Steak 'n' Potatoes

Today is NG's birthday and Sweet'ums is at my mom's house. Last night was a blast with NG's sister--they didn't leave until almost midnight. And today... Well, for his birthday I'm making steak, potatoes, conk peas, and we have a little birthday cake (like the smash cakes for babies) for us. His cousin will probably be over later, so I'll be fixing for him too. It's BYOS night--bring your own steak.

My house looks like a completely different place. The playpen we were using as a baby gate is no longer in the living room. I cleaned it out and packed it up and it's ready for a trip to whichever-family-member-gets-pregnant-next's house. The kitchen looks much larger without the old table and now my living room is reclaimed. Sweet'ums won't know what to do with herself when she gets home. Tomorrow I'm dedicating myself to working in her room. I've really got to get it straightened up so she can play in there.

In an effort to make tomorrow's supper easier, I'm making an extra batch of mashed potatoes tonight so I can make shepherd's pie tomorrow. I'll probably brown my hamburger for the week tonight before I go to bed, so that way the rest of the week is already half taken care of (when we're low on funds, we tend to make easy meals that use hamburger, because I can get it cheap in bulk). So far it looks like we're having sheperd's pie tomorrow night, leftovers Monday night, spaghetti on Tuesday, and either leftovers or homemade soup on Wednesday. Thursday is pay day so usually it's New Menu day too, so I'll worry about it later.

That's all the newness for now. Talk to everyone later.

Now I get it

Now I understand why NG complains about this one dude at work. This guy fills in a lot for the next position up from theirs when one of those guys aren't there, and he somehow manages to sleep through his shift and still screw things up when he fills in. Mind you, the job he fills in for generally runs more smoothly if you leave things alone... So how he manages to mess things up while sleeping is beyond me.

This fellow called my house about fifteen minutes ago on his cell phone and wanted to know who this was. NG called here around 7PM or so to let me know Michael Jackson had died (I already knew) so it's been ages since NG called. I think they must have seen the number on the recently dialed list, and instead of calling it back on the work phone they called back on this guy's cell.

Anyway, to the point: This guy is impossible. He couldn't even explain to me what he wanted, although once he told me his name I knew who it had to be. I tried answering his questions but his questions didn't make much sense, so I'm sure my responses didn't either. It didn't help that I was distracted by the computer, the TV, and a toddler who chose that moment to let me know she had a nasty diaper.

So now I get it. I finally understand how this guy can sleep through his shift and STILL screw things up. He couldn't even make a simple phone call.

In other news, NG and I have a "date" tomorrow night. My SIL and her boyfriend are coming over and I'm cooking supper, so I guess we'll see how that goes. I'm looking forward to it but at the same time, I'm not. I've got my work cut out for me--I've got TONS of cleaning to do tonight and tomorrow, and Sweet'ums is going to Mom's but I'm not sure when so I'm really not sure just how difficult this is going to be.

I've not been feeling well, and I really haven't been able to pinpoint why except that our diet hasn't been as good lately. I never noticed it doing this to me before though, so I'm not sure if it's what we're eating or stress or what. I'm going to try to do better this week as far as our eating habits go, and all I can do is hope that it helps.

I'm gonna go and keep track of my crazy kid and if she goes to Mom's tonight, I'll try to get some work done ahead of time. Ugh. There's so much to do and all I wanna do is sleep.

And here's something just for the heck of it

So as to not be such a downer, I figured I should post something fun... or at least tasty.

This website is one of my all-time favorites for recipes, mostly because I love his recipe format and the fact that he takes TONS of pictures and sometimes explains from a chemistry/physics perspective why some aspects of a recipe have to be the way they are.

Anyway, this recipe is one of NG's favorites and I've made it a half-dozen times lately. It's quick and a perfect final touch for any quiet evening or cozy dinner for two.

Cooking for Engineers' Dark Chocolate Souffle

I don't have pictures to post of it--when I make them, they're eaten so fast that there's nothing left by the time I've grabbed my camera. But all of my male guinea pigs (thank you, NG's Cousin and my Little Brother) have just loved it. So go check it out.

Not feeling much like a butterfly

Things are hard lately. I won't go into all of it, except to say that life sucks, money sucks worse, and our luck sucks worst of all. I wish I had answers.

On the up side, Sweet'ums impressed me tonight. I decided that with money being like it is I really need to work on getting her out of diapers, so I let her go "natural" tonight. I expected her to have at least one accident, because she's not good at letting me know she needs to go yet, so I was prepared to clean up messes. First I noticed a tiny sprinkle on the floor, but no puddle... She'd been laughing and I thought maybe she'd lost a little control. It wasn't much of anything so I didn't worry about it. Then, a while later, I noticed a little dampness on her legs, so I rushed her to her potty hoping to have headed off a puddle on the floor. Sure enough, she went big girl potty. So I cheered for her and made a big deal of it, and took her to the bathroom so we could say bye-bye to her pee (silly, I know, but she loves it). So a while later we were just sitting around, and next thing I know she's making a bee-line for her potty. While she's sitting there I noticed dampness on her leg again, so I hunted for a puddle and couldn't find one. I think she must have felt herself lose a little, and knew what was happening, and ran to her potty. And I'm so proud of her! She went big-girl potty all on her own! We made a big deal over it and said bye-bye to it, but by then it was almost time for bed so we had to wrap things up for the night.

So I'm really proud of my kiddo. And I miss my hubby (he's working) even though things are hard right now.

Oh, and I almost forgot. I actually got to spend time with my little brother the other day! It was really nice. We didn't do a lot, just sat and chatted, but it was great to spend time with him again.

I guess that's it for now. Talk to you later.

Ode to a kitchen table

So today we did something...well, kind of exciting. We got a new kitchen table. It's not really new, but it's new to us, and it's in great shape. It only cost us $50, so I think it was a pretty good buy.

We also got Sweet'ums a booster seat, and we're very happy with it. My kitchen is very small, so our old (HUGE) kitchen table and her old (HUGE) high chair (kinda like this one) took up most of my space. So this is what we have now:



It's hard to get a good picture in my house with my camera--the lighting is bad... but you get the idea. I love my new table! Sweet'ums loves it too--now she gets to eat with us like a big girl. NG likes it too, but mostly for reasons like mine--now we have more space in the kitchen which will make our lives much easier.

And here's a few more, just for fun. Sweet'ums got into the laundry and decided to wear one of my t-shirts. Here's the end results:

Gotta love a girl in a toga! She's so silly. She's starting to develop fashion sense and color coordination, which is tons of fun. One day she can teach Mommy about fashion and then, MAYBE, I'll look halfway put together when I got out.

So that's the update for today. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Something special

I have something to share!

We went out for a while last night so I dressed up Sweet'ums a little. Nothing fancy, just one of her new t-shirts and I did her hair (which I don't usually do, since it's so hard to get her to sit still). She was so cute I just had to take pictures.


She's still got her Poppy's grin... and her great-great-grandma's eyes. And it's so funny--she poses for the camera every time me or Mom takes one out!

Then in the car she was being so cute with her froggie that I just had to get another picture. Here she is, complete with the goofiest smile.


Did you notice the cell phone in hand? She'll be trouble as a teenager! But she's the sweetest thing and didn't give us any trouble at all while we were out.

So far there's been no word on the job prospects. As soon as I know something I'll pass it on. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

I forgot to mention (thanks, Fernie!)

About NG's behavior the other day...

He was just trying to be nice. He's realizing lately that he's handling his work stress the way his dad does, and he's trying to avoid our marriage going the way of his mom and dad's marriage. He also knows I listen to him talk about his day, I make him hot meals, I try my best to make him feel good about himself, but he doesn't show me his affection nearly as much, at least not in ways that women tend to appreciate. So he's trying to be more affectionate, more loving, doting, etc.

We also had a great date night this past weekend. We went to see "Up" at the drive-in, ate a pizza, and just enjoyed each other's company. That was some of the best fun I've had in ages. And for those of you who frequent the movies, I cried through the whole movie. The WHOLE movie. Not teary-eyed, oh-how-sweet kind of crying... I mean, the whole-body boo-hooing type of crying. Great movie... Just not the kind you should take your kids to if you're the crying-through-movies type.

Alright, I'm outta here... There's your update, Fernie.

Looking for work

So I'm job-hunting. So far I've only got two applications out there, and another going in tomorrow (hiring was supposed to open up Monday but got delayed). I'm fairly sure I'll get this third one, because it's predominantly men who work there so they almost have to hire any women who apply, simply because women don't usually apply out there. It would be days, 7AM-3:30PM, Monday through Friday. A little over $13/hour, and I won't have to worry about insurance because Nice Guy already has me on his. But I've got other places in mind as well in case this one doesn't work out.

So that's the new stuff in my life. We had car trouble with both vehicles this week and our a/c isn't working right at home (which sucks, living in Florida and all) so money was really tight this week... So getting a job would be really great for me.

I'll update again tomorrow after we get my application put in.