during all of my wonderful cooking, my dishwasher continues to suck.  Not just kind of suck.  It's really pretty pointless.  I'm fairly sure the dishes are cleaner when they go in than when they come out.  Gr!  I spent a couple of days handwashing my dishes and then realized I didn't have time for that.

Back to repairing coveralls.  And looking for more time in my life.

tackle

I've started the closet. I bought some more hangers. I wish Wal-Mart would sell bright pink hangers year round. Now I'm stuck with some white mixed in. I'm color coding though. All the sports shirts are on the white ones. And jackets are on the light pink ones. It's already so much better in there. I always loved organizing my closet when I was a kid.

I'm also doing laundry. Mountains of it. Now I remember why I should do it way more often. Last week I refused to do it. Now I regret that. Oh well. 2 loads are already done. :)

This week is going to be great. Today is laundry and the closet. I'm going to start on a scarf for one of my friends (I promised it to her last winter, oops!). I'm going to make cheesy chicken and green beans for dinner. Yum! There are also plans for a chocolate pie and tailgating food for 2 football games. I'm also going to clean the whole apartment. Yesterday when I went to buy the Kaboom shower foam they didn't have any. Rats! I was so excited. I love the regular spray!

I wish I could have taken this week off from work too....

what it's not

I should be studying for a lifespan development final. Doesn't that sound like oodles of fun. I should be unloading and reloading the dishwasher. I should be unpacking from the weekend.

I'm not doing any of those things. My brain is tired. I'm not sure it could hold any more. Good thing I have another final on Thursday. And a paper due. Whee.

All I really want to do is the fun stuff I have planned for next week. The glorious 7 days I have off from school. Like clean my closet. And crochet a scarf. And make a chocolate pie. And sleep in. And so many things that are so much more fun than studying. Even unloading the dishwasher.

on being.... a grown up

So I did two relatively icky things tonight that might classify me as an adult. Are you ready for this? Because I'm not sure that I am.

One. Because I am the best (I do mean best girlfriend in the whole world) I skinned a chicken. Can I just say that it was super gross. I mean yuck! Blech. I pride myself on being able to cook whatever I set my mind to. But skinning chicken grosses me out. Ug. I usually buy boneless chicken. Everyone is happier that way. But, because I am awesome, I skinned a chicken. It is currently in the oven with cajun butter injection and Famous Dave's chicken marinade cooking away. Deliciousness is sure to ensue.

Two. I cleaned my air vent thing on my heat/ac/water heater closet. It was disgusting. Don't judge me. I'm reasonably sure it wasn't even clean when I moved in. But I have people coming over on Friday and it looked gross. I got out that big duster thingy and tried to knock the dust(?) off. It sort of worked. So I got out my tiny Dirt Devil vacuum and attacked it. It's still not good, but it's better.

Are you impressed yet?

Well get ready. Here's how to make a chocolate pie. Not the actual ingredients, but a photo summary.

iPod. Check. (By the way, much cooler now bcs. I have an iPod dock)

Betty Crocker cookbook. That's the recipe doubled on the pink sticky note4 separated eggs. I rock at separating eggs!

Milk Lots of milk. Here is the milk all measured out in a 4 cup measure. 1970s tupperware measuring cups and measuring spoons. All necessary

All ready to startMmm! It's going to be delicious

It's almost pie.

I didn't take any pictures of the finished project. I think I ran out of time. It was delicious though. And I don't know why everything is showing up as a link. If you click nothing will happen. I just failed. I wasn't even trying to make links. Crazy.

Back to cleaning. Hopefully nothing else gross.

toaster ovens and tests

So I went shopping today. I had two gift cards to spend. One from Kohl's (a birthday gift) and one from Target (from returning a bag) I got such good bargains. I think I only ended up spending about $10 of my own money.

From Target:

I've been wanting a toaster oven for a while. I asked for one for my birthday and didn't get one. This seemed like the perfect time to buy it. It was pretty cheap but should get the job done.

And from Kohl's:

I'd been wanting some actual beverage glasses. They were 40% off! So that made it even better. We are having margaritas tonight. Pretty excited to try out the new glasses.

And now there is space in my kitchen to store all of this new stuff. Cleaned off the top of the microwave for the toaster oven. Classy, I know. And I bought a drawer to put my tupperware stuff in so now my mixing bowls and bar glasses can go above the sink. Yay!