Happy Halloween

Hope everyone has a Spooktacular day !!

My dogs are traumatized and it might be a REALLY long day if my neighbor doesn't go and remove the coverings from her raspberry bushes, my dogs are black and I think they believe the KKK is in our backyard.

I should have listened

Reagan's school was offering free Flu Mist vaccines, I jumped on it.. no shots in the arm, no dr appt needed and paid by the state with my tax dollars.. nothing to lose right ? She'd had it before so no worries. I signed the paperwork, didn't read the accompanying info because she'd had it before. she begged, she pleaded "Please Mommy no, let me have a shot, I hate that stuff." I told her flat out " No, you're getting the flu mist, you had it last year, it's uncomfortable for a few minutes but then it's done and you don't get a sore arm." so Friday she got the Flu mist and Saturday she got the sore throat and Sunday she got the fever and stuffy nose and Mommy felt like crap when she finally read the paperwork and saw that they gave her a live vaccine and has promised that she'll never get that damn vaccine again.

Emily Post, I am not

Growing up my parents taught me to use my manners and they taught me well (I thought) No elbows on the table while eating, don't speak with your mouth full, don't excuse yourself from the table until everyone is finished eating, don't start to eat until everyone is served, etc, etc. What they failed to teach my brother and I was that when a female excuses herself from the table for whatever reason, the men at the table are supposed to stand up and when she returns they are again supposed to stand up and wait for her to seat herself. My first 'nice' dinner date with my then husband to be resulted in me looking like a fool and my mom exclaiming after I told her what happened, "He's going to think you were dragged up not brought up". We had finished dinner and before dessert arrived I wanted to go freshen up, when I came back Marc rose from his chair (he was raised well apparently) I promptly grabbed my jacket, confused he asked "You want to leave ?" confused I replied "No" he then asked why I was grabbing my jacket, I told him because I thought he'd got up to leave, he told me "No, I was being polite ." OOPS !!

Now fast forward 22 years. This past Saturday we were invited to a dinner party hosted by Marc's boss and his wife, they are older ( my parents age), they come from the deep South, they come from old money, they lived 'The Help' their families were the ones doing the hiring, they are very 'proper', now when you mix that with a girl raised in a blue collar working family from England some embarrassment (on my part) may occur and it did.

First off we were all  in the living room having cocktails, the hostess was in the kitchen finishing up dinner prep and then a little while later announced for everyone to go on into the Dining Room and find our places... dammit Marc was on the other side of the table and way down the other end. Everyone stood behind their chair waiting for our hostess to come in and seat herself.. now apparently Marc was raised to a little higher standards than they were, he was standing by the side of me waiting to pull out my chair for me, the hostess was concerned he didn't know where to sit, when he told her why he was stood there she said "Why, weren't you brought up nicely ?" Score for Marc but her husband(Marc's boss) looked a little taken aback, afterall he was waiting patiently to seat himself at his own chair. Then our hostess informed us it was buffet style and we needed to go help ourselves... I HATE that, I swear everybody always stands back and waits for me to lead the way I HATE it, so this time I waited and waited and indicated for some others to go ahead of me.. PHEW !!  after the 4 people in front of me served themselves it was my turn, I helped myself and then made my way back to my seat and wouldn't you know it, nobody else was at the table... WTH ?? I have no clue where they took off, so guess what I did ? Sat down, yes people I put my tush on that freaking chair and then guess what happened ? Everybody converged back into the dining room and found their places (again) and guess what ? Not one of them sat down.... here we go again, waiting for the hostess with the mostest to finish whatever the heck she was doing in the kitchen, so discreetly (though I'm sure by now everyone had noticed the girl in grey sat down) I pushed back my chair and stood behind it and guess who was standing right there ? Marc's boss, oh kill me now. He just gave me that fatherly sympathetic nod and went on to serve himself, our hostess came back in told the ladies we could now be seated and enjoy our food, and we did. The food was good, the conversation was better, and a nice evening was had by all but every now and again I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach wondering what (if) anything was said about how I'd sat down before others and especially our hostess were at the table. I think I'm going to have to borrow an etiquette book before the next dinner party, I don't know that I'll ever recover from this last one

*Hangs head in shame*

Now off to write a card thanking them for the wonderful food and hospitality. I wonder how many others will think to do that ;)

Mmmm.... Mmmm.... Gooood

Some nights I hit the jackpot and cook a dinner everyone likes, last night I hit the double jackpot and made something that everyone LOVED. Reagan's eyes bugged out of her head with the first bite as she said "Mmmm, this is good." then she took a few more bites and said "I could eat this every night" Then Ben said "This is really good" and Marc then chimed in  "Yeah, this is tasty" so that one is down in the favorites book and when something is that good and the whole family likes it it would be selfish not to share the recipe because I know plenty of you out there in Cyber World go through the same thing every meal time that I generally do with at least one person complaining, not eating and electing to make a PB&J sandwich.
So here's what we had and the recipe to follow.... I don't have pictures because I didn't think I'd be blogging about it.
Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken (it really wasn't that spicy), sauted garlic spinach (corn for the kids) and willd Rice (courtesy of Uncle Ben)

SPICY GARLIC  LIME CHICKEN
--------------------------------------
3/4 tsp salt                                                              1/8 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp ground black pepper                                   4 Skinless boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper                                           2 Tbs butter
1/4 tsp garlic powder                                              1 Tbs Olive oil
1/4 tsp dried thyme                                                 2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp dried parsley                                               3 Tbs lime juice*                                                 
1/8 tsp paprika

1) In a small bowl mix together the first 8 ingredients and then sprinkle generously on both sides of the chicken breast.
2) Heat butter and olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Saute chicken until golden brown, about 6 minutes each side. Sprinkle with 2tsp garlic powder and lime juice*. Cook 5 minutes, stirring frequently to coat chicken evenly with sauce.
Yield 4 servings

Per serving: about 220 calories, 28 g protein, 3 g carbohydrates, 11g fat, 0g fiber, 8mg cholesterol, 572mg sodium.
* The recipe calls for 3 Tbs of lime juice but that was a little sour, 2 Tbs would have been perfect.

SAUTEED GARLIC SPINACH
-----------------------------------
1 Tbs Olive oil
3 garlic cloves crushed
1 bag of baby spinach

1) In a deep skillet heat olive oil
2) Add garlic and spinach, saute until wilted

WILD RICE
--------------
1 box Uncle Bens long grain and wild rice

1) Open box and prepare according to package directions :)
     
                                                                           ENJOY !!!

Get a head start

 

For today only I'm offering free worldwide shipping in the shop if you use code FREESHIP at checkout.

So take advantage and get a head start on your Holiday shopping.

Let's play a game

Q : What do these 2 things have in common ?

A: Ben's finger

You weren't expecting that answer were you ? So I'm sat down watching Survivor (How ironic) and Ben came to me and said Mom, what should I do about this ? To which he held up his middle finger (what can I say he's 14) or what would have been his middle finger if I could have seen it, and why couldn't I see it ? You see that black metal rod next to the glass cleaner ? His finger was stuck well and truly in it, there was no gap, it was airtight and his knuckle was turning purple. My initial thought was a trip to the ER, then I told him to pour vegetable oil around it and then Ta Da, I remembered a time that Reagan got her leg jammed between  chairs while we were waiting for Victoria when she was still in High School, to this day I don't know how she managed to do it but she did, the office staff and myself did all we could and then they called the janitor who took one look at her leg, sprayed it with glass cleaner and her leg slid straight out. So tonight I grabbed the glass cleaner, sprayed it around the bottom of the tube and around his knuckle and after a couple of seconds it came right off... PHEW !! So even if you don't like to clean windows go buy some glass cleaner and if you don't want to keep it with your cleaning products keep it along side your first aid kit, you never know when you're really going to need it.

Classy

So imagine this, you pull into an elementry school parking lot and line up with all the other people collecting their car riders, you pull in in your mommy mobile and park behind a mid sized sedan and then a big truck comes in and pulls up behind you, you turn your engine off, grab your magazine to enjoy the last couple of minutes of solitude before a little person jumps in and starts to talk your ear off about their day, as you turn the page you notice the sedan in front of you is rolling back, you have nowhere to go, you can't back up... you'd back into monster truck, you can't go left or right because you'd run into parked cars, so what do you do ? Yes you honk the horn and what does person in front of you not paying attention to what's going on do ? Flip you off. Nice huh ? but then it gets better, classy woman in front then figures out what's going on and stops the car and then starts it back up and moves forward a little and then guess what classy lady does ? She sticks her head out of the window and yells " Better now B *^#*h " ? All this while kindergarten through 2nd graders are being dismissed. I really have to hope that she is not the mommy of the sweet looking little girl that jumped in her back seat, it would be a shame for that to procreate.

How'd she get so smart ?

For her Birthday Reagan was given an iPod Touch, she loves that thing and has amazed me at how well she has figured it out on her own, but what really shocked me is that she has figured out how to text from it... she's 8, people !! Tonight while I was cooking dinner I noticed Marc kept looking at his phone and texting someone, I didn't think twice about it, it's a normal occurence but then Reagan came running into the kitchen giggling and showed me her screen, she was texting her Daddy and he had NO clue. the conversation was something like this :
Rea: Hi
Marc:Hi ?
Rea: How was your day ?
Marc: It was good, who's this ?
Rea: Who's this ?
Marc : Marc
Rea: Hi Marc
Marc: Who's this ? Victoria ????
Rea : I'm not Victoria
Marc: Who's this ?
Rea : I love you
Marc : Who's this ?

That was when Reagan could no longer contain her giggles and asked " Who you texting Daddy? " All the while standing in front of him with her iPod, suddenly his face went from confusion to total understanding and then back to confusion... "You know how to text on that thing too ?"  To which she giggled "Yep" took off running and Marc went back to checking emails but not before sneaking one more look at his phone to look at what had just ensued and I know I saw a grin spread across his face :)

Seasonal confusion ?

As I look around me outside I see that some of my plants are suffering with a little seasonal confusion. My Azaleas which are only supposed to bloom in the Spring decided to bloom again just in time for Fall, my garden has never looked healthier, yellow flowers are showing up on my tomato plants again, little green cherry tomatoes are patiently hanging out hoping for some extra sunshine to ripen them, the Basil has taken on a whole new life and my roses are producing brand new blooms, the only plants that seem to know that  now is the appropriate time for them to bloom are my Mums, though a couple of them decided that it would be fun to bloom during a heat wave in August... they are now a burnt up dead mess, whereas the patient ones are looking glorious.

 

So are we dealing with global warming or global cooling ? My plants are all confused as am I.