A Day Away

The Chauffeur...

Driving the kids she brought along to keep her company (uh...didn't work so well, huh?!?!?)....

On the long, boring highway!!

What happened to JoePa's glasses?!?!!? Did he have Lasik?!?!

Me and JoePa (BTW, someone stole his glasses...unbelievable!)

You figure it out...LOL!!

Erika, Adam and Alyssa at the Lion (The snow was so packed down around him, it was a sheet of ice...there was NO way I was walking up to him!)

So techno...the computers outside the bookstore

Chillin' for a bit before the big game....

...of Golf

Supper at Ruby Tuesday's

Last Minute's Best Sometimes

Kurt and I came home from dinner last evening around 9:15 pm and I have no idea what possessed me, but I saw Alyssa's name on my buddy list on the computer and it immediately popped into my head, "I wanna go to Penn State for the day tomorrow!" I said that out loud and Kurt looked at me with his usual, "What...are you nuts?!!?" kind of look. That just motivated me more! I proceeded to communicate back and forth with Adam to see if he and Erika wanted to come along; til it was all said and done, and about 10:45 pm, I was IM'ing Alyssa to see if she wanted company for the day. She's alone this weekend, as Sarah is actually here in the Lehigh Valley, canning (collecting donations) for 'Thon (which for those of you who don't know, is the huge dance marathon fundraiser for pediatric cancer). So if you see any Penn Stater's this weekend in and around the valley, ask if they are Alyssa's roommate...LOL!!

So we're off in a few minutes...watch for pics soon!!

Creamy Sausage and Potatoes

I found this recipe in the new crockpot recipe book I got for Alyssa, but am keeping for her til she needs it. I like using the crockpot, but have always complained that some recipes don't need to cook for as long as I would have my crockpot on for, i.e. I leave for work at 8:30 and don't get home often til 6 pm or later. That has the meal cooking for over 9 hours, and most don't need to be cooked for that long. Jamie kept suggesting that I purchase a timer, which I could set to turn on later in the morning and then the recipe could cook for as long as suggested. I finally got around to doing that (Thanks, Jamie, for the suggestion), and using the timer for the first time today with this recipe. Well.....

I had Adam set the timer to begin the crockpot cooking on low at 11 am this morning and end at 6 pm tonite. I made sure the crockpot was set on LOW before I left for work. The recipe suggests that if you are home it be stirred one time in the middle of cooking. Fortunately for me (but not so much for her), my mom stopped by to do her wash, as her washing machine is currently not working. I had left a note for her to stir the food in the crockpot once while she was here. She called me around 2:45 asking why she was to stir it, as the crockpot WASN'T EVEN ON!!! I was livid!

I did some quick thinking and decided 4-5 hours on high is probably about the same as 6-8 hours on low. I had her take the crockpot off the timer, plug it straight into the wall and turn it on high. I didn't rush home from work (I couldn't have anyway...LOL!), and by the time we were ready to eat at about 7:45, it was cooked thoroughly.

1 can cream of celery soup, 8 oz. cream cheese, 1 packet dry Hidden Valley ranch dressing, beat together (I made a double recipe, so used two of everything. Also, I used light cream cheese, and could have used low fat cream of celery soup, too, but didn't.)

3 lbs small red potatoes, halved, not peeled (That's a 1 and 1/2 pound bag and I used two bags, it was plenty for a double recipe)

1 lb. smoked sausage, sliced (I used 2 lbs)

Mix together, cook on low 6-8 hours. Stir midway through if possible.

Final product

Final verdict: THUMBS UP!! It was delicious! (The only thing I would change is that it was a bit on the salty side. Even Kurt, who salts all his food, agreed. I would definitely make this again, and would definitely double the recipe again, but I think I would only use ONE packet of the Hidden Valley ranch dressing, which I think contributed to the saltiness.)

Oh, yeah, and the other thing I'd change is to be sure the timer is working....

Winter Doldrums

It's been a boring week, nothing too exciting to report, but I'll try and come up with some new information:

+Alyssa and Sarah have signed a lease for an efficiency apartment for next year. They had one main pre-requisite in their search for housing for next year. They wanted to be able to walk to campus easily, and not have to take public transportation to get there. Somehow by the time they started looking, many apartments had already been taken. There were basically no 1 bedroom apartments available, which pretty much left them with looking for an efficiency. The way they looked at it, was that anything is better than what they currently have. The apartment they found has a living/bedroom area, kitchen and bathroom. It is basically right off campus and pretty much in the same area they have lived these last two years.

+Jamie has me, ehhh.....a little excited about coupon shopping. I cut out about 8 coupons today prior to grocery shopping and was only for items I already use. I shopped at Wegman's, as Jamie swears to me they have better prices than Giant, but it turned out several of the items I had coupons for, Wegman's didn't have! I found that odd, as they were fairly common items (Wisk laundry detergent, Snuggle fabric softener, individual Bounty paper towels). So off to Giant I went....I got those items, plus a few other things, including a BOGO boneless pork roast. I kept one and gave the other one to mom.

+Adam and Erika celebrate their SIX month anniversary tomorrow. It's pretty funny, cuz they have done something every month on the 19th since they started dating in July. If Kurt and I were to do that for our marriage, we'd be broke by now! (Although we may end up that way, as Adam has no income...so we're basically taking them out to dinner...LOL!!)

+We paid $1.16 for gas this evening at Giant with my bonus card and gas discount of 60 cents. Sweet! We put 23 gallons in my Trailblazer and brought along a 5 gallon gas can and filled that up while we were at it. Kurt was quite discouraged when he checked my gas mileage on the TB and it was 13.8 mpg....YUCK!

+Are any of you tired of this cold, snowy weather yet like I am?!!? I'm ready for Spring.

Misc.

Just a few random things:

This was an excerpt of a song that Kurt sang with another woman at our Christmas concert. It was held last Sunday night; it had been postponed from the Sunday before Christmas due to bad weather.

Our Cantata choir

To work on Friday

Home from work on Friday

Wanted

Only 5 containers, for 2 people...need 1 more container....hmmm....

Use the leftover pumpkin to make pumpkin muffins

Which then provides an extra container!

6 containers (3 for Sarah, 3 for Alyssa)

Random: Adam and Richard playing Mastermind

What To Do

On a snowy day:


Make vegetable beef soup:

It's Not Perfect....

But it'll do for now!!

It's been over a year since Adam moved his bedroom down into the basement. My intent was to turn his old room into a sort of guest room. I've had the room mostly cleaned out for about a year now (key word = mostly), but never got any further than that.

At one point, I even suggested we just turn the room into the storage area for the thousands (and thousands) of car magazines we have in this house. Kurt hasn't thrown one car magazine away since we got married 24 years ago and has no intentions of ever throwing any away. We have magazines everywhere....basement, living room, living room closet, bedroom, computer room, attic, etc. I thought, gee, we could keep them all in one place and they would be behind closed doors....perfect!

Well, that never happened and in the meantime, we found out that we are going to have a guest on Monday night. Alyssa is going to be babysitting for the DiscipleMakers staff conference that begins Tuesday next week at a retreat center about an hour away from here. There is a girl who attends Shippensburg University who will be sitting, as well. She is getting a ride from one of the DM staffers on Monday, but is unable to stay at the retreat center on Monday night, thus Alyssa was asked if this girl could stay at our house and then go with Alyssa on Tuesday.

Since we have never met her, I thought it would be nice if we could give her some privacy, as opposed to her having to sleep on the floor in Alyssa's room, or on the futon in our computer room, which is at the top of our steps and is totally open.

So today I finished cleaning up the room, Kurt laid the area rug we had gotten at Ollie's, we moved the futon in the room and added a few extra touches. We're certainly not done....Adam totally ruined the walls and ceiling. He put nails, screws, sticky tack, etc. everywhere. Eventually we hope to paint the walls and try and clean up the ceiling, but for now, it'll do.....